Don’t get me wrong, for fandom hijinks I dearly love gamer gremlin team kid sister D.Va.
But I’m also 110% here for fierce Hana Song, who at 16 had the dedication and discipline to become a worldwide eSports champion, who was called from a life of fame and product sponsorships to put her life on the line to protect her country.
18-19 year old Hana who streams her combat, tallies dead omnics like zergling waves, tracks her APM on the battlefield to make herself be the same merciless competitor she was in cyberspace. Hana who knows who she is, loves what she loves, and refused to let the hypermasculine culture of professional eSports or the grim reality of total war take that away from her. Who stubbornly clips a cell phone charm to her light gun and paints her face and MEKA bright pink, wearing her bunny rabbits and bubble gum as both metaphorical and literal armor.
Hana who takes to battle in a giant technological marvel, behind a couple of feet of armored metal, and when the situation calls for it will leap out and detonate it, darting around the field of combat in a bodysuit with a handgun while Widowmaker sneeringly calls her a child. Hana, whose intelligence, tactical prowess and reflexes were charged with replacing the most advanced AI drone system known to man and did it.
Clever, sassy Hana who spends her afternoons off playing with Tracer and Lúcio while weary military veteran Hana spends sleepless nights in the mess hall with Reinhardt and Morrison and a pot of black coffee, quiet stories of fallen comrades and bloody losses and the horrors that haunt all their dreams.
Give me cheeky gremlin D.Va in all her cheesy-powder-coated glory, but goddamn, give me Hana Song too.
tbh it’s a crime that the go-to D.Va joke is “she’s a video game gremlin” and not “she’s a celebrity diva who’s in love with herself” like, it’s shameful that we’re not seeing at least one blog which puts Rogelio De La Vega quotes under D.Va
like that could be her pre-match pep talk the potential here is UNLIMITED and it doesn’t seem to be a slippery slope into drawing her as an actual infant with diapers and a pacifier
other Rogelio quotes that could be easily adapted to D.Va include but are not limited to:
“I don’t like the term ‘Triple Threat’ because it suggests that I’m limited to only three skills”
“I’m going to tweet my 6.3 million followers–”
“Don’t worry, I’m very easy to dress, everything looks good on me”
“SHE SAID THAT I WAS DRAMATIC?!?!”
“A Hug From [D.Va] is like a rabbit’s foot: lucky, rare, and soft to the touch.”
“I never thought I’d feeling anything but #blessed to be famous, but now I’m feeling #cursed.”
a few people have reblogged this asking “why not both?” and I feel they deserve an answer:
Because “showing D.Va as a narcissist celebrity diva who’s totally in love with herself but also really nice to her fans” is 100% in line with her canon portrayal and makes her a dimensional character, while “showing D.Va as a baby or toddler” is literally just playing off harmful racist stereotypes of East Asian women
[screaming externally] 