History Headscratchers / Borderlands

** The second game pretty much makes it clear that Angel was monitoring and leading you the whole time so that you would reach the Vault, kill the Destroyer, and spread Eridium around the planet so Handsome Jack could activate the Warrior. He also needed you to destroy Atlas so that Hyperion could move in and take over the planet.

** The Destroyer doesn't have to be destroyed. It's just that the Vault can only be opened every two hundred years and it takes that long for the Vault Key to recharge. The second game implies that the Destroyer is definitely ''dead'', because Handsome Jack wants to reopen the Vault and he doesn't want to wait two hundred years for it.

** Maintaining a house is a pain. Let Marcus do it. It's not like he's going to try to lock out outside. Meanwhile, these Hyperion soldiers aren't going to kill themselves!

* Is it just me, or was anyone else pissed off by the ending? You spend the whole game working up to this reward at the Vault, endure countless GoddamnedBats and ThatOneBoss numerous times and what does it lead up to? Fight after fight with [[DemonicSpider Crimson Lance]] units, and then you face off against an entire race of [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Giant Space Fleas From Nowhere]], and at the end? You fight a giant Tentacle Rape monster that's incredibly easy to beat, and that's it. No reward, no payoff, just a whole game that led up to jack squat. I have never been more pissed off at an ending. DisappointingLastLevel at it's finest right here.
** Not me. I knew that the Guardians had to be placed there by the Eridians already to protect the Vault, from an earlier quest. The Crimson Lance were more interesting to fight than more bandits, and the Guardians were actually new. The only thing that changed was what the Guardians were protecting, and exactly how I'm getting paid.
*** Really? Because that earlier quest still gave no indication as to what they were from what I saw. And the Bandits had a lot more personality to me then the Killzone Rip-Off Crimson Lance. The Guardian thing was just a big let-down to me, but it would not have been that bad if not for the Giant Tentacle Rape Monster at the end. Seriously, it literally comes out of nowhere and what do I get? Nothing. A whole game for a Tentacle Rape Monster, and giving the Key to Tannis.
*** Can we chalk this up to having an excuse plot? Seriously, besides the first 10 minutes of the game and the last 30 minutes, I have no idea what the hell was going on. There's inklings of the plot throughout but there's a good 50% of the game where your guardian angel stops talking to you and that's pretty much where the story stops.
**** Now, I'd love to accept that, seeing as I like the game a lot, but as this says, ItJustBugsMe. I just can't get over it, like they could've put in a quick 15 second explanation, but no, they couldn't even do that. You have a great point, but yeah...
*** I was less surprized at the twist - as soon as I saw the Guardian Angel appear in the first movie, I knew there'd be some big twist beyond something mundane like the Vault being a library or the GA was some sort of AI or whatever - and more surprized at what the twist was. There wasn't a lot of suggestions during the game (granted, I skipped around) that alternate dimensions and Cthulu-type monsters would pop up. And the boss fight was pretty anti-climatic considering how varied the previous boss fights were. Still, like Diablo before it and other games of the sort, the story really isn't the reason you play. The setting might be interesting, but it's just an excuse to collect items so you can do neat stuff and collect more items.
**** Most experienced players are GenreSavvy enough to expect a 'twist'. The major disappointment is the reward. If the game keeps going, the final boss should drop some unique loot to make the second playthrough more interesting.
**** I just don't like that concept, I mean if your only reason for playing is just to collect more shit for no reason, then I see no point in playing. Then again, it is incredibly fun, so I guess I'll have to suppress my Nerd Rage on that while playing... Or not. I've never played a Diablo-type game before, so I geuss it's just me being pissed off... Albeit for a very good reason.
******* Don't like, don't play.
***** Well, to clarify, the point of these games are kinda like fancy beat 'em up games and rogue-likes. You play for the challenge, group play, interesting set pieces and sequences and what have you rather than the story, super complex strategy, and what have you. They're casual light arcade fun rather than heavy simulation fun. It's the difference between watching Grindhouse and watching The Shawshank Redemption - you watch them for very different reasons.
*** It makes sense once you remember the planet is called ''Pandora''. That kinda gives away that there really wasn't anything good in the vault.
**** Pandora's Box contained hope.
***** I suggest you read the whole legend, rather than the twist at the end. [[spoiler: In fact some versons have "hope" as the worst of the evils contained, since it encourages mankind to suffer through the rest.]]
*** To be fair, Gearbox is [[LampshadeHanging well aware]] of how out of left field the Guardians and Destroyer are, if the challenge achievements related to them are anything to go by.
*** WRONG. Try playing the final encounter with subtitles on. What's-her-name is killed mid-sentence but the subtitles go on, proving that Gearbox had a proper fight and further levels planned but scrapped it and threw in The Destroyer as a replacement, all for the deadline they idiotically declared two years before.
*** You know, I always thought that was a bit of a clever ploy on Gearbox's part to not spoil the fact that What's-her-name was going to get killed if you had subtitles on. You're expecting to hear the rest of the sentence, but nope, tentacle-stab, death gurgle, surprise.
* Why was this released a week earlier on the consoles than on PC? My (360 using) friend has been playing it since Friday while I'm stuck staring mornfully at my Steam preload...
** Because [[GodIsEvil God hates PC players, of course.]]
** Most publishers admitted a while ago that they stagger PC releases so that the inevitable piracy on release day won't cut into the console sales.
*** And now I can finally play it.
* All I want to know is, what on Earth or beyond it possessed Gearbox to use ''Gamespy'', of all people, for their multiplayer? How can a game this well-suited to shooting things with friends have ended up relying on the networking equivalent of the Edsel?
** Now, I don't know much about Gamespy's record, but, from my experience, the game is very smooth with 4 people with average connections so I don't see what you're talking about.
*** It's probably a result of being a console-first game and Gearbox not being traditionally a developer on network focused games. The Xbox version has all of its match making handled for it by nature of being on the Xbox. Gamespy was probably just the cheapest, easiest way to replace the middleware without asking people to learn how to program netcode. As for the issues in question, YMMV. There are instances where ports need to be forward which is usually beyond the average computer user (especially those used to fire-and-forget multiplayer of Steam games or similar), occasions where people simply can not connect at all without a workaround, save games not saving, and what not.

