Symmetra

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Satya Vaswani is an Indian woman trained since youth as an architect at the Vishkar Corporation, an India-based company that developed a 'hard light' technology allowing for the construction of physical objects from light. She proved particularly gifted with it and helped build a city out of such constructs. The corporation recognized her talent and, giving her the codename 'Symmetra,' tasked her with expanding Vishkar's global reach. While she does so to help the greater good, there are times she doubts if the control and order she desires are best for humanity. Her story is further fleshed out in the digital comic book series, appearing in Symmetra: A Better World, the fourth issue of the 2016 Overwatch tie-in comic book series. In it, she is tasked with helping Vishkar secure a deal to rebuild the slums of Rio de Janeiro; however, the mayor favors a rival company. Symmetra infiltrates the company to try and find discrediting information, but after not finding any, the building explodes much to her shock, burning down the nearby neighborhood. Months later, Vishkar rebuilds the surrounding area, though Symmetra noticed no additional housing has been built and expresses concerns about her company and their possible involvement in the destruction. In 2020, Symmetra was featured in the short story Stone by Stone. In it, Symmetra helps with restoration efforts after development in Roshani, India causes a tremor that damages a religious statue in a nearby temple. She meets with the character Zenyatta, who teaches her about his religion and helps her understand the statue's significance. As a result, rather than replacing it, she uses yellow hard-light to repair it, giving it a warm glow and pleasing all involved. She was later featured in the short story Rebuilding Ruins by Corinne Duyvis and Sangu Mandanna, set after the events of the game's 'Zero Hour' storyline. It explores her past with the character Lifeweaver, as she visits him on behalf of Vishkar to ask for his help repairing Paris after an attack by the terrorist group Null Sector. While they talk, Null Sector attacks Lifeweaver's arcology, and the two work together to protect its residents.

In Their Own Story

Symmetra is also autistic, something originally only alluded to in a tie-in comic for the game until a fan asked Kaplan directly and he confirmed it in a letter response. The Overwatch developers noted they wanted to not tokenize this particular trait, and instead emphasize their characters as an amalgam of traits. To this end, they added subtle commentary in her in-game dialogue expressing a desire for order and aversion to overstimulation. Overwatch 2's narrative designer Joshi Zhang fleshed out this aspect further in 2022, giving her voice lines that referenced her heightened sensory input and behaviors that allow her to stim. Voicelines in the game suggest that she studied or worked alongside Lifeweaver during her time at the Vishkar Corporation.

Reader's Guide

In Overwatch, Symmetra was originally classified as a Support-class character, meant to provide aid for her team. Her primary weapon, a Photon Projector, has two firing options. The primary fire will connect to an enemy while the trigger is held, doing continuous damage that increases the longer the beam connects. Enemies hit will remain tethered to the gun as long as they remain in the player's field of view. Meanwhile, the alternate fire option creates an explosive ball of energy. Holding the trigger will charge the shot, with the projectile size increased depending on the charge amount. Symmetra 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. The first, 'Sentry Turret,' creates a turret that damages and slows enemies. Her gameplay proved divisive, resulting in a rift in the player community as some assumed she was chosen by players to either grief or troll their teammates, resulting in Symmetra players receiving verbal abuse or attempts to ban them from the game. Said players argued in favor of her, countering that they enjoyed her strategic gameplay and saw her as a tactical choice in the team-based game.

Did You Know?

• Symmetra was one of the first twelve playable characters introduced upon the reveal of Overwatch at the November 2014 BlizzCon event.
• Her design came from a desire to include a classic fantasy wizard into the game's science fiction setting, with her finalized design incorporating a blue dress with gold trim and thigh-high black stockings to give the imagery of a mage's robes.
• The 'Devi' skin for Symmetra drew backlash from Rajan Zed, a leader in the Hindu community, who felt it trivialized their religion by 'letting players control her movements' and claimed it was 'creating confusion in the minds of [the] community about Devi by misrepresentation.'
• Symmetra is voiced by Indian-American actor Anjali Bhimani, who at the time of casting was not aware the character was autistic.
• The original concept for Symmetra was a white woman called 'Architect' clad in a yellow dress with exposed thighs, armed with a blaster and a three-pronged 'arc welder' replacing her left hand on a cybernetic arm.