To anyone dissatisfied with D.Va's story

General Discussion
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Hey all,

So I’m seeing some posts around that are upset with the lack of lore added to the game [main complaint being “This took too long to get here!”, basically] and saying that D.Va’s story is cliche. I’d like to have everyone take a moment to consider what they’re really saying and reflect on what they’re asking for, along with stashing for a moment the assumption anyone is right. I want to have an actual discussion about perceptions, what you think, what I think, and the game we all enjoy together in a civil and fun way =) So let’s all put on our nice hats first off, myself included.

“This took too long to get here!” - I think that this is kind of a side argument I don’t really want to have, because everyone has a very different perception of how large Blizzard is, what it is capable of as a company, and how fast they should expect content to be generated. I think we can all agree that ultimately none of us know the intricacies of how many layers are required to get an animated short done at Blizzard, which already has quite a few spinning plates as is. I’m not trying to give them a free pass, but animation is only getting more and more complicated the better in quality it gets. The animated shorts Blizzard puts out are always stellar in quality, and they are first and foremost a game company; the fact that we get fully rendered 3D animated shorts rather than the still image cutscenes that many triple A titles rely on for their primary game is impressive in my opinion and deserves recognition.

“The story was cliche!”

I would really agree and disagree here. The story has elements of things we’ve seen before; it had a strong PacRim feel with design and story elements from Evangelion and lots of other things. That said, I think it’s kind of important that we simultaneously recognize that we don’t have a huge amount of representation for south korean women who are genius level mechanic fighter pilots, I genuinely couldn’t think of any in mainstream American culture/media. Anime is sort of a fringe interest that I wouldn’t really count for representation, too.

Second I really think we need to consider that there is a natural limit to storytelling. D.Va’s character situation is set in stone based on the game’s environment; we know that she MUST be a gamer, mecha pilot living in crisis times fighting against a robot enemy. There are honestly only so many ways that story can play out. Yes we’ve seen elements of it done before, and we will see elements of it done again, because it’s sort of silly to expect every story to reinvent the wheel. It would be as if asking romcoms to stop involving romance; it’s sort of part of the genre. A mecha fight against robots and a character that needs to learn to grapple with relying on their teammates and not just themselves is a natural phase of growing up as a person. To expect Hana Song to already have learned that just because we have seen many movies on the same story doesn’t mean that anything else would be realistic.

Long story short I really enjoyed it, I thought it had a lot of heart and while it certainly could be described as ‘predictable’, I would also argue that at this point in human storytelling a lot of stories are going to be a bit predictable, and that doesn’t make them bad. I’m honestly not sure what else people could have expected or wanted given the overarching story of Overwatch and D.Va.

Of course you are entirely free to disagree and hate it and Blizzard, but in general I’d rather have a more positive interaction with this community than what we’ve had going on for a while. And hey, it’s not a Mercy thread, so rejoice!

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I think you’re misunderstanding some of the more prominent complaints. It’s not about the story being predictable or cliché, it’s about the content of the story.

Knowing the general outcome of what’s going to happen to D.va doesn’t prevent people from learning new information about her from the telling of that story, or exploring the emotional impacts of watching those things happen. But those elements were missing here: There was little to learn about D.va in this cinematic, and it doesn’t even show the more defining parts of her history (except for a 2-second flashback). The core conflict of the piece was instead the rather artificial decision of whether imminent death is a good enough reason to ask for help.

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‘‘Representation’’ has nothing to do with it, Blizzard dropped the ball. They could have focused the short on that flashback of 5 seconds with D.Va and her team against that giant robot and it would have been 10 times better, without the characters talking at all.

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They have sort of always been sparse about details about characters though, and it seems like the cinematics are much less a conveyor for character information and more as a window into the world of Overwatch. With that in mind it doesn’t make sense for them to give us a ton of info about Soldier; and I think we did learn quite a bit about Hana’s personality and how she interacts with the world and her life in a way that I felt was pretty satisfying.

It seems like people are very detail starved, and to me knowing minutia doesn’t really add to the experience, I’m more interested in the characters as people and their emotional motives - that’s one of the things I think Overwatch has delivered on consistently well while also giving us an interesting world, though I can understand how people might feel like they haven’t been given enough answers I suppose!

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The forums just wanted to see her defuse a bomb, lose her family, have her hand cut off, and it would’ve been a good cinematic

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I disagree, if we’d gotten a 5 minute mecha battle with no dialogue or character interaction I’d have been super bummed - I’ve seen mecha battles before, I’ve seen robots fighting before in all kinds of ways. I need more layers of interest to hold my attention. I get that a lot of guys are really only interested in action, which is why we have the Transformer series, but to me it’s just not enough.