* I can accept basically all the headscratchers thus far as proceeding from Rule of Cool or Rule of Funny or Unreliable Narrator or whatever, but this one really burns: how did the Hyperion corporation, who presumably built and programmed the GA, and therefore defined its capabilities, know (or enable the GA to find out) what the Vault really contained? This was supposed to be a highly advanced alien civilization pulling out all the stops (including the stop preventing said civilization from going down the tubes (if I haven't [[ZeroPunctuation beaten this metaphor to death yet]]) in order to contain this thing; the fact that the GA twigged implies she had at least that level of sophistication. If anyone should have that, it's the Lance, considering they allegedly owe their superiority to Eridian technology, but they obviously don't. WTF? (There's an argument to be made for emergent phenomena, ie, the ability of sufficiently sophisticated systems to do things you totally didn't program them to do, but a) this was played with in DLC4 and b) it seems to me that even if the GA ''did'' develop the ability to discover the truth, she wouldn't know where to look.)

* Is it just me, or was anyone else pissed off by the ending? You spend the whole game working up to this reward at the Vault, endure countless GoddamnedBats and ThatOneBoss numerous times and what does it lead up to? Fight after fight with [[DemonicSpider Crimson Lance]] units, and then you face off against an entire race of [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Giant Space Fleas From Nowhere]], and at the end? You fight a giant Tentacle Rape monster that's incredibly easy to beat, and that's it. No reward, no payoff, just a whole game that led up to jack squat. I have never been more pissed off at an ending. XenSyndrome at it's finest right here.

** Marcus is (heavily) implied to be making up most if not all of the events of the "Dr. Ned's Zombie Island" DLC. However, items there can be used and otherwise affect your character in all other parts of the game. So...does this mean the entire game is made up (or at least seen through the eyes of an UnreliableNarrator)? [[FridgeBrilliance It all fits]] in ways similar to the "the events of {{Pokemon}} are Ash's coma dream" theory; [[WildMassGuessing Marcus and Zed are ''everywhere'', the main story line ends disappointingly abruptly, and new elements seem increasingly out-of-place]]. It also explains the odd plot hole, such as how [[spoiler: TK Baha can be both dead in his Arid Badlands home and a zombie in his place near Hallow's End.]] [[HandWave Marcus...simply forgot a few details as his story dragged on.]]

