#i don’t have a particular vision for the backstory of this picture. universe where they’re all working at the Agency? holiday truce?

[stellar-collective]

If you're still taking requests (/nf /gen):

Phoenix and everyone else enjoying fireworks on New Year's?

Reginald is telling Phoenix that he’s surprised they’re not off running the firework show, and they’re telling him that they were asked but they decided to hang out with their friends instead. this is a lie they got hard banned from using fireworks while drunk which, as its New Years, they most definitely are

here’s the version with the flat colors bc i think this is the first time i’ve drawn them all together and idk i like them :]

[xxbakacoconutxx]

So here’s a nice little interview with Tobias where he talks about Copia, changing characters, the three times Papa III fell, a common nightmare, horror movies with his kids and horror movies in general. The volume is pretty low, so I’ve typed everything out below the read more!

Nudge: This is Nudge on the bus here with Tobias Forge. It is an honor to be here, sir. Thank you for creating an entire universe with your music.

Tobias: Thank you for enjoying it. [laughs]

Nudge: I’ve enjoyed it from the very start. Now, I wanna start out in the – Cardinal Copia… Your backstory with him, he won the most employee of the month awards from Papa Nihil. What kind of crazy stuff did he have to do for that?

Tobias: Uhhm…. For my well-being, I’m actually quite happy that I don’t know.

[Someone in the background laughs]

Tobias: I don’t want to think about whatever chores there are within the ministry that adds up to employee of the month. I don’t know exactly.

Nudge: You don’t know? But that’s alright.

[Someone in the background says “but I’m sure it’s hard work”]

Nudge: Speaking of hard, when you transition to another singer with Ghost, is it hard to say goodbye to that particular character? That front man?

Tobias: Uhm… I usually feel a bit ambivalent about that segment of… you know it’s always enthusias- like I’m always enthusiastic about making a new record, and also very very pumped about having a new release as much as any artist, I guess, and from a creative point of view, it’s always refreshing. And it’s exciting, but that bit is definitely putting a limiter on that excitement, unfortunately. But I’ve learned over the years, of doing it a couple times, that it’s just part of the program and uh….yeah. [laughs]

Nudge: Now Cardinal Copia is sticking around for a second album. At one point, he was called an imposter. Do you still feel he’s an imposter, or has he proved himself?

Tobias: I think he’s fine, I mean I think he’s cool. I would love- like also from the previous questions asked- to do it that way. [laughs] Because then that means you don’t have to change that much. But still, it’s like, also like reconfiguring the look of the band is also like a…it’s a hard thing to um… Imagine if your … it’s almost to the point where - if you’ve had a long, big beard and long hair for a long time and all of a sudden you shave everything off, it takes time to sort of like adjust to that because you have, you know, this picture in your head of what you’re doing and… but throughout all these years of doing Ghost it is a sort of a schizophrenic experience just because you are so distant. Me, personally, my own vision of myself does not correlate with what I see on a picture of us playing last night. It’s like this completely different being. So, adding to that is like when you’ve done the first few shows of a tour cycle and with a new costume and with the new look of the band it always feels a little bit like “ok, so this is what we are now?” [laughs] You know, it’s always a little strange.

Nudge: With new costumes, it’s been rumored that Cardinal Copia is still working hard at becoming a Papa. Are you excited for that movement? And getting promoted?

Tobias: Um, potentially yeah. Yeah, yeah I’m very curious to see where we’re going as well.

Nudge: what does he have to do to get promoted?

Tobias: [in a funny voice] oh, meters and meters of – [regular voice] no! [laughs] Uh, I dunno. Hard work and… that’s what it is. Hard work, and don’t fuck up.

[Someone laughs in the background]

Nudge: Has he fucked up in your opinion? On these last legs of the tour?

Tobias: No, I mean, I mean even compared to his brother in the past… uhm, no his brother- that was the previous guy… uh [laughs nervously] compared to the previous dudes, Cardi has not - so far - fallen off stage, which is a good thing.

[Someone is the background says “Oh I remember that video. Did that hurt?”]

Tobias: I-I wouldn’t know!

Nudge: He didn’t complain?

