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s1i9d · 3 years

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AMPHIBIA SEASON 2 FINALE: INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND SHIPPING

SPOILERS FOR ALL OF AMPHIBIA PRE-"TRUE COLORS" & SEASON 2B TRAILER

It's time.... I can't believe this is the final week of Amphibia before the hiatus for Season 3. We can cry about that in May, but for now we have some business to get to with Relationship drama!

DISCLAIMER: This is a shipping/platonic interpersonal relationship discussion post for the relationship between all three of the girls. All healthy ships are good ships, but I’m talking from my perspective. This is my own speculation for the show, and what I interpret may not be the crew’s intent. So I’m doing this with the knowledge that there’s a possibility that this is all speculation and not canon.

If no ships at all, or the ship you wanted did not happen in the Season 2 finale, do not blame the artists and creators for such. Many fandoms have done this and it’s possible that it will happen again. Just don’t be those people who ignore the hard work and beautiful storytelling the Amphibia crew have done and just complain to them about not doing the ship you/we desperately wanted. Harassing the crew for telling their story is a horrible thing to do. So please be mindful of that.

I will also talk about both monogamous ships and a potential polyamorous ship (which is WILD that a Disney frog isekai has one of the most potential for LGBT Poly representation). So if you're polyphobic or monophobic, this post isn't for you. (while you're at it block me.)

But let’s get started:

The Polaroid

A recurring prop used to showcase the happy memories of Anne, Sasha and Marcy. We’ve only seen two of the same Polaroid: one with Anne, and the other with Sasha. It's used to showcase the three girls' tight friendship and bond initially on Earth, and I think if Marcy shows hers, it might showcase the angst of her working for Andrias. (More on that theory in my plot speculation post.)

There is no one else to morally ship them with.

Pad Thai shippers, calm down. In a show like this, there would be a dude who came to Amphibia with the three girls and Anne or someone would fall in love with him. But like The Owl House, there is no hetero ship presented with Anne, Sasha or Marcy that aren't Amphibians. The only people we can ship the three girls with are each other, and even then Sasha and Anne's ANGST is too much for a healthy relationship at the moment. Marcy would be the only real potential option for a happy ship with Anne. (Don't attack me Sashanne shippers, just stating the facts on screen.)

"Well, romance isn't the focus of this show!" You're right. Romance isn't the focus, but the show does do romance. We've seen several times with Sprig and Ivy, and Hop Pop and Sylvia. They may not be the centre focus (which is one of the reasons I love this show) but it exists. The show has done romance several times, and if they culminate a romance with [two or all three of the] girls, it would make sense. The potential is there, but will it happen?

Romance Thread

Hop Pop and Sylvia, Joe Sparrow and Bessie, Sprig and Ivy, "Quarreler's Pass" where Hop Pop asks Anne if she has a boyfriend to fill the awkward silence: these are all romance threads/points throughout the season and it makes so much more sense to have them culminate in this finale or at least showcase an idea of further explicit queer relationship, and do the romance in Season 3.

An overarching story with these three girls has been their interpersonal relationships with one another as Sasha is controlling of both of them, and Anne and Marcy try to find their own path and reach their own autonomy. By having Marcy and Anne find themselves devoid of Sasha, they are free to be themselves.

Sasha as a Complex Character

Sasha at the current moment is not ready for any relationship with Anne or Marcy, especially with what we learn about her in “The Third Temple” in using Marcy, Anne and the Plantars to storm Newtopia. She is a major component of angst in the show, and the main conflict to Anne and Marcy's arcs. Especially with the Season “wrapping” up their angst by "Battle of the Bands", but touching on it in several episodes of the season: it seems like it's going to be thrown over to the next season. The Season 2 finale will be somehow more angsty than “Reunion” (which... how are they going to do??) and the Season 3 finale will introduce a sort of distrust arc and denouement of them realising their relationship and dynamics were not healthy. The biggest disconnect in the last episode was Sasha thinking that after she uses them to get into Newtopia safely, she can somehow control this relationship she has between Marcy and Anne.

[You might be wondering: "okay, but if their angst is doubling down this season, why do a big post on potential shipping and relationships?" Because I can and I want to. I'm just very into these adorable teenagers being in a happy relationship as soon as possible (especially if it's not hetero).]

Sasha and Marcy - Hold your horses, this isn’t a Sasharcy segment. I’m talking about the relationship and interactions between these characters themselves.

We haven’t yet seen how Sasha and Marcy interact without Anne there: similar to Season 1 where we knew who Anne and Sasha were in terms of their own characters, but in “Reunion” we saw how their dynamic was and how that played a great influence on the Battle of Toad Tower. I think “True Colors” will delve a little into that with perhaps a flashback.

Another similarity and difference between the two is that Marcy is willing to give up her hyper fixated goal for the people she cares about. We see it in "The First Temple" where Marcy is willingly forfeiting the game to save Anne and the Plantars from the harm of the Temple. While with Sasha, we see in "Barrel's Warhammer" that she is persistent in going through with obtaining the Warhammer, even at the cost of the people around her. In this instance, Percy and Braddock. I definitely think that Marcy and Sasha are two foils while still being similar overall. If Andrias' plan means risking Anne and Sasha, I think Marcy would very quickly try to undo it and help Anne.

One theory I saw floating around was in "Reunion", Sasha forgot it was Anne's birthday, and so she sent Marcy to find her a gift while she distracted Anne with all the "fun birthday" stuff. I think perhaps we'll see some more of that, to showcase their relationships as a second chapter to "Reunion" where we see their dynamics. Or it could just be a Season 3 thing.

Anne and Marcy

Something I really like is a post made by @pyroclastic727. They talk about how Marcy and Anne were other-ing each other when I’m their relationship with Sasha. As much as Anne and Marcy cared for each other pre-meet-up, Anne in Season 1 focuses on Sasha. And of course who wouldn’t? Sasha is a force to be reckoned with, and last such an impression that we were terrified of who Marcy was going to be before we met her. I recommend checking their post here for full context.

One thing I am interested in that will probably be a Season 3 flip is how Marcy and Anne met. They seemed to be friends since they were babies, there isn’t really an understanding of where their relationship started. It could be they were best friends, but they started othering each other once Sasha joined them. But now, they’re high tier solid friends again.

The major thing Sasha isn't accounting for is the fact that Anne has changed and grown over time. She's not the exact same girl from Earth, she has grown and changed. Become better and able to stand up for herself. Sasha and Anne's relationship seems to be more angst driven than it was in "Reunion". (HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE???)

THE ARC OF WOMEN LOVING WOMEN

Now that the general stuff is out of the way, let's dig a little deeper into the arcs of the three girls these two seasons so far.

101B - “Best Fronds” - We see Anne’s relationship with Sasha, and how she manipulates Anne and Marcy to do as she says. I’ll talk about this a bit more in the “Barrel’s Warhammer” section from Sasha’s POV, but this is big stuff.

110 - “Toad Tax” + “Prison Break” - These two episodes tie in Sasha and Anne’s angst for the season. It directly ties in two plot threads that are very prominent in ”Reunion”: “Toad Tax” with Anne’s progression as a character and her connection to the people of Wartwood, while “Prison Break” shows Sasha willing to do what it takes to get back home and find the other girls. This is the main plot of the season 1 finale, where Sasha helps Grimes to get what he wants in order for her and Anne to find Marcy and get home, even if it means killing off Hop Pop since he’s a frog and according to her, he doesn’t matter.

119B & 120 - “Anne of the Year” + “Reunion”

There's so much to unpack here. But this is a major moment in Anne standing up for herself, Sasha's "sacrifice", and the future of their relationship hanging in the balance. This is the main trigger for the Sashanne dynamic, the toxic and angst driven story. The end of Act 1 of this 3 act story.

201A - “Handy Anne”

This is an essential episode. The premiere immediately starts off with mentions of Sasha in the events of the Battle for Toad Tower. In addition to Marcy being mentioned only a few moments later. Clearly Anne isn't over the events of Toad Tower, but she's pushing forward and trying her best to move on positively; especially with trying to find Marcy, her third and final friend sent to Amphibia.

204 - “Quarreler's Pass” + “Toadcatcher”

As I said, the Hop Pop/Anne B Plot in "Quarreler's Pass" where Hop Pop tries to fill the awkward silence by asking Anne if she has a boyfriend is very telling of their relationship. But what I find interesting is as soon as the episode ends with Hop Pop saying, "Now we can talk about Anne's boyfriend again." And he gets shoved off the cliff. We immediately go to Sasha. We could have had any other episode with Sasha, but why the one immediately after discussing Anne's romantic life? We know the show likes to tie in plot threads through A and B episodes, so it's a possibility!

"Toadcatcher" is all about the Sashanne angst from Sasha's perspective. She tries to distract herself with training, but Grimes points to her that she's afraid their relationship will never be the same again. Sasha also reveals that she has been training to protect Grimes, the one person she can count on right now. After the fight with Yunan and making plans for storming Newtopia with a Toad Army, Sasha says, "It's not over between us. Not even close." Which just highlights their angst arc for the Season. We'll touch more on it in the B segments of 217 and 218.

206 - “Marcy at the Gates”

Here's the thing about this episode. We touch on Sasha and Marcy in the F-Wagon, and then we speak more on Marcy than Sasha. Something Anne says in the beginning with Sprig: "Look, Sasha and I might be going through a rough patch, but that doesn't mean I don't care about her." It shows Anne still cares about Sasha, and she wants to continue their relationship in a healthy way moving forward if possible. If not, then it's something she's willing to let go.

The rest of the episode is a Marcanne fancam people. So much love for Marcy, some suspicion of her from Sprig. But in the end, she's loved by all. If you don't love Marcy, you're a monster. A key reaction in this episode is wariness in the fandom: after Sasha, everyone was terrified and unsure who Marcy is and if she had a similar trait. But she’s amazing and a wonderful nerd.

Something I did find interesting in the Rebecca Rose interview that Matt Braly (and creator of The Owl House Dana Terrace) is that Braly said Marcy was the most important key to the whole show: if the audience don't love her in the first few minutes of her introduction, the entire show would collapse. What is so vital about Marcy that would cause the entire story to collapse? Is it the romance or the plot? Is it the overall arc or what?

207 - “Scavenger Hunt” + “The Plantars Check In”

Marcy and Anne episodes, with Anne feeling insecure about Marcy and Marcy feeling envious of Anne's social skills and befriending the people around her. It solidifies their dynamic and doubles down on Marcy being the cutest and greatest character of all time.

210A - “The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers”

This is a heavy episode for Sashannarcy. Although not seeing Sasha since "Toadcatcher" and we wouldn't be seeing her until "Barrel's Warhammer", this episode does good to remind the audience of Sasha's presences and lasting effect on the girls. Anne talks about Sasha as though she still wants them to be friends if possible to continue their relationship in a healthy way.

The episode does more so focus on Anne and Marcy in the sleepover, but Sasha's presence is still very strong, enough that you feel her presence looming over them. It's not healthy, but it's part of the healing process.

210B - “A Day at the Aquarium”

This is where alarms were set off about Andrias. His proposition for Marcy directly after she tells Anne to go with the Plantars back to Wartwood really does create a new dynamic. So far, it seemed as though Marcy really wanted to have her friend around her. She had no one from Earth until Anne came, and it seems as though she can't reveal informal secrets and insecurities to King Andrias or Lady Olivia. It is a real victory to have Anne go with the Plantars to Wartwood, but Marcy is left without her friend and Andrias takes advantage of that. It's still very unclear what his plans with her are, but that's just the other shoe waiting to drop.

214 - “The First Temple”

Marcy is wonderful. We see flashbacks through Anne's perspective as we see Marcy's issue of extreme hyper fixation not allowing her to pay attention to her surroundings. This was in "Marcy at the Gates", but it doubles down here. It even shows in the Temple where Marcy seems to be so into all the trials that she is unable to see the Plantars being squished, burned or smashed to pieces as a result.

I mentioned this as a comparison, but Marcy really does give up all her chances of recharging the Green gem just to save Anne and the Plantars. She gives up her hyper fixated goal just for them. Her extreme presence of empathy and care of Anne and the people who she may not have incredible emotional attachment to is what separates her from Sasha.

215A - “New Wartwood”

Directly after "The First Temple" with Marcanne development, absolutely no one saw this segment coming in hot as one of the gayest ones yet. It is an Anne and Marcy episode with a slight emphasis on Mayor Toadstool. I think I would have seen this episode as solidifying Anne and Marcy's friendship if not for that blush in the beginning of the episode. Marcy geeks out about the swamp Wartwood is built on top of, and Anne blushes at her asking for more info she learned in the town. If Anne and Marcy were "just friends" I don't think Anne would have blushed at Marcy geeking out about frog stuff. The only other times we've seen her blush is when she's embarrassed, and it doesn't seem like that's her emotional state at that moment. You could just brush it off and say its an error, but there's no way that's an error. It went through production and post-production and was locked in! There's no way that's an error!!

