History Characters / BorderlandsVaultHunters

* TheMedic: Has an entire skill tree devoted to it, and is the only one of the original Vault Hunters who can heal others directly.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: Even in-universe, nobody if he is or isn't human. One of the Headhunter Downloadable missions, gives everyone an alternate head where their heads are reduced to bleached skulls with eyes still in their sockets. [=Zer0=]'s is a [[RoboticReveal large robotic eye]] sticking out of his now-visorless helmet named "[[TheUnreveal N0t C4n0n]]".

* TheComicallySerious: His CreepyMonotone [[MoodWhiplash drastically clashes]] with his {{Emoticon}}s, and the times he's SophisticatedAsHell. Perhaps the best example when he scores a critical kill and says, totally flat, "tee hee hee".
** Also, his reaction to his "savior" in the Son of Crawmerax DLC - who manages to be [[UpToEleven even more mysterious than [=Zer0=] himself]]:

An extremely mysterious assassin who came to Pandora to find a challenge worthy of his skills. Beyond that, we...really don't know much else. It's up in the air as to whether he's even human. His skill is Deception, which creates a holographic decoy while he turns invisible, letting him strike suddenly for massive damage.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: Even in-universe, nobody really knows if he is actually human at all.
** For one of the Headhunter Downloadable missions, everyone gets an alternate head where their heads are reduced to bleached skulls with eyes still in their sockets. [=Zer0=]'s is just a [[RoboticReveal large robotic eye]] sticking out of his now-visorless helmet named "[[TheUnreveal N0t C4n0n]]".

* BackForTheFinale: [[spoiler: He can be recruited for the finale of Tales for the Borderlands if A)Fiona told Mordecai she was a Vault Hunter, or B)The only other two available are Athena and August.]]

!''[=Zer0=] As [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers a Number]](A bigger number than you)''

->''"Your eyes deceive you. / An illusion fools you all. / I move for the kill."''

* KickTheDog: [[spoiler: Orders Athena's execution at the end of ''The Pre-Sequel'', even after Athena admits she regretted ever working for Jack. [[EveryoneHasStandards Even Brick and Mordecai are disgusted by it.]]]]

** [[Characters/BorderlandsVaultHuntersPreSequel Vault Hunters from the Pre-Sequel!]]

->''See: Characters/BorderlandsVaultHuntersPreSequel''

* DumbMuscle: Subverted. While he's barely literate and has "rhino-like" strength in the first game, come ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', he's shown to also be surprisingly eloquent and have a good mind for combat tactics and guerrilla warfare. Later on still, he's stated to have read a whole book trilogy, so claims on his so-called illiteracy are either a bum rap, or [[DumbassNoMore he made an effort to learn]].

* SociopathicHero: By far the most brutal of the characters. In the second game, he even becomes a bandit chieftain, and he's pretty damn nasty to his gang, too, though they're excessively trigger-happy idiots that can't even tell ally from foe unless Brick points them out right before action.

* OnlyOneName: They all usually go by their first names or a nickname, with Nisha Kadam, Timothy Lawrence (That said, as Jack's body double, he's legally forbidden from saying he's not Jack) and Aurelia Hammerlock being the only exceptions. Some of them (such as Brick) probably don't even have last names in the first place.

** The first group consists of a reasonably sane ex-soldier, a totally berserk lunatic ([[HeroesFightBarehanded bare-fisted]] version), an alcoholic sharpshooter and his bird (which he talks to), and a pyromaniacal power-obsessed mystical Siren.

* BloodKnight: Every single one of them enjoy going to battle to an extent. The only ones who may not relish it is Roland and Jack's Doppleganger.

* OneManArmy: Each and every Vault Hunter are able to fight off hordes of men, women, monsters, and robots. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Professor Nakayama in the the second game's ''Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt'' [=DLC=]:

** The first group consists of a reasonably sane ex-soldier, a totally berserk lunatic, an alcoholic sharpshooter and his bird (which he talks to), and a pyromaniacal power-obsessed mystical Siren.
** The second group consists of ''another'' ex-soldier (this one with an overdeveloped ego), ''another'' berserk lunatic about a third as tall as anyone else (who wields guns), an excessively (even gratuitously) mysterious assassin of completely unknown origins, a reasonably sane Siren looking for more about her heritage, a young robotics prodigy on the run from the law, and a psychotic escaped experiment who talks in completely gibberish.

