1 like = 1 Prayer For The Writers To Not Do A Terrible Job With Borderlands 4

Handsome Jack is only really a problem for Gearbox because their writers simply seem not good enough writers to make a character even remotely as good as Jack. Whatever happened to the writing team between 2 and 3 has been such a massive downgrade

"Somehow... Handsome Jack has returned." - Borderlands 4, The Rise of Mordecai

Timothy Lawrence is a great character that can return, he is very different from Jack, despite "being" him. He should be allowed to return occasionally as his own character. Krieg got done dirty in base BL3, but his character in the the DLC was done so perfectly, the expansion of his story and him coming to terms with himself was smart and you could tell the writers did that from the heart. Shoehorning Jack back into the story through Rhys would be a mistake, his story is done, we know everything about him and how far he went, and even in BL3 we get the final pieces of his life, and Angel's broken life. If any character's motives deserve to show back up, show us the TRUE Eridians. We have only seen The Watcher...twice in TPS, and even then we have no idea what their goal was since Gearbox hasn't followed up on that story line at all yet. Spin-offs aside, there is only so much left to do with this universe. Possibly deal with the Eridians for good, then what? There would be no more Sirens, no more Vaults, no more borderworlds to explore, no more promise of adventure. Nekrotefayo was kinda disappointing, bring us to the Eridian home world just to have..no Eridians? There's is still so many unanswered questions that will probably be dropped again in favor of trying to pump out some more schlock like the Calypso Twins.

It truly scares me that there’s a chance that Gearbox will butcher Jack’s character if they bring him back, I don’t want another Callipso twins

I mean, they already have "Hero" Jack in Timothy. Handsome Jack's dead. Mabe just have Tim act as "reformed" Jack to the new villains. His character always struck me as Jack's "could have been". A Jack before be was Handsome, that hero who saved Elpis and actually did everything to protect Angel. If Jack's "one bad day" made him Batman instead of Joker. You could have him comment on Jack's actions, comparing Handsome's actions to their own and trying to turn antagonists from the path of evil through semi-experience. Gearbox can have it's cake and eat it too. Handsome's still dead, but Jack still lives. Mabe the DNA of Jack Timothy has was truly the "last bit of good" Handsome had in him and now Tim is trying to carve out a new life for himself before getting sucked into the vault wars. He knows what is in them. He knows what happens when people have that power. He knows the madness and destruction the vaults cause. Hell, he could be working with Rhys and Fiona to open/guard vaults to stop another Pandora from happening. Idk, just spitballing, but Tim could be used as an excellent narrative tool. A weird dynamic of an irredeemable but sympathetic villain becoming a redeemed hero and using his experience in villainy and to dissuade others from it. Hell, if Gearbox is hellbent on having Ava as the new MC, have Tim prevent her from becoming Handsome Jack, when her actions, like Lillith's, were going too far. I mean, he's got Jack's DNA in him and is a cool dude already, why not have him act as an "adoptive father/mentor". Tim trying to prove he isn't Jack by not being a dick. Handsome really did love his daughter, but that love was buried over a mountain of trauma and grief. Mabe have that tiny part of Jack amped up to 11 in BL4? Idk, that and the visual of Tim going out like Rolland by the new villain post-arc would is hilarious, disturbing and depressing. Laugh crying moment basically.

Keeping Jack would definitely be a mistake, and I bet the regretted killing him more than anything. What I think they need to do would be another game before the climax we've been waiting for, but this time it must be completely absent of the characters we already know. Since they failed with B3 they need another go to prove that they're good enough to handle the payoff they've been building up to. Something back to basics; treasure hunters roaming a wilderness plagued by monsters, madmen, and (para)military.

