Overwatch 2’s 41st hero Junobecame available to play for a limited time this weekend, and fans are already unearthing some surprising lore about the purple-haired space trainee healer and Mei.
Overwatch is packed with dialogue that fleshes out the lore of its countless maps and the relationships between its heroes and villains. However, not every character’s death dialogue reveals a possible family relationship. Apparently, eliminating Mei as Juno triggers a dialogue exchange where the Martian hero says “Sorry, Auntie!” in response to Mei’s dying breath.
Not only does this snippet of gameplay lore potentially confirm a fourth familial connection between the heroes of the hero shooter, it also appears to subvert a key fan theory about Juno’s true identity.
Auntie?! pic.twitter.com/LYlwwoVNCu
— Hazelet (@HazeletOW) July 19, 2024
Junho and Jiayi
The end of last year, Overwatch The thread speculated that Juno, then known as Space Ranger, was a woman named Jiayi. The original poster of the thread said that Mei has a new line that activates when she is in the Lijiang Control Center, where she is reminded of a friend she studied with in grad school named Jiaya.
Fans quickly began speculating that Jiayi was Juno’s government name, as this line appeared just a month before Juno was revealed at Blizzcon 2023. At the time, this theory seemed plausible, considering Lijiang was the location of Overwatch 2’s in-game Chinese space station and Juno’s overall characterization is that she’s an astronaut from Mars.
This theory was given new life the day before Juno’s limited release, when X/Twitter user Pampurins claimed: Jiayi may actually be Junho’s mother’s name.Pamplin’s revised theory appears to be exactly that, thanks to newly discovered interactions of the voice lines.
Juno Elim Line appears in May!
“(gasps) I’m sorry Auntie!” pic.twitter.com/UQz6656LiU
— Shroomie (@mushroomiiee) July 19, 2024
The line seems to be considered solid evidence that the two are aunt and niece, but it’s also more likely to just be a term of endearment, as aunt is often used to refer to older women. IGN has reached out to Blizzard for comment. Either way, players can expect to hear plenty of this special exchange over the weekend as they play before Juno’s full release in Season 12 on August 20.
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @ShinEyeZehUhh.
