- [Voiceover] Hey, welcome, I'm Hammeh

and in this series we're discovering the law,

backstory, and characters of Overwatch's heroes

including more detail through their in game

voice lines and interactions.

Before any map starts and during the game

on various triggers, Overwatch heroes chatter with

and react to each other in some funny in game ways.

These give us some great extra insights into

every character, interest, and back stories too.

In this video, we're looking at Mercy's story

through her interactions with fellow

heroes and the world around her.

Child prodigy turned brilliant scientist

and a staunch advocate for peace,

Dr. Angela Ziegler has always stood up

for what she believes in.

Previously a key figure in Overwatch,

where she made many medical breakthroughs

and scientific advances, until the organization's downfall.

Mercy is now helping people in war

and crisis zones across the world.

As a second dominate crisis appears to take its grip

on the planet, whether Ziegler will pilot her

Valkyrie swift response suit to aid of the vigilante

X overwatch operatives fighting town

currently remains to be seen.

Firstly, we'll run through Mercy's lore and backstory.

We know little about Angela Ziegler's early years.

At some point in her childhood, sadly,

she became an orphan, her parents dying through war,

which would shape her attitudes to

conflict and violence in the years ahead.

We don't know for sure what conflict caused

the death of Mercy's parents,

or when the Omnic crisis started,

she would have been seven or so years old.

So, it's possible that her parents may have been

some of the victims of Omnic aggression worldwide.

As Omnic corporations omnium production facilities

reactivated and went rogue, Angela would have

grown up in a time of war and crisis,

perhaps being just 11 years old when Overwatch's

strike team brought an end to it.

Whether driven on by the deaths of her parents

or through a natural talent,

while growing up, a young Angela

must have shown signs of being a child prodigy

with a brilliant scientific mind.

As the first first strike team, led by Gabriel Reyes,

succeeded in stopping the Omnic crisis,

the world celebrated.

His team that brought peace to the world

would become the leadership of Overwatch,

with Jack Morrison as strike commander,

Ana Amari as second in command,

and Reyes moved sideways to command Blackwatch,

Overwatch's special operations unit.

And they would usher in two decades of increasing

prosperity and peace.

It seems possible at this point

that Angela may have had some contact

with Overwatch before formally joining the

organisation later in her life.

This picture shows a younger Mercy,

perhaps 17 or so years old,

with a young Fareeha, later to be known as Pharah,

Amari, and a lot of Overwatch members,

some familiar to us, some unknown for now.

Whether Mercy had contact with Overwatch or not,

before she served her style continued to rise.

She became a highly skilled surgeon

and rose to become the head of the field

at a prominent Swiss hospital.

While still pursuing her scientific research,

she then pioneered a highly

significant medical breakthrough.

Medical science in the Overwatch world had already

advanced hugely in recent years, particularly around

human enhancement and augmentation,

with the still classified but widely acknowledged

American soldier enhancement programme being a rather

public example of such, through the

exploits of Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes.

Instead of militarised applications

like the U.S.A. had developed,

Angela's work in applied nanobiology

was far more peaceful in nature.

She developed techniques on the cutting edge of medicine

at the time that radically improved the treatment

of life-threatening injuries and illnesses.

These huge strides in research with practical

and beneficial results rapidly caught

the attention of Overwatch.

In the years following the first Omnic crisis,

Overwatch had experienced a rapid rise in profile,

prominence, and funding.

Celebrated by the world as heroes,

strike commander Jack Morrison and his team

took the opportunity to try and improve

the future of humanity, not only serving as a peacekeeping

force, Morrison made Overwatch an engine for

innovation and progress, attracting leading

scientists and minds in various disciplines who would

work on everything from combating natural disasters

and climate change to even space exploration.

Angela Ziegler, a trail-blazer in her own field,

seemed to be an obvious candidate

to join this scientific crusade.

Angela would have been torn on whether to join, however.

The circumstances of her parent's deaths

had left her opposed to violence and she was morally

at odds with what she saw as Overwatch's militaristic

approach to attempting to keep world peace.

In spite of this, Angela made a pragmatic decision,

recognising that the stature, technology, funding,

and platform that Overwatch could bring could allow

her to help humanity on a much larger scale

than surgery in a single hospital.

She accepted the position as head of medical research.

As Overwatch dealt with war-mongering dictators,

rogue Omnics, terrorism, and natural disasters,

amongst other things, Angela's research shifted

towards applying her healing expertise in the field

for front line medicine and care.

One of the results was the Valkyrie swift response suits.

When combined with the Caduceus staff,

could give its operator excellent mobility in

challenging environments to help them

look after the injured.

