#the same with bl2 and 3

[handsomeejack]

the pre sequel my beloved. i can’t tell you how many times i’ve played it, it’s so much fun.

[kittygawa--jr]

:/

[fluffyapathybunny]

*sobbing in the corner*

[botilogs]

borderlands state of play impressions

the tweaks to the vault hunter designs rule

the returning character redesigns rule. ESPECIALLY AMARA

i love rush

the level design already feels better

ECHO-4 is perfect. its really channeling the star wars inspirations from the concept art. i dont really care for the yellow trailing though

enemy variety isnt just massively improved over BL3, its INSPIRING. like i wanna open up CSP and learn about mammoths and draw head helicopters. lets hope the game is tuned to let their combat mechanics shine

legendaries being fucking legendary. their weapons skins are colorful and unique between each other. the skins aren't drowned out by details

the grappling is even more interactive than i thought

i think the UI is solid, but the enemy + reticle is TOO much lol.

love how theyre taking BL2's part system to new levels with the licensed parts. it feels like an evolution that isnt bigger for the sake of being bigger like BL3 felt at times

...and same for the skill trees. just 3 action skills instead of putting tons of them with less customization. love it.

repkits and ordnance are interesting

BOSS FARMING AND MISSION REPLAY YESSSS

tl;dr BL4 looks fucking great. this is the series evolution i wanted out of BL3 man. Focus on character personality, gameplay interactivity, world exploration, and what's looking to be a great story? Get me to september.

[shinakazami1]

BL3: Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot - notes on Timothy + theories

Ok this is more of me just trying to take notes on his character for some future projects in one place ohisafiosfa

1) Timothy's behaviour and appearance

a) Introducing with his name

In Pre-Sequel, Timothy is established to have a face bomb that prevents him from saying his name. When he gets to Roland, he also says his name rhymes with Jimothy.

But in BL3, he just... introduces himself?

"But my name is just Timothy."

During the DLC, he mentions that his face-bomb stops him from escaping the casino. My best bet is that the face bomb got reprogrammed and can have a limited amount of conditions that might cause it to blow up.

b) Injected with Jack's DNA...or is he

Timothy is the reason why we believe the body doubles (or at least Tim) has Jack's DNA in them, causing them to talk like him.

"Follow this fine ass! Uh, god."

But as we see the body double in BL2, some get voice lines to say to seem Jack. (BTW I really love @kolbasos ' headcanon that Timothy is the only doppelganger that got plastic surgery).

To me, Timothy was onlymade to believe that DNA thing (as DNA shouldn't have behavioral traits in them), just like he was made to believe he was branded with the Vault mark (headcanon taken from @kitkat578 ).

Kit noticed that if Timothy had the same Vault mark as Jack, we would see it through the crack in the mask. Yet it's just not there!! Not a single blue tint anywhere on that skin!

Like, even Customer 1345 has some more resembling of that mark than him. The marks could possibly be just afterdoing when people find out Jack is dead and thus the guy just got the marks which even more makes it weird that we can't see Timothy's mark.

It is plausible that the amnestic anaesthetic mentioned in Pre Sequel tapes is a bit of a key. Timothy might not remember every single operation well enough or might have memories scrapped, so he just has some lies surrounding those moments.

Vault Mark seems like something Jack wouldn't want people to know about - that's why he has the mask, duh. But Timothy knows about it anyway. It's possible that he had some surgery to get the mask hinges on him, and was told he also got the mark just so he would resent Lilith and everybody connected to her.

With the DNA part - I think it's supposed to serve as motivation. Timothy was shit at acting as Jack in Pre-Sequel. Most people knew he wasn't Jack, he even introduced himself as not-Jack, during Space Slam and most people refer to him as Vault Hunter. It's really rare for him to act as the dude he is paid to act as. I think this lie was either told to him or he made it up, as he started at some point to say and think like Jack more. Even if he hates it, giving himself an excuse for it could help him get more and more into the role, or he would talk way more often like Jack.

c) Swearing

A thing that seems to be very silly about Borderlands series is its relationship with cursing. Handsome Jack is a great example of it- he doesn't like some curses. It's why Angel seems to hlt herself sometimes before cursing. Mr. Torgue has a censor wired to his voicebox due to the shareholders so, maybe Jack wants to keep those happy, too.

