Overwatch Lore is...Heartwarming? - Combat Veteran Reacts

Overwatch is a wildly popular role-based FPS, and Blizzard, it's company has a series of cinematic shorts. I checked out the first in the series "The Last Bastion"
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[@someonesomewhere1363]

The thing about this character, Bastion, is he was meant to be cannon fodder. Bastion units were assembled in the thousands and basically dropped into the frontlines, in endless droves. If you shot down one, ten more would be right behind it, chain guns revved. This Bastion, however, never made it to the front. He never saw combat. He only activated because that bird hit a manual start-up button, and so he got the opportunity to develop as a person, instead of immediately dying the moment he was deployed.

[@someonesomewhere1363]

Kinda. They’re learning machines, and every Bastion unit had the potential to become a self aware individual with thoughts and feelings, but none of them lived long enough to get that opportunity. Well, none except our Bastion. He got lucky. But because of what he is, and because the sheer terror the bastion units inspired, the moment he sets foot in a populated city he’s basically fucked. Bastion units are kill-on-site-level banned

[@r2d352]

Question where did u get this info?

[@Reitens]

@@r2d352 Logic and lore of the game. Overwatch has this thematic that had an "Omnic war" Omnics are robots, some of them are sentient and some of them are warmachines, others are both, the war ended an there are a ton of omnics that just want to live in peace, this goes to the morals of sentient beings and what is alive and what is not, all that stuff.

[@arb1ter993]

He was damaged in the fighting but not enoguht to kill it but just to put it into sleep mode

[@priestly8164]

Just like B1 battle droids.

[@TheBestPirateDrake]

In overwatch, robots are actually a sentient race that feel and think like humains. Their has been a war between humans and the machines. Now humans and machines live together in a single society.

[@wetsocks42_50]

until overwatch 2

[@partyleswine5155]

In some areas. Numbani I believe is equal with robots and is one of the best spots in the world, while Russia (I forgot the specific place) still despises the robot race....well, unbeknownst to them that one of the many figures of Russia was working with the enemy. We also got Britain, forgot the place there, which I believe is somewhat being shared. So, basically some parts of the world is coexisting with the Omnics, other places aren't.

[@birdmeme8813]

Shut up grab your gun and get killed by a the real sentrie

[@Native_Beats_]

@@partyleswine5155 I believe in Korea robots are also equal, except for the Kaiju-bot that comes from the ocean every so often. As well as Australia giving the outback to the robots, since they don't have a need for food or drink, therefore no need for farmland. Which is why the locals also don't like the robots.

[@partyleswine5155]

@@Native_Beats_ OH YEAH! The locals waged their own personal war against the Omnics in the outbacks and caused an accident. Now they're scavengers and love mech fighting, while also despising Omnics and calling them Junkers.

[@lexsamreeth8724]

Theoretically, anything with sufficient cognitive ability can get PTSD. I remember being surprised to learn that animals like cats and dogs can get PTSD. But when you think of the psychology of it, PTSD is a maladaption of somebody's ability to discern danger. It's similar to an allergy, except instead of an innocuous chemical trigger setting off an inappropriate immune response, an innocuous sensory trigger causes an inappropriate action, because your mind has associated certain cues with life-or-death situations. As such, it's entirely possible that a learning-capable AI like Bastion could develop PTSD, resulting in him misinterpreting sights and sounds as threats of imminent destruction, leading to him lashing out. In fact, in lore, Bastion deliberately avoids high-population areas out of fear of being triggered and killing somebody, because he understands that would drive people to hunt him down and destroy him.

[@AScottish-AustralianM-84]

There is an interesting story about an American Alligator called Saturn who hatched in 1936 in Mississippi and died last year in May 2020 in Moscow Zoo. I highly suggest watching Mark Felton Productions about Saturn the alligator.

[@JLL_29]

Im surprised this is long and got many likes in 3 months yet only 2 comments

[@g.masterlordoftheg-force4770]

I mean, dogs have memories and feelings. Why wouldn’t they get PTSD?

[@asktoybox]

