YMMV / Overwatch - Story and Lore

Overwatch Main YMMV Page
Story and Lore | Gameplay

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A

• Abandon Shipping:
  • D.Va/Sombra was popular before the latter's official release, but lost a lot of support when Sombra's bio revealed her to be 30 and not a Teen Genius as some had theorized.
  • Plenty of people have stopped shipping Tracer/Widowmaker after Blizzard revealed that the former already has a girlfriend. Of course, people have shipped all three together, complete with Emily/Amilie jokes.
  • Ana/Reinhardt lost some momentum when it was revealed that Reinhardt is not Pharah's father.
  • Ana/Soldier: 76 was quickly dropped once it was revealed that the latter turned out not only to be gay but has still not gotten over his ex-boyfriend.
• Americans Hate Tingle:
  • At game release, Mei was quite controversial on the Chinese internet community, with the main gripe being that she does not represent China accurately or effectively. Thankfully, it's a non-issue mostly these days, and people did eventually warm up to her.
  • Another major peeve with the Chinese is the depiction of Lijiang Towers. For info, the Li River is well known for its picturesque natural scenery. To depict a location on the river as a built-up, futuristic city stirs up the indignities of some people, given that a major problem in China is environmental degradation due to urbanization.
  • British players are a bit divided over Tracer due to her exaggerated Cockney accent, which some find annoying. This is a bit unusual, as Tracer's VA, Cara Theobold, is a British native and allegedly based her Tracer voice on the accents of some old university classmates.
  • Russian players aren't fond of Zarya given how she is a stereotypical Husky Russkie woman who lacks the cultural nuances seen in the other characters.
  • Pharah has been received rather poorly by Egyptians, mainly due to her lack of Egyptian-ness apart from her name and some generic visual motifs, which even then are based more on ancient Egypt rather than something more in line with modern Arab Egyptian culture. She doesn't speak a word of Arabic, and her accent isn't even remotely correct for an Egyptian. Thankfully, as seen in Author's Saving Throw, her mother, Ana, is far more explicitly Arab and there is later justification for her not seeming as Arab with the revelation that she's also half Canadian First Nation.
  • Echo got hit with a bit of this on release from Singaporean fans, mostly due to the handling of her Singlish dialogue, with many finding her pronunciation of it significantly inaccurate and "westernized" (many pin this on Jeannie Bolet being a British actor of French, Chinese and Vietnamese descent with no experience in the dialect). Fortunately, Blizzard was able to get the lines re-recorded to be more accurate a few months later, and Singaporean fans have since been more welcoming of her.
• Angel/Devil Shipping:
  • The pairing of Mercy/Reaper, since Mercy's design is based on an angel and Reaper's on a grim reaper.
  • Also, Junkrat being paired with either Mercy or Mei, two of the nicest and most optimistic members of the cast (and the latter of whom expressly dislikes him). Junkrat, meanwhile, is a killer, anarchist and thief.
  • And Widowmaker being paired with either Tracer, Pharah or any other heroic character. But those two especially, given their history with Widowmaker.
  • In as literal an application of this trope the game will allow, you don't have to look hard to find fan art of Classic Skin Mercy getting frisky with Devil Skin Mercy.
• Angst Aversion: Don't be fooled by the bright colors or the positive messaging; the story so far has been far from fun. Nearly everybody has a tragic backstory, and progression often takes the form of watching good people suffer through one unpleasant scenario after another and struggling to achieve anything of consequence while bad people get away with murder (sometimes literally), ruin lives and reflect on their own ruined lives, driving some fans to avoid following the story at all because it almost never leads somewhere rewarding, and the few times it does rarely stick. Some even disregard the notion that Alive takes place after Recall^note Not that it didn't happen, mind you; just not in that particular order for this reason, just because they find the alternative too pointlessly depressing.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Despite failing to save someone she greatly admired from an assassination attempt under circumstances that plunged her hometown into chaos and undid her earliest success with protecting both it and him, the most acknowledgment Tracer has given for the whole ordeal (aside from her initial immediate reaction) is referring to Mondatta in the past tense when she tells Zenyatta in-game that the former inspired her. Considering other characters have expressed grief for similar tragedies that befell them offscreen, the omission feels conspicuous, even for someone like her.
    • Downplayed more with her condition, which leaves her little more than a ghost outside of time without her chronal accelerator. She rarely discusses it in the present, but that's presumably because she's grown accustomed enough to learn to live with it, not unlike many handicapped people in real life. Her origin story trailer and Uprising, however, both make it very clear that, until a treatment came along, it was a harrowing experience for her, and she certainly considered it a struggle for survival at the time.
  • Despite big emphasis about how she feels weighted down by every lives that she kills, Ana's remark when she eliminated someone in the game (some of whom might be her former teammates and even her own daughter Pharah) are just snarky one-liners and teasing.
  • D.Va was simply a professional gamer whose focus was simulating military conflict for fun and to entertain fans, until she was conscripted to fight a giant Omnic in a real conflict where she could possibly die in action, and there's nothing in canon to indicate that she has prior experience in the military. Instead of being the next Shinji Ikari, she's able to charge into combat talking to her comrades in a chipper and energetic tone as if she's simply playing StarCraft II as usual; the worst she ever shows is one line about how the destruction in Eichenwalde reminds her of home (even then, she's saying this out loud — other players on her team wouldn't hear it otherwise — in a tone that's somber without being unstable) and her "I'm too young to die!" respawn line (while it could be interpreted to mean "I don't want to die!", it could also mean "Psh, I'm not giving up just yet!"). In other words, D.Va is surprisingly well-adjusted to military operations for someone whose signature trait is playing video games as a career. Her origin short Shooting Star shows that while D.Va treats everything mildly, Hana Song is a workaholic because she's keenly aware of her duty.
  • Cassidy was part of an outlaw gang in his childhood, and later became a Child Soldier being a member of Overwatch, and more secretly, the top secret Blackwatch covert ops organization when he was in his teens. Despite the horrifying implications of having a troubled childhood that may or may not have been caused by the Omnic Crisis, Cassidy's shown no signs of any angst about the past at all.
  • In Honor and Glory, Reinhardt loses an eye in his first battle with an OR-14. It doesn't bother, nor hinder him, in any way. That said, he angsts a whole lot more on the other events of that day.
• Arc Fatigue:
  • By far the biggest complaint about the game's story is its pacing. The lore tries to give the impression that the heroes are due to make a comeback, and issues such as seeing them reunite and fight back against Talon, the implications of operating under the PETRAS Act (which prohibits Overwatch activity), and how previously unaffiliated heroes such as D.Va, Zenyatta, Zarya, and Lúcio might get involved have been widely anticipated, but very little has been dedicated to the ostensible "main" plot of Overwatch's return. Instead, most of the focus so far has been on the heroes' pasts, auxiliary conflicts, or the villains, leaving matters to stagnate into a rather grim status quo in which the heroes aimlessly struggle with no concrete objectives or payoff while the villains continue tommyknocking about unmolested, undermining the heroes' victories and evading any repercussions for their actions^note Doomfist retaking his place within Talon, likely the most consequential story development of 2017, would be the most glaring example of this disparity, as it rendered much of the heroes' accomplishments meaningless and significantly bolstered Talon's threat level at a time when they were already holding all the advantages in the conflict and when there was still no confirmation of any additional heroes responding to the recall order. And if you care less about the overall story and more about certain characters, the piecemeal rate at which new material becomes available means you'll be inordinately blessed if you see your favorite once in a matter of months, and even then there's no guarantee any appreciable progress will be made on their own personal stories^note Case in point: major plot threads such as Pharah and Ana's long-awaited reunion have been left hanging with no address since their introduction, some characters have gone for over a year with no attention, others have gotten no attention period, and some characters' appearances outright work against them. Even Tracer, the face of the franchise, has ended most of her appearances by either failing or winning in a way that will later not matter in the larger context of the story, which also has a habit of abandoning her entirely for the better part of a year after every time something horrible happens to her. Rise and Shine took measures to finally address the issue of the recall nearly a year-and-a-half later by confirming Mei as the first new agent to respond, and Reinhardt followed shortly with Honor and Glory. However, in both cases the recall itself takes a backseat to reviewing their origins, so whether this is a sign the fatigue is finally coming to an end or just entering a new phase remains to be seen. Suffice it to say, after two years of false starts, setbacks and diversions, people are getting tired of being told to "hope" for the situation to improve and are ready to see it actually improve.
    • It got worse during the latter half of 2017 and the first half of 2018, as lore release drastically slowed down, such as having only two animated shorts in a year compared to the six-seven animated shorts that came during the game's first year, still no major lore event beyond Archives, and the plot not moving forward much. With the reveal of Overwatch 2 in 2019 and the revelation that large portions of the dev team's efforts were being allocated in its development — more specifically, to its long-awaited story modes — fans have become slightly more understanding of the lack of forward-moving content for now, but forgiving and accepting it is an entirely different ballpark.
  • Sombra's Alternate Reality Game was infamous for this. While the goal was to tease the then-unknown 23rd hero, and it provided quite a few puzzles for the internet to solve, it ultimately barely gave out any information to go off of other than she was Mexican and some kind of hacker. On top of the only rewards being cryptic hints leading to more cryptic hints, it was remarkably spaced out, including having a countdown on a mysterious website in the form of a percentage ticking up 0.0038% every three minutes, which months later only revealed... more cryptic hints. By the end of it all, Sombra was eventually revealed at BlizzCon anyway (which was the intention all along), making the entire thing ultimately pointless on top of it needlessly straining the playerbase's patience.

