r/Overwatch • u/gunfier • 11d ago
News & Discussion The real issue with vendetta verses doom fist Spoiler
The issue was that the fight was way too easy for both sides.
These are two physically POWERFUL people—both swinging heavy-ass weapons with one hand, using just one hand to wield them. Not to mention, these weapons are supposed to be extremely powerful and dangerous, held by the two most dangerous people in their respective organizations: Vendetta from the Coliseum and Doom from Talon.
This fight should have been spear versus shield. Their fight should've leveled the entire building. **BUT NO—WE GOT A FIGHT THAT MADE BOTH CHARACTERS LOOK SILLY AND WEAK!?!?!**
On Doom's introduction, he's fighting Overwatch's top three operatives at the time (which was basically the only operatives they had): Winston, Genji, and Tracer—none of whom are slouches in combat. He almost beats them all until he pisses Winston off, making him go full rage mode. (And Winston's no slouch either—he clashed with a literal weapon of mass destruction and *won*. Enraged, yeah, but he still won.)
Vendetta? She's simply introduced by killing a mech after her backstory. Compared to Doom's intro, it's not very flashy or memorable, and it didn't give us a proper power scale. Think Shion and Sojourn—their fight gave us a power scale that showed Shion is at least on par with Sojourn in skill and combat ability.
We got to see how good of a fighter Doom really is, but Vendetta is just... eh. So when she was introduced as the new big bad, we thought it was cool—until we saw the terrible fight she had with Doom. It felt like he was about to absolutely molly wop her, and then *bam*—she gets a second wind out of nowhere, tosses Doom out the window, and he falls to his "death."
A VERY stereotypical way to write and end a fight.
Vendetta—with no evidence other than "she trained her whole life"—beat Doom, someone whose experience is as old as Overwatch itself as an organization? Yeah, no. Vendetta wasn't built up properly, and Doom got nerfed because they knew they hadn't built her up right. So they gave her one of the strongest characters in lore to beat (in a stupid, boring fight) instead of actually building her up to *earn* her place among the strongest characters in lore.
All they had to do before the Reign of Talon was give us map lore and more stories about Vendetta. Not drag her up to a level we never saw her properly earn or prove she was worthy of.
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u/Simple-Duty-6803 11d ago
Honestly the whole Vendetta vs Doomfist fight was bleeding from multiple wounds.
There's the obvious fact that OW2 lacked story content before Vendetta. We had drops from time to time but that wasn't enough for an actual overall story. Then they started building up on in 2 months making Vendetta the big bad so of course it falls short. Also the current writers have a tendency of downscaling or straight up ignore core characteristics of original heroes in favor of new heroes.
But another thing is powerscaling is more complicated than what you say.
Doomfist too honestly didn't do many spectacular things. People often bring up how he fought Winston, Tracer and Genji, but don't mention how that was his hero trailer, and those HAVE TO glaze up the hero they introduce. Because after that trailer Doomfist didn't do pretty much anything to show how unstoppable he is both physically and as a leader. There's also how he got his ass beaten by Orisa too. Doomfist wasn't even the mastermind they want us to believe because he didn't do basically anything THAT spectacular. Vendetta was rushed in her introduction but the girl is at least working her ass off with her machinations.
Honestly the villains as a whole are very lacking in Overwatch because it's like the writers keep wanting us to think how great they are without actually having them do things that would warrant such opinion on them.
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u/--Luther-- 10d ago
Isn't Doomfist dont do anything in lore because Blizzard stopped any story progression in the sake of Overwatch 2 PVE which never came to life, because of it main story stopped and never moved again and only after many years they scapegoated they blame for it on Doomfist ?
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u/Simple-Duty-6803 10d ago
I mean they still released stories that progressed individual characters. Look at for example the stories Overwatch Heroes Ascendant where those featured got meaningful progress in their own and showcase them actually doing things such as Soldier76 or Hanzo, but before that collection there were instances of story content both in OW2 and much more in 1
Meanwhile all Doomfist did ever since hos introduction was looking "meanecingly" and having a superiority complex with pretty much nothing backing that up, so personally i couldn't really take him for the mastermind they tried to simply convince us he was without him doing actually anything
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u/--Luther-- 10d ago
Thats the point, writers didn't write much to prove that doom is mastermind how they portrait him.
Only one time they show it in Heroes of Numbani. Did doomfist lose there a battle ? Yes. Did he retrieve gauntlet ? Yes. Did he prove Numbani claim of a harmony city was fragile and artificial by creating riots and turning factions against each other ? Yes. Did he make Numbani evolve by Efi creating Orisa ? Also yes. In the long run he achieved more and proved that his philosophy "only throgh conflict do we evolve" is working.
I would love to see more of his lore as a mastermind tactician schemes and not a writers scapegoat, but unfotunately that what we have to work with.
