She/her | Adult
Side account of a degenerate too embarrassed to be thirsty on main
Professional lurker in nature so my apologies if I'm awkward
Posts art once in a blue moon
Ocassionally posts mature content, blacklist "Unholy Abomination" if you wish to avoid those.
Heya :> I'm T3, Birb, or Borb, whichever you prefer.
I've made this silly corner of the internet because I have an unhealthy obsession with a fictional character and want to contribute to the fandom, be it feeding the algorithms with likes n stuff n shit or my own produce :P
Unique tags found on this blog:
Borb's Scribbles (art)
Borb's Rambles (thoughts, theories, etc)
Borb's Garbage Dump (works in progress, may or may not get finished)
Borb Answers (ask responses. May sometimes also feature scribbles and rambles, depending on the ask)
Not mine (obvious lol)
Unholy Abomination - universal mature tag, may contain either adultery or robot guts. Used liberally just in case, even if the art is technically sfw
Other noteworthy things:
English isn't my native language, my apologies if my words are hard to read or understand
This blog is hyperfocused on Ramram. Probably a stupid idea in the long run but this account is a semi-throwaway anyway
I don't reblog much as I lowkey don't see the point. I don't pull the numbers to help others get eyes on their work, and this is a place primarily for my produce. That said reblogs do show up on the rare occasion. I do my best to make up for this by leaving likes and comments on other's posts for encouragement and to show support :)
I'm here to have a good time, not cause or experience discourse, so please don't be a jerk, just block me and ignore me if my existence bothers you
I'm very chill when it comes to shipping. I don't have a singular favourite, or any that I can't stand. All of them fall into some flavour of "I see the vision, and respect it." So you might see me all over the place :P
I primarily move in the reader-insert side of fandom, though honest to god, I don't ship myself with him. Reader inserts appears to be the largest "flavour" of Ram's fandom when it comes to shipping, so that's where I vibe the most often.
To address the "problematic ship" elephant in the room, I'm neutral on Ramyatta, slightly leaning towards the don't like it territory, but for reasons other than the whole pseudo-incest thing (it's not incest in my eyes because robots don't have genes and monastery titles, but I can see how Ram and Zen calling each other "brother" is offputting)
I also don't have the energy or desire to learn to draw the other over-detailed OW characters when I don't care that much about the rest of the cast, and Ram is already time consuming asf to draw. So while I respect and enjoy all ships, you'll going to see him either solo or with a faceless anonymous character in the vast majority of my work :P
I generally don't take requests, but if I happen to vibe a lot with a certain concept, I might just draw it
I'm open to talking, but I'm shy and perfectionistic. So please don't take it personally if I don't respond for a while ;-; I'll try to do my best.
I am a-okay with naughty topics, just know that I'll probably be embarrassed about it
About my art:
Krita 5.2 + Huion Kamvas Pro 16
My "style" is inconsistent as fuck as I'm going to be experimenting a lot for improvement purposes
If you wish to use my art, I am fine with the following:
Side Note 1: I would like to know about you using my work, but telling me isn't mandatory (provided you follow these rules)
Side Note 2: Almost all art posted has been heavily downscaled from the originals (about 3 times smaller), so they may look terrible in certain use cases. If you want the full res, reach out to me privately, I'll send it over if I'm confident that you won't misuse it
I am NOT fine with the following:
Commercial use of any kind
Feeding into AI generators
NFT nonsense
Modifications of any kind EXCEPT coloring plain lineart
Reposting anywhere, especially Tumblr. If you REALLY want to share my stuff, I'm flattered, but please use links instead...
Sooo... Yeah, that's all I wanted to say as an introduction :P thanks if you've made it this far :> hope you enjoy your stay at my internet place 👋
Overwatch is finally stepping on the gas! The story is moving forward. Animated shorts are back. 5 heroes released at once, that is more when OW2 first launched.
Yet, all I feel is dread.
And it all has to do with Mercy and Doomfist.
(Long, ranty text post ahead. I didn't plan on this being so long but I guess I have a lot of thoughts and need to vent lol)
The second mythic when a good chunk of the cast doesn't even have one, and Blizzard being all "we are so sorry lol" about it. Just. Guys. Seriously? I don't think I have to really explain myself here all that much since the problem here is so obvious. And I say that as someone who has been conditioned into desensitization to skin preferential treatment
Doomfist though...
Excuse me if I mess up here as I'm not 100% familiar with his lore.
Blizzard did him so unbelievably dirty in the Reign of Talon animated short. And I say that as someone who's never cared that much about him.
Back in OW1, I dare to say he was the most relevant lore character. Null Sector wasn't really a thing beyond that one PVE event, so the main conflict in that game revolved around Talon wrecking havoc across the world. There wasn't much global story going on beyond the origins of the individual characters, but Talon was the most relevant faction besides Overwatch itself. Vishkar has been around since the start and they too are shady, but they haven't really done anything relevant beyond existing for Symmetra backstory.
