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** Mei tends to get demonized from a friendly scientist to a cold-blooded [[CuteButPsycho psycho]] who would like nothing more than to drive an icicle into your skull or slowly freeze you to death while she looks on with glee.
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** In a memetic example, Mei tends to get demonized from a friendly scientist to a cold-blooded [[CuteButPsycho psycho]] who would like nothing more than to drive an icicle into your skull or and slowly freeze you to death while she looks on with glee.
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** Corruption[[note]]As in the real world, corporations and governments are sometimes capable of taking advantage of citizens and the underprivileged, committing financial fraud, and otherwise ignoring the law. Examples include the Vishkar Corporation (damaging or outright destroying communities, intentionally or otherwise, to get them to accept their improvements), and the unnamed "suit" in "Going Legit", who attempts to commit insurance fraud.[[/note]]
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** Corruption[[note]]As in the real world, corporations and governments are sometimes capable of taking advantage of citizens and the underprivileged, committing financial fraud, and otherwise ignoring the law. Examples Some examples include the Vishkar Corporation (damaging or outright destroying communities, intentionally or otherwise, to get them to accept their improvements), and the unnamed "suit" in "Going Legit", who attempts to commit insurance fraud.[[/note]]
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** Murder and assassination[[note]]Tekhartha Mondatta being killed in cold blood by Widowmaker in ''Alive'', Widowmaker herself killed many innocent people.[[/note]]
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** Murder and assassination[[note]]Tekhartha Mondatta being killed in cold blood by Widowmaker in ''Alive'', Widowmaker herself also killed many innocent people.[[/note]]
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* TheWoobie: A lot of characters, both good and bad, need a hug. There's enough for an entire [[Woobie/{{Overwatch}} page]] about it.
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* TheWoobie: A lot of characters, both good and bad, may need a hug.hug, badly. There's enough for an entire [[Woobie/{{Overwatch}} page]] about it.
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see related discussion
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** Genji and Mercy shipping (Emergenji/Gency) tends to assume that both Genji and Mercy were in love since she saved his life before joining Overwatch. The main assumption is that Genji had too much self-loathing to return Mercy's feelings.
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*** Fast-forward to the Lunar New Year event where Mei is given 2 new skins that shows she is on the slim side but now the question becomes how slim is too slim? One base is upset that Blizzard is trying to stealthily make the character the perceived to be fat more sexy for the general audience while the other side say it's not far-fetched due to her heavy winter clothing and that there are already several images of the character without her coat (sprays and player icons) that show her as fairly slender. Turns out, Blizzard says Mei's skins '''are''' bugged which causes her to appear slimmer than usual[[note]](The part of her jacket below the belt does appear to be floating, giving her the tiny waist look)[[/note]], which just brought out another group claiming it's all a lie so Blizzard doesn't take flak for crumbling to demands a la the Tracer incident.
to:
*** Fast-forward to the Lunar New Year event where Mei is given 2 new skins that shows she is on the slim side side, but now the question becomes how slim is too slim? One base is upset that Blizzard is trying to stealthily make the character the perceived to be fat more sexy for the general audience while the other side say it's not far-fetched due to her heavy winter clothing and that there are already several images of the character without her coat (sprays and player icons) that show her as fairly slender. Turns out, Blizzard says Mei's skins '''are''' bugged which causes her to appear slimmer than usual[[note]](The part of her jacket below the belt does appear to be floating, giving her the tiny waist look)[[/note]], which just brought out another group claiming it's all a lie so Blizzard doesn't take flak for crumbling to demands a la the Tracer incident. incident.
**** Mei's new spray for the Uprising Event [[https://res.cloudinary.com/pvplive/image/upload/fl_lossy,f_auto/article_images/mei_ow_summer_games.jpg seems to further confirm that she's relatively slim]].
**** Mei's new spray for the Uprising Event [[https://res.cloudinary.com/pvplive/image/upload/fl_lossy,f_auto/article_images/mei_ow_summer_games.jpg seems to further confirm that she's relatively slim]].
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added some specifics, since the original explanation of Genji's sometimes perceived uncoolness was a little vague
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** The reputation of Genji players can be summed up as followed: 199 HP left out of 200? [[MinorInjuryOverreaction "I need healing!"]]
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** The reputation general perception of Genji players players, especially some among among support mains, can be summed up as followed: 199 HP left out of 200? [[MinorInjuryOverreaction "I need healing!"]]
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** Soldier: 76, not so much from a story perspective, but he gets this a bit gameplay-wise. He's been heavily criticized for being an generic FPS character in a game filled with fantastic and unique abilities. There's a reason from people refer to him as "Franchise/CallOfDuty", and has been lambasted for trying to appeal to the "cod kids".
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** Soldier: 76, not so much from a story perspective, but he gets this a bit gameplay-wise. He's been heavily criticized for being an generic FPS character in a game filled with fantastic and unique abilities. There's a reason from some people refer to him as "Franchise/CallOfDuty", and has been lambasted for trying to appeal to the "cod kids".
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** Reaper is often the target of jokes and silly drawings and is often pictured as a EmoTeen who never grew up, mostly because his design and voice-lines are ridiculously edgy for a fiftysomething man (which has even been commented on by other characters in-universe). The fact that he's failed almost every mission that he was sent on in the animated shorts and comic also doesn't help, though it should be noted that in several of them, he was unknowingly sabotaged [[spoiler:such as with Sombra being a double-crosser]], and he has nevertheless repeatedly proven himself a superior combatant to most on-screen opponents he's faced, with Ana and an enraged Winston being the only ones who've defeated him.
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** Reaper is often the target of jokes and silly drawings and is often pictured as a EmoTeen who never grew up, mostly because his design and voice-lines are ridiculously edgy for a fiftysomething man edgy, especially considering he's in his mid-fifties (which has even been commented on by other characters in-universe). The fact that he's failed almost every mission that he was sent on in the animated shorts and comic also doesn't help, though it should be noted that in several of them, he was unknowingly sabotaged [[spoiler:such as with Sombra being a double-crosser]], and he has nevertheless repeatedly proven himself a superior combatant to most on-screen opponents he's faced, with Ana and an enraged Winston being the only ones who've defeated him.
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** Soldier: 76, not so much from a story perspective, but he gets this a bit gameplay-wise. He's been heavily criticized for being an generic FPS character in a game filled with fantastic and unique abilities. There's a reason from people refer to him as "Franchise/CallOfDuty", and has been lambasted for trying to appeal to the "cod kids".
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** Bastion players are often imagined as being complete noobs who only pick it to farm Play of the Game.
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*** Genji writing a letter to Mercy while in Nepal with Zenyatta, and Mercy receiving it in the Middle East with a gentle smile on her face.
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*** Genji writing a letter to Mercy while in Nepal with Zenyatta, and Mercy receiving it in the Middle East with a [[ShipTease gentle smile on her face.]]
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** Zarya and Pharah in particular are rather popular among gay women. No points for guessing why.
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** Soldier: 76/D.Va: Not in a 'romantic' way. When interpreting Soldier: 76 as 'Dad: 76', D.Va is generally one of the most popular characters depicted as his daughter, especially when she's being Gremlin D.Va.
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** Soldier: 76/D.Va: Not Va, but mostly in a 'romantic' way. familial way: When interpreting Soldier: 76 as 'Dad: 76', D.Va is generally one of the most popular characters depicted as his daughter, especially when she's being Gremlin D.Va.
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* ShipMates: Pharmercy shippers tend to join forces with Anahardt shippers -- because the latter debunks Pharah having a PrecociousCrush on Reinhardt. But, Pharmercy shippers will ALSO befriend Ana:76 shippers, because it sinks Team Mom & Dad shipping. And, going full circle, Anahardt and Mom/Dad shippers will combine forces against Pharmercy and Pharahardt shippers.
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* ShipMates: Pharmercy shippers tend to join forces with Anahardt shippers -- because the latter debunks Pharah having a PrecociousCrush on Reinhardt. But, Pharmercy shippers will ALSO befriend Ana:76 shippers, because it sinks the Team Mom & Dad shipping.shipping[[note]]Mercy x Soldier: 76 for those not in the know[[/note]]. And, going full circle, Anahardt and Mom/Dad shippers will combine forces against Pharmercy and Pharahardt shippers.
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Changed line(s) 129 (click to see context) from:
* EpilepticTrees: Many fans speculate that Roadhog isn't human anymore, but rather a {{Mutant}} due to how [[MadeOfIron insanely strong and durable]] he is despite having [[{{Kevlard}} no armor or advanced technology]]. He's more durable than a knight clad in futuristic armor, an armored gorilla, and an Omnic capable of ''stopping a car with one hand''. While all the other Tanks have advanced weapons and equipment, Roadhog has nothing but his hook and scrap gun, but is quite possibly even ''more'' dangerous than them. The idea is that the Omnium explosion mutated Roadhog to give him superhuman strength and durability, which originates from his original concept portraying him as a mutant unambiguously. Blizzard has yet to confirm or deny whether or not he's a mutant in the series proper.
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* EpilepticTrees: EpilepticTrees:
** Many fans speculate that Roadhog isn't human anymore, but rather a {{Mutant}} due to how [[MadeOfIron insanely strong and durable]] he is despite having [[{{Kevlard}} no armor or advanced technology]]. He's more durable than a knight clad in futuristic armor, an armored gorilla, and an Omnic capable of ''stopping a car with one hand''. While all the other Tanks have advanced weapons and equipment, Roadhog has nothing but his hook and scrap gun, but is quite possibly even ''more'' dangerous than them. The idea is that the Omnium explosion mutated Roadhog to give him superhuman strength and durability, which originates from his original concept portraying him as a mutant unambiguously. Blizzard has yet to confirm or deny whether or not he's a mutant in the series proper.
** Torbjorn's ''Uprising'' spray has begun to fuel speculation the Brigitte, Rien's squire from the ''Dragon Slayer'' comic, is in fact Torb's oldest child. Those who believe it's true also use the fact that Rein and Brigitte were visiting Torb's family in ''Reflections'', speculating that maybe it wasn't Rein visiting a friend so much as it was Brigitte visiting family.
** Many fans speculate that Roadhog isn't human anymore, but rather a {{Mutant}} due to how [[MadeOfIron insanely strong and durable]] he is despite having [[{{Kevlard}} no armor or advanced technology]]. He's more durable than a knight clad in futuristic armor, an armored gorilla, and an Omnic capable of ''stopping a car with one hand''. While all the other Tanks have advanced weapons and equipment, Roadhog has nothing but his hook and scrap gun, but is quite possibly even ''more'' dangerous than them. The idea is that the Omnium explosion mutated Roadhog to give him superhuman strength and durability, which originates from his original concept portraying him as a mutant unambiguously. Blizzard has yet to confirm or deny whether or not he's a mutant in the series proper.
** Torbjorn's ''Uprising'' spray has begun to fuel speculation the Brigitte, Rien's squire from the ''Dragon Slayer'' comic, is in fact Torb's oldest child. Those who believe it's true also use the fact that Rein and Brigitte were visiting Torb's family in ''Reflections'', speculating that maybe it wasn't Rein visiting a friend so much as it was Brigitte visiting family.
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*** Fast-forward to the Lunar New Year event where Mei is given 2 new skins that shows she is on the slim side but now the question becomes how slim is too slim? One base is upset that Blizzard is trying to stealthily make the character the perceived to be fat more sexy for the general audience while the other side say it's not far-fetched due to her heavy winter clothing and that there are already several images of the character without her coat (sprays and player icons) that show her as fairly slender. Turns out, Blizzard says Mei's skins '''are''' bugged which causes her to appear slimmer than usual[[note]](The part of her jacket below the belt does appear to be floating, giving her the tiny waist look)[[/note]], which just brought out another group claiming it's all a lie so Blizzard doesn't take flak for crumbling to the demands of a few people a la the Tracer incident.
to:
*** Fast-forward to the Lunar New Year event where Mei is given 2 new skins that shows she is on the slim side but now the question becomes how slim is too slim? One base is upset that Blizzard is trying to stealthily make the character the perceived to be fat more sexy for the general audience while the other side say it's not far-fetched due to her heavy winter clothing and that there are already several images of the character without her coat (sprays and player icons) that show her as fairly slender. Turns out, Blizzard says Mei's skins '''are''' bugged which causes her to appear slimmer than usual[[note]](The part of her jacket below the belt does appear to be floating, giving her the tiny waist look)[[/note]], which just brought out another group claiming it's all a lie so Blizzard doesn't take flak for crumbling to the demands of a few people a la the Tracer incident.
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I'm gonna make a judgment call and say this doesn't count for Never Live It Down. So far, I've only seen one troper constantly insist this is the case for Vishkar, and let's face it, you don't get to "live down" blowing up a neighborhood. You just don't.
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* NeverLiveItDown: While the event at Rio and ''A Better World'' serve as a MoralEventHorizon for Vishkar Corporation, good luck in trying to discover people who doesn't think that every of their past actions has to be done in style of Rio (blowing up rivals and locals, and enslaving them), [[StupidEvil even if it would've been inefficient in the long run.]]
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* ItWasHisSled: Reaper is Gabriel Reyes, and Soldier: 76 is Jack Morrison, but since it's impossible to discuss anything about them without mentioning their past, pretty much everyone knows their backstories, or at least most of it. Weirdly, the game often flip-flops on whether this should be a mystery or not: [[LateArrivalSpoiler aside from the external lore, some in-game pre-battle quotes clearly identify them as "Gabriel" and "Jack,"]] but nearly a year later when hero/skin lore blurbs were added, both of them are ''still'' described as mysterious characters with unknown motives and pasts... except for their Origins skins that clearly depict them as younger Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison (even the Commando: 76/Night Ops: 76 skins directly refer to "Jack Morrison")
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* ItWasHisSled: Reaper is Gabriel Reyes, and Soldier: 76 is Jack Morrison, but since it's impossible to discuss anything about them without mentioning their past, pretty much everyone knows their backstories, or at least most of it. Weirdly, the game often flip-flops on whether this should be a mystery or not: [[LateArrivalSpoiler aside from the external lore, some in-game pre-battle quotes clearly identify them as "Gabriel" and "Jack,"]] but nearly a year later when hero/skin lore blurbs were added, both of them are ''still'' described as mysterious characters with unknown motives and pasts... except for their Origins skins that clearly depict them as younger Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison (even the Commando: 76/Night Ops: 76 skins directly refer to "Jack Morrison")Morrison").
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Changed line(s) 206 (click to see context) from:
* ItWasHisSled: Reaper is Gabriel Reyes, and Soldier: 76 is Jack Morrison, but since it's impossible to discuss anything about them without mentioning their past, pretty much everyone knows their backstories, or at least most of it. Weirdly, the game often flip-flops on whether this should be a mystery or not: [[LateArrivalSpoiler they have in-game Origins skins that clearly represent their appearances in their youth, and even some pre-battle quotes clearly refer to them as "Jack" and "Gabriel,"]] but nearly a year later when hero/skin lore blurbs were added, both of them are ''still'' described as mysterious characters with unknown motives and pasts.
to:
* ItWasHisSled: Reaper is Gabriel Reyes, and Soldier: 76 is Jack Morrison, but since it's impossible to discuss anything about them without mentioning their past, pretty much everyone knows their backstories, or at least most of it. Weirdly, the game often flip-flops on whether this should be a mystery or not: [[LateArrivalSpoiler they have aside from the external lore, some in-game Origins skins that clearly represent their appearances in their youth, and even some pre-battle quotes clearly refer to identify them as "Jack" "Gabriel" and "Gabriel,"]] "Jack,"]] but nearly a year later when hero/skin lore blurbs were added, both of them are ''still'' described as mysterious characters with unknown motives and pasts.pasts... except for their Origins skins that clearly depict them as younger Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison (even the Commando: 76/Night Ops: 76 skins directly refer to "Jack Morrison")
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* ItWasHisSled:
** Reaper is Gabriel Reyes. Not only does the Origins skins spoil his identity, but since it's impossible to discuss anything about him without mentioning his past, pretty much everyone knows his backstory, or at least most of it. Same with Soldier: 76 aka Jack Morrison.
** Ana Amari is alive. It isn't even possible to discuss anything related to her, Pharah, the old Overwatch team or her old teammates without at least a casual mention of this fact. She's even a playable character.
* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Almost every character has been paired with everyone, but notable examples are:
** Mercy stands out more than anyone else, for being shipped with Junkrat, Roadhog ([[OneTrueThreesome or both]]), Genji, Hanzo, Soldier: 76, [=McCree=], Widowmaker, Pharah, Zarya, Torbjörn (rare) prior to "Reflections", and Reaper.
** Ana. Being the only character with a known child[[note]] Sans Torbjörn who was revealed to have several children and an attractive wife in the ''Reflections'' comic[[/note]], everyone speculates as to who Pharah's father was. The dialogue she has with most of her old teammates is full of ShipTease, with all of them upset that they didn't know she was still alive, her complimenting Reinhardt and Soldier: 76 on how good they look, and Reinhardt and [=McCree=] flat out flirting with her. The comic ''Old Soldiers'' adds even more fuel to the fire because it shows Jack and Ana's close friendship while Reaper accuses her of always siding with Jack. This has fanned flames of a possible LoveTriangle or LoveDodecahedron; after all, if fans can't decide which of the original team she slept with to conceive Pharah, then the next best thing is to assume she slept with them ''all''. She's also shipped with [=McCree=] (due to some mild flirting on his part), Mercy (especially if there's a jealous Pharah involved), and Widowmaker (for the FoeYay). Also, she's currently the ''only'' person consistently shipped with Torbjörn.
** Reaper is Gabriel Reyes. Not only does the Origins skins spoil his identity, but since it's impossible to discuss anything about him without mentioning his past, pretty much everyone knows his backstory, or at least most of it. Same with Soldier: 76 aka Jack Morrison.
** Ana Amari is alive. It isn't even possible to discuss anything related to her, Pharah, the old Overwatch team or her old teammates without at least a casual mention of this fact. She's even a playable character.
* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Almost every character has been paired with everyone, but notable examples are:
** Mercy stands out more than anyone else, for being shipped with Junkrat, Roadhog ([[OneTrueThreesome or both]]), Genji, Hanzo, Soldier: 76, [=McCree=], Widowmaker, Pharah, Zarya, Torbjörn (rare) prior to "Reflections", and Reaper.
** Ana. Being the only character with a known child[[note]] Sans Torbjörn who was revealed to have several children and an attractive wife in the ''Reflections'' comic[[/note]], everyone speculates as to who Pharah's father was. The dialogue she has with most of her old teammates is full of ShipTease, with all of them upset that they didn't know she was still alive, her complimenting Reinhardt and Soldier: 76 on how good they look, and Reinhardt and [=McCree=] flat out flirting with her. The comic ''Old Soldiers'' adds even more fuel to the fire because it shows Jack and Ana's close friendship while Reaper accuses her of always siding with Jack. This has fanned flames of a possible LoveTriangle or LoveDodecahedron; after all, if fans can't decide which of the original team she slept with to conceive Pharah, then the next best thing is to assume she slept with them ''all''. She's also shipped with [=McCree=] (due to some mild flirting on his part), Mercy (especially if there's a jealous Pharah involved), and Widowmaker (for the FoeYay). Also, she's currently the ''only'' person consistently shipped with Torbjörn.
to:
* ItWasHisSled:
**ItWasHisSled: Reaper is Gabriel Reyes. Not only does the Origins skins spoil his identity, Reyes, and Soldier: 76 is Jack Morrison, but since it's impossible to discuss anything about him them without mentioning his their past, pretty much everyone knows his backstory, their backstories, or at least most of it. Same with Soldier: 76 aka Jack Morrison.
** Ana Amari is alive. It isn'tWeirdly, the game often flip-flops on whether this should be a mystery or not: [[LateArrivalSpoiler they have in-game Origins skins that clearly represent their appearances in their youth, and even possible some pre-battle quotes clearly refer to discuss anything related to her, Pharah, the old Overwatch team or her old teammates without at least a casual mention of this fact. She's even a playable character.
* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Almost every character has been paired with everyone,them as "Jack" and "Gabriel,"]] but notable examples are:
** Mercy stands out more than anyone else, for being shipped with Junkrat, Roadhog ([[OneTrueThreesome or both]]), Genji, Hanzo, Soldier: 76, [=McCree=], Widowmaker, Pharah, Zarya, Torbjörn (rare) prior to "Reflections", and Reaper.
** Ana. Being the only character withnearly a known child[[note]] Sans Torbjörn who was revealed to have several children and an attractive wife in the ''Reflections'' comic[[/note]], everyone speculates as to who Pharah's father was. The dialogue she has with most of her old teammates is full of ShipTease, with all year later when hero/skin lore blurbs were added, both of them upset that they didn't know she was still alive, her complimenting Reinhardt and Soldier: 76 on how good they look, and Reinhardt and [=McCree=] flat out flirting are ''still'' described as mysterious characters with her. The comic ''Old Soldiers'' adds even more fuel to the fire because it shows Jack unknown motives and Ana's close friendship while Reaper accuses her of always siding with Jack. This has fanned flames of a possible LoveTriangle or LoveDodecahedron; after all, if fans can't decide which of the original team she slept with to conceive Pharah, then the next best thing is to assume she slept with them ''all''. She's also shipped with [=McCree=] (due to some mild flirting on his part), Mercy (especially if there's a jealous Pharah involved), and Widowmaker (for the FoeYay). Also, she's currently the ''only'' person consistently shipped with Torbjörn.pasts.
**
** Ana Amari is alive. It isn't
* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Almost every character has been paired with everyone,
** Mercy stands out more than anyone else, for being shipped with Junkrat, Roadhog ([[OneTrueThreesome or both]]), Genji, Hanzo, Soldier: 76, [=McCree=], Widowmaker, Pharah, Zarya, Torbjörn (rare) prior to "Reflections", and Reaper.
** Ana. Being the only character with
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* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Almost every character has been paired with everyone, but notable examples are:
** Mercy stands out more than anyone else, for being shipped with Junkrat, Roadhog ([[OneTrueThreesome or both]]), Genji, Hanzo, Soldier: 76, [=McCree=], Widowmaker, Pharah, Zarya, Torbjörn (rare) prior to "Reflections", and Reaper.
** Ana. Being the only character with a known child[[note]] Sans Torbjörn who was revealed to have several children and an attractive wife in the ''Reflections'' comic[[/note]], everyone speculates as to who Pharah's father was. The dialogue she has with most of her old teammates is full of ShipTease, with all of them upset that they didn't know she was still alive, her complimenting Reinhardt and Soldier: 76 on how good they look, and Reinhardt and [=McCree=] flat out flirting with her. The comic ''Old Soldiers'' adds even more fuel to the fire because it shows Jack and Ana's close friendship while Reaper accuses her of always siding with Jack. This has fanned flames of a possible LoveTriangle or LoveDodecahedron; after all, if fans can't decide which of the original team she slept with to conceive Pharah, then the next best thing is to assume she slept with them ''all''. She's also shipped with [=McCree=] (due to some mild flirting on his part), Mercy (especially if there's a jealous Pharah involved), and Widowmaker (for the FoeYay). Also, she's currently the ''only'' person consistently shipped with Torbjörn.
** Mercy stands out more than anyone else, for being shipped with Junkrat, Roadhog ([[OneTrueThreesome or both]]), Genji, Hanzo, Soldier: 76, [=McCree=], Widowmaker, Pharah, Zarya, Torbjörn (rare) prior to "Reflections", and Reaper.
** Ana. Being the only character with a known child[[note]] Sans Torbjörn who was revealed to have several children and an attractive wife in the ''Reflections'' comic[[/note]], everyone speculates as to who Pharah's father was. The dialogue she has with most of her old teammates is full of ShipTease, with all of them upset that they didn't know she was still alive, her complimenting Reinhardt and Soldier: 76 on how good they look, and Reinhardt and [=McCree=] flat out flirting with her. The comic ''Old Soldiers'' adds even more fuel to the fire because it shows Jack and Ana's close friendship while Reaper accuses her of always siding with Jack. This has fanned flames of a possible LoveTriangle or LoveDodecahedron; after all, if fans can't decide which of the original team she slept with to conceive Pharah, then the next best thing is to assume she slept with them ''all''. She's also shipped with [=McCree=] (due to some mild flirting on his part), Mercy (especially if there's a jealous Pharah involved), and Widowmaker (for the FoeYay). Also, she's currently the ''only'' person consistently shipped with Torbjörn.
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Do we need these links? It's fan hate or fans hating on fans.
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** Mercy, as mentioned in LauncherOfAThousandShips, gets paired with nearly everyone and that leads to bickering. In particular, the {{LGBT Fanbase}} who ship the popular "[[PortmanteauCoupleName Phar-Mercy]]" pair are staunchly against her being paired with any male character such as [=McCree=]/Mercy, [[RescueRomance Genji/Mercy]], [[AngelDevilShipping Reaper/Mercy]], [[MayDecemberRomance Soldier:76/Mercy]], and many more. They were not happy when several very ShipTease-heavy lines for Genji/Mercy were found in the game files, [[http://tmirai.tumblr.com/post/155680924714/sneakyfeets-varae-ver-you-are-tiny-raptor and went absolutely BERSERK]] [[http://careforacuppatea.tumblr.com/post/155687011412/aftermath on]] lead writer [[ScapegoatCreator Michael Chu.]] [[RuleofCautiousEditingJudgement It got worse when those voice lines were released for the live version of the game in mid-March 2017.]]
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** Mercy, as mentioned in LauncherOfAThousandShips, gets paired with nearly everyone and that leads to bickering. In particular, the {{LGBT Fanbase}} who ship the popular "[[PortmanteauCoupleName Phar-Mercy]]" pair are staunchly against her being paired with any male character such as [=McCree=]/Mercy, [[RescueRomance Genji/Mercy]], [[AngelDevilShipping Reaper/Mercy]], [[MayDecemberRomance Soldier:76/Mercy]], and many more. They were not happy when several very ShipTease-heavy lines for Genji/Mercy were found in the game files, [[http://tmirai.tumblr.com/post/155680924714/sneakyfeets-varae-ver-you-are-tiny-raptor and went absolutely BERSERK]] [[http://careforacuppatea.tumblr.com/post/155687011412/aftermath on]] lead writer [[ScapegoatCreator Michael Chu.]] Genji/Mercy. [[RuleofCautiousEditingJudgement It got worse when those voice lines were released for the live version of the game in mid-March 2017.]]
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** Fans have decided that there ''must'' have been a LoveTriangle between Ana, Jack, and Gabriel during their days at Overwatch. Furthermore, many fans have interpreted that either of the two men ''must'' have been Pharah's father, due to the identity of him being left intentionally vague. A fan theory is that Jack did indeed have Pharah (or Fareeha, as she was known at the time) with Ana, but it was kept secret for her protection. Additionally, this contributed to Gabriel's jealousy towards Jack[[note]]a contributing factor to the theory being in the comic ''Old Soldiers'', where he was disappointed to see Ana take Jack's side many years later, as she apparently always did[[/note]] and ultimately led to him betraying Overwatch shortly after her supposed "death". Some choose to TakeAThirdOption and say ''Reinhardt'' was the father, due to them being shipped following an in-game interaction. Alternatively, some would like to think that Ana had Pharah with an unimportant person to avoid drama.
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** Fans have decided that there ''must'' have been a LoveTriangle between Ana, Jack, and Gabriel during their days at Overwatch. Furthermore, many fans have interpreted that either of the two men ''must'' have been Pharah's father, due to the identity of him being left intentionally vague. A fan theory is that Jack did indeed have Pharah (or Fareeha, as she was known at the time) with Ana, but it was kept secret for her protection. Additionally, this contributed to Gabriel's jealousy towards Jack[[note]]a contributing factor to the theory being in the comic ''Old Soldiers'', where he was disappointed to see Ana take Jack's side many years later, as she apparently always did[[/note]] and ultimately led to him betraying Overwatch shortly after her supposed "death". Some choose to TakeAThirdOption and say ''Reinhardt'' was the father, due to them being shipped following an in-game interaction. Alternatively, some would like to think that Ana had Pharah with an unimportant person to avoid drama.drama, which was all but confirmed with [[http://imgur.com/a/KiO65 Ana's new spray]] in the Uprising update.
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* AwesomeEgo: D.Va thrives on this trope as a character. As a [[ThisLoserIsYou stereotypical gamer]] and e-celebrity, she is a blatant {{Troll}}, CompetitionFreak and AttentionWhore. And yet, she is absolutely beloved by most of the fanbase. To illustrate the point, when her "Selfie" Highlight Intro was launched, with her arrogantly and vainly snapping a sexy pic while her mech explodes, [[HolyShitQuotient fans thought it was jaw-droppingly awesome]].
to:
* AwesomeEgo: D.Va thrives on this trope as a character. As a [[ThisLoserIsYou stereotypical gamer]] and e-celebrity, she is a blatant {{Troll}}, CompetitionFreak and AttentionWhore. And yet, she is absolutely beloved by most of the fanbase. To illustrate the point, when her "Selfie" Highlight Intro was launched, with her arrogantly performing sexy HairFlip and vainly snapping a sexy pic selfie while her mech explodes, [[HolyShitQuotient fans thought it was jaw-droppingly awesome]].
