pick up a rose, and you'll feel the thorns.
Mythic skins launched with Overwatch 2 in the premium battlepass, but mythic weapons were added as an alternative cosmetic for players to buy with the mythic prisms they earned in season 11; the same season Ashe received her mythic skin. I did not expect to see Ashe's mythic weapon for a very long time – and none of them had been particularly interesting to me, extremely varied in their designs, as if the team was still trying to decide what artistic angle and thematic direction they wanted to go in.However. There was a leak in season 12 when one of the in-game shop banners depicted Ashe with a weapon that she did not have and was not the one she used in that respective skin. It was too small of a render to really make out the details other than Viper being bright pink, and we've had generic weapon skins before, but the possibility that it was her mythic weapon remained.
Fast forward to when season 14's mythic weapon was announced with a promotional still. Ashe, holding her gun glowing fuchsia pink and coiled by rose vines just like the tattoo down her arm, named specifically Lead Rose.
Me, she's beautiful. When can I have it.
If you'd read my thoughts on Calamity Empress, you'll know I don't like it. The skin doesn't relate to Ashe in any meaningful way – Lead Rose could not be more of an opposite. I saw this weapon, and I wanted it. If I had to wait for a delayed midseason, so be it, I would be there at patch drop and I would be getting it… because it actually relates back to her lore.
Lead Rose is the name of the manor Ashe grew up in. The weapon itself was designed to be a reflection of Ashe's evolution from socialite to outlaw; that she could be beautiful but equally deadly. To quote Lifeweaver, "elegant, and violent". It celebrates her as a character and encourages those that don't know much about Ashe to go and discover her for themselves.
And the roses! The roses!! All of Ashe's launch skins featured roses. This was something that early-on fell by the wayside – but to have that motif return in the limelight six years later was a delight. Especially because every mythic weapon has what is called a "flourish" – two of the previous mythic weapons were simply spun, and the other has a small light vfx. Ashe, gets to hold a rose. That you can hold indefinitely; or throw at anybody in the lobby, friend or foe alike. It's so much more unique and personalised. You want your Mercy to pocket you? Be like the first Ashe I saw the night the mythic weapon came out who threw so many roses at my feet, and what am I, a simply Ashe lover, supposed to do other than boost her?
-- Mythic Lead Rose Ashe Weapon Skin art by Concept Artist Bobby Kim
And we didn't even know what her coach gun or dynamite would look like in advance. Ashe has four weapons in total, including Bob: equally up in the air of whether he would see a visual change too. He doesn't, understandably – it's an additional character model and he's unique – but the others do. Dynamite becomes almost crystalline, the same material as to what's in the chamber of Ashe's primary weapon, and coach gun is fundamentally its base design… except it too, is covered in roses, because it's a gun hidden away inside a bouquet of flowers.
You just know she's done this once. It's all so sapphic. I had to have it.
Truly, Lead Rose on its own is beautiful to look at. It matches so well with many of Ashe's pre-existing skins, especially Mobster which features the exact same shade of pink and Socialite, equally fancy and part of the lore its representing. Lead Rose also looks stunning in gold on Sociliate as it complements the gold accents Ashe has on her coat… also something left behind from her original Overwatch design. The gold is important.
With each elimination, the rose on the back of the gun blooms and the pink vines become more prominent: any successful final blow and the enemy dissolves into a wash of rose petals. If you get a headshot final blow, Ashe blows them a kiss. I cannot tell you how much I adored hearing this the first time. She's flirting, dangerously. Time to go boldly snipe the enemy Widowmaker and blow her some kisses when you're done.
What a redemption arc from a skin that barely related to her at all. It's going to take me a bit to get used to the different sounds that Lead Rose has and I will be back to using Viper as I love its little pew pew noises and I miss them, but Lead Rose is undoubtedly going to become a permanent fixture in things for Ashe that I use – and has absolutely been a success for how other mythic weapons should be approached in the future. Bravo.
(And finally, something that's a mythic I want for a character that I actually play.)
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