And since Talon is lead by Doomfist, that made him, by extension, the most important character in the lore. He was the one driving the story forward, minimal as it may have been at the time.
And sure, he had his ups and downs. He may have been put to jail by an angry monkey and held back by a robot created by an 8-year old, but he also literally punched his way out of jail barehanded. He was able to keep up with and mess up Tracer, a character with literal time travel powers. We learned about the existence of a Doomfist from the very first trailer the game ever got. It is said his weapon can level a skyscraper. A weapon that I think is fair to call a relic, considering it was passed down between generations of Doomfists. His actual hero release was highly anticipated, subtly foreshadowed by environmental storytelling in the actual game of Overwatch.
Sure, his motive of "make the world stronger through conflict" wasn't the most impressive or deep a motivator behind his actions. He did lose some battles. Talon as a whole, despite being the main antagonistic force in OW1, didn't do a whole lot in OW1 beyond existing and assassinating Mondatta. In OW2, the focus was on Null Sector, so beyond an alliance with NS, Talon was even less relevant(until now, obviously)
But I'd still say he was respectable. A presence in the story. Without who the main lore of the game wouldn't be the same
Fast forward to right now.
When Blizzard decided to take him out in the most pathetic way imagineable.
A chick just shows up out of nowhere, both in terms of foreshadowing for us, the audience, and from Doomfist's POV in the meeting going on in the animated short. Even though the meeting is about her and she is literally next door, there's no alarms, no one informing Doomfist that a breach went down, no screams of agony as she undoubtedly kills people on her way to Doomfist, until it's too late. She shows up and conveniently runs into a 1v1 with Doomfist because the rest of the people in the room just so happen to be holograms, thus unable to step into the fray.
She talks shit, attacks, Doomfist dodges, grabs her, and instead of, oh, I don't know, using the legendary skyscraper-leveling weapon to instantly end the problem Talon collectively ignored and that got out of hand... He knees her into a wall of screens instead. She gets up, and, I'm not joking here, in the span of 22 seconds, goes from recovering from the wall launch to bringing Doomfist literally down to his knees. Somehow hides her gigantic glowing sword in the shadows of a giant empty room, and apparently outspeeds Tracer to land those slices on the leg and spine. Talks some more, and in a few more seconds, destroys the multigenerational weapon in a single slice, the very same weapon we got introduced to in the very first Overwatch trailer ever released. Then literally yeets Doomfist out of the window, seemingly to his death.
Credit where credit is due, Doomfist going out in the exact same fashion as Vendetta's dad was dope.
Aaaand that's where the good stuff ends.
Sure, Doomfist isn't a particularly popular character. He sucked to play against in OW1, sucks to play as in OW2. Despite all the hype before his release and how important he is in the overall plot of the game, he didn't do a whole lot in said plot.
But this is still peak character assassination and disrespect. I can't even call this fanfiction levels of bad because that is an insult to fanfiction. Believe me, I've read my fair share of it. If Doomfist had to go out to make space for something new, 99% of fans would imagined it way, WAY more tastefully than Blizzard did.
I've seen comments online saying that coming back stronger after a defeat is Doomfist's shtick. That we didn't actually see him die on screen. He's not done, far from it.
Right now, it's too early to tell what exactly happened to Doomfist, but GOD I hope those people are right. It wouldn't change just how pathetically he was beaten, but if he survived, it would make said pathetic defeat a lot less impactful.
And yes, I acknowledge Vendetta is strong and capable too. She has been training in the Colossseo for years. Singlehandedly brought down a giant mech in her reveal trailer, a moment that was seemingly another Tuesday for her. Meanwhile, as far as we know, in the time Vendetta was actively practicing combat and rising up in the ranks, Doomfist just kind of... Existed. He may have gotten rusty.
But even then, if Blizz wanted them to fight, it should have gone differently. Maybe she could have found him alone outside, and during their brawl, they accidentally brought down a few buildings with them, a true clash of the titans that they are. Or she jumped him in a group. Poisoned his drink, got a spy to mess up the gauntlet somehow. ANYTHING would have been better than those 22 seconds.
Whatever logical loop you could think of behind why Doomfist lost, it should have been used instead of literally nothing. The fans of the character deserve that dignity, few as they may be.
Like imagine if one of the more popular characters went out in 22 seconds. Zen. Ana. Rein. Literally any of the characters that get 86257 skins per season. There would be a fucking outrage, so Blizzard wouldn't dare to do it in a million years. But because Doomfist has been kinda irrelevant in the player base's overall consciousness (if his lack of skins is anything to go by), nah let's just delete him quickly and as cheaply as possible because he's washed and we really want to get to the shiny new toy.
I may not personally care about Doomfist a whole lot, but this sets a bad precedent for the future. If Blizzard is willing to throw away a character's entire legacy, a character that's been around for nearly a decade, on a whim like that, I'm terrified. Because it means popularity translates to who gets respectful storytelling and who's thrown out. Mercy and Kiriko and Juno are not being yeeted out like this, ever. Doomfist though? Who cares lol.
