Headscratchers / Overwatch

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London and King's Row

• What happened to London? When you visit Numbai it's a destination for travelers, without any mention made of London anywhere. In the Lore, London itself is never referenced. But it should have existed/exist: In 'A Moment in Crime' Roadhog and Junkrat are shown stealing the crown jewels and there's the Big Ben somewhere in the background. So what happened? Urbanization? Omnics blew it up? Overwatch is set in an alternate timeline differing from ours and London never got the name London?
  • Just because it's never mentioned doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There just hasn't been any reason to bring London up.
  • It's probably reasonable to assume that in the Overwatch universe, King's Row is just the most famous neighborhood in London. It's probably specifically just an alternate universe version of Westminster. Either the name's different because alternate history or it was renamed because there was a new Omnic city built below it.
  • London has wanted to build a fourth airport for a while now. Perhaps it finally got built, was named Kings Row after a future king, and the surrounding neighborhood got renamed after it. This explains it being mentioned in Numbani.
  • The Uprising event confirms that King's Row is intended to be a neighborhood in London.

76's designation

• So where did Morrison get the name Soldier: 76 from? Was it a nickname that stuck, is it a year that's important to him, or is there some secret Overwatch thing?
  • It's possible that it's just a reference to 1776, coupled with his "we're all soldiers now" line - a callsign he gave himself because he believes he's fighting for liberty, just with ruthless methods.
  • According to an entry under Fridge Brilliance: "Why did Jack Morrison give himself a random number like 76? It wasn't random. Overwatch came out in 2016 and the game takes place 60 years in the future, the year 2076."
  • Now that Retribution is out and Reaper's new skin is called Soldier: 24, it's possibly just the number he was assigned as part of the soldier enhancement program.
  • Another possibility could be a serial number for a subject of the Soldier Enhancement Program which both Morrison and Reyes were a part of. If that is the case, how many others were a part of this program and did they all end up like Soldier: 76?
  • The number "76" is emblazoned on the back of his uniform, which looks a lot like a sports uniform of some kind. It's quite possible that the media took that number plus 76's apparent military training and combined them into an easy-to-remember nickname.

Jack or John?

• I've seen both used, but was he named John Morrison or Jack Morrison?
  • Soldier 76's origin story trailer has him call himself Jack, so presumably that's his real name (it's also on his tombstone and in the news article about him being 76). I can't actually find any source for John Morrison that's not wikis, so confused about where that name came from.
  • "Jack" is a common nickname for people named Johnathan. Like "Bill" for William, "Bob" for Robert, or "Dick" for Richard.

Blizzard games still being played

• So it's the 2070s... and not only does Hearthstone still look like how it was 60 years ago, but Starcraft II is still considered a big E-Sports game?
  • Obviously Blizzard monopolized gaming during the Omnic Crisis and used their vast leverage to stop gaming development everywhere.
  • Maybe StarCraft got a Continuity Reboot in the future. The StarCraft II she's playing could be more like StarCraft II (2073) or some such.
  • Hey, people still play Donkey Kong—a single-player game that theoretically has a maximum obtainable score—competitively, even 35 years after its release. Given that Starcraft II is a multiplayer online game, it can be patched and updated periodically to outlast even that.
    • D.Va makes an allusion to Donkey Kong when talking to Winston. So Donkey Kong is still known by 2076.^note Keep in mind, she's only 19.
    • True, but Donkey Kong is an iconic gaming mascot like Mario or Peach. It's safe to assume D.VA is interested in gaming in general, including the history of the medium, so is her knowing who Donkey Kong is is that weird? Donkey Kong still appears in many games as a playable character to this day, and probably will untill Nintendo will go out of buisness.
  • Maybe Hearthstone has become the future's Solitaire. And StarCraft probably has gotten a reboot, just like the 2013 Tomb Raider game has effectively the same name as the original 1996 game.
• It's REALLY not that surprising, to be honest. Retro gaming is a pretty big thing even nowadays, especially with our cellphones being powerful enough to emulate even the SNES. Sure, they may be old by Overwatch's year 2076 but really, we're not that different: I still play games like Red Alert 2 from late 2000, Blizzard themselves is re-releasing a March 1998 game, I know of people who pop in NES games (console released in 1983) and pong and tetris are still available in all sorts of forms and on all kinds of platforms. Even the fact they're playing Starcraft 2 competitively even though it's 60 years old isn't all that big a deal when you remember we have Street fighter tournaments on the ORIGINAL street fighter, so even if there's a Starcraft 3 or maybe even 4 on the market there'd still probably be people fawning over the second one. Or by 2076 Starcraft 2 might've had an Ultimate Definition Collection re-release and THAT'S the version they're playing after Starcraft 3 turned out to be a massive flop.

Winston's Graduation Photo

• Winston's photo of the Overwatch team celebrating his graduation◊ is confusing on where in the timeline it takes place. Most of the characters don't look like they aged a day, except for two, the blond guy second from the left, who is probably Jack Morrison/Soldier:76 and the woman on the far right, who is probably Ana Amari, Pharah's mom. Morrison looks about twenty to thirty years younger in the photo compared to the current setting and Ana looks like the same age as her daughter now. Admittedly, this is speculation on my part, and it might be outdated concept art, but it just seems off to me.
  • I don't know. To me they look quite younger (though that might be just the different art style/clothes) so I'd say it was taken maybe ten years before the animated short.
  • Well if Mei's conversation with Mercy is any indication it seems that mercy had not aged a day before Mei was frozen and with Mei not being in the picture seems to indicate that she is already frozen. So Mercy would still look like herself in the present
  • Actually Tracer's presence is the big problem. According to her bio she's 26 in the game timeline. Given that she has her chronal accelerator in the picture the picture must have been taken after her accident which means she was already a trained pilot. So realistically the maximum amount of time that could have passed between that picture and the game time is 8 years (and that's pushing it, 6 is more likely). Given that Reinhardt, Ana and Torbjörn look to be in their late 30s in that picture and are all around 60 in the game timeline that doesn't really leave enough time for them to age. In order for it to work at all you basically have to assume that the age stated on Tracer's bio is her biological age which has been slowed or stopped due to her chronal accelerator and that chronologically she's actually in her late 30s or early 40s (basically the same age as Mercy, Genji and McCree). With that you can put the picture about 15 years before the game which allows for McCree, Mercy, Tracer and Genji to be in their early 20s with McCree being the only one of the three to show any signs of aging (for reasons mentioned above plus Genji being a cyborg). Reaper, Jack, Torbjörn, Reinhardt and Ana would then be in their mid-40s in the picture, a little older than they look but not unreasonable. Winston would be about 14 but gorillas mature faster than humans so that's not unreasonable.

• For that matter, the photo itself doesn’t make any sense! Obviously the photo is concept art that has been awkwardly altered to look like a ‘photo’. First of all, the characters are ‘posing’ in ways that doesn’t make sense in the context of a celebration. We have Pharah randomly saluting...to no one in particular. We have Reaper with his back turned which doesnt make sense. Torb is doing god knows what, again in no relation to the context oh the photo. Tracer is jumping in celebration which sort of makes sense in context of Winston’s degree, but this only emphasises how unfitting the others characters look in the photo. It all comes off as incredibly narmy.