Handsome Jack in Bl2: INCREDIBLE!!! Handsome Jack in the pre sequel: Cool backstory, well done Handsome Jack in Tales: Didn't need to be there but Rhys cannonically gets rid of him so it's fine Handsome Jack in Bl3: Okay stop Handsome Jack in Bl4: I think it would retroactively make him bad in everything else

Maybe if they made a villian that was good they would use him less

4:30 My brother in Christ, it’s Mr. Torgue, he was a mushy caricature of Hulk Hogan from the start

I heard and thought about a theory of the theme for the next game. The borderlands war, that erupts because someone opens up a relic more ancient than the Eridians which brings back ALL of the dead, thus the entire universe would be at war. This could introduce the Eridians, original Sirens etc. but also bring back all the previous world goods and evils. The main story probably revolving around there being too many sirens, the universe collapsing because and to resolve it by resetting the entirity of Borderlands. Now in this scenario, I think bringing Jack back would be a good thing, because he most certainly wouldn’t be the main focus of the game, maybe it’d end up in a situation of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and team up with our Crimson Raiders. It could finally also bring back the dream of all Vault Hunters being playable in one game, redeeming the mess of Borderlands 3 by making the characters more redefined, memorable and likable. Now, it would most likely be a nightmare to write, code and execute properly and gameplay wise to balance and design. In the end, it will most likely not go in this direction and we’ll have to suffer through another Handsome Jack wannabe villian who’ll be even more mushed down into a “whacky” and “bizarre” one sided character

If Jack was in every videogame I wouldn’t mind

the writers need to not write modern day memes into the game. They wrote bl3 like 3-4 years before its release, and they used too much "disposable comedy" to make 90% of the jokes in the game. All they have to do is make the world just a little less goofy when necessary.

In my opinion, having jack in borderlands 3 as DLC is a good idea, it gives them a good reason to give the fans the borderlands 2 flavour in the borderlands 3 enginee, I loved it. Especially when timmothy does the jack impression

I still think jack didn't actually die and that was another one of his doppelgangers who awakens the warrior it been said he would never truly face you in a fight I would love if handsome jack comes back

The hollaways should be the next villain we have next to no info ( except for gauges, backstock of them).

i honestly believe they will use another weapon manufacturers ceo or other important figure of that group as the villain, since a few of them, no matter if it makes sense or not, have been used as villains. bl1 was atlas, 2 was hyperion and fight for sanctuary was dahl, 3 was cov/bandit and maliwan, new tales was tediore, maybe more that dont pop up to mind right now. i'd say dahl has a really good shot for being the big bad in bl4

I know the Calypso Twins get a bad rap, but there were seriously underrated. At the time they were conceived (2017-19 range), online influencers were the superstars and had their own little cults. While they didn’t have the charisma of Jack, I think they were perfectly fine villains.

It is definitely crazy to say that besides Jack throughout all of Borderlands, I can only think of ONE singular villain I resonated with similarly, Knoxx, however ironically General Knoxx fills the EXACT same role as Jack does but in his own DLC, even doing similar shit like giving you crap over the ECHO. Buuuut that doesn't take away from his dry can't be fucked anymore attitude to everything, Knoxx may have been a villain from years ago but man is he still as good a one as Jack albeit for a much shorter time with less fleshing out. I pray they do Jack the GODDAMN justice a hero like him deserves. But seriously they have such a well written character who has now been fully fleshed out, if they pull some Palpatine shit and do a "Somehow he's back" manoeuvre on us my God they have no respect for us as the fans anymore, (and if they DO bring him back and its good I literally don't know how they would do that) Borderlands 3 was a gargantuan smack in the face still to this day the ONE redeeming quality of that game is the Vault Hunters, the skill trees/personalities of the main lot really did carry the weight of that games enormous shit it took on Borderlands as a whole.

Borderlands 3 and wonderlands felt like it was made during the writers strike

If gearbox does decide to bring back Handsome Jack, the only thing that I would want is for him to finally be the hero he always wanted to be and be an actual good guy, like he could do an uno reverse card, which I think would be good enough of a closure for him so they can no longer being him back hopefully, oh and also make sure he does die in the end too so you know he physically can not comeback without that small chip he was captured in

I honestly think one of the best things they can do is to go back to BL2. Revamp the game with modern fighting mechanics. Remaster the BL2 Campaign. But... Make a new campaign where you end up working for Jack. The Siren would be Angel. Nisha would make a return and so on. I like to imagine Angel would be against fighting the Crimson Raiders. But slowly turns to the dark side and agrees with her father by the end. I like the idea of fighting against the VH's you play as in BL1 & BL2. Especially Lilith. Who has gone from an alright character to an obnoxious one throughout the past decade.

