Overwatch Comic #10 - Tracer Breaks The Internet (and Russia)

[freezer]

As many of you already know, Blizzard Entertainment has been posting online comics involving the characters of their smash hit game, Overwatch. The tenth such comic, "Tracer: Reflections" is a Christmas-themed comic involving Tracer's attempt at getting a last-minute gift for her best bud, Winston (The armor-clad, hyper-intelligent gorilla).




The big to-do about this comic is a reveal about Tracer's personal life. One that's drawn strong reaction positive and negative: The two relevant pages (out of 12)





The scarf was actually for Winston, BTW.



Yep: Tracer, the game's defacto mascot, is a lesbian. Naturally, the internet reacted in equal parts "SQUEE" and "WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN".

Equally naturally, it's already banned in Russia. They're not saying it's because of their laws banning anything that could be considered "gay propaganda," just that the comic is not "in accordance with Russian law." Their loss.

I admit the only other Overwatch comic I've read is one with McCree foiling a train heist in the most assholish way possible. I plan to dig into the rest, post haste.

Comments

[stubbleupdate]

Today brought me two things I love - Tracer, and whining pissbabies.

[lucean]

My first reaction to when I saw it online was just oh, because I knew the development had stated that one of the characters was gay. It wasn't until I read an explanation somewhere where they explained the choice of Tracer was such a big deal that I was really impressed with Blizzard for going with her.

And wait, did Russia ban the whole game or just the comic?

[thosefew]

You forgot the Internet reaction of "WHAT ABOUT MY SHIPFICS?".

[freezer]

For now, just the comic. Russian viewers can see the cover, but the rest just brings up a warning.

[freezer]

My bad on that. That and "MAI WAIFU!" (To which I say "Shadaap! Mei is Bae!")

[lordultimus]

To be fair, she could be bi.

[arilou_skiff]

Winston was kind of interesting, Tracer? Eh. After Korra and Steven Universe having a lesbian character feels like not much to get worked up about anymore y'know? I mean, good for those who like it I guess?

Though admittedly the russian tears are delightful.

[lucean]

I wouldn't necessary use Korra as the example here as due to the constraints from CN, the creators had to not only make that revelation at the last minute, aside from I think she's bi?, but they even had to confirm later that it was meant as a symbol of romantic relationship as they couldn't show any romantic affection between the two.

[informationgeek]

Yeah! Another Mei fan! :D

[beyondthefringe]

I'm extremely happy about this. And just plain baffled at the amount of tears and butthurt. But sadly, I can understand where many of these complaints come from and it has to do with gamers wanting to insert themselves into their favorite characters and not be burdened too much by pesky depth and backstory. :)

But I'm happy! I like this! On the one hand, it's bold of Blizzard to make one of the two biggest Overwatch characters (in terms of visibility) openly LGBTQ. Tracer's a major character for their purposes.

On the other... it still feels "safe." Tracer is young, attractive, fairly femme, as is her girlfriend. This isn't exactly threatening in terms of pure aesthetics. And I think some people wish they'd gone for someone else as the first openly gay character. But who? I know a lot of people were pushing for Zarya, who does -appear- fairly masculine and who could easily be read as queer, but is that too obvious, or too stereotyping?

Me, I figure there's only so many characters where this kind of detail makes sense. Bastion and Zenyatta are robots, Winston's a gorilla (who they might allow to -show- attraction, but interspecies romances are... complicated). I suspect Genji is more machine than man in certain areas. Roadhog and Junkrat are both terrifying and offputting and complicated... Reaper seems beyond physical and emotional intimacy at this point. Reinhardt and Torbjorn seem pretty established in separate hetero relationships.

So Hanzo? McCree? Mei? Sombra? Pharah? Lucio? Symmetra? Soldier: 76? Ana? Mercy? D.VA? Widowmaker? I could probably make an argument one way or the other for most of them, but it'll be interesting to see if Blizzard chooses to reveal any more specifics in the wake of this development.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm not going to let Tracer's orientation get in the way of me blowing her up if she doesn't get out of my way. I got a bomb to deliver to scrap some bots... and I'm getting paid for it!

[informationgeek]

My reaction to this announcement: Oh? Okay then.

My reaction to the backlash.

[super_fly]

The funniest thing I saw was the idea of a McCree voiceline: "It's high noon and also I like men."

[q99]

-Winston was kind of interesting, Tracer? Eh. After Korra and Steven Universe having a lesbian character feels like not much to get worked up about anymore y'know? I mean, good for those who like it I guess? -

Video games, AAA games I should say, aren't as progressive as shows, this is a fairly major step.

