#But the creative team he employs still deserves credit and I'm excited y'all

[sadboyharwin]

My Good Pure Vault Hunting Boi

Okay okay okay can I just ramble about how much I love about what Borderlands 3 is doing with FL4K, one of their new playable characters?

First of all, FL4K is an example of my favourite trope, the AI-figures-out-how-to-people thing, I love that shit so much but that’s not even the point. FL4K is non-binary, you can see they use they/them pronouns in the official bio.

This is really really important to me. For one, hell, I’m a big fan of Borderlands so seeing representation of someone like me in my favourite game franchise is just fuckin great, honestly.

But also, can anyone think of another non-binary character in this high-profile a release? That excites me all on its own.

And yeah sure they’re a robot, they don’t have a biological sex so some might reckon it’s a bit of a cop-out, but all other robots in the franchise so far have used he/him or she/her! And then there’s this little detail in the recently-released Cosplay Guides that blew me away-

I need that badge, the one on the right. It is both a fucking pun and a goddamn non-binary pride flag!!! Then I realised that’s the thing - they’re using the Emergent AI side of their story as a metaphor for being accepted as unusual and the hesitation or outright refusal some people have to accept non-binary people as just being ordinary people and just, I’m so excited!

This is just, such a big deal for me it really feels like the creative team were trying to support people like me and fuck it’s so so validating to see someone like this in media, let alone a game I was going to end up hyped about anyway

Sorry, I just, I needed to shout about this I’m so in love with this character and we haven’t even been able to see their gameplay yet (like, fuck, we don’t even know who’ll be voicing them) but I’m so happy to see some real, in-your-face non-binary representation and.... yeah, I’m running out of steam but I can’t think of an actual conclusion so, g’bye, be well.