overwatch Who is Sombra?

[Valks 2,375]

With the confirmation that Ana is the next hero coming to Overwatch, we now can start to speculate as to who Sombra is and whether or not she is a separate person.

Firstly, let's see what information still stands true about Sombra after the revelation of Ana:

• Firstly, let's get this one out the way: Ana is not Sombra.
• Sombra is most likely of a Spanish-speaking heritage, given that many of her clues relate to Dorado. Her name also means "shadow" in Spanish.
• She either worked with Reaper when he was still part of Overwatch or as a Talon operative. We know this from the voice line he says, "Where's Sombra when you need her?"
• If you check out the Lumerico power plant interior, it has been locked down due to "Protocol Sombra". There is definitely some form of connection between her and the power plant, as well as the Dorado map.
• There are files found in the plant that confirm the existence of Sombra, accompanied by files on Soldier: 76 and Jack Morrison.
• A newspaper is shown in Dorado that poses the question, "Quien es Sombra?", which asks, "Who is Sombra (Shadow)?"

So, now that we've collected the information that we already had, let's see what the trailer gives us as new information! 

Founding Members

So, here we have a shot of the early members of Overwatch, but why does it matter? Firstly, while this is unrelated to Sombra, I think it's interesting nonetheless. The man of the far left could be our first glimpse of the barely-known sixth founding member of Overwatch, Liao. We know absolutely nothing about him, but it would make sense for him to be present at this point of the establishment of Overwatch.

The other members are all fairly familiar, except the woman on the far right. Personally, I think there are two options here:

1. Gabrielle Adawe, a secretary-general of the United Nations during the Omnic Crisis. She was a huge contributor when setting up Overwatch, despite admitting a lack of faith in Overwatch's possibilities after the war. Her presence here is definitely an easy thing to explain, given how closely she worked with the Overwatch members. It is also no surprise that she has a fairly athletic build, given her position in the UN.
2. Sombra.

This is going to take some explaining, but I'll do my best.  If we look at some of the voice lines that were introduced with Ana, there is one specific one that happens between her and Reaper.

Reaper: "I shouldn't be surprised you took his side."

Ana: "You never gave me much choice."

This definitely hints at the fact that certain members of Overwatch were presented with a choice, follow Jack or Gabriel (Reaper). What if Sombra was a member of Overwatch and made the choice to follow Reaper into creating and working with Talon. This would explain why they have a history of working together, despite her not being currently active in the lore, at least from what we can see.

There is also the possibility that Adawe and Sombra are the same person. This is a huge leap, but it's certainly a possibility. This link can mainly be made by information that we got from another part of the video.

The Code

In the origins story for Ana, two codes flashed up on the screen - one when she is shot by Widowmaker, another when the Overwatch logo pops up. 

These were seen as a hint to something, but we weren't sure what. Users on Reddit got to work and eventually, they decided that a message in the code was as follows:

She who has the information, has the power

So how do we know this has anything to do with Sombra? If you compare the two different code pages, the only differences manage to spell out the name Sombra, so there's certainly a deliberate connection.

Now what has this got to do with Gabrielle Adawe? Adawe worked as the Secretary-General for the UN. There is no doubt that, in this position, she obtained a huge amount of information about every security system, nation, operation that Overwatch undertook and all the operatives involved. To fill the position she did, I have no doubts that she was also extremely skilled at what she did. 

Is it possible she is the one referenced as having "the information"? Also, what exactly is the information? One would assume it is the ability to find and understand one's enemy, as well as pinpointing their weaknesses, hence having power over them. If we take a look at Ana, one would assume that her weakness is Pharah, given her love and care for her, as well as her dislike towards Pharah actively taking part in combat.

Who knows all the secrets and information about Overwatch members? Adawe probably learnt a huge amount about all of them while acting as the UN's envoy to Overwatch. The problem is, in this scenario, Adawe has left Overwatch with Reaper and so her information is most likely slightly out of date. For me, this only makes her more of a candidate for the position of Sombra.