I'm already having my doubts when it comes to my favourite, Ramattra. He may still be alive and kicking, but he too had to be shunned aside to make room for Vendetta. By putting Null Sector on pause.
Which, I'm sorry, WHAT? Call me dense and easily pleased when your fave gets 1 legendary non-recolor skin a year, if that, even a mistletoe spray gets you hyped up beyond belief, but I did not realize the key takeaway from the Reconciliation comic was the "It will take some time to prepare the next step" line. I thought it was a sign the story from the cancelled PVE is moving forward in other media. That it establishes current day dynamics between Ram and Zen, since they haven't seen each other in a stupidly long time, and they have changed since then. That Ram did indeed mourn Mondatta's passing even if he may or may not have had a hand in it, considering his ties to Talon.
And yes I was also very much distracted by the "I'm not the monster the world thinks I am" line because that shit goes haaaaaarrrrrd dude, and all the kickass velsmells' art on display
I didn't think the comic was a literal passing of the torch up until very recently. That the "next step" in Ram's plan involves Null Sector just... disappearing from the scene entirely.
I might be jumping the shark here as we have yet to see what exactly that next step of Ram's plan is, the same way Doomfist may still be alive, but seriously, what kind of plan involves leaving his giant fleet of combat drones on standby???
You're telling me, that after failing miserably in London, Ramattra is going to spend a decade in the shadows, building up Null Sector into worldwide threat, create a whole army of drones seemingly all by himself (... and with financial support from Doomfist), have them deployed across big cities, kill some people, kidnap some omnics, and then pack up and leave in like, a week? month? of in-universe time?
This is the character that got his friend accidentally killed over him being impatient to rescue omnics, even when said friend warned him it's a bad idea to go so soon! And he bloody launched with that information. He's not a character that's going to sit idle when he has the power to make a change. Any time wasted is more omnics killed. Whatever plan he's cooking has to involve all of omnickind since he wants to save everyone, right? Why stop after collecting a few??? SURELY that army can just... keep capturing omnics in the background while he works on the next step????
Nah man, that humongous army he's built over the years is just going to be vibing in Antarctica while Vendetta wrecks shit. She may not have a bone to pick against omnics specifically, but surely whatever she has in mind will be violent and global, and omnics will be caught in the crossfire, intentionally or not. And Rama is going to be a bystander during it when he already has the means to at least hinder it??? His methods of omnic liberation are questionable, but preventing omnic death and suffering is his entire ordeal. He's a guy that is willing to die if it would mean safety for his kin. Yet he'd let his fleet rot away in a warehouse.
Again, I may be jumping the shark here, we have yet to see how things play out, but... After Doomfist was done so dirty in Reign of Talon... I'm worried Ramattra is the next Main Big Bad Guy on the chopping block because he's not the newest, shiniest hero in the video game. He doesn't get many cosmetics so he's not all that popular in the general player base. Was he too morally gray a villain for the writers to handle so they just gave up and replaced it with Girl With Inflated Ego And Daddy Issues Wants To See The World Burn? Because Blizzard is ditching the 2, a title that promised us a story about global conflict with Null Sector and its very long overdue PVE missions flopped financially? So they're leaving Ramattra behind because he represents that failure and making OW1's main enemy faction THE main enemy faction again, albeit with a different character in the driver's seat?
... Am I seriously supposed to just forget all the philosophical and moral dilemma Ramattra presented? The "is violence the answer to discrimination?" The "humanity treating their fully conscious, self-aware creations as lesser and expendable because it's profitable" aspect? Are the machines guilty of mass murder when they lacked consciousness at the time?
It's better to replace all that with a half-assed revenge story???
What is supposed to be my takeaway from all this??? Pray that Blizzard doesn't misshanndle my favourite character of all time because it's convenient and cheap for them? When Doomfist was done so dirty after his decade long legacy went literally out the window because BLIZZARD refused to elaborate or expand on it, even if people wanted the lore??? That this spoiled brat is really what they want to bet millions on????
And before anyone accuses me of misogyny for disliking Vendetta, as I've seen people on Twitter say... Uh, no dude. I'm a woman, and I was super excited for Vendetta when La Lupa dropped. The first new hero release I took at least a sliver of interest in since Venture (who ended up being disappointing because I thought an archeologist launching with an Anubis God AI map would give us delicious lore) and Hazard (who crashed and burned for me after mister I Fight The Corrupt System That Abandoned Me When I Did Everything Right called Ramattra a tyrant in an elimination voice line. Fucking hypocrite).
La Lupa presented Vendetta as a physically and mentally capable sword wielding girlboss working her way up from nothing all the way to the top of the food chain by herself. AND she is actually a relevant presence in the main plot??? Sign me the fuck. up!
I didn't think at the time she was literally going to TAKE OVER THE ENTIRE GAME. Much less over what is essentially a temper tantrum. A character that came out of nowhere since the first ever evidence we got of her existence is in the Reconciliation comic.
