‘Apex Legends’ Latest ‘Stories From the Outlands’: Yet Another Twist on Newcastle’s Origins

Early this week, we learned that the newest hero, Newcastle, coming to Apex Legends was none other than Jackson Williams. Brother of Apex Games expert Anita Williams, a.k.a. Bangalore, Jackson grew up in a military family with all five siblings and his parents serving in the IMC. However, he is now an ex-IMC lieutenant because he saved his crew from a suicide mission and was ordered to death. No court-martial process happened. This caused Bangalore to see the IMC for the aggressive, imperialistic scum it was, finally. Unfortunately, in the process, Bangalore lost contact with her brother and the only person that didn’t worship the IMC in her family. Many thought he was dead—until we saw him as Newcastle.

Presenting…your new competition, though you may have met before—@GabeKunda as Newcastle! pic.twitter.com/7Gu6Kbf3ze

— Respawn (@Respawn) April 25, 2022

There’s so much to extrapolate from this trailer about his background, and more about his character outside of the lens of Bangalore, to get into! I’ll be referring to him mainly as Jackson or Jackie for reasons that will be very clear soon.

Hero of Harris Valley

Before getting into Jackie, let’s talk about the original Newcastle—maybe not be the first, but he’s the first we see. Despite his popularity in Harris Valley selling expensive merch and gathering a crowd of primarily happy people, he is high-key stressed about not getting into the games. I cackled when an organized crime group shook him down because he blamed his teammates. I’m not advocating for Newcastle’s death a few moments later (or even the general shakedown), but this attitude mirrors some of the toxic players in Apex Legends. I don’t come across them often, but they sound like this.

Jackie is a family man that lives in Harris Valley. The place looks like a New England college town between two mountain ranges, but just more diverse, and with these Titanfall universe details on some of the buildings and wrist adornments. Comments by him, and art from developer Respawn, reveals that he is a mechanic for the hero of the Harris Valley, Newcastle. Newcastle doesn’t respect Jackie and even calls him “the trashman.” However, Jackie knows the armor and has experience leading via his days at the IMC as a lieutenant.

Having Jackie take up the mantle as Newcastle is a fun twist and explains one of the reasons he was pretty quiet in the other trailer. For one, he didn’t need Banglore to recognize him. Jackie looks very different and was suited up, but still. The other reason was that he needed to concentrate and prove himself on the first go. Those people that killed the original Newcastle in front of him said, “You got one shot. You fail, the town burns.”

Character traits

I love that family is still a big part of his character. Jackie’s story is heavily tied up with his sister (even though he’s pretty freaking silent to the Bangalore slander even by his son), and now we see him getting to be the dad of two cuties. The story focused on his baby girl’s “protection” bracelet that reads “papa” with some heavy beads. Also, as far as we know, he is the second official parent of the Apex Games, with the other one being the time-traveling Horizon. (I have to say official because I swear Rampart calls her creations like her machine gun Shelia, “baby.”)

While I can’t really speak to the motivation of the original Newcastle and why he took money from sinister people, we know for sure that Jackie is a man of character and guided by his desire to serve others. He served his family by joining the military, he saved his crew even if that meant he disobeyed orders, and Jackie helped the people when crash landing in the “Gridiron” short. He reminds me a lot of Gibraltar in character, which totally makes sense if Jackie taking up the mantle of Newcastle will make him a defense hero.

There is no official word on abilities, but leaks have been floating around for a while. Let’s just say that they hint at retrieving downed teammates and maybe an ultimate that resembles a fortified stronghold. I only mention those because they were also seen in the “Saviors” launch trailer. We’ll likely find out more during the gameplay trailer reveal on Monday, May 2.

(images: Respawn Entertainment)

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