The Chronal Accelerator

• If the chronal accelerator is the only thing that's keeping Tracer glued to the present, how is she able to change clothes, let alone shower? And how does she not slip into the space-time continuum when the accelerator gets damaged?
  • The harness could be able to be loosen up, might be waterproof and considering she was a field agent after her accident, it's likely Winston reinforced it.
  • There are some WMG theories going around that the Accelerator projects a field of stability for Tracer, so she could theoretically keep the Accelerator close but not have to wear it (like leaving it on the towel rack while in the shower).
    • The recent Reflections comic depicts that exact scenario, Tracer is at home chilling around while the Chronal Accelerator is in the floor charging. The implication is indeed that she only needs to be in the vicinity of the device to benefit from its effect.
  • Another possibility is that while she needs the Chronal Accelerator to remain stably anchored in time she can go at least briefly without it. Assume that it stabilizes her condition and then keeps it stable.
  • She may never shower. Maybe she just sponge-bathes herself.
  • If Winston can build and maintain a Chronal Accelerator that is strapped to the chest and taken into battle, he can build more for daily life.
  • It's possible she never even needs to shower since she can just rewind her body to a point where she was clean.
  • Michael Chu, the lead writer, has said that in general her chronal accelerator just needs to be within her vicinity.
  • I suspect that Winston also designed a more spread-out Chronal Accelerator that could stabilize a larger area. Like smaller projectors set up around a perimeter to project a field within a house.

Universal Opinion of Vishkar Corporation

• They are apparently big enough to be given control over different areas in countries to re-build and hold law over, yet Lucio is treated as a public hero internationally for being against Vishkar. Um... How? I mean, shouldn't either Viskar not have enough goodwill/influence to try and ruin Lucio's image, or Viskar not being popular enough to be allowed to force it's law in the areas it does?
  • I think specifically he was a local hero, as in to his home for getting rid of the dictators. He got notoriety from this which lead to fame for his music. Then there are likely people all over the world who hate big corporations in general who would latch onto a rebel leader striking back at "the man".
  • Different nations and regions within those nations may have very different opinions of Vishkar and one person's sweatshop is another person's employer and future for their children. It's both that both or neither is wrong. It all depends on what Vishkar wants and what they're offering in return which almost certainly varies from place to place.
  • Popularity isn't a universal boolean state. Lucio is popular among one part of the population, and Vishkar is popular among another.
  • In addition of this, apparently Vishkar wasn't even in the memory of Efi Oladele when she built up Orisa, this is why when Lucio tried to draft Orisa into his war, she just said she has no idea of what the hell Vishkar is. You'd think if Vishkar has universal influence, even Efi would have known and just put it at Orisa's memory bank at the very least as "Big building company from India", if we are to speak in the most neutral manner.
• Alright, so popularity isn't universal, that's fair, but a better direction for this question might be: who's on the right side of the law here? Like, what are Interpol and Overwatch's opinions of Lucio and Vishkar's conflict? If they know Vishkar are criminals, why isn't there more heat on Vishkar? If they don't, why aren't the authorities after Lucio for domestic terrorism?
  • Given that Lucio mentions that his father developed the tech and Vishkar own the rights to it, it's possible that they're angry with him for intellectual property theft rather than broke-into-Vishkar-HQ-in-a-daring-robbery theft. That would be a complicated legal matter, and not something Interpol would just put out arrest warrants for. Similarly, his anti-Vishkar activities could be limited to peaceful protests. In other words, Lucio hasn't done anything that would warrant that kind of attention.
• It is possible that Vishkar actually did a smart thing and avoided a Streissand effect by refusing to publicly acknowledge the tefth of their tech and didn't notify any authorities, so the people they oppress wouldn't get any ideas and try to follow Lucio's example.

Dots on Omnic's heads

• So, almost all omnics have three glowing dots on their heads, that's the way they were built, fine. But why Zenyatta and Mondatta have nines? Is it because they're monks? Does it mean Mondatta could have theoretically done something similar to Zenyatta's Transcendence? And, if Zenyatta was a Shambali, why are his dots not organized the same way as Mondatta's?
  • Probably just different production models.
  • I haven't checked in a while, but don't the statues on Nepal have nine dots too?
  • Since all humanoid Omnics have the minimum of three dots on their head, it could be that those are actually an Omnics' "eyes" while the "eyes" underneath are aesthetic. It's possible Mondatta's dots are set differently from Zenyatta's to denote his status as the leader of the Shambali monks. He likely could transcend as well since he was a master himself.
    • I always took those slits beneath the dots to be their nose.
    • Zen's Uprising event spray actually does show him with the faceplate removed, and what appears to be his optic receptors roughly fits behind the round forehead holes. So yeah, those slits are actually his nose.
  • Probably a reference to Bhikkhu's forehead markings?
  • Maybe the shambali were regular models with 3 dots and after being accepted as monks had some sort of ceremony of changing the faceplate to one with 9 dots?

Ana's eye

• Ana had her right eye damaged/destroyed by Widowmaker, she now aims with her left (while still holding her rifle right handed.) Why doesn't she get a cybernetic replacement, perhaps with enhanced capabilities. Many other characters have cybernetic parts, Mc Ree, Genji, Symmetra, Torbjörn, and some of them harbor anti-omnic sentiments, which Ana doesn't seem to do so, so why not get an upgrade?
  • Personal choice. Ana's right eye was already cybernetic when she lost it to Widowmaker. Mercy makes an offer to replace the eye if she and Ana are on the same team, but Ana declines the offer saying her lost eye is "a good reminder."
  • Besides, it's not like it's actually done that much to her aim.

Ganymede's nest

• Admittedly I know nothing about Ganymende's species of bird, but I still wonder why it built its nest on Bastion's shoulder. Before Bastion reactivated, that spot was fairly low to the ground and unguarded. It just seems like it'd be too easy for a predator to help themselves to anything inside.
  • For what it's worth, Ganymede appears to be an entirely fictional species. It loosely resembles a cardinal but its behavior was modeled on a green parrot. Only blue cardinals are native to Germany, the location where Ganymede is implied to be from. There are yellow cardinals in North America, but only as a mutation of red cardinals. There's some endangered yellow cardinals in South America, but they don't look anything much like Bastion's bird and the setting obviously wasn't South American.
  • Perhaps Bastion acted as a scarecrow. He has a large eye that could serve to intimidate animals away from the nest.
  • Keep in mind, too, that Ganymende's specie of bird changes depending on the equipped skin. Defense Matrix, for instance, turns them into a Blue Jay, where Avalanche turns them into a Snowy Owl.

