History Characters / Borderlands1

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/commandant_steele_9259.png\\
As of ''Borderlands 1''. [[labelnote:Click to see her in the ''Claptrap'' DLC]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_steele_trap.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/LaniMinella

The leader of the Crimson Lance in the vanilla game, dedicated to finding and plundering the Vault first. Possibly the Siren Lilith came to Pandora to find, but that is never confirmed.

* AllThereInTheManual:
** Her first name is only stated in the game files.
** The ''Borderlands: Origins'' comics confirm that Steele is, in fact, a Siren, which explains how she was able to activate the Destroyer Vault's key. Apparently Handsome Jack didn't include her in his list of them because she was already dead at the time.
* BadBoss: Aside from treating her underlings like shit, in the backstory she knowingly sent Roland's squad on a suicide mission, then left them for dead when they were overrun. Of course, this ends up coming back to bite her in the end.
* TheBaroness: Not only does she have the personality type, but she also speaks with a Russian accent.
* BigBad: The closest thing that the game has to a main villain.
* BigNo: As the Destroyer eats her.
* BlatantLies: After tricking the Vault Hunter into going on a wild goose chase for Baron Flynt's nonexistent piece of the Vault Key, she claims that Tannis came to her and has been working with the Lance the entire time. Once the Vault Hunter finds Tannis she's in a cell with ''torture equipment'' just outside, proving that Steele was flat out lying.
* ButtMonkey:
** Not only does she get unceremoniously impaled mid-sentence, she then gets revived -- twice -- and her new Claptrap programming ensures her following deaths are as undignified as possible.
---> '''Steele-Trap:''' Unce, unce, unce... I was better off with a damn tentacle through my chest.
** Shows up in Tales from the Borderlands stuffed and as a museum piece. Shade's recounting of how she died doesn't help either.
* CameBackWrong: She is brought back as Steele-Trap during the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC.
* DarkActionGirl: This isn't evident in the main game, but it definitely shows in ''Robot Revolution''.
--> Have you met our friend the sun?!
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: The first possible interaction that the player can have with her, which doesn't always play, has her condemn you for agreeing to "assassinate" a "local leader". The "local leader" she's talking about? ''[[TheBrute Sledge.]]''
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: How the Destroyer kills her.
* InformedAbility: She demonstrates no special powers when you fight her as Steele-Trap, despite being a Siren, one of the most dangerous beings in the universe.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Her ''first'' guaranteed interaction with the Vault Hunter is a direct ECHO-broadcast where she tears into them for killing Sledge because they're a mercenary and she doesn't approve of anyone not affiliated with the Lance doing anything to police Pandora.
* KingMook: In the Claptrap DLC, she is more or less a [[EliteMooks Badass]] Lance Assassin with much better damage resistance.
* MotorMouth: According to Knoxx.
--> '''Knoxx:''' I sent Steele to this planet to take care of this little problem and also because... seriously, have you ''heard'' her? She talks all the time.
* PowerTattoo: She has Siren tattoos, although the powers she possesses remain a mystery. Even when fought as Steele-Trap she doesn't demonstrate any special Siren powers, mostly since because she died they jumped to a new host.
%%* SheFu: As Steele-Trap.
* TokenEvilTeammate: ''The Secret Armory of General Knoxx'' and ''Borderlands 2'' indicate that most of the Crimson Lance rank-and-file were actually decent people who just happened to be on the wrong side, with most of their KickTheDog moments being ordered by their Atlas superiors. Steele seems to have been one of the few genuine assholes in the organization, and even her villainy barely registers in comparison to the likes of Handsome Jack or the Calypso Twins.
* TouchedByVorlons: She is a Siren, but she never demonstrates any powers in the game (other than being able to operate the Vault Key).
* UnexplainedRecovery: She still has a hole in her torso from The Destroyer's tongue when she reappears in the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC as Steele-Trap, but as she was last seen being EatenAlive by The Destroyer it's not made clear how her body has become intact again or how Claptrap retrieved her.
* TheUnfought: layed straight in the main game. Inverted in the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, in which she comes back under the control of the Claptraps and fights the player characters twice.
* UnwillingRoboticisation: Rebuilt as ''Steele Trap'' in the Robot Revolution DLC.

[[folder:Master [=McCloud=]]]
[[quoteright:317:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_master_mccloud.jpg]]
A Crimson Lance high-ranking officer stationed at the end of the Crimson Fastness level. Carries an Eridian Cannon.

* BossInMookClothing: Unlike other Crimson Lance soldiers, he's armed with an Eridian Cannon.
* DeadGuyOnDisplay: In the "Dead Haven" level of ''The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned'', his body is impaled and on full display in what would be the entrance from the Rust Commons East area.
* TheDragon: The last major boss the Vault Hunters face before [[spoiler:Steele and the Destroyer]].
* FlunkyBoss: He's flanked by two Elite Lancers.
* MilesGloriosus: According to the Borderlands Strategy Guide, given half a chance, he will regale anyone with tales of his many exploits.

[[folder:Admiral Mikey]]
A five-year-old that was Admiral of the Crimson Lance 3rd Starborne Brigade, which unfortunately makes him Knoxx's superior officer. He's one of the reasons why Knoxx hates what Atlas is.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: He was a five-year-old boy and barely understood anything, let alone the situation on the ground. He tries sending General Knoxx some chocolate but seeing how it melted on the trip there it didn't warm him to the grumpy old man.
* TheGhost: He's frequently brought up but seeing how he's both a child and a high-ranking officer there was no way he'd show up in-game.
* ImprobableAge: He's '''five''' and an Admiral.
* PointyHairedBoss: He's a child, what do you expect?
* {{Nepotism}}: He was a five-year-old admiral and that was the only way he could ''ever'' be promoted, let alone serve.
* StaircaseTumble: According to General Knoxx's Website/{{Twitter}} account, [[https://twitter.com/GeneralKnoXX/status/18623320067 Mikey met his unfortunate end by falling down "30,000 stairs"]]. Seeing how he had no heirs, this led to more troubles for Atlas.

[[folder:General Knoxx]]
!General Alphonso Knoxx
!!''Doesn't like Mondays''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Borderlands_2010-02-25_23-13-43-53_168.png\\
As of ''Borderlands 1'' (''General Knoxx'' DLC). [[labelnote:Click to see him in the ''Claptrap'' DLC]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_knoxx_trap.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/StanRobak

The beleaguered general of the Crimson Lance after Steele botches the job, he is deeply annoyed by everything to do with Pandora and his superior, the five-year-old Admiral Mikey.
----
* AceCustom: He's got a red Devastator mech suit that's much larger than even the Badass Devastator suits, can takes tons of damage, and is equipped with a pair of Eridian energy cannons that fire homing explosive energy blasts.
* AffablyEvil:
** He's routinely polite to the Vault Hunters and bears them no hard feelings, despite making it clear he intends to kill them. He also genuinely thanks them for killing Steele, considering he didn't like her very much, [[AssholeVictim and for good reason.]] Even his dying request that they should destroy Pandora because it's a CrapsackWorld that doesn't deserve to exist is pretty polite.
** He's even affable when being forced to fight as Knoxx-trap, encouraging the Vault Hunters on their efforts at killing him and congratulating them on critical hits.
** Retrospectively reinforced in The Pre-Sequel when playing through the "Boarding Party" side mission as Claptrap.
--> '''Claptrap:''' Good ol' General Knoxx! He was the nicest, politest, most suicidal killing machine you ever could meet! That's why I revived him during my robolution and-- ERROR. FILES LOCKED.
* AntiVillain: Knoxx just wants to get off Pandora, but he has to kill the Vault Hunters to finish the mission.
* ButtMonkey: Sees himself as this, given his OnlySaneMan attitude.
* CameBackWrong: In the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, much to his chagrin.
--> '''Knoxx:''' I'm back! Wait... I'm ''back''? ''Dammit''.
* TheCameo: In ''The Pre-Sequel'', Knoxx is the one who narrates Athena's personal ECHO logs.
* TheChewToy: His men disrespect him, his commanding officer is literally a child, and he's stuck on a CrapsackWorld. Oh, and he gets resurrected, ''twice'', when all he wants is to stay dead.
* DangerousDeserter: He would have been, if he'd gone through with his plans to kill the Vault Hunters and then leave the Crimson Lance for being full of idiots and incompetents.
* DeadpanSnarker: In his ECHO recordings.
* DeathSeeker: When you reach him, he's about to commit suicide, but decides to try killing the Vault Hunters instead. In the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, he is brought back to life twice and is not happy about it.
* DrivenToSuicide: Knowing that he can't finish his mission without witnessing another moment of incompetence and corruption from the Crimson Lance, he tries to kill himself, only to be interrupted by the Vault Hunters when they finally show up. He never even wanted to be on Pandora, either.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The first ECHO you receive from him begins with a ''very'' long-suffering sigh. And that sums up his attitude to Pandora, the Crimson Lance, his mission, the Vault Hunters, his underlings, his superiors, his life, and every other damn thing that goes on to happen from there.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The reason he was furious at his superiors for what they did to Athena was partially that he thinks it was just an incredibly dirty move on their part.
* EyepatchOfPower: Wears one.
* FlunkyBoss: Knoxx himself is pretty tough, what with his AceCustom mech suit, but what really makes him "final boss" difficult is the fact that he's accompanied by lots of Crimson Lance units, including Devastators ''and'' a Badass Devastator, as well as multiple Crimson Lance medics that can heal Knoxx to full health if you don't kill them quickly enough. This is most apparent in ''Claptrap's New Robot Revolution'', in which you fight Knoxx again, only this time he's by himself and is a noticeably easier fight.
* KingMook: Knoxx is basically an AceCustom Devastator (he's larger and has a ''lot'' more health), although he does have a few unique attacks and is also a FlunkyBoss.
* LargeAndInCharge: Courtesy of his enormous mech suit.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: It's implied. He's so fed up with the Crimson Lance's incompetence and corruption that he regrets working for them to the point where he wants to kill himself so that he doesn't have to bear witness to the utter insanity going on within the Atlas high command.
* OnlySaneMan: Sees himself as this among the Crimson Lance leaders. He's not wrong, given that the rank-and-file seem more concerned with ice-cream than their mission and they left a code [[TooDumbToLive that their lives depend upon]] at a blatant tourist trap where anyone could pick it up, the elites are AxCrazy (they were brainwashed as children then [[SelfMadeOrphan forced to murder their parents]]), and his boss is a ''five year old'' because of goddamn {{nepotism}}. All while he's trapped on a desert planet loaded with crazies and vicious alien wildlife, and someone is massacring his men with little effort. He's so fed up with the situation that when the Vault Hunters find him, he's [[DrivenToSuicide trying to kill himself to escape the madness.]]
* PetTheDog: The Pre-Sequel shows that he was actually quite fond of Athena, noting that she was a "nice enough kid" for a ChildSoldier and was pretty angry at his superiors when they ordered her to wipe out the village her sister lived in to cut off her remaining ties to the outside world, knowing that as well as it being a dick move that it will just lead to her wanting vengeance against them. For her part, Athena actually respected Knoxx and regretted that he had to die.
* PoweredArmor: Uses his own custom suit of Devastator armor, which is somewhere between here and MiniMecha.
* PunchClockVillain: He bears the Vault Hunters no ill will and isn't ideologically loyal to the Crimson Lance, but he's a career soldier who takes his work seriously.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: He's pretty pissed at Atlas for screwing Athena over, to say the least.
--> '''Knoxx:''' ''You assholes. What the hell did she do to you to deserve THAT? You order a code 64 on a village knowing full well her sister LIVED THERE? For hell's sake, she took out her own sister in all the confusion because you ordered thermals only! You had to tie up that one last loose end just to keep her in the corp? So that's what happens when you know too much to leave, but you're too good at your job to die. When she realized what she'd done, she, uh -- she got a little stabby. She's in the brig now. Probably ship her back to Atlas HQ tomorrow. God, I hate this place.''
* TragicVillain: It's an understatement to say that Knoxx is not happy with his current position. He's put in charge of a corporate private military that seeks to take over Pandora in the name of Atlas in order to establish a despotic reign. He's not loyal to the Crimson Lance in any way, but he still has to finish his mission regardless.
* TrappedInVillainy: Downplayed. Leaving the Lance is punishable by death, but since he knows how incompetent the Lance rank-and-file are and that his boss is a five-year-old, he's [[ExactWords not too worried that he'll be tracked to the other side of Grophic IV.]]
* UnwillingRoboticisation: His resurrection -- he ''wanted to die'', and bitterly demands you hurry up and kill him during the battle.

!! Jakobs
[[folder:Dr. Ned]]
! Dr. Ned Blanco
!!''I'm Helping!''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_imhelping_3225.png\\
As of ''1'' (''Dr. Ned'' DLC, original appearance). Click for: [[labelnote:''Dr. Ned'' second appearance]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_undead_ned.jpg[[/labelnote]] - [[labelnote:''Claptrap'' DLC]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_dr_ned_trap.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/RicSpiegel

Zed's identical twin brother, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial who is not just Zed with a mustache]]. The main antagonist of the Zombie Island DLC.
----
* AffablyEvil: In spite of the fact that he's a ZombieApocalypse-unleashing, murderous MadScientist, he's pretty chatty and pleasant towards the Vault Hunters. He makes brownies, offers them some, then remembers he probably shouldn't be giving brownies to the people who want him dead.
* AntiClimaxBoss: Invoked. [[IntendedAudienceReaction Intended and subverted]]. He goes down quite easily; he doesn't even have full miniboss durability, at most he's just equal to a regular [[EliteMooks Badass]]. Followed by credits rolling past at lightning speed. Then they're suddenly ripped away and ''Undead Ned'' screams "It's not over yet!" Along with a character intro screen of Undead Ned with the text "HOLY F*#KING SHIT!!!"
* BadassMustache: One that's apparently growing out of his surgical mask. He still has a moustache as Undead Ned, although it's styled completely differently.
* BerserkButton: His assistant, Bill, making popcorn when people are trying to work. This evidently ends up turning into a deep hatred of popcorn in general.
--> '''Ned:''' You smell like popcorn. Now I'm pissed!
%%* BigBad: Of "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned" DLC, naturally.%%How?
%%* BodyHorror: As Undead Ned.
* CameBackWrong: ''Thrice''. Upon being killed in "Zombie Island", he almost instantly revives as Undead Ned. Then, in "Claptrap's New Robot Revolution", he is revived as Ned-Trap, ''then'' as Undead Ned-Trap.
* CardCarryingVillain: He actually makes note of the decision to dedicate himself to evil, records it, and idly hopes nobody happens to find the recording and learn of his nefariousness.
* DeadlyDoctor: Aside from the zombies, he can put up a pretty good fight one-on-one.
* EvilTwin:
** Of Dr. Zed. At first, it can be assumed that Ned is Zed with an [[PaperThinDisguise obvious fake moustache]] spouting [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial suspicious denials]] ("I am Dr. Ned, who is totally not Dr. Zed in disguise"). However, other sources (such as the Game Of The Year Edition Guide, the fourth Claptrap webisode, [=DLC=]s 3 and 4 and, of course, ''Borderlands 2'') confirm that they are indeed two different people - brothers, specifically.
** In the Headhunter DLC of the third game, T.K. Baha hints that there's a third sibling (possibly making them triplets, not twins), named Ted, that is even worse than him. However Baha also pretty much says that none of the DLC is canon anyways.
* FlippingTheBird: In his second intro.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: It seems his initial motives for creating the zombies were altruistic (research into cheating death), but upon realizing that the results were useless for anything other than mass destruction he just shrugs his shoulders and decides to be a CardCarryingVillain instead. His reasoning seems to be IMeantToDoThat: if his creations are going to wreck havoc anyway, he might as well fully embrace it and consider himself a successful villain rather than a grossly incompetent scientist.
* KingMook: When you fight him at the end of the DLC, he fights just like a regular pistol bandit, only with more health and a slightly unique weapon. Then he goes OneWingedAngel and turns into a huge undead monster.
* INeedAFreakingDrink:
** When you first meet him.
** When wounded, Dr. Ned-trap might say "Pour alcohol on the wound. Also in my mouth."
%%* LaughablyEvil
* MadScientist: Not only created zombies, but Wereskags as well.
* MakerOfMonsters: His experiments are responsible for the zombies and wereskags of Jakob's Cove, which he uses to defend his lab.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: ''[[BossSubtitles Turns out he's a bad guy... who knew?]]''
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: By the end of the first ''Borderlands'' storyline, he's a twice-undead cyborg physician.
* ObviouslyEvil: He's not even really trying to hide it. The time he made the Vault Hunters wait while he lowered his hand-cranked elevator, forcing them to fight off a massive horde of zombies, going so far as to drop the counter-weight ''twice'' comes to mind.
* OneWingedAngel: Undead Ned, a far tougher battle than the one just before it.
* PornStash: There are ''huge'' stacks of dirty magazines in his secret lab.
* {{Roboteching}}: When you fight him he's armed with a Purple-rarity submachine gun with a unique barrel that makes it fire drunken bullets that spiral randomly and ricochet off walls.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Denies frequently that he's just Zed with a moustache. In the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, it's shown that he's telling the truth, as both Zed and the [[UnwillingRoboticisation newly activated Ned-Trap]] are both seen. Similarly, Zed is still present in the sequel, and the Pre-Sequel and Tales canonizes all the events of the Robo-lution.
* TreacherousQuestGiver: Played for laughs, given how ObviouslyEvil he is.
* UnwillingRoboticisation: How the Claptraps bring him BackFromTheDead.

[[folder:Hank Reiss]]
! Hank Reiss
!!''Nice Hat!''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hankreiss.png]]

A man who was turned into a were-skag by Ned when he was given the anti-zombie antidote. Identified by his NiceHat.
----
* ApocalypticLog: His ECHO correspondence with his wife, which gradually tells the tale of the zombie outbreak in Jakobs Cove and first hints at Ned's direct involvement in same, and ends with him going to Ned as a volunteer test subject for the skag-based cure.
* MonsterProgenitor: The original wereskag, ultimately responsible for every other wereskag's existence.
* NiceHat: It actually looks really stupid, but deserves a mention because the game itself calls it such (if mockingly). Why does he wear it? His daughter made it for him. He even mentions the other guys teasing him about it.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Technically a were''skag'', but wereskags are more like werewolves than skags are like wolves in the first place. The main difference? The mouth, which opens like a flower. Oh, and wereskags would have never existed if Ned hadn't injected Reiss with skag stuff in the first place.
* TragicMonster: He was a loving family man before transforming into a wereskag.
* TurnsRed: Once his health gets below a certain threshold, he howls and gains a ton of it back. If you don't take them out fast enough, other wereskags do the same.

[[folder:Father O'Callahan]]
!Father Jackie O'Callahan
[[quoteright:203:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jackieocallahan.jpg]]

A local preacher who tried to fight the "evil" of Jakobs Cove before being infected with the Wereskag virus.
----
* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: The Vault Hunters are hired to find out what happened to him, learning through ECHO recordings that he was "nicked in the neck" by Hank Reiss.
* BadassPreacher: He appears to be an actual priest who decides to "kick evil's arse".
* {{Determinator}}: Fighting the zombies and Hank Reiss is tough, but he stays strong through prayer...and the whiskey in his flask.
* OhMyGods: References the Guardian Angel at least once.
* TragicMonster: A BadassPreacher who tried to help Jakobs Cove and was turned into the very "evil" he was fighting. BeingGoodSucks on [[CrapsackWorld Pandora]].

!! Hyperion
[[folder:Hyperion "Super-Bad" Soldier]]
See [[Characters/BorderlandsHyperion the Hyperion page]] for tropes.

[[folder:INAC]]
!! Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap
See [[Characters/BorderlandsClaptrap its own page]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:MINAC]]
!! Mega Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap
See [[Characters/BorderlandsClaptrap its own page]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

!! Eridians
[[folder:The Guardians]]
See [[Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters the Eridians and Vault Monsters page]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Destroyer]]
See [[Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters the Eridians and Vault Monsters page]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

'''Other''': [[Characters/BorderlandsBanditsAndBanditFactions Bandits and Bandit Factions]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHodunkAndZafordClans Hodunk and Zaford Clans]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsCreatures Creatures]] ([[Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters Eridians and Vault Monsters]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsRaidBosses Raid Bosses]])-]]]]]

'''Individuals and groups''': [[Characters/BorderlandsDahl Dahl]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHyperion Hyperion]] ([[Characters/BorderlandsClaptrap Claptrap]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHandsomeJack Handsome Jack]]) | [[Characters/BorderlandsMaliwan Maliwan]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsTorgue Torgue]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters Eridians and Vault Monsters]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHodunkAndZafordClans Hodunk and Zaford Clans]]\\
'''Miscellaneous''': [[Characters/BorderlandsWeaponBrands Other Weapon Brands]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsBanditsAndBanditFactions Bandits and Bandit Factions]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsCreatures Creatures]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsRaidBosses Raid Bosses]]-]]]]]

[[folder:Sledge]]
! Sledge
!!''P.S.: You guys aren't friends.''

[[folder:Mad Mel]]
! Mad Mel

[[folder:Krom]]
! Krom

[[folder:The Kobb Brothers]]
! Taylor and Jaynis Kobb

[[folder:Baron Flynt]]
! Baron Flynt
!!''That's Medicinal.''

[[folder:Mr. Shank]]
!''[[InsistentTerminology Mr.]]'' Shank

[[folder:D-Fault]]
!''D-Fault''

[[folder:Admiral Mikey]]
A five-year-old that was Admiral of the Crimson Lance 3rd Starborne Brigade, which unfortunately makes him Knoxx's superior officer. He's one of the reasons why Knoxx hates what Atlas is.

'''Individuals and groups''': [[Characters/BorderlandsDahl Dahl]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHyperion Hyperion]] ([[Characters/BorderlandsClaptrap Claptrap]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHandsomeJack Handsome Jack]]) | [[Characters/BorderlandsTorgue Torgue]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters Eridians and Vault Monsters]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHodunkAndZafordClans Hodunk and Zaford Clans]]\\

[-'''[[Characters/BorderlandsVaultHunters Playable Characters]]''': ''[[Characters/Borderlands1VaultHunters Borderlands 1]]'' | ''[[Characters/Borderlands2VaultHunters Borderlands 2]]'' | ''[[Characters/BorderlandsThePreSequelVaultHunters The Pre-Sequel]]'' | ''[[Characters/Borderlands3VaultHunters Borderlands 3]]''\\

[[folder:Hyperion Super-Bad Soldier]]

See [[Characters/BorderlandsClaptrap his own page]] for tropes.

See Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters for tropes.

See Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters for tropes.