I'm not pissed at Vendetta because she's a woman, or because she dunked all over a black man. I'm pissed because she deadass feels like a 10 year old's OC shoehorned into a plot that didn't need her. That assassinated (literally for one and metaphorically for the other) long-standing and/or actually interesting key characters to make room for herself.
We're getting an ass load of lore, what I wanted so much more of for ages, and now that it is actually here (...again), I find myself wishing we could go back to how things were a few months ago, or for the game to straight up die. All because I don't trust Blizzard to do a good job. I'd rather have my fave be forever stuck in limbo than risk seeing him being taken out of commission in 22 seconds.
How fucked up is that??? We're getting so much content all of a sudden, even more so than we did when OW2 launched, and all I feel is agony and fear.
If I may! I'm active in the playerbase part of the fandom on tiktok and frequently play the competitive game mode, and I wouldn't consider myself an expert (or even... good at the game lol I'm stuck in silver and low gold) but I feel as if a few things here doesn't quite reflect the truth. It's so much worse than you think!
For one, both Doomfist and Ramattra are popular, not just to fans that enjoy the lore but the players too! Doomfist is considered a prestigious tank to be good at, as he is incredibly difficult to master but once you are even half-decent at him he wreaks havoc on teams that aren't ready for him. Ramattra is also an pretty powerful tank that has an ult that can fix most problems all at once, especially when nano'd by an Ana.
The pick rates this season shows that Doomfist is more popular in higher ranks as well, and usually both Ram and Doomfist end up being somewhere in the upper middle on the list in terms of pick rate (which makes sense, Doomfist is a difficult tank to play and Ramattra's gameplay cycle is not quite beginner friendly and they both have some frustrating counters). Additionally a lot of people have been pushing for Ramattra skins and emotes, including that damn dancing emote that took a year for them to release, despite the popular demand.
My point is that these characters aren't unpopular, far from it! The problem lies in the fact none of them are cash cows the way certain other heroes are, and the difference is largely due to the fact that Blizzard is raking in big bucks from skins given to the young, skinny female characters. It has long been a complaint to the point of memefication that Kiriko got an absurd amount of cosmetics compared to a lot of other newer characters, and by now it is abundantly clear that this also applies to Juno, Mercy, Ashe and even Sombra. I've looked in the shop and seen three separate bundles that had at least one Kiriko skin in it! This is also why the reaction to the new Mercy mythic was negative; not only does she already have a mythic skin, she also has a mythic weapon! Three mythics on Mercy before some of the other, highly anticipated mythics is just disappointing.
Now, I don't think Doomfist is dead, but his defeat was so unearned that I feel tricked FOR the Doomfist fans! First his mythic was doggy doo and now he was done in by a grown woman throwing a tantrum over a decade. Okay man!
So I share in your apprehension regarding the storytelling they are setting up. I can only hope this gets expanded upon (like Doomfist having his reasons to want his own defeat, sabotage in the ranks, his body can no longer handle the strain the gauntlet puts on him, etc.) and that Vendetta might find that she has bit off way more than she can chew, crashing and burning while her own ambitions eat her whole.
Sure you may, I'm down for nerdy video game discussions :p
I'm very well aware Kiriko and Co. get way, waaaayy too many skins. The thing about cosmetics is that their only "real" value are as money generators for the company. Which, fair, gotta pay them bills yo.
If Ram and Doomfist are a common enough sight, as you say, why do they not get cosmetics nearly as much as the cash cows? Sure, they're not attractive skinny females they're still hot tho, just not females, but people are only going to go out of their way to spend money to customize the characters they actually play, right? Some people are going to collect everything for collecting sake, but I would assume the "I only buy stuff for characters I play" is the most common type of buyer. Why spend money on something you're not going to use (... Or doesn't give you the chance to get something you want ala loot boxes)?
Which to me implies that despite Rama and Doom being played a lot as you say, despite lore nerds being vocal about their displeasure on social media... These guys (and any other hero which barely gets cosmetics, Baptiste, Lucio, Zarya, Venture, Wrecking ball etc etc) aren't actually as widely played as we think they are. It may feel like there are many people who play them and who demand more cosmetics and want the story to go forward, but at the end of the day Blizz are the only ones who truly have all the statistics. Namely cosmetic sales numbers. They may release a skin for one of the "rarely gets cosmetics" heroes once in a blue moon, but since said characters don't sell each individual skin as many times over as Mercy and the gang, Blizz doesn't have an incentive to give these "niche" heroes cosmetics more often. Not when the skinny girls outsell them by lord knows how many times over. It's just a better investment to use the paychecks of the employees for the stuff that sells the most.
Aaaand cuz of that "I only buy cosmetics for heroes I play" assumption, the onslaught of Juno and Mercy and Kiriko cosmetics implies to me that their player bases are huge compared to the rest. That their mains have a much bigger slice of the pie called Overwatch players. Because if they didn't, some other portion of the pie, some other heroes, would be getting all the goods. If the playerbase was split perfectly evenly among all heroes, there wouldn't be so much cosmetic inequality.