The main plot of this cinematic is basically: There was an assault on a city by a robotic force composed of rogue A.I. called Null Sector. The robot in this story is called a Bastion Unit, and were designed to be basic foot-soldiers in the war. They had rudimentary A.I. which was not designed for emotions or sentient thought. They were given a task and simply marched on whatever target they were designated. This particular unit suffered some sort of malfunction and got lost in the woods, ending up in sleep mode until years after the war was over and was "woken up" by the bird. Due to the nature of the malfunction, it's primary A.I. basically got 'reset' and while it retained it's original orders, it lost it's overall motivation for following them. The malfunction also somehow caused it's A.I. to develop emotional response which was not a part of the standard Bastion protocols. So essentially, this Bastion unit woke up not only with PTSD, but essentially amnesia, and the reason it wandered through the forest like a lost child in the beginning is because it has no idea what it is, or what it's purpose is. It's not until it reads the memory of another destroyed unit that it realizes that it's meant to attack the city, which is why it changes modes and tries to assault the city on it's own, however after the bird comes back it manages to override it's default programming once it realizes it has no actual reason to follow it's pre-determined orders and heads back into the woods that it now considers 'home'. Interestingly, in the canon, Bastion is mostly a pacifist but because of the fact that Bastion units were only produced by Null Sector while most 'good' Omnics (robots) have a more humanoid and organic looking form, it makes most people immediately fear and want to destroy Bastion on sight, which is the primary reason he stays in the forest. He is in a Frankenstein's Monster scenario where he does not want to hurt anybody, but humanity considers him a threat. Also, due to the fact that Bastion Units were simply designed for cannon fodder, it was not given any sort of ability to speak as it was deemed unnecessary, so it is unable to explain itself to anybody it comes across, which only causes it more distress. This is why it only makes beeping noises during the cinematic. In game, it's voice lines work like the Pyro's in the fact that it does not actually speak in any understandable capacity and instead just makes noises that give a general sense of what it's trying to convey.

[@vaasmontenegro2016]

Good summary.

[@spandanganguli6903]

Most probably the Bastion AI is some sort of an adaptation of Omnic AI. Some parts removed, but I doubt anyone understands the tech well enough to fully change or twist it

[@misschauffarde5112]

Remember he is the last of is model and probably contain the awnser of why ai got Rogue he is with 3 other personne (with one being killed in one of the cinématique) to know why the null sector got Rogue

[@kirtil5177]

@@spandanganguli6903 maybe the omnic ai was changed a bit to basically suppress or ignore the emotional and other unneeded parts of the ai, but the long sleep basically rebooted the machine and the omnic ai was back to normal, or it bypassed the tweak made to it.

[@caeso-4633]

One thing the rogue ai is not called null sector. Null sector is a specific omnic terrorist group. Null sector units can be recognized by their purple colors. Our bastion is not from null sector.

[@meowass1455]

Robots that are able to learn, becomes sentient, that's why in starwars they regulary delete memory of the droids

[@thechargentarge1341]

From the comics what I’ve learned is that the separatists hive mind doesn’t really delete the memories, more like make it inaccessible to the droid, but then again because of the hive mind the B1 Battle droids actions are Already chosen, but if said droid’s circuits were disconnected from the hive mind relocater the droid will become sentient and basically be reminded of every memory they made, such as being in combat, then dying, then being salvaged, becoming a droid again and the list goes on, so far I’ve learned this from stories such as the droid that became a farmer, mr bones, and coppertop.

[@meowass1455]

@@thechargentarge1341 that's cool, you can absolutely see alot of droids are sentient, when you surround small groups of enemies you would propably kill them but most of the droids do something I really like and that is “Do... We take prisoners?” you see they just want to acomplish what they been ordered to and don't kill when its not necessary, jedi and clones on the other hand kill inagressive unarmed droids or kill them even when they surrounder

[@adamyoung6797]

@@meowass1455 I think Jedi have a blind spot towards potential life that is completely disconnected from the Force. Of course a Jedi would ignore them, they are not part of the grand cycle. On top of being enemies

[@StarioSenpai]

Ah, looking forward to more of this. For all the other issues related to Blizzard their Overwatch shorts were always pretty solid.

[@kalkinzinsunpraiser1548]

Blizzard always made some AMAZING cinematics, their art and marketing department do actually do their job correctly instead of cubicle crawling.

[@MidWitPride]

They actually made that wood pecker sound like a distant AK firing on full auto. Props for the sound team of Blizzard, for making this that one step more relatable for war vets.

[@ShinigamiSamaH]

The robot race in Overwatch is basically a stand in for the target of racism, as certain humans treat them like tools and slaves despite them being sentient and have feelings. Stuff escalate, and one thing lead to another a World War started between Man and Machine. Overwatch (the game) took place years after the War ended.

[@mistermann4163]

While Overwatch the organization helped stop the robotic revolution and provide peace with Overwatch being a hero organization of sort. However there Black Ops side obvious evil did evil things which sank Overwatch. I will say the story and the game are two different things entirely compared to how TF2's game an story compliment each other in how/why two colored teams fight one another in the game part.

[@JoshSweetvale]

Bastion blurs the line between a defective autonomous weapon and a soldier going through maladaptive responses.

[@blazermettro2059]

I recommend watching another TF2 animation called End of the Line, if you haven't already. ITS AWESOME!! PS. Bastion always been my favorite Character in Overwatch. He's Cinematic really stuck with me for some reason. And the way you were breaking down parts in the video was really nice too. PS.S. That bird probably saved at least a few hundred people that day.

