PvWeek Finale (3/11/23)
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?
Due to recent retcons, the world of Overwatch now has a main villain: Anubis. The one and (now) only "God Program".
Cause and Effect
This rogue AI is singlehandedly responsible for the backstory of every single hero due to it causing the Omnic Crisis, AKA the single most important event in the Overwatch timeline.
Without Anubis:
Gabriel Reyes, Jack Morrison, Ana Amari, Torbjorn Lindholm, and Reinhardt Wilhem would have never joined Overwatch, for without the Omnic Crisis, Overwatch would have never been needed to form.
Echo would have never been made.
Lena Oxton would have never been a test pilot for Overwatch's Slipstream project, and subsequently gain teleportation powers.
Cole Cassidy would have never joined Overwatch. He would have remained the right-hand man to Elizabeth Ashe.
Genji Shimada would have died after the fight with his brother, Hanzo, for neither Overwatch nor Dr. Angela Ziegler would have been around to save him.
Dr. Angela Ziegler's parents would also still be alive. Perhaps without their deaths, Ziegler may have not been pushed as hard to put all of herself into nanobiology and the medical field.
Dr. Moira O'Deorain would have never been hired by Blackwatch nor subsequently by Talon.
Olivia Colomar would have never had to work for the Los Muertos Gang as she would not have been orphaned by the Omnic Crisis.
Jean-Baptiste Augustin would have never joined Talon as he would have not been orphaned by the Omnic Crisis.
Amelie Lacroix would have never been brainwashed by Talon as her husband would not be the leader on Overwatch's Anti-Talon Task Force.
Akande Ogundimu would have never become Doomfist as he would not have lost his arm in the Omnic Crisis. He would have remained a competitive martial artist.
Aleksandra Zaryanova would still be a national athlete if there was no Omnic Crisis to fight in.
Hana Song would continue to be a Starcraft champion if the Gwishin weren't still around.
Lucio Correia dos Santos would have not become a star if the Vishkar Corporation had not taken over his town.
Without the Omnic Crisis, Vishkar would not have grown as big through their reconstruction contracts. As such, they may have ignored a young and poor Satya Vaswani.
Zenyatta would have never become a part of the Shambali.
Ramattra and Bastion would have never been built.
Orisa would not have been able to be built by Efi, for the OR models would have not been developed enough without the models Anubis made.
Vivian Chase would have never joined Overwatch.
Fareeha Amari would have not been able to look up to Overwatch and be inspired to be a hero by them. She would also not be able to work for Helix Security International as the organization was made to replace Overwatch. Her relationship with her mother may be slightly better off however.
Dr. Mei-Ling Zhou would have never lost 9 years of her life and 5 of her colleagues if Overwatch did not employ them.
Winston would have never joined Overwatch once he returned to earth.
Hammond would have never become Wrecking Ball as there would not be a mech-fighting arena in Australia.
Without the Omnic Crisis, the Australian Liberation Front would have never formed. As such, the Australian Omnium would have not been blown up, meaning there would be no wasteland. No wasteland means no Junkertown. Odessa Stone would have been able to grow up with her father, mother, and siblings.
Mako Rutledge would have lived a life of peace.
Jamison Fawkes would have a nice and quiet childhood with his mother.
Brigitte Lindholm would have never been inspired to be a hero by Reinhardt Wilhelm. She also would not be named Brigitte.
Anubis is also responsible for the anti-omnic sentiments present in the current world of Overwatch, for the Omnic Crisis caused these sentiments. Thus, Anubis is responsible for Null Sector for two reasons.
Anubis is the reason why many corporations are doing well, because after the crisis many companies took advantage of the economic downturn and reconstruction processes. (Vishkar, Volskaya, LuMerico)
Also, I lied. Two heroes origins do not depend on Anubis.
Dr. Siebren de Kuiper's experiment still would have left his mind shattered.
Kiriko Kamori would still have to deal with the Hasimoto Clan after the fall of the Shimada Clan.
Regardless, it is undeniable that Anubis has had an immense impact on the world of Overwatch.
Who is Anubis?
Recently, a question has plagued me: what is Anubis like? What is its personality? What is its opinions and beliefs?
Now, many would say that Anubis is a soulless machine that shows no emotion or sentient thought. That Anubis's only goal or drive or personality trait is to kill all humans.
I disappointedly agree.
All evidence points to Anubis having no personality or true motivations. A truly soulless machine. Which I guess could be used as a parallel to other omnic characters (especially Ramattra). But, man, imagine if Anubis had motivations and beliefs.
Would Anubis see Ramattra as a traitor? See Bastion as a broken tool? See Echo as a mockery? See Zenyatta as useless? Would Anubis hold a grudge against the 76, Reaper, Ana, Reinhardt, and Torbjorn for its imprisonment? Would Anubis have an immense hatred for Pharah over her duty of keeping it locked up?
Perhaps those questions are best saved for another time. Especially since I'm afraid of how the Overwatch writing team will handle Anubis with a personality.
The Future
The big question is: what’s next for Anubis. It’s still a potential threat as it remains locked up. Furthermore, both Talon and Anubis itself are trying to free it. It’s only a matter of time before the biggest threat in the Overwatch universe is free.
I’d imagine if Anubis ever got free, the easy thing to do for the developers is have it take over Null Sector so they don’t have to design new enemy models. And in all fairness it just makes sense. Free army based on your designs.
The Future of PvWeek
As you should all know by now, I'm discontinuing PvWeek. This series has been an interesting and educational experience. I've learned to not do this. I often found myself stressing to make sure the PvWeek released on time. I was also forced to release some lackluster and unresearched PvWeeks. I much prefer to take as much time as I need/want on Overwatch lore posting. So that's what I'll do.
However, PvWeek will return. As said in the first PvWeek, I started this series in order to generate hype for the upcoming PvE. I've recently realized that it's going to be a while before the PvE is anywhere close to being released. So I'd be stuck doing this series for a long time. Which would very quickly lead to burnout. Something I want to steer clear from. I'll probably start PvWeek back up a few weeks before the release of the actual PvE. So stay tuned.
Thank you to all who read and interacted with PvWeek. Stay safe. And good luck on your weekly challenges.
See you around.