WMG / Tales from the Borderlands

Rhys will be the main antagonist of Borderlands 3

As a result of being controlled or influenced by AI Jack

• Jossed. AI Jack's dead.

Rhys is a younger-looking clone of Handsome Jack

The new trailer for the game starts with handsome Jack himself recounting where TFTB takes place within the Borderlands timeline, and there are already hints that Jack in some way plays into the story of the game. But most damning is that Rhys has heterochromia, just like Jack did, with one green eye and one blue one, and starts the game as a Hyperion employee. It's not out of the realm of possibility that Jack planned for the worst to happen and made a clone as a backup of him to continue his work. If this is the case, it's one hell of a Xanatos Gambit on his part, and not out of character for him, considering he's already shown loads of foresight in previous games.

• Rhys's 'heterochromia' is a result of him having one normal eye and one cybernetic eye. His normal eye is also brown, so... unlikely. His physical similarities to Jack are likely a result of the Hero Worship he's stated to have towards Jack.
• Nope, however, since he has an AI clone of Jack in him, which may or may not perform a Grand Theft Me on him, he may become the new Handsome Jack
• Jossed. Jack is gone for good.

Tales will depict the transition from normal people to full-fledged Vault Hunters for the protagonists

• They will be Vault Hunters in Borderlands 3.
• If not, they could be DLC characters, or Vault-Hunters-in-Training at Digistruct Peak. Perhaps between TFTB and BL3, they were trained at Digistruct Peak by every existing Vault Hunter, and eventually became ready enough to destroy entire corporate armies.
• Well, it looks like this is happening for Fiona, as of Episode 3.
• Confirmed In the finale, they are all specifically referred to as Vault Hunters by Loader Bot.

If Rhys becomes a vault hunter in BL3, he'll specialize in crits and elemental damage.

• With that scanner in his eye he would have an easy time figuring out where to hit his opponent, and what to hit them with.

Rhys and Fiona will become an Official Couple and have Babies Ever After in a Distant Finale.

And their firstborn really will be named "Loader Bot".

• Alternatively, it will be Sasha instead of Fiona.
• Maybe this will show up as an Imagine Spot gag in the narrative?
• Jossed.

Rhys has an unknown, prior connection to Handsome Jack

Jack's first words to Rhys are to tell him he's disappointed in him, which is quite an odd thing to say to a complete stranger. Jack also refers to Rhys as a "little code monkey", which is exactly what Tassiter called him before his own rise to power. While the developers have said that Rhys is not Jack's son, they could either be straight out lying (similar to the statements made about the involvement of Talia al Ghul and Khan Noonien Singh in The Dark Knight Rises and Star Trek into Darkness), or Rhys has some other form of past tie to Jack.

• Maybe he was the coffee boy?

Rhys keeps throwing punches with his flesh arm because his cybernetic arm is actually pretty fragile.

It might be kind of like using your iPad to smack some guy in the face.

• This is backed up by the fact that Gaige outright said her own mechanical arm's fingers tend to break if she punches with it.
  • Gaige's robo arm is also strong enough to smash through concrete. On the other hand, Rhys can't even strangle someone.
  • And as it was built for a Hyperion code monkey, it's possible that it was built for more mundane uses, like hacking or fixing wires. The higher-quality appearance compared to Hammerlock and Gaige's rougher, gunmetal grey arms suggests this too, as Hammerlock and Gaige had their arms specifically made and designed to survive the the Wild West planet that was Pandora.
  • Somewhat jossed in Episode 3. Rhys' robot arm is much more stronger than his flesh arm.
  • Alternatively, he spares it because it costs much more to fix than does his actual human arm. Or he's actually left handed.
  • Turns out Rhys is just that clueless. Episode 4 shows that his robot arm is pretty good for punching.

Handsome Jack will eventually try to pull a Grand Theft Me on Rhys.

But in the meantime, he'll be somewhere between a Trickster Mentor and an Enemy Within.

• CONFIRMED! He is doing it throughout Episode 2. And in Episode 3, if you trust Jack, he will actually take over Rhys' body.
• If you chose to Trust Fiona at the end of Episode 2. Present Rhys has the option of stating every time he trusted Jack in the past, it was more difficult to regain control of himself.

Alternately, Jack will undergo a Split-Personality Merge with Rhys.

This explains some aspects of Rhys's appearance in the Framing Device, as well as accounting for how badly his and Fiona's relationship has soured since the end of episode 1.