!! Jakobs Cove

!!Supporting [=NPC=]s
[[folder:Dr. Zed]]
!Dr. Zed Blanco
!!''Do No Harm''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DrZed_1385.png\\
[[labelnote:Click here to see him in ''Borderlands 1'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_zed.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/RicSpiegel

A "doctor" who lived in Fyrestone in the first game, Zed is a helpful healer who supplies most of the planet with medicine through his vending machines, despite the fact that his license to practice was revoked.
----
* AnAxeToGrind: He uses a psycho axe for surgery a few times.
* AutoDoc: He runs a series of vending machines called ''Dr. Zed's Portable Clinic'', which are thrown all around the planet to provide healing syringes, shields and class mods to any customers.
* BackAlleyDoctor: Zed lost his license long ago. It's not clear if he lost it due to insanity (especially considering Doc Mercy, the lunatic laser-wielding bandit still has a license) or some other reason, but he still has an honest, if screwed-up, desire to heal people. However, by the time of the ''Commander Lilith'' DLC he's considering going back to med school to get his license reinstated.
* MadScientist: Shows hints of this in the second game. He actually creates skag/rakk hybrids ([[BreadEggsBreadedEggs "skrakk"]]) and a psycho/spiderant hybrid ([[BreadEggsBreadedEggs "Spycho"]]) at one point, for no reason he's willing to divulge.
* MaybeEverAfter: In the ''Commander Lilith'' DLC, Zed tries to find a cure for the Pandora Gas in his own way in hopes of getting the attention of Dr. Tannis. Just when he's about to throw in the towel and reconsider going back to med school to actually get his license, Tannis pipes up with intrigue over the horrifically mutilated corpses she's finding from his results. He takes that opportunity to get a relationship going.
* MeatgrinderSurgery: He even has a quest where you assist him with this in the second game. You make the first incision with your melee attack, which kills the patient instantly. Of course, the "patient" in question was a Hyperion agent threatening everyone nearby with death and evidently had to be restrained, so he's not that upset.
--> '''Zed:''' Close enough.[[note]]His tone of voice is so nonchalant and unsurprised, it's like he was expecting this to happen.[[/note]]
* NeverMyFault: Denies all responsibility for his experiments getting out of control on the technicality that you're the one who went through with helping him in the first place.
-->'''Zed:''' You know, when you really think about it, this all ''your'' fault.
* NiceGuy[=/=] OnlySaneMan: To an extent -- slightly less so in the sequel, if his shades of MadScientist are anything to go by. He's still more or less the most morally upstanding member of the supporting cast, not counting Roland or Helena Pierce who're no longer alive by the time ''2'' takes place.
* OnSecondThought: In the "Arid Nexus - Badlands" level of ''2'', the players can collect five ECHO recordings detailing how Fyrestone fell to Hyperion as part of a challenge. The last one of these is found inside of his clinic, set in the same place it was back when the area was known as [[VideoGame/Borderlands1 the "Arid Badlands"]]. Up to that point, Zed chose to stay in Fyrestone and if needed die there, however, during Hyperion's takedown, he switches his mind at the last minute. It doesn't help that you get to this area during the climax of the game.
-->'''Zed:''' Heya Roland. I appreciate your offer to move into Sanctuary, but I've got a lot of stuff here in Fyrestone. Sanctuary sounds nice and all, but... Fyrestone's my home. I made my decision, if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die in the city I was born: ''Fyresto-''\\
'''[[KillerRobot Hyperion Loader]] who audibly barges through the door:''' ''Attention citizens of Fyrestone: Die.''\\
'''Zed:''' [[OhCrap Aw, piss.]] '''[Sounds of gunfire]''' ''On second thought Roland, when's the soonest you can pick me up?''
* PutOnABus: Though the med vendors still bear his name and voice, he's a no-show in ''Borderlands 3''. It's possible that he went through with going back to med school to get his license reinstated, and is running the vendors to make some money on the side. Either way, Tannis took over as Sanctuary's doctor. A radio commercial advertises his services of a "portable med clinic", which could be referring to his AutoDoc vending machines, or he actually chose to stay behind on Pandora and drives a mobile clinic from settlement to settlement.
* RunningGag: His lack of a medical license becomes one in the second game.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: He overhandedly denies having any involvement when you return with a bunch of skag and rakk organs for his experiments.
-->'''Zed:''' (acting disgusted) EWWWW! What are you handing me all these organs for? Here, please take this pile of money as a sign of my disgust!

[[folder:Moxxi]]
!"Mad" Moxxi Hodunk
!!''SWF looking 4 STR''
See [[Characters/BorderlandsHodunkAndZafordClans the Hodunk and Zaford Clans page]] for tropes.

[[folder:Marcus]]
!Marcus Kincaid V
!!''No Refunds!''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MarcusBL2_7263.png\\
As of ''VideoGame/Borderlands2''. [[labelnote:Click to see him in ''Borderlands 1'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_marcus.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/BruceDuBose

The friendly, helpful, extremely amoral arms dealer who narrates the beginning of each game. He likes killing his competition.

* ArmsDealer: For the entire planet, it seems.
* TheBarnum: In the second game, he convinces a random nerd by the name of Kai that he is TheChosenOne just so he could sell him a gun for $2,000,000.
* BerserkButton:
** Don't ask Marcus for refunds. And God help you if you steal from him.
** ''Borderlands 3'' adds tampering with his vending machines; one of the first few quests involves first killing someone who broke and looted one of them, and then fixing it.
* BorrowedCatchphrase: Attempts to emulate Scooter in one quote from his vending machines. He immediately regrets it.
-->'''Marcus''': Catch a guuunn! '''Guh!''' Never doing that again!
* {{Catchphrase}}: ''"So, you want to hear a story, heh..."''. However this only applies at the start of each game (and some [=DLCs=]). "No refunds." is more common while you buy stuff from his or his vending machines.
* CasanovaWannabe: Has the Vault Hunters collect skag musk glands and rakk hive ambergris for him in ''Claptrap's New Robot Robolution'' so he can make a powerful cologne. It doesn't work.
* ChildHater: Despite children being the ones he tells stories to, Marcus is at best contemptuous of them, as he is quite critical against the child narrator in the prologue and epilogue of the Captain Scarlett DLC.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Has no problem hiring the Vault Hunters to eliminate his competition. Or with convincing a gullible new arrival that he is The Chosen One, foretold by prophecy, in order to sell him a gun. And then he sends the player to recover the gun so can resell it when the "Chosen One" ends up getting killed.
** "You won't find better merchandise from anyone else! I've made sure of ''that''."
** "If you shop anywhere else, I'll have you killed!"
** He'll even have you test elemental weapons on live targets, with titles like "Shoplifter" or "Competitor." They're [[AssholeVictim Hyperion]] workers, but still.
** He's not above selling to the Crimson Raiders' enemies, including the Bloodshot bandits (who worship him as "The Gunbringer"). Still hasn't learned his lesson as of the ''Commander Lilith'' DLC; when you return to Sanctuary and see how messed up his store is, he remarks that he will ''stop'' selling the New Pandoran Army weapons as retribution. These guys have already thrown him out of his home and are on the verge of killing everyone on the planet, but this is where he draws the line.
** In his EstablishingCharacterMoment for the second game, a customer tries to get a refund for a gun he claims is faulty. Marcus callously demonstrates the gun's reliability by shooting the customer in the leg with it.
--->'''Marcus''': Looks like it works to me.\\
'''Customer''': ''[Agonized screaming]''
** In the ''Mercenary Day'' DLC of ''2'', Marcus reveals he doesn't like selling guns to the people of Gingerton because they'll just give them away for free. Later on, he attempts to steal back the guns he sold them so he can keep both his money ''and'' his merchandise.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Marcus likes to use people who shoplift from him as targets in his shooting range. People who ask him for refunds often find themselves shot in the kneecap with the gun they're trying to return.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Marcus may be greedy and willing to kill his rivals, but Handsome Jack's wanton disregard for life is too much even for him.
* FatBastard: He's clearly overweight and isn't above shooting at any customer who dares ask for a refund, not to mention his ruthless business practices. Apparently, this was done intentionally when he was engaged to Mad Moxxi, who gave him advice to put on some weight so people would underestimate him, much like how she uses her sex appeal the same way.
* GodGuise: Probably unintentionally on his part, the Bloodshots started seeing him as a god and named him the "Gunbringer". The way they saw things, they provided offerings (money) to Marcus, and he brought power (guns). This quickly got out of hand, to the point that the Bloodshots built a massive statue of Marcus on top of their fortress and began sacrificing people into a pit of fire in the name of Marcus the Gun God. ''Fight for Sanctuary'' reveals that he knew about this misconception, and took full advantage of it, saying "the best part was, they died soon after, so I didn't owe them anything!"
* GoldTooth: He has one. It's one of the few obvious signs of how ludicrously wealthy he is.
* GrumpyBear: His cheery demeanour is strictly a front for the customers - he's the surliest and most cynical of the main cast, and the least tolerant of everyone else's tomfoolery. As a result, he's usually either the StraightMan or TheComicallySerious when things get silly.
* IdenticalAncestor: Throughout the games are portraits of what seem to be Marcus' ancestors, all of them named Marcus Kincaid and all of them identical save for either different hats or hair.
* InVinoVeritas: Personality Inversion. Getting drunk makes the notoriously cheap and greedy Marcus mail out refunds to his unsatisfied customers. When he sobers up he is ashamed and disgusted with himself for doing so and has you go around and take the refunds out of the mailboxes before it's too late. When the quest is finished he declares he'll never drink again.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Marcus was initially dismissive of Rhys' efforts of rebuilding Atlas, seeing him as just another upstart. He would eventually end up eating crow as Rhys did just that and was forced to buy weapons from him at a considerable mark-up.
* {{Jerkass}}: Customer demanding a refund on a "faulty" weapon? He shoots him in the leg with said weapon and comments that it seems to work just fine.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Very rarely, he breaks down and acts like a decent human being. Notably, in the second game, when Roland dies, he is seriously shook up by it, and when you set out to kill Jack in the final storyline quest, he'll give you a free blue-rarity weapon, not because Hyperion is disrupting his arms trade, but because Handsome Jack is a "greedy murdering sonofabitch who needs to die screaming".
* {{Lzherusskie}}: He speaks with a thick Russian accent, though his grammar is otherwise perfect.
* MadLibsDialogue: In ''Borderlands 2'', you can find two tapes advertising his wares in the Bloodshot stronghold. They are the same tape with different names (very poorly) spliced in. Even better, the first advertises to Roland, who is fighting the Bloodshots... while the second advertises to the Bloodshots, who are fighting Roland's Crimson Raiders.
-->'''ECHO #1:''' Dear - ''Roland'' - I can't help but notice that the - ''Bloodshots'' - you are fighting...\\
'''ECHO #2:''' Dear - ''Bloodshots'' - I can't help but notice that the - ''Crimson Raiders'' - you are fighting...
* NewJobAsThePlotDemands: Despite primarily being a weapons vendor, he also apparently runs a transportation business (driving the bus himself no less), scavenges corpses for weapons to sell, controls interplanetary commercial weapon shipping to and from Pandora (to the point of being able to blockade all laser weapons from getting to Pandora), and on top of all that finds time to tell stories to children.
* NoodleIncident: According to one of the loading screen tips from ''The Pre-Sequel'', he never let laser weapons come to Pandora after an incident involving a straw. Apparently, asking ''anyone'' about it puts your life at risk.
* NotQuiteDead: He appears to get killed at the end of ''Claptrap's New Robot Robolution'', but survives. (See UnreliableNarrator below.)
* PetTheDog:
** It's revealed in the tie-in comics that he took in Tannis after her entire team had been killed, and had been living alone for years. He did this for no apparent charge and after meeting her only once in passing years prior.
** In ''3'', he realizes that the Vault Hunter of that story is likely to save the entire world [[spoiler:when going to stop Troy from infusing Elpis]], and so, feeling he should actually do something to help, he provides some ammunition "on the house," despite his notoriously cheap personality overall, with him seeming physically pained to offer such a thing. He even notes, without any sarcasm, that the Vault Hunter is his favorite customer, without his common refrain of "don't let it go to your head."
* PornStash: In the second game, he sends the players to retrieve his most valuable treasure lost after Sanctuary takes flight, which turns out to be dirty pictures of Moxxi. You're then given the option to either bring them back to Marcus or to Moxxi... who plans to post them online.
* PutOnABus: Apart from his vending machines and a loading screen tip justifying the lack of laser weapons on Pandora, he doesn't appear at all during ''The Pre-Sequel''.
* TheScrooge: ''Notoriously'' cheap. He'd rather test allegedly faulty merchandise on you than give you a refund (although, to be fair, his merchandise ''is'' reliable), and it takes a titanic event to actually make him pull money out of his pocket (usually some kind of business deal that'd make him lose ''more'' money if unresolved). In [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}} the second game]], he gives the wrong change to a customer and sends you on a mission to get the excess change back. How much change? ''Nine dollars.'' (And this is for a sale where he conned the guy out of ''two million'' dollars.) He pays you tons of money to get his nine dollars back, but that's business. He also sends you on a mission to reclaim refund checks he wrote while drunk before they're sent.
* SkunkStripe: Visible on his head.
* TheStoryteller: Aside from being an arms dealer (and bus driver), Marcus is the resident storyteller who narrates the stories of the Vault Hunters to kids. According to the ending of Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty, he's training a kid to take up his mantle.
* TokenEvilTeammate: By far the most unsympathetic recurring character to be consistently accepted as a friend among the protagonists.
* TookALevelInKindness: Noticeably nicer in ''3'', with a lot of his more negative traits toned down.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Moxxi advised him to get fat so that his enemies would underestimate him because of his appearance.
* UnreliableNarrator:
** Marcus narrates the beginning of the main games, the beginning of the Zombie Island, New Robot Revolution, Pirate's Booty DLC, and the Dragon Keep DLC, as well as the credits for Zombie Island, in the form of a story for a young child. However, he often messes up details or contradicts himself.
-->'''Marcus:''' The Vault Hunters had stopped the evil doctor Zed from - \\
'''Child:''' I thought his name was Ned.\\
'''Marcus:''' Yes, yes. Whatever you say. Where was I...
** At one point, he explicitly says he is lying when he is talking about Patricia Tannis rejecting him.
** He also describes himself getting "killed off" in ''Claptrap's New Robot Revolution'', despite still being around to tell the story ''and'' showing up in future games.

[[folder:Tannis]]
!Dr. Patricia Tannis
!!''Insane(ly smart)''
See [[Characters/BorderlandsDahl the Dahl character sheet]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Scooter]]
!Scooter Hodunk
!!''Get you one!''
See [[Characters/BorderlandsHodunkAndZafordClans the Hodunk and Zaford Clans page]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Helena Pierce]]
!Helena Pierce
[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/helena_pierce_borderlands_4.jpg]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/SueBirch

The mayor of New Haven in the first game, she became a lieutenant in the Crimson Raiders when Hyperion moved in. She is strict and no-nonsense, but also fair and reasonable.

* ArtificialLimbs: Has a mechanical left arm.
* AFatherToHisMen: She cares greatly for the citizens of New Haven in the first game.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: The left side of her face is severely scarred and she appears to be blind in that eye. It's revealed in ''2'' that this is due to her husband giving her a skag pearl ring, which released pheromones that attracted hungry skags.
* OnlySaneMan: Most of Pandora has adopted a mixture of selfishness and insanity in the face of its harshness, but she still tries to keep the vestiges of civilization alive.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: All she ever asks the Vault Hunters to do is fix the messes they make and help her people out.
* ShooOutTheClowns: Inverted. The developers have said that her death was to kill off the last serious character on Pandora, so that the comedy of the series could be grounded solely by tragic moments, not a StraightMan.
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: An early sidequest in the sequel has you hunt down ECHO recordings to learn her fate at the behest of Sir Hammerlock. Apparently she had joined the resistance against Hyperion, only to be KilledOffForReal by Handsome Jack himself.
* TwoFaced: Though it's not so much a reflection on her personality (she's a tough-but-fair ReasonableAuthorityFigure) as how tough life on Pandora is. It was apparently due to her dead husband giving her a "skag pearl ring". Now giving someone with the word "Skag" in it is bad enough but then you learn it releases "a hunger-inducing pheromone"...
* YourHeadAsplode: Handsome Jack kills here with a head shot and by his reaction, it's not pretty.
--->'''Handsome Jack''': Hohohoho... holy crap! Did you see her head? It was like - PBBLLT!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T.K. Baha]]
! Theodore "T.K." Baha
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TKBaha_8257.png]]
->'''Voiced by''': David Eddings [[note]][[NamesTheSame No, not]] [[Creator/DavidEddings that one.]][[/note]]

One of the first characters the first Vault Hunters meet, TK is a blind hermit with a weird sense of humor and a shotgun.
----

[[folder:Crazy Earl]]
!Crazy Earl
!!''Buy somethin' or get outta my face!''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crazyearl_5.png]]
->'''Voiced by''': [[Creator/GearboxSoftware Randy Pitchford]]

The owner of a scrapyard, Crazy Earl is angrily antisocial, but moves to Sanctuary to run the black market in the second game.

* AdaptationNameChange: Sort-of; when you first hear of him, his name is spelled "Crazy" Earl, but the quotation marks disappear when you actually meet him.
* BerserkButton: No one makes fun of Crazy Earl's crazy mustache.
* BigEater: During the mission "Plan B" in ''Borderlands 2'', Scooter mentions that he once ate one of Scooter's cars... the whole car... with a fork.
* DemotedToExtra[=/=]OutOfFocus: He was actually part of the main story in the first game, and gave several story missions. In the second game, he's been demoted to "[[FriendInTheBlackMarket black market vendor]]," and only has a very minor role in the quest "Plan B."
* FriendInTheBlackMarket: His entire role in the second game and ''The Pre-Sequel''.
* GlobalCurrencyException: As a black market vendor, he only accepts Eridium/Moon Rocks as payment. In his words, "Cash is for clowns!".
* {{Hikikomori}}: Due to him becoming paranoid after bandits stole pretty much everything he owns. "Why do you think I barricaded myself in here?"
* HonestJohnsDealership: Actually admits the fuel cell he's giving you in "Plan B" is a piece of junk ([[OurProductSucks he himself describes it as "this crap fuel cell"]]), and says that [[OurProductSucks merely touching it made two of his fingers rot off]]. However, the upgrades that he sells are actually useful.
* {{Irony}}: At one point in ''Fight For Sanctuary'', he calls [[ArmsDealer Marcus]] a "capitalist pig-dog". Crazy Earl is voiced by the CEO and President of Gearbox Software.
* {{Jerkass}}: He sometimes crosses over into JerkWithAHeartOfGold territory since he does have [[JerkJustifications very good reasons for being a jerk]] and [[PetTheDog can show genuine kindness]], but usually, he's just a straight-up {{Jerkass}}.
* JerkJustifications: As mentioned before, bandits did steal pretty much everything he owns... [[AndYourLittleDogToo including his pet skag, Skrappy]].
* NoodleIncident: See BigEater.
* PetTheDog: The mission "Earl's Best Friend," and his relationship with Skrappy in general.
* SelfDeprecation: One of the Claptrap Webisodes has Earl referring to Randy Pitchford as a "bitch-hack".
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Canned skag meat, which is odd considering he has a pet skag named Skrappy, who he cares deeply for, and considers to be his best friend.

[[folder:'''Spoiler Character''']]
!Angel (The Guardian Angel)
See [[Characters/BorderlandsHyperion the Hyperion Corp. page]] for tropes.

!!Bandits

[[folder:Nine-Toes]]
! Nine-Toes
!!''Also, he has three balls.''
See [[Characters/BorderlandsBanditsAndBanditFactions the Bandits and Bandit Factions page]] for tropes.

[[folder:Sledge]]
! Sledge
!!''P.S.: You guys aren't friends.''
See [[Characters/BorderlandsBanditsAndBanditFactions the Bandits and Bandit Factions page]] for tropes.

[[folder:Mad Mel]]
! Mad Mel
See [[Characters/BorderlandsBanditsAndBanditFactions the Bandits and Bandit Factions page]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Krom]]
! Krom
See [[Characters/BorderlandsBanditsAndBanditFactions the Bandits and Bandit Factions page]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Kobb Brothers]]
! Taylor and Jaynis Kobb
See [[Characters/BorderlandsBanditsAndBanditFactions the Bandits and Bandit Factions page]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Baron Flynt]]
! Baron Flynt
!!''That's Medicinal.''
See [[Characters/BorderlandsBanditsAndBanditFactions the Bandits and Bandit Factions page]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Shank]]
!''[[InsistentTerminology Mr.]]'' Shank
See [[Characters/BorderlandsBanditsAndBanditFactions the Bandits and Bandit Factions page]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Steve]]
!Steve the Bandit
See [[Characters/BorderlandsBanditsAndBanditFactions the Bandits and Bandit Factions page]] for tropes.
[[/folder]]

!!Atlas and the Crimson Lance

[[folder:Commandant Steele]]
!Commandant Helga Steele
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/commandant_steele_9259.png\\
As of ''Borderlands 1''. [[labelnote:Click to see her in the ''Claptrap'' DLC]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_steele_trap.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/LaniMinella

The leader of the Crimson Lance in the vanilla game, dedicated to finding and plundering the Vault first. Possibly the Siren Lilith came to Pandora to find, but that is never confirmed.

* AllThereInTheManual:
** Her first name is only stated in the game files.
** The ''Borderlands: Origins'' comics confirm that Steele is, in fact, a Siren, which explains how she was able to activate the Destroyer Vault's key. Apparently Handsome Jack didn't include her in his list of them because she was already dead at the time.
* BadBoss: Aside from treating her underlings like shit, in the backstory she knowingly sent Roland's squad on a suicide mission, then left them for dead when they were overrun. Of course, this ends up coming back to bite her in the end.
* TheBaroness: Not only does she have the personality type, but she also speaks with a Russian accent.
* BigBad: The closest thing that the game has to a main villain.
* BigNo: As the Destroyer eats her.
* BlatantLies: After tricking the Vault Hunter into going on a wild goose chase for Baron Flynt's nonexistent piece of the Vault Key, she claims that Tannis came to her and has been working with the Lance the entire time. Once the Vault Hunter finds Tannis she's in a cell with ''torture equipment'' just outside, proving that Steele was flat out lying.
* ButtMonkey:
** Not only does she get unceremoniously impaled mid-sentence, she then gets revived -- twice -- and her new Claptrap programming ensures her following deaths are as undignified as possible.
---> '''Steele-Trap:''' Unce, unce, unce... I was better off with a damn tentacle through my chest.
** Shows up in Tales from the Borderlands stuffed and as a museum piece. Shade's recounting of how she died doesn't help either.
* CameBackWrong: She is brought back as Steele-Trap during the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC.
* DarkActionGirl: This isn't evident in the main game, but it definitely shows in ''Robot Revolution''.
--> Have you met our friend the sun?!
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: The first possible interaction that the player can have with her, which doesn't always play, has her condemn you for agreeing to "assassinate" a "local leader". The "local leader" she's talking about? ''[[TheBrute Sledge.]]''
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: How the Destroyer kills her.
* InformedAbility: She demonstrates no special powers when you fight her as Steele-Trap, despite being a Siren, one of the most dangerous beings in the universe.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Her ''first'' guaranteed interaction with the Vault Hunter is a direct ECHO-broadcast where she tears into them for killing Sledge because they're a mercenary and she doesn't approve of anyone not affiliated with the Lance doing anything to police Pandora.
* KingMook: In the Claptrap DLC, she is more or less a [[EliteMooks Badass]] Lance Assassin with much better damage resistance.
* MotorMouth: According to Knoxx.
--> '''Knoxx:''' I sent Steele to this planet to take care of this little problem and also because... seriously, have you ''heard'' her? She talks all the time.
* PowerTattoo: She has Siren tattoos, although the powers she possesses remain a mystery. Even when fought as Steele-Trap she doesn't demonstrate any special Siren powers, mostly since because she died they jumped to a new host.
%%* SheFu: As Steele-Trap.
* TokenEvilTeammate: ''The Secret Armory of General Knoxx'' and ''Borderlands 2'' indicate that most of the Crimson Lance rank-and-file were actually decent people who just happened to be on the wrong side, with most of their KickTheDog moments being ordered by their Atlas superiors. Steele seems to have been one of the few genuine assholes in the organization, and even her villainy barely registers in comparison to the likes of Handsome Jack or the Calypso Twins.
* TouchedByVorlons: She is a Siren, but she never demonstrates any powers in the game (other than being able to operate the Vault Key).
* UnexplainedRecovery: She still has a hole in her torso from The Destroyer's tongue when she reappears in the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC as Steele-Trap, but as she was last seen being EatenAlive by The Destroyer it's not made clear how her body has become intact again or how Claptrap retrieved her.
* TheUnfought: layed straight in the main game. Inverted in the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, in which she comes back under the control of the Claptraps and fights the player characters twice.
* UnwillingRoboticisation: Rebuilt as ''Steele Trap'' in the Robot Revolution DLC.

[[folder:General Knoxx]]
!General Alphonso Knoxx
!!''Doesn't like Mondays''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Borderlands_2010-02-25_23-13-43-53_168.png\\
As of ''Borderlands 1'' (''General Knoxx'' DLC). [[labelnote:Click to see him in the ''Claptrap'' DLC]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_knoxx_trap.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/StanRobak

The beleaguered general of the Crimson Lance after Steele botches the job, he is deeply annoyed by everything to do with Pandora and his superior, the five-year-old Admiral Mikey.

