u know when ur playing my Main Man Morrison and u kill an “ally” (member of overwatch) on the enemy team and sometimes he says “tactical necessity”?
well, does this not say anything about how he’s changed? he was (supposedly) made strike-commander over Gabe for his ability to lead and bring people together under his charge, but now he’s taking out his friends without the slightest bit of remorse??
and in the soldiers cinematic, when he’s about to save that girl u can see he’s debating it, almost seems like he’s gonna leave her, unfortunate collateral, and when he does save her he goes “old habits die hard” as if it were an inconvenience that he saved her life
this man used to lead a strike team with expert soldiers who must’ve had complete trust in him in order for him to effectively lead them, and how else would he earn that trust?
but now, here he is, willing to do anything out of necessity, sacrifice anyone for the sake of the mission….
just how damaged was he?
I’ve been thinking about this, and I think 1: he’s pretty damaged but also 2: people are probably underestimating how ruthless he could be to begin with. His background is primed to make the comparison, but I don’t think he ever was Captain America.
Thought-dump with no real answers because why not?
It’s important to remember that Overwatch was a UN endeavor and that all its members were military. Jack was their commander. Their overarching goal was peace and safety for the world’s population, but they themselves were there to put their lives on the line to ensure that happened.
Jack held responsibility for the lives of his team–but not to protect their lives at all costs. His responsibility was to ensure that if any of them died, it would be for a worthy return.
He was also supposed to have their backs in every other way. If he COULD get them out without dying; if he COULD get them to a medic in time; to protect them from the politics and agendas of his own superiors in order to let them do their best work without interference. Team morale, team cohesion, team performance, team security were all ultimately his responsibility. The health and mental wellness of team members might have been more on Mercy, but they were Jack’s business and obligation insofar as it affected team dynamics.
Clearly he failed at some of that, on a very personal level. And for however much Blackwatch and his falling-out with Reyes were responsible for Overwatch’s downfall, Jack was to that degree personally responsible for Overwatch’s downfall. And clearly it was to a significant enough degree that, according to Mercy, a number of Overwatch’s members tried to intervene and mediate over the years, which implies that not only could they not mend the rift, but they were unable or unwilling to stay professional about it.
So you’d think Jack would be carrying around a fair amount of guilt over his own role in the downfall of his organization. Except that what we see instead is massive disillusionment.
He doesn’t seem to have much taste for Overwatch in hindsight at all. He only grudgingly admits he even HAS good memories from his time with Overwatch–and considering that was like 30 years of his life, that’s pretty impressively awful. It’s also interesting, considering that it seems pretty hard to argue that Overwatch didn’t make a massive positive difference in the world. Even if it did fall apart spectacularly in the end, it seems like being part of that shining moment in history, however brief it was and however tainted it may’ve eventually become, is objectively something to be proud of.
So whether it’s what went down with Gabriel, or UN politics or just hardcore burnout, whatever Jack went through seems to have poisoned him against pretty much the entire enterprise (although not all the people–he’s clearly still got a soft spot for old comrades).
But from there it’s pure speculation, because there are so MANY possible reasons for that. It could be the kind of taint that falls over memories of deep emotional investment that you get in a situation like a divorce. “I put so much of myself into this, and in hindsight I feel like a gullible ass.” It could be that as Strike Commander, the guy responsible for interfacing directly with greater international politics, he knew something the others didn’t.
Also, here’s a fact, given his history: he was always a soldier, and they
turned him into a politician. That’s de facto for military officers who
hit the upper ranks, but normally it takes active ambition and desire to
reach the rank and power of colonel or above (you know, like Gabriel had). I don’t know what brass Jack would’ve worn on his dress uniform, but that’s probably comparable to the authority he’d have wielded as head of Overwatch. And then god knows what kind of bullshit he would’ve had to put up with whenever the nations decided to use his group to play schoolyard politics with each other, or how seedy he felt when they trotted him out to play Captain America for the masses (even if he wasn’t, you know that’s how they painted him). So it’s possible that he’s so burned out on responsibility, a world’s adulation and then hatred and maybe even imposter syndrome that in hindsight he sees the whole thing as a toxic mess that was destined to fail. Or at least that toward the end, he got so sick of telling people pretty, halfassed lines about how they were ‘working on solutions’ when the reality was that everything was a juddering wreck of international embarrassment and internecine squabbling that he was ready to celebrate when it finally crashed and burned.
Or…something. Who knows? Not us. For all they’ve given us, Jack could’ve been the bad guy and Gabriel was the one trying to save everything and now they’re both stomping around in vast seas of regret for their lives and choices.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2auh6Sr