Reconstruction of the Overwatch timeline

I would like to share with you a job that I did for my Overwatch blog (I’m Italian)
https://omnicreporter.wixsite.com/overwatch-timeline

hope you like it.

warning: the models are used only to explain a situation of lore, they are not all directly related to the appearance of individual heroes for those periods.

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It looks pretty, but I don’t speak Italian, so I used Google Translate.

There are quite a few things based on conjecture or speculation. After taking a second look, I’m guessing that’s what the separate line on the right is for? Speculation rather than fact? If so, that’s a nice way to separate it, but it wasn’t clear at first. I also like how clicking on stuff gives an explanation for what it is, as well as your disclaimer that the models are just for the sake of explanation.

One thing worth noting is that it was said that Recall/Alive/Dragons/Hero were all supposed to be set around the time of Recall. Source is Michael Chu at GDC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj56ejM5EcU. I don’t know if this means that they all happened the same night/week, or if it was just the same general month/year, but I would argue they could be closer together on your timeline.

We also know Bastet happened over December of year 0. One scene from Reflections is shown in the short story, the Vincent Scene.

Overall, good work, it looks nice!

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Exactly. it is impossible to place with absolute certainty all the timelines of the game, except for those to which I can attribute a dating based on a holiday. I will try to add a wording that exactly shows the distinction between “precise lore” and “speculative lore”

unfortunately, there are many elements that “bind my hands” on how the events went, more particularly the interactions of Dragons with Valkyrie, Old Soldiers, Bastet and Reflections. There are 4 theories that contradict each other:

  • Riflections shows the scene where Morrison sees Vincent’s photo, then Bastet’s events are happening;
  • Valkyrie talks about Mercy who has already spoken to Genji, who was going to visit his brother (so dragons didn’t happen / it’s happening);
  • Riflections shows Hanzo that he has cut his hair and Genji has returned to Nepal, a sign that dragon events have already taken place;
  • the order of the timeline of the OW2 website (the only most recent official update) indicates that Dragons took place before Old Soldiers;

I had to find a compromise on all these data, so in order not to risk I have listed Old Soldiers, Baster and Valkyrie out of the precise timeline, albeit all connected. I believe that Soldier 76 did not pull out Vincent’s photo only once during his trip with Ana (more an excuse than speculation). the only notifiable certainty is the christmas of reflections (December of Year “0”).

in my blog I also exposed the implausible cases of McCree’s age mentioned at the GDC or of Zarya’s journey which lasted months instead of weeks.
https://theomnicreporter.altervista.org/incongruenze-della-lore/
unfortunately OW has several plot holes that perhaps the authors have not noticed over time. I trust only in having lore information from OW2 that set a precise timeline based on the direction they want to give lore.

It would not be BLizzard’s first time, an example is the romantic relationship between Sarah Kerrigan and Jim Raynor in Starcraft 2 (Starcraft 1 never specified that they were together)

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That is a fair point, I don’t think I thought about that loop of Valkyrie before Dragons, Dragons before Reflections, Reflections before Valkyire. Reflections shows:

  • Jack looking at Vincent’s photo (It’s at least the same room as the one in the Bastet picture. I think its safe to assume its the same scene)
  • Genji writing a letter
  • Mercy reading a letter

And my impression was that the letters were being written/read at the same time, but two different letters. Mercy was reading the previous letter from Genji about how he was going to see Hanzo (Dragons) and the letter he was writing was what he had experienced after the events of Dragons. That would keep it in the timeline of Dragons/Hero -> Old Soldiers -> Bastet/Reflections -> Valkyrie. But it is kind of hard to take place.

Searching is easily one of the worst offenders in Overwatch, stretching from Infiltration, through months of Doomfist’s arc, and leading all the way up to Orisa being built. And that’s the halfway point of the comic. We might as well be weeks away from Zero Hour by its conclusion.

That inconsistencies page is also really good. It does a good job of summarizing a few of the common misconceptions or holes in the story.

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“It would not be BLizzard’s first time, an example is the romantic relationship between Sarah Kerrigan and Jim Raynor in Starcraft 2 (Starcraft 1 never specified that they were together)”

It sounds like what Mercy and Genji got in Overwatch 1 and will get in Overwatch 2.
But it’s my guess. I can be wrong.

There’s another possibility - the end pictures in Reflections happen around time of Reflections: some before, some after, some in the same time.
But that would be wild move from creators.

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yes, maybe you’re right. There may be a time lag based on the delivery of the letters to make Valkyrie plausible after Reflections. In fact, we could also speculate that Dragons and Old Soldiers happened simultaneously as it happens for Recall and Alive. In this way the time distance would be more plausible.

thank you for this line of thought. :+1:

For Hero I identified it as dating before November 1st of the year 0. This is indicated by the article from Atlas News dedicated to the preparation of the LumèriCo power plant in El Dorado. Soldier 76 was wanted in that area and had not yet met Ana. In addition, the video shows the Los Muertos preparing for the Dìa de Los Muertos (documentation validated with the ARG in Sombra and the LumeriCo website / https://theomnicreporter.altervista.org/arg-sombra-p1/)

I do not exclude that Overwatch 2 makes it canonical.

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