[@amywhite3136]

I love bastion my favourite character to that I pick alot

[@VoltBolt1984]

Bastion is similar to Johnny 5 on the grounds that he is programmed to kill but develops a conscious and gains free will from natural events and/or time.

[@KingZolem]

An adaptive learning machine that is meant to take in information and execute its best judgment may find itself deciding that its directives are wrong because it find enough information that argues against it.

[@Sinsystems]

It's been awhile since I payed any attention to Overwatch but you are basically right about it being a Post-Skynet type situation. Essentially it's a near future world where this one company set up these massive automated factories run by powerful AIs referred to as god AIs. Naturally the usual thing happened and they went to war with humanity with an endless swarm of robots, often adapted from the civilian models they originally produced. As part of countering this the world created a group called Overwatch which basically was an international task force of the best of the best of the best from all around the world and who ended up being viewed as heroes by the civilian population. In the end the humans won and defeated the god AIs....only for some reason once the connection was broken many of the robots (referred to as Omnics) were fully self aware and with human levels of emotion/intelligence which leads to complex geopolitical issues. This is then coupled with Overwatch rising high, expanding to do things like international search and rescue, research and more....only to fall apart when the details of their Black Ops division becomes public and an accident (likely some attack) causes the destruction of their main base and presumed death of the main leaders. Finally working in the Shadows is this edgy terrorist group called Talon, can't remember too much of the details but they basically serve as the designated bad guys. Can't remember what their goals were but I think it was essentially to control the world from the shadows or something like that.

[@gozillabk]

Talon basically wants to enforce 24/7 conflict in the world because extreme Darwinism.

[@VERSU117]

First TF2, now Overwatch - damn I love you man.

[@koskov6377]

Watch Fortress 2

[@youraverageenclavesoldier]

@@koskov6377 Team Over

[@polarjet1833]

Overwatch animations: this robot was originally bad but got knocked out and became good after seeing a bird TF2 animations: evil bread

[@MrHitmancheg]

Ooh boy, Overwatch. So here's what happened to Overwatch. For a while it was a pretty successful game. But at some point it started stagnating, as content releases became less frequent. Eventually Blizzard stated that they are actually working on "Overwatch 2", so bear with it, it'll be out Soon™. Essentially what they promised is that the original version and Ov2 will be cross-compatible, but Ov2 will have singleplayer campaign. So players waited. And waited. With no meaningful content. Then came delays. And then Jeff Kaplan, the lead designer for Overwatch left. And recently it was delayed again. And also the whole "Blizzard sexually harasses female employees to the point where one commits suicide" thing happened and the state of California got involved. Also one of the characters is named "Jesse McCree" after one of the dudes from the "Cosby suite". So... Basically noone is sure if Overwatch will live long enough to see its own sequel, and if it does, if there will be anyone left to play it.

[@Flight_of_Icarus]

Don't forget that time they refused a tourney guy his winnings because he took a stand for Hong Kong. Never paid any attention to anything Blizzard since

[@Tom-H1]

I recommend Honor and Glory for the next one. It directly relates to the Last Bastion. Gives a lot of info about this war between, as you very accurately describe it, skynet and humans

[@pelipoika88]

When you talked about if robots could be programmed to have a response to stimulus similar to human emotions, I remembered a moment in Portal 2. It was revealed that when a test subject completes a test, the AI in control has a response similar to a dopamine hit. If you choose to do that test a second time, the AI did not have a second response if I recall correctly. Could have been just diminishing returns.

[@halcyondazed5665]

Robots with humanoid emotions in overwatch are known as "Omnics" as they are essentially the same as humans, despite being made of metal and hydraulics. Bastion was a robot used as cannon fodder in the Human/Omnic War, where the Omnics felt disenfranchised by humanity. things have since been patched up and life has flourished. The man in the short with the energy shield is essentially a german super soldier, armed with cutting edge technology, a rocket powered hammer and a jet booster on his back to fight against the Bastion and the OR-14 units, which are essentially centaur Omnics, which you may have seen in the Overwatch vs. TF2 part 2, though she was an advanced version built by a 14 year old girl.

[@nixoproto7545]

There's a reason why i like bastion the most, basically because of his short film

[@localtomboylocalmaniacloca6759]

Overwatch Lore: Drama, Heartwarming, and stuff like that. TF2 Lore: The leaders of BLU and RED rented the Alamo for a truce to create a make a machine that will make one of them pregnant. They were later killed by their missing triplet brother who was revealed to raised by eagles.

[@butter5842]

Tf2 is like going to a buffet. Overwatch is like sitting down for a 3 course meal. Each is great in their own right. Overwatch like many games have been dubbed successors to TF2 but they have all faded or are fading into obscurity while TF2 lives on neglected by valve.

[@DetrimenttoSociety]

The robot is sentient debate goes much farther then that. Zenyatta, a playable robot monk literally can achieve trancendance. Nirvana, become a higher state of being complete with glowing arms of mystical light and complete invulnerability.