216 - “Toad to Redemption” + “Maddie & Marcy”

Not a lot to say here, but this is important. These two episodes are directly after "Return to Wartwood" and a while after "The First Temple". Each segment features Anne and Marcy having their own adventures, and their stories can be separate from one another. In "Toad to Redemption", Anne is helping Mayor Toadstool remain the Mayor of Wartwood and not become the head of the Southern Toad Tower. In "Maddie and Marcy", Marcy is helping Maddie with reviving a pet to life. Both Anne and Marcy are key players this season, but they each play a supporting role to people they didn't really talk to or meet previously in these segments. This shows their independence from one another, and that my friends is the sign of a healthy relationship!

217 - “The Second Temple” + “Barrel’s Warhammer”

Buckle up folks, the Sashannarcy segment we've been waiting for.

"The Second Temple" has a focus of Marcy and Anne, but more specifically Anne since this Temple was her trial. Still not sure of the exact location of the temple, but it's fine. The trials show Anne and how she cares about the people around her, how she is the "heart" of the group, and her growth from Season 1 up until that point. The deep love she has, especially at the end where she gives up charging the gem midway to save her friends who are screaming.

"Barrel's Warhammer"... yikes. This segment is perhaps the biggest insight into Sasha's psyche we've seen. In comparison to Marcy who gives up what she hyper fixates upon for the people around her, Sasha is persistent and attaches her worth to her goal. She does not like failure or losing, and I think that shows in this segment. This shows her absolute fear of abandonment and desire for complete control (which we'll talk more about in "Battle of the Bands") over the situations around her, which causes for unsympathetic actions and negative repercussions of the people around her. This episode (very late into the season) just highlights Sasha's journey further and what she needs to work on. It's not Anne and Marcy for leaving her: it's her. Her tunnel vision is shoving them away.

218B - “The Third Temple” - This episode made me feel so down on shipping. Like it’s a great episode over all, but what it means for the Season 2 finale is... angsty. Sasha fake apologises to Anne in order for her and Grimes to enter Newtopia safely for the invasion. Just as much as she understands she is doing it, her slight look of conflicted feelings at the end of this segment really does showcase how even she is unsure if she should go on with this. Sasha really does not deserve Anne and Marcy, and I think she knows it too.

219 - “The Dinner” + “Battle of the Bands”

The biggest disconnect Sasha provides is that she believes after they get the Toads to invade Newtopia, she can get her friendship with Anne and Marcy back "under control". Which I believe is the friendship they had back when they were on Earth. Sasha didn't realise how much Marcy and, more specifically, Anne had changed in their time in Amphibia. Sasha is really the only person who hasn't changed nor made solid emotional attachments to anyone other than Grimes. Anne and Marcy grew, while Sasha didn't. "The Dinner" just proves that where she is unable to have her feelings of being other-ed in their relationship. I think Sasha's fear of missing out, and not being the centre of their relationship just plays into her "Barrel's Warhammer" insecurities and problems.

While "Battle of the Bands" shows her need to be in control of everything and everyone around her, even with her realising it's very tiring. She doesn't like mindless people (like Toadie) who obey her every command, she likes the challenge of controlling people into submission. Which is very bad, but I think by the end when she plays the song she realises it's okay to let loose with help from Toadie. Even at the end when the three of them lose to Grimes, she realises that it was more fun to play with Anne and Marcy with a silly, heartfelt song instead of making it perfect and winning with a controlled performance. By the end, Sasha is controlling them because she does have the plan to invade Newtopia with Grimes. But this is just the calm before the storm.

TL;DR - I don’t think a relationship can healthily start in the finale, especially with the Sasha betrays Anne and Marcy betrays Anne plots both coming to a head. There’s no way that Sasha is going to be an immediate better person and get into a relationship with Anne and/or Marcy. There is a logic to them starting the relationship, but I don’t think it’s gonna be this season. Instead, I could see perhaps a declaration of love or some kind of coming out scene happening where someone confesses their love to the other. I don’t come to this show for shipping, but there is a logical through line as a connection to the overall story which could culminate in romance.

Either way, lemme know your thoughts and ideas! No shipping wars in the comments please, but do tell what you think? Is it happening? Is it not? Are we going to be explicit in canonising (by that I mean a confession of love or something) or saving it for Season 3? As always, let me know your thoughts!

#disney's amphibia #disney amphibia #amphibia #hop pop #annarcy #sprig plantar #marcanne #sasha waybright

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vaguely-concerned · 4 years

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Twisted Fate/Graves thoughts 2 Electric Boogaloo because none of you can stop me

and I just have a lot of feelings okay

- t.f. taking an entire paragraph mid-fall during a harrowing life or death chase to give you the context for how much the imminent destruction of his boots is a tragedy is the funniest and most endearing character detail and also irrefutable proof that despite appearances he, too, really does only have that half a brain cell, it simply pingpongs around in there much more than graves’ half (which instead finds one idea and GOES HARD for it no matter what lol bless him)

also his pov is basically just a flippant ‘well this is a goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation’ until graves literally forces him to have an honest emotion at gunpoint, and y’know... that be what love feels like sometimes when you’re like that as a person, extremely relatable, I feel for him so much

- I’m still just quietly astounded by the hmmm... implied intimacy? I guess? in the argument they’re having once they’re actually talking in burning tides. let’s look at what they’re actually saying to each other:

T.F.: “Are you ever gonna learn? . . . Every time I try to help you, I-” and “ I tried to get us out. The rest of us saw the job was going south . . . But you wouldn’t back down. You never do.”

vs.

Graves: “You’ll run again. That’s all you’ve ever done.” and “You made out alright, though . . . You know why? It’s because you’re a coward. And nothing you’ll ever say can change that.”

like them’s the sort of fraught fighting words you have with a spouse right towards the end of an ugly divorce, the full fruitless ‘why do you always have to --’ and ‘but you never listen to me!!!’ deal, especially from graves’ side lol. it’s the sort of hurtful you can really only be with someone you’ve been very, very close to, someone you know incredibly well. considering the whole backstory what graves is essentially saying here is ‘It’s your own fault people have left you; you deserve to be alone’.

(interestingly, in twisted fate’s pov it seems that what’s really messing with him is the part of not being listened to. he tried to plead with his family and they refused to listen, he tried to convince graves to run away with the rest of them and he didn’t listen, and here they are again and graves isn’t listening a g a i n and at that point t.f. clearly just sort of. gives up on actually being heard, in a slightly heartbreaking way. and from how graves reacts to seeing that I really think he’s not naturally cruel like that at all, he’s just in too much pain to think until this startles him out of it and then he does actually listen)

- through both stories graves is so desperately, enduringly horny for t.f. to be emotionally present and engaged with him without slipping away into his ~*cool magic gambler*~ persona and I find it weirdly sweet

- graves immediately getting fond of this leaky battered old rowboat... hfsadkjfhasd he’s sort of adorable in a way? it’s also really cute how he’s got this really tight focus on tf and his mannerisms and how genuine he’s being at any given moment. it’s such a neat way to show what he’s feeling and thinking about, which must be hard with a character who’s so massively oblivious to the finer points of his own inner life lol

ALSO can we talk about how tf literally winks at him at one point, right after they’ve sort of had a little moment of regained trust... like my good sir that is so deeply unnecessarily saucy of you, please control yourself (though in his defense graves somehow still isn’t picking up what he’s putting down so y’know maybe subtle isn’t the way to go here anyway haha)

- I wonder if t.f. used to go by his initials even before he changed his name -- graves calls him by it straight off the bat in burning tides and t.f. seems to consider his real name mildly embarrassing lol. (also intriguing that he does appear to think of it as his ‘real name’, and not ‘old name’ or something like that. it’s why I feel like we’ve got more of a dual identity going on here than a deadname situation, it feels more like two distinct levels of emotional vulnerability/availability to me. and so ‘tobias’ stops being relevant when there’s no one left to know him as that. ow.)

- from reading his bio it seems like twisted fate has had to figure out a lot of the magic stuff on his own (except for the mention of his grandpa teaching him the fortune telling part of it -- seems like they had a bit of a special connection, really, if him leaving his old cards with the kid before they left is anything to go by). what I’m saying is that I would read thousands upon thousands of words of him experimenting with it when they were younger and graves hurriedly having to topple a table over and pull them both behind it for cover before they both explode lol

(and then t.f. popping his head up afterwards like ‘hAH see I TOLD you I could do it!’ and graves disconsolately lighting a cigar from the burning rubble b/c the things one does for love partnerships huh)

- I’ve been looking over burning tides with a writing eye a few times to figure out what makes it work so well for me, and one of the things I really like is that there are a lot of small comments/details that are there or are framed in a certain way specifically to emphasize the familiarity and history between the characters. Just small details like He moves fast for a big man. I’d forgotten that and graves mentioning he’s never liked standing too close when t.f. does the teleporting thing -- not to mention t.f.’s name reveal, which if I understand this correctly was actually new information to the readers when burning tides was going on. (and yes it is still very funny to me that his actual name is tobias. the duality of man)

(I also feel like there are HUGE differences in writing quality between the different POV sections -- I guess different people wrote for the different characters? Well, both of the first person sections are gold and that’s what matters to me in this story so I don’t really mind. Sadly the Miss Fortune parts read the weirdest and stiffest to me, which is unfortunate b/c I love her lore concept a lot and she’s so cool in double double-cross. WHO the fuck let an unironic ‘the crimson-haired siren’ slip through the edit, is what I really want to know. please, narrator, tell me about her cerulean orbs while you’re at it)

- The man I used to know seems lost under years of hatred.

I don’t try to say anything else. I can see it in his eyes, now. Something’s broken inside of him.

still makes me SO SAD and I’m incredibly happy it turns out not to be true in the end thank GOD

- this might just be me reading into stuff too much, but I really like this sense that in moments of high emotion/genuine vulnerability, graves tends to sound older and more tired while t.f. sounds younger than he actually is, more frightened and hurt

- if his mind hadn’t been completely focused on partner-rescuing and open murder were in any way his style, t.f. totally could have killed gangplank right there and then before miss fortune even got to blow the fucker up haha. then again if that were the sort of guy he were he’d be dead along with all the rest of them

- it’s so good that graves tries to save miss fortune’s guy before they leave the cave but also isn’t broken up about it when it turns out he can’t, that feels like such a correct encapsulation of his moral character haha

- I really do enjoy graves’ POV so much not just because there’s something immensely comforting about how he refuses to be scared even in the face of death because he’s too damn grouchy and won’t give the world the satisfaction, but also because the language/cadence is so satisfying. he does have a way with words, in a gruff non-flashy sort of way.

It smells like the end of everything – sulfur and ash and death; cooked hair and melting skin -- the rhythm of that is so gooood and that whole section conveys the horror and destruction but also the awe of the scene so well. (I’m telling you graves isn’t actually dumb at all, just astoundingly unbendingly single minded once he’s got an idea in his head lol)

- I keep thinking about the fact that the last two things twisted fate thinks about before he passes out from drowning is if graves is scared and ‘What would Malcolm do?’ and I’m feeling real 😭😭😭 about it

- I’m still so disproportionately intrigued by graves mentioning his mom in burning tides. considering how early and seemingly easily he left home (...not to mention that he brings her up in connection with someone punching him in the face) it might be a safe bet that they weren’t that close but like. she also seems to be one of the very very few non-revengy things he’s checked up on after getting out of prison. did he send money home sometimes? would he visit whenever they came back to bilgewater? did she ever meet t.f. and if so did she approve or was this a bit of a uncharmable mother in law from hell situation? I um. I want to know these things pls riot it’s for science

(First post is over here btw, if anyone’s interested!)

#tf x graves #twisted fate x graves #league of legends #meta #it's hard to overstate how much my brain cannot be controlled and WILL focus on dumb stuff all day every day lol

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hellzyeahwebwielingessays · 4 years

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The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 26: AMJ #2.2

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

It’s a little pointless giving you context for this post. We are picking up where we left off last time so simply read the prior instalment.

On the next page we get into yet more problems. MJ states to ‘Cage’ (whom she refers to as ‘Quentin’) that the potential investors see them as a major risk. She comments that it’s better for them to find the right investor who believes in the project, as opposed to what ‘Cage’ did before. Namely, lying about the project in order to attain funding.

MJ is then taken aback when Beck proceeds to drop the Cage McKnight façade and reveal himself as Mysterio on the street. As Mysterio he unleashes some of his trademark smoke upon which he projects huge images of MJ and Spidey villains (presumably from the film) on the attack. This sends people scattering in fear believing the villains are on a rampage. People abandon their cars, run in the streets and on the roads, car horns honk away.

Mysterio rants that he couldn’t stand selling his film to ‘philistines’. However, he hoped that they would understand/appreciate it once they saw it. Once they saw what they’d accomplished, the success it’d be, the awards it’d win, etc.

MJ approaches a sad looking Beck and tries to empathise with him. Specifically she deduces that Beck (at least on some level) hoped that in seeing his life on screen that they’d forgive him. This acknowledgement prompts Beck to reveal his real face.

These pages are a double-edged sword.