B

• Badass Decay:
  • Some feel Sombra has been hit with a big case of this after her introduction. To wit: she was introduced in her ARG and Infiltration as a smooth, delightfully trollish Manipulative Bastard who managed to kick ass and make complete fools of her fellow Talon agents with them none the wiser, winning over the hearts of many fans. Come Masquerade and Searching, where it turns out she's not as clever as she or her fans thought, as Reaper is completely aware of Sombra doing things in secret, and was easily found and curb-stomped by Zarya, as well as having her real name figured out — so much for erasing all traces of her past. It's gotten to the point where she's seen more as a Smug Snake/Butt-Monkey than the Magnificent Bastard she was clearly portrayed as in her introduction. Her being seen (at the time) as something of a Low-Tier Letdown in some circles hasn't helped matters.
  • Tracer's first impression in the cinematic trailer earned her worldwide admiration thanks to an awe-inspiring display of acrobatic heroism that helped drive off the bad guys without much hassle and cemented her position as the flag-bearer for Blizzard's first new IP in nearly two decades. Her subsequent appearances, however, have subjected her to such indignities as getting trounced with barely a fight on her own turf in Alive and being unable to even inconvenience Doomfist despite unloading everything she has on him before he disables her in about two seconds in his origin story trailer, which also inherently renders her victory in the aforementioned cinematic trailer pointless. And when she's not losing, she's headlining story materials that leave no meaningful impact on the greater conflict (Reflections and Uprising). Hardly affirming for someone whose entire schtick is supposed to be turning the tide. It's pretty telling that most of her combat achievements on the Awesome Moments page are accompanied with a disclaimer to the effect of "even if it didn't matter". This is a weird instance of this trope, because her losses actually take place before the cinematic trailer. So, chronologically, she's doing well, but in terms of presentation, she hasn't managed an appreciable victory in years^note Unless you count baking a cake, and even that isn't canon. And the one time she did is now moot.
  • Some think Overwatch as a whole has fallen victim to this, and not just because of their in-story dissolution. Initially presented as a proactive group of credible and effective people who represent humanity's best defense against the world's threats and whose comeback was forthcoming, their contributions to the main conflict over the past couple years have mostly amounted to sulking about the past, failing to stop the villains, and in general achieving little of significance other than just barely surviving whatever life or Talon sends their way. While their enemies press forward with their own plans largely unhindered, the recall has barely received any attention, and they haven't accomplished anything genuinely "heroic" outside of flashbacks for a very long time.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In Infiltration, Sombra slides down a wall that turns out to actually be a giant robot arm complete with an articulated humanlike hand, which catches her as she falls. A wide shot reveals it to be properly affixed to the ceiling, indicating that it's an intended part of the facility and likely not just battlefield salvage. This gets no elaboration or context whatsoever. What was that thing, what purpose does it serve, and how does having it shaped like a hand help it accomplish its purpose?
  • There's not much reason (well, maybe one) given for just why the Talon agents have to carry out their mission in Masquerade while dressed in full Carnevale garb. If the purpose was to keep a low profile, they've been shown to engage in subterfuge while in their standard attire with no issue before. The whole comic feels a bit rushed, like it was under pressure to cover an important part of the story and just plain needed more than ten pages to tell it.

C

• Cargo Ship:
  • A few of the characters are infamous in the fandom for their love of their weapons. Most notable examples are Torbjörn/his turrets (which, considering the fawning admiration he often expresses when he constructs one or the genuine alarm he exhibits when one is under attack, is dangerously close to being canon), Cassidy/cowboy hat and Symmetra/Shield Generator (due to how absurdly powerful it is compare to her Teleporter).
  • Some people decided to ship Orisa with D.Va's MEKA. It's unknown what the first Orika post was, but the most popular post is this tweet by @sweetseaslug.
  • Reinhardt x Rocket Hammer gained traction in the Anniversary event due to his dance, appropriately named "Sweethardt".
  • For people who are sick of the Ship-to-Ship Combat in the fandom and just want to focus on the gameplay, it's Everyone/the Payload or Everyone/the Objective.
• The Chris Carter Effect: Return on investment for following the story is considered to be low, given how it has been moving at a snails' pace and tends to undermine its few uplifting moments, turning waits between releases into slogs and leaving many with the impression you're more likely to be punished for caring than rewarded. The message about keeping hope and making a difference starts to feel a bit disingenuous once you realize the only characters who are actually succeeding in making a difference are the bad guys, with all signs of positive change meager and unlikely to pay off soon. Although plenty of fans continue to play the game itself, many have grown skeptical of Blizzard's ability to deliver on their promises with even the lore's most basic premise, and others have become frustrated enough to stop caring entirely. Some have even gone as far to theorize they're deliberately stalling because they don't actually have a plan.
• Cliché Storm: The story is full of classic sci-fi and superhero cliches, such as a Robot War, a hyper-intelligent gorilla, a supervillain whose powers are the results of medical procedure gone horribly wrong, two ninja brothers (one of whom is now a cyborg) who oppose each other's ideals, and so on. A lot of this adds to its charm, however, as the familiar tropes make the characters very easy to understand and the story easy to get into. What also helps is that, despite the familiar premises, each character possesses well-written and sympathetic backstories that make them easy to identify with. Up to and including several villains. The story, despite not being in the game itself, is very detailed and well thought-out and has people wanting more.
• Crack Pairing:
  • Mei and Junkrat together (some dubbing it "Icyhot" or "Nuclear Winter" or "Meihem") has somehow found itself a modest following. Even though Mei can't stand Junkrat. Or perhaps because of it.
  • Speaking of Junkrat, there are some fans that pair him or his partner Roadhog with Mercy. The latter was born out of several memetically funny interactions between Roadhog and Mercy players, primarily revolving around Roadhog's ability to hook Mercy towards him, and Roadhog's potential role as a "peeler", keeping Mercy safe from flanking characters such as Reaper.
  • Junkrat/Lucio has gained an unexpected traction, as well as a dedicated following, for a ship that has exactly ZERO canonical interactions, dubbed "Boombox". Many cite several popular tropes, among others, as the main draw to the ship.
  • Junkrat/Symmetra has also gained some sort of following, mostly because people like the aesthetic of the most chaotic character and the most orderly being together.
  • Cassidy and Hanzo are heavily shipped despite both their vastly different backgrounds and personalities, as well as the fact that nothing in the source materials indicate any type of relationship between the two whatsoever, and they may not canonically even know the other exists. Despite this, they're arguably one of the most shipped pairings over on Archive. Later, some minor dialogue exchanges between them seemingly as response to this (Cassidy complimenting Hanzo's bowmanship, the two arguing over their preference in drinks, and their in-character dialogue during the Halloween brawl). Also, in a podcast Cassidy's voice actor Matthew Mercer commented that he thinks that the pair is adorable and basically shared a headcanon of them having a ramshackled apartment with them arguing over the decor.
  • Hanzo/Symmetra also started to gain a good dose of following even if they have never met each other and their stories do not intersect in any way. This is due to their backgrounds as being dutiful associates to questionable/evil groups (Shimada clan and Vishkar Corporation) due to their upbringing and having their more idealistic foils (Genji and Lúcio) being on the heroic side. Hanzo is often made a Big Brother Mentor to Symmetra in any event where she breaks away from Vishkar since Hanzo has already done so with the Shimada clan, teaching her to pursue the path of redemption even if their past sins will never go away. This can go hand-in-hand with the Cassidy pair as it is not necessarily romantic and Cassidy also has a history with questionable groups (Deadlock and Blackwatch).
  • Despite (or perhaps because of) both of them being inanimate objects, a number of people have shipped Hammond and D.Va's respective mechs together.
  • Aside from occasional ships with Lucio, D.Va largely went unaddressed by the shipping community...until Brigitte came along. Afterwards, the two of them were paired up with regularity, despite the fact that their backstories don't overlap, their personalities are nothing alike, and nothing indicates that they've met or ever will. This is instead based on the close proximity between their ages, which also makes them the youngest humans in the entire playable cast (D.Va is 19, while Brigitte is 23), and Brigitte's affinity to cats syncing up with D.Va's Black Cat skin. The ship was both further strengthened and contested after "Shooting Star" hit, which revealed that the real Hana Song is actually a hard-working Wrench Wench like Brigitte, giving them something to bond over but also introduced a shipping rival in the form of D.Va's best friend, Dae Hyun.
• Crazy Is Cool: Junkrat, a Laughing Mad lunatic wielding homemade explosives who's able to give professional military soldiers a good fight.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • Soldier: 76 is a rare heroic example. His ruthlessness, as well as his marksmanship skills, make him not only an formidable fighter, but the well-balanced character for players to enjoy.
  • Most, if not all, members of Talon are this.
    • Widowmaker is an emotionless, incredibly skilled assassin who has a high-level resume of kills on her belt, including iconic in-universe peace advocate Tekharta Mondatta.
    • Reaper may not be taken entirely seriously, but he is a dual-wielding wraith of a man and a Hero Killer. Additionally, his method of killing is terrifying. We don't currently know it, but we know that his victims are left as nothing but husks afterwards.
    • Doomfist is a much more direct fighter, and is capable of dishing out an utter beating to the Overwatch members, up to and including ripping Tracer's accelerator out. Yikes.
    • Moira is easily the scariest member of Talon, with her nightmarish experiments and mad science being what created Reaper, and the implications that she self-experiments looming over her. Her creepy experiments establish a psychotic devotion to science.
• Crossover Ship:
  • Despite the Overwatch fandom having a rivalry with the Team Fortress 2 fandom, several ships involve a crossover between the games. Tracer/Scout and Mercy/Medic are the most popular ^note Either romantically or, just as popularly, a familial relationship with Medic being Mercy's father or mentor, with Zarya/Heavy, Soldier/Pharah, and Spy/Sombra not too far behind.
  • Due to both of them being revealed on the same day (July 6th 2017), fans have apparently decided to pair Doomfist up with Marina.
  • As noted above, the similarities between the two led a lot of people to ship Orisa with Baymax. To a lesser extent, this applies to Hiro and Efi as well, with both of them being genius-engineer kids creating a Robot Buddy to protect the public.
  • For some reason, D.va/Ahri has produced quite a few risqué fanarts.
• Cry for the Devil:
  • While it doesn't excuse any of their actions, each of the playable villain characters have sympathetic backstories that paint most of them as victims of circumstance leading them into villainy, rather than being one-note.
  • In "Reflections", Reaper is seen lurking in the shadows, silently watching a happy family celebrating Christmas. Meanwhile, Widowmaker is seen mourning her deceased husband Gérard in the rain. Considering that she was responsible for his death (though not willingly), one could only imagine just how much guilt she was feeling there.

D

• Designated Villain: The narrative usually treats Symmetra as a villain simply because she works for Vishkar, being billed as one of the villain groups, and her worst crime is initiating corporate espionage on Vishkar's order while also subverting their more ruthless policies and genuinely having altruistic motives to improve others' lives. It doesn't help that her main opposition, Lúcio, is genuinely heroic and friendly that he averts being a Designated Hero.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • Poor Emily. By all appearances, she's just a nice, ordinary civilian who loves and supports her girlfriend and has never hurt or offended anyone. Unfortunately, her girlfriend is Tracer, one of the game's most iconic and diversely-shipped characters, so as far as some fans are concerned, she's gotta go. And it just so happens that the character her girlfriend gets paired with the most is a professional assassin…
  • An odd Out-Of-Universe example between Gency and Pharmercy. In addition to the usual mudslinging at Genji for interfering with the latter ship, there are attacks on the lead writer Michael Chu. Doubled with the slow writing of the game in general as well as the Ship Tease of Gency, people began a rather racist accusation of the Japanese Genji being a self-insert of the Chinese Michael Chu to try to deter people away from the ship.
• Dry Docked Ship: Ana is assumed to have had a relationship with at least one (if not all) of her former teammates. Even fans who point out that Torbjörn is Happily Married in the comics will argue that his wife is too young to have been available during the Omnic Crisis and that their kids are all too young to have been born during Ana's era. So, to them, that still leaves room for Anabjorn to have been a thing thirty or so years ago.

