Juno, the 41st hero in Overwatch 2, will be available this weekend for a restricted time, and fans have already discovered a surprising fact about Mei, the purple-haired healer and space cadet.
Overwatch is full of voice lines that flesh out the story of its myriad maps, as well as the relationships between heroes and villains. It’s just that not every voice line that throws out a character’s death would reveal a possible family connection. Apparently, Mei’s elimination as Juno triggers an exchange in which the Martian hero says, “Sorry, auntie!” in response to Mei’s final breath.
This bit of gameplay lore is significant not only because it could confirm the existence of a fourth family bond among the shooter’s characters, but also because it seems to debunk a key fan theory about Juno’s identity.
AUNT?! photo:twitter.com/LYlwwoVNCu
— Hazelet (@HazeletOW) July 19, 2024
Juno and Jiayi
At the end of last year, r/Overwatch thread theorized that Juno — then known as Space Ranger — was a woman named Jiayi. According to the thread’s original author, Mei had a recent voice line that triggered in the Lijiang Control Center, where she mentioned a friend named Jiaya with whom she went to graduate school.
Seeing as this came up a month before Juno’s reveal at Blizzcon 2023, fans were quick to theorize that Jiayi was Juno’s government name. At the time, the theory seemed solid, considering Lijiang is the location of a Chinese space station in the Overwatch 2 universe, and Juno’s entire gimmick is that she’s an astronaut from Mars.
This theory was given recent life the day before Juno’s limited-time release, when X/Twitter user Pampurins posited that Jiayi may actually be the name of Juno’s motherPampurin’s revised theory seems to be right thanks to the newly discovered interaction of vocal tracts.
JUNO ELIM LINE ON MEI!
“(surprised) Sorry, auntie!” photo: twitter.com/UQz6656LiU
— Shroomiiee (@mushroomiiee) July 19, 2024
While the voice line seems to be taken as tough evidence that the two characters are aunt and niece, there’s also a robust possibility that it’s simply a term of endearment, considering the word aunt is commonly used to refer to older women. IGN has reached out to Blizzard for comment. Regardless, players will likely hear about the special interaction with the voice line during Juno’s game weekend before her full release in Season 12 on August 20.
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
