…The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks.
They are all fire and every one doth shine,
But there’s but one in all doth hold his place.
So in the world. 'Tis furnished well with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive,
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank…
In my analyses I pay more attention on qualities rather than quantities.
What is this “Borderlands” anyway? Why the game was titled so? What all this has to do with borders? Is there a line to cross?
I often hear something like “BL1 has no story because there’s no constant chatter”. But verbal channel is not the only way of storytelling that the game has to offer. Narrative in games can occur through the architecture of levels, lighting, colors, details of the surroundings, gameplay mechanics, physics engine, animation, sounds, music, voices, screams and whispers, etcetera, combination of all these delicate things; the foregoing may even fulfill the duties of unused senses (smell, taste and touch expressed through visualization and sounds)
I also got from this very cozy way of interpreting the storyline, which will keep stable complete condition of Borderlands setting(making any sudden incompleteness of storyline stylistically acceptable) even if @Duvalmagic will screw continuation of BL story like Gaben did with HL3, because Borderlands games can be considered in context of “multiverse”(films and stuff) with Cedillo’s characters, same as Half-life can be considered as part of Abrams’ Cloverfield universe(es) (especially after “The God Particle”), thanks to ideological and stylistic compatibility (in case with Cedillo’s Mordecai there’s more Magical Realism sort of things, rather than literal Quantum fiction)
This game’s world can be the “Border Lands” in multiple simultaneous meanings.
I’ve perceived Borderlands as straight sequel to The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (and other compatible films) as some sort of Purgatory like in Dante’s Divine Comedy.
(Lol, reminds old beardy anecdotes about Doomguy who is looking for Exit)
And it fits perfectly with the sci-fi component of the game’s setting, representing something like a fragment of model of fractal dimensions.
(I couldn’t miss The Three Burials and Electric Mist because Agent K from MIB is one of my favorite superheroes since i was 5)
Of course, it would be difficult to recognize Mordecai’s voice only by The Three Burials, because Melquiades was speaking only Spanish with specific local accent and wasn’t aggressive.
But six years before I played BL1 my very first time, I’ve watched the film whose whole story could be described as “One does not simply forget Mordecai’s voice” (or “If Splinter Cell wasn’t boring”)… In this film was also stoned Roland(Oliver Tull) with a crossbow!
It was on DVD titled Единственный свидетель, though the original title is Killing Down.
The moment when Perez (or PereS?) shoots the water was imprinted in my memory as a trigger picture of one of the best summer days…
I remember how and where this DVD was purchased, though I can’t say that I remember the vendor’s face for sure because most likely this piece of memory was replaced with face of some random guy from more new times. We were coming back from the lake, my hair was wet and it was terribly cold (although the weather was hot), because I spent more than an hour snorkeling in the water, temperature of which is usually not higher than 16 degrees Celsius even in hot summer… I remember when the elders were watching this movie I was playing on the carpet with the cat who then was only three months old; it was afternoon because the sunlight was falling from the south-west side through the curtain, drawing rectangles of warm lacy patterns on the floor; “the villain” was so charismatic that we were shouting out that Ruben should kill “the nurse”… it was so exciting, as if we were watching not a film, but live theatrical performance. His last words were epic! “I just wanted to finish the restaurant for my mother”… damn, it was so awesome… after that I’ve read all the Shakespeare we had in the house… I also remember the giant жужелицу красавицу (beautiful ground beetle) that I’ve caught in the garden that day and put in empty sugar bowl with a broken handle, of course, she seemed giant because my hands were much smaller than now; I released her in the flower bed with large crimson peonies in the evening when I was sure that stupid boys could not fry her under the magnifying glass…
And yeah, I was totally aware to evaluate Mordecai’s catchphrase “I NEVER DIE” 
Can anyone imagine my excitement when I received playable Mad Melquiades with friends by his side, and he had to come to some abstract place at the edge of the time and space, and then there was told that this place may not even exist, and yeah, along the way they have also met a lonely blind man who did not want to leave his home in the outskirts…
…And this time it was happening in the Border Lands of so many things, which is closer to the setting of Unreal (including Bulletstorm), but also canon to id Software mythology by technologies and connections with the ancient “Martians-Eridians”, and also the answer on “what if futuristic GTA in space”, and probably there can be also found some books from Myst …
Yea, and apparently at the end of this journey there supposed to be an exit to Heaven!
Well, judging by previously studied things that do not contradict to what was seen on Pandora.
People have met before with the mysterious Guardians; and with Aliens, Demons and Old Gods they hang out quite often, not to mention distant travels through space and time.
And all this naturally reflects on their culture and folklore, including sci-fi video games. For centuries of mankind’s experience have been worked out special techniques, conventional symbols that the creators use to show what kind of sh~ I mean energy in question.