• Perhaps he will undergo a Heel Face Turn and start bringing a real sense of Order, actively helping fix Pandora, rather than imposing Handsome Jack's distorted sense. However, not entirely out of altruism, as its easier to control a planet that loves you, rather than hates you.
• Alternatively, he decides to dump Hyperion and set his sights even higher, if such a thing is possible. If not, then he'll find a way to make it possible.
• Something in the Vault of the Watcher will fuse Jack and Rhys, but Rhys is ultimately the one more at the proverbial wheel. Perhaps Jack is now only just in Rhys's head, unable to be a hologram ever again, but just a voice in Rhys's head who will give advice and crack jokes.
• Well, as of the last episode, Jack's gone.

The Cyclops guy who has kidnapped the two in the Framing Device is Zero.

He's (almost) always talking in Haiku, and his voice is similar. He's captured the two protagonists because they found the Gortys, which is what he was looking for throughout the game, and he wants it. Who knows why he looks different. Maybe he's undercover, or just Rule of Cool.

• Or perhaps he's 0ne.
• Jossed.

The Cyclops is an Eridian, testing Rhys, Fiona and friends to see if they're worthy enough to be Vault Hunters

.It would be a good connection to the Pre-Sequel.

• Jossed.

Characters from Tales will be playable in Borderlands 3.

• That would be amazing, and in multiplayer, the BL 1, BL 2 and TPS Vault Hunters would be like mentors to them, giving them advice and tips. Alternatively, you could play them as rookies on Digistruct peak, farming bosses and grabbing loot.

Rhys & Fiona are playing a long con on the Stranger

• Either for an as-yet unknown purpose, or just to keep the Stranger distracted whilst they work out an escape plan.
• ... and the series ends with the implication that none of their story is true, it's just a "1001 Nights" style distraction.
  • Jossed, the Stranger is Loader Bot and he just wanted to know why Fiona killed Gortys. Everything seems to be true when the story catches up with the present, except for the obvious lies.

August will pull a Heel Face Turn later on.

• And ideally, he'll serve as the Berserker class, being muscular, angry and, if he is the Stranger, good with shotguns. He could potentially bond with the gang over time and actually become friends...if he stops being so grumpy, that is.
  • Confirmed, and he can be a party member in the final assault on the vault. He even fights similarly to Brick!

Around some point, Rhys and Fiona will have to pick a gun...

...from a massive bunch of weapons lying on the ground.

• Rhys would favor a Hyperion handgun, likely the very accurate and very damaging Leverage (with the Jakobs barrel) as a counter-point to Vasquez's powerful, but inaccurate Impact, so that he could keep his cyborg hand free for hacking, while Fiona would probably go with a bigger Jakobs gun.
• Semi-Jossed. Fiona picks up weapons other than her Derringer, but she never keeps them, and Rhys never uses any guns except his finger guns. And Gortys' finger guns.

The Traveler and how it connects to Gortys

The names of each episode has been released with the last episode being called 'The Vault of the Traveler'. Now, we've had the Destroyer (C'thulhu) at the end of the first game, the Warrior (Giant Gryphon) at the end of the second and... the unknown Traveler - perhaps it's an Eridian space ship sealed within a Vault?

However, I also looked up what Gortys means and I have two possible explanations - one is named for the village in Crete (now known as Gortyn) suggesting that Gortys is the area where the Vault will be found. Alternatively, the name is the genus Gortyna of moths, suggesting that this is the form that Gortys will take in the game.

• Gortys turns out to be an incredibly cute and cuddly robot. Not sure about what the Traveler could be, yet...
  • The Traveler connects to Gortys in that she was bound to it until the entire gang came back to rescue her 1 year later.

The Cyclops is the Traveler

Related to the above WMG.

• Jossed.

Scooter can/will flirt with Fiona

And it will result in a game over - just like that girl he wrote a poem for.

• Subverted. He does, but you don't get to shoot yourself in the temple because he tried to hit on you.

Vaughn will turn into a psycho.

Vaughn adapted very quickly to Pandora, and the newest trailer even shows him yelling that he "never felt so alive" about all the terrifying danger on the death-world. He will likely showcase how a perfectly rational guy like Vaughn can turn into a lunatic by remaining on Pandora for extended periods of time. After all, a lot of Bandits were just Dahl personnel. workers, scientists. Vaughn is in a prime position to go native.

• Well he's already got the physique for it...
• Vallory calls him a "little psycho" when he gets the jump on her in Episode 3. Foreshadowing seems plausible.
• Jossed. He's friends with one, but rather, he's still sane and the leader of a tribe of ex-Hyperion employees.

