Fridge / Overwatch

Fridge Brilliance

• Junkrat's ultimate involves a tire. His best friend Roadhog's involves… junk.
• Reaper's Face–Heel Turn as Gabriel Reyes makes a lot more sense in context. Think about it, he was once a member of one of the greatest peacekeeping organizations, and he was friends and squadmates with its leader, Jack Morrison. The combination of intense jealousy towards Jack for being given more attention by the public for his heroic deeds, as well as Jack doing absolutely nothing to relieve his best friend's envy towards him, drove Reaper over the edge. His stint as Reaper is basically the result of him thinking "You know what, fuck this, I'm done being a hero." and then giving Overwatch the metaphorical middle finger. If he couldn't gain notoriety as a hero, then he'll get it as a villain. Jack Morrison wasn't the only one who "died" during the explosion that destroyed Overwatch that day…
  • Even worse, during the Omnic Crisis, Overwatch fought a war, not a "hero saves the day" scenario, as regular soldiers against hordes of weaponized robots, and Reyes was the Strike Commander at the time. As the commander, he was held responsible (perhaps even by himself) for all the lives that were lost in the war, which are likely in the thousands due to the scale of the crisis. And after the war, when Overwatch became an official service, Morrison was made the leader, not Reyes, as if Reyes was no longer useful to the UN, resulting in Reyes' resentment towards Morrison and the UN…
  • Moira's experimentation on Reyes probably also didn't help with his sanity and empathy. It's entirely possible that it was Moira's transformations of his body to give him his spectral powers that made Reyes more violent and aggressive, leading to him cold-bloodedly murdering a Talon leader, exposing Blackwatch, and starting Overwatch's downfall.
• Why does one of Torbjorn's Play of the Game clips feature him riding his level 3 turret? He's being carried by it.
• Torbjörn's Molten Core is the only attack that deals bonus damage to armor. Most, if not all, of the heroes who have innate armor have a connection to him. He is the one who made or maintained most of their armor, and, in-game, the original hero who could give others armor. Of course he would be the one with the best weapon against it. As he himself says, "Build 'em up, break 'em down".
  • As of his rework in late 2018, Brigitte is the only one who can give others armor. This is done through her own ultimate, Rally. The current Molten Core could also be a parent-child rivalry.
• In "Dragons", Hanzo somehow survives a Dragonstrike despite gameplay showing that it can kill almost anyone in one hit. But Genji didn't actually reflect the dragons back at Hanzo. He merely made them move in a different direction. So in a way, the dragons are still "friendly" and thus cannot kill allies and Hanzo himself.
  • Or maybe it's a sign that Genji still considers himself to be on the same team as his brother.
• Also in the "Dragons" short, Genji redirects Hanzo's dragons with his own, but diverts his upwards at the last second before it reaches Hanzo. Hanzo is being attacked by his own dragons, which symbolizes the internal struggle destroying him.
• This one makes a Moment of Awesome more awesome. In "Recall", Winston responds to Reaper's threat by emphasizing that he's not a monkey, but a scientist. First, he uses his defective shield projector to knock Reaper to the floor, then he makes a quick grab for his Tesla Cannon to finish Reaper off. Winston's victory didn't come from his strength, but his inventions. Indeed, the "monkey" didn't beat Reaper, the "scientist" did. Note also that with the first one, Winston is reproducing his results, which is a key part of the Scientific Method.
• Bastion's "voice" isn't articulated speech nor overly synthetic beeping, and instead resembles some kind of robotic chirping. Perhaps it's trying to mimic Ganymede (that bird that's almost always following it)?
• A common counter to a Bastion is usually a Genji in gameplay. Bastion was programmed to fight ordinary humans. Nothing quite ordinary about Genji, whose body is enhanced to a level comparable to a machine.
  • Another common counter to Bastion is Orisa… because Omnics like Bastion units were among the biggest threats to humanity, so of course Efi would build her own human-protection machine to be able to take down one of the most common and iconic threats to humanity.
• You hear your squadmate shout their Ultimate ability in your default language, but you hear the enemy shout it in their native language. This makes sense because a multi-national fighting force would need universal translators to fight well together, and you wouldn't want the enemy to know what was being said.
• Winston heavily counters Genji. Ninjas rely on exploiting human superstition to seem like more than they actually are. Winston is a scientist, and by definition, not one to believe in superstition, nor is he a human to begin with.
• Nearly all of the characters formerly classified as offense heroes have an Ultimate that is focused on precision. Doomfist strikes a chosen area, Genji uses his Sword, McCree and Soldier: 76 use precise targeting, Pharah's rockets fly only at the direction she's pointing them at and doesn't need to compensate for movement because she stays still in one spot, and Tracer uses a sticky bomb with a pretty small damage radius. The only exceptions are Reaper, who starts firing his shotguns in all directions without any attempts at aiming and just shreds anyone standing around him, and Sombra, whose ultimate affects everyone around her similar to Reaper, but hers doesn't do any damage. Out of all the Offensive heroes, Reaper is also the only one who is an outright villain, and his Ultimate reflects that. Sombra works with Talon just like Reaper (hence the area of effect similarity), but her ultimate just hacks everyone. It reflects on how her true motives are shrouded in mystery, her obsession with hacking, and a possible reference to the Infiltration short, where she spares Katya Volskaya instead of killing her as instructed, and uses the information she gathered by hacking to blackmail her.
  • Also, Soldier: 76's kit is Boring, but Practical, especially compared to other characters. But it makes sense since he is one of the few characters who would have normal army training, who would focus on teaching their soldiers Boring, but Practical tactics. And, unlike Lena and Gabriel, 76 wasn't the victim of an accident that would grant him powers to use to fight.
• When D.Va's MEKA is destroyed, she has to wait to charge up a new one to summon. But if she uses her Ultimate, she can summon a new one after it's been destroyed. Assuming she has to manually call in these new MEKAs from an outside source, if it gets destroyed by an enemy, she doesn't have time to call in a new one before her emergency ejection, and it's likely her radio (or whatever she uses) is inside the MEKA itself. So a new one is only sent when the outside source realizes on their own that there's trouble. But when she activates the self-destruct sequence, she presumably calls in a new one right before hopping out, so it's ready for her.
• Hanzo's Hitbox Dissonance for his arrows. In the "Dragons" short, Hanzo was able to make his arrows curve to hit their targets. He may be doing the same thing in-game, just to a much smaller extent.
• One of Zenyatta's lines for when he's "on fire" is "I am on fire. But an extinguisher is not required." This could be interpreted as just a silly little Literal-Minded joke, but this could also be a tongue-in-cheek reference to how Eastern monks, including Buddhist monks Zenyatta is based on, have a minor history of Self-Immolation as a form of protest.
• One of Zenyatta's lines, when looking at the Earth from the Horizon Lunar Colony, is a quote from C-3PO; "The damage doesn't look as bad from out here." Given his methodology, however, it could also be a wistful comment on how, despite looking so beautiful from a distance, Earth is full of tragedy and suffering right now.
• When Junkrat sets off his Concussion Mine, you'll hear a car beeper as the mine explodes. He probably used salvaged car locking systems as the remote trigger mechanism for the mine. Which ties into why he throws away the detonators when he uses them; car locking systems are only tied to their keys in a 1:1 ratio, meaning that it would be too much work to make a universal detonator, and neither would he want to accidentally set off all his concussion mines at once.
• During the "Hero" short, some people complain that Soldier: 76 didn't use a biotic field after being injured by the grenade. There's two possible explanations for this: either he started using biotic fields after this incident and he realized that people could be injured by his actions, or he wasn't expecting anyone else to be involved and didn't bring any.
  • If it's the latter, then it's more understandable. The Biotic Field heals in a wide area and not just himself. He doesn't want to accidentally heal the bad guys he just beat up.
  • Third theory; he already used it on the Omnic who the gang members beat up.
  • Or that he simply didn't have any of the presumably difficult-to-manufacture or expensive nano-machines around, given that he was a vigilante at the time. His equipment at the time seemed either fairly common (a Boring, but Practical heavy assault rifle) or didn't use ammunition, like his Tactical Visor.
• A lot of the characters' nationalities make sense. Some of them are obvious (they won't be listed), but some of them less so:
  • Soldier: 76 is a generic first-person shooter hero, so he shares the nationality of many generic first-person shooter heroes (and fans, and developers) before him; American.
  • Reaper is the Darker and Edgier trope personified. He is also American, as the tendency towards darkness and grit is generally associated with American entertainment media.
  • Reinhardt is essentially a medieval knight with Powered Armor and a big, rocket-powered hammer. Specifically, a heavily-armored, very defensive Teutonic Knight. Like nearly all Teutonic Knights, Reinhardt is German.
  • Mercy is a pacifist doctor. Her home country, Switzerland, is not only known for not participating in any wars since 1815, but for founding the International Red Cross, which is still headquartered there. Mercy also does a surprising amount of damage, and the Swiss military, despite being a neutral force, are well known historically for being professional and highly-trained.
  • Symmetra is an Indian support heroine who focuses on utilizing advanced technology. In other words, she's an Indian tech support.
  • The resident Femme Fatale is, appropriately, the French Widowmaker.
  • Torbjörn, the only character in Overwatch to hammer together his gadgets, hails from Sweden, home of IKEA.
  • Brigitte also hails from Sweden, but reflects a mixture of both her father Torbjörn's mechanical skills and Reinhardt's Knight in Shining Armor methods and philosophy. Sweden was, historically, a powerful Scandinavian country that was often the meeting point between Norwegian and Germanic cultures. Brigitte reflects that by combining both her father and mentor's philosophies.
  • Hana Song, AKA D.Va, is Korean. She is also a pro-gamer in her civilian life, and Korea is a hotbed of the e-sports scene.
  • Lena Oxton, better known as Tracer, was a British fighter pilot before the Slipstream incident grounded her. One of the most famous military divisions in the world is the British Royal Air Force, which was critical in fending off Nazi Germany from invading Britain.
  • Junkrat and Roadhog both hail from an Australia that is essentially in a state of post-apoclypse. Makes sense if you remember that one of the most famous Australian films is Mad Max.
  • Orisa is from Nigeria, and built by a Nigerian. Her youth and advanced technology reflects how Africa in general is finally rising up to join the rest of the world in Overwatch, with the positive, youthful outlook of a new player on the world stage.
  • Moira is an Irish scientist who can heal others. Two well-known medical inventions that came from Ireland are the hypodermic syringe and the binaural stethoscope.
• Winston's entire gameplay style is based around disrupting the enemy team through patiently-planned hit-and-run ambushes, bringing in violent initiation out of nowhere and leaving before the enemy can appropriately react. In other words, guerrilla warfare. Additionally, another way he can be played is simply by overwhelming the enemy and ensuring a quick victory through surprise attacks and brute force. A common military term for this is "blitzkrieg," which translates to "lightning warfare" from German. It appears that Winston took the term literally.
• In the lore, Ana can heal allies using her gun because it was designed to do so. Now think about it. She shoots her allies to heal them. It's friendly fire.
• One of Reinhardt's lines has him say that he won't quit fighting as long as he's breathing (aka not dead). So, what happens when you realize that Reinhardt is no longer working for you during a game after dying multiple times? You switch heroes. So yeah. Reinhardt does stop fighting when he's dead.
• We know that Reyes/Reaper felt that he deserved the position of strike commander instead of Morrison. Other than the color and having a hood, Reaper's jacket looks almost identical to Morrison's strike commander jacket.