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* DryDockedShip:
** Genji and Mercy shipping (Emergenji/Gency) tends to assume that both Genji and Mercy were in love since she saved his life before joining Overwatch. The main assumption is that Genji had too much self-loathing to return Mercy's feelings.
** Ana is assumed to have had a relationship with at least one (if not all) of her former teammates. Even fans who point out that Torbjorn is HappilyMarried in the comics will argue that his wife [[MayDecemberRomance is too young to have been available during the Omnic Crisis]] and that their kids are all too young to have been born during Ana's era. So, to them, that still leaves room for Anabjorn to have been a thing thirty or so years ago.
** Genji and Mercy shipping (Emergenji/Gency) tends to assume that both Genji and Mercy were in love since she saved his life before joining Overwatch. The main assumption is that Genji had too much self-loathing to return Mercy's feelings.
** Ana is assumed to have had a relationship with at least one (if not all) of her former teammates. Even fans who point out that Torbjorn is HappilyMarried in the comics will argue that his wife [[MayDecemberRomance is too young to have been available during the Omnic Crisis]] and that their kids are all too young to have been born during Ana's era. So, to them, that still leaves room for Anabjorn to have been a thing thirty or so years ago.
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* ShipMates: Pharmercy shippers tend to join forces with Anahardt shippers -- because the latter debunks Pharah having a PrecociousCrush on Reinhardt. But, Pharmercy shippers will ALSO befriend Ana:76 shippers, because it sinks Team Mom & Dad shipping. And, going full circle, Anahardt and Mom/Dad shippers will combine forces against Pharmercy and Pharahardt shippers.
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** D.Va has spawned ''fewer'' memes, but virtually every word of her mouth has become a meme, as she is such an over-the-top gamer stereotype that a lot of fans can't help themselves.
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** D.Va has spawned ''fewer'' memes, but virtually every word out of her mouth has become a meme, as she is such an over-the-top gamer stereotype that a lot of fans can't help themselves.themselves but love.
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* AwesomeEgo: D.Va thrives on this trope as a character. As a [[ThisLoserIsYou stereotypical gamer]] and e-celebrity, she is a blatant {{Troll}}, CompetitionFreak and AttentionWhore. And yet, she is absolutely beloved by most of the fanbase. To illustrate the point, when her "Selfie" Highlight Intro was launched, with her arrogantly and vainly snapping a sexy pic while her mech explodes, [[HolyShitQuotient fans thought it was jaw-droppingly awesome]].
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* FountainOfMemes: Due to months of hints and teases, as well as the extreme length and convolution of her ARG, Sombra has an absurd number of memes based around her -- much of it based on WildMassGuessing and some based on her {{Memetic Troll}}ing of the rest of cast.
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* FountainOfMemes: FountainOfMemes:
** Due to months of hints and teases, as well as the extreme length and convolution of her ARG, Sombra has an absurd number of memes based around her -- much of it based on WildMassGuessing and some based on her {{Memetic Troll}}ing of the rest ofcast.cast.
** D.Va has spawned ''fewer'' memes, but virtually every word of her mouth has become a meme, as she is such an over-the-top gamer stereotype that a lot of fans can't help themselves.
** Due to months of hints and teases, as well as the extreme length and convolution of her ARG, Sombra has an absurd number of memes based around her -- much of it based on WildMassGuessing and some based on her {{Memetic Troll}}ing of the rest of
** D.Va has spawned ''fewer'' memes, but virtually every word of her mouth has become a meme, as she is such an over-the-top gamer stereotype that a lot of fans can't help themselves.
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This AGAIN? And the grammar is bad, too.
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** Vishkar Corporation itself. While there's no denying that it is slated to be a bad guy/antagonist group, [[RuleofPerception at least so far,]] its evilness is often overblown by fans to StupidEvil levels that they disregard that its portfolio [[NeverLiveItDown doesn't only consist of Rio, where it oppressed the people there with slave labor while spouting hypocritical remarks]]. Vishkar is also responsible for Utopaea where the city was known to be beautiful, but wasn't necessarily built with slave labory and the opinion of the citizens there remain unknown. In addition of this, regardless of whether it's just them being opportunist or not, they still managed to recover India from its poor state after the Omnic Crisis. None of these matter to the fans that are just looking at their shenanigan at Rio, thus tends to think that anyone working for this organization have got to be complete evil villains, including Symmetra, and a lot think that [[NebulousEvilOrganization Talon]] [[EvilIsCool is a lot better as an evil organization.]]
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** Vishkar Corporation itself. While there's no denying that it is slated to be a bad guy/antagonist group, [[RuleofPerception at least so far,]] its evilness is often overblown by fans to StupidEvil levels that they disregard that its portfolio [[NeverLiveItDown doesn't only consist of Rio, where it oppressed the people there with slave labor while spouting hypocritical remarks]]. Vishkar is also responsible for Utopaea where the city was known to be beautiful, but wasn't necessarily built with slave labory and the opinion of the citizens there remain unknown. In addition of this, regardless of whether it's just them being opportunist or not, they still managed to recover India from its poor state after the Omnic Crisis. unknown. None of these matter to the fans that are just looking at their shenanigan at Rio, thus tends to who think that anyone working for this organization have got to be complete evil villains, including Symmetra, and a lot think that [[NebulousEvilOrganization Talon]] [[EvilIsCool is a lot better as an evil organization.]]{{Card Carrying Villain}}s.
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** Blizzard themselves decided to shoot a few holes in the starboard hull of the Ana/Reinhardt ship by giving her a spray called "Newborn", in which Ana is holding a newborn Pharah, with her clearly Egyptian and clearly NOT-Reinhardt father standing next to her. All that leaves the shippers is the flirtatious dialogue before matches that suggests that Ana and Reinhardt possibly had a fling at some point in time.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
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* AbandonShipping: D.Va/Sombra was popular before the latter's official release, but lost a lot of support when Sombra's bio revealed her to be 30 and not a TeenGenius as some had theorized.
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* AbandonShipping: AbandonShipping:
** D.Va/Sombra was popular before the latter's official release, but lost a lot of support when Sombra's bio revealed her to be 30 and not a TeenGenius as some had theorized.
** D.Va/Sombra was popular before the latter's official release, but lost a lot of support when Sombra's bio revealed her to be 30 and not a TeenGenius as some had theorized.
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** Blizzard themselves decided to shoot a few holes in the starboard hull of the Ana/Reinhardt ship by giving her a spray called "Newborn", in which Ana is holding a newborn Pharah, with her clearly Egyptian and clearly NOT-Reinhardt father standing next to her. All that leaves the shippers is the flirtatious dialogue before matches that suggests that Ana and Reinhardt possibly had a fling at some point in time.
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Adding folder control for future convenience.
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[[foldercontrol]]
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Yeah, absolutely no one has ever refered to Bastion players as that.
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** Bastion players are often imagined as 8-year-olds who have no idea how to play Overwatch and only go for easy kills.
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* MemeticBadass:
** [=McCree=] has attained this status to some due to how devastating he is in gameplay and the fact that, unlike everyone else, he doesn't need fancy gadgets and superhero-esque abilities to kick ass -- [[BadassNormal the only thing he needs is his Peacekeeper]]. Plus, using [[LimitBreak Deadeye]], he can fire more bullets than his [[ImpossiblyCoolWeapon six-shooter should be able to hold at once.]]
** The [[LegacyCharacter Doomfist lineage]] has earned this reputation among fans despite the fact [[TheGhost we know very little]] [[ShroudedInMyth about any of them.]] Popularity sparked up when Creator/TerryCrews claimed [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/5dez6k/if_doomfist_becomes_a_hero_id_be_so_hyped_if/daa1d2g/ he would love to play Doomfist,]] and many [[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike ridiculously]] [[CrazyAwesome overblown]] LargeHam interpretations of the character have since sprouted.
** Torbjörn, who can get Play of the Game simply by slacking off while his turret does all the work. Or better yet, [=PotGs=] where he's ''dead''. In other words, Torbjörn [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing Gets Play of the Game by Doing Absolutely Nothing]].
** [[CreatorWorship Jeff Kaplan]], who is considered by the fandom to be the most GameBreaker hero if he is ever released into the game and can apparently wrestle everyone.
* MemeticLoser:
** Reaper is often the target of jokes and silly drawings and is often pictured as a EmoTeen who never grew up, mostly because his design and voice-lines are ridiculously edgy for a fiftysomething man (which has even been commented on by other characters in-universe). The fact that he's failed almost every mission that he was sent on in the animated shorts and comic also doesn't help, though it should be noted that in several of them, he was unknowingly sabotaged [[spoiler:such as with Sombra being a double-crosser]], and he has nevertheless repeatedly proven himself a superior combatant to most on-screen opponents he's faced, with Ana and an enraged Winston being the only ones who've defeated him.
** Hanzo is [[DifficultButAwesome a powerful Hero in the right hands]], and [[TheLoad accomplishes virtually nothing of value]] in the wrong ones, which is to say, a ''lot'' of Hanzo players. This has led to the "Hanzo mains" stereotype: a player instant-locks Hanzo, claiming they "main" him, play very badly, and then [[NeverMyFault blame the rest of their team for things going wrong]]. Thus, someone picking Hanzo on a team, ''especially'' on Attack, is a walking target of hate waiting to happen. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W-9l-_XllM Even Jeff Kaplan himself recognizes this.]]
** Weirdly [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with Winston as an in-game hero, who has one of lowest play rates in both Quick Play and Competitive modes. Apparently this is based on the notion that Winston is a "weak" hero due to his comparatively low damage output, and a deceptively "brainless" kit mostly reserved for noobs with no skill (hence [[Memes/{{Overwatch}} "No aim, no brain, Winston main").]] This is despite the fact he's an almost regular pick in ''professional'' play, since [[SimpleYetAwesome as basic as it appears, his kit has been repeatedly proven to be incredibly useful, with much more utility than other tanks if the player knows how to take advantage of it.]]
** As a playable character, Reinhardt gets shades of this, as he's meant to be the team's frontline defense, yet players tend to irresponsibly use his Charge to lunge away from the team's position into the midst of the enemy team, not only leaving their teammates to die but also getting killed themselves in the process. This leads to jokes about Reinhardt boasting about being the team's shield, [[HypocriticalHumor and then charging away two seconds later]].
*** In a more sympathetic light, some view him as this trope from the fact that his worthlessness is more to blame on his team, where he actually does try to do his job and protect his team, but can't [[SurroundedByIdiots since nobody stands behind the damn rectangle]], preferring to leap into death instead. Of course, depending on who you play with, [[TakeAThirdOption both these interpretations can be valid.]]
** Widowmaker gets similar treatment to Hanzo due to players who think they're hotshots with her, but end up playing badly, as well as players who refuse to get near the objective or payload even if they're in danger of losing because of the idea that being on the objective isn't a sniper's job. Additionally, there are those who [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome insist on picking Widowmaker]] even if a. they're the last player on the team who hasn't picked a hero yet and there's no healers on the team and b. there's already one or even two Widowmakers on the team (though Competitive and Quick Play eventually banned hero-stacking).
** The reputation of Genji players can be summed up as followed: 199 HP left out of 200? [[MinorInjuryOverreaction "I need healing!"]]
** Sombra gets frowned upon a lot for being considered an underpowered and [[OvershadowedByAwesome over]][[AccidentalPun shadowed]] hero, attracting bile and leavers simply by picking her. It's gotten to the point where many Sombra players have recalled instances where they were told to [[UpToEleven "switch to]] [[InsultToRocks Hanzo"]] as soon as they choose her.
** Zarya is pitied by many players for her skin designs, none of which have appealed to many players. Her "goth" skins in particular are seen as a major case of WTHCostumingDepartment.
** The AlternateCharacterInterpretation of D.Va, the obsessive gamer, as a bratty, Cheeto-guzzling shut-in has proven enormously popular, to the point where Blizzard even released an emote for her that referenced it.
** Bastion players are often imagined as 8-year-olds who have no idea how to play Overwatch and only go for easy kills.
** [=McCree=] has attained this status to some due to how devastating he is in gameplay and the fact that, unlike everyone else, he doesn't need fancy gadgets and superhero-esque abilities to kick ass -- [[BadassNormal the only thing he needs is his Peacekeeper]]. Plus, using [[LimitBreak Deadeye]], he can fire more bullets than his [[ImpossiblyCoolWeapon six-shooter should be able to hold at once.]]
** The [[LegacyCharacter Doomfist lineage]] has earned this reputation among fans despite the fact [[TheGhost we know very little]] [[ShroudedInMyth about any of them.]] Popularity sparked up when Creator/TerryCrews claimed [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/5dez6k/if_doomfist_becomes_a_hero_id_be_so_hyped_if/daa1d2g/ he would love to play Doomfist,]] and many [[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike ridiculously]] [[CrazyAwesome overblown]] LargeHam interpretations of the character have since sprouted.
** Torbjörn, who can get Play of the Game simply by slacking off while his turret does all the work. Or better yet, [=PotGs=] where he's ''dead''. In other words, Torbjörn [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing Gets Play of the Game by Doing Absolutely Nothing]].
** [[CreatorWorship Jeff Kaplan]], who is considered by the fandom to be the most GameBreaker hero if he is ever released into the game and can apparently wrestle everyone.
* MemeticLoser:
** Reaper is often the target of jokes and silly drawings and is often pictured as a EmoTeen who never grew up, mostly because his design and voice-lines are ridiculously edgy for a fiftysomething man (which has even been commented on by other characters in-universe). The fact that he's failed almost every mission that he was sent on in the animated shorts and comic also doesn't help, though it should be noted that in several of them, he was unknowingly sabotaged [[spoiler:such as with Sombra being a double-crosser]], and he has nevertheless repeatedly proven himself a superior combatant to most on-screen opponents he's faced, with Ana and an enraged Winston being the only ones who've defeated him.
** Hanzo is [[DifficultButAwesome a powerful Hero in the right hands]], and [[TheLoad accomplishes virtually nothing of value]] in the wrong ones, which is to say, a ''lot'' of Hanzo players. This has led to the "Hanzo mains" stereotype: a player instant-locks Hanzo, claiming they "main" him, play very badly, and then [[NeverMyFault blame the rest of their team for things going wrong]]. Thus, someone picking Hanzo on a team, ''especially'' on Attack, is a walking target of hate waiting to happen. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W-9l-_XllM Even Jeff Kaplan himself recognizes this.]]
** Weirdly [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with Winston as an in-game hero, who has one of lowest play rates in both Quick Play and Competitive modes. Apparently this is based on the notion that Winston is a "weak" hero due to his comparatively low damage output, and a deceptively "brainless" kit mostly reserved for noobs with no skill (hence [[Memes/{{Overwatch}} "No aim, no brain, Winston main").]] This is despite the fact he's an almost regular pick in ''professional'' play, since [[SimpleYetAwesome as basic as it appears, his kit has been repeatedly proven to be incredibly useful, with much more utility than other tanks if the player knows how to take advantage of it.]]
** As a playable character, Reinhardt gets shades of this, as he's meant to be the team's frontline defense, yet players tend to irresponsibly use his Charge to lunge away from the team's position into the midst of the enemy team, not only leaving their teammates to die but also getting killed themselves in the process. This leads to jokes about Reinhardt boasting about being the team's shield, [[HypocriticalHumor and then charging away two seconds later]].
*** In a more sympathetic light, some view him as this trope from the fact that his worthlessness is more to blame on his team, where he actually does try to do his job and protect his team, but can't [[SurroundedByIdiots since nobody stands behind the damn rectangle]], preferring to leap into death instead. Of course, depending on who you play with, [[TakeAThirdOption both these interpretations can be valid.]]
** Widowmaker gets similar treatment to Hanzo due to players who think they're hotshots with her, but end up playing badly, as well as players who refuse to get near the objective or payload even if they're in danger of losing because of the idea that being on the objective isn't a sniper's job. Additionally, there are those who [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome insist on picking Widowmaker]] even if a. they're the last player on the team who hasn't picked a hero yet and there's no healers on the team and b. there's already one or even two Widowmakers on the team (though Competitive and Quick Play eventually banned hero-stacking).
** The reputation of Genji players can be summed up as followed: 199 HP left out of 200? [[MinorInjuryOverreaction "I need healing!"]]
** Sombra gets frowned upon a lot for being considered an underpowered and [[OvershadowedByAwesome over]][[AccidentalPun shadowed]] hero, attracting bile and leavers simply by picking her. It's gotten to the point where many Sombra players have recalled instances where they were told to [[UpToEleven "switch to]] [[InsultToRocks Hanzo"]] as soon as they choose her.
** Zarya is pitied by many players for her skin designs, none of which have appealed to many players. Her "goth" skins in particular are seen as a major case of WTHCostumingDepartment.
** The AlternateCharacterInterpretation of D.Va, the obsessive gamer, as a bratty, Cheeto-guzzling shut-in has proven enormously popular, to the point where Blizzard even released an emote for her that referenced it.
** Bastion players are often imagined as 8-year-olds who have no idea how to play Overwatch and only go for easy kills.
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* MemeticMutation: To such an extent that [[Memes/{{Overwatch}} it has its own page]].
* MemeticPsychopath:
** By default, Mei is an [[{{Adorkable}} adorably dorky]] girl. However, due to her play style of freezing her opponents and leaving them helpless before she fires an ice lance at their head that can be outright deadly, a lot seem to portray her as being more sinister than her adorable outlook. It also helps that, from the point of view of the victim, [[https://gfycat.com/AptShoddyHagfish Mei's expression changes to one of concentration]] as she prepares her icicle lance[[note]]Which isn't instant; Mei has to generate her lance first, and then aim it properly depending on the character, and this is after making sure that the victim is actually frozen and not just slowed[[/note]], making her appear ''particularly'' sinister to the helplessly frozen player when she makes the kill. To the meme community, this is referred as "The true face of pure evil." Not helped by the "Mei's Snowball Offense" Winter Holiday Brawl due to many of her lines there, particularly ones like "I'll find youuuu." or "[[ComedicSociopathy I'm putting a rock in this one]]."
** Bastion gained a reputation as a bloodthirsty murder machine due to its tendency to mow down entire teams in seconds and farming Plays of the Game. Alternatively, the bird that's seen nestling on it is the one who makes it that way. After ''The Last Bastion'', it was revealed that it used to be this entirely, until waking up after ten years. Now every time it gets Play of the Game, it's seen as having a PTSD-induced freakout.
* MemeticTroll:
** Bastion, due to its appearance basically securing Play of the Game for whoever's playing as it (at least initially). Many players joke about how Bastion is a [[http://www.amazon.com/4M-Salt-Water-Powered-Robot/dp/B00AV8XBGG salt-powered robot]][[note]]"salt" being slang for anger, usually of {{Sore Loser}}s[[/note]].
** Mei has become infamous for inexperienced players or {{Griefer}}s using her to recklessly place ice walls to block her own team's attacks, or even block off spawn room exits.
** Sometimes, Tracer can be this as well, using her accent and giggling tendencies to annoy other people that she'd just kill. It doesn't help that one of her unlockable POTG animations is her laughing over, a strategy often used by {{Troll}}s to ridicule their victims.
** D.va, due to being a pro gamer, is sometimes seen by fans as trolling and berating her opponents much the same way real-life players of online multiplayer games do, especially when she's drawn by fans in her [[BrattyHalfPint "Gremlin"]] form.
** The RandomNumberGod for Loot Boxes. If it's not Common-Common-Rare-Common, it's Common-Common-Legendary-Common...but the Legendary is a duplicate. Or cash.
** The Play of the Game generator gets this on occasion for its tendency to ignore actually decent plays in favor of laughable plays such as the aforementioned shots of player corpses and other ridiculous moments.
** Sombra quickly became this upon her introduction proper, thanks to a combination of her [[ArcFatigue dragged-out ARG]], the ''Infiltration'' short showing her messing with Reaper as he tries to get through a door, her playstyle involving messing with enemy players' abilities, and an unlockable highlight intro that [[BaitAndSwitch looks like it's gonna be someone else's PotG, but it's actually hers]].
** Symmetra in the fandom is often seen as [[MemeticMutation someone who puts a teleporter right near a cliff just to see people fall off (and possibly die) because of it]], something that she wouldn't even think of doing in canon.
** Roadhog's hook would grab you around corners, through solid objects, halfway across the map, from the other side of the universe, etc. A patch eventually toned down the buggy and almost troll-like behavior of the hook.
* MemeticPsychopath:
** By default, Mei is an [[{{Adorkable}} adorably dorky]] girl. However, due to her play style of freezing her opponents and leaving them helpless before she fires an ice lance at their head that can be outright deadly, a lot seem to portray her as being more sinister than her adorable outlook. It also helps that, from the point of view of the victim, [[https://gfycat.com/AptShoddyHagfish Mei's expression changes to one of concentration]] as she prepares her icicle lance[[note]]Which isn't instant; Mei has to generate her lance first, and then aim it properly depending on the character, and this is after making sure that the victim is actually frozen and not just slowed[[/note]], making her appear ''particularly'' sinister to the helplessly frozen player when she makes the kill. To the meme community, this is referred as "The true face of pure evil." Not helped by the "Mei's Snowball Offense" Winter Holiday Brawl due to many of her lines there, particularly ones like "I'll find youuuu." or "[[ComedicSociopathy I'm putting a rock in this one]]."
** Bastion gained a reputation as a bloodthirsty murder machine due to its tendency to mow down entire teams in seconds and farming Plays of the Game. Alternatively, the bird that's seen nestling on it is the one who makes it that way. After ''The Last Bastion'', it was revealed that it used to be this entirely, until waking up after ten years. Now every time it gets Play of the Game, it's seen as having a PTSD-induced freakout.
* MemeticTroll:
** Bastion, due to its appearance basically securing Play of the Game for whoever's playing as it (at least initially). Many players joke about how Bastion is a [[http://www.amazon.com/4M-Salt-Water-Powered-Robot/dp/B00AV8XBGG salt-powered robot]][[note]]"salt" being slang for anger, usually of {{Sore Loser}}s[[/note]].
** Mei has become infamous for inexperienced players or {{Griefer}}s using her to recklessly place ice walls to block her own team's attacks, or even block off spawn room exits.
** Sometimes, Tracer can be this as well, using her accent and giggling tendencies to annoy other people that she'd just kill. It doesn't help that one of her unlockable POTG animations is her laughing over, a strategy often used by {{Troll}}s to ridicule their victims.
** D.va, due to being a pro gamer, is sometimes seen by fans as trolling and berating her opponents much the same way real-life players of online multiplayer games do, especially when she's drawn by fans in her [[BrattyHalfPint "Gremlin"]] form.
** The RandomNumberGod for Loot Boxes. If it's not Common-Common-Rare-Common, it's Common-Common-Legendary-Common...but the Legendary is a duplicate. Or cash.
** The Play of the Game generator gets this on occasion for its tendency to ignore actually decent plays in favor of laughable plays such as the aforementioned shots of player corpses and other ridiculous moments.
** Sombra quickly became this upon her introduction proper, thanks to a combination of her [[ArcFatigue dragged-out ARG]], the ''Infiltration'' short showing her messing with Reaper as he tries to get through a door, her playstyle involving messing with enemy players' abilities, and an unlockable highlight intro that [[BaitAndSwitch looks like it's gonna be someone else's PotG, but it's actually hers]].
** Symmetra in the fandom is often seen as [[MemeticMutation someone who puts a teleporter right near a cliff just to see people fall off (and possibly die) because of it]], something that she wouldn't even think of doing in canon.
** Roadhog's hook would grab you around corners, through solid objects, halfway across the map, from the other side of the universe, etc. A patch eventually toned down the buggy and almost troll-like behavior of the hook.
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A collection of YMMV tropes for ''Videogame/{{Overwatch}}'', focusing on story and lore.
Visit [[YMMV/OverwatchGameplay this page]] for YMMV tropes about the franchise's gameplay, mechanics and development.
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[[folder:A-D]]
* AbandonShipping: D.Va/Sombra was popular before the latter's official release, but lost a lot of support when Sombra's bio revealed her to be 30 and not a TeenGenius as some had theorized.
** Plenty of people have stopped shipping Tracer/Widowmaker after Blizzard revealed that the former has a girlfriend. Of course, [[OneTrueThreesome people have shipped all three together, complete with Emily/Amilie jokes.]]
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** The fandom decided that Soldier: 76 was the grumpy TeamDad (alternatively, the BumblingDad struggling to connect with his "kids") and ran with the interpretation to the point that there's almost more fan content showing him as such than his canon personality. Mercy is also often depicted as a TeamMom, being protective of, embarrassing, and showing concern for her "children", and getting exasperated when they fail to protect her or heed her advice.
** Almost immediately upon her announcement, Ana become characterized as the [[CoolOldLady Team Grandma]] (though still the mother of Pharah, who has no children of her own.) Long beforehand, when the situation required, Reinhardt is the one characterized as [[CoolOldGuy the Team Grandpa.]]
** Roadhog and Junkrat’s relationship. Do they have a full-on VillainousFriendship, do they despise each other and only tolerate the [[EnemyMine the other because of their usefulness]], or do they show contempt outside but [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther deep down inside they really care about each other?]] Additionally, some interpret Roadhog body guarding Junkrat as not doing it for the money Junkrat promised him, but out of guilt for creating the radioactive wasteland Junkrat had to grow up in. While the two (or at least, Junkrat, as he has the vast majority of the dialogue) are reasonably friendly with each other in comics, ingame they're far more hard to read, with lines ranging from caustic (one rarely triggered line has Roadhog threatening to leave him) to mutually amicable (they apparently tell each other jokes). Whether this shows outright dislike or is just them being VitriolicBestBuds is up for debate.
** On the topic of Junkrat: Is he nothing but an AxCrazy jackass who does what he does and is a criminal for giggles, or is he a victim of circumstance having grown up in a wasteland with little means of surviving? Ingame dialogue with other characters suggests it's a bit of both, as he certainly does like destruction, but he's in no way malicious towards the other Overwatch agents themselves; in fact most of of his dialogue comes off as lighthearted teasing despite some characters (such as Mei) clearly not standing him.
** The fandom has decided that D.Va must be a Dorito-munching, Mountain Dew-chugging, gaming [[SuperDeformed gremlin]] during her off time. Blizzard seems to agree, at least on the "Doritos and Mountain Dew" part, as they've added an emote where she's munching on chips called [[BlandNameProduct "D.Vas"]], drinking soda, and gaming. Another popular interpretation is that she's a YaoiFangirl. It's also possible that she's still just a normal kid who got conscripted into the Second Omnic Crisis, and like many real-life competitive gamers, Hana Song could be a completely different person than D.Va -- [[StepfordSmiler suffering greatly]] after being conscripted into a horrible war. On a similar note, Sombra has been interpreted as an [[EvilCounterpart unfriendly rival]] to Gremlin D.Va despite the former telling the latter that she's not a ''gaming'' hacker.
** Mercy is often depicted as disappointed with teammates for [[RealitySubtext repeatedly failing despite her best efforts]]. Alternately, she's a [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate sadistic]] [[MadDoctor doctor]] ala [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 the Medic]] who waits for her whole team to die so she can pull off mad 5-man rezzes. This mainly exists because having the team Mercy hide and wait for the team to wipe is actually a common high-level play.
*** In some of the more hilarious fan works, she's been depicted as [[OnlySaneMan only one who actually tries to move the payload]] while other hilarious shenanigans occur among her teammates. [[https://youtu.be/CovkUTqTwrw Example]]
** Hanzo's stance when it comes to Genji and his family. Sure, he regrets what he did and has abandoned his Yakuza family, allowing Genji to shut it down. However, he's nasty towards Genji and has quotes which imply that he still longs for his old family inheritance (even if he has [[EveryoneHasStandards clear limits on what he'd do to restore it]]). Likewise, in Hanamura stage, he flips-flops between claiming that the Shimada clan master has returned home or declaring that it's his home no longer. A possible explanation for the flip-flop may be that he felt guilt over Genji's death, but didn't approve of the reborn Genji shutting down his family business. Regardless of how unsavory their methods are, striking against one's own family is a big no-no for the honor-bound Hanzo, which (if true) would correspond with real-life Japanese values.
** Despite Genji [[TheCasanova being a popular playboy]] before his "death," some fanart tends to characterize him as [[CasanovaWannabe dorky and incompetent in the ways of love]]. This is at least partially out of Genji players being some of the biggest examples of [[LeeroyJenkins rushing blindly into combat and having no idea what they're doing.]] Although this portrayal has been significantly reduced by his [[OneSceneWonder appearance]] as a member of Blackwatch in ''Uprising''.
