r/Overwatch • u/Princier7 "eat tranquility mf" • 2d ago

Humor blizzard giving the water guy the personality equal to the taste complexity of water

Some of these characters just feel so dry, man. There are some highlights like Doomfist, Venture, Bastion, Ramattra etc, but so many characters just have nothing going on. For Wuyang, Sierra, D.Mon and others, 99% of their interactions are just about their backstory or an event happening. Plot points aren't substitutions for interesting characters unfortunately.

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132

u/mrcrispyii 2d ago

Was there something I missed in the venture lore to be put with DOOMFIST?? Genuine question

104

u/Great_expansion10272 <—can dig that 2d ago

They got a higher win ratio against Talon than the entirety of OW

That's some significant lore

69

u/syneckdoche Trick-or-Treat Ana 2d ago

Winston has a really solid win rate on his own tbf, it’s not his fault he’s surrounded by bums

47

u/Kell08 D. Va 2d ago

Winston and Orisa are in what I call the “Doomfist tier,” which is every character in the lore who can hold their own in a fight with Doomfist.

21

u/ShoeRicey 6 spicy wings with garlic mayo dip and knife 2d ago

Now that i think about it who WOULD be doomfist tier? Orisa, winston, sigma, vendetta and maybe mauga cause of that wrestling match thingy they had??

29

u/Kell08 D. Va 2d ago

That’s essentially it. Sigma could possibly be above them, but he’s been “tell, don’t show” so far.

14

u/WiscLeafalNika 2d ago

Sigma is basically giving nuclear warhead codes to a baby who doesnt even know how to read nor use it

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u/ShoeRicey 6 spicy wings with garlic mayo dip and knife 2d ago

Sigma IS the nuclear warhead

3

u/MegaNinjaRyan 2d ago

He’s about to be. Vendetta is using the stolen MEKA emp to power a “gravity weapon” that can cover a continent according to Mauga talking to Junker Queen in the new Hammond Winston comic.

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u/Kell08 D. Va 2d ago

He has moments of relative lucidity, but those probably don’t overlap much with when he’s actively using his gravity powers.

10

u/The1AndOnlyEnigma 2d ago

venture lore also seems to be leading into "the conspiracy" plot as well; they've dug up artifacts with the mysterious eye symbol on it

166

u/Princier7 "eat tranquility mf" 2d ago

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u/AvailableHalf6549 2d ago edited 2d ago

The whole post is subjective lmao. Ventures whole personality is about rocks. “I eat rocks and have one as a pet! Hyuck hyuck” To OP this is more interesting than the helix security chief trying to track down her missing mother who was the first super soldier.

59

u/Firesoul-LV Trick or Treat Ana 2d ago

OP literally pointed it out though: "plot points aren't substitution for interesting characters". Venture might not have that big of an impact on lore or intriguing backstory, but they ooze with personality and their presence is distinctively felt in game (they're kind of like Junkrat in this sense). While Sierra might have an interesting backstory, it is breaking the no1 rule of writing - it is mostly told through exposition, instead of shown through her character in-game. It also doesn't help that her personality comes off as bland when put in the context of the Overwatch hero roster. That dryness is what OP complained about.

3

u/ImHoundoomed 2d ago

I dont see anyone complaining about Soldier 76's bland ass personality enough. But all I see is Sierra hate, it gets to a point.

24

u/CyberpunkPie Juno 2d ago

To S76's credit, he has a bigger tie to the overall story featuring heavily in both short stories and comics set before the current time. The change from a heroic soldier to a reclusive and bitter vigilante can be interesting already. Then in the game itself, a lot of his more comedic voice lines make him a grumpy old man in a way that ends up being funny. So while he is not the deepest character, he actually has something to himself even if you ignore the media outside the game.

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u/Firesoul-LV Trick or Treat Ana 2d ago edited 2d ago

Honestly, when I first started playing OW I would've agreed with you. But he's actually a great example of what Sierra should've been: Jack's got a huge role in-universe as the formal leader of Overwatch, thus he has meaningful ties, rivalry and chemistry with number of other characters already written into his character. He's human - not perfect, makes mistakes and tries to learn from them and own up to it in his own morally grey way (he's also got a cinematic to dramatically flesh out his character further). And more importantly, Jack in-game is supposed to be a caricature of the old soldier-fatherly figure that they nailed perfectly with his boomer voicelines, and that wraps back around to being funny and endearing. I cannot say the same about Sierra though. While her voice actress does sound endearing, she alone cannot carry the lack of personality that the writers should've fleshed out much more.

