How exactly did the Omnic crisis go down and how willing were the Omnics in fighting?

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This has confused me for a while, because the game and lore seem to want to say two different things

  1. Omnics are as good as humans and the hate against them is irrational and;
  2. Omnic Crisis was started by the Omnics specifically and nearly destroyed the world and they’re still attacking some places

According to lore, omnics attacked randomly decades after the Omniums shut down and this started the Omnic Crisis. We also know Anubis exists and is a God AI who could control omnics, but I think I remember seeing something from the devs saying there aren’t other God AIs

Now of course, it would make sense that if the Omnics had been treated as machines, they would want to fight for their independence and rights. But has the lore actually ever implied that was their reason for fighting? Were the omnics forced to fight by God AIs or did they have an actual personal reason for fighting? And why are some omnics still attacking South Korea when the first Omnic Crisis has been over for decades?

I feel like the lore doesn’t make much sense with how the Omnic Crisis has been described so far. Sometimes it portrays omnics as monsters (like the Rein short or dva’s voice line of “the destruction caused by the omnics here, it reminds me of home” which to me at least implies destruction for no reason), other times omnics are clearly portrayed as good (since Zen and Bastion exist and Numbani is having no problems), other times there’s implications that the omnics might not have been in control of themselves (Anubis).

So what exactly is going on with the Omnic Crisis?

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We don’t know yet. Both to us the audience and in-universe, nobody knows why the Omnic Crisis started. The omnics didn’t give any demands.

I believe the writers did mention a hive-mind controlling them, and it is stated that Overwatch was able to end the crisis by shutting down their command structure, but this information predates the cancellation of First Strike, so they may have decided to take a different direction with it.

For now all we have is speculation, but I do hope it gets clarified at some point.

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My guess about the hivemind always was “The Iris” since it was supposed to be a map name and Echos pre-development name also was “Iris”.

Is there any information about how a God AI is created?

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As for what started it? Unknown. As for info about a God AI? Also unknown. However the Crisis ending with a bunch of Omnics still fighting humans isn’t too far fetched. Terrorist group creation usually follows a lost war since some people refuse to lose. The South lost the American Civil War, so a former general founded a horrible group that I am not allowed to say with other people to lash back at their new anti-slavery society. Likewise, the Omnics lost the Omnic Crisis, so groups like Null Sector formed to undermine what they saw as Omnic oppression.

Though I do have problems with how the writers attempt to humanize them, then proceed to show 95% of deaths on screen as Omnics. Yeah yeah targeted for all audiences but they could get away with more with a T-Rating.

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I feel like the Iris might be a god AI but I don’t think it’d be a hivemind or actually interested in controlling omnics, if just because the Shambali don’t seem evil and tbh making the only omnic religious group we’ve seen in the lore that is also fighting for omnic rights be controlled by an evil ai sounds… like bad writing. Even if the Shambali didn’t know the Iris was a hivemind, it would destroy the Shambali entirely.

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Thats true. I’ve thought about how would OW lore handle twist heroes and villains.

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Likewise, the Omnics lost the Omnic Crisis, so groups like Null Sector formed to undermine what they saw as Omnic oppression.

I can understand Null Sector still fighting, since places like London were clearly still oppressing/discriminating against omnics, but the omnics who are still attacking South Korea seem like a separate issue. Null Sector developed into its own group with its own demands and opinions, but it seems like the omnics still attacking South Korea are part of the original Omnic Crisis?

Though I do have problems with how the writers attempt to humanize them, then proceed to show 95% of deaths on screen as Omnics. Yeah yeah targeted for all audiences but they could get away with more with a T-Rating.

Yeah I agree. It’s weird to me that omnics are constantly humanized, then we get to destroy them willy-nilly in the Uprising event and walk around their dead bodies on Eichenwalde and then have shorts that involve destroying omnics like Rein’s. And most of that short showed them as mindless killing machines, except for one really easy to miss moment that implies the Bastions did have some form of emotion.