The end of "Alive"

• So at the end of the "Alive" short, Widowmaker's disabled Tracer's chronal accelerator, seemingly disarmed her (her weapons just kind of vanish after the Pulse Bomb goes off) and has her lying on the ground, completely helpless. This is the second time Tracer has interfered with Talon's plans, and Widowmaker basically gets off on murdering people. Plot Armor aside, why didn't she just kill Tracer then and there?
  • Likely because she knew she had to escape and couldn't afford to waste any more time. She may be evil and brainwashed into being sadistic beyond measure, but even she would know that it would be to her disadvantage to draw more attention to herself while remaining at the scene of the crime.
  • To let Tracer take the blame. Overwatch, by this point, is already considered a failure by most people and its members borderline-criminals, at best. When the ballistics tracks the location of the bullet and the only person on the rooftop is an ex-member of a shamed paramilitary organization that got shut down (and was made with the sole purpose of fighting Omnics), who was SEEN on the rooftops moments before Omnic Luther King Jr was killed, what is Tracer going to say? "You got it all wrong mate! It was the mystery sniper I was trying to STOP!" Some of the guards might have seen Widowmaker, but it's not clear if any of those were left alive. Widow doesn't seem like the kind of power to leave witnesses. Ultimately, it's a win-win for Talon. Either one of Overwatch's posterchildren is labelled as an assassin or they're labelled as too incompetent to stop one.
    • Ballistics will also note that a) Tracer's pistols patently cannot fire the bullet that killed Mondatta, by any stretch of the imagination, and b) the gun that did is nowhere to be found. Witnesses might also have seen Tracer's neon orange trackpants disintegrate into a blue streak of light, and Widow's purple-pink catsuit doing the Spiderman swing to safety.
  • Widowmaker's gun had been knocked away, her (large, loud, and obvious) extraction had arrived, and her target was dead, meaning that security forces would be converging on the area. Grabbing the rifle and going back to the edge of the rooftop to finish off Tracer would risk overstaying her window for a safe extraction, and Widowmaker doesn't have a complete guarantee that Tracer is out of the fight; going back to kill her would risk the possibility a Tracer who's not quite out of the fight coming back for another go.
  • Perhaps some small part of Amelie interceded in that moment, and pushed Widowmaker to withdraw, rather than kill Tracer. Some degree of fondness, perhaps?

Widowmaker's "Lack of Emotion."

• Her official lore states that when she was taken in by Talon, her physiology/mind was altered, notably that they "numbed her ability to experience human emotion." I understand that what they were going for, but it doesn't really seem like they "numbed" her ability to experience emotions at all. She's definitely more stoic and now kills people, but she's still shown to be completely capable of having emotion, such as joy when killing Mondatta, amusement when taking down Tracer, and even slight anger when Ana brings up Gerard in-game. Am I missing something, or is this just an Informed Attribute?
  • Either Talon's condition isn't as perfect as they think it is or Widowmaker has just had emotions that wouldn't be useful to an assassin (compassion, empathy etc) removed or suppressed and the rest of her emotions are intact.
  • Just because someone's emotions are numbed doesn't necessarily mean they are completely incapable of having emotion. It is possible that Widowmaker can still process emotion, but her emotional responses are muted and fleeting compared to how she was before, leading to a feeling of numbness and disconnection. (Note: Blunted affect is a known side effect of certain psychotropic drugs as well as a symptom of depression.)
  • In-game we are told by herself that she DOES feel things, mostly anger and pleasure in killing. They indeed left those things in her, in order to give her some kind of motivation. After all she is a weaponized human being, but she still has her memories from the past. Insult her love for her husband and you trigger an angry reaction, just like her getting wounded by Ana gives her that happy face during their duel, it makes sense.

The payload on Eichenwalde

• So the attacking team on Eichenwalde are escorting a battering ram so they can storm the castle, right? But on the final stretch of the map, the front doors of the castle have already been busted open so why do the attackers have to keep escorting the already-fulfilled-its-purpose battering ram?
  • To carry Balderich's corpse? That guy was massive.

Is Amélie beginning to resurface once again?

• While Widowmaker is undoubtedly the one still in control, there are signs that Amélie Lacroix might be slowly starting to resurface. It's used sparingly, but it's there. She'll cry out her husband Gérard's name in despair when revived by Mercy or lament the fact that she's still alive. She'll also be quite displeased to hear someone insinuate that she purposely killed her husband in cold blood. This could mean two things. Either Talon's brainwashing wasn't as thorough as they thought it was, or after six years of total control, the effects of the brainwashing are slowly starting to wane. If Widowmaker is willing to defend Gérard, then it's likely she knows that she's been brainwashed by Talon. If that's the case, is there anything that's stopping her from turning away from them? Are her emotions so altered that she simply doesn't care? This is rather confusing, because if she knows what Talon did to her then why does she continue to serve them? If Amélie truly is starting to come back, is there a chance she'll gain more control over herself until she can finally turn against them, or will it be up to Overwatch to deprogram her of the brainwashing and revive Amélie? When/if that happens, one could only imagine the horror on her face when she realizes, or is at least made to care, about everything that she's done in cold blood. So many questions this brings, one must wonder what really is happening within her.
  • Reflections also hinted at this, since she's shown standing at Gerard's grave.
  • It's possible that the reprogramming may have also altered Amélie's memories. So while she remembers her husband, and knows he died, she doesn't actually remember that she did it. Heck, maybe she was made to think it was Overwatch's fault he died, and thus giving her a reason to work with Talon beyond brainwashing. There was probably multiple levels of the brainwashing. The first round to turn her into a sleeper agent, and the next to turn her into a Talon operative.
  • When Widowmaker kills a fellow Talon member in game, she often says, "Our alliance is at an end." This would indicate that she still retains enough free will to see even her comrades in arms as disposable if they are no longer of use to her and that she sees herself as their equal. This is the opposite of what one would expect of a brainwashed victim.

Omnic in Los Muertos

• In Sombra's Origin video, we can see an Omnic standing among Los Muertos members, with the tattoo to prove he's a member. But aren't members of this gang racist against Omnics?
  • Maybe anti-omnic tensions have gotten stronger since then, or it was just those particular Los Muertos members who hate omnics.
  • Racism isn't very logical. Los Muertos might consider the Omnic in their gang as "one of the good ones" and spared their usual treatment.

Katya Volskaya

• While Sombra did save her life, what is stopping Volskaya from using plausible deniability if Sombra does go ahead with the leaks?
  • She was worried about her daughter more than anything else. Being legally in the clear wouldn't stop retribution from individuals.
  • What I mean is that it is easy for Katya to sway public opinion by declaring that the photos leaked by Sombra were doctored. After all, its not the first time in history that dictators have maintained good PR via manipulation of public opinion. The usual increased non-mechanical guard around the girl would have helped too.
  • Sombra's evidence makes a pretty good case (especially the one-two punch of the omnic handing over the tech, and the blueprints showing the same tech in the new mechs), and in any event, the political blowback in the meantime would be catastrophic to everything and everyone Katya cares about (including but not limited to her daughter).
  • Even if she claims that the photos are doctored, them being released on the internet is going to wreck her in the court of public opinion. There will be plenty of people who believe that the photos aren't doctored, and no doubt Sombra has more concrete evidence proving the Volskaya/Omnic connection.
• Why would Talon try to assassinate her in the first place? For the Evulz? Despite being the designated villains Talon are staunchly against Omnics as well, and Katya is the one of the most important people behind Russia's fight against the Omnic resurgence.
  • Because Talon wants the Second Omnic Crisis to actually become a crisis, as opposed to it being nipped in the bud by nations such as Russia and figures such as Katya. Besides, with Sombra on-site, evidence could be easily planted to point the finger at some new saboteur omnic, thus raising tensions.

