Lore theory on Wrecking Ball

General Discussion
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So the biggest thing people question with Wrecking Ball is, “How did he make it into Junkertown without being outed as an Omnic?” Because Hammond has never revealed himself. Well I have two theories

1.) Omnics and mechs have defining characteristics: It has been said that the term robot and Omnic are interchangeable, however, I’d like to call back to the “Going Legit” comic, where Roadhog and Junkrat are tasked with dealing with Omnic terrorists by a less than honest businessman. After the carnage, Roadhog points out what they destroyed were not Omnics, but security drones, which is acknowledged by Junkrat. This does in fact confirm that there is something that separates Omnics from Mechs and Drones, what exactly that is isn’t clear, but we can assume it’s a commonly known aspect, one that the Junkers noted with Wrecking Ball.

2.) There is ONE Junker who knows Wrecking Ball’s secret: In the Origin Story, we see Hammond working on Wrecking Ball in some workshop, the closest possible workshop I think would be Bruce’s Shop in Junkertown. Bruce being the man we saw as Hog’s supplier of Hogdrogyn in his comic. I think Hammond might have met Bruce, and the two may have worked out a deal. Bruce would allow Hammond to use his garage as a place to create Wrecking Ball, and in exchange, Hammond would give him his winnings from the Scrapyard. To keep up this facade, Bruce would pose as Wrecking Ball’s pilot, or somehow play off the story of Wrecking Ball being a remote controlled mech

How do these theories sound?

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i like them, especially the first one

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Thanks. Sorry if the invite was out of the blue. You’re like one of my few forum friends and I didn’t want this discussion to die with no input

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I mean they’re not really two theories. The first one is more of an actual explanation of the lore and the second one is the actual theory part.

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I suppose you do have a point

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I think you’re on the money with theory #1. There definitely seems to be a clear divide between Omnics and other robotic entities in Overwatch, so Hammond’s presence in a mech in Junkertown wouldn’t be lore-breaking.

Theory 2 sounds good, but I honestly don’t know enough about that bit of lore to make a more educated comment :slight_smile: it certainly would jive with theory 1, though, if the Junkers thought that Bruce was the one responsible for maintenance on the mech, which would quell suspicion that it was an Omnic

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I feel like junkrat/road may have had an encounter with him

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if they watched the mech matches they may have seen him, but given how they arent allowed in junkertown, unlikely

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Hammond was in Junkertown before Rat and Hog were exiled, though we dont know exactly when, you can see junkrat in the crowd, and he has a different arm and a full head of hair so it’s safe to assume this was some time in the past

also that second point is very similar to something I’ve been saying in other threads about hammond lore

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possibly before junkrat when full on bonkers

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It was stated that he was always slightly touched mentally by the radiation that was a result of the omnium exploding, since he’s been exposed to it for 20 years and counting

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Good, to add, omnics are Ai made in omnium factories.

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good point, but even know, his madness seems more of faux, as he understands the position of minister of engineering is, as he says when spawning in on oasis

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A heck of a lot better than what they have given us.
I don’t think they are going to go into more detail. They have been in that kind of habit lately.

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From what we can gather the radiation mostly made him obsessed with explosives and gave him a love of them, it doesn’t necessarily mean it made him stupid, because he creates his own weapons ,Prosthetics bombs and can even draw.
He’s more of like what you would call an idiot savant, not necessarily book learned but still very intelligent, but it is also very apparent that he suffers from what could be at Old ADHD or some kind of attention deficit disorder

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possibly, or the fact that he is getting out of the areas that are radiated could be giving his system time to flush out some of the radiation

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I’m not sure of radiation poisoning works that way but I think the long-term exposure would definitely have some lasting effects regardless of where he was living

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if he had long term exposure, he would be dead, cancer, gangere, slight madness is nothing compared to the worse effects of radiation

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i say junkrat had the big dose when he salvaged that treasure from the omnium that made him go bonkers, but thats basically it, otherwise all junkers would be bat crazy

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Yes he does seem to be a bit more on the extreme side than most other junkers, at least when it comes to his obsession with explosions

junkrat x explosives is the one true OTP of Overwatch

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