*** Can we chalk this up to having an excuse plot? Seriously besides the first 10 minutes of the game and the last 30 minutes I still had no idea what the hell was going on. There's inklings of the plot throughout but there's a good 50% of the game where your guardian angel stops talking to you and that's pretty much where the story stops.
**** Now I'd love to accept that, seeing as I like the game alot, but as this says, ItJustBugsMe. I just can't get over it, like they could've put in a quick 15 second explanation, but no, they couldn't even do that. You have a great point, but yeah...
*** I was less surprized at the twist - as soon as I saw the Guardian Angel appear in the first movie I knew there'd be some big twist beyond something mundane like the Vault being a library or the GA was some sort of AI or whatever - and more surprized at what the twist was. There wasn't a lot of suggestion during the game (granted I skipped around) that alternate dimensions and Cthulu-type monsters would pop up. And the boss fight was pretty anti-climatic considering how varied the previous boss fights were. Still, like Diablo before it and other games of the sort, the story really isn't the reason you play. The setting might be interesting but it's just an excuse to collect items so you can do neat stuff and collect more items.
**** I just don't like that concept, I mean if your only reason for playing is just to collect more shit for no reason, then I see no point in playing. Then again, it is incredibly fun, so I geuss I'll have to suppress my Nerd Rage on that while playing... Or not. I've never played a Diablo-type game before, so I geuss it's just be being pissed off... Albeit for a very good reason.

***** Well to clarify, the point of these games are kinda like fancy beat 'em up games and rogue-likes. You play for the challenge, group play, interesting set pieces and sequences and what have you rather than the story, super complex strategy, and what have you. They're casual light arcade fun rather than heavy simulation fun. It's the difference between watching Grindhouse and watching The Shawshank Redemption - you watch them for very different reasons.

***** I suggest you read the whole legend, rather than the twist at the end. [[spoiler: In fact some versons have "hope" as the worst of the evils contained, since in encourages mankind to suffer through the rest.]]

** Because [[GodIsEvil God hates PC players of course.]]
** Most publishers admitted awhile ago that they stagger PC releases so that the inevitable piracy on release day won't cut into the console sales.
*** And now I can finally play on it.

** Now I don't know much about Gamespy's record, but from my experience the game is very smooth with 4 people with average connections so I don't see what you're talking about.
*** It's probably a result of being a console-first game and Gearbox not being traditionally a developer on network focused games. The Xbox version has all of it's match making handled for it by nature of being on the Xbox. Gamespy was probably just the cheapest, easiest way to replace the middleware without asking people to learn how to program netcode. As for the issues in question, YMMV. There are instances where ports need to be forward which is usually beyond the average computer user (especially those use to fire-and-forget multiplayer of Steam games or similar), occasions where people simply can not connect at all without a workaround, save games not saving, and what not.

*** Who said it was using the ECHO visor to interface with you? It could have been using the ECHO system to communicate with a piece of equipment your character already had (just because the 4 of them lacked an objective seeking, ammo/sheild/health tracking visor doesn't mean they didn't have a mobile or something.
*** Actually, the way I interpret it is that she cannot ''see'' or know what is going on when the ECHO goes down. I just happened to be playing that section again not but ten minutes ago, and while I wasn't giving my full attention to people talking, that's what it seems like. Helena calls you up to whine about Steele cutting off the ECHO, then is cut out mid sentence. The next communication is from the Guardian angel, asking if you can see/hear her, and that she can't see you and has no idea what is going on. How she can talk to you without ECHO, I have no idea, but judging from what I saw/heard, that's my guess.
*** Notably, after the end of the game, when she's talking to you and says she's watching, it zooms out to a satellite in space. I took this to mean that she uses that to watch everything. But it doesn't necessarily imply how she talks to you.
**** The satellite is called AN631, which is leetspeak for "Angel", and a Hyperion logo. My guess is that Hyperion knew of the vault and kept the satellite around in the event of a rival corporation(like the Atlas backed Crimson Lance) attempted to take it's contents. Why this is done by siccing adventurers on them instead of orbital bombardment is beyond me.
***** I thought that looked like a commnucations sattelite. IF they bombarded the vault with the satalite itself, it would be destroyed and they'd be unable to watch the vault. If it was a comms sattelite then it wouldn't have weapons. So what else to do other than let people know where the trouble is. People who would do something about it.
****** I always thought the implication was that the guardian angel ''was'' the satellite, that "she" was an artificial intelligence left behind to guide the generations of inevitable vault hunters.
*** My impression is that GA was ''also'' watching you for research purposes (if that last...[[BossSubtitles thing]] that [[NinjaZombiePirateRobot happened]] is to be taken seriously). Which explains why she panics when the systems go down and she can't see you, even though she could contact you by other means, like by the scientist girl - she can't acquire combat data if she doesn't ''see'' you fighting. Sending you to fight the Destroyer was the final objective both because it would keep him from escaping ''and'' would provide her / Hyperion with delicious, delicious data (and, since she belongs to Hyperion, killing a bunch of Atlas soldiers on the way is a nice bonus). Seems to fit perfectly with the game's theme of having the seemingly nice corporations being selfish, greedy bastards all along. As for how she contacted you at the bus, you weren't very far from the Claptrap - seems to me she would have no reason to only contact you moments before you reach Fyrestone unless she was waiting until you got near the ECHO the Claptrap was carrying.

