Lengthy post incoming
I’m gonna prelude this with
Perhaps it’s my English major kicking in, but I’m compelled to pick apart the D.Va short as I am a somewhat-vocal D.Va main and I can use this as practice for my Writing for Video Games class. You could say that writing… for video games is a stretch goal of mine. Anyways.
I find D.Va to be a relatable character. She’s an xd gamer grill who can be obnoxious, I’m an xd gamer grill who can be obnoxious. We’re kin (not like otherkin y’all don’t be like that). She’s not my waifu; that’s not where my vehement posting comes from. Lol.
Anyways, with the release of Shooting Star, we finally get some insight into D.Va’s personality, which I think is important. Why? Because D.Va wasn’t a fully sympathetic character at first. There were hints and tidbits that implied that the D.Va persona was just that, a persona, but not enough for her to be taken as anything more than one-dimensional. There’s her indignant replies to Widowmaker and Zarya who pick on her size/age, showing that she’s sensitive to it, but besides her Eichenwalde line (The destruction caused by the omnics here…), there was little to show her as a character that feels any sort of duress regarding the heavy burden they have at a young age.
Despite this, I do firmly believe that it was clear from what we did have and how over the top it was that D.Va and Hana are like, for lack of a better comparison, Hannah Montana and Miley or w/e.
Like, I literally am going to pull this poke line from HotS:
http://rpboyer15.github.io/sounds-of-the-storm/vo/vo_hero/D.Va/D.Va%20-%20Default/DVaBase_Pissed_P01.mp3
The sigh at the end, y’all, what could it mean?
A few months ago, I posted my own cinematic proposal borne out of frustration at the deficit of D.Va lore.
Here it is if you’re interested:
Well, you don’t wanna get too too edgy but I’d have her whole personality be an aegyo-filled front as her “streaming personality”. I’d have her make a clear distinction between “D.Va” and “Hana Song” (thanks Hannah Montana), perhaps with Hana struggling to differentiate the two at times. Clearly she has some sort of PTSD wherein pretending her missions are games are her methods of coping. I’d possibly have some sort of “stream logs off with D.Va all cheery, then she looks around her empty room at the dead of night something something flashback to the destruction of Busan. Maybe some emphasis on the military’s expectations of her being a perfect figurehead a la Captain America. Then an actual mission against giant omnic where she faces some sort of near-death situation but pulls through it because of her determination to be the hero she plays in her video games” but that could run way too long for a regular cinematic
You may pick out some similarities, albeit watered down, to the actual cinematic. I think this is fair–it’s the logical progression to giving a character like D.Va humanistic properties.
Now, the cinematic itself.
The first thing that I noticed is that the MEKA squad was given life bars by the Korean news network. This, and their vehemence in diminishing the real-life injuries they sustain (“They’re enjoying the glitz”–cut to them in slings and bandages at a press conference; “Escaped without a scratch”–has a broken arm and leg), tells me that it isn’t necessarily D.Va who thinks life is a game (though she may think this due to the source). Rather, it’s the Korean propaganda that insists upon downplaying the actual threat of the Omnic by likening it to a game. That’s why the healthbars exist; they’re simply gamers who are playing a real-life game and the Omnic is totally not a threat, guys!
Side-note (sorry at how stream-of-consciousness this is; I’m tryna play WoW): The Omnic is called “Kuishin/gwishin”. This is Korean for “ghost”. I think that’s neat.
Here is where I think we have to acknowledge that Blizzard has always marketed Overwatch as age-accessible. It’s not Diablo. It’s not World of Warcraft. It’s not Starcraft. I think this is part of the reason why people still sling the “Mary Sue” buzzword around. They’re going to make their heroes have flaws: D.Va is overconfident, a perfectionist, shoulders heavy burdens, is hinted at possibly having PTSD, is strongly independent to the point that she doesn’t like asking for help, responds negatively to the point of rudeness when she thinks she is belittled, acts recklessly and without self-preservation… I can go on. But what has to be understood is that she will come out on top because the message Blizzard wants to convey is that it’s okay to ask for help/teamwork/etc. Lordt knows they weren’t gonna kill D.Va off in the lore (yet).
And I think, interestingly, this short transitions very smoothly into the HotS Hanamura cinematic… What’s up with that lmao.
Right before D.Va asks Taehyun/Daehyun for help, she is likely certain she is out of options. The camera then shifts to her perspective: a shot of the skyline behind the drone that has her in its clutches. The camera changes focus from the drone to Busan. It’s here that she remembers the lives that are at stake, which are more important than her independence. This was purposeful cinematography. It’s exactly when her POV changed on the matter. I think it’s subtle but it works. I don’t get why people said she switched gears too fast; like there was no time. Like did y’all want the city to be bombed so she could have her “oops… i should have… asked for help” moment? It wouldn’t have happened just going by Blizzard’s age-appropriate approach. Even then, she decides to take a risky choice and blow the mech up with her gun. Given that this is the first instance, she might not know the area of effect. She could have fully thought she’d be killed in the blast. But her desire to save the people on land overcome any hesitation she could have had. It’s still a flaw; she has to be defibrillated and fully gets lucky.
This short doesn’t further the plot, but neither do most of the cinematics. Honor and Glory is hailed as the best by many and it’s even further in the past. That shouldn’t diminish the validity of a short done to humanize one of the least “human” (I say this in quotes because Winston does have a very human personality) characters in the game. Just like how people liked Rise and Shine for some reason even though we basically know the events. Everyone complained at how paper-thin D.Va’s lore and characterization were and now they’re complaining when she got lore and characterization. I don’t get it.
Would I have changed some things? Sure. I would have connected her to at least one other current hero beyond the Lucio music cameo. But it does its job and I like it and the map. Like can y’all just… Let me have this? Thanks queens xoxo