[@ranarman5866]

The 2nd ending to the video is that the gun shot sounds gave the army veteran PTSD and just started shooting the room

[@CorwinTheOneAndOnly]

Another thing that makes this super sad is that he doesn't have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, he has *Programmed* Traumatic Stress Disorder. He never saw contact, he was just a sentient built specifically to shoot and kill when certain triggers happen, like the pre-programmed "sound of combat", for instance.

[@professorparadox3064]

So, I’ll try to explain as quickly as possible. Human’s developed AI to the point that they became sentient. Those AI formed their own society, intertwined with humans, and became known as “Omnics”. A faction of those Omnics decided they were better than humans, resulting in a Skynet situation, and future mistreatment of non-hostile Omnics once the war was over. There are still regular robots that are not sentient. The one in the video, is from special series of machines called “Bastions” (his name in game). Bastions were Omnics that were basically hacked, then mass produced by the hostile Omnics as their main attack force. Bastions were not given a choice, and were considered expendable. They were to march and take a target, or be dropped directly into the battlefield, as you can see in the background of the “flashback”. This particular Bastion was dropped in the wrong location, most likely shot down, and failed to activate until the bird somehow turned it on. While no longer receiving direct orders, some programming from the war is still intact, resulting in the facsimile of PTSD. This Bastion is the last working model of its series, hence the name of the short. He actively avoids humans both for self preservation (as his model is considered an immediate threat to be destroyed on sight) but is still curious enough about the world to explore, and from the comics I have seen seems to have his programming under control. Extra note: each country came up with their own methods of combating the world wide omnic threat. This short takes place somewhere in or around Germany, where they had the regular forces and those specially armored troops with the hammers and shields.

[@PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworth]

Studies do show a high correlation between intelligence and emotion, leading some to believe that a truly autonomous AI would develop something resembling emotions naturally.

[@connorlove436]

If you want a bit more info, there's another overwatch cinematic that digs into the lore about Null Sector and where Bastion came from called "Honor and Glory". It focuses on one of the giant dudes with the shield generators called Reinhardt, a playable character in-game like Bastion. I'd definitely suggest it if you're going into more combat-related overwatch reactions.

[@OvertureKyKiske]

12:00 - this is actually what happened in video: defence blocade was decimated by automatrons ready to kill and die under order, defenders were fleeing... look at the soldiers fleeing and being bombarded.

[@spandanganguli6903]

For the discussion about the autonomous weapon system,Yhe Bastion units usually worked in a interconnected tactical grid. Realistically there would be multiple AI units dedicated to targeting, and given they are omnic, they would most likely just be indistinguishable from human.

[@RazanaArcclaw]

Would like to point out, the very next cinematic in this is one you may love, it's literally about a soldier.

[@internetcringe3941]

the whole overwatch robot war happened because someone put their chromebook in the wrong slot at school

[@aftsfm]

he is a genius, he watches episodes separately.

[@fr0st864]

anybody else thought of the whole muselk reborn when you saw the thumbnail?

[@mortarion9813]

Okay so regarding some context, the battle showed here is the Battle of Stuttgart. This was during the Omnic Crisis, the big world war between Omnics (sapient robots) and humanity. Near Stuttgart is Eichenwald, the headquarters of the Crusaders, which are a special force of power-armoured German infantry and the guys with the giant hammers and energy shields. What I _think_ is being shown during this battle is the Crusaders' and the Bundeswehr's attempts to stave off the Omnics during the battle, in order for the civilians to escape and to act as a sort of screen in order for victory to be claimed (dunno if it's to take out the local Warmind or what). But I always assumed that the battle on the wide-open field was a desperate attempt to save lives at the cost of their own, seeing as in Honour and Glory the Crusaders and their Bundeswehr allies were caught off-guard by the Omnic assault. The lack of any fortifications and the suicide counter-assault is likely for this reason. Edit: Others already elaborated on Bastion and his history, but nobody's touched on the Crusaders or the cities they were defending from what I could see. :)

[@Ironixc]

i love your videos, all the info you give us its amazing

[@spyro257]

would love to see more Overwatch Shorts from u! :)

[@Elanchana]

Bastions are part of the robot “race” known as Omnics. All Omnics are produced by a set of factories called Omniums and have very advanced AI. Some of them are humanoid and have personality cores, and have integrated with society in some parts of the world. But others, like the Bastions, were mass-produced killing machines… sort of. The story of this Bastion shows that their AI was advanced enough to give guidelines (locate the nearest city, respond to violence with violence, etc) but not hard-coded orders. Activating in a peaceful environment and spending enough time there makes it decide that its original battlefield purpose is now irrelevant.

