I’m a librarian at a college. I study and collect medieval literature, especially from the British Isles and Scandinavia, but also France and some German.

Yeah you’re not the only one whose responded saying that. That’s fair. I just do a lot of work with Celtic mythology and Arthuriana, so when I see this, gathering that she’s Irish from her accent, the immediate read I get is Morgan le Fay and Queen Medb. Of course, it could be that they went “how could we do a witch…

If you say she’s a mad scientist then that’s fine. To me she reads as a witch. If you don’t like what I have to say that’s fine. Try to chill out. Honestly we could both be right. I wouldn’t be surprised if they went “how can we translate a witch into sci-fi?” and the solution they came up with was mad scientist.

That’s fair. I’ll have to think about that. Is it really laziness or is it just something that doesn’t really appeal to me. I don’t really play the game, though I follow and watch it, so it’s no skin off my nose either way. So maybe lazy isn’t the right way of putting it, but there’s still something about this that’s…

They’re taking typical fantasy tropes of the witch and translating them to a sci-fi setting. Just like they took western tropes and medieval tropes and made them sci-fi in order to get to McCree and Reinhardt. Knights and cowboys with six shooters aren’t very sci-fi on their own either.

yes I know. That was the joke.

I think maybe the Celtic version of the myth has more cultural cache than some of those others in this day and age though. You’re right of course, but especially with characters like Morgan le Fay and Morgause in Arthurian Legend the Celtic version is probably the best known to a general audience. I honestly don’t…

I honestly wasn’t trying to complain, I think it just came across too dry. It was more of a joke about how everyone in the game is a stereotype and I’m honestly surprised we went this long without an Irish stereotype. It’s not offensive or anything, it just seems a little bit on the lazy side to me.

No.

Has its roots in mythology. Queen Medb, Morgan le Fay, the Morrigan, etc. Lot of examples of slightly sinister women who call on otherwordly powers to manipulate (usually) hapless men.

I mean, I think Lucio is on a different level of laziness. But with this, I dunno, it just seems to me like its one step above the character being a leprachaun or a longshoreman who bops you over the head with a bottle of Jameson. It just seems to me that they could have been more creative. Sombra, for instance, is…

To me it reads as translating common tropes having to do with witches into a sci-fi setting. Same way they took common tropes of American westerns and turned them into McCree, ninjas into Genji, etc. I think my initial comment didn’t come across as the joke that it was. Like I realize everyone in this game is a…

She has a Belfast accent, her name is Moira, etc. Educated guess. And it seems to me they’re trying to take common witch tropes and make it sci-fi. The witchy woman is a VERY common feature of Celtic mythology

Well yeah that was kind of the point of my original thing. Again, I think I was just too dry with my joke. Everyone is a stereotype, and the Irish are extremely easy to stereotype, so it seemed like a big omission.

I guess it just seems a little lazy to me. It’s not offensive or anything, it just seems like at best a step up from making her a leprachaun or having her whack you over the head with a Jameson bottle for melee. Just feels like they could’ve been more creative.

Oh, I’m not offended. I might have been being too dry. But they are playing on the trope of the witchy Celtic woman here. It’s not offensive just lazy.

She’s got kind of a Belfast sort of thing going on from what I’ve heard.

They’re going for a witch vibe. Witchy Irish woman is a fairly common trope. Maybe I was a little to dry, I don’t think it’s a BAD stereotype per se. No worse than Lucio being black and liking heavy bass.

Red hair, mystical. I dunno if you’ve read any Celtic mythology this all sticks out like a sore thumb. Queen Medb, Morgan le Fay, etc. The witchy Irish woman is not an uncommon trope.

So far.