• At first, one might assume that Tracer represents the Track and Field game in the Summer Games event because she is the blink-ey, fast character. But it makes more sense when one considers that she's British, which serves as a shout-out to the British drama Chariots of Fire.
• Ever wonder why all of the playable characters are referred to as "heroes", even the ones that clearly established themselves as villains? One of the main themes of Overwatch is that anyone can become a hero — they just needed the motivation to make it happen. The same thing applies to becoming a villain. This theme crosses over into Tear Jerker territory when you remember how horrible the backstories of some of the characters are — all of these characters are fundamentally good people, but time, circumstances, and the ability to persevere shaped their actions and behavior. Reaper used to be good until resentment and jealousy issues set in, and Widowmaker was a sweet woman who was transformed through kidnapping, brainwashing, and physical and mental conditioning. Hell, even Junkrat and Roadhog used to be completely decent until Australia turned into a wasteland, and their only chance of leaving their life of crime behind is ruined by a heavily corrupt legal system full of assholes who enjoy screwing over honest people. The more heroic characters suffered just as much and are as flawed as the villains, but what kept them firmly on the side of good is their belief in changing the world for the better.
  • Alternate interpretation: While some people are undeniably heroic, the rest of them are included because they are heroes… to themselves. Reaper is getting his revenge and shaping the world as he thinks it should be, Widowmaker is serving her master, Doomfist thinks that he's making humanity stronger by driving the world into a Forever War, Sombra is playing Talon as pawns while she's uncovering a global conspiracy, Junkrat and Roadhog basically decided that the world doesn't give a flying damn about them, so they're just ripping riches out of its grasp that they know they would just be denied otherwise, and even the death-seeking Hanzo believes that through his own death, he'll be able to redeem himself, which is why he takes as many chances to provoke Genji to kill him as he can, even if it means invading his home in Nepal and murdering a bunch of Omnics in London to foster hatred between them.
• In "Hollywood", while you're escorting the payload, the occupant makes various comments; one is a complaint about how much money his barber charges. But Hal-Fred Glitchbot is an omnic, and presumably doesn't grow hair; why would he need a barber in the first place? (Icing on the cake: "Hal-Fred Glitchbot" is a play on the name "Alfred Hitchcock" — who didn't have much hair himself, as it happens.)
• A few people have been complaining about how over-the-top and drawn-out the Sombra ARG is, right? However, keep in mind that it is exceedingly common for Hackers who are too skilled, and who get too cocky, to start acting overdramatic.
  • On that note, the Infiltration short shows that Sombra is good at manipulating people — even her "boop" catchphrase is revealed to be subtle intimidation of her target. "Social engineering" is considered a very important part of hacking, because exploiting people is usually much easier than cracking computer security software.
• It is stated that Reaper's cells rapidly decay and regenerate; when you think about it, he is literally crawling in his own skin and his wounds will never heal.
• Players have complained that Roadhog doesn't play like a proper Tank, due to the fact that he can't deploy shields, and is a poor pick when it comes to protecting his teammates. His gameplay involves flanking, singling out individual targets with his Chain Hook, and using Take a Breather to heal himself. However, compared to the other Tanks, this fits him perfectly. The other Tanks have backstories about being heroes and protecting others. D.Va was summoned by the South Korean government to protect her homeland from the Colossal Omnic, Winston was an Overwatch agent who put himself on the line to keep the world safe, Reinhardt dedicates his life to justice while guarding civilians with his shield, Zarya left her career as a weightlifter to be a front-line soldier for Russia, and Orisa is a robot that was literally built to protect the innocent. As for Roadhog? He only cares about himself, going on a worldwide crime spree just to make more money, and thinks little of everyone else, including his partner-in-crime Junkrat. His nature is literally in his name, as he would kill anyone who tried to share the road with him. Doesn't sound like someone who would be good at protecting others, does he?
  • Also, Roadhog plays the traditional tanking role in another way. He's a massive threat, especially to supports and squishier heroes, and when spotted, he often becomes a priority target because he can so quickly kill an essential team member. When a team sees a Roadhog, often multiple members will peel off to focus on him to the exclusion of other heroes. In other words, Roadhog does the PvP equivalent of pulling aggro off his teammates.
  • In another sense, part of how Roadhog "tanks" is by both threatening to, and actually pulling enemies off his squishier teammates and introducing them to himself, physically dragging opponents off his charge, although he only really has the ability to do this to a single attacker, and therefore, mostly a protect a single ally at a time. Junkrat hired Roadhog to be his bodyguard, and that's just what Roadhog does, act as a big burly bodyguard that opponents have to contend with if they want to jump on his squishier teammates.
• Why does Tracer have less HP than other Offense heroes (Balance reasons aside)? Two reasons: 1) Pharah has the Raptora suit, McCree seems to be wearing some form of body armor on his torso, Genji is a Cyber Ninja (and as such probably more resistant than a normal human), Reaper is a wraith, and Soldier: 76 is a Super-Soldier (not to mention he is probably wearing body armor under that jacket). By comparison, Tracer doesn't seem to be wearing anything else than her clothes and her chronal accelerator. 2) You probably don't actually damage her, you damage her chronal accelerator, which, when her HP reaches zero, breaks and sends her spiraling across space-time again. An alternate explanation is that while all of the other Offense heroes have on-foot combat experience, Tracer is a pilot with no canon experience in firefights or hand-to-hand combat, and as a result isn't likely experienced with taking injuries and recovering from them.
• Widowmaker players tend to get a bad rep for being useless. Often sticking to one spot, barely getting any kills, missing most of their shots due to a lack of patience, and generally not contributing to the team. However, for the many Widowmaker players who don't contribute, there are some that are frighteningly dangerous with her. Often scoring headshots that kill their enemies instantly, then they move to another spot and get the drop before the enemy gets the chance to counterattack, doing it again. These types of players are able to essentially assassinate enemies before they get the chance to even react, and they do so by being patient and lining up their shots accordingly. These players often force entire teams to adjust their strategy just to counter her. Does all of this sound familiar? Because it sounds a lot like Widowmaker in-canon. A sniper so feared, she is said to be able to be in two places at once, one that is patient and gets the job done. Not for nothing is she Talon's top assassin. She wouldn't stick to one place because she is known for being an extremely mobile sniper, not one that sticks to a single spot and fails to land a hit. In other words, the skilled Widowmaker players are playing her realistically, which is, quite frankly, very frightening.
• Roadhog has the least interactions out of everyone in the game, only having pre-game dialogue with Junkrat that mostly consists of irritation with his partner or outright telling him to shut up. Given that his backstory implies that he'd rather that people just leave him alone, it makes sense that he doesn't interact with anyone except Junkrat, and even then, it's simply out of necessity since they're partners in crime.
• D.Va's sitting emote involves her pulling out a controller and playing a video game while munching on some chips and soda. This may seem out of place in what's basically a military combat suit, but considering that the Mini-Mecha was designed with being piloted by gamers specifically, it makes enough sense that they would include a very simple minigame for the pilots to "stretch" before going into combat. And the soda and chips. Well, military equipment is commonly built to hold MREs ("Meals Ready to Eat" — military jargon for prepackaged food), and D.Va's outfit demonstrates that she's still sponsored, even while conscripted.
• When using the Caduceus Staff's healing beam, the three wings move smoothly to the right (player's perspective). When the damage buff beam is being used, the wings move to the left in a somewhat unstable and clunky manner, as though it wasn't meant to be used that way (originally, at least). Mercy was opposed to Overwatch's militaristic ways and focused on making lives better, while Overwatch weaponized her Caduceus technology, which was meant to be used for healing purposes only. Now, take another look at the wings when healing. They move right (correctly) from the player's (Mercy's) perspective.
• In an amusing and almost reassuringly intentional bit of game balance, Ana is a strong counter to her daughter, Pharah (her strong hitscan rifle can shoot her out of the open sky and her Sleep Dart can shut her ultimate down immediately). "Mother always knows best" indeed.
  • This works both ways, with Pharah being able to quickly fly over a sniper's nest and flush her out or outright kill her with a few rockets. Daughter rebelling against her mother?
• "I have accepted what I am and I have forgiven you. Now you must forgive yourself. The world is changing once again, Hanzo, and it's time to pick a side." — Genji, from the animated short Dragons. Sounds like any inspirational-sounding line directed at his brother, right? What makes it truly inspirational is when you realize that this takes place directly after Recall, where Winston reinstates Overwatch, and Alive, where Widowmaker assassinates Mondatta, proving that the world is in desperate need of heroes. In other words, he's alluding to Overwatch making its triumphant return, which he is most likely a part of (being that he was one of the agents being recalled, despite having left before Overwatch crumbled). Not only that, but he's offering for Hanzo to be on his side, which is also alluding to the rebuilding of the organization, which will most likely involve the induction of new members which had never originally been a part of the organization.
  • What makes this brilliant is that this doesn't apply to just Hanzo. It can mean that the new Overwatch doesn't take account of what you have done in the past as long as you have a potential for good. Hanzo was once a mercenary whose idea of 'redemption and honor' was 'how many people he can fell with his arrows' and still upheld whatever good parts the Shimada clan used to have, but the new Overwatch can still see potential in him. This can apply to Bastion, who used to be one of the Bastion units that rampaged through the world in the Omnic Crisis, but now wants nothing but a peaceful existence with just Ganymede. This can also apply to Symmetra, who had good aspirations in improving the world's condition, but was horribly manipulated by the Vishkar Corporation. And ultimately, this can lead to eventually forgiving Widowmaker in a sense… but only if they managed to revert her back into Amelie Lacroix. So bottom line, the new Overwatch represents the change that they will still see the good in many potential members, even if their past might be mired with evil.
  • Some of Hanzo's pre-combat dialogue with Widowmaker and Doomfist also confirms that he has absolutely no interest in rebuilding the Shimada clan or joining Talon, instead intent on finding his own way. He hasn't fully joined Genji or Overwatch, but it's clear Genji's words have had an impact on him. He might not consider himself a hero able to help the world, but he will certainly never contribute to its downfall.
  • The Overwatch 2 trailer has Genji as part of the Big Damn Heroes who back Winston, Tracer, and Mei up against the gigantic Null Sector omnic. With the above Fridge Brilliance taken into account, Genji's words and actions in Dragons can be seen as foreshadowing for his role in Overwatch 2.
• In the Halloween update and the new brawl, Junkenstein's Revenge, it would make sense for Dr. Junkenstein to have allies and robot minions, as he is the complete opposite of the real Junkrat. Junkrat is reckless, hates Omnics, is probably hated by a lot of people because of what he is, and makes stuff out of, well, junk. Dr. Junkenstein, on the other hand, is smart and tactical, has robot minions, has allies, and created the same robots (and his own monster) through science and creativity.
