Pharah

Pharah, real name Fareeha Amari, is a character who first appears in the 2016 video game Overwatch, a Blizzard Entertainment-developed first-person shooter. Voiced by Jen Cohn, she is an Egyptian woman trying to follow in her mother's footsteps, enlisting in a military unit and helping to defend her local community, going by the call sign "Pharah". She later joins the restored peace-keeping force Overwatch alongside her mother and childhood friend. In a 2023 short story by Blizzard, the character was revealed to be a lesbian.

She was one of the first characters added to Overwatch during its development, after complications arose when trying to implement a different character. Conceived by Geoff Goodman as a male character with a rocket launcher and a Jetpack, the character was originally named "Rocket Dude" and went through multiple iterations and names during development, before Blizzard decided to make the character female instead, utilizing a design by Justin Thavirat as a guide to develop her look.

Video game media and academic writers have mixed feelings on Pharah's characterization, with the portrayal of her various ethnic backgrounds and representation of women being considerably discussed. Depicted as half-Egyptian and half-

While early on they defined a playstyle and Egyptian heritage as integral to the character, multitude of concepts were considered ranging from armored dragons, heavy armored mech suits, and stylized male fighter pilots. In particular the developers noted that the fighter pilots did not capture the "fantasy" the team was trying to display in Overwatch, while the heavy armor felt too "tank-like". Artist Justin Thavirat submitted a design consisting of black armor suit with a large mag fed rocket launcher that was well received by the development team,[6] and even included in the original pitch meeting for the game.^[5] However Art Director Arnold Tsang felt the design was "a little too high concept" and they started over with the concept of a man with a rocket jetpack.^[1] Thavirat's design was later revisited however, and slowly congealed into the finalized look for her character.^[6]

Upon the decision to make the character female, their name was changed to "Rocket Queen", in reference to the

Standing approximately 1.8m (5' 11") tall,[9] Pharah is an Egyptian woman of color with black hair extending to her neck with gold beaded braids in the front, and an Eye of Horus tattoo under her right eye. She wears a full body blue and black combat suit with gold highlights dubbed the "Raptora Mark VI", that features independently posable wings with thrusters that allow for short-term flight.^[10] Her design also features a blue removable helmet that features grey decorative wings extending from the sides and a transparent, beak-like visor extending the front that overlays over the top of her face. Her primary weapon is a blunderbuss-esque black rocket launcher fed through a top loaded magazine, while additional rockets can be fired from her lower arms and shoulder compartments.^[9] For Overwatch 2, Pharah's visual look underwent subtle changes, including the lower half of her armor being made to include white in addition to its already-present blue color,^[11] and increased transparency for her visor.^[12]

Like other Overwatch characters, Pharah received

Fareeha Amari is an Egyptian woman introduced in the 2016 first-person shooter Overwatch,^[18] voiced by Jen Cohn.^[2] Her mother, Ana, was a member of the global peace-keeping force "Overwatch", before vanishing.^[10][19] Aspiring to follow in her footsteps, she enlisted in and rose up through the officer ranks of the Egyptian army.^[10] Before being able to join Overwatch, the organization disbanded, and she instead become an officer at a private security firm. Under the call sign "Pharah", she is tasked with defending an artificial intelligence research facility.^[10] She later returns in the game's sequel, Overwatch 2.^[20]

Her story is further fleshed out in the digital

As part of the 2023 Pride event for Overwatch 2 Blizzard released several short stories which included As You Are, a story featuring Pharah. In it when asked if she has any romantic interest in Cassidy, she laughs and responds no, stating that she is a lesbian.^[25]

Gameplay

In Overwatch, Pharah is classified as a "Damage" class character, designed to provide a more offensive role in team compositions.

Pharah also has several abilities that require activation, though the first two have a "cooldown" period after use and are unable to be used again during that duration. "Jump Jet" gives a burst of upward acceleration, at a much higher pace than "Hover Jets" and can enable her to reach vertical areas more quickly.[27] Alternatively Pharah's "Concussive Blast" fires a projectile that pushes away any characters caught in its blast radius, including Pharah, but will not damage her allowing it to be used for mobility.^[20] Lastly her 'ultimate' ability, called "Barrage", requires to be charged before use. The ability charges slowly during the course of gameplay, and can be charged faster through damage dealt to the enemy team. Once full the ability can be activated to fire a stream of rockets for a short duration, however she is unable to move during this time.^[31] During development, they considered adding a giant transparent eagle head appearing behind her as a visual component of the ability. However they felt this did not fit her character or level of technology, and chose instead to simplify the move visually.^[32]

Promotion and reception

To promote Overwatch and the character, she was one of twelve heroes showcased in a playable build of the game at the 2014 BlizzCon convention,^[10] and later featured among a series of life-size boxed "action figures" to promote the game's release, with Pharah's showcased in Busan, South Korea.^[33] Additional material included a cosplay guide, and promotional images themed around holidays.^[9][34] The Good Smile Company released a Figma-line figurine of Pharah in December 2018,^[35] while Hasbro released a figure of their own packaged with fellow character Mercy in 2019.^[36] In 2023 for Pride Month, they released a series of cosmetics for the character to celebrate her as a part of the LGBT community.^[37]

