text:
- Characters from the Pre-Sequel!
- Characters from Tales From the Borderlands
- Borderlands 2 Vault Hunters
- Borderlands 2 Supporting Characters
- Borderlands 2 Enemies
- Borderlands 2 DLC Characters
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Vault Hunters
Vault Hunters in general
Small teams of adventurers hunting the alien Vaults that populate Pandora. Known for being extremely dangerous and rare, to the point that most people react with surprise when they meet one.
- Anti-Hero: All of them except Maya, and possibly Roland. In the case of Wilhelm and Nisha, they are outright Villain Protagonists.
- Badass Crew: Practically the definition of it: a small team of four to six people who effectively destroy entire armies of bandits, mercenaries, and robots, to the point where by the end of both of their respective games, they are expected to take on entire bases of well-armed enemies by themselves.
- Blood Knight: Every single one of them enjoy going to battle to an extent. The only ones who may not relish it is Roland and Jack's Doppleganger.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": In the second game, everyone on Pandora calls the Vault Hunters either "Vault Hunter" or some sort of nickname:
- Roland calls them "Soldier".
- Lilith calls them "Killer".
- Brick calls them "Slab".
- Claptrap calls them "Minion".
- Moxxi calls them "Sugar".
- Tiny Tina calls them "Shawty".
- Sir Hammerlock actually spends one sidequest of his DLC trying out nicknames for the Vault Hunters.
- Handsome Jack calls them "Bandit." Then again, he calls everyone not working for him that. Later on, he calls them "child-killers" after Angel's death.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: None of the Vault Hunters wears symmetrical clothes and none looks worse because of it.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Lilith and Roland for the first set of Vault Hunters. Krieg and Maya for the second, thanks to the "A Meat Bicycle Built for Two" short film — at least, for Krieg toward Maya. In a non-romantic example, Roland and Brick with Tiny Tina. There's also Deathtrap (though he's a robot) to Gaige.
- Memetic Badass: They're seen this way in-universe. To be a Vault Hunter means that you are a badass. If one could use an analogy, a Vault Hunter is to Borderlands what a Jedi is to Star Wars.
- One-Man Army: Each and every Vault Hunter are able to fight off hordes of men, women, monsters, and robots. Lampshaded by Professor Nakayama in the the second game's Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt DLC:Nakayama: You may be a walking apocalypse...
- Only One Name: They all usually go by their first names or a nickname, with Nisha Kadam, Timothy Lawrence (That said, as Jack's body double, he's legally forbidden from saying he's not Jack) and Aurelia Hammerlock being the only exceptions. Some of them (such as Brick) probably don't even have last names in the first place.
- Phrase Catcher: "Come on back" after a mission.
- Pungeon Master: The Pre-Sequel Vault Hunters always have a set of ice puns for when they freeze their enemies with cryo.
- Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits:
- The first group consists of a reasonably sane ex-soldier, a totally berserk lunatic, an alcoholic sharpshooter and his bird (which he talks to), and a pyromaniacal power-obsessed mystical Siren.
- The second group consists of another ex-soldier (this one with an overdeveloped ego), another berserk lunatic about a third as tall as anyone else (who wields guns), an excessively (even gratuitously) mysterious assassin of completely unknown origins, a reasonably sane Siren looking for more about her heritage, a young robotics prodigy on the run from the law, and a psychotic escaped experiment who talks in completely gibberish.
- The group in between them consists of a mercenary obsessed with cybernetic augmentation, a sadomasochistic cowgirl with a cruel streak a mile wide, a former assassin trained as a child-soldier, a small annoying robot equipped with malware, an unlucky intern-turned-body double and an Egomaniac Hunter who happens to be a figurative and literal Ice Queen.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Between the first and second group of Vault Hunters (except Gaige).
- Roland is a solid Blue, being The Hero for the first game, and Big Good in the second. Axton, by comparison, is a Red, what with being a Military Maverick that blew up some terrorists along ''with'' the VIP he was supposed to be protecting, basically due to Rule of Cool as opposed to a Roaring Rampage of Revenge like Roland. Athena actually bounces back and forth; outside of combat she's calm and controlled, recounting her tale without any real emotion to Lilith, while in battle she becomes loud, aggressive, and depending on her skill trees she insults her foes or flies into berserk laughter.
- Maya is Blue, being The Heart and Team Mom compared to her more... "reckless" allies, while Lilith is solid Red, being much more reckless and hot-headed. Their hair colors even match!
- With Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, Lilith is now an Ascended Fangirl with some good old-fashioned repressed nerd anger compared to Maya's kinder lady scholar.
- It's often hard to tell where the equally aggressive Brick, Salvador, and Krieg falls into which category, but Brick's occasional lapses into being the Only Sane Man makes him Blue by default, whereas Salvador's endless aggression and Krieg being, well, Krieg, point to them being Red. Wilhelm's deadpan professionalism makes him more Blue, especially as his cybernetic enhancements make him more and more inhuman.
- Zer 0 is a solid Blue, having no tone of voice outside his Creepy Monotone (even the times he's Sophisticated as Hell), while Mordecai's laid back, easygoing attitude makes him Red. Nisha is more of a Red, being a sadistic gunslinger while Aurelia is more of a Blue, being a stuffy, arrogant aristocrat.
- Gaige fills both roles in a metaphysical context. She's voiced by two actresses. Luci Christian recorded 2/3rd of her lines, specifically covering all the interactions from her Best Friends Forever and Little Big Trouble skill trees, where Gaige is a solid Blue by remaining fairly calm and levelheaded. Cherami Leigh was later brought in to record her Anarchy tree as well as her official ECHO logs on Youtube, and lines that she says as part of the DLC storylines. With Anarchy, all bets are off. Gaige goes full-on crazy with power, right clear into Red territory.
- The Team: All three groups.
- The Leader: Roland for the first group, with Brick and Lilith taking over when he dies. For the second team, Anthony Burch says it's Maya. For the third group, Jack himself is the leader, and ostensibly represented by his Doppleganger.
- The Lancer: Shared with Lilith and Mordecai in the first group, with Axton serving as it for the second. Athena fits this role for the Pre-Sequel Vault Hunters.
- The Big Guy: Brick, Salvador, Krieg, Wilhelm.
- The Medic: Both Maya and Roland share this role in their own ways. Almost all of the Pre-Sequel crew have team-healing capabilities.
- The Engineer: Roland for the first team, Gaige and Axton together for the second, and Wilhelm for the Pre-Sequel.
- The Smart Guy: Gaige
- And Zer 0, to a lesser extent
- The Sneaky Guy: Zer 0
- Team Pet: Claptrap, across all three games, although for the first two he's more of a supporting character.
- True Companions: The first group has become one by the second game, despite their own vast differences. And when Roland dies, the reaction from Brick just shows how strong their friendship became. In the ending of Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep (which shows all of the Vault Hunters gathered around Roland and Bloodwing's memorial), Marcus has this to say about them."And they'd remember that no matter how bad things got, they were never truly alone so long as they had each other."note
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In contrast, the Pre-Sequel crew don't really like each other all that much (particularly in the case of Claptrap, who everyone hates) but are nonetheless capable of working together effectively.
As "The Hunter" (And His BFF Bloodwing)
Voiced by Julio Cardillo (1) and Jason Liebrecht (2)A sniper with an exotic alien bird for a pet, Mordecai is known for being friendly and helpful, even if he does prefer Bloodwing's companionship over other humans. In the sequel, he is the advance scout for the Crimson Raiders.
- The Alcoholic: By the time of Borderlands 2, he seems to have become one (if he wasn't one before). However, by the time of the Son of Crawmerax DLC, he's given up drinking (at least for the moment) so that he can raise his new bird Talon properly.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Sends you to fetch him more booze after Bloodwing dies. It's revealed that he had won Moxxi's underdome challenges, only to get into a relationship with her that went really sour, causing another instance of the trope.
- The Fall of Fyrestone comic, which retells the events of the first game, depicts him as having a bit of a drinking problem even back then.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: One of his skills lets him completely bypass shields and directly damage health. In the sequel, one of his quest rewards is a sniper rifle that does this as well.
- The Beastmaster: Mordecai, barring its cooldown, has a skill which allows him to sic his bird, Bloodwing, on his enemies.
- Badass Beard: he possesses a long goatee.
- Badass Longcoat: His original model used this, and the influence can still be seen in the vest combo he sports.
- Cold Sniper: Extremely cold and ruthless during his appearance in Tales from the Borderlands.
- Cool Mask: Wears a leather mask in the first game. In the second game, he instead has a headwrap of some sort.
- Big "NO!": Whenever Mordecai dies. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! I NEVER DIE!!!"
- In Borderlands 2 when Jack kills Bloodwing.
- Deadpan Snarker: Some of his idle lines smack of this.
- Disney Death: Towards the end of the second game, when his stolen Hyperion barge crashes.
- Evil Laugh: Mordecai employs this trope quite often when he scores a kill.
- Flipping the Bird: In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment during the first game's intro, in response to Marcus' Truxican wrestler/dominatrix comment.
- Friendly Sniper: His victory dialogue against elite mooks ("Nothin' like a challengin' kill!"; "Yeah, not bad! Not bad."; "Heh; another trophy for my wall.") seem to imply that he regards his enemies as sport, as challenges that he is excited to meet. As opposed to, y'know, people. Which is probably what you think of them.
- Genius Ditz: He's not very bright: Mordecai has trouble thinking more than one step ahead, and merrily falls into more than one trap set by Jack with serious consequences for the Resistance each time. On top of that, he's a borderline non-functioning alcoholic. However, he's also the best sniper on the planet, and when riled is a serious threat.
- Glass Cannon/Difficult but Awesome: Not quite to the same extent as Zer 0, but his skills are generally focused a lot more on dealing heavy damage to single targets rather than on avoiding damage or enhancing his own survivability. He's probably the most difficult character to play as solo, given that he's the only one whose action skill can't be used for crowd control (unless you max out one particular skill tree) and also doesn't help him avoid or soak enemy attacks, and he's very much dependent on harming enemies to regain health.
- Gratuitous Spanish: At least in Borderlands 2, where he'll yell "Gotcha, Pendejo" as he shoots people while helping the player, amongst other things.
- The Gunslinger: Every playable character can use guns and has skill trees relating to them, but Mordecai actually gets a skill tree that's called this, specifically with pistols.
- Hand Wave: In Borderlands 2 Lilith relays a story that acts as an explanation for the bug-like behaviour of his action skill, where Bloodwing doesn't attack anyone when Mordecai is behind coverLilith: Remember that time Mordecai got shot in the shoulder and he just hid behind cover and threw Bloodwing out to face those bandits on his own? And Bloodwing just flew around and around in circles, not attacking anybody, and Mordecai was screaming at him: 'What are you doing you coward? Get to killin!' blah blah blah, and finally Mordecai stood up out of cover...Roland: And Bloodwing went down screaming down into the fray and killed all those bandits in a half-second. Yeah, he wanted Mordecai to see him do it, wanted to make him proud.
- Hurting Hero: When we first see him in 2, he's let himself go and is an alcoholic, probably from loneliness and weariness from being hunted by Hyperion constantly. Breaking up with Moxxi didn't do him any favours either. Bloodwing's death sends him into full-blown depression.
- Knife Nut: Keeps two knives on him at all times, one hidden on his back.
- Large Ham: "NOOOOOO! I NEVER DIE!!!"
- Mission Control: In 2, after Roland's death and Lilith's capture.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: He's built like Nny and he can use some pretty big guns. Those revolvers and sniper rifles must weigh a lot. And, at the end of Borderlands 2, he's seen helping to support Brick, of all people.
- The Nicknamer: In the second game, he often refers to Lilith as "Lil". In the case of the player, he generally addresses them as "amigo".
- Noodle People: Mordecai is a lot thinner than the other player characters (including Lilith). Knoxx even comments on it in one of his tweetergrams.Knoxx: Troops will deploy today if all goes to plan. Just met a man named Mord-ee-kai. Dude, eat something.
- A summary on Mordecai from Borderlands 2's official Facebook group even says he dislikes eating.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "Vault Hunter. Get down."
- Real Men Wear Pink: Rather than that show everyone else watches, Mordy's favorite show is that one about those two duchesses that are trying to get married n' stuff.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: His infamously overpowered Gunslinger tree lets him turn into a one-handed death machine, and, if you still have a good Masher or an Unforgiven Masher, you can become a gunslinging Terminator with a bird. As it turns out, he uses an upgraded Unforgiven that looks like Maggie, the same revolver's Spiritual Successor, but with dark red colouring and a Maliwan sight.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Bloodwing dies, Jack sends a wave of robots to keep the player from leaving. Mordecai responds with a (presumed) sniper rifle that, to put it mildly, shoots explosions instead of bullets. Later, he sends the new Vault Hunters on a mission to set loose some of the captive animals in the Exploitation Preserve so they can slaughter the workers.
- Sarcasm Mode: Some of Mordecai's lines when standing still. HE LOVES IT!
- Someone to Remember Him By: The ending credits reveal that Bloodwing laid an egg for Mordecai and it hatched into a baby Bloodwing. By the time of the Son of Crawmerax DLC, the bird has grown and is named Talon.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Not in the games, but Liebrecht portrays him this way at cons.
- The Musketeer: Specializes in sniper rifles and pistols, but also deadly with his sword.
- Unstoppable Rage: After Bloodwing is killed. See Roaring Rampage of Revenge above.
- Your Head A-Splode: Bloodwing dies this way.
- Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: Probably the reason Bloodwing is a "she" in two. According to the head writer, Bloodwing is of a species that changes gender halfway through his/her life, much like what happened to the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. This also explains why, in two, Lilith and Brick refer to Bloodwing as male when reminiscing about a much earlier incident.
As "The Siren" AKA The Firehawk
Voiced by Colleen Clinkenbeard, played by Yasemin ArslanA Siren, one of six women in the universe born with mysterious powers, she came to Pandora after hearing rumors there was another Siren on the planet. By the second game, her powers have been enhanced by Eridium, and she is waging a one-woman war against the bandits of the Tundra so that Roland and the Crimson Raiders can focus on Jack. She dated Roland between games.
- Action Girl: Being a Siren fully capable of keeping up with the rest of the male Vault Hunters, and being just as dangerous as Brick in close quarters with her powers.
- Adorkable: According to her ECHOS during the In Memorium quest, she was rather... awkward around Roland.
- All the Other Reindeer: Apparently when she was a kid, all the boys made fun of her 1: because of her tattoos, and 2: because she played Bunkers & Badasses.
- A God Am I: After she finds out that a cult has formed around her, she's actually pretty flattered (although she admits to it being horrible), until she finds out they were sacrificing innocent residents of Sanctuarynote .
- Ascended Fangirl: Lilith's powers as a Siren make her the Borderlands equivalent of a sorcerer, and she grew up being teased for two things: her Siren tattoos, and her passion for Bunkers & Badasses. She has some issues with bandwagon geeks because of it. She's also read the universe's equivalent to A Song of Ice and Fire.