Hence why I think lack of cosmetic releases = less popular characters, no matter how we, the players and fans, may perceive said popularity. It's not worth it for Blizzard to cater to these players when the overall demand they collectively create is peanuts compared to the big guns.
... Or maybe the people who main these guys are stingy. I can't tell, and I would hope that's not the case...
Aaaand I bet at least some of that skin disparity influences lore decisions. You can't please every customer, there always will be someone upset with any decision a company makes. It's a constant balancing act of making decisions that benefit the company while upsetting as little of their customer base as they can.
Every character in the game is someone's favourite. It just so happens some heroes are the favourites more often than others. If there's a hero on the character and lore assassination chopping block, you bet it's going to be the one with smallest fanbases. Yes those fanbases will complain about their main being misshandled, buuut literally any other character's fanbase would do the same. Best pick the characters that will be the quietest (and/or poorest) slice of the overall pie. It's not worth it to risk upsetting dem Mercy's and Juno's and Kiriko's of the world when they're the ones stuffing our pockets. Even if lore has very little impact to the actual gameplay of video game. (... I would assume creating a strong and memorable IP identity is preeetty important as fans discussing and sharing lore with their friends is free word of mouth marketing and creates a lasting legacy, but with how well the PVE side of OW has been treated up until now... I'm a dumbass I guess.)
...On that note, it's wild to me that Blizz decided to shove established characters who had fanbases for many years into a corner and place all their bets on the newcomer that showed up less than 2 months ago. Did it work? I'd like to think not, but I don't have any numbers to work with.
About Doomfist's fate, I'd like to believe he's alive and plotting a revenge story of a revenge story, but with OW's track record, until we see it for real, I'm not getting my hopes up. Best to keep expectations low to avoid the disappointment if it turns out he's dead.
And yeah. Doomfist may have gotten a lot of shit over the years due to Blizzard's poor balance and design decisions, but good lord that animated short was b r u t a l. I feel for his mains.
Regarding the Hazard tags... Aren't we all apologists for our favourites XD
For real, the general public within the Overwatch universe having no idea about Null Sector's true motives is 100% valid. I'm just lowkey upset in a cast as massive as this one, there isn't a single character on the playable roster who's opinion about NS is something akin to "I see what you're trying to accomplish and I respect the vision, but I don't think violence and brainwashing are the way to go." The only one who supports NS is Doomfist, but over "conflict makes us stronger" reasons, not "omnic rights" reasons. Zen kiiinda falls into that category, but he tried to talk Ramattra out of it entirely (and imo, the only reason he's not trying to stop Ram more actively is their personal history). The rest of these so called "heroes" either don't bring up NS in spawn interactions, or are like "killing humans bad uwu" (because 2 decades of killing sentient, human-like machines who lacked that bodily autonomy in the first omnic crisis is perfectly acceptable I guess).
I was really hoping Hazard would "get it" since his macro goal is literally THE EXACT SAME, but nah Blizz rather he appears a hypocrite, even if it makes sense with his lack of info on Null Sector. Illari also had potential over the "I accidentally killed off my people" + "I'm desperately trying to save my people" duality. Though admittedly she's probably too traumatized to pay attention to anything other than her grief. Or read between the lines.
... I was also really hoping for Overwatch to finally release a hero I'm actually interested in, since everyone after Lifeweaver was either a nothing burger (most of the newer cast), didn't deliver what was seemingly promised (Venture), were super exciting at the start but crashed and burned hard after a while (Hazard and Vendetta), or were overly sexualised (Juno. Queen and Vendetta may show a lot of skin, but they're confident ladies who workout a lot. They will sweat, and will want to brag about their earned musculature. What business does a socially inept space girl have walking around with her asscheeks on full display. Spandex will not protect her from the vacuum of outer space. No I don't care a proper space suit clashes with her mobile gameplay style or that this franchise has time travel and spirit dragons. Make her a circus performer or something).
So yeah. Harsh of me to give up on Hazard after 1 voice line but goddamn it, Ram gets very little love from the devs and the new cast ain't been hitting it. I'm starved of the good stuff 😭
Jetpack cat is hype for finally being an oddball hero after so long tho. Domina being the second ever Vishkar hero since OW1 release (Lifeweaver doesn't count, he's running from Vishkar) is hype too. I vibe with the girl boss energy. A bit too soon to get truly excited tho. Don't pull a Vendetta please 😭
(I'm aware of the Phreaks giving Ravagers mods interaction. Which. I don't really understand Ram's hostility. Isn't someone giving his fellow, nearly extinct, widely hated kin free "healthcare" a good thing? Then again Rama is a little messed up in the head. So I guess it checks out. Weird that it happens here of all places though. Water college top tier storytelling, apparently.)
Overwatch is finally stepping on the gas! The story is moving forward. Animated shorts are back. 5 heroes released at once, that is more when OW2 first launched.
Yet, all I feel is dread.
And it all has to do with Mercy and Doomfist.
