Soldier 76: how NOT to write in a gay character

General Discussion
1

Okay so yesterday I made a post about this discussing into the whole soldier 76 being gay thing which I will put the link to here: S76 gay...? But... Ytho...?

In that post I wrote a lot that was pretty much the same thing a lot of other people were saying so it didn’t really get the whole point across. Plus since half the people only read the title and not the whole post that didn’t really go over that well.

But anyway, in this post I’m not gonna be talking about the fact that soldier IS gay or bisexual or whatever.

I’m gonna be talking about why a lot of people seem to dislike the idea of it and how it could of been presented in a way where people would be more okay with it. Now let me explain.

I feel as if the reason why a lot of people are off on the whole big suprise or at least one of the reasons I was was because of how it was presented. It was just kinda shoved into the short story. Little explanation before hand. No development or build up or a story behind it. Just poof here it is. Which is a big problem. Especially if this isn’t just a PR stunt and overwatch is actually trying to get people use to the idea of gay characters on video games and other media.

Now Overwatch has a huge story. One that we only know the bare minimum of a fraction about. And that’s alright I guess (despite most people including me wanting to hear more about the overall story more then just once a year when archives rolls around or a new hero is released out of the blue) and something the overwatch devs like to do is suddenly shove a random chunk of lore from a random point in the timeline in our faces and say it’s official. Which is also alright I guess. But that’s to a point. The point being when it’s something along these lines.

Back to the topic, I don’t have any issue with a characters sexuality. I have an issue with the presentation.

If something is wrote in a story then it’s supposed to have meaning in said story.

I don’t care if reinhardt is gay. Hell I don’t need to know that unless it adds something to the story in some way shape or form.

People argue a lot “oh well why’s widowmaker streight?” Or “why’s ana?” It doesn’t matter what they are. Their relationships add to the story. Gerald was a big part of black watch as seen in retrebution as well as this he helps give more major lore to widowmaker origin story being he was her husband and since talon didn’t really appreciate Geralds existence they had widow kill him but widow somewhere deep down still has feelings for her lost lover

Ana has a vandetta of some sort against her husband as seen in the in game voice lines. It is unknown why or why she refuses to tell pharah father she’s still alive. Thus adding to her character. Or at least having potential to do so.

However Jacks ex boyfriend just doesn’t do any of this. He only appears in a quick snid bit and isn’t mentioned again.

Sure you could say it adds to his character by showing how he puts his duty before his personal life but we already know that. It’s practically told to us in his official backstory on the Overwatch page and comics since day 1.

Aside from that it tells us nothing about the twos relationship or past. Thus adding nothing to the story and making it feel like it was just shoved in there to give Overwatch a token gay guy which just seems wrong on its own to me.

I would of been way more okay with it if it went more I to detail about the twos history. If it added more to soldier then just what we already knew. If they explored it more. Gave it build up.

Like tracer for example. In the comic where shes shown to have a girlfriend, it doesn’t say it right away. It gives us a bit of story first with tracer despretly trying to find a gift for someone special she cares about.

We get to see her reactions throughout the comics to various things that happen. How sad she is when she couldn’t get the scarf, how happy she was when she did, then it cuts to her going home where we see her other which most people assumed at first to be a room mate or something of the sort. But then through the diologue between the two and the Interactions/body language you can see how deeper they care for one another. Tracer even mentions in either the comic or in game voice lines (can’t remember which haven’t seen or played the game in a while) that her girlfriend is one of the reasons she fights.

Can you see the difference in presentation? Ones in depth and tells a story. The other just suddenly appears with little warning and then is gone with no more exploration. It feels like it was there just for the sake of being there.

If they gave us more backstory and/or made it add more to soldiers overall story or character conflict then things we already knew, I’m sure way more people wouldn’t have any issue with it.

Hopefully they can repair that by adding in more info between the two’s history later. But for now it just feels out of place.

I know I kinda went in circles with this post but I hope people now get the reasoning why a lot of people or at least me is/are upset about this whole thing.

3 Likes
2

Their execution was fine. It was a part of that comic and that’s it. It was written in a completely normal matter. But it doesn’t matter how they write because no matter how they try to introduce it there will be those that will completely deny it and make baseless arguments as if it was anything else than it is. Jack’s gay, Jack was feeling a longing for his past lover. Jack and Ana decide to team up together. Jack and Ana talk about the current state of the world and plan their next move. Blah blah blah, comic over.

Please get over it. The comic was fine.

30 Likes
3

I really do not understand why this is a huge problem.

The only thing i got mad about in this game was Hammond. At first i was like: “Are you kidding me? A HAMSTER?” But now i don’t even care.

If a Fictional Charecter’s Sexual preference bugs you, you don’t have real problems in this world.

6 Likes
4

If you actually read it I said I don’t care that he’s gay.

I’m talking about the Overwatch story and why I wish they explored that part of it more.

I want to hear MORE about his relationship so I can see how it fits into the story as a whole

We didn’t get that.

All we got was “oh hey here’s a picture of his ex boyfriend and breif small talk before the whole thing is tossed away” which is why it doesn’t fit so well with me.