- And This Is For...: After killing Jack, she tells him "This is for Roland, you son of a bitch."
- Badass Adorable: She's a beautiful and deadly Siren.
- Badass Boast: After scoring a critical hit, she sometimes says: "[laugh] I'm really good at this!"
- Badass in Distress: In the sequel, you first meet her when she's under attack by a bandit clan. She also needs to be rescued later, after Jack captures her.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Some of the ECHOs of her the player finds in Borderlands 2 have her trying to seduce Roland, only to creep him out/drive him away due to her inability to spit it out and general weirdness.
- Catch Phrase: In the second game, she's fond of saying "'Sup" before or after she does something with her powers.
- Clothing Damage: Her outfit in the second game is the exact same one she wore in the first game, save for the fact that it has been ripped and torn and patched back up in multiple places, particularly along her left side, exposing both a lot of flesh and her Siren tattoos.
- Cool Big Sis: To Tiny Tina by the time of Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep. It's unclear if she filled this role before Roland died, or if it's more recent.
- Covert Pervert: Lilith has a Blue Screen of Death in her hideout. On it, it states that someone has been looking at porn on the computer and is blackmailing the user that it will send the user's search history to their grandma if they don't wipe the gunk off the computer's keyboard and get a new graphics card. Lilith is the only person who lives in the cave.
- Cult: Unintentionally becomes an idol worship of a cult when she set a bandit on fire after Borderlands.
- Stop Worshipping Me: She sends the new Vault Hunters out to make sure they aren't committing acts of wanton murder in her name. When they are, she intervenes. However, she was otherwise totally okay with them killing monsters and immolating themselves in her name. She kinda appreciates it though, until she dismisses herself as a horrible person.
- Create Your Own Villain: The Pre-Sequel shows that she was directly responsible for giving Jack his scar and giving him the final push into full-blown psychopathy.
- Deadpan Snarker: It is unsure if she was this during the first Borderlands, but when dealing with ultra serious and grim Roland, she comes off as this in the second.Roland: Handsome Jack is going to kill us all unless you can stop him.
Lilith: He means hi. That's his way of saying "hi."
- Face Palm of Doom: How she kills Jack if you let her.
- Faking the Dead: She faked her own death when Hyperion attacked New Haven.
- Flash Step: Her special ability allows her to step into an alternate dimension (causing an explosion that helps discourage her enemies from attacking), run quickly to her target, pop out with an energetic shockwave that stuns her foes, and then proceed to mow them all down.
- Gamer Girl: She's a big fan of Tabletop RPGs and much more knowledgeable about them than Brick or Mordecai. Mister Torgue's requesting to join in on their Bunkers & Badasses has her mention being mocked for playing the game when she was younger.
- Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Declares to Roland that if he dies while she protects Sanctuary and he is off stealing the Vault Key, she'll be really pissed. If he lives, she will rip off all of his clothes. She says this out loud and in front all the Vault Hunters, both new and old.Mordecai: Ew, Lilith, we're standing right here! Nobody wants to hear that!
Brick: [lewdly] Go on...
- Hipster: Minor example, but she starts out refusing to let Mister Torgue play Bunkers & Badasses out of fear he's only interested in it because being geeky is now "trendy".
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Roland is almost twice her size.
- Incendiary Exponent: Her Phoenix skill sets her on fire. It also allows her shots to cause fire damage, acquainting their targets with the Man on Fire trope. Note that the fire can also set off barrels which can severely harm Lilith herself, especially the shock variant.
- She is also an expert with elemental guns and can crank the elemental damage done by them Up to Eleven. A Maliwan Hellfire submachinegun turns Lilith into a firebreathing goddess of pure destruction. Which is mildly amusing given that she is worshipped as a god in Borderlands 2.
- Kick the Dog: Orders Athena's execution at the end of The Pre-Sequel, even after Athena admits she regretted ever working for Jack. Even Brick and Mordecai are disgusted by it.
- The Lancer: In the second game, this is her role in the Crimson Raiders. Mordecai is too much of a lone wolf (and a drunk), and Brick is... Brick.
- Magic A Is Magic A: Lilith's Phasewalking follows some specific rules. She's immune to physical force while Phasewalking, but she can't jump (because "immune to physical force" works both ways). She can attack an enemy, but only once, before the Phasewalk ends, which appears to be the reason why in The Pre-Sequel!, she could only brand Jack's face while smashing the Vault artifact before vanishing through another portal.
- Major Injury Underreaction: When she first encounters the new Vault hunters in the second game.Lilith: I'm with the Raiders, like you I keep the bandits in line so Roland can focus on taking down Jack. Anyway, long story, lots of internal bleeding.
- Master of the Mixed Message: As seen in ECHO logs, her attempts at flirting with Roland end up just confusing him.
- Ms. Fanservice: Definitely playing the role in the second game. See Clothing Damage. Several characters also remark on how beautiful she is, and the Atlas wanted posters◊ in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx do not focus on her face. It is implied that unusual beauty may be a mark of being a Siren.
- Mission Control: In 2, before Roland's rescue.
- Never My Fault: In The Pre-Sequel, she blames Athena completely for Handsome Jack's rise, despite her being the one who drove Jack to insanity.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Despite Angel and Roland telling her to stay away, she just has to show up at Control Core Angel. Said rashness gets her picked as Jack's replacement Siren for opening the Vault.
- In the Pre-Sequel, branding Jack with the Vault symbol while leaving him alive left him as a vengeful lunatic with a massive bone to pick with the Vault Hunters.
- The Nicknamer: In Borderlands 2, she refers to the player character as "Killer".
- Nonstandard Character Design: After being abducted by Handsome Jack, she communicates using the same live-action style that Angel used before her.
- No True Scotsman: Lilith is resistant to letting Mister Torgue play Bunkers & Badasses, requiring Tiny Tina to make a quest where the players find questions around the world for Mister Torgue to answer to prove his geek cred.
- Power Gives You Wings: Made of fire. The origin of the name Firehawk. Also, late in the second game, she has white wings (like Angel's) while she is charging the Vault Key.
- Power High: Has one after she finds out what Eridium does to her powers.
- Power Tattoo: Comes with being a Siren.
- The Protagonist: Characterization Marches On has made her the closest thing the series has to one particularly after Roland's death.
- Required Secondary Powers: Lilith can turn invisible and become immune to enemy weapons and explosives thanks to being in another dimension where kinetic, thermal, and electromagnetic energy from ours cannot affect her. On the other hand, she can't manipulate objects, use her own weapons, or even jump because she's in that same dimension and she can't do the same to ours.
- The Roleplayer: In Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, she's the only player who tries to roleplay and get into the setting (even claiming to have the highest Charisma score of the party), with Brick being more interested in combat and Mordecai being mostly disinterested. She's even willing to try and talk like either Salvador, Zer0, or Krieg if the situation calls for it.Lilith: I talk to her [Ellie]. In character, of course. (ahem)
"Krieg": I'LL CRACK YOUR MIND AND BEAT YOUR PROBLEMS TO DEATH.
- The Smurfette Principle: Out of the playable characters.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The relationship between her and Roland in the sequel. While the latter is serious and to the point when dealing with the Vault Hunters, Lilith is friendly with a sarcastic sense of humor.
- Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: One of the first things she asks the Borderlands 2 Vault Hunters is to help her rescue her boyfriend. Said boyfriend (well, ex-boyfriend, as she later clarifies) happens to be the very Married to the Job Chaste Hero Roland.
- Straight Woman: In The Pre-sequel!, while Brick and Mordecai mostly just make a few quips and remarks on Athena's story due to the fact that they weren't on Elpis during said events, Lilith generally tries to keep them focused and ask Athena relevant questions.
- Sugar and Ice Personality: In spades towards Roland.
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: In the Son of Crawmerax DLC, she can't help but think that Mordecai's new bird is absolutely adorable, even as it's biting her hard enough to draw bloodnote .
- Teleporters and Transporters: Gains the ability to teleport by the time of Borderlands 2. The first time she uses it on the player, she only teleports him/her 10 feet away.
- Touched by Vorlons: The source of her powers, although she insists it's because she's crossed the "Hotness Threshold." Upon the opening of the Vault and the spreading of Eridium, her powers have since increased.
- Took a Level in Badass: In Borderlands 2.
- Tsundere: After she and Roland broke up prior to the events of the second game, she tried to play "hard-to-get" with him. Played for Laughs as it just confuses him and he backs off.
- If you zoom in on some screens in Lilith's base, you see Roland's Expy Facebook-alike profile page. It is covered in posts from Lilith.
- Roland's death actually made her irrational enough that she eventually chose to order Athena executed because she willingly worked for Handsome Jack, making her indirectly responsible for Roland's death.
- Unwanted False Faith: In the second game, a cult was founded to worship her completely without her knowledge, and the new Vault Hunters get to compare the cult's version of things and their "god's" actual opinions. When Clayton claims to have received her message demanding a sacrifice, she wastes no time chiming in to say that she didn't actually tell him anything. Conversely, after the player kills Scorch, a "Heathen Demigod" on Clayton's order, he tells the player that he can feel the Firehawk smiling upon them and Lilith notes that she does indeed feel flattered.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Brick and Mordecai are aghast when she orders Athena killed at the end of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! and both immediately object. It doesn't stop her from ordering it anyway, but the alien suddenly appears and stops the bullets from reaching Athena.
As "The Soldier" (As Commander of the Crimson Raiders)''
Voiced by Oliver Tull (1), Markus Lloyd (2)An ex-Crimson Lance soldier who quit after his corrupt superiors tried to frame and kill him. By the second game, he has reforged the remnants of the Lance and other survivors on Pandora into the Crimson Raiders, the anti-Hyperion resistance. He dated Lilith between games.
- Adorkable: At times, the way he acts around Lilith.
- Apologetic Attacker: In the Pre-Sequel, Roland apologizes to Jack and his Vault Hunters just as the Eye of Helios is destroyed.
- Badass
- Badass Normal: Just a regular human with serious military training.
- Badass In Charge: As Commander of the Crimson Raiders.
- Badass in Distress: He ends up captured by the Bloodshots early on in Borderlands 2. How? He was taking a piss and the Bandits knocked him out.
- Big Good: In Borderlands 2.
- Captain Obvious: Some of his lines.[Shoots a bandit and makes his head explode]
- Casual Danger Dialog: Talks to the player before casually taking out mechs who were attacking him, before re-starting the conversation as if nothing happened.
- Combat Medic: Roland has a skill tree called 'Medic' that helps him heal his allies, but that doesn't mean he's any less capable of shooting you. The tree has other abilities that specifically make him hardier, increases his weaponry's magazine size. and actually has an ability that requires him to kill an enemy to activate it. And one of the ways he can heal allies is by shooting them, giving the term new meaning. Plus he can upgrade his turret to heal allies while unhealing everyone else. In 2, his turret has the healing aura.
- Commanding Coolness: Roland took command of the remnants of the Crimson Lance, renamed them the Crimson Raiders, and in the second game holds the rank of Commander.
- Create Your Own Villain: What he does in The Pre-Sequel, though unlike Lilith and Moxxi, he's actually apologetic for betraying Jack.
- Defector from Decadence: A former member of the Crimson Lance.
- Emergency Weapon: His knife. Unlike all other characters in both games, Roland has no skills or mods whatsoever that increase his melee in any way, and so his melee attacks are ridiculously underpowered. The only reason a player might ever find to use it is to stun a pursuing Psycho while Roland desperately runs to a safe place to recover health and shields, since the flinch chance is the same with all characters.
- The Engineer: His Scorpio Turret. Notably, only Crimson Lance Engineers can deploy Scorpio Turrets, indicating he was trained as one by the Lance.
- Healing Shiv: Roland can access Cauterize, a special ability that makes his weaponry heal allies. The text of the skill states this also works with rockets and grenades.
- The Hero: In '"Borderlands 2'', he's credited as the Hero of the first game, and is the one who leads the resistance against Handsome Jack's forces. He is killed by Jack right before the final act.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He's far larger than Lilith.
- 100% Adoration Rating: As a leader, he's much-beloved by the folks of Sanctuary and the Crimson Raiders, the latter composed of former enemies. As such, his death affects the locals quite heavily, with many of the Raiders swearing vengeance on Jack.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Tiny Tina.
- Jack-of-All-Stats: He's the most balanced of the four original player characters, although this means he doesn't specialize in a specific area of combat to the same extent as the others.
- Karmic Death: A noble soldier who sought vengeance against the corrupt superiors who betrayed and tried to kill him is slain by Jack, someone he had previously betrayed and tried to murder.
- Knife Nut: Uses a combat knife as his melee weapon.
- Kuudere: Claptastic Voyage shows that the "guy allergic to smiling" really does care for Lilith after all.Roland: I really like Lilith. I want to hug her for a reeeally long time.
- The Medic: Has an entire skill tree devoted to it, and is the only one of the original Vault Hunters who can heal others directly.
- Mission Control: For many plot missions in 2.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The reason he left the Crimson Lance was that he found out that his superior was setting him and his squad up. Of course, his boss had his teammates killed and left him for dead.
- The Nicknamer: In the second game, he always refers to the player as "Soldier".
- Noodle Incident: His killing of a superior officer before deserting the Lance; the circumstances surrounding this are never revealed in either game. The Borderlands: Origins comic reveals that his immediate superior slaughtered Roland's unit to cover up his corrupt dealings and Roland killed him as revenge.
- No Social Skills: In 2, he tends to be incredibly blunt to the point that he has to be reminded about basic greetings. After the new Vault Hunters survive a hard mission, he greets them with:Roland: Oh good, you're not dead.
Lilith: That's his way of saying "Wow, you're a badass; I'm glad you're okay".
- Only Sane Man: DEFINITELY. Though Brick does, almost ludicrously, have his moments.
- Parental Substitute: To Tiny Tina, according to a picture she keeps on her nightstand in Borderlands 2.
- The Paladin: Definitely. Perhaps the only unambiguously good person in the game. And, his name is Roland, after all. For those not following the link, Roland was a legendary Frankish knight who led Charlemagne's twelve paladins, his best soldiers and finest commanders. In Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, he's represented as The White Knight in Tina's campaign.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Swore to his former boss that he would get his revenge. He got it.
- Straight Man: In Borderlands 2, to Lilith and the other Vault Hunters. He's also seemingly the only person capable of tolerating Tannis and Tina (aside from Brick and Mr. Torgue, who are enablers of Tina's madness more than anything else).
- Still Wearing the Old Colors: Borderlands 1 mostly. However, the Crimson Raiders' symbol is the old Crimson Lance symbol merged with The Vault symbol.
- Supporting Leader: His role in Borderlands 2.
- The Turret Master: Thanks to his Scorpio Turret.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Roland is known to say "Critical, Bitch!"
- Token Minority: Of course, Borderlands 2 reveals that Mordecai is Hispanic, thus subverting this trope.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: His skill Grenadier increases his grenade damage and regenerates grenades upon him getting a kill.
