sundayswiththeilluminati:

Here’s what I love about the doritos gremlin d.va meme: Blizzard made this character and went, “Look, it’s a professional gamer prodigy who was so good that they became a mech pilot and a national hero but STEREOTYPE SUBVERSION instead of being a Mountain-Dew-chugging git-gud gremlin she’s a cute teenage girl!” And the internet went, “Seriously? Anime is littered with cute teenage girl mech pilots. You know what would be a real subversion? If the teenage girl weren’t cute or sexy but was instead the Mountain-Dew-chugging git-gud gremlin gamer of legend. Now THAT would be a plot twist.” AND SO IT IS.

And the more I think about it, the more I see that where the fandom stereotypes of Overwatch characters diverge from their official portrayal, it’s usually in the service of stereotype subversion. Reaper is supposed to be SUPER COOL DARK ROGUE but we’re all just like ”lol what a loser edgelord.” Soldier 76 is a CONFLICTED BROODING LONER ON A MISSION OF REVENGE so everyone has decided he’s Team Dad Extraordinaire who does nothing but collect small children and protect them forever. Zarya and Genji aren’t supposed to be sex objects, so they are; Hanzo and Widowmaker are, so they’re not. Mercy’s supposed to be team mom, but instead she’s 100% done with her dumbass squad who doesn’t realize that IF YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME I CAN’T HEAL YOU YOU FUCKWAD.