Characters / Borderlands: Torgue

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.

Borderlands Character sheets
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

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"The next time you go shopping for a new gun, ask yourself one question: Are you a man? If you answer in the affirmative, then you're ready for a Torgue. You see, we at Torgue make guns for real men. Tough guys. Badasses. The kind of guys your dad was and you hope to be! Torgue doesn't screw around making lightweight toys and we sure as hell aren't concerned with selling you a stylish accessory like those hip-huggers over at Maliwan. No. We make them tough, and we make them heavy. It's up to you to make 'em dead. Do it with a Torgue."

The Torgue corporation owes its existence to Mister Torgue High-Five Flexington. It's said that the boss of a company sets the tone, and while the actual authority of Mister Torgue is somewhat limited, the company wouldn't be what it is without him... because "what it is" is off its nut in a violently proactive manner. Torgue weapons started out powerful and slow but otherwise fairly generic in the original Borderlands, but in Borderlands 2 they picked up their defining trait: EXPLOSIONS. All Torgue weapons in 2 fire slow but destructive gyrojet rounds that explode either on contact or after a slight delay, and there are no Torgue submachine guns or sniper rifles; guns tend to look like a collection of motorcycle or engine parts hammered into the shape of a gun and named basically at random with a faint tendency towards sex jokes, while rocket launchers are given goofy onomatopoeic names for the sound of blowing stuff up ("Boom", "Blaaa"). Torgue barrels massively increase damage with a few penalties, and in the case of assault rifles, make them fire mini-grenades or rockets. Torgue shields punish attackers with explosive novas and spikes, and their grenades exclusively use MIRV technology.

In Borderlands 3, their guns can be toggled between regular "impact" gyrojets and sticky shots that deal more damage the more of them are clustered on a target. They are also no longer restricted solely to explosive damage and return to making weapons of other elements, likely as a result of being under new management (and because Explosive damage was folded into normal damage this time).