They could make it so since Timothy has Jacks DNA it would eventually take him over completely leading to him becoming evil like Jack and the villain of BL4

What we need is a return of Jack. BUT not as a villain, but as an ally for the massive galactic war that they hinted at at the end of the pre sequel. He can just backstab them as we expect him to... OR sacrifice himself for the team. Making him the real hero of the story he already thought he was. Going full circle on his character. Which, now that i think about it, sounds phenomenal as a concept.

Maybe they can somehow connect all of the jacks, the ai, the data in ryes or whatever his name is, and the dust from the warrior arena and do something.

Alright, this is exactly what uve been saying about his overuse of Jack and how they go about the characters. reducing them so much that its ruining their characters and turning them inyo jokes of their past selves. There is a name for this phenomenon:Flanderization. I hope this helps for the future.

i like the theory about the jack in the warrior figth was just a double, they had bombs in the mask, it was either that or make the plan, jack gets you whith your pants down a couple times, he could have done it a last one

Funny that in Borderlands 3, the best content, IMHO, was Moxxi's Heist. Putting Moxxi together with Timothy was a great story with a great ending. They should have made it Borderlands 3 and given us the crap that was Borderlands 3 as some kind of DLC. FusterCluck was good too, but not at the level of Moxxi's Heist. Loved the Video.

technically jack doesnt appear in the weird BL1 mobile RTS/Tower Defense thing that like two people played but... nobody talks about that theres alao the old Mount Jackmore teaser game that he appeared in tho do it all balances out

I think that whole rhys subplot with jack was what was supposed to happen bc in a reallly early build of bl3 promethia had handsome jack statues

Jack is The Joker, Darth Vader, Sephiroth and Voldemort. He sets the bar when it comes to villains and best embodies the spirit of Borderlands. No other villain will match him in the series. Personally I want more Jack, but if they insist on a new villain, their best chance is with a 'serious threat with a sympathetic cause' type like Bane or Thanos. I also don't think it would be hard to bring Jack back, he won and got the H-Source in TPS. Have him put his conscious in the Hyperion network and let him digistruct himself. Heck you can even make it where Jack can only come back into a Claptrap unit.

I honestly don’t care how they bring Handsome Jack back…crappy writing or otherwise…as long as they DO bring him back and write (and voice) him just as he was before. Def my favorite game villain of all time.

This video was great too, I’ve been needing something like this bc I’ve been asking myself this question and worrying about BL4

I hear this dude and all I can think of is the "you're a wizard harry" video from years ago

Even though he doesn’t appear in BL1, Borderlands was Jack’s story. Although he was never even conceptualized in 1, he puppeteered Angel to make the original 4 vault hunters open the vault. Once he died and original Tales finished, it lost its main character. It’s very similar to when Rick was taken out of The Walking Dead, the show lost its direction but I heard that the movies with him in it is really good. At the time BL3 was hinted at, I hoped they had a cool, new big baddie but they were incredibly mediocre but now I wish they milked Jack more because he’s much better than the twins. Imo, Borderlands died when Jack did.

Well there’s also the handsome jackhammer which seems to have the handsome Jack ai in it

I think Handsome Jack as a villain has been used well, but yeah, if he got put into bl4 it wouldn't make any sense, given we know there's no more ai backups of him in existance. Think they should just give us the vault war or a prep to it and give us some more vault hunters, I wanna have a game that lets us play as new vault hunters as well as vault hunters past, would be really cool

I can see this ryas fucking up so bad that he hunt down a copy of jack to help him and that what start the war.

i loved clay wish he gets expanded on theres so much potential

Considering the whole chain of events zarpedon was trying stop happened and can’t be stopped maybe the next game will be the destroyer slowly breaking out as clearly the one part of pandora was damaged enough for tyreen to come in contact with it. Like perhaps the whole calypso thing was setting up the real great vault opening or something also maybe the damage causes an opportunity for the destroyer to try and break free.