E

• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: A not-insignificant portion of fans don't even own the game but still remain active in the community because they do appreciate the work put into the setting, find the premise interesting and consider the characters to be enjoyable. In the years as the game side of things has faced increasing scrutiny (namely following Overwatch 2 and its controversial restructuring towards live-service monetization, to say nothing about other reputational qualms many have with Blizzard as a whole), excitement and anticipation has instead been shifted towards any form of story content, especially with promises that 2 would finally rectify the glacial-to-almost-nonexistent pacing of its own premise. When the time finally arrived with the Invasion update in mid-2023, the gameplay received a largely tepid reaction (not helped by the upfront price tag, nor by the extremely public knowledge that it was significantly downsized from what was originally promised due to Troubled Production), but the missions still received praise for finally providing a story that had been anticipated for years with endearing character interactions, interesting story developments and twists, and a general sense of genuine forward movement that left fans wanting to see more (though not necessarily paying for it).
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Many fans speculate that Roadhog isn't human anymore, but rather a Mutant due to how insanely strong and durable he is despite having no armor or advanced technology. He's more durable than a knight clad in futuristic armor, an armored gorilla, and an Omnic capable of stopping a car with one hand. While all the other Tanks have advanced weapons and equipment, Roadhog has nothing but his hook and scrap gun, but is quite possibly even more dangerous than them. The idea is that the Omnium explosion mutated Roadhog to give him superhuman strength and durability, which originates from his original concept portraying him as a mutant unambiguously. Blizzard has yet to confirm or deny whether or not he's a mutant in the series proper.
  • Torbjörn's Uprising spray has begun to fuel speculation that Brigitte, Reinhardt's squire from the Dragon Slayer comic, is in fact Torbjörn's oldest child. Those who believe it's true also use the fact that Reinhardt and Brigitte were visiting Torbjörn's family in "Reflections", speculating that maybe it wasn't Reinhardt visiting a friend so much as it was Brigitte visiting family.
    • Later confirmed with one small correction: Brigitte is Torbjörn's youngest daughter. The young children surrounding him in the Christmas comic? Those are his grandchildren..
• Estrogen Brigade: Female fans that still weren't convinced to play the game due to the diversity of the cast and large amount of female heroes are quickly won over when they see the sheer amount of attractive guys the game has to offer. This is most prominent with Cassidy, Hanzo, Lucio, Baptiste and Lifeweaver but also pops up with Soldier: 76, Reaper, Genji, Reinhardt (when they are in their younger, more attractive skins) and Junkrat.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Reaper, a black-robed badass with a skull-esque mask who goes into battle dual-wielding (and juggling) shotguns.
  • Widowmaker counts as well, being a sadistic, stealthy Cold Sniper who's utterly ruthless.
  • Junkrat and Roadhog are both anarchists, thieves and murderers, but Junkrat's capable of going toe-to-toe with extremely technologically advanced enemies with homemade gear, and Roadhog is capable of going toe-to-toe with them with only a hook on a chain and a Scrap Gun.
  • Sombra, Widowmaker and Reaper's ally, who's introduced by trolling Reaper and ends her introduction with blackmailing the most powerful woman in Russia into her pocket behind Talon's back.
  • As one of Talon's leaders, Doomfist is meant to be the closest thing in the game yet to a true Big Bad, and his introduction effectively conveys that by interspersing footage of him facilitating his own escape from prison with him taking on Winston, Tracer and Genji by himself and almost winning after dealing with the latter two with minimal issue (at which point an enraged Winston presumably put a stop to things), all while he gives a chillingly ominous speech about thriving through conflict and being remembered forever. All of which paints a compelling portrait of menace that illustrates just how urgently world needs Overwatch to make a comeback.
  • The Vishkar Corporation isn't as theatric with their villainy as Talon, but they're no less stylish for it: they've developed some of the sleekest, most cutting-edge tech in the setting, their official dress code combines the most glamorous aspects of both high-end business attire and ornate regalia, and their public works projects are wondrous, gleaming marvels straight out of classic utopian science fiction. They've run such a good public relations campaign^note Which makes perfect sense when you consider what they are, possibly making this justified with selling their goals and ideals that it's almost enough to get you to forget how willing they are to endanger civilians and trample on basic human rights in order to achieve them.
  • B.O.B. and Ashe are ruthless bandits, but they both ooze style with their fancy Western attire and excellent choice in nice hats.
  • After years following his initial tease, Ramattra was properly revealed to widespread praise for fulfilling the heavy demand for a playable evil omnic and looking damn cool in the process, being a Robot Wizard dripping in gravitas and authority even before he hulks out. His frightening yet sympathetic motives and excellent voicework have also done wonders in gathering him an instant fanbase.

F

• Fandom Rivalry: With fellow cartoony-style shooter Team Fortress 2. Overwatch fans praise their game's story for being emotional with character depth and for tackling more complicated themes than TF2's plot, which is very lighthearted and gag-based. Meanwhile TF2 players lambast the lore of Overwatch for taking itself too seriously for how inconsistent and lacking in substance it is, and for mishandling its supposed deep themes.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • The nature of Overwatch as a globe-spanning international organization that was host to potentially hundreds upon hundreds, if not thousands of agents in its heyday makes it an absolute goldmine for OC creators, and the current state of the backstory being as sparse as it is concerning the Omnic Crisis and what that conflict entailed leaves it wide open for those wanting to tell their own stories of those times, as well as what certain characters (or their own OCs) did after the dissolution of Overwatch. There's also the fact that Overwatch has been reinstated by Winston, opening up more possibilities of what Overwatch will be in its (hopefully) triumphant return. Many have also come up with ideas of how other members could join in on the action, such as Lúcio, D.Va, Zenyatta, Zarya, Hanzo, and others. People have speculated that even the villains could make a Heel–Face Turn, and see where that goes, though Widowmaker is the most commonly speculated to do this, see below.
  • People have had a field day with fics where Soldier: 76's identity, Jack Morrison, is revealed to his old companions, which is usually never a pleasant revelation. The same thing can be said for how Ana's survival will affect the team dynamic and the people that knew or heard about her, especially in regards to her daughter, Pharah.
  • Widowmaker being a Brainwashed and Crazy psychotic assassin with traces of her old self still around has become a source of all sorts of fanfics and speculation about her future, often involving her either being deprogrammed by Overwatch or realizing the error of her ways and pulling a Heel–Face Turn, joining Overwatch to help stop Talon and avenge Gérard (and everyone else she was forced to kill, for that matter). Also, another thing that lends itself well to fanfiction is that apart from the obvious "guilt for her life as Widowmaker", not much is known about Amélie Lacroix pre-brainwashing, other than that she was a ballet dancer married to an Overwatch agent. The fact that Ana knew her also has led to the idea that she was an Evil Former Friend to the Overwatch agents, and thus the other members likely know her as well.
  • Similarly, fanfic of Symmetra learning about Vishkar's true nature, performing a Heel–Face Turn and/or clarifying/dealing with her autism pops up quite frequently after "A Better World" was released.
  • The identity of Pharah's father has been subjected to a number of speculation and fics. The most commonly speculated to be her father include Jack Morrison/Soldier: 76 (due to their history together, and the fact that Soldier will specifically compliment Pharah, saying that Ana would've been proud of her like he personally knows her despite the fact that they're technically on opposing sides in the story), Gabriel Reyes/Reaper (due to hints that Reaper and Ana used to be friends and he expresses disappointment that Ana took Jack's side), and Reinhardt (due to a pre-game interaction that has created much fuel for shipping). Adding even more fuel to this, an added line between Pharah and Cassidy indicates that she idolizes both Jack and Reyes, seemingly unaware that they're still alive and are now known as Soldier: 76 and Reaper — furthering the fan-interpreted Love Triangle between Ana, Jack, and Reyes. Alternatively, some would prefer the idea that it was neither of them and just a random person who isn't connected to Overwatch, wanting to avoid drama and to strengthen the relationship between the mother and daughter. The final theory was later confirmed with Ana's spray from Uprising—the first mention of Pharah's father, Sam. Also Jack was later revealed to be gay and Reaper was revealed to have a family of his own, completely squashing any idea of a past or future relationship between these characters.
  • Sombra's origin trailer gave us this shot that fuels many fan speculation to fill in the blank of the unknown figures that appear on it, as well as speculating about The Conspiracy that discovered Sombra and forced her into hiding.
  • Dr. Liao was this for a long time, as her name was attached to an unseen sixth member of the Overwatch Strike Team which the audience knew nothing else about for many years, including her gender, occupation, and abilities. This obviously died down when she eventually was revealed posthumously as major part of Echo's backstory, though she still gains the curiosity from fans received by any other minor character with established backstory, left wondering what more there was to her.
  • The "Junkenstein's Revenge" Brawl is a goldmine for fans to reinterpret the cast as fantasy characters, given that we only had 8 characters appear in that Brawl. Popular interpretations (usually based on Halloween skins) include: Symmetra as a vampire, Genji and Hanzo as Oni brothers or dragon spirits (which doesn't necessarily contradict the latter's moniker "Archer" in the Brawl) and Reinhardt as a ghost, a king or a ghost king.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Ana/Reinhardt (AnaHardt, alternatively Grandma and Grandpa). Shipping started from one of their pre-game interactions, which has a flirty tone to it that fans found adorable, and only grew from that. Ana's canon relationship with Sam, Pharah's father, hasn't deterred shippers all that much from shipping the two teammates.
    Ana: Reinhardt, I must say you're looking quite well. This life must agree with you.
    Reinhardt: And you are looking as lovely as ever.
  • Pharah/Mercy ("Pharmercy", "Pharmacy" or "Phara-Medic") is more popular than Blizzard's preferred ship Mercy/Genji, and especially popular among some of the LGBT Fanbase owing to the fact that they are the only two characters that can remain air mobile and hence synergize very well. Blizzard added more fuel to the fire when one of their weekly brawls (before they were removed) only featured these two together. Even their voice actresses get in on it. Pharah being revealed to be a lesbian has only intensified this ship.
  • Reaper/Soldier: 76 is far more popular than the latter's canon partner, Vincent as well Reaper's canon wife Martina and son. Partially due to the relationship being a reveal and the abundance of lore already in the series as both were major members of Overwatch during the Omnic Crisis, and were described as the best of friends. It's helped by the fact they were explicitly said to have loved each other in the past. What this type of love is, however, is not explicit.
  • Tracer/Widowmaker ("Widowtracer") set sail not long after the first trailer debuted, and despite their mutual animosity. Blizzard themselves fueled the fire by giving Tracer a prominent role in Widow's story cinematic Alive, and then proceeded to smother it in Reflections by both giving Tracer a canonical relationship with a civilian named Emily and by making it clear Widowmaker is still far from over her husband Gérard. Nevertheless, some fans persevere and the ship sails on, with or without Emily.
• Fan Work Only Fans: Due to its premiere as an ensemble cast of diverse gender inclusion, racial ethnicity, body types and even sexuality (especially on the two most prominent characters in marketing Tracer and Soldier: 76), the game has a very large fanbase who never play the game but engage in the fandom due to wishing more diversity in video games.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: All four Talon agents briefly indulge in this in Masquerade when they go incognito in full Carnevale garb for a mission in Venice. Reaper's skull garb and hat is actually pretty intimidating, but Widowmaker traipses about on the rooftops dressed up like if Eileen the Crow walked off the set of a Cirque du Soleil production, Sombra goes for a "cyberpunk Harley Quinn" ensemble, and Doomfist dons a hat and coat combo that makes him look like a flamboyant Genghis Khan. Maybe the writers decided they looked too cool in their cocktail attire from a few pages earlier and needed to balance things out.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Despite being aligned to opposing sides of the main conflict, their antithetical demeanors and their bitter personal history, a considerable number of fans have been shipping Tracer/Widowmaker since the very first trailer. This has been sustained by unique in-game dialogue in which they take turns annoying each other at the prospect of working together, and at the end of Alive — her story trailer — Widow outright calls Tracer "cherie" (French for "darling" or "dear") while their faces are just inches apart, no less^note Although she was likely just appropriating Tracer's tendency to call people "love" for the purpose of mockery. Even after Reflections did everything it could to show the pairing is unlikely to happen even if they did like each other, some fans remain at their posts and refuse to abandon ship.
  • On the male side, Reaper and Soldier: 76 have been getting some of this due to their shared past as Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison.
  • Lúcio/Symmetra is quite popular, despite (or perhaps because of) their diametrically opposed philosophies and goals and the disdain they have for each other in gameplay. It does help that Lúcio is fighting against the MegaCorp Symmetra works for and even herself has some doubts about their methods.
  • With the abandonment of the D.Va and Sombra ship, many were quick to jump on shipping Sombra with Katya from her webisode. It helped that Sombra spends most of her talk with Katya in the Russian's personal space, and it's not hard to take "friend" as more intimate than threatening.
  • Katya meeting with Zarya got people thinking that Zarya and Sombra would be pitted against each other, thus shipping them.
  • Bastion and Orisa has a following, generally evoking the dynamic between WALL-E and EVE (with Bastion as the decrepit but kindhearted WALL-E and the sleek and polished Orisa as EVE) from, well, WALL•E.
  • The instant Moira was released, fans started shipping her and Mercy together, despite being opposites in terms of ideology and methodology. Michael Chu added some fuel to this by stating that while Mercy doesn't have much respect for Moira, the same can't be said for the other way around, which shippers have taken to mean as them having an either one-sided or really tense relationship.
  • Cassidy and Ashe are all but directly stated to be exes, so it's not surprising that many fans have taken it for granted the possibility that they're still together the instant "Reunion" was released.
  • Ramattra was effectively created to be Zenyatta's Evil Counterpart, but especially when combined with the knowledge that they used to be very close comrades, shippers enjoy interpreting their relationship to that of embittered ex-boyfriends.
• Fountain of Memes:
  • Due to months of hints and teases, as well as the extreme length and convolution of her ARG, Sombra has an absurd number of memes based around her — much of it based on Wild Mass Guessing and some based on her Memetic Trolling of the rest of cast.
  • D.Va has spawned fewer memes, but virtually every word out of her mouth has become a meme, most likely due to her use of gamer lingo.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: Given how slow the story has been and the sheer amount of characters there are along with many being separated from each other, it's not surprising. The many plots are but not limited to:
  • Winston attempting to get Overwatch back together.
  • Talon planning to instigate a war between Omnics and humans.
  • Sombra's agenda against an organization bigger than Talon and Overwatch.
  • Jack and Ana wandering around Egypt.
  • Mei and Reinhardt responding to Overwatch's recall.
  • Torbjörn taking Bastion in.
  • South Korea's kaiju-like Omnics breaching into the country along with Russia's own Omnic troubles.
  • Whatever the hell the Junkers are doing in Australia.

