EMBERSTRIFE

                                    Who is the Shadow of Dorado?          

For months, myself along with many others in the Overwatch community have been clamoring for any and all information concerning the name Sombra and whether or not it means we are in store for another new hero. According to a recent Kotaku interview with Lead Game Designer Jeff Kaplan, it seems the answer has finally been confirmed as an absolute yes! Sombra will be a female playable hero coming to Overwatch who Kaplan says, "will let people know when she wants more to be known about her." Kaplan has also previously said that not every hint about Sombra has been found.

Of course, no Overwatch enthusiast is going to wait idly by until Sombra decides to creep out from the shadows herself. There were already several  theories about Sombra's identity floating around long before Kaplan's interview took place. Up until the reveal of Ana Amari, there was a great deal of speculation that Sombra and the rumored support sniper were one in the same. Teasers for both involved mysterious hooded figures, and the community most likely did not expect Blizzard to tease two different heroes at the same time. By now it's pretty clear that Ana is not Sombra, and Kaplan responded to the confusion by stating:

"Well, we’ve been teasing Sombra for a very long time. [...] then put a tease in for Ana in Temple of Anubis. Because people were so hot on the Sombra trail, they assumed that that tease for Ana was actually Sombra. [...] We were not trying to get people’s wires crossed between the two characters."

So with the confirmation that these shrouded figures are two separate heroes, the question we're now faced with is - If Ana is not Sombra, then who is? Fan theories on Sombra's identity range from it being the name of a virus implanted into Athena by Reaper in Recall to her being one of the unidentified female heroes, like from the group photo in the Ana Amari Origin Story video or from the roster that flashes by at the end of Recall. While all of these theories have merits, I would like to focus on the one that I think is most credible: the theory that Sombra's true identity is Alejandra, the young girl we meet in Hero.

Anne Stickney at the Blizzard Watch site has already laid quite the convincing foundation for why it's likely that Alejandra is Sombra, including a timeline pieced together from information in the animated shorts to prove that Alejandra could currently be around D.va's age [19]. Stickney also points to a voice line that occurs on Dorado with Soldier:76 and Reaper on the same team, where Reaper says, "Where's Sombra when you need her?" This line implies that Sombra has some sort of relationship with Soldier:76 and that Reaper might also know her identity, or at the very least that she's affiliated with Soldier:76. Alejandra is the only person from Dorado we know of so far that has had any interaction with Soldier:76.

Lately, there have been several more leaks and teasers on social media that continue to support the theory of Alejandra being Sombra, one of which comes from the voice of Alejandra herself, voice actress Brigette Kali. Upon being asked on twitter if she would do more voice work for Blizzard, Kali replied that she couldn't yet share details about any future work. Future work implying that Alejandra will continue to develop as a character? Since Blizzard is known for choosing voice actors with authentic accents for their heroes, it would be reasonable to assume that Kali would be voicing a Mexican hero, like Sombra, whether she ends up being revealed as an older Alejandra or not.

How do we know for sure that Sombra is from Mexico? In addition to all of the teasers for Sombra being located on the Dorado map, there has also been a secret message found in the recent Developer Update: Introducing Ana video. Unlike the other developer videos, this one ends with a quick series of flashing images that resemble a classic film or television end card. For more details on the decoding process, check out YouTuber Goose Boose's video explanation or his Reddit thread about the topic. Due to an amazing effort by the community, the barcode image was deciphered, converted to binary, then converted to a text image that resembled a QR code. When scanned, the code actually reveals a message from Sombra in Spanish that reads, "Was that easy? Well, now that I have your attention, allow me make things a little more difficult." Goose was able to confirm that the message is written in Mexican-Spanish as opposed to Spaniard-Spanish, further indicating that Sombra is indeed a Mexican hero. And who is the only person we know of who lives in Mexico? Alejandra, of course!

Re-watching the Hero animated short with this theory in mind allows for a much deeper experience when it's considered an origin story for Sombra rather than a quick catch up with Soldier:76. The hero in the title more fittingly applies to Alejandra than Soldier:76 as well. She is undoubtedly the focus of the animation as we see everything from her perspective. Her mother worries about Alejandra being "forced to make a choice that will decide the direction of her life," like the decision to become a hero that risks herself to save her city from a possibly corrupt conglomerate like LumériCo, perhaps? Even Soldier's involvement in the short is seen through her eyes; a hero figure who, for possibly the first time, is standing up to the Los Muertos gang. Hero is more about the turning point in Alejandra's life that led to her eventual decision to become a hero and much less about why Soldier:76 would be in Mexico, out of all places in the world, taking down the Los Muertos gang.

All of this evidence together convinces me that Sombra is actually the young girl we know as Alejandra, all grown up and ready to protect her city. Has it convinced you? Do you have any other theories as to who Sombra might be or any additional clues pointing toward her being Alejandra? Do you love or hate that a secret coded message was hidden in Overwatch's latest video? I personally love it and can't wait to see what comes creeping out of the shadows next.

Hey guys! It’s Emberstrife. This is a article I wrote for an application for a volunteer writing job for a new Overwatch community website called Omnic Core. Since I totally landed the writing job, check out the site once it’s live to see more of my writing, possibly!