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Dishonored Death of the Outsider, the first game with a black bi female protagonist

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
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Meet Meagan Foster aka Billie Lurk. Billie is many things: trusted friend, expert ship captain, skilled assassin. Billie lost an arm and eye in an incident with city guards many years back and she still has nightmares and phantom pain where her missing arm and eye used to be. She is also the first bisexual black female protagonist in a video game from what I know.

For those who havent played the Dishonored games. Billie Lurk first shows up as the second in command to the supernatural assassin Daud in the DLC for the first Dishonored.

She returns in Dishonored 2 as Meagan Foster to be the ship captain and guide for Emily/Corvo who are the protagonists for Dishonored 2.

Finally, Billie Lurk takes centre stage in Dishonored Death of the Outsider, a standalone expansion taking place after Dishonored 2 where Billie plans to kill the Outsider, a powerful godlike being who granted supernatural powers to the previous playable characters Corvo, Daud and Emily. I had spent time with her in Dishonored 2 but it wasnt until Death of the Outsider where I realized Billie is also bisexual, occasionally reminiscing about her sweet Deirdre and the loss she feels. Its really subtle and under the radar, helped along with the fantastic writing from Arkane and. solid voice acting

It also helps that Death of the Outsider is a fantastic game in itself with fantastic level design, painstaking attention to detail and freedom in approaching objectives as has come to be expected of Arkane Studios. The game came out just a few days ago and seems to have flown under the radar for most people too.

Seriously, can we give some credit and props to Arkane and Bethesda for breaking from the norm to feature a bisexual black female as the protagonist even when they could have very easily gone with a white male as is the norm for the industry.

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luulubuu

Junior Member
tumblr_orwnkyzjXf1szz9byo1_r4_500.jpg


Thanks for give me awareness about this! I'm totally getting it now, enjoyed my time in PREY and I loved THAT THING if you play as Morgan Yu F, God bless Arkane
 

TheChaos

Member
As glad as I am seeing more black women as protagonists, it's becoming increasingly annoying that LGBT protagonists are still being relegated to women only.
 
It's the minority trifecta ;)

Seriously, it's good to see the continuing trend of more diverse video game characters and perhaps even better to see that this doesn't seem to be a big deal for most people, or not that I've seen anyway.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
As someone who hasn't played the Dishonored games, what's up with her eye?


Water Tribe is Inuit-inspired, so not black.

She lost her eye in an incident with city guards. The crystal thing you see is a Void artifact, granting her access to some magic.

She's also the only protagonist to not have been touched by the Outsider, a powerful godlike being who granted magical powers to all the previous protagonists. Instead she relies on Void artifacts to use magic.
 

Orb

Member
As glad as I am seeing more black women as protagonists, it's becoming increasingly annoying that LGBT protagonists are still being relegated to women only.
Yeah, it's really depressing

Is this really standalone, or do I need to have played Dishonored 2 to understand it?
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Yeah, it's really depressing

Is this really standalone, or do I need to have played Dishonored 2 to understand it?

Theres references to previous events and characters which might be lost on you. For example you'll know about Daud as Billie's old mentor but wont know about their history together, just little backstory like that.

Its fully standalone and at $30 quite cheap too. The average playtime is 10 hours and theres replay value as you can do NG+ with the abilities from Dishonored 2.

I highly recommend all the Dishonored games as theyre all consistently high quality but you could start with Death of the Outsider as it still has its own plot, characters and events.
 

Wulfram

Member
First game with a set black bi female protagonist.

Not denying the importance of this, just think the games with character creation should be given their due.
 

Orb

Member
Theres references to previous events and characters which might be lost on you. For example you'll know about Daud as Billie's old mentor but wont know about their history together, just little backstory like that.

Its fully standalone and at $30 quite cheap too. The average playtime is 10 hours and theres replay value as you can do NG+ with the abilities from Dishonored 2.

I highly recommend all the Dishonored games as theyre all consistently high quality but you could start with Death of the Outsider as it still has its own plot, characters and events.
I nearly beat the first but was never able to get the 2nd. Might try to get this and try 2 if I like it again.
 

kirblar

Member
First game with a set black bi female protagonist.

