More than you might think.
While there have been a number of, shall we say, unofficial stories featuring Emily, our only official source of information is the comic, Reflections. But that doesn’t tell us much.
It seems the most informative source of information about Emily is Tracer. Blizzard have mastered the art of conveying information about characters by their clothing, equipment, and behavior. (Also known as “coding”) The way a character moves and speaks tell us a lot about them. But what’s most informative are the things they choose: clothing, weapons, grooming habits, and so on. And what choice could be more informative than who someone chooses to love?
We don’t know exactly how or when Lena and Emily met, began dating, and or became lovers. But if we work from the assumption that these events occurred in the time between the collapse and reemergence of Overwatch then we have a number of visual cues we can observe in Tracer. More specifically, we can analyze the “Cadet Tracer” and “Classic Tracer” skins. The first tells us a little about the kind of person Lena was interested in attracting. The second tells us how Lena’s appearance changed during her relationship with Emily.
Lena’s most impressive feature is her legs. And she’s obviously very proud of them. That’s why she wears those elastic yoga pants to show them off. It may seem at first that she wears them to reduce air friction, but then how do we explain the classic flight jacket and the drag it would no doubt cause? No, Lena’s wearing those yoga pants for her hunny.
Speaking of Lena’s jacket, why does she wear it? Just looking at it will tell you that it’s not a contemporary, military, flight jacket. It’s clearly not a vintage jacket from World War 2. It’s a modern jacket designed to look like one. It makes sense that she’d wear something think and padded under her chronal accelerator. And it makes sense that a pilot would wear a flight jacket. But is it possible that Emily enjoys military fashion of that time?
We don’t talk about this much but Lena has been through a very traumatic experience. Not only did she survive a plain accident, but she survived with a bizarre condition that left her unable to physically interact with the world and even uncontrollably traveling through time. Lena almost certainly has some for of PTSD as a result of this experience. This may even be the reason for her hyper active (perhaps even manic) behavior. Lena is throwing herself with 100% power at every thing she does every time we see her. She is a being of extremes. And in order to be a part of her life, Emily has to be able to keep up with her. But she also has to be stable enough to support Lena when she eventually needs rest. When she needs to deal with her issues.
Lena isn’t a normal person. She does not have a normal life. She has special needs. And bizarre things happen around her. We know from voice lines that every once in a while there are two of her running around at the same time. She needs to wear a chronal accelerator at all times or she could disappear. And her best friend is a talking gorilla. Emily isn’t just able to put up with this strangeness, she seems to enjoy it.
So let’s put all this together. Emily likes legs. She might be a fan of classic military fashion. She knows how to support people who psychological issues. She seems to enjoy strange situations. I suspect that Emily is some form of teacher or perhaps even a social worker. It seems likely that she’s a fan of science fiction, perhaps even Doctor Who. That would explain her attraction to and acceptance of people with abnormal circumstances.
And that’s what we’ve got so far. What do you guys think? Do you think my assessment is spot on? Or am I way off?