(Long, ranty text post ahead. I didn't plan on this being so long but I guess I have a lot of thoughts and need to vent lol)
The second mythic when a good chunk of the cast doesn't even have one, and Blizzard being all "we are so sorry lol" about it. Just. Guys. Seriously? I don't think I have to really explain myself here all that much since the problem here is so obvious. And I say that as someone who has been conditioned into desensitization to skin preferential treatment
Doomfist though...
Excuse me if I mess up here as I'm not 100% familiar with his lore.
Blizzard did him so unbelievably dirty in the Reign of Talon animated short. And I say that as someone who's never cared that much about him.
Back in OW1, I dare to say he was the most relevant lore character. Null Sector wasn't really a thing beyond that one PVE event, so the main conflict in that game revolved around Talon wrecking havoc across the world. There wasn't much global story going on beyond the origins of the individual characters, but Talon was the most relevant faction besides Overwatch itself. Vishkar has been around since the start and they too are shady, but they haven't really done anything relevant beyond existing for Symmetra backstory.
And since Talon is lead by Doomfist, that made him, by extension, the most important character in the lore. He was the one driving the story forward, minimal as it may have been at the time.
And sure, he had his ups and downs. He may have been put to jail by an angry monkey and held back by a robot created by an 8-year old, but he also literally punched his way out of jail barehanded. He was able to keep up with and mess up Tracer, a character with literal time travel powers. We learned about the existence of a Doomfist from the very first trailer the game ever got. It is said his weapon can level a skyscraper. A weapon that I think is fair to call a relic, considering it was passed down between generations of Doomfists. His actual hero release was highly anticipated, subtly foreshadowed by environmental storytelling in the actual game of Overwatch.
Sure, his motive of "make the world stronger through conflict" wasn't the most impressive or deep a motivator behind his actions. He did lose some battles. Talon as a whole, despite being the main antagonistic force in OW1, didn't do a whole lot in OW1 beyond existing and assassinating Mondatta. In OW2, the focus was on Null Sector, so beyond an alliance with NS, Talon was even less relevant(until now, obviously)
But I'd still say he was respectable. A presence in the story. Without who the main lore of the game wouldn't be the same
Fast forward to right now.
When Blizzard decided to take him out in the most pathetic way imagineable.
A chick just shows up out of nowhere, both in terms of foreshadowing for us, the audience, and from Doomfist's POV in the meeting going on in the animated short. Even though the meeting is about her and she is literally next door, there's no alarms, no one informing Doomfist that a breach went down, no screams of agony as she undoubtedly kills people on her way to Doomfist, until it's too late. She shows up and conveniently runs into a 1v1 with Doomfist because the rest of the people in the room just so happen to be holograms, thus unable to step into the fray.
She talks shit, attacks, Doomfist dodges, grabs her, and instead of, oh, I don't know, using the legendary skyscraper-leveling weapon to instantly end the problem Talon collectively ignored and that got out of hand... He knees her into a wall of screens instead. She gets up, and, I'm not joking here, in the span of 22 seconds, goes from recovering from the wall launch to bringing Doomfist literally down to his knees. Somehow hides her gigantic glowing sword in the shadows of a giant empty room, and apparently outspeeds Tracer to land those slices on the leg and spine. Talks some more, and in a few more seconds, destroys the multigenerational weapon in a single slice, the very same weapon we got introduced to in the very first Overwatch trailer ever released. Then literally yeets Doomfist out of the window, seemingly to his death.
Credit where credit is due, Doomfist going out in the exact same fashion as Vendetta's dad was dope.
Aaaand that's where the good stuff ends.
Sure, Doomfist isn't a particularly popular character. He sucked to play against in OW1, sucks to play as in OW2. Despite all the hype before his release and how important he is in the overall plot of the game, he didn't do a whole lot in said plot.
But this is still peak character assassination and disrespect. I can't even call this fanfiction levels of bad because that is an insult to fanfiction. Believe me, I've read my fair share of it. If Doomfist had to go out to make space for something new, 99% of fans would imagined it way, WAY more tastefully than Blizzard did.
I've seen comments online saying that coming back stronger after a defeat is Doomfist's shtick. That we didn't actually see him die on screen. He's not done, far from it.
Right now, it's too early to tell what exactly happened to Doomfist, but GOD I hope those people are right. It wouldn't change just how pathetically he was beaten, but if he survived, it would make said pathetic defeat a lot less impactful.
And yes, I acknowledge Vendetta is strong and capable too. She has been training in the Colossseo for years. Singlehandedly brought down a giant mech in her reveal trailer, a moment that was seemingly another Tuesday for her. Meanwhile, as far as we know, in the time Vendetta was actively practicing combat and rising up in the ranks, Doomfist just kind of... Existed. He may have gotten rusty.
But even then, if Blizz wanted them to fight, it should have gone differently. Maybe she could have found him alone outside, and during their brawl, they accidentally brought down a few buildings with them, a true clash of the titans that they are. Or she jumped him in a group. Poisoned his drink, got a spy to mess up the gauntlet somehow. ANYTHING would have been better than those 22 seconds.