Something is slowly corrupting the Vault Hunters.

Given how Athena looks◊ in the trailer, something's wrong with her. And the Vault Key is often compared to The One Ring, so...could the Vault that everyone's searching for be poisoning most of them? Or did Jack do something to Pandora? Or is Jack's AI Ghost going around possessing people for no reason?

• Jossed, at least as far as Episode Three. The preview for that at the end of Episode Two shows her eyes are normal.
• Definitely Jossed in episode 2. If Loader Bot isn't there to save Fiona and Sasha, Athena will plead to them not to go into Scooter's Garage, because her girlfriend Janey is there. The fact that she shows concern for her girlfriend shows that Athena is in full control of herself. And when she enters the garage, Athena has her regular eyes and regular voice. So it's very likely Fiona was embellishing.

The Stranger is Vaughn or Sasha.

At some point in the game, Rhys and Fiona will screw over their best friend and their sister. If this is intentional, or not, is up to the players. Either way, both of them will be left for dead, and it'll be assumed that Noone Could Survive That. In actuality, one of them (depending on player choices) DID survive that, and they are kind of pissed at their two friends for setting them up to die. Thus, they dress up in a mask, capture the both of them, and interrogate them on what happened and why they were such dicks. Also, it'll help them decide who to shoot.

• Episode 3 certainly raises a possibility for Vaughn. Fiona can insist the Stranger wears a mask because they would know who he is and his response is noncommittal. Also if Rhys chooses to trust Jack over Fiona in episode 2, Vaughn can admit to being jealous of Rhys. Combine that with his previous betrayal and the fact that of the end of episode 3 Vaughn has gone missing and the Stranger is searching for Gortys than it is certainly possible that he has gotten tired of being in Rhys' shadow.
  • Very unlikely for Vaughn, as he was present during a moment in Episode 1 where the Stranger demands "what really happened" and gets told by both Rhys and Fiona that said events happened exactly as told, stunning him for a beat. Considering he was being held at gunpoint, it's likely not something Vaughn would have forgotten.
  • And these height charts show that Vaughn is too short to be the Stranger.
  • From those height charts, he'd have to be either Mordecai or August, as they're the only ones remotely close.
• Jossed. The Stranger is Loader Bot.

Yvette will eventually betray Rhys.

In a similar fashion to how Felix betrayed Fiona. Complete with a choice to ensure her death, or forgive her and ensure her survival.

• Confirmed in Episode 4. She was working with Vasquez to try and retrieve the Handsome Jack AI for a reward.
• Complete with the option to leave her in a cell while Helios crashes to the planet, likely killing her. If they don't have enough escape pods for everyone (because it would be too expensive), would they allow prisoners to escape?

Vallory is somehow related to Fiona and Sasha.

During the stinger of episode 2, someone finds the mirror that fell out of the caravan and the photo of Felix and the girls attached to it. The person, presumably Vallory, rips Felix out of the photo and gazes at Fiona and Sasha. Maybe she is their mother, or aunt, or some other relative. In any case, it will tell more about Felix's decisions.

The Stranger is Marcus

He has to find out the story somehow, right?

• Jossed. The Stranger is Loader Bot.

The Stranger is General Pollux

The cyclops light is how he sees after Fiona destroyed his eyes.

• Jossed. The Stranger is Loader Bot.

Athena's sudden bounty hunting of Fiona is nothing to do with the reward

But the fact that Fiona is going after the Gortys Project, which Athena had tried to deactivate. Athena hates Atlas, so anyone trying to reactivate and revive their tech cannot be good news.

• Going by Claptastic Voyage, it sounds like Athena is bounty hunting again because she and Janey need the money.
• Confirmed! She's following Fiona because Felix arranged for her to prepare Fiona for bigger threats, like Vallory.

Vallory was Felix ex-wife and the woman of the photograph in the safehouse, and the woman in the thumbnail of Episode 3

Maybe that's why he was afraid of her and knew why she is so dangerous.

• Vallory is indeed the woman in the thumbnail of Episode 3, as confirmed by the cross-save unlockable head for Athena.

Vallory is absolutely Fiona and Sasha's mother.

Felix's gift to Sasha Is a Healing Shield that's disguised as a watch.

• Partially confirmed- it's more of a healing device...that may have needed a teensy bit more work.

Loader Bot was able to stop Athena, by a combination of Love and Revenge.

