The Overwatch Story Thread: Lore, Animated Shorts & Comics!

[Lothar]

Hanzo was unprepared; he believed he was just facing an elite mook and could just end the battle with magic. Though I can't say for sure who would have won, since Genji is now considerably more powerful without magic, if Hanzo had known he was facing Genji, he most certainly would not have been on the receiving end of the reversal at the end.

- - - Updated - - -

From their depictions in the lore thus far, the hero rankings appear to be this:

1. Genji & Hanzo (Summon dragon spirits, improbably awesome sword and bow skills)
2. Reaper (Immortality, teleportation and conjures guns, would have defeated Winston if he had stopped gloating and just shot him)
3. Winston (turns into the hulk)
4. Tracer (Superspeed)
5. Reinhardt (Impenetrable power armor with rocket hammer)
6. Widowmaker (Improbably awesome mid air sniping skills)
7. Symmetra (can conjure whatever she needs as she goes, but does not plan for everything)
8. McCree, Roadhog and Junkrat (badass normal who play it safe and smart)

If D.Va singlehandedly defeated the Omnium shown in the theatrical trailer, she would easily skyrocket to the top 5 depending on how she did it.

- - - Updated - - -

Just noticed: Reaper is probably one of the most powerful (if not THE most, can't prove that until we get a Shimada bros. vs Reaper fight) characters in the verse so far, seeing how he can't die and can knock Winston out of hulk mode. And yet he'd probably have won both cinematics if he hadn't grabbed the villain ball and tried to mock Winston both times rather than just shooting him. In their first encounter (as shown in Recall), Reaper stuns Winston out of hulk mode and stuns him. Winston is lying prone on the ground, muggy, while Reaper approaches him. Rather than just shooting him in the face, Reaper instead shoots the machine hanging above Winston to cause it crash onto him. Once it becomes apparent that Reaper really has to shoot Winston in the face to kill him, he just... stands there while Winston throws his device at him.

In their second encounter (as shown in the original cinematic), Reaper and Winston end up in THE EXACT SAME SITUATION AGAIN with Winston muggy and lying on the ground whilst a fully armed Reaper approaches him. Rather than just shoot him in the face, Reaper decides to be evil and step in Winston's glasses, turning him into the hulk. Reaper KNOWS Winston can hulk it out - the reason he had to confront Winston at the Watchpoint in the first place because hulk Winston took out his Blackwatch trained men. Literally, what an idiot.

omg here we go again, do we really need these childish, immature power meters? especially when - in a story- you can pretty much come up with any explanation why dude x defeated dude y?
and anyways -for me- only matters who counters whom and to refer to reaper -for instance- any close combat flankers in overwatch bring more to the table than him, tracer mcree genji are all better picks I feel, I might only ever pick a reaper vs a very heavy tank setup MAYBE, since Mccree is SO much better at destroying tanks then reaper.

also, in some way i feel, the outcomes of the duels/fights are all nods to the game, since a reaper will always beat a winston 1v1, same with genji -having closed the distance- has an advantage over hanzo (hanzo might scatter arrow him or even get a headshot, like the scatter arrow is a kill if he can pull it off (did genji dash? didnt he?) the head shot is much harder).
also widow doesnt really defeat tracer, its just that tracer cant protect her objective.

[Cyberowl]

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

Why is Blizzard so good at those things? D:

[Baconeggcheese]

So I've rewatched that too many times today, especially when they do their ults cause its just awesome.

But watching from there, you get to the scene with genji's eyes... and it bothers the crap out of me that genji's eyes are like hyper realistic and detailed his skin and all... and then it swaps back to hanzo's and his... isn't in the slightest.

I dunno why, but it annoys me so. Fucking awesome though, can't wait to see more of this. I love how the map was a huge part of this one as well.

[Alexand3r]

Ok, I loved this cinematic, it's very beautiful and everything. Nice to see them start to work things out I suppose.
Now... What's with the magic? The dragon summons and Genji disappearing in smoke? Overwatch is supposed to be set in our world, 60 years in the future.

Could it be that Hanzo's tattoo has something to do with nanotechnology? After Genji summoned his dragon the things in his suit popped out, releasing a green gas (or whatever it was). Perhaps it's some sort of highly advanced technology (like Tracer's chronal accelerator) that only the Shimada clan has.

