I have a theory (or maybe that’s not the right word… more like lore speculation) that the original strike team only had daughters (at least among their kids who are mentioned in the story): Ana has Fareeha, Gabe has his daughter from Reflections, Jack has Lena (lmao don’t take that one too seriously, it’s just a joke based off that one voice interaction), Torb (and Rein) share Brigitte (LOL) and now I’m thinking… it could be said that Liao “has” Echo?
If you’re counting Echo as Liao’s “daughter”, you should count Bastion as Torb’s child too.
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you’re right…all daughters and one nonbinary robot
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They hinted that Echo is basically Liao’s subconscious (or at least a copy/sample of it).
I’d say Echo is Liao.
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I think a better example would be Efi to Orisa, rather than Torb to Bastion. Torb adopted Bastion, while Efi created Orisa.
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That’s not what they hinted at all. Echo is Liao’s legacy, her masterpiece - not Liao herself.
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If you listen closely, Liao’s narrative slowly fades into Echo’s narrative.
As if they are the same, but different at the same time.
But that’s just my opinion.
Echo is Liao’s echo. She is liao but robot
The problem with all these “Echo is Liao” things is probably the most simple thing you can look at.
What if Liao didn’t just get killed. She would have co-existed with Echo. There is no reason for her great, and I’ll quote from the origin short’s description, “evolutionary robot programmed with a rapidly adapting artificial intelligence” that “represents the cutting edge of technology” to just be Liao 2.
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Well first of all they haven’t hinted much if anything at all but she does talk about Liao as a different person so at the very least this isnt some Chappie mind transfer thing.
I mean there’s a lot of Sci-fi where you can basically immortalize yourself by creating a digital copy of you mind (first one I can think of was Cowboy Bebop)
BUT there is a lot of possibilities. I mean, mind/soul transfer where you are the same person but with a robot body always seemed a bit sketchy to me. But an information transfer where the new AI Robot is not defined by that information and memory but simply shaped by it makes a lot more sense.
Liao scans her brain, adds it to the memory banks of the AI robot and bam! You have a different entity who could very well be described as the Echo of someone who has passed on.
At the end, Echo speaks about Liao: “and so, she created me. Her legacy, her promise, her echo.”
If Echo was Liao, she wouldn’t speak about Liao in third person - she would say “I created Echo, my promise, my legacy”, etc. Echo is the culmination of Liao’s life’s work, but she is a separate individual who is not Liao’s consciousness/mind in a robot body.
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To me Echo’s AI isn’t Liao but is shaped by the memories etc. of Liao.
Echo is (idk how to say) przedłużenie świadomości of Liao.
Echo will end what Liao started.
Oh now I know how to say it. Echo herself said it. Echo is the echo of Liao.
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Bastion definitely counts as torbjorn’s child since he adopted them though.
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If you adopt a kitten, its not your child, its your pet.
I mean…it seems like part of the point of Bastion is to see omnics as capable of being more similar to humans than we thought, with fully evolved/evolving consciousness and personalities, not just cute pets. It definitely is not just Torb’s pet.
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Echo’s origin story has a lot of undertones of mother/born child. The look Liao has with Echo’s face between he hands is clearly the one of a mother discovering her child for the first time.
But that the only comparission. Then, in game, Echo is refering to Mina as “Doctor Liao”. She doens’t seem to have the emotionnal bond of a daughter toward her mother. She is her creator. But not her mother.
Then for the Bastion being adopted by Torbjorn - it seems to be around Torb a lot - even helping him in his workshop? That’s not what a simple pet do - but I have hard time for Torbjorn to accept Bastion as one of his children.
Then again, you can form a bond between a human and non human, and a lot of pet owners think of their animal as a family member, not just a pet.
Bastion is sentient not an animal. Cant speak english but clearly understands and can communicate.
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The English isn’t the only language of the world.
Bastion lives at Torbjörn’s, at Lindholms’, so most of time Bastion hears their Swedish.
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True but you get my point
Animals are also sentient. Like, 99% of animals in the world are sentient. The living beings that aren’t sentient are things like parasites or microorganisms, for example. A tapeworm isn’t sentient. A dog, humming bird, or honey bee are.
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