Tobias: He felt - like, Papa III fell three times. Three times was… like- hard. Like I remember there was one time at a festival in LA and that wasn’t very- it wasn’t involved with pain, but it was one of those where the air almost like [makes a coughing/wheezing noise]. And uh, the one on the Iron Maiden show where he fell into a hole on stage- or technically it was in between the two sort of thrusts – that could have ended very badly. Because it was a jack in the leg and would have been a jack in the back of the head hadn’t it been for the extra padding. So that could’ve ended very, very badly. And what else was it…?

Nudge: It was impressive that he went on and didn’t miss a beat after he got back up.

Tobias: Right, well we were lucky because we were doing it in between Mummy Dust and Monstrance Clock so there was the speech thing in between and had it been like just a dry start into the next song it would have been probably not doable. I had sit down and I was sitting on the edge of the stage just like “my god”, just feeling - like touching my leg and it was all numb and I could feel that it was all messed up underneath and it was bloody, and… and um, you know when you injure yourself sometimes you feel so nauseous? [Person in background says “yeah”] You’re about to- you know I was almost hurling like [makes pained noise] and you feel all shook up.

And the third time was in Leeds, of all places. We have these ego risers, which is basically just a box on stage - on the edge of the stage - with a little bit of grating on and then underneath you have like pyro and things that sort of- lights and stuff. But you can jump up on it, and we do that all the time, and this was a night like any other so we do that little bounce and you land with two feet on that box. But one foot was outside the box, so I just went like, almost head first down into the pit. And I sort of landed on all fours, sort of like a cat like [makes a “kch” sound] but I sort of hit my head on the mojo fence. Because you know, the barrier has like one um, sort like leg that it’s resting... um what do you call it… angular to sort of support the crowd. So, landing on all fours like that, but then hit my head right on the, on that little leg there.

Nudge: Speaking of horror stories, is there any mask horror stories? I find it impressive that performers wear a mask and go through all that. Is there one where it almost fell off or you lost it?

Tobias: oh, I thought you said whores- [laughs] no, no. Um, horror stories… well, I mean the most terrifying things that I usually dream about, which is a nightmare – which I know several others in the band also have, and I think it comes sort of with the fact that, I think most entertainers that are due to stand on stage at a certain time and prepare to do something dream this, it’s like – every now and then I dream that we’re sort of circling up before the show and we’re like “alright, go!” and everybody runs up to their positions and then you notice that you’re standing there in your civil clothing like “…no!” [laughs] uhm, but other than that, like…. Yeah, sneezing in it is not very cool.

[Someone in the background laughs]

Tobias: I’ve done that a couple times.

Nudge: [laughs] It’s trapped in it

Tobias: Yeah, yeah.

Nudge: Let’s go to the family side of you. You don’t get a lot of time at home, so I’d like to know: when you’re home what kind of family fun activities do you enjoy?

Tobias: One thing that I enjoy now which I’ve been waiting for, for years- I’ve always been, I mean, I come from a very liberal home, we’ve always been very… you know, my mom was very…allowing? And I had an older brother so I saw a lot of things that I maybe shouldn’t have seen. And many, many, many nights… mom sleeping on the couch and I’m seeing late night films with her sort of just sleeping next to me. And that could’ve been anything, like Scarface, Alien, you name it. Like all those things, when I was like 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Um, Shining. So my relationship to a lot of these films are very, very- I connect it with my childhood, like I connect it with so many nostalgic things… And I guess I was a little quick sometimes with my kids, like “Yeah, Temple of Doom, sure” like, and it-

[Someone in the background says “yeah, see a heart get ripped out!”]

Tobias: Yeah, and basically that scene was just like… caused like, a negative effect and like… “What’s…? This is like a matinee Lucas/Spielberg film…?”

[Someone in the background says “Rated PG!”]

Tobias: Yeah, yeah, like, totally fine! But now they’re 10 and my son has been - started to show real interest in horror films. He’s like really into Chucky and Child’s Play and you know, he wants to see Friday the 13th and like, “I’m game!”

[Someone in the background says “Oh yeah!”]

Nudge: you have to take him to see the new Child’s Play movie that’s coming out.

Tobias: Yeah that’s the one that we haven’t seen.

[Someone in the background “It’s coming out in a few months I think. There’s a new trailer for it.”]