[Airlick]

Hanzo was unprepared; he believed he was just facing an elite mook and could just end the battle with magic. Though I can't say for sure who would have won, since Genji is now considerably more powerful without magic, if Hanzo had known he was facing Genji, he most certainly would not have been on the receiving end of the reversal at the end.

That's assuming Hanzo wouldn't give his all against someone he didn't believe was a deadly threat to him. He's a traditional Japanese, and their arts, martial arts included, are all about doing things with absolute precision and mastery. He wouldn't play around with someone he thought was below him, he would kill him fast and move on to find a more worthy opponent.

Could it be that Hanzo's tattoo has something to do with nanotechnology? After Genji summoned his dragon the things in his suit popped out, releasing a green gas (or whatever it was). Perhaps it's some sort of highly advanced technology (like Tracer's chronal accelerator) that only the Shimada clan has.

I thought it could be explained with nanotechnology rather than magic as well. A cloud of nanobots taking form of a dragon would explain how they can pass through obstacles, and why the ability is a DoT rather than an instantly damaging mechanic - those nanobots would chip at whomever they pass instead of killing them outright, and it would be possible to survive it if they didn't have enough time to work on their target. Also fits my headcanon of the original Hanzo vs Genji duel - Genji took pretty much the whole cloud on the face, and Hanzo, having seen what happens to a victim of such treatment before, must have assumed Genji couldn't survive that. It would also explain why they had to replace almost the whole body of Genji - a sword cut or an arrow wouldn't do that to a person, but a swarm of nanobots could.

Genji's dragon doesn't work the same way, though, which is messing with my reasoning.

[Sylf]

So I've rewatched that too many times today, especially when they do their ults cause its just awesome.

But watching from there, you get to the scene with genji's eyes... and it bothers the crap out of me that genji's eyes are like hyper realistic and detailed his skin and all... and then it swaps back to hanzo's and his... isn't in the slightest.

I dunno why, but it annoys me so. Fucking awesome though, can't wait to see more of this. I love how the map was a huge part of this one as well.

When a cartoon character dies it wakes up in the real world. Genji had to cover up his new "weird look" because people thought he was a freak when he returned to Cartoon land.

[Khaza-R]

New short was great. Really outstanding quality.

I love the small nuances in them too. Like how the ramen shop in the begining has Murky for a mascot.

And on a sidenote, I just finally realized that every short takes place in a stage in the game. Recall is Watchpoint : Gibraltar, Alive is Kings Row, and Dragons is Hanamura.

[Mormolyce]

So this is what Blizzard considers a "short"?

I love the small nuances in them too. Like how the ramen shop in the begining has Murky for a mascot.

It's quite prominent in the actual game. The whole cinematic takes place in the "Hanamura" map

- - - Updated - - -

Genji wrecked Hanzo's face

To be fair, last time Hanzo wrecked everything but his face :P

Going off of the theatrical trailer, we have a Soldier 76 short (confirmed) and possibly a D.Va vs Colossal Omnium short (as showcased in the theatrical trailer). There appear to be cinematic quality models for all the other characters in the line up at the end, but why spend dozens of hours creating a cinematic quality colossal Omnic just for a three seconds appearance in the teaser? You don't, unless you have definite plans to use it for a cinematic.

Or maybe an Omnic War map! But yeah, probably what you said.

Holy fuck that cinematic is awesome! I wish we could have seen a bit more of Genjis face tho. No wonder Hanzo won the first a normal human could not have deflected all those arrows.

There might not actually be any more of it in there :S

[Tenris]

There might not actually be any more of it in there :S

Well there is enough for him to talk and I am assuming eat aswell or he would die of starvation :P

[Mormolyce]

Well there is enough for him to talk and I am assuming eat aswell or he would die of starvation :P

Feeding tube and voice modulator!

[pateuvasiliu]

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

Why is Blizzard so good at those things? D:

Ever since Mists of Pandaria's Burdens of whatshisface Blizz has been really good at hyping up their characters with lore videos.

[Deleted]

Hanzo was unprepared; he believed he was just facing an elite mook and could just end the battle with magic. Though I can't say for sure who would have won, since Genji is now considerably more powerful without magic, if Hanzo had known he was facing Genji, he most certainly would not have been on the receiving end of the reversal at the end.

