As we are continuing with the original character ideas for Overwatch we did an Iraqi concept character now we move onto conceptualise a Greek character. Considering the potential in Greek culture that can be referenced to influence a design. We are genuinely surprised that we have not gotten a Greek character as a playable hero in the Overwatch games. Greek was one of the nationalities suggested by DBLTAP's article on Overwatch so here we go.
Name
For the concept around our character we had different name ideas such as Spartan, Aegis and Olympian. While we settled on Aegis, references to Spartan and Olympian culture could also be a great shout. Name wise Aegis kinda fitted the shield/discus throwing archetype we was looking for. Aside from that we have to think of a name. So we felt Hektor could be an appropriate name origin as it is an ancient Greek name referring to a warrior prince. Surname wise we felt Leonidas could be appropriate meaning "Lion Like" or "Lion's Son" our Hero would have a almost Lion like sense of pride and ferocity.
Story
Story wise, we felt maybe Overwatch can do with a few new villains potentially one that shares Doomfist's Darwinism concepts of evolve or die. This character can have a backstory in which they fully believe in the Spartan warrior society and therefore is a newly recruited super soldier into the Talons ranks. Hektor served in the Greek Military fighting off the Omnic Crisis. When some the advanced Omnic attempted to hack and malfunction the Greek's military weapons, Hektor saw how helpless his comrade were as they were easily gunned down. Surviving with nothing but his wits and skills, Hektor's mindset over the human race and technology took a darker turn. Hektor went to train his body to the bare limits like the Spartans and Greek heroes of the past. His vigilante efforts on destroying the technology that he believes only make humankind weaker drew Doomfist's attention to him.
Playstyle
We took a lot of Captain America influences for how Hektor can play out. He will have a Shield style but also have different moves when temporarily separated from the shield.
Aegis Protector: Using his high tech Aegis (shield named after the one from the myths), he can protect himself from damage much like Bridgette's shield. This has two additional abilities.
Aegis Reflector: whilst his shield is active Hector can activate a matrix to deflect all projectiles much like Genji's reflect.
Aegis Feedback: Attempting to quick melee when the shield is up causes a shockwave to push the enemies away much like Lucio's ability.
Discus Throw: His main projectile is Discus throw where he literally uses his own strength to throw his Aegis shield at a target. This shield can be charged to bounce off multiple target's or walls before it returns to Hector (hitting anyone on the wayback). Throwing the shield does mean Hector is temporarily unable to use his shield, deflect or shockwave ability to their full potential. The shield will slowly come back to him however meaning his vulnerable shield less state does not affect him too much especially since he is not helpless without it.
Shieldless: When separated from his shield, his shield become a blocking stance similar to Orisha where Hector takes reduced damage, blocking a melee or close contact special (Like Genji's Swift Strike) at the right second will cause Hector to parry the attack taking no damage and temporarily stunning the enemy.
When using the deflect ability without his shield, Hector will rapidly catch some of the projectiles and throw them straight back at his enemies highlighting how his training how made him stronger and fasting than normal human limits.
His Shockwave become a should tackle with weaker knock back than usual.
Quick Melee: Hector's quick melee will have him Backhand punch at the enemy. Regardless if he is still holding the shield or not. If Hector is running and quick melees, his melee become a lunging shoulder tackle. This does not affect the damage but just the range.
Passive: Hector's Passive ability allows him to jump higher, run faster, do more damage and lose health slower, the lower his health gets as his adrenaline kicks in for him. This can make a low health Hector literally a second wind character when things kick off. Think of this Low Health Hector with Ana's Nano Booster or Zarya's Shield. Yeah he's a power house, also additional shield HP granted by Lucio's Beat Drop or Symmetra will not count as full health so the Adrenaline affect will still take place if his regular health is still low.
Eye of Helios: His Ultimate will have Hector create a large circular hard light shield in front of him that protects him from harm but fires a large Laser beam of death for any one in the way or he can slowly shifts his aim towards them. The attack can be blocked by walls however.
Costume Colours
For costume colours we felt that Hector could have his high tech armour resemble the whites and red of ancient greek clothing with white being the dominant colour.
Alternate colours can include Blue and White the national colours of Greece and gives a cheeky compare and contrast with another superhuman shield throwing patriot in pop culture.
Red and Gold mix can fit the Byzantine Empire's imperial symbol of a red flag with a double headed gold coloured Eagle. Also a mix of Gold and Red feels quite fitting for hot blooded soldier.
White and Gold would be decent colour scheme to referrence Hellenistic Glass which was typically these colours. It also fits the stereotypical association of Zeus the Thunder god.