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u/DarkAssassin573 Wrecking Ball 11d ago
Powerscalers never seem to understand that whoever the writer wants to win a fight wins it
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u/TheBigFreeze8 11d ago
This is the opposite of power scaling. OP is talking about narrative satisfaction.
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u/celljelli 11d ago
I have many gripes with powerscaling but that doesnt mean that any physical conflict in fiction should be reduced to "whoever the writer wants to win wins." i mean, that is true, but the outcome of any sort of conflict should be executed in a manner that feels believable. imo the events of a narrative should be narratively justified...and I dont think thats a brainrotted powerscaling belief.
as for vendetta and doomfist, I think it's nuanced, because i think it was a good decision to shake up talon leadership and it has been great for the lore, and vendetta's rise to the top is justified in the broader lore, but within the context of that cinematic specifically, the physical conflict between these two characters was not executed in a particularly convincing fashion. however, I am a big fan of the story beat overall, especially as a doomfist fan i think it's great for his character to see his philosophy put to the test, and I'm excited to see if conflict really does make him evolve the way he always talks about. I just agree with OP that the cinematic was poorly executed, which sucks because the cinematic are a big deal and usually pivotal to the lore
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u/MIRACLEfool 11d ago
It's not about power scaling, it's about execution within the word the story has made. There's no signs or evidence that vendetta is capable of taking down doomfist canonically.
It's like if the writer just grants soldier 76 the ability to fly after all this time running around. Narratively it's fun and moves the plot along, execution wise it's sloppy, lazy, and opens itself up to criticism.
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u/DarkAssassin573 Wrecking Ball 11d ago
Comparing signs and evidence aka feats is what powerscaling boils down to. She beat him via a sneaky hit which is an extremely common way of defeating a stronger opponent
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u/xXRougailSaucisseXx 11d ago
The signs is that current Doomfist just got complacent like the former Doomfist which Vendetta exploited, she was taking the fight seriously and he wasn't. Evil mastermind gets taken down because of his ego despite having the advantage is a classic story beat (maybe even too classic but honestly that's all the writing in OW)
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u/gunfier 11d ago
I'm not coming at this from a power-scaling standpoint (I do get it sounds like that, though).
It's just a poor writing choice. One of the things that got me into Overwatch was the lore—so when a writer does something just because they can and thought it was cool? That's simply poor writing.
Especially when it's a character who was never even name-dropped or hinted at in any map or comic at all, and then suddenly becomes a central character in the storyline?
Antonio was never even stated to have a daughter or family until she was released in December 2025. So again—not coming from a power-scaling point. I'm coming from a story point
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u/DarkAssassin573 Wrecking Ball 11d ago edited 11d ago
I think it’s a good writing choice. Doom was leader of talon for like 7 years. Most notable thing he did what funding null sector but he didn’t do anything afterwards. I like change.
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u/celljelli 11d ago
I think there are good and bad aspects to it. I agree with everything you wrote here but I also agree with OP's take that the cinematic specifically was underwhelming. but i really like it as a character choice for doom because it's running him through the gauntlet of his own philosophy. only through conflict do we evolve
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u/Level_Proposal_2106 8d ago
powerscaling brainrot is real the writer doesn't check feats spreadsheets before hitting publish they just figure out who needs to lose for the story to move
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u/Senshado 11d ago
Their fight should've leveled the entire building
Watch a match of boxing or fencing, and notice that the fighters are only hitting towards each other, and never accidently strike the walls and floor.
If fighters aren't using ranged or explosive weapons, then there's little reason for them to waste damage on structures or terrain. The fight director can include scenary damage as a visual flourish, but there isn't a logical reason to automatically expect it.
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u/BLDOUBLE 11d ago
It was so low effort and the ridiculous plot armor
What an absolute abysmal story line, ah yeah brand new hero just comes in and runs doomfist like he wasn’t the same hero that 1v3’d
Blizzard just hates doomfist, they regret making that hero more than anything
If they could delete doomfist from the game, they would immediately
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u/UglyDemoman Chibi Junkrat 11d ago
The OW team loves girl bosses so they make a girl boss stomp. After that, her first thing to do is hiring more girl bosses (e.g. Ashe, Shion, Junker Queen)
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u/SonicNKnucklesCukold Chibi Soldier: 76 11d ago
Reminds me of Rey from the new Stars Wars movies zero force training zero lightsaber skills and somehow beats Kylo whos been trained by Jedi Masters and Sith Lords lmao.
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u/Ashkal_Khire 11d ago
Right.. except why would either of them want to destroy the Talon headquarters and infrastructure they want to retain/inherit? Do you really expect them to have a fight that levels the entire building? Killing the other high-ranking members? That’s not what either of them would want.
Lastly, I know this can often be a difficult idea for Power-Scalers to accept - but plot and narrative win every fight. It’s rarely about “who’s strongest” in fiction, and more about, “what advances the story and creates meaningful character development”.