DrLupo blasts Battlefield 2042 fans for “ridiculous” claims over nonbinary character

Benjamin ‘DrLupo’ Lupo unloaded on several Battlefield 2042 players in his YouTube stream comments after they suggested DICE’s decision to have one of the game’s operators be nonbinary was “unnecessary” pandering.

Battlefield 2042 has been roundly praised for adding nonbinary operator Sundance to the playable roster, in a move similar to Bloodhound’s debut in Apex Legends.

However, the DICE-developed franchise apparently has several holdouts who are not so pleased with the concept, some of which emerged in DrLupo’s YouTube stream during the early days of the title. They repetitively asked why DICE had added ⁠— in their words ⁠— “unnecessary pandering” to the title.

DrLupo was less than impressed, and let them know too.

The star, who recently shifted his huge community from Twitch to YouTube, told them in no uncertain terms they should “never watch [him] again.”

At first, the questions were simple. One asked why the character ⁠— Sundance ⁠— had been included at all. Several others weighed in suggesting DICE only did it for publicity and that it made the character less interesting.

DrLupo replied, “Representation is so important in games.”

“A white man like me, I don’t really ever have to deal with that because pretty much every game, there’s always a white guy in it. Representation for marginalized people is important. The best way to say it is, if you have a problem with it, I don’t know what to tell you. It seems kind of ridiculous.

“Literally imagine getting worked up over this,” DrLupo added soon after. “It doesn’t hurt you to use a different word, at all. It’s just respectful and it’s pretty easy.”

The comments continued to roll in, however, including some calling for DICE to remove Sundance entirely. Others suggested they wouldn’t play the Battlefield 2042 character “ever” because of their gender identity.

“If you have a problem with any nonbinary people, trans people, anything like that, I’m gonna identify as a f**king problem for you,” the streamer stated.

“I have nonbinary in my family, my f**king relatives, and I will f**k you up. It’s really not that big of a deal to just call or refer to a character by how it was written. Do me a favor, shut the f**k up and just don’t ever watch me again, okay? I don’t have an issue with it if you don’t want me anymore.

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DrLupo continued: “If you’re not going to watch me anymore [over this], who cares? I will literally protect everybody that f**king needs a place to hang out.”

The related segment begins at 3:09:02 in the video below.

Sundance from Battlefield 2042 and Bloodhound from Apex Legends are two of the most high-profile nonbinary characters in mainstream gaming right now.

Chaos from Supergiant’s game of the year, Hades, is another character in mainstream gaming that goes by “they/them” pronouns, as does Floofty Fizzlebean from adventure game Bugsnax. Pokemon Go players also theorize that Team Mystic leader Blanche is a nonbinary character.

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More recently, Ubisoft confirmed new Croatian operator Osa was the tactical shooter’s first trans character to join the roster in the game’s six-year history.