** Some people are saying that Mei, one of the most {{Moe}} characters in the game, is secretly a psychopath who takes joy in freezing her enemies to death (as evidenced by the SlasherSmile she gives before shooting an icicle at your head), with a few going so far as to emulate her with [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure Phantom Blood!Dio Brando]]. Given her [[ColdSleepColdFuture backstory]], that cryostasis probably didn't do wonders to her mental health...
** There's various interpretations of Jack Morrison's personality before he became Soldier: 76. Is he actually a poor commander, but charismatic enough to become a MagneticHero and TheFace? If so, Reyes' resentment makes sense. Alternatively, was he actually just a good commander who failed when the internal problems of the organization, coupled with the public protests, broke him? An [[https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/19809396/ in-universe article]] seemingly supports this sentiment.
** Gabriel Reyes' jealousy and AttentionWhore attitude that led to the fall of Overwatch: Was it merely just because [[EvilIsPetty he's deep down very petty]] or was it quite justified, in the way that he risked his life the most during the Omnic Crisis as the field commander and felt that his 'reward' of being stuck with the DirtyBusiness part of the group was the government playing favorites just because he didn't have the best personality, therefore inadequate to his accomplishment? The latter would make him look like someone who's concerned with the welfare of 'workers' like him, but constantly gets ignored, making him feel like he's just a disposable pawn to the higher ups for all he's done for them.\\
\\
Not helping Reaper's case is that, post-transformation, he doesn't have very many successes as a Talon agent, in comparison to his cohort Widowmaker, who's a HeroKiller with a frightening rap sheet. He failed to secure the Doomfist gauntlet, failed to assassinate Katya Volskaya despite destroying a [[MiniMecha Volskaya Industries mecha]] (failures that are also put on Widowmaker's otherwise perfect record) [[spoiler:but in that case, Sombra was intentionally working against them for her own agenda]], failed to extract the Overwatch database, and failed to kill Soldier: 76 and Ana. This is on top of the fact that even his attempted coup at the Swiss base ended with his own near-death, and that even [=McCree=] has nothing good to say about his leadership of Blackwatch. His poor leadership of Blackwatch can also be interpreted in two equally-unflattering ways; was he really that incompetent in leading, or was he just ObfuscatingStupidity, [[EvilRunningGood purposely sabotaging missions and making suboptimal decisions]] purely [[EvilIsPetty out of spite]] for how he feels he was treated? The latter is even {{implied|trope}}, as Reyes is the one who "leaked" reports of Blackwatch's DirtyBusiness. Given this track record, Reaper really ''does'' come across as an angsty jerk who blames everyone else for failings that are his fault alone. Then again, his current state causes him constant pain so it's possible that he's deliberately sabotaging himself in a vain attempt to die.
** How much of Widowmaker's brainwashing should be blamed for her actions? There are some who believe that Widowmaker doesn't have a free will, and thus shouldn't be blamed for the numerous atrocities she's committed. However, Widowmaker has certainly shown to have embraced her sadistic side, having clearly shown to ''enjoy'' the act of killing. Though numbed of human emotion, there's no indication that Widowmaker's completely free of will, just that the will of the original Amélie Lacroix is broken. Also, in the event that she broke free from Talon's brainwashing, it's speculated as to what would happen next -- would she still be a villain, would she become an anti-hero seeking out both revenge and redemption for what Talon made her do, or would she completely revert back to the innocent Amélie and would likely cross the DespairEventHorizon as she realizes the horrible things she did as Widowmaker that she would never have even dreamed of doing as herself?
** Reinhardt's age puts him as being a kid in the year 2016. Thus, fans have taken to the idea that Reinhardt, even in his elder years, can appreciate some good old fashioned memes.
** Does Tracer’s cheerful, happy-go-lucky demeanor come naturally to her, or is it her way of [[SadClown coping]] with the trauma of having been nearly erased from reality and [[spoiler:failing to prevent Mondatta’s assassination and the ensuing fallout]]?
** A minor running joke in the community interprets Ganymede as Bastion’s puppet master, [[TheDogWasTheMastermind secretly]] [[TheManBehindTheMan controlling]] him to KillAllHumans. This has died down since the release of ''The Last Bastion'', which portrayed Ganymede [[NiceGuy very]] [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight differently]].
** How loyal is Symmetra to Vishkar and their ideals? Her in-game interactions with Lúcio mainly consist of berating him, his crime of stealing Vishkar's technology, and his idea of freedom as anarchy while proudly proclaiming that Dorado would be a good place for Vishkar's development, suggesting that she's still loyal with their ideals. But in her comic ''A Better World'', which took place before Lúcio's storyline, she's shown to be unwilling to cross the line of killing for Vishkar unless necessary and is shocked and heartbroken after [[spoiler:the Corado HQ bombing killed and injured many of the favela's people]]. The readers are left ambiguous as to how loyal she is to the company after this event. Her official profile took the middle road on both of these characterizations.
** Fans have decided that there ''must'' have been a LoveTriangle between Ana, Jack, and Gabriel during their days at Overwatch. Furthermore, many fans have interpreted that either of the two men ''must'' have been Pharah's father, due to the identity of him being left intentionally vague. A fan theory is that Jack did indeed have Pharah (or Fareeha, as she was known at the time) with Ana, but it was kept secret for her protection. Additionally, this contributed to Gabriel's jealousy towards Jack[[note]]a contributing factor to the theory being in the comic ''Old Soldiers'', where he was disappointed to see Ana take Jack's side many years later, as she apparently always did[[/note]] and ultimately led to him betraying Overwatch shortly after her supposed "death". Some choose to TakeAThirdOption and say ''Reinhardt'' was the father, due to them being shipped following an in-game interaction. Alternatively, some would like to think that Ana had Pharah with an unimportant person to avoid drama.
* AmericansHateTingle:
** Mei was quite controversial on the Chinese internet community at the game's release, with the main gripe being that she does not represent China accurately. The fact that the only [[DragonsUpTheYinYang Far East Asian dragons]] in the game (Chinese dragons are considered by the Chinese to be a state symbol) belongs to Japanese characters heats up the arguments even more.
** Another major peeve with the Chinese is the depiction of Lijiang Towers. For info, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_River_(Guangxi) the Li River]] is well known for its picturesque ''natural'' scenery. To depict a location on the river as a built-up, futuristic city stirs up the indignities of some people, given that a major problem in China is environmental degradation due to urbanization.
** British players are a bit divided over Tracer due to her {{Narm}}ishly exaggerated Cockney accent, which some find irritating. This is a bit ironic, as Tracer's VA, Cara Theobold, is a London native and allegedly based her Tracer voice on the accents of some old university classmates.
** Pharah has been received rather poorly by Egyptians, mainly due to her lack of Egyptian-ness apart from her name and some generic visual motifs, which even then are based more on ''ancient'' Egypt rather than something more in line with modern Arab Egyptian culture. She doesn't speak a word of Arabic, and her [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent accent]] isn't even remotely correct for an Egyptian. Thankfully, as seen in AuthorsSavingThrow, her mother, Ana, is far more explicitly Arab.
* ArcFatigue:
** The main story about the return of Overwatch after the ''Recall'' short. In other words, ''[[HesBack Overwatch is back in business!]]'' Many are looking forward to seeing where this goes, such as how they'll fight Talon, how they'll operate under the PETRAS Act (which makes Overwatch activity illegal), and if other younger Overwatch Heroes who have never been affiliated such as D.Va, Zenyatta, Zarya, and Lúcio will join in on the action. Those following the lore however, have been subjected to a grueling wait as they have yet to continue the story, as the game is considered "non-canon". Instead, they've been focusing on other backstories and the history of the lore, which in itself has only been given in small, spaced-out increments. Even more grueling is the end of ''Alive'' (confirmed to have happened the same day as ''Recall''), where Widowmaker successfully kills Mondatta and closes on a DownerEnding, and they have [[KarmaHoudini yet to show Talon face true justice for their crimes]] despite the premise of Overwatch making its return and the story's message of rising up during dark times. All of this has left some people wanting for them to hurry up and get on with the current story.
** There was an AlternateRealityGame going on involving Sombra, the presumed 23rd playable hero. However, the ARG had ''barely'' given any information pertaining to Sombra, other than 1) she's Mexican and 2) she's some kind of hacker. Other than that, the only "rewards" have been ASCII pictures of skulls, Ana Amari's medical chart, and cryptic hints that lead to more cryptic hints, resulting in an entire forest of EpilepticTrees growing. On top of that, there was [[http://amomentincrime.com/ a countdown]] in the form of a percentage ticking up at 0.0038% every three minutes. And when it finally concluded... all that was revealed was a note saying that Bastion unit E-54 (the playable Bastion in the game) has been compromised and there was a game patch identifier newly hidden in the countdown site's source code. Meaning the three month countdown lead to nothing more than the next clue in the trail, and at the end of ''that'' clue was... Sombra herself telling us that she needed a week for schemes, which means '''more waiting'''. A few weeks later, this led to yet more website shenanigans that ultimately led to... '''yet more waiting.''' Since Sombra was ultimately announced at [=BlizzCon=] (like everyone expected her to), this ended up rendering the entire ARG nothing more than an overly elaborate ad campaign for [=BlizzCon=].
* AngelDevilShipping:
** The pairing of Mercy/Reaper, since Mercy's design is based on an angel and Reaper's on a grim reaper.
** Also, Junkrat being paired with either Mercy or Mei, two of the nicest and most optimistic members of the cast (and the latter of whom expressly dislikes him). Junkrat, meanwhile, is a killer, anarchist and thief.
** And Widowmaker being paired with either Tracer, Pharah or any other heroic character. But those two especially, they have [[ArchEnemy history]] [[FoeYay with Widowmaker]].
* AngstWhatAngst:
** Despite her predicament of existing outside of time, little better than a ghost without her chronal accelerator, Tracer is still as chipper as she's ever been present day. Also, despite failing her job in the assassination of Mondatta and ending up making King's Row a worse place for Omnics, Tracer's remark in the beginning of King's Row match is a chipper "Back to my old stomping ground again!"
** Mei was the sole survivor of an arctic-based eco-research outpost. She came out of cryostasis to find Overwatch gone, her hard work all but erased, and her coworkers all dead. Almost all her voice lines have her cracking jokes or encouraging others, and she's never seen without a smile (even if it's sometimes a SlasherSmile). The release of Ecopoint: Antarctica has highlighted this even more; Mei left notes everywhere as she and the crew tried to figure out how to survive the freak weather anomaly, and they're all adorable--even the one stating there was only enough food for four days has hearts and other embellishments. And to top it off, Mei left herself ''a pair of fuzzy slippers'' to step into right outside of her cryo pod. Though, her MemeticPsychopath status may add some FridgeHorror to it.
** Despite big emphasis about how she feels weighted down by every lives that she kills, Ana's remark when she eliminated someone in the game (some of whom might be her former teammates and even her own daughter Pharah) are just snarky one-liners and teasing.
** D.Va was simply a professional gamer whose focus was [[RealTimeStrategy simulating military conflict]] for fun and to entertain fans, until she was conscripted to fight a giant Omnic in a real conflict where she could possibly die in action, and there's nothing in canon to indicate that she has prior experience in the military. Instead of being the next [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Shinji Ikari]], she's able to charge into combat talking to her comrades in a chipper and energetic tone as if she's simply playing ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' as usual; the worst she ever shows is one line about how the destruction in Eichenwalde reminds her of home (even then, she's saying this ''out loud'' -- other players on her team wouldn't hear it otherwise -- in a tone that's somber without being unstable) and her "I'm too young to die!" respawn line (while it could be interpreted to mean "I don't want to die!", it could also mean "Psh, I'm not giving up just yet!"). In other words, D.Va is surprisingly well-adjusted to military operations for someone whose signature trait is playing video games as a career.
** Sombra lost her parents during the Omnic Crisis, but doesn't act sad about it at all. She only mentioned being one of many who were orphaned by the war, but Sombra cares little if at all about it.
* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** At launch, many people complained about the presentation of Pharah's background (lack of Egyptian voice lines, [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent sketchy accent]], doesn't dress appropriately to her culture). Many of these were averted for the release of her mother Ana as Ana is voiced by a native Egyptian with many Arabic voice lines (and not just any Arabic, but Egyptian Arabic). Pharah's background was also justified by revealing how she grew up and traveled with the diverse Overwatch members.
** There were complaints about the lore being "[[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot dead]]" due to the lack of focus on it compared to the multiplayer (not helped by them cancelling the graphic novel ''First Strike''), to which lead writer Michael Chu immediately responded by assuring people they are hard at work on more lore-related content for the year, which they hope to show soon. This showed when two lore-based comics, ''Binary'' and ''Uprising'', were released in a short vicinity of each other (compared to the months it would take before). Additionally, they announced an entire game event based on lore, rather than just the holidays.
** After the infamous ArcFatigue that came with the Sombra ARG, the clues that lead up to Orisa as a playable character came much more clearly and quickly.
* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** Reaper, the game's DarkerAndEdgier hero, has several divided camps. There are those who unironically appreciate his edgy design, those who appreciate it from a [[NarmCharm cheesy-but-effective perspective]] or an unintentionally-hilarious perspective, and those who find him obnoxious and annoying.
** While some applauded Zarya for being of a different build than all of the other female characters, others criticized her for being a stereotypical HuskyRusskie woman with a far more simple and generic design than all of the other characters. Given the view that she was designed to appease feminist criticism of the game, debates regarding her can get quite heated.
** Tracer. More than a few players don't like her Cockney accent, and a whole team of Tracers spell one hell of a session for any players due to her style of gameplay being geared towards pestering the enemy. Others find her frantic, highly mobile style of play to be fun and are enamored with her cheerful, friendly personality. Some are also split on her status as the SeriesMascot. There are those who think Blizzard should've tried to put more than one character on the box art (as this is a game with more than 20 colorful characters), and some go as far as to think she "doesn't deserve" this status to other Heroes.
** D.Va's personality is something fans have been split on liking, mostly depending on whether you find her competitive GamerChick persona bratty and obnoxious or endearing and cute. [[TakeAThirdOption Or both]]. Even those who do like her personality are [[http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/131/321/f12.jpg split on exactly]] ''what'' that personality is. Is she an ultra-cute and sexy {{Moe}} anime "waifu", or is she a foul-mouthed, Dorito-and-Mountain-Dew-munching {{Troll}} gamer? What we see of her in-game personality supports ''both'' interpretations; she's definitely cute and conventionally attractive, but she also has massive egotistical, immature and competitive streaks as well.
** Mei gets a lot of both love and hate for a list of reasons. Before she was even released, she was criticized by fans (particularly Chinese ones) for not being sufficiently "Chinese", with some fans disliking her for ''possibly'' being the only "pudgy" girl in the game. On the other hand, Japanese fans love her cuteness, and "body-posi" fans enjoy the idea of a heavyset heroine. This got even worse when she was actually released (see above).
** Emily, Tracer's girlfriend, who was first revealed in the ''Reflections'' comic. People either love her for confirming that Tracer [[BadassGay is a lesbian]] or hate her because she's already established as Tracer's girlfriend, and thus [[DieForOurShip gets in the way of a lot of pairings]], with [[FoeYayShipping Widowtracer]] shippers in particular being miffed.
** Symmetra's position in the lore makes her into an example of this. One camp considers her a sympathetic [[TheWoobie woobie]] who was deceived by Vishkar since childhood and a compelling NobleTopEnforcer with autism. Another camp believes that [[AssociationFallacy merely serving Vishkar]] (considered an evil [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]] MegaCorp) and going along with or justifying their ideals (combined with a smug attitude) makes her one-dimensional, delusional, unsympathetic and annoying. Since she can be given both DracoInLeatherPants and RonTheDeathEater treatments, it's hard to find a middle ground for her.
* BrokenBase:
** Are the more Omnic-phobic characters (such as Zarya, Torbjörn, and Roadhog) justified in their FantasticRacism because of the fear that [[AIIsACrapshoot Omnics will cause another crisis]], or are they just overreacting and being unnecessarily harsh on the likes of Bastion and Zenyatta?
*** Spinning off from this, Torbjorn's CharacterDevelopment in the "Binary" comic. On the one hand there are definitely fans who are happy Torb didn't let his distrust of Omnics blind him to Bastion's true nature, and like the OddFriendship that seems to be forming between the two. But there are also fans who feel it's way too early in the story for Torb to be getting over his major character flaw, and that having him form a bond with Bastion this soon robs us of a more interesting conflict between the two down the line. Still others agree with the general premise of the comic, but feel Torbjorn changed his mind about Bastion way too quickly for it to be believable.
** Is Overwatch returning a good thing? Sure, the game is named after them, and they're unambiguously the good guys, but how far does that justify how badly it failed last time? Winston, Reinhardt, and Mei are all excited by the prospect of Overwatch returning while Mercy and Soldier: 76 are skeptical. Was Overwatch a good idea that only failed because of one bad egg (Reyes) or was their downfall inevitable for a group only held in check by the ethics of its members?
** The Sombra [[AlternateRealityGame ARG]]. It's either a fun and exciting way to slowly introduce the character into the game, as well as continue the idea of Overwatch being a cross-media franchise, or a frustratingly long and needlessly complex process to introduce what is, in effect, just one more character to an already large roster, and one that could potentially backfire by creating too much hype for the character to live up to.
** Mei's waistline. There's been a lot of fanart of Mei without her jacket. Some artists make her fat while others make her not much wider than most of the girls, but also sporting large breasts and wide hips. Which one's more in canon is up for debate as all of her in-game models feature her wearing very heavy coats obscuring her figure and the only art of her without her jacket is an [[http://www.pcgamesn.com/overwatch/overwatchs-new-heroes-and-the-design-behind-them early concept piece]] which may not fully apply to how her final version is supposed to be. However, during the Summer Games, one of the new sprays includes Mei without her jacket, and (in that art, at least), she's pretty slim.
*** Fast-forward to the Lunar New Year event where Mei is given 2 new skins that shows she is on the slim side but now the question becomes how slim is too slim? One base is upset that Blizzard is trying to stealthily make the character the perceived to be fat more sexy for the general audience while the other side say it's not far-fetched due to her heavy winter clothing and that there are already several images of the character without her coat (sprays and player icons) that show her as fairly slender. Turns out, Blizzard says Mei's skins '''are''' bugged which causes her to appear slimmer than usual[[note]](The part of her jacket below the belt does appear to be floating, giving her the tiny waist look)[[/note]], which just brought out another group claiming it's all a lie so Blizzard doesn't take flak for crumbling to the demands of a few people a la the Tracer incident.
** Sombra's OlderThanSheLooks design has sparked a big debate in the fandom with varying degree of reception and reaction. Some are adamant about this, citing a similar situation with Mercy. Some think that the first group is overreacting and point out that it isn't that far-fetched for her to be 30 years old. Others believe that the profile is just misleading, considering Sombra's history of hiding from a powerful organization and hacking skills.
** The reveal that Tracer [[BadassGay is a lesbian]] has led to a few broken bases: Before the reveal, Blizzard had released the fact that (at least) a character is gay for quite some time. The fact that it turns out to be Tracer has led to a few major camps: those that are ecstatic that the fact that the face of the franchise (rather than a relatively minor one) is the character in question, making a huge point for representation; those that are disappointed that the reveal is that the character is the [[LipstickLesbian young, attractive woman]], claiming that it's a relatively "safe" choice and it can be pandering to those that think GirlOnGirlIsHot rather than actual representation; and those that are upset because for the opposite reason as the first group, and believe that the reveal is pandering to "social justice." Overlapping with all three groups are [[DieForOurShip shippers]] who have mixed feelings about Emily herself, making her a BaseBreakingCharacter. Depending on where you are, the reveal has been recieved very differently. The [=US=] forums were lit aflame, with dozens of topic created to discuss it, argue for/against, etc... The [=EU=]'s forum reaction? "Cool, and what about gameplay updates?"
** Much like with Tracer being revealed to be a lesbian, Symmetra being confirmed to be autistic by [[WordOfGod Jeff Kaplan himself]] (it was implied in lore but not outright stated). Some don't see how it's important and accuse Blizzard of PanderingToTheBase rather than working her autism smoothly into her character and the overall picture. Others are happy to see the autistic community see representation, something that is rarely done effectively in media all the while arguing that her gameplay is reflected of symptoms of autism. Others still are happy, but concerned that players who dislike her could use it as license to mistreat autistic players, already seen as AcceptableTargets within gaming communities.
* CargoShip:
** A few of the characters are infamous in the fandom for their love of their weapons. Most notable examples are Torbjörn/his turrets, [=McCree=]/cowboy hat and Symmetra/Shield Generator (due to how absurdly powerful it is compare to her Teleporter).
** For people who are sick of the ShipToShipCombat in the fandom and just want to focus on the gameplay, it's Everyone/the Payload or Everyone/the Objective.
** Some people decided to ship Orisa with D.Va's MEKA.
* ClicheStorm: The story is full of classic sci-fi and superhero cliches, such as a RobotWar, a hyper-intelligent gorilla, a supervillain whose powers are the results of medical procedure gone horribly wrong, two ninja brothers (one of whom is now a cyborg) who oppose each other's ideals, and so on. [[TropesAreNotBad A lot of this adds to its charm]], however, as the familiar tropes make the characters very easy to understand and the story easy to get into. What also helps is that, despite the familiar premises, each character possesses well-written and sympathetic backstories that make them easy to identify with. This even includes the ''[[TragicVillain villains]]'', if not more so. The story, despite not being in the game itself, is very detailed and well thought-out and has people wanting more.
* CounterpartComparison:
** Reaper is an "edgy" assassin clad in a black cloak who sports an undead-themed motif, wields two guns, and throws them away instead of reloading... Are we talking about Gabriel Reyes or [[VideoGame/DrakeOfThe99Dragons Drake?]]
** Soldier: 76 is a high-ranking veteran that nearly died in an attack that killed his loved ones and is now a gun-wielding vigilante on a one man crusade to get revenge on the ones responsible. Needless to say, fans were quick to draw comparisons to ComicBook/ThePunisher.
** Alternatively, an [[TheAce ace]] and a paragon of justice who was betrayed and had his good will shattered. Now he hunts for those who destroyed his life, and will stop at nothing to get to his goals, not even his old allies. No, we're not referring to [[Franchise/StreetFighter Charlie Nash]]. [[spoiler: Although Nash does see the error of his ways and eventually teams up with his friends again, only time will tell if Soldier: 76 reaches the same realization.]]
** [[spoiler: A former ally to a renowned hero, made the head of a shadow unit counterpart of a renowned military unit, becomes jealous of the fame he receives and sets a grand plan in motion to betray him. His plan results in the hero's demise, and the ultimate destruction of his organization. Except the hero survived, but he became so embittered by the events that transpired that he decides to become a vigilante in order to find the shadow responsible for ruining him, using whatever means necessary, all in the name of revenge. The hero's name? [[VideoGame/MetalGear Big Boss]]. The shadow's name? [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain Skull Face]]. Oh, wait, it's]] Soldier: 76 and Reaper, [[spoiler:real names Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes.]]
** Another equally valid comparison to Metal Gear can be drawn: A former friendly rival of a uniquely gifted Special Forces operative, who helped him save the day years ago during a major crisis, decides to turn on his friend over ideological differences. Said rival ambushes the hero and the two of them engage in a duel to the death, while the two of them are surrounded by explosives. The rival is seemingly killed and left for dead by the hero, but survives long enough to be extracted off the battlefield in secret. He's saved by a female doctor associated with the former hero, and his life is saved by esoteric technology that enhances his combat ability but leaves him in great pain. Disappointed by the lack of honor in not being allowed to die as a result of the duel he had with the hero, the rival becomes a vigilante with a death wish; hoping that he might find a strong enough warrior to end his pain. His greatest wish however would be to find the former hero who crippled him and left him in this state, one last duel to the death to reclaim some sense of honor over their dispute. Regardless of who wins or loses, the only way this man will know peace is if he can have that decisive battle with the man he once considered a friend. Are we talking about Reaper and his obsession with Soldier 76, or are we talking about Gray Fox and his obsession with Solid Snake?
** Ana is an ActionGirl and a CombatMedic that uses a SniperRifle as a HealingShiv for her allies, granting them buffs and healing while she also damages and shoots {{Tranquilizer Dart}}s in order to [[InstantSedation knock out]] foes at long range. Soon after her reveal, many people have started comparing her to Sharla from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'', who shares all of the aforementioned traits that Ana has.
** When Roadhog was announced, the initial reaction was "[[VideoGame/Dota2 The Pudge]] joins Overwatch!"
** [=McCree=] is often compared to [[VideoGame/MortalKombatX Erron Black]].
*** Or, alternatively, [[VideoGame/{{Evolve}} Abe]]. They're both heavily Southern-accented characters with revolver-styled weapons, grenades that slow people, and a similar fashion sense.
*** It's also easy to compare [=McCree=] to John Marston from VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption. Both are former bandits who were picked up by an older man who taught them virtually everything they know, and doubled as a father figure. Both of them tried to go legit after becoming dissatisfied with their life of crime, and faced prejudice and distrust that their good guy act is all just a scam. After their old organization was disbanded (Dutch's gang for John, and Overwatch for [=McCree=]) they went into semi-retirement and tried to live a more simplified life filled with less action. In the present they've been hired back into government service (John is forced to work for the government in exchange for his family, while [=McCree=] wants to relive his glory days from Overwatch and jumps at Winston's call) and are faced with the prospect of killing their old mentor who has now gone rogue.
*** A man who boasts about trusting the handgun at his hip more than the metaphysical? Are we talking about the Gunslinger of Junkenstein's Revenge, or [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo]]?
** Widowmaker has drawn quite a few comparisons to [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse The Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes]]. Both are BrainwashedAndCrazy assassins who were kidnapped by a NebulousEvilOrganization (Talon and HYRDA respectively) and made into livings weapons to do their bidding. Also, while Widowmaker was the wife of Overwatch agent Gérard Lacroix, who spearheaded operations against Talon, and was (presumably) a friend to Overwatch, Winter Soldier was the best friend of Captain America and fought alongside them against HYDRA. Considering that the Winter Soldier eventually was freed and became a hero in his own right, fans wonder whether or not Widowmaker will follow a similar path.
** Relevations about Sombra [[spoiler:being hunted by a shadowy Illumnati-style conspiracy has obvious similarities to the storyline of the newest Franchise/{{Hitman}} game, wherein the Shadow Client, a morally dubious lone wolf operative, is also waging an invisible war against Providence, a shadowy conspiracy controlling countless major global institutions.]]
** Ecopoint: Antarctica has led to people comparing Mei to [[Film/TheThing1982 The Thing]], as the map contains some easter eggs that reference the movie.
** Symmetra can draw similarities with another character from another famous Western RPG shooter, [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 Miranda Lawson]], namely because they are 'cheerleaders' of companies with morally ambiguous/questionable ethics (Vishkar and Cerberus), convinced that they're doing nefarious things for the greater good of mankind and justifying their bad acts without knowing their ultimate end goals ([[BaseBreakingCharacter which was also the source of their detractors]]), but despite that, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold they are still deep down altruistic and truly wants to help humanity instead of manipulating them for power]], not to mention having [[IceQueen an 'unapproachable and rather cold' personality]] with [[ThePerfectionist a perfectionist streak]]. This is only applying on the earlier ''[=ME2=]'' Miranda, but a lot predicts that Symmetra's eventual CharacterDevelopment can be similar to hers.
** Orisa, a big friendly superhero robot paired with a comparatively tiny KidWithTheRemoteControl, gives a lot of people flashbacks to [[Disney/BigHero6 Baymax]].
* CrackPairing:
** Mei and Junkrat together (some dubbing it "Icyhot" or "Nuclear Winter" or "[[{{Pun}} Meihem]]") has somehow found itself a modest following. Even though Mei can't ''stand'' Junkrat. [[FoeYay Or perhaps]] [[{{Tsundere}} because of it.]]
** Speaking of Junkrat, there are some fans that pair him or his partner Roadhog with [[LauncherOfAThousandShips Mercy.]] The latter was born out of several [[http://standbyaction.tumblr.com/post/148217031214/source memetically]] [[http://plays.tv/video/575cb1af9ed1d04550/when-mercy-is-real-bae funny]] interactions between Roadhog and Mercy players, primarily revolving around [[MeetCute Roadhog's ability to hook Mercy towards him,]] and Roadhog's potential role as a "peeler", [[BodyguardCrush keeping Mercy safe from flanking characters such as Reaper.]]
** Junkrat/Symmetra has also gained some sort of following, mostly because people like the aesthetic of the most chaotic character and the most orderly being together.
