twero:

As some of
you know, I’m a huge fan of Overwatch, specially all the amazing effort
Blizzard’s team had on character design and development. They have very
interesting designs, characteristics and unique personalities. Not to mention
they have a double care to create a multi-national and multi ethnic group of
heroes. The same goes to my compatriot, Lúcio, the Brazilian DJ and a lovely
support hero.

As far as I
can see, they traced a very nice character with very precise and even natural Brazilian
characteristics. Look at his full name: Lúcio Correia dos Santos is a very
common name and sounds very natural to heard to us, differently from many other
Brazilian characters in other games (I’m looking at you, Tekken’s Eddy Gordo).
He also carries many of the carioca style
on his voice manner (even more in the pt-br dub, since his VA here is from the
same city) and, most of all, he’s a reliable character and carries his nationality
nicely. Just look at his main colors: yellow and green (with blue details), all
the colors of our flag, combine so great that doesn’t sound rude at all. He’s
true to his favela origin and is a party lover who loves to cheer everyone
around him.

With all
this, I looked at his frog tattoo and found it… curious, to say at least. It
reminded me of something from my region. But, I wasn’t sure if the Blizzard team
would go THAT FAR to characterize him.

But then I
received my Art of Overwatch’s artbook (really good artbook, but, I recommend
it) and when I was reading about his conception, I read this:

“..they
based his frog symbol on the giant monkey frog, a bright green amphibian from
the Amazon basin that’s used in traditional healing ceremonies.”

This frog
in specific is on the origins of a very popular amulet from where I’m from: the
Muiraquitã.

This amulet
(that from the native language can be translate as “knot of trees”, usually
craft on greenish stones like jade and nephrite or even in woods, is an old artifact from the Low Amazon Basin’s Indians, like the Tapajós and Konduri to represent
different kinds of animals, like fishes, turtles, but mostly frogs). The first
reports about they are waaay back from the 16th century, back from the Portuguese
Colonization period of Brazil.

This region right here.

According
to some historians, the Tapajós women used this amulet to prevent diseases and
infertility. As an extension of the original monkey frog’s curative properties
they used.

Nowadays,
this amulet can be found as a pendant and illustrate many decorative objects
around my regions, usually sold as a souvenir.

Ultimately,
I’m utterly happy to see an amulet from my region (so far away from Lúcio’s
hometown, Rio de Janeiro) being used on his design to reinforce his healing and
cheerful personality and style. Overwatch dev team, have my most sincere  gratitude and praise.

Obrigado!

Art by Aukki13

For more info: Muiraquitã’s article at Wikipédia