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, but 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 even 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 more shocking 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”

via usgamer.net

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 Eye

via pcgamer.com

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 Want None Hun

via playoverwatch.com

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 it 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 Good Day To Start Again

via polygon.com

In the years before Widowmaker became the Widow, she 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 scene 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 he died is tragic and isn’t entirely her fault, but definitely involves her.

16 But Can You Dunk?

via artstation.com

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 armor 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 You, And I Will Kill You”

via wall.alphacoders.com

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 is 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 Number

via polygon.com

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 about 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 lost 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

via YouTube/CryBox7

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 spider 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

via YouTube/BacKooFFmyJanKz

One of Widowmaker’s lines in the game is “let them eat cake,” which 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 research about the history of France before coming up with Widow’s backstory and giving her family a chateau like that.

11 One Shot, One Kill

via plank-69.deviantart.com

Have you been playing in a quick match and been on your way to the objective and all of a sudden BAM, you're instantly 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.

10 I Get Things

via: forbes.com

Every character in Overwatch is dripping with detail that sets them apart from one another, whether it be details in weapons or a specific skin that tells backstory without saying a word. Widowmaker has a few things to set her apart, including a detail in her hair that ties into her name. Windowmaker has a widow’s peak, and it seems so on the point but totally missable unless you look close. You can’t clearly see it in all of her skins, but you definitely can in her base one. A lot of people rocked the Noire skin that you got for pre-ordering the game when the game first came out, and that’s a reason that some may have missed the widow’s peak, since you can’t really see it wearing that skin. She also has a huge widow spider tattoo on her back that you really don’t get to see since the game is in first-person.

9 Save The Last Dance

via renaudgaland.artstation.com

Widowmaker was a ballet dancer before she was morphed into the assassin we know today. There are two skins for her in the game that lean into her ballet past. Odette and Odile have a swan like look to them, and that’s because they're based on the famous ballet Swan Lake. If you have seen the movie Black Swan, then you are familiar with the ballet and how messed up it can turn. The Odette skin represents the Swan Queen from the ballet, and the Odile skin represents the Black Swan. It seems simple since that's the color scheme of them, but the ballet is over 100 years old and has a pretty simple, if not messed up story. The tattoo on Window’s back also changes from a spider to a swan while wearing these skins, which is a cool touch. She also has a ballet emote where she dances around a bit, showing some of her former self.

8 Easy Peasy

via goldenedgegamers.com

Along with Tracer and Reaper, Widowmaker was one of the first characters that was fully developed for the game. The developers have said that she was easy to animate, since her mobility isn't a trait of her character like a lot of others. 'Cause if you pick Widow in a match and you run around like you're Reaper, then you're going to have a bad time. She’s meant to be on the rooftops sniping and placing her venom mines. She basically has her base fire from her gun when she’s cornered and has to use it. Her hook makes it easy to swing around a map, so there’s no need to even be on the ground on certain maps. You can tell that she was one of the first to be completed, since she did appear in the first short that introduced the game. Tracer, Reaper, and Winston were all in it as well.

7 We Are Venom

via YouTube/MirtonGaming

Widowmaker’s Venom Mine is her most powerful weapon in game outside of her sniper. She can place one down wherever she wants and they even stick to walls. Once someone runs into one, they are damaged, poisoned, and the word Triggered appears on screen to let you know where they're at. They are powerful, but the main reason you want to make sure you put them down as much as you can is to keep up with where the enemies are once the mine goes off. Now, there is a trophy/achievement tied to getting 4 kills with the mines during one game, so they are definitely powerful enough to kill on their own. If you pair them with a Junket bear trap, then they can melt someone and be a great defensive combo. There are on a pretty short cooldown, but keep in mind that only one can be down at a time.