Whatever logical loop you could think of behind why Doomfist lost, it should have been used instead of literally nothing. The fans of the character deserve that dignity, few as they may be.
Like imagine if one of the more popular characters went out in 22 seconds. Zen. Ana. Rein. Literally any of the characters that get 86257 skins per season. There would be a fucking outrage, so Blizzard wouldn't dare to do it in a million years. But because Doomfist has been kinda irrelevant in the player base's overall consciousness (if his lack of skins is anything to go by), nah let's just delete him quickly and as cheaply as possible because he's washed and we really want to get to the shiny new toy.
I may not personally care about Doomfist a whole lot, but this sets a bad precedent for the future. If Blizzard is willing to throw away a character's entire legacy, a character that's been around for nearly a decade, on a whim like that, I'm terrified. Because it means popularity translates to who gets respectful storytelling and who's thrown out. Mercy and Kiriko and Juno are not being yeeted out like this, ever. Doomfist though? Who cares lol.
I'm already having my doubts when it comes to my favourite, Ramattra. He may still be alive and kicking, but he too had to be shunned aside to make room for Vendetta. By putting Null Sector on pause.
Which, I'm sorry, WHAT? Call me dense and easily pleased when your fave gets 1 legendary non-recolor skin a year, if that, even a mistletoe spray gets you hyped up beyond belief, but I did not realize the key takeaway from the Reconciliation comic was the "It will take some time to prepare the next step" line. I thought it was a sign the story from the cancelled PVE is moving forward in other media. That it establishes current day dynamics between Ram and Zen, since they haven't seen each other in a stupidly long time, and they have changed since then. That Ram did indeed mourn Mondatta's passing even if he may or may not have had a hand in it, considering his ties to Talon.
And yes I was also very much distracted by the "I'm not the monster the world thinks I am" line because that shit goes haaaaaarrrrrd dude, and all the kickass velsmells' art on display
I didn't think the comic was a literal passing of the torch up until very recently. That the "next step" in Ram's plan involves Null Sector just... disappearing from the scene entirely.
I might be jumping the shark here as we have yet to see what exactly that next step of Ram's plan is, the same way Doomfist may still be alive, but seriously, what kind of plan involves leaving his giant fleet of combat drones on standby???
You're telling me, that after failing miserably in London, Ramattra is going to spend a decade in the shadows, building up Null Sector into worldwide threat, create a whole army of drones seemingly all by himself (... and with financial support from Doomfist), have them deployed across big cities, kill some people, kidnap some omnics, and then pack up and leave in like, a week? month? of in-universe time?
This is the character that got his friend accidentally killed over him being impatient to rescue omnics, even when said friend warned him it's a bad idea to go so soon! And he bloody launched with that information. He's not a character that's going to sit idle when he has the power to make a change. Any time wasted is more omnics killed. Whatever plan he's cooking has to involve all of omnickind since he wants to save everyone, right? Why stop after collecting a few??? SURELY that army can just... keep capturing omnics in the background while he works on the next step????
Nah man, that humongous army he's built over the years is just going to be vibing in Antarctica while Vendetta wrecks shit. She may not have a bone to pick against omnics specifically, but surely whatever she has in mind will be violent and global, and omnics will be caught in the crossfire, intentionally or not. And Rama is going to be a bystander during it when he already has the means to at least hinder it??? His methods of omnic liberation are questionable, but preventing omnic death and suffering is his entire ordeal. He's a guy that is willing to die if it would mean safety for his kin. Yet he'd let his fleet rot away in a warehouse.
Again, I may be jumping the shark here, we have yet to see how things play out, but... After Doomfist was done so dirty in Reign of Talon... I'm worried Ramattra is the next Main Big Bad Guy on the chopping block because he's not the newest, shiniest hero in the video game. He doesn't get many cosmetics so he's not all that popular in the general player base. Was he too morally gray a villain for the writers to handle so they just gave up and replaced it with Girl With Inflated Ego And Daddy Issues Wants To See The World Burn? Because Blizzard is ditching the 2, a title that promised us a story about global conflict with Null Sector and its very long overdue PVE missions flopped financially? So they're leaving Ramattra behind because he represents that failure and making OW1's main enemy faction THE main enemy faction again, albeit with a different character in the driver's seat?
... Am I seriously supposed to just forget all the philosophical and moral dilemma Ramattra presented? The "is violence the answer to discrimination?" The "humanity treating their fully conscious, self-aware creations as lesser and expendable because it's profitable" aspect? Are the machines guilty of mass murder when they lacked consciousness at the time?
It's better to replace all that with a half-assed revenge story???
What is supposed to be my takeaway from all this??? Pray that Blizzard doesn't misshanndle my favourite character of all time because it's convenient and cheap for them? When Doomfist was done so dirty after his decade long legacy went literally out the window because BLIZZARD refused to elaborate or expand on it, even if people wanted the lore??? That this spoiled brat is really what they want to bet millions on????