For starters, they contradict issue #1. There Beck’s given reasons for making the movie had nothing to do with earning forgiveness. He wanted to do right by a woman he felt he wronged, and to make something good for the world at large.

However, they once again demonstrates MJ’s people skills and their ability to reign Beck in. She’s talked him around to obtaining money less dishonestly than before (but still not actually honestly). She’s able to make him halt his tantrum and avoid scaring or harming people. And she’s established more trust between them, which in theory will make keeping him in check easier.

It also is wonderfully on point characterization for Beck himself. It displays a vulnerability and sadness within him. It plays him as what he’s always been, an artist craving attention and to be understood. The duality of this is played well in the scene. His words play him up as sad and sympathetic (from a certain point of view). But his actions make him less sympathetic, much like a child he’s throwing a tantrum because he can’t appropriately deal with his feelings and wants attention.

It’s genuinely magnificent Mysterio writing, a beautiful microcosm of his character.

So again, Williams proves she can deliver great characterization. But she’s also once more doing it within a crappy context.

The whole scene is confusing and incredibly damning MJ’s character and motivations.

In addition to pretending to be McKnight, Beck also pitched a different movie from the one he was actually making..

This is baffling. Neither Nick Spencer’s issues setting up this mini-series and AMJ #1 absolutely didn’t put forward that idea. Those issues made it clear that this was always a Mysterio biopic and was always going to be sympathetic towards him. The only contradiction to that idea was at the end of AMJ #1 when MJ spoke to Peter (see part 6).

Is Williams implying that the later is what Beck also pitched to the investors? It’s really not clear. None of this is clear in fact.

Are we to presume Beck is now pitching the movie as he actually intends to make it?

If so why not just lie again?

Maybe it’s because MJ is encouraging him to be honest but she might’ve been lying about it to Peter last issue. And even if she wasn’t, she was complicit in the deceit of the original investors. It wasn’t as though she was telling them what the actual movie was like.

If MJ was encouraging Beck to be more honest about the movie, isn’t that aggressively hypocritical considering she’s not encouraging him to stop using Cage McKnight’s identity!

It’s all a big mess!

Playing Devil’s Advocate, let’s say the intention was something more simple. Maybe the lies Williams was referring to was simply about Beck pretending to be McKnight. But that doesn’t quite make sense. Even if the movie was got more funding that deception would remain the same.

No matter what interpretation you pick it doesn’t add up. And either way, it further proves MJ is complicit in Beck’s crimes and is being a royal hypocrite. She’s even trying to help him commit more of the same crimes, just to a lesser degree than he had before.

On top of the damage already wrought to McKnight’s reputation, he’s now someone who’s actively sold studios on one movie and delivered another one. An extremely controversial and difficult to sell one at that. Imagine if a director promised investors ‘The Dark Knight’ but delivered 2019’s ‘Joker’ instead. They’d lose their goddam minds!

And for this, this extremely risky artistic vision by a terrible person, Mary Jane is risking the lives and livelihoods of herself and other civilians.*

Unless they’ve explicitly consented to it, no film is worth someone being seriously injured.

More importantly the scene should be a deal breaker for Mary Jane’s trust of Beck.

So far he’s assaulted one of his staff. He’s flipped over a table. He’s been arguably verbally abusive to someone. And now caused a serious public disturbance.

He’s just terrorised people right in front of her for no reason other than he was sad and angry.

He’s potentially caused people to be injured as they run away.

He’s potentially caused vulnerable people to have anxiety, panic or even heart attacks.**

He’s potentially caused people to abandon their vehicles or other property. This leaves them vulnerable to any carjacker, any one who might run into a building and steal from it.

And all because he having a tantrum.

Does this convince Mary Jane that Beck is too dangerous to be left unchecked? That there is no reason to believe he couldn’t have another, maybe even worse, tantrum later?

Does it convince her that at best she can hope to minimize any harm he might cause? That she should contact the authorities to hopefully mitigate or at least further minimize any more damage he might cause?

No.

It causes her to connect with him even more.

What the fuck is this characterization?

To make matters worse Beck’s dialogue clearly reveals how the project wasn’t altruistic. It’s a total vanity project. He’s doing this in the hopes that his movie will be so award winning that people will forgive him for his crimes. Call me nuts but wouldn’t apologising to/ helping his victims or their loved ones be a more useful or sincere effort to attain forgiveness?

Wouldn’t MJ feel that way too? She began to forgive herself for her past sins when she helped her sister in ASM #292

And her lover has (at least arguably) spent his life helping others to balance the scales for his indirect role in his uncle’s death.

Yet here, MJ feels sympathy for a man trying to earn forgiveness by making others see how sympathetic he is? A man who ha unapologetically victimized people, including herself, her friends and family. A man who is actively victimizing an innocent man right now by wearing his face. A man who is terrifying people right in front of MJ because he’s throwing a tantrum.

Shit like this is why all the good work Williams does ultimately doesn’t matter. This is character assassinating stuff.

On a side note by the way, I like the acknowledgment of Doc Ock’s return. It’s the first time it was acknowledged since the end of Superior Spider-Man volume 2.

Moving on, MJ gently informs Beck that he’s scaring people. He reveals no one can see him (addressing why dropping his guise was no big deal). MJ snorts and prompts him to dial it back a bit. She argues that they’d want to avoid spoilers. Beck agrees and claims that the disturbance will be rationalized as a flash mob once the smoke clears.

MJ confirms that the reason the investors pulled the money was specifically because ‘McKnight’ was delivering a different product to the one pitched. See above for my comments on that mess. As they get into their car MJ also speculates that ‘Cage’s’ abrupt personality change scared them away too.

For the most part this page is just more of the same. We do get a hint though that MJ is knowingly playing Beck, as her comments about ‘spoilers’ can be read as an attempt to slyly protect people.

Nevertheless, it makes matters worse in several ways.

For starters we see a woman practically falling out of her chair in response to Beck’s illusions. Even if she wasn’t physically hurt there is no guarantee there aren’t similar or worse instances of that going on. It’s a tiny concern next to more serious injuries, but it exemplifies how more serious injuries are a very real possibility where Beck is concerned.

But MJ doesn’t seem to care too much. She’s even snorting in the scene implying she finds something funny.

Weirdly Williams’ dialogue tries to addresses why outside observers of the incident wouldn’t get suspicious. This is stupid because what about the eye-witnesses? What about security cameras?

There is no reason at all the incident would just be hand waved as an ambitious street performance. Even if it were it misses the more essential point that Beck potentially caused physical or mental harm to civilians!

Also, we get explicit acknowledgment that Beck’s disguise is negatively impacting the real McKnight’s reputation. Beck is such a douchebag he doesn’t even consider this possibility.

But that’s nothing next to what happens on the following pages.

MJ shows Beck a news video depicting his assault of the crewmember from issue #1. The title even acknowledges this is abuse. She follows up by mentioning that the real Cage used to have a reputation for being calm and quiet. They arrive at an auto and body and MJ proceeds to give ‘Cage’ a makeover.

Giving him her sunglasses she ‘rebrands’ Cage to be more in line with his ‘new personality’. Rather than a meek cinephile nerd, MJ declares him a Hollywood bad boy. An eccentric genius who runs hot. An auteur who won’t compromise his artistic vision.

Beck gets into the spirit of things causing MJ to giggle smile with delight.

This is yet another double-edged sword situation.

On a conceptual level, MJ and Beck ‘playing’ together through their mutual knowledge/love of acting is an interesting, even organic, idea. Or it would be if MJ had little idea of who Beck was or what he’d done.

Furthermore, MJ using her acting, social and fashion skills in this way is a stroke of genius. She is in a sense creating a façade for Beck, much the same way she formed one for herself for so many years.

It’s exemplary of Williams’ ability to accentuate realistic strengths of a normal person who lacks fantastical abilities. In other words it’s a brilliant way of framing MJ kind of like a super hero without her actually being one.

Stuff like this is a proof of concept for how an ongoing MJ solo-title absolutely could work creatively.

For that Williams should be commended.

But alas, she should be condemned because of that oh so pesky context again.

It was bad enough that MJ was simply allowing Beck to joyride McKnight’s life. It was bad enough that has resulted in him being depicted as abusive in the news, of being emotionally unstable.

But now MJ is actively interfering herself.

Does Mary Jane simply doesn’t care much about Cage McKnight’s reputation? Or does she/Leah Williams have some kind of long-game plan to ensure all damage done to Cage’s reputation? If so, then you know a little hint of that would be nice. You know, just to make sure MJ doesn’t come off as selfish or stupidly out of character.

I mean honestly. Mary Jane has all this sympathy for a goddam murderous criminal, but none for an innocent man’s career and reputation?

Who the FUCK is Mary Jane to play with another person’s identity, their reputation, their career, like this?

The real McKnight hasn’t given her his consent to do that. He doesn’t even know her!

It is especially damning when we consider MJ’s own acting career. For years she struggled against unfair labels and assumptions born from her looks and modelling career.

Mary Jane isn’t even rebranding McKnight for the greater good. This doesn’t protect innocent people or their property or herself or Peter.

In fact it does the opposite as it makes it easier for Beck to impersonate McKnight. To those who knew him only by reputation or merely as an acquaintance, MJ has just helped make his abrupt personality change more believable. She’s just made it harder for anyone to become suspicious of McKnight and therefore to bring Beck to justice.

This is immensely illegal to say the least. But at least MJ is having some fun whilst she uses someone’s identity as a dress up doll.

It also doesn’t really make sense given Beck’s skills as an actor. In ASM v5 #25 Kindred himself accuses Beck of going ‘method’.

I’m not suggesting Beck had to go method for McKnight. But is he really so incompetent as to have not considered that his behaviour would raise suspicions? Would he really have not accounted for those inevitable suspicions? Would it really take someone else to think of that?

I will remind you, this guy figured out how to fool Daredevil, the guy who has an in-built lie-detector as a super power!

Alright, maybe he didn’t have all that much time to prepare to become McKnight. But there is no indication of that in the story. And even if there was it doesn’t address why he wouldn’t realise his behaviour would arouse suspicion.

Finally, I should also mention that Gomez is on fire on this page. He utterly nails MJ’s personality.

Anyway, MJ takes Mysterio to their last shot at getting cash for the movie. The investor isn’t all that wealthy but he is a film buff. Once again MJ and ‘McKnight’ are juxtaposed as she is open and social, whilst he’s once again aggressive.

The investor is sceptical because he sees the project as lacking ‘art’. This prompts ‘Cage’ to go into a passionate speech about the nature of art. This convinces the investor who gives them a quarter of what they had before. ‘McKnight’ begins to argue but MJ grips his neck to keep him under control.

Once more MJ’s strengths are on display here.

Once more Gomez’s art makes her shine.

Once more Williams displays some of the greatest Mysterio writing of all time!

And once more this is toxic to MJ’s characterization because she just helped con this man out of his money and possibly endanger both his business and his life.

She can’t be sure Beck’s ‘passion’ won’t somehow turn dangerous (as it did mere pages ago) and be directed at this man. She can’t be sure that the reputation of Cage McKnight wasn’t a factor in this man’s investment. She can’t be sure she can keep Beck under control. Notice how she just used physical contact to reign him in, an escalation from her words and charm.

She can’t be sure of a lot of things, but I guess the risk is worth it because Beck would just be that sad if he didn’t make his movie.

Later, Noah returns the equipment to the film set whilst MJ and Beck chat about being an indie film. MJ says she feels good about the project. It’s nice that she feels happy about conning an innocent person. It’s nice she feels good about continuing to be complicit in several crimes. It’s nice she’s buddying around with the man who nearly killed her lover less than a few months ago.

They are so chummy in fact that Mary Jane sings ‘McKnight’s praises to Mallorie.

Whilst trying to find Ken (the actor cat as Mysterio), they discover he’s leaving the movie. With less funding he’s breaking contract, but is nice enough to offer ‘McKnight’ a place at a rehab centre. This is yet more proof of how Beck has damaged McKnight’s reputation, now he’s considered to be on drugs.

‘McKnight’ is distraught over losing their lead but MJ suggests he simply play Mysterio.

Do I even need to explain this one?

Mary Jane is actively interfering with McKnight’s reputation and career again! There is no evidence that McKnight was ever an actor. Even if Mysterio pulls it off it will be an expectation the real McKnight might have to deal with later in his career. And that’s if the audience accepts his performance at all.

Once again, she has no right to do any of this with someone else’s identity.

On the next page MJ refers to Cage as a megastar. This again muddies the waters from the last issue as Cage’s indie status shouldn’t make him a megastar of anything.

Mallorie encourages ‘Cage’. She comments that since since he isn’t really Quentin Beck this is hardly a vanity reel. With MJ’s help Beck agrees and thanks MJ for believing in him.

They then hear a crash and scream and discover it’s Vulture’s Savage Six. They’ve attacked the set and crew, prompting Kangaroo to retaliate. Vulture threatens to kill the actor playing him before spotting McKnight.