• Why does Soldier: 76 call McCree "an oddity" in Junkenstein's Revenge? Because in the original iteration of the event, almost every character present in the brawl had an exclusive halloween costume. Soldier gets a Thriller-inspired outfit, Mercy gets to be a Witch, Hanzo looks like a Yokai, Roadhog and Junkrat are Frankenstein's Monster and Doctor Frankenstein respectively, Reaper is a Headless Horseman, and Ana is a Ghoul. Even Reinhardt, the narrator, has a skin. Who doesn't have a costume of his own? That's right, McCree. Though the next Halloween gave him a Van Hellsing-inspired costume, he was still the only hero who had a Legendary skin instead of an Epic one. Hence, his title as the oddity, even though it may not apply starting from the 2018 version.
• It's noted that despite Junkenstein's Revenge being set before the main game, someone Jack and Ana knew eventually became a dark villain named "Reaper". Of course, telling Gabriel that story might have caused him to infer that he was the "Reaper", and he almost definitely based his later identity as a villain off of it.
• Nepal is a great place for omnics because it's cold and spacious; being machines, they're susceptible to overheating. In addition, the clear skies mean they get good reception (since the LumériCo website establishes that omnics use telecommunications networks). The Underworld in King's Row is omnic hell because it's the opposite; hot, cramped, and entirely below ground.
• Before she was announced or even officially acknowledged by developers, one of Sombra's first in-game hints took the form of Reaper in Dorado asking "Where's Sombra when you need her?" Keep in mind, he only says this before the match begins, i.e. before the attack-spawn doors open. Now that Sombra and her Infiltration short have been released where we see Sombra trolling Reaper with the door controls, we can ascertain that apparently Reaper's had a frustrating history of Sombra not opening the door.
• You know all the Camera Abuse happening in highlight intros, such as McCree poking some holes in it with his revolver, Roadhog grabbing it with his hook and pulling it over, Symmetra correcting the angle of a camera whose support has seemingly given out and it tilted, and even Ana tranquilizing them with her sleep darts? It may seem kinda odd that they're able to do this, considering the target is, well, a camera… But what if it's not? Small helper robots exist in the Overwatch universe, as evidenced by Mei's Snowball and the practice droids; who's to say that instead of using an actual camera, we don't have one posing as such, and simply getting shot at, hooked, put to sleep, etc., like everyone else? Even in Symmetra's case, she could be just posing for it when it gives out and then she realigns it while making a support for it out of hard light? It even explains some of the trickier shots like Winston's glasses intro — the floating droid just got inbetween him and them and just floated off when it got the right shot. Either that or Hal-Fred Glitchbot had them film it in Hollywood, or follows them around to record the intros post-battle. Actually, if he specifically directs them to do these things, that's even better!
• Roadhog's gun uses scrap metal as ammo. One might figure that it's useful at the Outback, his home, since it was the site of a fallout and likely has plenty of scrap. While that's true, there's another very likely reason for this odd choice. Roadhog is very strongly anti-Omnic, and his whole purpose in life is to kill as many of them as he can. And what are they made out of? Yep. Roadhog uses a scrap metal gun because he can use the BODIES OF HIS ENEMIES as ammo.
• Many aspects of Lúcio's gameplay require you to have a sense of timing and/or judgement calls (switching between his songs, when to use Amp It Up, the right moment to use his knockback & Sound Barrier for maximum effect). Makes sense when these skills are crucial in becoming a good DJ (timing for remixes and music in general, judgement calls in reading the mood of the crowd and adjusting accordingly).
• When D.VA enters a MEKA, she will always emerge with full health, no matter how badly injured she was entering. The MEKA units probably have built-in life support systems, which is especially important as most of the people who pilot the MEKAs are gamers, who aren't known for their physical constitution. This also explains why D.VA can't be killed while inside the mech.
• Vishkar is an imperialistic, profit-seeking MegaCorp fond of touting itself as a bringer of civilization and order while carving nations into puppets. They also come from India, which was once on the receiving end of very similar treatment from the British East India Company (and India wasn't the only country they victimized). Either the people behind Vishkar haven't read their own history, or they read it all too well.
• Take a close look at Reaper's shotguns: They look like the blades of a scythe!
• Symmetra admonishing Lúcio's obsession with freedom, at the first glance, might look like she's just making propaganda about Vishkar and thus has no point (because it's touted as a bad company, period). However, she has a point that freedom could be an illusion that causes more harm, or that it leads to anarchy, seeing as she's probably more educated and learns about the happenings in the world. Just take a look at what happened in Australia: freedom fighters going to extremes to save the region from Omnic takeover and then it literally blew up right in their faces, turning the Outback into a desolate wasteland, you've been seeing one of the products of that disaster in this very game: Mako Rutledge, AKA Roadhog, the same freedom fighter that attempted to liberate Australia, and now he's an anarchistic, insane terrorist. If anything, Symmetra is probably giving warning that Lúcio should probably slow down so that he wouldn't turn Brazil into something like Australia.
  • Compounding this is Zenyatta's quote against Lúcio if the former scored a kill against him: "Run too quickly, and you overlook much.". While at first, it's probably just a jab against speedy characters (he'd say the same to Tracer), in the case of Lúcio, it may also count as a touch in with how Lúcio's fight for freedom and unbridled passion for it may make him overlook a lot of things that could hamper the sanctity of his freedom quest, starting from just dismissing Symmetra as just another Vishkar zealot without hearing her side of things, to being unaware of the dangers of unbound freedom crusades as shown by Roadhog. Furthermore, later on, Zenyatta gets another admonishing for Lúcio: "Chaos begets even more chaos." Lúcio probably will be in dire need to re-evaluate the reason why he fights if this continues.
• Reaper's ultimate is named after The Last Starfighter. It also bears a significant resemblance to Gun Kata. He's wearing a dark robe, and makes his own costumes. Reyes was likely One of Us.
• Fitting with the timeline, one can hypothetically imagine how Overwatch would’ve slowly started to unravel after Ana’s "death." Morrison has his confidence in his own leadership shaken after losing one of Overwatch’s founding members and his close friends on his watch, weakening his ability to lead the organization. An emotional and angry Reyes believes that he wouldn’t have let this happen if he was leading the mission and blames Morrison for Ana’s death. This further drives a rift between the two. The aging Reinhardt gets pegged as being particularly vulnerable following the death of one of the founding members and is eventually forced into retirement. As The Heart of Overwatch, his departure from an active role in the organization hurts its ability to weather the hardships yet to come.
• One thing about Bastion: throughout the entire beta and well into the full release, it was often considered to be the cheapest, most overpowered hero, but Blizzard never touched it even amid the cries for nerfing. As time went on, it became apparent that it is a full-on Skill Gate Character that few play competitively without getting shouted down by the entire team or, if they make it past that, destroyed by even the slightest amount of teamwork involving one of its counters as soon as they stop being surprised that someone actually picked Bastion. This is actually a perfect parallel to the Omnic Crisis itself: The blitzkrieg from the Omniums hit even the Crusaders' homes like a train, but no amount of Bastions could stand up to a sufficiently coordinated team of the long-ranged Soldier, the hard-hitting Reaper, and the bullet-absorbing Reinhardt.
• Junkrat has a voiceline "Happy New Year" where he said "Gong Xi Fa Cai", so wow, looks like he's got a pretty good Hidden Depths! Except Mei, who's actually Chinese, also said the same thing and her voiceline is titled "Wishing You Prosperity"… which is the exact translation of "Gong Xi Fa Cai". Chinese people would know that, while foreigners are usually given the knowledge that "In Chinese New Year, you say 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' for 'Happy New Year'". So in a way, Junkrat is only using Common Knowledge, not fully understanding the meaning, though it's hardly a big problem for his intelligence, it does portray that natives would know the term usage better and he still has a lot to catch up to match up a native.
• Symmetra's in-game ability doesn't seem to match up with what her lore states she's capable of. Materializing something out of Hard Light can have infinite potential, like materializing any objects out of nowhere with light, more similar to a Green Lantern. Yet what Symmetra is seen doing in-game are just supportive, defensive stuffs. Two Fridge Brilliance can be drawn from this:
  • The time she's spent with Vishkar actually limits her true capabilities. Should Symmetra eventually break away from Vishkar, she will be able to unleash her hidden talents.
  • This speaks about Symmetra's more pacifistic, anti-killing nature. She doesn't like killing, so the majority of the time, she's just making things to protect others, and as A Better World shows, if she has to 'kill', she'd be using 'incapacitate' mode. She probably realizes how dangerous her ability can be, but she'd rather not use it malevolently.
• While there is no doubt that Vishkar is a bad company, they would probably have legit reasoning on why they think they're doing good, which helps to explain why Symmetra believed in them for so long. Considering how many corrupt corporations are out there in that world (the majority), Vishkar also competed with them, and when they sent out Symmetra to dig for their dirty secrets, she'd find one that genuinely proved that the competition was just as bad as them, making a case of Evil Versus Evil and inciting the population to turn against their old corporation. In a way, this may be why Symmetra is justifying them; so far, she only got sent to spy on Asshole Victims, making it easier for her to believe that it's for the greater good. Calado was the first time where it turned out that she was trying to dig up the dirt of an honest corporation and witnessed Vishkar's 'backup plan' firsthand, which horrified her. In addition to this, with that many competing corporations defeated by revealing their dirty secrets, Vishkar might have been deluded with proofs that they really are doing all those atrocities for the greater good because they have only taken out worse corporations so far until Rio.
• It makes sense that Sombra's hack ability can only make healing impossible for one of the healers: Zenyatta. Mercy can still use her staff, Ana can still shoot, Lúcio can still heal if he played the healing song before the hack, Moira's healing is an innate part of her biology, and Brigitte's healing comes from inspiring her allies. Zenyatta's the only fully robotic medic in the current lineup. (Since patched; Sombra's hack now turns off Lucio's music, preventing him from healing or speedboosting his allies. This still makes sense, as the hacking probably screws up his sound equipment (and does so in a way that it can't do to more simplistic technology, such as a sniper rifle or a medicinal staff).)
• Sombra's hacking tech looks incredibly unrealistic, with what it being apparently just straight lines of light emitting from her fingers and messing around with the thing she's hacking, but who's to say she's always using electronic or wireless? We already know there's tech that allows someone to exert force on something without damaging it, like Pharah's Concussive Blast. Perhaps Sombra is just pushing people's buttons to disable their technology? Or better yet, using stuff like acupuncture to temporarily disable certain muscles? It certainly would explain how she can "hack" abilities such as running and throwing things.
  • I read it more like Sombra hacking the central nervous system of her more-normal foes (Soldier: 76, etc.). Considering that the brain is 30 times more powerful than an average PC…
  • She so good a hacker, she realized she's in a videogame, and hacks the abstract abilities of the avatars.
• At first blush, one might question how Sombra's "Hack" seals the abilities of her enemies, most of whom are human. Then one realizes that, aside from a few outliers like Reaper and Roadhog, most of her opponents have tech on them from which their powers are derived, whether it's equipment or cybernetics. Tracer? Hack her chronal accelerator and keep her from blinking. Genji and Doomfist? Hack their cybernetics. Bastion, Zenyatta, and Orisa? All machines, all hackable!
• Orisa's abilities all seem like they're a grab bag of Overwatch' abilities. A cannon that's like a combination of D.Va's cannon and 76's pulse rifle. Fortify seems a lot like Ana's nanoboost. Halt! is basically Zarya's Graviton Surge, and both are graviton abilities. Protective Barrier seems a lot like Symmetra's shield. And Supercharger could be based on Lúcio's AOE buffs (and Nanoboost again) and even looks like a drum. Why, you ask? Because if you're an 11-year old kid trying to create a hero, who do you base it on? Other heroes.