Timothy seems to be weirded out to being able to say "asshole" instead of a-hole, when referring to Pretty Boy. It's possibly either a voice modulator censorship or another face bomb thing that just like his name, got reprogrammed to only not letting him out.

He gets so happy he says it two times in a row foahissioa (also off top but his planning skills seem to match Rhys' <3)

2) Moxxi

a) Moxxi seems not to trust Timothy. It may be just due to him working for Handsome Jack for so many years. If there is some other reason though, feel free to tell me :0c

b) Date

Timothy mentions that when Jack got "mega-rich", Jack wanted to win Moxxi back, so Timothy went on a date with her. The issue I have with it, however, is when this date could have taken place.

In Pre-Sequel, when we meet Moxxi for the first time, Timothy says this:

"Holy shi-- hi! I'm uh -- Jack. Obviously. And I need your help. Are you SURE we're not dating? -- Wow!"

Due to his reaction, it feels as if this was really their first meeting. But there are only points in the story where the date could have canonically taken place:

Before Pre-Sequel (I think already after wife's death due to Jack's possible bad behaviour in the break up):

For: - Jack had just gotten rich enough to try to get Moxxi back. - Timothy's reaction can be like this due to just the outfit. Moxxi went on the date just due to hunger so she could have dressed more casually (just like in her garage outfit). - Timothy also at one point asks her to marry him. Iif they already had this date, it would also be an aftereffect to knowing each other better.

Against: - This dialogue really feels like their first meeting. - Timothy seems so focused on getting that second date in-game that it feels like it was their last meeting. But it's not a strong point, since it might just be him wanting to get a second date, who knows.

Before BL2:

For: - Jack got even richer. - They already knew each other so she would know that the body double she is spending time with is Timothy. - This moment could potentially strengthen his crush on her after she tried to destroy Jack in Pre-Sequel, esp since this would mean Timothy also would have died

Against: - Jack doesn't seem like a guy who would want a relationship with someone who tried to kill him ohsoai and he was already getting with Nisha - Jack has a part in the casino called "Foxxxi's" - which shows just how much he dislikes her.

While before Pre-Sequel makes sense, both options are plausible.

[sarkyfancypants]

Borderlands: My honest thoughts

Warning/Disclaimer: Long rant and personal opinions from someone who knows a little too much about the games and maybe spoilers.

What can be said that hasn't been said about Borderlands? The gameplay is fine but its story has wasted potential? That the fanbase keeps getting rear-ended by the franchise's creator who can't pay his workers right and suffers a meltdown from getting feedback and critiques? That it's been taking a slow nosedive after BL3 as the characters and plots keep getting dumber, slowly losing its loyal fans?

That third statement may be a bit of an exaggeration but I have heard people feeling exasperated about how many tumbles Borderlands has taken with Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (although that's not directly a Borderlands game, much more of a spinoff) and The New Tales from The Borderlands which nearly drove me into tears from how awful it was...

I'm not counting the movie, that's it's own thing, but I'll just say it is equally as disappointing.

I'm gonna start with a phrase I heard someone say:

"Handsome Jack was the start and the end of Borderlands".

Stay with me.

Borderlands didn't have a proper plot to begin with, and it was until BL2 when things started to pick up and you can't deny Handsome Jack was part of the reason it became the talk of the town.

I'm not saying this just because Jack is my favorite character. It's something that I have heard from many different people who have talked about the franchise in general. Jack was, and still is, highly appraised as "one of the best videogame villains" so far. He set an unexpected standard for the franchise that held up throughout The Pre-Sequel and Tales from The Borderlands, up to his definite end.

When Jack died, the franchise died with him. Dramatically put.

Sure, we still had some more of him in The Handsome Jackpot but that's inconsequential I think.

This is not saying that I want them to bring Handsome Jack back.

I don't want them to bring him back.

I feel that he has served his purpose.

But a much wasted purpose. Here is where my issues begin. At the end of The Pre-Sequel we got the cutscene where the Guardian/Watcher warns the VHs of a war. A war that we yet have to see because nothing of that extremity happened in BL3. Who knows, maybe it'll come in Borderlands 4 and 3 was just the setup.

