Overwatch 2 character reveals won’t stop bullying Pharah

Overwatch 2’s Pharah has been getting repeatedly killed in character reveals, and players are beginning to take notice.

Pharah, at least one with a Mercy pocket, is one of the most hotly contested characters on the Overwatch 2 roster. While she isn’t often meta, for many ranks below the upper echelons, if you see a PharMercy in the skies and you don’t have a very proficient hitscan player, it can feel impossible to find a win. 

That oppressiveness can lead many to hate the poor justicier of the Overwatch roster. Arguably, that hate should go towards Mercy as without her, Pharah is often very exposed. However, be that as it may, she’s remained a controversial character since launch. Someone at Blizzard clearly feels the same too, as Pharah has been getting bullied for marketing reasons recently. 

Yesterday the trailer for Overwatch 2: Invasion dropped and in it, players got their first look at the latest hero, Illari. In her section of the packed video, Illari is seen shooting an ulting Pharah as she falls from the sky. 

It’s cool imagery, though as some have pointed out, it seems to be a recurring motif and not a one-off for the upcoming season. 

Is Blizzard repeatedly killing Pharah on purpose?

This now marks the third character reveal in a row that sees Pharah dying during an Ultimate.

In the Ramattra character reveal, you can see Pharah die at around the 40-second mark. In Lifeweaver’s, she perishes at around 1:13. While Pharah got out of Kiriko’s trailer unscathed, it’s been seen in older gameplay character reveals too. 

This trend was noted in the Reddit thread for the trailer. One user got over 660 upvotes for stating: “Pharah dying during her ult during a trailer/reveal. Name a more iconic duo”

This, of course, is probably intentional on Blizzard’s part. While killing an ulting Pharah is undeniably a good visual, Blizzard could be making a bit of a joke. We’ve seen a similar thing with Cypher in Valorant, and what started as a meme, turned into a whole game mode. With that in mind, I’d wager we’ve only seen the beginning of Pharah’s fall from the sky.