As Himself (Berserker) AKA The Slab King
Voiced by Marcus MauldinA simple-minded but deadly Vault Hunter who likes punching things. Eventually got thrown out of the Crimson Raiders for his overly violent approach to problems.
- Bad Boss: Hilariously enough, a... well, not heroic, let's say protagonist example. Brick constantly reminds the player that while he has his gang, pretty much all of them are expendable in his mission to exterminate Hyperion, mainly for the fact they're completely stupid, completely crazy, or completely both. He treats the player as the only member of his gang he genuinely respects and tells them to not worry about killing other Slabs since he does it all the time.
- The Berserker: With his Action Skill. Players who focus on Berserk when building Brick are all about exposing themselves to damage and doing way more damage right back.
- The Big Guy: Stands a staggering 7'3" and is built like a brickhouse.
- Big Word Shout: Whenever he uses his Action Skill, he will shout one of these three every time he kills someone:
- Blood Knight: He says so himself: you either fight like a badass or die like a bitch!
- Blown Across the Room: In 2, whatever hostile target that crosses him tends to fly quite a bit if he can punch.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Say what you want about Brick, but he loves dogs and hates anyone who would hurt one. His backstory also shows that he's strongly opposed to harming children, to the point that he killed his former gang to save them.
- He calls dibs on the Siren when playing Bunkers & Badasses. Her name is Brick and she is the prettiest. He also imagines himself as Maya when escaping capture in the + 5 to Punching short.
- In the Pre-Sequel, He's horrified when Lilith orders Athena to be executed after telling her story, telling her that "this ain't you".
- A Day in the Limelight: He and Tina are the protagonists of the + 5 to Punching short film, which tells the story of how they captured the Hyperion spy that was being interrogated off-screen during the Assault on Dragon Keep DLC.
- Demolitions Expert: He's the resident explosive damage expert of the game, and the only character to get boosts to elemental impact damage. In the sequel, when Mordecai asks him for a plan to help the Vault Hunters get past a closed bridge, his natural response is to "blow stuff up", and then sends the Vault Hunters to obtain explosives from a nearby bandit camp.
- Disney Death: Towards the end of the second game, when the Hyperion barge he stole for Mordecai explodes. Except not really.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: One sidequest in the Tiny Tina DLC has him "solve" a riddle when he accidentally crushes the questgiver's model with his die.
- Drop the Hammer: He carries around Sledge's Hammer in the second game, though he only uses it by throwing it as a ranged weapon. He also uses one in the + 5 to Punching short or at least imagines that he's using a hammer.
- Dumb Muscle: Subverted. While he's barely literate and has "rhino-like" strength in the first game, come ''Borderlands 2, he's shown to also be surprisingly eloquent and have a good mind for combat tactics and guerrilla warfare. Later on still, he's stated to have read a whole book trilogy, so claims on his so-called illiteracy are either a bum rap, or he made an effort to learn.
- Dummied Out: His reason why he entered Pandora from the first place was to search for his sister. It was only hinted in the first Borderlands, but never mentioned since in the series proper.
- Even Evil Has Standards: After Athena's Pre-Sequel story ends, Lilith proceeds ordering her troops to shoot Athena despite of her regrets in helping Jack. Brick is against Lilith's command.
- Evil Laugh: A very good heroic example. Sometimes, on getting a critical hit kill or with Berserk active, Brick will let out a maniacal, sadistic laughter that reflects his Blood Knight personality. After blowing up the Bunker, he gives one terrifying laugh that makes you wonder if he's doing this to pay back Roland on the IOU, or if he's genuinely insane and enjoying the slaughter.
- Friend to All Children: As well as getting along well with Tina, Borderlands: Origins reveals his backstory that as part of a bandit gang, he refused to participate in the kidnapping and ransoming of children of a town they attacked, to the point that he simply tosses his gun and lets himself get captured. After breaking out, he proceeds to punch his way through his gang and saves the kids, getting Priscilla (his puppy) in return.
- Genius Bruiser: Something like this; he's certainly not the complete moron players of the first game took him for. In fact, this is so pronounced in the second game that he verges on being the Only Sane Man, despite his Blood Knight tendency and other assorted insanities, but does seem more put together as a person than either Mordecai (drunk, depressed, talks to a bird) or Lilith (Ax-Crazy god-like being and completely intoxicated with her power). He's also read the setting's equivalent of A Song of Ice and Fire, the "Swordchair Trilogy."
- Good Old Fisticuffs:
"I punch it!"
- He can specialize in hand-to-hand combat. Keep in mind the planet is populated with gun-toting road-warrior-type bandits and assorted monsters. Good thing Brick hits like a train. In the sequel, he's never even seen holding a gun and solely attacks with his fists (and tossing Sledge's hammer at unreachable enemies) as an AI-controlled ally. This is pretty much the only thing he wants to do while he plays Bunkers & Badasses in Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep.
- Played for laughs in one conversation with Mordecai where the latter was explaining his combat style (which involves tracking and hunting with a sniper rifle). Brick comments that he got lost after Mordy had said "instead of punching".
- Hero Antagonist: He's a lot less aggressive towards Fiona than Mordecai is during Tales from the Borderlands, but all bets are off after she manages to stab him.
- Heroes Love Dogs: The one thing that Brick loves above all else, more than punching, explosions, and brutal violence? Puppies! In contrast, his personal nemesis Nisha despises puppies and small animals, due to her own puppy nearly killing her when she was a kid, and her own sadism. It's no surprise that Brick takes vicious pleasure in screwing her over.
- Healing Factor: While Berserk is active.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He mentions that he's raided Sawtooth Cauldron before with Tiny Tina (a 13 year old girl) on his back. At the end of Borderlands 2, he's seen with Tiny Tina killing Bandits.
- Invulnerable Knuckles: Brick can beat alien monsters, bandits with various head gear, and other things to death with his bare hands and not bat an eye. He even regenerates while he does it.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Tiny Tina over their loves of explosions and killing Bandits according to some dialogue and the credits of Borderlands 2. Tina even considers him her big brother. Or little brother. Or something. Either way, she definitely considers him something close to a brother.
- It's Personal:
- He holds a special loathing for Nisha in the second game for killing his dog, and Jack for murdering Roland, attacking New Haven, kidnapping Lilith and funding the Sawteeth. He's the one behind most of the missions in Lynchwood. Oddly enough, although Nisha tells you about killing Brick's dog and how he blew up her jail (which gives her an excuse to hang everybody else) during the arc and she put a bounty on his head, she doesn't seem to be too irritated that you and Brick have declared war on the whole bandit-infested town.
- He also really, really, really hates Mortar and the Sawteeth, as they constantly handed potential Vault Hunters over to Hyperion for money, they killed thousands of Slabs and they shot him in the chest when he tried to join.
- Laughing Mad: When he uses his Action Skill. See Evil Laugh above.
- Legacy Character: Its implied he's becoming something like this to the bandit lords from the first game. Took took up Sledge's sledgehammer, it's implied he lost a toe to Fiona's derringer, and of course he becomes a (more benevolent) bandit lord himself by the second game.
- Lightning Bruiser: Brick can dash across entire rooms in a blink of an eye, shrug off massive damage, and hit both fast and hard, not to mention stunlock anyone he hits for more hitting.
- Nice Guy:
- Ironically, despite being a huge Blood Knight and one of the least moral Vault Hunters, he's one of the softest character you could count on after the first game, arguably toe-to-toe with Mister Torgue himself.
- Saved a spot in this trope after: sporting an entire army of bandits under a single banner, trying to spare Athena from Lilith's Angrish in the Pre-Sequel and become Tina's adopted older brother in the series.
- The Nicknamer: In the second game, he always refers to the player as "Slab". In addition, he refers to Mordecai as "Mordy".
- Noble Top Enforcer: Becomes this for Lilith following Roland's death. Lilith is addicted to eridium and lashes out at anyone who she percieves to be even remotely related to Roland's death, and Mordecai is a sullen drunk willing to resort to simply shooting people. Brick? He tries to take people alive, and objects to executing prisoners. Hurt his friends, though... note .
- Not So Different: He and Nisha both enjoy killing their own bandits for fun and Stuff Blowing Up. The one difference is that Brick has standards.
- Only One Name: He doesn't seem to have a last name, and if the prequels comics were any indication, there's a possibility he didn't know his own name, simply handing Lilith and Mordecai a brick when asked to introduce himself.
- Only Sane Man: Surprisingly enough, turns out to be this for the first Vault Hunters after Roland is killed by Jack. Mordecai is Drowning His Sorrows and feels sullen even whenever relatively sober, lashing out at random, while Lilith is addicted to Eridium and clearly unstable. Brick, while by no means functional in normal society, is a downright Reasonable Authority Figure for a world like Pandora, and knows when to be a Berserker and when to calm down and think.
- Pipe Pain: His melee weapon outside of Berserk. In the sequel, he seems to have replaced it with Sledge's hammer, though he isn't seen actually using it.
- Precious Puppy: His dog, Priscilla. It died and now he wears its paw as a necklace. Although he still loves puppies as well as bloody murder. He later got another puppy by the name of Dusty, who was killed by Nisha (who, in turn, had a phobia of puppies thanks to a horribly traumatic experience as a child, combined with her own sadistic nature).
- Psychopathic Manchild: Downplayed — the only evidence of this is in his large, child-like handwriting. Otherwise, he acts very mature, arguably even more so than his friends Lilith and Mordecai.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Brick's fighting style, when compared to Krieg, Zer 0, and Athena, who do more damage per hit. He punches at three times the normal melee attack rate, and has a chance to daze people with his fists. This lets him dash around, downing lesser bandits in seconds and locking down badasses to take them down while they can't fight back.
- The Real Man: As an RPG player, he's just as enthusiastic about combat as he is in actual life. More specifically, punching. Unfortunately, he tends to roll initiative when it comes to diplomacy, which causes more problems than it solves. He seems to be pretty terrible when it comes to actual roleplaying since cut dialog indicates that when he does actually try to roleplay, it simply results in the various characters imitating him.
- Real Men Wear Pink: In Tiny Tina's DLC, Brick shows an uncharacteristic appreciation for female characters... and ponies. Also, as shown in the +5 to Punching film, he escaped Hyperion custody by imagining himself to be Maya.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: His reaction to Roland's death: Kill Jack, his associates, his friends, his FAMILY — EVERYONE HE'S EVER MET! WE SKIN 'EM WITH THEIR OWN GODDAMN TEETH!
- Screaming Warrior: Whenever he uses his Action Skill, to either annoying or hilarious effect. It's surprisingly well-done, too: his voice actor must have nursed quite a few calluses on his vocal cords after recording Brick's yelling. Mordecai actually lampshades this in the second game when the two of them are helping you.Mordecai: He's screaming again, isn't he?
- Sociopathic Hero: By far the most brutal of the characters. In the second game, he even becomes a bandit chieftain, and he's pretty damn nasty to his gang, too, though they're excessively trigger-happy idiots that can't even tell ally from foe unless Brick points them out right before action.
- So Proud of You: In Borderlands 2, if you jump off the Buzzard's Nest, he says that to you in his own way.Brick: Slab, did you... did you just jump off the Buzzard's Nest? Goddamn, you make me proud!
- Suddenly Voiced: Brick could already speak, but it was often monosyllabic, almost Hulk Speak chatter. In 2, he talks normally.
- Surrounded by Idiots: He believes that his Slabs are all incredibly dumb and can't fight properly, and the Vault Hunter is the only Slab who's actually competent. He's not wrong, considering they're still trying to kill the Vault Hunter every time they show up.
- Tranquil Fury: Despite how badly Nisha broke him, his orders for you to utterly fuck up her operations in Lynchwood, declare war on its inhabitants and end her overly brutal rule is spoken with only a hint of murderous rage, but nothing more.
- Token Evil Teammate: Despite being a founding member of the Crimson Raiders, Roland disagreed with his overtly brutal methods and the two had a falling out. They make up during the game, however.
- Tragic Keepsake: The paw necklace he has used to belong to a dog he had when he was young. In Borderlands 2, he wears this paw alongside a paw from another dog, Dusty, who was killed by Nisha.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer: Brick's default solution to any problem is to punch it. Even when he's playing Bunkers & Badasses. This leads to some problems when he's the one attempting diplomacy with the Dwarves, since he kills their leader and makes all the dwarves hostile to them.
- Would Hit a Girl: He has no issues fighting Athena aside from the fact that they were former allies and has no problem knocking Fiona out with a single punch. To be fair, both women were trying to kill him at the time. He's more restrained normally.
Supporting NPCs
Dr. Zed
Dr. Zed Blanco
Do No Harm
Voiced by Ric SpiegelA "doctor" who lived in Fyrestone in the first game, Zed is a helpful healer who supplies most of the planet with medicine through his vending machines, despite the fact that his license to practice was revoked.
- An Axe to Grind: He uses a psycho axe a few times.
- Back-Alley Doctor: Zed lost his license long ago. It's not clear if he lost it due to insanity (especially considering Doc Mercy the lunatic laser-wielding bandit still has a license) or some other reason, but he still has an honest, if screwed-up, desire to heal people.
- Mad Scientist: Shows hints of this in the second game. He actually creates skag/rakk hybrids ("skrakk") and a psycho/spiderant hybrid ("Spycho") at one point, for no reason he's willing to divulge.
- Meat Grinder Surgery: He even has a quest where you assist him with this in the second game. You make the first incision with your melee attack, which kills the patient instantly. Of course, the "patient" in question was a Hyperion agent threatening everyone nearby with death and evidentially had to be restrained, so he's not that upset.
- Never My Fault: Denies all responsibility for his experiments getting out of control on the technicality that you're the one who went through with helping him in the first place.Zed: You know, when you really think about it, this all your fault.
- Nice Guy/ Only Sane Man: To an extent — slightly less so in the sequel, if his shades of Mad Scientist are anything to go by. He's still more or less the most morally upstanding member of the supporting cast, not counting Helena Pierce who's no longer alive by the time the sequel takes place.
- Running Gag: His lack of a medical license becomes one in the second game.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: He overhandedly denies having any involvement when you return with a bunch of skag and rakk organs for his experiments.Zed: (acting disgusted) EWWWW! What are you handing me all these organs for? Here, please take this pile of money as a sign of my disgust!
Mad Moxxi
Looks CAN kill
Voiced by Brina PalenciaThe buxom and drop-dead gorgeous mother of Scooter and Ellie, who was introduced in the DLC of her name in the first game. By the second, her Colosseum has been destroyed, so she tends her bar in Sanctuary.
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: Seriously, would you be able to tell she has two grown-up children by looking at her?!
- Accent Relapse/Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In 2, if you place money in her Tip Jar, she'll occasionally start talking about her old clan. Partway through, she starts slipping into the same redneck accent her children use, before berating herself for it.
- The Pre-Sequel shows that she drops her accent when she's alone tinkering and is very sensitive about being caught off-character, threatening the Vault Hunters with getting Scooter to bury them in a shallow grave.
- Alice Allusion: Her outfit (specifically her hat) and personality remind one of the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts.
