What's up everybody this is Master Ian Gamer and today I'm going to a take a look at
the mysterious character Liao, and determine not only how and why he's likely to be an
upcoming playable hero, but also examine the major role he may have been playing in both
the past and present Overwatch timelines that we've so far completely overlooked.
I will note that large amounts of this will be speculation, however I'm going to try
and base it on as much hard evidence as possible in order to form some realistic theories.
So with that, let's dive on in.
Real quick though, if this is your first time on my channel the don't forget to Subscribe
and turn on Notifications.
Anyways, now let's get to theorizing.
So before I get into the possible story presence of Liao, I want to clarify what we actually
already know about him and also dispel some of the common misconceptions I've seen floating
around the Overwatch community.
First of all, despite the fact that I refer to Liao as a "he", we don't actually
know anything about their gender.
For all we know, Liao could even be an Omnic.
However in this video I'm just going to assume it's a "he" for the sake of grammatical
simplicity.
The next thing to note is that, despite the many images people have used to visualize
Liao, we actually have no idea what he looks like.
The only image that Blizzard has made any kind of official comment on is this one, and
lead Overwatch writer Michael Chu himself said that this was NOT Liao.
In fact, the the only official mention of Liao came as part of an Overwatch blog post
back on May 27th 2016.
It lists the six founding members of Overwatch, five of which we already have currently in
game, and the other one being Liao.
Other than the aforementioned comment from Chu, this is the only time we've ever even
seen or heard the name Liao.
However, in order to help present my theories and speculation in this video, I will be using
this image from the Recall cinematic to represent him.
There's no particular reason, I just think it works well for this purpose.
So, now that I've covered the literal entirety of what we know about the character, let's
get into speculating.
With regards to his name, Liao is a common Chinese surname, meaning that more than likely
this will be his nation of origin.
This is even further supported when we look at the other founding members of Overwatch.
Their home nations span across North America, Europe, and Africa.
So, given that Overwatch was formed as a "global" organization, it would make sense for their
sixth founding member to hail from Asia, which otherwise lacks representation.
Furthermore, there's a strong possibility that Liao was or still is some kind of scientist.
Looking back at the blog post which first introduced his name, it refers to the six
founders as being "soldiers and strategists" who showed remarkable ingenuity.
The UN brought these "unique minds" together, and they took down the Omnics by targeting
their "command and control protocols".
Now, looking at the five known members, four of them are soldiers and one's an engineer.
However, given the teams description when it comes to their method of combating the
Omnics, it would make sense for the team to also have a scientist onboard.
Someone who might better understand the programming behind these AI machines and how to fight
it.
And given the known roles of the other five members, it seems likely that the scientist
of the team would be Liao.
Continuing with the Liao scientist idea, there's also a good chance that Liao either was or
still is associated with Lucheng Interstellar, the space exploration company which operates
out of Lijiang Tower.
We can make this connection on the grounds that both are Chinese, but more so is the
fact that Lijiang Tower doesn't appear to currently have any playable heroes directly
tied to it.
The majority of Overwatch maps are in some way connected to the game's story and characters.
There are some exceptions, such as Ilios (although I've got a whole different theory regarding
that which I'll have to talk about some other time), but for the most part every map
has at least one hero.
Some of these connections didn't even exist until either the map or hero was released
much later than the other, such as Dorado with Sombra or Numbani with Orisa and Doomfist.
So, looking back at Lijiang Tower, the only current heroes we could really connect to
it would be Mei and Winston.
While Mei is a Chinese scientist, her area of expertise is Climatology, so I doubt she
would have had much association with the outer space focused Lucheng Interstellar.
Winston's connection would be his origins on the Horizon Lunar Colony, which was a product
of their Lunar Ops program.
But, while it's possible that Winston visited Lijiang Tower at some point after arriving
on earth, we know that he ultimately ended up being a member of Overwatch, and therefore
likely didn't have much to do with Lucheng after being one of their test subjects.
And thus, Lijiang Tower remains a map without a hero.
But if it were to get a hero, it would make sense for them to be some kind of Chinese
scientist.
And, as I talked about in my last video regarding the "relatively" recently added wheelchair
on Control Center, this could be Blizzard's way of drawing intrigue towards the map to
prep for their arrival .
Also, speaking of my last video, this is where I think we could start to see the role Liao
has been playing in the overarching story.
I brought up the possibility an animated short being released alongside Liao as a playable
hero, and said that the short might cover the events of Winston immediately after he
escapes Horizon and ends up on earth.
Being a genetically altered space gorilla, he would certainly have had a hard time fitting
in on earth, and thus, by some means or another, likely ended up back in the arms of Lucheng
Interstellar either as a fugitive or a refugee.
So then, how exactly would Winston get from here to being a member of Overwatch?
And that is where I think Liao comes in.
While details regarding when exactly Winston arrived on earth are scarce, it almost definitely
was after the Omnic Crisis had already ended.
Thus Overwatch would have already been well established by this point, and assuming that
Liao was a part of Lucheng prior to forming Overwatch, it would make sense for him to
have connections to both.
During this time, he may have had one foot in Overwatch and the other in Lucheng as some
kind of dual employment.
Given that Overwatch had some level of space faring endeavours as seen through the satellite
launch station at Watchpoint: Gibraltar.
It would make sense that Overwatch and Lucheng might've had some kind of partnership with
each other.
We can even see the Lunar Ops logo on Winston's space suit in the Gibraltar facility, although
it's also possible that this suit was just a keepsake from his time on Horizon.
