Games, movies, TV, books — there are so many forms of media out there that are aiming to be more inclusive of all types of fans. While we’ve often seen romantic backstories in the past, it seems that when those relationships turn same-sex, the reaction tends to be much more intense. With the recent revelation of some of the Apex Legends characters and their backstories, two of the reveals included two LGBTQ characters and predictably, the Internet reacted.
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One of the characters, Gibraltar, had a small snippet that just had one line talking about a boyfriend. Just one line, simple and didn’t cloud his entire backstory, “He only began to understand the value of protecting others when he and his boyfriend stole his father’s motorcycle, took it on a joyride, and got trapped by a deadly mudslide.”:
Though gay representation in games is becoming less and less uncommon, one critique of reveals is that it happens so many years after release making it seem like a bait of sorts. With Apex Legends, the game is a week old and these reveals aim to help new players look about the characters they’ve just met. In a battle royale game, it’s hard to have story so these lore bits help to beef up the substance that the game has to offer for those that enjoy a good story.
The second character was revealed to be non-binary, as community manager Jay Frenchette talks about Bloodhound and what they bring to the table in a recent interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
Despite this being a story introduction like many other, the opinion of the characters seemed to trigger a lot of anger, whereas others were happy for the natural inclusion:
Shout out to the jabroni who is arguing that making Apex Legends characters gay is pointless because we don’t tell war stories and focus on the hero’s sexuality
Yeah, no soldier has EVER opened his wallet to look longingly at a photo of his wife that he misses back home. Nope.
โ Harris “Quotation Marks” Foster (@HarrisFoster) February 8, 2019
Gibraltar from Apex Legends is gay and I LIVE FOR IT pic.twitter.com/FKnVRYEotj
โ Leo (@irnnar) February 7, 2019
Iโm not gonna play apex legends because I donโt wanna turn gay
โ VX1 ๏ฃฟ (@VX1_YT) February 7, 2019
Lord they did it again Apex Legends is a feminist ravaged game. The only character that isnโt female or ethnically diverse is gay. Now I donโt have a problem with that on its own, but theyโre simply pandering tye game to unrealistic lengths to sell to feminists instead of gamers.
โ Leonidous๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ๐น๐ฏ๐ต (@LeonidousPlays) February 7, 2019
Remember when they made Soldier 76 gay and they all said โDOING IT YEARS AFTER RELEASE IS JUST PANDERINGโ? Those same people are still calling it pandering when itโs at launch.
It will never NOT be pandering to them. They will ALWAYS complain about it.
Fuck them.#ApexLegends //t.co/KU3lG1Nykc
โ Aark (@ScarfDragon) February 8, 2019
I love seeing gay and non-binary characters in games, but I love it even more when mega-pussies get upset over those types of characters being included in said games.
Apex Legends is pretty dope, good on @Respawn for bringing more of that kind of inclusion.
โ joey (@ozibooj) February 6, 2019
If Apex Legends announcing that some of their characters are gay makes homophobes less likely to play it Iโm really struggling to see the downside.
โ Original Tweeter (@MackJ) February 8, 2019
Makes me wanna work at Respawn. I could write some Gibraltar combat barks just for this goober.
“Reloading! But in like a super gay way.”
“Grenade out! And proud. GET IT?”
“NEIL PATRICK HARRIS!”
“ATTENTION APEX PLAYERS: Whoever’s playing me right now is totes playing a GAY!” //t.co/T2fwpshbwW
โ Mikko Rautalahti (@MikkiHEL) February 7, 2019
Romance as part of a tragic backstory is absolutely nothing new. This isn’t a quest mandatory to take on before playing the game, so for those that are upset – it’s easy to overlook and simply enjoy it for the battle royale title it is. Plus, it’s free.
Ready to try it out for yourself? Apex Legends is now available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The team also talked a little bit about cross-play plans and what that means for progress, you can learn more about that right here with our previous coverage.
