Earlier this week, Respawn Entertainment officially revealed the trailer for the new legend coming to the battle royale Apex Legends. His name is Walter (Wally) Fitzroy, otherwise primarily known as Fuse, and he’ll be arriving alongside Season 8.
While his character has been known since Jan. 18 when the latest trailer for “Stories from the Outlands” was uploaded, this week saw the release of all the details you should know about him before he arrives. Fuse is a 54-year-old former mercenary and connoisseur of explosives who is “covered head to toe in all things that go boom.”
“He pulled off jobs big and small alongside his childhood friend, Maggie,” says the description of his character trailer. “But as time passed, their interests diverged. Fuse found his calling fighting in Salvo’s bloodsport: the Bonecage. He proved to be the best, most charismatic and beloved gladiator in the arena. But he itched to join the grandest stage of them all: the Apex Games.”
His tactical ability is the Knuckle Cluster, which lets him launch a cluster bomb that continuously expels airburst explosives on impact. His passive ability, Grenadier, allows him to stack an extra grenade per inventory slot — and makes those grenades fire farther, faster, and more accurately. Finally, his ultimate ability is The Motherlode, a bombardment that encircles a target area in a wall of flame. Basically: he makes things (and hearts) go boom. It’ll be interesting to see how his abilities will affect the meta, whether through aggressively unleashing direct explosions on other players in the arena or helping your team with some strategic crowd control.
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Also, yes, you read the headline correctly: it’s been confirmed that Fuse is part of Apex Legends’ LGBTQ+ roster. Fuse is pansexual, which means he can be attracted to all people regardless of gender or sex. (You can read an article like this one to learn more about pansexuality, and how it’s different from sexualities like bisexuality.)
This was first confirmed by Sam Gill, who is a writer for Apex Legends. In response to a fan asking about clarification on the line, “Ladies’ man, man’s man, and all-round manly man,” in his official profile, Gill was happy to confirm that Fuse is pansexual.
In response to a fan asking if the character is bisexual, Ben Prendergast — Fuse’s English voice actor — also confirmed the legend’s pansexuality. “Good question,” he tweeted. “I don’t really think in terms of labels ay but I’ve never cared about what weapon your packing if ya catch me drift? On Salvo life’s for livin and everyone’s welcome. I hear you lot call it pan? Yeah nah, plenty of Fusey to go around, ay!”
This makes Fuse the latest in a line of multiple queer characters in the refreshingly diverse and inclusive roster of Apex Legends. Gibraltar is gay, Bloodhound is non-binary, Loba is bisexual, and Mirage has, according to the trailer for Season 6, “already standing-in-quicksand sexuality issues.” If this kind of thing bothers, annoys, or disgusts you in any way, my condolences for when we’re finally out of quarantine and you step back out into the real world.
You love to see the Apex L(GBTQ+)egends thriving, to be honest.
Season 8 of Apex Legends will be dropping on Feb. 2, 2021. Apex Legends is playable on PC (Origin and Steam), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Cross-play between all systems has been available as of Oct. 6, 2020.
