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.