* AceCustom: He's got a red Devastator mech suit that's much larger than even the Badass Devastator suits, can takes tons of damage, and is equipped with a pair of Eridian energy cannons that fire homing explosive energy blasts.
* AffablyEvil:
** He's routinely polite to the Vault Hunters and bears them no hard feelings, despite making it clear he intends to kill them. He also genuinely thanks them for killing Steele, considering he didn't like her very much, [[AssholeVictim and for good reason.]] Even his dying request that they should destroy Pandora because it's a CrapsackWorld that doesn't deserve to exist is pretty polite.
** He's even affable when being forced to fight as Knoxx-trap, encouraging the Vault Hunters on their efforts at killing him and congratulating them on critical hits.
** Retrospectively reinforced in The Pre-Sequel when playing through the "Boarding Party" side mission as Claptrap.
--> '''Claptrap:''' Good ol' General Knoxx! He was the nicest, politest, most suicidal killing machine you ever could meet! That's why I revived him during my robolution and-- ERROR. FILES LOCKED.
* AntiVillain: Type II. Knoxx just wants to get off Pandora, but he has to kill the Vault Hunters to finish the mission.
* ButtMonkey: Sees himself as this, given his OnlySaneMan attitude.
* CameBackWrong: In the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, much to his chagrin.
--> '''Knoxx:''' I'm back! Wait... I'm ''back''? ''Dammit''.
* TheCameo: In ''The Pre-Sequel'', Knoxx is the one who narrates Athena's personal ECHO logs.
* TheChewToy: His men disrespect him, his commanding officer is literally a child, and he's stuck on a CrapsackWorld. Oh, and he gets resurrected, ''twice'', when all he wants is to stay dead.
* DangerousDeserter: He would have been, if he'd gone through with his plans to kill the Vault Hunters and then leave the Crimson Lance for being full of idiots and incompetents.
* DeadpanSnarker: In his ECHO recordings.
* DeathSeeker: When you reach him, he's about to commit suicide, but decides to try killing the Vault Hunters instead. In the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, he is brought back to life twice and is not happy about it.
* DrivenToSuicide: Knowing that he can't finish his mission without witnessing another moment of incompetence and corruption from the Crimson Lance, he tries to kill himself, only to be interrupted by the Vault Hunters when they finally show up. He never even wanted to be on Pandora, either.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The first ECHO you receive from him begins with a ''very'' long-suffering sigh. And that sums up his attitude to Pandora, the Crimson Lance, his mission, the Vault Hunters, his underlings, his superiors, his life, and every other damn thing that goes on to happen from there.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The reason he was furious at his superiors for what they did to Athena was partially that he thinks it was just an incredibly dirty move on their part.
* EyepatchOfPower: Wears one.
* FlunkyBoss: Knoxx himself is pretty tough, what with his AceCustom mech suit, but what really makes him "final boss" difficult is the fact that he's accompanied by lots of Crimson Lance units, including Devastators ''and'' a Badass Devastator, as well as multiple Crimson Lance medics that can heal Knoxx to full health if you don't kill them quickly enough. This is most apparent in ''Claptrap's New Robot Revolution'', in which you fight Knoxx again, only this time he's by himself and is a noticeably easier fight.
* KingMook: Knoxx is basically an AceCustom Devastator (he's larger and has a ''lot'' more health), although he does have a few unique attacks and is also a FlunkyBoss.
* LargeAndInCharge: Courtesy of his enormous mech suit.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: It's implied. He's so fed up with the Crimson Lance's incompetence and corruption that he regrets working for them to the point where he wants to kill himself so that he doesn't have to bear witness to the utter insanity going on within the Atlas high command.
* OnlySaneMan: Sees himself as this among the Crimson Lance leaders. He's not wrong, given that the rank-and-file seem more concerned with ice-cream than their mission and they left a code [[TooDumbToLive that their lives depend upon]] at a blatant tourist trap where anyone could pick it up, the elites are AxCrazy (they were brainwashed as children then [[SelfMadeOrphan forced to murder their parents]]), and his boss is a ''five year old'' because of goddamn {{nepotism}}. All while he's trapped on a desert planet loaded with crazies and vicious alien wildlife, and someone is massacring his men with little effort. He's so fed up with the situation that when the Vault Hunters find him, he's [[DrivenToSuicide trying to kill himself to escape the madness.]]
* PetTheDog: The Pre-Sequel shows that he was actually quite fond of Athena, noting that she was a "nice enough kid" for a ChildSoldier and was pretty angry at his superiors when they ordered her to wipe out the village her sister lived in to cut off her remaining ties to the outside world, knowing that as well as it being a dick move that it will just lead to her wanting vengeance against them. For her part, Athena actually respected Knoxx and regretted that he had to die.
* PoweredArmor: Uses his own custom suit of Devastator armor, which is somewhere between here and MiniMecha.
* PunchClockVillain: He bears the Vault Hunters no ill will and isn't ideologically loyal to the Crimson Lance, but he's a career soldier who takes his work seriously.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: He's pretty pissed at Atlas for screwing Athena over, to say the least.
--> Knoxx: "You assholes. What the hell did she do to you to deserve THAT? You order a code 64 on a village knowing full well her sister LIVED THERE? For hell's sake, she took out her own sister in all the confusion because you ordered thermals only! You had to tie up that one last loose end just to keep her in the corp? So that's what happens when you know too much to leave, but you're too good at your job to die. When she realized what she'd done, she, uh -- she got a little stabby. She's in the brig now. Probably ship her back to Atlas HQ tomorrow. God, I hate this place."
* TragicVillain: It's an understatement to say that Knoxx is not happy with his current position. He's put in charge of a corporate private military that seeks to take over Pandora in the name of Atlas in order to establish a despotic reign. He's not loyal to the Crimson Lance in any way, but he still has to finish his mission regardless.
* TrappedInVillainy: Downplayed. Leaving the Lance is punishable by death, but since he knows how incompetent the Lance rank-and-file are and that his boss is a five-year-old, he's [[ExactWords not too worried that he'll be tracked to the other side of Grophic IV.]]
* UnwillingRoboticisation: His resurrection -- he ''wanted to die'', and bitterly demands you hurry up and kill him during the battle.

[[folder:Admiral Mikey]]
A five-year-old that was Admiral of the Crimson Lance 3rd Starborne Brigade, which unfortunately makes him Knoxx's superior officer. He's one of the reasons why Knoxx hates what Atlas is.
----
* ChildrenAreInnocent: He was a five-year-old boy and barely understood anything, let alone the situation on the ground. He tries sending General Knoxx some chocolate but seeing how it melted on the trip there it didn't warm him to the grumpy old man.
* TheGhost: He's frequently brought up but seeing how he's both a child and a high-ranking officer there was no way he'd show up in-game.
* ImprobableAge: He's '''five''' and an Admiral.
* PointyHairedBoss: He's a child, what do you expect?
* {{Nepotism}}: He was a five-year-old admiral and that was the only way he could ''ever'' be promoted, let alone serve.
* StaircaseTumble: According to General Knoxx's Website/{{Twitter}} account, [[https://twitter.com/GeneralKnoXX/status/18623320067 Mikey met his unfortunate end by falling down "30,000 stairs"]]. Seeing how he had no heirs, this led to more troubles for Atlas.

!!Minor Characters

[[folder:Shep Sanders]]
! Shep Sanders
See [[Characters/BorderlandsDahl the Dahl character sheet]] for tropes.

[[folder:Ernest Whitting]]
! Ernest Whitting
[[quoteright:181:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ernest_whitting_dr_f.png]]

One of the very few non-bandit residents of the Dahl Headlands. This enigmatic figure asks the Vault Hunters to save his friend, Lucky Zaford, from some bandits.
----
* {{BFG}}: As a reward for defeating Skagzilla, the largest Skag on Pandora, he gives you his Elephant Gun, a bolt-action sniper rifle that deals significantly more damage than normal but which lacks a scope and is limited to iron sights.
* MysteriousPast: Nothing is known about his background.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: His fate post-''Borderlands 1'' was never revealed.

[[folder:Lucky Zaford]]
! Lucky Sleveen Zaford
See [[Characters/BorderlandsHodunkAndZafordClans the Hodunk and Zaford Clans page]] for tropes.

!!Jakobs

[[folder:Dr. Ned]]
! Dr. Ned Blanco
!!''I'm Helping!''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_imhelping_3225.png\\
As of ''1'' (''Dr. Ned'' DLC, original appearance). Click for: [[labelnote:''Dr. Ned'' second appearance]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_undead_ned.jpg[[/labelnote]] - [[labelnote:''Claptrap'' DLC]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_dr_ned_trap.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/RicSpiegel

Zed's identical twin brother, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial who is not just Zed with a mustache]]. The main antagonist of the Zombie Island DLC.

* AffablyEvil: In spite of the fact that he's a ZombieApocalypse-unleashing, murderous MadScientist, he's pretty chatty and pleasant towards the Vault Hunters. He makes brownies, offers them some, then remembers he probably shouldn't be giving brownies to the people who want him dead.
* AntiClimaxBoss: Invoked. [[IntendedAudienceReaction Intended and subverted]]. He goes down quite easily; he doesn't even have full miniboss durability, at most he's just equal to a regular [[EliteMooks Badass]]. Followed by credits rolling past at lightning speed. Then they're suddenly ripped away and ''Undead Ned'' screams "It's not over yet!" Along with a character intro screen of Undead Ned with the text "HOLY F*#KING SHIT!!!"
* BadassMustache: One that's apparently growing out of his surgical mask. He still has a moustache as Undead Ned, although it's styled completely differently.
* BerserkButton: His assistant, Bill, making popcorn when people are trying to work. This evidently ends up turning into a deep hatred of popcorn in general.
--> '''Ned:''' You smell like popcorn. Now I'm pissed!
%%* BigBad: Of "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned" DLC, naturally.%%How?
%%* BodyHorror: As Undead Ned.
* CameBackWrong: ''Thrice''. Upon being killed in "Zombie Island", he almost instantly revives as Undead Ned. Then, in "Claptrap's New Robot Revolution", he is revived as Ned-Trap, ''then'' as Undead Ned-Trap.
* CardCarryingVillain: He actually makes note of the decision to dedicate himself to evil, records it, and idly hopes nobody happens to find the recording and learn of his nefariousness.
* DeadlyDoctor: Aside from the zombies, he can put up a pretty good fight one-on-one.
* EvilTwin:
** Of Dr. Zed. At first, it can be assumed that Ned is Zed with an [[PaperThinDisguise obvious fake moustache]] spouting [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial suspicious denials]] ("I am Dr. Ned, who is totally not Dr. Zed in disguise"). However, other sources (such as the Game Of The Year Edition Guide, the fourth Claptrap webisode, [=DLC=]s 3 and 4 and, of course, ''Borderlands 2'') confirm that they are indeed two different people - brothers, specifically.
** In the Headhunter DLC of the third game, T.K. Baha hints that there's a third sibling (possibly making them triplets, not twins), named Ted, that is even worse than him. However Baha also pretty much says that none of the DLC is canon anyways.
* FlippingTheBird: In his second intro.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: It seems his initial motives for creating the zombies were altruistic (research into cheating death), but upon realizing that the results were useless for anything other than mass destruction he just shrugs his shoulders and decides to be a CardCarryingVillain instead. His reasoning seems to be IMeantToDoThat: if his creations are going to wreck havoc anyway, he might as well fully embrace it and consider himself a successful villain rather than a grossly incompetent scientist.
* KingMook: When you fight him at the end of the DLC, he fights just like a regular pistol bandit, only with more health and a slightly unique weapon. Then he goes OneWingedAngel and turns into a huge undead monster.
* INeedAFreakingDrink:
** When you first meet him.
** When wounded, Dr. Ned-trap might say "Pour alcohol on the wound. Also in my mouth."
%%* LaughablyEvil
* MadScientist: Not only created zombies, but Wereskags as well.
* MakerOfMonsters: His experiments are responsible for the zombies and wereskags of Jakob's Cove, which he uses to defend his lab.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: ''[[BossSubtitles Turns out he's a bad guy... who knew?]]''
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: By the end of the first ''Borderlands'' storyline, he's a twice-undead cyborg physician.
* ObviouslyEvil: He's not even really trying to hide it. The time he made the Vault Hunters wait while he lowered his hand-cranked elevator, forcing them to fight off a massive horde of zombies, going so far as to drop the counter-weight ''twice'' comes to mind.
* OneWingedAngel: Undead Ned, a far tougher battle than the one just before it.
* PornStash: There are ''huge'' stacks of dirty magazines in his secret lab.
* {{Roboteching}}: When you fight him he's armed with a Purple-rarity submachine gun with a unique barrel that makes it fire drunken bullets that spiral randomly and ricochet off walls.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Denies frequently that he's just Zed with a moustache. In the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, it's shown that he's telling the truth, as both Zed and the [[UnwillingRoboticisation newly activated Ned-Trap]] are both seen. Similarly, Zed is still present in the sequel, and the Pre-Sequel and Tales canonizes all the events of the Robo-lution.
* TreacherousQuestGiver: Played for laughs, given how ObviouslyEvil he is.
* UnwillingRoboticisation: How the Claptraps bring him BackFromTheDead.

[[folder:Hank Reiss]]
! Hank Reiss
!!''Nice Hat!''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hankreiss.png]]

A man who was turned into a were-skag by Ned when he was given the anti-zombie antidote. Identified by his NiceHat.

* ApocalypticLog: His ECHO correspondence with his wife, which gradually tells the tale of the zombie outbreak in Jakobs Cove and first hints at Ned's direct involvement in same, and ends with him going to Ned as a volunteer test subject for the skag-based cure.
* MonsterProgenitor: The original wereskag, ultimately responsible for every other wereskag's existence.
* NiceHat: It actually looks really stupid, but deserves a mention because the game itself calls it such (if mockingly). Why does he wear it? His daughter made it for him. He even mentions the other guys teasing him about it.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Technically a were''skag'', but wereskags are more like werewolves than skags are like wolves in the first place. The main difference? The mouth, which opens like a flower. Oh, and wereskags would have never existed if Ned hadn't injected Reiss with skag stuff in the first place.
* TragicMonster: He was a loving family man before transforming into a wereskag.
* TurnsRed: Once his health gets below a certain threshold, he howls and gains a ton of it back. If you don't take them out fast enough, other wereskags do the same.

[[folder:Father O'Callahan]]
!Father Jackie O'Callahan
[[quoteright:203:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jackieocallahan.jpg]]

A local preacher who tried to fight the "evil" of Jakobs Cove before being infected with the Wereskag virus.

* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: The Vault Hunters are hired to find out what happened to him, learning through ECHO recordings that he was "nicked in the neck" by Hank Reiss.
* BadassPreacher: He appears to be an actual priest who decides to "kick evil's arse".
* {{Determinator}}: Fighting the zombies and Hank Reiss is tough, but he stays strong through prayer...and the whiskey in his flask.
* OhMyGods: References the Guardian Angel at least once.
* TragicMonster: A BadassPreacher who tried to help Jakobs Cove and was turned into the very "evil" he was fighting. BeingGoodSucks on [[CrapsackWorld Pandora]].

!!Hyperion

[[folder:Mr. Blake]]
See [[Characters/BorderlandsHyperion the Hyperion page]] for tropes.

[[folder:INAC]]
See [[Characters/BorderlandsClaptrap his own page]] for tropes.

!!Aliens

[[folder:The Eridians]]
See Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters for tropes.

[[folder:The Destroyer]]
See Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters for tropes.

'''Individuals and groups''': [[Characters/BorderlandsDahl Dahl]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHyperion Hyperion]] ([[Characters/BorderlandsClaptrap Claptrap]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHandsomeJack Handsome Jack]]) | [[Characters/BorderlandsTorgue Torgue]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters Eridians and Vault Monsters]]\\

!!''Top Shelf''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl3_moxxi.jpg\\
As of ''VideoGame/Borderlands3''. Click to see her in: [[labelnote:''Borderlands 1'' (''General Knoxx'' DLC)]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_moxxi.jpg[[/labelnote]] - [[labelnote:''Borderlands 2'' (''Mr. Torgue'' DLC)]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moxxi_borderlands_2_by_bl4upunkt-d5m9tk3_5356.jpg[[/labelnote]] - [[labelnote:''The Pre-Sequel!'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bltps_moxxi.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/BrinaPalencia

The buxom and drop-dead gorgeous mother of Scooter and Ellie, who was introduced during the first game via her eponymous DLC. By the second game, her Colosseum has been destroyed, so she tends her bar in Sanctuary. The Pre-Sequel and the third game show that she has several bars on different planets.

* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Seriously, would you be able to tell she has at least three grown-up children by looking at her?! She starts to look more like her age by ''3'', though the brunt of it is still nullified by plenty of makeup.
* AccentSlipUp:
** In ''2'', if you place money in her Tip Jar, she'll occasionally start talking about her old clan. Partway through, she starts slipping into the same redneck accent her children use, before berating herself for it.
** ''The Pre-Sequel'' shows that she drops her accent when she's alone tinkering and is very sensitive about being caught off-character, threatening the Vault Hunters with getting Scooter to bury them in a shallow grave.
** By ''3'' she's seemingly made some peace with it and gone into an almost full AccentRelapse as she's started leaning into a classy SouthernBelle persona. Still not a full-on [[DeepSouth Hodunk accent]], but it's progress for someone who once threatened to kill people who heard her actual voice.
* AceCustom: Moxxi evidently has an arsenal of custom weapons she's made that are handed out as rewards, repainted rose-red/bright pink, are typically augmented with generous LifeDrain, and prominently display the Mad Moxxi logo across them. These weapons include the [[MoreDakka Hail]], the [[DoubleEntendre Creamer]], the [[BilingualBonus Chère-amie]], the Rubi, and many more.
* AliceAllusion: Her outfit (specifically her hat) and personality remind one of the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts.
* AnythingThatMoves: Flirts with the player character regardless of gender (or possibly ''species'', in [=Zer0=]'s case). Which makes it funnier when the one thing she rejects is Claptrap, which she made very clear that whatever love she has for him, it's platonic.
* TheBartender: She's the owner and bartender of several GoodGuyBar's around Pandora.
* BeneathTheMask: There's a moment in ''Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage'' where [[MsFanservice Mad Moxxi]] makes some innuendo that relates cunnilingus to literal cannibalism, and manages to disgust herself. She apologizes and says that her innuendo talk is "just a defense mechanism" and her part of the radio goes silent for a while. The fact is, Moxxi wears a mask because she's ashamed to have been born into the [[GoodOlBoy Hodunk clan]] and tries to resemble her relatives as little as possible in public. This is contrasted with her daughter Ellie, who has just as much distaste for the Hodunks but insists on being herself, to Moxxi's disappointment. In ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', Moxxi is mortified that the [=PCs=] get a peek beneath the mask by walking in on her without her trademark exaggerated makeup, wearing dirty overalls, and singing in her [[AccentSlipUp natural redneck accent]] as she works on a robot.
--->'''Nisha:''' I hereby promise not to tell people the slutty clown is also a slutty mechanic.
* BerserkButton: ''No-one'' threatens her in her own bar.
* BewareTheNiceOnes:
** Jack found this out the hard way in ''The Pre-Sequel''.
** She's almost always friendly and pleasant towards the vault hunters and their friends. That said, anyone who threatens or harms her (or worse, [[MamaBear her kids]]) will be lucky to leave the room alive.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: While her actions on Pandora are already questionable at best while tainted white in ''Borderlands 2'', yet [[MaleGaze nobody seemed to care anyway]], it gets darker when she tries to kill Jack and his hired Vault Hunters by blowing up the Eye of Helios while the space station in question is filled with innocent civilians and repenting Dahl soldiers all out of fear that Jack may become a threat to them. In fairness, he ''had'' already built an enormous space laser pointed at Pandora with intent to use it before that point, so it isn't as if she was doing it for unjustified reasons.
* CosplayOtakuGirl: Meta example: Moxxi is one of the most popular characters to cosplay as, to the point that she was one of the ''Pre-Sequel'' characters aside from the main characters that had a cosplay guide released.
* ClosetGeek: In ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' it's revealed that Moxxi is secretly a mechanical geek, just like both her children and the rest of her former bandit clan, the Hodunks. She threatens the player with death if they tell.
* CrossesTheLineTwice: Invoked. After saying "No one eats my girlfriends but me" in reference to an ex-girlfriend cannibal who literally ate one of her female lovers, this causes her to quickly apologize and throw up in her mouth. Doubles as NotSoStoic after she reveals her puns are a defense mechanism.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Implied. She was born as a member of the Hodunk bandits, and while her reason for leaving is unclear, it's implied they [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal treated her and her children horribly,]] as at one point Ellie gives you a line of quests to kill the Hodunks and says that "they will regret [[WouldHurtAChild not killing me as a baby]]".
* DefectorFromDecadence: Formerly a member of the Hodunk clan along with Scooter and Ellie before eventually leaving them. Despite being contemptuous of them in the main game, she attempts to settle their feud with the Zafords peacefully through marriage of two of their Goliaths in the ''Wedding Day Massacre'' DLC, with understandably disastrous results.
* DoubleEntendre: She definitely likes to use them on occasion. Can't really fault her, though. According to a transmission during Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage, this is a coping mechanism for some horrible things that happened to her and her kids while with the Hodunk clan.
** In ''1'': She definitely likes to use them on occasion.
---> '''Moxxi:''' You should be able to see the prison now. It used to be an island in the ancient sea. Now it's Mr. Shank's own personal male stabbing machine -- ThatsWhatSheSaid!
** Her tip jar has a sign above it that reads "Insert your tip", and she reprogrammed a Hyperion loader to speak in little ''but'' sexual innuendos. And named it [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Innuendobot 5000]].
** In ''2'', she gets so angry at Mordecai that she can't think of any sexual innuendos.
** In the ''Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage'' DLC, she claims the innuendo thing is a coping mechanism for the horrors of Pandora. And considering what a CrapsackWorld the planet is, well...
** In ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'' she basically drops a pile of innuendo at [=Zer0=], who [[NotDistractedByTheSexy doesn't give a damn about it, and would rather get paid than listen to more]].
* DoubleX: Her name Moxxi has two "x's". Despite it sounding like a {{Porn Name|s}} (and her having the [[ReallyGetsAround reputation]] for it) it seems to actually just be her real name.
* EthicalSlut: "Ethical" is a stretch given the BlackAndGrayMorality of the series, but she is one of the nicer characters and is known for being [[ReallyGetsAround really slutty]].
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Almost every woman in Sanctuary will ask you if Moxxi said anything about them, implying they had a one-night stand. And if you bought the DLC content, ''even [[PirateGirl Captain Scarlett]]''. Fan fiction, ho!
* FanserviceWithASmile: As if her default outfit wasn't revealing enough, Moxxi wears a typical medieval bar wench outfit + [[OfCorsetsSexy tight corset]] in Tiny Tina's ''[[MagicAmpersand Bunkers & Badasses]]'' campaign. Being in a fantasy setting, she reflects upon this awareness and comments that she's surprised that Tina didn't make her outfit even more revealing than it is. Totally not what she was expecting.
* FashionableAsymmetry: Moxxi is "ragdoll sexy" in her asymmetrical attire, most notably her stockings: one fishnet, one striped.
* GagBoobs: Sports the biggest pair out of all the female characters in the entire series barring her daughter [[BigBeautifulWoman Ellie.]] Handsome Jack even refers to her as "Ol' Balloon Tits", and they're enough to cause the normally [[TheBaroness ice cold]] Aurelia Hammerlock to burst into laughter.
* {{Gainaxing}}: Especially evident in her intro cutscenes for ''Secret Armory'' and ''Campaign of Carnage''.
* GemEncrusted: According to Episode 4 of Claptrap's web series, Moxxi drinks "diamond flavored water". Don't ask us how that works.
* GenkiGirl: Whatever else you say about her, she is ''extremely'' enthusiastic about what she does in the Underdome.
* GladiatorSubquest: She runs the various arena tournaments of Pandora. In the second game, she's the one behind the Circles of Slaughter and hopes to take Torgue's tournament as her own.
* GoldDigger: She spared her last ex, because he was good with money (and his hands). She later dated Handsome Jack, until he got too overprotective and she broke up with him The fact that he was a dangerous psychopath even before he went completely off the rails probably contributed more then a little too. He then proceeded to destroy the Underdome.
* GoodBadGirl: Well, more like "Neutral bad girl", but despite having quite the reputation, she's not inherently evil
* GoodGuyBar:
** Owns one in every game in the series. In ''Borderlands 2'', she was forced to move to Sanctuary, but business is not booming and she literally has a tip jar.
** She opens another one in the Badass Crater of Badassitude.
** She runs "Moxxi's Tavern" in Tina's campaign. Being aware that she's being used as an NPC in her game, she comments that she's surprised that the uniform Tina put her in is ''not'' even more revealing than she expected.
** She also runs a bar on Elpis. She mostly stays away from it because Janey Springs uses it as an excuse to "accidentally" run into her. Appropriately, she leaves it after Jack and the Vault Hunters may no longer be considered "good" anymore. Although pragmatically it's because she just screwed Jack and almost killed the vault hunters, so it's not entirely safe anymore.
* GuileHero: In ''The Pre-Sequel'', she tricks Jack and his Vault Hunters into destroying the Destroyer's eye in an attempt to kill them. Had Jack and his goons not decided to activate the sequence remotely, she would have succeeded in the latter. Brick and Mordecai are actually impressed at how crafty she is.
* HeadTurningBeauty: Several characters are attracted to her, or at least mention her good looks.
* HiddenDepths: She's got a few. She admits in ''2'' that her constant innuendos are a defense mechanism, while in ''The Pre-Sequel'', it turns out that she's actually a mechanic nearly as good as her children (and with an equally thick accent), but she finds this embarrassing. Near the end of the game, she helps Lilith and Roland try to kill Jack, which would have instantly smoothed over her problems with Mordecai if she had ever told him.
-->'''Lilith:''' Moxxi's got layers, like an onion made of boobs.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: One of the reasons she dumped Mordecai for Jack. Her relationships with Mr. Shank and Motor Momma could also qualify. Though it turns out that she dumped Jack because she could tell he was a psychopath underneath his nice-guy exterior, and was proven right when he burned down her Underdome in retaliation, among other atrocities.
* HospitalityForHeroes: Invokes this in ''Borderlands 2'' if you talk to her prior to starting the final storyline mission, she invokes this, promising that if you take down [[BigBad Handsome Jack]], you'll never pay for another drink at her [[GoodGuyBar bar]] again.
* HotterAndSexier: Moxxi's outfit in ''3'' ditches her sleeves and has much more prominent AbsoluteCleavage.
* ICallItVera: Has a personal revolver by the name of Rubi. In the second game, she offers it as a reward if the player collects Rakk Ale for her rather than Mordecai.
* IconicSequelCharacter: She first showed up in the second DLC for the first game, "Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot", mostly as an announcer. The next DLC gave her a bigger role that was involved in the plot and established her relationship with Scooter. In the next games, she plays a much larger role and a major NPC and became one of the most iconic characters in the ''Borderlands'' series.
* ImpossiblyLowNeckline: The neckline actually isn't that low, but considering [[GagBoobs the size of her]], it's still a surprise she doesn't pop out.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: With Tiny Tina, although theirs is of the VitriolicBestBuds variety.
* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: Invoked upon herself. When she asks you to go clean up some graffiti, she says that ''most'' of it isn't true.
* LifeDrain: Nearly every weapon Moxxi gives you as a reward or has her name on it has life-stealing properties, healing you for a percentage of damage dealt.
* MamaBear:
** She left the Hodunk clan and killed the clan leader because he was planning on having Ellie [[WifeHusbandry becoming one of his wives]].
** When talking about Motor Mama, she gets uncharacteristically pissed off when telling you that she (Motor) eats her own kids.
** In the ''Wedding Day Massacre'' DLC, she is incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of kidnapping a baby to make a love potion and horrified at the idea of actually tossing it into the concoction. Even after the recipe simply calls for making the baby cry, she's still disappointed at both herself and the Vault Hunters, noting that it's not something heroes should be doing.
* MsFanservice: If her [[HeadTurningBeauty appearance, clothing, and...]] [[BuxomIsBetter top-heaviness]] did not emphasize the point enough, her constant innuendo and [[ContraltoOfDanger sensual voice]] will do the trick.
* MyBelovedSmother: Towards Ellie. She does not like the fact that Ellie intentionally puts herself in danger by being involved with her old clan and constantly bothers her about being massively overweight. But Ellie seems quite capable of taking care of herself and has no [[FatAndProud problems with her body image]] and claims to have plenty of male admirers. (One of which being... [[BrotherSisterIncest Scooter]]).
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When the Vault Hunter kills Shank in the ''Secret Armory of General Knoxx'' DLC in ''1''. Despite telling the player to kill him, she is still completely in shock at his death and regrets it.
* NiceHat: Her top hat, a wink to her role as the ringmaster of the various, circus-like bloodsports she hosts.
* TheNicknamer: She tends to address the players as "Sugar".
* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: She's obviously based somewhat on ''Creator/MaeWest''. In Borderlands 2 she even has two weapons (good touch and bad touch) with Mae West quotes on them.
* OlderThanTheyLook: She's old enough to have two known kids of adult age.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Moxxi hates when anyone sees her out of character, threatening anyone who learns that she enjoys tinkering and slips back into her redneck accent in her off time with a shallow grave provided by Scooter. During the assault on the Hyperion moon base to recover the Eye of Helios from Dahl forces, Moxxi is so focused on giving her technical know-how to the Vault Hunters, that when Lilith finds a chance to slip in a "ThatsWhatSheSaid" to one of Moxxi's unintentional innuendos, she barks back to her to focus on the mission.
* [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]]:
** In '''MR. TORGUE'S CAMPAIGN OF CARNAGE!''' anyway. Of course, for much of the DLC she's between Tiny Tina (a CreepyChild obsessed with StuffBlowingUp) and Mr. Torgue (a musclebound PsychopathicManchild ''also'' obsessed with StuffBlowingUp), so she may seem saner in comparison.
** In ''The Pre-Sequel!'', she is this as well especially in comparison to [[CloudCuckooLander Janey]] and [[LeeroyJenkins Lilith]]. Roland seem to be the only one on the same page as her. There's a good reason for this though; she's planning to kill Jack.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: The ''Fight for Sanctuary'' DLC shows that she misses Scooter dearly, and a sidequest involves helping her fill out his last requests.
* PeekABangs: She always has one lock of hair covering her right eye.
* PetTheDog:
** During Claptrap's birthday party in the second game, when he sends out invitations, her reply is by far the nicest (most of the characters basically say HahahaNo, she says she's too busy and tells you to tell Claptrap she likes him. Platonically, of course.)
** In the ''Handsome Jackpot'' DLC of ''3'', while she initially regards Timothy as a gutless coward loyal to Jack, by the end of the story she shows actual concern for him, refusing to leave him to his fate. [[spoiler:She also revealed that when Jack sent him on a date with her in his place, she knew full well who he was but still went out with him, implying that he might have a shot at a second date]].
* PhraseCatcher: "Has Moxxi said anything about me?"
* ProudBeauty: She puts great value in one's appearance and is very proud of her good looks, and is dismayed that her daughter Ellie is FatAndProud and constantly nags her about losing weight.
* ReallyGetsAround:
** "Hot dog down a skag den, y'know what I'm sayin?", and this comment is coming from her own son.
** Apparently she even sleeps with bandits if the graffiti she makes you erase is to be believed.
** So far, we know she's had three husbands (Jimbo, Mr. Shank, and Marcus) and possibly had more between games, has had many lovers which have given her kids (Scooter, Ellie, and two more unnamed ones), had sex with Lucky, and she used to date Mordecai, whom she dumped for Handsome Jack, of all people. So, yeah, she really seems to enjoy being on her back a lot. It was also revealed she used to date Motor Momma.
** Might add Mr. Torgue to the list, [[ShipTease considering how they act]] in the ''Campaign of Carnage'' DLC. In the ''Wattle Gobbler'' DLC, Torgue even proclaims that he's willing to work for her "Pro-Boner".
** If every NPC that asks "Has Moxxi said anything about me?" is implying that they had a one-night stand, then you can add the populations of Sanctuary, Overlook, Concordia, and the ''Hyperion Moon Base'', as well as Captain Scarlett and ''Zombie TK Baha'' to the list.
** In ''3'', Zane says they had a lovely night together. [[ButForMeItWasTuesday She doesn't seem to remember him]].
* RetiredBadass: According to her, there was a time when she was a skilled fighter and would be in the front lines alongside other Crimson Raiders.
* {{Revenge}}: She desires it on Jack for the destruction of her Underdome, so she sends the Vault Hunters on a quest to flood Jack's under-construction version.
* SadClown: Aside from her makeup invoking the trope in the most literal sense, Moxxi is revealed to be at least a little traumatized from living on [[DeathWorld Pandora]] and especially from dating [[ImAHumanitarian Motor Mama]]. She admits that her flirty showgirl sense of humor is her way of coping.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When her clan leader ordered Moxxi to kill someone or have her daughter be turned into the clan wife, she responded by killing the asshole and taking both Scooter and Ellie out of the clan.
* SexGoddess: Dialogue about her suggests her sexual prowess is just as legendary as her [[ReallyGetsAround promiscuity]].
* SexIsViolence: Moxxi gets ''really'' excited watching the Vault Hunters fight in the Underdome.
-->'''Moxxi:''' More! More! MORE!
* SouthernBelle: Developed this persona by ''Borderlands 3'', or at least the Pandoran equivalent, being from the redneck tribe known as the Hodunk clan. In the previous games, she hated being seen out-of-character[[note]] The OOC side of her being a WrenchWench with [[DeepSouth an Appalachian accent]], as opposed to the showgirl with a clown motif that she publicly presents[[/note]], and threatens anyone who catches her out-of-character with [[BuriedAlive a live burial in a shallow grave]] by one of her offspring. It's evident that she's made some peace with who she is. While her dating life is [[ReallyGetsAround questionable, at best]] (considering she's slept with people like [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter Handsome Jack]] and various bandits), her genuinely kind nature makes her closer to a Bonne Belle.
* StepfordSmiler: All of her innuendos are defense mechanisms. She admits to this after becoming disgusted with herself for telling the Vault Hunters "No one eats my girlfriends but me!" when talking about [[FatBastard Motor]] [[ImAHumanitarian Momma]].
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Some wrinkles were added to her face in ''3''. While they don't detract from her hotness, it seems that she's starting to show her age.
* TeenPregnancy: Considering the ages of Scooter and Ellie, it's implied that Moxxi gave birth to all four children the moment she started menstruating. Or she's [[OlderThanTheyLook older than she looks]].
* ThatsWhatSheSaid: Moxxi does this ''to herself''.
-->'''Moxxi:''' You should be able to see the prison now. It used to be an island in the ancient sea. Now it's Mr. Shank's own personal male stabbing machine -- that's what she said! Heyo!\\
''[silence]''\\
'''Moxxi:''' Ahem. Anyway.
** In ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', we have this little gem while Jack, Roland, Lilith, and the player work to take back Helios:
---> '''Moxxi:''' (''to Lilith and Roland'') You two need to open the path wide open or this is going to get messy.\\
'''Lilith:''' Working on it! Also, that's what she said!\\
'''Moxxi:''' '''''I KNOW WHAT SHE SAID!''''' JUST DO IT!
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Her entire sexy image is crafted so that her enemies will underestimate her because of her appearance. She gave the same advice to Marcus when they were married, only in his case it was to gain weight.
* UnkemptBeauty: She's still hot when she's out of character [[WrenchWench and covered in engine grease]].
--> '''"Jack":''' ''Wow'', you're even prettier without makeup. That's just... so terrible...
* VictoriasSecretCompartment: She keeps her ''submachine guns'' and her booze tucked inside her ample cleavage.
* TheVoice: She doesn't appear in person in ''Tales of the Borderlands'', but is heard briefly while talking to [=Zer0=] after he kills Bosanova in episode 1.
* WeaponOfChoice: Moxxi brandishes a Maliwan pistol called the Rubi, which deals a hefty amount of elemental damage and boasts the highest LifeDrain percentage in the base game versus her other weapons (12% vs 2%), beaten out only by the Grog Nozzle in the Dragon Keep DLC (which heals for a full 65%).
* WrenchWench: ''The Pre-Sequel!'' shows that in her private time, she's a mechanic like her kids. Unlike her kids, she's very self-conscious about being caught tinkering since she also reverts to her Hodunk accent. Also unlike her kids, she shows more aptitude in electronics than mechanics, and she ''does'' have the technical vocabulary and knowledge to explain it, rather than just an intuitive grasp of machines. She's mechanically adept enough to reprogram a loader to speak only in innuendo (though the robot in question absolutely loathed it) as well as being able to sabotage Jack's superweapon.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Marcus]]
!Marcus Kincaid V
!!''No Refunds!''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MarcusBL2_7263.png\\
As of ''VideoGame/Borderlands2''. [[labelnote:Click to see him in ''Borderlands 1'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_marcus.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/BruceDuBose

The friendly, helpful, extremely amoral arms dealer who narrates the beginning of each game. He likes killing his competition.
----

!Scooter

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tftb_scooter.jpg\\
As of ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands''. Click to see him in: [[labelnote:''Borderlands 1'' (''General Knoxx'' DLC)]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Borderlands_2010-02-25_16-04-17-22_7028.png[[/labelnote]] - [[labelnote:''Borderlands 2'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl2_scooter.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': [[WebVideo/MoviesWithMikey Michael Neumann]]

The friendly owner and operator of Catch-A-Ride, which owns the vehicle digistruct stations across the planet. Scooter is loud, boisterous, and dumb as a bag of hammers -- except when it comes to machines.

* AgentScully: One of his primary character traits in the first game was doubting the Vault's existence, alongside Marcus' belief in it (and the potential profit) and Helena's pragmatism.
* AbhorrentAdmirer:
** Laney joins a band of cannibals because it's the only place she can avoid Scooter's sexual advances. Daisy takes one listen to a love poem he composes for her and [[DrivenToSuicide immediately commits suicide.]]
--->Everyone's a critic.
** He apparently had a thing for Ellie too. Mind you Ellie is his ''sister'' (one of his few direct relatives too). It's one of the reasons that Ellie lives in The Dust (the other being that she just likes killing bandits).
** He appears to have a thing for Fiona too. She's appropriately horrified. She didn't have to worry about that for long, with him dying in Episode 4 of ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'', although you do have the option to have Fiona give him a LastKiss so that he dies happy.
* BerserkButton:
** Destroying his runners, "breaking his mama's girl parts," and making fun of his sister's appearance.
** ''Borderlands 2'' adds tampering with his Catch-a-Ride stations. Which is a bit of a problem, because that's exactly how you gain access to his Catch-a-Ride network; he's willing to give you a pass just because you're a Vault Hunter, but he will always bear a grudge against you for this.
** When he overheard Hamhock had a one-night stand with his mom, he apparently interpreted it as him raping her and sent a group of mercenaries (one of which is a badass psycho) after him. If Moxxi is to be believed, this is apparently a regular occurrence; he is extremely overprotective of his mom and sister.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: On the surface, he looks like a harmless, awkward geek but throughout the games you find evidence that he's just as dangerous as any of the other bandits out there, if not moreso. You never see any of it on screen, but he's not afraid to get his hands dirty. He apparently buried Lucky alive after the first game and you can find one of his victims tied burnt to a vending machine in the dust.
* BookDumb: Has no actual idea how anything works, but is able to fix just about anything anyway. In short, he's just about the best engineer on Pandora (Hyperion, Atlas, and all the rest of the [[MegaCorp megacorps]] included), and he does it all by ''instinct.'' In at least this respect (and indeed a few others) he's a lot like [[{{Series/Firefly}} Kaylee]], who probably didn't make it through sixth grade but can 'talk' to machines.
* BookEnds: The player is introduced to Scooter after jumping over Piss Wash Gully in a car. His send-off from the series has the player making a similar jump over his memorial site.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: His introduction in ''Tales from the Borderlands''.
* BrotherSisterIncest: Has a tiny crush on Ellie. Who's his sister.
* CasanovaWannabe: Tries to woo a few girls in ''2'', fails miserably... But he [[CrazyPrepared thinks ahead enough]] to ask you to get him girly mags [[ADateWithRosiePalms in case he fails]].
* CatchPhrase: "Catch a ride!" and "Get you one!"
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: He does have his moments.
-->'''Scooter:''' You's a Vault Hunter! ''(awestruck)'' That's like a ''unicorn''!
* DeadManWriting: Scooter's death is openly spoiled in ''Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary'', and a side quest requires you to fulfill his final requests that he recorded in an ECHO log, knowing that he will die soon.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: His HeroicSacrifice in ''Tales from the Borderlands''. Hell, knowing him it's probably how he's always wanted to go.
* EasilyForgiven: Zigzagged in the sequel. The "Swallowed Whole" sidequest reveals that he was planning to kill you for hacking the Catch-A-Ride system at the beginning of the game, but instead settles for sending you on a dangerous mission to kill a midget in a stalker-infested cavern. Once you make it back alive, he declares that your hacking is in the past now and he will definitely not kill you, probably.
* TheEngineer: Support engineer for the protagonists of both games. Seriously, moving around Pandora would be a '''BITCH''' if the player didn't have access to his Catch-A-Ride terminals. Hell, he's even the main engineer for ''the flying city of Sanctuary''. The fact he actually gets trusted with the maintenance of it is testament to his skill.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
** Like most of the characters, his moral compass isn't exactly the best, but he genuinely loves his family, as shown by how he threatens to kill you if you hurt Ellie and killing Lucky Zaford after he slept with Moxxi.
** He has a quest in the Mr. Torgue DLC where he sends you to go kill a man who slept with Moxxi for all the wrong reasons. Moxxi tries to defend him by saying that it was a misunderstanding and it was partially her fault that it happened. You get the choice of either killing the guy Scooter wants you to kill, or kill the 4 other bounty hunters that he sent to do the job instead. (He gives you first dibs.)
* FaceDeathWithDignity: In ''Tales'', upon realizing that he's not going to be able to get his hand out of the rocket in time, Scooter calmly accepts his fate and tells Fiona to save herself and the team.
* GadgeteerGenius: Easily overlooked but qualifies. He's able to keep Sanctuary flying on '''scrap metal''' and totally repairs (and can upgrade) Fiona and Sasha's totaled caravan in the space of a couple of hours at most.
* GreaseMonkey: Works as a mechanic. Literally covered in grease.
* HalfWittedHillbilly: He may be a gifted mechanic, but he's totally clueless in social situations.
* HeroicSacrifice: Failed to pull his hand out in time while trying to press a button to start ejecting a thruster about to explode on the spaceship used by the protagonists in ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands''. Knowing it's far too late to do anything about it, he tells Fiona to just eject it while he's still stuck to it, and he of course explodes with the thruster. The team commemorates him by launching his satellite into space for all to see.
* HiddenDepths: In ''Tales from the Borderlands'', if you reveal to him in episode 4 that Fiona and Sasha lied about participating in death races, he doesn't even miss a beat as he reveals he already caught on the first time they talked, but helped them out anyway (with free car repairs and covering for them from Finch and Kroger) because they seemed nice.
* IdiotSavant: Scooter's not the pokiest bullet in the clip (HA! See what I did there?!), but give him machinery and a box of tools and the man can make miracles. It even seems to be some sort of innate skill, since he's actually shown trouble describing ''what'' a mechanical component does, but still knows when he needs it and how to put it together anyway. It seems to be an innate skill of his entire clan, Hodunk, as they specialized in racing vehicles and making such.
* IJustWantToBeBadass: In the "Commander Lilith" DLC, he tells the Vault Hunters via a pre-recorded message that he always wanted to be a Vault Hunter but knew he wasn't cut out for it and thus he's grateful to all the Vault Hunters he's met for letting him be a part of their adventures.
* IncestIsRelative:
** All his crushes are related to him, at least distantly. Though considering [[ReallyGetsAround his mother]], that's not really saying much. Fiona and Sasha from ''Tales From the Borderlands'' seem to be the only exceptions but Scooter is more interested in Fiona.
** He mentions having a "brother-uncle"; clearly incest, ahem, runs in the family.
* InformedAttribute: Judging by his signs and his satellite, he apparently works/worked for Dahl. This never comes up, and other characters like Moxxi and Marcus seem to be independent entrepreneurs.
** Oddly ''Tales'' reminds us of his connection to Dahl with the satellite (which is a problem at first as Hyperion still holds a grudge for [[VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel a certain rogue Dahl legion's assault on Helios]]), but changes Old Haven (his home town) to an Atlas city originally, instead of being occupied by them later. Though the city originally being an Atlas city ''would'' explain why the Lance have seen fit to take it over as it provides no real tactical advantage.
* LastRequest: In the ''Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary'' of ''2'', Scooter leaves an ECHO for his family and the Vault Hunters containing his last words and requests. After having his porno magazines regathered (which Moxxi keeps since no one wants them) and naming Ellie as the new owner of Catch-A-Ride, he asks the Vault Hunters to do one final spectacular stunt jump for him at the crater where he and the rocket booster he was stuck to crashed.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: His [[VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands third]] EstablishingCharacterMoment in the series makes him appear to have enough MediumAwareness to know about game's RunningGag character intros. Too bad Fiona is weirded out by this.
* MadLibsCatchphrase: He tends to replace "ride" with whatever is relevant with the current topic sometimes, such as "Catch-a-Familial-Reconciliation!". This got so bad that he somehow convinced Marcus to say "Catch-a-Gun!" in one of his vending machines.
* {{Metaphorgotten}}: He makes quite a few of these.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted. He claims to be named after his sister.
* ProperlyParanoid: He was fully aware he lived on a DeathWorld and kept his will and testamony updated.
* PassingTheTorch: His final ECHO request to Ellie is given in the ''Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary'' DLC, with his sister becoming the new owner of Catch-A-Ride in his passing.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Mike Neumann's diminishing health made it progressively more difficult to act or script for Gearbox Software, the decision was made to kill Scooter off in order to emphasize how important ''Tales From The Borderlands'' is to the overall franchise's plot.
* RidingTheBomb: He goes to his death bellowing his catchphrase, as a faulty booster rocket about to explode heads down to Pandora.
* SociallyAwkwardHero: He is very unlucky with love and is often overexcited with interactions. In ''Tales'' if Fiona says "Everything will be fine" then Scooter will reply with "Haa, there's the girl I fell in love with", understandably Fiona is a little freaked out by the bold statement and Scooter quickly fumbles.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: To Lucky.
-->'''Scooter:''' Lucky's an old buddy of mine -- and by old buddy I mean "asshole what ruined my momma's girl parts". Sounds like he's in trouble so you go on ahead and try and keep him alive long enough so I can kill him at a later occasion.
** He reveals that he was successful in killing him in the General Knoxx DLC. He ''told'' you he was gonna do it.
** It goes on to be the central conflict of a clan rivalry as well. Lucky was part of the Zaford clan and Scooter was formerly part of the Hodunk.
* VocalEvolution: From ''1'' to ''2'', Scooter's delivery of his lines gained their unique cadence and his Hodunk accent started to be more emphasized.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Helena Pierce]]
!Helena Pierce
[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/helena_pierce_borderlands_4.jpg]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/SueBirch

The mayor of New Haven in the first game, she became a lieutenant in the Crimson Raiders when Hyperion moved in. She is strict and no-nonsense, but also fair and reasonable.
----

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lucky_zaford_1.png]]

The proprietor of Lucky's Last Chance Watering Hole and son of Mick Zaford, leader of the Zaford clan.
----
* BuriedAlive: This is how he died. In a shallow grave, no less.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He was killed over a one-night stand he once had with [[ReallyGetsAround Moxxi]].
* DistressedDude: He was being held captive by some bandits when the Vault Hunters arrived in the Dahl Headlands.
* KilledOffscreen: Scooter reveals in ''The Secret of General Knoxx'' that he buried Lucky alive in a shallow grave.
--> Scooter: ''Yeah, I killed him, don't act all surprised. I told you I was gonna do it.''
* PosthumousCharacter: His death is occasionally refered in ''2'' during the Hodunks-Zafords feud arc.

