Think about this for a sec…
A machine that can turn into a perfect copy of anything.
Not only is it:
- rearranging molecules to (seemingly) perfectly mimick other humans
- rearranging molecules and atoms themselves to mimick explosive compounds (meaning it can turn non explosive matter into explosive matter)
- it’s very likely rearranging things on an even more fundamental level, because Echo can mimick the unique time travel properties Tracer has, or Sigma’s unique control over Gravity
Between helping create Omnics and creating Echo, Liao seems like the most successful (and dangerous) inventor to have ever lived.
8 Likes
Do we even know if her mimic ability is canon?
2 Likes
“What she created was a multirole, adaptive robot that could be programmed to learn different functions: anything from medical support to construction: but had serious limits to its independent decision making. Critically, Echo had multiple layers of protections, failsafes, and security to keep it under control. Echo was used successfully on test missions alongside Overwatch strike teams, but Overwatch leadership was reluctant to put it into full service”
“She went to Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes and basically said, ‘I can make an adaptive learning robot. So, that way, when we send out Overwatch strike teams, if you need a pilot, this robot can fly the ship; if you need medical care it can learn to provide medical care—whatever niche you have on the mission, the robot can adapt and fill that role. And that’s why we think she would be really important to Overwatch’”
Her mimic ability is canon. She needs master/teacher to learn anything. So as we see Echo was piloting in Rio, most likely she adapted piloting from Tracer.
3 Likes
Yes, but doesn’t that have more to do with observing, learning and adapting rather than physically changing or “rearranging molecules” as the OP mentioned?
5 Likes
Yes, I’m getting the impression that in the “in-game canon” (you know, the one where if D.Va sees another D.Va on her team she says the “someone’s hacking” voiceline, not the actual canon universe), that Echo is able to duplicate the other heroes’ appearance and abilities so well because she’s been fighting and fighting alongside them so much. Like a training simulation she’s done multiple times.
I think it’ll play out a bit differently if and when it comes up in the story canon.
Maybe there’s a “Dark Echo” that will be introduced later, I can’t see the writers passing up the opportunity to use these abilities for some bad guy shenanigans. When it comes to Echo though, I’m more interested in how exactly Liao thought Echo would help humanize omnics given that her kit centers around destroying stuff lmao.
4 Likes
Maybe at one time Echo accidentally copies a bot posessed by Anubis and she gets posessed herself.
I mean her adaption to her situation without transforming her robot model which is only in game.
She can duplicate others to how she sound, how her face look, how she behave and how she handwork things. All of these aspects she already duplicated from Mina Liao, she cannot change her robot model.
Adapting abilities first requires the matter to create the things she’s mimicking. Example, It doesn’t matter if she’s been fighting alongside pharah, she needs to create the fuel from her jets and explosives from her weapons. Otherwise, it’s merely an illusion.
Either she already has it for some reason (unlikely as she would need it for every hero she fights with and clones) or she creates it… and the first implies a scary degree of control.
Likely it’s just superhero magic and “just roll with it on guys” but unless Echo is just a smoke and mirrors trickster, even in canon she has the most powerful ability the universe has seen yet. She can literally create singularities considering she can replicate sigma’s hyperspheres. 
You could easily say it’s a hologram. A solid one. But would make more sense.
Definitely, but at that point shes just an omnic with arbitrarily better machine learning.
I read somewhere that it’s supposed to be hardlight, so likely magic future science is the answer. In canon you’d have to assume she can’t actually do much meaningful in the way of mimicking someone. Could appear to hold a gun but never fire it etc.
But that’s nowhere near as cool 
If it’s hard light than it’s basically a hologram. With her changing her voice. Than I don’t mind it that much.
3 Likes
imagine designing a character with a super powerful and cool ability but not actually letting it be cannon.
Oh hi mercy how are you…
If they do Zen dirty I’m goingg to flip a kitten.
2 Likes
I believe that way way back in 2016, Jeff said that Discord Orb is not canon.
I know but what about trans? If both aren’t canon then Zen is literally a robot that shoots orbs with no special abilities
1 Like
McCree is just a guy with a gun with no special abilities.
3 Likes
Lots of heroes don’t have special abilities. Ashe, McCree, Junkrat, Roadhog, present day Ana, to name a few.
1 Like
What if Echo just copies someone/something really incompetent? Can she assess skill at a task when she’s adapting her memory, or does she automatically assimilate any task regardless of how well it’s done? For example, would she copy Tracer’s piloting after too many rounds at the pub, and proceed to have horrible handling and reaction time in future piloting stints?
1 Like
Not counting the cybernetic arm that can repeatedly withstand the entire recoil of his technologically enhanced revolver with no noticeable damage. No one knows what (if anything special) it can do.
If it’s anything like machine learning we have today, it considers positive results a success regardless of how stupid it looks. But then you can figure, she has her own intelligence. So she should be able to reason about something that looks silly and say “no, that isn’t right”