  • When Overwatch 2 was released, Orisa got a rework which removed her halt, supercharger and protective barrier, and made her cannon more unique. Her removed abilities were replaced by Energy Javelin, Javelin Spin and Terrasurge, which also uses her javelin. As Orisa finds her own identity, so too does her kit!
• Sombra's ARG is aptly named; even before she was revealed as a playable hero, her very name has been a source of unending frustration. Trying to decode all those number sequences, only to hit a dead end? ARG! Trying to fulfill your mission but your teammate decides to fiddle around with the door for kicks? ARG! Finding yourself low on health but can't use health packs because they've been hacked into and turned into duds, or trying to score a hit for your team but you find yourself hacked? ARG!
• At first look, it doesn't make sense for a robot like Orisa, who's meant to protect and defend citizens, to have an Ultimate that increases damage around her and her team. The rest of her abilities check out, like her ability to resist damage to jump in the way to defend unsuspecting pedestrians from cars, her shield can be applied to the same thing, and her mini-gravity pull can be used to pull over stuck cars or illegally parked ones. Then you realize what she used to be: a robot part of a larger security force. In groups of OR-15s, a damage boost would be very effective, considering that Orisa is now made to defend while her older self and fellow ORs are made to defend and retaliate against intruders.
  • It also makes sense when you look at "The Last Bastion" and "Honor and Glory." The most common German anti-Omnic tactics, at the infantry level, involved light human infantry taking cover behind the shields of Crusaders while shooting back at the Omnics. Orisa is designed from the ground up to be every part of this formation at once: a deployed shield, a heavy weapon to fire at the enemy, a snare to push back advancing enemies, and an attack booster to support everyone else who would be part of her formation. Orisa is virtually tailor-made to fight Omnics alongside human infantry and robots.
• Orisa's name might look like a normal name, but it's actually her serial number — OR15A.
• In Infiltration, Reaper demonstrates excellent tactics that a Reaper player should use. He tracks "squishy" enemies (the guards), tries to clear out the tank himself (which a good Reaper can do), and successfully manages to turn the thing into a pile of scrap. Now look at "Recall", where his most skilled moment is pushing a Primal Rage Winston back. And in the Cinematic Trailer, he has a common Reaper issue, in that he uses Death Blossom and doesn't hit anyone. Why the improvement? Reaper learned how to play Reaper.
• Soldier: 76 is unusually soft to Pharah despite being the enemy of her organization, Helix Security International. An interaction has him telling her that Ana would be so proud of her, and he compliments her aim by comparing her to her mother when getting a kill. It seems odd, as he's normally cold and distant to just about everyone. Except Ana, that is. He has the most interactions with her, and all of them show their status as Platonic Life-Partners. The two might as well regard each other as family, having been close for three decades through thick and thin. When you consider that, Jack is basically Pharah's Honorary Uncle, so of course he would still hold Pharah in high regard despite his current situation and outlook on life.
• When you look at Soldier: 76's abilities and compare them with Reaper's, it becomes a little easier to understand why Jack Morrison was chosen to be the Strike-Commander over Gabriel Reyes. Soldier is a Jack of All Trades who can flank, heal others, and is capable of splash damage. Reaper, on the other hand, has abilities focused on teleporting himself, a Wraith form that allows him to save himself, and a passive ability that lets him heal himself. In short, Jack's abilities make him more of a team player, while Reyes' abilities are more focused on his well-being/survival, rather than his teammates.
• If you watch the Cinematic Trailer, you'll notice Widowmaker's grappling hook comes from her wrist… now, who else shoots ropes from wrists with spider motifs?
• Widowmaker's Odette (and Odile) skin is based on Swan Lake. This fits given her confirmed history as an accomplished ballet dancer, but it goes further than that. In Swan Lake, Odette was forcibly turned into a swan by the Evil Sorcerer Von Rothbart, which very much mirrors the way Amélie Lacroix was transformed into Widowmaker by Talon. What will become of her is anyone's guess at this point, but one clue could potentially be found in the original ending of the performance. Odette is freed after Von Rathbart's spell is broken, which could also be used as an allusion to Amélie breaking free from Talon's "spell", or in this case, the brainwashing.
• In the Uprising comic, Reyes says "Omnics built their cities and did the jobs humans didn't want to do. In return: no rights and no citizenship." It's also worth noting that he sympathizes with Omnics at this point in time. Does something about this all seem familiar? Well, let's see what we get when we change up the original sentence a bit:
  Reyes led the original strike team and did the jobs most other Overwatch members didn't want to do. In return: no recognition and no respect.
• A joke among the players at the Uprising event is that it's weird for Morrison to send in an Attack Torb, or Tracer for that matter. Reinhardt is a given due to not only having a shield, but an arc-based melee attack and charge attack, both of which are helpful. Playing All-Heroes also explains why the team is composed as such: the situation is best dealt with via sustained power instead of powerful burst damage, and thus the best choice for most players in that mode is typically a combination of Orisa and Bastion, both of which are out of the question. Of all those that are in Overwatch at that time, Morrison himself cannot go in due to politics. Reyes probably does not have his soul reaping capability yet, and even if he does, he cannot heal himself fast enough or do enough sustained damage — likewise with McCree and Genji. Winston's Tesla cannon is too weak to deal with the Eradicator or boss-level Omnics, while Mei (aside from being somewhere else) also has a weak damage issue. Pharah didn't join, but even then, her burst damage is not benefical. Thus, an Attack Torb and a high-damage Tracer is pretty much the best choice. As for healing, Ana was not yet a healer at this point in her career, and as mentioned, spike damages are not helpful in the situation, and Mercy's distance-resurrection is an excellent way to recover from fights that turn south.
• The high number of Shout Outs to many forms of media like other video games, television, movies, and anime makes a lot of sense for the time period Overwatch is set in; by the time of the 2070's, a lot of what's referenced could easily count as nostalgia for some of the older members of the cast, such as Reinhardt preferring 'classical' music like that from David Hasselhoff, or Reaper quoting basketball commentators of all things. The media that's relatively new to the average real-world player is quite old for this cast of characters, so it's fitting that for how grim the world of Overwatch is, the cast still likes to throw around some old pop culture quips.
• It's no wonder the Shimada Clan was Hanamura's top crime family. They had the advantage of the dragons. And not just because the dragons are so powerful, but because nobody's going to believe that a crime family took out their enemies with magical dragons. It's not like you can come up to the courts and accuse the Shimada family of killing somebody with ethereal glowing dragons. Above all, there's the fact that the dragons dissipate when their job is done: there's literally no evidence of the weapon.
• The Uprising event possibly gives a more positive vibe to Orisa's creation. The Null Sector OR-14s have all of Orisa's abilities, which seems odd at first, given that Orisa was introduced first. However, given that Uprising happens canonically before Orisa was even made, Orisa having the same armaments as the Null Sector can be interpreted as Efi Oladele taking what was used against the heroes in order to protect and serve, thus making Null Sector's use of them a case of Good Powers, Bad People. Incidentially, Orisa (along with Bastion and to a lesser extent Zenyatta) was among the best Heroes to use in the Uprising mode to battle Null Sector.
• Junkrat has an ability that counters Roadhog; if Roadhog uses his hook to drag Junkrat to him, then there's a small chance that Junkrat will kill him as well due to his Total Mayhem ability. In terms of the lore, Junkrat and Roadhog seem to be chaotic neutralsinvoked as they show no alignment to Overwatch or Talon, they seem to be two friends who discovered a world-changing secret and got caught up in the war between the two factions. Junkrat is on the run for his discovery of the Omnium secret and Roadhog begrudgingly agreed to protect him from bounty hunters, junkers, or other criminals. Junkrat will need a backup plan in case Roadhog decides to betray him or receives a better offer from a second party.
• Orisa is a hard counter to Doomfist, who relies on knocking back enemies, while Orisa has an ability that specifically makes her immune to being knocked back. Orisa also has a movement-stifling ability, which makes it difficult for Doomfist to get close to her to begin with. This makes sense in canon since the original OR-15 robots were destroyed by Doomfist, so it's only natural for Efi to redesign Orisa so that she would have a countermeasures against his moves.
• Sombra is a good counter to Doomfist, even though she works for his organization. But Sombra's only using Talon for her own gain, so it makes sense that she'd be ready to betray the leadership.
• Why does Mei have the mechanical know-how to put together her Endothermic Blaster and jury-rig an antenna? Well, the Ecopoint team was supposed to be isolated for long periods of time. Like astronauts, they'd doubtless be cross-trained in various fields in case of emergency. Mei is a lot more like Mark Watney from The Martian than you'd think. Hence the sense of humor.
• It might seem a little odd that out of the three robot characters in the game, Bastion is the only one who breaks apart into dozens of pieces when it dies, while Zenyatta and Orisa just go limp as usual. One possible explanation for this can be found by looking at Bastion's background; it's a former Killer Robot who could've possibly seen some usage during the Omnic Crisis, was left deactivated in the forest to be weathered by nature over the years, and reactivated only to take interest in the world and start traveling around it. Meanwhile, Zenyatta has been taking good care of himself alongside his monk brothers, and Orisa is fresh out the workshop. Bastion is just far older and more fragile from what could be a decade of no maintenance to keep it healthy.
• In the Cinematic Trailer, why was Doomfist’s gauntlet on display in working condition? Maybe it wasn't in perfect condition. There was no way any sane museum curator was going to allow something that dangerous to be unprotected. Plus, while this can be contributed to Art Evolution, the gauntlet was both smaller and had a slightly different design to when after Doomfist retrieved it. It's possible that the gauntlet was missing a few components, drastically reducing its power. This might also explain why Widowmaker survived a direct hit. Also, the boy who used it was thrown back, and the gauntlet malfunctioned and fell off his arm like it was broken. This supports that the gauntlet was missing a few components, as a completed gauntlet probably would've thrown Widowmaker outside, while the kid only took a few steps back from the recoil.
• Similarly to the entry mentioning Sombra above, Reaper counters Doomfist well. Reaper may work alongside Doomfist, but in terms of personality, they're polar opposites.
• Of all the established villains in the actual lore, the only one that's a playable hero in Junkenstein's Revenge is Widowmaker. However, compared to the others, Widowmaker makes the most sense. After all, she is the only villain who didn't willingly become evil. Thus, it could be interpreted that she would most likely be a hero otherwise compared to everyone else.
• Reinhardt's old armor seen in "Honor and Glory" is based on an eagle, as opposed to his current lion motif. The younger Reinhardt was far more bold and prone to swooping in, while the older, wiser one hangs back and lets the danger come to him. This itself is an interesting dynamic, but it's only further boosted when you remember that Balderich's armor was based on a griffin, a creature known as a combination of both animals. Agile and ferocious, yet stalwart and unmovable. A perfect balance for a crusader.
• Like Orisa, Moira's kit seems to be loosely based on those of other characters. The Scientific Method is about repeatability, after all, so why not use a grab-bag of already-proven abilities? In her lore video, she even wears a suit that looks like Mercy's, just with Talon branding, and if you look at the "ribs" of her armor, they look a lot like Genji, while the lower chestpiece resembles Mercy's.