'''Individuals and groups''': [[Characters/BorderlandsHyperion Hyperion]] ([[Characters/BorderlandsClaptrap Claptrap]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHandsomeJack Handsome Jack]]) | [[Characters/BorderlandsTorgue Torgue]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters Eridians and Vault Monsters]]\\

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tannis_288.png\\
As of ''VideoGame/Borderlands2''. [[labelnote:Click to see her in ''Borderlands 1'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_dr_patricia_tannis.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/ColleenClinkenbeard

A socially maladjusted archeologist sent to Pandora by the Dahl corporation to investigate the alien ruins. Then a skag ate one of her coworkers alive while she hid under his corpse, and she went from "antisocial" to "completely cuckoo."

* ApocalypticLog: Detailing her descent into insanity. She makes a hobby of recording her insane ramblings, spreading said recordings around random places, then hiring individuals to gather them back for her.
* AscendedExtra: In ''1'', Tannis was a late-game quest-giver and MsExposition who lost importance the moment her mini-arc was over. By the end of ''3'' Tannis is arguably the most important NPC in the series [[spoiler:as a Siren, the leading authority on Eridian civilization, and one of the highest-ranking Crimson Raiders still alive]].
* AxCrazy: Her insanity at times manifests as murder.
* BlackComedyBurst: In Borderlands 2, her echo logs detail how she and her friends, Phillipe and Clork, a pair of "brothers" who were "ceiling chairs" were captured by Hyperion agents and tortured for information on the vault. It starts out as a ridiculous premise, but the way Tannis anthropomorphizes the chairs and the way the Hyperion agents torture Tannis and the brothers until they kill Phillipe makes the account pretty harrowing. Then Tannis describes how Clork was trying to admit some info until the agents sat on his face.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: She was driven mad after being stuck on the planet for way too long. As such, she has developed strange habits such as getting romantically involved with inanimate objects, among other things.
* CommonalityConnection: In an ECHO Log in the "Fantastic Fustercluck" DLC, she states that she finds a kindred spirit in Krieg, noting that despite not understanding a word he says she does relate to his atypical nature.
* CompanionCube: In the first game, she had a romantic relationship with an ECHO recorder that apparently ended in a messy breakup. Between the first and second games she had a polyamorous relationship with two "ceiling chairs" who were brothers, one of which was "killed" in front of her eyes by Hyperion.
* DissonantSerenity: Even when talking about the death and violence that surrounds her or her own torture, she rarely drops her condescending tone.
* {{Fangirl}}: In the third game, she tasks the players with finding the ECHO Logs of Typhon [=DeLeon=] and is clearly enamored with his escapades. [[spoiler:Even after it's revealed that he's [[{{Gonk}} not the most handsome person ever]], she's still thrilled at the fact that he's a widower]].
* {{Flanderization}}:
** An interesting and likely deliberate case. While her ECHO logs make it clear early on she isn't exactly all there, in the main game she's not so much crazy as she is [[InsufferableGenius insufferable]]. It isn't until ''Robot Revolution'' and the second game that her insanity ''really'' takes the spotlight.
** Especially noteworthy is that she goes from hoping everyone she meets (and tends to end up killing) will be her friend (and indeed being so lonely that she builds a robot duplicate of herself!) in the first game to being so horrified by the idea of contact with other people that she has a {{High Pressure|Blood}} {{Nosebleed}} at someone saying hello and a panic episode from someone calling her "pretty" in the second.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:When the Vault Hunters enter the Promethea Vault her image appears suddenly portrayed in real life, just like Angel and Lilith, which she claims is "a new form of Echo communication." This "Echo communication" also has the same vignetting as Angel's Siren communications, hinting that Tannis has become the new "Phaseshift" Siren.]]
* GogglesDoNothing: Wears a pair of goggles on her heads that serve no real purpose. They're available for Maya as a OldSaveBonus.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Well aware of it, but too far gone to care much.
-->'''Tannis Recording:''' Day 172. The fat girl, Chimay, was crushed under an alien ruin that collapsed today. She didn't... die right away and begged me to put her out of her misery as she choked on various fluids and bile. I hesitated because she was the last one alive that wasn't me. As she was choking, and coughing and dying, I tried to enjoy the interaction, I imagined it to be a conversation, as I knew it was the last I would have for a while. When I finally got around to smothering her so that I could continue my research, I could tell that she regretted the decision. The Skags had been waiting for this meal for a while; they will not go hungry tonight.
* HotScientist: She's at least attractive enough to have it noted by a resident of Sanctuary. She didn't take it very well.
* IJustWantToHaveFriends:
** She repeatedly claims this, but ends up murdering or driving away potential friends. This also seems to be exhibited in her tendency to create [[CompanionCube Companion Cubes]] despite otherwise being disdainful of other people. However, she warms up to Roland in particular after she got spittle on him while she was ranting and he was not disgusted. She claims that it was the first time in her life that she felt truly safe. She may have even developed a crush on him as ECHO recordings of the Torture Chairs mission have her mention "Roland, and his well-defined pectoral muscles" entrusting her with the Vault Key.
** It's also shown in the tie-in comics that she thinks very highly of Marcus. She goes so far as to identify him as her hero due to the fact that he took her in after she'd been living alone for year, after only meeting her in passing once years prior.
** Zig-zagged in the Hidden Journals questline as she literally popped a vein when another human being greeted her (with enough pressure to cover both of them in blood). She also apparently barricaded her home to soundproof it from other people's merriment, and dry-heaving into a bucket for 3 hours was considered ''an improvement'' for dealing with compliments.
* InsufferableGenius: As one of the smartest people on Pandora, she is incredibly condescending towards everyone. Lampshaded by Zed in the second game.
* ItsAllAboutMe: She always tells you to drop whatever "irrelevant" task you're doing to help her. At least a little of her behaviour can be written off as a combination of extreme isolation and the trauma that left her isolated (skags ate the rest of her team; she survived by hiding under a corpse). A little more because it's Pandora, planet of self-serving lunatics. The rest is just part of her...charm.
* MisanthropeSupreme: Downplayed, as she doesn't really ''hate'' people so much as finds them to be a nuisance and [[IWorkAlone just wants to be left alone.]]
* NoSocialSkills: Upon relocating to Sanctuary, one of her neighbors said hello, causing her to have an explosive nosebleed on the spot from sheer stress. Later, a young man calls her pretty, and she spends three hours dry-heaving into a bucket, which she considers progress. According to the mission text of the quest that has you gather the ECHO entries detailing said events, Tannis has [[UsefulNotes/AspergersSyndrome Asperger's Syndrome]], no doubt exacerbated by [[GoMadFromTheIsolation events in the first game]].
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: {{Downplayed|Trope}} with some fairly realistic limitations. She's an archaeologist, and throughout most of the series, rightfully proves herself to be the foremost expert on all things relating to the vault key. However, she also extends into other subjects. ''Robot Revolution'' has her trying to engineer a robotic version of herself with enough confidence that it'll work. In ''Fight for Sanctuary'', with her and Zed being the only "scientists" left around, she shows that she's knowledgeable enough in biology to work on an antidote for TheVirus, although she admits she lacks the expertise to properly synthesize one. In ''Borderlands 3'', she takes over for Doctor Zed as Sanctuary 3's physician and medical doctor (though he still runs his [[{{Autodoc}} vending machines]]), but she's covered in head to toe in blood from surgery, which shows that she's not the most experienced there either.
* PetTheDog: In the ''Son of Crawmerax'' DLC of ''2'', it's vaguely implied that she was the one who killed Maya's assassin for her, judging by how Maya's personal message matches her speech patterns.
* PsychopathicManchild: A female, Type C version. She's still as smart as ever but the long term trauma has made her kooky and a little childish.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Why does she want Jack dead? It's not that he tortured her. It's not that he ripped the Vault Key out of her hands after breaking them. It's because his minions sawed off the legs of a "ceiling chair" that she was falling for.
-->''"Revenge is as pointless as music, but on this occasion, I will allow myself the revenge, I will allow myself to aid in his downfall. Mark my words, Jack, you're going to die."''
* RobotMe: The reason she has the original Vault Hunters collect Claptrap parts for her.
* RunningGag: Within each game, there is always a hidden EasterEgg that involves Tannis riding a fish. Taken to its logical (or illogical) extreme in Claptastic Voyage where Claptrap's scientific curiosity is represented as a fish with Tannis' head.
%%* SanitySlippage: PlayedForLaughs in her ApocalypticLog.
* SkewedPriorities: Due to her insanity she often puts whatever she fancies at the moment above whatever it is you're doing, such as collecting audio logs or handling hazardous material while you're on a rescue mission or trying to find a cure respectively. Similarly she also does bizarre things to whatever you collect for her that is completely unrelated to what you thought you got them for, like listening to the Eridium experiments (which includes the horrifying deaths of many people) as entertainment.
* {{Technopath}}: [[spoiler:Having inherited Angel's "Phase Shift" siren power, Tannis can now do the same]].
* TooKinkyToTorture: In ''Borderlands 2'', her audio logs of her time under Hyperion torture indicate that she was less concerned with the actual torture and more concerned with the two "ceiling chairs" she had fallen in love with, and making sure the torturers' equipment was properly sterilized to prevent unnecessary infection. When you turn the audio logs in to her, she says that she'll whip up a cup of cocoa and listen to them ''as relaxation''.
* TookALevelInBadass: In ''3'', [[spoiler:Tannis reveals that she has becomes a Siren, having inherited [[{{Technopath}} Angel]]'s powers and trained with them in total secrecy. After being captured by the Children of the Vault, she is forced to expose her powers to break free of Pain and Terror's captivity]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Scooter]]
!Scooter
!!''Get you one!''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tftb_scooter.jpg\\
As of ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands''. Click to see him in: [[labelnote:''Borderlands 1'' (''General Knoxx'' DLC)]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Borderlands_2010-02-25_16-04-17-22_7028.png[[/labelnote]] - [[labelnote:''Borderlands 2'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl2_scooter.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': [[WebVideo/MoviesWithMikey Michael Neumann]]

The friendly owner and operator of Catch-A-Ride, which owns the vehicle digistruct stations across the planet. Scooter is loud, boisterous, and dumb as a bag of hammers -- except when it comes to machines.
----

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shep_sanders.png]]

Shep Sanders was a foreman employed by the Dahl Corporation. After Dahl pulled out of Pandora, he and his family were left behind, and the latter was eventually skinned by Sledge and a tent was built using their hides. Shep continues to oversee the operation of Zephyr Substation.
----
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Brick gouged his eyes out and cracked his skull open in retaliation for the fall of New Haven.
* KilledOffscreen: Killed sometime between ''1'' and ''2'' by Brick. His death is referenced in ''2'' by way of an ECHO recording.
* UngratefulBastard: He sold out New Haven to Hyperion, in spite of everything the Vault Hunters did for him.

'''Individuals and groups''': [[Characters/BorderlandsHyperion Hyperion]] ([[Characters/BorderlandsClaptrap Claptrap]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHandsomeJack Handsome Jack]]) | [[Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters Eridians and Vault Monsters]]\\

* TheExile: ''Borderlands 2'' reveals that he was more or less forced to move to Pandora after Hyperion sent assassins after him in an attempt to steal his weapon designs. Were it not for Blake tipping him off and suggesting him to move, he wouldn't even be alive. Er, undead. Whatever.

'''Miscellaneous''': [[Characters/BorderlandsWeaponBrands Other Weapon Brands]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsBanditsAndBanditFactions Bandits and Bandit Factions]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsCreatures Creatures]]-]]]]]

'''Miscellaneous''': [[Characters/BorderlandsWeaponBrands Other Weapon Brands]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsCreatures Creatures]]-]]]]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Nine_toes_6585.png]]

The leader of the bandits attacking Fyrestone in the first game.
----
* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Instead of just another Psycho as in the game, Nine-Toes from the comic ''The Fall of Fyrestone'' is a far more competent, intelligent, poetic individual. He's treated as a legitimate threat who actively destroyed Fyrestone and put a stop to Vault Hunters coming to the city.
* BadassBoast:
** "You woke the wrong dog."
** "I'm gonna rip your arm off and beat your baby with it!"
* BodyMotifs: Feet, as shown by the name "9 Toes", how his gun is called "The Clipper", and his skags are called "Pinky" and "Digit".
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: His character intro has a "Safety First" (with a fist logo) signpost covering his crotch.
* TheDragon: To Sledge.
** CoDragons: According to the strategy guide he and Bonehead are in competition to see who can destroy Fyrestone and solidify their place as Sledge's right-hand man.
* ExoticEquipment: "Also, he has three balls."
* ImAHumanitarian:
** "You remind me of my mother... I ''ate'' my mother."
** "I'm gonna ''eat'' you when I'm done!"
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Heavily implies to have shot off his tenth toe with his gun. Or, since the flavour text for the Clipper is "Don't drop it... might lose a toe", accidentally cut one off by dropping the (bladed) gun.
* KillItWithFire: His unique repeater pistol, the Clipper, has an incendiary effect. Incendiary damage is also probably the most effective way to take him both him and his two Skag pets.
* KingMook: He's basically a Psycho with lots of spikes who can actually use a gun. Stat-wise he's just a [[EliteMooks Badass]] bandit with a unique pistol, but since you haven't faced Badasses or Bruisers yet he's your first really challenging Bandit opponent.
* SpikesOfVillainy: Spikes adorn his shoulder armour, his head, and even his nipples.
* StarterVillain: The first official boss in the game.
* TooMuchInformation: Just read his BossSubtitles!
* WickedCultured: Nine-Toes comes off as a lot more well learned and poetic in the ''Fall of Fyrestone'' comic. Lilith just finds it annoying.
* WolfpackBoss: He's basically just a [[EliteMooks Badass]] bandit with a unique pistol, but the big challenge in this fight is that he's backed up by a pair of Badass Skags, his two pets Digit and Pinky.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sledge_shot01_8554.png]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/ChristopherSabat

A massive bandit leader characterized by a love of midgets and close combat.
----
* BackFromTheDead: Gets resurrected as Motorhead in ''Secret Armory.''
* CameBackWrong: Can be faced as a DLC boss as "Motorhead", where midget engineers have resurrected him as a mindless slab of muscles with miniguns where he head and arms should be.
* CloseRangeCombatant: He's armed with a shotgun and a sledgehammer, so he's pretty dangerous close-up and not so much at long range. However, he can catch up to you surprisingly quickly in the enclosed area you fight him in, especially if you trigger his TurnsRed state.
* DropTheHammer: As indicated by his name, he has a rather large sledgehammer as a melee weapon. In the second game, it's carried by Brick.
* HulkSpeak: "Sledge give little runt BIG Death!"
* TheJuggernaut: Befitting his role as the first WakeUpCallBoss in game, Sledge is incredibly strong. This is especially apparent in NewGamePlus and Moxxi's Underdome arena, in which he has significantly more health than other human bosses of similar level in addition to his helmet that protects him from headshots.
* LargeAndInCharge: Like Brick, he's a 7-foot tall slab of muscles, as well as the leader of the bandits in the Arid Badlands.
* LegacyCharacter: Seems to have a couple. Smashhead is an optional Goliath mini-boss in ''2'' (who has an increased chance to drop Sledge's Shotgun when killed), while Brick has also adapted several of Sledge's attributes. Sledge's helmet is also a head option for Salvador.
* MightyGlacier: He's pretty slow-moving, but he's got a really nasty rapid volley shotgun, lots of health, and thanks to his helmet he's completely protected from headshots unless you can hit the really small eye-slit. He also turns into a LightningBruiser if you miss the eye-slit and shoot him in the helmet.
* ShortRangeShotgun: He's the namesake of the infamous "Sledge's Shotgun", a Unique/Legendary Shotgun that's show up throughout the series that has massive damage but ludicrous spread.
* SpikesOfVillainy: Absolutely ''covered'' in spikes.
* TurnsRed: He normally moves at the same casual walk as the GiantMook Bruisers, but if you shoot him in his helmet he'll gain a large burst of speed for several seconds.
* WakeUpCallBoss: Angel refers to him as the first truly dangerous opponent you'll face. He's also the first of the game's 3 major bandit leaders.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mad_mel.png]]

Leader of the vehicle-riding bandits who have been stealing Scooter's runners in the first game.
----
* CoolCar: A skeletal repaint of the Monster (which you can access in the 3rd DLC). It can take a lot more damage than regular Bandit runners and is also equipped with a rapid-volley rocket launcher.
* DragonAscendant: It's mentioned he took over the Badlands bandits after you bumped off Sledge.
* KingMook: He uses the same character model as a regular Badass Bruiser, but you're unlikely to notice in-game since he never leaves his vehicle.
* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: He's the game's only boss fight that involves vehicle combat. This can also make him into ThatOneBoss since the game's vehicular combat is significantly less polished than its regular shooting combat, not to mention the fact the game's vehicle physics seem utterly broken on modern systems.
* PreAssKickingOneLiner: Spouts a generic Bruiser line, but effective nonetheless: ''"Come on little one, time to die!"''
* VehicularAssault: He spends his boss battle driving around in the aforementioned CoolCar, and ''will'' crush you under its tires if he can.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/krom.jpg]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/OliverTull

Bandit boss of the Rust Commons in the first game, and second in command to Baron Flynt.
----
* BaldOfEvil: He has a ponytail in the back, but other than that, he's entirely bald.
* CreepyHighPitchedVoice: In contrast to Sledge and Mad Mel, his voice is surprisingly high-pitched. He also has a very pronounced "redneck" accent.
* DyingDeclarationOfHate: One of his death quotes is him stating how much he hated Pandora anyway.
* EmbarrassingFirstName: According to his wiki profile (which got it from the strategy guide), his real name is Leslie.
* GatlingGood: Uses a gatling turret.
* GlassCannon: Krom dies very quickly for a boss. However his gatling gun will tear you apart if you don't take cover.
* KickTheDog: Randomly shoots a Claptrap before fighting you.
* LevelInBossClothing: You spend more time dealing with Krom's high ground advantage and his bandits than the man himself.
* MalevolentMaskedMen: The lower half of his face is covered with what appears to be a curiously designed dust mask and a collar of some sort.
* StationaryBoss: Due to fighting you on a turret instead of on foot.
* TheTurretMaster: Fights from the top of a canyon on a turret.
* UniquenessDecay: One of the defining traits of Krom's Sidearm was that it fired in bursts while aiming down the sight. This later became the main gimmick of Dahl firearms (ironically, his gun was manufactured by Atlas).
* WakeUpCallBoss: Krom stands out as someone that you can't immediately get close and shoot to death as he starts on top of a hill with several bandits protecting him, even sniping him is a tricky job. If you don't use cover often or proceed with caution, knowing what you're doing, he will make short work of you.

A pair of brothers fighting over a bandit town in Rust Commons East.
----
* CainAndAbel: Subverted. Taylor is just as bad if not worse than his brother, as it would turn out.
* CrazyPrepared: Taylor apparently puts armed midgets in storage containers (complete with beds and toilets) in case he has a sudden need to betray someone.
* KingMook: Both brothers use a generic Bandit Raider design, though both have miniboss-level health and shields and Taylor fights with a rocket launcher, which Bandit Raiders normally don't use.
* ObviouslyEvil: Taylor. The fact that he's a KingMook should have clued the player in that they would end up fighting him.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Baron_Flynt_5491.png]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/IanSinclair

The supreme leader of the bandits in the first game and the first of the Flynt siblings introduced in the series, he lords over the Salt Flats from an abandoned mining rig.
----
* CloseRangeCombatant: His shotgun has horrid accuracy, but given it fires rockets that have a moderate explosion size and the fact that fighting him without sniper rifles forces you to deal with a limited-sized arena, he can be very dangerous.
* CoDragons: His two GiantMook assistants, Hanz and Franz.
* CoolGun: His BoomStick, which is [[Franchise/EvilDead beyond Groovy]]. It's basically a Torgue shotgun that fires a rapid volley of rockets instead of pellets.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: He is the leader of the bandits, being the boss of Sledge, Mad Mel, and Krom. After him comes the Crimson Lance and the Guardians.
* EvilGloating: By far the most talkative bandit leader in the game, he taunts you several times over the radio before you finally confront him face-to-face. He also continues you taunt you over the radio during his boss fight, something other bosses don't do.
* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: According to cut dialog from his brother Captain Flynt in ''Borderlands 2'', Baron is literally his first name. [[WhoNamesTheirKidDude Their parents were douchebags]], though they evidently broke the pattern with Zane.
* KickTheDog: According to Tannis, Flynt punched her dog.
* LeanAndMean: Unlike all of the other bandit leaders, who are all huge mountains of muscle, Flynt's a lanky, regular-sized guy. Despite this, he's still very tough in a fight, and in fact has more overall durability than his own GiantMook bodyguards, partially due to having special damage resistance.
* LightningBruiser: He's rather nimble and his rocket shotgun hurts like a mother. Get caught by a volley of them and your character might fall in the Fight For Your Life state.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: He sits up on his chair even after you reach him. The only time he gets up and attacks you is after you kill Hanz and Franz.
* SmokingIsCool: Has a small lit... something whenever he appears.
* SophisticatedAsHell: His dialogue has shades of this, at least compared to all of the other bandit leaders.
* TheStoner: If his BossSubtitles are to be believed, that's not a cigarette.
* WardensAreEvil: According to the official strategy guide for the first game he was Pandora's Warden for the planet's convict labor force before Dahl abandoned the planet. Him being a former Dahl official also explains how he's able to constantly taunt you over the [=ECHOnet=], which bandits aren't supposed to be able to access.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_borderlands_2010-02-25_20-12-18-63_6342.png]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/StanRobak

The [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday extremely heterosexual]] leader of Lockdown Palace, and Moxxi's second husband. He kidnaps Athena in the Knoxx DLC.

* ArmoredButFrail: Shank has an extraordinarily strong shield that gives him full-on boss-level durability, but once that's gone his health is pretty mediocre (no higher than his own basic EliteMooks).
* BadBoss: In his boss intro cutscene he shanks one of his own men simply for calling him Shank instead of ''Mr.'' Shank.
* BaldOfEvil: As can be seen in his picture, Mr. Shank doesn't have any hair on his body.
* BodyHorror: As can be seen in his picture here. He has a knife jammed through his ''skull'' so that the tip is jutting out ''through his'' '''eye socket'''.
* DepravedBisexual[=/=]DepravedHomosexual: He used to be married to Moxxi, so he could be bi, or perhaps he realized he was gay during or after the marriage, or was just using her as a [[TheBeard beard]]. But we can all agree on the "depraved" part.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Judging by his dying words, his relationship with Chaz was a loving one. Despite Moxxi and him both being divorced and him possibly using her as TheBeard, she's still saddened by his death.
* FlyingUnderTheGaydar: Attempts this, but his romantic feelings for his boyfriend Chaz are pretty blatant. The question amongst fans isn't whether or not he's gay, but whether he's bi or was basically using Moxxi as TheBeard.
* FragileSpeedster: Shank's pretty damn fast, but can't take much damage once his shield is gone.
* InsistentTerminology: That's '''[=MR=].''' Shank.
* KnifeNut: He has several knives on his person and seems to ''really'' enjoy using them. Not to mention the knife he has jammed in his face.
* ManlyGay: Has shades of this, although he tries his best to cover it up. Also has some elements of MachoCamp. It's possible he's really just CampGay and that any masculine behaviour he displays is due to him trying to stay in the closet.
* MeaningfulName: Shank is a term for a prison stabbing. Mr. Shank runs a prison. He also has a knife stuck in his head and uses knives in combat.
* PetTheDog: After being freed, Athena notes that Mr. Shank and his men were actually fairly reasonable and benign jailers (even though they were still planning to ransom her to a murderous military force). It's indicated that, since he and apparently many of his men were gay, they had no real interest in taking liberties with a female captive.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Concerning his love affair with Chaz.
* TattooedCrook: He's a criminal who has tattoos and goes mostly naked to show them off.
* TeleportSpam: He uses an Atlas Assassin teleporter module (which he stole off Athena) to do this when you fight him.
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: He actually kills a prisoner for calling him "Shank".
* TransparentCloset: He tries to deny his homosexuality, but he's fooling nobody. Particularly in his lame attempts to claim he uses the virility/phallus enhancer "Engorge!" to please his "girlfriend" Chazmina.