The Ages of the Characters

• We're told that the formation of Overwatch was about 35 years ago in the 'current' timeline: 30 years of activity and around five years have passed since it was shut down. This matches up with characters such as Soldier 76/Jack Morrison, Ana and Reinhardt, who were all founding members and are now in their sixties. However, McCree and Mercy were supposedly some of Overwatch's first recruits, and both of them are currently 37. Even if 'first recruits' means ten years after Overwatch was formed, the two of them would still have to have been recruited in their early teens, which doesn't match up at all with their backstories (and just doesn't make sense). Then we have pictures of Tracer (currently 26) and Winston (29) as Overwatch agents alongside very young-looking Ana and Jack Morrison. Both would have been infants in Overwatch's early days and could only have joined many years later. What is even going on with this timeline??
  • 30 years ago, meaning that Overwatch was active for 25 years before being shut down. Jack, Ana, Reinhardt, along with Torbjörn and Reaper, were part of the original Strike Team. McCree and Mercy were recruited after the end of the Omnic Crisis, when Overwatch became a peacekeeping business and no longer just a Strike Team. As for tracer and Winston, presumably they were recruited in the later years. And about Soldier: 76, some wikis (including our own) list his age as 55, only Reinhardt and Ana are in their (early) 60's.
  • Tracer may well have been part of the early Overwatch agency. Her current state means that she's effectively immortal and cannot age.
    • Michael Chu already stated that Tracer ages, so this can be safely considered jossed.
    • Still, though, she DID lose the time when she was basically a temporal ghost, so her age might be a bit...skewed?
    • Blizzard seems to have made sure that most of their female characters over the age of 30 conveniently have a reason to look far younger than their listed ages. Widowmaker was ‘altered’, Mei was in cyrostasis, Tracer is trapped in time, Mercy used some kind of medicine on herself.
  • McCree and Mercy weren't some of the first recruits, I'm not sure where did that information come from. Mccree officially joined at 17, as did Mercy, many years after overwatch was established.

Why did Talon only use the brainwashing/transformation once?

• One would think the ability to turn any random person into an utterly loyal living weapon like they did with Widowmaker would be useful to use more than just once. However, it goes deeper than that. There are all sorts of possibilities that they could use to their advantage, especially since no one outside the organization apparently knows they can do it. For example, they could kidnap a high-ranking politician, brainwash them, and then return them back seemingly unchanged, but have them pass laws that would benefit Talon. Or they could brainwash an Overwatch agent, not just one's wife, into serving them. While any agent would be useful, perhaps the most useful of all would be Mercy. She can revive people, enhance their abilities, and (as evident with Reaper) give them superhuman powers. Not to mention she's a brilliant scientist who could provide them all sorts of innovations that would be useful. She might even be more useful to Talon than Widowmaker if brainwashed. So one must wonder, what made them decide that one-and-done was good enough?
  • Can be the cost (why spend billions on that when you can bribe/hire people for much less to do the exact same thing?), It Only Works Once (remember, Amélie killed Gérard and then left, which mean that apart from killing her husband, the brainwashing only made her a great sniper, which can be trained or hired for much less money/trouble) so probably any politician they kidnap/brainwash would be under scrutiny for this sort of things, and that it's not terribly effective, as Widow's starting to feel again.
    • We actually know from few bits of cannon info that the brainwashing and killing of Gerard came first, and then Talon extensively trained and modified her into a covert assassin. It makes sense in her case since Talon already had a loyal asset in their hands so why not make further use of her, but as you say there is no point in wasting the resources and time needed to create more subjects like Widowmaker when they can just hire mercenaries.
  • Cost/Reward ratio is very likely a major part of it. Remember they TRIED to kill Geard many times before resorting to the brainwashing. They did it to her because nobody else was high value enough for it. Why turn a random Joe Schmo or Jane Doe into a sleeper agent when you can just have a normal agent kill them. As to why they don't kidnap Overwatch agents and brainwash them, the reason is probably 4-fold. 1) It's hard to kidnap a highly trained combat operative, especially now that they are in contact with each other again. A civvie is MUCH easier. 2) All over Overwatch's members are "super" human. So they probably have plenty of Heroic Willpower or, in some cases, literally different physiology. 3) Overwatch knows Talon hates them. So when one of their agents goes missing for a few months and then just suddenly returns, that seems like that's gonna be awfully suspicious. Finally 4) Talon hates Overwatch and probably would prefer to see its most prominent members dead and therefore out of their way for sure.
  • Also, after what happened with Amelie, there's a good chance that if an Overwatch agent or other intimate to an important person disappeared and then reappeared months later unharmed, they'll be superbly suspicious that something similar happened. Even if they think Amelie became Widowmaker willingly, they still can recognize a suspicious pattern.
  • Consider the following; ballet dancers are considered feminine and delicate, but also have to be extremely physically fit and strong (and very experienced with dealing with painful injuries). There probably aren't that many people close to high profile targets with that perfect mix of being completely trusted, not seen as a threat, physically strong (even with the element of surprise, trying to have an average civilian overpower a trained soldier's a risk) and not able to fight back or escape when you capture them, but the ballet dancer wife of a high ranking commander is certainly one of them.
  • The process might still be experimental, and Widowmaker is an extended beta test. While it's proven good so far, they want to be absolutely certain on how thorough it can convert a person before using it again.

The MEKA's design choices

• Why is the MEKA designed so the pilot's arms from the elbow down are outside the mech? If they get shot at or injured by other means, that would greatly hinder the mech, since the hands are needed for the controls, and injuries anywhere on the exposed part of the pilot's arm would slow down their hand movements. Speaking of controls, why are they also outside the MEKA? Broken controls would cause worse problems than injured hands would.
  • Defense Matrix.
  • Broken controls aren't an issue, considering D.Va has access to pretty much an unlimited number of MEK As. She just ditches one and summons another. D.Va's defense matrix means she can casually shield her arms from incoming fire; if she has the reaction times to shoot down incoming bullets, then the D.Va in the story itself should easily be able to activate her DM before the enemy even shoots at her.
  • Keep in mind that the MEKA was designed to fight a rampaging Humongous Mecha rather than human-scale opponents. The same risks need not apply.