** Just that? How about all those creatures, including guardians. Or just how she makes certain guns more powerful, disables headshots hurting more than standard shots, and frikkin' GRAVITY for that matter? Of course, the answer is that the BellisariosMaxim is in full effect - as it is for the whole game.
*** I assumed it was her breasts that was doing it.
* Must the Destroyer be destroyed in every 200 year cycle? Or is he gone for good now. I suppose what I'm asking is will the next group of adventurers have to put him down again, or will they actually be able to enter the vault this time and see whats up?
* Why don't the people of pandora leave? It is a total shithole and the only thing of interest is the vault so what the hell
** Some of them are, they just don't have the money to get off the planet (for example, the guy who got killed for selling fake cigars).

* FridgeLogic: If you find yourself being unable to abide by MST3KMantra, you will have trouble enjoying this game.

*** Everyone on Pandora is so {{badass}} they eat metal and shit bullets.

** The only illogical thing that actually bothered me was why the hell does Skagzilla have laser-breath? But then it dawned on me: Godzilla! After that it was perfectly logical that a big-ass alien dog called something-zilla could breath lasers.

*** Well... skags eat anything and some creatures do change somewhat based on what they eat. Pink flamingos for instance get their pink color from their diet. Though that brings up the question of if a skag eats a pink flamingo, would you get a pink skag?

* This one is driving me nuts. The infinitely respawning bandits is hand waved as everyone being hooked up to Renu-U when they arrive. They put that in so the player character technically never dies. I get that, but it doesn't prevent it from bugging the crap out of me. Think about it... if everyone I kill is just going to be revived two minutes later at the nearest indestructible flag pole Then all those 'big time' bandits will be back in action by morning. Every. Single. One. Everything I did short of the final battle accomplishes nothing! NOTHING!!! In fact, I KNOW this happens, because you can backtrack and kill them HUNDREDS OF TIMES in one play through!

** Marcus is (heavily) implied to be making up most if not all of the events of the "Dr. Ned's Zombie Island" DLC. However, items there can be used and otherwise affect your character in all other parts of the game. So...does this mean the entire game is made up (or at least seen through the eyes of an UnreliableNarrator)? [[FridgeBrillance It all fits]] in ways similar to the "the events of {{Pokemon}} are Ash's coma dream" theory; [[WildMassGuessing Marcus and Zed are ''everywhere'', the main story line ends disappointingly abruptly, and new elements seem increasingly out-of-place]]. It also explains the odd plot hole, such as how [[spoiler: TK Baha can be both dead in his Arid Badlands home and a zombie in his place near Hallow's End.]] [[HandWave Marcus...simply forgot a few details as his story dragged on.]]

*** As of the 4th DLC, every single boss in the game respawns or shows up in the Underdome... except the Destroyer. Bandits, Lancers, and zombies be damned- in the end, you really did save Pandora.
* One thing that has and always will bug me about this game is the fact that nobody, no one single person in this entire game, ever blinks ever! When I first started playing I could tell something was off, but I didn't know what, then I started looking at the eyes, the cold, dead, unblinking eyes!
* Pandora is just so dangerous and the people living there so badass that the inhabitants have trained their bodies so that blinking is now unnecessary.

* The fourth dlc, Claptrap's Revolution, it bugs me. Chronologically it takes place last, after the main storyline and all the other dlc, yet none of the returning characters recognize you (Tannis explicitly greets you as a stranger). Even the various new areas within the dlc are inconsistent - after you finish the dlc and destroy the ninja claptrap, if you revisit any other areas he'll still be talking to you over the intercoms. Marcus dies in the final boss battle but he'll be right back in his shop and never says anything about it when you return to town. You fight a roboticized version of Commander Steele which should be impossible considering her body was either destroyed or trapped inside the vault. Nothing about this dlc makes any sense!

* All of the dlc takes place after the main story, so why the heck does the game let you play through the dlc on your first playthrough? If, like me, you bought the game of the year edition that includes all the dlc and you are unaware they are meant to be played post game, then you are going to be extremely confused if you get curious and visit the new locations. The game practically encourages this confusion, because it lets you visit the new areas from fast travel stations not only before beating the game, but ''before you unlock fast travel!''. So for the first 2-6 hours of the game, these areas you shouldn't visit yet are the ''only'' areas you can fast travel too! Huh?

