Overwatch’s new hero, Ana, is a lot of things we don’t typically see in video games. She’s a sniper who heals people, an older woman, and a mother of a lady who lobs rockets at people’s faces for a living. Overwatch fans already adore her.
In Overwatch’s lore, Ana is the mother of Pharah “justice rains from above” Amari. Once upon a time, she was one of the heroic Overwatch organization’s fiercest leaders, continuing to plunge head (and cool hood-cape) long into battle even after ascending to the top of the heap.
Then she got shot in the head by Widowmaker, and everybody kinda figured, you know, that’s that. People don’t usually come back from that sort of thing (except when they respawn, which is all the time, but shhhhhhhh, quiet now, brave spotter of contradictions in video game stories; your path ends only in tears).
However, PLOT TWIST, she was alive all along, watching the world descend into conflict with her one remaining eye. Her good eye. Her sniping eye. Eventually, she decided she had to do something.
So she’s a character with a strong sense of responsibility. She’s also a caring old soul, somebody who frequently remarks at how good other former members of Overwatch are looking, who expresses frequent concern for her comrades. And of course, she’s a mom.
The latter is something Blizzard chose to play up with voice lines and other in-game sound bites, and you’d better believe the Overwatch community—prolific fan art/story/dad crafters that they are—ran with that.
Mom doesn’t always know best, though. Case in point: this clip from Towelie647:
Last, a VERY IMPORTANT TIP on how to play Ana from liv_lav:
Man, I wish my mom shot my friends with cookies and chastised cowboys (fuck cowboys). I am, however, glad that unlike in the Pharah/Mercy Overwatch fan canon, I’m not dating a former colleague of my mom’s. Now that Ana’s in the picture, that whole dynamic just got weeeeeeeeeird.
If you’ve yet to join Team Sniper Mom Is The Bomb, you should know that she’s also wicked fun to play.