And before anyone accuses me of misogyny for disliking Vendetta, as I've seen people on Twitter say... Uh, no dude. I'm a woman, and I was super excited for Vendetta when La Lupa dropped. The first new hero release I took at least a sliver of interest in since Venture (who ended up being disappointing because I thought an archeologist launching with an Anubis God AI map would give us delicious lore) and Hazard (who crashed and burned for me after mister I Fight The Corrupt System That Abandoned Me When I Did Everything Right called Ramattra a tyrant in an elimination voice line. Fucking hypocrite).
La Lupa presented Vendetta as a physically and mentally capable sword wielding girlboss working her way up from nothing all the way to the top of the food chain by herself. AND she is actually a relevant presence in the main plot??? Sign me the fuck. up!
I didn't think at the time she was literally going to TAKE OVER THE ENTIRE GAME. Much less over what is essentially a temper tantrum. A character that came out of nowhere since the first ever evidence we got of her existence is in the Reconciliation comic.
I'm not pissed at Vendetta because she's a woman, or because she dunked all over a black man. I'm pissed because she deadass feels like a 10 year old's OC shoehorned into a plot that didn't need her. That assassinated (literally for one and metaphorically for the other) long-standing and/or actually interesting key characters to make room for herself.
We're getting an ass load of lore, what I wanted so much more of for ages, and now that it is actually here (...again), I find myself wishing we could go back to how things were a few months ago, or for the game to straight up die. All because I don't trust Blizzard to do a good job. I'd rather have my fave be forever stuck in limbo than risk seeing him being taken out of commission in 22 seconds.
How fucked up is that??? We're getting so much content all of a sudden, even more so than we did when OW2 launched, and all I feel is agony and fear.
A random, unplanned Rama art bc I got rusty and felt like I needed something simple and quick to make to get back into the groove.
But then my dumbass chooses to make this in Vista/Win7 MS Paint so I avoid overthinking textures and layer management. Only for the "quick" art to take 13 hours. 9 of which was JUST blending cuz MS Paint's blending options suck.
Here's a lil progress shot because why not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's got even better when I checked out the recording of the stream. The who gets the new spray vote was between Ram and Vendetta, you know, the newest hero, the hype shiny thing in town, but naaaaw who cares, the people have spoken 🤣
Honestly between the mistletoe spray and this:
I'm starting to think the devs, when they are allowed the opportunity, have just as much deranged brainrot for this guy as people in fandoms do, and I fucking love that 🙏
Me: I'm going to shove Ramattra into proper clothes so he's less time consuming to draw
Also me: Proceeds to spend 60 hours on one (1) art because perfectionistic idiot brain and making many mistakes said perfectionistic idiot brain would not tolerate and being unable to pick a color scheme bc all versions I made looked dope and-
I'm feeling like trash rn because I'm sick, so I've made it my blorbo's problem.
(...Ignore the fact robots can't get sick, just pretend he's low on battery or whatever lmao)
"Had a meeting on who should get the mythic skin, supposed to have been 30 minutes long, ended up being like 5"
(The vid should be timestamped, if not it's at 9:13)
... Yeah that's uh... pretty telling.... Maybe should have stuck out the full 30 minutes, just sayin'...
Also you're telling me that a MYTHIC, the most expensive and most development-time-intensive cosmetic you have, got assigned to a character on a WHIM????
Dude are you kidding me... Blizzard gave the Anubis mythic to REAPER? Okay yeah sure Anubis is the god of death, which is Reaper's entire image, and Ramattra highkey hates Anubis the AI, but... REALLY? Since when skins follow the personalities of the canonical characters??? And sure Ram may hate his creator but he's quite literally doing the EXACT same things Anubis did with all the stuff happening around Null Sector. Like that metaphor alone is a lit reason to give Ram the Anubis mythic, but noooooooo, let's give it to the local edge lord...
What, is Poseidon too much? Ramattra can't have two god-themed skins or some shit???
Aaaaand on a slightly different note, Venture the archeologist, omnic history enthusiastist and "discoverer" of Anubis the AI getting nothing in the season 12 trailer is also criminal-
I don't consider Ramattra difficult to draw, just very time consuming due to all the details.
... Excluding his ELBOWS, of all things.
Try extending your own arm and twisting your wrist and then entire arm. How in God's name do those kinds of motions (or in my case, poses) translate to a robot arm without a ball joint at the elbow???? I swear whenever I pose my arms to get a better idea on where the elbow itself points, which side of the hand has the the thumb, etc etc, then translate the information onto him, 99% of the time he ends up with dislocated elbows...
Had this idea in my brain for a while, but like with everything else art ideas, I have so many idk which to give priority. This one was recently pushed to the top of said priority list because of @korpuskat's birthday, as I figured it aligns with Kat's tastes, and I may as well do something nice for the special day :P (even if this art wasn't originally intended for that at all and I'm late af with it, but whatever lol)
... If you've seen my previous posts like these, you know where to go to find the full picture :P
