As someone who works in mental health, I feel complexly about Sigma’s origin story. I think it was reasonably well done in the sense that there was no overt message saying that “mad people are dangerous”, and that Sigma had a brilliant mind that was exposed to more than it could comprehend. But this is SO HARD to do well, and it’s too easy for people (at a glance) to just see him as a mad and dangerous scientist.
Looking through the hero gallery, my heart broke when I saw the Asylum skin. Restraints are very rarely used in mental health institutions, but there’s this enduring (and frankly dangerous) myth that people who are overwhelmed by distress need to be put in straitjackets and locked up. His fask mask, reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter, feeds into the idea that he’s dangerous and should be muzzled.
Mental health is a complex topic, and there aren’t many games that explore it sensitively. I put forward that Sigma’s Asylum skin (a word that’s outdated as it is) be changed to something closer to Subject Sigma.
Rarely used as in, it still happens when absolutely necessary? Because if it does, then I don’t see your point. 1. That skin probably isn’t canonical and 2. If it is, then they deemed it necessary to restrain him for obvious reasons
Even if it never happened at all, like I said, that skin is probably non-canon and is only meant to be a colorful exaggeration for one aspect of his character.
I don’t know that he needs to be muzzled, but he is clearly dangerous.
That isn’t necessary.
Sigma isn’t meant to be some inclusive representation of mental illness. He isn’t intended to be portrayed in a positive light. He’s a tragic character that’s being taken advantage of due to an incident that cost him his sanity. You say the Asylum skin makes him look violent, well, he is violent.
Thing is : Sigma was not meant to be a representation of mental illness : Michael Chu said so in this interview :
“It’s interesting, because I can see how people in the community have identified with Sigma as someone who is struggling or dealing with mental health issues,” Chu said. “But with the idea of the character, we never intended him to be an example of someone who’s going through mental health issues. He’s really supposed to be more focused on this very specific thing that happened to him, which is that his body and his mind were literally ripped apart by the momentary exposure to a black hole.
“With other aspects of his character, he’s certainly supposed to be eccentric. The idea behind that is more just that he sees the world a little differently. We liked this idea that he had this connection to music. So, for example, the way that he thinks about the universe, gravity, and physics, is through this prism of music. From experience talking to physicists and especially theoretical physicists is that other things that aren’t literally just the equation or the mathematics have influenced the way in which they interpret things. And so that’s the direction we went with him.”
If you want some game about representation of mental illness, I suggest you go check Hellblade : Senua’s Sacrifice, because they worked with actuall doctors ans scientist to write the main character, and they did a very good job (it’s scary and dark tho, so not for everyone, be warned!)
And for the Assylum skin : you should know that Overwatch is full of references of pop culture /media/litterature/comics/meme and clichés … So it IS a direct reference for Hannibal lecter, an eccentric (yet psychopath and I don’t think Sigma is) man that love classic music. I mean, they couldn’t not make a reference to that… Maybe it would have been more fitting for a Halloween skin and don’t get people worked up by this skin.
i don’t think you should feel too deeply into his lore since
junkrat doesn’t represent all Australians
and that could literally be said about every character in overwatch.
to me he may have schizophrenia since he hears noises/music that isnt there, otherwise he is completely normal and doesn’t “act” like a typical schizophrenic person anyway.
although you may not like the concept that people with severe mental illness means that they’re dangerous but this concept literally exists in real life. but does it apply to everyone who has a mental illness? no of course not.
also they already have a skin called subject sigma
The Subject Sigma skin is the canon one that you can see in his Origin Short. Asylum is just the alternate colouring of it. The mask is almost certainly a reference to Silence of the Lambs. I don’t even think that is a real mask in psychiatric practice. It was designed by Ed Cubberly for the movie.
But in regards to him needing to be restrained… Its not because he was overwhelmed by distress. Its because his mind was shattered by gravity, and he was unable to control the gravitational anomalies that he was passively creating.
Between his ravings about the patterns of the universe, the psychic damage he sustained, and the gravitic anomalies happening around him, he was deemed unsafe and detained for years under the name “Subject Sigma.”