** Roland is a solid Blue, being TheHero for the first game, and BigGood in the second. Axton, by comparison, is a Red, what with being a MilitaryMaverick that [[UnfriendlyFire blew up some terrorists along ''with'' the VIP he was supposed to be protecting]], basically due to RuleOfCool [[spoiler:as opposed to a RoaringRampageOfRevenge like Roland]]. Athena actually bounces back and forth; ''outside'' of combat she's calm and controlled, recounting her tale without any real emotion to Lilith, while ''in'' battle she becomes loud, aggressive, and depending on her skill trees she insults her foes or flies into berserk laughter.

** It's often hard to tell where the equally aggressive Brick, Salvador, and Krieg falls into which category, but Brick's occasional lapses into being the OnlySaneMan makes him Blue by default, whereas Salvador's endless aggression and Krieg being, well, [[AxCrazy Krieg]], point to them being Red. Wilhelm's deadpan professionalism makes him more Blue, especially as his cybernetic enhancements make him more and more inhuman.

** Zer0 is a solid Blue, having no tone of voice outside his CreepyMonotone (even the times he's SophisticatedAsHell), while Mordecai's laid back, easygoing attitude makes him Red. Nisha is more of a Red, being a sadistic gunslinger while Aurelia is more of a Blue, being a stuffy, arrogant aristocrat.

*** And Zer0, to a lesser extent
** TheSneakyGuy: Zer0

* GlassCannon[=/=]DifficultButAwesome: Not quite to the same extent as Zer0, but his skills are generally focused a lot more on dealing heavy damage to single targets rather than on avoiding damage or enhancing his own survivability. He's probably the most difficult character to play as solo, given that he's the only one whose action skill can't be used for crowd control (unless you max out one particular skill tree) and also doesn't help him avoid or soak enemy attacks, and he's very much dependent on harming enemies to regain health.

* TheRoleplayer: In ''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep'', she's the only player who tries to roleplay and get into the setting (even claiming to have the highest Charisma score of the party), with Brick being [[TheRealMan more interested in combat]] and Mordecai being mostly disinterested. She's even willing to try and talk like either [[GratuitousSpanish Salvador]], [[{{Haiku}} Zer0]], or [[TalkativeLoon Krieg]] if the situation calls for it.

* RapidFireFisticuffs: Brick's fighting style, when compared to Krieg, Zer0, and Athena, who do more damage per hit. He punches at three times the normal melee attack rate, and has a chance to daze people with his fists. This lets him dash around, downing lesser bandits in seconds and locking down badasses to take them down while they can't fight back.

* RegeneratingHealth: Totally averted; every other character has some form of gradual life recovery but he only heals himself through forms of LifeDrain. His primary method is the risky but satisfying Buzz Axe Rampage that heals him to full for every enemy he kills in melee (or who he manages to hit with his thrown axe). He can also get healing from overkilling his enemies if he uses "Thrill of the Kill" or heal himself for inflicting damage-over-time to enemies if he goes down the Hellborn tree.

** One of the more popular shields to pair with him is the Love Thumper, which gives ALL of his melee attacks an explosive Nova whenever it connects and dramatically boosts his already high melee damage via it's roid damage. This means that, when paired with Buzzaxe Rampage, Krieg will one-shot almost every enemy not ridiculously over his own level and have a literal instant death radius whenever his melee attacks connect. As a side effect, the Love Thumper's explosive Nova hurts allies as well, meaning that NO ONE will want to get within arms reach of a Love Thumper-wearing Krieg.

* PowerupLetdown: Being an intensely melee-focused character, Krieg has an inherent melee damage bonus that increases with his level. However this bonus will be overwritten by the +50% damage bonus from holding bladed guns. After a certain level, using bladed guns (except for the rare guns with at least +100% melee damage, such as the Law or the Rapier) will actually ''weaken'' his melee attacks.

[[folder:The Pre-Sequel!]]