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In general/The brand

• Abnormal Ammo:
  • Every single Torgue weapon in 2 uses self-propelled gyrojets similar to bolt shells.
  • The SWORDSPLOSION!!! fires swords that explode on impact into three more swords. Those also explode on impact.
  • The Effervescent variant of the SWORDSPLOSION!!!, the Unicornsplosion. Unicornsplosion acts mostly the same as the SWORDSPLOSION!!!, but it fires miniature Butt Stallions instead of swords that has sparkling trails and rainbow splash effect when the Butt Stallion projectiles hits the ground/the target.
  • The Wonderlands version of SWORDPLOSION!!! works a bit differently. While its bullets no longer split into three swords upon impact, its sticky alt-fire mode more than makes up for it by firing blades that stick into foes and cause them to receive increased damage per stuck sword. When reloading during Alt-fire, a spectral sword erupts under struck foes, launching them while detonating the stuck swords for massive damage.
  • Torgue weapons can use sticky bullets in 3, shots that harmlessly attach themselves to targets before exploding for damage that scales depending on how many shots detonated at once.
  • Because grenade launchers aren't a separate class of weapons in the game, any assault rifle with a Torgue Barrel effectively takes the role of a grenade launchers. They generally have less damage than an equivalent Rocket Launcher, but uses four Assault Rifle bullets instead (which is infinitely more common). Depending on the manufacturer, it can either function like a normal arcing Grenade launcher or a RPG. They often catch new players by surprise as they are the only other non-Unique/Legendary guns to cause self-damage. Some Torgue Uniques and legendary Shotguns also fire a single rocket or grenade, serving the same purpose, but often with damage on par with equivalent rocket launchers due to shotgun ammo being scarcer.
• The Aesthetics of Technology: Torgue weapons feature a chunky appearance reminiscent of motorcycles and monster trucks, keeping in line with the Testosterone Poisoning theme. Their paint jobs often include racing stripes and checkerboard patterns with bold primary colors.
  • Borderlands 3 doubles down on this, with their guns looking almost like car parts and sometimes even featuring superchargers and small V8 engines.
• Bad Boss: Mr. Torgue is decidedly not interested in anything remotely resembling safety. He even has his employees trying to kill the Vault Hunter by giving everybody guns, all so the Vault Hunter doesn't get bored.
• BFG: Standard Torgue design policy is to make nothing but these.
• Bigger Is Better: Torgue weaponry does not shy on its massive barrels and overstated "engine" receivers, with calibers large enough to make holes you could see through.
• Character Exaggeration: In Borderlands 1, they were almost as generic as S&S, save for their advertising copy's focus on manliness. Borderlands 2 took that focus on manliness and ran with it as far as possible, and so the difference between this early version and their portrayal in Borderlands 2 and onwards is striking. Borderlands 3 then cranked it a notch higher with guns that outright look like big badass car parts.
• Composite Character: A number of Maliwan rocket launchers, such as the Hive, were rebranded as Torgue launchers in 3, mostly due to the fact that Maliwan started to build shotguns in place of rocket launchers, and perhaps because Mister Torgue shouted at Maliwan for some time. It helps that Torgue weapons have expanded their roster to make use of elemental damage now that Explosive was demoted to normal damage.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Most of the other companies make a wider variety of guns, and most of them have at least a few weapons of each element. Torgue makes four types of gun — pistol, shotgun, rocket launcher, assault rifle — and all of them shoot explosive bullets. Only two weapons, Peak Opener and World Burn (both from Commander Lilith DLC), did not have explosive elements as their main element tech (being listed as Shock and Incendiary respectively and a foreshadowing to 3), and even both weapons still shoots explosive projectiles. Due to their ammo, Torgue weapons fare poorly at long range. The slow projectile speed, along with the generally reliable damage, means that Torgue weapons are ideally suited for killing very large targets like bosses, especially if you've got class mods or skills that boost explosive damage. This is rectified in 3 with Sticky bullets which lack the slow speed while also having immense damage potential.
• Double Entendre: Torgue weapon names in 2 occasionally sound like sex jokes, much more so with the unique guns such as "Hole Puncher", "Bangstick", "Pounder", "Creamer", etc...
• Jack of All Stats: Explosion damage can deal reasonably well with all specialist defenses and reduces the value of shields.
• Large Ham: Torgue weapons do to subtlety what Krieg would do to your garden party. Their advertising largely consists of having Mister Torgue shout at people.
• Lead the Target: Thanks to their slow projectile speed, Torgue guns require you to compensate to hit even the slowest moving targets.
• Hand Cannon: Torgue produces the heaviest pistol barrel, and actually make a gun called the Hand Cannon (it's a generic title for any pistol with the Dahl, Tediore, Bandit or Maliwan muzzle), but even those are trumped by Torgue "Slappers" built with the Torgue-original heavy barrel (which, when on guns from other brands, also gives them Hand Cannon-ish names such as Magnum, Impact or Widow Maker).
  • They double down on this in 3; they are MUCH bigger and chunkier than they were in 2, and hit even harder. There is also a Shout-Out to Destiny within them, as some of their revolvers load from a cylinder-shaped magazine rather than a standard cylinder, much like the Hand Cannon weapons from that game.
• Having a Blast: Torgue weapons all focus on explosive damage. In 3 however, since Explosion is no longer an element Torgue weapons deal normal damage by default and can come in other elements.
• Incompetence, Inc.: Under the leadership of Mister Torgue, the company was not known for wise business decisions. Eventually the Board of Directors bought it off him for twelve bucks and a high-five.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Unkempt Harold, particularly with the Double Penetrating prefix which lets it fire two shots at once. This pistol fires a volley of explosive bullets in a horizontal pattern, which then split into additional bullets after a short distance, which split into even more shots after another distance. It's capable of an intense amount of damage when aimed correctly or used against huge targets, making it an ideal sidearm for every character and makes it obscenely powerful in the hands of Salvador and Krieg, the former who can dual wield two of them to blow away enemies or match it with a slag weapon, and the latter whose skills in the Bloodlust tree gives him a considerable damage bonus for getting kills with explosive damage. Prior to being given a confirmed drop location with Savage Lee in 2013, it was a random world drop, and thus very hard to acquire normally (let alone with a Double Penetrating prefix), making it something of a prized treasure in the game.
• Lethal Chef: The Torgue Corporation also produces food, and much like everything else they do, it explodes. Both 2 and 3 have side missions involving recalls.