[[folder:Steve]]
!Steve the Bandit
!!''Heyooo!''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steve_poker_night_2_sam_elimination_card_1389.png]]
->'''Voiced by''': [[WebVideo/MoviesWithMikey Mikey Neumann]]

Alongside Claptrap, the mascot of the series. In the second game, it turns out he works with the Zafords.

* BackForTheDead: Shows up in Episode 5 of ''Tales'' as the bandit that [=Zer0=] is shooting at.
* CatchPhrase: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy-jGa04nJg Heyoo!]]"
* CoolGun: As seen in ''Poker Night 2'', he owns a rocket launcher that shoots relatively harmless confetti rockets![[note]]Not in the picture we provided here however, which comes from that game, but it's of the only elimination where Steve [[Franchise/SamAndMax just walks in to eliminate a player]] [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/borderlands/images/6/6a/Steve_Heyo.png/revision/latest?cb=20130812064006 instead of firing a rocket at one.]][[/note]]
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Claptrap, according to Claptrap's webseries and ''VideoGame/PokerNight2''. [=GlaDOS=] even refers to Steve as Claptrap's best friend.
* MemeticBadass: In the second game, there's Bandit graffiti about "Steve the Lion-Heart" to suggest he's one in-universe.
* OhCrap: In ''Poker Night 2'', Steve's reaction when an angry [[WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers Brock Samson]] heads towards him after Steve shot a confetti rocket at him.
-->'''Steve:''' Heyooo! ''(shoots Brock)''\\
'''Brock:''' Excuse me... ''(menacingly heads towards Steve)''\\
'''Steve:''' ...[-Heyooo-]? ''(flees with Brock in pursuit, who catches up and begins audibly beating him)''
* SeriesMascot: The second of two of them, the first being [[RobotBuddy Claptrap]].
* UnexplainedRecovery: Was apparently killed in ''The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned'', but is found alive and well in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', both in The Dust and within The Holy Spirits tavern, apparently either a member of or working with the [[{{Oireland}} Zaford Clan]].

!!Atlas and the Crimson Lance

[[folder:Commandant Steele]]
!Commandant Helga Steele
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/commandant_steele_9259.png\\
As of ''Borderlands 1''. [[labelnote:Click to see her in the ''Claptrap'' DLC]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_steele_trap.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/LaniMinella

The leader of the Crimson Lance in the vanilla game, dedicated to finding and plundering the Vault first. Possibly the Siren Lilith came to Pandora to find, but that is never confirmed.

* AllThereInTheManual:
** Her first name is only stated in the game files.
** The ''Borderlands: Origins'' comics confirm that Steele is, in fact, a Siren, which explains how she was able to activate the Destroyer Vault's key. Apparently Handsome Jack didn't include her in his list of them because she was already dead at the time.
* BadBoss: Aside from treating her underlings like shit, in the backstory she knowingly sent Roland's squad on a suicide mission, then left them for dead when they were overrun. Of course, this ends up coming back to bite her in the end.
* TheBaroness: Not only does she have the personality type, but she also speaks with a Russian accent.
* BigBad: The closest thing that the game has to a main villain.
* BigNo: As the Destroyer eats her.
* BlatantLies: After tricking the Vault Hunter into going on a wild goose chase for Baron Flynt's nonexistent piece of the Vault Key, she claims that Tannis came to her and has been working with the Lance the entire time. Once the Vault Hunter finds Tannis she's in a cell with ''torture equipment'' just outside, proving that Steele was flat out lying.
* ButtMonkey:
** Not only does she get unceremoniously impaled mid-sentence, she then gets revived -- twice -- and her new Claptrap programming ensures her following deaths are as undignified as possible.
---> '''Steele-Trap:''' Unce, unce, unce... I was better off with a damn tentacle through my chest.
** Shows up in Tales from the Borderlands stuffed and as a museum piece. Shade's recounting of how she died doesn't help either.
* CameBackWrong: She is brought back as Steele-Trap during the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC.
* DarkActionGirl: This isn't evident in the main game, but it definitely shows in ''Robot Revolution''.
--> Have you met our friend the sun?!
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: The first possible interaction that the player can have with her, which doesn't always play, has her condemn you for agreeing to "assassinate" a "local leader". The "local leader" she's talking about? ''[[TheBrute Sledge.]]''
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: How the Destroyer kills her.
* InformedAbility: She demonstrates no special powers when you fight her as Steele-Trap, despite being a Siren, one of the most dangerous beings in the universe.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Her ''first'' guaranteed interaction with the Vault Hunter is a direct ECHO-broadcast where she tears into them for killing Sledge because they're a mercenary and she doesn't approve of anyone not affiliated with the Lance doing anything to police Pandora.
* KingMook: In the Claptrap DLC, she is more or less a [[EliteMooks Badass]] Lance Assassin with much better damage resistance.
* MotorMouth: According to Knoxx.
--> '''Knoxx:''' I sent Steele to this planet to take care of this little problem and also because... seriously, have you ''heard'' her? She talks all the time.
* PowerTattoo: She has Siren tattoos, although the powers she possesses remain a mystery. Even when fought as Steele-Trap she doesn't demonstrate any special Siren powers, mostly since because she died they jumped to a new host.
%%* SheFu: As Steele-Trap.
* TokenEvilTeammate: ''The Secret Armory of General Knoxx'' and ''Borderlands 2'' indicate that most of the Crimson Lance rank-and-file were actually decent people who just happened to be on the wrong side, with most of their KickTheDog moments being ordered by their Atlas superiors. Steele seems to have been one of the few genuine assholes in the organization, and even her villainy barely registers in comparison to the likes of Handsome Jack or the Calypso Twins.
* TouchedByVorlons: She is a Siren, but she never demonstrates any powers in the game (other than being able to operate the Vault Key).
* UnexplainedRecovery: She still has a hole in her torso from The Destroyer's tongue when she reappears in the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC as Steele-Trap, but as she was last seen being EatenAlive by The Destroyer it's not made clear how her body has become intact again or how Claptrap retrieved her.
* TheUnfought: layed straight in the main game. Inverted in the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, in which she comes back under the control of the Claptraps and fights the player characters twice.
* UnwillingRoboticisation: Rebuilt as ''Steele Trap'' in the Robot Revolution DLC.

[[folder:General Knoxx]]
!General Alphonso Knoxx
!!''Doesn't like Mondays''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Borderlands_2010-02-25_23-13-43-53_168.png\\
As of ''Borderlands 1'' (''General Knoxx'' DLC). [[labelnote:Click to see him in the ''Claptrap'' DLC]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_knoxx_trap.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/StanRobak

The beleaguered general of the Crimson Lance after Steele botches the job, he is deeply annoyed by everything to do with Pandora and his superior, the five-year-old Admiral Mikey.

* AceCustom: He's got a red Devastator mech suit that's much larger than even the Badass Devastator suits, can takes tons of damage, and is equipped with a pair of Eridian energy cannons that fire homing explosive energy blasts.
* AffablyEvil:
** He's routinely polite to the Vault Hunters and bears them no hard feelings, despite making it clear he intends to kill them. He also genuinely thanks them for killing Steele, considering he didn't like her very much, [[AssholeVictim and for good reason.]] Even his dying request that they should destroy Pandora because it's a CrapsackWorld that doesn't deserve to exist is pretty polite.
** He's even affable when being forced to fight as Knoxx-trap, encouraging the Vault Hunters on their efforts at killing him and congratulating them on critical hits.
** Retrospectively reinforced in The Pre-Sequel when playing through the "Boarding Party" side mission as Claptrap.
--> '''Claptrap:''' Good ol' General Knoxx! He was the nicest, politest, most suicidal killing machine you ever could meet! That's why I revived him during my robolution and-- ERROR. FILES LOCKED.
* AntiVillain: Type II. Knoxx just wants to get off Pandora, but he has to kill the Vault Hunters to finish the mission.
* ButtMonkey: Sees himself as this, given his OnlySaneMan attitude.
* CameBackWrong: In the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, much to his chagrin.
--> '''Knoxx:''' I'm back! Wait... I'm ''back''? ''Dammit''.
* TheCameo: In ''The Pre-Sequel'', Knoxx is the one who narrates Athena's personal ECHO logs.
* TheChewToy: His men disrespect him, his commanding officer is literally a child, and he's stuck on a CrapsackWorld. Oh, and he gets resurrected, ''twice'', when all he wants is to stay dead.
* DangerousDeserter: He would have been, if he'd gone through with his plans to kill the Vault Hunters and then leave the Crimson Lance for being full of idiots and incompetents.
* DeadpanSnarker: In his ECHO recordings.
* DeathSeeker: When you reach him, he's about to commit suicide, but decides to try killing the Vault Hunters instead. In the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, he is brought back to life twice and is not happy about it.
* DrivenToSuicide: Knowing that he can't finish his mission without witnessing another moment of incompetence and corruption from the Crimson Lance, he tries to kill himself, only to be interrupted by the Vault Hunters when they finally show up. He never even wanted to be on Pandora, either.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The first ECHO you receive from him begins with a ''very'' long-suffering sigh. And that sums up his attitude to Pandora, the Crimson Lance, his mission, the Vault Hunters, his underlings, his superiors, his life, and every other damn thing that goes on to happen from there.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The reason he was furious at his superiors for what they did to Athena was partially that he thinks it was just an incredibly dirty move on their part.
* EyepatchOfPower: Wears one.
* FlunkyBoss: Knoxx himself is pretty tough, what with his AceCustom mech suit, but what really makes him "final boss" difficult is the fact that he's accompanied by lots of Crimson Lance units, including Devastators ''and'' a Badass Devastator, as well as multiple Crimson Lance medics that can heal Knoxx to full health if you don't kill them quickly enough. This is most apparent in ''Claptrap's New Robot Revolution'', in which you fight Knoxx again, only this time he's by himself and is a noticeably easier fight.
* KingMook: Knoxx is basically an AceCustom Devastator (he's larger and has a ''lot'' more health), although he does have a few unique attacks and is also a FlunkyBoss.
* LargeAndInCharge: Courtesy of his enormous mech suit.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: It's implied. He's so fed up with the Crimson Lance's incompetence and corruption that he regrets working for them to the point where he wants to kill himself so that he doesn't have to bear witness to the utter insanity going on within the Atlas high command.
* OnlySaneMan: Sees himself as this among the Crimson Lance leaders. He's not wrong, given that the rank-and-file seem more concerned with ice-cream than their mission and they left a code [[TooDumbToLive that their lives depend upon]] at a blatant tourist trap where anyone could pick it up, the elites are AxCrazy (they were brainwashed as children then [[SelfMadeOrphan forced to murder their parents]]), and his boss is a ''five year old'' because of goddamn {{nepotism}}. All while he's trapped on a desert planet loaded with crazies and vicious alien wildlife, and someone is massacring his men with little effort. He's so fed up with the situation that when the Vault Hunters find him, he's [[DrivenToSuicide trying to kill himself to escape the madness.]]
* PetTheDog: The Pre-Sequel shows that he was actually quite fond of Athena, noting that she was a "nice enough kid" for a ChildSoldier and was pretty angry at his superiors when they ordered her to wipe out the village her sister lived in to cut off her remaining ties to the outside world, knowing that as well as it being a dick move that it will just lead to her wanting vengeance against them. For her part, Athena actually respected Knoxx and regretted that he had to die.
* PoweredArmor: Uses his own custom suit of Devastator armor, which is somewhere between here and MiniMecha.
* PunchClockVillain: He bears the Vault Hunters no ill will and isn't ideologically loyal to the Crimson Lance, but he's a career soldier who takes his work seriously.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: He's pretty pissed at Atlas for screwing Athena over, to say the least.
--> Knoxx: "You assholes. What the hell did she do to you to deserve THAT? You order a code 64 on a village knowing full well her sister LIVED THERE? For hell's sake, she took out her own sister in all the confusion because you ordered thermals only! You had to tie up that one last loose end just to keep her in the corp? So that's what happens when you know too much to leave, but you're too good at your job to die. When she realized what she'd done, she, uh -- she got a little stabby. She's in the brig now. Probably ship her back to Atlas HQ tomorrow. God, I hate this place."
* TragicVillain: It's an understatement to say that Knoxx is not happy with his current position. He's put in charge of a corporate private military that seeks to take over Pandora in the name of Atlas in order to establish a despotic reign. He's not loyal to the Crimson Lance in any way, but he still has to finish his mission regardless.
* TrappedInVillainy: Downplayed. Leaving the Lance is punishable by death, but since he knows how incompetent the Lance rank-and-file are and that his boss is a five-year-old, he's [[ExactWords not too worried that he'll be tracked to the other side of Grophic IV.]]
* UnwillingRoboticisation: His resurrection -- he ''wanted to die'', and bitterly demands you hurry up and kill him during the battle.

[[folder:Athena]]
See: ''Characters/BorderlandsThePreSequel''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Admiral Mikey]]
A five-year-old that was Admiral of the Crimson Lance 3rd Starborne Brigade, which unfortunately makes him Knoxx's superior officer. He's one of the reasons why Knoxx hates what Atlas is.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: He was a five-year-old boy and barely understood anything, let alone the situation on the ground. He tries sending General Knoxx some chocolate but seeing how it melted on the trip there it didn't warm him to the grumpy old man.
* TheGhost: He's frequently brought up but seeing how he's both a child and a high-ranking officer there was no way he'd show up in-game.
* ImprobableAge: He's '''five''' and an Admiral.
* PointyHairedBoss: He's a child, what do you expect?
* {{Nepotism}}: He was a five-year-old admiral and that was the only way he could ''ever'' be promoted, let alone serve.
* StaircaseTumble: According to General Knoxx's Website/{{Twitter}} account, [[https://twitter.com/GeneralKnoXX/status/18623320067 Mikey met his unfortunate end by falling down "30,000 stairs"]]. Seeing how he had no heirs, this led to more troubles for Atlas.

!!Minor Characters

[[folder:Shep Sanders]]
! Shep Sanders
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shep_sanders.png]]

Shep Sanders was a foreman employed by the Dahl Corporation. After Dahl pulled out of Pandora, he and his family were left behind, and the latter was eventually skinned by Sledge and a tent was built using their hides. Shep continues to oversee the operation of Zephyr Substation.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Brick gouged his eyes out and cracked his skull open in retaliation for the fall of New Haven.
* KilledOffscreen: Killed sometime between ''1'' and ''2'' by Brick. His death is referenced in ''2'' by way of an ECHO recording.
* UngratefulBastard: He sold out New Haven to Hyperion, in spite of everything the Vault Hunters did for him.

[[folder:Ernest Whitting]]
! Ernest Whitting
[[quoteright:181:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ernest_whitting_dr_f.png]]

One of the very few non-bandit residents of the Dahl Headlands. This enigmatic figure asks the Vault Hunters to save his friend, Lucky Zaford, from some bandits.

* {{BFG}}: As a reward for defeating Skagzilla, the largest Skag on Pandora, he gives you his Elephant Gun, a bolt-action sniper rifle that deals significantly more damage than normal but which lacks a scope and is limited to iron sights.
* MysteriousPast: Nothing is known about his background.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: His fate post-''Borderlands 1'' was never revealed.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Lucky Zaford]]
! Lucky Sleveen Zaford
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lucky_zaford_1.png]]

The proprietor of Lucky's Last Chance Watering Hole and son of Mick Zaford, leader of the Zaford clan.
----
* BuriedAlive: This is how he died. In a shallow grave, no less.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He was killed over a one-night stand he once had with [[ReallyGetsAround Moxxi]].
* DistressedDude: He was being held captive by some bandits when the Vault Hunters arrived in the Dahl Headlands.
* KilledOffscreen: Scooter reveals in ''The Secret of General Knoxx'' that he buried Lucky alive in a shallow grave.
--> Scooter: ''Yeah, I killed him, don't act all surprised. I told you I was gonna do it.''
* PosthumousCharacter: His death is occasionally refered in ''2'' during the Hodunks-Zafords feud arc.
[[/folder]]

!!Jakobs

[[folder:Dr. Ned]]
! Dr. Ned Blanco
!!''I'm Helping!''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_imhelping_3225.png\\
As of ''1'' (''Dr. Ned'' DLC, original appearance). Click for: [[labelnote:''Dr. Ned'' second appearance]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_undead_ned.jpg[[/labelnote]] - [[labelnote:''Claptrap'' DLC]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bl1_dr_ned_trap.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/RicSpiegel

Zed's identical twin brother, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial who is not just Zed with a mustache]]. The main antagonist of the Zombie Island DLC.
----

'''Individuals and groups''': [[Characters/BorderlandsClaptrap Claptrap]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsHandsomeJack Handsome Jack]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters Eridians and Vault Monsters]]\\
'''Miscellaneous''': [[Characters/BorderlandsWeaponBrands Weapon Brands]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsCreatures Creatures]]-]]]]]

[[quoteright:331:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Guardian_Angel_in_Borderlands_2_5854.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:331: Angel's original projection]]
[[quoteright:331:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tumblr_ppecujzvlv1rvumbpo1_400.png]]
[[caption-width-right:331: Angel's projection in the remastered ''Borderlands'']]
[[quoteright:331:[[labelnote:Click to see her actual appearance. (Spoilers)]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/angel_2_5487.png]][[/labelnote]]
->'''Portrayed by''': Creator/BritanniJohnson, '''Voiced by''': Creator/JenniferGreene

A mysterious woman who helps both sets of Vault Hunters with information and missions. She is revealed to be broadcasting from a hacked Hyperion satellite named "[[LeetLingo 4N631]]" at the end of the first game.