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• Genius Bonus:
  • One of Widowmaker's tattoos reads "araignée du soir", which is already a Bilingual Bonus. But those familiar with French proverbs will recognize those words: it comes from "araignée du matin, chagrin; araignée du soir, espoir", which roughly translates to "morning spider, sorrowbringer; evening spider, hopebringer".
  • One of the pieces of set dressing in King's Row is a private establishment called The Ascalon Club, located by the memorial to Mondatta at the first point. Ascalon is the name of the sword of Saint George, the patron saint of England.
  • Mei might ask Zarya how she's able to lift such heavy objects, to which she responds "I lift as well as I lift because it cannot be avoided." This quote is taken from Olympic weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev of the USSR, who won gold in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and broke 80 world records.
  • In a subtle Visual Pun, the Horizon Lunar Colony (a colony that housed and was eventually overrun by apes) features a hydroponic tank that appears to be growing◊ "monkey grass".
• Gotta Ship 'Em All: One look at the fandom (especially Tumblr) and you'll be surprised how many Crack Pairing combination that you can find from the colorful cast of the game. And yes, that include the Omnic heroes like Zenyatta, Bastion and Orisa. There are some characters that remain unshipped romantically, though, such as Winston (because he's a gorilla) and Torbjörn (because he's Happily Married).
• Growing the Beard: Dragons, The Last Bastion, and especially Rise and Shine and Honor and Glory are universally agreed to be the best shorts to come out of the game in terms of writing and storytelling. For the comic, "A Better World" and maybe "Legacy" / "Old Soldiers" are considered to be the only real stand out from the rest, which received a So Okay, It's Average reaction from the fanbase.
  • The earlier shorts also seemed to make a habit of shoehorning gameplay elements into the flow of presentation; perhaps not egregiously, but definitely in a "Hey, don't you recognize this thing from the game?" kind of way^note Reaper very obviously using his ultimate more or less out of the blue in the cinematic trailer stands out the most. Rise and Shine paces itself far more naturally and focuses entirely on how Mei would logically solve her problem with the resources she has on hand. Notably, not once does she appear with her classic in-game "uniform."

H

• Ho Yay:
  • Even before Tracer was confirmed to be a lesbian, the in-game interactions between Tracer and Mei had them express a considerable amount of respect and admiration for each other in such swooning terms that you half expect one to faint and be caught by the other.
  • Sombra outright addresses Widowmaker as her "favorite spider." Widow doesn't reciprocate.
  • When Junkrat kills his partner-in-crime Roadhog, he can say "Guess we know who's really on top, don't we?"
  • The rapport between Reyes and Gérard in Retribution combined with the sheer amount of intense brooding the former engages in over the latter's injuries at his bedside makes Reyes come off looking more like Gérard's lover than his actual wife, who doesn't even put in a cameo appearance.
  • While Cassidy and Hanzo have long had a shipping fanbase due to their surprisingly friendly banter in-game, one of Hanzo's lines after taking down an enemy Cassidy in the Overwatch 2 beta has raised some eyebrows.
    Hanzo: Good looks are not enough, cowboy.
  • Baptiste and Mauga's relationship is a pretty complicated Friendly Enemy dynamic as is, but Mauga's persistent affection towards his former comrade comes with a rather interesting energy that many compare to a clingy ex trying to schmooze his way back into the life of an old boyfriend who's moved on. Among Mauga's friendlier in-game taunts towards Baptiste is the interestingly-worded "Lookin' sultry, buddy!", an adjective one doesn't normally use platonically (granted, he is literally setting Baptiste on fire...)

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• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: "Boombox" for Lucio/Junkrat, which combines the music theme of the former with the explosion theme of the latter.
• I Knew It!:
  • Many correctly guessed that Brigitte was Torbjörn's daugther, which was confirmed in Honor and Glory.
  • After a brief but initially unconfirmed cameo in "Masquerade" of a man that look suspiciously similar to Sanjay Korpal of Vishkar (who appeared in "A Better World"), it was believed it actually was him on Talon's council. Moira's origin story proved this correct.
• Incest Yay Shipping: After Dragons, Hanzo/Genji, especially considering that Genji has forgiven his brother for killing him.
• It Was His Sled: Reaper is Gabriel Reyes, and Soldier: 76 is Jack Morrison. As it's impossible to discuss anything about them without mentioning their past, it might come as a surprise that their identities were considered massive spoilers early on. Weirdly, the game often flip-flops on whether this should be a mystery or not; aside from the external lore, some in-game pre-battle quotes clearly identify them as "Gabriel" and "Jack," but nearly a year after release when hero/skin lore blurbs were added, both of them are still described as mysterious characters with unknown motives and pasts, except for their Origins skins that clearly depict them as younger Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison (and even the Commando: 76/Night Ops: 76 skins directly namedrop to "Jack Morrison"). Around this time, the Uprising event's PvE mode had Jack serving as your Mission Control, making his similarity to Soldier: 76's voice even more painfully obvious.

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• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Almost every character has been paired with everyone, but notable examples are:
  • Mercy stands out more than anyone else, for being shipped with Junkrat, Roadhog (or both), Genji, Hanzo, Soldier: 76, Cassidy, Widowmaker, Pharah, Zarya, Torbjörn (rare) prior to "Reflections", Reaper, and Moira. It's saying something about how popular she is that two of her major ships (with Genji and Pharah) are among the most popular in the community
  • Ana. Being the only character with a known child^note  Sans Torbjörn who was revealed to have several children and an attractive wife in the "Reflections" comic, everyone speculates as to who Pharah's father was. The dialogue she has with most of her old teammates is full of Ship Tease, with all of them upset that they didn't know she was still alive, her complimenting Reinhardt and Soldier: 76 on how good they look, and Reinhardt and Cassidy flat out flirting with her. The comic Old Soldiers adds even more fuel to the fire because it shows Jack and Ana's close friendship while Reaper accuses her of always siding with Jack. This has fanned flames of a possible Love Triangle or Love Dodecahedron; after all, if fans can't decide which of the original team she slept with to conceive Pharah, then the next best thing is to assume she slept with them all. She's also shipped with Cassidy (due to some mild flirting on his part), Mercy (especially if there's a jealous Pharah involved), and Widowmaker. Also, she's currently the only person consistently shipped with Torbjörn.
  • Depending on who you ask, Tracer having a canonical partner is either a gift or a detriment to the shippers, but either way it's barely slowed them down. She primarily gets paired with Emily^note Simple enough: it's canon, and plenty of people think they make a cute couple, Widowmaker^note Although always antagonistic, they share a lot of screen time with each other and have a lot of unique interactions in-game. That's reason enough for shippers, and even after Reflections, they're still probably the two most paired characters in the game and D.Va^note They're both cute, young and lively, and the sizable portion of the fandom that appreciates Moe loves to put them together as a result, and less frequently with Mei^note When they interact in-game, they each practically fawn over the other when they express a mutual admiration, Zarya^note They both received legendary Summer Games skins in the first year, and their mutual tomboyish athleticism provides a built-in justification to have them get close to one another and even a little with Mercy^note Mostly after Uprising, in which Mercy displays some sisterly concern for her and they have some friendly interactions. Before she was revealed to be a lesbian, she also had supporters who paired her with Winston^note Natch. He saved her life, and they've both been established since the earliest days as great friends and possibly the two closest characters on the roster, Lúcio^note They're about the same age, they're both enthusiastic idealists trying to make the world a better place, and they have a friendly rapport when they interact in-game and Genji^note Well, they were both active as Overwatch agents during the same period, and they're both afflicted with disabilities that affect them daily. And that's not even getting into the combinations.
  • Genji seems to be the male version of Mercy. He is frequently paired with Mercy, Zenyatta, Cassidy, his own brother Hanzo and, less prominently, Reaper, Soldier: 76, Reinhardt, Lúcio, D.Va, Symmetra, Sombra and Tracer (before her reveal as a lesbian), as well as any of the combinations. The fact that he was canonically a playboy before his involvement with Overwatch doesn't help.
  • Cassidy is been paired with quite the number of characters due to a large number of fans think he is attractive and his unique cowboy aesthetic. He's frequently paired with Hanzo, Symmetra, Lucio (all of whom he never met or interact with), his former superiors Reaper, Soldier: 76 and Ana, his former Overwatch fellow teammates Genji, Mercy and Mei, his former Deadlock gang member Ashe as well as Sombra and Echo, both of whom he only share one scene together.
• LGBT Fanbase: There's a reason why the game has sometimes been affectionately referred to as "Shooty Lesbian Simulator", and that was before Tracer and Soldier: 76 were revealed to be canonically gay, Lifeweaver was released and promoted as an openly pansexual hero, Pharah was revealed to be a lesbian and Baptiste was revealed to be bisexual.
  • Hanzo and Cassidy got hugely popular in the Bara community, due to, in no small part, getting tons of fanart from various bara artists, including some already popular. Though those two are the most popular, Reinhardt, Soldier: 76, Reaper and Genji also got popular in those circles in varying degrees. Like what happened with Tracer, those fans practically exploded with joy when it was revealed that Soldier: 76 is a gay man.
  • Ships between two women are also immensely popular among female fans. These fans were overjoyed when Tracer was revealed to have a girlfriend.
  • Zarya and Pharah in particular are rather popular among lesbian fans. No points for guessing why. Those fans also similarly exploded with joy when Pharah was revealed to be a lesbian.
  • The Hangzhou Spark-themed skins released for the Overwatch League got a lot of attention for being a near exact match for the Transgender pride flag.
• Love to Hate: The bad guys, particularly the ones affiliated with Talon, are nasty, malicious and gleefully unapologetic pieces of work who each pose a genuine threat and are treated with appropriate gravity by the story. Simultaneously, they each have stories and roles to play in the greater scope of the narrative that grant them a degree of humanity that helps to explain — if not necessarily excuse — their actions. They have reasons for being who they are, which makes them a bit more complicated than the typical mustache-twirling superbaddie without sacrificing their sense of menace. The result is a colorful array of villains who are simultaneously compelling as characters and despicable enough to make the prospect of Overwatch returning and fighting back very meaningful and exciting.