The other four colours we felt should be referenced are Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. As these are typical colours used for Medals similar to the olympics.
Platinum costume can have Bright whitish silver colour scheme with a bright blue.
Gold can be predominantly Yellow Gold, with a touch of Black for contrast.
Silver can have more darker silver colour scheme almost chrome coloured, with some black for contrast.
Bronze can have a shiny brown and orange colour scheme somewhat resembling Disney's Hercules (or better yet Herakles in Greek).
Alternate Costumes
For alternate costume, Hector should 100% have variations on the Olympic athlete costume with a touch of high tech added to it. Has his shield throwing is based off the Discus throw. Invented by the ancient Greeks. This seem like the most appropriate alternate costume for inspiration. However the ancient Greeks did practice sport nude. So for obvious reason we would need Hektor to be wearing something more modern inspired.
Other costumes can include a high tech variation of the Spartan's armour because who wouldn't want a Spartan costume for a Greek Character.
There are plenty of Greek character fan arts to pull from such as the Helios concept by Jesus Blones, the Chariot concept by Antodemico and Zeus armed with a lightning bolt for another.
Another great but risky idea can be a white and red alternate heavily inspired by Kratos from the God of War franchise. Since it would go hand in hand with Hector as a former soldier turned ruthless bloodknight.
A swimming or scuba gear outfit based off the Atlantis myth would also be a fitting option.
Animal or mythical related costumes can include the iconic Phoenix which originate from Greek Myths. The two headed Eagle. A Bull or a Swan two animal's Zeus is known to have shapeshifted into plus the Aegis shield was also wielded by Zeus.
Speaking of wielder of the Aegis Athena who is associated with Owls is also another deity of Oylmpus to use said shield. Additionally a halloween costume based off Centaurs, Minotaurs, Cyclops and the gorgon medusa could be great potential. In fact the Gorgon Medusa's Head was sometimes place on the Aegis shield.
Speaking of Cyclops, Hephaestus the black smith deity had Cyclops work from him when he forged the Aegis shield for Athena.
Other alternate costumes can refer to Hector's love for food and fitness. Such as a potential Chef costume with Hektor's shield turned into a large dining plate which also can lead to a Play of the Game animation unique to that costume. This PotG animation for Chef Hektor will have him slam his dining plate and shatter it onto the floor referencing the Plate Smashing culture that many associate with the Greeks.
A fitness guru costume with his shield turned in a Gym Plate referencing his love for fitness and general ideology that humans needs to make themselves stronger.
The last costume idea can reference the Manges/Mangas Subculture and the Koutsavakides subculture. These cultures were usually associated with Working class Greek men with a love of rebellion, Rebetiko Urban/Rock Music and there dress sense which included a woolen hat, a jacket with a sleeve torn off, a tight belt, striped trousers and pointy shoes. They also had Moustaches and walked with a limp.
Personality
As we established that Hector was a soldier turned into an extreme believer on Darwinism. He will come across as serious as the likes of Soldier 76, Reaper and Doomfist. But not without a sense of recognising meritocracy when he sees it. He is bark orders at his allies and expect no less than 110%. Some of the Talon members will show annoyance at this such as Doomfist reminding him who is in charge here or Reaper claiming that he is reminds him of Jack Morrison. Hector will make a few cringey motivational speeches a la Captain America style with mixed reactions as some of his voice lines. He will also begrudgingly dislike working with omnics or tech dependent characters like Zenyatta, Orisha, Bastion or characters like D.Va, Torbjorn and Genji. He will have respect for the likes of Hanzo, McCree and Lucio for example due to their tech still requires natural human skills that other Overwatch characters couldn't simply replicate (except Echo you can imagine Hector is no fan of her). A little hidden depths for Hector is cooking. Alongside his determination for the human race to balance their fitness and abilities with tech and not be fully dependent on it, Hector loves to talk about healthy Greek foods and even has friendly interaction with his allies over their favourite foods. In fact he and Doomfist can bond over trading Greek and Nigerian recipes as to show that side as well as their mutual respect and friendship. His talked with the likes of Zarya, Bridgette and Reinhardt also plays on curiosity about food from their respective cultures and their exercise regime. You can imagine Hector and Zarya seeing eye to eye. Wink wink nudge nudge.
His victory poses with the team can include raising his shield much like Captain America in the Marvel vs Capcom games. A ready to battle stance with his shield in front of his chest. A a final pose can be a bad ass armfold to show he is a serious guy.