6 "I've Got You In My Sights"

via playoverwatch.com

There are certain ultimates in Overwatch that you immediately run from when you hear them. Like McCree’s “It’s High Noon,” or when you hear Bastion’s whistle you know to move fast! Widow’s ultimate is the same way, but you can’t hide from hers. Her ultimate is called Infra-Sight and shows red outlines of all the nearby enemies for you and your teammates. It lasts for 15 and a half seconds, so that's plenty of time to pick up all the enemies you need to. A downside of it is that it does give away your position, so people can kinda swarm you if you're going against a team that plays together. She does have one of the longest lasting ultimates in the game. Orisa’s lasts 16 seconds and Mercy’s can last up to 20 seconds, putting hers the longest in the game. Widow’s is the only ultimate that effects the entire other team, though.

5 She’s Still In There

via pintrest.com, pintrest.com

In the shorts, Widow can come off as cold and only showing signs of interest when it comes to taking out a target, but she does feel when she kills and shows signs of her emotions though dialogue in game. The lore does state that she has numbed up after being taken and brainwashed by Talon, and for the most part that’s how she acts in game. But she does mention her husband sometimes after being brought back to life by Mercy, and on the flip side she has a line about not being happy to be back alive. Sometimes her emotions can be null but they are there, they’re just buried inside. The Amelie side can also be seen in her emote where she is dancing ballet, and her swimsuit skin maybe… that’s probably a stretch. I can’t really see Widow being interested in drinking fruity drinks by a beach, so who knows about that one.

4 I’ll Take Seven

via overwatch.wikia.com

Most characters have a color palette with up to 6 different colors, but Widowmaker has 7 colors. This could be because that some of her skins have her with her standard blue skin and others have her normal skin before being taken. Her eyes are yellow and most people think that’s the reason why. It’s unclear if her eyes were always yellow or if that is a result of the experiments that Talon did on her. Her eyes seem to be yellow in all her skins, so they might just be that way.

It should be noted that this color palette is only for the base skins for the characters because they basically use the rainbow with all the other skins everyone has. Seeing as Overwatch is a very colorful game, it’s kind of surprising that all the other characters only have 6 colors used on them. Especially someone like D.Va who basically has two costumes with each skin.

3 Fresh Ink

via myspace.com, pintrest.com

So, Widow has a tattoo on her right forearm that is written in French. Which is not surprising, since she has a massive spider tattoo on her back. The interesting thing about the tattoo is what it says and the meaning behind it. It reads “araignée du soir, cauchemar” which translates to “spider in the evening, nightmare.” This is in reference to the French saying “Araignée du matin, chagrin; araignée du soir, espoir.” In English that translates to “Spider in the morning, grief; spider in the evening, hope.” So basically what all that means is that if you see a spider in the morning it’s bad luck, and if you see one in the evening it’s good luck. It’s an old French superstition and just furthers how much research the Overwatch team put in to the details of these characters. Plus tattoos are cool, especially ones in other languages that people can’t read. Like when someone gets a Japanese tattoo thinking it says “Hope” but it actually says “Bacon.”

2 Skin Deep

via cdkeyz.com

We’ve touched on the subject on Amelie being kidnapped by a group called Talon, but we haven't gone into detail about it yet. Her husband was the main target of the group but they failed to capture him, so they turned their attention to her instead. They captured her, brain-washed her, and ran experiments on her. She was given a mission and she returned after she completed it and they trained her in covert ops. Her physiology was completely changed, drastically slowing down her heart rate and that’s the reason her skin is blue. They suppressed her personality and reprogrammed everything about her. Overwatch found her soon after and she returned to her normal life until about two weeks after she was taken. She was basically a sleeper agent, and once she was activated she completed her mission... which is the last point on the list.

1 “Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain"

via overwatch.gamepedia.com, mmorpg.com

Widow’s mission after she was kidnapped, brain-washed, and turned into a sleeper agent was to assassinate her husband. Two weeks after she was found by Overwatch, she killed him in his sleep. She waited until the perfect moment to make her move and completed her mission. She did return to them after, so she was probably completely loyal to them at the time, only viewing her husband as a target and nothing more. The reason she is called Widowmaker is because of this incident. It’s not clear if Talon actually gave her this name or if she later gave it to herself once she came to her senses a bit, as a sort of burden to live with. In one of the comics it shows her visiting his grave, so Talon does not fully control her mind and actions anymore but she is still loyal to them and not Overwatch.