[[/folder]]

[[/folder]]

[[/folder]]

!!The Pre-Sequel!
[[folder:Athena]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/athen_2955.jpg]]

!Athena
!!''As "The Gladiator"''
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/LydiaMackay

-->''"Athena, out"''

A former Crimson Lance assassin, who escaped to help the Vault Hunters loot Knoxx's armory. Afterwards, she travelled around Pandora as a gun-for-hire before taking a job as a Vault Hunter for a lowly Hyperion programmer by the name of Jack, becoming one of his chief lieutenants in his rise to power.

Her Action Skill lets her pull out her Kinetic Aspis, a shield that absorbs all frontal damage, building up power before being tossed at the nearest enemy.
----
* {{Adorkable}}: She has little experience in how to be a normal human being. This leads to fun moments such as her confused reactions to Janey Springs' advances, to her excitable quotes when she gets a crit, a challenge, or some other feat.
* AscendedExtra: From a questgiver in a DLC to a playable character and narrator of her own game.
* AttackReflector: If upgraded, her shield will reflect up to 50% bullets and lasers.
* BackForTheFinale: In Tales from the Borderlands, [[spoiler: she joins in for the final battle against the Traveler]].
* BadassBoast: From time to time, usually when using her shield.
-->'''Athena''': Keep firing, fools!
* BadassInDistress: Needs to be rescued from Mr. Shank's prison. (They stole her teleporter.) She doesn't seem to mind it ''too'' much, though.
-->'''Athena:''' But to be honest, mostly they just wanted to do my nails and talk about boys all the time. I almost sort of liked it here.
* BadassGay:[[spoiler: She Hooks up with Janey after the events on Elpis.]]
* BadassTransplant: As shown in ''Tales'', her shield is the source of most of her tremendous power; without it, she's fairly below-average compared to other Vault Hunters.
* BadLiar: In Tales from the Borderlands, if [[spoiler: Fiona insists that Athena was following and attacking her, Athena [[SarcasmMode artfully dodges]] the question by passing it off as a coincidence and she was just going the same way they were, because there's no way Athena would be bounty hunting or anything as she'd promised Janey she wouldn't. She looks awfully pleased with her deception skills too.]]
* BarrierWarrior: The Phalanx tree is focused on making her Aspis more powerful, including giving it additional offensive properties such as storing Elemental damage and even targeting multiple enemies at once.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: While Lilith goes under FieryRedhead territory, no matter how much punishment Athena takes, even as a tank-based character, she remains surprisingly [[MaleGaze interesting]] to see.
* BerserkButton: Atlas, to the point that in ''Tales'' she goes utterly berserk at the fact that she's face-to-face with an Atlas scientist in hiding.
** Similarly, Handsome Jack tells Rhys that he shouldn't talk to her about him (specifically that Jack is still alive as a VirtualGhost in Rhys' head) since he notes that she'll probably just kill him on the spot. Strangely enough, Jack himself bears no hard feelings towards her.
* BigDamnHeroes: In Episode 3 of ''Tales'', she [[spoiler: saves Fiona from getting shot in the face by Vallory.]]
* BloodKnight: Downplayed. She's stoic and professional, but, judging by her laughter and cheering, this doesn't stop her from enjoying the combat.
* BreakTheCutie: It's very downplayed, but in the Pre-Sequel we hear the full extent of her reason for wanting to take down Atlas in the Knoxx DLC - [[spoiler: she had confided in General Knoxx about how excited she was about finally meeting her sister and how they were going to leave Pandora together, and when Atlas found out about this, they deliberately duped her into killing everyone in her sister's village. Upon finding this out, her reaction was to get 'a little stabby', and later, going AWOL and killed 9 1/2[[labelnote:*]]She cut one of them in half, vertically. He survived.[[/labelnote]] people on her escape.]]
* BrokenPedestal: Seems to have genuinely admired Jack and considered him to be a hero. Even after the [[spoiler: scientists are killed]], she doesn't consider the heroic Jack to be "gone" until the end of the game.
* CatchPhrase: "Athena, out."
* Myth/ClassicalMythology[=/=]NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Named after a goddess of war, strategy and wisdom.