He was getting back at the mean lady who hurt mommy Felicity!

Because he's interfaced with Rhys's hardware, Handsome Jack

will have a Heel–Face Turn.

Well, as much as a AI duplicate of a raging psychopath can become a Face...

• Jossed. At the very end, he's still a lying, cowardly, psychopathic dictator and wanted to kill Rhys all along.

The woman in the Ep. 3 portrait is Vallory

The reason she's so mad at Felix? Judging by the scars, he gave her a Skag Pearl necklace.

• Okay, OP here to say this could be confirmed - one of the SHIFT rewards for The Pre-Sequel is giving a head for Athena with the same scar on it and it has Vallory's name on it.
• And indeed, confirmed.

The game will have a Raid Boss

In the form of a series of extremely hard Q.T.E.s that the player must get right in one go or start over.

The Stranger is....

Here are height charts for reference.

• Handsome Jack. Either a direct clone body or domeone who underwent doppleganger surgery and had Jack's mind uploaded into the body. It would explain why he's covering his face and distorting his voice, plus his preference for a Hyperion Conference Call.
• Timothy Lawrence. Like the other Vault Hunters, he's after the Gortys Project. For obvious reasons, he also has to hide his face and voice. His "Company Man" skill also gives him boosts for each piece of Hyperion equipment he has, such as the Conference Call.
• General Pollux. He wants his eye back, and he's connected to the Project.
  • Pollux is not credited to a voice actor in the end credits of Episode Two, and sounds vaguely similar to Anton Sokolov in Dishonored, who, like the Stranger, is voiced by Roger L Jackson.
• Lilith. She's looking for Vaults, she's impatient and she's been known to disguise her gender.
  • In episode 4, the Stranger makes a comment about having lost someone important to him/her. Might that be Roland?
• Marcus. He needs another story.
• Axton. The Stranger's build fits him.
• 0ne, as his identity is not known, he uses gender-neutral language and he has one eye, whereas Zer0 has a smooth, featureless helmet that could represent the number he's named after.
• It could be Athena, having found Fiona and Rhys again some time later. It would also explain why the Stranger claims that Loader Bot couldn't do what Fiona claims it did.
  • This seems very likely since Athena still has a contract to complete with Fiona.
• Rather unlikely, but could it be Nisha? People did note that the voice could be young or feminine on the forums. And Nisha's a massive Blood Knight who enjoys killing bandits in the hundreds daily, which could be why the Stranger decided to try and kill the Bandit mechanic and ask Rhys about how much blood was spilled when he fell onto a bunch of Atlas computers. Plus, Nisha is quite impatient and enjoys torturing people, which could be why the Stranger kicked Rhys and tied both of them up. Finally, she's Handsome Jack's girlfriend, so she could have possibly gotten Lynchwood and the Conference Call as part of her anniversary gift.
• Or the mother of all twists: it's Roland, who upon respawning had decided to lie low to learn some things the others didn't
• Gortys - The Stranger knew the non-specific location of the drive and had to search for it just like Gortys. The Stranger's headlamp is the same color as Gortys' eyes when she saw the drive in August's hands and got angry. Perhaps she got screwed over by Rhys and Fiona from her perspective, got a human looking chassis and is trying to find out the whole story. Side guess: Her missing pieces imply the Vault hasn't been opened yet and Episode 5 will take place in the present, finally getting to the Vault.
• August - The Stranger sounds similar to him, the legendary weapon could have been a present from his mother or part of his arsenal, and he has been part of the story for quite a while...but probably doesn't know all the details of the story yet. And his build, movement and posture are quite similar.
  • Interestingly, the Conference Call, with the exact same parts (instead of all Hyperion parts like Jack's Vision handgun) shows up Jack's display case. Perhaps August could have looted it somehow?
• Vallory - Has a similar no-bullshit personality and steady manner of speaking, when you get past the distorted voice. The Stranger's attire also looks like something Vallory would wear. Plus, in Episode 4, the Stranger tells Fiona that they understand what it's like to lose someone you care about. If Vallory has a history with Felix, if the Stranger is her, she could be referring to a betrayal or break by him, or any other number of things; alternatively, Fiona's referral to Scooter as the mission's "first" casualty implies that another member of the squad will die in Episode 5, making August a possible candidate (granted that his and Vallory aren't exactly on affectionate terms). It’d make sense that she’s still hellbent on tying up loose ends and seeing the hunt for the Vault of the Traveler through in the present after the Hyperion mission goes south.
• Cassius - As one of the last living members of Atlas (Excluding General Pollux, see above), he's probably got a good reason to look for Gortys. His outfit looks at least mildly similar to the Stranger's, and considering that Rhys and Fiona mention his outfit looking familiar, there's a possibility it might be him.
• The Hyperion Bigwig, a nameless, voiceless NPC who's been showing up as a background character in Helios in episodes 1 and 4. Just who is he talking with? Considering it's possible to see him near Jack's room, looking at a map Fiona uncovered◊, he may be having a Conference Call.
• Scooter. As if they'd really kill a major recurring character in a spin-off game.
• It could also be Loader Bot itself. It would explain the mask, the bulky clothing, and the single red eye in said mask. We've seen it get reduced in size in Episode 3, so why not have further modifications?
  • Episode 3 also reveals that the Stranger is interested in pieces of Gortys, and Gortys and Loader Bot have been shown to be on very friendly terms, so that gives motivation.
  • And Episode 4 highlights that voice-modification is entirely possible, so why not apply it to an AI?
• In episode 5, The Stranger is confirmed to be Loader-Bot, who used the old cybernetic endoskeleton Jack had had made as part of his new body.