On the other hand, perhaps after the end of the Omnic Crisis, Liao actually left Overwatch
altogether to work solely for Lucheng Interstellar.
This could explain his absence from the Overwatch timeline following the Crisis, and might explain
why other characters never reference him.
He may have only played a major role in the organization for a short time at the beginning
before Overwatch became a global peacekeeper.
Regardless, as long as he was in fact associated with Lucheng at the time of Winston's arrival
on earth, it would make sense that he would've been aware of the gorilla escapee and played
some part in "dealing" with him.
Given that Liao is presumably a very bright individual, he likely recognized the same
intelligence in gorilla Winston that Harold had seen back on Horizon.
In fact, given that they both worked for Lucheng, Liao and Harold likely knew each other, and
quite possibly could have even been close friends or associates.
If this is the case, then Harold's death likely would have devastated Liao, and maybe
Winston's presence and the shared fondness they both had for Harold could have brought
the two characters closer together.
Anyways, given Liao's ties to both Lucheng Interstellar and Overwatch, he was most likely
the bridge that took Winston from being an escaped test subject to a successful scientist.
As I said before, Liao quite possibly would have recognized Winston's remarkable intelligence
and thus saw the possibilities for him with an organization like Overwatch.
Given everything he had gone through at this point, it might have been a bit… awkward
for Winston to become a scientist at Lucheng, but given Overwatch's inherent image of
upholding peace and unity, even a space ape would likely find a home there.
And thus, Liao sent Winston on his way, while himself staying at Lucheng Interstellar, eventually
growing old just like the other founding members, and maybe even at one point becoming so physically
weak that he then required a wheelchair to get around and continue working.
But, the animated short wouldn't end there.
After chronicling his past with flashbacks of him with Overwatch and young Winston, it
would fast forward up to the modern day.
As an old man, now bound to a wheelchair, he's stuck living out his days doing boring
office work while the world around him moves towards a new conflict.
News of Talon and the return of Doomfist is causing unrest amongst his younger co workers,
and he fondly remembers a time where him and five others stepped up to combat such threats.
And then, he gets it.
A call to action from an old friend that he hasn't seen in a very long time.
Weighing his options, he finally decides that he still has something left to give, and is
now adamant to once again make a difference.
And thus, Liao enters the fight.
Now I will admit.
The odds of me having nailed exactly how the story's gonna play out is pretty slim.
But, I certainly think it's plausible, and overall would be a really great bit of story
to cover in an animated short.
Also, as for what kind of in game abilities a wheelchair bound elderly dude might poses,
well, I'm not really sure.
And Blizzard might not be sure yet either.
As I mentioned in my last video, Liao is most likely one of their heroes who's been sitting
on the backburner for a while.
They've got his character and personality all planned out, and now they're just waiting
for the game to need someone new with abilities that would match.
If this is the case, then, depending on what they have in mind, Liao could be added next,
or not for a long time still.
The addition of the wheelchair could be hinting that it'll be sometime soon, but at the
same time if Blizzard does in fact already know his story before his abilities, then
maybe that isn't the case.
Anyways, as much fun as it is to theorize a character's backstory and their impact
on the universe as a whole, trying to predict the events of an animated short will never
be as reliable as looking at the hard facts.
And while I already mentioned the few that pertain directly to Liao, I just want to wrap
up this theory video my mentioning some other things which could support my speculation.
First is that Jeff and the Blizzard team has expressed their interest in fleshing out factions
other than just Overwatch and Talon.
Let's look specifically at a quote from the Junkertown preview video: Now, while in
this context Jeff is talking specifically about the Junkers, he does start off by saying
that they want to focus more on other groups.
If Blizzard wants to explore the Junkers, then it would make sense for them to also
want to explore a company such as Lucheng Interstellar.
And while there's already a map relevant to the company, maybe adding a new hero who
represents them would be a way to even further explore their presence and role in the Overwatch
universe.
Moving onto another bit of evidence is the fact that we know almost nothing about Liao.
In my backstory speculation, I wrote off the uncanny absence of his name and face as being
the result of him leaving Overwatch very early on.
And while this could be a great explanation for the in game story, there's an even better
answer when considering Blizzard's perspective.
Ever since the beginning, they knew he'd become a playable hero.
And, not wanting to spoil his appearance or story beforehand, they've remained incredibly
tight lipped about it.
Not only does this give them time to fully flesh him out internally without being restricted
by anything they might've already revealed, but also it can lead to a greater, more amazing
introduction when the time comes!
This long term plan might even explain other mysteries such as the license plate on Junkertown
or the clapperboards on Hollywood, although admittedly, this is likely a bit of a stretch.
But, either this is the case, or alternatively they've scrapped the idea of there being
a sixth founding member entirely.
Much like how they cancelled the Overwatch: First Strike comic over a year ago now on
the grounds that they wanted to take the story in a different direction, Liao as a character
may have been scrapped, too.
I really hope this isn't the case, but only time will tell.
So there you go.
These have been my very optimistic and specific theories and speculation regarding Liao as
being an upcoming hero.
He might not be next, but I certainly think there's enough good evidence and great potential
for us to expect to see him at some point sooner or later.
Thank you all for watching and please let me know your own thoughts about Liao in the
comments down below.
Don't forget to vote in today's poll card, and be sure to leave a Like, Subscribe, follow
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all my future Overwatch content.
This is Master Ian Gamer signing off, and until next time, have a great day!
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