And every type of energy always has an opposing one (kinda for balance).
For example (for ease visibility), on Mars were skirmishes between Ancient Ones(similar to Eridians) and Demons from Hell, which can be easily considered as canon for BL, because there were also humans with similar technologies to those we can see updated in BL (for example Fast Travel technology)…
Emanations of chaotic dimensions are difficult to overlook, they look ridiculously out of place and mutilate the environment beyond recognition, showing naughty behavior in every possible way, violating the laws of physics and ■■■■■■ common sense, and in general it can be characterized simply as freaking devilry.
The energy that leaks through dimensions can be manifested in form accessible for perception of human beings. Henceforth, I will call this “Plants.”
The “Plants” of classic Hell can look like dips filled with blood, acid or burning liquid manure similar to lava, can resemble a medieval inventory for tortures, fragments of random skeletons of all colors and sizes, shapeless flesh, forever crawling stitched intestines, and other mucks that naughties “plant” in attempts to freak living beings out.
By the way, in BL1 was a place similar to something like that, although most likely it was just stones in liver of another Ancient Leviathan.
But with “Cyan Energy” everything is much more complicated, it is inside of every living being, though many ones simply do not notice it, do not pay attention, or take it for granted, or do not even take it seriously.
(The first thought that come to my mind when i saw this warp tunnel was “oh, someone managed to grease this sh~ with protective “pipe”… hope it won’t leak”)
This energy is secretive, harmoniously merges with the environment, and it is impossible to measure it with any devices; scientists still have not been able to learn anything reasonable about it, except that its weight in a living human is about 21 grams (■■■■■■■■, coz True Mordecai sounds much heavier!)
This energy disguises itself as narrative manner of magical realism,
to not to fall into rude greedy claws of ignorant a-holes.
But living beings can FEEL IT and even turn it into shining beams of light…
I take into account that hypothetical reader has already started to think “why this crazy lady dared to talk about such bizarre things when she herself asked not to deviate from the topic about actors?!”
Well, the point is that i consider actors as “energy generators” for characters.
In this case it does not matter which exact words they deliver, but those expressions that they give to delivered words.
These things are unique like patterns of fingerprints. And this energies also has a feature to reveal itself in the form of “Plants” (as I’ve already mentioned, even the most grotesque cartoonish characters usually receive visual similarity to their actors)
In BL2 we can see ideological continuation of story of the same Mordecai who didn’t managed to find Exit to Heaven. Broken down and give up, he’s chained forever to a world that’s departed.
By the way, in BL2 story the natural sorts of energy is almost completely absent, there was mostly Decay (purple ■■■■) and the most horrible type of energy, as I called it, “Blue Hell”:
“Blue Hell” by technical parameters is like classic “red” Hell, only fully artificially synthesized. Cold. Empty. Sterile. Not able to generate any “plants”, causing nothing but “uncanny valley”, and absolutely not suitable for beings with Souls. (Perhaps that’s why Helena, Blood, Roland and Scooter were unable to respawn)
The writers’ work was good.
But here is the discussion about work of actors, and I still don’t have the slightest clue why people liked Mordy-guy from BL2 (except it is the only version they saw) Nobody gives even a single argument (though I’m wondering!).
I remember Mordecai’s jokes from Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep was quite fun. But the written stuff is the merit of writers, and visualization is the merit of the artists, animators and of the original actor as model, of course.
In case with Mor-decoy of BL2 it seemed to me that the voice over was like auxiliary thing, meant for moments when it was not comfy to read the subtitles while aiming to shoot people in a face (or Loaders in limbs).
To try to understand what could be so special and unique that people might like in newb actor, I decided to look for his other works. And as I learned from the internet, his most recognizable brand role is voice of some Yato, drunken androgynous girl in a sportswear who claims she’s a guy, from anime ノラガミ. But even in this case all I can say about LIEberch’s voice over is “Yikes! The character’s Japanese VO sounds much better and appropriate than this gringo dub that causes so much vergüenza ajena!”
In common I’ve seen some horror. Now I have an allergy on anime.
(need a dose of brutally-charming Truxican cartel bosses to heal from this psychological trauma!)
So. I made a conclusion that ones who claim that BL2 Mor-decoy is “better” are followers of Uncannyvalley Jack who were gloating that Mordecai was weakened and unable to dispel the fascist’s lies with his magical laughter… damn, of course, he was unable to do it without Voice, let alone he couldn’t even breathe! Mordecai didn’t laugh or even give a little smirk during whole BL2… I bet he just saved this for more worthy usage in BL3.
And here they are again trying to draw the attention on “the Hero”.
