We've all lost dearly.
While Gearbox's Battleborn may be colorful and vibrant, it does have it's sad moments.
Story
- The game's entire backstory in general is one. The Varelsi are a legion of extra-dimensional cosmic horrors who have been dragging countless stars to their space for thousands of years. As a result, countless civilizations had to evacuate their homeworlds fleeing from the onslaught else they be stuck on the cold former husks of their homes spinning aimlessly in the dark vacuum of space, and that's not even counting the few rare cases wherein the Varelsi drag planets along with their stars to the void. Because of this, innumerable lives, families, and entire cultures have been lost. To make matters worse, the whole tragedy accelerated exponentially once Rendain decided to aid the Varelsi's efforts. The situation has thus gotten to the point wherein there is only one star left in the entire and the various factions are too busy fighting one another over space and resources as the Varelsi and Rendain's forces continue to ravage what little remains left.
- The Story Trailer
includes scenes which despite being technically noncanon in a sense and just for the trailer's sake, illustrate the loss the Battleborn have suffered. These include a group of them mourning their "fallen" comrades and Mellka screaming with a "dead" Reyna in her arms.- One of the "casualties" is Oscar Mike. Just imagining how characters like Montana would react to him dying for real is gut wrenching.
Battleborn
- Benedict in general is a narcissistic asshat that his own allies don't like but put up with due to his invaluable rocket launcher skills. The majority of lore challenges humorously paint him as a complete uncaring jerk. All do so that is except for one. His The Bird's Last Word lore challenge is a letter to his nestmate Circinae who he got separated from when the Aviant system of Menneck-B was darkened by the Varelsi. It's a letter he left in the UPR-sponsored "Refugee Finder" channel on the Open Network and it reveals some Hidden Depths to his character. In it, Benedict expresses deep regret at having lost in the fight to defend his homeworld of Madan and his home system from the Varelsi. He also deeply misses Circinae as well as their brood Peck, Auggie, Wisp, Sarret, and Amandi. He hopes greatly that they could be reunited.
- Mellka's backstory of which parts are detailed in dialogue and her lore challenges is a definite tearjerker. The half-Aelfrin lost her parents at a very young age when the planet Farhallim was darkened alongside its star. The tragedy deeply angered her and it only increased over the years as more of her people's homes and culture was destroyed by the Varelsi. It's no wonder she's a "pissed-off Eldrid".
- Thorn's The Last audio lore challenge takes place after The Archive mission and is an eulogy she gives dedicated to the Ekkuni Wardens who gave their lives in defense of the Eldrid.
Missions
- A minor one from The Algorithm after killing Geoff. In most runs, ISIC reacts with either indifference or mocks the idea that he'd be sad over the crazed sentry's death. Occasionally however, you'll get an instance where you get this.
- ISIC: (Joylessly) Hey... My friend died... (Cheerful Again) It's cool Mr. Kleese! Now direct your friends down to the caves, where I will kill them!
- In The Void's Edge mission, while some of the Battleborn in the potential lines that can pop up are apathetic to the Wolf Sentry's suicide mission and his complete obliviousness to it in pure Black Comedy, some find themselves in a rather awkward situation. Others though are more sympathetic to Wolf and find the situation practically heartbreaking. They mourn Wolf's death at the end of the mission.
- It's worth noting that thanks to the variable dialogue between playthroughs, it's entirely possible that you may come across a run where even Kleese starts feeling sorrow at Wolf's imminent death by the end of the mission.
- Out of all the Battleborn's reactions it's probably Deande's that hits the hardest as she awkwardly tries to tell Wolf there'll be a party after the mission and that he's invited, but she starts breaking down crying immediately while trying to put on a brave front for the unwitting suicide bomber.
- At the end of The Archive mission, the codex is saved and civilians have been evacuated but the Eliim forest that once housed the titular archive can't be saved and burns in flames. The situation hits Mellka as well as the rest of the Eldrid as expressed in Thorn's The Last lore challenge.
- The suckiness continues for Mellka in The Sentinel mission. On one hand, she gets to meet the eponymous Sentinel which she considers a childhood hero of hers based on the Eldrid stories she heard about it. On the other hand, she and the Battleborn are tasked with destroying it in order to keep it out of Rendain's hands. Despite this, she's still very giddy about on meeting the Sentinel. In the midst of the Battleborn's trek through the Sentinel's ruins, they make online contact with it. Wanting to find another way, Mellka tries to reason with the superweapon. The ancient golem however doesn't believe her talks about star consuming Varelsi and what not, instead preferring to continue following its programming. Unable to reason with it, the Battleborn fight and successfully defeat the Sentinel, a situation that hits Mellka as they just destroyed another piece of ancient Eldrid history.
