Spoilers Off for games prior to Borderlands 3 as well as for spoiler characters that are marked as such. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned.
Playable Vault Hunters: Borderlands | Borderlands 2 (Krieg) | The Pre-Sequel (Claptrap) | Borderlands 3
Supporting Characters: Borderlands | Borderlands 2 (Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC) | The Pre-Sequel | Borderlands 3
Spinoffs and other media: Tales from the Borderlands | Tiny Tina's Wonderlands | New Tales from the Borderlands | Other media
Weapon Brands: Atlas | Dahl | Hyperion (Handsome Jack) | Maliwan | Jakobs | Torgue | Tediore | Other Weapon Brands
Other: Bandits and Bandit Factions (Children of the Vault) | Hodunk and Zaford Clans | Creatures (Eridians and Vault Monsters) | Raid Bosses
Janey Springs
Black Marketeer, Heart of Gold
Click to see her in Tales from the Borderlands
Voiced by: Catherine Moore
"Hello? Hello? Hello, thought you might be salvage."
A scrap bender who helps out the Vault Hunters. She falls in love with Athena and becomes her fiancee.
- All-Loving Hero: The only people she actually hates are the bandits. Considering what they are like, such an attitude is not at all unreasonable.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Sweet, peppy, polite, mechanically inclined, incredibly helpful to the Vault Hunters, can and will hire them to massacre bandits around the area so they can put up motivational posters, as well as destroy bandit equipment so it can be salvaged. Without asking nicely.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: One of her splash screens from Tales describes her as "small business owner, children book owner and Kraggon slayer".
- Butch Lesbian: She says she "isn't into guys", sends you off to kill kraggons to get revenge for killing her girlfriend, and is pretty handy with fixing things.
- Consummate Professional: She insists on giving the bandits the posters they ordered, even when they're shooting at you. She's even willing to sell posters to Deadlift even while tasking you to kill him.
- Everything's Sexier in French: Her Australian accent is a good deal more Hollywood than many of the other Elpis inhabitants. She sounds a bit like the Crocodile Hunter's kid sister.
- Fan Disservice: Her shirt and jacket are very short on her, leaving her entire stomach exposed. She has some pretty gnarly burn scars.
- Fell Off the Back of a Truck: She, um, acquires many of her wares in mysterious ways, including the Grinder in Concordia, which the Vault Hunters must explicitly steal parts to repair.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Episode 5 of Tales... seems to imply that she knows a thing or two about fighting games considering that she can perform Chun-Li's Lightning Kick while piloting Gortys.
- Impossible Hourglass Figure: Perhaps not impossible, but she has a very slim waistline in notable contrast to her hips. Considering she's been stranded on her own with minimal supplies for a while,
it may be starvation-related. - Morality Pet:
- She's this in a way to the The Pre-Sequel protagonists, particularly Nisha since she's one of the few people she actually kind of likes due to the fact that she can be quite vindictive. She gets along well enough with all the Vault Hunters though she clearly likes Athena the most, and turns icily polite when Doppleganger Jack tries to flirt with her. She's even one of the few people who doesn't completely hate Claptrap, which delights him when she calls him up after the destruction of the Eye of Helios.
- Her opinion of Claptrap seems to have changed in Tales..., though, as she's actually pretty damn mean to him if they're both on your team for the final fight.
- Mr. Exposition: In the Pre-Sequel, she serves as both a tutorial to various gameplay mechanics as well as telling you about the history of Elpis.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Fiona and Sasha found this out the hard way-if she's ever angry, you're in deep shit.
- Nice Girl: Easily the friendliest and most cheerful person you meet on Elpis. For example, if you choose to destroy a light reactor for Torgue rather than get it for her, she decides that as long as Torgue's happy then everything's fine.
- Pointless Bandaid: She has one on her nose, and another on her right cheek, though that one actually appears to be covering up a cut.
- The Pollyanna: She's always incredibly cheerful and happy.
- Rebellious Spirit: She shares a a few visual similarities to Gaige, most specifically her fashion. Her combat boots, baggy pants, headband, and spike-studded bracelet just scream PUNK!
- Relationship Upgrade:
- In True Vault Hunter Mode, Athena implies that she and Janey hooked up some time after the events of the Pre-Sequel. Tales actually confirms this if Rhys, Vaughn, and Loader Bot don't go to Hollow Point in Episode Two, while Claptastic Voyage confirms it in Athena's narration when entering Motherlessboard.
- Taken further in the final episode where, if you lied to Janey and said Athena said she loved her before being taken away by Brick and Mordecai, and both women are on your team for the last fight, it's revealed they're getting married.