Fatality of Omnic Headshots

• Why is a headshot fatal to an omnic? It doesn't have human biology. It might have destroyed the Omnic's hard drive (which would presumably be where its "personality" is stored), but the destruction of literally any other part of the Omnic could be repaired and have them functioning perfectly normal again. If that is the case, why do Omnics not create "back-ups" of themselves?
  • How they work hasn't been made clear. Since they need a specialised factory using some sort of fictional super science to produce more of them (if we are to assume Junkrat's treasure is some vital component he found in the ruins of Australia's), it's possible that they can't be "backed up" any more than a human can be.
  • Omnics are fully sentient and self aware, consider themselved alive, and even have developed their own notion of spirituality. They probably would consider said backup just that, a copy of the original that isn't actually the original.

Origin of Sentient Omnics

• Where do the sentient Omnics come from? This troper read that Omnics were created in the Omnium factories, but that they were initially non-sentient servant robots. The God A.I.s and Bastion units were also manufactured there, but when, where, and why did the self-aware, humanoid Omnics come into being?
  • Organic oil and the love of their handler, perhaps?
  • The Omnics were made with a learning AI that had the purpose of learn and improve itself. This had the unintended effect of the robots eventually developing sentience and self-awareness. The initial wave of commercial robots are the "good" Omnics (although they are not all necesseraly decent fellows, we know that the Lost Muertos gang has at least one Omnic member) that we can see in the game, shorts, and comics, which apparently were highly successful and sold by the truckload. Then, Omnica Corp ran into legal troubles, went bankrupt, the Omnimums were set to be dismantled, and they in return rebelled and declared war on Humanity.

Mei wasn't part of the Overwatch recall

• Why wasn't Mei recalled to serve Overwatch after Winston reinstated the organization? Along with many other non-playable members, the recall explicitly showed six other members that were contacted to serve again: Genji, Reinhardt, Mercy, Torbjörn, McCree, and Tracer (the latter of which Jumped at the Call). The only playable former Overwatch members that weren't contacted after the recall were Jack, Ana (both of whom are presumed dead), Reyes (for obvious reasons), and Mei. The latter of which however, raises some questions. Why was Mei left out during the recall? It's not like they don't know she's alive, because it's well-known that she did survive and she made contact with Winston at one point. However, she wasn't in the system for some reason, despite there being no real reason for her not to. Even members who left on less-than-amicable terms, like McCree and Mercy, were in. But Mei wasn't. Why was Mei left out of the recall when numerous others were being called in to serve Overwatch once again? It just seems like an odd exclusion.
  • Maybe Recall takes place before Mei was unfrozen. Maybe she was among the many members that flashed on screen quickly (even if she wasn't in the actual video we see). Or maybe it's because Mei was considered purely a researcher, rather than a combatant.
  • She was probably taken out of the system after the polar storm struck Antarctica and broke contact between her and Overwatch, and thus the organization hadn't heard from her since then, leading to the presumption that she had died. A notion they had with Ana and Jack as well. While she has made contact with Winston after her return, she wasn't put back in the system since Overwatch had disbanded since then and there was no point to.
  • Rise and Shine and closer examination of Recall answer a lot of these questions. For starters: It was Winston's recall message (as seen in Are You With Me?) that woke Mei up in the first place, so yes, she was recalled. Second, The shot of the globe in Recall only showed Eurasia and a snippet of the Mediterranean coastline in Africa. Antarctica (where Mei was stationed) was nowhere to be seen.

Talon mode of transportation

• How do Talon members get from place to place (i.e. America to England) without being caught? They obviously couldn't board civilian transport without being noticed, and I doubt they could use stealth transport, especially given that it hasn't been that long since the war. Even if they made it, they're all pretty easy to pick out of a crowd, and whatever means they used to get in could probably be blocked off even without Overwatch commandos.
  • While I can't answer for the more extreme cases like Widowmaker or Reaper, most of Talon we've seen are Gas Mask Mooks. Since they never show their face, they can easily blend in with regular society.
  • Now that I (the OP) think about it, maybe Sombra hacked the official systems so that Talon members wouldn't leave a trail wherever they went.
  • With access to one of the world's most dangerous hackers (Sombra) plus a man who literally ran the covert ops branch of one of the most powerful organizations in recent history (Reaper), they can likely run rings around the national security and intelligence apparatus of most countries.
  • "Masquerade" shows one method: they have milspec jet planes. (Reaper's and Doomfist's ride away from the Helix Securities facility where Doomfist was incarcerated)

Numbani payload without Doomfist's gauntlet on it

• So if the gauntlet is gone, what's the point of escorting the payload now?
  • Because: Fuck the Red Team.
  • Those Payloads aren't exactly cheap to make, y'know.
  • If i'm not mistaken - Defence final spawn (the Museum) had the very Gauntlet we were supposed to deliver as attackers. Following said logic (or am i remembering it wrong?) the thing that is inside the Exhibit now (Orisa's ult) is the same we're delivering as attackers.

Widowmaker's Base of Operations/How can she go out in public?

• Her official Base of Operations is listed as Annecy, France. This brings up a number of questions, as it would be more logical for someone like her, an extremely dangerous living weapon, to reside in a Talon bunker, or perhaps their headquarters (wherever that is). Widowmaker may be the perfect assassin, but she would never be able to blend in with a crowd in a public setting, unless blue-skinned people are a thing in the future. It's not hard to imagine that Talon would have forbidden Widowmaker to go out in public, because she would obviously draw attention to herself, and she's probably wanted by the world governments for her numerous murders. So, in the Reflections comic, where she was seen mourning Gérard, the most presumable scenario is that she went there all by herself, without permission from Talon. After all, one thinks that Talon would not want their top assassin, one they want to be nothing more than an emotionless killer, mourning their loved one in public, their former Arch-Enemy no less, and most likely wouldn't grant her the permission if she asked. In fact, if she did, they would catch on to the fact that the brainwashing is starting to crack (as mentioned above), would probably take her in for more "reconditioning". Is there a Talon bunker in Annecy that she lives in? Was it made just for her? And how long can she be gone before Talon demands to know where she is?
  • Given Talon is described as a terrorist group, it might be that it has no "base" per se, and its members just do their own thing in between missions, with the organisation just providing resources and orders to its agents (who only meet up for missions). It would be hard for an illegal organisation to have a visible base/barracks, after all (hence the Supervillain Lair trope). This would suggest that Widow keeps herself hidden away in her own safehouse until she's contacted for a mission. This would also have interesting implications for the nature of her brainwashing (perhaps it was more along the lines of having her personality changed to that of an assassin who's willing to kill for money, rather than being outright brainwashed into loyalty^note When you think about it, a mindless slave who can't think on their feet would be pretty useless as an assassin?).
    • I (the asker) always imagined the brainwashing as being along the lines of "she can make decisions, just not ones that Talon doesn't want", as she can be quite a strategist in combat. As said, one that can't think on their feet would be pretty useless as an assassin. However, the last thing Talon would probably want is for Widowmaker, a known assassin who sticks out easily, to risk getting caught in public while mourning the loss of their former Arch-Enemy. It's doubtful they even consider Widowmaker to be a person, just a tool of killing to be used (hence her name), so any sign of humanity displayed is probably the last thing Talon wants to see.
    • However, Talon might not have the power to control their own weapon, given how powerful she is, so maybe she snuck off during a mission.
  • Details on the Chateau Guillard map go a bit toward explaining this - apparently Widowmaker's masquerading as a member of her pre-Talon family, one "Danielle Guillard."
  • "Masquerade" did have Widowmaker in an evening dress openly walking in a casino. Granted, it isn't clear how much of a Talon stronghold the casino is, but it does appear that they weren't that worried about her appearance. Perhaps dyeing your skin odd colours in the future is the new body-mod, like tattoos. And even if that isn't the case, Amélie can just wear long coats, gloves, a big hat, and wear makeup if she needs to go out in public.