** Considering the ExcusePlot, I don't really think anyone was actually all that confused going into the DLC. The Vault Hunters found the Vault isn't exactly shocking and none of the DLC mention what's actually in the vault.
* At the end of the game, it's implied that the guardian angel misled you into gathering the parts to the vault key and opening the vault so that you would end up defeating the Destroyer before it could get free and thus saving the universe (or at least Pandora) from annihilation. Except ... wasn't the only reason the Destroyer was a threat at all was because you ''unlocked the door and released it''? Wouldn't it have been easier and much less risky (what if you failed to kill it?) to simply destroy the vault key and leave it locked away within the vault forever? (Wasn't that the goal of the guardians, to keep the vault locked? So weren't they technically good guys?)
** FanWank perhaps, but the implication is that the Destroyer would eventually become strong enough to break out of the vault without the keys. So, the vault must be opened every two hundred years and wailed on to keep it weak enough to contain.

* If Pandora is supposed top have 90 hour days, why did they even bother to put in a (very short) day/night cycle at all?
* I can accept basically all the headscratchers thus far as proceeding from Rule of Cool or Rule of Funny or Unreliable Narrator or whatever, but this one really burns: how did the Hyperion corporation, who presumably built and programmed the GA, and therefore defined its capabilities, know (or enable the GA to find out) what the Vault really contained? This was supposed to be a highly advanced alien civilization pulling out all the stops (including the stop preventing said civilization from going down the tubes (if I haven't [[ZeroPunctuation beaten this metaphor to death yet]])) in order to contain this thing; the fact that the GA twigged implies she had at least that level of sophistication. If anyone should have that, it's the Lance, considering they allegedly owe their superiority to Eridian technology, but they obviously don't. WTF? (There's an argument to be made for emergent phenomena; ie, the ability of sufficiently sophisticated systems to do things you totally didn't program them to do, but a) this was played with in DLC4 and b) it seems to me that even if the GA ''did'' develop the ability to discover the truth, how did she know where to look?)
** Hard to parse, but basically: the Guardian Angel was working with Tannis. Therefore, she had access to information neither Hyperion nor Atlas did.

<<|ItJustBugsMe|>>
)

* Is it just me, or was anyone else, pissed off by the ending? You spend the whole game working up to this reward at the Vault, endure countless GoddamnedBats and ThatOneBoss numerous times and what does it lead up to? Fight after fight with DemonicSpider Crimson Lance units, and then you face off against an entire race of [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Giant Space Fleas From Nowhere]], and at the end? You fight a giant Tentacle Rape monster that's incredibly easy to beat, and that's it. No reward, no payoff, just a whole game that led up to jack squat. I have never been more pissed off at an ending. XenSyndrome at it's finest right here.

*** Really? Because from that earlier quest it still gave no indication as to what they were from what I saw. And the Bandits had a lot more personality to me then the Killzone Rip-Off Crimson Lance. The Guardian thing was just a big let-down to me, but it would not have been that bad if not for the Giant Tentacle Rape Monster at the end. Seriously, it literally comes out of nowhere and what do I get? Nothing. A whole game for a Tentacle Rape Monster, and giving the Key to Tannis.

* [[AWizardDidIt A Claptrap Did It]]. Also, if I remember right, Marcus said he made up the part about him dying in the end of the story just to attract the ladies.

* [{AWizardDidIt A Claptrap Did It]]. Also, if I remember right, Marcus said he made up the part about him dying in the end of the story just to attract the ladies.

* This one is driving me nuts. The infinitely respawning bandits is hand waved as everyone being hooked up to Renu-U when they arrive. They put that in so the player character technically never dies. I get that, but it doesn't prevent it from bugging the crap out of me. Think about it... if everyone I kill is just going to be revived two minutes later at the nearest indestructible flag pole Then all those 'big time' bandits will be back in action by morning. Every. Single. One. Everything I did short of the final battle accomplishes nothing! NOTHING!!!
In fact, I KNOW this happens, because you can backtrack and kill them HUNDREDS OF TIMES in one play through!