That scene seemed important, and it coming from The Pre-Sequel, an underappreciated game that talks about Jack's transformation to Handsome Jack, the revelations of his involvement in BL1 and the things that then led to the events of BL2 on forward, almost seemed to indicate something. At least in my point of view.

I don't want them to bring Handsome Jack back, but what I do want is to see a follow-up to the consequences of his actions. That warning of a war almost felt to me like the the things Handsome Jack did triggered something big. His meddling was more significant than what Atlas and Dahl did previously, and it would ultimately justify Zarpedon's urgency to bring him down as she was enlightened by Eridian knowledge and supported/guided by the Guardians.

But after BL3, it was almost as if he was simply swiped under the rug and that was it. People only mention him to say how much of a dick he was but that's all of it. No impact, no shred of importance. Just an underwhelming "he was an asshole".

Maybe I'm looking too hard into this and I don't know if anyone else sees my vision, but it is one of the many missed opportunities from BL3, just the same as my bane which has been Troy draining Tyreen to death and becoming the focus for the rest of the game. The signs were there, it was leading up to that, there was even cut dialogue that implied that! But it was ultimately scrapped and therefore wasted.

Like the cutscene after Maya's death, the scene that would redeem Ava from being an annoying brat to a more grounded person with space for character development.

The fact that Aurelia was presented in the trailer as an ally later to be revealed as a one-dimensional villain we have to kill to progress on the story. That one still pisses me off.

I'm also upset that the awesome characters we played as in BL2 were turned into bland npcs that only showed up in DLCs that serve no purpose, with Maya being the only person to actually show serious development only to become the product of a death made for shock value in an attempt to replicate Roland's death. It's so appalling.

Don't get me wrong, Borderlands 3 is a good game and it holds up because it is really fun to play, but the story has me and many others longing for something better.

Oh by the way, did you know the first Borderlands game had a whole third act scrapped out which showed more of Commodore Steele's involvement, grounding her more as a proper villain/antagonist? Yeah, I'm mad too. Shit was already bad from the start.

I will not talk about New Tales, I refuse to think of it as canon. Someone said the best way to cope about its existence is to imagine that none of it is real and it was an in-uneverse film and all the characters in it are in-uneverse actors.

The franchise seems to be in a dire spot and my hopes for the 4th game which was confirmed to be in development, it is making me nervous and I'm disillusioned.

All I have is whatever made-up content I have for myself to still enjoy this franchise that hurts so much to watch it sink like this.

[roocomehome]

SQOTD Time!! ~ @simblr-question-of-the-day ~

Platforms I started off as a PC Player when I was around 4-5 years old, starting with Sims games and a lot of game websites (Friv FTW!!), but as I got older (around fifth grade), I got my own phone! So I was a mobile player for a LONGGG while (esp. since we've never had the money to buy me a gaming laptop), and I'd play a lot of CoD mobile, Minecraft, Genshin impact, and Ark mobile (ik theres more but idr them 🧍‍♂️), It wasn't until last year that I got my gaming laptop AND Xbox Series S, So i've been primarily PC Player and occasionally a Console Player

Genres Idk tbh 😭 I never really keep track of the genres I play, but I guess Action, Adventure/Survival and Simulation games? I also really enjoy games with story (despite me being shit at remembering story and having a terrible attention span) and games that are endless/have an ending but let you keep playing after the end (idk what genre that'd be but ye)

Games I'm playing

I'm gonna put the ones I'm playing rn and then put games I've played under the cut :) !

