Set The Anger Aside & Let's Really Look At The Writing Of Borderlands 3 *SPOILERS*

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 SPOILERS
#1

People hate the Twins, and Ava, but, really, their character and personality types are, in our real, actual world, a pretty accurate summation of millennials and streamers, minus the ultraviolence, cannibalism, psychopathy, murder, and Godly Siren Powers.

YouTube and streaming are far and away the most popular form of viewed media now, and those streamers and youtubers (aka the Twins) ARE watched by millions (billions?) of millennials (aka Avas).

Kids and teens and young adults nowadays ARE spoiled, entitled, technology addicted, glued to devices and needing constant distractions and entertainment, trolling people online or in real life because this tech-addicted, instant gratification society of ours was never taught patience, delayed gratification, or how to properly deal with emotions.

(I realize I am doing some pretty sweeping generalizations here and I of course realize not every young person nowadays is as I described, but no one can deny there are PLENTY of them out there)

In many ways, comparing Borderlands 3 to past instalments is like comparing YouTube and streaming to old movies and tv and all those other old platforms and whatnot now going obsolete.

Production value has gone out the window, style has trumped substance, any dummy with a phone can make a movie, anyone can stream their most banal and boring feelings out to the entire world literally anytime.

Major characters killed off for literal shock value with zero emotional meaning just to grab more views / generate controversy?

That happens in modern TV alllll the time.

People now would rather watch 90 1 minute short, random, zany YouTube videos than 1 90 minute, super well written / produced / directed / acted film.

Maybe, just maybe, when we mock Borderlands 3, we are mocking our current world that the Borderlands 3 writers have so accurately held a mirror up to.

In my humble opinion, they certainly have captured the modern zeitgeist and paradigms.

Maybe we are all just Typhon - old, bloated, irrelevant to the current modern hipsters.

The times, they are a changin’, to quote some old fuddy-duddy or other.

Please (calmly, politely) discuss.

EDIT: This isn’t the Borderlands we need, this is the Borderlands we deserve.

:joy::joy::joy:

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#2

the defense that it happens all the time does not make it good.

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#3

@Nerdromancer

That’s absolutely true.

But the BL3 writing team are smart.

I feel like they’re just kind of satirizing all these modern tropes.

And, as a result, angering many of their fans / players.

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#4

I can agree with this to a point. I assume you mostly referring to Ava and The Twins. I didn’t find either any more annoying than I assumed I was supposed to.

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#5

I think I get your point, but my criticism isn’t about what BL3 does, it’s about how it does it.

By all means BL2 is utterly zany and stupid, but being zany and stupid alone doesn’t make good humour. It’s the great lines, the superb voice acting, stuff like that made it great. No matter if you liked what it did, it did it very well.

I don’t see any of that in BL3. It tries to do things too, but it’s not nearly as good at what it’s trying to do.

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#6

I can’t argue with that, sadly.

Satire can be done amazingly well, too.

But…I’m having a hard time putting into words what I’m trying to say…maybe the badness was intentional, as there are so many current shows / movies / games that fail for the same reasons people are criticizing Borderlands 3 for.

I’m not saying this well. I don’t know.

1 Like
#7

Yeah for example it tries to satirise Youtube celebrities, in a few moments it does well, but most of the time it’s just… meh. It lacks the punch of BL2 humour.

At the same time it tries to ape BL2, tries to feed on its own legacy, but it doesn’t live up to it.

I’m not saying it’s terrible or much worse than other games, but it falls way short of the bar that BL2 set.

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#8

The problem with streaming and the you tube generation being the subject of satire I think personally is most people already view them as a joke.

Nothing being poked fun at is having real impact or making you giggle much because you already thought the same thing 3 years ago.

Its hard to satarise a topic that many people already view as a joke is my point I guess hehe.

Edit Typo

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#9

@stocky

Completely accurate point. Well said.

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#10

A lot of the tropes never actually get the punchline a satire should give them is the issue. It’s not enough just to exaggerate a certain trope or trait, it actually has to end up insulting its own self in some fashion. The Twins never really get these moments where they unintentionally kick themselves in their own words.
In comparison Jack did it about every other time he opened up his mouth.

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#11

Very true, also well said. Thank you.

1 Like
#12

Sad thing is there are definitely things they could have done to give us a few quirky surprises.

Instead of showing random bandits being fried in scenes will Tyrene it would have genuinely surprised and therefore made me laugh to see some famous streamer like pewdipie getting frazzled by her.

Or she unmasks Marshmallow and underneath is an actual marshmallow head so she screams for someone to get her the biggest chocolate fountain they can find. etc.

Just all seemed quite lazily done when you spend just 2 minutes thinking of other things.

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#13

@stocky

Thanks for the great replies!

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#14

np man always fun to chat and discuss with people :slight_smile:

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#15

I could see this working hilariously well going on through Carnivora.

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#16

exactly where I was picturing it too with of course penn’s voice over.

Imagine the 2 guys getting ripped apart by spiderants in Pains dialogue were actually 2 streamers and its on a big screen as your going through carna!

EDIT typo clean up tired sorry guys lol

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#17

Talking of Penn, I would have found it really interesting if he was constantly responding to terror and having one sided conversations with him.

Think they missed a few tricks here for sure.

Him getting into random screaming matches with a seemingly to us silent terror would open up huge humor avenues.

Lets use the marshmallow eaten by spiderant thing and think similar to his current dialogue.

Hmmm yes humans we really are just a most chompable species, and oh boy this Marshmallow maybe the most chompable of all, I hope these ants leave something for me!

Then just screams NO TERROR, There won’t be enough for you, anyway you ate last week. etc

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#18

A lot of mainstream media outlets assumed that too and now Joe Rogan’s 3 hour podcasts have more views in a week than their sitcoms, and Netflix’s mass binge watching approach has catapulted them to the top of the heap.

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#19

Most my mosted viewed videos on youtube are my longest and most in depth videos as well.

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#20

Yup, I almost exclusively filter to 20+ minutes only on youtube. I wanna see the full debate/dialogue/interview instead of the 5 minutes where someone DESTROYS with FACTS and LOGIC!!!1!

3 Likes