** [=McCree=] and Hanzo are heavily shipped despite both their vastly different backgrounds and personalities, as well as the fact that nothing in the source materials indicate ''any'' type of relationship between the two what-so-ever. They've never met each other canonically, and may not even be aware that the other exists. Despite this, they're arguably one of the most shipped pairings over on Archive. An update in September 2016 added a line where [=McCree=] compliments Hanzo's bowmanship, and the Halloween brawl event gave their non-canon counterparts several more lines together, and the Oasis patch added dialogue where they argue about their preference in drinks, adding fuel to the shipping fire. Also, in a podcast [=McCree's=] voice actor Creator/MatthewMercer commented that he thinks that the [[http://www.waifusofoverwatch.com/episode-5-its-high-noon-with-matt-mercer/ pair is adorable and basically shared a headcanon of them having a ramshackled apartment with them arguing over the decor]].
** Hanzo/Symmetra also started to gain a good dose of following even if they have never meet each other and their stories not intersecting in any way. This is due to their backgrounds as being dutiful associates to questionable/evil groups (Shimada clan and Vishkar Corporation) due to upbringing and having their more idealistic foils (Genji and Lúcio) being on the heroic side. Hanzo is often made a BigBrotherMentor to Symmetra in any event where she breaks away from Vishkar since Hanzo has already done so with the Shimada clan, teaching her to pursue [[TheAtoner the path of redemption]] even if their past sins will never go away. [[ShipMates This can go hand-in-hand]] with the [=McCree=] pair as it is not necessarily romantic and [=McCree=] also has a history with questionable group (Blackwatch).
* CrazyAwesome: Junkrat, a LaughingMad lunatic wielding homemade explosives who's able to give professional military soldiers a good fight.
* CrossoverShip: Despite the ''Overwatch'' fandom having a rivalry with the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' fandom, several ships involve a crossover between the games. Tracer/Scout and Mercy/Medic are the most popular [[note]]Either romantically or, just as popularly, a familial relationship with Medic being Mercy's father or mentor[[/note]], with Zarya/Heavy, Soldier/Pharah, and Spy/Sombra not too far behind.
* CryForTheDevil: In ''Reflections'', Reaper is seen lurking in the shadows, silently watching a happy family celebrating Christmas. Meanwhile, Widowmaker is seen mourning her deceased husband Gérard in the rain. Considering that she was responsible for his death ([[BrainwashedAndCrazy though not willingly]]), [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone one could only imagine just how much guilt she was feeling there]].
* DesignatedVillain: The narrative usually treats Symmetra as a villain simply because she works for [[MegaCorp Vishkar]], being billed as one of the villain groups, and her worst crime is initiating corporate espionage on Vishkar's order [[AntiVillain while also subverting their more ruthless policies and genuinely having altruistic motives to improve others' lives.]] It doesn't help that her main opposition, Lucio, is genuinely heroic and friendly that he averts being a DesignatedHero.
* DracoInLeatherPants:
** Symmetra tends to get hit with this trope within the fandom, where she's usually portrayed as unambiguously heroic. While her backstory is extremely sympathetic, and she truly does want to improve peoples' lives, her fans tend to forget that she's at best an AntiVillain who's currently working for Vishkar Corp. Not only does she actively antagonize people who oppose Vishkar (like Lúcio), she's terribly elitist and condescending towards poor people (despite coming from a lower class background herself) whilst rationalizing Vishkar's actions and doing their dirty work under the naive assumption that it was ForTheGreaterGood. Being implied / interpreted in her comic ''A Better World'' to lie somewhere in the autistic spectrum also let fans to have the tendency to excuse her elitist attitude.
** Reaper, Widowmaker, Sombra, Roadhog, and Junkrat can also receive this treatment, since they all have a DarkAndTroubledPast or MonsterSobStory, and come in various flavors of EvilIsCool or LaughablyEvil. Most prominently, people forget that Junkrat's a villain because of how cheerful, friendly and hilarious he is.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E-G]]
* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Ganymede, the bird that follows Bastion around everywhere, is unexpectedly popular, mostly due to being [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter very cute]] or being a factor of Bastion being a MemeticPsychopath thanks to how people find it hard to face it (see below). Its appearance and role in ''The Last Bastion'' only served to further skyrocket its popularity.
** Mondatta, whose only major appearances are a few seconds in ''Alive'' and a statue on King's Row map, enjoys a fanbase of his own for his SmallRoleBigImpact nature in the story.
** Emily from ''Reflections'' is gaining a fanbase due to being Tracer's girlfriend.
** Efi Oladele, the preteen robotics genius who created Orisa, became this as soon as she showed up and stayed popular even after being revealed to not be the 24th playable hero.
* EpilepticTrees: Many fans speculate that Roadhog isn't human anymore, but rather a {{Mutant}} due to how [[MadeOfIron insanely strong and durable]] he is despite having [[{{Kevlard}} no armor or advanced technology]]. He's more durable than a knight clad in futuristic armor, an armored gorilla, and an Omnic capable of ''stopping a car with one hand''. While all the other Tanks have advanced weapons and equipment, Roadhog has nothing but his hook and scrap gun, but is quite possibly even ''more'' dangerous than them. The idea is that the Omnium explosion mutated Roadhog to give him superhuman strength and durability, which originates from his original concept portraying him as a mutant unambiguously. Blizzard has yet to confirm or deny whether or not he's a mutant in the series proper.
* EvilIsCool:
** Reaper, a black-robed badass with a skull-esque mask who goes into battle dual-wielding (and juggling) shotguns.
** Widowmaker counts as well, being a sadistic, stealthy ColdSniper who's utterly ruthless.
** Junkrat and Roadhog are both anarchists, thieves and murderers, but Junkrat's [[DemolitionsExpert capable of going toe-to-toe with extremely technologically advanced enemies]] with homemade gear, and Roadhog is capable of going toe-to-toe with said enemies with only a hook and a Scrap Gun.
** Sombra, Widowmaker and Reaper's ally, who's ''introduced'' by [[BullyingADragon trolling Reaper]] and ends her introduction with [[spoiler:blackmailing the most powerful woman in Russia into her pocket behind Talon's back]].
* EvilIsSexy:
** Widowmaker has the most revealing clothing, including fishnet leggings and a top cut down the middle. Also one of the coldest, more cruel characters ([[BrainwashedAndCrazy though not her own accord]]).
** [[HotAsHell Devil Mercy]] and [[PurpleIsPowerful Imp Mercy]]. Form-fitting suits like vanilla Mercy, but with a demonic flare between them.
** [[HotWitch Witch Mercy]] in ''Junkenstein's Revenge''. It's the already gorgeous [[MsFanservice Mercy]] wearing one of the most revealing alternate skins in the game, what did you expect?
** Reaper has his fangirls (And guys) as well, mainly thanks to [[MemeticMutation his thighs]] and the fact that Gabriel Reyes was attractive pre-transformation.
* FanficFuel:
** The nature of Overwatch as a globe-spanning international organization that was host to potentially hundreds upon hundreds, if not thousands of agents in its heyday makes it an absolute goldmine for OC creators, and the current state of the backstory being as sparse as it is concerning the Omnic Crisis and what that conflict entailed leaves it wide open for those wanting to tell their own stories of those times, as well as what certain characters (or their own [=OCs=]) did after the dissolution of Overwatch. There's also the fact that Overwatch has been reinstated by Winston, opening up more possibilities of what Overwatch will be in its (hopefully) [[HesBack triumphant return]]. Many have also come up with ideas of how other members could join in on the action, such as Lúcio, D.Va, Zenyatta, Zarya, Hanzo, and others. People have speculated that even the ''villains'' could make a HeelFaceTurn, and see where that goes, though Widowmaker is the most commonly speculated to do this, see below.
** People have had a field day with fics where Soldier: 76's identity, Jack Morrison, is revealed to his old companions, [[TearJerker which is usually never a pleasant revelation.]] The same thing can be said for how Ana's survival will affect the team dynamic and the people that knew or heard about her, especially in regards to her daughter, Pharah.
** Widowmaker's sadistic, cold-hearted, BrainwashedAndCrazy nature that stands in contrast to her former sweet, loving, HappilyMarried NiceGirl self as Amélie Lacroix has become a host to all sorts of future speculation. It's commonly discussed and explored as to where her future will take her. Will she ever break free from her brainwashing, and how would she do it? Would she overcome it on her own, or would Overwatch {{deprogram}} her? What would happen afterwards? [[HazyFeelTurn Would she continue as an assassin but go rogue]], or [[HeelFaceTurn join Overwatch]]? Alternatively, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she could feel such extreme guilt from her actions]] that she'll [[ShellShockedVeteran suffer from PTSD]] and essentially be taken out of commission. Others want her to remain evil, believing it to be a core part of her character. It's anyone's guess at this point as to what actually ''does'' become of her. The ''Reflections'' comic, which featured her mourning the loss of Gérard, has only fueled the desire for a redemption arc even more.
** Similarly, fanfic of Symmetra learning about Vishkar's true nature, performing a HeelFaceTurn and/or clarifying/dealing with her autism pops up quite frequently after ''A Better World'' was released.
** The identity of Pharah's father has been subjected to a number of speculation and fics. The most commonly speculated to be her father include Jack Morrison/Soldier: 76 (due to their history together, and the fact that Soldier will specifically compliment Pharah, saying that Ana would've been proud of her like he personally knows her despite the fact that they're technically on opposing sides in the story), Gabriel Reyes/Reaper (due to hints that Reaper and Ana [[WeUsedToBeFriends used to be friends]] and he expresses disappointment that Ana took Jack's side), and Reinhardt (due to a pre-game interaction that has created much fuel for shipping). Adding ''even more'' fuel to this, an added line between Pharah and [=McCree=] indicates that she [[{{Fangirl}} idolizes]] both Jack and Reyes, seemingly unaware that they're still alive and are now known as Soldier: 76 and Reaper -- furthering the fan-interpreted LoveTriangle between Ana, Jack, and Reyes. Alternatively, some would prefer the idea that it was neither of them and just a random person who isn't connected to Overwatch, wanting to avoid drama and to strengthen the relationship between the mother and daughter.
** Sombra's origin trailer gave us [[http://imgur.com/4aA7sqj this shot]] that fuels many fan speculation to fill in the blank of the unknown figures that appear on it, as well as speculating about [[spoiler:TheConspiracy that discovered Sombra and forced her into hiding]].
** Liao. Just their very existence as the sixth member of the Overwatch Strike Team, and the fact that we know ''nothing else'' about Liao including their [[AmbiguousGender gender]], has opened room for ''a lot'' of speculation in regards to what role Liao served on the Strike Team, what Liao did after the war, and what Liao's abilities were. Assuming Liao becomes playable in the future, fans also wonder just what kind of hero Liao will be.
** The "[[HalloweenEpisode Junkenstein's Revenge]]" Brawl is a goldmine for fans to reinterpret the cast as fantasy characters, given that we only had 8 characters appear in that Brawl. Popular interpretations (usually based on Halloween skins) include: Symmetra as a vampire, Genji and Hanzo as Oni brothers or dragon spirits (which doesn't necessarily contradict the latter's moniker "Archer" in the Brawl) and Reinhardt as a ghost, a king or a [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs ghost king]].
* {{Fanon}}:
** Many fan works depict Roadhog as a CloudcuckoolandersMinder for Junkrat, treating his employer like a hyperactive kid in need of babysitting. This is even acknowledged in-game where before a match Roadhog often tells Junkrat to, "not make a mess this time" and Junk says he will be on his best behavior.
** Roadhog himself is officially stated to be from Australia, but many fans believes it makes more sense to view him as a New Zealander, likely of Māori descent. His real first name, "Mako," is Māori for "shark," and his "Toa" and "Islander" skins that bring to mind traditional Pacific Islanders. He also has a DummiedOut voice line of "If I wanted to go to the wop-wops, I could have stayed at home," "wop-wops" being decidedly Kiwi slang for the boondocks, the middle of nowhere, etc.
** Fanon dictates that Jack Morrison/Soldier: 76 was apparently very {{Adorkable}} before the fall of Overwatch, often with depictions [[http://67.media.tumblr.com/005985ff2b23470e97443a8de122a2ee/tumblr_o8a147sygz1s40xqgo1_1280.png like]] [[https://razylabbit.tumblr.com/post/144554437321/john-morrisonsoldier-76-dorky-smile-more this]].
** It's popular to interpret many of the characters as amputees whose tech armor serves as ArtificialLimbs (for example, Hanzo and Lúcio's legs, [=McCree=]'s arm, or ''all'' of Pharah's limbs). Likely to stress that the human heroes are NotSoDifferent from the Omnics.
*** However, since this fan-theory began circulating, Blizzard has said that the only prosthetics are the left arms of Symmetra, Torbjörn, and [=McCree=] (with Torbjörn's claw swappable for a normal hand), and Junkrat's cobbled-together right arm and leg - Hanzo, Lúcio, and Pharah have no artificial limbs.
** See those two dots in the forehead area of Reaper's mask? Some people theorize that those are ''bolts'' hammered in so the mask will stick.
** Many fans believe Pharah is a Copt who's probably also fluent in the Coptic language. She's extremely patriotic, her alias sounds similar to the Pharaonism movement which valued and emphasized pre-Islamic Egyptian culture - an important aspect of Coptic identity. There also many who believe Pharah's father was Canadian First Nations - specifically an indigenous man of the Pacific Northwest Coast, because of her "Thunderbird" and "Raindancer" skins. The "Reflections" comic also shows her dining with an unknown man in Canada.
** Fans have decided that Pharah's father ''must'' have been an Overwatch member and, furthermore, had to be one of her four fellow founding members. The two candidates most picked are Jack, for his status as TheHero, the fact that he'll compliment Pharah in-game despite being cold to almost everyone else and for having a close relationship with Ana as shown in their comic ''Old Soldiers'', and Reinhardt -- as he and Ana have a dialogue prompt which is very flirty and thus adds fuel to the shipping fire. Further, he also seemed to have [[DaddysGirl Pharah's attention more than any other person on the team]].
** Several fan interpretations of Reaper play up his Hispanic heritage, which isn't really addressed in-game, other than a pair of cosmetic Day of the Dead/Mariachi themed-skins.
** Despite Bastion being officially referred to by devs as genderless and referred to as "it," there's an increasingly popular interpretation that Bastion has female programming. Despite having no real physical TertiarySexualCharacteristics, fans like to compare its [[CuteMachines curious, wide-eyed mannerisms]] and [[FriendToAllLivingThings friendliness towards nature]] (complete with little bird companion) to a typical Franchise/DisneyPrincess... that also turns into a gatling gun turret with nasty PTSD. This may also be due to the fact that those speaking languages with feminine/masculine nouns such as Sombra in Spanish or Ana in Arabic refer to it with feminine nouns (though admittedly, this is most likely because they don't have gender-neutral pronouns and 'bastion' is considered a 'feminine' noun in these languages).
* FanPreferredCouple:
** Tracer/Widowmaker had people shipping them ever since the very first cinematic trailer for the game came out. The pairing became even more popular when the ''Alive'' animated short came out. However, for some fans, the "Reflections" comic sunk this ship ''hard''.
** [=McCree=]/Hanzo a.k.a. [=McHanzo=] got popular in circles of {{Bara}} fans, with various artists of the genre on Tumblr and Twitter started making fanart of them.
** Mei/Zarya also started to get a following.
** Pharah/Mercy ([[PortmanteauCoupleName "Pharmercy"]], [[{{Pun}} "Pharmacy" or "Phara-Medic"]]) is an extremely popular ship (by far the most popular for either character) owing to the fact that they are the only two characters that can remain air mobile and hence synergize very well. Blizzard added more fuel to the fire when one of their weekly brawls only featured these two together.
** Genji/Mercy ([[PortmanteauCoupleName "Gency"]], [[{{Pun}} "Emergency"/"Emergenji"]]) is popular, as well as teased by their interactions in-game and other media. For example, Mercy will lament she was too late to save a dead allied Genji, and he will also cry out "Angela!" should he witness her elimination. Blizzard added more tease in "Reflections", as Genji is shown to be writing a letter to Mercy for Christmas, which she seems very happy to receive, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRLtD_ZqoQ the two are discovered to have Valentine's Day lines where they get each other chocolates.]]
** Junkrat/Mei, but in one way only: Junkrat is often portrayed as an HopelessSuitor desperately trying to [[DefrostingIceQueen defrost the (semi-literal) Ice Queen]] [[RejectionAffection again and again]], only for a [[AbhorrentAdmirer disgusted]] Mei to reject him with various degrees of violence. However, some fans unironically ship them together instead and Blizzard gave them [[ShipTease more fuels]] in the Lunar Year 2017 event by [[HiddenDepths adding a voiceline for Junkrat saying "Wishing You Prosperity" in Mandarin Chinese properly ("Gong Xi Fa Cai").]]
** Soldier: 76/D.Va: Not in a 'romantic' way. When interpreting Soldier: 76 as 'Dad: 76', D.Va is generally one of the most popular characters depicted as his daughter, especially when she's being Gremlin D.Va.
** Ana/Reinhardt ([[PortmanteauCoupleName AnaHardt]], alternatively [[MemeticMutation Grandma and Grandpa]]). It started from one of their pre-game interactions, which has a flirty tone to it. Many fans have found this endearing and cute.
-->'''Ana''': Reinhardt, I must say you're looking quite well. This life must agree with you.\\
'''Reinhardt''': And you are looking as lovely as ever.
** A PlatonicLifePartners version between Lúcio/D.Va. The two are big fans of each other in-game, which leads a lot of fans to pair the two together in a decidedly non-romantic way.
** [[TeacherStudentRomance Genji/Zenyatta]] is a popular one, and usually depicted as ''exceptionally'' fluffy. The student/teacher angle helps.
** Roadhog/Junkrat's rough partnership, coupled with Roadhog's status as Junkrat's bodyguard, has resulted in a [[OutlawCouple strong following.]] Come the Halloween event, one of the main screens featured Junkrat's Halloween counterpart hugging Roadhog's Halloween counterpart around the belly, smiling adoringly up at him.
* FoeYayShipping:
** A considerable number of fans have been shipping Tracer/Widowmaker (Widowtracer, Without A Trace) since the first trailer. This is despite both of them being on opposites sides and trying to kill each other. Blizzard has only been fanning those flames, by giving the pair two pieces of in-game dialogue if they're on the same team (the first has Widowmaker trollishly sounding happy about working together while Tracer is ''not''; the second has Tracer cheekily asking Widowmaker [[CallBack what she's looking at]] and the latter replies with "An annoyance."). Tracer is also featured heavily in Widow's story trailer, ''Alive''. At the end of the trailer, Tracer tackles Widowmaker and asks [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil "Why?"]], Widow grabs Tracer (getting close enough for an AlmostKiss) and says "Adieu, cherie" (French for "Farewell, darling" or "Goodbye, my dear").
** On the male side, Reaper and Soldier: 76 have been getting some of this due to [[spoiler: their shared past as Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison]].
** Lúcio/Symmetra is quite popular, despite (or perhaps because of) their diametrically opposed philosophies and goals and the disdain they have for each other in gameplay. It does help that Lúcio is fighting against the MegaCorp Symmetra works for and even herself has some doubts about their methods.
** With the abandonment of the D.Va and Sombra ship, many were quick to jump on shipping Sombra with Katya from her webisode. It helped that Sombra spends most of her talk with Katya in the Russian's personal space, and it's not hard to take "friend" as more intimate than threatening.
** Katya meeting with Zarya got people thinking that Zarya and Sombra would be pitted against each other, thus shipping them.
* FountainOfMemes: Due to months of hints and teases, as well as the extreme length and convolution of her ARG, Sombra has an absurd number of memes based around her -- much of it based on WildMassGuessing and some based on her {{Memetic Troll}}ing of the rest of cast.
* GeniusBonus:
** One of Widowmaker's tattoos reads "araignée du soir", which is already a BilingualBonus. But those familiar with French proverbs will recognize those words: it comes from "araignée du matin, chagrin; araignée du soir, espoir", which roughly translates to "morning spider, sorrowbringer; evening spider, hopebringer".
** One of the pieces of set dressing in King's Row is a private establishment called The Ascalon Club, located by the memorial to Mondatta at the first point. Ascalon is the name of the sword of Saint George, the patron saint of England.
** Mei might ask Zarya how she's able to lift such heavy objects, to which she responds "I lift as well as I lift because it cannot be avoided." This quote is taken from Olympic weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev of the USSR, who won gold in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and broke 80 world records.
* GottaShipEmAll: One look at the fandom (especially Tumblr) and you'll be surprised how many CrackPairing combination that you can find from the colorful cast of the game. And yes, that include the Omnic heroes like Zenyatta, Bastion and Orisa. There are some characters that remain unshipped romantically, though, such as Winston (because he's a gorilla) and Torbjörn (because he's HappilyMarried).
* GrowingTheBeard: "Dragons" and "The Last Bastion", the fourth and sixth animated shorts released respectively, are universally agreed to be the best shorts to come out of the game in terms of writing and storytelling. For the comic, "A Better World" and ''maybe'' "Legacy" / "Old Soldiers" are considered to be the only real stand out from the rest, which received a SoOkayItsAverage reaction from the fanbase.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H-M]]
* HarsherInHindsight:
** Zarya's backstory describes her as having had a promising future as a competitive weightlifter, and had the opportunity to join the Russian Olympics weightlifting team had she not chosen to defend her home from the Omnics. Blizzard's celebration of the 2016 Olympics even adds an Olympic-themed skin for Zarya. However, this all comes amid news that many Russian Olympic teams, including the weightlifting team, have been banned from the competition due to evidence of doping among many of the athletes.
** The reveal of Katya Volskaya's secret brings to mind [[spoiler: the frequent misinformation commonly employed by leaders during the days of the Soviet Union and New Russia]].
** Both Zarya and Torbjörn's [[FantasticRacism anti-Omnic traits]] came off as a little over the top with how dead-set their hatred and distrust of anything Omnic is, even to the peaceful monk Zenyatta. But with ''The Last Bastion'' short, we get to see a small portion of what the [[NightmareFuel Omnic Crisis actually consisted of,]] and the word "crisis" ''really'' doesn't begin to cover just how ''horrible and devastating'' it was. Suddenly, their staunch anti-Omnic rhetoric doesn't seem so hard to understand.
** Remember that amazing cinematic trailer where Tracer and Winston fended off Reaper and Widowmaker from stealing Doomfist's gauntlet? The heroic efforts are rendered meaningless in Orisa's origin story since Doomfist himself attacked Numbani, and took his gauntlet.
* HilariousInHindsight: One of Reaper's voice lines ("Doomfist should do his own dirty work.") is now this in light of Orisa's origin story.
** The video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IydZOlx2yrc "So This Is Basically Overwatch"]] made by [[http://www.youtube.com/user/JelloApocalypse JelloApocalypse]] joked that Overwatch's cast lacked diversity because there were no "girl robots." This joke doesn't work now that Orisa (an Omnic confirmed to be female) has joined the already diverse cast.
* IncestYayShipping: After ''Dragons'', Hanzo/Genji, especially considering that Genji has forgiven his brother for killing him.
* ItWasHisSled:
** Reaper is Gabriel Reyes. Not only does the Origins skins spoil his identity, but since it's impossible to discuss anything about him without mentioning his past, pretty much everyone knows his backstory, or at least most of it. Same with Soldier: 76 aka Jack Morrison.
** Ana Amari is alive. It isn't even possible to discuss anything related to her, Pharah, the old Overwatch team or her old teammates without at least a casual mention of this fact. She's even a playable character.
* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Almost every character has been paired with everyone, but notable examples are:
** Mercy stands out more than anyone else, for being shipped with Junkrat, Roadhog ([[OneTrueThreesome or both]]), Genji, Hanzo, Soldier: 76, [=McCree=], Widowmaker, Pharah, Zarya, Torbjörn (rare) prior to "Reflections", and Reaper.
** Ana. Being the only character with a known child[[note]] Sans Torbjörn who was revealed to have several children and an attractive wife in the ''Reflections'' comic[[/note]], everyone speculates as to who Pharah's father was. The dialogue she has with most of her old teammates is full of ShipTease, with all of them upset that they didn't know she was still alive, her complimenting Reinhardt and Soldier: 76 on how good they look, and Reinhardt and [=McCree=] flat out flirting with her. The comic ''Old Soldiers'' adds even more fuel to the fire because it shows Jack and Ana's close friendship while Reaper accuses her of always siding with Jack. This has fanned flames of a possible LoveTriangle or LoveDodecahedron; after all, if fans can't decide which of the original team she slept with to conceive Pharah, then the next best thing is to assume she slept with them ''all''. She's also shipped with [=McCree=] (due to some mild flirting on his part), Mercy (especially if there's a jealous Pharah involved), and Widowmaker (for the FoeYay). Also, she's currently the ''only'' person consistently shipped with Torbjörn.
* LGBTFanbase: Hanzo and [=McCree=] got hugely popular in the {{Bara}} community, due to, in no small part, getting tons of fanart from various bara artists, including some already popular. Though those two are the most popular, Soldier: 76, Reaper and Genji also got popular in those circles in varying degrees. Ships between two women are also immensely popular among female fans. These fans were overjoyed when Tracer was revealed to have a girlfriend.
* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler:Sombra]] in the ''Infiltration'' short. Not only did she use Talon's resources to do the dirty work of arranging a break in of the Volkasya Industry facility, [[spoiler:she ''sabotaged'' their operation by sparing her target Katya and got the most powerful woman in Russia into her pocket through blackmailing, all the while with Talon none the wiser]].
* MemeticMolester: Talon has been the target of jokes about being full of perverts due to the way they made their BrainwashedAndCrazy subordinate Widowmaker wear such {{Stripperiffic}} attire. The fact that her skin was biologically altered so it wouldn't be ExposedToTheElements, presumably so she can look sexy anywhere, adds even more fuel to this.
* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales:
** Lúcio was well received by Brazilians - in no small part thanks to his very good Carioca accent in the Portuguese dub.
** Reaper and Sombra, who're both Latino, are almost universally adored by the Overwatch Latino fanbase.
** D.Va, the personification of South Korea's pro gaming scene, isn't played very much in North American or European Overwatch tournaments, but she has been substantially more used in Korean tournaments. At the Women's March in Seoul, South Korea, one flag was notably [[https://kotaku.com/bunny-symbol-for-overwatchs-d-va-shows-up-at-womens-mar-1791465389?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Twitter&utm_source=Kotaku_Twitter&utm_medium=Socialflow adorned with D.Va's bunny icon]] and even [[http://www.polygon.com/2017/1/26/14376436/overwatch-womens-march-dva created an entire organization]] named after her.
** [=McCree=] is very popular back home with American gamers, in no small part to the fact that he's a [[AmericansAreCowboys cowboy in the future]].
** Many players consider Soldier: 76's design boring overall, but he's a popular character nonetheless. This is particularly true in the USA, where FirstPersonShooter games like ''Franchise/CallOfDuty'' have dominated the market and thus his kit/design feel very familiar. Soldier: 76 was, in fact, specifically designed [[SkillGateCharacter to take advantage of this fact]].
* {{Moe}}:
** Mei seems to have been explicitly designed to be cute and huggable with her big eyes and NerdGlasses, despite being just as capable as any other character. Even Snowball looks like an anime sidekick. It helps that her name lends itself well to puns.
--->'''Voice Clip''': A-''Mei''-zing!
** Meta-wise, her voice actress, Zhang Yu, also gets this reaction by many fans because of how she's just as adorable in real life as the character she plays. [[https://twitter.com/25yolanda8866/status/823919615017238528 Seriously.]]
** D.Va as well: The youngest character in the game, a girl in her late teens, a highly competitive streak for potential {{Tsundere}} actions, and a rather petite body in a form-fitting plug suit, all of them are recipes for a very adorable character.
** As shown in Ana Amari's origins video, Pharah was positively adorable as a child.
** Mercy was pretty cute as a 17-year-old.
** Tracer’s no slouch in this department either, being a cute, friendly young lady with freckles, tremendous enthusiasm and quite the capacity to stay positive. Her voice lines, emotes and victory poses all convey a playful, youthful exuberance, and her appearances in the animated shorts give her some beautifully rendered and [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tracer_cinematic1.png very]] [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tracer_cinematic2.png expressive]] eyes.
** Most of the in-costume child versions of the heroes in the "Trick or Treat" sprays qualify. Examples include [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/overwatch/images/7/77/Genji_Spray_-_Trick_Or_Treat.png/revision/latest?cb=20161014112009 kid Genji waving two wooden swords with his candy bag over his shoulder]], young Lúcio [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/overwatch/images/f/f0/Lucio_Spray_-_Trick_Or_Treat.png/revision/latest?cb=20161014112125 rollerskating around with a bag of candy and oversized goggles]], and child [=McCree=] [[https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/overwatch.gamepedia.com/d/d1/Spray_McCree_Trick_or_Treat.png?version=7c907887b9daec3984f22ecbc7668828 stealing someone's bowl of candy]].
