Overwatch’s old butt pose replaced with new butt pose

The art that will replace Overwatch’s controversial Tracer pose that sparked many an angry online forum post late last month has been revealed.

As a recap, the original pose – which can be seen below – was criticised for sexualising the character in a way that seemed at odds with her portrayed personality.

What about this pose has anything to do with the character you’re building in tracer?” the original forum complaint read. It’s not fun, it’s not silly, it has nothing to do with being a fast elite killer. It just reduces Tracer to another bland female sex symbol.”

Game director Jeff Kaplan quickly confirmed that the pose in question would be replaced: We weren’t entirely happy with the original pose, it was always one that we wrestled with creatively.

That the pose had been called into question from an appropriateness standpoint by players in our community did help influence our decision – getting that kind of feedback is part of the reason we’re holding a closed beta test – but it wasn’t the only factor. We made the decision to go with a different pose in part because we shared some of the same concerns, but also because we wanted to create something better.”

And now that alternative has been revealed.

Here’s the original:

And the new one:

Note, however, that there’s still plenty of arse on show. The picture does, at least, address some of the original complaint – it’s certainly more fun and flamboyant, and seemingly more in keeping with the character. However, the leggings themselves are still sphincter-huggingly tight, and the pose remains one that is almost always exclusively reserved for female characters. How many male characters have seen displayed like that in a game?

One interesting thing to note is the apparent (arse-crack free) inspiration for the pose, as highlighted on Twitter:

I don't know pin-up art from my elbow, but @christianmccrea deftly identified the source here pic.twitter.com/RovfwQliYO

— BooDoo (@BooDooPerson) April 6, 2016