Null Sector Bastion Units

• Wasn't it established that SST Laboratories Siege Automaton E54, i.e. the Bastion that's playable in-game was the Last of Their Kind since the Omnic Crisis? It's odd how Null Sector have Bastion Units among them when they're supposedly extinct.
  • The Uprising was seven years before the game's present time. So logically, all the bastions were destroyed in the mission, meaning our Bastion is still the last functioning model.
  • The official story says that "a few" were not destroyed, so maybe there was room for 10 more. Or maybe Null Sector built their own Bastions or repaired old ones.
  • The Null Sector skin for Bastion says that their Bastions are upgraded versions of the old ones they started building (which would explain why some of them can stay in tank form). It could be that Bastion's the last of that model of Bastion, or it could be that they were destroyed with the rest of Null Sector's combat specific forces (or both).

Omnics can breathe?

• Why is it that Bastion, Zenyatta and Orisa are harmed by Widowmaker's venom mine? Orisa can even be heard coughing. They don't need to breathe or even have lungs so that should surely make them immune to the mine's effects.
• Orisa was designed specifically to work with humans, so it could be that she was built to make a coughing sound while taking certain types of damage to make her more human friendly. The mine could use something that damages both humans and omnics, such as a corrosive gas (corrodes metal and burns pulmonary tissue), or it could just be Game Play And Story Segregation (in the same way whatever ammunition Ana fired depends on if it hit an enemy or ally).

Widowmaker's appearance & tattoos

• Granted, they probably designed her first before coming up with her backstory, but still. Why does a Brainwashed and Crazy assassin like her who likely has little choice in her life dress in such provocative clothing, wearing a Spy Catsuit with a Navel-Deep Neckline and no back, as well as stockings and heels? It's not like she's a Honey Trap who specifically uses her good looks to her advantage, seeing as how she's a sniper who takes out enemies from afar. Also, there's her tattoos, which brings up more questions. The wedding photo spray showing a pre-brainwashed Amélie confirms she had no tattoos back then, and thus it came sometime after her brainwashing. How did she get these tattoos? Does Talon have a parlor in the base, or did she go out in public to get them? The latter would be odd, because again, she can't fit in with a crowd, and the tattoo man would probably think it's weird that a blue-skinned lady was in his room. It also brings up questions about the brainwashing itself. While we don't know much about Amélie, it's easy to assume that Widowmaker is basically a completely different person in her body and mind. So was it her deciding to look like this, or Talon making the decision?
  • She was still a ballet dancer to start with. Maybe the brainwashing didn't take away (or initially didn't take away) her flair for the dramatic?
  • For her appearance, either Talon is full of pervs, or Widow wears that kind of clothing to distract most enemies that find her, giving her time to react in such an event.
  • I suspect a rather perverted test of loyalty. "As an agent of Talon, this is your costume." If she starts to balk at wearing such a revealing thing, it shows she's not as loyal to Talon as they expected.

McCree and Sombra's relationship

• Do McCree and Sombra know each other, and do they have some kind of friendship or at least working relationship of some kind? It's a weird question to ask, but it seems to be implied. On Christmas, they participated in a Drinking Contest where Sombra quite handily won. It would be an extremely Contrived Coincidence for McCree and Sombra to end up on the same bar by accident and have a contest together while having no idea who each other are. In fact, what was he even doing in Mexico anyways? He's American and if he's actually a part of Winston's reinstated Overwatch (which hasn't been confirmed yet, to be fair, though McCree and Talon aren't exactly on good terms), it'd very strange for him to be hanging out with Sombra, a Talon operative. Also, an in-game interaction further implies that the two know each other, with Sombra saying "Pleasure working with you McCree... if that is your real name." and McCree insisting that it isn't Joel. Also, Sombra has an image of McCree linked to Overwatch on her computer, though the significance of this isn't yet known. All of this suggests that the two know each other, but how, and what is their relationship?
  • The photo of them in a bar together is not necessarily after a drinking contest - McCree is passed out drunk and Sombra is not, is all we know. Maybe he was imbibing Christmas spirit and she was tracking him down on her own? He's in Mexico because, living Man With No Name tribute that he is, he's probably a drifter by nature - especially given Overwatch's currently-defunct status and his occupation as a bounty hunter. And the fact that Sombra and McCree's shared line implies that she hasn't worked with him before and doesn't (or shouldn't) know his name to me implies they haven't met before that, and have no relationship.
  • Evidence does seem to indicate that Mccree and Sombra don't know each other as of yet. If you look at and around Sombra's computer on the Castillo map she actually has pictures/files of two Overwatch agents, Mccree and Ana. This seems to indicate she's hunting them or they are hunting her. The last seems unlikely because Ana doesn't mention Sombra at all and I don't think Mccree would get drunk while looking for someone. However, of the two it would make more sense to go after Mccree as he seems to be alone and out of touch with all the other agents. Sombra's play style in game is to pounce on lone, weak targets, and she would know from Reaper that Ana is with Soldier 76. From what we've seen of picture of Overwatch in its glory days Mccree and Ana were fairly close, given that in almost every picture they are standing next to each other. Perhaps Sombra thinks she can get information from Mccree? Although I'm completely stumped as to why she would go after Ana.
    • Gathering and dealing with information is Sombra's livehood, and she has a special interest in Overwatch as both a hired gun for Talon and for her own larger (and still unclear) schemes. She probably has info on everybody involved with the organization, so it makes plenty of sense that Ana being one of Overwatch's higher officers would be worth investigating. For example, in the in-game interactions it's obvious that she also has been digging into the lives of both Pharah and Genji.
  • Also, Sombra calling Mccree Joel is a joke from the beginning of the game when fans speculated that Mccree was called Joel. When Jeff Kaplan revealed Mccree officially he lampshaded this, saying "He hates being called Joel."
  • Pretty sure what happened was during his wanderings, he saw Sombra at a bar and said "Buonasera Signora, can I-ah get you-ah something to drink?" And this is the result.