** Most of the children characters appear in the animated shorts are this due to the art style and their demeanor. The two most prominent examples would be Timmy in the cinematic trailer - who spends most of his screen time geeking out on the Overwatch hero and Tracer in particular, and Alejandra in the short ''Hero'' with her GirlishPigtails, big eyes and the belief that Soldier: 76 is still a hero.
* MoralEventHorizon:
** Talon crossed it when they abducted the completely innocent Amélie Lacroix, [[BreakTheCutie subjected her to extreme torture/abuse, intense brainwashing, neural reconditioning, the complete obliteration of her personality, and biological alteration]] to become [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Widowmaker]], all for the sake of forcing her to murder her own husband. Then she became a remorseless assassin, killing innocent people in the name of causing as much chaos as possible. While they've committed many criminal actions, it's widely agreed that the total corruption of her innocence is by-and-large the worst thing they have ever done.
** Widowmaker herself naturally was forced into crossing it as a result of everything that happened to her. She takes [[AxCrazy delight in killing]], having fully embraced her [[{{Sadist}} sadistic side]], and ultimately crossed this when she assassinated Tekhartha Mondatta, preventing peace between humans and Omnics in the dystopia that is King's Row. Even if one made the argument that it was [[JustFollowingOrders just her assignment]], her extremely [[SmugSnake smug]] behavior, laughing about it in a [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil distraught]] Tracer's face when all she wanted was an explanation, was what truly solidified the fact that she went over the line.
** Reaper, then known as Gabriel Reyes, committed a wide variety of atrocities while running Blackwatch, which [=McCree=] felt were even worse than what a notorious group like the Deadlock Gang does. He ultimately crossed it by leaking those same atrocities to turn public opinion against Overwatch, and then attempting to kill the loyal and righteous members of the team. Keep in mind, all of this was [[EvilIsPetty in a fit of jealousy]].
** Vishkar Corporation when they blew up a Brazilian favela, just to get the residents to accept their "improvements".
** The Shimada Clan crossed it by forcing Hanzo to brutally murder his own younger brother Genji just because he didn't want a part in their illegal business. While Genji did manage to survive, it was only because he was rescued on the brink of death by Overwatch and turned into a cyborg. Whether Hanzo himself crossed it by carrying out the action has been debated by fans, however Hanzo himself certainly thinks he did, which is why he lives as TheAtoner.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:N-W]]
* {{Narm}}: In Ana's comic ''Legacy'', the moment when she realizes Amélie Lacroix, now known as Widowmaker, is alive ''and'' a Talon agent is quite dramatic. Then Widowmaker turns around and goes for her gun, and the reader may notice that she apparently drilled a hole in the back of her helmet just for her ponytail.
* NarmCharm:
** Does Reaper look and act like an edgy OC? Yes. Is he badass anyway? Hell yes.
** Widowmaker's short "When I was a girl, I had a fear of spiders" monologue in the ''Alive'' short is as unintentionally amusing (due to its kind-of cheesy subject matter and Widow's strong French accent) as it is genuinely entertaining.
** Soldier: 76 beating a thug with a burning piñata while yelling "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis THESE! AREN'T! YOUR! STREETS! ANYMORE!]]" in ''Hero'' is a bit ridiculous, but at the same time he's so unflinchingly brutal going about it that it manages to work and solidify him as a badass.
** For those who aren’t put off by Tracer’s accent, it can have this effect. Yes, it’s a bit iffy, but her friendly nature and the sheer love and enthusiasm she has for being a hero in everything she says is quite endearing.
* NeverLiveItDown: While the event at Rio and ''A Better World'' serve as a MoralEventHorizon for Vishkar Corporation, good luck in trying to discover people who doesn't think that every of their past actions has to be done in style of Rio (blowing up rivals and locals, and enslaving them), [[StupidEvil even if it would've been inefficient in the long run.]]
* NoYay: After "Infiltration" debuted, fans were very quick to begin shipping Sombra and Katya, and interpret Sombra's desire to be Katya's "friend" as something sexual, which would basically mean that Katya was being forced into SexualExtortion.
* OneSceneWonder:
** The boys from the cinematic trailer. Timmy for being [[AudienceSurrogate a fan of Overwatch and its heroes who spends the whole short geeking out]], and Brian for [[spoiler:actually being helpful in the fight by ''stealing the Doomfist and knocking Widowmaker clear across the room with it'']].
** The wounded omnic from ''Hero'' only shows up for a few seconds, says nothing, and is inconsequential to the rest of the short, but his short amount of screen time is so pitiable that he may wind up staying with you long after it’s over.
** Something similar could be said for the “mixed” couple in ''Alive''. Especially when they also showed up in the theatrical teaser [[spoiler:being defended by Reinhardt during the riots following Mondatta’s assassination, with the omnic of the pair being much worse for wear]].
** The Shimada Clan thug with the pompadour hairdo who gets his phone shot out of his hand by Hanzo and runs headlong into a bell in ''Dragons''.
** Balderich Von Alder, the late leader of the Crusaders (Reinhardt’s order), whose corpse is on display in Eichenwalde, but who shows up alive and in fully-rendered glory to do what he does best during [[spoiler:the flashback sequence to the Omnic Crisis]] in ''The Last Bastion''. He also makes an appearance as one of Reinhardt's legendary skins.
** Okoro, Pharah’s omnic companion during ''Mission Statement'' who [[spoiler:blows his own [[CranialProcessingUnit head]] off when he [[HeroicSacrifice realizes the Anubis AI is starting to infect him]]]].
** All of the discussion regarding Tracer's girlfriend Emily makes it really easy to forget that she only appeared in a handful of panels in ''Reflections'' and only has about three lines.
** All of the playable character cameos in ''Reflections'' can be counted as this, but four instances stand out:
*** Reinhardt and Brigitte spent Christmas with Torbjörn and his family, not only confirming that the latter has a wife but also a massive number of children.
*** Hanzo appearing with a new haircut and piercings has led to fans clamoring for that to be his new skin.
*** [[TearJerker Widowmaker silently standing in front of her husband's grave]] as the snow falls.
*** Genji writing a letter to Mercy while in Nepal with Zenyatta, and Mercy receiving it in the Middle East with a gentle smile on her face.
** Blackwatch Genji from the ''Uprising'' comic stole the spotlight with four onscreen panels and two words of dialogue, due to his appearance being both memorable and [[NightmareFuel highly creepy]].
* OneTrueThreesome: Ever since Ana's introduction, Soldier:76/Ana/Reaper is rapidly developing a fanbase due to the interaction the three have with each other. ''Old Soldiers'' and ''Uprising'' has only enforced this.
** People tired of the ShipToShipCombat in some parts of the fandom have started responding by shipping all three of the characters involved together to solve the problem. The most notable one so far is [[PortmanteauCoupleName Phargency]] (Pharah/Genji/Mercy).
* ParanoiaFuel: Talon's kidnapping and brainwashing of Amélie Lacroix, now known as Widowmaker. It definitely makes one think about living in the world of ''Overwatch'', knowing that it's possible to abduct someone, torture them until their will is broken, and then use science to make them into a living weapon who feels little emotion outside the joy of killing. The idea that any innocent person, like Amélie, can be turned like this, is definitely a horrifying thought.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
** Bastion's animated short seems to have had this effect for some of its previous detractors.
** While not to the extent of Bastion due to the incredible HypeBacklash, the short ''Infiltration'' and the origin trailer did help alleviate some of Sombra's detractors. The fact that she's a FountainOfMemes definitely helps.
** A single panel in the ''Reflections'' comic has endeared Torbjörn to many, due to it showing him as a happily married father and being quite close with Reinhardt. ''Binary'' also endears Torbjörn further in regards to his racism, where he recognizes that Bastion is a peaceful Omnic now and protects it from other Omnic-hating men that hired him.
** Widowmaker gets a lot of hate, having a MemeticLoser status involving the low-skills players that often pick her, but in a similar vein, her one-panel appearance in ''Reflections'' has won over many due to the TearJerker nature of it, where she [[CryForTheDevil mourns her husband]] [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes Gérard]]. This has strengthened the desire for a [[HeelFaceTurn redemption arc]] in the future, and even those who weren't interested in the idea before are opening up to it.
** The ''Uprising'' comic is seemingly having this effect on Reaper, since it reveals and expands upon his character back when he was still Gabriel Reyes, vice-leader of Overwatch and leader of Blackwatch, and depicts him as having a personality beyond the generic "evil edgelord" image many thought he gave off based on his previous appearances in-game and in media. Here, he is depicted as having a sort of VitriolicBestBuds relationship with Jack (Soldier: 76) and Ana, engaging in lots of SnarkToSnarkCombat with the latter and having a StraightManAndWiseGuy relationship with the former (Reaper being the Wise Guy, of course).
* RewatchBonus: A few of the shorts and comics have this in play. In particular, Genji's actions from ''Dragons'' take on a new light when the audience learns of his identity and motivation.
* RonTheDeathEater:
** Certain characters tend to get demonized in fandom of certain characters or pairing. Prominent examples include: Genji in Hanzo/[=McCree=] (to create even more angst for Hanzo) and Pharah/Mercy fandom (which has became more prevalent after a... [[ShipTease certain]] Genji/Mercy voiceline) - if the author hates Mercy being paired with male characters, then every male character Mercy is usually paired with can get this treatment in Pharah/Mercy fics, and Soldier 76 or Ana (and even the entire former Overwatch organization itself) with fans that Leather Pants Reaper.
** In a non-shipping example, Torbjörn tends to get heavily demonized for his [[CassandraTruth caution and distrust towards Omnics]] in fics that DracoInLeatherPants the Omnics. Though this mostly went away once ''Binary'' was unveiled.
** Mei tends to get demonized from a friendly scientist to a cold-blooded [[CuteButPsycho psycho]] who would like nothing more than to drive an icicle into your skull or slowly freeze you to death while she looks on with glee.
** Even when you take out factors like Genji and shipping, Mercy also often gets demonized into some sort of inhuman MadScientist type healer where she has disregards of moral when it comes to doctor-based researches as well as some nasty experiments she conducted, including how she operated on Genji and Reaper. Some people even thought that she messed up Gabriel's operation on purpose instead of it being purely an accident. Her ambiguous age, how she still stayed quite young since the Omnic Crisis and Blizzard giving her evil-ish alternate skins like the Devil or Witch Mercy didn't help, when in canon she's probably one of the most altruistic, pacifistic and kindest characters in the game. It also doesn't help that Mercy's gameplay heavily draws inspiration from [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 The Medic]], who is actually that kind of amoral MadScientist 'doctor', giving some 'fans' reasons to compare and run with. [[Memes/{{Overwatch}} It's even one of her memes.]]
** Just like how she can get hit with DracoInLeatherPants, Symmetra can get hit with this trope as well, when people forget or dismiss her [[NobleTopEnforcer inherently]] [[AntiVillain good intentions]] and her doubts towards the company after ''A Better World''. She's generalized into someone just as elitist and delusional as her [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt co-workers from]] [[MegaCorp Vishkar]] ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation seeing that she doesn't show her doubts and continued to look for places for Vishkar to work on at her in-game quotes]]) to further glorify Lúcio's quest for freedom.
** Vishkar Corporation itself. While there's no denying that it is slated to be a bad guy/antagonist group, [[RuleofPerception at least so far,]] its evilness is often overblown by fans to StupidEvil levels that they disregard that its portfolio [[NeverLiveItDown doesn't only consist of Rio, where it oppressed the people there with slave labor while spouting hypocritical remarks]]. Vishkar is also responsible for Utopaea where the city was known to be beautiful, but wasn't necessarily built with slave labory and the opinion of the citizens there remain unknown. In addition of this, regardless of whether it's just them being opportunist or not, they still managed to recover India from its poor state after the Omnic Crisis. None of these matter to the fans that are just looking at their shenanigan at Rio, thus tends to think that anyone working for this organization have got to be complete evil villains, including Symmetra, and a lot think that [[NebulousEvilOrganization Talon]] [[EvilIsCool is a lot better as an evil organization.]]
** Speaking of corporations, Volskaya Industries leader Katya Volskaya often get this treatment after the unveiling of Sombra and the animated short ''Infiltration''. When it was revealed that Katya has a secret deal with Omnics to help stave off the Omnic invasion in Russia while promoting [[FantasticRacism Omnic racism]], people like to overblow it, thinking that Katya is a corrupt person only out to fill her own pocket, and [[UnwittingPawn she was just using Zarya]] [[ManipulativeBastard for her own nefarious ends]]. What's given so far is that we don't know the nature of the Omnics helping her as there were peaceful Omnics even during the crisis and [[NecessaryEvil if it wasn't for Katya's underhanded deal and racism propaganda, Russia would have been wasted by the Omnics during the crisis and calling the Overwatch for help would decrease its overall effort to end the crisis]], thus her calling Zarya looks more like a genuine call for help from a blackmailed person.
* RootingForTheEmpire:
** [[NebulousEvilOrganization Talon]] has its fans, due to their three reps so far - Reaper, Widowmaker, and Sombra - representing EvilIsCool and EvilIsSexy respectively. It also helps that through back story and other media, like the ''Reflections'' comic, they have also garnered a level of CryForTheDevil.
** This is a primary reason that for the many who want to see a Widowmaker [[HeelFaceTurn redemption arc]], there are some who want her to remain evil ([[MoralEventHorizon despite what Talon did to her being incredibly horrible]]), believing her to be more interesting that way.
* ScapegoatCreator: Lead writer Michael Chu has received this treatment from a small but vocal portion of the fanbase following the discovery of voicelines in the game files that hint at the [[RescueRomance Mercy/Genji]] ship becoming canon. On the Battlenet forums, on Tumblr, and on Twitter, ''many'' Pharmercy shippers have accused him of either being biased in favor of the Gency ship, or ignoring the different aspects of the more interesting lore in favor of pushing a ship that they disapprove of towards canon status. On the other hand, Michael Chu is also responsible for the reveal that [[BadassGay Tracer is a lesbian]], is the story director for the well-received comics and animated shorts, and is not the sole individual making story decisions or deciding what interactions to include.
* SelfFanservice: This is pretty unavoidable given the huge amount of rule 34 art this game has ([[WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings before Blizzard crack down on them]]) but the most prominent examples of this is with Ana, who if she is not given a body not possible for someone who is in her 60, is given figures that do NOT match when she was young.
* ShipToShipCombat:
** Mercy, as mentioned in LauncherOfAThousandShips, gets paired with nearly everyone and that leads to bickering. In particular, the {{LGBT Fanbase}} who ship the popular "[[PortmanteauCoupleName Phar-Mercy]]" pair are staunchly against her being paired with any male character such as [=McCree=]/Mercy, [[RescueRomance Genji/Mercy]], [[AngelDevilShipping Reaper/Mercy]], [[MayDecemberRomance Soldier:76/Mercy]], and many more. They were not happy when several very ShipTease-heavy lines for Genji/Mercy were found in the game files, [[http://tmirai.tumblr.com/post/155680924714/sneakyfeets-varae-ver-you-are-tiny-raptor and went absolutely BERSERK]] [[http://careforacuppatea.tumblr.com/post/155687011412/aftermath on]] lead writer [[ScapegoatCreator Michael Chu.]] [[RuleofCautiousEditingJudgement It got worse when those voice lines were released for the live version of the game in mid-March 2017.]]
** Ana/Soldier: 76 vs. Ana/Reinhardt vs. Ana/Reaper, especially over who the father of Pharah is. Fans of Ana/Jack cite their close bond before and after Overwatch, to the point the two are even together in the Christmas comic, ''Reflections''. Ana/Reinhardt fans go with the two being old friends who flirt, and Pharah's great love of him. Though for some Pharah has what looks like a PrecociousCrush on Rein, so for them him being Pharah's dad is {{Squick}}. Ana/Reaper fans will talk about how Gabriel is particularly angry that Ana would side with Jack over him, that he seems to have the mildest of soft spots for her, and that since Pharah has the same skin color as her mother, her father might have been someone equally dark-skinned, such as Gabriel.
*** The "Reflections" comic implies that her father might be a First Nation Canadian, which would also explain her "Raindancer" and "Thunderbird" skins. Although some fans still ship the above three given that there's so far no evidence that Ana disclosed her survival to Pharah's father.
** And now with ''Reflections'' out giving Tracer a [[BadassGay girlfriend named Emily]], all other ships with Tracer (especially ones pairing her with a male character) have been sunk. [[OhCrap Oh, dear...]] Some people, however, [[TakeAThirdOption have dodged this trope entirely]] by shipping [[OneTrueThreesome Tracer/Emily/Widowmaker.]]
* SnarkBait: Reaper is the constant target for jokes due to his overly edgy appearance and personality. Even his fans (of which they are plenty) will still joke about him being a complete edgelord.
* {{Starboarding}}: It's common for fans to give Efi a cute PrecociousCrush on Lucio, which is always portrayed as one-sided [[{{Squick}} for obvious reasons]].
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** In the most literal sense of the term. Many agree that the lore behind ''Overwatch'' is very detailed and interesting -- when we actually get to see it. While a story has technically been [[ArcFatigue (slowly)]] developing through an ExtendedUniverse, many fans have been disappointed about how rather slow it comes out (demand for a regular, episodic animated series or potentially even an animated film), and many others are also disappointed that there's no single-player campaign or modes that could shed better light on the characters and plots. The only major piece of lore that was in development that we know of was ''First Strike'', a 100-page graphic novel that would've detailed the early days of the Omnic Crisis, but it was cancelled at the last minute due to the team taking the story in a "different direction" than what was intended when the novel was written. While this means the ''Overwatch'' team is in fact concerned about delving more into the story (many fans in the hopes of getting events based on in-universe lore than simple holidays in the future), it's still taking a very, very long time to get started. To compensate, the dev team has begun to make events based off of lore such as the Omnic Uprising event.
** The comic ''Reflections'', which shows Tracer and Winston celebrating Christmas, reduced Bastion, Symmetra and Lúcio to poster appearances for no real reason while Mei, D.Va and Zarya are reduced to an advertisement appearance despite cameo from the rest of the cast. This is especially glaring given that Lúcio, D.Va and Zarya so far doesn't have any substantial narrative focus on them.
** ''Reflections'' also would've been the perfect opportunity to provide insight as to who members of the reinstated Overwatch are by having all of them at the base celebrating Christmas, yet its kept vague by showing all of them apart from each other. So far, only Winston and Tracer are confirmed to part of the new Overwatch, yet ''Recall'' showed Genji, [=McCree=], Mercy, Torbjörn, and Reinhardt being contacted. Their status in the organization isn't known, as there has yet to be any word on whether or not they rejoined.
** Another sense that is quite literal. ''Uprising'' is the first piece of lore that's truly present in-game, which has been met with unanimous praise... and it's treated as if it were a holiday event. Making it only temporary, and locking out all lore-based items despite not being tied to a season, has gotten on the nerves of many players, who believe that the mode and the content that comes with it should be permanent.
* ToughActToFollow: The second seasonal brawl, ''Junkenstein's Revenge'', was a massive hit, and became by far the most acclaimed. The followup brawls, ''Mei's Snowball Offensive'' and ''Capture the Rooster'', were not as well-received and Jeff Kaplan stated in a Developer's Update that the fifth brawl, ''Uprising'', was designed to be very similar to ''Junkenstein's Revenge'' while improving on complaints fans had about its predecessor. It seemed to work, as ''Uprising'' was a massive success upon release, becoming the next tough act to follow.
* UnintentionallySympathetic: Pharah's focus on the mission instead of her men in ''Mission Statement'' doesn't make her come off as the GeneralRipper the comics try to project because, as she points out, "the actual world is at stake". Given the fact that there is an Omnic Crisis going on and the Anubis AI is clearly established as being unknowable and dangerous to the rest of the world, her focus to shut it down makes her come off as ProperlyParanoid more than anything else.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Many fans feel that Hanzo fell right into this trope in ''Dragons''. In the short, after Genji reveals that he's still alive and takes off from the Shimada house, Hanzo immediately takes an arrow he fired in order to aim his bow at Genji - an action which, while understandable given the shock he just experienced, doesn't make him look sympathetic to the audience after the Heartwarming/Tear Jerking speech Genji delivered.
* VisualEffectsOfAwesome:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqnKB22pOC0 Every second of the cinematic trailer! You won't believe the number of comments asking for the game to be made into a full-length Pixar movie!]] All the other cinematic trailers, while shorter, haven't let up on the visual awesomeness.
** ''The Last Bastion'' in particular is incredibly well-animated, possessing ''gorgeously'' detailed nature scenes, as well as [[spoiler: finally showing up-close [[NightmareFuel the horror of the]] [[WarIsHell Omnic Crisis]].]]
* WhatAnIdiot: After helping secure Overwatch's downfall, Talon was free to influence the world with no one to stop them. However, they just ''had'' to KickTheDog by sending out Reaper and his {{Mooks}} to extract data to track down and kill inactive agents, even though most of them were involved with their own problems. But that plan was foiled by Winston. They obviously hadn't counted on Reaper losing, nor were they aware Winston was struggling with whether or not to illegally start a recall. Talon's attack on Watchpoint: Gibraltar, however, [[TheDogBitesBack was the final straw]], and Winston immediately recalled all former Overwatch agents. In other words, their attempt to kill all Overwatch agents ForTheEvulz ended up being the catalyst for the revival of their biggest opposition.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: ''Overwatch'' is commonly considered a kid-friendly game due to the Pixaresque art style, T-rating, and [[AWorldHalfFull generally hopeful tone and message.]] However, its backstory is filled to the brim with such [[SarcasmMode kid-friendly themes]] like:
** Corruption[[note]]As in the real world, corporations and governments are sometimes capable of taking advantage of citizens and the underprivileged, committing financial fraud, and otherwise ignoring the law. Examples include the Vishkar Corporation (damaging or outright destroying communities, intentionally or otherwise, to get them to accept their improvements), and the unnamed "suit" in "Going Legit", who attempts to commit insurance fraud.[[/note]]
** Drug and alcohol use[[note]]Roadhog is a habitual user of gas, while Hanzo [[DrowningMySorrows drowns his sorrows]] with sake and [=McCree=] [[SmokingIsCool smokes]].[[/note]]
** Kidnapping and brainwashing[[note]]Widowmaker's tragic backstory, being a completely innocent civilian who was kidnapped and subjected to extensive neural reconditioning by Talon to become the assassin she is now, all for the sake of murdering her own husband.[[/note]]
** Mariticide and fratricide[[note]]As mentioned above, Widowmaker killed her own husband after going through extensive brainwashing. That's not the only example of a person being forced to kill their loved one. Hanzo was forced by his elders to brutally murder his younger brother Genji, who only barely survived after being rescued by Overwatch. In both cases, they have to ''live with their actions'' as it haunts their minds.[[/note]]
** Mass death and destruction[[note]][[ItMakesSenseInContext The gorillas on the moon]] staged a revolt against the humans, which lead to the murder of everyone on the colony, including the completely innocent Dr. Harold Winston. Furthermore, after Australia struck a deal with the Omnics to allow them to reside in the Outback at the expense of the residents already living there, they staged a civil war that ultimately lead to them blowing up an omnium and turning the Outback into an irradiated wasteland, presumably with countless casualties along the way. Roadhog was at the forefront of all of this, and Junkrat was only ''five years old'' when it happened.[[/note]]
** Murder and assassination[[note]]Tekhartha Mondatta being killed in cold blood by Widowmaker in ''Alive'', Widowmaker herself killed many innocent people.[[/note]]
** Mutilation and violence[[note]]While not usually shown onscreen, Ana's eye got ''[[EyeScream shot out]]'' by Widowmaker, Genji was carved up to the extent that most of his body needed to be rebuilt with cybernetics, and many other characters were wounded in various ways. All of them engage in deadly combat (even [[MartialPacifist Mercy]]) and most enjoy it to ''some'' extent. And the [[RobotWar Omnic Crisis]] threatened to end humanity's existence and still scars the world.[[/note]]
** Sexual and suggestive themes[[note]]Admittedly light compared to the whoppers above, but the game has quite a bit of fanservice, something that wouldn't be appropriate for the kids' movies it takes influence from.[[/note]]
** Terrorism[[note]]Despite the higher security and technological advancements of Overwatch's world, terrorist organizations are still capable of deadly attacks and people still live in fear of them. Talon is the embodiment of this, as they show no regard for human life as they go about their "business", and corrupt the lives of the innocent in the name of achieving their goals -- as Widowmaker can attest to.[[/note]]
** Torture, conspiracy and blackmail[[note]]Blackwatch took specialty in doing things that Overwatch wouldn't want to do, and it's widely suggested that they took part in many human rights violations.[[/note]]
** Violence against children[[note]]Two kids, Brian and Timmy, 15 and 6 respectively, were caught in the crossfire in the battle at the museum between Tracer and Winston versus Reaper and Widowmaker for the Doomfist gauntlet. Widowmaker didn't even hesitate to fire at them when they got in the way, forcing Winston to protect them. In "Hero", a young girl named Alejandra gets caught in the middle of a firefight between Los Muertos and Soldier: 76, and she was very nearly killed from it. Also, Vishkar destroyed a favela, which led to a little girl getting horribly scarred from the aftermath. The Second Omnic Crisis in Russia also has confirmed (offscreen) child casualties, and the first Omnic Crisis [[FridgeHorror must have killed a large number of children as well]].[[/note]]
** Xenophobia and racism[[note]]Human-Omnic relations are reminiscent of racial prejudice and conflict in the real world. Human-human conflict and inequality are still around, with the continued existence of slums, favelas, and poverty.[[/note]]
** Overall, many would be surprised to find that what appears to be a kid-friendly world of light-hearted adventure is actually a world filled with darkness, tragedy, and despair. [[CrapsaccharineWorld It just happens to look more like the former on the outset]]. Many characters, [[TragicVillain even (especially) the villains]], have had horrifying backstories that would be dark in any story, let alone a supposed "kids game" like ''Overwatch''.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: The Uprising event and accompanying comic brought to the minds of some the actions of the Islamic State in the middle east, particularly Tracer's line in the comic about how Null Sector was destroying thousands of years worth of history in the ancient city of London, similar to how IS is known for destroying ancient historical sites and artifacts.
* TheWoobie: A lot of characters, both good and bad, need a hug. There's enough for an entire [[Woobie/{{Overwatch}} page]] about it.
[[/folder]]
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Visit [[YMMV/OverwatchGameplay this page]] for YMMV tropes about the franchise's gameplay, mechanics and development.
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[[folder:A-D]]
* AbandonShipping: D.Va/Sombra was popular before the latter's official release, but lost a lot of support when Sombra's bio revealed her to be 30 and not a TeenGenius as some had theorized.
** Plenty of people have stopped shipping Tracer/Widowmaker after Blizzard revealed that the former has a girlfriend. Of course, [[OneTrueThreesome people have shipped all three together, complete with Emily/Amilie jokes.]]
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** The fandom decided that Soldier: 76 was the grumpy TeamDad (alternatively, the BumblingDad struggling to connect with his "kids") and ran with the interpretation to the point that there's almost more fan content showing him as such than his canon personality. Mercy is also often depicted as a TeamMom, being protective of, embarrassing, and showing concern for her "children", and getting exasperated when they fail to protect her or heed her advice.
** Almost immediately upon her announcement, Ana become characterized as the [[CoolOldLady Team Grandma]] (though still the mother of Pharah, who has no children of her own.) Long beforehand, when the situation required, Reinhardt is the one characterized as [[CoolOldGuy the Team Grandpa.]]
** Roadhog and Junkrat’s relationship. Do they have a full-on VillainousFriendship, do they despise each other and only tolerate the [[EnemyMine the other because of their usefulness]], or do they show contempt outside but [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther deep down inside they really care about each other?]] Additionally, some interpret Roadhog body guarding Junkrat as not doing it for the money Junkrat promised him, but out of guilt for creating the radioactive wasteland Junkrat had to grow up in. While the two (or at least, Junkrat, as he has the vast majority of the dialogue) are reasonably friendly with each other in comics, ingame they're far more hard to read, with lines ranging from caustic (one rarely triggered line has Roadhog threatening to leave him) to mutually amicable (they apparently tell each other jokes). Whether this shows outright dislike or is just them being VitriolicBestBuds is up for debate.
** On the topic of Junkrat: Is he nothing but an AxCrazy jackass who does what he does and is a criminal for giggles, or is he a victim of circumstance having grown up in a wasteland with little means of surviving? Ingame dialogue with other characters suggests it's a bit of both, as he certainly does like destruction, but he's in no way malicious towards the other Overwatch agents themselves; in fact most of of his dialogue comes off as lighthearted teasing despite some characters (such as Mei) clearly not standing him.