Rhys is the new Jack

There's no split personality merge, but there will be a new Handsome Jack, and Rhys is it. The tales series, like the pre-sequel, is a descent of a somewhat decent man into a monster. To add to this, the very last scene of episode 5 will be Rhys asking Vasquez whether he knows the difference between choking and strangling.

• Similarly, his comrades and rival are successors to other pre-sequel characters. Vasquez to Tassiter, Vaughn to Wilhelm, Yvette to Nisha.
  • Vasquez is killed in episode 3 if Fiona tells Vallory he is to blame for the clusterfuck they're in.
    • Actually, Vasquez is killed because he can't keep his mouth shut. Whatever you choose, he'll wind up dead.
  • Jossed. Rhys becomes CEO of Atlas, but he's honest rather than corrupt.

Rhys is fully possessed by Jack

at the time of the framing deviceTake a look at his artificial eye, and what color it becomes at the end of episode 2 should you choose to trust Jack.

• Jossed. It's revealed he rebuilt his previously cut-out eye with Atlas tech.

This is the prequel to the pre-sequel.

Or rather "How Brick and Mordecai caught Athena."

• Brick is shown in the preview for chapter 3.
• Confirmed, the final chapter of Episode 3 establishes that the story up until that point had been prior to Athena being tied up and having to tell her story to Lilith.

The Godmother of Crime is named because...

..she's in control of all the bandit or criminal gangs in Pandora, and their leaders all answered to her (With the exception of the Slabs and Brick, probably.) She also runs the whorehouses, the mini-casinos, the arms dealing, the moneylending...basically, she's Pandora's genderbent version of Al Capone.

• A crime boss would unlikely rule all of Pandora's bandits, partly due to the fact that organized crime is quite a bit different than the shit bandits get up to.
• Jossed. She just seems to have a very large gang.

The ball is the little robot seen in the trailer at the end of Episode 1.

And will become a member of the crew that is Rhys, Fiona, Vaughn, Sasha and Loader Bot.

• Confirmed. And it's a very endearing one, too.

Vallory is August's mum.

Two reasons. One, there's some cut dialogue of Sasha saying that Vallory dislikes her because of her relationship to Vallory's son. Sasha only has history with two men we meet, and the son sure as hell isn't going to be Felix. Two, during their phone call, Vasquez says "say hi to your mom". Strange thing to say, right? Considering Vallory is a major crime boss and August is planning to double-cross her, maybe it was a threat that Vasquez could reveal the plan at any time if he wished (and therefore holds the upper hand). August doesn't refer to Vallory as his mother, but would you go around advertising the fact if your mum was a scary crime boss (especially one you intend to betray). It would also mirror Fiona/Sasha's 'betrayal by family' story nicely.

• Confirmed in episode 3. Vallory really is August's mother.

Vaughn will become one of Borderland 3's Big Bad, and Rhys will become a Vault Hunter with Jack

Vaughn has already tried to sell out Rhys to save his own skin once, despite his claims otherwise. Even going so far as to suggest using the Handsome Jack AI to Hyperion in exchange for their jobs back. He's also mentioned doing regrettable things in the past for the sake of helping Rhys get a promotion. Given Rhys' and Jack's obvious desires and aspirations to climb (or return) to the top of Hyperion's food chain, it would not only be a twist, but also give Rhys a personal incentive to fight and the Handsome Jack AI a chance to atone, at least in some warped way. Although Jack probably sees it less as 'atonement' and more 'being the hero' like he originally claimed to be.

