necrona replied to your post: I also often wonder if other people felt resentful...
Not as much as I felt resentful towards Ana. That one keeps bugging me to no end… she was second in command (clearly a person with the power to help) but she turned her back on everyone including her own daughter. To me Jesse seemed like a hot head at the time and he didn’t seem to have as much influence as Ana had. So I’m not sure if he could have helped all that much…
Well, I was asking if the characters would feel resentful, and Ana is a whole other kettle of fish, but the important thing to remember with her is that almost none of the characters knows she’s alive right now. It’s a question for the future, as others come to learn she’s alive, but in the current moment, we know that resentment can’t really exist because they think she left by dying. Can’t be bitter toward someone who left service by getting killed.
Ana’s character arc is, in part, a self-redemption over the guilt of having made the selfish decision to take the presented opportunity to leave an organization that was crumbling. I think her decision to leave, in the context that at the time Overwatch was falling apart in slow motion, is an understandable one. Extremely selfish, but I can understand why she did it. But the important thing is other characters don’t know it was a voluntary decision. Death is an involuntary discharge.
To other characters, however, it’s very clear that Jesse left of his own accord.
The reason I wonder about Jesse is because he’s set up in many ways as Ana’s analogue within Blackwatch, the Blackwatch second-in-command, Gabriel’s right hand and his most trusted agent. At that point, he served in Blackwatch for fifteen years. He’s been there a long time. He’s a member of the inner social circle of Overwatch. He’s a member of higher command. He’s a close personal friend to Jack and Gabriel, like a son to Gabriel even.
If things were getting difficult because the relationship between Gabriel and Jack was publicly falling apart because they were fighting with each other, Jesse is indeed in a position to try to smooth over their differences. Instead of trying to keep these two people he’s close to together and prevent them from ripping themselves, each other, and everyone around them to shreds, he doesn’t make the effort and leaves.
Again, this is about what other characters know and perceive. They don’t know about the Talon infiltration. They don’t know what Jesse knows, or what we the audience knows. All the other characters know is that Blackwatch has been pulling a lot of bullshit and Jack and Gabriel are apparently arguing constantly about it. It seems reasonable for people to look to the apparent Blackwatch second-in-command, former student to Gabriel, close personal friend of them both, to have some influence and power in that situation.
I agree that McCree is an emotional sort and that he would not have been able to change anything. His leaving is a valid decision in the face of staying in a sinking boat that is actively dangerous to his physical health and trying to keep two people from fighting, but I’m not really wondering of the validity of his decision or how much he in truth could’ve accomplished.
I was more asking if other characters, given their limited information and their perception of the dynamics and situation, felt he could’ve changed something by staying—regardless if they were right about that—and felt bitter because they perceive him to have failed by not doing that.
And, well, I guess characters can feel bitter about both Ana (once they learn the truth) and Jesse (for misplaced expectation of what he could’ve done) at the same time.