[@altagos9265]

might be alittle late to this, actually alot late, but for anyone curious, in overwatch there was a "omnic crisis" where humans went to war with robots effectively. although not all robots were on the side of evil. and after the war you have omnics like zenyatta "fighting" for peace

[@playerrida6999]

1:49 you can play offline in tf2 . But not like a campain or missions or something

[@ElixoYT]

Best summary of the story is the beginning of the animated short called "Overwatch Cinematic Trailer" and a really short animated short called "Are You With Us"

[@Whatiseven]

Robots in this universe were originally like the care giver idea that they are experimenting but over time they became sentient. Leading to them revolting and eventually war. While not all robots, or omnics as they are called in universe, were violent a large amount of omnics were mass produced to be in the war time.

[@rosalyndt85]

Overwatch is like a future tech world with robot people and high tech weapons, the robots name is Bastion and why there was a war with robots I don't really know but I think it was called the Omnic Crisis or something like that, where like you saw robots went to war with humans, also I think Bastion is the only one left of his kind or model.

[@impulsewraith3419]

The only reason bastion survived is because he apparently never got to the frontlines of the war so he was thrown away somewhere i guess

[@CommissarChaotic]

The stimulus thing... Isn't that why Glados and Wheatley have had some kind of addiction to testing?...

[@wont_take_it]

Yes please, more overwatch cinematics! I'm not a big fan of the game itself, but i really like their cinematics. This one is probably one of my favorites. I also like the one where they're in a museum, but i can't remember what it's called. And the one with Reinhart too.

[@happyjohn354]

Honestly I am completely against the development of true AI as a machine even if built to be a toy is a tool to serve a purpose... There is no logical reason besides blatant cruelty to give a tool consciousness.

[@malcolmthorne9779]

Hence why I advocate guided evolution through careful genetic tailoring and eugenic sociopolitic methodology. We pretty much knocked natural selection off its throne without replacing it with something else. I say it is our responsibility as a species to take up the mantle. The almost crippling rise in autoimmune and hereditary diseases pretty much makes it a necessity. It's that, or accept that fact that a large chunk of the populace will become a burden to society and that a lot of people will have to suffer needlessly. Just because we were afraid of "playing god". God is dead and we killed him. Now his kingdom is ours to rule.

[@kolyashinkarev7366]

You don't have to regard it as just mere tool lol, developing truly sentient robot would mean that things like artificial vessels for our own consciousness are possible, which is basically immortality (sort of) and when we transcend in such a way, is there really a difference between artificially and naturally made people?

[@midnight9113]

Id say the reason they didnt cover from airstrikes was cus it looks like they have planty to spare on robots as well as the giant ones that look to be ten times as big as the others

[@johncoto9517]

Part 2 please not only do have great reactions but I learn something every vid.

[@Native_Beats_]

Definitely can't wait for more Overwatch stuff. They're great Also yes, this world takes place in basically a post Skynet world. Humanity won and the robots signed a truce. Overwatch was the main fighting force for humanity but were declared as a criminal organization for whatever reasons after the war. The way robots are treated around the globe vary wildly.

[@Sassaparilla]

They were not declared criminals as a total. Some considered them criminals for the hidden actions of Blackwatch, but not totally. Due to the risks of leaving so much in the hands of an "independent" organization, they were deemed unnecessary at the face of things, and thus forced to disband under the reason of "Security". Especially considering this was after the falling out between Soldier 76 and Reaper before he joined Talon.

[@dragaleoreforged3999]

Also overwatch is based in 2077 after a massive world war against robots when they gained sentience and their own free will. which is regarded as the Omnic Crisis. Overwatch was the task force that ended the war after years of prosperity they got disbanded due to a trator on the inside of the organization. These shorts are a glimpse into the hero’s lives some veterans of the omnic crisis and some new heroes about to fight in the second omnic crisis

[@nullblasterthevoidmaker1750]

The fact that the human brain exists is proof that making a machine with feelings is entirely possible. Monstrously complex, but possible.

[@kolyashinkarev7366]

Thank you, I don't get why people don't understand that if something exists, it can be replicated or recreated, even a human being

[@MiningwithPudding]

13:10 Technically, the robots won, kind of. Some of them won (the side wanting equality) and some lost (the Skynet side).

[@spamuel98]

The thing about computers, though, is that they only follow the instructions they're programmed to execute. Unless someone is REALLY cutting corners, it's not that difficult to add in safeguards and parameters to make sure that the automated weapon won't attack unless absolutely certain what it's shooting at, and that it's an enemy. It's as simple as making sure the "fire" command is locked behind a bunch of checks, like "check for symbol a32-z79, if false run check 2" or something. I know enough about software to know how it works, but not enough to show what actual commands might be used.

[@Fireontire]

If you want a soldier point of view on the omnic war id say watch the Overwatch Cinematic: Honor and Glory.