• Macho Masochism: Torgue weapons are, supposedly, deliberately heavy as a kind of first test of whether you're tough enough to use them. Since inventory is based on items rather than weight, it doesn't come up much in play. What does come up in play is their alarmingly brutal and indiscriminate Splash Damage, and Torgue is absolutely clear that blowing yourself up with your freshly-purchased Torgue weapon (or sauce bottle, or breakfast cereal) is all part of the fun.
• Made of Explodium: If it's made by Torgue, it's either exploding or causing things to explode. It's so prevalent that even their food products (such as breakfast cereal and hot sauce) are known to explode.
• Mighty Glacier: Torgue guns invariably have superior damage output to their competitors, even if a Jakobs rival has higher visible damage on the stat sheet. Each gyrojet does double damage on direct hits. However, every Torgue gun has slow projectiles, below-average fire rates, and relatively long reload times. They also don't have any submachine guns or sniper rifles.
• No Indoor Voice: Their ads in Borderlands 2 were like this by default considering that it's Mr. Torgue who did the ads.
  Mr. Torgue: "DID YOU KNOW THAT NINETY-SEVEN PERCENT OF ALL LIVING THINGS ON PANDORA AREN'T EXPLODING RIGHT NOW? THAT'S BULLSH*T, BUY TORGUE!"
• Non-Fatal Explosions: All Torgue gyrojets in Borderlands 2 were personally made by Mr. Torgue to avoid harming the weapon's user, partly so the user doesn't kill themselves faster than they do anything they blow up. At some point, however, the company dropped this technology because an explosion big enough to kill you is a small price to pay for how awesome it'll end up being.
• Nuke 'em: The Nukem rocket launcher fires a payload that explodes in a massive mushroom cloud when it lands, with an equally massive splash radius.
• Our Weapons Will Be Boxy in the Future: They favor chunky and metallic aesthetics with racing check patterns. That said, the only really squared part they manufacture is their shotgun barrel. Everything else is rounded and tube-like, evoking both engine pipes and a man's "pipe".
• Painfully Slow Projectile: Torgue gyrojet rounds move very slowly, presumably due to the weight of the payload. This is particularly notable in their Duuuurp! Rocket Launchers, which fire in a shallow parabolic arc, and are slow enough that vehicles can usually outrun them. But if they hit anywhere near you, they're going to hurt. The only Torgue weapon with fast projectiles is the Blaa rocket launcher, thanks to the velocity-increasing Maliwan barrel. Rectified somewhat in 3 with Sticky shots, which fire out as fast as regular bullets.
• The Peter Principle: While Mister Torgue was an excellent weapons designer, his actual management ability was very questionable as he was known for wasting money and men on projects of dubious worth/legality. Eventually this led to the board of directors "purchasing" the controlling stocks from him for twelve dollars and a high-five, demoting him to a mere spokesperson and eventually firing him for sabotaging a publicity stunt (though he's back in the company by 3).
• Powerful, but Inaccurate: Expect this to be the norm while firing Torgue weapons. The rockets and gyrojets fly in a straight line, just a very slow one.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: As of Borderlands 2 and onwards, all their pistols are massive revolvers that rival and sometimes beat Jakobs in terms of power.
• The Rival: To Jakobs and Maliwan. Torgue advertising tends to pour scorn on Maliwan's sleek, high-tech appearance and Jakobs's old-school wood-handled charm, encouraging people to instead buy the hunk of heavy metal.
• Short-Range Shotgun:
  • Surprisingly, their spread is not that bad. The slow movement of Torgue gyrojet ammunition is the problem: it means that long-range accuracy is compromised against mobile targets, meaning that the closer you get, the more likely you are to actually hit what you're aiming at and not have them sidestep while the shot is in transit.
  • The SWORDSPLOSION!!! E-tech shotgun is quite long-ranged. Then again, that's because it acts more like a Grenade Launcher with Recursive Ammo than a shotgun proper.
  • The Flakker is about the shortest range a shotgun can get in the series - instead of firing shotgun shells, it shoots forward a creeping series of explosion that disperses after a few feet, similar to a real world flak gun. Its damage ranges from pitifully low to being capable of obliterating most common enemies in a single shot, depending on how close they are to the blasts epicenter. Characters like Krieg, Claptrap and Moze can get the most use of it thanks to its raw explosive power, which they specialize in.
• Splash Damage: Every single Torgue weapon in 2 and Pre-Sequel has at least a little. And then there's the Carnage, Pocket Rocket, various Torpedo types and the legendary Ker-Blaster, all of which are effectively mini rocket launchers, to say nothing of the MIRV effects of the SWORDSPLOSION!!!.
• Sticky Bomb: Torgue guns get sticky gyrojets as an alternate firing mode in the third game.
• Testosterone Poisoning: The heart and soul of Torgue. Their advertising says it's for manly men, their CEO is a macho dude, and buying a Torgue gun apparently legally prevents you from crying at movies.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Torgue make a lot of grenade mods, mostly focused on increased blast radius and damage.
• Token Good Teammate: The Torgue corporation under Mr. Torgue's command is less concerned with power or influence and more with Crazy Is Cool stunts. Sure, people often get hurt in the process, but there's rarely any active malice or greed behind it. Even their shareholders are decidedly less malicious since, more often than not, they're there to clean up after Torgue. The worst they've been seen to do is rig a competition in his favor, but just as a promotional stunt.
  • In Borderlands 3, the messages they send emphasize two things: how awesome it is that you're blowing shit up with their weapons, and advising you to take care of yourself and appreciate your talents, because imposter syndrome is bad for your health.
    PRACTICE SELF-CARE AND BLOW S**T UP! BUY TORGUE!
• Unorthodox Reload: Torgue rocket launchers are reloaded by replacing the rear exhaust. Don't ask how that works^note Presumably, this is a reference to single-use tube anti-tank weapons such as the Javelin, which is "Reloaded" by detaching the entire tube and attaching the reusable targetting mechanism to a fresh tube. As for how you're carrying all those big ass exhausts? Digistruct..
• Unskilled, but Strong: Torgue weapons don't have much of the whole "accuracy" thing everyone's talking about and their projectiles are slower than their competitors, but hell if they don't hit hard when they actually hit.
• Weapon Specialization:
  • Torgue's raw explosive firepower makes it the favored manufacturer of Rocket, Grenade or explosive damage specialists like Brick, Axton, Krieg, Claptrap, Wilhelm and Moze, as well as those who favor stopping power over accuracy like Salvador and Gaige.
  • Torgue Assault Rifles are a special favorite of Axton as his skills buff assault rifle damage and grenade damage (which buffs Torgue Gyrojets), making Torgue assault rifles in the hands of an Axton ludicrously powerful later in the game.
  • In the third game, due to sticky shots amplifying damage depending on how many are on a single enemy Torgue shotguns are very effective in the hands of characters who have some sort of skill that lets them shoot without costing ammo, such as FL4K and Moze. Done right, they can vaporize bosses within seconds.