- Stalker with a Crush: Moxxi prefers to stay away from Crazy Earl's Black Market because Janey keeps trying to "accidentally" run into her there. Janey even has Earl call her whenever Moxxi shows up, or whenever someone retrieves Moxxi's orders.
- Stepford Smiler: Downplayed. Her first set of side-quests reveal that she holds a grudge against the kraggons in the area, because she lost a loved one to them. Aside from that dark moment, her outlook on life is overall very positive.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Not like Athena needs any help but Janey is all to willing ready to charge into Sanctuary gun blazing to save her if Fiona claims Athena's last words before being captured is confessing her love to Janey.
- Wet Blanket Wife: Janey is not too happy to find out that Athena had lied to her about abandoning being a Vault Hunter. Even if their relationship is salvaged, she still tries to convince her to stay retire. Considering how Janey lost her previous girlfriend and how dangerous the life of a Vault Hunter is, her worries are granted.
- Wrench Wench:
- She operates the vehicle station on Elpis and essentially serves the same purpose as Scooter. By the time of Tales, she's even the new proprietor of one of Scooter's Catch-A-Ride shops.
- Though it's unknown what role Janey now has in running Catch-A-Ride after Scooter's death and Ellie's inheritance of his franchise in Commander Lilith....
Nurse Nina
She Mend You Good!
Voiced by: Laurie Steel
"Welcome, new citizen! Obey my commands!"
Dr. Zed's medical services don't quite extend to the moon of Elpis. So in his stead, the Vault Hunters rely on Nurse Nina, who will gladly heal them, but also mock them for getting hurt in the first place.
- All Amazons Want Hercules: Nurse Nina wants a strong husband. So she'll have you test out those she's interested in. It doesn't end well for most of them.
- Animesque: Her cartoon avatar on the medical vending machine is a manga version of herself, in contrast to Ned and Zed's mortally wounded anthropomorphic syringe.
- Ax-Crazy: Nurse Nina believes the best way to test potential suitors is to have you try to kill them.
- Battle Axe Nurse: She's large and brutish, but she still seems to have her medical license (unlike Dr. Zed) and actually knows a thing or two about surgery, having been the one who turned Timothy into the Jack Doppelganger.
- Brawn Hilda: She's big, she's ugly, she's got an eastern European accent, and she's sporting Leia hair buns, making her look like the female soldier from The Fifth Element that the military tried to set up Korban with as his "wife".
- Comedic Sociopathy: Downplayed for the most part. Her introductory video has Mr. Torgue mentioning that she'll mock you for getting hurt in the first place, and while she does get a good laugh from you getting zapped by moving in the decontamination chamber, she mostly just kids about it as part of her bedside manner.
- Defector from Decadence: A thought bubble in the Subconscious has Claptrap realize that she's Ivan Vladof's long-lost sister, which would suggest that this trope is why she's in hiding. Of course, given the source and lack of external corroboration, it's hard to say for sure.
- Glove Snap: In her introduction scene, she's seen snapping on a rubber glove while a patient is bent over on his knees on the table. Fortunately, his pants are still up.
- Husky Russkie: Like Marcus, she's a heavyset Russian.
- Kavorka Man: Despite being a Brawn Hilda, she actually has several men interested in her, all of whom are overjoyed when they hear she might be interested in them. Two of them are understandably horrified that she intends for the Vault Hunter to kill them as a test of their love. The last one, as it turns out, thinks this makes her even more attractive.
- Lzherusskie: Thick east-European accent, as mentioned above.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Pretty much a given with her Ax-Crazy qualities.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Some of her comments come off like this. Also, after a husband candidate finally survives her tests, she has him chained up in her clinic.
- Starting a New Life: She's on the run from some company (likely Vladof, based on her accent and a patch on her jacket, or perhaps Hyperion, given her appearance in the ECHO logs detailing Timothy's surgery into the Jack Double.) She fled to Elpis because she know she's safe there. Her mother is still worried sick, least of all because she didn't even change her name when she went undercover. Nina says changing her name is exactly what they'd expect!
- Third-Person Person: She refers to herself as "Nina", probably because English doesn't seem to be her first language.
The Meriff
Huxter T. Meredith
Mayor & Sheriff [It sounded better in his head]
Voiced by: Richard Carter
"Jack, Jackie! Haha, you should have said you were in town! You shoulda said so!"