He’s not meant to be a representation of mental illness at all. He’s meant to be a character who’s mind was torn apart by a black hole and had to be locked up because he was unable to control the other miniature singularities he was creating. If he were not under control, he would be destroying the world around him. The playable Sigma and the Sigma that were locked up are years apart, just because the playable one has harnessed gravity does not mean that he was in a similar state ~5 years ago.
Subject Sigma is though. It’s the one in the Origin Trailer
I made a topic about my schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and how I see Sigma’s character when he first came out and I genuinely get that some people see him as not a good look for people with mental health- BUT… I disagree with people’s thoughts on it at the same time. (Other than that skin. Thats not good…) but, as someone who has trauma induced mental illness, I think if you realise and/or focus on the fact that he is only violent because he is being used as a war machine by Talon- he is pretty accurate and relateable for someone like me. He is easily manipulated and being abused by Talon. Being someone with issues that are easily manipulated, I understand his predicament. I love this character. The more I look into the connections I relate to with this traumatized old man, the more he seems like just a… video game extreme case of mental health. No one in Overwatch is realistic 100%, yknow what I mean? If he was a realistic mentally ill or traumatized person, he probably wouldn’t feel good for a video game character. (If you want to read the long winded post I made, it’s called Thoughts on Sigma from a Schizophrenic, or I can link it!) I get that not everyone can or will see him from the same eyes as me though. Everyone is different and has different experiences.
I’m… “almost sure” that in an old interview it was confirmed that the intention of Sigma’s writing was not to represent some mental disability. can you now stop resurrecting every single topic on a topic that hasn’t been talked about in over 2 years? maybe it’s more constructive to create a new one after catching up on information from the last few months/years, isn’t it?
To forum moderators
Seriously: can you BLOCK being able to reply to 4-6 month old topics with no replies? necroposting is not constructive for anyone and is paradoxically also forbidden in the rules. then take that as an answer option, dammit.
And yet, in most of Sigma’s new voice interactions with Mercy, Lucio, Moira, and others - many characters demonstrate either irritation or an inability to reciprocate Sigma’s mental condition. Some characters outright make fun of his condition as well.
The only real friend Sigma has is Sombra. Everyone else sees him as a problem.
the voice lines in pvp matches are often “comedic gags” rather than actual representations of how the various heroes would interface with each other within the canonicity of the lore. they sometimes release information about events in the world of overwatch, but as mentioned in the past, if for example tracer and wrecking ball say they want to go out and eat cheedburgers this doesn’t mean it’s canon but maybe it’s just a comic gag. ditto the fact that rein recognizes reaper as Reyes and calls him a traitor when he kills him, canonically rein does not know that reaper is reyes.
this is a bit of a problem because we don’t always know when we have to consider certain pieces of information canonical and which ones are not… but on the other hand it is precisely for this reason that the PVE will be there: to canonize us some pieces of information like the archives did.
This, I pretty much understand. It’s what the characters would say if they had the opportunity to interact.
Which highlights my issue with it all. Most of the characters are snide and self-absorbed when it comes to interacting with Sigma, which is supposed to come across as comedic relief (?).
Mental health is a serious issue. And, while the interactions themselves aren’t officially “canon” lore-wise, it is just as good of an indicator for the content of a character’s personality. With Sombra, we can see that she has a great deal of empathy for the defenseless and despite her fierce and satirical approach to most characters - she has a certain warmth to her humanity. Lucio is a close second to this, but he’s like this with everyone. Most of the others are indifferent, at best, or intolerant.
The characters behave in a way that indicates they have a close inner-circle, eg. the “main” Overwatch cast, and they behave exactly as they would/should based on who they are. Genji is an outlier because he’s traveled the world and has had many experiences, so he doesn’t come across as one who would exclude someone else because they’re different. On the other hand McCassidy surprises me with his almost belligerent satire towards Sigma - he sees him as a complete joke, and actually eggs on whatever mental issues Sigma might have. It’s like mocking a child with social development difficulties.
This is all only to say, there is truth in “comedy”.
maybe it’s more constructive to create a new one after catching up on information from the last few months/years, isn’t it?