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• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Akande Ogundimu, the third Doomfist, is a hulking man with an idea to strengthen humanity through conflict. Murdering his greedy teacher for his lack of vision, Doomfist ascended to the inner circle of Talon's leadership through his political skill, intending to start the war that would change the world. Even when locked away by Overwatch, Doomfist simply bided his time, keeping tabs on the outside world until Talon was ready to free him. Once they did, Doomfist orchestrated a plan to sack the money-grubbing acting leader Vialli and his cohorts, bringing Talon back to its Darwin-esque roots, ready to bring forth the bloodiest battle the world's ever seen.
  • The sassy, enigmatic Sombra, born Olivia Colomar, was a former member of the Los Muertos gang, where she used her penchant for manipulation and hacking to play various corrupt Mexican officials to her whims, with her escapades making her a local hero to the town of Dorado. After a power trip gone wrong where she unwittingly ended up noticed by a terrifying secret global organization, she purged all records of her existence and decided to increase the scale of her hacking schemes. Emerging under Talon's employ, Sombra properly introduces herself in the "Infiltration" short, working behind Reaper's back to save Katya Volskaya from Talon's assassination attempt, only to blackmail her by threatening to expose her shady dealings with Omnics. When Katya tries to beat her at her own game by sending Zarya after her, Sombra quickly bounces back by revealing she knew she was being hunted and rigged her base to explode to make her escape.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Cassidy has attained this status to some due to how devastating he is in gameplay and the fact that, unlike everyone else, he doesn't need fancy gadgets and superhero-esque abilities to kick ass — the only thing he needs is his Peacekeeper. Plus, using Deadeye, he can fire more bullets than his six-shooter should be able to hold at once.
  • The Doomfist lineage earned this reputation among fans despite the fact we knew very little about any of them early on, with popularity sparking up when Terry Crews claimed he would love to play Doomfist, resulting in many ridiculously overblown Large Ham interpretations of the potential character. This reputation was a contributing factor to his eventual creation and release, and even after his reveal, where he was shown to be played by theater actor Sahr Ngaujah as more of a Warrior Poet, Old Spice memes and clips continue to show up in frag videos everywhere.
  • Torbjörn, who can get Play of the Game simply by slacking off while his turret does all the work. Or better yet, PotGs where he's dead. In other words, Torbjörn Gets Play of the Game by Doing Absolutely Nothing.
  • Jeff Kaplan, who's considered by the fandom to be the most Game-Breaker hero if he's ever released into the game and can apparently wrestle everyone.
• Memetic Molester: Talon has been the target of jokes about being full of perverts due to the way they made their Brainwashed and Crazy subordinate Widowmaker wear such Stripperiffic attire. The fact that her skin was biologically altered so it wouldn't be Exposed to the Elements, presumably so she can look sexy anywhere, adds even more fuel to this.
  • Doomfist hadn't even been confirmed for five minutes before the "fisting" puns started flying, and they haven't let up since.
  • Sombra gets uncomfortably personal with Volskaya in Infiltration. Depictions of her as a weird little creep with no respect for boundaries are not unheard of.
• Memetic Psychopath:
  • By default, Mei is an adorably dorky girl. However, due to her play style of freezing her opponents and leaving them helpless before she fires an ice lance at their head that can be outright deadly, a lot seem to portray her as being more sinister than her adorable outlook. It also helps that, from the point of view of the victim, Mei's expression changes to one of concentration as she prepares her icicle lance^note Which isn't instant; Mei has to generate her lance first, and then aim it properly depending on the character, and this is after making sure that the victim is actually frozen and not just slowed, making her appear particularly sinister to the helplessly frozen player when she makes the kill. To the meme community, this is referred as "The true face of pure evil." Not helped by the "Mei's Snowball Offense" Winter Holiday Brawl due to many of her lines there, particularly ones like "I'll find youuuu." or "I'm putting a rock in this one."
  • Bastion gained a reputation as a bloodthirsty murder machine due to its tendency to mow down entire teams in seconds and farming Plays of the Game. Alternatively, the bird that's seen nestling on it is the one who makes it that way. After The Last Bastion, it was revealed that it used to be this entirely, until waking up after ten years. Now every time it gets Play of the Game, it's seen as having a PTSD-induced freakout.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales:
  • Lúcio was well received by Brazilians — in no small part thanks to his very good Carioca accent in the Portuguese dub.
  • Reaper and Sombra, who're both Latino, are almost universally adored by the Overwatch Latino fanbase.
  • D.Va, the personification of South Korea's pro gaming scene, isn't played very much in North American or European Overwatch tournaments, but she has been substantially more used in Korean tournaments. At the Women's March in Seoul, South Korea, one flag was notably adorned with D.Va's bunny icon and even created an entire organization named after her.
  • Cassidy is very popular with U.S.American gamers, in no small part to the fact that he's a cowboy in the future.
  • Many players consider Soldier: 76's design boring overall, but he's a popular character nonetheless. This is particularly true in the USA, where First-Person Shooter games like Call of Duty have dominated the market and thus his kit/design feel very familiar. Soldier: 76 was, in fact, specifically designed to take advantage of this fact.
  • Doomfist has pleasantly surprised many Nigerian fans due to Blizzard's proper research of Nigerian culture for his character, and rather than being a stereotypical warlord from a mish-mash of vague African cultures, he's a proper descendant of the Yoruba people, with his martial arts and orisha-based skins being inspired by the culture. Furthermore, instead of just "any" villain, he's a solid contender for one of the game's top villains and is portrayed as appropriately intelligent, effective and influential, which is also appreciated.
  • Tracer exhibits a few traits that are archetypical of the portrayal of lesbians, such as her hair and sporty personality. Nonetheless, LGBTQ fans have taken a shine to her for her amiable, heroic personality and for being a rare instance of a prominent, positive and respectful depiction of an openly gay character in a medium that rarely makes any effort to appeal to them.
  • Similarly, Lifeweaver is pansexual and display many Camp Gay traits: wearing bright colors, heavily associated with flowers, moving very gracefully and heavily flirts with other (male) characters. Nonetheless, he is absolutely beloved by the LGBTQ community for also being a friendly, heroic character who stand against a corrupted organization and shamelessly display his sexuality. It also helps that many of his Camp Gay traits are framed through a South Eastern Asian perspective, making them more organic to his country Thailand rather than just stereotypical traits of queerness from the Western perspective.
  • Symmetra is fairly liked by Indian fans, but it's the autistic fandom that overwhelmingly loves her, as she is one of the few autistic characters in fiction portrayed as (mostly) reasonable and self-sufficient instead of as a socially-maladjusted freak, making her relatable and avoiding misconceptions of autism in general. Her more nuanced and sympathetic Anti-Villain portrayal is also much welcomed by the same crowd.
• Misaimed Fandom: Even after the story has made it abundantly clear at every opportunity that what Talon did to create Widowmaker was a destructive, unconscionable act that has only begotten more destruction and benefits no one other than those who are coordinating the campaign to actively make an already troubled world even worse, some people still think it would be great fun to see the same thing happen to one of the cast's cheerful, wholesome characters like Tracer or Mei.
  • Speaking of Widowmaker, some fans root for her not because they sympathize with any of her humanizing qualities, but because she killed one of the most prominent supporters of omnic integration, which they oppose. This is despite Mondatta being an explicitly non-violent peace advocate who was canonically respected even among humans and the story portraying his death at her hands as both a tragedy and her most despicable act thus far.
• Moral Event Horizon: Reaper, then known as Gabriel Reyes, slowly started to commit more and more questionable actions as the leader of Blackwatch, knowing Talon would have no qualms in breaking the rules of engagement. The Retribution event shows the moment when he decides to Jump Off the Slippery Slope: when he and a clandestine Blackwatch team go after the Talon executive Antonio, who declares that he is too well-connected to stay in jail, Reyes chooses to execute him in cold blood. The resulting escape exposes Blackwatch to the public and starts Overwatch's fall from grace.
• Movement Mascot: Mei became a symbol for Hong Kong's protest for democracy in response to pro gamer Ng Wai Chung (aka "Blitzchung") speaking out in support of his native Hong Kong at the Hearthstone Grandmasters streaming event, resulting in Blizzard Entertainment (which Chinese tech giant Tencent owns 5% of) revoking his winnings and title. A surge of Fan Art depicting Mei as a protester followed in hopes that getting one of Blizzard's characters, who is Chinese herself to boot, Banned in China (similarly to how Winnie the Pooh is banned for memetic comparisons to President Xi Jinping) will further expose and scrutinize Blizzard and China for their unethical actions.

