When game developer Respawn released its team-based battle royale game Apex Legends in February 2019, it came out of nowhere. People expected a third Titanfall game and were surprised to learn of an all-new type of game within the Titanfall universe. Later that year, Respawn’s senior director of brand management, Arturo Castro, admitted it was a gamble, but the out-of-nowhere game launch was inspired by the drops made iconic by BeyoncĂ©.
With the release came six free characters (Bangalore, Pathfinder, Gibraltar, Horizon, Wraith, and Lifeline) and two characters (Caustic and Mirage) unlockable via buying the base game or collecting in-game currency to unlock them. Almost three years later, most of the playable characters (the number now sits at 19) except Bangalore have received cinematic shorts. Cinematic shorts such as Stories From the Outlands, in-game comics, voice lines, and interviews are where most of the lore comes from, and now, Bangalore finally got hers.
Before this short, the main thing we knew about Bangalore was that she came from an IMC Armed Forces family. Her mother, father, and brother all enlisted, but something went wrong, and she’s looking for her brother, Jackson (often referred to as “Jackie”). She was really the embodiment of the well-balanced, basic soldier from a first-person shooter that made it easy for Titanfall players and fans of more high-profile Call of Duty, etc., to ease into this game and not feel totally lost.
Humanizing Anita Williams, a.k.a. Bangalore
Bangalore is not the only human in the character roster, nor the only weapons expert (see the lively Rampart), but she’s a bit stiff compared to many characters. The most emotion she shows, other than focus or spitting technical facts about fire rate, is in interactions with some specific characters.
For example, between the events in seasons nine and ten, Bangalore is in some entanglement regarding Loba and Valkyrie. Shippers (with sufficient story evidence) believe that Loba and Valkyrie had some sort of falling out, and it’s linked to Bangalore as Loba’s “just-a-friend” buddy. Respawn’s writers confirmed Loba as bisexual and Valkyrie as a lesbian. While there’s a handful of LGBTQ+ characters on the roster, next to none have anything other than friends or enemies relationships with legends— except these three (possibly).
Beyond this, Bangalore didn’t have much going on. Now, in Gridiron, we see her beginning the deprogramming process as she learns that the IMC uses its soldiers as pawns. Before this, Bangalore conflates the military with family because it has been for generations of the Williams. Barely older brother Jackson appears jaded even before the betrayal of the IMC.
Before the IMC comes to retrieve Bangalore, she argues that Jackson shouldn’t have retreated because the mission was to defend Gridiron (their homeworld that was visibly in the process of being annihilated), but as commanding officer, Jackson chose instead to save his crew and sister. Her refusal to accept orders from him and turning her brother in for the equivalent of a court-martial backfires when the IMC reveals they have no intention of giving Jackson a trial, causing Bangalore to realize that the IMC is not the “good guys” but a war machine.
Did you see her heirloom?!?
We also get to see Bangalore’s heirloom (melee weapon) in action! It’s a standard-issue, serrated IMC pilot’s knife, which is very fitting because it would be something she’d be very familiar with, as a military weapons expert with a lifelong connection to the IMC.
What I love most it is that it’s not just something flashed for fan service and to convince others to get the heirloom. Bangalore earned the knife as she disarmed an attacking IMC soldier (probably an officer) and used it to save herself and Jackson at the end of the cinematic. While it’s the same model, we’d like to think it is the same exact knife Bangalore carriers in-game as both a tool and nod to her story.
(Images: Respawn Entertainment)
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