Borderlands 3 make me feel like a pawn instead of the hero

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 SPOILERS
#1

Click on blurred text to see spoilerish post

Maybe I played the wrong game. But I thought I am supposed to be the savior, the biggest badass in Pandora. Maybe I am just vile, but the story made me feel like I am just an Errand boy to Lilith, & never part of her cool club of Sirens.

I rolled my eyes first-time Litith made her over the top super hero landing entry. My first thought was, what the hell am I here when you are almost god like? I may as well make coffee or make Pizza delivery for her.

think the Siren thingy is a little over the top, at least in cutscenes.

Lorelei is much better designed as an NPC imo, Badass without over the top.

It seems I am only relevance after the goddess Lilith lost her power. But then came Tannis. She made us though the pointless quest to save her. Then showed she did not require saving & 1-shot the big Mech skeleton boss with her Siren power.

Also, why am I NOT in some key cutscenes like I am invisible? What’s the point of having named characters when I am never addressed as a person, just generic Vault hunter/killer/vault thief.

After beating the end boss, shocking, another Siren, at least I get to be the savior right? But no. Not only am I excluded in the end cut scene, as usual, I feel like a pawn in the conflict.
When Litith made her savior of the galaxy sacrifice, & imprinted the firehawk emblem into the moon (or sun), instead of feeling sadness/grieve (or whatever the dev want us to feel), I rolled my eyes.

To me, story is not a big deal for a game like Borderlands. But the game make it very noticable (by me at least) of feeling like an expandable pawn.

Anyway, that’s just my opinion. I am not butthurt or anything, just giving my 2 cents on the direction of the plot.

20 Likes
#2

It’s one of my personal gripes as well. We did all the hard work, while Lilith just got slapped around, but as soon as a cutscene starts we are basically non-existent and don’t matter anymore.

10 Likes
#3

Typical of Borderlands games at this point. The trick is to wait until Borderlands 4, where the vault hunters from this game will be actually shown taking part in the story.

People like to crap on Presequel but it remains the only game where the player characters actually show up in cutscenes, and it has the highest number of NPC lines that are actually tailored to your specific character. That number is one, in case you were wondering.

12 Likes
#4

Tannis needed help. She needed you to fracture the eridium running the machine so she could channel it. Also, her ability is tech stuff.

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#5

Borderlands 2 and pre-sequel definitely handled the cutscene-player interaction better. In the post-Troy fight cutscene where Tyreen buries the siren trio then proceeds to do a livestream I was wondering why our VHs were just standing around watching it happen :laughing:

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#6

Might have missed that. Thanks for the clarification.

#7

Same with the Maya Scene, The Tyloon scene. They acted as you are invisible.

1 Like
#8

Yeah Tannis stated that her abilities don’t help in combat except by hacking turrets or something like that. Tannis is basically the manipulator of the sirens, where Lilith is the enforcer/skirmisher.

2 Likes
#9

And Borderlands 2 didn’t make you feel like a “pawn”?

Pick me up! Now walk two feet and get my purple crack for me! Now do it again in the city, then I’m going to teleport/fly the city and everyone in it away except for you specifically so you can run around and do grunt work!

And TPS was entirely about the player characters being Jack’s minions.

3 Likes
#10

Yeah, I got that feeling, too.

Tyreen becomes the Destroyer, supposedly the most feared being in the universe. We kill it by our lonesome.
Elpis is going to crash in to Pandora and kill the inhabitants of both. Lilith saves 2 “planets” and she’s the Big Damn Hero

Like OP said, I like Lilith as a character and I understand this is her story, too. But it doesn’t make me feel like the current VHs are the true badasses here. Compare this to how the end of BL2 goes. All the chips are in the pot, there’s nobody that can provide additional support. It’s all on you.

9 Likes
#11

The story of BL3 was just handled poorly. I remember in the trailers I saw Lilith commanding troops into battle and thought ‘it’s nice to see her having a use beside her firehawk powers’. But then they didn’t do that.

On the final planet, I’d have loved if we were being overrun by COV and we think ‘we’re going to lose.’. Then have Lilith appear with a crap ton of soldiers from the different planets (since we pick a bunch up on our travels) and her yell ‘let’s go Crimson Raiders! Protect Tannis!’ And show her leadership skills. That she can be more than a siren.

I still wish they made Ava the inheritor of Angels powers instead of Tannis. It felt like only sirens mattered in this story whereas if Tannis wasn’t a siren but still was a valuable part of the team, the roster would have felt more varied.

7 Likes
#12

I was making a similar point on a different thread before it got shut down. The story focuses way too much on excluding you and propping up the nearly all female cast.

The writers missed the mark. No doubt about it. Borderlands is like other RPGs where you are fulfilling a power fantasy, and in Borderlands 3 the exposition really does make you feel like a superfluous 3rd nipple.

1 Like
#13

I agree with that completely. I felt all the male cast had flaws and even acted like idiots - Zer0 being one example with him going on about his sword.

Unfortunately, when you bring up how the female baddassery feels pushed down your throat, people will say that you’re just jealous or that you’re upset females became strong.

I’m all for strength. But it’s weakness that makes a character believable - you become invested in their story when you see their struggles and grow through their struggles with them. Lilith lost her powers but did nothing throughout the story until she got them back.

It would have been better to see her struggle, see her still be an effective leader before realising that her powers aren’t all she is.

I can’t think of a female character that pokes fun at themselves. Lorelei used to be a barista but she is a complete badass on the battlefield…why not show that she’s struggling with the change. That she puts a brave face on in front of troops but feels overwhelmed compared to the life she had before.

She was my least favourite character in the entire game because she felt so in my face. ‘Hey look how badass this new character is!’

Borderlands 2 I felt had a much more diverse set of characters - all with different personalities and quirks.

2 Likes
#14

I feel the same way about BL2 and BL3. In BL1, you’re the hero. You make all the calls. You win at the end.

In BL2 and BL3, you’re just an errand boy for the Crimson Raiders, and the previous vault hunters (now npcs) are the real heroes … and what’s worse is that they spend the whole game talking down on you:

“Good job, kid!” “Way to go, killer!”

2 Likes
#15

I’ve said this a few times on here… I loved Lilith in BL1. Still one of my favorite playables. Hate her ever since. I can’t count how many times i played through the story in BL2. Has to be 75-100. I’ve played through BL3 story 4 times. Idk if i can do it again tbh. Obviously there are a lot of problems with the writing/story. But i can’t stomach her and like the op said, the fact that we are just kinda there and it’s her story is just too much for me. She needed to die in this. Very disappointed she did not.

And the ending scene/ending song… Can’t do it. Horrific. I swear they had to have secretly let a middle school literature club write this game or something. Almost had to.

3 Likes
#16

Not according to Ava. Maya told her Lilith killed everything. Jack, Destroyer, JFK… It’s all Lilith. Granted there’s a 25% chance she did kill the destroyer and 50% chance she killed Jack lol. She tried to kill Athena. Probably got Roland killed. Had a hand in getting Maya killed. And she calls us killer…

2 Likes
#17

Yeah, well, in the Gospel According to Dust even Claptrap is an amazing hero…

#18

Its very sensitive these days. “Tolerance” is a one way street. Out of line with the certain world view, & you be lucky if you are not banned.

Here is already better than the echo chamber of Reddit.

#19

Purple crack! Pfffft!:joy:

#20

Handsome jack said it best
“It’s Cute That You All Think You’re The Heroes Of This Little Adventure, But, You’re NOT”

And it does fit really well in bl3 with how your ch is not in any cutscenes.