• Tracer twirls her guns past her face to reload, which is completely unnecessary and dangerous. Mercy's gun uses similar tech, and she just points it up and waits. It makes sense that the pacifist healer would use proper, safe technique, and the reckless maverick would do something risky. By contrast, Winston's lightning gun is too big and unwieldy to get fancy with, even if he was inclined to, so he just points the gun upward while it reloads.
  • It could also be that Tracer's technique is faster, which would also fit her character.
• The map Eichenwalde features the town and Castle of the same name. Yet, despite the name, there is no oak tree to be seen, only pine. But there could very well be a reason for this. Germany's forests, for the longest time, were full of oak and similar trees. But during the Industrial Revolution, most of those ancient forests had been chopped down, leaving many regions nearly devoid of all forest. And when people started replanting, they used the faster-growing pines to have a quick supply of wood. So it may very well be that when the Castle was named, it was surrounded by an oak forest.
• Junkrat's bio on the news states that he "specializes in explosives, arson, demolition, and barbecue". The last one sounds like a gag, but it is a useful skill to have in the apocalyptic Outback, especially when you're partnered with Roadhog.
• Brigitte, a Support character, travels alongside Reinhardt, a Tank character. This mirrors the fact that Tanks and Supports work together in synergy: she patches up his wounds, he protects her from the heavier damage.
• In the Masquerade comic, Reaper reveals that he knows about the stunt Sombra did in the Infiltration short. How? Three reasons come to mind. One: The alarms suddenly going off right as Widowmaker was about to shoot Katya was far too convenient. And Sombra is arguably the best hacker in the world and was already in the system. So, the only explanation Reaper came to was that Sombra deliberately set them off. Second: Not long after Talon's assassination attempt, Katya hired the second most-powerful woman in Russia, Zarya, to track down Sombra. Not Talon, just Sombra. Zarya traveling across the globe asking about one hacker who works for Talon likely tipped Reaper off that Sombra did something for Zarya to come after her. And third: Sombra removed her communicator for at least a minute to talk to Katya without interruptions. Reaper probably realized that Sombra was up to something she didn't want him to find out about when she did that.
  • Going with the above, Reaper also says that he managed to get part of the Overwatch database from Recall, even though it looked like Winston managed to stop him. This may be a retcon, but it might not be. The short never stated that Reaper failed, and he didn't confront Winston until after all of the Mooks were beaten. During that time, Reaper probably downloaded some of the data before he went to fight Winston. And while Athena did run a diagnostics on the core database, we never see the results. Entire sections could've been taken and we never even knew until the Masquerade comic.
• The "Pajamei" skin, released in the Overwatch Retribution event, sparked questions about why it was released during this specific event, since, while other characters received skins related to their affiliations to Overwatch, Blackwatch, or Talon, Mei got… a skin that's just her dressed in the pajamas she wore in the Rise and Shine cinematic. This is justified because, during the period where the conflicts of the event took place, Mei was busy being cryogenically frozen… while wearing these pajamas.
• During the Retribution game mode, Reyes uses the exact same ability set as his Reaper form. Instead of simple Gameplay and Story Segregation, this could be the result of the alterations that Moira used on him in her character trailer.
  • This is endorsed by one of their interactions during the game.
  Moira: How are you feeling, commander?
  Reyes: Fine. No ill effects so far.
  Moira: Let me know if that changes.
• During the Retribution game mode, McCree spends his time lashing out at Reyes for putting the whole plan in jeopardy. If you play him, you'll realize that of the four, he's the most difficult to play as: he has no Life Drain, no Deflect or superhuman agility^note sure, because they're bots, the Talon troops aren't fazed much, but Genji double-jumping all over the place would make him almost impossible to hit by humans, so while he would have been okay with killing Antonio, he's the one most in trouble by Reyes throwing away their plan and getting an army on their back. To top it off, while Reyes is the commander of Blackwatch, Moira a brilliant geneticist, and Genji one of the heirs of the Shimada clan, all people Talon would feel it to be in their best interest to capture rather than kill, Jesse is a former ex-con, not really someone that would be worth keeping alive.
• "Null Sector" seems like a bland and generic name for a villainous faction, but it can be interpreted as a futuristic way of saying "No Man's Land", which is exactly what Null Sector wanted.
• Much like Brigitte's shield is a scaled down version of Reinhardt's barrier field, her shield bash is a scaled down version of Reinhardt's charge. Along the same lines, while Reinhardt is represented by a lion, the animal most associated with her is a housecat.
• Potentially bordering on Fridge Horror: Although it's easy to dismiss Junkrat and Roadhog's lack of concern towards the Queen practically putting a hit on them as a symptom of their sociopathy/insanity, it's also perfectly reasonable to assume that having spent the better part of their lives in a wasteland filled with bounty hunters and thugs, their lives have been under constant threat. In other words, it's not that they don't "get" how much danger they're in, or "don't care"; having their lives be in imminent and serious danger is business as usual for them.
• Hammond hiding his identity as a hamster after he crash-landed in Junkertown despite making a name for himself as Wrecking Ball might come off as a little odd, but it makes far more sense when you find out hamsters are straight-up illegal in Australia. Assuming the Junkers would care that much about the ecosystem to worry about an invasive species, Hammond had a very good reason to avoid detection.
• Of the Support characters, Moira is the most specialized, possibly to the point of Crippling Overspecialization. Her kit is mostly stack-able Area of Effect burst healing over time (with some self-survival and chip damage over time) and that's pretty much all she can offer. Even the other "main healers" Ana and Mercy can find use in situations that Moira struggles in through utility in the form of buffs, debuffs, and resurrections. This is entirely fitting with Moira's character as a laser-focused Mad Scientist Professor Guinea Pig. She's pushing the limits of science at the expense of her humanity, so of course she'd push her "stats" in one direction at the expense of overall well-rounded-ness.
• In Storm Rising, Genji claims he was “just a bystander” during the Venice incident. He’s technically right, though — it wasn’t his fault things went wrong, it was Gabriel’s!
• One of D.Va's lines is commenting (in Korean) that she can't beat her dad at StarCraft. This seems odd since she's a top-tier StarCraft 3 pro herself… unless she's talking about the first StarCraft, which contains so much early-genre jank that anyone used to modern RTS games can find it an uphill struggle. She's an expert at the modern game, but her father grew up playing the classic!
• It's been commented a lot that the game and all the cinematics have taken until the announcement of Overwatch 2 to progress beyond where the story was on day 1, with the reformation of Overwatch, but this is entirely the point; a major part of the backstory is that Overwatch was disbanded, therefore the reformed team under Winston, as seen in Zero Hour is Overwatch 2!
• The cast of the Zero Hour short is actually teased by the earlier cinematics.
  • Winston: Obviously his short, Recall, was all about him sending out the Are You With Us trailer.
  • Tracer: Seen replying to the recall notice at the end of the Recall short.
  • Mei: The latter half of her short, Rise and Shine, was about her receiving Winston's message.
  • Genji: Less obvious but he does tell Hanzo, during the Dragons short, that the world is changing again, implying he's received the message and is aware Overwatch is returning.
  • Brigitte and Reinhardt: The modern day parts of Honor and Glory are them debating whether or not to answer Wiston, ultimately choosing to do so.
  • Echo: She is actively sent to Winston by McCree, who is actively references the message at the end of Reunion.
  • Mercy is the only one not to fit this pattern, as Zero Hour is the first cinematic, save We are Overwatch, to feature her.
  • By contrast Hero, Infiltration, The Last Bastion and Shooting Star make no reference to Winston's message, and the heroes seen in it are not seen in Zero Hour. Technically Alive doesn't make reference to it either, but Tracer had already responded to the message in Recall.
• The choice for Echo to speak Singlish as her second language — as opposed to something like Malay — is thematically very appropriate for her. Singlish is a highly unique dialect that amalgamates pre-existing languages from all over, including English, Malay, various dialects of Chinese, and more, often considered a "neutral" language between various Singaporean ethnic groups. This cosmopolitan language reflects nicely on Echo herself, a character without a definite state but is capable of exponential learning, reflection, and adaptation from those around her.
• The game’s cast has occasionally been criticized for not really acting like the ethnicities or backgrounds they are given: however when one recalls the series takes place in the 2070's it is possible, if not likely, that cultural changes occurred. The culture of the world is always evolving, even without such groundbreaking things as a robot war.
• It seems weird that, Gameplay and Story Segregation aside, that Nice Girl Tracer would have a Punk skin, complete with her calling her enemies "tossers" whenever she scores an elimination. "London Calling" reveals that she's a fan of The Clash, a punk band from the 1970s, and it all becomes clear why she has a skin like that.
• The new "Push" mode in Overwatch 2 has the teams trying to escort a robot to move a barricade to a goal. Heroes that have a distaste towards omnics (Roadhog, Junker Queen, Junkrat, Zarya, etc.) don't seem to have much disdain towards the robot the teams are trying to escort, which may seem odd... but remember, they're prejudiced against omnics, a TYPE of robot, not robots in general. Considering the "only built to serve" graffiti in King's Row, perhaps people who are prejudiced against omnics aren't prejudiced against robots with simpler programming, and considering how the character just call it a robot rather than an omnic, it's possible that the robot they're escorting isn't an omnic at all.
• While Symmetra's canon Foil is Lucio, one could argue that she has a secondary foil in the form of Sombra:
  • They're both female Damage heroes with dark skin, dark hair, names that start with "S" and end with "ra," (putting them next to each other on the select screen) and single-handed weapons
  • They both wear cool colors by default
  • Their abilities are both tech-based
  • Symmetra is associated with light while "Sombra" means "shadow"
  • Symmetra strives to create order while Sombra revels in chaos
  • Symmetra is a more morally gray character who one could argue is, in fact, a good person with noble goals while Sombra is straight-up evil
• Ganymede is a very fitting name for Bastion's bird friend: Ganymede is a moon of Jupiter, named after the Roman god of lightning (electricity, like what robots run on) who was symbolized by eagles (another type of bird).
• Vishkar, which specializes in architecture and technology, is likely named after Vishvakarma, the Hindu god of craftsmanship and architecture.
• Kiriko's moveset as a ninja-styled Hero who makes use of thrown weapons evokes Genji's, which makes sense from a lore perspective. While she shares a good relationship with both Shimada brothers as part of their "honorary uncles/niece"-type relationship, she's specifically noted to be closer to Genji than to Hanzo due to their shared interests and temperament, which may explain that her way of fighting may have been her way of paying respect or otherwise was the natural conclusion to being so alike to someone she respects greatly. To that effect, recall that one of Kiriko's movement abilities ("Swift Step") has a name similar to one that Genji uses ("Swift Strike"). As such, it's not surprising to see that Genji is by far one of the best heroes for Kiriko to support, given that their near-equal mobility and ability to assassinate unaware foes means Kiriko can easily follow Genji in diving backlines and leaving immediately after securing their kills. Genji's Dragonblade pairs up incredibly well with Kiriko's Kitsune Rush on top of that, giving him more chances to swing his katana before his time limit runs out.
• The English call-out lines for the Japanese heroes' respective Ultimates act as Foils to each other, with all 3 of them invoking their respective spirit animals in turn that speak to how their Ultimates are used.