Mallorie’s dialogue is rather ambiguous. It’s not clear if she (or anyone other than MJ) are aware that ‘McKnight’ is really Beck. That is certainly not the impression I got. Accepting that interpretation, Williams’ attempt at irony here is too blunt to work and further hurts her narrative.

It further confirms that the movies is a vanity project. This would mean that Williams is aware Beck is actually being selfish, and thus that MJ is aware of that too. So why is she writing MJ as so sympathetic towards Beck? Why is she pretending a vanity project like this is at all an opportunity for Beck to make amends?

Can Williams honestly not recognize that a criminal (a murderer no less) making a vanity project is not a legitimate means of making amends?

It’s a legitimate question because she’s further deepening MJ’s friendship with a guy who has tried to murder her lover multiple times!

And as for the Savage Six…I actually don’t have much to say about them.

Unless issue #3 makes a big reveal, they don’t seem to know Beck is McKnight. If that is the case, then they’d have attacked regardless so MJ can’t be blamed for that at all.

Really all I have to say is Kangaroo is way out of his league, especially since he’s going head-to-head with Rhino of all people.

With that we’ve completed issue #2 and the results are not good.

Williams continued and further exacerbated the problems she created in the first issue. That leaves me with little confidence that she has a master plan to sow everything up neatly in the future.

*And she was doing that in the hope the studios would accept getting a different movie from the one they asked for.

**You know, people similar to Aunt May!

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

#Leah Wlliams #Amazing Mary Jane #mjwatsonedit #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #MJ Watson #Spider-Man #Mysterio #Quentin Beck #Peter Parker #Carlos Gomez

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kumoriyami-xiuzhen · 5 years

Text

Hakuoki Drama: Shinsengumi Oni-tan Track 1 Translation

Well im more or less back so I’ll start by asking you to please support me if you can either on ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/V7V2W0HO), or through paypal (paypal.me/KumoriYami ) …. also let me know if you have any hakuoki drama cds that you’d be willing to share that are on my looking for list since i don’t have the audio for those…..

I’ve also gotten around to getting my patreon account in order (https://www.patreon.com/KumoriYami) while deleting all blog post tls here. My patreon will really only for blog post tls, of which I will be putting out at least 3 each month, and for early access to my next planned post. Right now, I can only do early access for one post since I have nothing stockpiled and since Chinese New Year is this month....I’ll be busy with stuff so I probably won’t be getting around to doing a lot for the foreseeable future.... though I intend to bump that up to 2 posts when I’m no longer as busy....

I hope everyone had a good new year’s day.... cuz im feeling exhausted and my mind feels all waaaaaugh rn cuz of beating Psychedelia of the Ashen Hawk which i keep spelling as Hawke because of Dragon Age.... especially with those endings (i surprisingly couldn’t find anything for it in Chinese but oh well).....

Anyway, since this drama is roughly an hour and eight minutes long... it is going to take an extended amount of time to be completely translated since this translation was taken off not exactly great quality/sized images (though i’ll be aided by JP mtl since it’s available for me) which has been a real pain given how condensed some of the Chinese words are... and because im probably going to look at doing this on an on-off basis cuz my mind doesn’t work well focusing on one thing to translate for long periods of time (you have to pay me to do that since i equate that to mental torture lol xD).

enjoy this tl~

Hakuoki Shinsengumi Oni-tan Track 1 “A certain male oni and the Shinsengumi”

Translation by KumoriYami

Kazama: Oni. In this country of Japan, since ancient times, there have been a race known as the oni living here. Holding power that transcended that of ordinary people, no, it should be said that because of this power which transcends that of ordinary humans, they are depicted as evil creatures/beings in folklore and legends.

Sometimes, they are killed, and other times they are used by humans. (the translation of 驱逐 is "expelled" which doesn't seem right so i changed to "killed"]

For this reason we oni have chosen to sever our ties with humans and live in secluded/ hidden villages. However due to the scarcity of oni, marriage with humans has increased, and some oni have chosen to live like/as humans.

And then, there are oni who live unaware of their heritage because of their weak bloodlines.

Yes, for example, the day I met that man.

(intro music)

Flower petals scatter and leaves wither as they fall. The season has already changed to winter. The city was loud despite how cold it was [Despite how cold it was, the city was bustling with activity/ was loud].

When nightfall arrived, it became quite cold. Alright, it's done. Leave/head back before it gets any darker. If [I] return too late, Amagiri will begin preaching again, which will indeed be unbearable. [rephrase later...?]

(sound of running footsteps) But, what's that sound? It sounded like there was a disturbance from a back-alley.

Roshi: che, damn it, the shinsengumi is here!

???: Ronin, there's no escape! Stay where you are!

Roshi: Damn it--- since it's like this let's break this jar, give me some good entertainment! [take a break and get ready? check later.]

(sound of sword being drawn)

Kazama: hn, that's the light blue haori of the shinsengumi. the bakufu's dog is fighting a wild/stray dog, really what a horrible showing/senseless game/trick.

(blades crossing)

Roshi: Heh heh.... it seems like you're out of tricks. what's wrong shinsengumi, (you're?) all talk! /you seem to be all talk!

???: Che.... Don't... get too... cocky bastard!

Kazama: Nn?

Roshi: Why, why has this guy's eye colour changed....!

(sounds of blades hitting each other again)

Roshi: Uoaaaaah!

???: (heavy breaths) finally caught, caught, caught [my] breath, i just need to wait for the captains to come over.

Kazama: Oi. you. For someone of an oni clan, what are you doing in a place like this?

???: Hm? who are you?

Kazama: Leader of the western clans, the Kazama family head, Chikage.

???: For this first meeting, I am called Sasanami Kurō. Although you speak as though you know me, however(/perhaps) you have the wrong person. [rephrase later]

kazama: it turned out to be the case. i do not recognize that name. However, as a member of an oni clan, why are you wearing the the haori(/uniform) of the shogun[ate's?]'s dog?

Sasanami: Oni clan?

Kazama: Exactly. in my eyes, there is no doubt that you are my compatriot/kin/clansman, that is to say---

heisuke: hey new guy - really , where did you [assuming *he?*] go?

Harada: I can understand how people want to show off a bit because of the team's examination, but to go off chasing someone alone is dangerous/puts one in a really dangerous situation [im assuming its to join the Shinsengumi based on the summary on the drama info page].

Heisuke: although having enthusiasm/being enthusiastic is a good thing, those guys tend to die faster.

Harada: Anyway, pray/hope that he wasn't killed due to his carelessness. Heisuke, check over there, I'll look over here.

(more footsteps)

Sasanami: oh, Captain Toudou, Captain Harada! I'm [over] here! The roshi has already been captured/arrested.

Harada: oh, over there. It looks like there's nothing wrong...

heisuke: although being popular/recognition is good, it can cause problems...

Kazama: Che, those troublesome guys are around/nearby. No choice then, it's time to go/retreat. The reason for your position, I will listen to it in two days.

Sasanami: Wait, At the end [who are] you----- [rephrase later?]

(sound of Kazama walking away)

Kazama: That/this person, although his lineage is quite weak, there is no doubt of his bloodline. But/However why is there there an oni aside from my wife in the Shinsengumi?

----

final edits will be done when video is posted since im feeling lazy rn.... also i decided that i’d post this drama track by track for text. not sure bout videos yet since i wanna double check the context for what i think is the recruitment examination vs team examination. once that’s done... i think i’ll start making the videos to publish though im going to leave everything unlisted on youtube all 9 tracks of this drama are done.

on a side note, is there something about a location guide in the Hakuoki 3ds game or the ds yuugiroku english patch game (never tried it so iuno how well that worked or if that was even finished but that was one of my first google search bar suggestions)? Asking because I found a Chinese translation/summary of the Zuisouroku ds travel guide (commentary/exchange of certain locations. ex - saito’s room, hanaguri gate, fushimi magistrate)... and well, i just wanna make sure im not looking at game content that was already translated since I know Hakuoki tends to recycle a lot of their stuff before considering to translate it....

also.... this is the only drama where i might translate the interview with the cast (its 4 qs to the VAs sans roshi in text format)... though that would be after i finish this.... whenever the hell that is.

#hakuoki #hakuouki #hakuoki drama cd #hakuoki drama translation #Kazama Chikage

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segadores-y-soldados · 6 years

Text

Long Reasons Not to Trust Moira in Retribution

“One of the things we really like doing with Overwatch is playing with perspective. We utilize perspective when we analyze or when we tell stories about characters, what they’re thinking, what their goals are. And we have a lot of unreliable narrators. We want people to pay careful attention to what characters think about in particular situations. We want them to use their judgment and their knowledge of a character’s thoughts to come up with their own ideas about the universe.

“[...] The world needs heroes, but it also needs villains. And we have a number of villainous characters in Overwatch. And what’s important to us is that their internal motivations are not purely rooted in ‘being evil,’ despite how they might seem on the surface. You know, as we reveal more about these characters, we want people to be able to empathize and understand their beliefs. Because sometimes what makes a villain a villain is the extent to which they’re willing to go to reach their goals. And one thing that we find most important when we’re talking about our villain characters is that there is nothing to say that a villain cannot be as charismatic - or more charismatic - or as likeable as a hero character. Because like the old saying goes, ‘Every villain is the hero of their own story.’”

- Excerpts from Michael Chu’s GDC talk, “Thinking Globally: Building the Optimistic Future of Overwatch,” April 2017 (source)

“We stand on the brink of a breakthrough in human evolution. I have dedicated my life to unraveling its secrets. I take risks that others would consider to be ‘unwise,’ for I do not share their caution. Overwatch held back the pace of scientific discovery for decades. They believed my methods were too radical... too controversial...

“And they tried...to silence me.”

- Moira, Origin Story (source)

---------

It begins with an experiment.

It is thirty years in the future - approximately 2046-2047. Facilities of the defunct company Omnica Corporation have suddenly gone back online. In a moment of surreality, armies of robots are unleashed from these Omniums and begin to attack humanity the world over.

But national militaries struggle. And fail.

And so, in a gamble for the fate of humankind -

They begin to experiment.

Some countries use cybernetic augmentation. Some countries develop highly specialized armor.

Some countries take normal soldiers -

And “enhance” them.

And at least one of those soldiers -

Gets a little...too experimental.

(A lot more under the cut. I’m not joking. Turn back now.)

Part 1: Going Ghost

Finally.

After over a full year of back-and-forth and this-and-that, we finally have more significant and concrete context for Michael Chu’s (in)famous twitter discussion on Reaper:

(Source)

What Michael Chu and the fan were referencing was this section of Reaper’s official Hero Profile.

Specifically, the line “[Reaper] has fought in many armed conflicts in the last decades, showing no loyalty to any cause or organization.”

At the time, there was considerable confusion and frustration among fans at the implication that Gabriel Reyes - a major hero of the Omnic Crisis, an important founding member of the original Overwatch Strike Team, and the long-term commander of the Overwatch covert ops division, Blackwatch - had been “Reaper” for “decades” - well before the “fall” of Overwatch had begun. This caused a lot of discussion about if “Reaper” was Gabriel Reyes’ codename, an alternate identity, a “titled persona” (like “Doomfist”, who we’ll get to later), or something else. It also spawned questions about just how long Gabriel had possessed “Reaper’s” powers, abilities, and side effects, especially this part:

“It is possible that he is a byproduct of failed genetic alteration which forces his cells to simultaneously decay and regenerate at a hyper-accelerated rate.”

Because fans were also given information that seemed to conflict directly with this.

“Commander Reyes” looked...perfectly healthy. Sure, he has several scars, and we all knew he had gone through the “Soldier Enhancement Program” with Jack Morrison, but otherwise, nothing about “Commander Reyes” seemed off. We were told that gameplay and in-game content was not necessarily canon, but instead, “what if” scenarios about how characters would interact if they met each other after Winston’s Recall.

And Michael seemed to consistently confirm that only “certain characters” specifically knew about who Reaper was in the “present day” (post-Recall):

(Source)

And this, again, seemed in-line with the story we had been told up to this point: Jack Morrison, now Soldier: 76, and Ana Amari, now a bounty hunter known as “the Shrike”, recognized “Reaper” from their encounter in Giza, Egypt (in the “Old Soldiers” comic).

And yet something seemed...odd about Michael stating that the “decades” line in Reaper’s profile was intentional.

It seemed borderline implausible - even downright contradictory - that Gabriel could’ve had an “alter ego” persona of “Reaper” for decades, all while working closely with individuals like Jack and Ana. How could he have kept it a secret? If Gabriel had always been Reaper, why was Ana so surprised when she unmasked him in “Old Soldiers”? If Gabriel had become “Reaper” early on in his life, why did he blame Jack Morrison and (likely) Overwatch for his present-day condition?

This only got more confusing with the release of Moira, where Moira is shown doing something to create a smoky, “Reaper-ish” effect on Gabriel:

And Moira’s whole thing is about “unlocking potential” in humanity, right? So she “unlocked” the Reaper powers in Gabriel, right?

Except -

Interesting statements where made by the individuals on the Moira Blizzcon 2017 panel.

