Concept: Neither Gabe or Jack wanted to be Strike Commander because they knew it would involve a lot of sitting under a public microscope and trying not to offend everyone in the world at once. When people talk about it driving a rift between them it wasn’t because Gabe was jealous, it was because Jack was getting crushed by the stress.
I really like this theory!
I think Gabe was smart enough to realize that a military team with a U.N. babysitter would be more of a poster child for eating your vegetables and being nice to your neighborhood police officer and 100% wanted nothing to do with it, but the whole original Strike Team understood that if they weren’t at the head of the spear they would be replaced by someone more malleable.
Jacks pre-fall biop says he was a ‘act-first, think-later people-person’ with a knack for inspiring people. It made sense to have him lead the charge because he was likeable but also trustworthy.
Of course anyone who’s had to be in charge of a team before would understand that you can’t keep a tight ship and be everyone’s friend as well and that probably really got to Jack. He suddenly had to weigh the responsibilities of Overwatch to the world and his teams moral compass (and his own).
Gabriel having a more of a ‘get the job done, understand the costs, remember your priorities and plan around them’ mindset would have made him a great Strike Team leader (though maybe not the face of global peace).
With two very different jobs and goals that conflicted and distanced them it’s quite easy to see how it all fell down the well.
I want to explain why I think this is so good from a military perspective because this has been bugging me for ages. I haven’t seen any posts really taking an in depth look at Jack and Gabe’s military history (if someone has point me to it please). As a former US military member this aspect of the characters are important, at least to me. If you join at a young age, as Jack did and possibly Gabriel, the military shapes you as a person.
With that in mind…
Gabriel is genius level smart, he’d have to be to outsmart God programs which I feel like are mini Skynets bent on fighting for their right to exist. (I mean from D.Va’s background we know there’s one still submerged in the ocean waters popping out every few years to reign destruction after rebuilding itself. Like how is that not completely terrifying! I’m not even sure they destroyed it yet.)
So of course when Overwatch is made public he sees where this is going instantly. He knows what he is good at and what he likes. For the past 5 or so years it took to end the Omnic Crisis he ran his team as he pleased, most likely with little to no red tape to get the job done. To end the war.
Now Gabriel has to handle the notion that he and his super secret squirrel team will be wrapped up with red tape. This is a death sentence to black/special ops agents especially after getting a taste of freedom from a chain of command. Coupled with the fact his enemies/targets are no longer going to just be robots (I’m being general because discussion of the morality/ethics of killing sentient constructs is for another time), they are going to be after humans now because the world is trying to rebuild itself, to include organized crime. He can’t do what he is good at if he is in the spotlight. He probably can’t even do what he is good at with his original team now that the objectives have changed (morality/ethics discussion again).
What could Gabriel do? Recommend Jack or even Ana for Strike Commander. Argues to the UN that he is better in the shadows as he has been for the past 5 or so years. Or do something that would tarnish himself in their eyes. This is a smart move career-wise and I feel like it’s one he used before.
Because…. (here comes the military perspective)
Gabriel is said to have been “ a senior officer in the US military”. This can mean a few things, since there are 3 ways in which he can be considered senior.
1. Jr. vs. Sr. ranks – Ranks have a “scale” where some are considered Jr. to others collectively such as 1st and 2nd Lt. with Capt. in a grey area. Because at the rank of Major you’re an O4 out of O6, after that you get into General status. So being around the ranks of Major, Lt. Colonel and Colonel he’d definitely be a senior officer.
2. Time in Rank – Who ever has held a rank longer is senior to those who haven’t. This helps keep a pecking order when someone comes up in rank faster than usual. If Gabriel had maintained a rank for more time than his peers he would be senior.
3. Time in Service – The longer you are in the military the more seniority you get. This mainly backs up Time in Rank seniority but can on its own weigh heavily depending on the circumstance.
Now comes the questionable math and an equivocal timeline. I’ll be using this timeline that seems fairly decent. So take this all with a grain of salt, I’ll be adding a +/- 2 years for a warm and fuzzy.
The Crisis started with Gabriel was around 26-28, a year later he is in SEP, 4 years after that Overwatch is formed. Even using the high end in age, early 30s, there is no way he is a senior officer by the Jr. vs. Sr. ranks criteria. He just hasn’t had enough time to reach those ranks and time is the key factor since someone can’t be promoted unless they have maintained a lower rank for a minimum set of time and evaluations to pass. Unless there are mass casualties where most of the military is decimated…
Due to his genius he could have obtained a degree early (starting college course while in high school or some accelerated plan) and became an officer at around 18-20 giving him around 7-8 years to acquire some time in rank.
However, what I think is more likely is that Gabriel enlisted right out of high school or at 17 with permission. During his first enlistment he did classes and got his degree then did an enlisted to officer program that various military branches have set up. This would make him senior in time in rank and time in service, with the added caveat that he would be a Mustang, an officer that is prior enlisted, which gives him a lot of respect.
Here is the tricky part, he can’t advance too quickly. In order to stay in a rank where he can be in command of a team rather than a group of teams he has to sabotage himself. I’ve personally since this before. Sergeants getting low scores in fitness tests or doing something stupid on purpose so they will get a bad review so they won’t get promoted.
They do this because they love the rank they are at, the ability to act with their team still. If they got promoted too high they would shift into the realm of bureaucracy, of politics and rolls of red tape. They get chained to a desk and can’t go out into the field anymore and they are no longer part of the team they are an obstacle now.
Gabriel knows that would happen to him if he took command of Overwatch. He wouldn’t be able to do what he is good at, where he thrives. He happily goes to Blackwatch, but it comes at a cost. Jack gets thrown under the bus and shoved into the spotlight then comes the fallout decades later.
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theclumsiestninja 