Tobias: Yeah, I hope it’s as humoristic as the other ones. But most films that’re being remade, they have a tendency to completely not be charming anymore and they’re just like filled with jump-scares and it’s just horrible from first to last second. And that’s not really cool. I mean, all the horror films that I love are sort of very well balanced where there are segments of just transportation. So they’re just, you know there’s just better pacing in the old film.

Nudge: Alright, final question: what is your favorite horror film? Or a couple?

Tobias: My favorite ones… if I’m just going for like, for pure quality, it’s definitely the big cinematic releases like Jaws, Silence of the Lambs, Shining, Omen, The Exorcist, like the real films done by directors who don’t normally do horror films because that tends to get better that way. But on the other hand, I’m a big fan - from an entertainment point of view - of the more specialized like, genre directors. But those films have a lot of other qualities. It’s not techn- they’re not necessarily like, the best films.

[Someone in the background says “Mmhmm, like B movies”]

Tobias: Right! Yeah, yeah, yeah. That I really enjoy. Um, but yeah I mean I like a lot of the Italian like- old- like Fulci, like stuff like that. And not throwing him under the bus in any way, I think a lot of his films are fantastic, but they do not compare to Kubrick. It’s like a completely different level. So I sort of differentiate between like, here you have the “A grade”, big cinematic, fuckin box office success films, and then you have all of the cult films. They’re sort of two different things. And a lot of the things I grew up watching as well, that I have like a very fond memory of seeing, that I used to obsess about when I was a kid as well, like Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre is obviously – obviously that’s, even though it’s not a huge budget film, that is obviously very good. I think Terror - we say Terror in Sweden because it’s called Terror on Elm Street - but Nightmare on Elm Street, the whole Freddie series – especially the first four… three…. four films - I’d say is really cool. Every time I’m in LA I always swing by that, the house that’s on Genesee Street just because it’s like “there it is!”

[Someone in the background chuckles]

Nudge: Well I appreciate the time, man. Thank you so much for what you do. I appreciate it, and have a good show tonight.

[caddy-whump-us]

Some questions/food for thought: Why can Lucian never be a Black Swan? Has he done something to discount him from that entirely? Does he ever beg to be treated like one (and get suitably punished for his insolence)?

Oh anon~ This is about to be a Deep Dive into the Lore and Backstory. Spoilers ahead for some of the unwritten bits of the vampire series. And this is seriously long, okay? And, more importantly:

CAUTION/TW for referenced non-con, sex work, and forced/non-con sex work, and physical violence. Nothing is described outright; all mentions are only oblique references. Still, please proceed with caution!

Okay. Lucien. This snide little asshole. Let’s talk about him!!!

Lucien could be a black swan–in theory. But he’s been passed over because he’s actually not entirely human. O wat? O yes.

So the “red light district” of this city (which needs a name; I generally picture something like Yharnam from Bloodborne but with fewer monsters and more of a functional city) is called Smoketown. And it’s off to the southeast corner of the city, on the other side of the river. And this is the part of town where the drugs, gambling, dance halls, and sex workers are found. To use the local slang, there’s grindhouses and ponyboy stables, and dollboys around Smoketown. 

There’s a bit of a hierarchy, I guess, in all this, with the “dolls” and “dollboys” being the top tier (charging the most), down to the ponyboy/ponygirl stables (middle tier), down to the grindhouse boys/girls (lower tier), on down to the “crib hoors” and “street hoors” (generally regarded as awful and only suitable for the most broke and desperate). This is a real simplification, but I guess that explains the basics? 

Lucien was, some time ago, a dollboy (so was Maggie Magpie, actually). They’re regarded as the prettiest and most expensive–if you want to be fancy you could almost call them courtesans. And, ideally, they’ll get themselves a particular patron and be a sort of love affair for pay.

An aside: so this imagined world has different views on sexuality (and to some extent gender? but not quite so much). Basically, when one is young, go ahead and fool around. You’re young, what you do now is less important than what you do later. But because this culture still very much holds to primogeniture, you had better be married to someone with whom you can have a biological child. That’s the ideal. But while you’re young, a teenager, a 20-something, go ahead and fool around–ideally not in Smoketown, but if you’re a boy and you find yourself drawn to a boy classmate, well, that’s just how it is when you’re young. And if you’re a girl, and you find yourself drawn to a girl classmate, well, go on ahead, because young love is passionate but rarely lasts. You can like whoever during this period of particular romantic and sexual freedom.