“She was recruited by Gabriel Reyes to be a member of Blackwatch. And uh, during that time she had relationships with the Blackwatch crew - McCree, Genji - they all have their own sort of likes and dislikes for each other. Reyes wanted someone could help advise him on, uh, some matters of genetics that he was, uh, interested in, shall we say.” - Michael Chu, 3:47 (https://youtu.be/HsJU3PEk9JY?t=227)

And when Moira was released on the PTR, some changes occured in the Genetics Lab in the Oasis, Iraq map:

This folder appeared.

Moira’s reveal, Michael Chu’s statements, even Ana’s reaction in “Old Soldiers” suddenly started to make more sense.

Gabriel Reyes has been “Reaper” for decades -

It just depends on how you define what “Reaper” is.

“Reaper” is not just a mask and a persona -

“Reaper” is also an experimental medical condition.

Almost two full years ago, Michael Chu made a tweet that the characters people assumed were not aging correctly do, in fact, age - that is, Tracer, Mei, Mercy, Widowmaker, etc, age like normal people (for Tracer, this occurs as long as she has her chronal accelerator close by).

But someone asked a very simple question:

User: You missed an important one there - What about Reaper? Can he even still be considered alive in his state? Michael Chu: That’s a good question. ;)

(Source)

Initially, I personally interpreted this as Michael Chu answering the second question: “No, Reaper should not be considered ‘alive.’” However, it is looking likely that Michael actually answered the first question - “Is Reaper aging normally?”

And the answer is...uncertain.

Reinhardt changes significately in the 20-25 years of the Crisis and Overwatch. His hair is white by Uprising. He is the oldest member of the original Strike Team, and would’ve been approximately 31 years old in the left skin, and about 54 years old in his Uprising Lieutenant skin.

Torbjörn does age as well, but the changes are less noticeable than Reinhardt’s: his hair is still mostly blonde, but he has lost an eye and his left arm. In the left skin, Torb would be about 27 years old, and in the right Chief Engineer skin, he is about 50 years old.

Ana does age - her hair is completely grey by Uprising, and she has a number of wrinkles in her “Legacy” comic. And by the present-day of Recall, her hair is completely white. In her Horus skin, Ana is about 30 years old. In Uprising, she is about 53 years old, and by the time of her sniper battle with Widowmaker, she is 53-54 years old.

Hmm.

In the SEP Soldier: 24 skin, Gabriel would be about 27-28 years old.

And since Retribution uses the Commander Reyes skin as his canon appearance at the time of the mission, he would be 50 years old during the mission.

(Source)

This is verified by double-checking McCree’s age.

(Source)

McCree’s age at Recall: 37 Difference between Retribution and Recall: 8 years. McCree’s age at Retribution: 29

So no, Overwatch did not make any mathematical mistakes on Gabriel’s age at Retribution. He is 50 chronological years old. He is one year older than Torbjörn, two years younger than Ana, and three years younger than Reinhardt.

He has gained several scars since SEP, yes. He has changed his hairstyle, yes. He appears to have a few “crow’s feet” around his eyes, yes.

But here he is when Fareeha is 11-12 years old (Source: “you have an eleven-to-twelve-year-old Pharah, you have McCree who’s just been recruited into Blackwatch, you have university student Mercy who’s visiting the Overwatch base”).

Pharah at Recall: 32 Pharah in photo: 11-12 Difference in years: 20 years Reinhardt in photo: 41 Ana in photo: 40 Torb in photo: 37 Gabriel at Recall: 58 years Gabriel’s age in photo: 38

Age in comic: 50 years old

Aging? Yes, he does appear to be aging.

Correctly?

Very debatable.

In fact, the only other American “enhanced soldier” that we know of specifically has an interaction where Ana expresses that he’s actually “looking pretty good” for his age:

Ana: For a man of your years, you’re looking pretty good, Jack. Soldier: 76: Well, all that stuff they pumped into me has to be good for something.

Except

(Golden Era of Overwatch: approximately 10-25 years before Recall)

(Retribution: 8 years before Recall)

(Uprising: 7 years before Recall)

(Unmasked present-day)

Jack Morrison - who went through the same Soldier Enhancement Program as Gabriel Reyes - is aging considerably.

Jack is also younger than Gabriel.

Jack Morrison enlisted in the military because of the Crisis. This means he is of draft age when the Crisis begins, between 18 and 25 years old. An old article (source) states that he enlisted at 18, but the article appears to be retconned by Jack’s own statement in Uprising. In the article, it says:

At eighteen, Morrison packed his bags and joined the military. He had planned to serve a brief stint in the armed forces and then return home to the family farm, but his work ethic and courage caught the eye of the military brass. Before long, he earned a coveted position in the government's controversial and still-classified (but widely acknowledged) "soldier enhancement program." Military scientists shaped Morrison and other inductees into the perfect soldiers, blessed with superhuman speed, strength, and agility.

Morrison and his fellow augmented soldiers would soon put their abilities to use with the advent of the Omnic Crisis. Across the globe, the omniums went rogue and churned out legions of militarized robots.

However, this order of events differs from Jack’s own account:

“I remember when the Crisis broke out across America. It’s why I enlisted, and why I signed up for the enhancement program.”

For the time being, I will use Uprising as the more updated source on Jack’s motivation and his age range during the Crisis, but as it stands, he is very likely younger than “SEP Soldier: 24″ at the time of his enlistment.

I love Jack Morrison, both as a character and as a playable hero. But I will readily admit he’s not aging as gracefully as Gabriel Reyes by the time of Retribution. Jack’s hair is a very, very faded blonde, during Retribution and Uprising, and he is likely younger than both Gabriel and Torbjörn. He has heavy age lines on his face in the comics, and for his present-age unmasked skins in-game, he has the scars that now define his face and white hair.

He is likely only 48-53 years old at Recall.

Sure, you the reader are probably thinking of ways to exempt this, or to deny this discrepancy. After all, Overwatch has characters like Mercy who is aging “normally” but still apparently looks very good for nearly-40 years old (contrast with Hanzo, who is a year older than Mercy and has grey hair). You have Moira who is almost 50 but her hair is still a brilliant shade of red.

But Overwatch has made a concerted effort to show that the original Strike Team members are aging - some more heavily, some less.

And at least one appears to be aging significantly less.

I bring you back to Michael Chu’s statement on Moira’s recruitment into Blackwatch:

This does not sound like a man who wanted to become Reaper.

This sounds like a man who needed help.

(Source)

This puts the comment made by Nesskain, the artist who made the official art for Uprising, Moira’s Origin video, and now the Retribution outro video, into context. If Gabriel wanted Moira’s help to become “Reaper”, why would he be “scared” of what’s happening to him?

Unless that isn’t want he wanted.

“Repairing Degnerative Genetic Structures.”

Found in the present-day (after Recall) Oasis map (we’ll get to where and why in a (long) bit), but with a big sticky note that says “Draft” and has the Ministry of Genetics logo on it.

This is Moira’s present-day laboratory in Oasis, Iraq.

This is her research.

“He is a byproduct of a failed genetic alteration which forces his cells to slumltaneously decay and rengerate at a hyper-accelerated rate.”

Gabriel Reyes didn’t want to become “Reaper” because he has been “Reaper” for decades - he got his lifedrain and wraithing powers during the Crisis from the experimental Soldier Enhancement Program, he is probably not aging normally, and by the time of Moira’s recruitment, his health is probably destabilizing.

His friends - even those younger than him - are aging past him.

Regardless of your feelings on the romantic angle of Gabriel and Jack, it is undeniable that Gabriel Reyes sits in the room of his injured agent, and thinks about:

A coffin with a dead Blackwatch agent in it, draped with an Overwatch flag that he and Jack placed on it

Rescuing Gérard Lacroix from the explosion in Rome

An aging Jack Morrison

And then he makes his decision to go arrest Antonio.

And when Moira appeared out of nowhere nearly 10 years before Recall:

She must have looked like a miracle worker to a man who wanted to be free from his “curse.”

However, Gabriel is likely at a bit of a moral and ethical crossroads here:

His “Reaper” abilities have allowed him to intervene in “armed conflicts,” likely when Overwatch could not do so in an official capacity. In fact, none of the three agents with him in Retribution seem remotely surprised by his “Reaper powers” - he can Wraith, Shadowstep, and Death Blossom without a single quip or remark.

This puts a lot of things into perspective:

First, that characters like McCree and Reinhardt do not know specifically that Gabriel has “transformed” into the “Talon-backed mercenary called Reaper”, but that they would immediately recognize him if they encountered him in a “what if” scenario:

Reinhardt would recognize Gabriel.

(source)

Question: “Some time back you said that McCree and Reinhardt don’t know that Reaper is Reyes. Do they not know because they’v enever met face--errm, mask-to-face, since the incident? I get the feeling that if McCree and Reaper met, McCree would know almost immediately who was under the mask, and Reinhardt would figure out if he fought Reaprt in battle (because his only quote, “Traitor!”, is triggered when he kills him).”

Michael: “To clarify about the Reaper/Reyes thing, yes it is because they have not met in the “current day” of Overwatch. The interactions in the game are meant to be what ifs. I do think that McCree would know that Reaper was Reyes if he encountered him.”

McCree would recognize his old Blackwatch commander.

It’s also a very subtle detail, but when Gabriel gets on the Blackwatch dropship to leave for Venice, he is not carrying any weapons.

This is in direct contrast to all three of the other characters, since McCree is shown with just gun only a few panels before, Genji is shown with his sword, and Moira with her two Biotic Grasp gloves.

(The last part of this is super important.)

The second thing is that this detail about “Gabriel has always been Reaper” puts a lot of the Overwatch-Blackwatch relationship into clearer view.

As exemplified by the comic, Jack Morrison is not only aware that Blackwatch does many things “off the book”, he actually personally understands why Gabriel conducts them, even if he can’t “officially sanction” them as the Overwatch Strike-Commander.

In fact, Jack would actually conduct a formal investigation to arrest Antonio. It isn’t the arrest that either man has moral or ethical qualms with -

It’s the level of urgency that the arrest needs to be conducted with.

Jack cannot officially approve a Blackwatch mission to illegally defy sovereignty laws, but he can understand the urgent need for it - people are getting hurt and dying. It’s only a matter of time before Talon attacks Blackwatch and Overwatch in a more serious fashion.

Jack trusts Gabriel to make “the final call,” but he does ask him if Gabriel’s “urgency” is...hasty - if the mad dash to bring Antonio in is worth the risk of Blackwatch getting caught.

Or worse.

But there is no question here of loyalty or trust.

Just one of safety.

This aligns with several of the interactions you can find in Retribution:

Moira: You did what needed to be done, Gabriel. Don’t apologize. Gabriel: I never have, and I don’t intend to start now. Someone has to be the one to get things done.

McCree: Is this what we’ve become, Gabriel? Gabriel: Blackwatch has always had one purpose: to do the real work of keeping the world safe. I thought you had the stomach for it. Looks like I was wrong.

Gabriel sees his role in Blackwatch as the “heavy lifter” of peace-keeping. Overwatch does a wide variety of tasks: it possesses an engineering division, a medical division, an environmental division, and a science division, along with a number of “Strike Team” agents who can be fielded to intervene on a military, medical, or engineering emergency level as required or requested by a sovereign nation. Overwatch is the kinder side of keeping peace.

Blackwatch is the shadow of it.

And in those shadows, “the Reaper” does what he needs to do to maintain Overwatch’s peace when its “heroes” cannot.

Even if he must be painted as a villain for it.

If Gabriel has been using his SEP-created “Reaper powers” to help defend Overwatch in “off the book” missions for decades (as Retribution shows) then his powers and abilities are likely an “open secret” within Blackwatch, and probably known to his closest friends and companions in Overwatch (for example, the original Strike Team).

And it helps him - it keeps him alive in the worst missions, he never needs to carry ammo or weapons, and (if he’s really that good) he doesn’t even need a combat medic with him because he can sustain his own healing processes with his lifedrain ability. Sure, it’s not perfect - he gets scars, he’s aging a bit, and very likely, a fatal shot could kill him even with these powers - but it’s more than enough for him to do the “real work of keeping the world safe.”

And while it is not shown, it is implied that Jack Morrison knows this.

Intriguingly, a closer reading of “Old Soldiers” shows that Ana knows who Reaper is before she ever unmasks him:

Ana, thinking as she looks at Reaper: Damn...don’t have a clear shot. Ana, aloud to Reaper: Idiot, you’re always in the way!

(Ana mains rejoice - it’s canon that her own teammates block all her shots)

So yes, if Ana and Reinhardt know who Recall-era Reaper is without ever seeing his face -

It is pretty much impossible for Soldier: 76 - Jack Morrison, his oldest friend and companion - to not know.

In fact, Recall-era Soldier: 76 knows who Reaper is by voice alone.

So yeah

Gabriel is not exactly stealthy about this “alternate identity with a lot of cool ghost powers side effect” thing.

Now -

How much does Jack know about Moira?

