#anyways reinhardt military coup takeover event lets goo

[zeravmeta]

honestly the way this event is written has me convinced that like, some internal meeting must have happened behind the scenes to make reinhardt one of the unofficial heroines of the game

it's just about the sheer rage of it all

this event shows us more backstory on it but honestly as long as we've had reinhardt she's always been not just idealistic, but angry

no one knows better than her how close the aurorians are to losing the war against the eclipse. time and time again she's been faced with the deaths of everyone she cares about, the genuine sacrifices that come from a war hinging on which side evolves faster, and she just hates the sheer unfairness of it all

reinhardt as she is now is long past being the hot headed soldier who thought she could singlehandedly change the system from the inside, she's weathered and bitter and smoldering and overall just tired of it all

this girl died. she fought and struggled so hard to be the change she wanted to see, put up with everything uncritically because she believed that if she toughed it out, things would work out

but they didn't. all her friends died and she was left as a weapon

but even then, she's still angry. Illumina went so far as to literally split reinhardt's rage, her will to survive, from her mind and yet she's still here.

despite all that, even though she wishes she can die she HAS to live, she can Only live because she is more than just a savior and a martyr, shes the only one willing to uphold an ideal of impartial fairness and justice in a world that demands sacrifice. she's freely admitted to being a terrible person in the past that even when directly facing her younger idealistic self she flat out tells her that she would be disappointed, because reinhardt has had to make compromises to her morals and ideals for the sake of survival

renegade and reinhardt are very distinct, both of them admit as much because what else would you say about snapshots of a person in radically different parts of their life, but even so there's no bitterness between them because renegade existed to keep reinhardt the person alive. she was that rage which illumina attempted to excise but simply couldn't because reinhardt at her core can't help but be herself and fight for what she believes in. despite being the top soldier of her unit she constantly disobeyed her superiors and even planned a coup just to do what she believed was best, and no matter how much they tried to break her, she simply didn't. she's suffered unimaginably yet believes her suffering isn't unique, that everyone fighting to survive suffers just like her and that so long as she remembers that, she won't ever give up.

and now, she will. and she isn't going to let anyone stop her. illumina wanted a perfect soldier and instead created a sword that will rend them asunder