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• Narm Charm:
  • Does Reaper look and act like an edgy OC? Yes. Is he badass anyway? Hell yes.
  • Widowmaker's short "When I was a girl, I had a fear of spiders" monologue in the Alive short is as unintentionally amusing (due to its kind-of cheesy subject matter and Widow's strong French accent) as it is genuinely entertaining.
  • Soldier: 76 beating a thug with a burning piñata while yelling "THESE! AREN'T! YOUR! STREETS! ANYMORE!" in Hero is a bit ridiculous, but at the same time he's so unflinchingly brutal going about it that it manages to work and solidify him as a terrifying badass.
  • For those who aren’t put off by Tracer’s accent, it can have this effect. Yes, it’s a bit iffy, but her friendly nature combined with the sheer love and enthusiasm she has for being a hero in everything she says is quite endearing.
  • Mei chooses to mourn her colleagues in Rise and Shine by placing a bunch of kitschy novelty mugs filled with hot cocoa before each of their capsules. The imagery certainly clashes with itself, but it's also a very touching gesture that is perfectly in-character and does nothing to distract from the solemnity of the scene.
  • The entire Showdown at High Noon standoff from Reunion is played ridiculously straight and indulges in every Dead Horse Trope you can imagine in the scenario (from the music to the tumbleweed to B.O.B. somehow producing a Sweat Drop to the perfectly-timed literal high-noon clock), yet it's so perfectly appropriate and in-character for everyone involved that it becomes awesome.
• Nightmare Retardant: Akande Ogundimu is a chilling, remorseless, frighteningly effective villain who just may be the most intimidating figure in the story so far. He is the highest-ranked among Talon's infrastructure that we have yet met, and his cold Social Darwinist philosophy bodes ominously for the future of the world. Then you remember that his moniker is the oh-so-pulpy Doomfist, a name that would not be out of place at a backyard wrestling promotion or in the pages of a Silver Age comic book.
• No Yay:
  • After Infiltration debuted, fans were very quick to begin shipping Sombra and Katya, and interpret Sombra's desire to be Katya's "friend" as something sexual, which would basically mean that Katya was being forced into Sexual Extortion.
  • The amount of pain and animosity between Tracer and Widowmaker has earned Widowtracer some detractors who think the pairing romanticizes abusive and predatory behavior, as well as requiring both characters to disregard some key aspects of their identities, such as Tracer's fidelity for her canonical girlfriend and Widow's feelings for her husband.
  • Any ship which pairs (or polygamizes) Widowmaker with any other member of Talon. Talon kidnapped her, brainwashed her into killing her husband, and then experimented on her to enhance her body while suppressing her emotions. Coupled with the fact that we know Amelie is still in there somewhere Fighting from the Inside, and you have the most nightmare-inducing rape fic of all time.
  • At the end of the day, no matter how you try to frame or present it, Hanzo/Genji is still incest.
  • There are fans who pair Efi and Orisa. Even if you ignore the age and biological difficulties, Efi is functionally Orisa's mother.

O-P

• Older Than They Think: Some think that Widowmaker's Catchphrase "One shot, one kill" was something that Blizzard came up with, similar to Tracer's "Cheers luv, the cavalry's here". In reality, it's a common phrase that has existed for decades. In fact, Blizzard themselves have used it before as far back as Warcraft III as a unit quote for archers.
• One True Threesome:
  • Ever since Ana's introduction, Soldier: 76/Ana/Reaper is rapidly developing a fanbase due to the interaction the three have with each other. Old Soldiers and Uprising has only enforced this. However the reveal that 76 is gay, has caused some fans to jump off any ships with him and women. That said a poly relationship between the three is still possible, but would mean they're both dating Reaper but not each other.
  • People tired of the Ship-to-Ship Combat in some parts of the fandom have started responding by shipping all three of the characters involved together to solve the problem. The most notable one so far is Phargency (Pharah/Genji/Mercy).
  • Likewise, while some see Emily's whole existence as an impediment to any ships involving Tracer, others see her as a golden opportunity to indulge in this trope instead by shipping Tracer/Emily/X as a workaround to any conflicts. Some even go as far to interpret Emily as a bisexual (as Tracer herself is confirmed to exclusively be a lesbian) in order to justify bringing in one of the male characters.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: As soon as Ashe was revealed in the Reunion cinematic, fans immediately assumed that she and Cassidy used to be a couple, with their passive-aggressive yet semi-affectionate banter making them sound like exes, amplified by Cassidy discovering that Ashe kept a photo of him on her bike despite ostensibly hating him. It took the playerbase by surprise when Michael Chu swiftly confirmed they were not romantically involved — that their former partnership was strictly platonic — with Matthew Mercer explaining their interactions as being based on motivational direction rather than canon lore.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: Quite some work went into developing the setting, as well as the backgrounds and relationships of the characters. But, considering how independently the lore operates from the gameplay (Blizzard themselves compared it to playing with Overwatch action figures), which consists of pitched battles between randomly-assembled teams, and the lack of any single-player campaign mode, a lot of fans consider it little more than seasoning for the experience: nice to have, but ultimately unnecessary.

R

• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Bastion's animated short seems to have had this effect for some of its previous detractors.
  • While not to the extent of Bastion, the short Infiltration and the origin trailer did help alleviate some of Sombra's detractors. The fact that she's a Fountain of Memes definitely helps.
  • A single panel in the "Reflections" comic has endeared Torbjörn to many, due to it showing him as a happily married father and being quite close with Reinhardt. "Binary" also endears Torbjörn further in regards to his racism, where he recognizes that Bastion is a peaceful Omnic now and protects it from other Omnic-hating men who hired him.
  • Widowmaker has earned her share of ire for her treatment of other characters and her fluctuating in-game viability, but her single-panel cameo in Reflections of her visiting her husband's grave and her unique spray◊ depicting her wedding from the "Archives" event both showed her as something other than a vicious killer and reinforced her tragic origins enough for even her harshest detractors to feel some sympathy for her. A contingent of fans is rooting for her to atone and make amends for herself, or at least for more of her humanity to be explored.
  • The Uprising comic is seemingly having this effect on Reaper, since it reveals and expands upon his character back when he was still Gabriel Reyes, vice-leader of Overwatch and leader of Blackwatch, and depicts him as having a personality beyond the generic "evil edgelord" image many thought he gave off based on his previous appearances in-game and in media. Here, he is depicted as having a sort of Vitriolic Best Buds relationship with Jack (Soldier: 76) and Ana, engaging in lots of Snark-to-Snark Combat with the latter and having a Straight Man and Wise Guy relationship with the former (Reaper being the Wise Guy, of course).
  • Cara Theobold’s work as Tracer has admittedly been divisive among parts of the community, but her performance for the Uprising game mode opening surprised quite a few people with how genuinely solemn she was able to sound as Tracer laments the crisis unfolding in her hometown, a marked departure from the character's typical behavior that won her supporters who were previously skeptical she had the chops to carry such serious material.
  • Rise and Shine has won over a lot of Mei detractors for showing how heartbroken she actually felt when she found out that all her teammates in Antarctica didn't survive in addition to revealing some Hidden Depths towards her character, including how she made her weapon and valued Snowball as more than just a robotic assistant. The fact that she was the second known person (after Tracer) confirmed to join the reinstated Overwatch definitely helped.
  • A pretty gradual case, but when Baptiste was first introduced, a lot of players criticized him for having an interesting backstory, but having one of the least interesting personalities, with most of his in-game depiction being largely utilitarian and conspicuously lacking in hero interactions to help characterize him. "What You Left Behind" attracted more interest as it helped flesh out his morals relative to his defection from Talon, and as he finally received proper in-game dialogue exchanges between characters, he finally became able to show off more of his smooth, charismatic side, with more and more fans growing accustomed to his laid-back personality as being endearing rather than boring.
• Rewatch Bonus: A few of the shorts and comics have this in play. In particular, Genji's actions from Dragons take on a new light when the audience learns of his identity and motivation.
• Robo Ship:
  • Bastion and Orisa are both quite endearing in their own ways, so some fans have naturally been supportive of pairing them together.
  • Shipping Cassidy with Echo immediately became popular after their notably warm and friendly interactions in "Reunion".
  • Not surprisingly, the moment that he first appeared, people started shipping B.O.B. with Bastion, Orisa, Zenyatta, Echo, and D.Va's mech.
• Rooting for the Empire:
  • Talon may be a remorseless group of terrorists and murderers, but it still has its fans and supporters due to each of its playable representatives running the gamut of impressive and alluring in various spectrums while being afforded a degree of sympathy through their backstories and circumstances. Of note, for all of Widowmaker's fans who want her to get a redemption arc, another subset cite this trope as a reason for her to remain evil, finding her more appealing and interesting as a villain.
  • The disparity of success between the two, Talon's capacity to evade consequences, undermine the heroes' victories and wring gains out of their own losses, the amount of attention paid to their operations in the present compared to how little has been spent on the return of Overwatch^note The most damning example would be how Sombra received her own cinematic, a narrated origin story trailer and two news stories within the week of her announcement after months of teasing and buildup; meanwhile, Mercy (who has been around since the game was announced and is effectively the poster child for the support class) had to wait until Uprising to even canonically speak. Doomfist being allowed to retrieve his gauntlet and undo the events of the cinematic trailer before any additional heroes were allowed to answer the recall also struck a lot of fans as negligent toward the main plot., and the amount of fanfare new villainous characters tend to receive compared to heroic ones^note In addition to Sombra's aforementioned goodies, Doomfist got a news story, a comic and a fully animated, action-packed origin story trailer in which he dispatches two established and popular heroes. Orisa and Brigitte, by contrast, both got a document that didn't even directly mention them by name and the traditional barely-animated slideshow of an origin story. And Ana's introduction was all about how she lost against Widowmaker and had her life ruined. Moira's introduction was far more subdued, but she was still the second Talon agent to be released in a row and the third to be released in (just barely) a year has led some to accuse Blizzard themselves of doing this.
  • While not posing as much of a threat as Talon, Junkrat and Roadhog also have plenty of fans who support their wanton acts of chaos just because the results are always so darn amusing.
  • Even though the Vishkar Corporation has demonstrated its willingness to endanger civilians and disregard civil liberties in pursuit of their goals, their impressive technology and well-intentioned goals have garnered them supporters who argue that, ethics aside, they actually have the right idea. After all, underhanded their means might be, their public works projects do work as advertised, the rest of the world isn't doing any better, Symmetra herself acknowledges the threat Talon presents and the need to stop them, and unlike Overwatch, which remains in ruins, Vishkar actually has the resources, manpower and influence to make a difference now. For all their faults (which no one is arguing are not numerous), some just see Vishkar as the most viable option for introducing any lasting good and prosperity into the world. Their opposition, Lucio, might be a little hard to oppose due to being impossibly hard to refute and genuine in being a freedom fighter, but he's largely Out of Focus (just like them) and this gives the opening for Vishkar 'fans' to think that he's a little too 'naive', 'perfect' or 'unrealistic' to root for.