The Mayor and Sheriff of Concordia, real name: Huxter T. Meredith. A former Hyperion office drone under Jack who rules Concordia under Hyperion authority.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: After he's dead, much of the town of Concordia is openly glad he's gone and announcements regularly play to celebrate the fact. A sidequest also opens up where Jack, still not satisfied with killing him, decides to pay his Last Disrespects and has the Vault Hunters splice his voice with a music remix ("I'm the biggest arse on the moon!"), decapitate his statue's head, strap it to a rocket / firework and then fire it in front of town when the music and fireworks ensue.
- Blatant Lies: Says everything will be fine and the town will be re-opened in a few weeks. This, just after Colonel
- Corrupt Politician: The Meriff became ruler of Concordia with every intent of becoming one of these from the very beginning. However, he became less happy with the arrangement when his greed got the better of him and he started taking money from charities.
- Egopolis: A fairly mild example - in addition to being Mayor and Sheriff, he's placed a very large statue to himself in the center of town. Certainly, it's got nothing on Jack with Opportunity.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: The Meriff plans on changing his ways after all of this. He then tries to shoot Jack before leaving Elpis.
- Heel Realization: After helping Zarpedon get to Helios, he openly declares himself "The biggest arse on the moon".
- Had one years earlier when he stole money from the Food Bank fund but found there was enough left over people still thanked him for it.
- High-Class Glass: He wears a monocle on his left eye.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Tries to shoot Jack from five feet away. He misses.
- I Surrender, Suckers: After Jack turns his back on him after sparing him, the Meriff tries to shoot him. Unfortunately he only had a couple bullets, he's a terrible shot, and Jack has a personal shield.
- Meaningful Name: His first name is Huxter. A "Huckster" is a mercenary person willing to make a profit by shady means, and the Meriff steals from food banks and takes bribes from Zarpedon (though he at least feels bad about it).
- The Mole: He was secretly working for Zarpedon.
- My God, What Have I Done?: This was his reaction to taking the bribe from Zarpedon to be her mole. He knew he just signed the death warrants of thousands of innocent workers on Helios for doing so, but did it to protect his own people.
- Nervous Wreck: He's constantly sweating under his collar, metaphorically speaking. He uses his high level of stress as an excuse for many of his reprehensible activities, but then again, the guilt and self-hatred he feels over those reprehensible activities is the cause of that stress, so it's a vicious cycle.
- Our Presidents Are Different: He's actually the closest thing Elpis has to a ruler since Concordia is the only major settlement, but he's powerless against Zarpedon or the Vault Hunters' military might. In terms of the trope he's President Corrupt who becomes an Invisible President until Jack forces the issue via the Vault Hunter.
- Portmanteau: "Meriff" is a title he came up with by combining the words Mayor and Sheriff. Everyone thinks it sounds idiotic.
- Robosexual: He's having an affair with the robo-geisha Sereena, who also happens to be the girlfriend of the CU5TM-TP. This comes back to bite him when the Vault Hunters inform CU5TM of this affair, turning the sole member of the station's police force against him.
- Sleazy Politician: He's fairly corrupt, but unlike other examples is self-aware and hates himself for it.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Even though he is a minor antagonist in the game, the Meriff is one of the first people who seeds the sow to Jack's rise in power and his growing insanity.
- Small-Town Tyrant: Acts a great deal like an Australian mining boss from the 19th century. Except in space.
- Too Dumb to Live: Immediately trying to kill the guy who just spared you is pretty dumb, especially when you consider that the Vault Hunter(s) are also in the room.Jack: (While shooting the Meriff to death) OHHH!! I was! Gonna! Let you! LIVE! YOU DUMB. BASTARD! What is WRONG with you!?
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His attempt at betraying Jack teaches him that turning the other cheek means presenting your back, people will always take advantage of mercy to betray Jack, and that killing people is fun even when it isn't necessary.
Pickle
Davis Pickle
Fingersmith and Scamp
Voiced by: Candida Gubbins (English), Alexis Tomassian (French)
"Corrrr! The fings they got over there look bang tidy!"
A young self-declared "Fingersmith" that Jack hired to help him retake Helios.
- The Artful Dodger: Smart, adorable, cheerful, kleptomaniacal, only semi-trustworthy, and he has the accent and slang. His sister is just like him, and after the two unite, Eliza robs him blind and escapes on her fighter jet. He's even the voice for the Heartfull Splodger gun.
- Big Brother Instinct: He's the younger sibling, but his first instinct in learning that his sister is alive to to find and save her from any trouble on the moon. He's also amusingly oblivious to the fact that she's even sketchy than he is despite evidence via ECHO.