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Actually playing it rn LMAO) Minecraft (Very off and on) Manor Lords (sort of, Havent played in a hot minute) and that's it 🧍‍♂️ I don't play a lot of games at the same time 😭

Games I've played (And recommend >:))

Every Sims game ofc Stardew Valley ACNH (Switch) Noita Terraria Slime Rancher 1 and 2 (Didn't finish 1, and played thru most of 2, cant finish it cuz its in early access lol) Rain world (Biggest recc to ppl who love survival, 2d platformers 😩) Maneater (I fucking speedran this game by accident and gave myself carpal tunnel LMFAO) Project zomboid (actually the best zombie game no lie🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️) Far Cry 5, New Dawn and a little bit of Primal Shadows of Doubt Beyond Two Souls (SO FUCKING GOOD. LOVED EVERY SECOND I PLAYED OF IT) Detroit Become Human (Same ppl who made Beyond Two Souls and I will never stop singing my praises for this fucking game) GTA5 (Very little LMFAO) Baldur's Gate 3 (LOVE this game, but I stopped playing after a bit 😭 Will def return to it eventually) Viscera Cleanup Detail (BANGER cleanup game, very gore-y tho) ARK on Mobile, Switch AND Xbox (such a good game idc what anyone says 🤷‍♂️) Monster Prom (listen its SO FUNNY AND I LOVE IT LMAO) Ultimate Custom Night Fears To Fathom 1 Stray Gods (Never finished it but it was REALLY good) Borderlands 2 on Switch and PC (Also played a bit of BL1, BL:Prequel(?) on switch and I havent finished any of them but I really like BL2) OMORI (Watched playthrus but I've played a good chunk of it also made me bawl SO FUCKING HARD on my first watch through of this game) Disco Elysium (Didn't finish, BUT It's a really good game) Before Your Eyes (PLEASE PLAY THIS GAME IT MADE ME CRY LITERALLY EVERYTIME I PLAYED IT AND SAW SOMEONE PLAY IT 😭😭) Stray (DIDNT FINISH IT BUT I LOVEE ITTT SM)

[sleepy-crypt1d]

I love thinking about Sl33py's relationships with the canon characters. Because he's there for all the games, he was one of the original Vault hunters in BL1, then got hired by Jack in TPS, then after that he's the one who we view the story through in BL2.

He's met a lot of people, and thinking of the what these people mean to him is one of my favorite things when it comes to writing my AU.

Like, sure, him being a self-insert adds to the whole 'he's friends with everyone :3' mindset, because I love these characters, but thinking of the pain they go through is also really fun.

How Moxxi's betrayal in TPS leads to tainting the family relationship they'd grown in BL1, how seeing Scooter and Ellie afterward hurts because they're family, those are his siblings as far as he's concerned, and yet. Moxxi hates him. Moxxi has tried to kill him. But he still wants to call her mom. He wishes he still could.

How his friendship with Brick is strained because of Bloodwing's death, how Mordecai will never look at him the same even after getting so close in BL1. How these three have saved each other's lives and now struggle to stay in the same room with one another.

How M4x becomes Tina's surrogate dad but she hates Sl33py, how when she sees him, all she sees is Roland's killer and all he can see is a niece he'll never get to meet.

How Hammerlock is one of his closest friends. How Sl33py and Aurelia keep in touch after TPS. How Sl33py still visits Springs, even if Athena never wants to see him again. How he's desperate to keep all these people around and yet he fails, time and time again.

Zed and Marcus bringing him in but unable to ignore the blood on his hands. Tannis wanting to trust him but knowing he's lied before, that he can again.

Angel- god, Angel- wanting to believe that he's a good person. That he could change her dad, that he could fix things, could save her. And then he can't, then he doesn't, and he finds out about her too late to do anything.

His friendship with Nisha and Wilhelm, two people who actually understand him, where he's from, what he's been through. Two people that don't look at him like the Fyrestone residents do, that call him a friend before anything else, how much the team has been through together and yet, they aren't the first. There was a team before them, and he's terrified of there being one after them.

Sl33py goes through so much in my AU, both good and bad, his open acceptance in the first game becoming his inevitable suffering in each installment afterward. My desire to be friends with all the characters very quickly becoming his curse; he can't make them all happy. Not with the way his story goes. Not with the story I have written for him.

Do not even get me started on his relationship with Jack-

[patrik6090]

She is charming

I know! Duh she's MY girlkisser.

Also aren't attachment issues and abonnement issues kinda the same?

I have attachment issues. She has abandonment issues. It's kinda the same, but not really.

Then again ig it is kinda romantic?..

Shhh

It's like on the opposite ends of the same scale

I think..