S

• Self-Fanservice:
  • Ana is frequently depicted in fanart as having the same figure in the present day that she had when she was younger, despite not being an in-game example of Silver Vixen.
  • All of the girls get this treatment to an extent. Although there is not a single unattractive woman to be found among the cast (even present-day Ana has her admirers), some fan artists really go the extra mile and make them look more like glamor models than seasoned fighters. D.Va in particular has a tendency to show up with about twenty extra pounds of curves despite being the most petite character on the roster. As one funny anecdote about fan interpretation bleeding into public consciousness, when Tracer's Overwatch 2 model was fully revealed, a minor outrage was sparked of accusations that Blizzard had flattened her infamously shapely ass in an attempt to desexualize her... before the public then realized it was actually the exact same size as before, i.e. nowhere near as big as fans accepted it to be.
  • On the male's side there's Junkrat who's given more hair on his head and a more endearing expression.
  • It's implied that Genji is almost all cyborg from what little we see of his unmasked face but people usually treat his cyborg body as something he can take off, give him just a few scars on his face and a full head of hair. They also give him a rather...defined rear.
• Ship Mates:
  • Gency/Emergenji/Emergency shippers frequently pair up with Cassidy/Hanzo shippers, especially in light of the revelation in Uprising that both Genji and Cassidy were in Blackwatch together at the same time.
    • Gency shippers also frequently ally with Symmarah (Symmetra/Pharah) shippers, perhaps due to the fact that both of these ships pair off some of the characters most heavily involved in the Fandom's Ship-to-Ship Combat.
  • Pharmercy shippers tend to join forces with Anahardt shippers — because the latter debunks Pharah having a Precocious Crush on Reinhardt. But, Pharmercy shippers will ALSO befriend Ana:76 shippers, because it sinks the Team Mom & Dad shipping^note Mercy x Soldier: 76 for those not in the know. And, going full circle, Anahardt and Mom/Dad shippers will combine forces against Pharmercy and Pharahardt shippers.
    • Anahardt shippers also tend to team up with Reaper/Soldier: 76 shippers due to the fact that these ships resolve the potential love triangles between the original Overwatch cast members.
  • Tracer's shippers have, in large numbers, joined forces with Pharmercy shippers. In this case, it doesn't matter whether the former group ships Widow-Tracer or Tracer/Emily^note Possibly because a Widow/Tracer/Emily One True Threesome is popular, as stated above. Fan works often depict Tracer and her lover(s) double-dating with Pharah and Mercy or characterizing them as experienced lesbians helping shier and more naive Pharah get closer to her crush.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • Mercy, as mentioned in Launcher of a Thousand Ships, gets paired with nearly everyone and that leads to bickering. In particular, the LGBT Fanbase who ship the "Phar-Mercy" pair can be staunchly against her being paired with any male character such as Cassidy/Mercy, Genji/Mercy, Reaper/Mercy, Soldier: 76/Mercy, and many more. They weren't happy when several very Ship Tease-heavy lines for Genji/Mercy were released.
  • Ana/Soldier: 76 vs. Ana/Reinhardt vs. Ana/Reaper, especially over who the father of Pharah is. Fans of Ana/Jack cite their close bond before and after Overwatch, to the point the two are even together in the Christmas comic, "Reflections". Ana/Reinhardt fans go with the two being old friends who flirt, and Pharah's great love of him. Though for some Pharah has what looks like a Precocious Crush on Rein, so for them him being Pharah's dad is Squick. Ana/Reaper fans will talk about how Gabriel is particularly angry that Ana would side with Jack over him, that he seems to have the mildest of soft spots for her, and that since Pharah has the same skin color as her mother, her father might have been someone equally dark-skinned, such as Gabriel.
    • The "Reflections" comic implies that her father might be a First Nation Canadian, which would also explain her "Raindancer" and "Thunderbird" skins. Although some fans still ship the above three given that there's so far no evidence that Ana disclosed her survival to Pharah's father.
  • After the Reflections comic revealed Tracer to have a canonical girlfriend named Emily, all other ships with Tracer (especially ones pairing her with a male character) are now null. Oh, boy! Fights have since sprung up in the community between those who support the canon and those who are upset their preferred ship got sunk, particularly fans who like to ship her with Widowmaker. Widowtracer supporters argue that Tracer and Emily's relationship is insubstantial and poorly-disguised pandering to people minded towards social awareness. Supporters of the lore fire back that Widowtracer is a stupid, creepy ship with no basis in canon that does both characters a disservice (for Tracer, by implying that she would ever submit to someone who has wronged her so grievously; for Widow, by implying that she would readily forget about her dead husband to shack up with her nemesis) and that Tracer deserves to be with someone who will actually treat her well. Of course, there are also fans who dodge the issue entirely and choose to have it both ways.
  • People who ship Cassidy/Genji tend to pick fights with Cassidy/Hanzo shippers, and vice versa. Wars break out at the mere mention of one of these ships in the presence of the wrong people, usually revolving around Cassidy/Hanzo getting hate relating to being acknowledged by the creators of the game, and treating the ship as canon despite its Crack Pairing status; McGenji shippers in turn tends to argue that Cassidy/Hanzo is invalid because they have no canon interactions, and oftentimes give Hanzo the Die for Our Ship treatment. Both groups, unfortunately, also suffer from subsets that give their ships racial stereotypes. A rare example in this particular fandom where it can't be fixed by shipping the three together.
  • Dvagitte^note D.Va + Brigitte is a very popular ship, but quickly found itself under fire by Hana-Hyun. Dae Hyun is canonically D.Va's best friend, and fans quickly speculated that there may be more between them than that. A building fanon rapidly established that Dae Hyun is Friend Zoned by Hana, and thus he's gained a loyal following that want him to break out of it. In the meantime, Brigitte and D.Va have never even met, and currently have no reason to. This has put Dvagitte fans at severe canonical disadvantage that's only bolstered their enthusiasm.
  • Another popular ship is D.Va and Lucio, mainly because of dialogue between them in the game and Heroes of the Storm.
  • Even before he was implemented into the game, people have begun rapidly ship Sigma/Moira due to both being in Talon and are both Mad Scientist. Fans of Moira/Mercy - already dealing with Mercy being a Launcher of a Thousand Ships - did NOT take this well.
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • Cassidy/Hanzo is the quintessential one - quite popular due to pairing off the two manly men of similar age. It's not at all deterred by the fact both characters most likely never met one another, and have only a tenuous connection via Genji.
  • A later one that popped up is "Mekanic" or "D.Vitte", between two characters (D.Va and Brigitte) that don't even a tenuous connection. The pairing is entirely built on convenient similarities noticed by fans.
  • Tracer/D.Va ("T.Va", "D.Vacer") is also a popular pairing for similar reasons even though the characters share just as much (read: none) of a connection. Really, D.Va/Anyone is likely to qualify due to how the only observable connections she has to other characters is currently through in-game conversations, which are dubiously canon at best.
  • Lúcio/Junkrat, which is quite popular in some circles, despite the fact that the characters have neigh zero interaction and are possibly unaware of each other's existences.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • The Last Bastion follows an amnesiac Killer Robot struggling with its identity as it explores a beautiful forested area and interacts with the wildlife, so it's probably the closest we'll ever get to seeing a fully CGI remake of The Iron Giant. Alternatively, it's a greener version of the first act of WALL•E.
  • Some fans think Sombra's brief appearance in a jester outfit in Masquerade is a better/more faithful Harley Quinn design than anything DC or Warner Bros. have been able to produce for a long time.
  • Rise and Shine is about a scientist trying to scavenge together a means to escape from a frozen research station in the Antarctic and make contact with the outside world, which makes it the sweetest, least nightmarish version of The Thing you will ever see. On a lighter bent, a person accidentally abandoned in a hostile environment using the tools around them to "science the shit out of this thing" and find a way home is an earth-bound version of The Martian.
• Starboarding:
  • It's common for fans to give Efi a cute Precocious Crush on Lúcio, which is always portrayed as one-sided for obvious reasons.
  • Many fans like the idea of Junkrat having an unrequited crush on Mei, and Mei in turn considering him an Abhorrent Admirer.
  • Ever since Reflections confirmed Tracer to have a girlfriend, some fans have run with the idea that Winston might have had a one-sided crush on her during their tenure in Overwatch, which evolved into their current, platonic relationship. Some even theorize that he knew Emily himself and introduced them when he discovered they were compatible, because he valued his best friend's happiness above his own.