If we look at the Recall cinematic, Reaper takes a device with him to grab the information about the Overwatch heroes, such as their locations. This is something Adawe couldn't know, since Overwatch wasn't active for so long, but she most likely had a list of all the operatives that served Overwatch in it's dying days. Perhaps the new faces that flashed up weren't future heroes to be implemented, but instead past heroes that had served Overwatch and since died. Given that she didn't have the locations of the operatives, she most likely didn't know who was or was not alive, so just attempted to grab anything she could with the device.

The device itself could also be another hint towards Adawe. As the leader of Blackwatch, Reaper was a hugely "hands-on" operative, with countless missions under his belt. I imagine he would have had the device built for him and who better to do it than Adawe? She would be most likely trained and skilled in the art of hacking, as well as understanding how to get past Winston's AI in the shortest time possible, given that she most likely spent time around him when Overwatch was still alive and well.

OK, so let's say Adawe is indeed this hacker type. What has she got to do with LumeriCo?

Sombra, LumeriCo and Soldier: 76

So, we know that a protocol was established by the LumeriCo group that locks out their computer systems. We also know they don't like Soldier: 76. How does all of this tie into Sombra?

Judging by the fact that the files of Jack are on the table, both as Jack Morrison and Soldier: 76, he is most definitely a target for LumeriCo, as they are for him. Perhaps Soldier is investigating the company because he knows there is a link between them and Talon, which can lead him to Reaper and Adawe/Sombra. Perhaps Soldier ended up getting too close to what he was looking for, so the plant was abandoned and Sombra put the entire place on tech-lockdown.

This part of the theory is tough to piece together, but it certainly ties into the "hacker" trope that we're seeing for Sombra. It's also possible that she didn't disclose who she was to the company, instead acting through Talon as an organisation, using her trope as the "shadow" to remain hidden from prying eyes. This explains why her folder is also on the table, perhaps the operatives of the plant were trying to figure out who she was. Maybe they got too close to the truth and she ended up locking down the whole plant in a hack-style attack.

What do you think? Who is Sombra? Could it be Adawe?

Could Adawe be Sombra?

 

[ghostdeini 12]

Well done on this article.  You clearly put a lot of time and thought into this.  I almost feel like you need to be a member of "Blackwatch" just to find all this information!

[Valks 2,375]

17 minutes ago, ghostdeini said:

Well done on this article.  You clearly put a lot of time and thought into this.  I almost feel like you need to be a member of "Blackwatch" just to find all this information!

It's my real job, Icy Veins is just a front for Blackwatch :p

[GrivGodmode 0]

The thing is  that Reaper isn't tied to Talon, it says his affiliation is unkown, unlike widowmaker who's affiliation is talon.
Obviously, he is open to contracts and was most likely contracted for the video attack as he seems to be doing a lot of different terrorist attacks all over, if he was teaming up and not doing something else, in that video.

We do know that between talon's creation and Overwatch's end, Old reaper was fucked up and turned into current Reaper. And if Sombra is working for Talon and chose to go there with Reaper, why wouldn't he know her whereabouts or why would she not bring him into Talon?
(this idea is based on Reaper's  voice line, "Where is Sombra when you need her.")

As for the choice Ana is talking about, it was probably something like turn on the other members of overwatch, maybe even kill them, which is how reaper died and now that he has been brought back he is trying to finish his last directive of killing Overwatch members who refused to join whatever new organization that Reaper and Sombra were going to join, possibly Talon but unlikely considering Reaper hasn't joined with them.
 

Edited July 22, 2016 by GrivGodmode

[GrivGodmode 0]

Currently, I'm of the mind that Talon is far too obvious to be the main criminal organization in this world, and that there is a far more nefarious organization that caused the Omnic Crisis, and Overwatch's disbanding.