• Vaughn's fate is uncertain at the moment, as we don't know what happened to him, or why he isn't with Rhys anymore. For all we know, Sasha and Vaughn and any other future allies could just be in Sanctuary.
• As of Episode 5, Jack is dead and Vaughn is the leader of a new bandit clan, so this theory is unlikely.

If Rhys and Fiona do become Vault Hunters...

As a last, lighthearted end to the series, there will be a montage of Rhys training with Zer0 and Fiona with Athena respectively, on Digistruct Peak, with Axton acting as a parody of Drill Sergeant Nasty.

• The series will end with the alien from the Pre-Sequel convincing them to ally with Lilith.
• Both Jossed. The game ends with the two of them entering the Vault of The Traveller and collecting the loot within.

Ideal action skills for Tales characters if they're playable in Borderlands 3:

• Rhys: He gets a new combat AI based off Angel, who could warn Rhys of incoming bandits or Badasses. Also, for raid bosses or general boss fights, Rhys can summon an upgraded Dumpy to deal out massive damage.
• Fiona: She can use Awesomeness by Analysis to outline critical spots like Zer0, and her shots home in on them, similar to Nisha's Showdown. As well as that, any non-elemental, Torgue or Jakobs guns have a chance to deal elemental damage that changes based on the kind of targets.
• Loader Bot: With all of the modifications and changes done to his chassis, and the growth and evolution he's had as a person, why not? We need another bright yellow Hyperion robot to take up the Vaulthunter.exe mantle. His various trees could be focused on the different loaderbots you run into in Borderlands 2. His action skill would be, by default, digistructing his BUL Loader shield and Autocannon, and the trees would change it depending on that. Tank Tree could improve this, etc, DPS turns him into a Badass WAR Loader, maybe a support tree with tank leanings that turns him into an improved ION Loader that can walk (or even run) with his shield deployed. Wouldn't You want to play as Loader Bot?

At one point before becoming his present self - or perhaps as the final step - Rhys will use his tie to strangle someone for mentioning his friends in offhanded or threatening tone.

• Rhys is not so different to Jack in Borderlands Pre-Sequel. We also hear ECHO recordings of Jack strangling a member of his boardroom with his watch chain for bringing up his wife (timing of the recording is unclear). In Pre-Sequel, we do see Jack visibly strangling Tassiter. Depending on decisions made in game, Rhys will rise to power the same way.
  • Debatable, Jack in the Pre-Sequel had already (possibly) murdered his wife, locked his daughter away to use as his own personal computer and built an enormous laser specifically to kill anybody he considers a bandit (read: anyone he doesn't like). Rhys has done nothing of the sort that we've heard about, not to mention that even at his most assholish he's not nearly as bad as Jack was at the start of the Pre-Sequel.
• Jossed. Rhys doesn't do anything like that throughout the series.

The Vault of the Traveller

• Will be a major plot point for Borderlands 3 and will be used to finally travel off Pandora... into even worse planets to fight a war. At least you'll have at least 10-13 (if Claptrap gets his abilities back or Timothy returns or Rhys and Fiona end up being non-playable) other Vault Hunters behind you.

Sasha is Roland's daughter

• She has a hatred for Hyperion beyond normal hate, which could come from the fact that the head of Hyperion killed her father (which orphaned her). I don't think her and Fiona are really blood-related (they look absolutely nothing alike), more of a family forged through fire by them being orphans on the street before Felix picked them up.
  • When exactly would Roland have found time to father Sasha in the five years or so he's actually been on Pandora?
    • It requires a lot more complex theorization, but she could have been born before Roland's arrival on Pandora in the first game.
    • Given she's in her 20s, she was most definitely born before Roland arrived on Pandora. And photographic evidence in the game indicates that she grew up on Pandora with Fiona. And also Roland was only in his 30s according to the few pieces of information regarding his age we have, so it carries some pretty squicky implications if he somehow is her father.

The episodes aren't behind schedule due to negligence.

Rather, it's that the Handsome Jack AI has become sentient, and keeps making the game about himself, forcing Telltale to remove the ego-inflating complete hijacking of the story.

Eventually, August and Rhys will engage in a Yo Mama battle.

And it will be based off this.

• Jossed.

Hyperion - or at least Helios - will collapse in episode 5.

