Time to clarify some things. If you're upset with the characterisation of Genji, I should mention that I consider both Sparrow and Genji to be based on the same character. I may have pissed in some people's porridge regarding him. But I have a problem with the Yakuza. They get a free ride way to fucking often! Sex traffickers, gun runners, drugs, extortion. You do something with style and an air of legitimacy like you're supposed to be doing it and you get a video game franchise made after you. So I wrote Genji as I imagined a spoiled Yakuza son to be, not a straight example of the game character. If I was going to write a 100% straight lift from the game I would have tried to make him far more sympathetic. Maybe he was bullied as a child by his family in the belief it will make him tough, but only made him shy and introverted? Maybe his training was the only thing he really excelled at and so his self-worth was knocked? Fuck yeah, I could woobify the shit out of him if I so chose.

For that reason, I kinda tried to retcon Ibrahim/Sparrow into a second Genji. His nickname and his ethnicity is based on two Skins of Genji, Bedouin and Sparrow. The Bedouin; for those who don't know, are a traditionally nomadic Arabic group in the Middle East and North Africa (which I am 100% selling short), not at all Japanese. Sparrow was just a fortunate opportunity to tie the two characters together. I'm not pretending my writing is better than the games backlore, I just thought I would explain myself this one time.

I should also explain my decision to put Overwatch as the perpetrator of serious crimes on the international stage. My thoughts are this. When I hear "Military Force Made to Fight One kind of Enemy" (That enemy being coded to be a minority ethnic group) I am reminded of very dark periods in history. It's genuinely a bit disturbing how Omnics are coded as this repressed minority group when they are supposedly perpetrators of worldwide calamities that I think we can agree are far and beyond minority groups today that face constant pressure and repression. It's an idiot's idea of identity politics. "Hey, let's have the enemy be robots so that way we don't have to touch on real-world politics, but let's also make them a pseudo-ethnicity so as to get some woke points" This is why I've coded the main team as bigots and toned down the whole "Omnic Crisis". You don't fight continuously against a bunch of sentient, thinking creatures and not develop some mental hurdles to protect yourself. Overwatch was made to fight an Ethnic Group. That just feels a bit fucked up. So the characters are likewise, a bit fucked up.

That's not to say I hate the continuity, Valkyrie was actually written quite well, and the Dragons short was fun, punchy and well made. But when you dive deeper, shit starts to get a bit fucky. The canon to be fair does notice these things, but it's still a bit messy.

Alright, that's over with. Let's get on with it. Thank you for following, if you are. Due to the bots on this site, I can barely fucking tell if anyone is following. But if you are, I really appreciate it.