Why does every Overwatch artist neglect the fact that Pharah has entirely robot limbs?
They always draw Symmetra’s aperture science arm and they always draw mcree’s arm and junkrat’s hand/peg leg etc. but literally every image I’ve seen of Pharah out of the Raptora suit shows her as just entirely human, no robot parts at all.
Look:
All of Pharah’s arms and legs are robotic. The only skin where they aren’t is Security Chief Pharah, which is an origins skin and is therefore from the past, which means she lost all her limbs at some point in time after becoming security chief at Helix Security International. (she also has her legs in the raindancer and thunderbird skins too but those are definitely 100% not canon).
You’re WRONG.
I’m chiming in on this one since Blizzard has cleverly misdirected fans by not answering the amputee question outright, and saying that its just a suit. Suits can enchance a person’s abilities, but doesn’t detail if there’s prosthesis WITHIN it.
Pharah’s design started driving me nuts, since professional concept artists care a lot about how well they can execute designs that has to balance form and function, even if its originally drawn by another artist. A character has to look visually appealing, but at the same time make sense for 3D modelers and 3D animators to work off of when it comes to articulating motion and conveying personalities. Ask anyone who has tinkered with Pharah’s 3D model and there’s no way a human limb can fit inside those joint spaces.
What we know so far:
-Overwatch’s art direction does not shy away from enhancing characters using technology, including advanced prosthetics. Majority of the heroes have robotic limbs that enhances their abilities (ex. Genji’s arm summoning shurikens)
-Pharah has always been depicted wearing her Raptora suit. From the concept art, promo videos and comics, she always has her suit on at all times. In contrast to Reinhardt’s Dragon Slayer comic, we can visually see him walking around without his armor.
-Pharah’s joints have a mechanical hinge design, with the exception of her Origins skin that depicts cloth and blast padding accompanied by an exoskeletal frame on her arms. Mechanical hinges are also present on robots and toys for articulation.
-Pharah’s skins have Mecha/Robot themes. Mechaqueen is obvious, but her Anubis skin pays homage to the mech from Zone Of The Enders, who shares the same name.
-Pharah’s code of conduct draws heavy inspiration from RoboCop. Her voice line “I will protect the innocent.” is one of the three primary directives programmed into police officer Alex Murphy when he was reconstructed as a cyborg law enforcer. Pharah also has a voice line saying “Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.”, which is an iconic RoboCop phrase.
Pharah’s quotes: http://overwatch.wikia.com/wiki/Pharah/Quotes
-Perhaps my favorite info of all is from David Gibson, who animated Pharah’s in-game model. Such a mystery~
…or, she could just be a human wearing a powered suit :)
