Why is hammerlock and his sister black

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 General Discussion
#1

I am not sure if I am missing a part of the story or they are just suddenly black out of nowhere

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#2

No, they are black, they always have been.

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#3

I was surprised as well. Given the accent and 'stache style I thought he was just sunburned.

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#4

Oh no not this argument again.

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#5

Didn’t realize this was an “argument”

…kinda sounded like a question

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#6

hammerlock has always been black wtf game have you been playing

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#7

I looked at some of his images from previous games and it looks like he really was black just very light black since I kept meeting him in the snow map in borderalnds 2. Aurelia looks very white though and now shes black.
And yes it was just a question not an argument, I just thought borderlands changed them black with a jk rowling move or something

#8

They’re black because they’ve always been black.

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#9

wait wait wait, i have always seen him as a white guy with a tan or olive skin. has my whole life been turned upside down?

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#10

There are people who thought hammerlock was white??? huh

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#11

I have literally never heard anyone having this confusion before. Ever. Hammerlock has always been black, so has his sister. As to his accent, you do realize there are black English people, right?

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#12

Hammerlock
It is easy to see why someone would think he is a tanned white guy or even latino. It is the hair that throws people off i suppose.

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#13

Yes. I’m baffled by it as well. It’s particularly fun when you say Sir Hammerlock has always been black and some people still refuse to believe it, as if there was any shadow of a doubt about it. That’s usually when the very common “Naw, he’s just really tanned” argument is used. It was a big discussion when BL2 came out, it was a big discussion when TPS came out and some people were like “Wait, if Lady Hammerlock is black why is Sir Hammerlock white?” and it was a big discussion when news of the Borderlands movie came out and people started fan casting a bunch of white dudes as Sir Hammerlock. And now, here we are once again. For some reason, finding out Sir Hammerlock is black is a big shock to a lot of people.

Here’s a link to a post I made the last time this subject came up in which I shared some pieces of concept art that show Sir Hammerlock was always intended to be a black guy, even at the earliest stages of character creation: Borderlands Movie Actor/Plot Wishlist

But hey, on the other hand, at least Sir Hammerlock’s homosexuality doesn’t go over people’s heads as much and most people seem to be fine with it.

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#14

It is not a big shock to people. Don’t blow it up like that. I posted a pic of Hammerlock to show where the confusion would be. If someone is not too familiar with the lore or does not have much experience with Hammerlock then yes, one could mistake him for something other than black.

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#15

I’m not blowing anything up. Read the post I linked to, in which I say pretty much the same thing you’re saying there… That if people never actually bother taking a closer look or spending more than two seconds looking at his face, they can mistake him for something else due to character stereotyping. My problem is with people who still refuse to accept it even after being told they’re mistaken, and there’s been definitely a lot of long arguments and expressions of shock and awe at the realization in the past (I’m not talking about this thread in particular). Take a look at the other posts in that thread I linked to and see what I’m talking about.

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#16

You know… I’ve never really thought about…well I’ll be

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#17

Hmmm… I guess I haven’t really thought about it much either.

I always thought of him as “British”, kinda picked up that he dated guys, so I think I missed him being Black. The first time I saw Lady Hammerlock (playing pre) I saw her as Black, but really didn’t care/worry about them being related (or maybe adopted).

But if we are just going skin tone, Amara could be Black, though I just tend to think of her as Indian (as in Hindu, not as in Lakota).

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#18

yeah, I was like… so its some british sounding steampunk guy, thats funny… and I didn’t even think about his race. I never got to play his sister back when pre sequel came out, got caught on a long MassEffect3 multiplayer stint then ended up on the next gen playing Destiny and didn’t go back

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#19

I thought he’d always been black, shows what I know lol.

For any Brits, does he remind you of Dave Benson-Phillips? Cos he does me. I remember Dave putting on that old Etonian what what what accent quite often, most of the time while wearing a monocle and fake handlebar tash, very reminiscent of Hammerlock, long before he existed.

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#20

never once thought about it. They’re just British to me.

The ethnicity of a character in borderlands is of little concern to me, though I think Hammerlock’s could have been communicated better. His outdoorsman-hunter-schtick leaves room for him to just be really tanned.

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