Thats really dumb though There’s 0 reason to not make it canon. Its like for instance if they said in an interview, “oh soldier can’t actually Sprint” its unnecessary and would do nothing but give him less to do.
The art book mentions zenyatta using “omnic energy”
Ok. So? We don’t know what it is, but considering Omnics are machines, and energy is, in physics, what is transformed or transferred to perform work, I don’t see the problem. We have all sorts of other words relating to machines that go with the word energy. Electric Energy, Solar Energy, Nuclear Energy, Potential Energy, Chemical Energy, etc.
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Indeed it does.
Overwatch visual source book also says that the orbs serve as means of channeling omnic energy and can be released in peaceful or destructive ways.
Which does in fact mean that harmony orb is canon, because there is no other way zenyatta uses his orbs in a peaceful way, aka healing, that mercy also comments about.
I do not see how discord orb is strictly uncanon when taking this account, because all the omnic energy zenyatta uses is channeled via his orbs and used in 3 different ways, to heal, to weaken and to destroy. How in the world would discord orb then be uncanon if it’s opposite, harmony, is still canon?
Just because jeff has stated something in 2017 cuz he couldn’t figure out a good enough reason doesn’t mean it cannot be retconned to make more blipping sense and introduced into canon formats like comics or cinematics
The whole concept of this character ebodying balance of the soul, yin and yang with harmony and discord is moot if Zenyatta doesn’t actually have the abilities. A zenyatta with just harmony orb and orb of destructions as abilities is lacking.
Or he uses them in peaceful ways that are not an ability in the game.
Other uses may include giving peaceful vibes to whomever has the orb of harmony on them and soothing the soul and not neccesarily healing ofc since it could be his ultimate, though his healing abilities are established in canon.
The point is though that harmony orb or a version of it is canon outside of the game and thus, the opposite version discord would also be canon because his orbs channel the same omnic energy, just for different purpose.
On overwatch cookbook, it states “These “orbs” probably won’t cast a protective shield over a friend or disable an enemy, but one can always try”
Canonically we don’t know the exact way his Harmony orb works, only that they appear to be canon. Maybe harmony is multipurpose and not only soothes the disquiet of the soul and heals the wounds, because Zenyatta definitely wants to help the innocents and being able to heal wounds plus soothe the mind goes a long way, but being able to wrought discord on the soul and weaken the enemies without bringing them lasting physical harm would be pretty important as well. Disable has that connotation of limiting someone’s movement, senses or action.
Although it would be frikken cool if Harmony orb could actually cast hardlight or omnic energy shields on whomever receives it.