To quote Michael Chu:

That’s a good question. ;)

---------

Part 2: The One Who Changes Fate

Reminder again about Moira’s hero profile. What’s interesting is that we are...told this paper effectively ruined her career.

But that is not what Moira herself tells us:

“And they tried...to silence me.”

- Moira, Origin Story (source)

I see it bounced around that “Moira worked for Overwatch and then was shut down.” This is not true. Nowhere is it ever stated that she specifically worked for Overwatch. When she brings up Overwatch in her Origins video, she is talking about how Overwatch held back generalized scientific advancement for years, not specifically hers.

However, she does imply that Overwatch shut down whatever lab she was running before she joined Blackwatch.

What’s super, super, super critical to remember is that every character in Overwatch is an unreliable narrator.

All of them.

All of them have a story to tell you. All of them have a perspective to give. Everything about them - every Hero Profile, every teaser, every Origin story, every comic - has a perspective to it. They are not necessarily lying to you outright, but they are twisting truths to suit their purposes.

Here is the full quote on perspective, unreliable narrators, and “villains” from Michael Chu (bolded and italicized parts are mine, and do not reflect his actual speaking tone):

“Which brings me...to ‘Perspective.’ One of the things we really like doing with Overwatch is playing with perspective. We utilize perspective when we analyze or when we tell stories about characters, what they’re thinking, what their goals are. And we have a lot of unreliable narrators. We want people to pay careful attention to what characters think about in particular situations. We want them to use their judgment and their knowledge of a character’s thoughts to come up with their own ideas about the universe. You know, I’m asked often - with characters like Sombra or Soldier: 76, you know, ‘Are they anti-heroes? Are they villains?’ And I think, you know, you look at someone like Sombra, and it’s all about looking at, ‘What does she want? What is she willing to do to get it?’

“And you have to remember that when she’s telling you something, she’s serving her own ends too. So you know, you have to kinda make the decision for yourself. And I think you can take a character like Soldier: 76 - like obviously, he has this mission that he is on that he believes is good, he seems to be sometimes willing to do things which are... maybe not super heroic, and so it makes him complicated. We always have a lot of fun, uh - every once and awhile we’ll try and plot all the characters on like the traditional D’n’D alignment scale, and I think, you know, it’s fun exercise, but at the end of the day, I think what’s interesting about characters is that those alignments change depending on what situation you put them in, what’s important to them, and what decisions they have to make.

(Source)

And this is what people need to understand about the story in Retribution - the comic, the teasers, and the actual canonically gameplay mode:

You do not have one unreliable narrator

You have four.

And it is your “job” - as outlined by the lead writer of Overwatch - to pay attention to which ones are giving you an “honest” perspective of the situation -

And which ones are masking their intentions and thoughts.

We want people to pay careful attention to what characters think about in particular situations. We want them to use their judgment and their knowledge of a character’s thoughts to come up with their own ideas about the universe.

“Retribution” is not as cut-and-dry as “Uprising” (and even Uprising has some interesting “perspective” bits to it).

Comic: the Retribution comic is from Gabriel’s perspective. We see him go through the events of the explosion in Rome, his discussion with Jack, and then his decision to bring three agents in an “off the book” mission to arrest Antonio. Things to keep in mind: though you get dialogue from McCree, you do not actually see McCree’s thought process the way you see Gabriel’s.

Game: the Retribution game mode has a narrative shift to McCree’s perspective. Both the Intro and the Outro are narrated by him. He describes only the things he knew leading up to the mission, how he perceived the shooting of Antonio, and how he saw the fallout that resulted. Something to remember is that McCree does not know that Jack Morrison was aware that Gabriel was going to attempt to arrest Antonio.

In fact, McCree actually brings this up in the game:

McCree: How are you gonna explain this to the Strike-Commander? Gabriel: You let me worry about what Jack needs to know. McCree: You know you can’t shoot him. Gabriel: No, but I could shoot you.

It is not that McCree is an untrustworthy narrator of the event -

He is just a limited, biased one.

And he does not know what Gabriel is thinking during the mission

Or what Moira is thinking.

And it is up to the player to attempt to interpret both.

As I wrote in Part 1, if you look at the “clues,” Gabriel has been struggling with his “Reaper” condition for some time. Perhaps it is shifting into a new phase. Perhaps it is growing unstable. Perhaps he is afraid of his friends growing old without him.

Perhaps he is afraid of being effectively immortal.

When Moira appears in the scientific community, we are told her hypothesis was initially well-received but could not be replicated, which caused doubt as to her testing methodology.

And what you are shown

is that Moira tested things on herself.

Human clinical trials for medicine and therapies are...strict. Highly regulated in most countries (yes, obviously you can debate how effective those policies are “in reality”). It is not as simple as jumping from testing on rabbits to testing on humans - qualifications and checks must be done.

I’ve had a lot of people ask, “Why would Moira want to side with Talon if Blackwatch supports her?”

And the very simple answer is

Moira does not want “relaxed” restrictions on her research.

Moira wants zero restrictions on her research.

Do I believe that Gabriel Reyes would let her conduct research on himself?

Yeah, of course he does. You are literally shown that.

Does he let her do research on other people?

Or herself?

Again, very debatable.

We go back to this panel:

Moira has her Biotic Grasp, both healing and lifedrain. This means she has already started research on Gabriel, and has manipulated his powers for herself.

And yes, the lifedrain ability, along with her Fade ability, are implied to be “improvements” on Reaper’s versions, because Moira has researched his biodata, repurposed them, and then reused them for herself:

Geoff Goodman: “It [Her Fade ability] has some similarities to Reaper’s wraith form…uh which is…it’s funny how that works out.” Michael Chu: “You know, we obviously - there’s a…there’s a close relationship between Moira and Reyes-slash-Reaper, and I think one of the fun things we were able to do is to sort of hint at some of those things in her, uh, abilities.” Geoff Goodman: “She’s helping Reaper out and is like, ‘You know, I think I could make this better, I have an idea.’” Michael Chu: “Professional relationship.” Geoff Goodman: “Ahaha, yes…good call.” Michael Chu: “You know what I’m talking about.” [Whole panel laughs] (source)

And she has managed to make an artificial, cloned, or recreated “lifedrain” work with Angela Ziegler’s healing technology:

Participant 3: Hey, guys. First off, thank you for this support hero. We really need that, and so my question is more of a lore question. So seeing Moira and her healing, and her siphoning powers, I am wondering if there is a connection between her powers and Zenyatta’s approach of how he heals and discords; or if it is going to be communicated in the future.

Michael: So there is a connection, but it is actually not a Zenyatta. It is actually more of a connection to Mercy. You know, they both work together obviously. Moira was part of Blackwatch. Mercy was a part of Overwatch, but she has definitely taken and modified some of the tech. In fact, there is some evidence on the Oasis map that sort of hints at some of that.

(source)

So we learn that Moira has no moral or ethical qualms about taking, using, and repurposing Gabriel’s “enhanced Reaper powers” from his biological data, and that she also has no moral or ethicla qualms about taking, using, and repurposing Angela’s nanobiology tech.

And Moira is not doing either of these things for financial gain, or political power, or even some sort of immortality.

She just wants to experiment in its purest form, unrestricted and unrestrained and untethered.

She does not want to stop with any moral or ethical boundaries.

And despite what people think -

I personally get the strong impression that even though Gabriel Reyes has few or limited personal morals about defending the world in the name of peace, he would not let Moira test Blackwatch or Overwatch agents in an unrestriction, unrestrained, uncontrolled manner.

Himself? Fine. That’s a risk he has to take.

But if Moira were to harm his agents

Or cause Blackwatch and Overwatch to suffer

Or conduct “experiments” with those who matter most to him

He would wage war to prevent that.

So even though Moira works for Blackwatch, conducts trials on Gabriel, makes new inventions for herself and the organization -

She does not actually get what she really wants:

True, unliminted freedom to experiment.

Michael: Moira is a scientist. She is not so much interested in conquering the world, even though she has allied herself with people who might have proclivities in that direction. She is really just into the actual science. She wants to understand the fundamentals of human life, and how they can be manipulated. She is a geneticist, and that is her primary goal, and that is all she wants. But the thing that makes her villainous is that she doesn’t quite have like some of the morals that the rest of us have. Yes, she is very flexible. She doesn’t want anything to get in the way of her science. So when someone tries to stop her from doing something, or tells her that she needs to take more time, she has no patience for that.

(source) (emphasis is mine, and does not reflect his actual tone)

A lot of people asked about this. Many were confused by the statement I made that her Hero Profile implies she was working for Talon when she was in Blackwatch, but some math here can help us out:

2070: The Fall of Overwatch occurs, and Overwatch is officially disbanded. This is 6 years before Recall.

2068-ish: Retribution occurs. This is 8 years before Recall.

When Moira is “invited to join the scientific collective” at Oasis after the disbandment of Overwatch, people in-universe were already wondering if she had ties to Talon:

“Yet some have whispered that the shadowy Talon organization had already been supporting her for years, aiding her experiments in exchange for utilzing the results for their own purposes.”

Again, the Hero Profile has a perspective. It is not lying to you, but it isn’t entirely telling the truth either. It is worded in a deliberate, vague way to make you think that Moira joins Talon after Overwatch is disbanded, but “for years” means that she could have been supported by Talon before the disbandment.

And remember -

Moira’s very own words are not trustworthy:

“And they tried...to silence me.

“...But there were others in the shadows, searching for ways to circumvent their rules. Freed from my shackles, the pace of our research hastened - together, we delved deeper into those areas forbidden by law, by morality...and by fear. “New patrons emerged who possessed an appetite for my discoveries. And with this knowledge...what new world could we build?”

- Moira Origin story (source)

At no point -

Does Moira ever say that Blackwatch - that specific word for that specific division - recruited her to “circumvent” Overwatch.

And this is where perspective and unreliability come into play.

You are shown these images:

With that narrative -

To specifically make you think that Gabriel Reyes wanted Moira to help him overthrow Overwatch.

But this is in direct contrast with Gabriel’s own view of his role in Overwatch:

Moira: You did what needed to be done, Gabriel. Don’t apologize. Gabriel: I never have, and I don’t intend to start now. Someone has to be the one to get things done.

Gabriel does circumvent rules -

In order to save and defend Overwatch.

He is the embodiment of “retribution” - a form of equalizing justice, a feeling of righteous revenge, a bringer of truth and revelations (just as his namesake “Gabriel” implies).

Yes, Gabriel Reyes is rogue, renegade, and reckless at times. Yes, he has no problems with shooting a man in the face at point-blank range. Yes, he would fight an entire army and city to get himself and three agents home alive.

But he does not do it for Talon.

Recall-era “Reaper” consistently leaves Talon agents to die.

(Retribution Gabriel refuses to leave anyone behind.)

Recall-era “Reaper” lets Sombra basically run amok and “throw” their missions.

(Retribution Gabriel reprimands and reminds McCree to stay focused.)

Recall-era “Reaper” fails to kill Winston not once, but twice.

(Retribution Gabriel kills several Talon Heavy Assault Tanks and other specialists without remorse.)

Recall-era “Reaper” works with Widowmaker, knowing full well that she is all that remains of Amélie Lacroix.

(And Retribution Gabriel stays by Gérard Lacroix’s hospital bed even when the doctors have said he’ll be okay.)

Recall-era “Reaper” fails to kill or even properly fight Soldier: 76 and Ana Amari.

(Retribution Gabriel literally starts this “retribution” mission to “do the real work of keeping” his friends and the world safe.)

What aligns both Gabriel Reyes and Moira O’Deorain with the “villains” of the Overwatch universe is not their actual, individual, distinct and separate motivations -

But their methods to get there.

And if intention matters to you, then they should be analyzed and judged for their actual, individual, distinct and separate motivations.

And here’s the kicker -

Maybe Moira actually does want to help Gabriel find a “cure” in her own way.

After all, in the Recall era, this paper exists:

But she also has her own perspective, her own motivations, and her own goals to achieve.

And what will she do to get to them?

Michael: So like we said before, she was recruited by Gabriel Reyes to be a member of Blackwatch, and during that time she had relationships with the Blackwatch crew: McCree, Genji… they all have their own sort of likes and dislikes for each other. Reyes wanted someone who could help advise him on some matters of genetics that he was interested in — shall we say.

Aaron: Very mysterious.

Michael: Very mysterious, yes. Almost maybe a connection there – yes, there is a connection there, obviously — and the other thing is that in the present day Moira has allied herself with Talon now that Overwatch is gone. When you think about Moira’s goals figuring out these building blocks of human evolution, and her need to like push forward science at any cost, that really it really meshes well with the goal of Talon; and so she has found new patrons like Doomfist.

(Source)

---------

Part 3: When You Come At The King

Previous essays:

“Talon: Clawing to the Top” - an essay analyzing Akande’s ideology, and how Reaper and Sombra might be trying to infiltrate Talon to bring it out. Written before Moira was released.

“Overwatch: Companies and Corporations” - a write-up describing several of the major fictional companies in the Overwatch universe, and how many of them are interconnected, have ties to Talon, or are shady as all hell. Written before Moira was released.