Individuals

Mister Torgue High-Five Flexington

Voiced by: Chris Rager

I'm Torgue, and I'm here to ask you one question, and one question only: EXPLOSIONS?

The spokesperson of the Torgue Corporation, who helps you out in the DLC "Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage". He really, really likes explosions.

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• Abusive Parents: Evidently, Mr. Torgue had a rough childhood. During the Bar Brawl at Pete's Bar, he'll make a mention of an alcoholic father. He fared better than Jack did.
  THIS BAR FIGHT REMINDS ME OF MY DAD. ALCOHOLISM DESTROYS FAMILIES.
• All-Loving Hero: Mister Torgue doesn't hate anybody, and he actually goes out of his way to make friends with the Vault Hunters. He also breaks the fourth wall and tells players he loves them in the Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! preview.
  Mister Torgue: HELLO, I'M MISTER TORGUE! AND I LOVE YOU.
• All There in the Manual: There's a lot of stuff in the AmA on Reddit that you don't learn in-game.
• Atomic F-Bomb: In 3 he drops this little, if loud, gem when a Circle of Slaughter wave is about to start:
  Torgue: I'M STILL UPSET I CAN'T SAY F*CK. F***CK.
• Authority in Name Only: Despite being the founder of the Torgue Corporation, by the time of the Wattle Gobbler DLC, Torgue is no longer the head of his own company, having sold it to his shareholders for twelve dollars and a high-five. During that DLC, he's a spokesperson kept on to flex his muscles and do air guitar solos. He loses that job as well by the end of the DLC, not that it bothers him. As of 3 however he's back as the president.
• Awesomeness Is Volatile: His life philosophy: absolutely nothing can't be made better by blowing it up.
  Regarding the SWORDSPLOSION!!! Gun: THAT GUN SHOOTS EXPLODING SWORDS. I HAVE NOT KNOWN THE MEANING OF HAPPINESS UNTIL THIS MOMENT.
• Bad Boss: Downplayed. Being a moron in matters not related to explosives, Torgue has a tendency to get his own employees killed for incredibly stupid reasons. However, what makes Torgue better than the rest of his competition is that Torgue isn't doing it with any malice or cruel intentions.
  • Enters several of his own employees in the tournament. According to him, he's lost at least half of his workforce in three days because of this. His opinion on the possibility of the entire workforce in the Badass Crater of Badassitude starving in a few months is "THAT IS F*CKING AWESOME".
  • When he released his brand of highly explosive hot sauce, he sent interns to sniff them out. They didn't last very long.
• Berserk Button:
  • Game reviewers who bash games he likes. This includes bad-mouthing mechanics he likes, such as a Stealth-Based Mission.
  • Being rude to women deeply offends him. He even lashes out at ill-mannered non-existent characters in Tina's boardgame:
    Douchebag NPC: I'm sorry! I'll never say anything douchey ever again! [Beat] Bitch!
    Torgue: THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE. CHASE HIM DOWN. PUNCH HIM SO HARD HE EXPLODES.
  • In The Pre-Sequel, he hates laser weapons because they're not explosive. During a mission where you get a light reactor for Janey Springs, he offers to give you a Torgue gun if you drop it into lava instead. Janey thinks his offer is a bit excessive, but she likes his enthusiasm. Later on, at the end of a mission to test out a laser prototype for Janey, he'll have you drop the laser next to a beacon, and then crash a spaceship loaded with fifty tons of high explosive into it. (He seems to have gotten over this by the time Borderlands 3, though, evinced by the Laser-Sploder, a legendary Torgue weapon that shoots both lasers *and* explosives)
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: In 3, Mr. Torgue is revealed to have made hot sauce that literally explodes in enormous fireballs. On the advice of his legal team, he had to recall it. Torgue asks the Vault Hunters to destroy any leftover bottles they find while in the Handsome Jackpot. Your reward is a gun that shoots said bottles of explosive hot sauce.
• Blood Knight: Torgue loves nothing more than watching people fight and blowing stuff up. He runs his tournament in the DLC for Borderlands 2 because he wants people fighting each other, and fully intends to blow up the arena when all is said and done.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's extremely muscular and ridiculously over-the-top personality-wise.
• Book Dumb: His weapon designs are very good and his company is one of the most successful on Pandora, even though he can't even count to ten. On the other hand, he's apparently read (or understands) Nietzsche and can be eloquent on exceedingly rare occasions, so it's possible he's just bored by math and would rather convert his calculator to an IED than do math problems.
• Breakout Character: Downplayed. While Torgue's role is important in the DLCs he's featured he doesn't have heavy presence in the main story of any other game he shows up. Despite this Torgue appeared in every game, sometimes even in other DLC, in some form or another since he was introduced.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite the fact that his extreme manliness is not often a good way to run a company, it's made clear that he's still incredible at designing weapons and running a TV station. He designed them all himself!
• Captain Obvious: In case you hadn't figured out that the guy who always talks about fire likes fire, Mr. Torgue will gladly shout that fact at you. Also comes up when you beat Motor Mamma.
  Torgue: THE VAULT HUNTER JUST DEFEATED THE NUMBER THREE BADASS ON PANDORA, GOING FROM NUMBER FOUR ON THE LEADERBOARD TO NUMBER THREE. THIS IS ONE NUMBER HIGHER THAN FOUR.
  Moxxi: Well, uh... well said.
  Torgue: YOUR KIND WORDS ARE APPRECIATED.
• Censor Box: A digital one that the corporate shareholders decided needed to be attached directly to Mr. Torgue's voicebox that causes all of his swear words to be bleeped out as he speaks them.
• Character Blog: He was the second user of the ECHO Casts twitter account. He also held an AmA on Reddit.