Once one gets a little older, it’s considered mature and responsible to “grow out” of this phase of experimentation and rampaging passion. You settle down, you marry someone with whom you can have biological children, and your firstborn will inherit your estate, &c &c. But, of course, some people just…won’t. Because this is how they are. In some cases, like Nikolai and Jonathan, they go on with their relationship and don’t grow out of it but rather into each other (this is why N&J staged a secret wedding between themselves, with rings and all; they can’t marry in the eyes of the law, but they consider themselves married). And, yes, this is not considered mature or wholly acceptable, so they keep these (quite committed) relationships as secret as possible.

In other cases, especially among the titled, the gentry, the upper-class, who all marry each other as one does, if you must indulge in this misplaced youthful exuberance, there’s Smoketown. And if must go to Smoketown, at least pay for the services of one of the sex workers of equally high status. (Does that always happen? No. But you get the idea.)

So you have this set of “houses” of highly-paid, highly-regarded “dollboys.” And these houses are both in competition with one another but not a strenuous competition. Any competition mostly plays out in trying to find or recruit new workers (Maggie, as an example, was born to a sex worker and, presumably, a client and was kept as a kind of a household servant in that same “house” until the proprietor of the Aviary encountered him and essentially bought him and kept on using him as a household servant until he was of age to actual start work; he’s in debt at this point). 

And, of course, the different houses have different aesthetics. The Aviary tends to have boyish workers that play to that nostalgic “school romance” or “university romance” aesthetic, Lucien’s house (no name yet) tends to play more with gender especially re: clothing and makeup. Lucien likes feathers and leathers and silk and lace and painting his eyes. He knows he can kind of saunter along and blur that line. And it works well for him.

So that’s Smoketown. Now. Off north of the river and outside the city (northwest of it, I think?) is a district called “The Five Churches.” And there are, indeed, five churches, that all share a large plaza or square onto which their doors open (p.s.: weddings are conducted on the porch of the church; just a fun fact there). The sixth side of the plaza is open to the city. Beyond and behind the churches is a massive, massive cemetery–it is absolutely the cemetery for the entire city (please picture Highgate Cemetery or the Glasgow Necropolis).

And somewhere out in or beyond or (actually) under the cemetery is a secret, hidden, exclusive…club, I guess. It’s not a cult, but it’s extremely secretive. A secret society, is I guess the best way to put it. And it is called The Red Circle.

The truth is, the Red Circle is really just a giant whump party. The rich and powerful (men, almost exclusively) have at their disposal a selection of whumpees to use as they see fit, to release the tensions of the lives or to satisfy urges that otherwise cannot be soothed or just because. 

Now it’s time to introduce a new character. His name is Cyprian and he is a vampire. And he is also under the control of the Red Circle (for reasons I haven’t figured out yet). They’ve got something to use against him if he betrays them, IDK. 

Etienne has actually found evidence of Cyprian but doesn’t know it. There are tally marks in a book hidden in Viktor’s library that add up to about 3 years and change and at the end are the initials C. G. That’s Cyprian from back when he was Viktor’s black swan. And, yes, Viktor turned him into a vampire. And, no, Cyprian wasn’t happy. He should have been Viktor’s heir, but that didn’t work out. And now he’s under the command of the Red Circle. But why?

Well if you have a bunch of whumpees and you love whumping them, how do you keep whumping them without constantly killing them and then needing new ones? The answer came from some of Cyprian’s research (he started digging into the whole “black swan” custom among other things): it is possible to create a kind of ghoul, a kind of half-vampire by carrying out the procedure used to turn a human into a vampire but carrying that procedure out only partially.

Rather than draining the human of all (or almost all) of their blood and then feeding them blood from the vampire that drank their blood, a vampire can inject a human with a small amount of their blood (not taken from the human victim in question here) and you’ll end up with what’s been termed a ghoul.

Ghouls are worthless to vampires: their blood is disgusting, they smell like rust and iron to vampires. And they don’t get many of the benefits that full vampires have–they can’t move so fast, they don’t have the sharp teeth, &c. they do have better vision at night but their eyes are inclined to reflect light like a cat’s eyes will. 