** The fandom has decided that D.Va must be a Dorito-munching, Mountain Dew-chugging, gaming [[SuperDeformed gremlin]] during her off time. Blizzard seems to agree, at least on the "Doritos and Mountain Dew" part, as they've added an emote where she's munching on chips called [[BlandNameProduct "D.Vas"]], drinking soda, and gaming. Another popular interpretation is that she's a YaoiFangirl. It's also possible that she's still just a normal kid who got conscripted into the Second Omnic Crisis, and like many real-life competitive gamers, Hana Song could be a completely different person than D.Va -- [[StepfordSmiler suffering greatly]] after being conscripted into a horrible war. On a similar note, Sombra has been interpreted as an [[EvilCounterpart unfriendly rival]] to Gremlin D.Va despite the former telling the latter that she's not a ''gaming'' hacker.
** Mercy is often depicted as disappointed with teammates for [[RealitySubtext repeatedly failing despite her best efforts]]. Alternately, she's a [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate sadistic]] [[MadDoctor doctor]] ala [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 the Medic]] who waits for her whole team to die so she can pull off mad 5-man rezzes. This mainly exists because having the team Mercy hide and wait for the team to wipe is actually a common high-level play.
*** In some of the more hilarious fan works, she's been depicted as [[OnlySaneMan only one who actually tries to move the payload]] while other hilarious shenanigans occur among her teammates. [[https://youtu.be/CovkUTqTwrw Example]]
** Hanzo's stance when it comes to Genji and his family. Sure, he regrets what he did and has abandoned his Yakuza family, allowing Genji to shut it down. However, he's nasty towards Genji and has quotes which imply that he still longs for his old family inheritance (even if he has [[EveryoneHasStandards clear limits on what he'd do to restore it]]). Likewise, in Hanamura stage, he flips-flops between claiming that the Shimada clan master has returned home or declaring that it's his home no longer. A possible explanation for the flip-flop may be that he felt guilt over Genji's death, but didn't approve of the reborn Genji shutting down his family business. Regardless of how unsavory their methods are, striking against one's own family is a big no-no for the honor-bound Hanzo, which (if true) would correspond with real-life Japanese values.
** Despite Genji [[TheCasanova being a popular playboy]] before his "death," some fanart tends to characterize him as [[CasanovaWannabe dorky and incompetent in the ways of love]]. This is at least partially out of Genji players being some of the biggest examples of [[LeeroyJenkins rushing blindly into combat and having no idea what they're doing.]] Although this portrayal has been significantly reduced by his [[OneSceneWonder appearance]] as a member of Blackwatch in ''Uprising''.
** Some people are saying that Mei, one of the most {{Moe}} characters in the game, is secretly a psychopath who takes joy in freezing her enemies to death (as evidenced by the SlasherSmile she gives before shooting an icicle at your head), with a few going so far as to emulate her with [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure Phantom Blood!Dio Brando]]. Given her [[ColdSleepColdFuture backstory]], that cryostasis probably didn't do wonders to her mental health...
** There's various interpretations of Jack Morrison's personality before he became Soldier: 76. Is he actually a poor commander, but charismatic enough to become a MagneticHero and TheFace? If so, Reyes' resentment makes sense. Alternatively, was he actually just a good commander who failed when the internal problems of the organization, coupled with the public protests, broke him? An [[https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/19809396/ in-universe article]] seemingly supports this sentiment.
** Gabriel Reyes' jealousy and AttentionWhore attitude that led to the fall of Overwatch: Was it merely just because [[EvilIsPetty he's deep down very petty]] or was it quite justified, in the way that he risked his life the most during the Omnic Crisis as the field commander and felt that his 'reward' of being stuck with the DirtyBusiness part of the group was the government playing favorites just because he didn't have the best personality, therefore inadequate to his accomplishment? The latter would make him look like someone who's concerned with the welfare of 'workers' like him, but constantly gets ignored, making him feel like he's just a disposable pawn to the higher ups for all he's done for them.\\
\\
Not helping Reaper's case is that, post-transformation, he doesn't have very many successes as a Talon agent, in comparison to his cohort Widowmaker, who's a HeroKiller with a frightening rap sheet. He failed to secure the Doomfist gauntlet, failed to assassinate Katya Volskaya despite destroying a [[MiniMecha Volskaya Industries mecha]] (failures that are also put on Widowmaker's otherwise perfect record) [[spoiler:but in that case, Sombra was intentionally working against them for her own agenda]], failed to extract the Overwatch database, and failed to kill Soldier: 76 and Ana. This is on top of the fact that even his attempted coup at the Swiss base ended with his own near-death, and that even [=McCree=] has nothing good to say about his leadership of Blackwatch. His poor leadership of Blackwatch can also be interpreted in two equally-unflattering ways; was he really that incompetent in leading, or was he just ObfuscatingStupidity, [[EvilRunningGood purposely sabotaging missions and making suboptimal decisions]] purely [[EvilIsPetty out of spite]] for how he feels he was treated? The latter is even {{implied|trope}}, as Reyes is the one who "leaked" reports of Blackwatch's DirtyBusiness. Given this track record, Reaper really ''does'' come across as an angsty jerk who blames everyone else for failings that are his fault alone. Then again, his current state causes him constant pain so it's possible that he's deliberately sabotaging himself in a vain attempt to die.
** How much of Widowmaker's brainwashing should be blamed for her actions? There are some who believe that Widowmaker doesn't have a free will, and thus shouldn't be blamed for the numerous atrocities she's committed. However, Widowmaker has certainly shown to have embraced her sadistic side, having clearly shown to ''enjoy'' the act of killing. Though numbed of human emotion, there's no indication that Widowmaker's completely free of will, just that the will of the original Amélie Lacroix is broken. Also, in the event that she broke free from Talon's brainwashing, it's speculated as to what would happen next -- would she still be a villain, would she become an anti-hero seeking out both revenge and redemption for what Talon made her do, or would she completely revert back to the innocent Amélie and would likely cross the DespairEventHorizon as she realizes the horrible things she did as Widowmaker that she would never have even dreamed of doing as herself?
** Reinhardt's age puts him as being a kid in the year 2016. Thus, fans have taken to the idea that Reinhardt, even in his elder years, can appreciate some good old fashioned memes.
** Does Tracer’s cheerful, happy-go-lucky demeanor come naturally to her, or is it her way of [[SadClown coping]] with the trauma of having been nearly erased from reality and [[spoiler:failing to prevent Mondatta’s assassination and the ensuing fallout]]?
** A minor running joke in the community interprets Ganymede as Bastion’s puppet master, [[TheDogWasTheMastermind secretly]] [[TheManBehindTheMan controlling]] him to KillAllHumans. This has died down since the release of ''The Last Bastion'', which portrayed Ganymede [[NiceGuy very]] [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight differently]].
** How loyal is Symmetra to Vishkar and their ideals? Her in-game interactions with Lúcio mainly consist of berating him, his crime of stealing Vishkar's technology, and his idea of freedom as anarchy while proudly proclaiming that Dorado would be a good place for Vishkar's development, suggesting that she's still loyal with their ideals. But in her comic ''A Better World'', which took place before Lúcio's storyline, she's shown to be unwilling to cross the line of killing for Vishkar unless necessary and is shocked and heartbroken after [[spoiler:the Corado HQ bombing killed and injured many of the favela's people]]. The readers are left ambiguous as to how loyal she is to the company after this event. Her official profile took the middle road on both of these characterizations.
** Fans have decided that there ''must'' have been a LoveTriangle between Ana, Jack, and Gabriel during their days at Overwatch. Furthermore, many fans have interpreted that either of the two men ''must'' have been Pharah's father, due to the identity of him being left intentionally vague. A fan theory is that Jack did indeed have Pharah (or Fareeha, as she was known at the time) with Ana, but it was kept secret for her protection. Additionally, this contributed to Gabriel's jealousy towards Jack[[note]]a contributing factor to the theory being in the comic ''Old Soldiers'', where he was disappointed to see Ana take Jack's side many years later, as she apparently always did[[/note]] and ultimately led to him betraying Overwatch shortly after her supposed "death". Some choose to TakeAThirdOption and say ''Reinhardt'' was the father, due to them being shipped following an in-game interaction. Alternatively, some would like to think that Ana had Pharah with an unimportant person to avoid drama.
* AmericansHateTingle:
** Mei was quite controversial on the Chinese internet community at the game's release, with the main gripe being that she does not represent China accurately. The fact that the only [[DragonsUpTheYinYang Far East Asian dragons]] in the game (Chinese dragons are considered by the Chinese to be a state symbol) belongs to Japanese characters heats up the arguments even more.
** Another major peeve with the Chinese is the depiction of Lijiang Towers. For info, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_River_(Guangxi) the Li River]] is well known for its picturesque ''natural'' scenery. To depict a location on the river as a built-up, futuristic city stirs up the indignities of some people, given that a major problem in China is environmental degradation due to urbanization.
** British players are a bit divided over Tracer due to her {{Narm}}ishly exaggerated Cockney accent, which some find irritating. This is a bit ironic, as Tracer's VA, Cara Theobold, is a London native and allegedly based her Tracer voice on the accents of some old university classmates.
** Pharah has been received rather poorly by Egyptians, mainly due to her lack of Egyptian-ness apart from her name and some generic visual motifs, which even then are based more on ''ancient'' Egypt rather than something more in line with modern Arab Egyptian culture. She doesn't speak a word of Arabic, and her [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent accent]] isn't even remotely correct for an Egyptian. Thankfully, as seen in AuthorsSavingThrow, her mother, Ana, is far more explicitly Arab.
* ArcFatigue:
** The main story about the return of Overwatch after the ''Recall'' short. In other words, ''[[HesBack Overwatch is back in business!]]'' Many are looking forward to seeing where this goes, such as how they'll fight Talon, how they'll operate under the PETRAS Act (which makes Overwatch activity illegal), and if other younger Overwatch Heroes who have never been affiliated such as D.Va, Zenyatta, Zarya, and Lúcio will join in on the action. Those following the lore however, have been subjected to a grueling wait as they have yet to continue the story, as the game is considered "non-canon". Instead, they've been focusing on other backstories and the history of the lore, which in itself has only been given in small, spaced-out increments. Even more grueling is the end of ''Alive'' (confirmed to have happened the same day as ''Recall''), where Widowmaker successfully kills Mondatta and closes on a DownerEnding, and they have [[KarmaHoudini yet to show Talon face true justice for their crimes]] despite the premise of Overwatch making its return and the story's message of rising up during dark times. All of this has left some people wanting for them to hurry up and get on with the current story.
** There was an AlternateRealityGame going on involving Sombra, the presumed 23rd playable hero. However, the ARG had ''barely'' given any information pertaining to Sombra, other than 1) she's Mexican and 2) she's some kind of hacker. Other than that, the only "rewards" have been ASCII pictures of skulls, Ana Amari's medical chart, and cryptic hints that lead to more cryptic hints, resulting in an entire forest of EpilepticTrees growing. On top of that, there was [[http://amomentincrime.com/ a countdown]] in the form of a percentage ticking up at 0.0038% every three minutes. And when it finally concluded... all that was revealed was a note saying that Bastion unit E-54 (the playable Bastion in the game) has been compromised and there was a game patch identifier newly hidden in the countdown site's source code. Meaning the three month countdown lead to nothing more than the next clue in the trail, and at the end of ''that'' clue was... Sombra herself telling us that she needed a week for schemes, which means '''more waiting'''. A few weeks later, this led to yet more website shenanigans that ultimately led to... '''yet more waiting.''' Since Sombra was ultimately announced at [=BlizzCon=] (like everyone expected her to), this ended up rendering the entire ARG nothing more than an overly elaborate ad campaign for [=BlizzCon=].
* AngelDevilShipping:
** The pairing of Mercy/Reaper, since Mercy's design is based on an angel and Reaper's on a grim reaper.
** Also, Junkrat being paired with either Mercy or Mei, two of the nicest and most optimistic members of the cast (and the latter of whom expressly dislikes him). Junkrat, meanwhile, is a killer, anarchist and thief.
** And Widowmaker being paired with either Tracer, Pharah or any other heroic character. But those two especially, they have [[ArchEnemy history]] [[FoeYay with Widowmaker]].
* AngstWhatAngst:
** Despite her predicament of existing outside of time, little better than a ghost without her chronal accelerator, Tracer is still as chipper as she's ever been present day. Also, despite failing her job in the assassination of Mondatta and ending up making King's Row a worse place for Omnics, Tracer's remark in the beginning of King's Row match is a chipper "Back to my old stomping ground again!"
** Mei was the sole survivor of an arctic-based eco-research outpost. She came out of cryostasis to find Overwatch gone, her hard work all but erased, and her coworkers all dead. Almost all her voice lines have her cracking jokes or encouraging others, and she's never seen without a smile (even if it's sometimes a SlasherSmile). The release of Ecopoint: Antarctica has highlighted this even more; Mei left notes everywhere as she and the crew tried to figure out how to survive the freak weather anomaly, and they're all adorable--even the one stating there was only enough food for four days has hearts and other embellishments. And to top it off, Mei left herself ''a pair of fuzzy slippers'' to step into right outside of her cryo pod. Though, her MemeticPsychopath status may add some FridgeHorror to it.
** Despite big emphasis about how she feels weighted down by every lives that she kills, Ana's remark when she eliminated someone in the game (some of whom might be her former teammates and even her own daughter Pharah) are just snarky one-liners and teasing.
** D.Va was simply a professional gamer whose focus was [[RealTimeStrategy simulating military conflict]] for fun and to entertain fans, until she was conscripted to fight a giant Omnic in a real conflict where she could possibly die in action, and there's nothing in canon to indicate that she has prior experience in the military. Instead of being the next [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Shinji Ikari]], she's able to charge into combat talking to her comrades in a chipper and energetic tone as if she's simply playing ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' as usual; the worst she ever shows is one line about how the destruction in Eichenwalde reminds her of home (even then, she's saying this ''out loud'' -- other players on her team wouldn't hear it otherwise -- in a tone that's somber without being unstable) and her "I'm too young to die!" respawn line (while it could be interpreted to mean "I don't want to die!", it could also mean "Psh, I'm not giving up just yet!"). In other words, D.Va is surprisingly well-adjusted to military operations for someone whose signature trait is playing video games as a career.
** Sombra lost her parents during the Omnic Crisis, but doesn't act sad about it at all. She only mentioned being one of many who were orphaned by the war, but Sombra cares little if at all about it.
* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** At launch, many people complained about the presentation of Pharah's background (lack of Egyptian voice lines, [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent sketchy accent]], doesn't dress appropriately to her culture). Many of these were averted for the release of her mother Ana as Ana is voiced by a native Egyptian with many Arabic voice lines (and not just any Arabic, but Egyptian Arabic). Pharah's background was also justified by revealing how she grew up and traveled with the diverse Overwatch members.
** There were complaints about the lore being "[[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot dead]]" due to the lack of focus on it compared to the multiplayer (not helped by them cancelling the graphic novel ''First Strike''), to which lead writer Michael Chu immediately responded by assuring people they are hard at work on more lore-related content for the year, which they hope to show soon. This showed when two lore-based comics, ''Binary'' and ''Uprising'', were released in a short vicinity of each other (compared to the months it would take before). Additionally, they announced an entire game event based on lore, rather than just the holidays.
** After the infamous ArcFatigue that came with the Sombra ARG, the clues that lead up to Orisa as a playable character came much more clearly and quickly.
* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** Reaper, the game's DarkerAndEdgier hero, has several divided camps. There are those who unironically appreciate his edgy design, those who appreciate it from a [[NarmCharm cheesy-but-effective perspective]] or an unintentionally-hilarious perspective, and those who find him obnoxious and annoying.
** While some applauded Zarya for being of a different build than all of the other female characters, others criticized her for being a stereotypical HuskyRusskie woman with a far more simple and generic design than all of the other characters. Given the view that she was designed to appease feminist criticism of the game, debates regarding her can get quite heated.
** Tracer. More than a few players don't like her Cockney accent, and a whole team of Tracers spell one hell of a session for any players due to her style of gameplay being geared towards pestering the enemy. Others find her frantic, highly mobile style of play to be fun and are enamored with her cheerful, friendly personality. Some are also split on her status as the SeriesMascot. There are those who think Blizzard should've tried to put more than one character on the box art (as this is a game with more than 20 colorful characters), and some go as far as to think she "doesn't deserve" this status to other Heroes.
** D.Va's personality is something fans have been split on liking, mostly depending on whether you find her competitive GamerChick persona bratty and obnoxious or endearing and cute. [[TakeAThirdOption Or both]]. Even those who do like her personality are [[http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/131/321/f12.jpg split on exactly]] ''what'' that personality is. Is she an ultra-cute and sexy {{Moe}} anime "waifu", or is she a foul-mouthed, Dorito-and-Mountain-Dew-munching {{Troll}} gamer? What we see of her in-game personality supports ''both'' interpretations; she's definitely cute and conventionally attractive, but she also has massive egotistical, immature and competitive streaks as well.
** Mei gets a lot of both love and hate for a list of reasons. Before she was even released, she was criticized by fans (particularly Chinese ones) for not being sufficiently "Chinese", with some fans disliking her for ''possibly'' being the only "pudgy" girl in the game. On the other hand, Japanese fans love her cuteness, and "body-posi" fans enjoy the idea of a heavyset heroine. This got even worse when she was actually released (see above).
** Emily, Tracer's girlfriend, who was first revealed in the ''Reflections'' comic. People either love her for confirming that Tracer [[BadassGay is a lesbian]] or hate her because she's already established as Tracer's girlfriend, and thus [[DieForOurShip gets in the way of a lot of pairings]], with [[FoeYayShipping Widowtracer]] shippers in particular being miffed.
** Symmetra's position in the lore makes her into an example of this. One camp considers her a sympathetic [[TheWoobie woobie]] who was deceived by Vishkar since childhood and a compelling NobleTopEnforcer with autism. Another camp believes that [[AssociationFallacy merely serving Vishkar]] (considered an evil [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]] MegaCorp) and going along with or justifying their ideals (combined with a smug attitude) makes her one-dimensional, delusional, unsympathetic and annoying. Since she can be given both DracoInLeatherPants and RonTheDeathEater treatments, it's hard to find a middle ground for her.
* BrokenBase:
** Are the more Omnic-phobic characters (such as Zarya, Torbjörn, and Roadhog) justified in their FantasticRacism because of the fear that [[AIIsACrapshoot Omnics will cause another crisis]], or are they just overreacting and being unnecessarily harsh on the likes of Bastion and Zenyatta?
*** Spinning off from this, Torbjorn's CharacterDevelopment in the "Binary" comic. On the one hand there are definitely fans who are happy Torb didn't let his distrust of Omnics blind him to Bastion's true nature, and like the OddFriendship that seems to be forming between the two. But there are also fans who feel it's way too early in the story for Torb to be getting over his major character flaw, and that having him form a bond with Bastion this soon robs us of a more interesting conflict between the two down the line. Still others agree with the general premise of the comic, but feel Torbjorn changed his mind about Bastion way too quickly for it to be believable.
** Is Overwatch returning a good thing? Sure, the game is named after them, and they're unambiguously the good guys, but how far does that justify how badly it failed last time? Winston, Reinhardt, and Mei are all excited by the prospect of Overwatch returning while Mercy and Soldier: 76 are skeptical. Was Overwatch a good idea that only failed because of one bad egg (Reyes) or was their downfall inevitable for a group only held in check by the ethics of its members?
** The Sombra [[AlternateRealityGame ARG]]. It's either a fun and exciting way to slowly introduce the character into the game, as well as continue the idea of Overwatch being a cross-media franchise, or a frustratingly long and needlessly complex process to introduce what is, in effect, just one more character to an already large roster, and one that could potentially backfire by creating too much hype for the character to live up to.
** Mei's waistline. There's been a lot of fanart of Mei without her jacket. Some artists make her fat while others make her not much wider than most of the girls, but also sporting large breasts and wide hips. Which one's more in canon is up for debate as all of her in-game models feature her wearing very heavy coats obscuring her figure and the only art of her without her jacket is an [[http://www.pcgamesn.com/overwatch/overwatchs-new-heroes-and-the-design-behind-them early concept piece]] which may not fully apply to how her final version is supposed to be. However, during the Summer Games, one of the new sprays includes Mei without her jacket, and (in that art, at least), she's pretty slim.
*** Fast-forward to the Lunar New Year event where Mei is given 2 new skins that shows she is on the slim side but now the question becomes how slim is too slim? One base is upset that Blizzard is trying to stealthily make the character the perceived to be fat more sexy for the general audience while the other side say it's not far-fetched due to her heavy winter clothing and that there are already several images of the character without her coat (sprays and player icons) that show her as fairly slender. Turns out, Blizzard says Mei's skins '''are''' bugged which causes her to appear slimmer than usual[[note]](The part of her jacket below the belt does appear to be floating, giving her the tiny waist look)[[/note]], which just brought out another group claiming it's all a lie so Blizzard doesn't take flak for crumbling to the demands of a few people a la the Tracer incident.
** Sombra's OlderThanSheLooks design has sparked a big debate in the fandom with varying degree of reception and reaction. Some are adamant about this, citing a similar situation with Mercy. Some think that the first group is overreacting and point out that it isn't that far-fetched for her to be 30 years old. Others believe that the profile is just misleading, considering Sombra's history of hiding from a powerful organization and hacking skills.
** The reveal that Tracer [[BadassGay is a lesbian]] has led to a few broken bases: Before the reveal, Blizzard had released the fact that (at least) a character is gay for quite some time. The fact that it turns out to be Tracer has led to a few major camps: those that are ecstatic that the fact that the face of the franchise (rather than a relatively minor one) is the character in question, making a huge point for representation; those that are disappointed that the reveal is that the character is the [[LipstickLesbian young, attractive woman]], claiming that it's a relatively "safe" choice and it can be pandering to those that think GirlOnGirlIsHot rather than actual representation; and those that are upset because for the opposite reason as the first group, and believe that the reveal is pandering to "social justice." Overlapping with all three groups are [[DieForOurShip shippers]] who have mixed feelings about Emily herself, making her a BaseBreakingCharacter. Depending on where you are, the reveal has been recieved very differently. The [=US=] forums were lit aflame, with dozens of topic created to discuss it, argue for/against, etc... The [=EU=]'s forum reaction? "Cool, and what about gameplay updates?"
** Much like with Tracer being revealed to be a lesbian, Symmetra being confirmed to be autistic by [[WordOfGod Jeff Kaplan himself]] (it was implied in lore but not outright stated). Some don't see how it's important and accuse Blizzard of PanderingToTheBase rather than working her autism smoothly into her character and the overall picture. Others are happy to see the autistic community see representation, something that is rarely done effectively in media all the while arguing that her gameplay is reflected of symptoms of autism. Others still are happy, but concerned that players who dislike her could use it as license to mistreat autistic players, already seen as AcceptableTargets within gaming communities.
* CargoShip:
** A few of the characters are infamous in the fandom for their love of their weapons. Most notable examples are Torbjörn/his turrets, [=McCree=]/cowboy hat and Symmetra/Shield Generator (due to how absurdly powerful it is compare to her Teleporter).
** For people who are sick of the ShipToShipCombat in the fandom and just want to focus on the gameplay, it's Everyone/the Payload or Everyone/the Objective.
** Some people decided to ship Orisa with D.Va's MEKA.
* ClicheStorm: The story is full of classic sci-fi and superhero cliches, such as a RobotWar, a hyper-intelligent gorilla, a supervillain whose powers are the results of medical procedure gone horribly wrong, two ninja brothers (one of whom is now a cyborg) who oppose each other's ideals, and so on. [[TropesAreNotBad A lot of this adds to its charm]], however, as the familiar tropes make the characters very easy to understand and the story easy to get into. What also helps is that, despite the familiar premises, each character possesses well-written and sympathetic backstories that make them easy to identify with. This even includes the ''[[TragicVillain villains]]'', if not more so. The story, despite not being in the game itself, is very detailed and well thought-out and has people wanting more.
* CounterpartComparison:
** Reaper is an "edgy" assassin clad in a black cloak who sports an undead-themed motif, wields two guns, and throws them away instead of reloading... Are we talking about Gabriel Reyes or [[VideoGame/DrakeOfThe99Dragons Drake?]]
** Soldier: 76 is a high-ranking veteran that nearly died in an attack that killed his loved ones and is now a gun-wielding vigilante on a one man crusade to get revenge on the ones responsible. Needless to say, fans were quick to draw comparisons to ComicBook/ThePunisher.
** Alternatively, an [[TheAce ace]] and a paragon of justice who was betrayed and had his good will shattered. Now he hunts for those who destroyed his life, and will stop at nothing to get to his goals, not even his old allies. No, we're not referring to [[Franchise/StreetFighter Charlie Nash]]. [[spoiler: Although Nash does see the error of his ways and eventually teams up with his friends again, only time will tell if Soldier: 76 reaches the same realization.]]
** [[spoiler: A former ally to a renowned hero, made the head of a shadow unit counterpart of a renowned military unit, becomes jealous of the fame he receives and sets a grand plan in motion to betray him. His plan results in the hero's demise, and the ultimate destruction of his organization. Except the hero survived, but he became so embittered by the events that transpired that he decides to become a vigilante in order to find the shadow responsible for ruining him, using whatever means necessary, all in the name of revenge. The hero's name? [[VideoGame/MetalGear Big Boss]]. The shadow's name? [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain Skull Face]]. Oh, wait, it's]] Soldier: 76 and Reaper, [[spoiler:real names Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes.]]
** Another equally valid comparison to Metal Gear can be drawn: A former friendly rival of a uniquely gifted Special Forces operative, who helped him save the day years ago during a major crisis, decides to turn on his friend over ideological differences. Said rival ambushes the hero and the two of them engage in a duel to the death, while the two of them are surrounded by explosives. The rival is seemingly killed and left for dead by the hero, but survives long enough to be extracted off the battlefield in secret. He's saved by a female doctor associated with the former hero, and his life is saved by esoteric technology that enhances his combat ability but leaves him in great pain. Disappointed by the lack of honor in not being allowed to die as a result of the duel he had with the hero, the rival becomes a vigilante with a death wish; hoping that he might find a strong enough warrior to end his pain. His greatest wish however would be to find the former hero who crippled him and left him in this state, one last duel to the death to reclaim some sense of honor over their dispute. Regardless of who wins or loses, the only way this man will know peace is if he can have that decisive battle with the man he once considered a friend. Are we talking about Reaper and his obsession with Soldier 76, or are we talking about Gray Fox and his obsession with Solid Snake?
** Ana is an ActionGirl and a CombatMedic that uses a SniperRifle as a HealingShiv for her allies, granting them buffs and healing while she also damages and shoots {{Tranquilizer Dart}}s in order to [[InstantSedation knock out]] foes at long range. Soon after her reveal, many people have started comparing her to Sharla from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'', who shares all of the aforementioned traits that Ana has.
** When Roadhog was announced, the initial reaction was "[[VideoGame/Dota2 The Pudge]] joins Overwatch!"
** [=McCree=] is often compared to [[VideoGame/MortalKombatX Erron Black]].
*** Or, alternatively, [[VideoGame/{{Evolve}} Abe]]. They're both heavily Southern-accented characters with revolver-styled weapons, grenades that slow people, and a similar fashion sense.
*** It's also easy to compare [=McCree=] to John Marston from VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption. Both are former bandits who were picked up by an older man who taught them virtually everything they know, and doubled as a father figure. Both of them tried to go legit after becoming dissatisfied with their life of crime, and faced prejudice and distrust that their good guy act is all just a scam. After their old organization was disbanded (Dutch's gang for John, and Overwatch for [=McCree=]) they went into semi-retirement and tried to live a more simplified life filled with less action. In the present they've been hired back into government service (John is forced to work for the government in exchange for his family, while [=McCree=] wants to relive his glory days from Overwatch and jumps at Winston's call) and are faced with the prospect of killing their old mentor who has now gone rogue.
*** A man who boasts about trusting the handgun at his hip more than the metaphysical? Are we talking about the Gunslinger of Junkenstein's Revenge, or [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo]]?
** Widowmaker has drawn quite a few comparisons to [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse The Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes]]. Both are BrainwashedAndCrazy assassins who were kidnapped by a NebulousEvilOrganization (Talon and HYRDA respectively) and made into livings weapons to do their bidding. Also, while Widowmaker was the wife of Overwatch agent Gérard Lacroix, who spearheaded operations against Talon, and was (presumably) a friend to Overwatch, Winter Soldier was the best friend of Captain America and fought alongside them against HYDRA. Considering that the Winter Soldier eventually was freed and became a hero in his own right, fans wonder whether or not Widowmaker will follow a similar path.