Jack has two doppelgänger named Timothy There’s Timothy dopplemen and Lawrence

General Knoxx was also a good villain. You are 100% right though.

mark it they will bring jack back to have "the best" but by doing that they will just ruin everything

DAHL should be the bad guy and they come back to harvest the new resources on Pandora

I'm just gonna hope it gets better

There is a hint of Jack coming back - a couple. They are indirect. We don't know if all of Nakyama's samples were destroyed. Timothy still exists with Jack's DNA (which he was "injected" with - sheesh), and my favorite - Jack's consciousness in Rhys. OK, hear me out. In the Krieg DLC, they played with the notion of separating Krieg's consciousness into two parts. What if the situation of needing more Vault Hunters is so dire they need to "resurrect" Jack? We still don't know what all he saw when he understood everything in TPS. Maybe Tannis finds a way to isolate his consciousness...or maybe I give the writers too much credit and I should have one of their jobs. What do you think?

Rose Butcher in my opinion is the second best antagonist of the franchise.

He technicaly IS in first Borderlands, well at least he is the reason why Angel talk to us.

The biggest problem with borderlands after BL2 is the writing. The writers are so fucming lobotomized that they thing "Reference 21st century meme, game good"

They need to go in a similar direction that they did with the third DLC for borderlands 3, Bounty of Blood. It was pretty much a classic borderlands story: a whole new, small, back-water planet, with a completely original cast of characters that nobody had ever seen before. Gehenna also had a big corporation (the jakobs corporation) fuck up the environment and be responsible for the big bad monster. It was a really good DLC and is pretty much the format for a good borderlands game.

For borderlands 3 I think wanright Jakob and the Danny deveto looking guy were good characters

Inb4... Borderlands 4 Rhys goes Krieg from fighting against Jack for all this time

It makes sence he would be acknowloged in some manner on the games after BL2 considering the impact he had in the story. What we need are good writers who can work his legacy in the world in an organic way.

I loved jack but if I see him again it's over!

Handsome Jack is in the BL3 base game. I know you mentioned the Jackpot DLC but the sidequest during main campaign that tells story of Angel accidentally killing her mother has Jack in it

Clearly Rhys still has Jack in his head. He obviously (said like Lockhart from Harry Potter) doesn't care about others like he used to. You can tell how he's more concerned with his relationship with Zer0 than he is with the wellbeing on his men / employees. He's more put for himself than he is the greater good. 100% Jack-n-ized subconscious

Very well made video, deserves a sub. And more attention

The AI is in Handsome Jack Hammer... But ofcourse that gun isn't part of of the Story. Kinda like GenIVIV Should be put into Messy Breakup shield by Marcus.

i am utterly baffled that new tales exists let alone ppl who liked/took it seriously/played it

Hes gonna cone back cause he can technically be counted as atill alive due to his body doubles and memory chips & its weird how i never think of guitar solos when thinking of Mr.TORGUE i think... EXPLOSIONS!!??!?

They're making a Borderlands movie, but if they make a sequel, does anybody else think that Ryan Reynolds would make a good live action Handsome Jack?

What about Rhys as a villain. I didn't play the new tales from the borderlands. But I know he got jack basically plugged into him. So he could get corrupted or something. Like doing Jack's work threw Rhys? Just an idea which needs working on.

I feel like they could make Timothy Lawrence become jack, he has some of his DNA and And i feel like ,if they give a good reason for how that DNA might have controlled timothy and he eventually became a bad guy and we were maybe forced to fight him and help him or possible kill him. I feel like this is the best way to make him come back and make it sad like Borderlands 2 in a way and this could be a good way of ending him forever

Dude I completely forgot about balex 😭😭

They need to overhaul the whole story cuz then they can undo their mistakes lol its told by Marcus (who isnt the most reliable source) 😅 they could bring back Handsome jack, Maya, an perhaps flesh out the story from TPS .

I think we need to, instead of reusing Jack, we need to evaluate what made General Knoxx great. He was the O.G. great villain.