I’m not going to rewrite everything that took me two whole other posts to cover. Not a chance. This thing is already absurdly long and no one needs that.

A “brief” review instead:

After the Omnic Crisis, the world changed. Different industries and companies fell by the wayside, and Overwatch rose in power as a peacekeeping force to ensure prosperity and safety as the transition from global reconstruction into a new era when humans and robots had to live together.

New technologies emerged at the forefront of all of this - cybernetics were a big one, and humans began integrating and using Omnic tech for themselves. Medicine and energy sciences advanced in huge leaps and bounds, with many of them being lead by Overwatch’s different scientific divisions.

However, as we know from Moira’s perspective and Akande’s perspective, Overwatch also restricted the ways and areas in which these changes could progress. In the present-day, Recall era, Soldier: 76 is one of two characters to be interested in LumériCo’s shady dealings, and Lúcio fights (and succeeds) in a major social and economic revolution against the Vishkar Corportation. Lucheng reestablishes connections with the Horizon Lunar Colony, and what the public discovers is that a massive disaster occurred there, involving animal rights abuses, and the loss of an entire scientific team (maybe). Mei awakens from her cyrofreeze slumber to discover that her entire Ecopoint team is dead, her survival is in jeopardy, and the data they developed about a changing ecosystem is at risk of being lost forever. Helix Securities - the company that employs Pharah - clearly profited from the fall of Overwatch, as they run many of the old Watchpoints and bases, manage for-profit prisons, and even appear to be conducting some unethical studies against an imprisoned AI.

Almost every company and corporation in the Overwatch universe has ties to a very unethical, very shady concept or idea, or even has first-degree or second-degree connections to Talon.

And that is the point.

Akande’s hero profile (again, remember to question levels of reliability) tells us that there was an ideological conflict within Talon when he was recruited:

“While Adeyemi was content to profit from raids on Numbani, Ogundimu had a grander vision.”

This is big, because this “vision” is implied to be what draws him to Moira, and her to him. Moira does not care about profits, she does not care about power in the literal sense of having an army or running a company.

Moira wants to see humanity reach its greatest and highest “potential.”

Which is exactly what Akande Ogundimu wants, except that he believes it can only be achieved through “conflict.”

But why would Moira - who has zero concerns about safety, rules, and regulations - be worried about that?

Would “conflict” ever stop her from her research?

Neither of them are interested in living under “Overwatch’s rule” - they both believe that Overwatch is stagnating social, technological, and scientific advances for humans and Omnics alike.

They both have a vested interest in seeing Overwatch’s “restrictions” fail and fall.

But there’s a small problem -

Akande is not in charge of Talon at the time of Retribution.

He’s not even the bearer of the “Doomfist” title.

His predecessor Akinjide is.

(Source)

And Akinjide is the one who has a direct association with Antonio.

This is reaffirmed in Retribution:

Genji: Who was Antonio? Gabriel: He’s an arms dealer, with some...other interests - more and less legitimate. McCree: ...Not anymore. McCree: Did Antonio have any associates? Gabriel: There’s the one who will probably take over for him - Vialli. Don’t know too much about him. Then Doomfist in Numbani, and an Omnic, who runs a casino in Monaco - uh, Maximilien or something.

(source)

Interestingly, of Antonio’s “known” associates, only one of them is still alive by the end of the “Masquerade” comic: Maximilien, who allies himself with Akande during the course of the comic.

Akande, as we know, was still just “a mercenary” at the time of Retribution.

But this is where limited perspectives and unreliable narrators come back into play:

McCree: Our target was dead, so I guess he got what was coming to him. But still...it didn’t seem right. But that wasn’t the end of our problems: for the first time, people knew we were out there. New faces stepped up to fill the void in Talon. And I can’t help but wonder...if that’s where it all started to go wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_Nv31B47o4

The ending narration - again, from McCree’s limited perspective - tells us that something “didn’t seem right” about the mission and how it played out. Yes, Gabriel shot a man in the face, and McCree is obviously upset about that throughout the game because of it.

But McCree is also the one who wanted to shoot Antonio in the first place:

And this is where we start needing to use context clues, and put ourselves in two different perspectives - Gabriel’s and Moira’s - to try and understand what exactly happened in Retribution, and maybe start understanding why it happened.

Antonio is a major leader of Talon at the time of Retribution, just before the fall of Overwatch truly begins.

The official Blackwatch dossiers given out by Blizzard state that:

“The extent of his connection to European government officials, law enforcement agents, and businessmen is unknown.”

So while we know of three major associates - Vialli, the man who succeeds Antonio after this, Akinjide the second Doomfist, and Maximilien - we don’t know his other associates. Blackwatch’s intel is incomplete.

However, part of the point of arresting Antonio was to try and get more information on Talon from him.

Gabriel: We’ll use what he knows to hit Talon harder next time. Trust me.

So we have our mission objective from the very start: go in, secret Antonio out, get him to a secure location, and get intel and info on the rest of Talon from him.

For Blackwatch, this is apparently fairly routine, to the point where neither Jack Morrison nor Jesse McCree questions the nature of it, just the necessity of the mission itself. We see this return in Uprising, when Gabriel sends McCree on a mission to gather intel on Null Sector even when Blackwatch is suspended. Ana Amari raises the question of why McCree is even out there, but Gabriel quickly jokes to defuse her. When Jack pushes for more information, Gabriel tells him not to pry.

This is retroactively foreshadowed (past...shadowed??) by the voicelines in the Retribution trailer:

Jack: Alright, Gabriel. Start from the beginning Gabriel: We arrived in the Venice safehouse and set up surveillance on the manor. We executed our plan, under cover of darkness. ...You sure you want to hear about this, Jack? Jack: You haven’t left me much choice. Gabriel: What ever happened to ‘plausible deniability?’ Jack: Little late for that. Tell me what actually happened. Gabriel: Haha, well, Jack - that’s one hell of a story.

(source)

In the Retribution trailer, Gabriel attempts to give Jack the opportunity to back down from this debriefing, implying that Jack should try to secure his own “plausible deniability” from his awareness of the situation (which Jack knew about, but did not know the details of). Later, in Uprising, Gabriel does not even give that Jack that option, instead denying him more information from the outset (whether that is to truly protect Jack’s “plausible deniability” from another potential Blackwatch debacle, or for other reasons, it is not stated).

Why is this important?

Because it is strongly implied that Blackwatch walked into a trap.

This was meant to be a fairly routine “get in, grab, and get out” mission, but some interactions in Retribution imply that the Blackwatch team was misinformed.

Moira: I wouldn’t describe this as ‘light resistance’...quality intelligence we received. Genji: It makes no difference to me. Moira: ...How droll. McCree: Aww, even though we snuck that surveillance system into Antonio’s office, our intel’s a little spotty. Genji: Next time, you should leave it to me. I can spy upon our enemies - unseen...and undetected.

The second one is very important because the question that needs to be asked is:

Did Blackwatch somehow miss intel from Antonio’s office?

...Or did Antonio know his office was bugged?

The first one is important because the Blackwatch team only anticipated “light resistance” in Venice from Antonio’s henchmen, and yet every other line is about how “an entire army” has showed up to stop the four-person team.

And Talon doesn’t just bring out a bunch of “low-level grunts”

But instead include a myriad of “specialist” killers.

...Seems like an awful lot for just four people.

...Unless they already knew that one of them -

Is exceptionally hard to kill.

Someone who knows exactly what he is capable of.

Someone who has no qualms about “reusing” research and repurposing it into new and innovative ways.

Someone who has no fears about testing on themselves.

Or testing on other people.

And someone who so dearly wants the freedom that would come with the removal of Blackwatch, which does all the “real work” of keeping the world safe, and the eventual fall of Overwatch, which is its guiding light.

---------

Part 4: Profit vs. Progress

We know that in the present day (Recall era), Talon has fallen into being little more than a glorified, profit-making and profit-securing army for various individuals. Vialli, the man who replaced Antonio, is one of them, and he’s currently a sort of “de facto” leader in Akande’s absence.

It is outright stated in “Masquerade” that Vialli has a vested interest in “keeping the status quo” of the no-Overwatch world. He doesn’t want to rock the boat or disrupt profits, so he uses Talon for...smaller ideals. Money. Control. Power.

Talon is the antithesis of Overwatch.

If Overwatch’s concern was balancing peace and stability vs sovereignty and freedom, then Talon’s concern is the opposite: balancing war and violence vs profitability and comfort. If Overwatch had a relatively cohesive and well-working leadership that cooperated on a massive scale for 20-25 years, Talon has a petty, politicking, conniving group of leaders that all want more power and more control. People in Talon barely last five or six years in the top positions, let alone several decades. People form alliances, break them the moment the tide shifts, switch to work with other people, send people to jail, blackmail each other, and literally throw each other off cliffs.

(don’t worry, we’re coming back to this scene later)

Why would this be any different with Antonio in charge?

Antonio: ...Good evening, Commander Reyes. Ha, how will this look on the news? Overwatch unlawfully abducting a respected businessman? Even if you take me now, my friends would have me released within the week. All these...theatrics have been a waste of our time.

Antonio identifies himself as a “businessman” - not as something noble like a Commander -

(“...saw far greater potential in Ogundimu, with his intelligence and his ability to inspire as a commander.”)

- Or a brilliant Scientist in pursuit of ultimate truths:

We know that Antonio kept “alliances” with Akinjide, who was “content to profit from raids on Numbani.” Both men are effectively posited as individuals with interests in keep Talon much smaller in scope. They didn’t want Blackwatch or Overwatch around, of course, but engaging in something like a global war?

No, they were content just to reap the rewards of dismantling Overwatch: more profits, more money, fewer investigations by Overwatch and Blackwatch, none of that “sillly peacekeeping organization” nonsense nipping at their heels.

But obviously

Akande wasn’t interested in “maintaining the status quo.”

Not in the present day, when he breaks out of prison -

And not when Antonio was in charge either.

Akande was going to help humanity progress with an army of new “enhanced” soldiers.

And what better way to gather results on their efficacy

Than by pitting them against an “old” enhanced soldier?

---------

Part 5: She Who Cuts Fate

Since this has been a long ride, let’s go over the basics again:

Retribution was meant to be an “off the books” “snatch and grab” mission to secure Antonio, bring him to a safe location, and get information from him. A select number of people know it is even happening:

Gabriel Reyes, Blackwatch Commander

Jesse McCree, seasoned Blackwatch agent

Genji Shimada, a “new-ish” cyborg agent

Moira O’Deorain, another “new-ish” agent specializing in combat medicine

the Pilot, who only drops them off and then picks them up

Jack Morrison, Overwatch Strike-Commander, who knows the mission is happening but not the details

Jack Morrison and the Pilot are effectively in semi-darkness on the mission: they both know that Gabriel has chosen to conduct it, but they do not know any more than that. The Pilot drops them off, and then picks up them up when she gets the emergency signal.

As the player plays the mode, and attempts harder difficulty levels, more information is revealed. Blackwatch was required to go “under cover” at times (with McCree posing as a waiter...and then getting fired from that cover job), and even managed to sneak a surveillance device into Antonio’s office.

McCree: Aww, even though we snuck that surveillance system into Antonio’s office, our intel’s a little spotty. Genji: Next time, you should leave it to me. I can spy upon our enemies - unseen...and undetected.

When Gabriel thinks they have enough intel, they make their move on Antonio’s manor, slip in, and enter his office.

And what they discover -

Not only is Antonio not surprised to see them -

He’s been anticipating them.

(seriously, can this scene get any more “I’ve been expecting you, Mr. Bonds”??)

I know some people took the “theatrics” line to imply that Gabriel is already a Talon mercenary, but that’s not what Antonio is saying. He’s telling Gabriel that the “show” of Overwatch (Blackwatch) arresting him, “parading” him through Venice, and then eventually releasing him will do nothing -

It won’t stop him personally.

It won’t stop Talon.

And it won’t help Overwatch “keep the world safe.”

Gabriel gives a small little laugh as the “real truth” of Antonio’s words sink in.

And the framing of these moments is so important.

Before anyone goes “you’re overthinking it”, someone animated this.

Someone framed this.

These are not actors, they’re not real people. They cannot alter or rework a scene the way a real person can. These are animated models. Someone deliberately chose to frame these moments with Moira clear but out of focus in the background, patiently watching for Gabriel’s “reaction” (yet another result, perhaps?). Someone animated Gabriel sighing/laughing, animated him thinking it over, animated him looking down as he processes “the real meaning” of Antonio’s words -

And a split second before Gabriel makes his full decision -

Even Antonio “figures it out.”

They’ve both been had.

Someone has pushed both of them together, to this moment, where one or both of them will die. Antonio was used as simple bait to rile Gabriel up and draw out crucial Blackwatch members from the security of an Overwatch base (where the combined strength of Overwatch and Blackwatch would protect them).

And the person who did it doesn’t care which one lives and which one dies -

Because any result of her “experiment” is fascinating to her.

So Gabriel decides, right then and there:

One - he’s not going to be the one to die here.