• Character Development:
  • At some point between the Dragon Keep and Wattle Gobbler DLCs, he's acknowledged that yes, badasses can cry too.
  • Also between The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 2. In TPS after being turned down for a date by Janey, he complains of being "friend-zoned". Present day Torgue (who is apparently listening in on Athena tell the story) cuts in to point out that he was younger then, and now realizes that the friend-zone is a sexist concept.
  • He's even undergone some development between his time as an unseen radio character in the base game and his DLC, as one of the ads that can play on radios has Torgue stating that customers are "F***ING RETARDED" if they don't buy Torgue guns, something that's wildly out of character for him to say post physical appearance.
• Chick Flick: Makes it obvious he does not approve of them when you sign up for his tournament.
  Torgue: BY SIGNING UP FOR THE TORGUE BADASS TOURNAMENT, YOU LEGALLY FORFEIT YOUR RIGHT TO CRY, EAT TOFU, OR WATCH MOVIES WHERE PEOPLE KISS IN THE RAIN AND SH*T.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He lets his imagination get the best of him sometimes. It may overlap with In-Universe Product Placement, being a Captain Obvious, or getting Sidetracked by the Analogy.
  Torgue: THE VAULT HUNTER IS ATTACKING TORGUE SECURITY. HE'S LIKE A RENEGADE COP. A RENEGADE COP WHO DOESN'T PLAY BY THE RULES UNTIL HE'S GIVEN A ROBOT DOG PARTNER WHO HELPS HIM TRACK DOWN THE CRIME CARTEL THAT KILLED HIS FAMILY BUT NOT BEFORE TEACHING HIM A LITTLE SOMETHING ABOUT LIFE THURSDAYS AT NINE.
• Cluster F-Bomb: The guy can't go more than a few sentences without cursing, though the Censor Box attached directly to his vocal cords means it call comes out bleeped in-universe.
  Torgue: LOTTA PEOPLE BEEN ASKING ME WHY MY VOICE BEEPS ALL THE F*CKIN TIME. THE TORGUE SHAREHOLDERS WIRED MY VOICEBOX WITH A DIGITAL CENSOR SO I CAN'T SAY STUFF LIKE SH*T, C*CK, OR P*SSY-F*CKIN'-D*CKBALLS. THAT'S HALF MY F*CKIN' VOCABULARY, IT'S GODDAMN BULLSH*T.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Looks a lot like a brunette Hulk Hogan and sounds like Randy Savage.
• Demolitions Expert: Subverted. He may be an expert at blowing sh*t up, but he's not subtle at all about it. Plus, in his bio it states that his worst enemies are explosives disposal experts, so he's certainly not into THAT aspect of demolitions expertise.
• Dumb Is Good: The man may be kind of a dunce at times and blind to the consequences of his actions, but he means well and is intensely friendly and supportive, never once talking down to the Vault Hunters and even joining them as a sort of satellite friend in many of their adventures. This sets him up as a Foil to the intelligent but smugly malicious asshole that is Handsome Jack.
• Dumb Muscle: Back and forth. He's definitely got the muscle and quite a bit of the required dumb (he writes everything in crayon and struggles to count to two). But he's more of a Genius Ditz than anything else: he is a pyrotechnical genius, designs many of his own weapons, and founded one of the largest weapons companies on Pandora.
• Establishing Character Moment: His intro in his starring Campaign of Carnage DLC pretty much sums up what kind of person he is, a perfect four-way overlap of Large Ham, Dumb Muscle, Hot-Blooded, and Cloud Cuckoolander.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Grandmother, in this case. He asks the Vault Hunters to say hello to her in the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler DLC, and the two of them have a very close and sweet relationship.
• Everything Except Most Things:
  Torgue: VIOLENCE NEVER SOLVES ANYTHING. EXCEPT IN THE SITUATIONS WHERE IT DOES.
• Foil: To Handsome Jack. Where Jack is smooth, cultured, arrogant, cruel, well-dressed, and tries to build a perfectly-ordered world enforced by fascist policies of mass execution, intimidation, and terror, Mr. Torgue is friendly, kind, anarchic, loud, crude, childish, and focused on explosions and destruction because he thinks it's fun.
• Friendless Background: Was made fun of in school for having a mustache at age nine. His social awkwardness seems to have carried over somewhat into adulthood; he considers playing Bunkers & Badasses with the other characters to be a cherished memory, even though he only had a few moments involvement, and Lilith was initially hostile to him.
• Friend to All Children: Well, Tiny Tina's the only child you encounter in the game, but Torgue is very polite to her when she takes over his show in one echo cast. She also allows him to play during the Bunkers & Badasses game she's running in the 4th DLC, although his only role in it is to provide some comedy relief and give you a couple of sidequests.
• Genius Ditz/Idiot Savant: He founded the Torgue Corporation and personally designed all the weapons, has a very good grasp of how to run a TV show, and he's absurdly good at predicting what's going to happen.
• Good Ol' Boy/Southern-Fried Genius: Implied. While he's never stated to be from Sweet Home Alabama, the Deep South, America, or even from Earth, he definitely ticks most of the boxes: Trigger-Happy, explosion-loving, shotgun-wielding, space-truck-driving, uneducated Gun Nut.
• Gentle Giant: Played with. Yes, he loves shit blowing up and thinks fighting in the arena is f*cking awesome, but he's also very courteous to women and kids.
• Gun Nut: He founded the Torgue company, one of the more Gun Nut-oriented companies.
  Torgue Sales Pitch: "Torgue doesn't screw around making lightweight toys and we sure as hell aren't concerned with selling you a stylish accessory like those hip-huggers over at Maliwan."
• Hero with an F in Good:
  • He's a good guy who wants to do good things and help Pandora, but Good Is Boring and explosions are awesome so all that "good" stuff can wait (thankfully his shareholders keep him from doing anything too destructive).
