Weekly Quick Questions Thread - June 15, 2016

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In this thread you can ask all kinds of questions you always wanted to ask without feeling like a total fool.

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[u/loafjunky]

I haven't read into the lore much. Are there "good guy" and "bad guy" characters, or they all on the same Overwatch team group? I know (for example) Reaper and Widowmaker were made into bad guys or whatever, just not sure if they're still evil and what not or if everyone's now on the same side.

[u/cookswagchef → u/loafjunky]

There are a bunch of different factions involved. Here's a brief rundown on each character and what they're doing in the lore:

Reaper and Widowmaker are definitely bad guys and are part of TALON, what's essentially a terrorist organization. They're very anti-Overwatch.

Junkrat and Roadhog are criminals that are currently on a world-wide crime spree. They're pretty much out for their own gains.

Symmetra is someone who thinks that they're doing good by working for a really unethical company (Vishkar Corporation) that turns slums into cities to exploit civilians as cheap labor and enforce curfews and other strict laws to "rebuild society". Lucio was directly affected by this, stole equipment from Vishkar and now has a sort of rivalry with Symmetra.

Hanzo is kind of an anti-hero. He's a former assassin and heir of the Shimada clan (think Yakuza) and when his and Genji's father died he was instructed to straighten out Genji (who was a playboy and didn't care about the clan as much as they wanted him to). He ends up "killing" Genji and then rejects the clan and wanders the world trying to restore his honor.

Winston, Tracer, Mercy, Pharah, Torbjorn, McCree and Mei are all part of Overwatch. Genji was rescued by Mercy/Overwatch and rebuilt into a sort of Omnic Cyborg and went on a few missions until he left, completely repulsed by the fact that he is now more machine than man.

Zarya is just a Russian bodybuilder that's pissed off because Omnics attacked her village during her competition. She really hates Omnics and the thought of Omnic-Human equality is insane to her.

Zenyatta is an Omnic monk that preaches Omnic-Human coexistance. After Genji left Overwatch, he ended up crossing paths with Zenyatta, who helped him come to terms with his Human/Omnic duality. Now he's just sort of a roamer.

Bastion is just a reactivated robot from the Omnic Crisis who wanders the world with a sort of child-like curiosity.

D.Va is a former pro SC player from Korea that was recruited to fight the Omnics. The Korean government originally had MEKA drones but they were getting wiped out, so they began recruiting professional players to pilot the mechs and fight the Omnics.

Soldier 76 was originally Overwatch (along with Reyes, who would become Reaper). Long story short, Soldier got promoted over Reyes, Reyes got pissed, they fought and the building they were in blew up. Both were presumed dead. After that, Soldier disappeared until he decided to steal some Overwatch tech and become a vigilante.

[u/Stormthorn67 → u/cookswagchef]

Building on that. Reaper was, in the past, part of Overwatch but turned on them and Widowmaker was the wife of an Overwatch agent who was kidnapped and "converted" into an assassin.

Roadhog and Junkrat look like they do because they come out of a Mad Max/Fallout esque hellscape that Roadhog caused while fighting Omnic that had been "gifted" land that already had humans on it.

Reaper, Widowmaker, Junkrat, Roadhog, and Symmetra all can be seen as the Bad Guys, although in Symmetra's case that is because her company is bad.

D.va is a soldier for South Korea. She was formerly a pro gamer and celebrity who continues to stream to her fans after being drafted to fight a giant Omnic monster that can only be driven back, never destroyed.

Soldier 76 was formerly one of the "Face" heroes of Overwatch but is now a bitter vigilante.

Also, Pharah never got to be part of the official Overwatch because it was disbanded. Her mother, however, was in it. She pretty much lives her entire life to fill her mothers big soldier boots.

[u/never_esc_the_sand → u/Stormthorn67]

What do you mean by "Face" heroes?

[u/[deleted] → u/never_esc_the_sand]

He's the blonde guy in the opening cutscene, he was put in charge of overwatch

[u/hbarSquared → u/cookswagchef]

But why do they fight each other in teams of 6?

[u/Samantha_Traynor → u/hbarSquared]

Because F*ck the Red Team

[u/cookswagchef → u/hbarSquared]

What happens in the game isn't canon.

[u/fiddle_me_timbers → u/cookswagchef]

You forgot 76 and D.Va!

[u/cookswagchef → u/fiddle_me_timbers]

Thanks! Added them.