Baptiste Timeline Discrepancy *ANSWERED*

Something in Baptiste’s bio brings into question what we currently know about the Omnic Crisis.

It has been established in various sources that the Omnic Crisis happened 30 years ago. In his origin story, we see Baptiste as a child staring down a Bastion unit - if he’s 36 now, he would have been around 6 then. This fits with what we know.

Operation: White Dome established that as of 23 years ago, Overwatch was cleaning up “a remaining pocket of omnic resistance”. This implies that the omnic crisis was either over or very near its end by this point. Baptiste would have been 13 by this point.

Baptiste’s bio states that he joined the Caribbean Coalition, which was formed in response to the crisis. This seems to be a paramilitary group, so it’s likely that Baptiste had to be at least 18 to join them. He would have been 18 years old 18 years ago, 5 years after our last known date for the omnic crisis.

To complicate things further, in the latest Dev Update Jeff Kaplan said that Baptiste joined Talon after the crisis ended and there was no further need for his skills, implying that he was in fact in the Caribbean Coalition during the crisis.

So, which is it? Did Baptiste serve in the Caribbean Coalition during the omnic crisis and not leave it until the crisis ended, making the crisis last for a whopping 12 years at least? Or was Jeff incorrect, and Baptiste joined the Caribbean Coalition (and subsequently Talon) after the crisis had long ended? And if that is the case, what conflicts did Baptiste fight in that required his services as a combat medic?

EDIT: We have an answer! Turns out it was the second option (Baptiste joined the CC after the crisis).

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The lore is a mess. Its bad, its dumb. Its filled with a lot more plotholes than you can ever imagine. At this rate, don’t even bother questioning it.

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I went to read the bio again and… now I’m confused too T^T

It’s a true shame too. That have a lot of good stuff and a good writer can iron things out or at least retcon the proper things to make sense of the whole.

WoW was in a similar bind, and they decided to retcon to get things straightened out. Not the best idea, but at least things even now are on a decent timeline. Even if the lore became bonkers. It was also a bit par for the course because of how old the game is, and with how many writers worked on it. Even the main writers can forget a few things (red shirt guy and isn’t Falsted dead).

It’s okay to mess up as that panel showed. They fixed the lore problem and moved on. They can’t be surrounded by yes men, because that’s how things get missed

If they need to, they need to retcon some things to fit what they have before they keep moving on and having more descrepensies. I can understand a year or two off where it’s a simple erase and correct, but they do need to get things straight by now.

If anything, it was Jeff that made the mistake, not the writers - and this isn’t the first time he’s gotten the lore wrong. We just need Chu to clarify.

The Caribbean Coalition was started in response to the Omnic Crisis, but continued to exist afterwards as the region’s peacekeeping force. (Which is when Baptiste joins.)

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Good to know, thank you!

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Ah thank you. So it was kind of like a smaller version of overwatch based and operating solely in the Caribbean?

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