I was just on another post when this question really dug into me.
This is one of Overwatch’s most important Happening in the timeline and we know absolutely nothing about it.
At first the theory that was assumed to be true was that Gabriel Reyes, after being in Jack’s shadow for too long ( his once best friend, now rival ) took advantage of the hectic situation Overwatch was in and started a riot, a mutiny, because he still saw that Jack took the SC position from him.
But after Jeff revealed that they were infact not even just besties, but war buddies ( they loved eachother ) and that Gabriel was glad Jack took the position instead AND that Jack actually indulged Gabe in his Blackwatch-y was too much.
All this poked holes into that assumed canon and we are left knowing nothing… about the literal fall of Overwatch.
If we were to believe that Reaper made Zürich happen, even accidentally, then why in Old Soldiers does he put the blame on anyone but himself? He acts as if Overwatch, in it’s entirity, abandoned him. And that possibly, with ‘he’ ( since he’s talking to Ana and going by this & in-game interaction he still holds a soft heart for her ) Gabriel also thinks/believes Jack abandoned him.
This doesn’t make any sense, Reaper’s motivations still evade me and until we know what controversy Blackwatch committed and what exactly happened in Zürich there’s just no way to know why once bossom friends and war bros are now throwing eachother down and trying to kill one other.
( Failing miserably too, Reaper had 76 at his mercy, completely by surprise, and decided to shoot him in the back instead of the exposed head. Reaper is bad at killing former allies honestly… )
Reaper remains an utter mystery if you delve past the Look-At-Me-I-Dress-Like-A-Villain bit and you find that there’s nothing there. You don’t know why he goes from war hero, beloved friend & mentor to this.
And the fact that we have no idea what happened at Zürich, the most important bit of history to the game…
It’s suspicious.
There must be something more there, right?
EDIT: I’ve seen people still cling to the Reyes was mad about the position getting passed over him,
go to twitter and add:
/autolikescake/status/928528808445014019
then judge for yourself if he was when this was said