Blizzard has released the latest comic set in the Overwatch world, and it gives us a peek the personal life of one of the most popular and visible characters.
This isn’t quite as iconic as Ellen’s infamous first-television-lesbian-kiss in the ’90s that had people losing their minds, we’ve come a long way in the past twenty years and this is a videogame character and not a real person, but still – bringing the fact that Tracer is a queer character into canon is a big deal for the gaming world, and for many fans of Overwatch. Blizzard has been teasing that there are numerous queer characters in the cast of Overwatch, and that Tracer is just the first of many.
Overall, the reactions to this have been very positive:
TRACER IS QUEER AND I AM HERE FOR THAT CANON! pic.twitter.com/dU4MV5kTMz
— Fighter Writer Mari (@CyborgN8VMari) December 20, 2016
tracer being canonically gay is making me so happy i want to cry
— Danika Harrod (@danikaharrod) December 20, 2016
Cheers love, the calvary is queer! ❤❤❤❤
— A Very DJ Christmas (@OhHeyDJ) December 20, 2016
The comic shows Tracer just chilling at home with her boo, exchanging gifts…
Tracer gets a scarf, and it’s obviously a very good scarf because things start heating up almost instantly…
Blizzard plans to release more details about the game’s diverse cast in the near future, in the meantime here’s a statement from the lead writer on Overwatch, Michael Chu:
“We definitely haven’t forgotten about what we said. Like we said, it’s very important for us to have diversity and inclusiveness of all types, and that includes LGBT characters. There are definitely LGBT heroes [in Overwatch] — that’s multiple heroes.
It’s a decision that we make when we’re developing these heroes early on. We want the stories about characters relationships — and not just romantic, but familial relationships and stuff like that — to come out in the course of stories that we feel really do them justice. So, because of some of the stories that we’ve done so far, we haven’t really had any time to shed light on that.
But, that said, I can say that we do have a story coming up soon — and that’s not Blizzard(TM) soon, it’s actually soon — that will address this. And, just to reiterate, it’s something that absolutely is important to us.”
However, not everyone is completely pleased with revelation, and there are some mixed reactions:
There’s more sexualities for women that are attracted to other women than just “lesbian” okay bye
— Jingle Boss (@laevantine) December 20, 2016
Blizzard didn’t make a huge deal out of this, it was more like “Okay, here she is in her day to day life,” which was much more tasteful than turning it into a huge spectacle to get attention, they’re not trying to use Tracer’s orientation as a selling point, it just is what it is, it’s normal.