Fuse and Bloodhound\u2019s Apex Legends love story, as told by VA Ben Prendergast Respawn \/ EAThe Apex Legends community melted down when Fuse and Bloodhound, one of fandom\u2019s favorite couples, finally got together. Voice actor Ben Prendergast opened up to Dexerto about that experience, the heirloom, and the importance of LGBT representation. Apex Legends has a reputation for pioneering diverse LGBT relationships in AAA gaming. On release in 2019, Bloodhound was a breath of fresh air for non-binary representation, something that has since become more commonplace in gaming. Accompanied by Gibraltar, an openly gay man, Respawn worked diversity into its opening cast with a fervor not really seen in live service games. Since then, more LGBTQIA+ people have found a carve-out in the Apex Games to see themselves in. Loba, Valkyrie, Fuse, Seer, and Catalyst have only expanded the confirmed cast of gender and sexually diverse representation in the battle royale. Fan theories take that much further. As far as relationships go though, Fusehound is the big one on the Outlands. First it was the animated clip in October 2022, the two fighting arm in arm before embracing for a kiss. Then it was the anniversary gift in Season 18 \u2014 a guitar for Fuse with the initials \u201cWF That second series of teasers culminating in the heirloom sent Apex Legends fans wild. Solidifying the relationship between the explosive pansexual Aussie and the enigmatic non-binary tracker was a huge win for diversity in gaming. And for Fuse\u2019s voice actor Ben Prendergast, it was quite the news to keep close to his chest. \u201cObviously the whole social sphere was like \u2018What\u2019s his heirloom going to be,\u2019\u201d he told Dexerto as hype built for Fuse\u2019s heirloom. \u201cWould it be his old arm? Knuckle dusters? A flail? The Bowie Knife? \u201cWhen they called me in and were like \u2018Okay we\u2019re going to do the voice lines\u2019, I was like \u2018But you\u2019re going to show me what it is first, right?\u2019 They had some concept art \u2014 it wasn\u2019t what came out \u2014 but it was a guitar that looks like his acoustic guitar, this guitar that\u2019s more of an axe, and more.\u201d The lines were a hit from the moment Prendergast saw them. It was \u201csuper fun and super Fuse.\u201d However, the reaction online still took him by surprise. \u201cWe were at some Mexican Day of the Dead festival, sitting there with my family, and my phone went nuts,\u201d he laughed. \u201cI was like \u2018holy sh*t did someone die? Did I miss a session?\u2019 \u201cI think they always knew it was going to be the first official couple, so to come back to the heirloom and know that Houndy had given Fusey that heirloom, and to have them mark the weapon with the [love heart], that was lovely.\u201d Representations of LGBT relationships in the media often bring dissenting voices. Homophobia and transphobia in gaming spaces is still an issue. Prendergast takes a very pragmatic approach to it though. He knows the importance of seeing yourself in a character. A flourishing relationship between Fuse and Bloodhound, bringing pansexual and non-binary people joy, isn\u2019t taking anything away from anyone. But the more communities who can find a corner to occupy in gaming, the more inclusive the community becomes. \u201cThis is a game that has some longevity, and is quite an aggressive game when you really look at it,\u201d he explained. \u201cRather than preaching to the converted and saying \u2018this is fair, this is how it should be,\u2019 I really applaud Respawn going head-on into \u2018okay let\u2019s change some minds here. Let\u2019s be a bit more liberal with how we treat sexual politics.\u2019 Especially in gaming where there are toxic elements that need to have a whack across the face. \u201cYou really see it when someone who is maybe edging into the toxic area online, crosses the line somewhere, and then the fanbase comes down on them and they apologize or they rethink their position, and I think it\u2019s super healthy. \u201cI see people talking about \u2018don\u2019t shove this down our throats\u2019 and I\u2019m like \u2018well it\u2019s not being shoved down your throat.\u2019 If you open your eyes and you weren\u2019t in your own echo chamber, you\u2019d see this happening across the world. \u201cThey\u2019re like \u2018don\u2019t come for my game\u2019 and I\u2019m like \u2018mate. Did you not see Season 1? Where all this lore was coming from?\u2019 So I think it\u2019s super important that it\u2019s represented in this way, and I\u2019m super proud to be a part of it.\u201d Bloodhound voice actor Allegra Clark has echoed this sentiment online since the release of Apex Legends. At release time, their pronouns came into question. That permeates discourse to this day, even as Apex nears its fifth anniversary. It\u2019s a funny thing for Prendergast to look back on. As this relationship has blossomed in game, it\u2019s rubbed off on the voice actors out of game in their friendship. \u201cThe original cartoon [in 2022] was the first time Allegra [Clark] and I recorded together,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing able to be in the booth, working off each other, went back to some theatre stuff for me \u2014 being able to respond truthfully to each other. That\u2019s why it impacted people a bit differently. \u201cAllegra and I have this offscreen friendship that\u2019s deeper now because we\u2019re literally a couple [in game].\u201d The diversity in game also has an impact on player behavior. Prendergast noted the gender diversity in Apex\u2019s streaming scene was much stronger compared to other games. Beyond that, professional Apex players have long been outspoken on issues surrounding misogyny in gaming and trans rights. Fusehound\u2019s relationship isn\u2019t stopping here. Prendergast hopes for more opportunities to share their wonderful spark in game. Given the live service nature of Apex, all it takes is one call from Respawn back in the booth to share new tidbits of lore. And he\u2019ll be waiting for that call to bring the avuncular Aussie to life, with Houndy in tow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fuse and Bloodhound\u2019s Apex Legends love story, as told by VA Ben Prendergast Respawn \/ EAThe Apex Legends community melted down when Fuse and Bloodhound, one of fandom\u2019s favorite couples, finally got together. Voice actor Ben Prendergast opened up to Dexerto about that experience, the heirloom, and the importance of LGBT representation. Apex Legends has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}