Borderlands BL's real story is in its side content |
- BL's real story is in its side content
- Back on Borderlands 3
- What things did you find odd about BL1 after coming back to it after playing its sequels?
- (help) first time playing Cartel event
- I didn’t know a steel book like this existed. Fake?
- Borderlands 2 Run
- cant export or load character please look at imgur link
- Nee help with the pre sequel on steam.
| BL's real story is in its side content Posted: 12 Jul 2021 08:54 PM PDT I see a lot of comments on the internet that praise BL's storytelling as it pertains to the main stories, typically hinging on characters (in BL2's case, the villain). However, I've never really comprehended how someone could look at the main story for, say, BL2 and then proclaim it as one of the "greatest video stories ever told." I'm not proposing it's a bad story unworthy of compliment, but I find BL's main stories to be generally serviceable and not much else. They perform the generic function of having a main quest that the world building and gameplay revolves around, letting the plot drive as oppose to the characters. The plots of each game do drive differently, of course: BL1's story is basically a placeholder that makes you question sometimes if there is a story at all; BL2 improves this and has a fuller narrative that unfortunately just goes through the motions; and BL3 doesn't have a clue. Occasionally though, a character does take the wheel and steers the narrative into their own tracks, like with Jack in BL2, who I believe is the sole reason why BL2's narrative sees the kind of praise I mentioned. It has a redeeming element in its villain who is capable of taking control of the story and guiding it in a more colorful direction than the plot could ever do alone. What am I getting at here? The crux of the typical BL narrative is its lack of character utilization, its obliviousness to the cast supposedly guiding the story. Stories are their characters because the characters provide the humanity needed to connect with it, even if that humanity is ugly as dicks (or handsome, if you get my meaning ( ͡° ͜Ê– ͡°) ). Jack is loved by the audience because he takes over the stage and showers everything with his outrageous personality while riding a diamond pony named Buttstalion , which is a far cry from Roland and crew who are relegated to the position of reacting to whatever Jack and Hyperion does. Roland is the most boring character in the story because he only ever serves his plot function as Resistance Guy, the guy who resists. He doesn't even die in a way relevant to his character (given he had one); he dies at the behest of the plot, not due any mistake he may have characteristically made or through any contest against another character. BL2 and the other main entries are like this most of the time, and while BL3's narrative is pretty atrocious on its own, I also didn't have much expectations when going into it. I expected mediocrity, and I got a little less than that. My actual expectations were with the side content. I refer to side content here pretty broadly; side quests are obviously included, but DLC as a whole count as well due to their relative brevity and the fact that they are technically optional. For me, it's in the optional content where BL's world, story, and characters really come to life and realize their potential. Fixating on the BL1 crew in BL2 (confusing, I know), Roland is boring on my accounts because he has a distinct lack of side quests or inclusion in any content not involving the main quest. Correct me if I'm wrong, but his only inclusion is in a Lilith side quest about her ECHO recordings where he and she awkwardly interact with one another after a break up. Meanwhile, we get to see a little of Lilith's morality when dealing with a cult she accidently inspired, or Mordecai's depression and his destructive reaction to losing too many people in his life. We get to learn that Brick, along with be a friendly giant, also has a love for violence that permeates every part of his life. Even Jack's character receives more dimensions through side quests, particularly disturbing dimensions towards the end as he suffers a complete breakdown. It's not just the characters either. The thematic suggestions of the opening songs, that there ain't no rest for the wicked and that this ain't no place for no heroes, actually see some life in the side content. In BL2 and BL3, you're objectively a hero. You are saving a planet form a terrible fate under authoritarian rule. Can't get more contemporarily and conventionally heroic than that. The side content though? In BL2 alone, you can burn people to death in their homes and shoot up a funeral (for a guy you murdered btw) after manipulating two gangs into fighting each other just so you can make some money off their anger and misery. Marcus asks you hunt a guy down for $10, and you can agree. You can take a job to kill people for their video game opinions (obvious satire alert). You do these morally dubious deeds all the while getting a better sense of the involved characters and who they are. Even the