Well, it’s already closer to the discussion. Drop wears out stone, huh.
Okay. Thank you.
As I said, his sterile impersonal character did not invoke in me any interest, so i wasn’t looking for his unused lines and don’t remember any “pretzels” or whatever memes kids are quoting these days, though i remember one line of this thing(whose real name wasn’t even Jack) said in context of Mordecai, and there was something like “If you want to destroy someone, you don’t need to kill him, you gotta kill what he loves.”
And i immediately saw the handling to me as a player and an allusion to the lack of Mordecai’s VO, and confirmation that Mordecai who I miss was REAL. This feeling of loss was tearing me apart for real. Though, this line also explained that the faceless thing learned nothing about love and what it capable of.
(Love can even glue fragments of destroyed planets!)
And those who can’t love are dead by default and therefore there was no interest in “killing” this faceless thing that was meant only to get returned to the Void where it belongs.
(By the way a while ago I’ve made the thread that is very appropriate to discuss things like “Handsome Jack”)
Perhaps the very presence of True Mordecai may contradict to happening Evil in BL2, because presence of such powerful Soul Core would simply annihilate this faceless thing of low moral values.
(I remember that right after I wrote this in the thread about BL movie, I’ve watched an episode of second season of series about adventures of Truxican ladies in GTA with awesome “fanservice” precisely on this theme.)
Undoubtedly, it is the soundtrack!
Raison Varner did amazing job, Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan wrote so many exciting motives emphasizing the plot moments, and in tracks by Jesper Kyd were even more scale and freedom! Mysterious ethnic motives changed to anxious clank of metal strings and dubstep, showing insatiable deadly influence of the “Blue Hell”.
All the tracks were literally crammed with ASMR triggers that were reassuring me along the way, and helped to survive tis horror stories, like sayin’
Hold on, be strong
The game don’t stop
Cause when it’s on it’s on
I especially liked the soundtrack of The Pre-Sequel. It’s really amazing. Still listen to it sometimes. I would even say that i really liked The Pre-Sequel… and I would even like to play this game once again(and even look what’s in the add-ons(except one about Claptrap))…
…if there were no commentaries from this stupid Mor-decoy!! Yeah, as my boyfriend reminded me, I started to HATE this disgracefully wrong guy for real after TPS(actually after the last Headhunter Pack where this a-hole wasted all the best moments), because in BL2 it was quite neutral(so-so as crappy dub), but in these parts he started to talk absolutely wrong, showing that he does not understand this character at all! This is unacceptable!
I think that I can stop hating this “anime girl” only after i see THE MOST DELIGHTFUL SCENE… yeah, i think that would be pretty cool!
I really wish to stop hating this random guy.
(By the way about the soundtrack, playing BL1 I felt presence of “exotic flavors” like in early Tim Larkin’s themes… and yeeeah, on music disc were also two purely his bonus tracks! And he certainly had something to do with magnificent music from my favorite Test folder(BL1 files)! I FEEL IT! That’s what I call FASCINATING ARCHAEOLOGY! Need more Uru-style stuff in BL3!)
About render with the dynamite:
Apparently, this render was made not long before release, because Mordecai’s new model was finished not long before release judging by the fact that in some release trailers of BL2 he still appears with model from BL1.
I take into account that this inconsistency can be an accident caused by the workflow. Nevertheless i think that initially it was made according to dramatic principle of Chekhov’s gun “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”
Taking into account that in this case gunfire is something usual and random, inventory on this picture still can be considered as special plot items rather than something technical just for opening of the gate or something like that (like Shephard’s red pipe wrench is more like a symbol rather than a weapon of usual Marine.)
Dynamite is unusual tool for Mordecai. We do remember well how an explosive does go off on this map. It would be very dramatic if the explosives that Mordecai himself has hold in his hands were used to kill Bloodwing.
But possible combinations with such outcome would be allowable only in story with Original True Mordecai. Otherwise it would be inexcusable.
And I’d like to mention, it would be not correct to consider BL1 and Bl2 (with all addons) as separate games since these are two sides of the same coin.
Apparently there was initially one big script (without obscurantism and faceless red herring), which later was cut into smaller pieces.
I think that “Disgusting Era of Ignorance” (BL2) has important symbolic sense in the context of the entire Borderlands setting, same way like, for example, disgusting film Mad Max(1979) was important for the world of the legend about Mad Max, which become really fun in the next stories.
There’s always a lighthouse the Vaults. There’s always a man Mordecai.
In unused audio of Borderlands everyone appeal to him like to the main Protagonist, calling by the name or referring to his always eccentric appearance.
He is the one who was involved in all this from the beginning and shows up in each version of Borderlands with each graphic stile…
mabe Mordecai is undercover Survey Agent?