Ever the active doctor, Ziegler would pilot

the suit herself on many Overwatch missions.

One such mission could have been

when the life of Genji Shimada was saved.

Left dying by his brother Hanzo,

Ziegler's intervention kept him alive.

He would then be offered a chance of life

in exchange for his help, but it would

only be possible through extensive cyborization,

with adding mechanical systems to his body.

We don't know what Mercy would have felt

about this proposal and indeed how much

she was involved in Genji's rebuilding.

Rebuilding his body in exchange for his aid

seems to be against her moral code.

Angela would find herself having to be

the moral conscience of Overwatch on more than one occasion.

Often at odds with her superiors and the organization's

overarching aims, Ziegler found herself in positions

where her moral code would often be challenged,

along with her research aims.

Her ethical position on the use of her work

was made very clear in a conversation around

Torbjorn's prototype designs for what would

later become Ana's biotic rifle.

The tone of Torbjorn's comment, "despite what my esteemed

colleague will surely suggest,"

makes it sound as though this wasn't the first time

Mercy had voiced her ethical concerns.

Ziegler's warnings about the start of a slippery slope

to her work being made into a weapon were to be proven true,

As this technology was adapted beyond its nonviolent origins

into Ana's current biotic rifling grenade with

both healing and damaging properties

exist as proof of this today.

These weren't the only conflicts

taking place within Overwatch.

Towards the later end of its existence,

as Mercy strived to maintain her research

as medical purity, Overwatch was

under attack from within and without.

Externally, allegations of mismanagement,

negligence, corruption, and weapons perforation,

amongst other things caused public scrutiny to grow.

And within, rogue elements within Blackwatch

sought to bring down the organisation

and turn it to their own ends.

As a highly secret unit investigation started

to look into these claims, Overwatch would see

that soon demise with the destruction of the Swiss

headquarters, caused by a confrontation between

strike commander Morrison and Blackwatch commander Reyes.

Laying waste to two decades of achievements in a very

short period of time.

In her senior position as head of medical research

and after the presumed death of Ana Ramari in Overwatch's

closing years, Ziegler would have been at the heart

of Overwatch's challenging times in those final months.

She and others had been trying to heal

the broken relationship and friendship between

Morrison and Reyes, but to no avail.

In inquisition and most mortem that was to come

after Overwatch's downfall, Mercy was asked

to provide evidence to a United Nations committee hearing,

which was revealed by Olympia Shore of Atlas News.

"The tension became more pronounced as time went on,"

Ziegler had said to the committee in evidence.

"I tried to mend things, we all did, but sometimes,

when the closest bonds break, all you can do is

pray that you stay out of the crossfire."

When Overwatch had finally dissolved, the peerless

healer dedicated herself to helping

people affected by conflict and war.

Spending most of her time looking after the injured

and the needy in crisis areas of the world,

Mercy's last known whereabouts were

potentially in the middle east,

as shown in recall when Winston's tracker

reveals her to be in the region of modern day Iran or Iraq.

As the agent summons has been sent out by Winston,

is Angela going to answer?

Would she return to work with her former colleagues again,

or does she feel that the organisation she had

many personal conflicts with shouldn't be resurrected

to combat today's threats in the world?

One thing's for sure, wherever vulnerable people

are in need, Mercy will be watching over them.

- [Mercy] Valkyrie online.

- [Voiceover] From her various voice lines and quotes,

Mercy's a caring person who truly believes

in helping people.

- [Mercy] Helping those in need is its own reward.

Don't thank me, just doing my job.

- [Voiceover] And her moral nature shows through as well.

- [Mercy] I choose not to seek revenge.

All I've ever wanted is to save lives.

- [Voiceover] She almost gets a bit frustrated

by combat being the cause of her work and shows

her dislike of violence too.

- [Mercy] Start a fight and this is what happens,

another patient for my operating table.

Must violence always be the solution?

- [Voiceover] When she's unable to help or

gets there too late, it clearly affects her.

- [Mercy] Damn it! I couldn't get there in time.

- [Voiceover] Due to what they have to deal with,

the highs and the lows, medics and doctors

often have quite a sharp sense of humour,

and Mercy is no different.

When she solo kills someone in a joke,

she comes out with this funny burn.

- [Mercy] You might not want to tell

your friends about that.

- [Voiceover] And on a melee kill,

she comes out with this gem.

- [Mercy] Say ah.

- [Voiceover] Mercy can be quite sharp as well

when she has a mind to.

- [Mercy] You've been discharged. Flat lined.

- [Voiceover] And, when she calls for help

she definitely sees the irony of the situation.

- [Mercy] Medic! Wait, that's me.

- [Voiceover] And in a situation where one Mercy