- - - Updated - - -

From their depictions in the lore thus far, the hero rankings appear to be this:

1. Genji & Hanzo (Summon dragon spirits, improbably awesome sword and bow skills)
2. Reaper (Immortality, teleportation and conjures guns, would have defeated Winston if he had stopped gloating and just shot him)
3. Winston (turns into the hulk)
4. Tracer (Superspeed)
5. Reinhardt (Impenetrable power armor with rocket hammer)
6. Widowmaker (Improbably awesome mid air sniping skills)
7. Symmetra (can conjure whatever she needs as she goes, but does not plan for everything)
8. McCree, Roadhog and Junkrat (badass normal who play it safe and smart)

If D.Va singlehandedly defeated the Omnium shown in the theatrical trailer, she would easily skyrocket to the top 5 depending on how she did it.

- - - Updated - - -

Just noticed: Reaper is probably one of the most powerful (if not THE most, can't prove that until we get a Shimada bros. vs Reaper fight) characters in the verse so far, seeing how he can't die and can knock Winston out of hulk mode. And yet he'd probably have won both cinematics if he hadn't grabbed the villain ball and tried to mock Winston both times rather than just shooting him. In their first encounter (as shown in Recall), Reaper stuns Winston out of hulk mode and stuns him. Winston is lying prone on the ground, muggy, while Reaper approaches him. Rather than just shooting him in the face, Reaper instead shoots the machine hanging above Winston to cause it crash onto him. Once it becomes apparent that Reaper really has to shoot Winston in the face to kill him, he just... stands there while Winston throws his device at him.

In their second encounter (as shown in the original cinematic), Reaper and Winston end up in THE EXACT SAME SITUATION AGAIN with Winston muggy and lying on the ground whilst a fully armed Reaper approaches him. Rather than just shoot him in the face, Reaper decides to be evil and step in Winston's glasses, turning him into the hulk. Reaper KNOWS Winston can hulk it out - the reason he had to confront Winston at the Watchpoint in the first place because hulk Winston took out his Blackwatch trained men. Literally, what an idiot.

I think Symmetra deserves to be ranked a lot higher. Her comic shows that her powers have a lot more potential than just the abilities she has in game, and her light bending tech is used to build entire cities. We don't really know how much she needs to prepare but she has the potential for some Green Lantern level powers, literally just making hard light into any shape she wants.

Of course all the heroes are supposed to be in a pretty close margin to one another

[DeadmanWalking]

My only problem with the Hanzo/Genji episode was the non-lethal late 80's/early 90's ninja-turtles style of action. You know, where the ninja turtles would go all ham on robots with their weapons but when they had to fight normal guys or Be-bop and Rocksteady they would avoid using their weapons to the point that Leonardo would plant his two swords in the ground and use them for hand grips to double kick faces.

Hanzo, an assassin, uses his bow lethally on 1 robot guard and goes completely non-lethal on the rest of the guards. I was rolling my eyes at it, the rest was cool but the guard take down at the shrine was kind of pathetic.

[Baconeggcheese]

I'm excited to see how many genji's try to ult into hanzo's ult once the game goes live.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Hanzo, an assassin, uses his bow lethally on 1 robot guard and goes completely non-lethal on the rest of the guards. I was rolling my eyes at it, the rest was cool but the guard take down at the shrine was kind of pathetic.

Considering Hanamura is controlled by the Shimada clan (going off of Hanzo's dialogue on the map), it's safe to assume that Hanzo didn't want to kill his clan's guards, even if he left the clan earlier.

The arrow in the Omnic may have just been to disrupt his systems, not kill him.

[Dug]

I'm excited to see how many genji's try to ult into hanzo's ult once the game goes live.

Would be neat if they had a special interaction to counter one another

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Pharah comic tomorrow.

http://comicbook.com/2016/05/16/excl...-pharah-comic/

- - - Updated - - -



Important notes
Assassins have repeatedly tried to kill Hanzo. Considering the Shimada clan has no apparent resources or reason to kill their former leader, and he's not fighting TALON, the identity of whomever might want to kill him is unknown.

[Kathranis]

Assassins have repeatedly tried to kill Hanzo. Considering the Shimada clan has no apparent resources or reason to kill their former leader, and he's not fighting TALON, the identity of whomever might want to kill him is unknown.

I imagine that assassins accumulate enemies pretty quickly.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I imagine that assassins accumulate enemies pretty quickly.

Hanzo isn't an assassin from what we can infer from his Walking the Earth backstory.

[tanksin the enhance shamy]

isnt the feather thing something they did in japan? a mark of shame or something like that