Is it just me, or was anyone else, pissed off by the ending? You spend the whole game working up to this reward at the Vault, endure countless GoddamnedBats and ThatOneBoss numerous times and what does it lead up to? Fight after fight with DemonicSpider Crimson Lance units, and then you face off against an entire race of [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Giant Space Fleas From Nowhere]], and at the end? You fight a giant Tentacle Rape monster that's incredibly easy to beat, and that's it. No reward, no payoff, just a whole game that led up to jack squat. I have never been more pissed off at an ending. XenSyndrome at it's finest right here.
* Not me. I knew that the Guardians had to be placed there by the Eridians already to protect the Vault, from an earlier quest. The Crimson Lance were more interesting to fight than more bandits, and the Guardians were actually new. The only thing that changed was what the Guardians were protecting, and exactly how I'm getting paid.
** Really? Because from that earlier quest it still gave no indication as to what they were from what I saw. And the Bandits had a lot more personality to me then the Killzone Rip-Off Crimson Lance. The Guardian thing was just a big let-down to me, but it would not have been that bad if not for the Giant Tentacle Rape Monster at the end. Seriously, it literally comes out of nowhere and what do I get? Nothing. A whole game for a Tentacle Rape Monster, and giving the Key to Tannis.
** Can we chalk this up to having an excuse plot? Seriously besides the first 10 minutes of the game and the last 30 minutes I still had no idea what the hell was going on. There's inklings of the plot throughout but there's a good 50% of the game where your guardian angel stops talking to you and that's pretty much where the story stops.
*** Now I'd love to accept that, seeing as I like the game alot, but as this says, ItJustBugsMe. I just can't get over it, like they could've put in a quick 15 second explanation, but no, they couldn't even do that. You have a great point, but yeah...
** I was less surprized at the twist - as soon as I saw the Guardian Angel appear in the first movie I knew there'd be some big twist beyond something mundane like the Vault being a library or the GA was some sort of AI or whatever - and more surprized at what the twist was. There wasn't a lot of suggestion during the game (granted I skipped around) that alternate dimensions and Cthulu-type monsters would pop up. And the boss fight was pretty anti-climatic considering how varied the previous boss fights were. Still, like Diablo before it and other games of the sort, the story really isn't the reason you play. The setting might be interesting but it's just an excuse to collect items so you can do neat stuff and collect more items.
*** I just don't like that concept, I mean if your only reason for playing is just to collect more shit for no reason, then I see no point in playing. Then again, it is incredibly fun, so I geuss I'll have to suppress my Nerd Rage on that while playing... Or not. I've never played a Diablo-type game before, so I geuss it's just be being pissed off... Albeit for a very good reason.
****** Don't like, don't play.
**** Well to clarify, the point of these games are kinda like fancy beat 'em up games and rogue-likes. You play for the challenge, group play, interesting set pieces and sequences and what have you rather than the story, super complex strategy, and what have you. They're casual light arcade fun rather than heavy simulation fun. It's the difference between watching Grindhouse and watching The Shawshank Redemption - you watch them for very different reasons.
** It makes sense once you remember the planet is called ''Pandora''. That kinda gives away that there really wasn't anything good in the vault.
*** Pandora's Box contained hope.
**** I suggest you read the whole legend, rather than the twist at the end. [[spoiler: In fact some versons have "hope" as the worst of the evils contained, since in encourages mankind to suffer through the rest.]]
** To be fair, Gearbox is [[LampshadeHanging well aware]] of how out of left field the Guardians and Destroyer are, if the challenge achievements related to them are anything to go by.
** WRONG. Try playing the final encounter with subtitles on. What's-her-name is killed mid-sentence but the subtitles go on, proving that Gearbox had a proper fight and further levels planned but scrapped it and threw in The Destroyer as a replacement, all for the deadline they idiotically declared two years before.
** You know, I always thought that was a bit of a clever ploy on Gearbox's part to not spoil the fact that What's-her-name was going to get killed if you had subtitles on. You're expecting to hear the rest of the sentence, but nope, tentacle-stab, death gurgle, surprise.

Why was this released a week earlier on the consoles than on PC? My (360 using) friend has been playing it since Friday while I'm stuck staring mornfully at my Steam preload...
* Because [[GodIsEvil God hates PC players of course.]]
* Most publishers admitted awhile ago that they stagger PC releases so that the inevitable piracy on release day won't cut into the console sales.
** And now I can finally play on it.

All I want to know is, what on Earth or beyond it possessed Gearbox to use ''Gamespy'', of all people, for their multiplayer? How can a game this well-suited to shooting things with friends have ended up relying on the networking equivalent of the Edsel?
* Now I don't know much about Gamespy's record, but from my experience the game is very smooth with 4 people with average connections so I don't see what you're talking about.
** It's probably a result of being a console-first game and Gearbox not being traditionally a developer on network focused games. The Xbox version has all of it's match making handled for it by nature of being on the Xbox. Gamespy was probably just the cheapest, easiest way to replace the middleware without asking people to learn how to program netcode. As for the issues in question, YMMV. There are instances where ports need to be forward which is usually beyond the average computer user (especially those use to fire-and-forget multiplayer of Steam games or similar), occasions where people simply can not connect at all without a workaround, save games not saving, and what not.