Anyway completely unrelated again I know but I searched up headshot cus bl2 was annoying me and umm..

Why are 3 of these about why you die when you get shot in the head....

Like...

Isn't that kinda obvious?...

[level1cleric]

What book have you read or game have you played that stayed with you longer than you thought it would?

alright so there's like two kinds of answers to this

there's the really good stuff that sticks with you, like okami. i did not think i would still love okami like i do after almost two decades! i played that shit on ps2 back in '06! dog game good. dog game weirdly long but dog game good

but then there's the real shit, the shit you keep thinking about years later when no one else is. many people love okami. who loves battleborn?

fuckin... Battleborn. A first-person shooter MOBA experience that was unfortunately followed 3 weeks later by one of the biggest games of the year, and direct competitor, Overwatch. Between the similar hero-oriented gameplay and the $40 price tag, Battleborn could not favorably compare in the eyes of the masses. Within a year, the player base had gone from 12,000 to 1,000, to only a few hundred. Not even a move to free-to-play did much to help it. After a move from Gearbox to put it in 'maintenance mode' 16 months after release, Battleborn would see its last online play in January 31, 2021 as the servers were shut down.

But. The legacy of Battleborn can be felt elsewhere, in what was Gearbox's long-awaited and somewhat disappointing release, Borderlands 3. Game development cycles are tricky things, so its not the easiest thing to pinpoint when Battleborn was being developed, but with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel being released in October 2014, one could estimate that more hands were being put on Battleborn after that was finished. So, with (an estimated) two years of dedicated development, we see our final product get demolished the same year it comes out. Disheartening. Well, Gearbox has other things it can work on, right? You've got a big IP in your back pocket, it just needs a good 3rd mainline installment!

Borderlands 3 would be released 7 years after its mainline predecessor BL2, which for reference was 3 years after BL1 (so thats BL1 - 2009, BL2 - 2012, BL:TPS - 2014, and BL3 - 2019). This game has had a doozy of a cook time, so surely our final dish is superb, right? Well... its a bit mixed, yeah? The writing of the game doesn't really hit the same highs as BL2, gameplay has new mechanics sliding and more action skills, but less overall polish on the details. It's not bad, it just doesn't live up to the 7 year wait. Maybe it never could.

Wait, what does this have to do with Battleborn? Well, what if, and hear me out, what if BL3 came out 2 years earlier? If Battleborn was not given out theoretical 2 years of dedicated dev time, it could have meant that BL3 would have had an earlier release, in which its writing was a little more topical, for an audience that would be possibly more receptive to how the story was told (ehh, maybe not). But more importantly, a 2 year earlier release would have meant it would release within one week of Destiny 2, a game in the looter-shooter genre that was inspired by BL2. From there, its a huge toss up for how the two would have interacted with their player bases and retained regular players, but damn do i think about it

[nihilaraarchived]

BORDERLANDS VERSE ; 𝐍𝐘𝐀𝐇𝐀𝐇𝐀 ! 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐆 , 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃 !

kuro is a vault hunter , and he's a good one. he grew up believing ( see: raised to believe ), that the only way to meet god, would be to open a vault. his rocky upbringing relied a lot on ingenuity, and religion in equal parts. keeping the faith in hopes that one day-- some divine power might take pity on his planet. pity never came, and kuro set off from home to find the vault hidden right under their feet. i like to think it may of been something common where he was from. like it was looked upon with pride? that those who wished to try may of been praised for it. most never came back though, and almost non survived the journey.

of course, he'd find the vault- but the contents were not what i had grown up expecting to find. eridian technology, and a strange artifact guarded by a terrifying alien entity ( which of course he killed wtf else should he do? ). the artifact when touched didn't seem to do anything at first. but kuro would quickly find out it granted him with... immortality. not exactly something he'd asked for.

the events following his retrieval of the vault artifact are vague. and kuro claims not to remember where he's from, who his family was, or how old he is. best not to ssk really it's not even that important, ( why do you need to know, weirdo. ) he takes to the role of vault hunter rather well; seeking vaults & any information on the eridians or their tech. trying to discover a way to free himself from his unfortunate condition.