main stories of the DLC exercise this to an extent. Captain Scarlet is treasure hunt purely for your own enrichment, same for Campaign of Carnage, same for their own side quests. Then there's the miscellaneous adventure angel of the side content, where BL starts to feel episodic. In this rhythm of narrative within BL, anything goes, anything is possible. Play DnD, enter a zombie apocalypse, a robo-ocalypse, etc. Characters just get to be their characters without the moral constraints of the main story, pursuing their ambitions and whims in whatever scenario is at hands. It's space hillbilly hijinks, and I love it! The world of BL can breath in its side content and doesn't have to pay respect to some grand narrative, which I find aggravating in BL's case. I personally do not care about whatever this "war" is because I know it's just going to constrain the main story of the series even further. As a last note, the BL that people often seem to mean when they refer to the style and spirit of the series, that zany space western comic book nonsense stuff, is more apparent to me in the side content than in the main stories. While BL's content can make me cringe half the time, I still smile a lot and am more emotionally engaged with most everything that isn't the main story. Though there are exceptions (like with the discovery of Angel's true nature and the simultaneous realization of Jack's delusions), the main stories are just going through the motions with me when they could be better and more like the side content. (As an aside, I feel TPC actually has a good main story, though in a way TPS itself is a side game, along with Tales.) [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 12 Jul 2021 06:40 PM PDT So I bought borderlands 3 day one on PS4 so my wife and I could play split screen. For obvious reasons when it launched it was unplayable IMO. Recently tried getting back into it after I saw there was a free upgrade to PS5 on PSN. I noticed they have added vertical split screen but yet all text is still very small and pretty much unreadable on a 60" tv without standing next to it. Do you think this will ever get resolved? Not sure how many people still complain to them about this matter Also not sure if it's just the ps5 version or did the lagging in between menus get resolved on other consoles as well? [link] [comments] |
| What things did you find odd about BL1 after coming back to it after playing its sequels? Posted: 11 Jul 2021 10:49 PM PDT For me, it seems that like 95% percent of the guns in the game seem to be scoped. All of my shotguns have like 5x weapon zoom. [link] [comments] |
| (help) first time playing Cartel event Posted: 12 Jul 2021 08:42 AM PDT Recently beat the story for the first time and I'm working my way towards lvl 72 (Moze currently at lvl 50 replaying on tvhm and mayhem 2) and I'm trying out the different events to see how they work. I've been able to get the coordinates from randomly spawning cartel bosses to unlock the cartel map (which looks really cool btw) and I've cleared most of the cartel map with relative ease. however, the final boss Joey Ultraviolet seems to be MUCH more difficult than anything else so far, he's killed me a bunch and I can't figure out if I'm missing something or if I'm just bad lol. Is he like a mini raid boss or something? Is there a certain trick to beating him besides matching damage type? Am I playing tvhm/ mayhem levels wrong? He has TONS of health and none of my weapons seem to hardly do anything. [link] [comments] |
| I didn’t know a steel book like this existed. Fake? Posted: 12 Jul 2021 11:09 AM PDT So I've found a listing for this Handsome Collection Steelbook and I just didn't know they existed. Is this authentic? What is it from? I'll try to share links for photos https://ibb.co/Ct9h1fk https://ibb.co/bgvb61y Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 12 Jul 2021 08:55 AM PDT Hello guys, I recently started playing Borderlands 2 and my question is: If I change my computer to another one will my run be on the other computer or not? Many thanks in advance. [link] [comments] |
| cant export or load character please look at imgur link Posted: 12 Jul 2021 12:09 PM PDT hi, i loaded up borderlands 360 today to export and load to pay the xbox one version and i keep getting told i cant load or export my main character because "i cannot choose the same saved character as another player, please choose a different character" can anyone help me please [link] [comments] |
| Nee help with the pre sequel on steam. Posted: 12 Jul 2021 05:05 AM PDT Hey guys I'm having an issue launching tps from steam. I haven't played in some time so I updated the game and tried to launch it from the launcher. When I click on play nothing happens. Last time I played (before patches and bl3 release) I played with the community patch but I don't know if that is causing the issue. Any tips on fixing this? I tried file integrity thing and some other methods I saw on youtube but nothing worked. Do I have to uninstall the game and reinstall it? [link] [comments] |
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