Yeah, so the Guardian Angel can talk to you because of the ECHO system, right? This was shown when the Angel couldn't communcate when the system was shut down and explained in the ending. Then how, exactly, does the Angel talk to you while you're in the bus, before you get the ECHO setup from Claptrap?
** Who said it was using the ECHO visor to interface with you? It could have been using the ECHO system to communicate with a piece of equipment your character already had (just because the 4 of them lacked an objective seeking, ammo/sheild/health tracking visor doesn't mean they didn't have a mobile or something.
** Actually, the way I interpret it is that she cannot ''see'' or know what is going on when the ECHO goes down. I just happened to be playing that section again not but ten minutes ago, and while I wasn't giving my full attention to people talking, that's what it seems like. Helena calls you up to whine about Steele cutting off the ECHO, then is cut out mid sentence. The next communication is from the Guardian angel, asking if you can see/hear her, and that she can't see you and has no idea what is going on. How she can talk to you without ECHO, I have no idea, but judging from what I saw/heard, that's my guess.
** Notably, after the end of the game, when she's talking to you and says she's watching, it zooms out to a satellite in space. I took this to mean that she uses that to watch everything. But it doesn't necessarily imply how she talks to you.
*** The satellite is called AN631, which is leetspeak for "Angel", and a Hyperion logo. My guess is that Hyperion knew of the vault and kept the satellite around in the event of a rival corporation(like the Atlas backed Crimson Lance) attempted to take it's contents. Why this is done by siccing adventurers on them instead of orbital bombardment is beyond me.
**** I thought that looked like a commnucations sattelite. IF they bombarded the vault with the satalite itself, it would be destroyed and they'd be unable to watch the vault. If it was a comms sattelite then it wouldn't have weapons. So what else to do other than let people know where the trouble is. People who would do something about it.
***** I always thought the implication was that the guardian angel ''was'' the satellite, that "she" was an artificial intelligence left behind to guide the generations of inevitable vault hunters.
** My impression is that GA was ''also'' watching you for research purposes (if that last...[[BossSubtitles thing]] that [[NinjaZombiePirateRobot happened]] is to be taken seriously). Which explains why she panics when the systems go down and she can't see you, even though she could contact you by other means, like by the scientist girl - she can't acquire combat data if she doesn't ''see'' you fighting. Sending you to fight the Destroyer was the final objective both because it would keep him from escaping ''and'' would provide her / Hyperion with delicious, delicious data (and, since she belongs to Hyperion, killing a bunch of Atlas soldiers on the way is a nice bonus). Seems to fit perfectly with the game's theme of having the seemingly nice corporations being selfish, greedy bastards all along. As for how she contacted you at the bus, you weren't very far from the Claptrap - seems to me she would have no reason to only contact you moments before you reach Fyrestone unless she was waiting until you got near the ECHO the Claptrap was carrying.

For the new DLC: How the hell does Moxxi get Flynt, Sledge and the Guardians in her arenas?
* Just that? How about all those creatures, including guardians. Or just how she makes certain guns more powerful, disables headshots hurting more than standard shots, and frikkin' GRAVITY for that matter? Of course, the answer is that the BellisariosMaxim is in full effect - as it is for the whole game.
** I assumed it was her breasts that was doing it.

Must the Destroyer be destroyed in every 200 year cycle? Or is he gone for good now. I suppose what I'm asking is will the next group of adventurers have to put him down again, or will they actually be able to enter the vault this time and see whats up?

Why don't the people of pandora leave? It is a total shithole and the only thing of interest is the vault so what the hell
* Some of them are, they just don't have the money to get off the planet (for example, the guy who got killed for selling fake cigars).
* The game itself states that anyone with influence or money enough to leave the planet did so before you got there, and everyone left are either criminals, opportunists, or otherwise compromised.

This one is driving me nuts.
The infinitely respawning bandits is hand waved as everyone being hooked up to Renu-U when they arrive. They put that in so the player character technically never dies. I get that, but it doesn't prevent it from bugging the crap out of me. Think about it... if everyone I kill is just going to be revived two minutes later at the nearest indestructible flag pole Then all those 'big time' bandits will be back in action by morning. Every. Single. One. Everything I did short of the final battle accomplishes nothing! NOTHING!!!

