98% of the time, the “overwatch’s lore and timeline is full of inconsistencies and makes no sense” narrative boils down to “you’re assuming something you were never actually given a reason to assume” or “something in an update contradicts a piece of fanon you mistook for canon”
For example:
Nobody ever said this picture was from 30 years ago:
or that it depicts the founding of Overwatch. People assumed that for their own insane reasons that I can’t wrap my head around.
Nobody ever said or even implied Mercy was a founding member of Overwatch, but people assumed she was and then claimed that her being 37 in the “present day” makes the timeline not make sense unless she’s secretly immortal
Nobody ever said Gabriel didn’t have his ghostlike abilities during his Blackwatch days, in fact, all the lore and in-game content seems to explicitly show the opposite. People assumed that he died and got his powers when he came back, when actually all the lore articles and his appearances in the actual game suggest that his powers were the reason he survived (albeit severely disfigured).
No official content said or even implied that Mercy had a hand in Gabriel’s resurrection or current condition! People assumed this based on voicelines in-game (”I never intended this for you, Gabriel” “You knew exactly what you were doing, doc”) that shockingly never existed. That exchange is not, and never was, in the game. Lots of people (myself included) distinctly remember hearing it, but guess what, we’re remembering wrong. Mercy actually asked “What happened to you?” and he replies “You tell me,” which suggests nothing about nothing.
Blizzard’s writing has its problems for sure but “I have terrible reading comprehension and mistake my failure to understand the information presented to me for plotholes” isn’t one of them
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