- Anything That Moves:
- Flirts with the player character regardless of gender (or possibly species, in Zer 0's case).
- Which makes it funnier when the one thing she rejects is Claptrap, which she made very clear that whatever love she has for him, it's platonic.
- Berserk Button: No-one threatens her in her own bar.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Jack found this out the hard way in the Pre-Sequel.
- Bi the Way: Flirts with the player regardless of gender, and beside her three former husbands, she has mentioned that she had several female lovers.
- Black and Gray Morality: While her actions on Pandora are already questionable at best while tainted white in Borderlands 2, yet nobody seemed to care anyway, it gets darker when she tries to kill Jack and his hired Vault Hunters by blowing the Eye of Helios while the space station in question is filled with innocent civilians and repenting Dalh soldiers all out of fear that Jack may become a threat to them.
- Cosplay Otaku Girl: Meta example: Moxxi is one of the most popular characters to cosplay as, to the point that she was one of the Pre-Sequel characters aside from the main characters that had a cosplay guide released.
- Crosses the Line Twice: Invoked. After saying "No one eats my girlfriends but me" in reference to an ex-girlfriend cannibal who literally ate one of her female lovers, this causes her to quickly apologize and throw up in her mouth. Doubles as Not So Stoic after she reveals her puns are a defense mechanism.
- Double Entendre:
- She definitely likes to use them on occasion.Moxxi: You should be able to see the prison now. It used to be an island in the ancient sea. Now it's Mr. Shank's own personal male stabbing machine — That's What She Said!
- Her tip jar has a sign above it that reads "Insert your tip", and she reprogrammed a Hyperion loader to speak in little but sexual innuendos. And named it Innuendobot 5000.
- In the sequel, she gets so angry at Mordecai that she can't think of any sexual innuendos.
- In the Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage DLC, she claims the innuendo thing is a coping mechanism for the horrors of Pandora. And considering what a Crapsack World the planet is, well...
- In Tales from the Borderlands she basically drops a pile of innuendo at Zer 0, who doesn't give a damn about it.
- She definitely likes to use them on occasion.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Almost every woman in Sanctuary will ask you if Moxxi said anything about them. And if you bought the DLC content, even Captain Scarlett. Fan fiction, ho!
- Fanservice with a Smile: As if her default outfit wasn't revealing enough, Moxxi wears a typical medieval bar wench outfit + tight corset in Tiny Tina's Bunkers & Badasses campaign. Being in a fantasy setting, she reflects upon this awareness and comments that she's surprised that Tina didn't make her outfit even more revealing than it is. Totally not what she was expecting.
- Defector from Decadence: Formerly a member of the Hodunk clan along with Scooter and Ellie before eventually leaving them. Despite being contemptuous of them in the main game, she attempts to settle their feud with the Zafords peacefully through marriage of two of their Goliaths in the Wedding Day Massacre DLC, with understandably disastrous results.
- Gag Boobs: Sports the biggest pair out of all the female characters in the entire series. Handsome Jack even refers to her as "Ol' Balloon Tits".
- Gainaxing: Especially evident in her intro cutscenes for Secret Armory and Campaign of Carnage.
- Gem-Encrusted: According to Episode 4 of Claptrap's web series, Moxxi drinks "diamond flavored water". Don't ask us how that works.
- Genki Girl: Whatever else you say about her, she is extremely enthusiastic about what she does in the Underdome.
- Gladiator Subquest: She runs the various arena tournaments of Pandora. In the second game, she's the one behind the Circles of Slaughter and hopes to take Torgue's tournament as her own.
- Gold Digger: She spared her last ex, because he was good with money (and his hands). She later dated Handsome Jack, until he got too overprotective and she broke up with him. He then proceeded to destroy the Underdome.
- Good-Guy Bar:
- Owns one in every game in the series. In Borderlands 2, she was forced to move to Sanctuary, but business is not booming and she literally has a tip jar.
- She opens another one in the Badass Crater of Badassitude.
- She runs "Moxxi's Tavern" in Tina's campaign. Being aware that she's being used as an NPC in her game, she comments that she's surprised that the uniform Tina put her in is not even more revealing than she expected.
- She also runs a bar on Elpis. She mostly stays away from it because Janey Springs uses it as an excuse to "accidentally" run into her.
- Hidden Depths: She's got a few. She admits in 2 that her constant innuendos are a defense mechanism, while in the Pre-Sequel it turns out that she's actually a mechanic nearly as good as her children (and with an equally thick accent), but she finds this embarrassing. Near the end of the game, she helps Lilith and Roland try to kill Jack, which would have instantly smoothed over her problems with Mordecai if she had ever told him.Lilith: Moxxi's got layers, like an onion made of boobs.
- Horrible Judge of Character: One of the reasons she dumped Mordecai for Jack. Her relationships with Mr. Shank and Motor Momma could also qualify. Though it turns out that she dumped Jack because she could tell he was a psychopath underneath his nice-guy exterior, and was proven right.
- I Call It "Vera": Has a personal revolver by the name of Rubi. In the second game, she offers it as a reward if the player collects Rakk Ale for her rather than Mordecai.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Tiny Tina, although theirs is of the Vitriolic Best Buds variety.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: Invoked upon herself. When she asks you to go clean up some graffiti, she says that most of it isn't true.
- Mama Bear: See Screw This, I'm Outta Here! below.
- When talking about Motor Mama, she gets uncharacteristically pissed off when telling you that she (Motor) eats her own kids.
- In the Wedding Day Massacre DLC, she is incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of kidnapping a baby to make a love potion and horrified at the idea of actually tossing it into the concoction. Even after the recipe simply calls for making the baby cry, she's still disappointed at both herself and the Vault Hunters, noting that it's not something heroes should be doing.
- Manipulative Bastard: In the Pre-Sequel, she tricks Jack and his Vault Hunters into destroying the Destroyer's eye in an attempt to kill them. Had Jack and his goons not decided to activate the sequence remotely, she would have succeeded in the latter Brick and Mordecai are actually impressed at how crafty she is.
- My Beloved Smother: Towards Ellie. She does not like the fact that Ellie intentionally puts herself in danger by being involved with her old clan and constantly bothers her about not caring about her appearance.
- Ms. Fanservice: If her appearance, clothing, and... top-heaviness don't emphasize the point enough, her constant innuendo and sensual voice will do the trick.
- Nice Hat: Her top hat, a wink to her role as the ringmaster of the various, circus-like bloodsports she hosts.
- The Nicknamer: She tends to address the players as "Sugar".
- Older Than They Look: She's old enough to have two known kids of adult age.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Moxxi hates when anyone sees her out of character, threatening anyone who learns that she enjoys tinkering and slips back into her redneck accent in her off time with a shallow grave provided by Scooter. During the assault on the Hyperion moon base to recover the Eye of Helios from Dahl forces, Moxxi is so focused on giving her technical know-how to the Vault Hunters, that when Lilith finds a chance to slip in a "That's What She Said" to one of Moxxi's unintentional innuendos, she barks back to her to focus on the mission.
- Only Sane Woman: In MR. TORGUE'S CAMPAIGN OF CARNAGE! anyway. Of course, for much of the DLC she's between Tiny Tina (a Creepy Child obsessed with Stuff Blowing Up) and Mr. Torgue (a musclebound Psychopathic Manchild also obsessed with Stuff Blowing Up), so she may seem saner in comparison.
- Peek-a-Bangs: She always has one lock of hair covering her right eye.
- Really Gets Around:
- "Hot dog down a skag den, y'know what I'm sayin?", and this comment is coming from her own son.
- Apparently she even sleeps with bandits if the graffiti she makes you erase is to be believed.
- So far, we know she's had three husbands (an unknown first husband, Mr. Shank, and Marcus) and possibly had more between games, has had many lovers which have given her kids (Scooter, Ellie, and two more unnamed ones), had sex with Lucky, and she used to date Mordecai, whom she dumped for Handsome Jack, of all people. So, yeah, she really seems to enjoy being on her back a lot. It was also revealed she used to date Motor Momma.
- Might add Mr. Torgue to the list, considering how they act in the Campaign of Carnage DLC. In the Wattle Gobbler DLC, Torgue even proclaims that he's willing to work for her "Pro-Boner".
- If every NPC that asks "Has Moxxi said anything about me?" is implying that they had a one-night stand, then you can add the populations of Sanctuary, Overlook, Concordia, and the Hyperion Moon Base, as well as Captain Scarlett and Zombie TK Baha to the list.
- Retired Badass: According to her, there was a time when she was a skilled fighter and would be in the front lines alongside other Crimson Raiders.
- Revenge: She desires it on Jack for the destruction of her Underdome, so she sends the Vault Hunters on a quest to flood Jack's under-construction version.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: When her clan leader ordered Moxxi to kill someone or have her daughter be turned into the clan wife, she responded by killing the asshole and taking both Scooter and Ellie out of the clan.
- Sex Is Violence: Moxxi gets really excited watching the Vault Hunters fight in the Underdome.Moxxi: More! More! MORE!
- Stepford Smiler: All of her innuendos are defense mechanisms. She admits to this after becoming disgusted with herself for telling the Vault Hunters "No one eats my girlfriends but me!" when talking about Motor Momma.
- Teen Pregnancy: Considering the ages of Scooter and Ellie, it's implied that Moxxi give birth to all four children the moment she started menstruating. Or she's older than she looks.
- Underestimating Badassery: Her entire sexy image is crafted so that her enemies will underestimate her because of her appearance. She gave the same advice to Marcus when they were married, only in his case it was to gain weight.
- Unkempt Beauty: She's still hot when she's out of character and covered in engine grease."Jack": Wow, you're even prettier without makeup. That's just...so terrible...
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: She keeps her submachine guns and her booze tucked inside her ample cleavage.
- Wrench Wench: The Pre-Sequel! shows that in her private time, she's a mechanic like her kids. Unlike her kids, she's very self-conscious about being caught tinkering since she also reverts to her Hodunk accent. Also unlike her kids, she shows more aptitude in electronics than mechanics, and she does have the technical vocabulary and knowledge to explain it, rather than just an intuitive grasp of machines. She's mechanically adept enough to reprogram a loader to speak only in innuendo (though the robot in question absolutely loathed it) as well as being able to sabotage Jack's superweapon.
- Zettai Ryouiki: On her right leg. The other sports a fishnet stocking.
Marcus Kincaid V
No Refunds!
Voiced by Bruce DuBoseThe friendly, helpful, extremely amoral arms dealer who narrates the beginning of each game. He likes killing his competition.
- Arms Dealer: For the entire planet, it seems.
- The Barnum: In the second game, he convinces a random nerd by the name of Kai that he is The Chosen One just so he could sell him a gun for $2,000,000.
- Berserk Button: Don't ask Marcus for refunds. And God help you if you steal from him.
- Casanova Wannabe: Has the Vault Hunters collect skag musk glands and rakk hive ambergris for him in Claptrap's New Robot Robolution so he can make a powerful cologne. It doesn't work.
- Child Hater: Despite children being the ones he tells stories to, Marcus is at best contemptuous of them.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Has no problem hiring the Vault Hunters to eliminate his competition.
Marcus: Seems to work fine to me.Customer: (agonized screaming)
- Or with convincing a gullible new arrival that he is The Chosen One, foretold by prophecy, in order to sell him a gun.
- And then he sends the player to recover the gun so can resell it when the "Chosen One" ends up getting killed.
- "You won't find better merchandise from anyone else! I've made sure of that."
- "If you shop anywhere else, I'll have you killed!"
- He'll even have you test elemental weapons on live targets, with titles like "Shoplifter" or "Competitor."
- He's not above selling to the Crimson Raiders' enemies, including the Bloodshot bandits (who worship him as "The Gunbringer").
- In his Establishing Character Moment for the second game, a customer tries to get a refund for a gun he claims is faulty. Marcus callously demonstrates the gun's reliability by shooting the customer in the leg with it.
- In the Mercenary Day DLC, Marcus reveals he doesn't like selling guns to the people of Gingerton because they'll just give them away for free. Later on, he attempts to steal back the guns he sold them so he can keep both his money and his merchandise.
- Or with convincing a gullible new arrival that he is The Chosen One, foretold by prophecy, in order to sell him a gun.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Marcus likes to use people who shoplift from him as targets in his shooting range. People who ask him for refunds often find themselves shot in the kneecap with the gun they're trying to return.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Marcus may be greedy and willing to kill his rivals, but Handsome Jack's wanton disregard for life is too much even for him.
- Famous Last Words: After getting shot in the back twice:Marcus: If it took more than one shot, then you weren't using a Jakobs.
- Identical Ancestors: Throughout the games are portraits of what seem to be Marcus' ancestors, all of them named Marcus Kinkaid and all of them identical save for either different hats or hair.
- In Vino Veritas: Personality Inversion. Getting drunk makes the notoriously cheap and greedy Marcus mail out refunds to his unsatisfied customers. When he sobers up he is ashamed and disgusted with himself for doing so and has you go around and take the refunds out of the mailboxes before it's too late. When the quest is finished he declares he's never drinking again.
- Jerkass: Customer demanding a refund on a "faulty" weapon? He shoots him in the leg with said weapon and comments that it seems to work just fine.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Very rarely, he breaks down and acts like a decent human being. Notably, in the second game, when Roland dies, he is seriously shook up by it, and when you set out to kill Jack in the final storyline quest, he'll give you a free blue-rarity weapon, not because Hyperion is disrupting his arms trade, but because Handsome Jack is a "greedy murdering sonofabitch who needs to die screaming".
- Lzherusskie: He speaks with a thick Russian accent, though his grammar is otherwise perfect.
- Noodle Incident: According to one of the loading screen tips from Pre-Sequel, he never let laser weapons come to Pandora after an incident involving a straw. Apparently, asking anyone about it puts your life at risk.
- Not Quite Dead: He appears to get killed at the end of Claptrap's New Robot Robolution, but survives. (See Unreliable Narrator below.)
- Pet the Dog: Its revealed in the tie-in comics that he took in Tannis after her entire team had been killed, and had been living alone for years. He did this for no apparent charge and after meeting her only once in passing years prior.
- Porn Stash: In the second game, he sends the players to retrieve his most valuable treasure lost after Sanctuary takes flight, which turns out to be dirty pictures of Moxxi. You're then given the option to either bring them back to Marcus or to Moxxi... who plans to post them online.
- Put on a Bus: Apart from his vending machines and a loading screen tip justifying the lack of laser weapons on Pandora, he doesn't appear at all during the Pre-Sequel.
- The Scrooge: Notoriously cheap. He'd rather test allegedly faulty merchandise on you than give you a refund (although, to be fair, his merchandise is reliable), and it takes a titanic event to actually make him pull money out of his pocket (usually some kind of business deal that'd make him lose more money if unresolved). In the second game, he gives the wrong change to a customer and sends you on a mission to get the excess change back. How much change? Nine dollars. (And this is for a sale where he conned the guy out of two million dollars.) He pays you tons of money to get his nine dollars back, but that's business. He also sends you on a mission to reclaim refund checks he wrote while drunk before they're sent.
