Overwatch's Tracer's Victory Pose Is Out of Character? Really?!

So, today I heard a weird news on PC Gamers. You see, Blizzard is currently holding an Open-Beta phase for their newest class based multiplayer, Overwatch. One of the characters in the game is a 26 year old high spirited girl, Tracer. I'm gonna skip on her ability and just skip to what important in this case; her personality. From what I've seen from cinematic trailer, gameplay video, and many sources in the internet (I haven't played it though), Tracer is a genki girl. She's very high spirited and playful. Some of her pose and movement also tell us (or me, to be exact) that she's also likes to do cool stuff.

And now, people complaining about her. Not about her as general, no. But complaining about one very specific victory pose. In that pose, Tracer stands with her back to the camera and her head looking at the camera.

This is the ass, er, pose in question. Image: PCGamer

One of the pose in the "How to Look Cool" handbook. So, what's wrong with it? Well, people said that the pose showing Tracer showing off her ass (a nice pair of ass). So it's over-sexualized? Eh, not really. Strangely enough, the reason why people complaining about this pose is because they think it is out of her character.

Wow, that's sounds like a legit reason the gaming community ever throw. But, wait. Is it really true though?

I haven't played nor follow Overwatch closely but I intended to play it in the future. Tracer is one of my favorite characters in Overwatch based on the trailer and gameplay video I've watch. I like her design (I always like short haired genki girl) and her play style seems to fit mine.

While the reasoning for removing this is because the pose is out of her character, interestingly enough, I think the pose does fits her character. Rather than fit, maybe the exact wording is the pose is expanding her character. The pose adds a sprinkle of depth to Tracer. "Oh, so that's how her personality is," that's how I would react if I see that pose.

You see, human is a complex being. One nerd is different with other nerds, one jocks is different with other jocks, and one high-spirited playful girl is different with other high-spirited girls. A person, most of the time, will not fit 100% exactly to a type of personality; there usually several part of her personality that is out from her typical personality. This sometimes taken to the extreme degree (and thus create a whole new personality to categorize it) and other time it's subtle by simple gesture, movement, or minor quirks.

Adding the pose to Tracer, in my opinion, adds more to her personality. It's good since that means she's not another generic spunky playful girl; she has that parts that different than the stereotypes. This adds depth to the character, emphasizing that she's not a template character.

Of course, out of character movement, words, sentence, etc are bad. But, there's a degree of how far away from her main personality a movement/pose is to be considered out of characters. And I argue that Tracer's pose falls within the perfectly acceptable category. It's not really that rare to see a playful high-spirited girl strike a sexy pose or flirt just for fun, not in serious manner.

Also, there's a possibility that Tracer doesn't 'sexualized' herself deliberately. Who knows, perhaps she's not being sexy and just think that standing facing away from the camera looks cool and she likes being cool. Maybe she just never thought her butts are sexy and may suggest she is presenting herself (whatever that means. Hey, don't look at me, the people in the battle.net said that first) if she shows it like that. She simply just want to look cool and not giving much thought to her ass. It just happen people notice her ass when she's not. Hey, facing away from camera is one of the pose in the 'How to look cool' handbook for fictional characters after all! That's an explanation that explain the pose while staying within what people say her personality.

All in all, I think that pose, instead of being out of character, is actually tell us more about Tracer. It's somewhat similar with how Indiana Jones shot a big guy who looks very skilled using a sword. He's the protagonist, not a bad guy too, but that one choice of action tells us that Indy is a pragmatic person. He choose what works over what looks good. Tracer's pose is something like this. It tells us either she has a little bit of flirty side on her or, like what I said above, doesn't really try to being sexy at all.

There's a lot of way to handle the situation. The best way is to use it as a flavor or insight to her character, to how she is and how her personality is. It's not that hard and still fall within acceptable line with even chance or room to expand her character. But, removing the pose altogether is not one of it.

But hey, I didn't even think it sexualized until people said it. There's something wrong with our society when people noticing a woman's ass when she just simply facing away from them.

PS: If you went to the PC Gamer article, you might noticed a comment that sounded similar to this article. That was me. I use my comment and edit it a little for this blog post.

This is Benz reporting, see you on the next post!!
AAAAAANNNNNNNNNDDDDDD CUT!!!!!!