* Which is how they are waiting in Moxxi's Underdome, for a re-match against you with odds in their favour.
* Marcus is (heavily) implied to be making up most if not all of the events of the "Dr. Ned's Zombie Island" DLC. However, items there can be used and otherwise affect your character in all other parts of the game. So...does this mean the entire game is made up (or at least seen through the eyes of an UnreliableNarrator)? [[FridgeBrillance It all fits]] in ways similar to the "the events of {{Pokemon}} are Ash's coma dream" theory; [[WildMassGuessing Marcus and Zed are ''everywhere'', the main story line ends disappointingly abruptly, and new elements seem increasingly out-of-place]]. It also explains the odd plot hole, such as how [[spoiler: TK Baha can be both dead in his Arid Badlands home and a zombie in his place near Hallow's End.]] [[HandWave Marcus...simply forgot a few details as his story dragged on.]]
** It should be obvious that the original story takes place entirely before any of the DLC. In fact, canon-wise, they all happen in order, non-concurrently. Yes, even Moxxie.
** Given that he seems to be narrating the main story as well...
* You did accomplish something. You defeated the Destroyer, and that's all that really mattered. Bandits are nothing compared to something that could destroy the universe eventually.
** As of the 4th DLC, every single boss in the game respawns or shows up in the Underdome... except the Destroyer. Bandits, Lancers, and zombies be damned- in the end, you really did save Pandora.

One thing that has and always will bug me about this game is the fact that nobody, no one single person in this entire game, ever blinks ever! When I first started playing I could tell something was off, but I didn't know what, then I started looking at the eyes, the cold, dead, unblinking eyes!

How did the rogue Claptraps get Steele's body? Wasn't it, you know, devoured?

The fourth dlc, Claptrap's Revolution, it bugs me. Chronologically it takes place last, after the main storyline and all the other dlc, yet none of the returning characters recognize you (Tannis explicitly greets you as a stranger). Even the various new areas within the dlc are inconsistent - after you finish the dlc and destroy the ninja claptrap, if you revisit any other areas he'll still be talking to you over the intercoms. Marcus dies in the final boss battle but he'll be right back in his shop and never says anything about it when you return to town. You fight a roboticized version of Commander Steele which should be impossible considering her body was either destroyed or trapped inside the vault. Nothing about this dlc makes any sense!

All of the dlc takes place after the main story, so why the heck does the game let you play through the dlc on your first playthrough? If, like me, you bought the game of the year edition that includes all the dlc and you are unaware they are meant to be played post game, then you are going to be extremely confused if you get curious and visit the new locations. The game practically encourages this confusion, because it lets you visit the new areas from fast travel stations not only before beating the game, but ''before you unlock fast travel!''. So for the first 2-6 hours of the game, these areas you shouldn't visit yet are the ''only'' areas you can fast travel too! Huh?

At the end of the game, it's implied that the guardian angel misled you into gathering the parts to the vault key and opening the vault so that you would end up defeating the Destroyer before it could get free and thus saving the universe (or at least Pandora) from annihilation. Except ... wasn't the only reason the Destroyer was a threat at all was because you ''unlocked the door and released it''? Wouldn't it have been easier and much less risky (what if you failed to kill it?) to simply destroy the vault key and leave it locked away within the vault forever? (Wasn't that the goal of the guardians, to keep the vault locked? So weren't they technically good guys?)
* FanWank perhaps, but the implication is that the Destroyer would eventually become strong enough to break out of the vault without the keys. So, the vault must be opened every two hundred years and wailed on to keep it weak enough to contain.

If Skagzilla can jump THAT high, what exactly is keeping it inside the "pen"? Not to mention that it's easily big enough to climb over the walls.
* Nothing is keeping it inside the pen, it's just too busy trying to kill you to worry about getting out. All you have to do to "free" it is stand in the correct place and wait for it to leap at you.

If Pandora is supposed top have 90 hour days, why did they even bother to put in a (very short) day/night cycle at all?

I can accept basically all the headscratchers thus far as proceeding from Rule of Cool or Rule of Funny or Unreliable Narrator or whatever, but this one really burns: how did the Hyperion corporation, who presumably built and programmed the GA, and therefore defined its capabilities, know (or enable the GA to find out) what the Vault really contained? This was supposed to be a highly advanced alien civilization pulling out all the stops (including the stop preventing said civilization from going down the tubes (if I haven't [[ZeroPunctuation beaten this metaphor to death yet]])) in order to contain this thing; the fact that the GA twigged implies she had at least that level of sophistication. If anyone should have that, it's the Lance, considering they allegedly owe their superiority to Eridian technology, but they obviously don't. WTF? (There's an argument to be made for emergent phenomena; ie, the ability of sufficiently sophisticated systems to do things you totally didn't program them to do, but a) this was played with in DLC4 and b) it seems to me that even if the GA ''did'' develop the ability to discover the truth, how did she know where to look?)

** I assumed it was her MostCommonSuperpower that was doing it.