Plus our examples are still a very short number. Major media representation is still far from common or accepted, even if we have a couple now.

[q99]

-On the other... it still feels "safe." Tracer is young, attractive, fairly femme, as is her girlfriend. This isn't exactly threatening in terms of pure aesthetics. And I think some people wish they'd gone for someone else as the first openly gay character. But who? I know a lot of people were pushing for Zarya, who does -appear- fairly masculine and who could easily be read as queer, but is that too obvious, or too stereotyping?-

Zarya did read to me as fairly obvious, in the 'butch' mold.

But the thing about Tracer is... she's not just the young/attractive women, she's also the mascot, the one who's been front and center at the start.

[reveen]

Some of these reactions, my god.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C0JYKjAXAAEFF7I.jpg:large

Yeah, suuuure. A woman straight up platonically macking on the woman she happens to live with it totally a British thing we're only now hearing about. If we had a panel of Winston and his boyfriend sucking each others dicks I'm sure just be a gorilla thing.

[beyondthefringe]

Exactly. As someone said to me, "Cheers, love! The cavalry's queer!"

[beyondthefringe]

Both Reinhardt and McCree have a voice line when they're healed. "I feel like a new man!"

I hear that and my mind goes... places.

[freezer]

Every time I see that clip, my brain immediately cuts to Doug Walker's imitation of it.

[freezer]

If they really wanted to shake things up, they could've made Ana gay.

[locuatico]

...Korra is Nick...

[janegray]

Guys, this is A REALLY BIG DEAL.

In the past few years, more and more gay characters have been added to comics and TV shows and movies, so it may seem the reveal of Tracer's girlfriend was nothing groundbreaking. But oh my God, it so WAS.

FPS games are traditionally the realm of brodudes. It's the genre where rape threats and gay slurs and the n-word are the norm. It is, by far, the most conservative genre in videogames, which by and large are a much more conservative medium than comics and television.

Furthermore, FPS games are very popular and profitable in Russia and Asian countries, which are openly legally discriminatory against GLBT people. Russia in particular is one of the biggest markets for FPS games, and it has laws that outright ban anything with GLBT content.

Then, Overwatch is not just any FPS, but it's one of the biggest ones. Wikipedia says "SuperData Research estimated that Overwatch brought in more than $269 million in revenues from digital sales worldwide in May," and that's just May and just digital sales. Overwatch is as big as a mayor AAA Hollywood blockbuster.

Finally, Tracer is not just any characters, she is the mascot character of the game. She is the characters who appears on billboards and advertising, the character who you need to click on literally any time you want to play quick play, the character who is eternally the background for Overwatch on battlenet, the character who is a staple in competitive play, the characters who appears in the vast majority of Overwatch videos and comics. It's simply not possible to play Overwatch and ignore Tracer, she is on the front and center of everything it is.

In no way, shape or form was making Tracer queer "safe." Blizzard made their protagonist queer in a genre and medium that is traditionally hostile to minorities and when half their market has extremely aggressive anti-LGBT laws and refusing to comply with that could cost them hundreds of millions of dollars. It's a really big deal.

[janegray]

Yep. It's awesome that Tracer is a girlfriend. It's considerably less awesome that people see a f/f pairing and immediately automatically assume she must absolutely 100% for sure be a lesbian. There is a B in GLBT.

[janegray]

Bastion and Zenyatta are robots

Robots are routinely shown to be in romantic relationships in the Overwatch universe. The Widowmaker movie has a girl with her robot boyfriend, one map has a poster for a romance movie with a woman and a male robot, and the backstory for the Los Muertos organization shows that one of the members was a male robot with a girlfriend.

That said, Tracer is the mascot of the game and its face in all the promotional material. Young and pretty she may be, but for all intents and purposes she is the protagonist of the game, so I really don't see how making her queer is any safer than picking a secondary character like Zarya.

[locuatico]

"I know a lot of people were pushing for Zarya, who does -appear- fairly masculine and who could easily be read as queer, but is that too obvious, or too stereotyping?"
Someone pointed out to me once that the "it would fall into the stereotype" implies there IS enough representaiton in media to make it a stereotype to begin with.
Also bear in mind, those wanting Zarya to be queer in their vast majority queer themselves and those going with the "it would fall into the stereotype"... usually are not.

[locuatico]

I think the thing that enrages me the most about "Platonic kisses" is that they are indeed a real and wonderful thing that the whole "no homo" mentality has almost killed and now it is being used as a way to erase queer pairings.