Ever since Brigitte was introduced as a new hero for Overwatch, some fans have been excitedly shipping her with D.Va, in a pairing called Mekamechanic. We don’t know a lot about Brigitte, but that’s part of what makes this pairing work: Fans can just make it up as they go along.
While some ships are accompanied by textual analysis or fan theories, a lot of the time it just comes down to people saying, “Wouldn’t it be hot if these two characters kissed?” It doesn’t even have to go that far – sometimes the idea of two characters having a funny or cute conversation can inspire fans to make art or write fic. This is especially true in a game such as Overwatch, where there isn’t a lot of text to draw inspiration from and the fandom has to base its works on a few voice lines, animated shorts and comics. When something tickles the community’s fancy, they more or less have carte blanche to do whatever the hell they want. This is what makes ships such as Mekamechanic, the pairing of Brigitte and D.Va, possible.
Mekamechanic is based on a simple premise. One of them is a mechanic, the other one has a mech. That’s it. It doesn’t need to be more than that, and we don’t actually know a whole hell of a lot about D.Va and Brigitte anyway. Fans have no idea if Brigitte and D.Va have even interacted, but given their professions, it sounds as though they’re about to have meet cute in a romantic comedy. The fics write themselves. Imagine, D.Va brings her meka in for repairs and sees Brigitte, pretty even with grease on her face, and it’s like time stops…
The fandom has been just as taken as I have by Mekamechanic. This post, based on a flirty conversation idea that a fan posted to tumblr, has been reblogged over 45,000 times.
From there you can see how fandom has started to characterise this relationship. The speculation and fanart is centred around awkward flirting, with each girl not really realising that the other has a crush on them. It’s an adorable, fumbling relationship of two young people trying to figure themselves out.
아니오 (no) sounds like a funny meow imho ???? (hope I didn’t do a wrong korean translation????)
Brigitte named the cat “Tiramisu” btw ????#Overwatchfanart #BrigitteLindholm #Dva #mekamechanic pic.twitter.com/sWh4O4sj7D— Mura (@murasaki_yuri) March 9, 2018
A lot of the art plays up Brigitte’s apparent love of cats, given that D.Va has a skin where she wears cat ears.
Just as much as the art, I’ve been enjoying the Mekamechanic aesthetics posts. These are like mood boards, meant to give you a taste for the vibe of a particular mood, setting or pairing. Mekamechanic aesthetics posts pair oily gears and pastel pink, creating a mood that feels feminine in that Sandra-Bullock-before-she-takes-off-her-glasses kind of way. There are a few of these, but this is my favourite iteration on the theme:
So far, Mekamechanic is more like a writing prompt than an actual relationship. That’s what makes fandom so fun, though. There are a lot of really creative people who love Overwatch and who are willing to build out these two characters just because it might be cute if they kissed. Plus, Brigitte and D.Va are next to each other on the character select screen. They’re meant to be.
Comments
8 responses to “Overwatch Ships Are All About Filling In The Blanks”
“Overwatch ships are all about filling in gaps”
Fixed it for all the horn dogs out there.
Not condoning, but there’s also fan art and shipping of Brigitte and her own dad.
(And undoubtedly a ton of animated porn to follow)
The Internet is a screwed up place.
Shipping is so weird. Eww.
I know right? All those ropes and bouys and sextants. Pererts, th’ lot of ’em.
Take a bow…
I’m glad you could sea what I did there.
It’s easy to understand though. All the Overwatch characters are rampant pansexual nymphomaniacs that shag anything with a pulse.
I swear most of these people have never been in a relationship.
99% of shipping is homosexual relationships, or relationships with objects… shipping is weird.