The good folks at Overwatch just launched their third big in-game event - Winter Wonderland, which sees a bunch of new holiday-themed skins for multiple character, a full Christmas-y reimagining of King's Row, and tons of neat small little details hidden throughout character lines, sprays, and more.
1. Roadhog's new scrap gun is a special present from his best bud
via DoubleOGee
Roadhog's new Rudolph skin is easily one of the best non-legendary skins in the game - it's fun, it's elaborate, it plays well with his character, and (most of all) it's pretty unexpected. Making his belly button the red-glowing nose? C'mon, that's amazing.
But the coolest detail hidden in the new skin is the origins of Roadhog's brand new holiday scrap gun, which was gifted to him by his fellow Aussie pal, Junkrat:
And what makes this even better is that it hints at a subtle change at the characters' interpersonal dynamics - formerly Junkrat was a crime-bud to Roadhog, but not a full-fledged pal: but beyond the gift of the new gun, a voice interaction between the two characters has been adjusted for matches when they're playing together on the same team.
Previously there was a voice interaction where Junkrat would say "You hook 'em and I'll cook 'em!", to which Roadhog would respond "Shut up." Junkrat was an annoyance to Roadhog for the most part...but now there's a NEW voice interaction, where Roadhog will begin with "I'll hook 'em..." and Junkrat will finish with "...and I'll cook em!"
ROADHOG IS ONBOARD WITH THEIR CATCHPHRASE, GUYS!
Oh, and these sprays line up nicely (and also make reference to the holiday season taking place during Australia's summer season, which is a nice touch):
2. McCree Scrooge Is Skulking Around Outside During the Main Screen
If you look closely out the window, away from all the festive cheer happening within the building on King's Row, you'll find the notorious sourpuss, McCree Scrooge, looking resentful of all the holiday happiness being enjoyed by Torbjorn, Lucio, Mei, and Tracer.
Making McCree into Charles Dickens' notorious cold-hearted cautionary tale from A Christmas Carol is certainly an odd choice - the personality doesn't really jive with McCree at all. But then again, McCree is a dude from the future who dresses like a cowboy would probably be something of a loner too, so maybe it makes sense. Plus, it's pretty funny to see the attempt at turning Future Cowboy McCree into Victorian England Old Man McCree:
Still pissed there's no "It's High Humbug" voice line though.
3. Genji's Holiday Sprays Are References To His "Death"
Genji is a mostly serious, grim character (other than his neat l'il holiday line "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" that is) - and it's not hard to see why, given his tragic past and brush with death (which he was barely saved from by Mercy). And as noted by Ueseul, two of his new sprays are subtly about his supposed demise.
First, Genji's ornament has his kimono with the right side over the left side - a wrapping method that would only be utilized when dressing a body for a funeral.
The second spray is a kadomatsu, which is a Japanese New Year decoration put out in sets of two in front of homes. If you had to guess if another character ALSO had a kadomatsu spray (since they are used in pairs), who do you think might have one? Ahhh yes, Genji's bro, Hanzo:
But there's a key difference between the two bro's kadomatsus: only Genji's has white chrysanthemums - a symbol of death in Japan, typically only used in funerals and upon graves.
4. The Ice-Fishing Sprays Might Be Hinting At a Popular Fan Theory That Reinhardt is Actually Pharah's Father
There are lots of subtle nods to a warm relationship between Pharah and Reinhardt in the games - and a fan theory without much evidence got kicked into high gear when Reddit examined the connection between the skins for Ana, Reinhardt, and Pharah (long story short: there's a very noticeable pattern between the three's skin groups).
Now, this doesn't quite CONFIRM anything, but it is interesting that Blizzard awarded both Pharah and Reinhardt ice-fishing sprays from their more youthful days, indicating they spent time together and she wasn't just admiring from afar ("I remember ze poster!"):
Ice-fishing sure SEEMS like a father-daughter activity, right?
5. You Can Actually Put the Holiday Sprays To Good Use!
There are few things as disappointing in the world of videogames as opening up a loot box in Overwatch and getting a bunch of sprays. And it happens. A LOT. We got our company to pay for our co-worker Tristan Cooper to get 100 loot boxes so we could make a fun YouTube video and...well, suffice to say, no one should spend that much money on loot boxes unless they want A LOT of sprays.
And while there ARE lots of fun sprays in the holiday event, there are a few that might not look too exciting at first: namely the cutesy little character ornaments -
They're definitely cute, but they're relatively small and not THAT interesting looking...until you realize they CAN ACTUALLY BE USED IN THE GAME (kinda):
via Mitsiee
That's right - the ornaments can be put up on the Christmas tree sprays already present on both King's Row and Hanamura - and the Mercy spray is the angel on top of the tree! So now you have even more of an excuse to yell at your team and scream at someone to be a healer.