In the second game, she continues to help, and even admits to being an A.I. Except, [[AndIMustScream as revealed later on, not really.]] However, she betrays the Vault Hunters halfway through the game, nearly getting Sanctuary destroyed in the process. Turns out she's Jack's daughter and a Siren, plugged into the Hyperion network and pumped full of Eridium to charge the Vault Key.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Subverted and zigzagged. She appears to be an A.I. and admits it in the second game (she's not), and misled the original Vault Hunters and betrays the second group of Vault Hunters on Jack's orders.
* AbusiveParents: Jack's used her as an organic computer since she was a child and punishes her with electric shocks when she won't do as she's told. Despite this, he honestly seems to love her and believes himself to be protecting her.
* AccidentalMurder: A sidequest in ''3'' reveals she did this to [[spoiler:her mother/Jack's wife]] when her powers were still fairly new and she hadn't learned to control them; she subconsciously activated a bandit's turret to free herself from said bandit, but [[spoiler:her mom]] was still on the line of fire. [[spoiler:This event became Jack's DispairEventHorizon, causing his hatred of bandits and giving him a reason to lock her away so it won't happen again]].
* AndIMustScream: Trapped in the "throne" Jack made for her when she was a child.
* ArtShift: The remastered version of both the first two ''Borderlands'' games turn the live-action footage from a video with filter effect to dot-matrix effect.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: How does she get the request to put Sanctuary back on the Fast Travel Network put through? By cutting off the life support on the Hyperion lunar base.
-->'''Angel:''' Nothing gets results like a death threat.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Her final words to Jack.
-->'''Angel:''' Dad... I have to tell you something. You're an ''asshole''.
* CatchPhrase: In the second game, she uses the phrase "Executing Phaseshift" whenever she uses her powers.
* ClimaxBoss: Killing Angel is what much of ''Borderlands 2'' builds up to, and the boss fight against her caps off the BigBadassBattleSequence of the game. In addition, her death sets the stage for the final missions of the game.
* CoresAndTurretsBoss[=/=]FlunkyBoss: She must be killed by destroying the Eridium Injectors in the chamber, while automated turrets, environmental hazards and an endless horde of very tough mooks keep spawning in. Unusually, she isn't the one summoning these things, Jack is - in fact, she even tries her best to help you fight the defenses that her father spawns in the room.
* DeadpanSnarker: Becomes one in the second game.
* DeathSeeker: She'll do anything to escape her father... even though being disconnected from Eridium will kill her.
* DesignatedVillain: Invoked in universe. In ''Assault on Dragon Keep'', Tiny Tina shoehorns Angel's ''[[MagicAmpersand Bunkers & Badasses]]'' counterpart into a villainous role after building her up as an ally, because she blames Angel for Roland's death. Lilith, who was captured and forced into Angel's position herself, can't help but protest.
* DrivenToSuicide: Appears to be in her early twenties to late teens, has been imprisoned as a WetwareCPU, emotionally and physically abused, been used as little more than a tool by her father, and rendered immobile due to her father making her body dependent on Eridium. As such, she [[UnwittingPawn enlists you, the Vault Hunter]], to break into her chambers and kill her.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Her paleness could possibly be due to being kept imprisoned for most of her life, though the other sirens we've seen in-game, (possibly) including Steele, have all been pretty pale as well.
* FashionableAsymmetry: In the second game, her hair is short on one side and longer on the other. This is a hint that she is both a Siren, sharing the same asymmetry as Lilith and Maya, and that one side of her head is shaved, with cybernetic implants on that side.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: There are subtle clues to her true identity throughout the early part of the second game.
** The use of the phrase "phase shift", and Jack commenting in a recording that he knows the identities of three of the six Sirens in the universe. Though that also doubles as a RedHerring, given that ''[[VideoGame/Borderlands1 Borderlands 1]]'' players are likely to assume that the third will be Steele. Except she's not.
** Speaking of the phrase "phase shift", virtually all Siren powers where the names are known are "Phase (something)" such as "Phasewalk" (Lilith), "Phaselock" (Maya), "Phasegrasp/Phaseslam/Phasecast" (Amara). So... yeah... there's that...
** The ending of the first game foreshadows her involvement with Hyperion -- the Hyperion satellite seen orbiting Pandora has "4N631" (ANGEL) written on the side of it.
** Early on in the second game, she's shown interfacing with Hyperion technology without any problems, but she's unable to hack Scooter's Catch-A-Ride stations until the Vault Hunters salvage a component from a wrecked Hyperion robot nearby, again hinting at her ties to Hyperion.
** The second game's NonstandardCharacterDesign contains a subtle hint as to what she actually looks like. In the first game, she has full-length hair going down both sides of her head. Her appearance in the second game (shown above) has short hair on one side and longer on the other. The short hair is due to the left side of her head being shaved and having some kind of cybernetic implants inserted. The asymmetry is also a subtle hint that she's a Siren, as Lilith and Maya are also asymmetrical in clothing design.
** The way Jack addresses her and chastises her. Rather than his usual faux-casual threats, he sounds... parental.
---> '''Jack:''' You and I are having a serious talk once this is over!
---> '''Jack:''': Say goodbye to your friends Angel! Say it!
** Jack's horrid treatment towards Angel also foreshadowed certain a quest after her death, at Eridium Blight. Turns out his treatment towards his own daughter acted as a reflection on how much pain he was going through with his grandmother, [[FreudianExcuse with a nasty buzzaxe to prove it]]. Of course, [[NeverMyFault he doesn't make the connection]].
* ElectronicEyes: Her radio portrait in ''Borderlands 2'' has glowing blue electronic eyes that appear red in extreme close-ups.
* GoshDarnitToHeck[=/=]LastSecondWordSwap: In ''Borderlands 2'', she doesn't seem to like cursing, even though she almost does it a few times. This is due to conditioning by her father. Her last words, however, [[PrecisionFStrike has her calling her dad an asshole]].
* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: She isn't just ''called'' the Guardian Angel: her ''name'' is Angel.
* ICannotSelfTerminate: Not by behavioral limitations, mind you. She's sealed inside a containment field and has one of Jack's control collars around her neck, and can only have a limited effect on the outside world, especially when Jack starts reigning her in more tightly.
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: Isolated all her life by her slavery, she's incredibly lonely. She becomes ''severely'' distraught when Jack makes her betray the original Vault Hunters ''and'' the new ones. She even says in a very sad, quiet voice, "We are not friends anymore, are we?"
* KnownOnlyByTheirNickname: She's primarily known as the Guardian Angel amongst the Vault Hunters. Turns out Angel is her actual name.
* MoralityPet: Averted. Despite being the only person Jack truly loves aside from himself, his treatment of Angel solidifies just how evil he really is. Instead...
* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Revealed to be this in the second game, with Handsome Jack being her father.
* MercyKill: Near the end of ''2'', Roland, Lilith and the second batch of Vault Hunters team up to shut down her life support in Control Core Angel.
* MissingMom: The fate of her mother/Jack's ex-wife is never made clear. Jack claimed that Angel accidentally killed her with with her powers, which is why he put her in Control Core Angel to begin with, but audio files about Jack's past indicate that she had insisted that "the Angel" be shut down before her "disappearance". Mentioning her in front of Jack is one of his {{Berserk Button}}s. In ''Tales'', Jack reveals that it was his second wife who insisted Angel be shut down (well, he claims she bolted after finding out about Angel). He also reiterates that Angel killed her birth mother, his first wife, [[spoiler:which is confirmed in ''3'' where it's revealed that while being held hostage by a bandit, Angel took control of a turret that killed said bandit as well as her mother]].
* MissionControl: In all of the first game and some of the second.
* TheMole: In ''Borderlands 2''. Subverted in that she doesn't want to be.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:When she accidentally kills her mother after taking control of a bandit's turrets during a memory]] in ''3.''
* NiceGirl: Easily a strong contender for the nicest character in the series.
* NonstandardCharacterDesign: She appears to the Vault Hunters as an FMV of a real woman whenever she's communicating to them until you actually reach her. Afterwards, Lilith uses the same manner of communication when she's forced to replace Angel.
* OneWingedAngel: Puns aside, in Tiny Tina's ''[[MagicAmpersand Bunkers & Badasses]]'' campaign in ''Assault on Dragon Keep'', she turns into a [[SpiderPeople drider]] after you unchain her in the dungeon.
* OnlySaneWoman: In both games. While she seems mostly unaware of the absurdity of everything going on around her in the first game, she's [[CharacterDevelopment taken to]] [[DeadpanSnarker commenting on it]] in the second. She's also one of the few characters who displays a fondness for Claptraps, though she acknowledges that they're largely an annoyance.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Her dialogue becomes notably less snarky and much more stilted in the second game whenever she is lying to you, such as when you encounter Wilhelm.
* OutOfFocus: For as heavily plot-relevant that she is in both ''Borderlands'' and ''Borderlands 2'', the only lines she has in ''The Pre-Sequel'' are for a side quest where Jack is scouting out prospective Vault Hunters to help his mission on Elpis, and in Fragtrap's origin echo logs, and she has no echo portrait when she speaks. Granted, the story focuses on Jack, but he uses her extensively all throughout the series. At the least, Jack keeps a framed picture of her as a child at his office desk.
* PeekABangs: On her actual physical body, the hair on the left side of her face completely covers that eye.
* PhlebotinumDependence: Due to Jack pumping her full of Eridium, Angel can no longer survive without it.
* PowerGivesYouWings: White ones. Whether these are actually the wings she normally manifests, or if they're an effect from the Vault Key (as Lilith has the same color wings when she is being used to power the Key) is unclear.
* PowerTattoo: Like the other Sirens.
* RegretfulTraitor: After Jack forced her to betray the Vault Hunters, who she saw as her friends, it's clear that she immediately feels terrible about having done it and desperately wants to make amends.
-->'''Angel''': I'm so ''tired'' of manipulating people...
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Her "phase shift" requires direct access to Hyperion technology. This is why in the first game, when Steele shuts down the ECHO network, she is effectively blinded, and in the second game, why Handsome Jack needs you to sneak a Hyperion power core into Sanctuary's shield network. She also cannot take control of machinery when an operator is directly controlling it. The engineers who tried to stop her from launching a Fast Travel beacon discovered that she still has control over their life support, though.
* RonTheDeathEater: InUniverse in ''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep'', where Tina, blaming her for Roland's death, has her counterpart in her game be DaddysLittleVillain, whereas Angel actually wanted to ''help'' the Vault hunters.
* SelfMadeOrphan: Jack implies she accidentally killed her mother with her uncontrolled powers. ''3'' finally reveals that [[spoiler:as a child, she was captured by a bandit intent on making himself obscenely wealthy by selling a Siren on the black market, and her mother was killed in the crossfire when she panicked and used Phaseshift to take control of his turrets.]]
* ShrinkingViolet: Defied. She's definitely timid in Jack's presence, but she goes out of her way to make friends with the Vault Hunters.
* ShutUpHannibal: Her response to Jack trying to justify everything he's ever done on the grounds that it was to "protect her."
-->'''Angel''': (''To the Vault Hunters'') Promise me you'll kill him, friend.
* {{Technopath}}: Her Phase Shift abilities seem to manifest as an ability to manipulate technology, specifically Hyperion tech, including the means to digistruct objects at will and process enormous amounts of data. WordOfGod states that her siren ability is a manipulation and creation of artificial realities, in and outside of technology. In the original concept art, when the Vault Hunters cross into the Control Core, they walk into a... home. They weave through all the very normal rooms, until they find her in the kitchen. The same as what happens in game, Jack yanks her out, shattering her safe illusion. Due to time constraints and the trickiness of level building, they instead opted for the strange purple ethereal realm depicted, but apparently that's part of the same process. If they'd done it, it would have doubled a tear-jerker, all the amazing things that are only in the limits of her imagination to create, she builds the safety of a home around her. Then Jack ruins it too.
* TouchedByVorlons: Comes with being a Siren.
* UnreliableExpositor: Much of what she says in the first game about the Vault is revealed to be an outright lie in the second.
* UnroboticReveal: Her last appearance reveals her as a Siren, not an ArtificialIntelligence.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:If she wasn't held hostage by a bandit as a little girl and accidentally activating her {{Technopath}} powers to make his turret shoot wildly, she wouldn't have accidentally killed her mother, an event Jack never forgave her for, setting up her eventual solitary confinement and his StartOfDarkness which begins his behind-the-scenes rise in ''1'', is elaborated upon in ''The Pre-Sequel'' and manifested fully in ''2''.]]
* VagueAge: It's unclear how old she is or how long Jack has held her prisoner (though definitely since childhood). [[spoiler:A side-mission in ''3'' suggests she may have only been in her early to mid-teens during the events of the first game, if the drawing she did of herself with the first team of Vault Hunters is any indication, which would only put her in her late teens or just out of them around the time of her death. [[https://www.artstation.com/artwork/baxZLr A piece of concept art]] for Borderlands 3 depicts an X-Ray from when Jack put the implants in her skull, listing her age as ''thirteen'' - her drawing of the first set of Vault Hunters depicts her as already having them.]]
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Regularly communicates with both sets of Vault Hunters over the ECHO network, and in the second game, is "networked into everything" on Pandora.
* WalkingSpoiler: Thanks to ''2''.
* WetwareCPU: Among other things, this is how Jack uses her -- she perpetually has the whole of the [=ECHOnet=] at her fingertips and can call up codes, blueprints, surveillance videos, recordings, or anything else digital upon request if there's a means for her to reach it (and if there isn't, she can usually come up with a way to make one). She profiled the new Vault Hunters and knows their pasts in detail. ...Except [=Zer0=]. All she can say about him is "I'unno."

[[/folder]]

!!Bandits

[[folder:Nine-Toes]]
! Nine-Toes
!!''Also, he has three balls.''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Nine_toes_6585.png]]

The leader of the bandits attacking Fyrestone in the first game.
----

! Mr. Jeffrey Damien Blake
!!''Vice President of Hyperion''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mr__Blake_668.png]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/RBruceElliott

The surprisingly reasonable vice president of Hyperion. He hires the Vault Hunters in the Robot Revolution DLC of the first game, but is only heard in ECHO logs in the second.
----
* BeleagueredAssistant: [[BadBoss Handsome Jack treats him like a butler]] more than anything else.
* BenevolentBoss: Surprisingly, despite the flames and his devil horns, he is a very reasonable executive. Unlike most corporate executives you have seen so far, he did not backstab the vault hunters [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness after the job is done]] and compensated them ''very'' generously. In the sequel, it's revealed that he warned TK Baha and Dr. Zed that Hyperion was coming after them and politely suggested that they escaped while they still could.
* DeadpanSnarker: He has his moments.
-->'''Blake:''' We at Hyperion have always valued our relationship with the treasure hunters on Pandora, so I know you'll leap at the chance to help us out. ...[[NiceJobBreakingItHero Particularly since you killed our last team]].
* DemotedToExtra: He is the brains behind the plan to stop the Claptrap uprising in ''Robot Revolution'' and gives all but one of the story missions. In the second game, he is only heard through ECHO recordings. In the third, he is only mentioned through Hyperion loyalty packages.
* TheDragon: Being the Vice President of Hyperion implies that he is this to Jack, but...
** DragonWithAnAgenda: He warned TK Baha about how Hyperion Assassins were coming for him and suggested he take his wife and run while he still could, and he made the same warning to Dr. Zed later on. In Jack's AMA, [[http://www.reddit.com/r/Borderlands/comments/2irv09/hey_kiddos_handsome_jack_here_ama_about_how_im/cl4x5c8?context=10000 he mentions]] that he's pretty sure that Blake is trying to get him killed so he can take his job.
** DragonAscendant: According to an ECHO scan in the final episode of ''Tales'', Blake was acting-CEO of Hyperion before Jack's return.
** Strangely enough however, the ECHO logs in "Get to Know Jack" seem to indicate that he was Jack's lackey before he even became president, at least sometime between the Pre-Sequel and Tassiter's assassination.
* EnigmaticMinion: At the least, while he's openly contemptuous of everyone in Pandora, his actions suggest that he's a lot less evil than, say, Handsome Jack.
* TheGhost: Is this in ''3'', where he's the one sending the Vault Hunters care packages whenever they get enough Hyperion weapon kills.
* HornedHairdo: More subtle than some examples, though.
* MaliciousMisnaming: A subject to one. Jack repeatedly gets Blake's first name wrong, [[{{Jerkass}} very likely on purpose]].
--> '''Jack:''' Anything else on today's agenda, Jimmy?\\
'''Blake:''' It's "Jeffrey", sir. And no.\\
'''Jack:''' [[{{Troll}} Thanks, Jimmy]]!
* MissionControl: Provides all but the first story mission in ''Claptrap's New Robot Revolution''.
* MouthOfSauron: He's evidently Hyperion's representative when dealing with bandits and mercenaries, since he's also the head of Tourism and Mercenary Relations.
* ObviouslyEvil: Subverted. His intro scene gives off this impression, but he's actually perfectly reasonable.
* OnlySaneMan: The first corporate suit in the ''entire game franchise'' who isn't a PsychopathicManchild (Torgue, Handsome Jack, probably most of Atlas' management), [[ComedicSociopathy comedically sociopathic]] (...it's ''Borderlands''), a BadBoss, venal and profit-obsessed to the point of being TooDumbToLive (Jakobs), or succumbing to any other various inanities. ([[VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands Vaughn and maybe Rhys]], depending on player actions, later join the short list of non-deranged executives.)
* PetTheDog: Warning TK Baha and his wife about Hyperion's approaching assassins, and later telling Dr. Zed to leave Fyrestone before the Hyperion robots evict him by force. It would have been easier and inconsequential for him to have simply let them die, but it seems that he is reasonable enough to give a fair warning to anybody who is on Hyperion's kill-list.
* PunchClockVillain: He is this under Handsome Jack.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: In the Claptrap DLC, he's generally polite and helpful and rewards the Vault Hunters properly after everything is said and done. In ''3'', he's the one who gives the players brand loyalty rewards for killing enough people with Hyperion weapons.
* SharpDressedMan: He dresses very smartly compared to everyone else on Pandora... although he starts to lament it, given the local weather conditions.
-->'''Blake:''' Why, ''why'' did I decide to wear wool in the desert?
* ThrowTheDogABone: ''Borderlands 3'' reveals that he managed to survive both Handsome Jack's reign of terror and its equally messy aftermath, and is now occupied as the 'President of Mercenary Relations and Tourism' for his company.
* TheVoice: Is only heard in ECHO recordings and broadcasts in ''Borderlands 2''.

* NiceGuy[=/=] OnlySaneMan: To an extent -- slightly less so in the sequel, if his shades of MadScientist are anything to go by. He's still more or less the most morally upstanding member of the supporting cast, not counting Roland or Helena Pierce [[spoiler:who's no longer alive by the time the sequel takes place]].
* OnSecondThought: In the "Arid Nexus - Badlands" level of ''2'', the players can collect five ECHO recordings detailing [[spoiler:how Fyrestone fell to Hyperion]] as part of a challenge. The last one of these is found inside of his clinic, set in the same place it was back when the area was known as [[VideoGame/Borderlands1 the "Arid Badlands"]]. [[spoiler:Up to that point, Zed chose to stay in Fyrestone and if needed die there, however, during Hyperion's takedown, he switches his mind at the last minute]]. It doesn't help that you get to this area during the climax of the game.

** [[spoiler:Jack]] found this out the hard way in ''The Pre-Sequel''.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: While her actions on Pandora are already questionable at best while tainted white in ''Borderlands 2'', yet [[MaleGaze nobody seemed to care anyway]], it gets darker when she [[spoiler:tries to kill Jack and his hired Vault Hunters by blowing up the Eye of Helios while the space station in question is filled with innocent civilians and repenting Dahl soldiers all out of fear that Jack may become a threat to them. In fairness, he ''had'' already built an enormous space laser pointed at Pandora with intent to use it before that point, so it isn't as if she was doing it for unjustified reasons.]]

* GoldDigger: She spared her last ex, because he was good with money (and his hands). She later dated Handsome Jack, until he got too overprotective and she broke up with him [[spoiler:The fact that he was a dangerous psychopath even before he went completely off the rails probably contributed more then a little too]]. He then proceeded to destroy the Underdome.

** She also runs a bar on Elpis. She mostly stays away from it because Janey Springs uses it as an excuse to "accidentally" run into her. [[spoiler:Appropriately, she leaves it after Jack and the Vault Hunters may no longer be considered "good" anymore. Although pragmatically it's because she just screwed Jack and almost killed the vault hunters, so it's not entirely safe anymore.]]
* GuileHero: [[spoiler:In ''The Pre-Sequel'', she tricks Jack and his Vault Hunters into destroying the Destroyer's eye in an attempt to kill them. Had Jack and his goons not decided to activate the sequence remotely, she would have succeeded in the latter]]. Brick and Mordecai are actually impressed at how crafty she is.

* HiddenDepths: She's got a few. She admits in ''2'' that her constant innuendos are a defense mechanism, while in ''The Pre-Sequel'', it turns out that she's actually a mechanic nearly as good as her children (and with an equally thick accent), but she finds this embarrassing. Near the end of the game, she [[spoiler:helps Lilith and Roland try to kill Jack]], which would have instantly smoothed over her problems with Mordecai if she had ever told him.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: One of the reasons she dumped Mordecai for [[spoiler:Jack]]. Her relationships with Mr. Shank and Motor Momma could also qualify. Though it turns out that [[spoiler:she dumped Jack because she could tell he was a psychopath underneath his nice-guy exterior, and was proven right when he burned down her Underdome in retaliation, among other atrocities.]]

* MyBelovedSmother: Towards Ellie. She does not like the fact that Ellie intentionally puts herself in danger by being involved with her old clan and constantly bothers her about being massively overweight. But Ellie seems quite capable of taking care of herself and has no [[FatAndProud problems with her body image]] and claims to have plenty of male admirers. [[spoiler:(One of which being... [[BrotherSisterIncest Scooter]])]].

** In ''The Pre-Sequel!'', she is this as well especially in comparison to [[CloudCuckooLander Janey]] and [[LeeroyJenkins Lilith]]. Roland seem to be the only one on the same page as her. [[spoiler:There's a good reason for this though; she's planning to kill Jack.]]
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:The Fight for Sanctuary DLC shows that she misses Scooter dearly and a sidequest involves helping her fill out his last requests]].

** In the Handsome Jackpot DLC, while she initially regards Timothy as a gutless coward loyal to Jack, by the end of the story she shows actual concern for him, refusing to leave him to his fate. [[spoiler:She also revealed that when Jack sent him on a date with her in his place, she knew full well who he was but still went out with him, implying that he might have a shot at a second date]].

** So far, we know she's had three husbands (Jimbo, Mr. Shank, and Marcus) and possibly had more between games, has had many lovers which have given her kids (Scooter, Ellie, and two more unnamed ones), had sex with Lucky, and she used to date Mordecai, whom she dumped for [[spoiler:Handsome Jack]], of all people. So, yeah, she really seems to enjoy being on her back a lot. It was also revealed she used to date Motor Momma.

* WrenchWench: ''The Pre-Sequel!'' shows that in her private time, she's a mechanic like her kids. Unlike her kids, she's very self-conscious about being caught tinkering since she also reverts to her Hodunk accent. Also unlike her kids, she shows more aptitude in electronics than mechanics, and she ''does'' have the technical vocabulary and knowledge to explain it, rather than just an intuitive grasp of machines. She's mechanically adept enough to reprogram a loader to speak only in innuendo (though the robot in question absolutely loathed it) as well as being able to [[spoiler:sabotage Jack's superweapon]].

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Has no problem hiring the Vault Hunters to eliminate his competition. Or with convincing a gullible new arrival that he is The Chosen One, foretold by prophecy, in order to sell him a gun. And then he sends the player to recover the gun so can resell it when [[spoiler:the "Chosen One" ends up getting killed.]]

** He's not above selling to the Crimson Raiders' enemies, including the Bloodshot bandits (who worship him as "The Gunbringer").
*** Still hasn't learned his lesson as of the ''Commander Lilith'' DLC; when you [[spoiler:return to Sanctuary and see how messed up his store is, he remarks that he will ''stop'' selling the New Pandoran Army weapons as retribution. These guys have already thrown him out of his home and are on the verge of killing everyone on the planet]], but this is where he draws the line.

** In the Mercenary Day DLC, Marcus reveals he doesn't like selling guns to the people of Gingerton because they'll just give them away for free. Later on, [[spoiler:he attempts to steal back the guns he sold them so he can keep both his money ''and'' his merchandise.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Very rarely, he breaks down and acts like a decent human being. Notably, in the second game, when [[spoiler:Roland dies]], he is seriously shook up by it, and when you set out to kill Jack in the final storyline quest, he'll give you a free blue-rarity weapon, not because Hyperion is disrupting his arms trade, but because Handsome Jack is a "greedy murdering sonofabitch who needs to die screaming".

* PornStash: In the second game, he sends the players to retrieve his most valuable treasure lost after [[spoiler:Sanctuary takes flight]], which turns out to be dirty pictures of Moxxi. You're then given the option to either bring them back to Marcus or to Moxxi... who plans to post them online.

* AscendedExtra: In the first ''Borderlands'' Tannis was a late-game quest-giver and MsExposition who lost importance the moment her mini-arc was over. By the end of ''3'' Tannis is arguably the most important NPC in the series [[spoiler: as a Siren, the leading authority on Eridian civilization, and one of the highest-ranking Crimson Raiders still alive]].

** Especially noteworthy is that she goes from hoping everyone she meets (and tends to end up killing) will be her friend (and indeed being so lonely that she [[spoiler:builds a robot duplicate of herself!]]) in the first game to being so horrified by the idea of contact with other people that she has a {{High Pressure|Blood}} {{Nosebleed}} at someone saying hello and a panic episode from someone calling her "pretty" in the second.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: When the Vault Hunters enter the Promethea Vault her image appears suddenly portrayed in real life, just like Angel and Lilith, which she claims is "a new form of Echo communication." This "Echo communication" also has the same vignetting as Angel's Siren communications, hinting that Tannis has become the new "Phaseshift" Siren.]]

* PetTheDog: In the Son of Crawmerax DLC, [[spoiler:it's vaguely implied that she was the one who killed Maya's assassin for her, judging by how Maya's personal message matches her speech patterns]].

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Why does she want Jack dead? It's not that he tortured her. It's not that he ripped the Vault Key out of her hands after breaking them. [[spoiler:It's because his minions sawed off the legs of a "ceiling chair" that she was falling for.]]

* TookALevelInBadass: In ''Borderlands 3'', [[spoiler:Tannis reveals that she has becomes a Siren, having inherited [[{{Technopath}} Angel]]'s powers and trained with them in total secrecy. After being captured by the Children of the Vault, she is forced to expose her powers to break free of Pain and Terror's captivity]].

** Laney joins a band of cannibals because it's the only place she can avoid Scooter's sexual advances. Daisy takes one listen to a love poem he composes for her and [[spoiler:[[DrivenToSuicide immediately commits suicide.]]]]

** He appears to have a thing for Fiona too. She's appropriately horrified. [[spoiler:She didn't have to worry about that for long, with him dying in Episode 4 of ''TalesFromTheBorderlands'', although you do have the option to have Fiona give him a LastKiss so that he dies happy.]]

* BookEnds: The player is introduced to Scooter after jumping over Piss Wash Gully in a car. [[spoiler:His send-off from the series has the player making a similar jump over his memorial site.]]

* DeadManWriting: [[spoiler:Scooter's death is openly spoiled in ''Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary'' and a side quest requires you to fulfill his final requests that he recorded in an ECHO log, knowing that he will die soon.]]
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:His HeroicSacrifice in ''Tales of the Borderlands'' Hell, knowing him it's probably how he's always wanted to go.]]
* EasilyForgiven: Zigzagged in the sequel. [[spoiler:The "Swallowed Whole" sidequest reveals that he was planning to kill you for hacking the Catch-A-Ride system at the beginning of the game, but instead settles for sending you on a dangerous mission to kill a midget in a stalker-infested cavern. Once you make it back alive, he declares that your hacking is in the past now and he will definitely not kill you, probably.]]
* TheEngineer: Support engineer for the protagonists of both games. Seriously, moving around Pandora would be a '''BITCH''' if the player didn't have access to his Catch-A-Ride terminals. Hell, he's even the main engineer for [[spoiler:''the flying city of Sanctuary''. The fact he actually gets trusted with the maintenance of it is testament to his skill]].

** Like most of the characters, his moral compass isn't exactly the best, but he genuinely loves his family, as shown by how he threatens to kill you if you hurt Ellie and [[spoiler:killing Lucky Zaford after he slept with Moxxi]].

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:In ''Tales'', upon realizing that he's not going to be able to get his hand out of the rocket in time, Scooter calmly accepts his fate and tells Fiona to save herself and the team.]]
* GadgeteerGenius: Easily overlooked but qualifies. [[spoiler:He's able to keep Sanctuary flying on '''scrap metal''' and totally repairs (and can upgrade) Fiona and Sasha's totaled caravan in the space of a couple of hours at most.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Failed to pull his hand out in time while trying to press a button to start ejecting a thruster about to explode on the spaceship used by the protagonists in ''TalesFromTheBorderlands''. Knowing it's far too late to do anything about it, he tells Fiona to just eject it while he's still stuck to it, and he of course explodes with the thruster.]] The team [[spoiler:commemorates]] him by launching his satellite into space for all to see.

* LastRequest: [[spoiler:In the ''Borderlands 2'' DLC ''Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary'', Scooter leaves an ECHO for his family and the Vault Hunters containing his last words and requests. After having his porno magazines regathered (which Moxxi keeps since no one wants them) and naming Ellie as the new owner of Catch-A-Ride, he asks the Vault Hunters to do one final spectacular stunt jump for him at the crater where he and the rocket booster he was stuck to crashed.]]
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: His [[VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands third]] EstablishingCharacterMoment in the series makes him appear to have enough MediumAwareness to know about game's RunningGag character intros. [[spoiler:Too bad Fiona is weirded out by this.]]

* PassingTheTorch: [[spoiler:His final ECHO request to Ellie is given in the ''Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary'' DLC, with his sister becoming the new owner of Catch-A-Ride in his passing.]]
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Mike Neumann's diminishing health made it progressively more difficult to act or script for Gearbox Software, the decision was made to [[spoiler:kill Scooter off]] in order to emphasize how important ''Tales From The Borderlands'' is to the overall franchise's plot.
* RidingTheBomb: [[spoiler:He goes to his death bellowing his catchphrase, as a faulty booster rocket about to explode heads down to Pandora.]]
* SociallyAwkwardHero: [[spoiler:He is very unlucky with love and is often overexcited with interactions. In ''Tales'' if Fiona says "Everything will be fine" then Scooter will reply with "Haa, there's the girl I fell in love with", understandably Fiona is a little freaked out by the bold statement and Scooter quickly fumbles.]]