[@9drunkninjafoxes367]

another bit of lore (dont know if retconed but i think its still the same in the comics to date) was Bastion units are mass produced terminators that are way to good at there jobs(like people **** themselves seeing them levels of good, aka, have fun surviving that AC-130 with you locked levels of **** your self), and also included self learning thanks to still being a advanced Omnic robot and buffed up for war, so good was they that they got to the point of humans giving kill on sight even after the Omnic war was long over (Omnic war was when Omnic robots were made, rose up demanding right and not be slaves, but went to far and go full terminator purge all humans instead of waiting for reform for a while until it was stooped and the more civil Omnics returned to civilisation, but some humans still reject them because of this, you also might wana look at zenyatta to, a fun little robo in those times), they were that programmed to kill and such, however, this certain one has damaged to part of its war programming, but not its learning, funny enough there is a comic that follows up on this where torbjorn comes to where this certain Bastion after hearing from locals that one was roaming about, strangely, every trap torbjorn set failed to capture the Bastion, to the point he hunted out the Bastion, just to find it helping beavers to build a dam, and not taking any bates to attack, instead just avoiding human localisations (mostly has humans reacted to it same way one would react to a HK-Tank or t-3000 rolling up outside of town), torbjorn went out to find this strange Omnic and lost his marbles seeing a Bastion defy everything a Bastion was programmed to do, while basically low key giving all the same points HMGR made (lol), including showing primitive emotions (mostly curiosity) and not wanting to kill (behaviours this Bastion "learned" with the combat programming failed to override), torbjorn even tried to provoke it into making the first move and Bastion kind of just handed him sticks, thinking he wanted to help make the dam (torbjorn ended up taking Bastion back with him on the down low, as you know, murder robot of doom), Bastion also basically adopted that bird for life to, witch it gladly uses as reference for worldly interactions and not its old Omnic war commands (i also dont think canonically this certain Bastion has ever fired on anyone after the first shooting in the woods in this animation,in all of the lore XD) (someone correct me if im wrong, as im using dated info hear lol) TLDR: old terminator has its war programming fail and just want to learn and pet its birb while still proving all of MHGR's points correct reinhardt and D.vs shorts also give insight into the Omnic war

[@memeboi878]

Reaction idea: react to hoovydundy it includes stealthyness if being in an enemy base and not betray your teammates and how to deal with something hard to kill

[@nogo6880]

Now you gotta watch the last smashtion

[@clockwork5889]

The questions you ask at around 7:40 etc. and the results / consequences of war etc, will be answered in the other OW cinematics. PS: Glad you are checking OW out now too. It´s nearly the same rabbit hole as TF2 :D

[@josephpolk9660]

Would've liked to see the reactions to the other cinematics, like "Honor and Glory" or "Reunion"

[@chrismclean4789]

Well, finally he does Overwatch.

[@Prophetofthe8thLegion]

I no longer play overwatch but this is one of the best cinematic trailers ive ever seen. The war scene is something straight out of Warhammer 40k.

[@Silverdenn]

I don't think good and bad are represented by the blue and red. I want to believe that the red state means the unit is following program, like the ones deployed into battles and shooting on site, following their directive, and the blue state means the unit is not deployed, so either sleeping, charging, maybe even doing something else like warehouse duties (Even if bastion units are combat focused, why would they have a hand if their only purpose is to shoot stuff?). So when bastion turned red, both times he was reacting with program duties. He reacted as a response mechanism to the "shooting" in the forest, and when he probed the memory of the fallen Bastion, he is "reminded" of his duty, until he goes truly sentient when the bird comes to him, giving him the ability and self-conscience to fight his programming entirely.

[@TheStrikercharge]

Okay, so, in a nutshell: 1. Robots in Overwatch have AI that let's them think and feel like a human. The only difference between them and humans is a metal shell. These robots are dubbed "omnics" 2. Omnics decided they wanted their own rights and freedoms, thus the "Omnic wars"started. Note: there are still semi-AI robots who do not feel. These are just robots. 3. Bastion units were the front line fighters, made to jump in and deal a ton of damage until their slower, yet more versatile counterparts the OR-15 units could arrive 4. Bastion units have the ability to think and feel, but where programmed to kill and suppress these thoughts. 5. This bastion, having never seen battle, was able to let out his inner omnic and choose to live an life of peace. What hes doing fighting for or against team Overwatch is unknown.

[@captaincookie72]

The main background story in overwatch is most of the world fighting an ai corrupted controlled robotic army After the main war happened

[@professorsponge1554]

silent, short cartoon about a robot in the woods: OMG GUYZ! THIS IS AMAZING! 10/10! Freeform dramatic reading about the tragedy of rogal dorn: OMG THIS IS SO BORING! WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS CRAP?

[@chibipotate]

I personally sort of like the battle this cinematic shows, Not because i think its realistic or anything, But i do think that given two things, The First that they have heavy infantry who can make impenetrable energy shields, Might make tactics a bit bolder But also that given where we see Bastion just a little earlier, I wouldnt be surprised if the humans were just throwing everything they had, Super Soldier, Soldier, Jet, Tank, Militia, Police Offer even, Against the Wall of machines due to how close they were to entering the city and capturing whats probably a decently important target for the war effort.

