Illari is just such a random character in the game, like she has no one she knows of the whole cast of characters. She is just there. All the other characters have at least one other character they know or are related to the story like Baptiste with Talon. But Illari is just there in her own bubble.
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She really is. I like her but i hate her lore.
She makes 0 sense and feels like such an out of place character.
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Yea, her lore is completely isolated and could really be plugged into any futuristic setting basically. I wonder how they’re gonna tie her into the story later or if they ever will.
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God i dm so often for dnd and i have had people habd me characters like this and i always tell them no they need to redo it and make them have a reason to join the part. I hate her lore and how shes the lone wolf my families dead back story every 13 year old edge lord makes
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My guess is they will forget and just keep adding characters into the lore and not connected them
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The only thing that could connect her is the fact that Morrison tried to get some people from Peru for Overwatch at some point before OW went down…
(from Overwatch Declassified)
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In OW1 it used to be a pretty common thing.
Lùcio was just there in his own bubble literally until the Rio mission, his only piece of lore came from in-game voicelines (which aren’t necessarily canon). Damn, we don’t even know if he canonically knows Sym!
D.Va was in her own bubble, with her own problems and enemies, until New Blood. Damn, she even got an high-budget animated short and STILL was in her own bubble after it!
Zarya was in her own bubble too, until she met Sombra in the Lynx-17 comic, and still wasn’t part of the main story until New Blood.
Pharah herself, apart from being “daughter of…”, wasn’t involved with anything until New Blood (not even with her mother). She even got a comic all for herself, but still no interaction whatsoever.
Hanzo at least was actually involved with his brother, but aside that he’s STILL his own thing. He’s not OW, he’s not Talon, he doesn’t even know anyone who isn’t his brother or Kiriko (and him training with Kiriko is still a massive plot hole).
Zen and Sym got their first interaction with each other, in that Christie Golden’s comic, at the end of OW1 lifespan. Before that, we just knew that Zen was Genji’s master and Sym works for a shady megacorp and her boss is in Talon’s inner council. Nothing more.
Mei herself was her own thing until Rise and Shine.
And if you think about it, Junkers are still their own thing in their own bubble. Junk and Hog never had a single interaction with anyone playable in the entire lifespan of OW1, not even Hammond.
If anything, OW2 got better in this. New Blood is a collection of lone wolves finally forming a pack. New heroes who aren’t Illari are all involed in the story, or at least expanding some pre-existing character or setting:
- Sojourn was a NPC since Storm Rising, deeply tied to OW lore;
- JQ was another known NPC since the release of Junkertown, and at least Junk and Hog aren’t alone in their world anymore (judging by voicelines seems Hammond too is being retconned into a Junker);
- Kiriko… at least she came with some Hanamura/Kanezaka lore, and (even if it doesn’t make sense) she’s tied to the Shimadas;
- Ramattra is another known NPC since Storm Rising, the leader of Null Sector, a major lore player;
- LW came with some more Vishkar lore, and gave Sym at least a single canon interaction;
- Maga is another NPC known since What You Left Behind, and builds some nice Talon lore.
Literally Illari is the only one alone in her universe. Not that I like it, but some people actually do, saying “if everyone knows everyone, world feels smaller”. At each one their own, I guess.
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It might be interesting to know that the Blizzcon 2023 Overwatch What’s Panel (min 44:00) concludes with a silent preview of a map in Peru. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5twiDhgnibU we can understand this from the photovoltaic panels visible in the background, which are of the same shape as those visible in Illari’s cinematic.
I think that Illari has the real possibility of creating interesting connections on some parts of the previous lore that remained unknown. For example, we could connect solar technology with the golden photovoltaic panels visible in Ilios (whose name is an homage to the sun). There is a good possibility of writing about the Indian people’s collaboration on the spread of solar energy, but that for example in countries like Mexico has not been stopped due to some corporate speculators (LumériCo lore). In short, starting from this glimmer of light one could determine what role the Inti had as a Population in the world conflict (or at least, it can be understood from the video origins), which is assumed to have aroused technological interest (interaction with Torbjorn and Echo).
There could also be enormous interest in noticing who might be interested in this solar technology, such as Vishkar, as it is an energy very close to photonic energy. therefore I do not exclude that later they could delve into interactions between Illari and Symmetra. or for Talon agents knowing the destructive power that destroyed a people.
What I think might be a little difficult to introduce Illari into the lore is that she needs to start having an equivalent of Baptiste’s “What You Left Behind” (or New Blood): start having real stories where she bonds with someone from the lore who we know today. A canonical encounter with one of the characters from the lore, in short. Only in this way can we begin to rebuild an important cohesion for her with the Overwatch lore which unfortunately has not yet arrived. Lifeweaver for example will soon have it with the Ascendant book
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The devs aren’t making a game with a story they are basically selling skins ala how cartoons back in the 80s and 90s only had TV shows, movies and comics all for the sake of selling toys.
I wish they would hand off the story and PVE parts to another team and they can make that it’s own game, I say have someone who worked on Overwatch 1 make the story and have Gear Box handle the game since despite Borderland 3’s story being weak the game play was pretty fun.
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So is D.VA, Wrecking Ball, and Lifeweaver. Yet they are part of the Overwatch Story. Except for Lifeweaver which he’s barely in the story in general. Then again so is some bits of the cast of characters.
She does feel random, I don’t know how they plan on working her into the main story. Not that the story is progressing much right now.
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She is! I feel like theres not a ton of substance compared to the other heros which i find sad. Especially if theyre not waiting on a lore drop or pve like i thought they were to reveal anything more.
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The problem is that her lore involves a damn explosion of an entire city and literally a “genocide” that she accidentally caused and there is no news around the world.
Her city is in a forest and not even one single person in Peru cared about a forest fire caused by the explosion of a “SUN”? In real life, an explosion of this level would cause international repercussions, at least among other countries in South America.
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Well said here.
The whole “isolated bubble” concept is pretty common in Overwatch lore. I feel like thats kinda the point of Overwatch: random heroes from all across the world joining together in teams to fight against the Omnics and well each other (for training?).
But as many of you said, hopefully theres more lore coming out to connect her with other characters in Overwatch.
I feel like therein lies the problem: build up with no pay off. What’s the point of having all these heroes “ban together” if they’re not going to further the narrative conflict? That would be like the Avengers forming up and then nothing happens after that.
[It doesn’t help that most lore nowadays is in books—external media.]
Definitely a fair point.
Looks like we are getting Illari’s home city map coming in Season 11. Perhaps there will be some info to further the narrative of how Illari fits into the Overwatch story.
I noticed a strange correlation between Moira and Illari. I had already noticed several voicelines of Illari commenting on Moira’s scientific method, but now the new map has these details:
https://x.com/OmnicReporter/status/1804188175838986636
https://x.com/OmnicReporter/status/1804188183036412008
Is it possible that the Inti people have had an involvement with Oasis science? That Illari has a particular hatred for its genetics for some study derived from the Oasis genetics ministry, of which Moira is the director?
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