  • Once, tried to destroy an inhabited planet just because it would look badass, while he and his shareholders were on said planet.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Contrary to his image, Torgue actually considers being nice to women the epitome of badassitude. He's also surprisingly eco-friendly, not allowing littering in the Badass Crater of Badassitude (the debate of how eco-friendly blowing sh*t up is is left for more inquiring minds). He also seems to like kids, as he instantly bonds with Tiny Tina when she interrupts him while he's interviewing Moxxi. Also, he likes chocolate chip cookies. So much that the only two things the food dispensers provide are cookies and bacon.
  • During his IAmA on Reddit, he was asked how he eats stew:
    Torgue: WITH A NAPKIN AND A SPOON LIKE A F*CKING GENTLEMAN.^note For the record, the actual answer included: "WHILE HIGH-FIVING A CLASSY LADY."
  • He also likes to say "thank you" and "you're welcome", a surprisingly civil attitude. Of course, he says this AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS.
  • He also dislikes cheating and cowardice. He instantly takes a liking to you as you climb the ranks of the tournament because not only are you actively seeking out challengers but you also fight clean.
  • He wants to play Tiny Tina's Bunkers & Badasses game and has an honest enthusiasm for nerd stuff, even if he mainly just to hang out with others.
  • He also loves animals, having cried when his grandma's pet Rakk died and when his Grandma was about to kill a Squid-Whale (which was apparently attacking them at the time) he begged her to spare it.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": "Mister Torgue" is his actual first name.
• Hoax Hogan: A parodic and hilarious combination of Hulk Hogan's All-American Face and Randy Savage's Cloudcuckoolander tendencies respectively, being a loud, crazed, and weird but ultimately good guy. He even looks like an odd fusion of the two, as wears a bandanna and glorious mustache like Hogan, and sunglasses and arm wraps like Savage.
• Hot-Blooded: Boy howdy. This is not a man who does anything by halves. Everything he does, he throws himself into with a passion, be it showing emotions, designing weapons, or just being loud.
• Incompetence, Inc.: He runs it. Despite being a weapons manufacturer, Torgue's company seems to spend all of its money on explosions and fighting rather than, y'know, anything company relevant. However, this might just be Torgue's poor management skills as President Smith has next to no tolerance for his shenanigans, eventually firing him for ruining their Thanksgiving publicity stunt.
  Torgue: You may have noticed that everyone here is trying to kill you. Torgue personnel included. You're WELCOME. I didn't want you to be bored so I was like, "F*ck it, give everybody guns." We've lost half our workforce in three days, but who gives a F*CK?
• Insane Troll Logic:
  • In the Wattle Gobbler DLC, when President Smith tells him that the reason that the competition was rigged was so Torgue himself could kill it and be a hero, he answered back with this.
    Torgue: WHY BE A HERO WHEN YOU CAN EAT ONE.
    Smith: ... You are the dumbest person in the world.
  • His solution to a batch of poisoned beer is to have you kill the people who bought the beer. That way, they wouldn't die... oh.
  • He also has you do a recording while using Torgue Weapons to kill people for an ad. A Radio Ad. Unlike the other times, he doesn't catch this one.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Bonds instantly with Tiny Tina, and hopes to hire her someday. It helps that they both love explosions. He even has her cell phone number.
• Lampshade Hanging: Very frequently, often to the point of absurd obviousness.
• Large and in Charge: CEO-Founder of the Torgue Corporation, and clocks in at 6'8" and several hundred pounds of explosion-obsessed musculature.
  • However Subverted. The Wattle Gobbler DLC shows that the actual president of the Torgue Corporation is Anton Smith and Torgue is simply a spokesperson they kept on, having sold it for twelve dollars and a high-five. By the end of the DLC, Smith fires Torgue for screwing up what was meant to be a publicity stunt (as well as just having enough of his bullshit).
• Large Ham: Almost all of Torgue's lines are delivered at the top of his lungs. Just look at the dialogue on this page!
• Magical Profanity Filter: Mr. Torgue has a digital censor in his voice box that automatically censors his swearwords with a Sound-Effect Bleep.
  Torgue: LOTTA PEOPLE BEEN ASKING ME WHY MY VOICE BEEPS ALL THE F*CKIN TIME. THE TORGUE SHAREHOLDERS WIRED MY VOICEBOX WITH A DIGITAL CENSOR SO I CAN'T SAY STUFF LIKE SH*T, C*CK, OR P*SSY-F*CKIN'-D*CKBALLS. THAT'S HALF MY F*CKIN' VOCABULARY, IT'S GODDAMN BULLSH*T.
• Mathematician's Answer: Frequent, even out-of-universe during the Reddit AMA.
  Reddit Question: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE TYPE OF EXPLOSION?
  Mister Torgue: YES.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Not Torgue himself, but it's stated in his bio that his planet of origin is Hephaestus. Hephaestus was the Greek god of craft, the forge and volcanoes (and hence, explosions). He himself is a master craftsman (having developed all the technology his company's guns use) and he loves shit blowing up. This could also be foreshadowing: Hephaestus was married to the most beautiful goddess of the Greek pantheon, Aphrodite. At the end of his DLC, he becomes partners with Moxxi, generally recognized as the hottest female in the franchise. Perhaps he's on his way to becoming Husband #4?
  • And then there's his middle name of High-Five, and his last name of Flexington, which are just silly.
• Medium Awareness: Surprisingly enough, he's pretty aware of what's going on, to the point of Breaking the Fourth Wall, at least in-universe.
  Mr. Torgue: NOW THAT YOU'VE IMPRESSED PYRO PETE, HE'S GONNA GIVE YOU THAT SPONSOR HE KIDNAPPED, EXCEPT HE'LL DOUBLE CROSS YOU, AND YOU'LL HAVE TO KILL HIM, AND IT'LL BE AWESOME. ANYTHING YOU WANT TO ADD, PETE?
  Pyro Pete: Uh, no, You, uh... covered it. Thanks... for that.