Not denying the importance of this, just think the games with character creation should be given their due.
That actually highlights one of the reason games w/ set protagonists are important - if given the option, many players are never going to go for the female/non-straight/etc. option in the game.
 

sflufan

Banned
I'm pretty sure that Billie is homosexual, not bisexual. I mean, I've seen no evidence in either DH2 or DOTO (so far) to suggest that she has any attraction to men.
 

thumb

Banned
For real, Arkane deserves major respect here. And just emphasize it, how lucky are we that the first black, bisexual, female protagonist is Billie Lurk? Billie Lurk is a fully realized, deep, interesting, and flawed character. She is neither a stereotype nor a token, and I am so glad she exists.
 
I'm pretty sure that Billie is homosexual, not bisexual. I mean, I've seen no evidence in either DH2 or DOTO (so far) to suggest that she has any attraction to men.

One of Billie's audiographs (The one before Duke Palace mission) talks about she loved few affairs with men
 

thumb

Banned
Ooooohhhh - I must've forgotten about that one then! And I know I listened to it because I did get the "Royal Spymaster" achievement.

There's still some truth to what you're saying. The Dishonored wiki points out that although Harvey Smith has said that Lurk is bisexual, she still largely prefers women.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
I'm pretty sure that Billie is homosexual, not bisexual. I mean, I've seen no evidence in either DH2 or DOTO (so far) to suggest that she has any attraction to men.

One of Billie's audiographs (The one before Duke Palace mission) talks about she loved few affairs with men

To add to this, I did wanna put lesbian but didnt have enough room in the thread title. Billie's affection lies with her dear Deirdre.
 

thumb

Banned
It's the minority trifecta ;)

Seriously, it's good to see the continuing trend of more diverse video game characters and perhaps even better to see that this doesn't seem to be a big deal for most people, or not that I've seen anyway.

The steam forum for Death of the Outsider was at least temporarily filled with threads complaining about Lurk being included because of SJWs. So, it's not quite as good as you're saying.
 

Loz246789

Member
Not a Dishonoured fan, but hot take from occasionally seeing her on the steam store - she looks badass. Congrats to the dev team for all this, it's really cool to see.
 

Tarahiro

Member
Oh wow. I love the Dishonored games so I will be buying this eventually but if I wasn't, I would now to support this.
 

SomTervo

Member
I'm not the biggest fan of her voice direction...

But as a character, and for the inclusiveness, Billie is 👌

Arkane in general just 👌👌👌

I came in here thinking it would black male bisexual character :(. Oh well. But I'm glad for diversity none the less.
All in good time, hopefully!
 

Ashtar

Member
Was Aveline in Liberation straight? It's a bit of a blur since I played it years ago.
I didn't play the game so I'm not sure she was ever explicitly attracted to men or women but they talked about her and Connor potentially being mates so it seems she's straight.
Man I want to play this game but my back log is in ending
 
The steam forum for Death of the Outsider was at least temporarily filled with threads complaining about Lurk being included because of SJWs. So, it's not quite as good as you're saying.

Of course. Those shitheels on steam kill me at times.

Thankfully, reviews are positive. They pulled this crap on the assassins creed forum too.
 
Voiced by the awesome Rosario Dawson to boot.

Apparently Micheal Madsen is good in this game too, glad to hear. He's got a spotty record for voice acting.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
I'm not sure I can empathze with a black bi woman.

Also it's not very realistic. There weren't a lot of magic-wielding female black assassins in steampunk Victorian England.

/s
 
As if Arkane needed another reason to be applauded. Between the Dishonored series and Prey, they've released some of the best games of the last decade.
 

BTA

Member
...I finally came back to Dishonored 2 (I stopped playing late last year) and somehow made it up to this point in time, having seen the trailer for Outsider and actually ordering the game, without realizing she was Billie.

I'm just surprised I didn't know?
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Maybe next time this sort of character could be the protagonist of the main game, rather than the DLC/spin-off game.

Small steps. Its a standalone retail release nonetheless.

The masses will see Billie Lurk's face on her game's cover in store shelves next to the biggest AAA games all the same.
 
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