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I’m inclined to say the opposite of your comparison. The flashback moment wasn’t just “action,” that’s actually what the the cinematic provided as-is (with some wrapping dialogue). The flashback scene glanced at the moments that probably defined D.va’s outlook on the world, her team, and the war. Those elements were almost entirely absent in the cinematic, other than in the brief flashback.

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I was not talking about the action, i’m talking about the lore, just showing her synergy with her other team mates would show more lore than this short.

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I don’t know that the flashback needed to be long, because I could tell you what it would have involved, and I’m sure you could too- that’s probably why they chose not to show us much of it. We’ve got to consider that Blizzard isn’t an animation company, and every second of animation is literally thousands of dollars in cost. The money put into giving us another 30 seconds of flashback could have been exorbitantly beyond budget; we’ll never really know.

I think it’s definitely fair to say that we could have seen more of her team and their interaction, but I’m just not really sure if people are judging the cinematic on what it was and instead seem to simply be going ‘Why wasn’t it X!?!’ and that seems just not like a fair way to judge a piece to me.

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They dropped the ball on the flashback. It wasn’t horrible just seen the trope of her arc one too many times.

Loner now asks for help to overcome enemy as Deadpool would say, “that’s just lazy writing”

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One thing I liked about the story was how they gave an explanation as to why she uses self destruct.

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I liked that it was a spur of the moment idea and not simply something her mecha was designed to do beforehand.

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I was suggesting that basing the cinematic around the era of the flashback would have likely enabled them to provide a much more impactful story in the cinematic, not that the flashback should have simply been longer.

To the “what it’s not” point, I think people are judging it based on the quality they’ve come to expect from Blizzard (and Overwatch’s) previous cinematics. They all tend to leave us with these lingering thoughts about all the emotional moments and chilling resonances we just saw.

That yellow feather falling as we hoped with all our hearts that Ganymede would come back, even though we kind of knew they wouldn’t actually kill him. The heart-wrenching moment when that blue goo drips from Balderich’s armor, bearing the full weight of Reinhardt’s mistakes (even though they couldn’t show blood). The young girl revealed as safe and sound at the end of Hero, and the way Soldier recoils at being labeled as such. All these little movies are filled with things that drill into our hearts and minds and stay there. Beyond that, they tell us who these characters really are, and what they went through to get here.

I kind of agree that it might be “unfair” to judge this product based on the excellence of their previous work, given what a ridiculously high bar that sets. Yet, that’s the reality of what we’ve come to expect from them. When their quality has been consistently off the charts forever, we want and expect to see it continue on the same path, and here it suddenly dropped into the “pretty good” category. For anyone else but Blizzard, that would still be quite impressive, but on the Blizzard scale, it’s somehow disappointing.

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tosses away the oppressive hat.

Yrah I thinkt he time for kindness is gone here. Besides a one way conversation without delving into opposing sides makes for horrible discussion.

Overall the short was meh. It did take too long to add to Dva’s lore what with her being the first newly released hero to the roster. I mean if they were pandering to a playerbase why not cater to one of their most popular heros?

It makes no sense and many Dva fans can finally rejoice after two years of the same exact Dva.

The short was pretty and that was it for me. There was too many overbearing gripes mistakes and loopholes with the storytelling. 8 omnics to invade a city. Oneomnic having the potential to kill 1000s. Dva bring the only Mrka pilot available in a span of 5 minutes and the only meka pilot in thar huge hanger. The large water dive from a 100 stories up with Dva landing on her neck and spine. Her exposed meka’s power core.

The ridiculous area of effect from her initial defense matrix that does’t even last that long. The predictable friendship is magic plotline and friendzoning of her only alley in that crisis.

Not to mention SJW pandering as the only guy sown is treaed like a pet and given no recognition for his help. Saying thanks one second then denying him a simple request for saving the city.

I mean dude got slapped in face. Working Overtime for Dva who is suppose to be out of commission and told tha he is powerless to help stop the invasion. Until one press of a button.

Though he held concerns for Dva’s safety he was ignored and commanded like a dog to continue forward in which regards Dva would take full credit for being the one maling the call ece if she didn’t push said button.

Overall horroble predictable plotline too short of a short with a horrible background character tha should have seen more love esprcially if the were supposeto be friends like wha?! Hejust saed your life Hana! Just go to the party with him or give a invite ungraeful woman!

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Like you, i enjoyed the short and to me, it added more volume to Hana’s character than before the animation.