* CoolOldGuy: The player characters like him so much that [[spoiler:they bring him brains when they find him as a zombie.]]

* HandicappedBadass: Implied to be one. [[spoiler:Doesn't save him.]]
* LateArrivalSpoiler: The ''Borderlands 2'' DLC "Zombie TK's Bloody Harvest" sees the return of TK as a friendly zombie.

* ThePollyanna: He was the target of Hyperion assassins, forced to relocate to [[DeathWorld Pandora]], lost his wife to Scar, before losing his sight and leg to the same skag. None of this stops him from being possibly the cheeriest, friendliest person the Vault Hunters come across. He's still just as cheery [[spoiler:as a zombie.]]

** Fittingly, [[spoiler:a group of appropriately leveled Psychos can be found near his house after his death. It's heavily implied that they're the group who killed TK, allowing the player to directly avenge him.]]

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: [[spoiler:Braaaaaaaaaaains!]]
* TemptingFate: In ''Borderlands 2'' you are tasked with retrieving his ECHO Logs to find something incriminating against Hyperion. The last one ends with him noting that bandits showed up outside, but it can't possibly go wrong. Anyone who played the original ''Borderlands'' knows exactly what happens to him.

* ShoutOut: "[[Franchise/TheLegendofZelda It's dangerous to go alone,]] [[QuoteSwearUnquote jerkwad!]]"

* AccidentalMurder: A sidequest in 3 reveals she did this to [[spoiler:her mother/Jack's wife]] when her powers were still fairly new and she hadn't learned to control them; she subconsciously activated a bandit's turret to free herself from said bandit, but [[spoiler:her mom]] was still on the line of fire. [[spoiler:This event became Jack's DispairEventHorizon, causing his hatred of bandits and giving him a reason to lock her away so it won't happen again]].
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: In-universe example. Tiny Tina [[spoiler:blames her for Roland's death]], and casts her as a demon in her ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''-style game in the fourth DLC.

* DesignatedVillain: Invoked in universe. In ''Assault on Dragon Keep'', Tiny Tina shoehorns Angel's ''[[MagicAmpersand Bunkers & Badasses]]'' counterpart into a villainous role after building her up as an ally, because [[spoiler:she blames Angel for Roland's death]]. Lilith, [[spoiler:who was captured and forced into Angel's position herself]], can't help but protest.

** Jack's [[spoiler:horrid]] treatment towards Angel also foreshadowed certain a quest after her [[spoiler:death]], at Eridium Blight. [[spoiler:Turns out his treatment towards his own daughter acted as a reflection on how much pain he was going through with his grandmother, [[FreudianExcuse with a nasty buzzaxe to prove it]]. Of course, [[NeverMyFault he doesn't make the connection]]]].

* MercyKill: Near the end of the second game, [[spoiler:Roland, Lilith and the second batch of Vault Hunters team up to shut down her life support in Control Core Angel]].
* MissingMom: The fate of her mother/Jack's ex-wife is never made clear. Jack claimed that Angel accidentally killed her with with her powers, which is why he put her in Control Core Angel to begin with, but audio files about Jack's past indicate that she had insisted that "the Angel" be shut down before her "disappearance". Mentioning her in front of Jack is one of his {{Berserk Button}}s. [[spoiler:In ''Tales'', Jack reveals that it was his second wife who insisted Angel be shut down (well, he claims she bolted after finding out about Angel). He also reiterates that Angel killed her birth mother, his first wife, which is confirmed in ''3'' where it's revealed that while being held hostage by a bandit, Angel took control of a turret that killed said bandit as well as her mother.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:When she accidentally kills her mother after taking control of a bandit's turrets during a memory in ''3.'']]

* NonstandardCharacterDesign: She appears to the Vault Hunters as an FMV of a real woman whenever she's communicating to them [[spoiler:until you actually reach her. Afterwards, Lilith uses the same manner of communication when she's forced to replace Angel.]]
* OneWingedAngel: Puns aside, in Tiny Tina's ''[[MagicAmpersand Bunkers & Badasses]]'' campaign in the fourth DLC, she [[spoiler:turns into a [[SpiderPeople drider]] after you unchain her in the dungeon]].

* RonTheDeathEater: InUniverse in [[spoiler:''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep'', where Tina, blaming her for Roland's death, has her counterpart in her game be DaddysLittleVillain, whereas Angel actually wanted to ''help'' the Vault hunters]].
* SelfMadeOrphan: Jack implies she accidentally killed her mother with her uncontrolled powers. Borderlands 3 finally reveals that [[spoiler:as a child, she was captured by a bandit intent on making himself obscenely wealthy by selling a Siren on the black market, and her mother was killed in the crossfire when she panicked and used Phaseshift to take control of his turrets.]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler: If she wasn't held hostage by a bandit as a little girl and accidentally activating her {{Technopath}} powers to make his turret shoot wildly, she wouldn't have accidentally killed her mother, an event Jack never forgave her for, setting up her eventual solitary confinement and his StartOfDarkness which begins his behind-the-scenes rise in ''1'', is elaborated upon in ''The Pre-Sequel'' and manifested fully in ''2''.]]
* VagueAge: It's unclear how old she is or how long Jack has held her prisoner (though definitely since childhood). [[spoiler:A side-mission in 3 suggests she may have only been in her early to mid-teens during the events of the first game, if the drawing she did of herself with the first team of Vault Hunters is any indication, which would only put her in her late teens or just out of them around the time of her death. [[https://www.artstation.com/artwork/baxZLr A piece of concept art]] for Borderlands 3 depicts an X-Ray from when Jack put the implants in her skull, listing her age as ''thirteen'' - her drawing of the first set of Vault Hunters depicts her as already having them.]]

* WalkingSpoiler: Thanks to the second game.

* ShoutOut: [[Film/MadMax Everything]] [[Film/LethalWeapon about]] [[Film/{{Braveheart}} him]] is a ShoutOut to Creator/MelGibson (more specifically, the ''Mad Max'' movies).

* ShoutOut: His outfit seems to be one for the HellBentForLeather outfit of Lord Humungus from ''Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior''. He even uses a scoped revolver to shoot a Claptrap in his boss intro cutscene.

* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:Subverted. Taylor is just as bad if not worse than his brother, as it would turn out.]]

* ObviouslyEvil: Taylor. The fact that he's a KingMook should have clued the player in that [[spoiler:they would end up fighting him]].
* ShoutOut: Jaynis and Jaynistown are one to Jayne Cobb of ''Series/{{Firefly}}''.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: He is the leader of the bandits, being the boss of Sledge, Mad Mel, and Krom. After him comes [[spoiler:the Crimson Lance and the Guardians]].

* ShoutOut: He, his gun, and the gun's FlavorText are all {{Shout Out}}s to ''Franchise/EvilDead'', while his character design seems to be based on The Man With No Name from the ''Film/DollarsTrilogy''.

* TheCameo: Shows up in [[spoiler:Episode 5 of ''Tales'' as the bandit that [=Zer0=] is shooting at.]]

** The ''Borderlands: Origins'' comics confirm that Steele is, in fact, a Siren, which explains how she was able to activate the Destroyer Vault's key. Apparently Handsome Jack didn't include her in his list of them because [[spoiler:she was already dead at the time.]]
* BadBoss: Aside from treating her underlings like shit, in the backstory [[spoiler:she knowingly sent Roland's squad on a suicide mission, then left them for dead when they were overrun. Of course, this ends up coming back to bite her in the end.]]

* BigNo: [[spoiler:As the Destroyer eats her.]]
* BlatantLies: [[spoiler:After tricking the Vault Hunter into going on a wild goose chase for Baron Flynt's nonexistent piece of the Vault Key, she claims that Tannis came to her and has been working with the Lance the entire time. Once the Vault Hunter finds Tannis she's in a cell with ''torture equipment'' just outside, proving that Steele was flat out lying.]]

** [[spoiler:Not only does she get unceremoniously impaled mid-sentence, she then gets revived -- twice -- and her new Claptrap programming ensures her following deaths are as undignified as possible.]]
---> [[spoiler:'''Steele-Trap:''' Unce, unce, unce... I was better off with a damn tentacle through my chest.]]

* CameBackWrong: She is brought back as [[spoiler:Steele-Trap during the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC.]]
* DarkActionGirl: [[spoiler:This isn't evident in the main game, but it definitely shows in ''Robot Revolution''.]]

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: How [[spoiler:the Destroyer kills her.]]
* InformedAbility: She demonstrates no special powers when you fight her as [[spoiler:Steele-Trap]], despite being a Siren, one of the most dangerous beings in the universe. Potentially FridgeBrilliance, as [[spoiler:a new Siren apparently comes into being whenever one of the old ones dies, so its likely her powers were transferred away from her upon death. Notably, Steele's Siren tattoos are gone when she's resurrected as Steele-Trap, and replaced with Claptrap-themed circuitry tattoos.]]

* PowerTattoo: She has Siren tattoos, although the powers she possesses remain a mystery. [[spoiler:Even when fought as Steele-Trap she doesn't demonstrate any special Siren powers, mostly since because she died they jumped to a new host.]]
%%* SheFu: As [[spoiler:Steele-Trap.]]

* UnexplainedRecovery: [[spoiler:She still has a hole in her torso from The Destroyer's tongue when she reappears in the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC as Steele-Trap, but as she was last seen being EatenAlive by The Destroyer it's not made clear how her body has become intact again or how Claptrap retrieved her.]]
* TheUnfought: [[spoiler:Played straight in the main game. Inverted in the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, in which she comes back under the control of the Claptraps and fights the player characters twice.]]
* UnwillingRoboticisation: Rebuilt as [[spoiler:''Steele Trap'' in the Robot Revolution DLC.]]

** [[spoiler:He's even affable when being forced to fight as Knoxx-trap, encouraging the Vault Hunters on their efforts at killing him and congratulating them on critical hits.]]

--> '''Claptrap:''' Good ol' General Knoxx! He was the nicest, politest, most suicidal killing machine you ever could meet! [[spoiler:That's why I revived him during my robolution and-- ERROR. FILES LOCKED.]]

* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:In the Robot Revolution DLC]], much to his chagrin.

* TheChewToy: His men disrespect him, his commanding officer is literally a child, and he's stuck on a CrapsackWorld. Oh, and [[spoiler:he gets resurrected, ''twice'', when all he wants is to stay dead.]]

* DeathSeeker: When you reach him, [[spoiler:he's about to commit suicide]], but decides to try killing the Vault Hunters instead. [[spoiler:In the Robot Revolution DLC, he is brought back to life twice and is not happy about it.]]

* AntiClimaxBoss: Invoked. [[IntendedAudienceReaction Intended and subverted]]. He goes down quite easily; he doesn't even have full miniboss durability, at most he's just equal to a regular [[EliteMooks Badass]]. [[spoiler:Followed by credits rolling past at lightning speed. Then they're suddenly ripped away and ''Undead Ned'' screams "It's not over yet!" Along with a character intro screen of Undead Ned with the text "HOLY F*#KING SHIT!!!"]]
* BadassMustache: One that's apparently growing out of his surgical mask. [[spoiler:He still has a moustache as Undead Ned, although it's styled completely differently.]]

%%* BodyHorror: As [[spoiler:Undead Ned]].
* CameBackWrong: ''Thrice''. Upon being killed in "Zombie Island", he almost instantly [[spoiler:revives as Undead Ned. Then, in "Claptrap's New Robot Revolution", he is revived as Ned-Trap, ''then'' as Undead Ned-Trap.]]

* KingMook: When you fight him at the end of the DLC, he fights just like a regular pistol bandit, only with more health and a slightly unique weapon. [[spoiler: Then he goes OneWingedAngel and turns into a huge undead monster.]]

* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: [[spoiler:''[[BossSubtitles Turns out he's a bad guy... who knew?]]'']]
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: By the end of the first ''Borderlands'' storyline, he's a [[spoiler:twice-undead cyborg physician.]]

* OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler:Undead Ned]], a far tougher battle than the one just before it.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Denies frequently that he's just Zed with a moustache. [[spoiler:In the Robo-lution DLC, it's shown that he's telling the truth, as both Zed and the [[UnwillingRoboticisation newly activated Ned-Trap]] are both seen. Similarly, Zed is still present in the sequel, and the Pre-Sequel and Tales canonizes all the events of the Robo-lution.]]

* ApocalypticLog: His ECHO correspondence with his wife, which gradually tells the tale of the zombie outbreak in Jakobs Cove [[spoiler:and first hints at Ned's direct involvement in same]], and ends with him going to Ned as a volunteer test subject for the skag-based cure.

* ShoutOut: Obviously a reference to the character Father O'Callahan from ''Literature/SalemsLot'' by Stephen King, [[spoiler:both characters are monster hunters who end up infected by the monsters they hunt.]]

* BenevolentBoss: Surprisingly, despite the flames and his devil horns, he is a very reasonable executive. Unlike most corporate executives you have seen so far, he did not backstab the vault hunters [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness after the job is done]] and compensated them ''very'' generously. In the sequel, it's revealed that [[spoiler:he warned TK Baha and Dr. Zed that Hyperion was coming after them and politely suggested that they escaped while they still could]].

** DragonWithAnAgenda: [[spoiler:He warned TK Baha about how Hyperion Assassins were coming for him and suggested he take his wife and run while he still could, and he made the same warning to Dr. Zed later on.]] In Jack's AMA, [[http://www.reddit.com/r/Borderlands/comments/2irv09/hey_kiddos_handsome_jack_here_ama_about_how_im/cl4x5c8?context=10000 he mentions]] that he's pretty sure that Blake is trying to get him killed so he can take his job.
** DragonAscendant: [[spoiler:According to an ECHO scan in the final episode of ''Tales'', Blake was acting-CEO of Hyperion before Jack's return.]]

* ShoutOut: His name is a reference to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake William Blake]], with the ''Borderlands'' Wikia [[http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Blake#Trivia going into further detail on the subject]].

[[center:[-'''[[Characters/BorderlandsVaultHunters Playable Characters]]'''-]]]
[[center: [-[[Characters/Borderlands1VaultHunters Borderlands Vault Hunters]] | [[Characters/Borderlands2VaultHunters Borderlands 2 Vault Hunters]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsThePreSequelVaultHunters The Pre-Sequel Vault Hunters]] ([[Characters/BorderlandsClaptrap Claptrap]]) | [[Characters/Borderlands3VaultHunters Borderlands 3 Vault Hunters]]-]]]

[[center:[-'''Supporting Characters'''-]]]
[[center:[-'''Borderlands''' | Characters/Borderlands2 ([[Characters/BorderlandsHandsomeJack Handsome Jack]]) | Characters/BorderlandsThePreSequel | Characters/Borderlands3 | Characters/TalesFromTheBorderlands | [[Characters/BorderlandsOtherCharacters Other Media]]-]]]

[[center:[-'''Miscellaneous'''-]]]
[[center:[-[[Characters/BorderlandsWeaponBrands Weapon Brands]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsCreatures Creatures]] ([[Characters/BorderlandsEridiansAndVaultMonsters Eridians and Vault Monsters]])-]]]

[[center:[-[[Characters/BorderlandsWeaponBrands Weapon Brands]] | [[Characters/BorderlandsCreatures Creatures]]-]]]

! The Eridians

The Eridians were an ancient alien race which had a presence on Pandora thousands or even millions of years ago, and the builders of the Vault. As of ''Borderlands'', they are long extinct... right?
----
* FantasticCasteSystem: Tannis's translation program has determined that they had a class system, though she doesn't go into details about what sort of classes existed.
* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: [[spoiler:The Eridians sacrificed their entire civilization to contain the Destroyer and protect the rest of the universe from its hunger.]]
* GalacticSuperpower: In their time, Tannis says that they were capable of both "leadership and organized warfare". ''Borderlands 2'' indicates that they were present on numerous worlds. [[spoiler:And those are just the ones where they built Vaults.]]
* {{Precursors}}: Were gone ''long'' before humanity was around.
** BenevolentPrecursors: [[spoiler:Sacrificed their entire civilization in order to seal away the Destroyer, and left a lot of important tools and equipment lying around for future civilizations in case it ever got out]]. However, they were arguably also...
** NeglectfulPrecursors: [[spoiler:... who didn't spend very much time or effort explaining what was in the Vaults or why they were necessary]].
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: Humanity studying their ancient technology led to technological leaps and bounds. They built constructs on a titanic scale, and were able to manipulate stars and alternate dimensions. The Vaults themselves seem to be gateways to alternate realities, and [[spoiler:they built Pandora to serve as an interdimensional prison to contain the Destroyer, who was so large it could eat entire stars.]]
* RagnarokProofing: Their stuff is still in working order even after millennia... or longer.

[[folder:'''Spoiler boss''']]
! The Destroyer
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxresdefault_762.jpg]]

A god-like being from another dimension who all but wiped out the Eridians... [[UnreliableNarrator Maybe.]]
----
* CombatTentacles: Which impale [[spoiler:Commandant Steele within seconds of the Vault's opening]]. In ''Borderlands 2'', Handsome Jack dubs it "the universe's angriest squid."
* DeaderThanDead: [[spoiler:Moxxi sabotages the Eye of Helios in an attempt to kill both the Destroyer as well as Jack and his goon squad. Jack attempts to salvage the eye in a sidequest, only to blow it up for good]]. Subverted in ''Borderlands 3'', where [[spoiler: the Destroyer is revealed to still be alive; presumably what the original Vault Hunters fought was just a portion of its body.]]
* EldritchAbomination: Hailing from another dimension.
* FunSize: [[spoiler:Due to Nakayama's poor math, a clone of the Destroyer turned out to be only 3 feet tall. Its eye beam is of a mild annoyance rather than world-destroying magnitude.]]
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: The Destroyer is widely considered InUniverse as an abomination and a nearly unstoppable monster with it being sealed in the vault as the only way to deal with it until the vault hunters came along. However, it's really not the unstoppable juggernaut it's made out to be, with 1's vault hunters (which are considered the weakest both gameplay and story-wise) having dealt with it with relative ease. It doesn't even move from it's one spot. [[spoiler: ''3'' hints that this trope may not be in play due to the Destroyer fought in 1 was a piece of the Destroyer, but only time will tell.]]
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: ''Blatantly'', and subject to much SelfDeprecation.
* GreaterScopeVillain: In addition to being the FinalBoss of ''1'', the consequences of its release inadvertently drives the plot of both ''2'' and ''The Pre-Sequel'', especially the latter since part of its body is directly involved. [[spoiler:''3'' outright confirms that it is in fact this for the entire franchise, where it's revealed that the Eridians created Pandora as a planet-sized Great Vault to seal the Destroyer, who is in fact capable of living up to its name in regards to ''the entire universe''.]]
* IAmNotLeftHanded: [[spoiler: The incarnation killed at the end of the first game was only a small part of the true Destroyer.]]
* MacGuffinGuardian: [[spoiler:While Jack has Angel claim it's a universe destroying EldritchAbomination that wiped out the Eridians, it was assumed in light of later encounters with the likes of the Warrior, Traveler and Sentinel that it was simply one of many Vault Guardians... until ''Borderlands 3'' reveals that the Destroyer was indeed a universal obliterator.]]
* MainliningTheMonster: [[spoiler:Jack took its eye to power the [[WaveMotionGun Eye of Helios]].]]
* MoneySpider: On a ''much'' larger scale than any other creature in the entire Borderlands ''franchise.'' While it does drop loot as any other boss in game, [[spoiler:''Borderlands 2'' reveals that its death also ''seeded the entire planet with Eridium.'']]
* MultipleChoicePast: [[spoiler:In ''The Pre-Sequel'', Jack makes an offhand comment that implies that it's simply another Eridian-built superweapon. This is consistent with dialogue from Angel in ''Borderlands 2'' that implies that Jack may have made up the whole "save the universe from an extra-dimensional eldritch abomination" thing (which is consistent with Jack's grandiose heroism fantasies). ''Borderlands 3'' indicates the Destroyer is indeed an extra-dimensional universal threat and that what Jack was trying to harness was merely a minuscule part of the real deal.]]
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:''The Pre-Sequel'' reveals that Jack used The Destroyer's eye as Helios' WaveMotionGun. ''3'' reveals that the Destroyer itself survived its encounter with the original four vault hunters, which only involved a fragment of its true form.]]
* PrecursorKillers: It wiped out the Eridians before [[spoiler:the last of them sealed it within the Vault. At least that's what Jack had Angel tell you. Turns out they were actually telling the truth.]]
* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:The Destroyer is the actual contents of the Vault]], sealed within by the last of the Eridians to prevent it from destroying the universe [[spoiler:...at least, that's the story Jack has Angel feed you.]] ''Borderlands 3'' confirms the original story.
* StationaryBoss: Fortunately for the player, it won't move at all.
* WalkingSpoiler: Well, not technically as if it were moving around the world would be in ''big'' trouble. It's kind of hard to discuss The Destroyer without spoiling the PlotTwist that its what's inside The Vault. [[spoiler:It becomes this ''again'' in regards to ''3''.]]

!!Guardians of the Vault
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/borderlands__arch_guardian__by_ogloc069_d8jwzmk.png]]

Mysterious aliens (likely robots built by the Eridians) left behind to defend the Vaults, they are completely single-minded in pursuit of this goal. They use Eridian armor and weapons, but make no attempt to communicate in any way. They just fight off anyone who gets too close to the Vaults.
----
* ArmoredButFrail: Guardians have exceptionally powerful shields, but once that's gone their health is so low anything stronger than a gentle sneeze can frag them.
* BeefGate: They serve no other purpose than expel anyone who dares to approach the Vaults. If you're having trouble fighting these guys you ''have absolutely no chance'' against what is coming after them.
* DanceBattler: A lot of them spin and backflip around the battlefield.
* DeflectorShields: They have extremely high shields, but laughable health. Any ability that lets you ignore shields cuts through them like wheat.
* ItCanThink:
** Everyone is shocked when seeing the Alien in ''The Pre-Sequel!'', which possesses enough intelligence to [[SmugSuper mock someone for trying to shoot it]].
** Nyriad's writings in ''3'' similarly show surprise that the guardians can act on their own accord. According to her it's only some of the guardians that are sentient, and she doesn't know what makes them special.
* {{Nerf}}: They're noticeably easier to kill in ''Borderlands 3'' than they were in the first game; they're slower and dodge around much less and are overall a lot less frustrating to hit, and their weak spot is much easier to hit.
* OrganicTechnology: According to Athena, they're bio-mechanical constructs built by the Eridians, presumably in their own image, but in the end are not actually alive.
* RemoteBody: The bodies the Vault Hunters fight are shells, and when killed the Guardian just transfers to another shell. The location where their "souls" reside is hidden.
* TheResenter: In ''3'' the Vault Hunters can find hidden challenge areas guarded by talking Guardians. These Guardians explain that they resent the job of overseeing the Vaults since it makes them both wardens and prisoners. [[spoiler: When you finish all the challenges they mockingly tell you the Vaults are the Vault Hunter's responsibility now.]]
* SpinToDeflectStuff: Some Guardians (notably the Sentinel) can spin their staffs to deflect bullets.
* WhiteMaskOfDoom: They have blank masks for faces in ''Borderlands'', and human-looking masks in ''The Pre-Sequel!'' A Borderlands artist says that their [[http://web.archive.org/web/20110427122252/http://www.keiththompsonart.com/pages/archguardian.html faces reform to approximately mimic the appearance of whatever species it interacts with]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DrZed_1385.png]]

!Mad Moxxi
!!''Looks CAN kill''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moxxi_borderlands_2_by_bl4upunkt-d5m9tk3_5356.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MarcusBL2_7263.png]]

** He also describes himself getting "killed off" in Claptrap's Robot Revolution, despite still being around to tell the story ''and'' showing up in future games.

!Patricia Tannis

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tannis_288.png]]