Known for her considerable damage output, Pharah is a popular choice among players who opt for DPS (damage per second) characters.^[38] Sources such as Kotaku and the book The Costumes of Burlesque have noted her as a frequent subject of cosplay, with particularly elaborate results.^[39] Early in the first two years of Overwatch's release, players would often select her alongside another player utilizing Mercy, due to their shared flight abilities meshing well.^[40][41][42] Community reaction to this cohesion led to the pairing being dubbed "PharMercy" by players and media outlets, with a large amount fan art and fan fiction demonstrating them being romantically involved with each other following suit.^[43][44] Ana Valens in an article for The Mary Sue praised her as one of the best female characters introduced in the series, citing the character's "themes of intergenerational conflict, duty, and coping with life's twists and turns". She additionally praised the portrayal of motherhood through her relationship with Ana, noting it as something few games illustrated well, if all.^[45] However, some such as Joseph Knoop of The Daily Dot lamented how little Pharah was developed in the story itself, stating Blizzard did "surprisingly little" with her as a character. He further added that while supplemental material to the games tried to provide her portrayal with some emotional payoff, "just like Pharah's sky-high leaps, it seems like she'll always be out of reach."^[46]

Biologist and Paleontologist Rodrigo B. Salvador cited Pharah's design as heavily influenced by her nationality in a paper for The Journal of Geek Studies, noting that her armor and tattoo took heavy inspiration from the Egyptian god Horus and the significance of those elements in her design, specifically the lancer falcon which he felt was implied both by the suit's name but it's bird-shaped helmet. He further conflated her role and character in Overwatch to that of a pharaoh whose duty is to uphold "truth, harmony, morality and justice" due to her name, personality and portrayal. He was however critical of the comic's statement that her tattoo was intended to represent her desire to protect others when it's connotation was meant to protect the wearer, but felt that was a minor slipup in her backstory. He closed by praising her design as a whole and how well it tied to her heritage, making her one of his favorite characters in the title.^[47]

Pharah's representation as a woman and an Egyptian in the series have been heavily discussed, as the character is noted as one of only two playable females in Overwatch that "do not have expressively supportive functions as part of their skillset", though her flying from a distance was seen as an example of the "smaller, weaker, and faster" archetype for female characters in video games.^[48] The book Gender and the Super Hero Narrative noted that Pharah was positive representation as a female heroine, her design focusing less on physical attractiveness as a defining trait and more on "skill sets and abilities typically reserved for male hero counterparts."^[49] However the book Cooperative Gaming: Diversity in the Games Industry and How to Cultivate Inclusion drew issue with her character being portrayed by a white voice actress, citing it as an example of digital blackface they felt negated the impact of her representation within the series.^[50] Amr Al-Aaser of Waypoint was particularly critical of her design, feeling that the use of Egyptian imagery "the existence of an entire people to easily recognizable images", while also denouncing the choice of a white voice actress for her character.^[51] Alya Arthur of The Daily Dot also criticized her design, stating that while on the surface she looked impressive it followed a trend of giving female video game characters "swimsuit-esque body morph suits" to emphasize their bodies instead of visible muscle and bulk.^[52]

Pharah's "Thunderbird" and "Raindancer" skins drew criticism from fans online, who argued the skins were culturally appropriating Indigenous imagery.^[17] Fans also questioned why the skins were based on Indigenous imagery, when Pharah had long been detailed as of Egyptian origin.^[17] Shahryar Rizvi of Kill Screen commented that despite the skins being designed with Pacific Northwest Coastal cultures in mind, that the "face paint is most likely influenced by the Mohawk people in Ontario, Quebec, and upstate New York".^[53] After the Reflections issue, featuring Pharah having dinner with her Indigenous father, Cecilia D'Anastasio of Kotaku reflected on the controversy about her outfit, asking "was Pharah's somewhat obtuse lore added to quell players' accusations of cultural appropriation? It's hard to say," while citing a "strongly-worded Medium post by a Dia Lacina, a Native woman," that "questioned whether Pharah's father is the 'Convenient Indian.'"^[17] Lacina also opined that "corporate interests and fandom demands aligned so they can make those skins 'acceptable' while getting bonus points for finally having a Native in Overwatch's lore."^[17] Al-Aaser, in his previous critique of the character, viewed Blizzard's response harshly, stating it would have been better to have simply apologized and by using canon from outside the game to justify their response, it "felt like Blizzard had personally spat" at him.^[51]

Her reveal as a lesbian however was more positively received, with The Gamer's Harry Schofield praising the writing of the short story for how well it portrayed her as a queer character talking with a friend. He felt it was a significant improvement over past attempts at LGBT representation in Overwatch, stating that while it could be seen as rainbow capitalism on the part of Blizzard, it still showed "marked improvements in how exactly it goes about making that representation authentic".^[54] Game Rant's Martin Wood also offered thoughts on the portrayal, praising how the story presented Pharah as someone confident in her identity speaking to someone else trying to find theirs, stating that she presented a "clear message of support through togetherness, acceptance, and willingness to change for the better."^[55]

See also

• List of video games with LGBT characters: 2010s

References