- Don't Explain the Joke: Uses cockney rhyming slang, but then says the substituted word straight after. Probably for the best for those not familiar with said slang.
- Expy: He's essentially Elpis's version of Tiny Tina, only rather than being a Jive Turkey he talks as if he's a Dickensian street urchin. Athena even tells Tina in TVHM that she reminds her of Pickle in a way and that they would roughly be the same age by now.
- The Faceless: While you see his face in his ECHO portrait as well as various posters, he's always wearing a helmet when you talk to him in person.
- Five-Finger Discount: He pickpockets the player's wallet whenever they talk to him. He promises to "never nick anything out your pockets ever again" if you help him find his sister.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Despite his age, he's very mechanically adept. Tassiter, however, is not amused that the best that Jack could get is a ten year old.
- Hidden Depths: An ECHO log found in the Motherlessboard area from Claptastic Voyage reveals that he actually looted the Drakensberg to acquire his parents' ashes, and not for any tech as he tells the Vault Hunters in the main campaign. The ECHO itself is a journal log he recorded directed towards them.
- Last-Name Basis: Everyone calls him Pickle, even his sister, despite the fact that Pickle is presumably her own last name.
- Never Bareheaded: Played With. From some reason, his face is only ever seen through the ECHO transmission and a few wanted posters around the moon. His actual game model always has his helmet on.
- Shout-Out: His name is a reference to Travis Bickle of Taxi Driver.
- Sticky Fingers: When aboard a crashed ship occupied by bandits, he has to be told not to start prying things out of the walls.
- "Wanted!" Poster: Theft, Fraud, Larceny, Piracy, and Noise Violations: $200. One of the challenges requires you to doodle on these posters giving Pickle a moustache, a goatee, derp eyes, top hat, a cigar and a monocle.
Papa Crust and the People's Liberation Army
Voiced by: Anthony Phelan
Papa Crust: "The time is coming when this land will be blasted clean of warlords and petty kings and queens. The People's Liberation Army are storm clouds on the horizon."
Papa Crust is the leader of the People's Liberation Army, a vaguely anarchist communist organization opposing equally vaguely defined despots and corporate influences. For the revolution to start, they need lots of guns.
- Collection Sidequest: They want you to gather fifty white-quality weapons for them. Every time you drop off ten, someone ends up taking them, forcing you to go on a fetch quest to get them back. While certainly tedious, they reward you with a Legendary Oz Kit.
- Foreshadowing: The fact that the PLA are all pacifists who don't intend to use the weapons you give them to fight is foreshadowed by the fact that every time they try to fight they do a horrible job at it. Papa Crust even remarks at one point that the weapons were worthless in combat (midway through your collecting enough to complete the quest, of course).
- Ironic Name: Despite being an army, they are actually pacifists, making works of art as protest projects.
- Leeroy Jenkins: A bunch of the People's Liberation Army soldiers take the crappy white-quality guns and try to take on a bunch of scavs with them. The predictable happens.
The Concordia Liberation Front
A group of teenagers fighting for the environment against corporations, tyrany, and mostly the People's Liberation Army. They are a young adult/teenager-run group whose beliefs are pretty stereotypical: Vegan, Gluten-Free, Pro-Environment, and Anti-Corporate. All Played for Laughs, as they are horrible at all of it.
- Animal Wrongs Group: In Cybil's case.
- Comically Missing the Point: Rose points out how stupid it is for the People's Liberation Army to put their posters up in public places, since that just gets them taken down faster, while she brags about telling you to put up their posters in obscure places so no one will notice. She doesn't seem to realize this defeats the purposes of a recruitment poster.
- Hypocrite:
- Rose is more concerned with outshining her fellow member Karen and criticizing her former girlfriend Gabby while striking at the PLA than whatever their cause is.
- Cybil claims to fight for the environment, but she only wants to save creatures she considers "cute" and is otherwise a bloodthirsty psychopath. She gets off at the idea of people being killed and demands non-cute animals be destroyed.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Sterwin is an obvious parody of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.
- Shadow Archetype: Cybil to Sterwin. Cybil is a murderous psychopath who only cares about "cute" animals and turns almost maniacal as she orders the Vault Hunters to kill things she doesn't like. Sterwin, meanwhile tries to save the lives of Guardians (who are actually trying to kill him and might not even be alive since they are constructs), and is genuinely sad whenever one is killed.
- What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Cybil is obsessed with saving "cuties" from Scavs. When it turns out that the "cuties" are actually Torks (giant bugs), she orders you to murder them all.
