Getting to Know Brigitte, Overwatch's Newest Hero

[ComradeKoch]

The newest addition to the Overwatch roster, Brigitte Lindholm is a mechanical engineer and adventurer. Although in the game she can be found under the Support banner, she is considered to be a Support/Tank hybrid as she features many similarities with the Tank class. She provides armor and healing like a support character, but she also has a powerful shield like her mentor Reinhardt. This has lead to some (happily) comparing her to the Paladin class that can be found in many other video games, typically RPGs, and most notably in Blizzard’s own World of Warcraft.

What Can She Do? — Gameplay and Abilities

Brigitte carries a shield and a flail. But this is no normal flail. The striking head of the flair is connected to a retractable chain, allowing her to strike multiple enemies in one blow as well as stun them from a distance. She can also bash enemies with her shield if they get too close for comfort.

Though a capable fighter, her main focus is defending those around her, and aiding them as best she can. Sometimes that means using her shield to prevent blows from landing on them, and other times it means throwing out repair packs to heal and protect.

Her repair packs are quite different from her father Torbjörn’s armor packs, which players are already used to. The main difference, of course, is that they heal allies but they also give an extra bonus on top of that: any healing over their max health gets added as armor.

Her ultimate ability, Rally, gives her increased movement speed and provides extra armor to all surrounding allies.

Who Is She? — Backstory

Brigitte Lindholm (pronounced more like Bri-GEET-tah than Bridget) is the youngest daughter of Torbjörn and Ingrid Lindholm. Of all their children (we don’t actually know how many there are, but they do have quite a few grandchildren) Brigitte was the only one to show an interest in her father’s work. As we can see in her intro video, she took an early interest in engineering, so much so that she built some armor for her seemingly reluctant cat.

Speaking of Brigitte’s cat — it’s become a bit of an internet sensation among the Overwatch community. Also known as ‘Jet-Pack Cat,’ many Overwatch fans were dearly hoping to see the feline introduced into the game in some form. Who knows? Maybe it’ll show up in the waiting area of a new map!

Given all her early childhood excitement (and cat armor building) everyone expected that she would follow in her father’s footsteps, and she did… to a point (she is a mechanical engineer, after all.) However, her area of expertise is in defense and armor building, as opposed to her father, who is a renowned weapons expert.

And though Brigitte loves engineering, she soon left the path of her father behind and started using her skills in a different — but no less noble — manner.

To properly understand the next part of her journey, we have to go back in Brigitte’s history. Way back, to before she was even born. In the lead up to Brigitte’s unveiling, we learned a little bit about Operation: White Dome, the mission that lead to Torbjörn losing his arm and almost dying. In fact, if it wasn’t for Reinhardt, he would have died. We learn about this in a letter Torbjörn writes to his pregnant wife, Ingrid, while he’s recovering after the mission. In the letter, he also mentions that he promised Reinhardt he could name the new baby (as long as Ingrid approves, of course) and that he would like to make him the baby’s godfather.

Reinhardt seems to be quite the fixture in the Lindholm family, as he can be seen reading a story to the Lindholm grandchildren in the Reflections comic, and it stands to reason that Brigitte has been hearing grand tales of his adventures all of her life.

With all that information, it should come as no surprise that when Reinhardt announced he was coming out of retirement to become a Knight-Errant, Brigitte asked him if she could come along as his squire. This is where the adventurer part of her occupation comes in (though the role of squire also allows her to do a fair bit of engineering).

After spending a while patching up both Reinhardt and his armor, Brigitte began wondering if there was a better way for her to help him. She wanted to be able to prevent those injuries from happening to him in the first place, not just trying to fix them once it was too late.

This leads us to her current mission and Brigitte as we see in her intro video. Brigitte built her own set of armor and trained with Reinhardt to learn how to fight. Now, instead of just tending to Reinhardt after the battles, she fights by his side. She does whatever she can to prevent the blows from landing, as she says.

In her intro video, she proclaims: “I am Brigitte Lindholm, and I will be your shield!” That pretty much sums her up as a character. She is determined to prove herself, to be a good squire to Reinhardt, and to do everything she can to protect her allies.

Where Can I Find Her? — Appearances Outside the Game

Outside of the game itself, Brigitte can be seen in several of the official “extras” Blizzard provides for fans who want to learn more about the world of Overwatch:

Brigitte can be seen at the beginning of this Reinhardt-centric short. This is where we learn she isn’t the biggest fan of Overwatch as an organization. She tells Reinhardt that Winston’s call wasn’t meant for him, as Reinhardt has already given so much to Overwatch cause.

Dragon Slayer Comic: Brigitte and Reinhardt stop in a town for much needed supplies, only to discover the townspeople are being terrorized by a bunch of ruffians who call themselves The Dragon. In this comic, we get our best glance at Brigitte’s personality, and strong insinuations that despite Reinhardt’s advanced age, Brigitte is the more responsible one of the duo. She also builds some armor for a little girl’s stuffed animal — she really likes building tiny armor, doesn’t she?

Reflections Comic: In this comic we see a brief window into the Lindholm family Christmas. Reinhardt reads to a group of Torbjörn and Ingrid’s grandchildren while Brigitte and her parents look on.

Torbjörn’s Letter to Ingrid: Although she doesn’t make a direct appearance, as she hasn’t been born yet, Brigitte is the main subject of this letter between an injured Torbjörn and his expectant wife Ingrid. It also gives us a little bit more information on the friendship between Torbjörn and Reinhardt, and reveals that Reinhardt named Brigitte and is her godfather.

Brigitte is playable now on PC and consoles.

[Twen]

Considering the Reflections comic and the bunch of children, both boys and girls, who were confirmed to be Torb's kids (https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/st...06961241329664) - not grandchildren - that would make Brigitte their oldest daughter, not the youngest. Does that mean there's a mistake in their wording, or is it some sort of retcon, or is there another explanation to this?

[Rotted]

2nd comment on the first ever official OW page.

My name down in history!

[Tucci]

Hello World!

[Battlebeard]

Two swedish heroes, I am now (as a swede) hoping we can also get a swedish map in the game

I am not a fan of the spelling of her name but I am really glad Blizzard got a real swedish voice actor for the voice!!