The Villain Issue in Overwatch

There’s been much hullabaloo over the newest Overwatch character revealed, Moira. Specifically in the circles I frequent, there’s been even more hullabaloo about the fact that there is a more than slim chance that she’s a trans woman. Her body type fits, her last name is traditionally assigned to men, she has a David Bowie skin for god’s sake. It’s all speculation at the time of writing, but it’s nonetheless an exciting prospect.

...Well, except for one thing.

Overwatch has a villain issue.

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In the past I’ve praised the cast of Overwatch for being diverse, well at least compared to most media. While I don’t hold Blizzard’s writing in the highest regard, all the characters felt realized to a certain level and it never felt like they resorted to any overt stereotypes. Except… well, Talon.

Talon is an explicit terrorist organization in the Overwatch universe, for those uninitiated. They’re the de facto villains, regardless of like what you think of them morally. They play the part of villains and are written like villains. And if the fans are on track (and even if they’re not), they’re mostly minorities.

This is a pretty loaded topic, I’m well aware, so, to preface why I think this is an issue, we need to be thinking in terms of how we “other” people and groups. There’s a very well documented record about how we as a species will take those in a group we want to demonize and make them as some other group, not the same as us. Look at the way we talked about non-white people. How both sides in a war characterized the other as brutish, less than human. It’s a thing that happens, overtly and subconsciously. It makes us look at people as different, and we fear difference. That in mind, most of the villains being part of a minority in our culture is… a problem.

To go down the list quickly:

• Doomfist is African.
• Sombra is Mexican.
• Reaper is American, but his skin is not white.
• Widowmaker is white, but she was essentially brainwashed into loyalty.
• And there is a damn good chance Moira is transgender.

There is a long and sordid history of minorities (from a North American perspective) being the villains in our media, being the “other”. Think of the dastardly Mexican villain in old westerns. The crazy “Indians”. The tribes of Africa being portrayed as brutish and less than the white man. The demonization of LGBT+ peoples as being pedophiles, and strange deviants to show how weird and evil they are. So uh, maybe we should stop filling up our fictional terrorist organizations with minorities?

I’m not trying to argue for no minority villains, nor do I think that individually any of the Talon group are bad characters wholly. I’m saying that collectively, I’m seeing some dangerous biases and worldviews take hold in the Overwatch universe, where minorities are more likely to be the villains… just because? That’s not very accurate, and is, in my opinion, pretty thoughtless and just flat out isn’t a good thing.

We need to be more thoughtful about this spread. It’s not “just a game”, because media in all forms impacts the people who interact with it. I don’t want to see anyone who’s not white, straight, and cis constantly shuffled off into villain roles. Villains are not bad. Making us all villains is bad. We can do better.