While companies such as Bioware have pushed the envelope by giving gamers the option to explore homosexual and bisexual romances in its franchises such as Dragon Age and Mass Effect, it’s arguably more important that developers come right out and say “this character that we created is gay” and “this character is canonically bisexual” and, with any luck, someone will one day proclaim “this character is unequivocally transgender.”īut that’s seldom the case. Regardless of your sexual or gender identity, people who identify as LGBTQIA+ deserve to see themselves represented in media just as much as heterosexuals do. That’s not to say Borderlands is an LGBT game, but the people at 2K have made it clear that diversity and inclusivity are important to them as developers. And furthermore, several of the characters you meet who are LGBT have quests or discoverable background information that alludes to other unseen LGBT characters.
At one point during the series we find out that both a gay and a lesbian couple were forced by the villains to perform experiments on their respective partners – this isn’t a gay plot, it’s just a plot that happens to have characters who are gay in it. The franchise also has queer characters you never meet. Even Tiny Tina is queer, she has a crush on Moxxi. Sir Hammerlock, the master hunter and consummate gentlemen from Borderlands 2, is gay and Janey Springs from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is Athena’s girlfriend. There’s Moxxi from the original Borderlands, a sultry character who’s unapologetically bisexual and Mister Torgue, a giant muscle-bound arms manufacturer, is canonically bi as of the Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep DLC (but I suspect he’d probably identify as pansexual after saying he’s attracted to all of the Vault Hunters regardless of gender). The background characters in the Borderlands franchise paint a fabulous tapestry of inclusivity that makes the entire fictional universe feel inviting and welcome to those of us who don’t see ourselves represented in the traditionally hetero-normative world of blockbuster video games. Axton’s bisexual Athena is a lesbianīut it’s not just the opportunity to step into some bi, lesbian, or trans shoes that matters. FL4K would bring us up to three playables if they turn out to be canonically representative of the LGBT community.
And Athena, the beautiful shield-wielding Gladiator you can main in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel? She’s a lesbian. Remember Axton, the cute Commando you can play as in Borderlands 2? He’s bisexual. This overall queerness even includes a couple of playable main characters.
While no company is perfect, 2K has consistently aspired to be an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community. In fact, as the headline suggests, damn near everyone in the Borderlands universe falls under the LGBTQIA+ banner - at least if you assume that the number of explicitly queer characters is indicative of the fictional universe’s unmentioned citizens’ sexual identity. I’ve had some people ask, so I wanted to confirm - FL4K the Beastmaster does use they/them pronouns! #Borderlands3 Borderlands 3 co-writer Sam Winkler cleared up a bit about FL4K on Twitter: