Overwatch recently introduced their latest hero Echo, but it didn’t take long for the usual suspects to begin criticizing the character’s design for looking like a female.
Twitter user Scattersilk wrote, “non-human woman design in overwatch: She has a human woman face and hourglass figure just in case you didn’t know she’s a woman, she’s a woman btw.”
Scattersilk added, “non-human woman design in quake: she’s literally a reptilian alien, why would she look like a human woman at all?”
non-human woman design in overwatch: she has a human woman face and hourglass figure just in case you didn’t know she’s a woman, she’s a woman btw
non-human woman design in quake: she’s literally a reptilian alien, why would she look like a human woman at all pic.twitter.com/hoqvyYRy9x— Suzie 🕷 (@Scattersilk) March 30, 2020
Scattersilk added, “‘bu-but echo was built by humans!!!” so was orisa, they didn’t plaster some uncanny ass human face and hourglass figure onto her lmao.” They continued, “Overwatch’s flimsy lore doesn’t sway my opinion that it’s a shitty design, but sure go ahead and keep defending your youtube shittube fps.”
“bu-but echo was built by humans!!!”
so was orisa, they didn’t plaster some uncanny ass human face and hourglass figure onto her lmao
overwatch’s flimsy lore doesn’t sway my opinion that it’s a shitty desgin, but sure go ahead and keep defending your youtube shittube fps— Suzie 🕷 (@Scattersilk) March 30, 2020
Others would also criticize the character design.
— ❀ alea 4’10 short king❀ (@horizonalillacs) March 30, 2020
One person noted the design was annoying because “her figure is pushing way too hard to look as appealing as possible.”
A bit of context: Echo was built by a black woman and supposed to represent her. It obviously annoys me too that her figure is pushing way too hard to look as appealing as possible (Like. Cmon Blizzard) and @AmiTheRobot is right, her previous design was a lot better
— Deezy (Commissions Open) (@NotDeezy) March 30, 2020
Another person claims the design was created “because some devs are snowflakes and don’t want to make incels rage that the women characters aren’t Super models.”
It’s because some devs are snowflakes and don’t want to make incels rage that the women characters aren’t Super models
— 🅰️ ☭ (@Dark_Toss) March 30, 2020
Another person accused Overwatch Game Designer of introducing the character because he wants to bang it.
Jeff will not approve of a design of a female character if he doesn’t wanna bang it
— artgoblin (@The_Soup_Goblin) March 30, 2020
Still another took issue with the character’s hourglass figure.
honestly i like the human woman face, but….only the face. theres no need for it to be on a sexy hourglass figure. the rusalki from axiom verge are wayyy better “robot lady with any uncanny human face” designs, they legit feel like ancient mechanical goddesses and i LOVE it pic.twitter.com/vOQNRypdBI
— sleepy 24/7 babyyy 🔞 (@waitingtrespawn) March 30, 2020
Some fans took issue with the character designed because it changed the original design shown off in the Overwatch Cinematic Trailer released in 2014.
as a fan of robot girls, annoyed they didn’t go with the cooler design that was in like the first trailers for the entire series. pic.twitter.com/1qw2IvaUOY
— Ami Entertainment System (@AmiTheRobot) March 30, 2020
HONESTLY i wouldn’t have any problem with her design if they kept with this, but ol’ jeffy needs to be absolutely sure that we know echo is a woman
— Suzie 🕷 (@Scattersilk) March 30, 2020
The “pre release” image shows a more abstract design, single-panel limbs and not much detail- very sleek
The new version is much more detailed, has a needlessly detailed body, a face bound unto the Uncanny Valley and a fivehead to make Megamind blush.
— 🔞MissBlimpy🔞 (@MBlimpy) March 30, 2020
However, the redesign appears to have been made to fit in with the story crafted around Echo.
Kaplan explains, “There were a few founding members of Overwatch—obviously, there were people like Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes. And, as they were founding Overwatch, they invited someone named Doctor Mina Liao, a leading expert in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics who had previously worked for the Omnica Corporation, which had built the Omnics originally, to join them. Morrison wanted to employ somebody who was an absolute expert and understood robotics to make Overwatch more educated and intelligent when it came to the Omnic Crisis.”
He continued, “She went to Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes and basically said, ‘I can make an adaptive learning robot. So, that way, when we send out Overwatch strike teams, if you need a pilot, this robot can fly the ship; if you need medical care it can learn to provide medical care—whatever niche you have on the mission, the robot can adapt and fill that role. And that’s why we think she would be really important to Overwatch.’”
He added, “But, Mina took some liberties and really made the robot self-learning… through observation. As she was working on the Echo project, the robot started to adopt her voice. The voice you hear from Echo is really the voice of Doctor Mina Liao talking. The more Echo evolved, the more she really adapted to all of these heroes that she was around all the time—watching them, learning to do what they did, the way they did it.”
Kaplan then concludes, “Mina Liao lives on through Echo. Echo absorbed much of who Liao was, and is also constantly adapting to all of the agents around her.”
And there you have it, Echo looks like a female woman because she absorbed “much of who Liao was.”