Blizzard Has Announced the Newest Overwatch Hero: Ana

[halisme]

I find this pretty interesting.
Not the character, the character is highly irrelevant.
I'm talking about the reactions and the company politics on display regarding Overwatch as a whole.

People here for example praise it. For what? For a highly inconsequential backstory.
Almost nothing what is written in the backstory will have any relevance whatsoever in the game because it's just another team based shooter without story. That she was a sniper will be the only thing of importance... duh.
But apparently that's praiseworthy.
You will kill her daughter in the enemy team no matter what.

Then there is Blizzard. The company that apologised and removed an animation because one person complained.
Apparently some people complained about the lack of old women or that females would not look their age or something [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comicsandcosplay/comics/critical-miss/17114-Overwatch-character-roster-representation] and now an older looking women is added.
The coincidence.

What is missing from the cast? I see no black person.
Someone should complain about that. The result could be telling.

PCWatch.

Edit: Emma Honeywell, google it.

You do realise that there were things that hinted at her character since the beta's right? And the pose was replaced with one based off nineteen forties pinups.

 

[Erttheking]

What is missing from the cast? I see no black person.
Someone should complain about that. The result could be telling.

.......*Cough*

Spoiler

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/overwatch/images/6/60/Lucio_portrait.png/revision/latest?cb=20160429040926

Also in no particular order, story does matter in this game because it adds flavor, such as moments when the characters talk to each other (I mean there's a reason they're not just differently colored but otherwise identical blobs) even if it doesn't make any sense that Ana can fight three clones of her daughter.

And Blizzard has said over and over again that they were going to change that pose anyway, but people made up their minds that they were lying. With no real proof. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because you think if Blizzard caved so easily, they'd have gotten rid of the fucking loot boxes. And Pharah's mother has been part of Overwatch's lore for awhile, so I'm going to float the idea that maybe Blizzard is capable of releasing a character over forty without outside influence.

 

[MonkeyPunch]

Looks quite generic in every way possible... I'm surprisingly disappointed.
The character design is super bland. Added cheese points for the eye patch.
On top of that she's a sniper. (because we needed even more players hanging back)
Lastly her specials seem like they're just variants on existing heroes.
I honestly thought Blizzard would have come up with something a little fresher than a run-on-the-mill looking sniper hero.

 

[BX3]

She looks pretty neat. I like the fact that she's Pharah's mother. Don't see that sort of thing often in ensemble games like this.

Well, looks like Grey got his wish [http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1330/1330221.png]

Ah great, now it's gonna be even harder for Cory to get him out of his room than it already is!

 

[Dragonbums]

The closest thing I've found to outrage over this character is someone on twitter whinging about Blizzard taking diversity too far, and insisting there will be a wheelchair bound hero next, but no signs of the dreaded feminist anger.

In this futuristic setting, cybernetics are the norm, it seems, so including a physically disabled character would be badass, actually. Either we get a dude/dudette with robot legs or a Professor X hover-chair. Either way, pretty cool.

EDIT: yeah I know that there are other physical disabilities than being wheelchair-bound. That's just one example.

I feel that complaints about there being too many disabled characters is ironic and an indication that the person in question doesn't actually pay any real close attention to the games background.
Like almost half the characters in this game are/were disabled in some way.

Junkrat lost his leg and his arm. It's replaced by Cypernetics

Symettra had lost her arm at some point. Replaced by Cybernetics

It's implied through armor design of the joints in Pharahs suit that she had at some point lost all of her limbs.

Genji is basically a dead cyborg

Reindhart is implied to be a part robot part human as well (in the same vein as Pharah.)

Trobjorn lost his arm at some point.

McCree lost his arm at some point.

Whether some of those lost limbs were a personal choice or not in the traditional sense most of the characters in the game were disabled/dead at some point and through advanced technology were able to regain their normal functions and then some.
At that point someone being wheelchair bound in a world where your dead ass can live on as a cyborg or a literal undead corpse would be a personal choice.

So unless you were exceptionally poor or you hate anything to do with tech, disabled people playing heros isn't exactly a far stretch. Any more than in todays terms where one can get 20/20 vision through laser eye surgery.

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

Don't forget that Junkrat has a peg leg. Now that I think about it, this cast has really been put through the wringer.

 

[Dragonbums]

Snip

Don't forget that Junkrat has a peg leg. Now that I think about it, this cast has really been put through the wringer.

Whoops. My mistake. Junkrat didn't get (or couldn't afford) an actual robot leg. So he's just hobbling around on a peg.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

I love this character! An Egyptian woman who is, well, old, is a mother, has a missing eye, and is overcoming said missing eye to step up, and be strong for herself and others?
How often do we see a mother that knows she's a mother as a playable character, nevermind one who's someone of a mamma bear?

Granted as great as her back story is, doesn't seem to mean a thing to Overwatch in general since the plot is largely thrown out the window as adversaries of overwatch fight along side members of overwatch at the same time potentially are fighting doppelgangers of themselves.

She checks all of the boxes for diversity, female, Egyptian, disabled... She just needs to be gay now.

Im just disappointed we get another sniper...

If fandom leads anywhere, Mercy, and Pharah could be an item, so it could lead to Ana being an accepting parent which might be pretty strong for diversity in, and of itself.
That's just fandom, though.

But seriously, thinking about it, I'd be about as happy, maybe even happier if accepting parent of an LGBT character were checked off. I feel like we need more of that.

I'm sure Ana has some CQC ability, even as a sniper since Black Widow does, but it won't likely be either one's forte, and I'm ok with that.