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

[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.

[arilou_skiff]

Eh, Bioware has been having lesbian characters since 2003 (admittedly nowhere near the prominence in that particular case, but they've been having a bunch since) so even for AAA games it's not like they're breaking some kind of barrier.

As said, nice, but not breaking any new ground really. (yet, at least)

[freezer]

Eh, Bioware has been having lesbian characters since 2003 (admittedly nowhere near the prominence in that particular case, but they've been having a bunch since) so even for AAA games it's not like they're breaking some kind of barrier.

I respectfully, but strongly, disagree.

Name another canonically LGBT major character. Not "has same sex options", "is gay, that's it."

Basically there's Ellie from The Last of Us and Joanna from Perfect Dark. Even as big as TLoU was (and Perfect Dark is a cult classic), Tracer's a bigger character than both of them put together.

And, again, Tracer's the mascot. The face of the franchise. That's a barrier broken, no matter how you want to look at it.

[arilou_skiff]

Veronica & Arcade from Fallout new Vegas? Sera from Inquisition (and the tevinter mage whose name I can't recall) Traynor in Mass Effect, there's the main characters in Life is Strange, and a whole bunch of others.

Only the first time something happens is groundbreaking, and there have been LBGT members of ensemble casts before. (Heck, Tracer is the equivalent of a member of a fighting game cast, and I can bet there have been LBGT charcters in a fighting game before...)

[locuatico]

Veronica & Arcade: You can spend the entire game never meeting them.
The resto: The pretense that one has to be "first" to be groundbreaking which is all forms of BS.
Tracer: THE FACE of the biggest game of 2016. not just "a member of a fighting game cast" when it comes to Overwatch she is EVERYWHERE.

[q99]

Yea, there's some in casts, but not in nearly as prominent of roles. Headlining as Tracer did? That's still pushing things farther than ever before.