𝐅𝐈��𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐈𝐌𝐈

kuro had found find mimi at a hyperion installation. she was a victim of animal experimentation, trying to see if intelligence increased elemental bonding. it probably wasn't the best idea, and if kuro hadn't broken her out? yeah. it'd gotten him a pretty big bounty on his head between BL1 and BL2. a bounty he still has, and is growing- as he continues to steal from hyperion well into 3. though his theft and vandalism slowly branches out to other corporations. u - u

similar to hsr, mimi is an extremely intelligent feline like alien- though her appearance is a bit more akin to most animals in borderlands. she's also definitely a lot more unhinged in this verse lmao. she is a terrible influence.

at current, he and mimi are both... for hire. though his name has been thoroughly dragged through the mud. they may have a bad rep, but they get shit done.

other stuff....

unlike other character, kuro doesn't die. he doesn't go to respawn stations when he's downed- he just needs a moment to catch his breath. maybe piece himself back together. process of healing is the same in all verses--

he loves... driving. beep beep is he 100% safe about it? no? but he's not gonna get hurt in any way that matters. and mimi is totally fine.

he doesn't want to talk about the amount of times he's been eaten alive.

i do think his immortality is a fairly well kept secret. passing off his fatal accidents, and encounters as good luck. however, it's hard to hide some things up close. if word got out about his condition, i'm certain a few companies would be all over him- trying to figure out how to get some of what he has...

[rainydaze-rhys]

Do all 25 for borderlands. Yknow. For funsies.

There will be a readmore line here somehow because on god I’m about to say so much. let me preface: all my hot takes on the matter are a solid 4 years old at minimum, I do not keep up to date on the blands fandom, my enjoyment of the series exists exclusively in isolation these days, etc., etc., if things have changed then I simply do not know about it

1. the character everyone gets wrong

Handsome Jack. He is not a good dad. He is also not in his 30s. That man has an adult daughter and has been married twice. I refuse to believe he was anything under 50 during BL2.

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

DHKDGDJSHDJDJ I sure did forget this was one of the questions. Um. My faves are all verse and no one would refuse to do one thing or another.

3. description of the worst take you’ve seen on tumblr

I saved this for last and then still couldn’t bring myself to remember anything so this doesn’t get an answer because I simply do not want to remind myself of those takes

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

Back in my borderlands days I was afraid of blocking people so I simply did not do it. Took me until only a couple years ago to finally realize “Oh this rules and significantly improves my online experience” and now I block all the time, but this is an entirely separate blog from my borderlands one so it doesn’t have any crossover

5. worst discord server and why?

This one I can’t answer. Discord wasn’t a thing for my original dive into borderlands. We all were just on tumblr constantly and then me and a few friends also talked on Skype

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

Handsome jack/Rhys. I mean I was there. I was in the thick of it. I could see it. But oh my god the braindead takes on it and the aggressive insistence that it was basically canon! The number of people who actively harassed people who liked the actual in-game love interests! The amount of times I saw people say “I don’t personally like this so I’d rather people not discuss it around me” only to be bombarded with dozens of responses discussing it in detail! Wretched! One of the all-time worst collective cases of people insisting the biggest and most popular ship was effectively canon and getting mad at anyone saying otherwise

7. what character did you begin to hate because not because of canon but because of how the fandom acts about them?

Handsome Jack. lol. lmao.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Handsome Jack is a dogshit father and every single fluff piece or “Happy father’s day lol” post or headcanon about him being a good dad to Angel is dead wrong to an astounding degree. He put her in a cage and used her as a computer for her entire life and frankly she should have gotten to kill him

9. worst part of canon

Borderlands 3.

I was going to say “I kid” but I don’t. It has its moments, but god, it sucks so bad. Killing Maya, replacing Angel with Tannis, writing off Lilith, doing what they did with Aurelia (she would NOT fuck that man), flanderizing the characters from TftBL (Vaughn’s… whole situation…), and— god I just remembered mid-sentence that New Tales exists. That one was actually worse than BL3 somehow.