I liked Fl4k, he was as done with bullshit as i was throughout my playthrough

It's honestly a little sad that Balex of all characters is the most memorable from Borderlands 3, and he's a friggin' AI from Tediore.

Gearbox: **setting up the war prophesized in presequel** Borderlands fans: "How are they going to bring back Jack"

It will be timothy with a robot hand on 4 still Jack though

They should make Marcus a siren😊

If he's not written by the good writers they had before they are gonna ruin him.

What ever happened to Helena pierce? I used to rap that until my brother got sick of me and quit playing

Even though new tales was an extremely crap sequel it did introduce the anahatium shards which can revive the dead and now that they're floating around in space in timm-e's robotic body it opens up the possibility for old characters to be revived

what about the first vault hunter. hes like one of the best characters in bl3

vasquez was not a particularly good villain just fun because of patrick warburton he carried vasquez character but in the bigger picture quite run of the mill character

Handsome Jack got gradually staler every time he was reintroduced after BL2. Though none of his appearances were weak or dull, the character really started to run out of story. To me, TFTBL1 closed his chapter for good and I don't want him to return. They'll just butcher him and probably tie his success even more to Moxxi... "somehow Jack returned"... christ.

0:45 Palpatine did it, so why not? 2:15 That is a tasty Plasma Caster! That's one of the super-rare ones, right? Pearlescent, maybe? 4:59 Why does Krieg, who's right-handed, wear a left-handed gas mask (see also the TF2 Pyro)? His right eye appears to be covered up. Is he missing it? If so, then he should shoot left-handed. I quit watching 'The Walking Dead' because they kept screwing that up. Like, half the character specifically lose their right eyes, yet they continue shooting right-handed like idiots. 5:10 Sir Hammerlock should shoot left-handed and should sling weapons on his back in left-handed configuration like he did in Borderlands 2. He still held guns right-handed for no reason, but only because programmers don't pay attention to details like they oughtta. Also, the gun in that back-scabbard should be facing lever-up. So if he's going to sling it right-handed, he should at least put the gun in there the right way. Otherwise, keep it as it is, but turn it over to left-handed configuration (and actually shoot left-handed). I know, I know. Ellie mentions something about all the left-handed guns getting sucked out into space. Most of the guns are ambidextrous. The only ones that are specifically right-handed are side-ejecting bullpups. 5:21 Again, why does he shoot right-handed? And if he shoots right-handed, then why does he sling long guns on his back in left-handed configuration? Third-person games get this wrong all the time. 6:19 Teacupping a single-action revolver while cocking the hammer with the thumb of the shooting hand?! Are we EVER going to see single-action revolvers in an FPS game that are cocked using the cross-thumb technique? That's the preferred technique for single-action revolvers (and is ONLY useful with single-action revolvers). 7:06 How do you fire more than two shots out of a breach-loaded double-barrel shotgun? It's different if it's a "tandem" or "duplex" system with all parts duplicated (twin receivers, barrels, magazines, etc.). BL3 Jakobs shotguns can have double barrels and can feed from a box mag. Of course, they screwed that up by having it be a single box mag instead of two of them clamped together. 9:06 Caustic Caverns Ambient

While I overall agree I would also give Tales 1 a pass, Rhys' goals at the start of Tales is to BE the next Handsome Jack and it's only through having Jack in his mind that he saw the man he wanted to become and managed to change course and become a hero before it was too late culminating in him killing his idol's 1 failsafe and choosing his own path Plus Jack was still consistent with his pre-established character and was his usual entertaining self And yeah keep Timothy, loved him in Handsome Jackpot

I did like the mysteriouslier missions with Ava. Where her character failed was in the everybody's a siren and kill off a character in a cutscene poorly parts.

problem is, borderlands does not takes itself serious anymore. why would we?

Hows about they bring back commandant steele and flesh her character out more.