Regardless of trusting or rejecting Jack, Hyperion will self-destruct and collapse. Rhys swipes the deed to Atlas and becomes president of Atlas with new colours, those being silver, orange and black. Which is why his robotic hand is silver and his eye is orange-yellow in the framing device. Its an Altas colour scheme, not Hyperion. He's traded his old Hyperion tech for newer Atlas tech. It doesn't suit the CEO to being wearing/using cybernetics developed by the competition, and given Hyperion's reputation and his treatment by most other employees, it stands to reason he'd want to cut all ties with them.

• CONFIRMED!

Rhys and Fiona are going to crash Helios into Elpis to stop Jack in episode 5.

In BL 2, Helios is visible in literally every above-ground location in the story. Even when it doesn't make much sense, like the Vault of the Warrior. In TFTBL, this tradition is continued for the retelling of Rhys and Fiona's stories.

Except in the framing device/futureverse. In fact, Helios and Elpis are almost conspicuously absent in the sky shots in episodes 3 and 4. And in episode 4, there is a meteor shower, which is not a normal marker of life in the Eridium Blight, as awful as life is there.

The meteors are remnants of Helios and Elpis, because Rhys and Fiona destroyed the space station in a last ditch attempt to stop Jack. Rhys is president of Hyperion, but is operating it out of Opportunity, not Helios.

... Look, the lack of Helios sky shots is really damn suspicious, okay.

• Helios and Elpis were present in the sky during the 'present' segments of Zer0 Sum... until a patch on August 21st removed it, which would lend some credence to his theory.
  • You are referring to my post that found the discrepancy, which I found on the 21st, but the shot has been changed for much longer than that. Only fairly early gameplay footage of "Zer0 Sum" has the old shot.
• Hyperion is indeed destroyed by Rhys.

Scooter will show up alive and well in Borderlands 3.

It will be hand waved with some Black Comedy and never brought up again.

After episode 5, Helios will be gone, Hyperion in shambles, and Rhys will be the President of Atlas not Hyperion.

Same Troper as the Helios Is Gone WMG, just follow along this is going to be a bit weird.

So the removal of the Helios/Elpis shot from the framing device in "Zer0 Sum" implies that seeing Helios/Elpis in that part of the timeline is an error of some kind. With Jack in control of Helios at the end of "Escape Plan Bravo", our protagonists might have to find a way to stop him. If he's literally Helios, though, its hard to stop him unless you destroy Helios. One of the only ways I can think of to do this is to crash Helios into Elpis.

This also explains the meteor shower phenomenon in the Eridium Blight, which is a new fresh hell even for that place. If the pieces are remnants of Elpis and Helios, that explains why they're happening now and not in Borderlands 2.

So Hyperion would be profoundly wrecked in the wake of Helios' destruction. Not really worth running. But outside the Gortys Beacon, the only trophy cabinet object in Jack's office the player has to be aware of is the Atlas stock certificate. Even if you don't scan anything in the cabinet, Jack talks about the certificate, and its conspicuously the only other item given such lip service to ensure the player knows about it.

Rhys has wanted to run a company since he was a kid and its one of his primary character motivations. It's very possible that before Helios is destroyed, he gets his hands on the Atlas stock certificate and brings it with him.

Thus, in the futureverse/framing device, Rhys is not the president of Hyperion, but of newly-revived Atlas, which is an amalgamation of Hyperion's smoldering ashes and his revival of Atlas.

Oddly, the support for this comes from the Pre-Sequel. One of the bonus unlockables you get for having a TFTBL save when you play TPS is a Hyperion shotgun called The Company Man. Despite being Hyperion, it is extremely conspicuously Atlas-branded, with the grey and red color scheme as well as "ATLAS" printed boldly on the side. How very odd for a gun associated with the "Hyperion jackass," huh?

• Jossed, jossed, you couldn't possibly have been more wrong.
  • Wild Mass Guesser here and I would just like to say I REQUEST THE HIGHEST OF FIVE.
  • -HIGHFIVES- WAY TO CALL IT!

Loader Bot will get an upgrade to Badass or even Super Badass

• He's already quite the tank, as well as being super fast. Putting a Badass label to him would make him be one hell of a bandit killer!
  • Jossed. He doesn't get upgraded or even repaired. However, he does eventually wire up his eye to Jack's near indestructible endoskeleton, and is one of the Vault Hunters in the final fight, so he became a different kind of badass.