Prior to the video, based off the written backstory and voice lines, i had figured D.Va to be a slightly obnoxious gaming prodigy with a high IQ (appears to be a characteristic of top video gamers).

After the short, Hana is now more personable. Her D.Va persona is just that, a “persona”, a glamour which was projected onto her by an adoring public and the military / government and of course, being a fellow East Asian, the concept of “face” is very heavily alluded to in the video (kudos to Blizzard on picking up on that aspect of East Asian culture).

We see Hana as a very responsible and maybe even world weary (unwilling to join her colleagues in the “glitzy parties”) as she works on her MEKA. So we see that she is likely an Introvert (as defined by the MBTI).

The Introverted aspect of her character comes as a bit of a surprise to me because the voice lines hinted otherwise but it was obvious in her choice of avoiding the public eye, working alone and fighting alone. Even her “delicious food” (chips, soda, instant noodles) comment brings that to the forefront because that is something i would have said as well being a very Introverted person.

The fact that she chooses to work on her mech also shows a very down-to-earth and pragmatic side as well as displaying her obvious intelligence; having learnt and n either or both Mechatronics and EE Engineering at 19-20 years of age.

The fight scene was well done.

Overall, i found it satisfying.

P.S. I agree with the fact that this is a freebie and that Blizzard, seriously, is not obligated to come up with such animated video shorts and could have just done them in 2D like anime to cut cost.

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I can’t tell if you’re just trying to be contrarian or not, and it’s been a long day, but here goes.

  • The timing of the short is something that is negligible. It took them over a year to make this, the game hasn’t even been out that long, the idea that they should have ‘made it sooner’ is like watching a bunch of spoiled children stomping their feet that the party started at 6 pm instead of 5 pm. Things don’t always happen as fast as you would like, that’s real life. Their animation short schedule is kind of none of our business, they are a gaming company that makes games. It’s NICE that they make these animated shorts for us to enjoy, but it doesn’t add anything to the game, doesn’t put money in their pockets, and is a superfluous addition to the game itself.

  • Not sure why you’re confused about one Omnic killing thousands, they’re clearly equipped with various missiles and bombs, most bombs in cities tend to kill thousands, particularly in a densely populated future city with even stronger bombs than modern day ones.

  • Her being the only pilot available was explained in the short itself. The other pilots were off relaxing and partying, celebrating their recent victory. They have a schedule with the Omnics predicting their attack patterns, and before no omnics have attacked outside of this scheduled pattern, needing time to repair/rebuild/etc. It was a surprise attack designed to throw them off their guard, and that’s exactly what it did.

  • Her not dying on impact in the water is something that has been done time and time again in countless action films. Why is it somehow ‘unrealistic’ here but I’ve never heard any guys complaining about it any Schwarzenegger or Rambo style flick? It’s a small suspension of disbelief, and it’s done in so much media that I’m honestly surprised to see anyone being mad about it.

  • I’m not sure why it’s ‘SJW pandering’ to have a side character that isn’t in the game and the main focus of the short be treated in a fun, jovial and friendly way. If you genuinely think she ‘treated him badly’, then I’m sorry that you don’t understand human interaction that well. Clearly they are friends, and everything in their interaction was a positive and fun friendship. I’m sorry that you’re upset at seeing a man relegated to not getting as much praise as you would like.

Calling her an ungrateful woman and being somewhat purposefully obtuse about the nature of their friendly banter makes me think you’ve got a bone to pick with feminism and women at large, so I’m just gonna call it quits there. Best of luck, hope that explained things for you a bit.

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You are so weird…

I’ve never seen an action hero purposely fall into a vast ocean via neck and spine first.

A city with technology that advance must have a defense force and perhaps turrents or something to stop the mission. Dva’s Meka can’t be the only thing there that has combat abilities. Like come on. Local police forces soldiers. I mean the government would be on standby after the attack not celebrating one measly win of a battle.

The game is much older than a year.

It doesn’t take a team to make 7 minutes worth of a cinematic in 8 months. Thats rodiculous.

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You’ve never seen an action hero fall from a great height into the water, really?

Critiquing the City’s defense plan isn’t exactly the same as critiquing D.Va or the short itself. Saying ‘Their government makes no sense!’ might be a valid judgment (though I’ve seen many people laying out competent explanations as to why their Military runs this way in other threads, so even that is something that has reason behind it if you’re willing to look/consider it more thoroughly.) But again it isn’t the same as saying ‘This short is bad!’ - it’s a critique of the overall system of their world, not the short itself.