Reaper's hatred towards Winston

• Reaper has displayed a special kind of hatred for Winston. In Winston's graduation photo, you could see Reyes looking visibly unhappy at him becoming a member of Overwatch while everyone else was enthusiastic about it. In the story, he always calls him a "monkey" just add salt on the wound, and he will never pass up an opportunity to Kick the Dog when it comes to him (which often turns out to be a big mistake). Is there any reason besides Fantastic Racism towards gorillas that he holds a grudge towards him that's second only to Jack himself? The only reason I can think of is that Winston became the new leader of Overwatch after reinstating it, and if a "stupid monkey" could get the title of Overwatch leader, the role he originally desired, then why couldn't he get it? But his hatred also seems to predate that.
  • Perhaps he just resented Winston's success in becoming a beloved hero in the same way as Morrison (he's adorkable, a genius, probably proved himself early on by saving Tracer and enjoys the same level of good PR as her if the trailers are anything to go by). Note that when he taunts Winston in pre-match dialogue, he tries to play Winston up as an outcast.
  • I'm staking my bets on a few guesses that may or may not be connected: 1) Reyes is simply relishing in his "role" as a Card-Carrying Villain (though this only applies when he is Reaper). 2) Reyes might also be pissed that a "stupid monkey" could get a pretty good public image... and he can't (referring to the first cinematic trailer, that kid was gushing about how Winston kicked Doomfist's ass). 3) What the troper above me said. 4) Maybe he's pissed that Winston preferred working with Morrison instead of him. 5) Reyes is just a petty asshole, plain and simple.
  • Reyes is... basically, he's just an asshole. Remember, he pretty much destroyed Overwatch because he was angry he wasn't getting the respect he thought he deserved, and before that he ran a very morally dark agency responsible for kidnapping and assassination within Overwatch. He's cruel and vicious toward Wintson because he's a resentful, petty asshole and becoming Reaper has just exacerbated that state.
• I don't see any particular animosity towards Winston in the graduation picture, really. Seems like, at worst, irritation at the new class. You have Torb, a technician and machinist (no good to Blackwatch), Jesse McCree, who seems to be actively trying to redeem himself. Tracer, who is a ball of enthusiasm, decency, optimism, and hope (all things that Reyes never seemed the type for). Genji, a man who is actively letting go of old grudges, moving on, and living his life without being consumed by resentment and hate (basically, the anti-Reyes). And then Winston. An uplifted animal, filled with hope and the idea that people can be better, can be heroes. As to later on, I think Reaper's hatred towards Winston is more pragmatic. He hates that Winston brought back Overwatch, an organization he wanted dead and buried. Brought back "heroes" to oppose his reshaping the world. It seems like it's that Winston is both a living reminder of his past, and the number one reason that he is now opposed so heavily.

Reaper is part of Talon's "Council of Leaders"

• Originally, it was portrayed that Reaper wasn't a full-fledged member of Talon unlike Widowmaker, instead being a mercenary on their payroll who had little personal investment in them outside of the shared goal of Overwatch's complete destruction. However, it seems that this is no longer the case. First hinted at in an interaction where Sombra calls him "boss", he was officially confirmed to be part of Talon's leadership alongside Doomfist, aptly named the Council of Leaders. If this isn't a full-fledged membership, then what is? Was this a Retcon because they decided that it fit better to give him a position of power, a Continuity Snarl, or did he get a promotion (which seems unlikely given he hasn't exactly been very successful for Talon). Can anyone give an explanation for this?
  • Where did it say he wasn't? The only sources that he's a "mercenary" are In-Universe news stories. That said, the reveal here is basically that the leadership of Talon is more fluid than previously assumed; we, the audience, were lead to assume that Reaper was a top enforcer reporting to some unseen Big Bad who leads Talon, when it is actually run by a council of characters with roughly the same level of authority as him.

If Australia is supposed to be a wartorn, radioactive wasteland...

• Then why is the new Lucioball map set in a shiny, untainted Sydney? Was Sydney just not involved in the fallout? Was Sydney rebuilt since the incident? Does the Overwatch team not care about their lore?
  • The former seems most likely. It's mentioned that the Outback became a wasteland, not the entirety of Australia. We've seen other parts of Australia in both Going Legit and Reflections, which show that the cities are still doing fine.
  • Note that the Outback (even today) is sparsely populated, and generally hard for humans to live in, so it's a fairly logical place to let a more resilient race of robots found their nation. It's also huge (see this size comparison◊), and most of the population is concentrated around the coast◊. Even a huge explosion in the middle of the outback wouldn't touch most of the continent's major cities (Sydney being at risk from the explosion would be the equivalent of an explosion centred in Austria threatening to destroy Spain).

McCree and Genji were both Blackwatch and Overwatch?

• Despite being a secret black ops agents that were drafted from being Boxed Crooks, it seems that McCree and Genji were also openly public Overwatch agents as well. McCree was seen alongside the other agents getting a medal for his work, while Genji was seen at the ceremony when Winston was made a member, not to mention he took part in publicly arrested Doomfist. Both were also seen in the Overwatch Museum in the Cinematic Trailer as being Overwatch agents. Also, the "Uprising" comic, which takes place in the couple of years of Overwatch's original run, shows that both members were Blackwatch until presumably just before the collapse, when they left separately (most likely because Reyes turned Blackwatch against Overwatch, and they didn't want to fight their friends). So with that in mind, how was it that the two were both top secret black ops agents, and publicly celebrated good guys? Granted, Blackwatch was a branch of Overwatch, but it seems odd that two members of a top secret Dirty Business branch, known for not getting any credit (hence Reyes turned on them), and both possessing shady pasts, were celebrated as publicly well-known heroes. Why wasn't Reyes celebrated as a hero before his Face–Heel Turn, considering he wasn't a criminal before and was an original Strike Team member? Did he ever go on public missions himself, like his two former underlings? This raises so many questions about the nature of Overwatch during its prime.
  • It's possible that Blackwatch and its activities were covert, but its agents' membership of Overwatch wasn't, and they also took part in more overt operations (they could always disguise themselves). That way, Reyes would still get screwed out of any credit since all his operations he was in charge of would be top secret, but that he and the other Blackwatch agents worked for OW would still be public. It's also possible that Genji might have moved to the friendlier side of OW after dismantling his family's empire. There's also the fact that the older publicity images apparently aren't quite canon any more.
  • My guess is that Genji and Jesse started out in Blackwatch, then left for Overwatch due to being disgusted by Reyes' actions (or possibly because they refused to take part in his insurrection).
  • Genji left Overwatch way before Reyes started acting like a bastard, and McCree most likely simply didn't follow him.

Anyway, IMO, Blackwatch is indeed the secret operation branch of Overwatch, but this doesn't mean that they aren't known to the rest of the organization. Simply their job was in that group, this doesn't mean that they were undercover or anything.

"Ganymede"

• Bastion can't talk, and Ganymede is a wild bird simply following them around. Under those circumstances, how can Ganymede have a name?
  • Bastion can't speak. They clearly have a sapient mind capable of thinking words (and probably understanding classical mythology/astronomy). It's also possible that another character helped name it.
  • Is it established that Bastion's beeps and boops are meaningless, instead of Robo Speak? It's possible that he's saying entirely intelligible things if you spoke his language.
  • It's possible that Bastion can either type or be interfaced with a device that renders speech/data into text. Then he could use that to convey the bird's name.