  Hanzo: Let the dragon consume you! (Dragonstrike takes the form of two giant spirit dragons baring their teeth; hence, "consuming".)
  Genji: The dragon becomes me! (Dragonblade is a Super Mode wherein Genji discards his shuriken to wield his dragon-themed katana.)
  Kiriko: Let the kitsune guide you! (Kitsune Rush causes her fox spirit to create a spectral pathway of torii gates which buffs allies who move along it.)

  • Beside the Support Hero Kiriko having a supportive call-out to contrast the aggression of the Damage-oriented Genji and Hanzo, the Shimada brothers also have a notable contrast between each other in that while Hanzo invokes his dragons to simply attack his foes, Genji invokes his to give him the power to become one. With Season 7, their roles are further contrasted with the themes of their respective mythic skins. Both Genji and Hanzo gain demonic appearances - Genji's cyber demon is given a cyberpunk-esque appearance to contrast the more traditional image of Hanzo as an onryo, while Kiriko gains the appearance of the Shinto mother goddess herself.

Fridge Horror

• Symmetra's backstory can be horrifying in context if you remember that large corporations in Real Life often rely on sweatshops where children are often forced to work under degrading conditions for a minimum wage. Don't worry, she was fine. But if Lúcio's backstory is any indication, other people may not have been so lucky.
  • Also consider this: Symmetra is on the autism spectrum (obsession with perfection and order, easily overwhelmed by outward stimuli, difficulty in seeing others' points of view, etc.). Vishkar (or at least her superiors) is aware of this. Vishkar is knowingly taking advantage of someone with a developmental disorder in order to further its own goals. Any way you look at it, that's…ugh…
  • In addition to this, Symmetra never met her parents anymore after being picked up by Vishkar. Makes you wonder what happened to them.
• Torbjörn's tie-in comic Destroyer reveals that some Omnics can be piloted. As in, ridden and controlled by humans a la Gundam. This means that it has become much easier for anyone to foster more anti-Omnic hate by using a machine to level cities, and pin the blame on innocent Omnics without people knowing!
• From what we see of Genji's face in "Dragons", he is horribly scarred, and the fact that he had to be rebuilt as a cyborg indicates that his body was mostly destroyed. Hanzo and Genji got in a sword duel, but a sword couldn't have caused that. But what can both brothers summon?
• D.Va's home is listed as Busan, South Korea, not Korea. This means that, in spite of the Omnic Crisis, nothing about the political situation in the Korean Peninsula has changed, and, most likely, Kim Jong-un or his successor is still in power and still committing horrible human rights violations. An alternate and less scary, though still ultimately sad, explanation would be that the two Koreas have diverged so much by the time the Kim regime falls that at least one half has grown to see reunification as simply not being worth the trouble, even despite the Omnic Crisis.
  
  Or, more optimistically, that Korea has reunified, but retains the distinction for familiarity's sake, or ease of transition. (No mass address changes, general populace doesn't have to adapt, etc.) Or both Koreas still see themselves as distinctive entities with different backgrounds and histories, and so retain the distinction for semantic and sentimental reasons.
  
  Alternatively, and possibly the most horrifying of all, there is no more North Korea. Real-life North Korea is decades behind the rest of the world technologically and militarily, and very likely still would be in 2044. It's entirely possible that North Korea was simply too weak to resist the Omnic forces, and was overwhelmed before anyone else could spare the forces to rescue them.
  
  Or, even worse, that nobody wanted to rescue North Korea — everybody just sat back, watched, and laughed as North Korea was completely obliterated. And nothing of value was lost. The rest of the world — even China (North Korea's long time ally mind you) — currently regards North Korea as a real-life instance of The Scrappy at best, or a potential threat to civilization at worst.
• D.Va's backstory mentions that she actually streams combat operations to her fans. That means that one day, they might watch her get killed in action live. Even before that, bear in mind that she's streaming herself killing her enemies to those fans.
• Winston's reminiscing about missing the good old days seems endearing at first, since it's something you'd expect to hear from a senior citizen, not a 29-year-old, until you realize that gorillas only live 35-40 years. And depending on when the ages are from, he may be older. He's clearly not at death's door yet, but it puts a darker spin on why he's so keen to get the gang back together: he knows he only has so much time left, and he probably wants to spend his remaining years with his friends and go out as a hero. That being said, he is a genetically altered gorilla who has access to cutting-edge technology and medicine, meaning it's quite possible he could live a while longer.
• Widowmaker's backstory has created a whole plethora of horrifying thoughts that will make you feel very sad for her.
  • First of all, she is brainwashed and does many horrible things she wouldn't ever dream of doing if she was the sweet and once Happily Married Amélie. So if she eventually gets her memories back and becomes herself again, imagine the horror in her face when she realizes everything she had done as Widowmaker, the first of which being killing her own husband. She would look at her blue skin and tattoos, and wonder just what kind of monster she had become. It would be a very rude awakening...
  • Or even if her emotions start turning to normal. In fact, while she's brainwashed, there's no indication that Amélie in her current state doesn't remember what she's done. She just doesn't care.
  • There's also the way she dresses herself. While people like to joke that Talon is full of perverts, this carries some horrifying implications. Does Talon dress her that way, or is it Widowmaker herself who chooses to wear such revealing attire? Either way, this speaks volumes about the people running Talon.
  • She was once a perfectly normal person who was married to Gerard, who was heavily involved in Overwatch. As the wife of such an important member, not to mention that Overwatch had basically been like a big happy family anyways from what has been shown, she has probably met up with the other agents at various events and meetings, and some of those agents may have been ones that she later assassinated after her transformation. Given how she was a sweet person, she could've very well have had a friendship with the various members, which include Winston and her Arch-Enemy Tracer. This adds a whole new dimension to their conflict, such as the battle for the Doomfist with Reaper against the two of them, and her battle against Tracer over the assassination of Mondatta. The fact that Amèlie and Ana knew each other basically confirms that she had known the other Overwatch agents prior to her brainwashing. One must also wonder how Amélie feels deep within Widowmaker. Not only did she kill her husband, but she was also instrumental in destroying everything he stood for.
  • However, that is assuming she even knows she killed her husband. Considering that Widowmaker is still loyally serving Talon while mourning her deceased husband, that could mean one of two things. Either Talon has her under some extremely potent Mind Control, or she doesn't know the truth behind how Gérard was killed. There's a possibility that, after they had her kill him, they erased that from her mind and put her under the belief that his death was under different circumstances. The most horrifying thought, what if she believes it was Overwatch who betrayed him, and from her perspective, is exacting her revenge on the world for wronging him? If the hints that she's regaining her old self proves true, one must wonder how she would react if she learned the truth. It wouldn't be pretty for anyone, to say the least.
  • There is a disturbing idea that many seem to have forgotten, Talon has its own militia and since they used brainwashing to create Widowmaker, it makes you wonder if some of the soldiers of Talon are innocent people who were Brainwashed and Crazy. It makes McCree's "Train Hopper" comic have a disturbing edge, as McCree may have just shot and killed drafted brainwashed soldiers.
    