Instead, ghouls are more like humans but still have the vampiric sensitivity to sunlight (neither ghouls nor vampires burn in the sun, btw) and are bound by what’s called the Obligation of Flesh. Where vampires can sustain themselves with blood only, ghouls have to eat raw meat with some regularity. This both keeps them essentially sane and (more importantly to the Red Circle) helps them to heal inordinately quickly. Deny them meat and they heal like typical humans. Feed them some raw liver or brains or raw chicken and raw eggs and they’ll start mending right before your eyes (no, it isn’t comfortable, thanks). Yes, they can die and much more easily than true vampires and some of the Red Circle’s ghouls have, in fact, died.

Now you’re probably way ahead of me by now: Lucien is, in fact, a ghoul. 

The Red Circle’s method goes like this: one or more of them identify someone they want to add to their collection. This decision is discussed and debated until consensus is reached–and they’re very careful about how often and who they add to their collection. At that point, lower-ranking members are sent to the target’s working house and pay for their services–whereupon they whump them up but badly. 

This happens sometimes, even in the best houses, even in the Aviary. The target is allowed to heal but this means less money for the house. As soon as the target is back at work, someone else comes in and repeats the process: payment, whumping. The proprietor is not likely to put a bruised boy out on the floor in a good house, so back he goes to heal and, again, money is lost. And this repeats as long as is needed until word gets out that the proprietor is getting a little fed up with this pattern but it’s not one obvious person or one obvious group doing it. At that point, a messenger from the Red Circle will arrive with an offer to buy the target outright at an extravagant cost, enough to make losing this one boy worth it, especially if it means an end to having an unworkable boy so often. It may take time, but the proprietor is eventually coerced into accepting the offer and the target is spirited away by members of the Red Circle (or aspiring members maybe? pledges, if you will?) and to their secret meetingplace. 

Everything about this sucks, including the part where Cyprian makes them into a ghoul, because that alone hurts like hell. And then they’re stuck there, getting whumped regularly, then patched up and/or fed raw meat. One of the higher-ranking members serves as a kind of proprietor there; Cyprian is as much a servant (or slave?) as any of the ghouls.

So that’s how Lucien ended up being completely undesirable to vampires. But how did he get out of the Red Circle? Mostly because he was a very bad element to add to the collection and there was an uprising against the members of the Red Circle and there may or may not have been some revenge whumping and even cannibalism (gotta meet that Obligation of Flesh somehow). 

At that point, after the Red Circle was broken, everyone in the collection kind of went their own ways. Even Cyprian was free. Lucien, though, kind of fascinated by Cyprian and the things he talked about, sought out Viktor and offered himself as a postulate. And, as we all know, Viktor accepted him. And Lucien set out to be the best and most devoted because that’s how you get rewarded in the world he comes from.

But the first time he offered his blood to Viktor, Viktor laughed and called him a monster and refused his blood. And here Lucien, having learned of the whole black swan tradition mostly from being in Viktor’s house, had been hoping for such a place of honor and now it seems like it’s been absolutely denied to him forever–because he’s a monster with blood Viktor can’t consume. And, yes, Lucien is unbelievably angry and bitter about the whole situation, especially when Etienne enters the picture (unexpectedly).

I hadn’t thought about him begging for the chance to be treated as a black swan and then being punished for daring to ask for such a thing but, damn, now I want to think about that. He probably would–albeit in private. There’s a lot of jockeying for position among the postulates and Lucien has worked his way up to the top, almost a class by himself, and he will not let that go easily. So to be seen begging for something could weaken his position and that won’t do. And yet…and yet…he does want it…

He might get what he wants someday. But it’s going to take some interesting circumstances.

So that’s a bit of a deep dive into the lore, worldbuilding, and backstory that’s running along and behind the vampire stories. If you made it this far, thanks for reading all this! Bits of this will come out as I get more of the stories sorted out and written. But there you have it~

[segadores-y-soldados]

Thinking Globally: Chu’s presentation at GDC 2017

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024266/Thinking-Globally-Building-the-Optimistic @kerrigore pointed me in the direction of this and said that I should watch this presentation.  I must say, it was well-worth my time: it’s a little bit over an hour long, but Michael Chu goes into an interesting discussion on three main things:

Creating the world and background setting of Overwatch

Developing the characters and their personalities from their gameplay mechanics

Translating 1 and 2 into the game, comics, animations, and videos (”how we tied it all together in one crazy team-up story”)

