Moira: The name Moira is a given name of Greek origin, deriving from μοῖρα, meaning “destiny, share, fate”.
I’ve already seen people asking me when my essay is going to happen and I need to be completely honest with you guys:
This has been one of the most stressful weeks of my life in a very long time. I do not have the energy – physical or emotional – to write a full essay at this moment. I have, however, already seen people making mistakes on where Moira stands in the lore, and I want to clarify some of those:
Timeline: Moira was only a part of Blackwatch for less than a full year – its final year (aka, the final year of Overwatch).
In Moira’s Origin story, we see Moira testing on Gabriel Reyes. There is a look of fear, of terror in his eyes as smoke rises from his body… The very smoke that will drift off his skin non-stop in the future as he becomes “Reaper”
Gabe came to Moira in search of power…in search of gaining an advantage. As a previous subject to the Super Soldier Enhancement program, he was already powerful…but not quite as powerful as Jack Morrison, Overwatch’s “poster child.”
Moira, desperate to advance her technology at any cost, knew this would happen. While unsure of how her technology would react with the Super Soldier Enhancement, she did not tell Gabe everything. She would not just give him an advantage.
She would make him into an advantage.
Why Gabe?
Experimenting on Gabe would allow Moira to understand her technology better, as the only trials she’d conducted had been on animals, such as rabbits.
Did Moira test on herself? She was ready to…yet experimenting with death had no returns. Fearful for her own sake, she tested on Gabe to get a better grasp of her technology, so she could perfect it.
This led to Gabriel Reyes losing his form, possibly even dying. He went to Mercy to be healed, to be saved.
Yet Gabriel Reyes could not be saved. Instead, he became Reaper and was born anew with a passionate hatred for Overwatch, the very organization that pushed him to become what he was.
With the experiments on Gabriel complete, Moira finally gained a better understanding of her work. Seeing Reaper consume health from others, she learned how to perfect her own abilities to heal into a more concentrated stream while dealing damage.
With Reaper’s teleportation and drift, she learned how to concentrate her powers enough to allow her fade ability.
Moira used Gabe to advance herself.
And with Gabriel Reyes’s death and birth as Reaper, Moira was able to become who she was;
“…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.”
Little theory here! I could be wrong though, so keep that in mind. I think that Gabriel may have wanted the Soldier Enhancement Program for Blackwatch/Overwatch. It would 100% help them. So, he went to Moira- the Blackwatch support. We already know Moira is shady. She isn’t a good guy here, no matter which way you look at it.
Her peers didn’t like her ethical shortcomings, which leads us to be that she may have experimented on omnics and humans and used possibly harmful methods. For example, she could have unwillingly tested on people and omnics (especially omnics since they are considered to be ‘below’ by some people) and used possibly illegal drugs and shit like that.
Anyway, I think Gabe possibly went to her and asked her to help reverse engineer the SEP so he could get ahold of it and use it on other agents. If not that, maybe he wanted to remove it’s hold on him. Moira could have done just that- but did a bit extra without Gabe’s consent.
You see here that she is eager, while he is obviously confused. This is just before he starts to get his little reaper wisps. He isn’t happy. This isn’t what he wanted. If it was an accident, wouldn’t Moira be more concerned?
Further more, Moira is in the same costume as Mercy but her “halo” is broken and she has horns which could represent being evil. Also, as you know Moira is Irish. In Irish folklore, they have a feminine creature called a Banshee that can predict and bring death. They typically look like this.
If you notice, the hand Moira has on Gabe’s shoulder sort of looks like this. Seeing she is Irish and has made Gabe into Reaper, I think this whole banshee ties help solidify what she did was on purpose and intended.
Now, as for Mercy and Gabe’s hostility towards her? Maybe she had promised to help and tried to, but only made things worse. It isn’t exactly clear but he is hostile towards her and puts her to blame for some of it. It is confirmed though from the video that Moira did do this to Gabe, and this entire post is just a back up to solidify it and try to give a motive.
As some of
you know, I’m a huge fan of Overwatch, specially all the amazing effort
Blizzard’s team had on character design and development. They have very
interesting designs, characteristics and unique personalities. Not to mention
they have a double care to create a multi-national and multi ethnic group of
heroes. The same goes to my compatriot, Lúcio, the Brazilian DJ and a lovely
support hero.
As far as I
can see, they traced a very nice character with very precise and even natural Brazilian
characteristics. Look at his full name: Lúcio Correia dos Santos is a very
common name and sounds very natural to heard to us, differently from many other
Brazilian characters in other games (I’m looking at you, Tekken’s Eddy Gordo).
He also carries many of the carioca style
on his voice manner (even more in the pt-br dub, since his VA here is from the
same city) and, most of all, he’s a reliable character and carries his nationality
nicely. Just look at his main colors: yellow and green (with blue details), all
the colors of our flag, combine so great that doesn’t sound rude at all. He’s
true to his favela origin and is a party lover who loves to cheer everyone
around him.
With all
this, I looked at his frog tattoo and found it… curious, to say at least. It
reminded me of something from my region. But, I wasn’t sure if the Blizzard team
would go THAT FAR to characterize him.
But then I
received my Art of Overwatch’s artbook (really good artbook, but, I recommend
it) and when I was reading about his conception, I read this:
“..they
based his frog symbol on the giant monkey frog, a bright green amphibian from
the Amazon basin that’s used in traditional healing ceremonies.”
This frog
in specific is on the origins of a very popular amulet from where I’m from: the Muiraquitã.
This amulet
(that from the native language can be translate as “knot of trees”, usually
craft on greenish stones like jade and nephrite or even in woods, is an old artifact from the Low Amazon Basin’s Indians, like the Tapajós and Konduri to represent
different kinds of animals, like fishes, turtles, but mostly frogs). The first
reports about they are waaay back from the 16th century, back from the Portuguese
Colonization period of Brazil.
This region right here.
According
to some historians, the Tapajós women used this amulet to prevent diseases and
infertility. As an extension of the original monkey frog’s curative properties
they used.
Nowadays,
this amulet can be found as a pendant and illustrate many decorative objects
around my regions, usually sold as a souvenir.
Ultimately,
I’m utterly happy to see an amulet from my region (so far away from Lúcio’s
hometown, Rio de Janeiro) being used on his design to reinforce his healing and
cheerful personality and style. Overwatch dev team, have my most sincere gratitude and praise.
Stop talking and start doing: My Fallout Shelter for my Tumblr blog 