  Mr. Torgue YOU ARE WELCOME.
  • There's also his opinion of current Tournament Champ, Piston:
    Torgue: IS IT JUST ME, OR DOES THIS GUY SEEM LIKE HE'S GONNA BETRAY THE F*CK OUTTA YOU?
  • Even though he declares you a coward after Piston claims that you ran away, he sends a message to you basically saying that he only did it for the ratings: he didn't buy Piston's story for a second.
  • And after you rank up to Number 3 on the list, Piston locks down the next area that you're currently heading to. The announcement of the lockdown happens right in the middle of Torgue's talking, so he follows up with this.
    Torgue: PLOT TWIST.
• Men Don't Cry:
  • And neither do badasses, which is why it's illegal for you to after signing up for his tournament.
  • That being said, he pretty much does Inelegant Blubbering after he fails to answer the third question to prove his geek cred in a question for Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, causing Lilth to say he's not allowed to play Bunkers & Badasses with everyone else. In the Wattle Gobbler DLC, he states that real badasses are not afraid of showing their emotions.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds:
  • Once tried to destroy an inhabited planet, while he and his shareholders were on it. His shareholders managed to talk him out of it.
  • His message in Reddit turns this into a Noodle Incident.
    Torgue: WHAT DO YOU THINK NEW-U STATIONS ARE FOR?
• Mission Control: For his DLC.
• Mr. Vice Guy: He's actually a Nice Guy and has genuinely good intentions, but his adoration of people fighting and blowing stuff up places him here.
• Nice Guy:
  • Aside from the occasional over-the-top bout of bloodthirsty madness, he's pretty much everything Handsome Jack's not. Ecologically sensitive about Pandora: NO LITTERING. Courteous: NOTHING IS MORE BADASS THAN TREATING A WOMAN WITH RESPECT. And kind to children, giving Tiny Tina an interview when she barges into an interview between him and Moxxi.
  • Given what we see of the other weapons manufacturers' corporate policies towards the people of Pandora, including their own employees, (in various and mixed flavors of apathy, Comedic Sociopathy, and incompetence) and the Vault Hunters in particular, Mr. Torgue is the most genuinely friendly, well-meaning, and reasonable executive since Jeffrey Blake, VP of Hyperion, from the first Borderlands. This means he is also possibly the most crazy and explosion-happy Honest Corporate Executive in existence, as his aforementioned Bad Boss tendencies are less about just being a cruel asshole for its own sake, and more about being much too dedicated to the idea of over-the-top, insanely awesome fights.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's basically Macho Man Randy Savage with No Indoor Voice and a penchant for explosions.
• No Indoor Voice: ALWAYS YELLING! ALL THE TIME! In his Twitter, he refuses to use exclamation points, since they look like upside-down lower-case i's, and he doesn't do lower-case letters.
  • In his Headhunter pack, it's shown that this is such a default for him that he has trouble whispering for more than ten seconds before he starts subconsciously yelling again.
    Torgue: The Torgue board of directors made the Gobbler unbeatable, so it'd eat all the contestants and get us a bunch of hits on the ECHOnet! But I don't want you to die, 'cause YOU'RE COOL. AND OH CRAP I'M NOT WHISPERING ANYMORE, MY BAD.
• One of the Kids: Severely downplayed, but still there, mostly in his almost instant bonding with Tiny Tina.
• Perverse Sexual Lust: Invoked out of game on Borderland's Facebook page's End Of The World Confession app.
  Torgue: I FALL IN LOVE WITH SEXY PEOPLE ON BILLBOARDS. WILL YOU HELP ME MARRY ONE?
• Psychopathic Manchild:
  • It's played down, but still, he writes everything in crayon and eats almost nothing but cookies, and then there's his love of kittens, overall childishness, the list goes on.
  • He also instantly bonds with Tiny Tina as a kindred spirit, which says a lot about him.
• Real Men Eat Meat: Alluded to by signing up for his tournament has him say you've legally forfeited your right to eat tofu.
  • The food vendors in the Crater of Badassitude only dispense bacon.
  • Torgue tried to become a vegetarian once. He lasted twelve seconds.
• Real Men Hate Sugar: Torgue considers unmanly to eat sugar. Note that this doesn't count for Mr. Torgue, who loves himself some cookies every now and then.
• Real Men Wear Pink: A Badass Challenge in Assault on Dragon Keep involves finding Princess Fluffybutt (Tina's doll that she has you retrieve for her tea party in the main game) in The Forest. When you pick her up, Torgue starts Squeeing over how cute she is. Then again, she does have a live grenade for a head. Torgue would like that.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: After Piston backstabs you early on, he's forced to officially call you a coward. Afterwards however, he calls you up and tells you that he knows full well that you aren't a coward and that he just did so because it makes for great TV and that you're still the 5th ranked badass on the leaderboards.
• Red Hot Masculinity: Mister Torgue is a muscular, manly guy obsessed with explosions, to the point of screwing up a task just because of the mere possibility of a massive explosion. While he goes shirtless, he wears a red cap on his head, and the higher rarity Torgue weapons tend to have red stripes somewhere on their frames.
• Ring Out: Torgue runs the Circles of Slaughter in Borderlands 3. If he catches you trying to camp outside of the map's designated fighting area, he'll call off the current round and call you a disappointment.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: His personal belief (according to the Reddit IAMA). Which explains a lot about his company's shotguns. Like, say, the Ravager.