I think I’m gonna end up making separate posts on the different parts that stick out the most to me but for some interesting sound bites:

Chu outlined the major “guiding principles” of the entire development team’s process: 1) make it “a future worth fighting for,” 2) “focus on heroes...lots of heroes,” 3) “context in game, story outside.”  Number 1 is focusing on an idealized sort of future that is both realistic (grounded in the real world) and sci-fi based (based on sci-fi technologies).  He said that the team wanted a vision of the Earth that was not “unobtainable” as many sci-fi stories are (aka set “two-thousan years in the future”), but they didn’t want the “gritty, dark” versions of present day Earth that many other video games present.  So they settled on something more halfway (”60 years in the future”).

“Trust your audience” - this one was interesting because Chu said this was the rationale behind why the team presents its story as they do.  He argues that “trusting your audience” to solve the mysteries is more rewarding and engaging than just handing out the lore when the game launches.  While I agree with the principle of the idea (trusting your audience to be smart and witty enough to put pieces together), I don’t fully agree with Blizzard’s current methods for releasing lore, especially the pace at which it is released.  There’s “trusting your audience” and then “leaving them hanging.”

Simplicity - split a complex (mechanics-wise) hero into multiple, simpler (mechanics) heroes.  This is pretty obvious given the fact that the original Reaper had Junkrat’s frag launcher in the Museum Heist short.

“Firm” Science Fiction - the world of Overwatch sits inbetween “soft sci-fi” and “hard sci-fi” with a psuedo-“firm sci-fi.”  This means giving things cool, but easy-to-understand names and mechanics, but not working out the technological details (aka, you’re never gonna get an explanation for how Hard Light works).

Diversity - Chu says that the team is committed to making a diverse cast of characters.  The team understands that “nationality alone is not the same thing as diversity” and that “each character is a combination of traits people identify with.”  

What Makes a Hero - Abilities, Personality, Backstory, Challenges/Goals, Nationality, Relationships, Voice.  IMO, the last one is very, VERY interesting, considering how influential some of the voice actors and actresses have become in the fandom.

Relationships - Chu specifically talks about the relationship between Fareeha and Ana, as well as Fareeha’s inspirations from “her world around her” (other heroes, in particular Reinhardt, her idealism, her sense of justice, etc).  He shows the picture of Fareeha at dinner with an older man from the Reflections comic, while saying that “I don’t just mean romantic relationships - you take a character like Pharah.  She’s defined by her relationships with her family (cuts to pictures of the Strike team + young Fareeha + young Angela + young Jesse, and picture from Reflections), particularly from her mother, Ana.”

7, continued: “She also has an awesome relationship with Reinhardt... She’s much better at ice-fishing than he is.”

HERE’S THE ONE MY FOLLOWERS WANT: (34 minutes) Cuts to a picture of the Old Soldiers - Gabriel, Jack, and Ana - the one that is dropped at the end of the Old Soldier comic and which Jack looks at in the Uprising comic.  “And then I’d like to talk about one of my favorite relationships in the Overwatch universe, which is the one between Gabriel Reyes - now Reaper - Jack Morrison - now Soldier: 76 - and Ana Amari.  Cause it’s a story about power, friendship, and how a changing world can bring people together and split them apart.  It’s a relationship that defines the story of Overwatch, and how Overwatch grew as an organization, and even now today, what they’re all now up to is important to driving forward the current story of the game.  And what I really like about it is that it’s a deep, complex relationship that’s not necessarily only driven by romance, and it highlights how different people can see and experience different events, which brings me to... (changes slide to Sombra with the caption of “Perspective”) Perspective.”

9, continued: alright.  So it’s not “a lot.”  But seriously.  Please watch the segment.  I might be nitpicking words and intentions here, but considering that: 1) Chu emphasizes Fareeha’s relationship with Ana and Reinhardt literally seconds before he switches to the Old Soldiers trio, 2) Chu has retweeted lowkey Anahardt content on his twitter, and 3) “it’s a deep, complex relationship that’s not necessarily only driven by romance” all seem to indicate, however subtly, that Ana is NOT the romantic interest of either Gabriel or Jack.  In any other “similar situation” (two male friends/rivals, one “strong, single female character”) the outcome would be a given - the female character would eventually “choose” a romantic partner and the rejected male character would...ostensibly “go bad.”  In fact, Old Soldiers almost seems to imply that’s what happens - Ana “takes Jack’s side” in the fight between Reaper and Soldier: 76, but the interesting thing is that Reaper is not mad about him losing her, but rather remains mad that “he did this to me.  They left me to become this thing.” (emphasis from comic itself).