** Relevations about Sombra [[spoiler:being hunted by a shadowy Illumnati-style conspiracy has obvious similarities to the storyline of the newest Franchise/{{Hitman}} game, wherein the Shadow Client, a morally dubious lone wolf operative, is also waging an invisible war against Providence, a shadowy conspiracy controlling countless major global institutions.]]
** Ecopoint: Antarctica has led to people comparing Mei to [[Film/TheThing1982 The Thing]], as the map contains some easter eggs that reference the movie.
** Symmetra can draw similarities with another character from another famous Western RPG shooter, [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 Miranda Lawson]], namely because they are 'cheerleaders' of companies with morally ambiguous/questionable ethics (Vishkar and Cerberus), convinced that they're doing nefarious things for the greater good of mankind and justifying their bad acts without knowing their ultimate end goals ([[BaseBreakingCharacter which was also the source of their detractors]]), but despite that, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold they are still deep down altruistic and truly wants to help humanity instead of manipulating them for power]], not to mention having [[IceQueen an 'unapproachable and rather cold' personality]] with [[ThePerfectionist a perfectionist streak]]. This is only applying on the earlier ''[=ME2=]'' Miranda, but a lot predicts that Symmetra's eventual CharacterDevelopment can be similar to hers.
** Orisa, a big friendly superhero robot paired with a comparatively tiny KidWithTheRemoteControl, gives a lot of people flashbacks to [[Disney/BigHero6 Baymax]].
* CrackPairing:
** Mei and Junkrat together (some dubbing it "Icyhot" or "Nuclear Winter" or "[[{{Pun}} Meihem]]") has somehow found itself a modest following. Even though Mei can't ''stand'' Junkrat. [[FoeYay Or perhaps]] [[{{Tsundere}} because of it.]]
** Speaking of Junkrat, there are some fans that pair him or his partner Roadhog with [[LauncherOfAThousandShips Mercy.]] The latter was born out of several [[http://standbyaction.tumblr.com/post/148217031214/source memetically]] [[http://plays.tv/video/575cb1af9ed1d04550/when-mercy-is-real-bae funny]] interactions between Roadhog and Mercy players, primarily revolving around [[MeetCute Roadhog's ability to hook Mercy towards him,]] and Roadhog's potential role as a "peeler", [[BodyguardCrush keeping Mercy safe from flanking characters such as Reaper.]]
** Junkrat/Symmetra has also gained some sort of following, mostly because people like the aesthetic of the most chaotic character and the most orderly being together.
** [=McCree=] and Hanzo are heavily shipped despite both their vastly different backgrounds and personalities, as well as the fact that nothing in the source materials indicate ''any'' type of relationship between the two what-so-ever. They've never met each other canonically, and may not even be aware that the other exists. Despite this, they're arguably one of the most shipped pairings over on Archive. An update in September 2016 added a line where [=McCree=] compliments Hanzo's bowmanship, and the Halloween brawl event gave their non-canon counterparts several more lines together, and the Oasis patch added dialogue where they argue about their preference in drinks, adding fuel to the shipping fire. Also, in a podcast [=McCree's=] voice actor Creator/MatthewMercer commented that he thinks that the [[http://www.waifusofoverwatch.com/episode-5-its-high-noon-with-matt-mercer/ pair is adorable and basically shared a headcanon of them having a ramshackled apartment with them arguing over the decor]].
** Hanzo/Symmetra also started to gain a good dose of following even if they have never meet each other and their stories not intersecting in any way. This is due to their backgrounds as being dutiful associates to questionable/evil groups (Shimada clan and Vishkar Corporation) due to upbringing and having their more idealistic foils (Genji and Lúcio) being on the heroic side. Hanzo is often made a BigBrotherMentor to Symmetra in any event where she breaks away from Vishkar since Hanzo has already done so with the Shimada clan, teaching her to pursue [[TheAtoner the path of redemption]] even if their past sins will never go away. [[ShipMates This can go hand-in-hand]] with the [=McCree=] pair as it is not necessarily romantic and [=McCree=] also has a history with questionable group (Blackwatch).
* CrazyAwesome: Junkrat, a LaughingMad lunatic wielding homemade explosives who's able to give professional military soldiers a good fight.
* CrossoverShip: Despite the ''Overwatch'' fandom having a rivalry with the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' fandom, several ships involve a crossover between the games. Tracer/Scout and Mercy/Medic are the most popular [[note]]Either romantically or, just as popularly, a familial relationship with Medic being Mercy's father or mentor[[/note]], with Zarya/Heavy, Soldier/Pharah, and Spy/Sombra not too far behind.
* CryForTheDevil: In ''Reflections'', Reaper is seen lurking in the shadows, silently watching a happy family celebrating Christmas. Meanwhile, Widowmaker is seen mourning her deceased husband Gérard in the rain. Considering that she was responsible for his death ([[BrainwashedAndCrazy though not willingly]]), [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone one could only imagine just how much guilt she was feeling there]].
* DesignatedVillain: The narrative usually treats Symmetra as a villain simply because she works for [[MegaCorp Vishkar]], being billed as one of the villain groups, and her worst crime is initiating corporate espionage on Vishkar's order [[AntiVillain while also subverting their more ruthless policies and genuinely having altruistic motives to improve others' lives.]] It doesn't help that her main opposition, Lucio, is genuinely heroic and friendly that he averts being a DesignatedHero.
* DracoInLeatherPants:
** Symmetra tends to get hit with this trope within the fandom, where she's usually portrayed as unambiguously heroic. While her backstory is extremely sympathetic, and she truly does want to improve peoples' lives, her fans tend to forget that she's at best an AntiVillain who's currently working for Vishkar Corp. Not only does she actively antagonize people who oppose Vishkar (like Lúcio), she's terribly elitist and condescending towards poor people (despite coming from a lower class background herself) whilst rationalizing Vishkar's actions and doing their dirty work under the naive assumption that it was ForTheGreaterGood. Being implied / interpreted in her comic ''A Better World'' to lie somewhere in the autistic spectrum also let fans to have the tendency to excuse her elitist attitude.
** Reaper, Widowmaker, Sombra, Roadhog, and Junkrat can also receive this treatment, since they all have a DarkAndTroubledPast or MonsterSobStory, and come in various flavors of EvilIsCool or LaughablyEvil. Most prominently, people forget that Junkrat's a villain because of how cheerful, friendly and hilarious he is.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E-G]]
* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Ganymede, the bird that follows Bastion around everywhere, is unexpectedly popular, mostly due to being [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter very cute]] or being a factor of Bastion being a MemeticPsychopath thanks to how people find it hard to face it (see below). Its appearance and role in ''The Last Bastion'' only served to further skyrocket its popularity.
** Mondatta, whose only major appearances are a few seconds in ''Alive'' and a statue on King's Row map, enjoys a fanbase of his own for his SmallRoleBigImpact nature in the story.
** Emily from ''Reflections'' is gaining a fanbase due to being Tracer's girlfriend.
** Efi Oladele, the preteen robotics genius who created Orisa, became this as soon as she showed up and stayed popular even after being revealed to not be the 24th playable hero.
* EpilepticTrees: Many fans speculate that Roadhog isn't human anymore, but rather a {{Mutant}} due to how [[MadeOfIron insanely strong and durable]] he is despite having [[{{Kevlard}} no armor or advanced technology]]. He's more durable than a knight clad in futuristic armor, an armored gorilla, and an Omnic capable of ''stopping a car with one hand''. While all the other Tanks have advanced weapons and equipment, Roadhog has nothing but his hook and scrap gun, but is quite possibly even ''more'' dangerous than them. The idea is that the Omnium explosion mutated Roadhog to give him superhuman strength and durability, which originates from his original concept portraying him as a mutant unambiguously. Blizzard has yet to confirm or deny whether or not he's a mutant in the series proper.
* EvilIsCool:
** Reaper, a black-robed badass with a skull-esque mask who goes into battle dual-wielding (and juggling) shotguns.
** Widowmaker counts as well, being a sadistic, stealthy ColdSniper who's utterly ruthless.
** Junkrat and Roadhog are both anarchists, thieves and murderers, but Junkrat's [[DemolitionsExpert capable of going toe-to-toe with extremely technologically advanced enemies]] with homemade gear, and Roadhog is capable of going toe-to-toe with said enemies with only a hook and a Scrap Gun.
** Sombra, Widowmaker and Reaper's ally, who's ''introduced'' by [[BullyingADragon trolling Reaper]] and ends her introduction with [[spoiler:blackmailing the most powerful woman in Russia into her pocket behind Talon's back]].
* EvilIsSexy:
** Widowmaker has the most revealing clothing, including fishnet leggings and a top cut down the middle. Also one of the coldest, more cruel characters ([[BrainwashedAndCrazy though not her own accord]]).
** [[HotAsHell Devil Mercy]] and [[PurpleIsPowerful Imp Mercy]]. Form-fitting suits like vanilla Mercy, but with a demonic flare between them.
** [[HotWitch Witch Mercy]] in ''Junkenstein's Revenge''. It's the already gorgeous [[MsFanservice Mercy]] wearing one of the most revealing alternate skins in the game, what did you expect?
** Reaper has his fangirls (And guys) as well, mainly thanks to [[MemeticMutation his thighs]] and the fact that Gabriel Reyes was attractive pre-transformation.
* FanficFuel:
** The nature of Overwatch as a globe-spanning international organization that was host to potentially hundreds upon hundreds, if not thousands of agents in its heyday makes it an absolute goldmine for OC creators, and the current state of the backstory being as sparse as it is concerning the Omnic Crisis and what that conflict entailed leaves it wide open for those wanting to tell their own stories of those times, as well as what certain characters (or their own [=OCs=]) did after the dissolution of Overwatch. There's also the fact that Overwatch has been reinstated by Winston, opening up more possibilities of what Overwatch will be in its (hopefully) [[HesBack triumphant return]]. Many have also come up with ideas of how other members could join in on the action, such as Lúcio, D.Va, Zenyatta, Zarya, Hanzo, and others. People have speculated that even the ''villains'' could make a HeelFaceTurn, and see where that goes, though Widowmaker is the most commonly speculated to do this, see below.
** People have had a field day with fics where Soldier: 76's identity, Jack Morrison, is revealed to his old companions, [[TearJerker which is usually never a pleasant revelation.]] The same thing can be said for how Ana's survival will affect the team dynamic and the people that knew or heard about her, especially in regards to her daughter, Pharah.
** Widowmaker's sadistic, cold-hearted, BrainwashedAndCrazy nature that stands in contrast to her former sweet, loving, HappilyMarried NiceGirl self as Amélie Lacroix has become a host to all sorts of future speculation. It's commonly discussed and explored as to where her future will take her. Will she ever break free from her brainwashing, and how would she do it? Would she overcome it on her own, or would Overwatch {{deprogram}} her? What would happen afterwards? [[HazyFeelTurn Would she continue as an assassin but go rogue]], or [[HeelFaceTurn join Overwatch]]? Alternatively, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she could feel such extreme guilt from her actions]] that she'll [[ShellShockedVeteran suffer from PTSD]] and essentially be taken out of commission. Others want her to remain evil, believing it to be a core part of her character. It's anyone's guess at this point as to what actually ''does'' become of her. The ''Reflections'' comic, which featured her mourning the loss of Gérard, has only fueled the desire for a redemption arc even more.
** Similarly, fanfic of Symmetra learning about Vishkar's true nature, performing a HeelFaceTurn and/or clarifying/dealing with her autism pops up quite frequently after ''A Better World'' was released.
** The identity of Pharah's father has been subjected to a number of speculation and fics. The most commonly speculated to be her father include Jack Morrison/Soldier: 76 (due to their history together, and the fact that Soldier will specifically compliment Pharah, saying that Ana would've been proud of her like he personally knows her despite the fact that they're technically on opposing sides in the story), Gabriel Reyes/Reaper (due to hints that Reaper and Ana [[WeUsedToBeFriends used to be friends]] and he expresses disappointment that Ana took Jack's side), and Reinhardt (due to a pre-game interaction that has created much fuel for shipping). Adding ''even more'' fuel to this, an added line between Pharah and [=McCree=] indicates that she [[{{Fangirl}} idolizes]] both Jack and Reyes, seemingly unaware that they're still alive and are now known as Soldier: 76 and Reaper -- furthering the fan-interpreted LoveTriangle between Ana, Jack, and Reyes. Alternatively, some would prefer the idea that it was neither of them and just a random person who isn't connected to Overwatch, wanting to avoid drama and to strengthen the relationship between the mother and daughter.
** Sombra's origin trailer gave us [[http://imgur.com/4aA7sqj this shot]] that fuels many fan speculation to fill in the blank of the unknown figures that appear on it, as well as speculating about [[spoiler:TheConspiracy that discovered Sombra and forced her into hiding]].
** Liao. Just their very existence as the sixth member of the Overwatch Strike Team, and the fact that we know ''nothing else'' about Liao including their [[AmbiguousGender gender]], has opened room for ''a lot'' of speculation in regards to what role Liao served on the Strike Team, what Liao did after the war, and what Liao's abilities were. Assuming Liao becomes playable in the future, fans also wonder just what kind of hero Liao will be.
** The "[[HalloweenEpisode Junkenstein's Revenge]]" Brawl is a goldmine for fans to reinterpret the cast as fantasy characters, given that we only had 8 characters appear in that Brawl. Popular interpretations (usually based on Halloween skins) include: Symmetra as a vampire, Genji and Hanzo as Oni brothers or dragon spirits (which doesn't necessarily contradict the latter's moniker "Archer" in the Brawl) and Reinhardt as a ghost, a king or a [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs ghost king]].
* {{Fanon}}:
** Many fan works depict Roadhog as a CloudcuckoolandersMinder for Junkrat, treating his employer like a hyperactive kid in need of babysitting. This is even acknowledged in-game where before a match Roadhog often tells Junkrat to, "not make a mess this time" and Junk says he will be on his best behavior.
** Roadhog himself is officially stated to be from Australia, but many fans believes it makes more sense to view him as a New Zealander, likely of Māori descent. His real first name, "Mako," is Māori for "shark," and his "Toa" and "Islander" skins that bring to mind traditional Pacific Islanders. He also has a DummiedOut voice line of "If I wanted to go to the wop-wops, I could have stayed at home," "wop-wops" being decidedly Kiwi slang for the boondocks, the middle of nowhere, etc.
** Fanon dictates that Jack Morrison/Soldier: 76 was apparently very {{Adorkable}} before the fall of Overwatch, often with depictions [[http://67.media.tumblr.com/005985ff2b23470e97443a8de122a2ee/tumblr_o8a147sygz1s40xqgo1_1280.png like]] [[https://razylabbit.tumblr.com/post/144554437321/john-morrisonsoldier-76-dorky-smile-more this]].
** It's popular to interpret many of the characters as amputees whose tech armor serves as ArtificialLimbs (for example, Hanzo and Lúcio's legs, [=McCree=]'s arm, or ''all'' of Pharah's limbs). Likely to stress that the human heroes are NotSoDifferent from the Omnics.
*** However, since this fan-theory began circulating, Blizzard has said that the only prosthetics are the left arms of Symmetra, Torbjörn, and [=McCree=] (with Torbjörn's claw swappable for a normal hand), and Junkrat's cobbled-together right arm and leg - Hanzo, Lúcio, and Pharah have no artificial limbs.
** See those two dots in the forehead area of Reaper's mask? Some people theorize that those are ''bolts'' hammered in so the mask will stick.
** Many fans believe Pharah is a Copt who's probably also fluent in the Coptic language. She's extremely patriotic, her alias sounds similar to the Pharaonism movement which valued and emphasized pre-Islamic Egyptian culture - an important aspect of Coptic identity. There also many who believe Pharah's father was Canadian First Nations - specifically an indigenous man of the Pacific Northwest Coast, because of her "Thunderbird" and "Raindancer" skins. The "Reflections" comic also shows her dining with an unknown man in Canada.
** Fans have decided that Pharah's father ''must'' have been an Overwatch member and, furthermore, had to be one of her four fellow founding members. The two candidates most picked are Jack, for his status as TheHero, the fact that he'll compliment Pharah in-game despite being cold to almost everyone else and for having a close relationship with Ana as shown in their comic ''Old Soldiers'', and Reinhardt -- as he and Ana have a dialogue prompt which is very flirty and thus adds fuel to the shipping fire. Further, he also seemed to have [[DaddysGirl Pharah's attention more than any other person on the team]].
** Several fan interpretations of Reaper play up his Hispanic heritage, which isn't really addressed in-game, other than a pair of cosmetic Day of the Dead/Mariachi themed-skins.
** Despite Bastion being officially referred to by devs as genderless and referred to as "it," there's an increasingly popular interpretation that Bastion has female programming. Despite having no real physical TertiarySexualCharacteristics, fans like to compare its [[CuteMachines curious, wide-eyed mannerisms]] and [[FriendToAllLivingThings friendliness towards nature]] (complete with little bird companion) to a typical Franchise/DisneyPrincess... that also turns into a gatling gun turret with nasty PTSD. This may also be due to the fact that those speaking languages with feminine/masculine nouns such as Sombra in Spanish or Ana in Arabic refer to it with feminine nouns (though admittedly, this is most likely because they don't have gender-neutral pronouns and 'bastion' is considered a 'feminine' noun in these languages).
* FanPreferredCouple:
** Tracer/Widowmaker had people shipping them ever since the very first cinematic trailer for the game came out. The pairing became even more popular when the ''Alive'' animated short came out. However, for some fans, the "Reflections" comic sunk this ship ''hard''.
** [=McCree=]/Hanzo a.k.a. [=McHanzo=] got popular in circles of {{Bara}} fans, with various artists of the genre on Tumblr and Twitter started making fanart of them.
** Mei/Zarya also started to get a following.
** Pharah/Mercy ([[PortmanteauCoupleName "Pharmercy"]], [[{{Pun}} "Pharmacy" or "Phara-Medic"]]) is an extremely popular ship (by far the most popular for either character) owing to the fact that they are the only two characters that can remain air mobile and hence synergize very well. Blizzard added more fuel to the fire when one of their weekly brawls only featured these two together.
** Genji/Mercy ([[PortmanteauCoupleName "Gency"]], [[{{Pun}} "Emergency"/"Emergenji"]]) is popular, as well as teased by their interactions in-game and other media. For example, Mercy will lament she was too late to save a dead allied Genji, and he will also cry out "Angela!" should he witness her elimination. Blizzard added more tease in "Reflections", as Genji is shown to be writing a letter to Mercy for Christmas, which she seems very happy to receive, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRLtD_ZqoQ the two are discovered to have Valentine's Day lines where they get each other chocolates.]]
** Junkrat/Mei, but in one way only: Junkrat is often portrayed as an HopelessSuitor desperately trying to [[DefrostingIceQueen defrost the (semi-literal) Ice Queen]] [[RejectionAffection again and again]], only for a [[AbhorrentAdmirer disgusted]] Mei to reject him with various degrees of violence. However, some fans unironically ship them together instead and Blizzard gave them [[ShipTease more fuels]] in the Lunar Year 2017 event by [[HiddenDepths adding a voiceline for Junkrat saying "Wishing You Prosperity" in Mandarin Chinese properly ("Gong Xi Fa Cai").]]
** Soldier: 76/D.Va: Not in a 'romantic' way. When interpreting Soldier: 76 as 'Dad: 76', D.Va is generally one of the most popular characters depicted as his daughter, especially when she's being Gremlin D.Va.
** Ana/Reinhardt ([[PortmanteauCoupleName AnaHardt]], alternatively [[MemeticMutation Grandma and Grandpa]]). It started from one of their pre-game interactions, which has a flirty tone to it. Many fans have found this endearing and cute.
-->'''Ana''': Reinhardt, I must say you're looking quite well. This life must agree with you.\\
'''Reinhardt''': And you are looking as lovely as ever.
** A PlatonicLifePartners version between Lúcio/D.Va. The two are big fans of each other in-game, which leads a lot of fans to pair the two together in a decidedly non-romantic way.
** [[TeacherStudentRomance Genji/Zenyatta]] is a popular one, and usually depicted as ''exceptionally'' fluffy. The student/teacher angle helps.
** Roadhog/Junkrat's rough partnership, coupled with Roadhog's status as Junkrat's bodyguard, has resulted in a [[OutlawCouple strong following.]] Come the Halloween event, one of the main screens featured Junkrat's Halloween counterpart hugging Roadhog's Halloween counterpart around the belly, smiling adoringly up at him.
* FoeYayShipping:
** A considerable number of fans have been shipping Tracer/Widowmaker (Widowtracer, Without A Trace) since the first trailer. This is despite both of them being on opposites sides and trying to kill each other. Blizzard has only been fanning those flames, by giving the pair two pieces of in-game dialogue if they're on the same team (the first has Widowmaker trollishly sounding happy about working together while Tracer is ''not''; the second has Tracer cheekily asking Widowmaker [[CallBack what she's looking at]] and the latter replies with "An annoyance."). Tracer is also featured heavily in Widow's story trailer, ''Alive''. At the end of the trailer, Tracer tackles Widowmaker and asks [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil "Why?"]], Widow grabs Tracer (getting close enough for an AlmostKiss) and says "Adieu, cherie" (French for "Farewell, darling" or "Goodbye, my dear").
** On the male side, Reaper and Soldier: 76 have been getting some of this due to [[spoiler: their shared past as Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison]].
** Lúcio/Symmetra is quite popular, despite (or perhaps because of) their diametrically opposed philosophies and goals and the disdain they have for each other in gameplay. It does help that Lúcio is fighting against the MegaCorp Symmetra works for and even herself has some doubts about their methods.
** With the abandonment of the D.Va and Sombra ship, many were quick to jump on shipping Sombra with Katya from her webisode. It helped that Sombra spends most of her talk with Katya in the Russian's personal space, and it's not hard to take "friend" as more intimate than threatening.
** Katya meeting with Zarya got people thinking that Zarya and Sombra would be pitted against each other, thus shipping them.
* FountainOfMemes: Due to months of hints and teases, as well as the extreme length and convolution of her ARG, Sombra has an absurd number of memes based around her -- much of it based on WildMassGuessing and some based on her {{Memetic Troll}}ing of the rest of cast.
* GeniusBonus:
** One of Widowmaker's tattoos reads "araignée du soir", which is already a BilingualBonus. But those familiar with French proverbs will recognize those words: it comes from "araignée du matin, chagrin; araignée du soir, espoir", which roughly translates to "morning spider, sorrowbringer; evening spider, hopebringer".
** One of the pieces of set dressing in King's Row is a private establishment called The Ascalon Club, located by the memorial to Mondatta at the first point. Ascalon is the name of the sword of Saint George, the patron saint of England.
** Mei might ask Zarya how she's able to lift such heavy objects, to which she responds "I lift as well as I lift because it cannot be avoided." This quote is taken from Olympic weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev of the USSR, who won gold in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and broke 80 world records.
* GottaShipEmAll: One look at the fandom (especially Tumblr) and you'll be surprised how many CrackPairing combination that you can find from the colorful cast of the game. And yes, that include the Omnic heroes like Zenyatta, Bastion and Orisa. There are some characters that remain unshipped romantically, though, such as Winston (because he's a gorilla) and Torbjörn (because he's HappilyMarried).
* GrowingTheBeard: "Dragons" and "The Last Bastion", the fourth and sixth animated shorts released respectively, are universally agreed to be the best shorts to come out of the game in terms of writing and storytelling. For the comic, "A Better World" and ''maybe'' "Legacy" / "Old Soldiers" are considered to be the only real stand out from the rest, which received a SoOkayItsAverage reaction from the fanbase.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H-M]]
* HarsherInHindsight:
** Zarya's backstory describes her as having had a promising future as a competitive weightlifter, and had the opportunity to join the Russian Olympics weightlifting team had she not chosen to defend her home from the Omnics. Blizzard's celebration of the 2016 Olympics even adds an Olympic-themed skin for Zarya. However, this all comes amid news that many Russian Olympic teams, including the weightlifting team, have been banned from the competition due to evidence of doping among many of the athletes.
** The reveal of Katya Volskaya's secret brings to mind [[spoiler: the frequent misinformation commonly employed by leaders during the days of the Soviet Union and New Russia]].
** Both Zarya and Torbjörn's [[FantasticRacism anti-Omnic traits]] came off as a little over the top with how dead-set their hatred and distrust of anything Omnic is, even to the peaceful monk Zenyatta. But with ''The Last Bastion'' short, we get to see a small portion of what the [[NightmareFuel Omnic Crisis actually consisted of,]] and the word "crisis" ''really'' doesn't begin to cover just how ''horrible and devastating'' it was. Suddenly, their staunch anti-Omnic rhetoric doesn't seem so hard to understand.
** Remember that amazing cinematic trailer where Tracer and Winston fended off Reaper and Widowmaker from stealing Doomfist's gauntlet? The heroic efforts are rendered meaningless in Orisa's origin story since Doomfist himself attacked Numbani, and took his gauntlet.
* HilariousInHindsight: One of Reaper's voice lines ("Doomfist should do his own dirty work.") is now this in light of Orisa's origin story.
** The video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IydZOlx2yrc "So This Is Basically Overwatch"]] made by [[http://www.youtube.com/user/JelloApocalypse JelloApocalypse]] joked that Overwatch's cast lacked diversity because there were no "girl robots." This joke doesn't work now that Orisa (an Omnic confirmed to be female) has joined the already diverse cast.
* IncestYayShipping: After ''Dragons'', Hanzo/Genji, especially considering that Genji has forgiven his brother for killing him.
* ItWasHisSled:
** Reaper is Gabriel Reyes. Not only does the Origins skins spoil his identity, but since it's impossible to discuss anything about him without mentioning his past, pretty much everyone knows his backstory, or at least most of it. Same with Soldier: 76 aka Jack Morrison.
** Ana Amari is alive. It isn't even possible to discuss anything related to her, Pharah, the old Overwatch team or her old teammates without at least a casual mention of this fact. She's even a playable character.
* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Almost every character has been paired with everyone, but notable examples are:
** Mercy stands out more than anyone else, for being shipped with Junkrat, Roadhog ([[OneTrueThreesome or both]]), Genji, Hanzo, Soldier: 76, [=McCree=], Widowmaker, Pharah, Zarya, Torbjörn (rare) prior to "Reflections", and Reaper.
** Ana. Being the only character with a known child[[note]] Sans Torbjörn who was revealed to have several children and an attractive wife in the ''Reflections'' comic[[/note]], everyone speculates as to who Pharah's father was. The dialogue she has with most of her old teammates is full of ShipTease, with all of them upset that they didn't know she was still alive, her complimenting Reinhardt and Soldier: 76 on how good they look, and Reinhardt and [=McCree=] flat out flirting with her. The comic ''Old Soldiers'' adds even more fuel to the fire because it shows Jack and Ana's close friendship while Reaper accuses her of always siding with Jack. This has fanned flames of a possible LoveTriangle or LoveDodecahedron; after all, if fans can't decide which of the original team she slept with to conceive Pharah, then the next best thing is to assume she slept with them ''all''. She's also shipped with [=McCree=] (due to some mild flirting on his part), Mercy (especially if there's a jealous Pharah involved), and Widowmaker (for the FoeYay). Also, she's currently the ''only'' person consistently shipped with Torbjörn.
* LGBTFanbase: Hanzo and [=McCree=] got hugely popular in the {{Bara}} community, due to, in no small part, getting tons of fanart from various bara artists, including some already popular. Though those two are the most popular, Soldier: 76, Reaper and Genji also got popular in those circles in varying degrees. Ships between two women are also immensely popular among female fans. These fans were overjoyed when Tracer was revealed to have a girlfriend.
* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler:Sombra]] in the ''Infiltration'' short. Not only did she use Talon's resources to do the dirty work of arranging a break in of the Volkasya Industry facility, [[spoiler:she ''sabotaged'' their operation by sparing her target Katya and got the most powerful woman in Russia into her pocket through blackmailing, all the while with Talon none the wiser]].
* MemeticMolester: Talon has been the target of jokes about being full of perverts due to the way they made their BrainwashedAndCrazy subordinate Widowmaker wear such {{Stripperiffic}} attire. The fact that her skin was biologically altered so it wouldn't be ExposedToTheElements, presumably so she can look sexy anywhere, adds even more fuel to this.
* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales:
** Lúcio was well received by Brazilians - in no small part thanks to his very good Carioca accent in the Portuguese dub.
** Reaper and Sombra, who're both Latino, are almost universally adored by the Overwatch Latino fanbase.
** D.Va, the personification of South Korea's pro gaming scene, isn't played very much in North American or European Overwatch tournaments, but she has been substantially more used in Korean tournaments. At the Women's March in Seoul, South Korea, one flag was notably [[https://kotaku.com/bunny-symbol-for-overwatchs-d-va-shows-up-at-womens-mar-1791465389?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Twitter&utm_source=Kotaku_Twitter&utm_medium=Socialflow adorned with D.Va's bunny icon]] and even [[http://www.polygon.com/2017/1/26/14376436/overwatch-womens-march-dva created an entire organization]] named after her.