- Skunk Stripe: Visible on his head.
- The Storyteller: Aside from being an arms dealer (and bus driver), Marcus is the resident storyteller who narrates the stories of the Vault Hunters to kids. According to the ending of Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty, he's training a kid to take up his mantle.
- Underestimating Badassery: Moxxi advised him to get fat so that his enemies would underestimate him because of his appearance.
- Unreliable Narrator: Marcus narrates the beginning of the main games, the beginning of the Zombie Island, New Robot Revolution, Pirate's Booty DLC, and the Dragon Keep DLC, as well as the credits for Zombie Island, in the form of a story for a young child. However, he often messes up details or contradicts himself.Marcus: The Vault Hunters had stopped the evil doctor Zed from -
Child: I thought his name was Ned.
Marcus: Yes, yes. Whatever you say. Where was I...
- At one point, he explicitly says he is lying when he is talking about Patricia Tannis rejecting him.
- He also describes himself getting "killed off" in Claptrap's Robot Revolution, despite still being around to tell the story and showing up in the second game. note
Patricia Tannis
Insane(ly smart)
Voiced by Colleen ClinkenbeardA socially mal-adjusted archeologist sent to Pandora by the Dahl corporation to investigate the alien ruins. Then a skag ate one of her coworkers alive while she hid under his corpse, and she went from "antisocial" to "completely cuckoo."
- Apocalyptic Log: Detailing her descent into insanity. She makes a hobby of recording her insane ramblings, spreading said recordings around random places, then hiring individuals to gather them back for her.
- Ax-Crazy: Her insanity at times manifests as murder.
- Bi the Way: During one of her rambles in the second game, she mentions scientific secrets that could only be discovered "in her bed - standing offer!" to the player, regardless of gender. In Zer 0's case, possibly even regardless of species. She also ate a piece of Lilith's hair under the pretense of scientific discovery.
- In the "Son of Crawmerax" DLC for Borderlands 2, the person who kills Maya's assassin left her an anonymous letter which mentions their attraction to her. From the way it's written it's pretty obviously from Tannis.
- In one echo recording, she states that she was "involved" with two ceiling chairs, who only she can hear. Reading between the lines, it seems that she was being beaten while hanging upside down, so she made up a romantic story about the chairs that were in the same room.
- Cloudcuckoolander: She was driven mad after being stuck on the planet for way too long. As such, she has developed strange habits such as getting romantically involved with inanimate objects, among other things.
- Companion Cube: In the first game, she had a romantic relationship with an ECHO recorder that apparently ended in a messy breakup. Between the first and second games she had a polyamorous relationship with two "ceiling chairs" who were brothers, one of which was "killed" in front of her eyes by Hyperion.
- Flanderization: An interesting and likely deliberate case. While her ECHO logs make it clear early on she isn't exactly all there, in the main game she's not so much crazy as she is insufferable. It isn't until Robot Revolution and the second game that her insanity really takes the spotlight.
- Especially noteworthy is that she goes from hoping everyone she meets (and tends to end up killing) will be her friend (and indeed being so lonely that she builds a robot duplicate of herself!) in the first game to being so horrified by the idea of contact with other people that she has a High Pressure Nosebleed at someone saying hello and a panic episode from someone calling her "pretty" in the second.
- Dissonant Serenity: Even when talking about the death and violence that surrounds her or her own torture, she rarely drops her condescending tone.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Wears a pair of goggles on her heads that serve no real purpose. They're available for Maya as a Old Save Bonus.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Well aware of it, but too far gone to care much.Tannis Recording: Day 172. The fat girl, Chimay, was crushed under an alien ruin that collapsed today. She didn't... die right away and begged me to put her out of her misery as she choked on various fluids and bile. I hesitated because she was the last one alive that wasn't me. As she was choking, and coughing and dying, I tried to enjoy the interaction, I imagined it to be a conversation, as I knew it was the last I would have for a while. When I finally got around to smothering her so that I could continue my research, I could tell that she regretted the decision. The Skags had been waiting for this meal for a while; they will not go hungry tonight.
- Hot Scientist: She's at least attractive enough to have it noted by a resident of Sanctuary. She didn't take it very well.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: She repeatedly claims this, but ends up murdering or driving away potential friends. This also seems to be exhibited in her tendency to create Companion Cubes despite otherwise being disdainful of other people. However, she warms up to Roland in particular after she got spittle on him while she was ranting and he was not disgusted. She claims that it was the first time in her life that she felt truly safe. She may have even developed a crush on him as ECHO recordings of the Torture Chairs mission have her mention "Roland, and his well-defined pectoral muscles" entrusting her with the Vault Key.
- Its also shown in the tie-in comics that she thinks very highly of Marcus. She goes so far as to identify him as her hero due to the fact that he took her in after she'd been living alone for year, after only meeting her in passing once years prior.
- Zig-zagged in Hidden Journals as she literally popped a vein when another human being greeted her (with enough pressure to cover both of them in blood). She also apparently barricaded her home to soundproof it from other people's merriment, and dry-heaving into a bucket for 3 hours was considered an improvement for dealing with compliments.
- Insufferable Genius: As one of the smartest people on Pandora, she is incredibly condescending towards everyone. Lampshaded by Zed in the second game.
- It's All About Me: She always tells you to drop whatever "irrelevant" task you're doing to help her. At least a little of her behaviour can be written off as a combination of extreme isolation and the trauma that left her isolated (skags ate the rest of her team; she survived by hiding under a corpse). A little more because it's Pandora, planet of self-serving lunatics. The rest is just part of her...charm.
- No Social Skills: Upon relocating to Sanctuary, one of her neighbors said hello, causing her to have an explosive nosebleed on the spot from sheer stress. Later, a young man calls her pretty, and she spends three hours dry-heaving into a bucket, which she considers progress. According to the mission text of the quest that has you gather the ECHO entries detailing said events, Tannis has Asperger's Syndrome, no doubt exacerbated by events in the first game.
- Pet the Dog: In the Son of Crawmerax DLC, it's vaguely implied that she was the one who killed Maya's assassin for her, judging by how Maya's personal message matches her speech patterns.
- Psychopathic Manchild: A female, Type C version.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Why does she want Jack dead? It's not that he tortured her. It's not that he ripped the Vault Key out of her hands after breaking them. It's because his minions sawed off the legs of a "ceiling chair" that she was falling for."Revenge is as pointless as music, but on this occasion, I will allow myself the revenge, I will allow myself to aid in his downfall. Mark my words, Jack, you're going to die."
- Robot Me: The reason she has the original Vault Hunters collect Claptrap parts for her.
- Running Gag: Within each game, there is always a hidden Easter Egg that involves Tannis riding a fish.
- Taken to it's logical (or illogical) extreme in Claptastic Voyage where Claptrap's scientific curiosity is represented as a fish with Tannis' head.
- Sanity Slippage: Played for Laughs in her Apocalyptic Log.
- Too Kinky to Torture: In Borderlands 2, her audio logs of her time under Hyperion torture indicate that she was less concerned with the actual torture and more concerned with the two "ceiling chairs" she had fallen in love with, and making sure the torturers' equipment was properly sterilized to prevent unnecessary infection. When you turn the audio logs in to her, she says that she'll whip up a cup of cocoa and listen to them as relaxation.
Get you one!
Voiced by Michael NeumannThe friendly owner and operator of the vehicle digistruct stations across the planet, Scooter is loud, boisterous, and dumb as a bag of hammers — except when it comes to machines.
- Agent Scully: One of his primary character traits in the first game was doubting the Vault's existence, alongside Marcus' belief in it (and the potential profit) and Helena's pragmatism.
- American Accents: Has a strong hillbilly/Appalachian accent.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Laney joins a band of cannibals because it's the only place she can avoid Scooter's sexual advances. Daisy takes one listen to a love poem he composes for her and immediately commits suicide.Everyone's a critic.
- He appears to have a thing for Fiona too. She's appropriately horrified. She didn't have to worry about that for long, with him dying in Episode 4 of Tales from the Borderlands, although you do have the option to have Fiona give him a Last Kiss so that he dies happy.
- Berserk Button:
- Destroying his runners, "breaking his mama's girl parts," and making fun of his sister's appearance.
- When he overheard Hamhock had a one-night stand with his mom, he apparently interpreted it as him raping her and sent a group of mercenaries (one of which is a badass psycho) after him. If Moxxi is to be believed, this is apparently a regular occurrence; he is extremely overprotective of his mom and sister.
- Beware the Silly Ones: On the surface he looks like a harmless, awkward geek but throughout the games you find evidence that he's just as dangerous as any of the other bandits out there, if not moreso. You never see any of it on screen, but he's not afraid to get his hands dirty. He apparently buried Lucky alive after the first game and you can find one of his victims tied burnt to a vending machine in the dust.
- Book Dumb: Has no actual idea how anything works, but is able to fix just about anything anyway. In short, he's just about the best engineer on Pandora (Hyperion, Atlas, and all the rest of the megacorps included), and he does it all by instinct. In at least this respect (and indeed a few others) he's a lot like Kaylee, who probably didn't make it through sixth grade but can 'talk' to machines.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: His introduction in Tales from the Borderlands.
- Brother-Sister Incest: Has a tiny crush on Ellie. Awww. Who's his sister. Ewww.
- Casanova Wannabe: Tries to woo a few girls in 2, fails miserably... But he thinks ahead enough to ask you to get him girly mags in case he fails.
- Catch Phrase: "Catch a ride!" and "Get you one!"
- Cloudcuckoolander: He does have his moments.Scooter: You's a Vault Hunter! (awestruck) That's like a unicorn!
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Hell, knowing him it's probably how he's always wanted to go.
- Easily Forgiven: Zigzagged in the sequel. The "Swallowed Whole" sidequest reveals that he was planning to kill you for hacking the Catch-A-Ride system at the beginning of the game, but instead settles for sending you on a dangerous mission to kill a midget in a stalker-infested cavern. Once you make it back alive, he declares that your hacking is in the past now and he will definitely not kill you, probably.
- The Engineer: Support engineer for the protagonists of both games. Seriously, moving around Pandora would be a BITCH if the player didn't have access to his Catch-A-Ride terminals. Hell, he's even the main engineer for the flying city of Sanctuary. The fact he actually gets trusted with the maintenance of it is testament to his skill.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Like most of the characters, his moral compass isn't exactly the best, but he genuinely loves his family, as shown by how he threatens to kill you if you hurt Ellie and killing Lucky Zaford after he slept with Moxxi.
- He has a quest in the Mr. Torgue DLC where he sends you to go kill a man who slept with Moxxi for all the wrong reasons. Moxxi tries to defend him by saying that it was a misunderstanding and it was partially her fault that it happened. You get the choice of either killing the guy Scooter wants you to kill, or kill the 4 other bounty hunters that he sent to do the job instead. (He gives you first dibs.)
- Face Death with Dignity: In Tales, upon realizing that he's not going to be able to get his hand out of the rocket in time, Scooter calmly accepts his fate and tells Fiona to save herself and the team.
- Famous Last Words: Three guesses what he yells out before he dies, and the first two don't count (Hint: His death involves Riding the Bomb).
- Gadgeteer Genius: Easily overlooked but qualifies. He's able to keep Sanctuary flying on scrap metal and totally repairs (and can upgrade) Fiona and Sasha's totaled caravan in the space of a couple of hours at most.
- Grease Monkey: Works as a mechanic. Literally covered in grease.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Failed to pull his hand out in time while trying to press a button to start ejecting an thruster about to explode on the spaceship used by the protagonists in Tales from the Borderlands. Knowing it's far too late to do anything about it, he tells Fiona to just eject it while he's still stuck to it, and he of course explodes with the thruster. The team commemorates him by launching his satellite into space for all to see.
- Idiot Savant: Scooter's not the pokiest bullet in the clip (HA! See what I did there?!), but give him machinery and a box of tools and the man can make miracles. It even seems to be some sort of innate skill, since he's actually shown trouble describing what a mechanical component does, but still knows when he needs it and how to put it together anyway.
- It seems to be an innate skill of his entire clan, Hodunk, as they specialized in racing vehicles and making such.
- Incest Is Relative: All his crushes are related to him, at least distantly. Though considering his mother, that's not really saying much.
- He mentions having a "brother-uncle"; clearly incest, ahem, runs in the family.
- Informed Attribute: Judging by his signs and his satellite, he apparently works/worked for Dahl. This never comes up, and other characters like Moxxi and Marcus seem to be independent entrepreneurs.
- Oddly Tales reminds us of his connection to Dahl with the satellite, but changes Old Haven (his home town) to an Atlas city originally, instead of being occupied by them later.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: His third Establishing Character Moment in the series makes him appear to have enough Medium Awareness to know about game's Running Gag Intro. Too bad Fiona is weirded out by this.
- Mad Libs Catchphrase: He tends to replace "ride" with whatever is relevant with the current topic sometimes, such as "Catch-a-Familial-Reconciliation!". This got so bad that he somehow convinced Marcus to say "Catch-a-Gun!" in one of his vending machines.
- Metaphorgotten: He makes quite a few of these.
- One Steve Limit: Averted. He claims to be named after his sister.
- Riding the Bomb: He goes to his death bellowing his catchphrase, as a faulty booster rocket about to explode heads down to Pandora.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: To Lucky.Scooter: Lucky's an old buddy of mine — and by old buddy I mean "asshole what ruined my momma's girl parts". Sounds like he's in trouble so you go on ahead and try and keep him alive long enough so I can kill him at a later occasion.
- He reveals that he was successful in killing him in the General Knoxx DLC. He told you he was gonna do it.
- It goes on to be the central conflict of a clan rivalry as well. Lucky was part of the Zaford clan and Scooter was formerly part of the Hodunk.
Helena Pierce
Helena Pierce
Voiced by Sue BirchThe mayor of New Haven in the first game, she became a lieutenant in the Crimson Raiders when Hyperion moved in. She is strict and no-nonsense, but also fair and reasonable.
- Artificial Limb: Has a mechanical left arm.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: The left side of her face is severely scarred and she appears to be blind in that eye. It's revealed in 2 that this is due to her husband giving her a skag pearl ring, which released pheromones that attracted hungry skags.
- A Father to His Men: She cares greatly for the citizens of New Haven in the first game.
- Only Sane Man: Most of Pandora has adopted a mixture of selfishness and insanity in the face of its harshness, but she still tries to keep the vestiges of civilization alive.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: All she ever asks the Vault Hunters to do is fix the messes they make and help her people out.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: An early sidequest in the sequel has you hunt down ECHO recordings to learn her fate at the behest of Sir Hammerlock. Apparently she had joined the resistance against Hyperion, only to be Killed Off for Real by Handsome Jack himself.
- Two-Faced: Though it's not so much a reflection on her personality (she's a tough-but-fair Reasonable Authority Figure) as how tough life on Pandora is.
TK Baha
Teddy "TK" Baha
Voiced by David EddingsOne of the first characters the first Vault Hunters meet, TK is a blind hermit with a weird sense of humor and a shotgun.
