Reaper Lore (my best guess)

General Discussion
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So after hearing the rumors about the new Uprising/Archives event, I started doing some more digging into what we know about Reaper, and I started speculating some things.

What got me started was looking at his Nevermore skin, which is named after Edger Allan Poe’s poem The Raven.
It’s about a man being driven to madness by the repeated appearance of a raven at his door. The man believes the raven is stalking him, and eventually it sends him spiraling out of control lamenting a lost love.
We’ve also seen him stalking a family in the 2017 Resolutions comic.

What I gathered is that the woman we see was Gabe’s significant other, and after the Overwatch meltdown where both Gabe and Jack “died”, she mourned for a time and eventually moved on and found a new lover (and potentially father/step father to her kid).

After a little more digging, it seems like the child’s appearance/age would dictate that the man she is with would have to be the biological father, and not Gabe.

Uprising takes place 7 years prior to current game-time, so going off the fact that Overwatch fell apart shortly after the Kings Row Omnic Crisis, it’s likely that Jack and Gabe have only been “dead” for 6-7 years at most. If that is the case, it’s likely the child in the comic is only 6-7 years old himself, so it’s likely that Gabe isn’t the biological father.
The child not being his own, plus whatever happened to his physical appearance is likely why he never attempted to make contact with the woman again, but he clearly cares enough about her to still want to watch over her.

(If Gabe were the biological father, it would explain the horrible dad jokes. :wink: )

This is likely one of the key factors that keeps Gabe’s need for revenge so strong after so many years after the dissolution of Overwatch.

Not to mention that we already know Jack stole Gabe’s position as the commander of Overwatch, and as a result, he was pushed into the shadows of Blackwatch where he could do Overwatch’s dirty work.

When Overwatch was still an early organization, Gabe was a dedicated officer who was enrolled into the Supersoldier program alongside Morrison, who fit more into the role of being the poster-boy for Overwatch to earn the public’s trust in such a scary time.
Gabe believes his Commander title was stolen from him, and held a grudge against Jack from there; often being passive aggressive when it came to Overwatch related business. (As we’ve seen in the 2017 Uprising comic: “I’m not the one with the statue”)

So if those two things are correct, I could see why Gabe is so hellbent on destroying any remainder of Overwatch because it would mean Jack would be left with nothing, just like Gabe is now.

If anyone has any additional information about Reaper, please feel free to share! I’m so curious about his lore!

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Him and his freind had a fight then he died then became an edge lord who swore revenge upon his friend

There Oversimplified it for Ya

No need to thank me

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I like it. I can see it. Gabe was a pretty nice and easygoing guy before dying 6 years prior to the start of the game.

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I’m not sure about this. The skins in game are mostly noncanon, so your theory is immediately debunked. :thinking: It’s like trying to connect Symmetra’s dragon skin to her lore somehow.

While the woman being his partner is most likely, she could have been anyone. She could be his niece, sister, best friend, or even the wife of someone he’s killed (Reaper feeling remorseful, so he checks up on her).

There’s no clear link between them.

And sorry, I have to correct you; Gabe wasn’t pushed into Blackwatch. Michael Chu (I think?) also said that after being made Blackwatch’s leader, Gabe was pretty okay (as in, Chu retconned Gabe’s jealousy.)

Jack also didn’t “steal” the position from Gabe; it was given to him.

Originally, before the retconning started, Gabe’s jealousy stemmed from not getting the credit he deserved. Jack stole the spotlight and won everyone over with his positivity. He was given all the credit for all the work Gabe did, leaving a sour taste in Gabe’s mouth.

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When I connected the Nevermore skin to the woman being his ex-SO, it was more of me connecting Reaper to the man in the poem.
Going off the idea that she was his significant other, it seems that she moved on pretty quickly after his “death”, and Reaper slowly broke down from there knowing there is no way he can approach her in his current state, and it wouldn’t do any good because she now has a child with this other man seen in the comic.
It’s mostly digging to see if Blizz has hidden lore eggs within skins and their meanings.

Also,

who knows, maybe Sym really is the demon we think she is
/S

Don’t be sorry, thank you for correcting me! It’s better to have things correct, than trying to piece together what I mostly remember and being wrong.