Widowmaker/Tracer
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Amélie Lacroix/Lena Oxton |
| Alternative name(s): | Widowtracer, Tracemaker |
| Gender category: | femslash, f/f |
| Fandom: | Overwatch |
| Canonical?: | non canon |
| Prevalence: | very popular |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Widowmaker/Tracer is a very popular Femslash pairing in the Overwatch fandom. It centres around Lena Oxton, aka 'Tracer', and Amelié Lacroix, also known as Widowmaker.
Canon
Widowmaker is the emotionless husk of who used to be Amelié Lacroix. In an effort to murder her husband Gerard, Talon abducted and brainwashed her. They rewrote her mind and turned her into a cold-blooded assassin. She ended up killing her husband and joining Talon.[1]
Tracer is part of Overwatch. She is in a canonical relationship with a non-playable character, Emily.[2]
The most notable canon interaction between Tracer and Widowmaker was in the animated short "Alive", wherein Tracer tries to stop Widowmaker from assassinating an Omnic called Mondatta.
Fandom
Tracer and Widowmaker garnered attention early on in Overwatch's life. Because they were both featured in the short 'Alive', fans immediately began to ship them. Along with the dynamic of good vs. evil, fans enjoyed the cultural contrast of French and English. The animated short movie also gave birth to the idea of Widowmaker calling Tracer "chérie" (French: darling), with varying levels of actual endearment.
There is some fandom wank over how Widowtracer is criticised for many of the things it shares in common with Reaper/Soldier: 76, another popular ship. As tumblr user theworstwaffle[3] wrote:
Widowtracer and Reaper76 are extremely similar making the criticism against Widowtracer as a ship and the lack of criticism against Reaper76 even more ridiculous. This isn’t about people calling out a ship, this is people disliking f/f ships and glorifying m/m ships.
Other arguments stem from Tracer's relationship with Emily. Some fans argue that this only strengthens the possibility of Widowtracer since Tracer is a lesbian, while others say that shipping Widowtracer erases her canon relationship.
Popular tropes include:
- Enemies to lovers / enemies and lovers
- Secret relationship (i.e. they must keep the relationship secret from the other members of Overwatch and Talon)
- Tracer 'breaking' Widowmaker's assassin coding and bringing back her emotions
- Angst is a very popular fanfiction choice, especially with canon-type violence
Fanworks
Fanfiction
- London Calling by SectoBoss
- Break My Heart, Break Your Heart by thesilvergoddess
- Fly on the Wall by Mizu7
- Best Years of Your Life by Illithid
Fanart
- Tracer 2 Gay for this world by carororo
- Hope you feel something by Marcine 2174
Archives and Communities
- Widowtracer tag on Tumblr
- WidowTracer on Archive of Our Own
- WidowTracer on Reddit