The future Team Awesome will consist of:

• Rhys being the CEO of Atlas, Fiona's most trusted partner and possibly a Guns Akimbo combatant.
• Fiona as the team leader and a fully-fledged Vault Hunter.
• Sasha as the emotional center of the group, the member who can deal out the highest DPS and, if you let it, Rhys's girlfriend.
• August as the group's berserker and possibly the new king of Hollow Point. The latter status could let him have a lot of influence or connections, which would be very handy for getting the gang out of tight situations.
• Vaughn as the tech wizard again, as well as being the leader of the Children Of Helios.
• Loader Bot returns to help everyone out in his new form.
• And Gortys, hopefully.
  • Ideally with a miniaturised version of her giant robot form, perhaps built by Gaige?

Rhys and Fiona were sent to an even worse death world by the Vault treasure

• And when they return/are rescued, Rhys will have become as badass as a Vault Hunter by necessity, while still retaining his awkward, adorkable traits.
  • Basically, they were sent to Promethea.

AI Jack was going to do a Heel-Face turn in Episode 5

If you trusted him in Episode 2 and 3 and helped him take over Helios in Episode 4...but, he then found out about Angel's betrayal and death, and just like that event pushed the real Handsome Jack off the deep end, it now has pushed AI Jack into deeper insanity, where he genuinely believes making Rhys into the first Robo Jack is a good thing. Cause no one can betray you if they are in your control, or are you.

New-Atlas guns in Borderlands 3 will look like Atlas firearms but function like Hyperion firearms

Because of Rhys being the new owner of Atlas it would stand to reason they would implement Hyperion tech into their Atlas designs.

• Jossed. Promotional material for Borderlands 3 show Hyperion and Atlas Weapons to have entirely different designs and function (Hyperion feature the same reverse recoil gimmick on top of gun mounted holo-shields, Atlas has projectiles that home in on a marked target)

If they do Tales From The Borderlands 2, Rhys and Fiona will have found themselves teleporting through other Telltale games

They'd probably end up in the more dramatic scenes of each game Telltale has done to give some serious Mood Whiplash. For example, popping in during Walking Dead Season 1 when Lee has to kill Duck.

Rhys will have a child by the time Borderlands 3 rolls in.

The kid's initials will be L.B., in honor to Loader Bot, and in a way that won't saddle the kid with a ridiculous name.

After the ending of Episode 5...

...Sasha and Vaughn decided to go find their missing sister and friend respectively, with August joining them out of concern for Sasha's well-being, eventually returning to his old, classier self and becoming way less grumpy. Eventually, they find Fiona and Rhys, and the group become actual Vault Hunters and Fire-Forged Friends along the way. The future sequel's (if there ever is one) present day will be set during the war that the Watcher alien warned Lilith about or after the events of Borderlands 3. Anyway, the second season's present day will open with the gang sitting around a campfire, accompanied by LB and Gortys, and retelling their story.

August has a history with both sisters, and not just in the romantic sense.

He seems to have good knowledge of Hollow Point and owns a bar there, while Vallory has known about Fiona and Sasha for a long time. It's possible that he knew the two as children and was once friends with them, until his mother made him take a more active role in crime.

Atlas will be a friendly force during Borderlands 3

Rhys is already proving that Atlas can be better than the other megacorporations. If war does come to Pandora and across the Six Galaxies then Atlas will probably want to make sure that they can find their missing CEO.

• Basically confirmed, as you help Rhys stave off a Maliwan invasion on Promethea.

Felix's watch will return in a later game as an item

Because why not?

• Jossed for Borderlands 3, at least.

Someone on Pandora will make a cheesy cartoon based on Fiona's (fictitious) racing career

Before his death, Scooter arranged for Pandora's budding TV industry to receive the rights to a tie-in animated television series in the vein of Jem and the Holograms or the old Hanna-Barbera toons. It features Fiona and Sasha as hotshot underdog racers, a thinly-veiled Expy of Rhys as their sleazy manager, and Scooter as their cheerful mentor figure and mechanic. Despite gross creative liberties taken with the characterization, the show goes on to be immensely popular with Pandoran audiences and its on-world production becomes a minor point of civic pride for locals.

The Nothing After Death that Jack mentions in Episode 5 is actually his version of Hell.

For a man who wants to control everything, what worse punishment is there than to be stuck in a world with nothing? For a man that demands attention, what worse fate is there than to be alone forever? For a man like Handsome Jack, I can think of no more appropriate punishment than an eternity of nothingness.