[@partyleswine5155]

Basically the story of Overwatch (from memory. Feel free to give me some heads up if I miss something crucial.): -Robots, in this story called Omnics, became sentient somehow and began trying to live like humans. -Some humans disliked that, basically racism, and a war started between the Omnics and Humans. Many new weapons, armors and machines were made. A good example is Germany. In the short you saw a giant armored man shoot a fireball with a hammer. They're called Crusaders. -A peace organization was made called Overwatch, and the main leaders are Jack (Soldier 76), Ana, Sojourn(?), and Gabriel (Reaper.) War ends, peace was made (in some places) etc. -Two terrorist groups were formed. One was run by Omnics called Null Sector, the other a human group called Talon. There was a secret mission in Overwatch involving Gabe, and when they were supposed to bring the leader of the operation in he shot them. -Ana was in combat on another mission against Talon. She got shot in the eye by a sniper dubbed Widowmaker (Amelia is the real name...I think) and went kia. Wasn't heard from again. -Overwatch shutdown. No more peaceful stuff happened for years. I believe there was an attack or something and it was thought Jack, Reaper and Sojourn was dead. -Years later, after seeing how distraught the world was, a former scientist and member of Overwatch, who was an experiment for a moon colony that went wrong, Winston made a transmission to all of the Overwatch heroes saying it was time to come back. Around this time Null Sector attacked again, and I believe they're working with Talon now. There's other parts I missed like the outback became a death/radioactive zone full of looneys, Russia is still at war against Omnics, Numbani is at peace with them. Korea has built mechs designed for gamers to use in combat. Soldier 76 is alive with Ana, Gabriel joined Talon as Reaper, there was a failed cryo sleeping project in Antarctica that awakened the only survivor and most terrifying character in Overwatch....LOTS of stuff. Again, anyone who's reading, feel free to drop stories in the replies and feel free to fix some errors.

[@strongbongus]

why wouldn’t you just drop all the robots in the city and avoid open field engagement? unless there’s some lore about shielding.. but you bring up a really good point

[@kingcrafteroderderfahradtu7331]

13:20 if there where combat robot there would of course be a way to see if it is in combat mode

[@memelord8611]

i see a lot of people in the comments here saying that this bastion is cannon fodder. allow me to explain that this bastion is, in fact, not, but the others definitely are: alright, so, we have two different types of bastions that exist, but for the most part, they look the exact same. we have the B-73s, a unit that was made just as your normal soldier, regular plating, basically cannon fodder to keep the team advancing. *that* was the fodder in question. for this cinematic, the Bastion here is actually an E-54, an elite Bastion class. to powerscale, this thing could take down around 20 or more of its own kind before dying, and all of these Bastions have miniguns, self-repair systems, and even whole mini-tanks. this Bastion, if it were to go into the city, would have probably destroyed, like, a quarter of it entirely and set the rest in flames because nobody expects a bastion to come out of nowhere and kill everyone. as another commentor said, " that bird probably saved hundreds of people that day ". yes, yes it did

[@merlok1058]

This is the best video I see as something having ptsd

[@Munich22100]

As far I know the only birds that nest on the ground are the ones that don't fly at all, example are emus, cassowarys, kiwis, snipes( yes that is real bird), and ostriches and also a ground dwelling species of parrot, but I forgot its name. There is at least one specie of birds that lays nest in cliff specifically in the walls.

[@jalontf2]

Also, no chance of getting the Navy to ban systems like CIWS

[@nbsmith100]

I don't think the intro bird is an actual bird species.

[@wojtekpolska1013]

Well basically the robot got reactivated because of the bird _somehow_ ,and went out to the city to fight the war that ended decades ago so basically if he didnt stop he'd massacre a bunch of civilians untill the police stopped him or sth. Kinda dark if you think about it...

[@hito2501]

you definitely need to watch Starcraft 2 cinematics

[@brakdoes8914]

No single player till overwatch 2, which will be story packed as well as skills trees and stuff

[@danrayrg]

Overwatch is basically post skynet. But isn’t it robots bad, it’s we live with robots. But then robots went bad again. Surprise surprise

[@XC11301991]

Definitely should watch this in release order tbh instead of this chronological order.