- A Day in the Limelight: He's the title character of the Borderlands 2 DLC Zombie TK's Bloody Harvest.
- Came Back Wrong: In the "Zombie Island of Dr. Ned" DLC, he has become a zombie. He doesn't attack the player, though, he just sits in his shack rambling about brains.
- Canon Discontinuity: In-Universe, he's blatantly aware that he was killed off in the main story in the first game, and only comes back as a zombie in DLC. In Zombie TK's Bloody Harvest, he mentions that he thought about moving to Sanctuary, but he didn't want to break canon.
- Cool Old Guy: The player characters like him so much that they bring him brains when they find him as a zombie.
- Cool Shades: Likely worn as a result of his blindness.
- The Exile: Borderlands 2 reveals that he was more or less forced to move to Pandora after Hyperion sent assassins after him in an attempt to steal his weapon designs. Were it not for Blake tipping him off and suggesting him to move, he wouldn't even be alive. Er, undead. Whatever.
- Handicapped Badass: Implied to be one. Doesn't save him.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The Borderlands 2 DLC "Zombie TK's Bloody Harvest" sees the return of TK as a friendly zombie.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Unlike the other zombies, he doesn't attack the Vault Hunters, instead choosing to sit in his shack happily rambling about how much he loves brains — quite possibly a result of dying before being exposed to the zombie virus.
- The Pollyanna: He was the target of Hyperion assassins, forced to relocate to Pandora, lost his wife to Scar, before losing his sight and leg to the same skag. None of this stops him from being possibly the cheeriest, friendliest person the Vault Hunters come across. He's still just as cheery as a zombie."I maybe a blind crippled widower, but that don't mean all's lost!"
- Potty Failure: "I uh, I hate to send you away, you're great company and all... but I, I gotta go take a dump. I gotta take a dump somethin' awful! Somethin' real awful! Oh.. never mind... it's all gone now."
- Revenge: He desires it against a skag named Scar for killing his wife, blinding him, and eating his leg.
- In the sequel, his niece Una wishes to avenge her uncle by hiring the Vault Hunters to find evidence of how Hyperion planned to steal his weapon designs.
- Running Gag: He has an obsession with the phrase "Be seeing you", as he uses it as an ironic joke at the expense of his blindness.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Braaaaaaaaaaains!
- Tempting Fate: In Borderlands 2 you are tasked with retrieving his Echo Logs to find something incriminating against Hyperion. The last one ends with him noting that bandits showed up outside, but it can't possibly go wrong. Anyone who played the original Borderlands knows exactly what happens to him.
Crazy Earl
Crazy Earl
Buy somethin' or get outta my face!
Voiced by Randy PitchfordThe owner of a scrapyard, Crazy Earl is angrily antisocial, but moves to Sanctuary to run the black market in the second game.
- Adaptation Name Change: Sort-of; when you first hear of him, his name is spelled "Crazy" Earl, but the quotation marks disappear when you actually meet him.
- American Accents: Has a sort of generic Southern accent, though it's nowhere near as strong as Scooter's.
- Berserk Button: No one makes fun of Crazy Earl's crazy mustache.
- Big Eater/Extreme Omnivore: During the mission "Plan B" in Borderlands 2, Scooter mentions that he once ate one of Scooter's cars... the whole car... with a fork.
- Demoted to Extra/Out of Focus: He was actually part of the main story in the first game, and gave several story missions, in the second game, he's been demoted to "black market vendor," and only has a very minor role in the quest "Plan B."
- Friend in the Black Market: His entire role in the second game and the Pre-Sequel.
- Global Currency Exception: As a black market vendor, he only accepts Eridium/Moon Rocks as payment. In his words, "Cash is for clowns!".
- Hikikomori: Due to him becoming paranoid after bandits stole pretty much everything he owns. "Why do you think I barricaded myself in here?"
- Honest John's Dealership: Actually admits the fuel cell he's giving you in "Plan B" is a piece of junk (he himself describes it as "this crap fuel cell"), and says that merely touching it made two of his fingers rot off. However, the upgrades that he sells are actually useful.
- Jerkass: He sometimes crosses over into Jerk with a Heart of Gold territory since he does have very good reasons for being a jerk and can show genuine kindness, but usually, he's just a straight-up Jerkass.
- Jerk Justifications: As mentioned before, bandits did steal pretty much everything he owns... including his pet skag, Skrappy.
- Noodle Incident: See Big Eater.
- Pet the Dog: The mission "Earl's Best Friend," and his relationship with Skrappy in general.
- Self-Deprecation: One of the Claptrap Webisodes has Earl referring to Randy Pitchford as a "bitch-hack".
- Shout-Out: "It's dangerous to go alone, jerkwad!"
- Trademark Favorite Food: Canned skag meat, which is odd considering he has a pet skag named Skrappy, who he cares deeply for, and considers to be his best friend.
Spoiler Character
Click to see picture. (Spoilers)
Angel (The Guardian Angel)
Portrayed by Britanni Johnson and voiced by Jennifer GreeneA mysterious woman who helps both sets of Vault Hunters with information and missions. She is revealed to be broadcasting from a hacked Hyperion satellite named "4N631" at the end of the first game.In the second game, she continues to help, and even admits to being an AI. Except, as revealed later on, not really. However, she betrays the Vault Hunters halfway through the game, nearly getting Sanctuary destroyed in the process. Turns out she's Jack's daughter and a Siren, plugged into the Hyperion network and pumped full of Eridium to charge the Vault Key.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Subverted and zigzagged. She appears to be an AI and admits it in the second game (she's not), and misled the original Vault Hunters and betrays the second group of Vault Hunters on Jack's orders.
- Abusive Parents: Jack's used her as an organic computer since she was a child and punishes her with electric shocks when she won't do as she's told. Despite this, he honestly seems to love her and believes himself to be protecting her.
- Alternate Character Interpretation: In-universe example. Tiny Tina blames her for Roland's death, and casts her as a demon in her Dungeons & Dragons-style game in the fourth DLC.
- And I Must Scream: Trapped in the "throne" Jack made for her when she was a child.
- Beware the Nice Ones: How does she get the request to put Sanctuary back on the Fast Travel Network put through? By cutting off the life support on the Hyperion lunar base.Angel: Nothing gets results like a death threat.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Her final words to Jack.Angel: Dad... I have to tell you something. You're an asshole.
- Catch Phrase: In the second game, she uses the phrase "Executing Phaseshift" whenever she uses her powers.
- Cores and Turrets Boss/Flunky Boss: She must be killed by destroying the Eridium Injectors in the chamber, while automated turrets, environmental hazards and an endless horde of very tough mooks keep spawning in. Unusually, she isn't the one summoning these things - in fact, she tries her best to help you.
- Deadpan Snarker: Becomes one in the second game.
- Death Seeker: She'll do anything to escape her father... even though being disconnected from Eridium will kill her.
- Designated Villain: Invoked in universe. In Assault on Dragon Keep, Tiny Tina shoehorns Angel's Bunkers & Badasses counterpart into a villainous role after building her up as an ally, because she blames Angel for Roland's death. Lilith, who was captured and forced into Angel's position herself, can't help but protest.
- Driven to Suicide by Vault Hunter: Appears to be in her early twenties to late teens, has been imprisoned as a Wetware CPU, emotionally and physically abused, been used as little more than a tool by her father, and rendered immobile due to her father making her body dependent on Eridium. As such, she enlists you, the Vault Hunter, to break into her chambers and kill her.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Her paleness could possibly be due to being kept imprisoned for most of her life, though the other sirens we've seen in-game, (possibly) including Steele, have all been pretty pale as well.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: In the second game, her hair is short on one side and longer on the other. This is a hint that she is both a Siren, sharing the same asymmetry as Lilith and Maya, and that one side of her head is shaved, with cybernetic implants on that side.
- Foreshadowing: There are subtle clues to her true identity throughout the early part of the second game.
Jack: You and I are having a serious talk once this is over!
- The use of the phrase "phase shift", and Jack commenting in a recording that he knows the identities of three of the six Sirens in the universe. Though that also doubles as a Red Herring, given that Borderlands 1 players are likely to assume that the third will be Steele. Except she's not.
- The ending of the first game foreshadows her involvement with Hyperion — the Hyperion satellite seen orbiting Pandora has "4N631" (ANGEL) written on the side of it.
- Early on in the second game, she's shown interfacing with Hyperion technology without any problems, but she's unable to hack Scooter's Catch-A-Ride stations until the Vault Hunters salvage a component from a wrecked Hyperion robot nearby, again hinting at her ties to Hyperion.
- The second game's Nonstandard Character Design contains a subtle hint as to what she actually looks like. In the first game, she has full-length hair going down both sides of her head. Her appearance in the second game (shown above) has short hair on one side and longer on the other. The short hair is due to the left side of her head being shaved and having some kind of cybernetic implants inserted. The asymmetry is also a subtle hint that she's a Siren, as Lilith and Maya are also asymmetrical in clothing design.
- The way Jack addresses her and chastises her. Rather than his usual faux-casual threats, he sounds...parental.
- Jack's horrid treatment towards Angel also foreshadowed certain a quest after her death, at Eridium Blight. Turns out his treatment towards his own daughter acted as a reflection on how much pain he was going through with his grandmother, with a nasty buzzaxe to prove it.
- Electronic Eyes: Her radio portrait in Borderlands 2 has glowing blue electronic eyes that appear red in extreme close-ups.
- Gosh Darnit To Heck/Last-Second Word Swap: In Borderlands 2, she doesn't seem to like cursing, even though she almost does it a few times. This is due to conditioning by her father. Her last words, however, has her calling her dad an asshole.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": She isn't just called the Guardian Angel: her name is Angel.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Not by behavioral limitations, mind you. She's sealed inside a containment field and has one of Jack's control collars around her neck, and can only have limited effect on the outside world, especially when Jack starts reigning her in more tightly.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Isolated all her life by her slavery, she's incredibly lonely. She becomes severely distraught when Jack makes her betray the original Vault Hunters and the new ones. She even says in a very sad, quiet voice, "We are not friends anymore, are we?"
- Known Only by Their Nickname: She's primarily known as the Guardian Angel amongst the Vault Hunters. Turns out Angel is her actual name.
- Morality Pet: Averted. Despite being the only person Jack truly loves aside from himself, his treatment of Angel solidifies just how evil he really is. Instead...
- Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Revealed to be this in the second game.
- Mercy Kill: Near the end of the second game.
- Missing Mom: The fate of her mother/Jack's ex-wife is never made clear. Jack claimed that Angel accidentally killed her with with her powers, which is why he put her in Control Core Angel to begin with, but audio files about Jack's past indicate that she had insisted that "the Angel" be shut down before her "disappearance". Mentioning her in front of Jack is one of his Berserk Buttons. In Tales, Jack reveals that it was his second wife who insisted Angel be shut down (well, he claims she bolted after finding out about Angel). He also reiterates that Angel killed her birth mother, his first wife, but given who is telling us this, it should be taken with a grain of salt.
- Mission Control: In all of the first game and some of the second.
- The Mole: In Borderlands 2. Subverted in that she doesn't want to be.
- Nonstandard Character Design: She appears to the Vault Hunters as an FMV of a real woman whenever she's communicating to them until you actually reach her. Afterwards, Lilith uses the same manner of communication when she's forced to replace Angel.
- One-Winged Angel: Puns aside, in Tiny Tina's Bunkers & Badasses campaign in the fourth DLC, she turns into a drider after you unchain her in the dungeon.
- Only Sane Woman: In both games. While she seems mostly unaware of the absurdity of everything going on around her in the first game, she's taken to commenting on it in the second. She's also one of the few characters who displays a fondness for Claptraps, though she acknowledges that they're largely an annoyance.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Her dialogue becomes notably less snarky and much more stilted in the second game whenever she is lying to you, such as when you encounter Wilhelm.
- Out of Focus: For as heavily plot-relevant that she is in both Borderlands and Borderlands 2, the only lines she has in the Pre-Sequel are for a side quest where Jack is scouting out prospective Vault Hunters to help his mission on Elpis, and in Fragtrap's origin echo logs, and she has no echo portrait when she speaks. Granted, the story focuses on Jack, but he uses her extensively all throughout the series. At the least, Jack keeps a framed picture of her as a child at his office desk.
- Peek-a-Bangs: On her actual physical body, the hair on the left side of her face completely covers that eye.
- Phlebotinum Dependence: Due to Jack pumping her full of Eridium, Angel can no longer survive without it.
- Power Gives You Wings: White ones. Whether these are actually the wings she normally manifests, or if they're an effect from the Vault Key (as Lilith has the same color wings when she is being used to power the Key) is unclear.
- Power Tattoo: Like the other Sirens.
- Required Secondary Powers: Her "phase shift" requires direct access to Hyperion technology. This is why in the first game, when Steele shuts down the ECHO network, she is effectively blinded, and in the second game, why Handsome Jack needs you to sneak a Hyperion power core into Sanctuary's shield network. She also cannot take control of machinery when an operator is directly controlling it. The engineers who tried to stop her from launching a Fast Travel beacon discovered that she still has control over life support, though.
- Ron the Death Eater: In-Universe in Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, where Tina, blaming her for Roland's death, has her counterpart in her game be Daddy's Little Villain, whereas Angel actually wanted to help the Vault hunters.
- Self-Made Orphan: Jack implies she accidentally killed her mother with her uncontrolled powers, but other audio implies he's not entirely truthful.
- Technopath: Her Phase Shift abilities seem to manifest as an ability to manipulate technology, specifically Hyperion tech, including the means to digistruct objects at will and process enormous amounts of data.
- Word of God states that her siren ability is a manipulation and creation of artificial realities, in and outside of technology. In the original concept art, when the vault hunters cross into the Control Core, they walk into a ... home. They weave through all the very normal rooms, until they find her in the kitchen. The same as what happens in game, Jack yanks her out, shattering her safe illusion. Due to time constraints and the trickiness of level building, they instead opted for the strange purple ethereal realm depicted, but apparently that's part of the same process. If they'd done it, it would have doubled a tear jerker, all the amazing things that are only in the limits of her imagination to create, she builds the safety of a home around her. Then Jack ruins it too.
- Touched by Vorlons: Comes with being a Siren.
- Unreliable Expositor: Much of what she says in the first game about the Vault is revealed to be an outright lie in the second.
- Unrobotic Reveal: Her last appearance reveals her as a Siren, not an Artificial Intelligence.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: Regularly communicates with both sets of Vault Hunters over the ECHO network, and in the second game, is "networked into everything" on Pandora.
- Walking Spoiler: Thanks to the second game.
- Wetware CPU: Among other things, this is how Jack uses her — she perpetually has the whole of the ECHOnet at her fingertips and can call up codes, blueprints, surveillance videos, recordings, or anything else digital upon request if there's a means for her to reach it (and if there isn't, she can usually come up with a way to make one). She profiled the new Vault Hunters and knows their pasts in detail. ...Except Zer0. All she can say about him is "I'unno."
