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To my memory, tumblr blew up with excited nonbinary fans. Anthony Burch answered this question on his Ask.fm: The first episode of Tales From the Borderlands was released. (Timeline continues under cut) November 25th, 2014 There’s a lot of folks at Gearbox that like to think that maybe Zer0’s of a particular species that doesn’t have gender- That is more androgynous.” ( Timestamp) In fact, um, we purposely have left Zer0’s gender ambiguous. “What’s the gender of Zer0?….That says more about me than it does say about Zer0, the fact that I use the pronoun he when I describe Zer0. What gender is he?” *crowd laughs* “We need better pronouns, don’t we? Don’t we need better pronouns?” ( Timestamp) “The other things that’s interesting to me is sometimes when there’s characters that don’t have a gender or have an ambiguous gender I’ll choose them…In Borderlands 2 we left Zer0’s identity very ambiguous. In a panel titled “Playing as a female character panel - Does it Matter” during PAX Australia, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford discussed Zer0’s gender: To my knowledge, this was where it was first seeded that Zer0 may not be male. Zer0’s actual name and gender are (CONTINUED ON PAGE 9) As you have correctly noted, “Zer0” is not the Vault Hunter’s true name. I am indeed acquainted with the towering stack of leather and poorly-written poetry that so many refer to as “Zer0”. Do you have any details on this mysterious figure? I have been meaning to ask - that’s not really his true name, is it? Hell, maybe Zer0 isn’t even a “he”. I have heard you are acquainted with the vault hunter known as “Zer0”. It included an “Ask Doctor Tannis” advice column, the last question being:
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In it was the “Pandoran Gazette” an in-universe newspaper. Gearbox released the Diamond Plate Loot Chest. This is explained outside the game by Burch, who says that Bloodwing’s species changes gender halfway through life. In the original Borderlands Bloodwing was referred to as he/him, but switched between games to she/her. It’s worth noting that Borderlands 2 also featured Bloodwing, Mordecai’s pet alien bird. Still, in Borderlands 2, they defaulted to he/him, and was assumed male. Zer0 is apparently not their real name, they seem not to be human (but it’s unclear if they’re an alien, robot, or something else entirely), no one knows where they came from, etc. Zer0 was introduced in Borderlands 2 as a character meant to be absurdly mysterious in almost every way. Why Nonbinary Borderlands Fans are Mad About Zer0′s Pronouns, In a Timeline
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