[@Danut2]

Hey MHGR. About what you said regarding feelings and responses to stimulus. Thing is, these are learned. When I was young and stupid, I put my hand on a hot clothes iron. I then learned not to do that. If you take things down to a basic level, the human brain is a machine and the human consciousness is a highly flexible program. If you create a highly flexible program and give it enough time, it might evolve to have feelings. Case and point. (also if anyone knows these things better than I do, please feel free to call me out on my BS, but ONLY if you have anything constructive to say. If all you have to say amounts to "Haha you're wrong, hardrive go brrrrrrr." Please keep it to yourself) Facebook I think, did an experiment with 2 AIs talking to each other. Those AIs fairly quickly developed a language that the researchers could not understand. This experiment was very quickly shut down. Another experiment was done with AIs playing hide and seek. The AIs eventually found a bug and broke the game to their advantage. The opposing AIs learned how to stop this after a while.

[@thedabbinggamer3726]

Technically, a robot can get PTSD with machine learning. If it gets damaged, then it’ll remember what happened when it got damaged (so like gunfire) and try to defend itself when the thing happens.

[@thelordofpie7157]

I think it's supposed to be some sort of glitch with the learning AI thing usually, they're not SUPPOSED to be human like, at least not in the feeling sense. More of a decision making error that leads to something like that

[@Meaniepanini305]

The bird has a name called Ganymede :)

[@malcolmthorne9779]

You should check out the "Honour and Glory" Overwatch short as well. I imagine it might be up your alley what with your military background. It's a feels-heavy short though, fair warning.

[@pinka5074]

He's playing both sides so that he always come out on top

[@redpyro9952]

It shows abit more if you read the comic of Bastion.

[@zdron07]

I would watch rhineheart next to get a better idea of what bastion and such is going on

[@ushankaman6143]

i want to ask, as someone who is also not familiar with Overwatch lore. Overwatch is a group, an organization right? Various characters join it to partake in a fight against evil blah blah blah. so how did Bastion come to join Overwatch? did someone discover Bastion chilling in the forest with animals and was like "that robot, which many years ago threatened humanity would be a great addition to our team!" and somehow manage to integrate Bastion into the organization? How did Bastion end up in Overwatch?

[@archimonde00]

So overwatch was a group of people meant to defend the world of the was shown in the cinematic against the robots called omnics they got disbanded and yhe engineer of overwatch who helped create the omnics found bastion and grew to like him even though he hated omnics so he ended up "adopting " him we don't know if they will rejoin overwatch since Overwatch's story was made up of flashbacks so until overwatch 2 the story hadn't advanced

[@archdrop7790]

The defense of the attack depicted in the animation is by the humans, they surrounded the outside of the city to defend it terrain is not on their side.

[@RakRescue]

Think of the men of iron but after the war AI was able to exist

[@Sir_GrimReaper]

this dude should watch about the biggest minecraft server with no rules, forgot the name of it but there's gonna be that one savior to remind of the name of it.

[@justinedwards5300]

Two Builders Two Tools (2B2T)

[@Sir_GrimReaper]

@@justinedwards5300 thank you.

[@GiRR007]

Dont humans also make mistakes confusing civilians for combatants though ?

[@steelgreyed]

Within the Overwatch Verse, its not a question of "if" robots have feelings and a sapient sense of self as they are advanced enough. Its more "how do the Humans handle knowing this?" The answer is poorly. Robot rights and religions are a hotly contested social stigma here. There are "several" self-proclaimed Johny-5's who are totally against disassemble, some religiously gentle, some violently, it is its own sup-plot. Seriously speaking Android Gandhi (not his real name) is something to look at.... Bastion here just happens to be an "older" combat model who also "caught the feels."

[@thatdudeoverthere1754]

7:40-7:45 Fallout and Detroit become human players: First time?

[@roscotep4979]

not the first cinematic but one of the sadest

[@ayrus3498]

pls react to more of these overwatch animated shorts...you will love them and understand more about the lore

[@nathanielrourke8886]

It is a little funny how you list the reasons to not give an ai life and death decision power and go over the companionship thing with house robots, then say you don't know why they'd try to give a robot human like eemotional capacity.

[@kolyashinkarev7366]

It's funny, because it sounds like people can't make mistakes like firing historical sites or confusing hostiles for friendlies or civilians lol (like friendly fire didn't exist before autonomous systems), I'd argue human soldiers would make such mistakes even more frequently than an autonomous robot

[@kraken_slayergaming5833]

personally, I feel like another good example of why Fully Autonomous Warfare is a bad thing, take a look at the entire premise of Ender's Game.

[@Victor_Nova_56]

Omnics like Bastion are different from most machines. Do to some weird magic-like energy or something(correct me if wrong) that essentially gives them a soul. Most Bastions never get a chance to develop this 'soul.'

[@misschauffarde5112]

Well yes but no actualy the level of technologie in the overwatch technologie was enougth to create 2 thing very important fusion reactor and learning ai the one giving a very very long lifetime to a robot the second giving them human like intelligence and thought

[@kolyashinkarev7366]

They are cannon fodder, so they all just died before developing sentience, the one in the cinematic was alive long enough to gain experience and start learning and gaining sentience.

[@bcn1gh7h4wk]

you gonna love Honor And Glory.