Handsome jack will ever came back?

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 General Discussion
#21

This discussion has come up quite a bit over the years. Jack was certainly a hero in his own eyes, but everything he did was ultimately only for himself with no regard for the inevitable consequences that would come to others.

A lot of people were tortured and many killed by Jack’s experiments (including Kreig and Tina’s parents); many others who simply wanted to live their own lives were labelled as ‘bandits’ and executed en masse (Salvador’s village, including presumably his grandmother). People who got in his way in Hyperion were murdered (Tassiter for one). And he effectively used and tortured his own daughter, all in the name of achieving ultimate power.

Those are not the actions of a hero; they are the actions of a psychopath.

Which isn’t to say that any of the Vault Hunters in any of the games are virtuous heroes either. On the contrary, they’re all flawed individuals who come to Pandora for personal reasons that do not include benevolent action. They ultimately find themselves united against Jack in order to save Pandora (and then against the Twins), but more through force of circumstances (Jack either tricked or tried to kill them).

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#22

Jack was great but there is such a thing as too much and Jacks already reached that. I’d rather cherish the character as one of the best villains I’ve seen rather than have him planted into anything else again, except for echoes and cameos and such.

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#23

Good lord, I hope Jack comes back. He is still, by far, the best Borderlands Bad Guy (second perhaps only to Dr. Ned, who was just comically over-the-top obvious while still trying to act like nothing was wrong). Jack’s character had Charisma and Intelligence, even if he was evil. So while you weren’t rooting for Jack in BL2, you didn’t mind listening to him. In a way, he represented what an aspiring Vault Hunter would do if given half the chance at real power, and that made him relatable.

Jack provided a much needed campaign driver, along with occasional comic relief in the absurdity of his rants. In TPS, we got to see how he ended up the way he did and for a time were rooting for him as he tried to stop the destruction of Elpis (an arguably heroic goal), again demonstrating his likeability. In BL3’s first DLC, we got to feel Jack’s presence and influence again, as well as view an alternate (reality) version through Timothy who gave us an idea of what a more humane Jack might be like.

Jack may have been a [insert derogatory descriptor here], but he had a real, recognizable purpose to his actions that matched the established corporate greed-driven motivations in BL1 that impact the whole of the Borderlands. The Twins, conversely, came across as one-joke, FU’s towards the concept of stereotypical Millennial entitlement. Jack might have been just as narcissistic and ego-centric as either of the Twins, but he EARNED his power the hard way, fighting and clawing his way to the top (just like a VH earns his/her way to Badassery). There is a certain amount of respect that Jack commanded as a result of that, even if you hated him.

Will Handsome Jack ever come back? Doubtful, given what we have heard so far regarding the topic from GB itself. But all that would be needed is a real, workable clone (as opposed to say, Jackenstein), one that he himself setup as a contingency plan ahead of time. Of course, given the destruction of the Hyperion headquarters, it is unclear what all Jack could do once he did return.

Honestly, as much as I (obviously) like the character, if there is too much Jack, then Borderlands becomes the “Kill Jack Show” and that is too restrictive. Still, the franchise needs another compelling charismatic nemesis for the Vault Hunters to go up against, one that you can partially or at least almost sympathize with and one that definitely commands respect. My thought is to leverage one of the existing Vault Hunters like maybe Axton who has gone rogue without the VHs knowing and who is driving them to do his/her dirty work in a bid for power. Then the second half of the storyline could be about fixing the mess that the VHs made in the first half. Just a thought.

In the meantime, I want to see Ava discover a way to bring back Maya through the use of that Siren book and a series of quests (and hopefully sacrifice herself in the process…). :slight_smile:

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#24

If you have bad writers…

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#25

We already have bad writers.

At least with Jack they aren’t left to their own devices in thinking they know what most players want.

Hell BL3 is now a meme as far as how bad the writing is.

#26

I’d rather they not bring Jack back and ruin him as well.

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#27

Now that is a definite issue.

Honestly I agree with you. The current writers would butcher Jack.

#28

The only way to save the Borderlands franchise is to bring Scorch back to life. Scorch was building up some real villainous followers in Borderlands 2 and he died way too quickly in the story. Scorch had so much potential and really drove home the themes of the story. Bring back Scorch. Scorch is a hero.

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#29

Oooh, feel the burn :fire:

I’d like to experience the Borderlands from the viewpoint of a Goliath… I mean, if you can have a badass psycho vault hunter, why not a Goliath?

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#30

“Matchstick is our most devoted brother” <3

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#31

Technically you do if you spec into Release the Beast.

#32

Doesn’t feel the same though.

#33

No offense, but please no. He was great but we really don’t need every Borderlands game to endlessly bring him up in some way. That they have not managed to create a new memorable/great villain is much more important. They need to do that instead of falling back on past glories.

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#34

No. I killed him. Many times.

he ded

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#35

BUT, ya’all must admit that the character of Handsome Jack has got to be the funniest villain in ANY game ever. I was laughing my {butt} off with everything he said. I will miss the humor he brought to BL2 and BL-TPS, but we must move on and hate the new twin enemies.

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#36

I honestly didn’t care about Jack until he stopped trying to be funny and became sinister, so around Bright Lights, Flying City & WEP.

His quips were just obnoxious before that. Handsome Jack Here was the side quest that really set the tone as far as how dangerous he would be. I pretty much ignored him until he was a threat most of the time. His sincere anger was the most memorable part of the performance for me.

Tyreen’s humor, and to a lesser degree Troy’s felt like it was borrowing from Jack’s tone and delivery, but then it’s sensible they would in a universe where he was the most powerful and popular figure, and a hero/ subject of worship to so many people.

That even lines up with content creators often being echoes of whatever is trendy & trending in their own demeanor & humor, along with their content.

In that way Vaults might was well be Front Page / Trending features, YouTube Plaques & Twitch Partnerships.

I enjoyed Knoxx, Piston, Scarlett, & Hector as villains as well. To be honest, Knoxx is the template for likeable antagonists. He was dry but hilarious.

#37

He’s dead, unless it’s a zombie dlc he’s finished.

#38

Jack was a great antagonist. His run was great and DLC did a good send off if you ask me. Do we need more of him? In the movie, if that ever gets made, would be fine by me because he looks very similar to that character. Do we need more of him in game? Nah. Do we need more of the twins? Hell Nah. We need something different with a competent, twisted, funny story. Borderlands 1 had multiple antagonists with Steele intermittently getting involved, but was not centric to us the whole time. There are many ways to write stories and they don’t have to follow the same formula BL2 had, especially with the mind set that two focused in is better than one.

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#40

No, thank you. He was a great villain (who I hated immensely) but we killed him at the end of BL2. Don’t take that away from me, please.

#41

God please no! We killed/defeated him enough time already. The Handsome Jackspot was stretching the limit. Nicely done thou. Good thing we have great writers. :wink:
I don’t believe the tin hat theory that GBX planned to have it back as main vilain for BL3. They made it clear right from the start they were moving on and it was the right thing to do.
There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
Beside. We already have more than enough haters around here. Can’t imagine the backlash that would come if the news went out about yet another Handsome Jack return.