• Sir Swearsalot: The situation was bad enough that the corporate shareholders decided to attach a cybernetic Censor Box directly to Mr. Torgue's voicebox. He does tone it down considerably in Assault on Dragon Keep most likely due to being around the young Tiny Tina. The trope comes back with a vengeance in 3 as he narrates the Circles of Slaughter— you'll be hearing a lot of bleeps while killing stuff there.
• Sophisticated as Hell:
  • "We here at Torgue operations sincerely believe this is F*CKING AWESOME."
  • He also likes to say YOU ARE WELCOME. and YOUR KIND WORDS ARE APPRECIATED. at the top of his lungs.
    Torgue: Wow, that quest was dark and ironic, a true look into the duplicitous of interpersonal relationships. NOW GET BACK HERE SO YOU CAN EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT THE HELL I JUST SAID.
  • He tells the Vault Hunter to treat Moxxi nice because "nothing is more badass than treating a woman with respect".
• Sound-Effect Bleep: His company's shareholders installed some kind of device in him that bleeps his gratuitous swearing. The game isn't censoring him, he's being censored in-universe, and he doesn't like it one bit.
• Space Trucker: His "space truck" orbits Pandora.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Goes along completely with anything Tiny Tina says.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He looks just like his grandmother, with the exception of his mustache and his shirtlessness.
• Stuff Blowing Up: His favorite pastime.
  Reddit Question: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WAY TO BLOW SHIT UP MR. TORGUE?
  Torgue: THAT QUESTION IMPLIES I HAVE A LEAST FAVORITE WAY TO BLOW THINGS UP WHICH IS F*CKING QUITTER TALK.
  Reddit Question: Mr. Torgue, what's better: an explosion that shoots guns, or a gun that shoots explosions?
  Mr. Torgue: YOU ARE BREAKING DOWN MY WORLD-VIEW AND I LIKE IT.
• Suddenly Shouting: In the Wattle Gobbler DLC, the one time he attempts to whisper something "in secret" to the Vault Hunter lasts all of five seconds before he's yelling the secret at the top of his lungs.
  [Whispering] Real talk: the Gobbler fight is rigged. The board of directors made the Gobbler unkillable so it'd eat all the contestants and get us loads of hits on the Echonet, but I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE CAUSE YOU'RE AWESOME AND OH CRAP I'M NOT WHISPERING ANYMORE MY BAD!
• The Team Wannabe: In one sidequest during Tiny Tina's DLC, Torgue mentions just wanting to hang out with the Vault Hunters as they play the Bunkers & Badasses game. He sobs quite a bit about it, to the point that Lilith, who felt he just wanted to jump on the bandwagon since everyone else was playing it, feels a bit sorry and allows him to play with them. However, his only role in the DLC is to give you a couple of sidequests and provide some comedy relief.
• Testosterone Poisoning: See those weird circle things ( ҉ )? Torgue calls them "expleriods," because periods aren't badass enough to use to end a sentence, and also because exclamation marks look like upside-down lower case Is, and he doesn't do lower case. PC Gamer magazine sums it up in the simplest sentence: "If a syringe containing the distilled souls of Dragon Ball Z's Hercule Satan, Team Fortress 2's Saxton Hale, and Hulk Hogan was injected into someone’s arm, you'd get Mr. Torgue."
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Once, he tried to destroy a planet while he was on said planet.
  • The Wattle Gobbler DLC reveals that Torgue actually sold his corporation for 12 bucks and a high-five.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Inverted. He is more of a jerk in The Pre-Sequel, what with how he's obsessed to destroying laser weapons and at one point strong-arms the Elpis Vault Hunters into destroying one, and praising Claptrap sometime in the past (revealed in Claptrap's mind) after Claptrap accidentally blew up a stadium, which set before Borderlands 2.
• Undying Loyalty: He considers the Vault Hunters his only friends, and is always helping them out whenever he can, such as giving them instructions on what the Vault Hunters should do next after Piston quickly betrays them in the Campaign of Carnage DLC.
• Verbal Tic: His bleeped cussing. This is because a device was installed onto him by shareholders to bleep him.
• The Voice: Aside from the intro cutscene, you never actually see Torgue in his DLC as he's broadcasting to you from space. However, he does show in Assault on Dragon Keep after he calls up Tina to put him in her campaign as an NPC. He lampshades the fact that this is the first time that he and the players have actually met in person, though even then it's only in the context of the "Bunkers & Badasses" game. The Wattle Gobbler DLC is technically the first time you physically meet Torgue.
  Torgue: I JUST REALIZED THIS IS THE FIRST TIME WE'VE MET IN PERSON! YOU ARE VERY ATTRACTIVE!
• Walking Shirtless Scene: His picture when he's talking to you over the ECHO has him wearing a shirt, but in person he is this.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?:
  • Turns out Torgue isn't actually his last name.
    Lilith: Wait, your first name is "Mister Torgue?" What's your last name?
    Torgue: FLEXINGTON.
  • As it turns out, it seems that such names runs in his family, as he took his middle name (High-Five) from his grandfather.

President Anton Smith

The president of Torgue Corporation who serves as an antagonist of the DLC.

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• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Not nearly to the extent of Handsome Jack, but he does rig the competition of killing the Wattle Gobbler. However, he was trying to rig it in favor of Mister Torgue, wanting him to be the one to kill the beast as a promotional stunt.
• Only Sane Man: Similar to Blake, Smith simply comes off as a man doing his job while forced to put up with Torgue's insane antics and seems to lack the insanity of other characters.
• Straight Man: He's forced to play this role to Mister Torgue.
• You Have Failed Me: He spends the entire DLC trying to pull this on Torgue and the Vault Hunters. By the end, he just straight-up fires him.

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