    Then again, it's questionable if Talon would bother with such tactics for their rank and file soldiers. Widowmaker was kidnapped and brainwashed as the lynchpin of an elaborate plan to assassinate her husband, who was very high on Talon's list of enemies, and had proven to be an extremely hard target to take out. And while Widowmaker is no doubt an effective asset for them, it took more then mere brainwashing to make her so. It clearly took a lot of effort and resources, including altering her physiology, to make her the killing machine she is today, and if Talon could afford to make all of their foot-soldiers as capable as Widowmaker, they would have taken over the world by now. There's not much point in putting in the time and effort required to create a large force of disposable brainwashed mooks, when Talon can just as easily (if not more easily) hire people.
  • Another thing that's horrifying to think about: Widowmaker most likely has a family. Though not shown or mentioned (at least not yet), it's natural to conclude that she has relatives on both her end and on her husband's that she had been close to. If they know what happened, from their perspective, the perfectly sweet person they knew had become a heartless assassin of her own accord. One could only imagine how heartbroken and horrified they would be upon that revelation. How would Widowmaker react upon seeing her family members? Would she kill them like she killed Gerard? Or would they bring out any sort of humanity that's left in her? Even if they did find out she was brainwashed against her will, would they still hate her all the same and declare her a monster if she ever broke free and changed her ways?
  • And finally, there's the fact that as mentioned above, should the old Amélie ever resurface, she'll not only be forced to live with own actions for when she was Widowmaker, but also the fact that the whole world fears her.
  • Widowmaker's name has harsh enough implications in terms of being an assassin, but it provides a rather heartbreaking reference to her backstory, considering the fact that she killed her own husband.
• What if the reason Hanzo is still hostile to Genji is to provoke Genji so that the cyborg will eventually perform a Suicide by Cop? Hanzo wants to restore his honor. And as "Dragons" has shown us, he's willing to die to get it back. Now that he knows Genji is alive, he's even more willing to die… by the hands of his own brother. All he needs to do is to keep provoking him.
• McCree's early years aren't touched upon much, but what we do know has some rather horrifying implications. He was confirmed to be a member of Blackwatch at the age of 17, and that meant he was an infamous outlaw as part of the Deadlock Gang at an even younger age. One must wonder how he went down that path, was it related to the Omnic Crisis? Are his parents still alive? Or was he orphaned, to be adopted by Deadlock and later Blackwatch? Whatever the case, McCree doesn't seem to think much of it, despite how horrible his life must've been.
• Junkrat's apparent mental instability makes more sense when you work out that he's been living in an irradiated wasteland since he was a small child, knowing nothing except the fallout from the destruction of the Australian Omnium. Likewise, Roadhog's sinister nature and erratic relationship with his "client" Junkrat stacks up against the fact that Roadhog was one of the people who spearheaded the attack that ended up causing the explosion, and all the resulting fallout, in the first place. Even if Mako frequently expresses ambiguous or unpleasant sentiments towards Junkrat, some part of him likely recognizes that he's indirectly to blame for the fact that Junkrat, who was a kid when the Omnium went off, is so far gone, and stays with Junkrat even though he probably could have easily killed him or left him by now. On his end, Junkrat in his own special way seems to genuinely think of Mako as a friend, even though he's Junkrat's hired bodyguard and Junkrat's method of expressing affection can be a bit odd; has anyone other than Mako ever been a constant protective presence in Junkrat's life?
• In "Train Hopper", what would the Talon terrorists have done to the passengers and crew of the train after completing their mission had McCree not decided to hitch a ride on that same train earlier…?
• While plenty of characters have either fought Omnics head-on or expressed virulent anti-Omnic sentiments, Zarya is the only character so far who is indicated to have been born and grown up in a front-line region during the first Omnic crisis, in Siberia, and whose driving motivation has always been to become strong to protect her loved ones, to the point where she threw away fame and fortune when the Siberian Omnium re-activated and her village was in the firing line. The Siberia that Zarya grew up in was a devestated war zone; the Russian Defense Force is stated to have rejected Overwatch's assistance and relied on their own personnel and technology to defeat the Omnic threat, but evidence indicates that Overwatch's asymmetric warfare approach was a lot more successful in countering the Omnic threat than the RDF's go-it-alone approach, meaning that Russian citizens may have suffered needlessly.
  
  To top it all off, the Volskaya level appears to feature state-sponsored anti-Omnic propaganda posters in the Soviet graphic style. Why is Russia apparently actively encouraging anti-Omnic paranoia in its citizens…? If it is, that draws a disturbing parallel to the history of Russian anti-semitism (The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was originally a propaganda stunt meant to enhance the Czar's reputation by exploiting hatred of Jews and encouraging it…) The alternative is that things in Russia are as bad as the Russians are reporting it, due to the active Omnium there. While this would diminish the horror above, it would lead to a whole host of other, terrifying questions regarding the casualties…
• Bastion's "Omnic Crisis" skin might just seem like an Evil Costume Switch, but paints a pretty grim picture of the conflict. It has a camouflage pattern, but it's a bit too bright and orange to blend in with anything but fire. Considering the rampant and indiscriminate destruction of the Omnic Crisis, along with Bastion's abilities as a gun turret, the implication seems to be that the Omnic blitzkrieg was so fast, aggressive, and dedicated to killing as many humans (civilian or otherwise) as possible that they put in the effort to adapt to shooting from buildings or ruins that were still burning from the last attack. If the adorable playable Bastion doesn't seem believable enough as in-universe Nightmare Fuel, imagine fleeing a city after a robot attack that's so spitefully determined that it'll climb the rubble of its own artillery strikes just to make sure you can't get away, and becomes nearly impossible to see beneath the flames — let alone being an Overwatch hero trying to rescue civilians from unguarded burning buildings without getting ambushed…
• Reaper is widely mocked in and out of game for being overly edgy and trying too hard with his dramatic costume and overdone gravely voice. But when one stops to think about it, these Narmish traits make him even more terrifying, because this whole thing is an image Gabriel Reyes constructed for himself to carry out his quest for revenge, in contrast to the more sensible military gear he dressed in as leader of Blackwatch. The fact that he deliberately dresses himself like this before attempting to kill everyone he feels has wronged him paints a picture of Gabriel as a Psychopathic Man Child with a very juvenile and violent idea of what is cool and badass. He's basically every edgy emo teenager or wannabe school shooter, but with the skill, firepower, and connections to make his fantasy of ultra-violence come true.
  
  His motives for turning against Overwatch are a textbook case of an "injustice collector" — which matches perfectly with the psychological profile of the pseudo-commando spree-killer, ala The V-Tech Massacre, Columbine, and the Isla Vista Rampage. Which in itself might explain why he went for such an appearance in the first place. By now, the public at large has come to associate someone dressing in such a manner as a possible danger, and Gabriel Reyes grew up with these traits being associated with these killers. So when the time came to become Reaper, he remembered those reports from his childhood and became what we have now.
• In "The Last Bastion" short, we see a battle between an army of omnics similar to Bastion and The Crusaders. Pretty bad, but it gets worse. In the actual game itself, Bastion can tear through Reinhardt's shield and Reinhardt like paper, which makes him a powerful counter to Reinhardt. That scene in the short is essentially a battle between an army of Bastions and an army of Reinhardts. The Crusaders were probably massacred in that battle.
• Bastion is a robot. Ganymede is a flesh-and-blood organism. At some point, Bastion's only friend will pass away, while Bastion, assuming it doesn't die in battle, will well outlive the poor bird.
• This line said by D.VA really brings a different light to such a peppy character. She probably witnessed so many brutal attacks and destruction within her home of Seoul and she's only nineteen. It really goes to show that she's also hit hard from the omnic crisis.
  D.VA: The destruction caused by the omnics here… It reminds me of home.
• The gorillas on the Moon. A lunar research facility, Horizon, was conducting genetic therapy tests on gorillas to increase their intelligence, raising them to the level of a human genius (if Winston is any indication). Unfortunately, many eventually rebelled, slaughtering the human researchers, and Winston was the only gorilla who kept his cool and escaped. Of course, there's still a base on the moon inhabited solely by angry, genius gorillas that nobody has the time or resources to address.
  
