I really do disagree with a lot of what is pontificated within this thread, I feel that the descriptions are theoretically interesting within a vacuum of this post, but the game falls short in many ways; execution, continuity, dialogue flow, comedy, plot holes, environmental storytelling, lore retcons.
If the villains are supposed to be a modern day commentary, I feel that, firstly, attempts at commentary of modern society very often, and very easily, fall flat, coming across as condescending and intellectually uninteresting, with very little to say. Creating a character that irritates and aggravates isn’t a hallmark of success, and I find myself more irritated at the writers than the characters for the numerous Deux Ex Machina esque moments.
I feel the narrative overall did ossify potential arcs brought forward by Tales from The Borderlands and The Pre Sequel, retconned several characters, made certain cast members immensely dissimilar in personality or far blander (Vaughn wasn’t a natural evolution of his character at all in my eyes, I find it immensely disappointing that they made him into a one note unfunny joke). I also feel certain scenes such as Aurelia and Maya’s deaths, wasted tonnes of potential character development.
I feel the attempted commentary on futurism or corporatism isn’t as effective as you imply because, firstly, the representations are so heavily satirical and cartoony, pulling real world analogies from it would come across as extremely inauthentic (not in the form of poignant satire, but being so heavily dissimilar as to dilute any intended context). And secondly, the reason people emotionally relate to the games is due to the character driven storytelling; the characters weren’t treated with the respect they deserve in 3.
Amara, her theoretical personality, and her design, are excellent, I love them. But she comes across as very one dimensional with very little personality. Her ego-maniacal nature (and not in a comedic form such as Aurelia) and hypocritical taunting make her less likeable as a protagonist. I fail to see how FL4K being non binary adds anything to his character, or is a good example of a separation from human practices. Unlike other forms of media, Artificial Intelligence in Borderlands isn’t shown as inherently superior to humans, and have many notably human behaviours, social practices and unique quirks.
Feeling the need to point out that a robot is in fact, a robot, adds nothing to their character for me, and comes across as pandering for clout. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I haven’t seen this point brought up at all within the game itself? And even if it was, it makes very little sense for a nonhuman species to at all concern themselves with anything in that regard in the first place. Fl4k also (by his own free will, as AI have been shown to be able to customize themselves) uses a male voice and numerous mannerisms as such, it comes across as a worthless point to me.
I feel the main vault hunters have very one dimensional personalities overall, and it’s exceptionally disappointing, as shown in The Pre Sequel, especially with Athena, the playable vault hunters can get fantastic character development, which is why Athena is one of my favourite characters in the series.
I feel exploring the concepts of the dynamics between the different corporations, vigilante lifestyle upon Elpis and Pandora, their unique culture and how people individually live in the world is something they could very easily continue to explore. Again, 2 takes a very heavy handed satirical outlook on a lot of content, so avoiding retreading ground has much less to do with exploring the “same” interesting themes in a more in-depth manner and much more to do with forming new, well written comedy that stands on its own from the second game, which I feel 3 falls absolutely flat in. Bad comedy is much harder to ignore than a bad story, it actively kills a persons experience and interest in media, whilst a poor narrative can be worked around. It’s probably the most egregious writing flaw the game could have.
The concept that many people can personally identify with unskilled, uneducated self indulgent social media behaviour isn’t a realistic look at the world. The majority of the worlds population have a far smaller online presence, if any at all. The idea of dangerous power in the hands of arrogant debutantes isn’t a new one, Akira is a culturally significant example. If they wanted to be more introspective, thoughtful and elaborated on this point, they should have, but they left it as surface level insufferable gags about the internet.
A character being hated isn’t the hallmark of a successful villain, there is much more nuance to writing then angering your consumer. There is no satisfaction in experiencing media deliberately built to aggrandize with no respect for your intelligence.
Ava is clearly not exactly as she is meant to be, the game developers very clearly want you to like her, and act like she is hot ■■■■. People raised in a family unit doesn’t necessarily form an antithesis to her backstory in this regard either, there is much more context in regards to childhood growth that determines how people evolve. Fiona and Sasha grew up as orphans on a world with an inordinate child fatality rate, but they had a much different existence than Ava did.
Ava doesn’t create hope or show any more depth; she is rewarded for selfishness, condemns others for her own misdeeds, and the writers reward her and force her upon the player, acting as if she is responsible for the players accomplishments. Everything in the game up to the artwork in the credits, coddles her existence and expects the player to enjoy it.
Maya’s death wasn’t treated like a tragedy, immediately afterwards, Tannis acts like an immense ■■■■■■■ and treats the death of a person who saved her life like a joke. And no sympathy is shown towards the woman responsible for saving millions of people. There was no emotional weight to the scene and it didn’t feel earned. It had major plot holes and inconsistencies, and it was a waste of a fan beloved character.
I find it interesting that you remark that the game is supposedly more tragic and heartfelt than previous stories (Tales ahem), and yet the game also has a fascinating obsession with toilet humour, often at inappropriate times. I feel the game does a terrible job balancing comedy with heartfelt storytelling, or more serious moments.
Aurelia’s character development was completely retconned from the ending of The Pre Sequel, and it was a huge waste for a potentially very interesting and comedic personality. This makes her dynamic with her brother and Wainright lack weight and sincerity, it doesn’t feel like Aurelia, why should I care when the characters are completely different?
Troy getting an unexplained power despite being completely untrained with Phaselock, whilst Maya, someone who has practiced for years, studiously researching the history of her race, never showed such an ability.
Liliths new unexplained power, with indeterminate outcomes (possible committing genocide upon Elpis); after spending the entire game as an emotionless husk of her former self, hardly feels satisfying to me. All the character points, such as her attempted execution of Athena, are completely ignored, she is given no chance to show her capabilities, skills or independence after losing her powers, nor any chance to be a capable general. The only time she is treated as having any significant is after she gains her powers, insinuating she has no worth other than that, and only after the player does all of the work for her.
I disagree with the concept of politics encompassing our existence, politics are a human construct built off of our social dynamics. Stories have a lot more to say about human nature than rigid, divisive, and often inaccurate, agenda driven politics.
I fundamentally disagree with the idea of this being an innately competently written product. I feel certain scenes, such as Maya’s death and the retcon of characters such as Aurelia, Rhys and Vaughn, have potentially irreversibly soured the franchises narrative.
This isn’t a scenario where in I can acknowledge a piece of media is well written even if I dislike it, I find the writing thoroughly disappointing and lackluster.