The thing is tho because they clearly can write well, bl3 has some genius writing in the echo logs and every APART from the main campaign, the only thing bl3's story fell flat on was excecution. Rose is amazing, Eleanor was amazing, Clay, Wainright, Zane, Fl4k, all amazingly written characters. And for those who say handsome jack is the only good villain, General Knoxx was fantastic, Zarpedon was intruiging. It's just the fact that Gearbox has become a money making shill for Randy and its obvious. Thats why new tales exists, its milking what exists instead of making something new. The DLC's for bl3 are fantastic because they are fundementally new ideas for the series that work well.

Before i watch the video: The big problem is the writers... they forced us to kill the true hero of Borderlands.... I dont care how they do but bring him back... alive... its can be time travel or anything. I just want to help him get rid of those bandits and vaulthunters....

Dude if people actually played more than borderlands 2 they would be at least close to true fans not gonna lie...

The writers were not brought back for BL3 lol guess they just had Randy write it himself lol

You know Timothy becoming Jack seems to be more of the direction they would go if that was the case but in my opinion I feel like and hope they go the route of bringing Butcher Rose back from Bounty of Blood

Everyone I met either only plays borderlands 2 or they have played Minecraft at least once and borderlands 3 they complain about too much space and not enough content

I don't think Jack was in wonderlands... was he?

Borderlands 3 is worth it for new kinds of guns like flame throwers of all elements

I really like FL4K but I see your angle on the new characters

jack kinda returns in 3 he will be in 4 but not exactly him i dont think this is an issue at all hes a fun character everyone likes to see him being in 4 would just be better i think

Make him the main character that kills Ava the invincible 😂

In tales Rhys got rid of Jack making his character arc better he was not ok with Jack being in his conscience but he did kinda feed into Jack when he wanted to benefit from him it was only towards the end when he realized that his friends meant more to him than power and purged Jack out of his brain seeing as though most of that character development was retconed in new tales and borderlands 3 i wouldn't be surprised if they didn't just say no rhys didn't get rid of Jack and in fact he got infected by Jack and was secretly controlled the whole time hints why Rhys is completely different than how he was at the end of tales and more nonsensical and assholeish in bl3 and new tales setting up the return of characters from tales and the ruining of more beloved characters because gear box just loves doing that

Agree with everything you said. That said I'll still take them bringing back Jack any day over the Tyreen and Troy.

BALEX has specs for mad parsecs.

Not one good villain except for jack and vasquez General Knoxx 😏

Всё же я думаю не стоит возвращать Джека в серию игр. Его история действительно закончена и не думаю что стоит возвращать его. Сценаристам действительно нужно будет постараться придумать "хорошего" злодея, а не каких-то Близнец Калипсо. Скорее всего затронут другие корпорации, по типу Vladoff. Возможно раскроют тему Эридианцев.

The twins on paper were really good its just the execution was terrible I think gearbox knows theyre fucked because the only other villain I hated besides Jack was Lilith lol and that was 2kangaroo

For what i can see, Jack is like Batman's Joker. Everyone hate him but he is the most popular villain everyone still love to see and to hate again. The big problem with Gearbox with the main BL3 and New Tales is the lack building serious and interesting villains. The twins did not work, same for the Tediore CEO, but if we move to the DLC? The Geisha Cowgirl, was much more interesting, including the Crazy lovecraftian wife or Pretty Boy. We need villains done right, not jokes. The problem with Jack is: after him, no other villains will ever be able to compete or even reach his level. He can return? Yes. But i don't feel he would be as the main villain at this point since there is a major treat and should be the "war" the eridian guardian make prophecy about and yet we don't nothing about. Feels like BL3 writers forgot about for... "reasons" we don't know and instead we just got... "comedy over comedy jokes". Personally i can see Jack more as a main support character like he did in The Presequel but not as a returning common main villan and arch nemesis of the Vault Hunters. Wich make no sense at all. Maybe he is still at war with the Crimson Raiders but not against the possible main vault hunter from an ipotetic BL4 since he could recruit them like he did in the Presequel. And last final concept: New U stations... I know this is very controvertial and many speculate "is not canon" but we reach to a point where these new U appears in all games. Would make sense if the real Jack is actually trapped in a server room and we must bring him alive again. Giving the idea only who got the money and are very rich can respawn with the New U program. i know, is controvertial, but if exist should be considered canon.