10. worst part of fanon

Handsome Jack. I’m just gonna keep saying this for basically every question that asks about the bad parts of fandom because literally… him and the people rabidly defending him. (<- he is my favorite character and also I think he deserved worse than he got. these are not mutually exclusive)

11, number of fandom-related words you’ve filtered

See above re: blocking people, I didn’t filter things at the time and on this blog I follow almost no one who posts borderlands content

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Fiona is weirdly unpopular given that she’s literally a protagonist. The same with Lilith, actually, now that I think about it; people seem to either be “meh” about her or frothing-at-the-mouth enraged about her. And they’re wrong! Fiona is a great character who deserved to actually fucking exist in bl3, and Lilith is really well written as understandably arrogant and capable! Also, Nakayama and Vasquez. I can’t take credit for being into those two because other people with extremely good taste did it first and influenced me, but it remains true. And ELLIE. I know “unpopular” isn’t strictly true of her because I think most people would say they like her, but Ellie is a gold star across every game she’s in and I wish there was even more of her and I wish people appreciated her more. Love Ellie.

13. worst blorbofication

. handsome jack.

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

So many borderlands fics are a/b/o. Mpreg is like the DEFAULT. It boggles the mind. “Rhys Borderlands is Handsome Jack’s PA and then he goes into heat in his boss’s office and Jack is such a ruggedly masculine alpha he takes suuuuch good care of him!” Gives me the ick. One thing they don’t tell you about naming yourself after a video game character is the rammys when you try to read a fic and see Your Own Name in those situations.

15. that one thing you see in fanart all the time

I actually don’t really remember the fanart well enough to say about this. I vaguely remember a lot of art of Rhys Borderlands strung up like a puppet controlled by Jack, but beyond that, I’unno

16. you can’t understand why so many people like this thing

Can I be very fully and entirely honest. I don’t love Tim. I don’t hate Tim! And I’ve turned around on him a lot, his appearance in the Handsome Jackpot DLC in bl3 is phenomenal and he’s a great character! And it’s a super interesting concept! I just still don’t love him.

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

I want more fics where Angel survives and gets out from under Jack’s influence. Let the Crimson Raiders be her new parents. I want her to be Maya’s best friend and I want her to date Gaige and I want her to be there in person to kick Jack in the dick when he loses badly and then dies.

18. it’s absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on…

The Pre-Sequel. The Pre-Sequel. The Pre-Sequel. YES the gameplay can be tedious at times. However. I love the Pre-Sequel so much. Love the writing. Adore the plot. Cherish the individual Vault Hunters. The Claptastic DLC remains one of my favorite DLCs. Love Elpis. Fucking love Janey Springs. Hate the way they left so many loose ends to be tied up plot-wise and then just kinda went “lol nvm all that” in the next game.

19. you’re mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like…

IYKYK ;)

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

A lot of the Pre-Sequel is going back and forth across very large open areas using Stingrays which are a vehicle I do not love. A lot of BL3 is also going back and forth across very large open areas using vehicles which control like the Stingrays. There are so many quests that are just “drive around and kill 30 guys and pick up 8 items then drive here and kill 30 animals and pick up 8 more items then drive back and kill 30 guys and give me the items.”

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

I don’t really think there are overhyped things unless BL3 entirely counts as overhyped, which… not anymore. Honestly most of the stuff that’s hyped is fairly understandable. The most popular DLCs are inevitably the ones which are the most well-written with interesting mechanics.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

I already said the Pre-Sequel. Uh, if “everyone else” includes the writers, then TftBL, because they absolutely just threw all of that except Rhys and Vaughn in the trash and then ran those two through a meat grinder.

23. ship you’ve unwillingly come around to

No “unwilling” about ‘em, I’m usually pretty much open to whatever, but I also don’t even poke my head into the tags these days so I haven’t experienWAIT no I just remembered Zer0/Rhys is a thing. I used to not like it. I do now. Silly goofy.

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

“Is it okay to like Handsome Jack?” I will not be elaborating because thinking too much about the endless debates gives me hives

25. common fandom complaint that you’re sick of hearing

Once again I am too disconnected from the greater fandom these days to actually know and be annoyed by what people are complaining about.

