Overwatch came out last May and has lit the gaming world up in a way that probably Blizzard (the publisher) didn’t even expect. It was the first time the company made a first-person shooter, and they nearly perfected it on their first attempt. A big reason why the game has taken off so fast is because of the characters, though. They all have different personalities that just work and they all have interesting backstories. The game launched with 21 playable characters, b💧ut they have added 4 more since then. So that’s a lot of personalities, play-styles, and stories to tell.
Widowmaker was one of the characters in the reveal trailer and has remained one of the most popular characters in the game ev🤡en today. She’s one of two snipers and people love to snipe in online games so that could be one reason, but another might be the character herself. She has one of the most interesting backstories in the game, with a unique look to boot. She has great one liners during gameplay and some of the coolest skins in the game. She was one of the ones who got a special skin if you got the Origins edition at launch.
The list below has 20 of the morꦐe sꩲhocking things about her that you may not know. Blizzard does have some lore out there for her, but if you just play the game and watch the animated shorts you may have missed some of them. So let's get to it!
20 💧 “Say My🍸 Name, Say My Name”
All of the trailers and animated shorts have shown Widowmaker as an assassin/sniper and that is who she is… at least it is who she is now. She used to be a normal woman with a normal life and a name. Her real name is Amelie Guillard. There are a few skins in the game that give an idea as to what she looked like before she became full on Widowmaker. The Comtesse, Huntress, and Talon skins show her with normal skin, but still has her wielding a gun. It makes sense that her name is French, considering that most of her lines in game are French. There’s a line of Overwatch comics that go into her backstory and show pictures of what she looked like before becoming Widow. We’ll touch on some 🐼moments in her past later on in this list that ultimately lead her down her path of change.
19 🧜 Eye For An E✃ye
If you’ve played as Widowmaker and had Ana on your team, or vice versa, then you may have heard some banter between the two of them. Well, turns out that the trash talk is warranted because Widowmaker is the reason that Ana has to wear an eyepatch. In the Overwatch comic Legacy, 🌌there is a scene where the two snipers face off and Ana hesitates to take the shot and Widow shoots her in the eye. We’ll get to the reason why the two were facing off later on in the list, but this explains the reason for them not getting along and the eyepatch. It is cool that the developers chose to make the two snipers in the game rivals, it’s a bit on the nose but works at🅘 the same time. It seems like Blizzard is going to eventually give all the characters an animated short, and seeing this scene play out in Ana’s would be awesome!
18 Don’t Wa𝓰nt None H🐓un
A lot of Widow’s design revolves around the widow spider and that includes her backside…her butt, it includes her butt. So when the game first launched, some people noticed that once Widow used her ultimate, Infra-Sight, that her butt would grow bigger. It actually makes sense because that fits into the theme of a spider, but Overwatch is a Teen rated game and Widow is not a spider, so they fixed that in one of the patches. This actually isn't the only issue that Overwatch had with a character's backside during the launch window. Tracer had a pose that showed her back with her turning her head to look behind, and people flipped out that i🌳t was sensual because they thought it focused on her butt. They took the pose out before launch, but left the Widow ultimate glitch in. Honestly, people flipped out about both of those things for little to no reason, but stuff like this shows that the devs are listening and will change things if need be.
17 ⛦ A Goo🅰d Day To Start Again
In the years before Widowmaker became the Widow, s♔he was actually married to Gerard Lacroix. Before his death, he was a high ranking officer in Overwatch and become the target of a group called Talon. They tried several times to take him, but were never successful in any of them. Talon did make other moves to try and get to him, but we will get there later on in the list.
A cool spray is actually available for Widow that shows a wedding picture of her and Gerard. If you haven't read the Reflections comic, then you may not know about any of this, but it’s explained in there. There’s a scen๊e where she visits his grave in the snow that is great and shows an emotional side to her that rarely exists in the game. The story of how h꧃e died is tragic and isn’t entirely her fault, but definitely involves her.