His Play of the Games can include a THIS IS SPARTA kick at the camera man. A shot of him spinning a throwing his shield like a Olympic Discus thrower. Final PotG animation can have him doing a work out and then flex his Greek Physique, we also mentioned a PotG animation where he Plate Smashes in the Chef costume.
For his dance, we decided to look into Greek dances and found a lot of of dances for several different regions and cultures in Greece. However the most popular and well known dance of Greece would have to be based off the Sirtaki, a dance number choreographed by Giorgos Provias for the 1964 film Zorba the Greek. The dance is sometimes referred to as Zorba Dance in Greek culture here take a look.
Voice Actors
These days it is extremely rare to watch a film, TV show or even player a video game where the Greeks (especially Ancient Greeks) are portrayed by actors of Greek origin or voiced with the appropriate language or accent. But in the case of Blizzard's Overwatch, they try to make an effort half of the time. So if they wanted an actor fluent in Greek and English we might as well look into who they should cast for the role of Hektor Leonides aka Aegis.
British Greek actor Simon Kassinides is best known for his roles as Sunil Bakshi in Agents of Shield, Yusef in Quantace of Solace, Eddie in Geezas, Ben in Trust No One and he even had opportunities to represent his own Greek heritage such as in Assassin's Creed Odyssey as the voice for many Greek Civilians and in Cliffs of Freedom as Gregory an ally to the main Heroine of the film. The best thing is that Simon has worked internationally many times and is still very fluent in Greek which is the stuff Blizzard would want for a Greek character.
While we are on the topic of Overwatch and Greek actors. British Greek Cypriot actor Alex Malaos was rumoured to be voicing a unknown Greek Character after his IMDB page had Overwatch (2016) listed among his credits. The actor debunked all the fan theories that Blizzard had cast him for a new Greek Hero but... If there was a chance to include a Greek Hero, Alex Malaos is likely the easiest option for Blizzard to use for this role. It is very likely he is still fluent in Greek or at least knows a reasonable amount of the language to use. His small list of Credits include Agent William Green in Echelon 8, The Cypriot in an episode of High Maintenance, Phoenix in Preoccupied, D-Tall in Kitty, Hans in All Over It and George in The Flower Shop.
Greek American actor Jason Mantzoukas is probably one of the biger names we are suggesting here but he is popular for many of his TV and Film roles ranging from Nadal in The Dictator, Scarecrow in Lego Batman, Frank in the House, Bob in They Came Together, Omar Ali in Enlightened, Rafi in the League, Jerome Wolf in Fox's X-Men series Legion, Adrian Pimento in Brooklyn Nine Nine, Dennis Feinstein in Parks and Recreation, Jay and Guy in Big Mouth and finally he will be appearing in an upcoming voice role in the animated series Invincible. Wow This guys been busy and a bonus he is fluent in his native Greek so any Greek voice lines is a walk in the park for him.
Greek Australian actor Alex Dimitriades is another potential actor to bring in for a Greek Hero. Born to first Generation Greeks in Australia it is likely he still has some knowledge of the Greek Language. His acting resume includes Nick Polides in The HeartBreak Kid, Enzo Giarraputo in Deuce Bigalow, European Gigolo, Santos in Ghost Ship, Ari in Head On, Nick Poulos in Heartbreak High, Steve George in Australian soap Neighbours, Charlie Coustos in Wildside, Detective Peter Alexides in The Cry, Paul Murdoch in Tidelands and Dr Nikos Naoumidis in The End. With a long list of credits Alex probably deserves a chance of a big break for more international exposure beyond Australia. He is also a DJ and Singer in his spare time so add that in to Hector characterisation he and Lucio have something to bond over maybe even a DJ costume with a large Vinyl Disc looking Shield.
Greek Canadian actor Chris Diamantopoulos has lived between both Canada and Greece growing up so we immediately tick the box for a fluent Greek speaker here. Due to his acting career he splits a lot of his time between New York and Los Angeles. Blizzard might wanna get a hold of him next time he is in the neighbourhood. His long and we mean LONG list of credits include Rodney in The Starter Wife series, Phil Eriksen, MD in State of Mind, Rob Weiss in 24, Moe in The Three Stooges, Reinhold in Community, Brian in the Office, Marky Bark in Arrested Development, Green Arrow in the Batman Unlimited series, Aquaman in HarleyQuin befitting his Greek heritage, Evios/Poseidon in God & Heroes (another role befitting his Greek heritage) and is also doing a voice role for the Invincible series alongside fellow Greek actor Jason Mantzoukas. Some competition is at hand maybe.
What do you guys think? Should Overatch 2 introduce these concepts for a Greek Hero?
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