Some details regarding Ramattra’s behavior and backstory, as well as information provided by the GENESIS miniseries have made me question whether Ramattra is truly acting on his own accord when waging war against humankind:
1: Ramattra’s red glow
-This proves nothing on its own but it’s what made me think of this in the first place. As seen in the GENESIS miniseries, omnics that were controlled by the Anubis A.I all glowed red through their forehead lights. Once the Awakening happened and all omnics were granted sentience, they seemingly all began to glow blue, including R-7000 units, the line of omnics Ramattra belongs to. However, we can see Ramattra still glows red, and seemingly never glowed blue in the first place. While this could very well mean Ramattra’s under Anubis’ influence, a compelling counterargument to this would be another omnic character, Maximilian, who also grow red and seems to want nothing to do with omnic x human conflicts, simply whatever makes him profit, meaning the red glow could simply be an aesthetic choice omnics get to have in the present, such a B.O.B, who has green eyes.
2: Anubis’ plan to regain control
“Our kind were born from the iris, perhaps one day, we truly will be together again.”
-This is what Ramattra says in the flashback cutscene with Zenyatta, while this could simply be a way of desiring peace for omnics, I had something else in mind. In the Trononto uprising mission, we see Ramattra’s plan in motion: kill every human in sight, and insert helmets in every omnic‘s head. According to Torbjorn, these helmets don’t kill omnics, but they do erase everything that makes an omnic themselves,
resetting them to factory set, if you will…
Combining this with several other phrases from Ramattra’s speeches:
“Join us, we welcome you into the Iris”
“This marks a new era, one of a quality of unity
“Together, of one mind and purpose, we will make this world a paradise.”
All of these make me believe the possibility of Ramattra’s plan being to unite all omnics into a single conscience he deems to be “the iris”. But what if it wasn’t? What if Anubis is tricking Ramattra into uniting all omnics in one “place” so that it may be able to regain control over them?
3: Anubis’ control over Ramattra
“But how would Anubis control Ramattra? Isn’t it quarantined?”
-You’re right, it is. But some factors may be making it possible to not necessarily control Ranattra, but insert ideas into his head and persuading him into waging war. Those being:
A: Ramattra’s classification as a R-7000 Ravager unit, specifically designed by Anubis itself to go to war, which may be creating a predisposition for Ramattra to desire conflict, and would explain the fact he was the only one to ever deny Mondatta’s teachings to his extent.
B: The near-extinction of Ravagers, possibly making it easier for Anubis to concentrate influence over one’s programming, while also enraging Ramattra.
C: Ramattra’s own life’s experiences. Throughout his lore, we’ve seen Ramattra go through some devastating events, which probably scarred his view of humans making it harder for him to have sympathy for their species. Anubis could use this to persuade him.
D: They literally call it a “GOD” program, how long can you keep something like that at bay? It’s been 30 years since he was Quarantined, at the very least some of itself could’ve breached security and escaped to the world.
4: Conclusion
I would like to point out that I do not necessarily believe this is true, nor am I affirming I would want this to be true, as I find the idea that despite stopping the Anubis A.I once, humanity still failed Omnic kind to the point where some willingly agree with Anubis’ ideals not because of emotionless robotic reasoning, but because of ethical philosophy a concept very profound by itself.
However, the details are still there to be interpreted and reflected upon, and I would like to know what y’all think.
But you wouldn’t say that if you were an omnic. If you were a threat to others because of something completely outside of your control, would your only solution be to kill yourself? There are a lot of things humans and omnics can do to prevent something like Anubis from happening a second time, but being racist to omnics doesn’t do shit.
Since the omnics gained sentience, they are objectively people, and should be treated as such. You don’t treat them like people, and Rammatra happens.