Ana/Shrike

• Why is Ana called by her actual name in-game when to the world she faked her own death and is known as "Shrike"? Why isn't that her hero name instead of her actual name? After all, Soldier: 76 is a similar deal but he is actually called that by the game and not "Jack". Just a little inconsistency that seems odd.
  • Gameplay And Story segregation.
  • She doesn't use her Shrike outfit as her default. Shrike is a costume, Ana is the base skin. For Jack, Soldier: 76 is the default costume.
  • Ana is supposed to be a sympathetic character first and a mysterious vigilante second. For Soldier it's the other way around.

The giant omnic terrorizing South Korea

• Drones were originally used to fight it until it evolved to hack them, so the manned MEKA are now used instead. Members of MEKA often stream their operations, but why? Why are they allowed to do that? Wouldn't that open up a very real possibility of the giant omnic just evolving to hack the cameras/WATCH THE STREAMS to gather vital intel and spy on them? Doing that would be practically effortless in comparison to hacking drones piloted from miles away.
  • It's possible that they only stream while they're in the thick of it anyway, so there probably isn't much intel at risk (aside from maybe stopping them sneaking up on it). The streams themselves probably help a lot with moral (since being attacked by a robotic kaiju probably puts the population on edge a little).
  • Hacking the stream probably wouldn't give the Omnic anymore information that it would already have access to from its own sensors, as the Omnic would likely already have spotted enemy MEKA on their scanners. Unless the stream is broacasting vital information on the MEKA's statistics such as how much power or fuel or ammo it has, seeing things from the MEKA's perspective is unlikely to really give anything useful to the Omnic, and might even hinder it if it devotes processing power to analyzing useless streams from the MEKA pilots.
  • The Omnic in question didn't hack the drones. Rather, it was jamming their communications, which is why human pilots were needed. As far as we know, the Korean security forces still have full information security.
  • "Shooting Stars" More or less confirms that it's allowed for propaganda purposes.

World in Overwatch

• What happened to the various nations of the world in the story? To take a few examples, in D.va's fight against the omnic drones, there's no mention made of North Korea despite Seoul being relatively close to the Korean demilitarized zone that splits the two. What would've happened if the drones decided to turn back and head to North Korea instead (assuming that North Korea under the Kim dynasty is still around in Overwatch)? The Australian outback is an Omnic dumping ground, but at least one city - Sydney - is still intact and there's much unrest about it. Not to mention what about Vatican City? Mecca? Jerusalem? If there's a "humans putting their differences aside to fight the machines" angle, that makes sense but I don't think there's any mention of it in the lore. What happened to places around the world, and the conflicts involved, in the Overwatch universe?
  • Just because they haven't been mentioned doesn't mean they don't exist. Overwatch's lore is very slowly expanding; it just hasn't had time to cover the status of every single country in the world.

Echo and Winston

• I just thought of this recently... In "Reunion" McCree and Echo's dialogue implies that she doesn't know who Winston is ("Say hi to the monkey for me", "Monkey?", "Scientist... Whatever..."). Which is fine and it makes sense, Winston may have well joined Overwatch after Echo disappeared so she'd have no clue about a "monkey scientist" being part of the team. However, in "Zero Hour", when they all arrive to help/save Winston, Mei and Tracer, they both know and recognize each other immediately. So... which is it? Do they know each other or not? Is it just a mistake the writers made, or did they somehow got in touch in between "Reunion" and "Zero Hour"?
  • Rewatch the first trailer: "I'm not a monkey, I'm a scientist!". She was referring to the fact that Winston doesn't like being called a monkey, not that she wasn't familiar with him.

How will this look on the news?

• In Retribution, Antonio lets Reyes know that Overwatch capturing a respected businessman would ruin their reputation. What caused Reyes to think that murdering said businessman would produce any better results?
  • He didn't - he knew that no matter what Overwatch did to Antonio, it could be spun as something bad, so he decided in the moment that he should just kill him and get the whole thing over with.

Omnium in Russia

• It's stated that one of the events happening in the world of overwatch right now is the start of the second Omnic Crisis, started by the Omnium in Siberia turning on again for no apparent reason. That's why Zarya is joining the military and why Katya Volskaya is working on another model of Svyatygor mechs. And that's fine and dandy, except for one detail: WHO ALLOWED THE OMNIUMS TO JUST STAY ABANDONED IN THE WORLD?! How were these places not nuked to oblivion or dismantled after the Omnic Crisis was over?! Why was there infrastructure left to just rot and be able to be activated by itself or by members of groups like Talon?! Even if dismantling the whole thing was too much (it was too big and taking it down would be too expensive or time consuming for example) why not take the crucial hardware or elements that are necessary for the production process, so that even if someone got to the omnium and got it up and running, they would have to re-create complicated mechanisms, so there would be more time to notice someone was planning something? It's such a bizzare and illogical decision.
  • We don't know enough about the Omniums' origins to say for certain, but it is mentioned each one has an active fusion core installed. Destroying one caused a massive explosion that irradiated the Australian Outback, and the rest are in populated areas (Detroit) or in fragile parts of the ecosytem (The middle of the ocean and, well, Siberia). So that, combined with the fact that it seemed to be non-functioning, would make governments hesitant to mess with the Siberian one if there was no reason to.

How do these characters travel?

• Since the game was released, I can't stop thinking about how some of these characters travel the world after Overwatch was disbanned. Some are easier than others, for example Talon members likely have their own means of travel, and ex Overwatch agents likely aren't hounded by law and can get on a plane or boat and go anywhere they want. But what about characters with less than stellar reputation and no backup? The easiest example would be Mccree: a former Blackwatch agent with a bounty on his head. We know that he canonically was in Hanamura (Japan) at least once. If after leaving Overwatch he was dropped off in the US, how did he get to an island an ocean away? Fake documents? Sneaked into a cargo ship? And how did he come back, since Reunion takes place on Route 66, likely after the noodle shop incident. "Train hopper" confirms that Mccree wouldn't be sold a ticket to board the train legally, so his travels are made more difficult. If train conductors or ticket clerks know who he is, why wouldn't the airport workers? Airports are much more regulated. Solider 76 is also a wanted vigilante, who's currently in Cairo (Africa), yet we know he was in Dorado (North America) not that long ago. Roadhog and Junkrat are CURRENTLY on a crime spree that started in Australia, but we know they were also in Dorado. How do these characters travel to continents separated by oceans without getting caught?
  • Presumably the same way wanted criminals get around today. A combination of bribes and favors, sneaking and keeping their heads down with the occasional disguise. Junkrat and Roadhog aren't subtle enough for that, admittedly. Perhaps in their case they hijack vehicles as needed and avoid capture after the fact.

Why does Lucio have to reload his gun?

• With other characters with energy weapons, it makes sense (Soldier 76's gun seems to get plasma from a magazine, Symmetra seems to be able to put photons into her gun somehow, Echo's reload looks a bit more like a cooldown, etc.), but I don't get what exactly Lucio's putting into his gun when he reloads. His gun is basically just a big speaker; it doesn't actually need projectile material to be put into it. I guess it could be a battery of some kind, but if that's the case, then that gun is REALLY power-intensive.