[phaseshift-exe]

i was chatting with a friend whos new to the series about why bl3 is so polarizing and i think the entire problem lies in the tone. the reason why borderlands 2's story works so well (to me) is the moments of humor are layered over a story thats overall very bleak and sad. you can see it all over bl2 but the most explicit example is probably dragon keep dlc. tiny tina writes a crazy goofy story about a kidnapped unicorn that poops guns to cover up her feelings of grief, the worldbuilding gets stupider and sillier until she cant deny reality anymore and breaks down. borderlands 3 is a bit more shallow in its storytelling. everything from the worldbuilding to the dialogue is way more cartoony and "out there" and it doesnt really have any reason for it. and when there are emotional moments to drive the story, the huge tonal shift makes it seem of place and almost feel like shock value. especially when the game doesn't even take a beat to let you sit with it, you just pick right back up where you left off.

i could probably keep going with other examples but i think all of it can be summed up as this : bl3 definitely makes an attempt to play from the same book as 2, but the methods aren't really used to enhance the story anymore, its just kind of used because they assumed its why borderlands sells. just about every major beat from borderlands 2 are somehow mirrored in 3, but without the nuance that made it work so well.

i do however feel like the failure of 3 was necessary for them to find their footing after spending so long on handsome jack. based on what theyre saying about 4, it seems like they were taught what not to do lol. it definitely sounds promising that they've addressed the tone/humor of 3 and intend on doing something different.

[researchblogblog]

INTERVEWEE 1

apon — Today at 22:04 Hey, I'm doing research for an assignment in my game design course, on borderlands 1 and 2 and was wondering if anyone would be willing to answer a few questions? anonymously of course. the topic is "Why do people continue to go back and play decade old games?"

INTERVEWEE 1 — Today at 22:05 Because some are great and age doesn’t take away from how good they are.. I’ve 100% Borderlands 1 3 times

apon — Today at 22:06 i have more questions if you'd be willing INTERVEWEE 1, only like five or six

INTERVEWEE 1 — Today at 22:06 Feel free to message me..

apon — Today at 22:07 How long have you been playing the game for?

INTERVEWEE 1 — Today at 22:07 I’ve got a question myself - I never 100% BL2 and picked it up after like 8 years since I first played it and I’m stunned at how hard it is.. is it just me lol?

INTERVEWEE 1 — Today at 22:07 First picked up Borderlands in 2012 I think..

apon — Today at 22:08 no, it can really get hard at times, i myself have never 100%ed it. do you come back regularly?

INTERVEWEE 1 — Today at 22:09 Back to games? No, generally I’m a completionist.. [22:09] But some games, they have to be played again when they are that good..

apon — Today at 22:09 so does that mean you never put it down? or never return to it once youve finished it?

SERVER MOD — Today at 22:09 read the rules

INTERVEWEE 1 — Today at 22:11 Depends on the game.

apon — Today at 22:12 is it a familiarity, the experience or something else that keeps you coming back? or the story, maybe the good mechanics?

apon — Today at 22:14 On a scale of 1 – 5 how much do you enjoy this game compared to your other games? (edited)

INTERVEWEE 1 — Today at 22:17 4.5

apon — Today at 22:17 damn, same score i gave it [22:18] what is your playstyle? and lastly what do you think of borderlands 3? (edited)

apon — Today at 22:22 last questions and im outta your hair ^^

INTERVEWEE 1 — Today at 22:23 Not played BL3 in a long time, I need to get back to it at some point but it was a good game..

Play-style changes really depending on my mood..

apon — Today at 22:25 cool, thanks for answering my questions, now i only need to interview 9 more.. rip me lol

[violet-dragongirl]

...*sigh* still need a new boredom game that I can sink my teeth into...

[girlwiththegreenhat]

so people’s opinions on borderlands 3, especially it’s ending, are pretty varied, and that’s fine. but i think we can all agree that the biggest pile of steaming horse shit in this game is spending the entire thing going out of your way to find claptrap parts to help claptrap build a friend, so he can finally have a source of happiness and not be the last of his kind anymore... only said robot to basically tell him to screw off once she’s completed

and then claptrap literally cries for like two straight minutes

that was. needlessly cruel and completely disappointing given how long that took. i would not have spent all that time helping him make a friend if i wanted to see him cry for two minutes. what the hell gearbox 8(