overwatch is a silly piece of shit on its best days but its continued insistence that magic is real but only in japan is especially hysterical
hanzo and genji have haunted their hodgepodge of a narrative since 2016 with unambiguously magic powers in a soft-SF setting that went out of its way to conceptualise bogus technology like hard-light and biotics in order to fit its weirdness into some kind of “science” category. the fact they then didn’t extend that consideration to hanzo and genji? they just left them as is? as witches? as fate-touched human vessels of ancient dragon spirits?? if genji wasn’t a cyborg they could feasibly be minor sekiro bosses and that’s weird dude!! and then kiriko gets released?? and these people had all the years in between ow1 and ow2 to find a way to hand-wave whatever weird shamanistic magic they accidentally let get into the game, and instead they make the only other japanese character a fucking spirit vessel as well. they doubled down. magic IS REAL in overwatch but ONLY on the BEAUTIFUL ISLANDS OF JAPAN, and no it’s never ever going to be addressed because overwatch has as much coherent story as a themed puzzle page on the back of a kids cereal box. hysterical.
this also extends to the ability to wall climb
overwatch said if you are japanese you can do the following:
contain within you ancient spirit magic with powerful destructive and/or restorative capabilities
parkour
forgetting the fact that being a buddhist also gives you magic powers
zenyatta is specifically a civilian chassis but he can become invulnerable and throw balls at you
the point of overwatch is to say shinto-buddhism is the only correct religion i think