This is clearly a very PacRim style environment where they do not have the resources or pilots necessary to have a large embankment of soldier mekas - for whatever in game lore reason. Saying ‘that doesn’t make sense!’ only ignores the world that the OW team built and insists it must be done X way, which isn’t really fair to do. They’ve done it in so many movies and tropes - Special Team with Special Abilities/Equipment, there are only a rare few! - that is a CLASSIC TROPE in like, everything? So again, not sure why it’s a surprise to anyone.

And again saying that there is a military and police doesn’t acknowledge the idea that they would be able to take down a giant flying Omnic robot. I’m sure the police are great for handling riots and civilian matters, but I can’t really imagine a guy getting out of his squad car and taking that thing down with his pistol, can you?

I know the game is older than a year, it’s actually been out for 2 years, so if it took the team 1 year to make this animated short, then they were working on it when the game was only 1 year old. Again I have no idea why you think you have any entitlement as far as deciding which characters get shorts, in what order, and on a time schedule that you decide. Animation isn’t easy, Blizzard isn’t an animation company, and you don’t get to decide how much time/energy/money it takes to make a 7 minute short just cuz. That’s not how reality works.

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Okay. Jesus.

Critiquing the world around her and how it reacts is questioning the universe in which the character resides in. Moreso the plotline story and arch of the plot.

The hero is important but not the whole focus. Even though she is centered around it, everything around her is used to highlight the star. Therefore without the proper hghlights the star never shines or ever has a proper stage to take part in.

Action dives are normal and a questionable topic but that kind of dive is really uncalled for. I mean they cut it before she landed in the water but she sure took her sweet time shooting an exposed core that really wasn’t all that damaged compared to her meka’s arms.

So yes I’m questioning the things around her and why she was defending such an ignorant and helpless city in the first place with a man who could barely assist her or even think of calling the proper authorities for aid. It takes 4 seconds to make a phone call and half a second to push an alarm button.

Its small things and details like that that can ruin the immersion of a story here. And it did break the fantasy and immersion heavily.

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Critiquing the universe in which she exists is an entirely valid pursuit, but again it does not change the quality of the cinematic. Everyone saying that the cinematic should have been a 5 minute meka battle from the flashback - yeah, that would change absolutely nothing about the universe in which the character resides. So you’re either critiquing the world’s concept and it’s function OR the animated short, you cannot lump both together, say one is bad and ergo the other is also bad. That’s not how that works, they are two different things. Does the short work as a story? Yes. Does it make sense? Yes. Is it understandable and convey it’s message? Yes. It is a ‘successful animation’, because it succeeds in all the ways an animated story must succeed. If you want to get into the nitty gritty of Overwatch Lore that’s another kettle of fish, THAT is what I’m trying to say.

Saying that everything is centered around her seems rather disingenuous - Who had more lines of Dialogue in the short? I’d bet it was not her. The secondary character who isn’t even playable in the game had more speaking time and probably more screen time than she did, I’d dare you to go count it up - that, to me, does not show that they focused ‘too much’ on her. And again, it’s ABOUT HER, saying it’s ‘too much’ about her is… Weird? Like - it could have been 100% her and nothing else and that would be okay, because it’s her animated short.

Your guff about them choosing to not show us her impact in the water but show us that she did indeed shoot the exposed meka core makes no sense to me, and seems… IDK, pointless? Like, I guess you’re entitled to feel like you needed to see her hit the water, but we all knew what happened. She hit the water. She went to the hospital. She got better. It’s a cartoon animated short, I don’t need hyper graphic details of how the character landed in a universe where a talking monkey and a time traveling lesbian are best friends.

Also, ‘calling the proper authorities’ um - Bud, in the short they establish that she IS the ‘proper authorities’. She’s the meka defense squad, she and her team. Calling the police would have been pointless, I think anyone who watched the short can at least comprehend the universe in which these characters exist, even if they may disagree as to how realistic it is.

Again, saying that these ‘small details ruin the immersion’ doesn’t hold water unless you’re also upset about all the other animated shorts and Overwatch lore in general. We have so many moments where characters do unrealistic and amazing things, that’s sort of the point of fantasy. It’s not entirely realistic. It’s realistic to a point, and there isn’t anything in this short that is more unrealistic than anything else in Overwatch’s lore or shorts. I mean for crying out loud Mei managed to build an ice gun and save herself singlehandedly from the arctic, do you think that was particularly realistic? Come on here, it’s like you’re being purposefully obtuse because you’re mad that D.va wasn’t fawning all over the guy in the short.

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