  However, the gorillas were not without reason to revolt, considering that despite being of equal or greater intelligence than the average human, they were still being experimented on and confined to their cells. Winston knew from his conversations with the humans that they meant no harm, but the other gorillas were understandably angry at the humans for what could be seen as unethical testing.
• Speaking of angry gorillas, consider Winston's ultimate, Primal Rage. This is probably what the gorillas on the moon looked like when they were rampaging. Does getting enraged remind Winston of what happened to the humans he grew up with? Plus, he seems to not be fully aware of his actions when he's enraged, so who's to say he won't accidentally hurt an ally, or worse?
• Reaper's situation is even worse when you think about audience reaction to him. Reaper is very polarizing and often made fun of by fans, even the ones who like him. This is pretty much the entire reason that Reaper turned evil, that he didn't get the fame he felt he deserved. And even worse, a lot of characters in-universe mock him for his "edgelord" style. Reaper has got to be going insane with the feeling that his friends and fans have betrayed him. And the worst part? He's right, and he brought it upon himself.
• Roadhog says "I'm a one-man apocalypse" when selected in-game. Sounds like just a Badass Boast, right? Well, it goes deeper than that. He fought alongside the Australian Liberation Front when the Omnics were granted the Outback as their home. It's implied that he was the one who destroyed the Australian omnium that took countless lives and turned the Outback into an irradiated wasteland where "survival of the fittest" is the mentality of the people. Kind of adds a darker spin on him calling himself a "one-man apocalypse", doesn't it?
• Had Sombra not interfered with her, Widowmaker, and Reaper's mission in "Infiltration", another Omnic Crisis could have started. The mission is to assassinate the leader of Russia, presumably after Widowmaker's successful mission in "Alive". This would be seen from an in-universe perspective as an omnic leader being assassinated, so the rest of the omnics took revenge on an extremely anti-omnic country by assassinating their leader. The riots and fighting that would be the result would fit in exactly with what Talon's plan would seem to be at the moment. And the second global Omnic Crisis is most likely their end goal. Worse yet, given Katya's secret allegiances, the Omnics would see it as someone taking out one of their key actors, right after another assassination of an Omnic figure, both with similar MOs. They'd see it as Humanity preparing to wipe them out.
• Keep in mind that Tracer's chronal accelerator is the only thing that keeps her solid and in the present day after her teleporting jet accident. It's basically her life support, and Sombra definitely knows this — her teleportation beacon was built with stolen Winston's tech! She just doesn't care. All that means is more "leverage". What's to stop her from deciding to pull the plug on Tracer on a whim?
• In the "Origin" of Sombra, Sombra accidentally stumbles across a worldwide conspiracy that links the Omnics, Overwatch, and Talon. While that is terrifying all on its own, there is a greater horror in their logo: an eye bordered by six dots, a slit within the pupil, and an iris. "All are one within the Iris". The "God of the Omnics" may be an organization or entity that has engineered everything that has gone wrong in the Overwatch universe. When Zenyatta (an Omnic) uses his ultimate ability, the enemy team hears "Pass into the Iris"… Make of that what you will.
• When you think about it, Reaper watching a happy family silently is already sad. But it gets worse when you realize that Gabriel Reyes likely has a family of some sort. Begs the question if they know that he's not really dead. Bastet confirms that Reyes has a family, what they know of Reaper is left unstated.
• Tracer having a girlfriend is definitely one of the sweeter points in her life, but it also opens up a weak spot from which any of her enemies could attack. Nothing could stop Sombra from knowing about Emily and using her as a bargaining chip, or for blackmailing Tracer. Or worse — Talon could target her with any sort of motive, either to kill, or worse, convert to their side. Emily may well be the next Widowmaker.
• Mercy's comment about Reyes potentially making their uniforms takes a darker twist when you realize that he likely designed Talon's uniforms... and Widowmaker's. Yikes.
• Widowmaker was originally described as Amélie having been completely erased. If that's the case, one must wonder why she acts seemingly out of character at times. When revived by Mercy, she's sometimes call of Gérard's name in despair or tell Mercy that she must hate her for saving her life. She'll also lament being alive in one of her respawn lines. Also, despite having killed him, she gets angered when she hears Gérard being insulted. Finally, the biggest example of her not acting like her brainwashed self was her visiting her husband's grave on Christmas, leaving a single rose for him. What does all this point to? It's likely means that, after six years of being under the full control of Talon, the effects of the brainwashing are starting to wane. The hints point to the idea that she is regaining her old self after losing it. If she gains enough of the old Amélie, it's anyone's guess as to what is going to happen next.
• So D.Va has an ejection system in her MEKA, fair enough. Except she's lying down, and none of the cockpit construction is ejected with her. Meaning all that upwards force is applied to her body from below in one shove. Willing Suspension of Disbelief is the only reason she doesn't come away from that winded with fractured ribs at best, suffering ventricular fibrillation from the blow at worst. (Then again, she also lands after being shot 20 meters into the air just fine, maybe that plugsuit is more sophisticated than it looks.)
• 61-year-old Reinhardt’s Manchild and Mr. Imagination antics already evoke Scatterbrained Senior and it’s Truth in Television elderly-affecting cognitive impairment disorders. However, Reinhardt’s also been a front-line fighter for years, leaving him particularly vulnerable to concussions and other lifetime brain damage.
• The fact that on King's Row, none of the more egalitarian human Heroes such as Lúcio, Tracer, or Reinhardt point out all of the anti-Omnic graffiti on the map or the general anti-Omnic sentiment held by the populace of London (while Junkrat and Torbjörn's have some anti-Omnic lines and Widowmaker reminisces about having done of her "finest kills" in the area) brings to mind the idea that the only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing.
• Let's look at how trashed the aeroport is after Patch 1.8, with robots laying destroyed everywhere and one thrown hard enough to make a crater in the wall. Now let's consider that, according to Orisa's origin video, Doomfist was alone when he did this, now let's add that he trashed Numbani's police force hard enough to make them doubt their effectivness. Now let's dwell on the fact that, since he did all that to get the gauntlet back, he didn't have it when he did all this.
  • Which harkens back to what to what Timmy (the little boy in the Cinematic Trailer) said about Doomfist.
    Timmy: They said he could level a skyscraper.
  • Its logical conclusion? His reveal trailer is Doomfist punching his way out of a high-security prison. Bare-fisted. In-game, he has a shield that generates based on his attack. Roadhog 2.0, anyone?
• In every appearance of Roadhog (i.e comic, trailer, and sprays). His face is never shown and most people people believe that it's because he's hiding his identity because of his criminal lifestyle as well as the fact that he spent a large portion of his life in a radioactive wasteland. A possible answer may have been inspired by Marvel Zombies. In the comic, the zombie version of Spiderman states that he refuses to remove his mask because he's horrified and guilt-ridden over what he's done. This also applies to Roadhog because he was part of the rebel alliance that reduced the outback into a radioactive wasteland, Roadhog is probably hiding his identity because of his guilt which has rendered himself incapable of looking at himself in the mirror without feeling self-loathing and guilt for his part in the outback's destruction.
• One of the plot points in "Rise and Shine" has Mei coping with the last reserve batteries on Ecopoint: Antarctica finally running out. Had the already years-delayed wake-up sequence been prolonged just a bit longer, the base might have run out of power before it could wake Mei up, leaving her to share the same fate as her colleagues.
• Consider Roadhog's physical health for a moment. He's incredibly overweight, he has radiation poisoning that he needs to push off with hogdrogen gas (which on top of that is suggested to be ravaging his lungs in the process), and he's almost pushing 50. Roadhog is in such poor health that it's very likely that he only has a few years, if not months, to live. And then that opens up the possibility that he joined up with Junkrat because he's aware of his impending death, and wants to take one last ride around the world before he finally succumbs to his poor health.
• The idea of "counters" in general. In game terminology, a counter is a character that has a large edge in combat against another character. However, quite a few of these counters are close friends or family to the character you are actively hunting down, leading to a gut punch when you kill someone who has close ties to the hero you are currently playing.
  • For example, Pharah grew up around many of the Overwatch agents. According to dialog found in the game, she is or was close to her mother, Soldier 76, and McCree. What do you use to bring down Pharah? Hitscan characters, like Ana, Soldier 76, and McCree.
  • Pharah also grew up hero-worshiping Reinhardt. In game, Pharah finds it easy to kill Reinhardt because she can move around his shield and there is little he can do against her.
  • Tracer and Winston have one of the sweetest friendships in the game. Winston even saved Tracer's life and the two spend holidays together. However, in-game, one of the best people at hunting down the mobile Tracer is Winston.
  • Same goes for Genji and Winston. Pre-combat banter indicates they were friends back in the Overwatch glory days. This becomes very sad when you use Winston to slowly electrocute Genji to death while he tries desperately to escape, even moreso considering that Winston's weapon is one of the select few that Genji cannot deflect.
• The "Blackwatch Reyes" skin for Reaper retaining his post-Overwatch powers of phasing, teleportation, and vitality draining could've been discounted as simple Gameplay Story Segregation until the 2018 "Overwatch Archives" event, but in the PvE brawl "Retribution", Reyes is shown to have had those powers before becoming Reaper. This furthers the idea that Moira conducted experiments on Reyes and who knows who else right under Overwatch's noses.
• Also from "Retribution", the Talon Elite Mooks Reyes's team fights through appear to have similar abilities to Overwatch's members: the Sniper teleports onto the scene in a similar fashion to Reyes/Reaper, Assassins can "blink" just like Tracer, and Heavy Assault Units can charge like Reinhardt. It seems somebody is leaking information on Overwatch members' equipment and capabilities to Talon…
  
  The Assassin deserves some special mention. Considering how difficult it is to procure a perfectly brainwashed soldier on the first attempt, it's likely Widowmaker wasn't their first attempt.
• D.Va's animated short, Shooting Star, is already not that nice with how she's pushing herself to the limit to protect South Korea while getting none of the rewards that the news claims she's getting. But thinking about the news brings up some pretty disturbing implications about South Korea in Overwatch. For this to be what people are being told, the government must be controlling exactly what's reported in authoritarian fashion. Seeing how South Korea was historically dominated by authoritarian presidents and military dictatorships (which is why conscriptions are a Serious Business to them), it paints a rather unnerving picture of South Korea by Overwatch's timeline.
  
  Added to that, the short reveals that the omnic attackers are getting harder to fight, and the time between attacks is getting shorter. Odds are good that eventually there's going to be an attack too big to stop or cover up, and people lulled by their own government into a false sense of security, and they'll be completely taken by surprise.
• Many of the heroes on the current roster are in their thirties. The Omnic crisis ended 30 years ago, as of the current times plot. This means all of these characters were still very young kids during a global war against machines. Canon sources state that millions of children across the world were orphaned, and at least three of the characters playable as of now (Mercy, Sombra, Baptiste) are confirmed to have lost their parents during the Crisis. McCree also likely either lost his parents and had to fend for himself or was under the care of someone who wasn't that attentive, seeing how he became a notorious criminal at less than 17. It seems like the best hand was delt to the heroes who come from rich families, like the Shimada brothers and Ashe, who grew up in relative luxury and with people taking care of them (Shimadas had at least a father and elders of the clan, while Ashe's parents, while neglectful, were alive when she was growing up, and she was taken care of by B.O.B and likely other staff in her family home). Pharah has both parents, but she likely doesn't really remember anything from that era, since she'd be only two at the end of the Crisis. It seems like in this universe, more current adults didn't have parents than did.
• What does Sigma mean when he says "Stardust to stardust" when he kills an enemy? Sigma uses miniature black holes as weapons, and the game uses Bloodless Carnage in order to stay T rated despite the myriads of incredibly gruesome deaths that the characters inflict on each other. But what should actually happen to anyone who is killed by Sigma's weapons? That's right. Instead of just falling limp and dead, they should be spaghettificated and disintegrated, or in Sigma's words, become stardust.

---