Also, he has three balls.The leader of the bandits attacking Fyrestone in the first game.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Instead of just another Psycho as in the game, Nine-Toes from the comic The Fall of Fyrestone is a far more competent, intelligence, poetic individual. He's treated as a legitimate threat who actively destroyed Fyrestone and put a stop to Vault Hunters coming to the city.
- Badass Boast:
- "You woke the wrong dog."
- "I'm gonna rip your arm off and beat your baby with it!"
- The Dragon: To Sledge.
- I'm a Humanitarian: "I'm gonna eat you when I'm done!"
- King Mook: He's basically a Psycho with lots of spikes who can actually use a gun.
- Spikes of Villainy: Spikes adorn his shoulder armour, his head, and even his nipples.
- Starter Villain: The first official boss in the game.
- Too Much Information: Just read his Boss Subtitles!
- Wicked Cultured: Nine-Toes comes off as a lot more well learned and poetic in the Fall of Fyrestone comic. Lilith just finds it annoying.
P.S.: You guys aren't friends.
Voiced by Christopher SabatA massive bandit leader characterized by a love of midgets and close combat.
- Back from the Dead: Gets resurrected as Motorhead in Secret Armory.
- Came Back Wrong: Can be faced as a DLC boss as "Motorhead".
- Drop the Hammer: As indicated by his name, he has a rather large sledgehammer as a melee weapon. In the second game, it's carried by Brick.
- Hulk Speak: "Sledge give little runt BIG Death!"
- The Juggernaut: Befitting his role as the first Wake-Up Call Boss in game, Sledge is incredibly strong.
- Legacy Character: Seems to have a couple. Smashhead is an optional mini boss in 2, while Brick has also adapted several of Sledge's attributes. Sledge's helmet is also a head option for Salvador.
- Spikes of Villainy: Absolutely covered in spikes.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Angel refers to him as the first truly dangerous opponent you'll face. He's also the first of the the game's 3 major bandit leaders.
Mad Mel
Mad MelLeader of the vehicle-riding bandits who have been stealing Scooter's runners in the first game.
- Cool Car: A skeletal repaint of the Monster (which you can access in the 3rd DLC).
- Dragon Ascendant: It's mentioned he took over the Badlands bandits after you bumped off Sledge.
- Shout-Out: Everything about him is a Shout-Out to Mel Gibson (more specifically, the Mad Max movies).
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Spouts a generic Bruiser line, but effective nonetheless: "Come on little one, time to die!"
- Vehicular Assault: He spends his boss battle driving around in the aforementioned Cool Car, and will crush you under its tires if he can.
Voiced by Oliver TullBandit boss of the Rust Commons in the first game, and second in command to Baron Flynt.
- Bald of Evil: He has a few hairs, but other than that, he's bald.
- Dying Declaration of Hate: One of this death quotes is him stating how much he hated Pandora anyway.
- Embarrassing First Name: According to his wiki profile (which got it from somewhere), his real name is Leslie.
- Gatling Good: Uses a gatling turret.
- Kick the Dog: Randomly shoots a Claptrap before fighting you.
- The Turret Master: Fights from the top of a canyon on a turret.
The Kobb Brothers
Taylor and Jaynis KobbA pair of brothers fighting over a bandit town in Rust Commons East.
- Cain and Abel: Subverted. Taylor is just as bad if not worse than his brother, as it would turn out.
- Crazy-Prepared: Taylor apparently puts armed midgets in storage containers (complete with beds and toilets) in case he has a sudden need to betray someone.
- King Mook: Both brothers use a generic Bandit Raider design.
- Obviously Evil: Taylor. The fact that he's a King Mook should have clued the player in that they would end up fighting him.
- Shout-Out: Jaynis and Jaynistown are one to Jayne Cobb of Firefly.
Baron Flynt
Baron Flynt
That's Medicinal.
Voiced by Ian SinclairOne of the highest-ranking bandits in the first game, he lords over the Salt Flats from an abandoned mining rig.
- Cool Gun: His Boom Stick, which is beyond Groovy.
- Disc One Final Boss: He is the leader of the bandits. After him comes the Crimson Lance and the Guardians.
- Evil Gloating: By far the most talkative bandit leader in the game, he taunts you several times over the radio before you finally confront him face-to-face.
- Sophisticated as Hell: His dialogue has shades of this, at least compared to all of the other bandit leaders.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": According to cut dialog from his brother Captain Flynt in the sequel, Baron is literally his first name. Their parents were douchebags.
- Kick the Dog: According to Tannis, Flynt punched her dog.
- Lean and Mean: Unlike all of the other bandit leaders, who are all huge mountains of muscle, Flynt's a lanky, regular-sized guy. Despite this, he's still very tough in a fight.
- Orcus on His Throne: He sits up on his chair even after you reach him. The only time he gets up and attacks you is after you kill Hanz and Franz.
- Shout-Out: He, his gun, and the gun's Flavor Text are all Shout Outs to Evil Dead.
- Smoking Is Cool: Has a small lit.... something whenever he appears.
- The Stoner: If his Boss Subtitles are to be believed, that's not a cigarette.
- Those Two Bad Guys/Co-Dragons: His two assistants, Hanz and Franz.
Mr. Shank
Mr. Shank
Voiced by Stan RobakThe extremely heterosexual leader of Lockdown Palace, and Moxxi's second husband. He kidnaps Athena in the Knoxx DLC.
- Bald of Evil: As can be seen in his picture, Mr. Shank doesn't have any hair on his body.
- Body Horror: As can be seen in his picture here. He has a knife jammed through his skull so that the tip is jutting out through his eye socket.
- Depraved Bisexual/Depraved Homosexual: He used to be married to Moxxi, so he could be bi, or perhaps he realised he was gay during or after the marriage, or was just using her as a beard. But we can all agree on the "depraved" part.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Judging by his dying words, his relationship with Chaz was a loving one.
- Flying Under the Gaydar: Attempts this, but his romantic feelings for his boyfriend Chaz are pretty blatant. The question amongst fans isn't whether or not he's gay, but whether he's bi or was basically using Moxxi as The Beard.
- Insistent Terminology: That's MR. Shank.
- Knife Nut: He has several knives on his person and seems to really enjoy using them. Not to mention the knife he has jammed in his face.
- Manly Gay: Has shades of this, although he tries his best to cover it up. Also has some elements of Macho Camp. It's possible he's really just Camp Gay and that any masculine behaviour he displays is due to him trying to stay in the closet.
- Meaningful Name: Shank is a term for a prison stabbing. Mr. Shank runs a prison. He also has a knife stuck in his head and uses knives in combat.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Concerning his love affair with Chaz.
- Tattooed Crook: He's a criminal who has tattoos and goes mostly naked to show them off.
- They Call Me Mister Tibbs: He actually kills a prisoner for calling him "Shank."
- Transparent Closet: He tries to deny his homosexuality, but he's fooling nobody. Particularly in his lame attempts to claim he uses the virility/phallus enhancer "Engorge!" to please his "girlfriend" Chazmina.
Steve the Bandit
Voiced by Mikey Neumann
One of the mascots of the series, alongside Claptrap. In the second game, it turns out he works with the Zafords.
- British Accent: Revealed to have one in the third Claptrap webisode.
- When you find him in Borderlands 2, he's an ally of the Irish Zaford clan, appropriately enough.
- The Cameo: Shows up in episode 5 of Tales as the bandit that Zer 0 is shooting at.
- Catch Phrase: "Heyoo!"
- Cool Gun: As seen in Poker Night 2, he owns a rocket launcher that shoots relatively harmless confetti rockets!note
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Claptrap, according to Claptrap's webseries and Poker Night 2. GlaDOS even refers to Steve as Claptrap's best friend.
- Memetic Badass: In the second game, there's Bandit graffiti about "Steve the Lion-Heart" to suggest he's one in-universe.
- Oh Crap!: In Poker Night 2, Steve's reaction when an angry Brock Samson heads towards him after Steve shot a confetti rocket at him.Steve: Heyooo! (shoots Brock)
Brock: Excuse me... (menacingly heads towards Steve)
Steve: ...Heyooo? (flees with Brock in pursuit, who catches up and begins audibly beating him)
- Series Mascot: The second of two. The first being Claptrap.
- Unexplained Recovery: Was apparently killed in The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, but is found alive and well in Borderlands 2, both in The Dust and within The Holy Spirits tavern, apparently either a member of or working with the Zalford Clan.
Atlas and the Crimson Lance
Commandant Steele
Commandant Helga Steele
Voiced by Lani MinellaThe leader of the Crimson Lance in the vanilla game, dedicated to finding and plundering the Vault first. Possibly the Siren Lilith came to Pandora to find, but that is never confirmed.
- All There in the Manual: Her first name is only stated in the game files.
- The Borderlands: Origins comics confirm that Steele is, in fact, a Siren, which explains how she was able to activate the Destroyer Vault's key. Apparently Handsome Jack didn't include her in his list of them because she was already dead at the time.
- Bad Boss: Aside from treating her underlings like shit, in the backstory she knowingly sent Roland's squad on a suicide mission, then left them for dead when they were overrun. Of course, this ends up coming back to bite her in the end.
- The Baroness: Not only does she have the personality type, but she also speaks with a Russian accent.
- Big Bad: The closest thing that the game has to a main villain.
- Butt Monkey:
Steele-Trap: Unce, unce, unce... I was better off with a damn tentacle through my chest.
- Not only does she get unceremoniously impaled mid-sentence, she then gets revived — twice — and her new Claptrap programming ensures her following deaths are as undignified as possible.
- Shows up in Tales from the Borderlands stuffed and as a museum piece. Shade's recounting of how she died doesn't help either.
- Came Back Wrong: She is brought back as Steele-Trap during the Robot Revolution DLC.
- Dark Action Girl: This isn't evident in the main game, but it definitely shows in Robot Revolution.
- Evil Albino: Lampooned by Knoxx.Have you met our friend the sun?!
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How the Destroyer kills her.
- King Mook: In the Claptrap DLC, she is more or less a Lance Assassin with more health.
- Motor Mouth: According to Knoxx.Knoxx: I sent Steele to this planet to take care of this little problem and also because... seriously, have you heard her? She talks all the time.
- Power Tattoo: She has Siren tattoos, although the powers she possesses remain a mystery. Even when fought as Steele-Trap she doesn't demonstrate any special Siren powers.
- She-Fu: As Steele-Trap.
- Touched by Vorlons: She is a Siren, but she never demonstrates any powers in the game (other than being able to operate the Vault Key).
- The Unfought: Played straight in the main game. Inverted in the Robot Revolution DLC, in which she comes back under the control of the Claptraps and fights the player characters twice.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Rebuilt as Steele Trap in the Robot Revolution DLC.
General Knoxx
General Alphonso Knoxx
Doesn't like Mondays
Voiced by Stan RobakThe beleaguered general of the Crimson Lance after Steele botches the job, he is deeply annoyed by everything to do with Pandora and his superior, the five-year old Admiral Mikey.
- Affably Evil: He's polite to the Vault Hunters, despite making it clear he intends to kill them. Even his dying request that they should destroy Pandora because it's a Crapsack World that doesn't deserve to exist is pretty polite.
- He's even affable when being forced to fight as Knoxx-trap, encouraging the Vault Hunters on their efforts at killing him and congratulating them on critical hits.
- Butt Monkey: Sees himself as this, given his Only Sane Man attitude.
- Came Back Wrong: In the Robot Revolution DLC, much to his chagrin.Knoxx: I'm back! Wait... I'm back? Dammit.
- The Cameo: In the Pre-Sequel, Knoxx is the one who narrates Athena's personal ECHO logs.
- The Chew Toy: His men disrespect him, his commanding officer is literally a child, and he's stuck on a Crapsack World. Oh, and he gets resurrected, twice, when all he wants is to stay dead.
- Dangerous Deserter: He would have been, if he'd gone through with his plans to kill the Vault Hunters and then leave the Crimson Lance for being full of idiots and incompetents.
- Deadpan Snarker: In his ECHO recordings.
- Death Seeker: When you reach him, he's about to commit suicide, but decides to try killing the Vault Hunters instead. In the Robot Revolution DLC, he is brought back to life twice and is not happy about it.
- Establishing Character Moment: The first ECHO you receive from him begins with a very long-suffering sigh. And that sums up his attitude to Pandora, the Crimson Lance, his mission, the Vault Hunters, his underlings, his superiors, his life, and every other damn thing that goes on to happen from there.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The reason he was furious at his superiors for what they did to Athena was partially that he thinks it was just an incredibly dirty move on their part.
- Pragmatic Villainy: ... As well as knowing that if they had to kill her sister, they should have gotten someone without any personal investment in the job rather than have her do it.
- Eyepatch of Power: Wears one.
- Flunky Boss: Knoxx himself is pretty tough, what with his Ace Custom mech suit, but what really makes him "final boss" difficult is the fact that he's accompanied by lots of Crimson Lance units, including Devastators and a Badass Devastator, as well as multiple Crimson Lance medics that can heal Knoxx to full health if you don't kill them quickly enough. This is most apparent in Claptrap's New Robot Revolution, in which you fight Knoxx again, only this time he's by himself and is a noticeably easier fight.
- King Mook: Knoxx is basically an Ace Custom Devastator (he's larger and has a lot more health), although he does have a few unique attacks and is also a Flunky Boss.
- Large and in Charge: Courtesy of his enormous mech suit.
- Only Sane Man: Sees himself as this among the Crimson Lance leaders. He's not wrong, given that the rank-and-file seem more concerned with ice-cream than their mission and they left a code that their lives depend upon at a blatant tourist trap where anyone could pick it up, the elites are Ax-Crazy (they were brainwashed as children then forced to murder their parents), and his boss is a five year old because of goddamn nepotism. All while he's trapped on a desert planet loaded with crazies and vicious alien wildlife, and someone is massacring his men with little effort. He's so fed up with the situation that when the Vault Hunters find him, he's trying to kill himself to escape the madness.
- Pet the Dog: The Pre-Sequel shows that he was actually quite fond of Athena, noting that she was a "nice enough kid" for a Child Soldier and was pretty angry at his superiors when they ordered her to wipe out the village her sister lived in to cut off her remaining ties to the outside world, knowing that as well as it being a dick move that it will just lead to her wanting vengeance against them. For her part, Athena actually respected Knoxx and regretted that he had to die.
- Powered Armor: Uses his own custom suit of Devastator armor, which is somewhere between here and Mini-Mecha.
- Punch Clock Villain: He bears the Vault Hunters no ill will and isn't ideologically loyal to the Crimson Lance, but he's a career soldier who takes his work seriously.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: His resurrection — he wanted to die, and bitterly demands you hurry up and kill him during the battle.
Dr. Ned
Dr. Ned Blanco
I'm Helping!
Voiced by Ric SpiegelThe identical twin brother of Zed, who is not just Zed with a mustache. The main antagonist of the Zombie Island DLC.