16 But Can You Dunk? ꦐ
Overwatch does such a good job of distinguishing differences in all of their characters, especially when they are standing next to each other. Widow seems pretty tall standing next to everyone during the pregame of each match, but she’s actually only 5'9". That actually puts her literally in the middle of the pack of all the launch characters. She has on heels when playing as her in game, so she may actually be shorter out of battle gear. Interestingly though, that makes her the third tallest female character, only behind Zarya and Pharah. Now, Pharah is heavily armored, so she may actually be a tad shorter out of armo♈r as well. When playing the game, it is cool playing a shorter character and walking up to someone playing a Reinhardt just to see the size difference. Regardless of height, Widow can line up a headshot the same either way.
15 “I Will Find Youﷺ, And I Will Kill You”
So now we’re getting into the meat of how Amelie Guillard became Widowmaker. Remember earlier when we went into her husband being the main target of the group Talon? Well, they ended up going after Amelie to try and get to Gerard. In going after her they did end up taking her and ran experiments on her. They brainwashed her and sent her out as an assassin. This is why her and Ana had their showdown. Ana actually did not know she was facing off against Widow until she 💛looked down her sights and saw her. That’s the reason she hesitated and ended up getting shot in the eye. Talon i🧸s actually the main reason that even when they were done with Widow, she stayed with them and didn’t just go off on her own. In some of the shorts she is teamed with Reaper in an attempt to bring down Overwatch.
14 Age Is Just A Numb﷽er 𝓡
With as many things as Widow has been through in her life, she’s only 33 years old. Age isn’t really a thing when playing with video game characters in a first person shooter, but Overwatch handles that in a different way. Like, Solider 76 utters lines about being older and D.Va acts her age when spouting lines that only teenagers say. Widowmaker doesn’t really have signs of what her age is, other than her looking young. She does have a line abo▨ut aim-bots though, which is funny. Because compared to a good bit of the other characters, she’s really young, with D.Va being the youngest at 19 and Reinhardt being the oldest at 61. Reaper doesn't actually have an age, so he could be the oldest, but who knows.
Widow has already los🐈t her husband, been brainwashed by a secret organization, and fought with and against Overwatch at just 33. Most people are in their late 40s to have that much happen.
13 Homeland
With the amount of French sayings that Widow says during the course of a game, it’s no surprise that she originates from France, but most people probably don’t know where in France. She’s actually from Annecy, France, and grew up in her family’s home of Chateau Guillard. If the house sounds familiar, that’s because it’s a map in Overwatch when you play Deathmatch. It’s huge and basically looks like a castle. There are some speculations about it, since it was said to be run down and in-game it looks fine. A popular thought is that Widow actually bought the Chateau back and renovated it with the Talon money that she has since joining them. There are easter eggs all over the map pointing to Widow owning it, like sඣpider webs in the dining hall, and her gun is literally up against a desk in the study. We already have a Widowmaker short, so we probably won’t have another that could go a bit deeper.
12 The Cake �𝄹�Is A Lie
One of Widowmaker’s lines in the game is “let them eat cake,” whꩲich is a popular phrase but some people may not know why she says it or where it comes from. It was first said by Marie Antoinette, who was the last Queen of France before the French Revolution. She said it in response to her learning the poor had no bread to eat. Widow is French, so it makes sense that she would have this line as one of hers.
Another interesting thing about this is going back to the chateau. It was said that Widow’s family lost the chateau because of the French Revolution, so it’s interesting to put a line from the last queen before all of that happened. That could mean nothing, but it shows that the Overwatch team did their re💮search about the history of Franc🍸e before coming up with Widow’s backstory and giving her family a chateau like that.
11 Onꦓe Shot, One Kill
Have you been plaꦉying in a quick match and been on your way to the objective and all of a sudden BAM, you're ins🐠tantly dead? Then you see it’s a Widow main and you say a curse word and proceed to get killed 17 more times by her?
A good reason that happens is because her fully charged critical shot can output damage by 2 and a half if she nails a headshot. And what that means is that low life characters like Mercy 👍or Solider 76 can be killed with one headshot from her sniper mode. And if you're going against someone who is good with Widow, she can pick off a few people without reloading. It can seem kind of cheap, but she has 🍨low heath and no way to heal herself so it kinda balances out. Plus, getting a headshot on people that can play well can be tough, especially once your cover has been blown.