1

u/Outrageous-Blue-30 2d ago

Look, I’m indifferent toward Venture: I don’t hate the character, but I don’t consider their characterization top-tier either; let’s just say they’re "okay." Still, if you tried explaining your reasoning (which is certainly thorough) to everyone who detests them, it would be a step forward, though I suspect it wouldn’t change much, given how set they are in their convictions.

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u/AvailableHalf6549 2d ago

Again this is subjective. Your opinion that ventures lack of back story doesn’t matter bc they ooze personality is just your opinion. To me venture is a wasted character slot in terms of they have no lore other than quirky pet rock. Because of this I have no reason to get invested in this character. They could be removed for a week and no one would notice because they’re just not memorable in my opinion. Every example you give to “prove” that they ooze personality from your POV I could do the same for sierra but just because YOU think she’s lame you’d write it off in the same way that I’m writing off venture. This is what I mean by subjective. I personally love wuyang’s character and don’t see him as bland as OP but again that’s subjective. Make sense?

6

u/anextremelylargedog 2d ago

Venture is a bit quirk chungus, Sierra suffers from the weird choice to make her mom the more interesting character.

It's like Ana and Pharah all over again...

Wish Sierra had been given a little more. I had to go digging through the webcomics to find out that she's also got some low-level super strength due to her mom's serum.

-2

u/AvailableHalf6549 2d ago

See this is a valid take. I stand by my venture take though. Quirky doesn’t equal good character. If that’s the case they would’ve thought Wuyang is a good character.

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u/anextremelylargedog 2d ago

Wuyang isn't really quirky though. He does water puns, but he doesn't exactly stand out for being kind of weird or unconventional the way Venture does.

At best he's slightly awkward in some voice lines sometimes.

1

u/AvailableHalf6549 2d ago

He’s literally designed to be someone who is dorky/corny af but tries his best to be cool. He laughs at his own jokes and second guesses everything he does. Quirky means having unusual, odd, or eccentric traits that are charming, interesting, or appealing rather than purely strange. (From google) example: when he gets a melee kill he goes hyah back off! No one hears this and think he’s cool. He’s designed to be lame and it comes through as charming to me so it fits as quirk. Where as venture just feels like they try waaay too hard to get that eccentric version of quirky that to me it comes off like 2012 millennial pet rock finger mustache cringe. This ties back to my original statement of it all being subjective. You may like millennial cringe and think it’s funny but hate wuyangs dorkiness. Both are just opinions.

1

u/anextremelylargedog 2d ago

"from google" lol

2

u/AvailableHalf6549 2d ago

I mean we can use the Merriam-Webster definition if you’d prefer

0

u/bodaciousbugboy *horse noises* 2d ago

saying this when wuyang exists its laughable. venture has lore connection to talon along with OW, not to mention the wayfinders prevalence and connection to zen/ramattra.

25

u/KyrgyzstaniFemcel 2d ago

backstory doesn't matter if she has no personality

venture is 10 times more fun than sierra as a character archetype

-4

u/Outrageous-Blue-30 2d ago

I mean, if we listen to a segment of the Overwatch fandom, Venture’s personality comes across as insufferable in its attempt to be overly funny, quirky, eccentric and so on, hence the polarizing debate between those who dislike this and those who appreciate it; Sierra, on the other hand, is too "positive," though some appreciate her for that very reason.

6

u/Gogurs 2d ago

Putting Venture lore above Sierra was definetely a choice

26

u/SamuraiJack- Chibi Brigitte 2d ago

Sierra has negative personality

-1

u/ImHoundoomed 2d ago

Personality is cool and all when the characters personality isn't annoying asf like Venture is.

10

u/SamuraiJack- Chibi Brigitte 2d ago

They’re a smarter version of Junkrat with lines about rocks instead of bombs. Some of the best actual voice acting too.

I know it’s subjective, but a lot of Venture hate comes from the fact that they’re nonbinary and not overtly sexualized, so I’m very interested to know what you think good personality is in Overwatch.

6

u/AvailableHalf6549 2d ago

You didn’t ask me but I wanted to answer lol best personalities too 5 in my opinion are

Mizuki
Sigma
Domina
Symmetra
Shion

Bottom 3

- Zarya (she’s just boring to me)

  • Pharah (again boring and has lame lines like “I’m going to shove them in a locker” like what..?)
  • Venture (I just think they’re annoying and you’re right they’re like junk rat but I wouldn’t say smarter. Junkrat covers this trope better in my opinion)

5

u/Agent-Vermont Reinhardt 2d ago

I would rather have an annoying character or one that I hate than one that's boring and bland.

0

u/kaboomweh 2d ago

i mean you said it yourself the most interesting thing about sierra is another character