4 Likes
5

It’s only fit into the story is it cements that Jack is a Soldier first and Person second. He longs for affection again but isn’t going to pursue it because he cannot put another human being before his duty.

That’s the purpose his past relationship served. To cement the kind of man he is.

7 Likes
6

If they revealed that Soldier was longing for his ex-girlfriend people would have absolutely no issue with the comic.

And yet, because Soldier isn’t straight, there’s an issue.

17 Likes
7

There’s a lot of problems…

  1. We don’t CARE about Vincent. All we know about him is a drawn picture and his name. We can’t possibly connect to him or understand Jack’s emotions. It would be a TON more impactful if they put two heroes ALREADY IN THE GAME into a relationship instead of random portrait faces from the past

  2. There has been zero clues or hints over the past 3 years that Jack was gay so that’s why it feels like the rug was pulled from under us/forced/pr stunt

All they had to do back near launch was give him an interaction with Mercy or something going

Mercy: “Jack, would you…possibly want to go for dinner after this battle?” and he goes
Soldier: “…Sorry Angela…you know I don’t roll like that. I’m afraid you’re not my…type.”

2 Likes
8

all blizzard games are losing money , and they will pulll out any sjw card to try and make players/money come back to there games

9

My point exactly

The comic could of just been about that. jack and ana teaming up together, planning their next move and all that. A story has four basic parts, begining, build up, climax, and end

The climax was soldier and Ana’s argument on what to do. The conflict was their different views on how to go along with making the world a better place. The story was about jacks way of doing the things he does for revenge and ana doing it to protect people

There was no reason for the whole photos of jacks ex in there.

That should of been a whole seperate story on its own. It just felt out of place in that short story.

10

A pretty ballsy move considering the amount of “I’m leaving now” after the soldier announcement, they might have just as many people leaving as new players coming in. Both reasons for joining/leaving the game are stupid reasons if you ask me

11

agreed with this part

disagreed here. they did it well it and subtly but it was ruined by chu having to tweet it. They did talk about how his ex got married and has a life without 76. It gives further depth to his character about said

They now explicitly said it instead of

They also show he’s still in love/has feelings for his ex. More stuff we didnt know.

2 Likes
12

I dont think you read my comment. I specifically stated “Jack was feeling a longing for his past lover.” Just like i did with the other points. I guess you missed it because it doesn’t actually stand out. But there are those that are only focusing on that.

It’s normal conversation and it was talked about because Jack carries that picture everywhere. He misses Vincent, that’s it. Yes Soldier is gay, not that shocking really. It’s a small part of the comic that was there and deserves to be there just as much as anything else, there’s no reason it should be there just like there’s no reason it shouldn’t be there.

1 Like
13

Fair enough

Still I just wish that they had it in a seperate story that explains more in depth detail about the two instead of just popping it in another story on a completely other note.

14

I wish the story was longer. I’m not nearly satisfied with how short it was. I would read a book of it if they had it hahaha.

15

Same.

I would love a comic showing more into jacks story.

Perhaps before he teamed up with ana.

Like a story where right after the Swiss hq explosion and his presumed death where he’s going through his things that he wants to take with him on his journey and comes across a picture of his old ex. Thus cueing a flashback of their time together and provoking jacks emotions giving us more of a feeling about how deep down he’s actually a person and not just a single number in an army of soldiers.

Sadly they didn’t do this. Which sucks.

1 Like
16

I just wish there was more show don’t tell.

Like, maybe have the photo falls out of his jacket while Ana removes it to take care of his wounds and asks him who it is.
Just was too much exposition for my taste.

1 Like
17

imagine all the fun we could be having if this was a truely all-inclusive game with all characters being asexual instead of having people feel like they’re being pushed some kind of agenda.

then the wirters would have to comeup with actual good stories and backgrounds.

*people would be free to think whatever they want for themselves regarding sexuality. instead of having it shoved down their throat.

1 Like
18

I dont see why this needed to be a problem, Soldier plays just fine, actually even better after the armor nerfs.

And Ive just given up on the lore entirely, there needed to be alot more for this stuff to really matter

1 Like
19

Ana had to have known. She worked with Jack for years, I’m sure Jack talked to her about it several times. It seems in his old age he has regrets about things ended between them.

20

It’s kind of sad that people are quick to dismiss your point of view as just “mad because gay”, since what you are pointing out is just a problem that permeates all of the ow story.

They seem to lack the ability to build up tension to their plots, usually resolving it by leaving somethings ambiguous or by spoon feeding the audience with what is going to happen.
They create a bunch of meanigless teasers with stuff that make no sense for the audience, because they only give us half stories (but gives youtuber filler speculation videos), with the result being M. Night Shyamalan twists and revelations or literally nothing.
Minimal worldbuilding and story progress, a cheap way of keeping people invested in this “big world” and “complex characters”.

On a side note, i hated the fact that they skipped the action scene, those are what the game is about! Why shy away from writing that? The plot was building up for the confrontation.

2 Likes