While Apex Legends is known for its highly-entertaining (and often hilarious) season launch trailers, Season 13’s trailer truly had it all. Action? Check. Romance? Check. Giant crustaceans of unknown origin? Check. But there’s a lot more lurking beneath the surface in the “Saviors” launch trailer. Here’s everything you missed while you were gawking at that big crab.
1. Revenant the Party Popper
While this little detail may not seem particularly important, there’s still some significance to be found, and plenty of comic relief.
In the opening scene at Bangalore’s “retirement” party, Revenant can be seen standing at the bar, popping balloons with his sharpened skinsuit-stabbin’ arm, probably thinking about all the gin and tonics he can’t drink (or perhaps secretly wishing a skinbag would ask him to dance). Still, his appearance here is significant because we recently saw the Legends writing invitations for the event, which means his presence at this cozy little affair is no accident.
Someone actually invited the murder robot to a party.
I don’t know what’s more shocking – the fact that the Legends sent him an invitation, or the fact that he actually showed up. But it makes a bit more sense when you notice the banner in the background, which reads “HAPPY RETIREMENT ANITA”, with “AND REVENANT” hastily tacked on at the end:
Revenant was planning to leave with Bangalore as well, because she’s agreed to kill him for good – granting him his greatest wish – once they find his source code. He can’t do it alone, because Hammond Robotics programmed him to be incapable of killing himself. The fact that he’s being thrown a retirement party takes on a much darker tone with this in mind.
While he does snarl when Loba approaches, the two only share a silent moment of mutual hatred before moving on, and by murderbot standards, it appears that Revenant’s on his best behavior. Except for the balloon-stabbing thing.
If nothing else, this scene is a sign that the other Legends have at least learned to tolerate Revenant’s presence, and though he’ll never admit it, I bet he enjoyed spending his weekend socializing with some skinsuits instead of just slicing them up. He’s probably not thrilled that Bangalore is sticking around instead of taking him on his suicidal safari, though.
2. Responsible Grenade-Jumping
Octane gained intergalactic fame when he beat the world record for speedrunning the Pilot’s Gauntlet. He achieved this in the same way many Titanfall players have shaved numbers off their score in the Titanfall 2 tutorial minigame of the same name: by boosting speed via tactically-timed grenade blasts.
Unlike Titanfall 2 players, Octane’s little stunt blew his legs off, leading Lifeline to pull some strings to get him state-of-the-art prosthetic legs. Given her ever-present desire to heal her friends and Octane’s ever-present desire to hurt himself, one might think Lifeline would be fuming after witnessing Octane pull the exact same stunt while also fighting a crab that’s twice the size of the dropship.
Fortunately for Octane, he may have escaped the wrath of the medic and her healing drone, as this was a tactical grenade jump, and he appeared to have actually looked before he leapt: the jump was coordinated with Bangalore mid-battle, and instead of a frag, he used one of her significantly-safer smoke grenades to choke out the giant sea monster before Bangalore dropped her airstrike on it, taking it down for good.
When Octane and Lifeline’s relationship issues came to a head in Season 12, one of the things she said during their heated argument about his impulsiveness was:
“Where would yuh be if yuh didn’t have me and DOC to pick yuh up after running blindly into gunfire?”
Despite the way their scorched-earth argument ended this season, it does seem Octane’s taken some of Lifeline’s advice to heart. No frag grenades in sight, and between the metal legs and the insane amount of Stim in his bloodstream at any given time, he probably didn’t even feel that 10 damage smoke bomb hit at all. It’s perfectly safe.
3. Loba Abandons the Fight
Generally speaking, Loba isn’t one to back down from a challenge. She’s been dealing with rude, party decor-damaging murder robots since she was 8, and it takes more than a big scary sea creature to scare her. But hurting her girlfriend certainly seems to do the trick.
Near the end of the launch trailer, Loba and her fellow Legends are seen battling the giant crab that emerges from the depths of Storm Point’s waters – almost certainly due to interference in the Games’ security systems by one Duardo (real name Torres) Silva, Octane’s technically-not-a-dad.
During the fight, the Titan-sized shellfish swipes at an airborne Valkyrie, knocking her out of the sky. Without even a half-second of hesitation, Loba immediately flings her jump drive bracelet in the direction where Valkyrie has crash-landed – teammates, firefight, and deadly crustaceans be damned.
Even more interestingly, the moment the beast is dead, Bangalore makes a beeline for Valkyrie and Loba. It’s only after she’s checked on Valkyrie that she takes the time to confront her brother. You know, the brother she joined the games in search of in the first place? The one she thought was dead all season? The one who she’s definitely going to punch in the face again as soon as she’s done hugging him?
All of that is, apparently, second to checking in on Loba’s girlfriend, despite the fact that Bangalore is clearly still in love with Loba. Based on the way Loba’s been looking at her lately, the feeling may still be mutual, though Loba and Valkyrie certainly seem to have a genuine connection as well.
There’s no telling where things will go from here, but watching Bangalore share the dropship with her formerly-deceased brother, her ex-girlfriend, and her ex-girlfriend’s girlfriend will surely prove to be entertaining.
4. Return of the Bottlecaps
The Williams family bottle cap bracelet tradition revealed in both Pathfinder’s Quest and “Gridiron” makes another appearance in this season’s launch trailer, moments before Bangalore reveals who’s really hiding under Newcastle’s helmet.
The battle has knocked his bottle cap bracelet off, and there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in which he attempts to conceal it with his hand before Bangalore figures him out.
Needless to say, it’s too late.
5. A Team-Slayer Turned Team Player
Season 13’s trailer marks the first time we’ve seen all the Legends collectively stop what they’re doing and focus fire entirely on an external target in the middle of a match. But some situations require teamwork, even if it means collaborating with your ex, your idiot brother, or worse – the skinsuits you were just shooting at.
Of all the Legends who were battling on the beach when the crab attacked, surely no one would get more pleasure out of seeing their teammates turned into a sea monster’s beachfront buffet than the ruthless, hateful murderbot. Right? By all accounts, this is precisely the kind of entertainment he enjoys. I half expected him to pull up a lawn chair and start sunning himself while watching the humans go down one by one
Yet when it counts most, here he is, defending his favorite meatshields – and yes, even that insufferable MRVN. It’s the least he could do, really. They did throw him a party, after all.
BONUS: A Secret Comic
Between the final frame of the “Saviors” animation and the announcement screen for the upcoming episode of Stories from the Outlands, the screen briefly shifts into a comic book, focusing on a monochromatic image of Bangalore aiming a weapon.
Whether this is just an artistic flair or a sign of something more remains to be seen, but it is a feature that’s unique to this trailer, and given Respawn’s penchant for stuffing Easter eggs in every last nook and cranny, it may well be a reference to future content.
Apex Legends: Season 13 – Defiance launches on May 10th, 2022.
Apex Legends is free to play on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, and Switch.
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