I see more Mercy-related discussion than any other hero, more mercy one-tricks than any other hero, and this has been going on since launch. Hell, a quick search tells me there’s more Mercy fanart than any other hero. Why is it Mercy is the single relevant character according to the Overwatch community? What makes her so special?
What is it people like so much about her?
Why do people think Valkyrie is bad? If nothing else it’s a very powerful survival tool for Mercy herself, making her nearly impossible to kill for a good chunk of the cast.
Happened with Roadhog when they took his hook1hk, and other heros.
Mercy was and is the in for a lot of RPG gamers into an FPS, they had the same powerful play style for 7 seasons. They weren’t very happy about change, who is.
So naturally people going to talk about it for some time.
Mercy is a mary sue, goody two-shoes, however you wanna call it.
She looks flawless, she behaves flawless. She’s 37 (or even older perhaps) and still rocking a young, pretty look, with some fanservicey skins (cough cough, Witch, Winged victory).
She is easy to play (trust me, i would know; i accumulated over 200 hours on her) and still puts out good healing and has a mechanic no other hero has.
Lore-wise she seeks to heal and save everyone, she has class but also give sass, and despite said sass, still often cares for others and their health.
Everyone loves her because she’s the perfect girlfriend/wife/waifu/healslave, in essence.
The Mercy one tricks I can is because for the longest time, she was the best healer and with version 1.0, she was a game changer with her Rez. If you have a solo heal on your team. Even with the changes, she is still one of the top healers especially if you are solo healing for the game. Moira is slowly changing that though.
I would say there are so many topics just because her kit has had a lot of large reworks in a short span of time. Her kit is very hard to find that perfect balance for so people will always have something to say one way or another with changes.
As far as the fan art…that I don’t have an answer for.
Isn’t that D.va who is the mary sue?
Mercy has flaws in her lore, the struggle to watch Overwatch break up as Reaper and Soldier slowly start to hate each other and her disagreements with the organisation. She probably also had humanitarian issues with building Genji and the fact that we are told about these issues show’s she isn’t a Mary sue.
MOBA healers are the opposite of Mercy and much closer to Brigette. They typically do very little actual healing, enough to help sustain during the laning phase but very little in a teamfight outside of a long cooldown or ultimate. They tend to provide other value like CC or debuffs.
Mercy has the most discussion currently because Blizzard decided to butcher her. She had the most discussion for the last 5 months because people had to complain about someone undoing their kill, she doesn’t have the most one tricks as usually people who main her can play other supports or tanks, but she has the most unique play style in the game. She has the most fanart likely because she is the most attractive character to most people.
The correct term here isn’t a Mary Sue, but she’s more of a Purity Sue.
I wouldn’t actually consider the struggle to watch Overwatch break-up and her humanitarian issues with building Overwatch to be flaws so much as a point of view that she held.
For the most part, Mercy sort of comes off as always being on the moral high ground over everyone.
If I were to name Mercy’s flaws I would actually say that she comes off as being slightly self-righteous and a bit hypocritical (like the fact that she’s entirely against militant practices but is a Combat Medic).
Other than that, Mercy needs more lore and information to flesh her out as a character.
I was a little harsh when I used “one trick”. Main would probably be more accurate. Semantics aside, there’s a disproportionate number of mercy mains floating around.
I’ve always assumed ‘Mary sue’ implied ‘‘Character who is nearly perfect in every way’’. Although D.va might be a Mary sue, Mercy might essentially be one too; the issues between Morrison and Reyes was something beyond her control, even though she did attempt to mend their relationship.
Regarding Genji, i don’t know. Essentially she saved his life, even though as a result he became angsty and upset.
But in almost every other way, Mercy can be widely considered ‘perfect’. The few flaws she has are easily overlooked for her intentions, morals and actions - She heals and saves several lifes (probably) on a daily basis, and at heart seems like a kind person (despite her sassy voice lines). Not to mention, she looks much younger than 37, and is arguably more attractive/desirable than D.va.
Also, excuse me for the incorrect use of terms, but if there is a better term for my description of Mercy, please enlighten me on it.
You know…if anyone was to look at your player icon they would have considered you to be a trolling Genji-Main (I’m really starting to hate the connotations that term has)…but you weren’t lying about having massive amounts of time on Mercy. XD
That said, I’ve never seen anyone so critical of their ‘main’s’ character, personality and design. What gives?
You see a lot of Mercy discussion, art, etc. because Mercy is the most popular hero in the game (statistically, there are more Mercy mains than any other hero). She’s so popular because she has very nice character design, is very accessible to people who don’t typically play shooters, and she’s still a very impactful hero.
Also, Valkyrie isn’t bad, it’s just not very engaging.
Well, in that sense that make Tracer a Mary sue, Winston a male Mary sue which I forgot the name for, Soldier pre accident was also one, the point is this organisation was created for the good of the world and of course they are positive people.
I’m merely concious of my main and ‘her’ flaws. Most people would fight tooth-and-nail to defend their mains, but i’m willing to admit my favorite character might be a bit… silly.
I mean, she flies around, wearing a halo and wings, claiming she’s a guardian angel. She has a bit of an ego.
On top of that she often wears no pants (Witch, Winged victory, Zhuque) while flying around… talk about impractical.
I guess in some aspects Mercy is sort of Mary Sue-like.
She’s a certified genius, completing her medical degrees in a fraction of the time anyone else in her field would ever hope to complete.
Became the head of a hospital at a very young age.
Discovered a scientific breakthrough in medicine at her young age.
Is deemed to be attractive and liked by everyone and anyone that she knows.
Has the typical Mary Sue tragic backstory of losing her parents, yet doesn’t show any sign of being deeply traumatized and affected by said death.
Still manages to retain very youthful features despite pushing her 40’s (though this can be explained as her technology assisting her…though that argument also works against her favor).
Is always seen to be morally right.
Has a gigantic angel motif from her name to her design.
…So I guess I can see how people can think of Mercy being a Mary Sue…I don’t think she’s good enough at too many things though and she lacks enough personality…so I don’t know.
People do call Winston a Mary Sue (Gary Stu is the correct term) and Tracer does have signs of it as well.
As for Soldier: 76, I would disagree with the claim that he’s a Gary Stu, regardless if he’s Jack Morrison or Soldier: 76, he still has significant flaws.
A lot of the heroes from the original Strike Force actually have flaws that make them seem more tangible as characters despite Overwatch being a positive organization.
I don’t know how Mercy would’ve faced humanitarian issues concerning Genji since Genji gave her permission to “rebuild” him. Overwatch made a deal with him—they’d reconstruct his body if he joined them. He accepted.
Good points there, i forgot about some of those (Such as the Orphan backstory, and becoming the head of a hospital at the age of… 17?!)
Also regarding her age, a post on Reddit yesterday or so, noted Brigitte’s age (even after being revised) not adding up with Mercy. One person theorized however, that Mercy’s (visual) aging process may be much slower than we think, and that she might actually be 46.
That, or she was in university/joined Overwatch at the age of 14. Neither make much sense to me, though.