T

• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • For the French fandom, the 28 August 2017 patch saw a change in Ana's voicelines, which had all her voicelines redone, and replaced all her Arabic voicelines by French translations, due to a change in voice actress. While Isabelle Leprince sounds remarkably close to the old one (to the point many people thought there had just been a rerecord of the voiclines), she doesn't sound very emotive. Needless to say, people have not appreciated the change.
  • While the introduction to her character was mostly well-received, many vocal fans bemoaned how Echo's appearance confirmed since Reunion gave her a highly defined and expressive human face, with many preferring the original concept design's blank yet more stylized faceplate/visor.
  • A somewhat odd example came out of Echo's Singlish dialogue in the English version: on initial release, many Singaporeans lambasted Jeannie Bolet's delivery and mispronunciations of the language. Blizzard opted to re-record the lines with more accurate pronunciation, which won the Singaporean fans over... and oddly miffed much of the English-speaking crowd, with many criticizing the new delivery as being not as consistent, fun, or spammable as it was previously.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Well, character design, anyway. Some fans thought the Carnevale outfits the villains don in Masquerade (particularly Reaper's and Sombra's) would make awesome in-game skins and were left disappointed when they failed to materialize, especially since that's more or less what Uprising did a few months earlier. Instead, the villains throw them on for a few panels and promptly ditch them by the end with no elaboration.
  • While lore is gradually added into the world of Overwatch, many characters tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to their interactions into the plot. Most notably Lucio, Zenyatta, and, up until recently, D.Va had no animations or comics that focus on them and all still don't have a place in the main narrative.
    • Lucio has barely any new lore since launch other than some easy-to-miss voice interactions about his father that was released during the 2018 Anniversary event. Then it's never mentioned again.
    • D.Va has been given some attention with her hero short Shooting Star but still has yet to attach her to any relevant character in the game itself.
    • Zenyatta had to wait until 2020 to receive his first major appearance in "Stone by Stone", which is rather glaring given his connections to more lore-relevant characters Genji and Mondatta, the latter of whom was used as a catalyst for another Omnic Crisis in the present day, and would make him the easiest of the three to implement into the narrative. It's telling that Mondatta, who died in his first introduction in Alive, still gained more lore than Zenyatta.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • In the most literal sense of the term. Many agree that the lore behind Overwatch is very detailed and interesting — when we actually get to see it. While a story has technically been (slowly) developing through an Extended Universe, many fans have been disappointed about how the game rarely explores the lore since the game itself is non-canon, with no permanent single-player campaign or modes that could shed better light on the characters and plots. Even lore-based events such as the Uprising event takes its sweet time, and as for the main present-day plot of Overwatch making its return, it still has yet to show many signs of actually progressing.
  • Another sense that is quite literal. Uprising is the first piece of lore that's truly present in-game, which has been met with unanimous praise... and it's treated as if it were a holiday event. Making it only temporary, and locking out all lore-based items despite not being tied to a season, has gotten on the nerves of many players, who believe that the mode and the content that comes with it should be permanent.
  • Roadhog is underutilized with interactions. He mainly speaks to Junkrat and only spoke once to Cassidy. Roadhog is among the heroes who have suffered the most from the crisis due to losing his home, irradiating the outback and being forced to lose his humanity in favor of survival in the Junkers cutthroat society.
  • Similarly, Alive and Uprising together provide Tracer with a scenario that, from her perspective, has left someone she greatly admires dead, the future of her home uncertain, and much of her work with protecting it undone. You would think she might have something to say about that, or that seeing how someone like her would reconcile failing to prevent such an ordeal with her worldview and ideals would be an interesting source of growth. Instead, she's been silent on the issue in and out of game despite over two years' worth of development, leaving some to just find her side of the whole grim affair to be purposeless.
  • Hero is enjoyable on its own merits, but when taken in context of the larger story, it becomes a bit disappointing. It's a pre-rendered cinematic done in Blizzard's usual style that focuses on Soldier: 76, the former Strike Commander Morrison who helped initially found Overwatch and served as its leader until its collapse… and he's relegated to beating up small-time gangsters in what amounts to a random encounter chanced upon by Alejandra, whom the short follows more closely and who later returns in Searching to give Zarya a lead on Sombra's identity. When you view the net sum of events and where they led, the short feels more like a glorified setup for revealing details about Sombra over a year later and less about the man it purports to star. Why was he even in Mexico?
  • Storm Rising, the third archives event, takes place at roughly the same time when Doomfist would be put in prison, three of the four members of the team are the characters Doomfist is fighting in his Origin story and whom put him in jail, the reason Overwatch is going after Maximilien is for his ties to Doomfist, and the mission ends with Mercy asking Maximilien to arrange an "appointment", before cutting to Doomfist. With all that, you would expect the mission to end with a Boss Fight against Doomfist, right? Wrong, Doomfist is only present for the final cinematic, and only to speak to another character.
  • With 2024 coming and with no new story mode missions added to the game, it is widely agreed that most of what got people interested in Overwatch 2 (a Mission-Pack Sequel that would have a bigger focus on story content) isn't there anymore.
• Tough Act to Follow: Junkenstein's Revenge, the second seasonal event and the first PvE event, was a massive hit, and was by far the most acclaimed. Later events like Mei's Snowball Offensive and Capture the Rooster weren't as well-received, but then Uprising, the first lore-based event and another PvE mode, was a massive success upon release, becoming the next tough act to follow. Retribution, against all odds, was even more acclaimed, adding up to a trifecta. Storm Rising, however, is where the streak was finally broken, as it was considered disappointing compared to its predecessors.

U-V

• Ugly Cute: Junkrat is intentionally designed with a peg leg, a hunchback that creates an unnatural stand and is covered in dirty black soot. His fans still finds him endearing thanks to his awesome personality.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Pharah's focus on the mission instead of her men in "Mission Statement" doesn't make her come off as the General Ripper the comics try to project because, as she points out, "the actual world is at stake". Given the fact that there is an Omnic Crisis going on and the Anubis AI is clearly established as being unknowable and dangerous to the rest of the world, her focus to shut it down makes her come off as Properly Paranoid more than anything else.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Many fans feel that Hanzo fell right into this trope in Dragons. In the short, after Genji reveals that he's still alive and takes off from the Shimada house, Hanzo immediately takes an arrow he fired in order to aim his bow at Genji — an action which, while understandable given the shock he just experienced, and could have just been his way of grabbing his attention or trying to provoke Genji into punishing him, doesn't make him look sympathetic to the audience after the Heartwarming/Tear Jerking speech Genji delivered.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Junkrat isn't liked by anyone in Overwatch, and even his partner-in-crime Roadhog thinks little of him. That said, his Affably Evil, Large Ham, and awesome personality has made him a big hit with the fanbase.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Although he is something very different in the present, Soldier: 76's former identity as Strike Commander Morrison feels like a deliberate attempt to evoke this image: a white, male, blonde, blue-eyed, square-jawed American hero who was raised on a farm and is dedicated to justice and safety for all people, and who often serves as a Foil to highlight the quirks and issues of other characters (see: his scenes with Tracer and Reyes in Uprising and Retribution, respectively). Could be considered a Reconstruction, as Jack is shown to struggle with his own problems as a direct result of his position, and they are treated with just as much severity as anyone else's.
• Viewer Pronunciation Confusion: Torbjörn's name is supposed to be pronounced "TOOR-byearn", not "TORE-byorn".
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • Every second of the cinematic trailer! You won't believe the number of comments asking for the game to be made into a full-length Pixar movie! All the other cinematic trailers, while shorter, haven't let up on the visual awesomeness.
  • The Last Bastion in particular is incredibly well-animated, possessing gorgeously detailed nature scenes, as well as finally showing up-close the horror of the Omnic Crisis.

W

• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Overwatch is commonly considered a (relatively) family-friendly game due to the Pixaresque art style, T-rating, characters who are essentially superheroes, and generally hopeful tone and message. However, its backstory is filled to the brim with such kid-friendly themes like:
  • Corruption^note As in the real world, corporations and governments are sometimes capable of taking advantage of citizens and the underprivileged, committing financial fraud, and otherwise ignoring the law. Some examples include the Vishkar Corporation (damaging or outright destroying communities, intentionally or otherwise, to get them to accept their improvements), and the unnamed "suit" in "Going Legit", who attempts to commit insurance fraud.
  • Drug and alcohol use^note Roadhog is a habitual user of gas, while Hanzo drowns his sorrows with sake and Cassidy smokes.
  • Kidnapping and brainwashing^note Widowmaker's tragic backstory, being a completely innocent civilian who was kidnapped and subjected to extensive neural reconditioning by Talon to become the assassin she is now, all for the sake of murdering her own husband.
  • Language^note Both the game and auxiliary material liberally use T-appropriate swears such as "hell", "damn", "bastard", etc., which serves as a surface-level tip-off that the game isn't primarily for children. Punk Tracer also uses even harsher British swearwords such as "wanker".
  • Mariticide and fratricide^note As mentioned above, Widowmaker killed her own husband after going through extensive brainwashing. That's not the only example of a person being forced to kill their loved one. Hanzo was forced by his elders to brutally murder his younger brother Genji, who only barely survived after being rescued by Overwatch. In both cases, they have to live with their actions as it haunts their minds.
  • Mass death and destruction^note The gorillas on the moon staged a revolt against the humans, which lead to the murder of everyone on the colony, including the completely innocent Dr. Harold Winston. Furthermore, after Australia struck a deal with the Omnics to allow them to reside in the Outback at the expense of the residents already living there, they staged a civil war that ultimately lead to them blowing up an omnium and turning the Outback into an irradiated wasteland, presumably with countless casualties along the way. Roadhog was at the forefront of all of this, and Junkrat was only five years old when it happened.
  • Murder and assassination^note Tekhartha Mondatta being killed in cold blood by Widowmaker in Alive, Widowmaker herself also killed many innocent people.
  • Mutilation and violence^note While not usually shown onscreen, Ana's eye got shot out by Widowmaker, Genji was carved up to the extent that most of his body needed to be rebuilt with cybernetics, and many other characters were wounded in various ways. All of them engage in deadly combat (even Mercy) and most enjoy it to some extent. And the Omnic Crisis threatened to end humanity's existence and still scars the world.
  • Sexual and suggestive themes^note Admittedly light compared to the whoppers above, but the game has quite a bit of fanservice, something that wouldn't be appropriate for the kids' movies it resembles.
  • Terrorism^note Despite the higher security and technological advancements of Overwatch's world, terrorist organizations are still capable of deadly attacks and people still live in fear of them. Talon is the embodiment of this, as they show no regard for human life as they go about their "business", and corrupt the lives of the innocent in the name of achieving their goals — as Widowmaker can attest to.
  • Torture, conspiracy and blackmail^note Blackwatch took specialty in doing things that Overwatch wouldn't want to do, and it's widely suggested that they took part in many human rights violations. Sombra herself has dirt on everyone. She's not malicious about it, but she will go there if she has to.
  • Unethical human experimentation^note Moira had some questionable methods of conducting her studies that were condemned by the scientific society at large, yet she still keeps experimenting on living subjects and receives fundings from a terrorist organization.
  • Violence against children^note Two kids, Brian and Timmy, 15 and 6 respectively, were caught in the crossfire in the battle at the museum between Tracer and Winston versus Reaper and Widowmaker for the Doomfist gauntlet. Widowmaker didn't even hesitate to fire at them when they got in the way, forcing Winston to protect them. In "Hero", a young girl named Alejandra gets caught in the middle of a firefight between Los Muertos and Soldier: 76, and she was very nearly killed from it. Also, Vishkar destroyed a favela, which led to a little girl getting horribly scarred from the aftermath. The Second Omnic Crisis in Russia also has confirmed (offscreen) child casualties, and the first Omnic Crisis must have killed a large number of children as well.
  • Xenophobia and racism^note Human-Omnic relations are reminiscent of racial prejudice and conflict in the real world. Human-human conflict and inequality are still around, with the continued existence of slums, favelas, and poverty.
  • Overall, many would be surprised to find that what appears to be a kid-friendly world of light-hearted adventure is actually a world filled with darkness, tragedy, and despair. It just happens to look more like the former on the outset, and unlike with other such series such as the famously kid-friendly Pokémon, these elements are left out in the open rather than hidden under metaphor. Many characters, even (especially) the villains, have had horrifying backstories that would be dark in any story, let alone a more quirky and colorful game like Overwatch.
  • Aside from the content of the game itself, Overwatch is clearly marketed towards teen and adult gamers - Blizzard's usual demographic - despite all the colorful, quirky and endearing elements. While these elements draw in a Periphery Demographic of preteen fans, this is nothing unusual for a video game of its type, let alone even more mature series such as Call of Duty.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?:
  • The Uprising event and accompanying comic brought to the minds of some the actions of the Islamic State in the middle east, particularly Tracer's line in the comic about how Null Sector was destroying thousands of years worth of history in the ancient city of London, similar to how IS is known for destroying ancient historical sites and artifacts.
  • Speaking of King's Row, the objective of the map for the attacking team is to escort a bomb to the London omnium, i.e. the dwelling place for the local unprivileged minority. The attacking team's spawn room also happens to be inside a church, which could be seen as a commentary on the role religious conservatism plays in the marginalization of disadvantaged groups, particularly religious minorities. More likely, however, it's a commentary on how the attacking team's spawn room just happens to be inside a church.
• The Woobie: A lot of characters, both good and bad, may need a hug, badly. There's enough for an entire page about it.

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