9, continued: also important is the idea that “different people can see and experience different events” and how that shapes their perspectives of the world.  Which like: http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/159512959195/alright-so-the-subject-of-ana-being-the-source-of   This particular post talks about.  More specifically, it talks about how these exact three characters can potentially have three extremely different interpretations of the exact same event (Ana’s “death”) and how this might have contributed to the fall out between Gabriel and Jack.

Immediately following the Old Soldiers discussion: “One of the things that we really like doing with Overwatch is playing with perspective.  We utilize perspective when we tell stories about what characters are thinking, what their goals are - and we have a lot of unreliable narrators.”  This is...a very big deal.  I think many of us in the fandom knew each character had a unique perspective on shared events, but this confirms that Blizzard is 100% aware of how they are conveying characters, the character’s motivations, their goals, their flaws, etc.  “We want people to pay careful attention to what characters think about in particular situations.”  Please, see Point 11 again.  “When [Sombra] is telling you something, she’s serving her own ends too.”  Soldier: 76 - “You can take a character like Soldier: 76 - like obviously, he has this mission that he’s on, that he believes is good (Chu’s emphasis), he seems to be willing to sometimes do things which are...maybe not super heroic, and so it makes him complicated.”

Junkrat and Roadhog: Chu has a great section on their two characters, and how they have been affected by their lives and perspectives.

Villains: “What’s important to us is that their motivations are not purely rooted in being evil, despite how they might seem on the surface.  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 (Chu’s emphasis) when we’re talking about our villain characters is that there is nothing (Chu’s emphasis) to say that a villain cannot be as charismatic or more (Chu’s emphasis) charismatic or as likeable as a hero character - because, like the old saying goes, ‘every villain is the hero of their own story.’” (Gee I wonder who this section was about)

Character dialogue spectrum: Chu shows a spectrum of characters while discussing their dialogue style.  Ranges from "exaggerate/silly” to “military/serious.”  From Exaggerated/silly over it goes: Junkrat, D.Va, Mei, Zenyatta (middle), Ana, Reaper, Pharah, Soldier: 76.

Timeline: Chu gives a (not detailed) rough timeline of the lore, including where the comics are placed.  

Tracer: the very last thing Chu talks about is Lena Oxton/Tracer.  And for my followers who are feeling concerned about the fact that Blizzard revealed Lena is lesbian/wlw but hasn’t done anything since, I would like to encourage you to watch the end of the presentation.  Chu talks about the team’s commitment to gender and sexuality diversity in the game’s cast, and how Lena represents their starting point for this - that she is a hero we can all aspire to be, and that she has a girlfriend at the same time.  On twitter, Chu has been very public about his support of Korra/Asami, and how excited he is for the next Avatar comic to come out.

Tracer, continued: “From early on, Overwatch has been committed to diversity of all sorts - not just nationality and gender and body type, but also sexuality.”  This, along with their repeated statements that more LGBT+ characters will be confirmed in due time, does give me some small hope that we will see 1) more of Emily (much like with Brigitte, I suspect Emily will show up, but it will take time to see her), and 2) more LGBT+ characters will be revealed or confirmed. 

“What we have always striven to do with the Overwatch universe is to make diversity seem like the fabric of the world, as it is in our world.”  Chu’s commitment to this statement can be found in the Uprising dialogue, both in the game and in the comic, in with Lena plays a major role.  In the comic, she helps convince Commander Morrison to “do the right thing” and send in the Strike Team to rescue the hostages, and in the game mode, she is the fun, cheerful, focused voice of optimism compared to the other more cautionary members.  

Again, I would highly encourage everyone to watch some or all of the presentation.  Super interesting, very thought-provoking.  While I don’t totally love Blizzard’s approach to handling and releasing the story of Overwatch, I do respect and appreciate the perspectives behind the building of it.  Many of Chu’s principles to world-building, character-development, and story-telling are similar to my own (and @kerrigore, who feels the same way about his approach to storytelling).