While there have been many changes and improvements made toOverwatch 2from its predecessor, fans picking through these differences have noticed that Moira’s updated look could be foretelling of a darker future down the line for her. Introduced inOverwatchas a counter to the stereotypical benevolent support healers,Moira contrasted with other charactersand their morals by being presented as a morally ambiguous scientist. As if reflective of her duality, her core gameplay gimmick revolved around a biotic system that can damage opponents and heal allies, with the important visual element of alternating this between her left and right hands.
It’s this focus on Moira’s hands that has fans concerned about Moira’s future, as her new, updated look forOverwatch 2has revealed more of her right arm, showing just how far whatever genetic mutation or corruption has gotten. Moira’s right arm is her means of attacking enemies, sapping their health, and restoring her own health and biotic energy. The progressed mutation of her right arm, then, has led fans to suspect that the continued use of her abilities to drain health and heal herself is the cause, and this could have dire consequences for her in the future.
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Moira’s Experimentation in Genetics
Moira was introduced toOverwatchat a time when most if not all support healer characters were the typical “good guy,” and this overwhelming majority is likely what prompted Blizzard to introduce a more traditional “bad guy” to counter this. In an effort to maintainOverwatch’s diversity of charactersand stories, Moira was the quintessential unethical doctor gone rogue in the pursuit of scientific breakthroughs. Her experiments even helped serve as an explanation behind the superhuman abilities presented in the likes of Reaper and could likely be the catalyst behind future characters further down the line.
Moira’s own abilities originate from genetic experimentationon herself, something which is reflected in early ideation concept artwork during her development to the alternative cosmetic skins she has. Though it’s not made explicitly clear what sort of experiment these are, her design and abilities reflect a biological ability to both drain and give health from enemies to allies. While other concept art shows that initial ideas were to have a Scarecrow-like syringe-tipped glove seen in theBatman: Arkhamseries, her final design implies this ability is genetic and less so technological.
Moira’s Transition Between Overwatch and Overwatch 2
In light of this,Moira has changed betweenOverwatchandOverwatch 2, and it seems Blizzard has redesigned her look to demonstrate the progression of this genetic corruption. Without knowing exactly what Moira did to herself will make pinning down a scientific explanation tricky, but it’s undeniable that whatever the cause is, it’s getting worse. In recentOverwatch 2artwork, Moira’s right arm is on full display, revealing the strange physiological transformation she’s undergoing as her arm has an uneasy purple hue.
While this could be chalked up to Blizzard wanting to make the distinction between her “good” and “bad” sides more obvious and visually intriguing to players,Blizzard’s habit of introducing hidden details and referencesoften comes with hints at future developments. For example, Moira’s own announcement was teased when a research paper titled “Draft: Repairing Degenerative Genetic Structures” was added toOverwatch’sOasis map. It could be possible then that not only did this preemptive Easter egg tease her announcement, but the genetic repairing from the paper could be referring to herself and not Reaper as players first believed.
The ramifications of this could point toward future iterations of Moira that show her more physically deformed or mutated due to this experimentation, with her transformation progressing faster the more she uses her abilities. For one, it could radically change howMoira plays and makes her more powerful, perhaps turning her from less of a healer and more into a vampiric or parasitic offensive character as she mutates and loses her humanity. But a worse scenario could develop where Moira becomes so consumed by her mutations that she becomes the firstOverwatchcharacter to be officially retired for future games.
Overwatch 2is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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