** [=McCree=] is very popular back home with American gamers, in no small part to the fact that he's a [[AmericansAreCowboys cowboy in the future]].
** Many players consider Soldier: 76's design boring overall, but he's a popular character nonetheless. This is particularly true in the USA, where FirstPersonShooter games like ''Franchise/CallOfDuty'' have dominated the market and thus his kit/design feel very familiar. Soldier: 76 was, in fact, specifically designed [[SkillGateCharacter to take advantage of this fact]].
* {{Moe}}:
** Mei seems to have been explicitly designed to be cute and huggable with her big eyes and NerdGlasses, despite being just as capable as any other character. Even Snowball looks like an anime sidekick. It helps that her name lends itself well to puns.
--->'''Voice Clip''': A-''Mei''-zing!
** Meta-wise, her voice actress, Zhang Yu, also gets this reaction by many fans because of how she's just as adorable in real life as the character she plays. [[https://twitter.com/25yolanda8866/status/823919615017238528 Seriously.]]
** D.Va as well: The youngest character in the game, a girl in her late teens, a highly competitive streak for potential {{Tsundere}} actions, and a rather petite body in a form-fitting plug suit, all of them are recipes for a very adorable character.
** As shown in Ana Amari's origins video, Pharah was positively adorable as a child.
** Mercy was pretty cute as a 17-year-old.
** Tracer’s no slouch in this department either, being a cute, friendly young lady with freckles, tremendous enthusiasm and quite the capacity to stay positive. Her voice lines, emotes and victory poses all convey a playful, youthful exuberance, and her appearances in the animated shorts give her some beautifully rendered and [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tracer_cinematic1.png very]] [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tracer_cinematic2.png expressive]] eyes.
** Most of the in-costume child versions of the heroes in the "Trick or Treat" sprays qualify. Examples include [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/overwatch/images/7/77/Genji_Spray_-_Trick_Or_Treat.png/revision/latest?cb=20161014112009 kid Genji waving two wooden swords with his candy bag over his shoulder]], young Lúcio [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/overwatch/images/f/f0/Lucio_Spray_-_Trick_Or_Treat.png/revision/latest?cb=20161014112125 rollerskating around with a bag of candy and oversized goggles]], and child [=McCree=] [[https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/overwatch.gamepedia.com/d/d1/Spray_McCree_Trick_or_Treat.png?version=7c907887b9daec3984f22ecbc7668828 stealing someone's bowl of candy]].
** Most of the children characters appear in the animated shorts are this due to the art style and their demeanor. The two most prominent examples would be Timmy in the cinematic trailer - who spends most of his screen time geeking out on the Overwatch hero and Tracer in particular, and Alejandra in the short ''Hero'' with her GirlishPigtails, big eyes and the belief that Soldier: 76 is still a hero.
* MoralEventHorizon:
** Talon crossed it when they abducted the completely innocent Amélie Lacroix, [[BreakTheCutie subjected her to extreme torture/abuse, intense brainwashing, neural reconditioning, the complete obliteration of her personality, and biological alteration]] to become [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Widowmaker]], all for the sake of forcing her to murder her own husband. Then she became a remorseless assassin, killing innocent people in the name of causing as much chaos as possible. While they've committed many criminal actions, it's widely agreed that the total corruption of her innocence is by-and-large the worst thing they have ever done.
** Widowmaker herself naturally was forced into crossing it as a result of everything that happened to her. She takes [[AxCrazy delight in killing]], having fully embraced her [[{{Sadist}} sadistic side]], and ultimately crossed this when she assassinated Tekhartha Mondatta, preventing peace between humans and Omnics in the dystopia that is King's Row. Even if one made the argument that it was [[JustFollowingOrders just her assignment]], her extremely [[SmugSnake smug]] behavior, laughing about it in a [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil distraught]] Tracer's face when all she wanted was an explanation, was what truly solidified the fact that she went over the line.
** Reaper, then known as Gabriel Reyes, committed a wide variety of atrocities while running Blackwatch, which [=McCree=] felt were even worse than what a notorious group like the Deadlock Gang does. He ultimately crossed it by leaking those same atrocities to turn public opinion against Overwatch, and then attempting to kill the loyal and righteous members of the team. Keep in mind, all of this was [[EvilIsPetty in a fit of jealousy]].
** Vishkar Corporation when they blew up a Brazilian favela, just to get the residents to accept their "improvements".
** The Shimada Clan crossed it by forcing Hanzo to brutally murder his own younger brother Genji just because he didn't want a part in their illegal business. While Genji did manage to survive, it was only because he was rescued on the brink of death by Overwatch and turned into a cyborg. Whether Hanzo himself crossed it by carrying out the action has been debated by fans, however Hanzo himself certainly thinks he did, which is why he lives as TheAtoner.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:N-W]]
* {{Narm}}: In Ana's comic ''Legacy'', the moment when she realizes Amélie Lacroix, now known as Widowmaker, is alive ''and'' a Talon agent is quite dramatic. Then Widowmaker turns around and goes for her gun, and the reader may notice that she apparently drilled a hole in the back of her helmet just for her ponytail.
* NarmCharm:
** Does Reaper look and act like an edgy OC? Yes. Is he badass anyway? Hell yes.
** Widowmaker's short "When I was a girl, I had a fear of spiders" monologue in the ''Alive'' short is as unintentionally amusing (due to its kind-of cheesy subject matter and Widow's strong French accent) as it is genuinely entertaining.
** Soldier: 76 beating a thug with a burning piñata while yelling "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis THESE! AREN'T! YOUR! STREETS! ANYMORE!]]" in ''Hero'' is a bit ridiculous, but at the same time he's so unflinchingly brutal going about it that it manages to work and solidify him as a badass.
** For those who aren’t put off by Tracer’s accent, it can have this effect. Yes, it’s a bit iffy, but her friendly nature and the sheer love and enthusiasm she has for being a hero in everything she says is quite endearing.
* NeverLiveItDown: While the event at Rio and ''A Better World'' serve as a MoralEventHorizon for Vishkar Corporation, good luck in trying to discover people who doesn't think that every of their past actions has to be done in style of Rio (blowing up rivals and locals, and enslaving them), [[StupidEvil even if it would've been inefficient in the long run.]]
* NoYay: After "Infiltration" debuted, fans were very quick to begin shipping Sombra and Katya, and interpret Sombra's desire to be Katya's "friend" as something sexual, which would basically mean that Katya was being forced into SexualExtortion.
* OneSceneWonder:
** The boys from the cinematic trailer. Timmy for being [[AudienceSurrogate a fan of Overwatch and its heroes who spends the whole short geeking out]], and Brian for [[spoiler:actually being helpful in the fight by ''stealing the Doomfist and knocking Widowmaker clear across the room with it'']].
** The wounded omnic from ''Hero'' only shows up for a few seconds, says nothing, and is inconsequential to the rest of the short, but his short amount of screen time is so pitiable that he may wind up staying with you long after it’s over.
** Something similar could be said for the “mixed” couple in ''Alive''. Especially when they also showed up in the theatrical teaser [[spoiler:being defended by Reinhardt during the riots following Mondatta’s assassination, with the omnic of the pair being much worse for wear]].
** The Shimada Clan thug with the pompadour hairdo who gets his phone shot out of his hand by Hanzo and runs headlong into a bell in ''Dragons''.
** Balderich Von Alder, the late leader of the Crusaders (Reinhardt’s order), whose corpse is on display in Eichenwalde, but who shows up alive and in fully-rendered glory to do what he does best during [[spoiler:the flashback sequence to the Omnic Crisis]] in ''The Last Bastion''. He also makes an appearance as one of Reinhardt's legendary skins.
** Okoro, Pharah’s omnic companion during ''Mission Statement'' who [[spoiler:blows his own [[CranialProcessingUnit head]] off when he [[HeroicSacrifice realizes the Anubis AI is starting to infect him]]]].
** All of the discussion regarding Tracer's girlfriend Emily makes it really easy to forget that she only appeared in a handful of panels in ''Reflections'' and only has about three lines.
** All of the playable character cameos in ''Reflections'' can be counted as this, but four instances stand out:
*** Reinhardt and Brigitte spent Christmas with Torbjörn and his family, not only confirming that the latter has a wife but also a massive number of children.
*** Hanzo appearing with a new haircut and piercings has led to fans clamoring for that to be his new skin.
*** [[TearJerker Widowmaker silently standing in front of her husband's grave]] as the snow falls.
*** Genji writing a letter to Mercy while in Nepal with Zenyatta, and Mercy receiving it in the Middle East with a gentle smile on her face.
** Blackwatch Genji from the ''Uprising'' comic stole the spotlight with four onscreen panels and two words of dialogue, due to his appearance being both memorable and [[NightmareFuel highly creepy]].
* OneTrueThreesome: Ever since Ana's introduction, Soldier:76/Ana/Reaper is rapidly developing a fanbase due to the interaction the three have with each other. ''Old Soldiers'' and ''Uprising'' has only enforced this.
** People tired of the ShipToShipCombat in some parts of the fandom have started responding by shipping all three of the characters involved together to solve the problem. The most notable one so far is [[PortmanteauCoupleName Phargency]] (Pharah/Genji/Mercy).
* ParanoiaFuel: Talon's kidnapping and brainwashing of Amélie Lacroix, now known as Widowmaker. It definitely makes one think about living in the world of ''Overwatch'', knowing that it's possible to abduct someone, torture them until their will is broken, and then use science to make them into a living weapon who feels little emotion outside the joy of killing. The idea that any innocent person, like Amélie, can be turned like this, is definitely a horrifying thought.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
** Bastion's animated short seems to have had this effect for some of its previous detractors.
** While not to the extent of Bastion due to the incredible HypeBacklash, the short ''Infiltration'' and the origin trailer did help alleviate some of Sombra's detractors. The fact that she's a FountainOfMemes definitely helps.
** A single panel in the ''Reflections'' comic has endeared Torbjörn to many, due to it showing him as a happily married father and being quite close with Reinhardt. ''Binary'' also endears Torbjörn further in regards to his racism, where he recognizes that Bastion is a peaceful Omnic now and protects it from other Omnic-hating men that hired him.
** Widowmaker gets a lot of hate, having a MemeticLoser status involving the low-skills players that often pick her, but in a similar vein, her one-panel appearance in ''Reflections'' has won over many due to the TearJerker nature of it, where she [[CryForTheDevil mourns her husband]] [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes Gérard]]. This has strengthened the desire for a [[HeelFaceTurn redemption arc]] in the future, and even those who weren't interested in the idea before are opening up to it.
** The ''Uprising'' comic is seemingly having this effect on Reaper, since it reveals and expands upon his character back when he was still Gabriel Reyes, vice-leader of Overwatch and leader of Blackwatch, and depicts him as having a personality beyond the generic "evil edgelord" image many thought he gave off based on his previous appearances in-game and in media. Here, he is depicted as having a sort of VitriolicBestBuds relationship with Jack (Soldier: 76) and Ana, engaging in lots of SnarkToSnarkCombat with the latter and having a StraightManAndWiseGuy relationship with the former (Reaper being the Wise Guy, of course).
* RewatchBonus: A few of the shorts and comics have this in play. In particular, Genji's actions from ''Dragons'' take on a new light when the audience learns of his identity and motivation.
* RonTheDeathEater:
** Certain characters tend to get demonized in fandom of certain characters or pairing. Prominent examples include: Genji in Hanzo/[=McCree=] (to create even more angst for Hanzo) and Pharah/Mercy fandom (which has became more prevalent after a... [[ShipTease certain]] Genji/Mercy voiceline) - if the author hates Mercy being paired with male characters, then every male character Mercy is usually paired with can get this treatment in Pharah/Mercy fics, and Soldier 76 or Ana (and even the entire former Overwatch organization itself) with fans that Leather Pants Reaper.
** In a non-shipping example, Torbjörn tends to get heavily demonized for his [[CassandraTruth caution and distrust towards Omnics]] in fics that DracoInLeatherPants the Omnics. Though this mostly went away once ''Binary'' was unveiled.
** Mei tends to get demonized from a friendly scientist to a cold-blooded [[CuteButPsycho psycho]] who would like nothing more than to drive an icicle into your skull or slowly freeze you to death while she looks on with glee.
** Even when you take out factors like Genji and shipping, Mercy also often gets demonized into some sort of inhuman MadScientist type healer where she has disregards of moral when it comes to doctor-based researches as well as some nasty experiments she conducted, including how she operated on Genji and Reaper. Some people even thought that she messed up Gabriel's operation on purpose instead of it being purely an accident. Her ambiguous age, how she still stayed quite young since the Omnic Crisis and Blizzard giving her evil-ish alternate skins like the Devil or Witch Mercy didn't help, when in canon she's probably one of the most altruistic, pacifistic and kindest characters in the game. It also doesn't help that Mercy's gameplay heavily draws inspiration from [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 The Medic]], who is actually that kind of amoral MadScientist 'doctor', giving some 'fans' reasons to compare and run with. [[Memes/{{Overwatch}} It's even one of her memes.]]
** Just like how she can get hit with DracoInLeatherPants, Symmetra can get hit with this trope as well, when people forget or dismiss her [[NobleTopEnforcer inherently]] [[AntiVillain good intentions]] and her doubts towards the company after ''A Better World''. She's generalized into someone just as elitist and delusional as her [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt co-workers from]] [[MegaCorp Vishkar]] ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation seeing that she doesn't show her doubts and continued to look for places for Vishkar to work on at her in-game quotes]]) to further glorify Lúcio's quest for freedom.
** Vishkar Corporation itself. While there's no denying that it is slated to be a bad guy/antagonist group, [[RuleofPerception at least so far,]] its evilness is often overblown by fans to StupidEvil levels that they disregard that its portfolio [[NeverLiveItDown doesn't only consist of Rio, where it oppressed the people there with slave labor while spouting hypocritical remarks]]. Vishkar is also responsible for Utopaea where the city was known to be beautiful, but wasn't necessarily built with slave labory and the opinion of the citizens there remain unknown. In addition of this, regardless of whether it's just them being opportunist or not, they still managed to recover India from its poor state after the Omnic Crisis. None of these matter to the fans that are just looking at their shenanigan at Rio, thus tends to think that anyone working for this organization have got to be complete evil villains, including Symmetra, and a lot think that [[NebulousEvilOrganization Talon]] [[EvilIsCool is a lot better as an evil organization.]]
** Speaking of corporations, Volskaya Industries leader Katya Volskaya often get this treatment after the unveiling of Sombra and the animated short ''Infiltration''. When it was revealed that Katya has a secret deal with Omnics to help stave off the Omnic invasion in Russia while promoting [[FantasticRacism Omnic racism]], people like to overblow it, thinking that Katya is a corrupt person only out to fill her own pocket, and [[UnwittingPawn she was just using Zarya]] [[ManipulativeBastard for her own nefarious ends]]. What's given so far is that we don't know the nature of the Omnics helping her as there were peaceful Omnics even during the crisis and [[NecessaryEvil if it wasn't for Katya's underhanded deal and racism propaganda, Russia would have been wasted by the Omnics during the crisis and calling the Overwatch for help would decrease its overall effort to end the crisis]], thus her calling Zarya looks more like a genuine call for help from a blackmailed person.
* RootingForTheEmpire:
** [[NebulousEvilOrganization Talon]] has its fans, due to their three reps so far - Reaper, Widowmaker, and Sombra - representing EvilIsCool and EvilIsSexy respectively. It also helps that through back story and other media, like the ''Reflections'' comic, they have also garnered a level of CryForTheDevil.
** This is a primary reason that for the many who want to see a Widowmaker [[HeelFaceTurn redemption arc]], there are some who want her to remain evil ([[MoralEventHorizon despite what Talon did to her being incredibly horrible]]), believing her to be more interesting that way.
* ScapegoatCreator: Lead writer Michael Chu has received this treatment from a small but vocal portion of the fanbase following the discovery of voicelines in the game files that hint at the [[RescueRomance Mercy/Genji]] ship becoming canon. On the Battlenet forums, on Tumblr, and on Twitter, ''many'' Pharmercy shippers have accused him of either being biased in favor of the Gency ship, or ignoring the different aspects of the more interesting lore in favor of pushing a ship that they disapprove of towards canon status. On the other hand, Michael Chu is also responsible for the reveal that [[BadassGay Tracer is a lesbian]], is the story director for the well-received comics and animated shorts, and is not the sole individual making story decisions or deciding what interactions to include.
* SelfFanservice: This is pretty unavoidable given the huge amount of rule 34 art this game has ([[WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings before Blizzard crack down on them]]) but the most prominent examples of this is with Ana, who if she is not given a body not possible for someone who is in her 60, is given figures that do NOT match when she was young.
* ShipToShipCombat:
** Mercy, as mentioned in LauncherOfAThousandShips, gets paired with nearly everyone and that leads to bickering. In particular, the {{LGBT Fanbase}} who ship the popular "[[PortmanteauCoupleName Phar-Mercy]]" pair are staunchly against her being paired with any male character such as [=McCree=]/Mercy, [[RescueRomance Genji/Mercy]], [[AngelDevilShipping Reaper/Mercy]], [[MayDecemberRomance Soldier:76/Mercy]], and many more. They were not happy when several very ShipTease-heavy lines for Genji/Mercy were found in the game files, [[http://tmirai.tumblr.com/post/155680924714/sneakyfeets-varae-ver-you-are-tiny-raptor and went absolutely BERSERK]] [[http://careforacuppatea.tumblr.com/post/155687011412/aftermath on]] lead writer [[ScapegoatCreator Michael Chu.]] [[RuleofCautiousEditingJudgement It got worse when those voice lines were released for the live version of the game in mid-March 2017.]]
** Ana/Soldier: 76 vs. Ana/Reinhardt vs. Ana/Reaper, especially over who the father of Pharah is. Fans of Ana/Jack cite their close bond before and after Overwatch, to the point the two are even together in the Christmas comic, ''Reflections''. Ana/Reinhardt fans go with the two being old friends who flirt, and Pharah's great love of him. Though for some Pharah has what looks like a PrecociousCrush on Rein, so for them him being Pharah's dad is {{Squick}}. Ana/Reaper fans will talk about how Gabriel is particularly angry that Ana would side with Jack over him, that he seems to have the mildest of soft spots for her, and that since Pharah has the same skin color as her mother, her father might have been someone equally dark-skinned, such as Gabriel.
*** The "Reflections" comic implies that her father might be a First Nation Canadian, which would also explain her "Raindancer" and "Thunderbird" skins. Although some fans still ship the above three given that there's so far no evidence that Ana disclosed her survival to Pharah's father.
** And now with ''Reflections'' out giving Tracer a [[BadassGay girlfriend named Emily]], all other ships with Tracer (especially ones pairing her with a male character) have been sunk. [[OhCrap Oh, dear...]] Some people, however, [[TakeAThirdOption have dodged this trope entirely]] by shipping [[OneTrueThreesome Tracer/Emily/Widowmaker.]]
* SnarkBait: Reaper is the constant target for jokes due to his overly edgy appearance and personality. Even his fans (of which they are plenty) will still joke about him being a complete edgelord.
* {{Starboarding}}: It's common for fans to give Efi a cute PrecociousCrush on Lucio, which is always portrayed as one-sided [[{{Squick}} for obvious reasons]].
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** In the most literal sense of the term. Many agree that the lore behind ''Overwatch'' is very detailed and interesting -- when we actually get to see it. While a story has technically been [[ArcFatigue (slowly)]] developing through an ExtendedUniverse, many fans have been disappointed about how rather slow it comes out (demand for a regular, episodic animated series or potentially even an animated film), and many others are also disappointed that there's no single-player campaign or modes that could shed better light on the characters and plots. The only major piece of lore that was in development that we know of was ''First Strike'', a 100-page graphic novel that would've detailed the early days of the Omnic Crisis, but it was cancelled at the last minute due to the team taking the story in a "different direction" than what was intended when the novel was written. While this means the ''Overwatch'' team is in fact concerned about delving more into the story (many fans in the hopes of getting events based on in-universe lore than simple holidays in the future), it's still taking a very, very long time to get started. To compensate, the dev team has begun to make events based off of lore such as the Omnic Uprising event.
** The comic ''Reflections'', which shows Tracer and Winston celebrating Christmas, reduced Bastion, Symmetra and Lúcio to poster appearances for no real reason while Mei, D.Va and Zarya are reduced to an advertisement appearance despite cameo from the rest of the cast. This is especially glaring given that Lúcio, D.Va and Zarya so far doesn't have any substantial narrative focus on them.
** ''Reflections'' also would've been the perfect opportunity to provide insight as to who members of the reinstated Overwatch are by having all of them at the base celebrating Christmas, yet its kept vague by showing all of them apart from each other. So far, only Winston and Tracer are confirmed to part of the new Overwatch, yet ''Recall'' showed Genji, [=McCree=], Mercy, Torbjörn, and Reinhardt being contacted. Their status in the organization isn't known, as there has yet to be any word on whether or not they rejoined.
** Another sense that is quite literal. ''Uprising'' is the first piece of lore that's truly present in-game, which has been met with unanimous praise... and it's treated as if it were a holiday event. Making it only temporary, and locking out all lore-based items despite not being tied to a season, has gotten on the nerves of many players, who believe that the mode and the content that comes with it should be permanent.
* ToughActToFollow: The second seasonal brawl, ''Junkenstein's Revenge'', was a massive hit, and became by far the most acclaimed. The followup brawls, ''Mei's Snowball Offensive'' and ''Capture the Rooster'', were not as well-received and Jeff Kaplan stated in a Developer's Update that the fifth brawl, ''Uprising'', was designed to be very similar to ''Junkenstein's Revenge'' while improving on complaints fans had about its predecessor. It seemed to work, as ''Uprising'' was a massive success upon release, becoming the next tough act to follow.
* UnintentionallySympathetic: Pharah's focus on the mission instead of her men in ''Mission Statement'' doesn't make her come off as the GeneralRipper the comics try to project because, as she points out, "the actual world is at stake". Given the fact that there is an Omnic Crisis going on and the Anubis AI is clearly established as being unknowable and dangerous to the rest of the world, her focus to shut it down makes her come off as ProperlyParanoid more than anything else.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Many fans feel that Hanzo fell right into this trope in ''Dragons''. In the short, after Genji reveals that he's still alive and takes off from the Shimada house, Hanzo immediately takes an arrow he fired in order to aim his bow at Genji - an action which, while understandable given the shock he just experienced, doesn't make him look sympathetic to the audience after the Heartwarming/Tear Jerking speech Genji delivered.
* VisualEffectsOfAwesome:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqnKB22pOC0 Every second of the cinematic trailer! You won't believe the number of comments asking for the game to be made into a full-length Pixar movie!]] All the other cinematic trailers, while shorter, haven't let up on the visual awesomeness.
** ''The Last Bastion'' in particular is incredibly well-animated, possessing ''gorgeously'' detailed nature scenes, as well as [[spoiler: finally showing up-close [[NightmareFuel the horror of the]] [[WarIsHell Omnic Crisis]].]]
* WhatAnIdiot: After helping secure Overwatch's downfall, Talon was free to influence the world with no one to stop them. However, they just ''had'' to KickTheDog by sending out Reaper and his {{Mooks}} to extract data to track down and kill inactive agents, even though most of them were involved with their own problems. But that plan was foiled by Winston. They obviously hadn't counted on Reaper losing, nor were they aware Winston was struggling with whether or not to illegally start a recall. Talon's attack on Watchpoint: Gibraltar, however, [[TheDogBitesBack was the final straw]], and Winston immediately recalled all former Overwatch agents. In other words, their attempt to kill all Overwatch agents ForTheEvulz ended up being the catalyst for the revival of their biggest opposition.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: ''Overwatch'' is commonly considered a kid-friendly game due to the Pixaresque art style, T-rating, and [[AWorldHalfFull generally hopeful tone and message.]] However, its backstory is filled to the brim with such [[SarcasmMode kid-friendly themes]] like:
** Corruption[[note]]As in the real world, corporations and governments are sometimes capable of taking advantage of citizens and the underprivileged, committing financial fraud, and otherwise ignoring the law. Examples include the Vishkar Corporation (damaging or outright destroying communities, intentionally or otherwise, to get them to accept their improvements), and the unnamed "suit" in "Going Legit", who attempts to commit insurance fraud.[[/note]]
** Drug and alcohol use[[note]]Roadhog is a habitual user of gas, while Hanzo [[DrowningMySorrows drowns his sorrows]] with sake and [=McCree=] [[SmokingIsCool smokes]].[[/note]]
** Kidnapping and brainwashing[[note]]Widowmaker's tragic backstory, being a completely innocent civilian who was kidnapped and subjected to extensive neural reconditioning by Talon to become the assassin she is now, all for the sake of murdering her own husband.[[/note]]
** Mariticide and fratricide[[note]]As mentioned above, Widowmaker killed her own husband after going through extensive brainwashing. That's not the only example of a person being forced to kill their loved one. Hanzo was forced by his elders to brutally murder his younger brother Genji, who only barely survived after being rescued by Overwatch. In both cases, they have to ''live with their actions'' as it haunts their minds.[[/note]]
** Mass death and destruction[[note]][[ItMakesSenseInContext The gorillas on the moon]] staged a revolt against the humans, which lead to the murder of everyone on the colony, including the completely innocent Dr. Harold Winston. Furthermore, after Australia struck a deal with the Omnics to allow them to reside in the Outback at the expense of the residents already living there, they staged a civil war that ultimately lead to them blowing up an omnium and turning the Outback into an irradiated wasteland, presumably with countless casualties along the way. Roadhog was at the forefront of all of this, and Junkrat was only ''five years old'' when it happened.[[/note]]
** Murder and assassination[[note]]Tekhartha Mondatta being killed in cold blood by Widowmaker in ''Alive'', Widowmaker herself killed many innocent people.[[/note]]
** Mutilation and violence[[note]]While not usually shown onscreen, Ana's eye got ''[[EyeScream shot out]]'' by Widowmaker, Genji was carved up to the extent that most of his body needed to be rebuilt with cybernetics, and many other characters were wounded in various ways. All of them engage in deadly combat (even [[MartialPacifist Mercy]]) and most enjoy it to ''some'' extent. And the [[RobotWar Omnic Crisis]] threatened to end humanity's existence and still scars the world.[[/note]]
** Sexual and suggestive themes[[note]]Admittedly light compared to the whoppers above, but the game has quite a bit of fanservice, something that wouldn't be appropriate for the kids' movies it takes influence from.[[/note]]
** Terrorism[[note]]Despite the higher security and technological advancements of Overwatch's world, terrorist organizations are still capable of deadly attacks and people still live in fear of them. Talon is the embodiment of this, as they show no regard for human life as they go about their "business", and corrupt the lives of the innocent in the name of achieving their goals -- as Widowmaker can attest to.[[/note]]
** Torture, conspiracy and blackmail[[note]]Blackwatch took specialty in doing things that Overwatch wouldn't want to do, and it's widely suggested that they took part in many human rights violations.[[/note]]
** Violence against children[[note]]Two kids, Brian and Timmy, 15 and 6 respectively, were caught in the crossfire in the battle at the museum between Tracer and Winston versus Reaper and Widowmaker for the Doomfist gauntlet. Widowmaker didn't even hesitate to fire at them when they got in the way, forcing Winston to protect them. In "Hero", a young girl named Alejandra gets caught in the middle of a firefight between Los Muertos and Soldier: 76, and she was very nearly killed from it. Also, Vishkar destroyed a favela, which led to a little girl getting horribly scarred from the aftermath. The Second Omnic Crisis in Russia also has confirmed (offscreen) child casualties, and the first Omnic Crisis [[FridgeHorror must have killed a large number of children as well]].[[/note]]
** Xenophobia and racism[[note]]Human-Omnic relations are reminiscent of racial prejudice and conflict in the real world. Human-human conflict and inequality are still around, with the continued existence of slums, favelas, and poverty.[[/note]]
** Overall, many would be surprised to find that what appears to be a kid-friendly world of light-hearted adventure is actually a world filled with darkness, tragedy, and despair. [[CrapsaccharineWorld It just happens to look more like the former on the outset]]. Many characters, [[TragicVillain even (especially) the villains]], have had horrifying backstories that would be dark in any story, let alone a supposed "kids game" like ''Overwatch''.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: The Uprising event and accompanying comic brought to the minds of some the actions of the Islamic State in the middle east, particularly Tracer's line in the comic about how Null Sector was destroying thousands of years worth of history in the ancient city of London, similar to how IS is known for destroying ancient historical sites and artifacts.
* TheWoobie: A lot of characters, both good and bad, need a hug. There's enough for an entire [[Woobie/{{Overwatch}} page]] about it.
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