Two - he’s not going to be the one to get his entire team killed.

Three - he’d rather take his chances fighting his way out of the city than surrender (if you pay attention to the Talon troopers, many of them say “No prisoners”).

Four - consequences be damned, they have to get the hell out just to even experience the “consequences.”

And Moira O’Deorain could not be more intrigued by the turn of events.

A Talon leader, who was a likely major obstacle for her ideological goals, is now dead.

But way more intriguing than that -

Is the fact that McCree freaks out.

An unforeseen “side effect” is the schism of doubt and feeling of betrayal that McCree has with his Commander.

Perhaps she did not anticipate this...bonus.

If you’re still here and still interested, the next question many people asked is “How does Gabriel even know it’s her?”

Remember, only four people knew this was happening this night, this method, in this moment - the four people still alive in the room.

What happens throughout the rest of the mission is the slow but steady piecing together of missing information:

Evidence 1: The Talon Sniper has Wraith/Shadowstep

As shown in the first cutscene, the first Talon Sniper materializes “seemingly from nowhere”, along with a cloud of black and red smoke. This is almost identical to Gabriel’s Shadowstep, a canon ability that has appeared in multiple shorts and at least two comics.

However, it is an ability that not even Gabriel Reyes himself has the technological knowledge or skill to reproduce.

But let me hit this nail again:

Someone else clearly does have that knowledge and skill.

And she has used it on herself.

Evidence 2: Genji has no goddamn idea what’s happening

Genji: Who was Antonio? Gabriel: He’s an arms dealer, with some...other interests - more and less legitimate. McCree: ...Not anymore.

Genji doesn’t even know who their target is.

They brought him along, in near-total intel darkness, just to kill people.

Genji also reveals a deep hatred for Talon and all criminals, and also expresses that Talon once approached his father, Sojiro Shimada, to recruit him.

Genji: Talon once tried to recruit my father. Gabriel: He didn’t take them up on their offer? Genji: He did not find them to his liking. Their aims did not...coincide with his own.

(Source)

Despite everything that has happened to Genji, the ninja appears to have immense respect for his father. And his father had an implied fondness for his second son, giving him the nickname of “Sparrow.”

Evidence 3: Moira is a smug little punk the entire mission

Almost all of Moira’s interactions throughout the mission have her either belittling the other characters, dishing out pithy remarks, or egging people (mostly Gabriel) on.

Moira: You did what needed to be done, Gabriel. Don’t apologize. Gabriel: I never have, and I don’t intend to start now. Someone has to be the one to get things done.

McCree: Better to kill them now than wait for another surprise attack! Moira, to herself: ...ha, ironic.

Moira: I wouldn’t describe this as ‘light resistance’...quality intelligence we received. Genji: It makes no difference to me. Moira: ...How droll.

Gabriel: Enough art! Let’s get out of here. McCree: Never had the eye for it anyways. Moira, muttering: ...philistines.

However, the most important interactions are the ones about the masquerade:

Moira: Pity we’ll miss the masquerade - I have the perfect costume. Reyes: Didn’t think that would be your scene. Moira: There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me…

(source)

And another one where McCree almost suspects something:

McCree: ...You seem awfully calm. Moira: I take it all in my stride.

Evidence 4: Retrospective...prospective...introspection??

I don’t even know what you want to call this but basically:

Retribution occurs before Uprising.

Blackwatch gets suspended because of this mission that went awry.

But what’s interesting is that three of the four playable Blackwatch characters are still active in Overwatch, even with the suspension.

McCree is still there.

Genji is still there.

And most of all:

Gabriel Reyes is still there.

So even though Retribution goes sideways real fast -

The man in charge of it is still present in Overwatch a year later.

Which means that this moment

Isn’t what McCree’s narration implies it to be.

Gabriel is getting chewed out, absolutely. But a mission with bad press happens to intelligence agencies the world over all the time.

And why would Gérard Lacroix be present for a “You got us bad PR, now I’ve got to do damage control” meeting?

This meeting is not about “How did you mess this mission up?”

This meeting is about:

“How did a Talon agent infiltrate and sell out Blackwatch?”

“How did she get our technology?”

“Why didn’t Gabriel do a better background check on her?”

The really depressing speculation?

Gabriel Reyes has been living with his “Reaper” condition for nearly 25 years by the time of Retribution.

He thinks about his friends, companions, and agents dying as he lives on, alone, without them.

A man who is normally so careful, so cautious saw someone who could change his fate for the first time in nearly twenty years -

And he was willing to let her do whatever she needed to do

To “cure him.”

But Moira saw an opportunity to strike a blow against the organization that “tried to silence her”

And she took it.

Anything in the name of science, anything in the pursuit of truth.

“Because sometimes what makes a villain a villain is the extent to which they’re willing to go to reach their goals. And one thing that we find most important when we’re talking about our villain characters is that there is nothing to say that a villain cannot be as charismatic - or more charismatic - or as likeable as a hero character. Because like the old saying goes, ‘Every villain is the hero of their own story.’”

---------

Part 6: The Masquerade

It is not a coincidence that both Moira and Gabriel have interactions discussing the masquerade of Carnevale.

Moira: first interaction

Moira: Pity we’ll miss the masquerade - I have the perfect costume. Reyes: Didn’t think that would be your scene. Moira: There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me…

(source)

Moira: second version

Moira: Pity we’ll miss the masquerade - I have the perfect costume. Reyes: Didn’t think that would be your scene. Moira: You’re not the only one who likes to dress up.

Gabriel version:

Gabriel: It’s not exactly Carnevale McCree: You serious? Gabriel: I was looking forward to the masquerade! McCree: Fair enough.

McCree, who also mentions Carnevale at one point, does not actually specifically mention “masquerade.”

This is important for two reasons:

The first: “Reaper” is a major character in the present-day Doomfist comic, “Masquerade,” where Akande kills Vialli (who Gabriel still does not recognize by sight) and then returns to the Talon council.

And as the vast majority of my followers know me for:

http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/172826364335/segadores-y-soldados-yall-keep-saying-that

“Masquerade” is the comic where I went from “Reaper could be trying to infiltrate Talon” to “The literary parallels to ‘The Masque of Red Death’ are too substantial to ignore.”

http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/163200042035/death-becomes-you

The second:

“Masquerade” was Moira’s first canon appearance in the entire story of Overwatch - all the shorts, all the comics, all the side materials.

So yeah, both references are not just cute little cheeky remarks, but foreshadoing for the later events of the comic.

And why does this matter in Retribution?

Because Gabriel immediately switches from “Blackwatch Commander Reyes” to “sarcastic, nonchalant, rogue Reaper” in an instant.

And it is not due to a shift in motivations -

But because he now has to keep himself and two agents alive without alerting Moira that he’s onto her.

I personally believe that yes, Gabriel’s standard personality is sarcastic and humorous in general, but there are moments when he pushes things to an...unusual extreme. He almost seems to amp up McCree’s anger, making casual jokes and remarks about the “army” they’re facing (“yeah, they’ve really rolled out the red carpet,” “It’s not exactly Carnevale,” “I still think we should’ve gone as the band.”), joking about the art gallery, the restaurant at the end, the whole thing. McCree often responds with what sounds like raw, real anger -

But it also gives Moira a...target for her attention.

Gabriel: What’s keeping our ride - we can’t wait forever! McCree: Something tells me that the army of bad guys convergin’ on our position isn’t helping. Moira: McCree’s instincts are - as ever - unimpeachable.

Gabriel Reyes has to play a delicate game here: he cannot alert Moira that he knows what’s happening, and he has to convince her to think that she’s “getting to him”. He cannot make McCree mad enough that McCree lashes out “too hard,” and he cannot be obvious enough to McCree to give away that Moira has compromised them.

Though he also makes attempts to soothe McCree’s anger at different turns:

McCree: We didn’t have to go to all this trouble if we were just gonna kill Antonio. Reyes: It wasn’t how I drew it up. McCree: …Coulda fooled me.

(source)

If you pay close attention, there’s actually a few instances where Gabriel almost slips or falters.

Gabriel, to Genji: You know your brother would’ve made a good agent. Genji: (no response) Gabriel: touchy subject

(source)

Gabriel: Am I the only one who feels hungry? Moira: That could be an unforeseen side effect... Gabriel: ...I was making a joke.

(source)

In the first interaction, Gabriel attempts to crack a (rather inappropriate) joke to Genji, but unlike McCree, Genji’s anger is silent and cold. Gabriel attempts to diffuse the situation by quickly dropping it.

In the second, he attempts to make a joke about the restuarant, perhaps hoping to rile McCree up for another wisecracking one-liner or even some more frustrated remarks, but instead he grabs Moira’s attention, as she is suddenly intrigued by his “condition.” Gabriel passes it off with a casual “it was just a joke” remark.

“But why would he even do that? Why not shoot Moira?”

Because Moira is the only person in the entire city who will attempt to keep McCree and Genji alive.

Gabriel can heal himself in small doses, and he could probably flee with some sort of wraith form, but if he kills Moira or tips her off, McCree and Genji will die. They have no other healer, no one knows where they are located, and no help is coming unless the Pilot picks up their distress signal.

And then they have to make it to the extraction point after fighting effectively everyone in the city.

“Could they have stealthed their way back out?”

Possibly. It’s hard to say: if he had asked Genji or Moira to kill Antonio, Moira might had figured out what Gabriel was thinking. Or Antonio could’ve triggered the alert. But an element of surprise - as risky as it was - was all Gabriel had in his sleeve in the moment with Antonio.

“Okay, but why not shoot her at the end?”

Really?

A better question is:

“Why is Gabriel Reyes still working with her?”

And the likely answer is pretty plain.

Something - like, I dunno, an explosion - made Gabriel’s “Reaper” condition worse. His skin has turned ash grey. His unmasked appearance - whatever it is - horrifies someone who has known him for 30 years.

If he is not faking his anger with Jack Morrison, he is furious that Jack and Overwatch let this happen to him, though we don’t know specifically what would cause such a radical shift in his motivations (Jack would have to do something that really upsets Gabriel to lose Gabriel’s loyalty).

But Gabriel also probably has very little choice in cooperating with Moira in the present day.

On Oasis, Reaper and Sombra have a very specific interaction:

Sombra: So what are we doing here, boss? Reaper: I need to pay a visit to a friend.

And again - I don’t know if Reaper means this genuinely or sarcastically. I don’t know what the specific details of his present-day working relationship with Moira are. I don’t know if she is coercing him into working for Talon, if she is holding up his “cure” as his “reward” for cooperating with her, if he genuinely supports Talon, or if he’s actively using his effective immortality to bring Talon down.

But it makes this moment

All the more heartbreaking.

Gabriel Reyes had a brief moment of hope that someone could finally cure him -

And that was shattered.

This does not look like the debriefing of a defiant, angry, bitter man.

This looks like someone who has realized that he jeopardized everything and everyone he has ever loved to be free from a “deal with Death” he made 25 years ago to help save the world.

Call me an apologist if you must, but let me remind you:

“You know, as we reveal more about these characters, we want people to be able to empathize and understand their beliefs. Because sometimes what makes a villain a villain is the extent to which they’re willing to go to reach their goals. And one thing that we find most important when we’re talking about our villain characters is that there is nothing to say that a villain cannot be as charismatic - or more charismatic - or as likeable as a hero character. Because like the old saying goes, ‘Every villain is the hero of their own story.’”

But if Gabriel Reyes is going to suffer

Then the people who made it worse are going to suffer that exponentially.

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

And if he has to wear a mask to do it

And he has to infiltrate them

And he has to pick factions

And play the “bad guy”

Then he will.

It isn’t that consquences don’t matter -

But when you are Death Incarnate

They seem so much less important than correcting Fate -

And significantly less important than delivering retribution. ---------

If you want them:

Additional readings: “Talon: Clawing to the Top”: an early analysis of Reaper and Sombra working together to bring down Talon. Parts of it are amended in the second essay, “Death Becomes You”.

“Death Becomes You”: an analysis of “Masquerade” as through a reading of “The Masque of the Red Death.” Written a full nine months before the events of Retribution, and about four months before Moira was revealed. “Step Into My Parlor”: an analysis on Widowmaker’s relationship with Reaper and Sombra, and if she knows they are “up to something”

“Moira: A Fate Fulfilled”: a discussion on how fan theories reshaped Reaper’s story, and possibly helped create the character of Moira “Everything you want to know about Reaper and Soldier: 76″: a write-up on the different eras and contexts for the relationship between Reaper and Soldier: 76, and how Overwatch and Blackwatch worked together before the fall. Has a discussion on shipping. “A History of Healing (and Harming)”: an analysis of how the different “healing” mechanisms in the Overwatch universe are interconnected and why. “Overwatch: Companies and Corporations”: a write-up on the different fictional organizations in Overwatch, and how many of them are suspicious as all hell.

#reaper #gabriel reyes #moira #moira o'deorain #overwatch retribution #overwatch retribution spoilers #retribution #resources #references #my essays #my writing #soldier: 76 #ana amari #akande ogundimu #doomfist

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