- Affably Evil: In spite of the fact that he's a Zombie Apocalypse-unleashing, murderous Mad Scientist, he's pretty chatty and pleasant towards the Vault Hunters. He makes brownies, offers them some, then remembers he probably shouldn't be giving brownies to the people who want him dead.
- Anti-Climax Boss: Invoked. Intended and subverted. He goes down quite easily. Followed by credits rolling past at lightning speed. Then they're suddenly ripped away and Undead Ned screams "It's not over yet!" Along with a character intro screen of Undead Ned with the text "HOLY F*#KING SHIT!!!"
- Badass Mustache: One that's apparently growing out of his surgical mask. He still has a moustache as Undead Ned, although it's styled completely differently.
- Berserk Button: His assistant, Bill, making popcorn when people are trying to work. This evidently ends up turning into a deep hatred of popcorn in general.Ned: You smell like popcorn. Now I'm pissed!
- Big Bad: Of "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned" DLC, naturally.
- Body Horror: As Undead Ned.
- Came Back Wrong: Thrice. Upon being killed in "Zombie Island", he almost instantly revives as Undead Ned. Then, in "Claptrap's New Robot Revolution", he is revived as Ned-Trap, then as Undead Ned-Trap.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He actually makes note of the decision to dedicate himself to evil, records it, and idly hopes nobody happens to find the recording and learn of his nefariousness.
- Deadly Doctor: Aside from the zombies, he can put up a pretty good fight one-on-one.
- Evil Twin:
- Of Dr. Zed. At first, it can be assumed that Ned is Zed with an obvious fake moustache spouting suspicious denials ("I am Dr. Ned, who is totally not Dr. Zed in disguise"). However, other sources (such as the Game Of The Year Edition Guide, the fourth Claptrap webisode, DLCs 3 and 4 and, of course, Borderlands 2) confirm that they are indeed two different people - brothers, specifically.
- In the Headhunter DLC of the third game, T.K. Baha hints that there's a third twin, named Ted, that is even worse than him. However Baha also pretty much says that none of the DLC is canon anyways.
- Flipping the Bird: In his second intro.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: When you first meet him.
- When wounded, Dr. Ned-trap might say "Pour alcohol on the wound. Also in my mouth."
- Mad Scientist: Not only created zombies, but Wereskags as well.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Turns out he's a bad guy... who knew?
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: By the end of the Borderlands 1 storyline, he's a twice-undead cyborg physician.
- Obviously Evil: He's not even really trying to hide it. The time he made the Vault Hunters wait while he lowered his hand-cranked elevator, forcing them to fight off a massive horde of zombies, going so far as to drop the counter-weight twice comes to mind.
- One-Winged Angel: Undead Ned, a far tougher battle than the one just before it.
- Porn Stash: There are huge stacks of dirty magazines in his secret lab.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: How the Claptraps bring him Back from the Dead.
Hank Reiss
Hank Reiss
Nice Hat!A man who was turned into a were-skag by Ned when he was given the anti-zombie antidote. Identified by his Nice Hat.
- Apocalyptic Log: His ECHO correspondence with his wife, which gradually tells the tale of the zombie outbreak in Jakobs Cove and first hints at Ned's direct involvement in same, and ends with him going to Ned as a volunteer test subject for the skag-based cure.
- Monster Progenitor: The original wereskag, ultimately responsible for every other wereskag's existence.
- Nice Hat: It actually looks really stupid, but deserves a mention because the game itself calls it such (if mockingly). Why does he wear it? His daughter made it for him. He even mentions the other guys teasing him about it.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Technically a wereskag, but wereskags are more like werewolves than skags are like wolves in the first place. The main difference? The mouth, which opens like a flower. Oh, and wereskags would have never existed if Ned hadn't injected Reiss with skag stuff in the first place.
- Tragic Monster: He was a loving family man before transforming into a wereskag.
- Turns Red: Once his health gets below a certain threshold, he howls and gains a ton of it back. If you don't take them out fast enough, other wereskags do the same.
Father O'Callahan
Father Jackie O'CallahanA local preacher who tried to fight the "evil" of Jakobs Cove before being infected with the Wereskag virus.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: The Vault Hunters are hired to find out what happened to him, learning through ECHO recordings that he was "nicked in the neck" by Hank Reiss.
- Badass Preacher: He appears to be an actual priest who decides to "kick evil's arse".
- Determinator: Fighting the zombies and Hank Reiss is tough, but he stays strong through prayer...and the whiskey in his flask.
- Oh My Gods!: References the Guardian Angel at least once.
- Shout-Out: Obviously a reference to the character Father O'Callahan from Salem's Lot by Stephen King, both characters are monster hunters who end up infected by the monsters they hunt.
- Tragic Monster: A Badass Preacher who tried to help Jakobs Cove and was turned into the very "evil" he was fighting. Being Good Sucks on Pandora.
Mr. Blake
Mr. Jeffrey Blake
Vice President of Hyperion
Voiced by R Bruce ElliottThe surprisingly reasonable vice president of Hyperion. He hires the Vault Hunters in the Robot Revolution DLC of the first game, but is only heard in ECHO logs in the second.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Handsome Jack treats him like a butler more than anything else.
- Benevolent Boss: Surprisingly, despite the flames and his devil horns, he is a very reasonable executive. Unlike most corporate executives you have seen so far, he did not backstab the vault hunters after the job is done and compensated them very generously. In the sequel, it's revealed that he warned TK Baha and Dr. Zed that Hyperion was coming after them and politely suggested that they escaped while they still could.
- Bus Crash: Possibly. After a long absence, he is finally mentioned in the last Tales from the Borderlands episode in a scan as the acting CEO of Hyperion. Right after Helios crashed.
- Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments.Blake: We at Hyperion have always valued our relationship with the treasure hunters on Pandora, so I know you'll leap at the chance to help us out. ...Particularly since you killed our last team.
- Demoted to Extra: He is the brains behind the plan to stop the Claptrap uprising in Robot Revolution and gives all but one of the story missions. In the second game, he is only heard through ECHO recordings.
- The Dragon: Being the Vice President of Hyperion implies that he is this to Jack, but...
- Dragon with an Agenda: He warned TK Baha about how Hyperion Assassins were coming for him and suggested he take his wife and run while he still could, and he made the same warning to Dr. Zed later on. In Jack's AMA, he mentions that he's pretty sure that Blake is trying to get him killed so he can take his job.
- Dragon Ascendant: According to an ECHO scan in the final episode of Tales, Blake was acting-CEO of Hyperion before Jack's return.
- Strangely enough, however, the ECHO logs in "Get to Know Jack" seem to indicate that he was Jack's lackey before he even became president, at least sometime between the Pre-Sequel and Tassiter's assassination.
- Enigmatic Minion: At the least, while he's openly contemptuous of everyone in Pandora, his actions suggest that he's a lot less evil than, say, Handsome Jack.
- Horned Hairdo: More subtle than some examples, though.
- Malicious Misnaming: A subject to one. Jack repeatedly gets Blake's first name wrong, very likely on purpose.Jack: Anything else on today's agenda, Jimmy?
Blake: It's "Jeffrey", sir. And no.
Jack: Thanks, Jimmy!
- Mission Control: Provides all but the first story mission in Claptrap's New Robot Revolution.
- Mouth of Sauron: He's evidently Hyperion's representative when dealing with bandits and mercenaries, since he's also the head of Tourism and Mercenary Relations.
- Obviously Evil: Subverted. His intro scene gives off this impression, but he's actually perfectly reasonable.
- Only Sane Man: The first corporate suit in the entire game franchise who isn't a Psychopathic Manchild (Torgue, Handsome Jack, probably most of Atlas' management), comedically sociopathic (...it's Borderlands), a Bad Boss, venal and profit-obsessed to the point of being Too Dumb to Live (Jakobs), or succumbing to any other various inanities. (Vaughn and maybe Rhys, depending on player actions, later join the short list of non-deranged executives.)
- Pet the Dog: Warning TK Baha and his wife about Hyperion's approaching assassins, and later telling Dr. Zed to leave Fyrestone before the Hyperion robots evict him by force. It would have been easier and inconsequential for him to have simply let them die, but it seems that he is reasonable enough to give a fair warning to anybody who is on Hyperion's kill-list.
- Punch Clock Villain: He is this under Handsome Jack.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: In the Claptrap DLC, he's generally polite and helpful and rewards the Vault Hunters properly after everything is said and done.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: He dresses very smartly compared to everyone else on Pandora... although he starts to lament it, given the local weather conditions.Blake: Why, why did I decide to wear wool in the desert?
- Shout-Out: His name is a reference to William Blake, with the Borderlands Wikia going into further detail on the subject.
- The Voice: Is only heard in ECHO recordings and broadcasts in Borderlands 2.
Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap (I.N.A.C)
Viva la Robolution!
Voiced by David EddingsThe very same Claptrap from Fyrestone. After the end of the first game's story, we see that Hyperion overwrote his programming. He decided to start a Robot War while "claptrapping" any living creatures he encountered along the way.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: He was originally sent by Hyperion to kill the Vault Hunters after they became a drain on the economy. Instead, he led the rest of the Claptraps in a (not entirely unjustified) revolt against the humans.
- The Assimilator: He and his revolutionary buddies do this to the local people/wildlife, turning them into cyborg slaves for the robolution.
- Big Bad: Of the Claptrap's New Robot Revolution DLC.
- Catch Phrase: "Viva la robo-lución!"
- Early-Bird Cameo: Appears at the end of the main game.
- Fantastic Racism: Really doesn't like humans, referring to them as "fleshbags."INAC: Hath not a Claptrap an eye? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you poison us, do we not die? Of course we don't! Because we're better than all you stinking fleshbags!
- Final Boss: Of Claptrap's New Robot Revolution.
- Flunky Boss: It will send several waves of Kamikaze Claptraps at the Vault Hunters during the boss fight.
- Gatling Good: His Humongous Mecha form has NINE gatling turrets mounted on it.
- HeelFace Brainwashing: He is eventually defeated by the Vault Hunters using the WIRED device to undo the advanced programming Hyperion gave him and reverting him back to his original, friendly self. Afterwards, he was sent back to Hyperion to work as a door opener, where he encountered an employee by the name of Jack and gave him ideas of a new prototype combat unit...
- Humongous Mecha: Fights the Vault Hunters in one.
- If You Die, I Call Your Stuff: He'll sometimes yell "I got dibs on his socks!" when you die during the Humongous Mecha battle.
- Metaphorgotten: Does this a couple times.INAC: So you think you can stop the Claptrap Robolution? You can no more control the direction of a mighty river as it flows towards freedom. Unless you built, like, a dam or an irrigation system or something.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Thanks to his actions, the Claptraps were disassembled between the events of the first and second game to the point that there's only one known Claptrap left on Pandora.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Well, Ninja Robot, but still.
- Old Shame: In-universe, Claptrap as of the Pre-Sequel came to deeply regret his time as the INAC to the point that he associates the MINAC with shame.
- One-Winged Angel: His Mega Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap form. However, it's simply a giant robot he pilots rather than him actually transforming.
- Rebel Leader: In leading the Claptraps in the Robolution.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: A trait he shares with all the Claptrap rebels.
- That Came Out Wrong: In messages to the Vault Hunters:INAC: You will always fail as long as the Children of the Robolution are willing to fight against their former masters in order to protect me, their master! Hold on...That came out wrong.
- Voice of the Resistance: Frequently broadcasts recorded messages to further inspire his Claptrap brethren.
The Eridians
The EridiansThe Eridians were an ancient alien race which had a presence on Pandora thousands or even millions of years ago, and the builders of the Vault. As of Borderlands, they are presumed to be long extinct......Right?
- Fantastic Caste System: Tannis's translation program has determined that they had a class system, though she doesn't go into details about what sort of classes existed.
- Galactic Superpower: In their time, Tannis says that they were capable of both "leadership and organized warfare". Borderlands 2 indicates that they were present on numerous worlds. And those are just the ones they built Vaults on.
- Precursors: Were gone long before humanity was around.
- Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Humanity studying their ancient technology led to technological leaps and bounds.
- Ragnarok-Proofing: Their stuff, even after thousands or millions of years, is still in working order.
The Destroyer
The DestroyerA god-like being from another dimension that all but wiped out the Eridians.
- Bigger Bad: Is the most dangerous thing in the game and probably the whole universe, and freeing it inadvertently drives the plot of both games, but it has no direct influence on the game's story.
- Combat Tentacles: Which impale Commandant Steele within seconds of the Vault's opening. In Borderlands 2, Handsome Jack dubs it "the universe's angriest squid."
- Deader Than Dead: Moxxi sabotages the Eye of Helios in an attempt to kill both the Destroyer as well as Jack and his goon squad. Jack attempts to salvage the eye in a sidequest, only to blow it up for good.
- Eldritch Abomination: Hailing from another dimension.
- Fun Size: Due to Nakayama's poor math, a clone of the Destroyer turned out to be only 3 feet tall. It's eye beam is of a mild annoyance rather than world-destroying magnitude.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Blatantly, and subject to much Self-Deprecation.
- Mainlining the Monster: Jack took its eye to power the Eye of Helios.
- Multiple-Choice Past: In the Pre-Sequel, Jack makes an offhand comment that implies that it's simply another Eridian-built superweapon. This is consistent with dialogue from Angel in Borderlands 2 that implies that Jack may have made up the whole "save the universe from an extra-dimensional eldritch abomination" thing (which is consistent with Jack's grandiose heroism fantasies).
- Not Quite Dead: The Pre-Sequel reveals that Jack used The Destroyer's eye as Helios' Wave Motion Gun.
- Precursor Killers: It wiped out the Eridians before the last of them sealed it within the Vault.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Destroyer is the actual contents of the Vault, sealed within by the last of the Eridians to prevent it from destroying the universe ...at least, that's the story Jack has Angel feed you.
- Stationary Boss: Fortunately for the player, it won't move at all.
The Guardians
Guardians of the VaultMysterious aliens (likely robots built by the Eridians) left behind to defend the Vaults, they are completely single-minded in pursuit of this goal. They use Eridian armor and weapons, but make no attempt to communicate in any way. They just fight off anyone who gets too close to the Vaults.
- Dance Battler: A lot of them spin and backflip around the battlefield.
- Deflector Shields: They have extremely high shields, but laughable health. Any ability that lets you ignore shields cuts through them like wheat.
- It Can Think: Everyone is shocked when seeing the Alien in The Pre-Sequel!, which possesses enough intelligence to mock someone for trying to shoot it. It's not confirmed to actually be a Guardian, though, and may be an actual Eridian.
- Organic Technology: According to Athena, they're bio-mechanical constructs built by the Eridians, presumably in their own image, but in the end are not actually alive.
- Spin to Deflect Stuff: Some Guardians (notably the Sentinel) can spin their staffs to deflect bullets.
- White Mask of Doom: They have blank masks for faces in Borderlands, and human-looking masks in The Pre-Sequel! A Borderlands artist says that their faces reform to approximately mimic the appearance of whatever species it interacts with