* CombatMedic: "Vanguard" gives her and nearby teammates health regeneration whenever she has her Aspis out. "Clear!" lets her revive teammates by [[HealingShiv tossing her shield at them]]. "United Front" causes damage done to her shield to charge up her and her team's shields.
* ConsummateProfessional: She takes her jobs seriously and believes in seeing a mission through no matter what. Also, this is the only reason why she sticks with Jack for so long despite his growing madness: Until they find the Vault, she considers her job unfinished. That and since [[spoiler:Roland and Lilith]] tried to kill them, she wanted to deny them the Vault. She makes this very clear to Jack in her personal ECHO log:
-->'''Jack''': So, that's the offer. I know you're a certified "badass" and everything, but I need to know you're not gonna run out on me before the job's through.\\
'''Athena''': If you hire me, you aren't paying for another merc with a gun. You're paying for decades of experience. You're paying for professionalism. You're paying for loyalty to the mission above all else.\\
'''Jack''': Yeah? That what you told General Knoxx?\\
'''Athena''': Loyal to the mission is one thing. Loyal to people is something else.
* TheComicallySerious: During the Knoxx DLC, her stone-faced approach to everything that happens (from concealing her transmissions in male virility advertisements to her suicidally annoyed boss to the Atlas corporation's psychopathically upbeat PR-style) ensure comedy, even though she never cracks so much as a smirk. She's also one of the more straight-laced protagonists in the Pre-Sequel next to Wilhelm.
* CounterAttack: The more damage her Aspis absorbs, the more powerful it becomes when tossed, and "Superconductor" grants Aspis a chance to shock nearby enemies when struck.
* CriticalStatusBuff: "Clear!" gives her massive damage bonus in Fight For Your Life.
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Dark blue eyes and hair.
* DamageIncreasingDebuff: Combination of "Rend" (marker) and "Tear" (actual bonus) grants her bonus gun damage against meleed enemies.
* DashAttack: Blood Rush, which gives her the ability to perform a charging slash at enemies as a Melee Override. If she manages to kill her target or inflict bleed damage, the cooldown is reset.
* DeathGlare: Her default expression.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Her crusade against Atlas and her [[http://hyperiontrashcan.tumblr.com/post/122763119593/tales-from-the-borderlands-athena-cut-dialogue motivations as a Vault Hunter]] are put under a rather unflattering lens in Tales from the Borderlands.
* DefectorFromDecadence: She defected from the Crimson Lance after [[spoiler:they made her kill her sister]].
* DualWielding: She wields two swords in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx intro cutscene.
* ElementalBaggage: None of her elemental attacks require ammo, though all of them either have a cooldown or will trigger only with a certain probability.
* EvilFormerFriend: In the eyes of Lilith at least, she went from a valued ally who helped them take down Atlas to helping her greatest enemy in his rise to power, even though Athena clearly states that she regrets working for Jack.
* {{Expy}}: Not only does she throw her shield like Captain America (see below), Athena is also the most moral member of her team. While her idea of morality is still a considerable distance from Captain America's, it ''is'' Pandora we're talking about. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. [[spoiler:In Episode 5 of Tales, her attacks when piloting Gortys are very similar to Cap's moves in Videogame/MarvelVsCapcom]].
** Gameplay-wise, her Ceraunic Storm and Xiphos skill trees are similar to Gaige's Little Big Trouble and [=Zer0=]'s Bloodshed skill trees respectively.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler: Having probably realized Lilith had already decided to have her killed, Athena calmly tells her to get it over with once she finishes her tale.]]
* TheFaceless: In the Knoxx DLC, she starts off as a masked figure before revealing her face.
* GradualRegeneration: "Vanguard" and "Bloodlust" lets her regenerate health by having her Aspis out and inflicting bleed damage respectively.
* GratuitousGreek: Her sword and shield, as well as many of her skills.
* GuestStarPartyMember: She temporarily joins the Tales from the Borderalands crew in Episode 3, having been hired by [[spoiler:Felix]] to look out for and mentor Fiona and Sasha. [[spoiler:By the end of the episode, she's captured by Brick and Mordecai and taken to Sanctuary, thus kicking off the plot of the Pre-Sequel]].
* HavingABlast: While they are not superpowers, her "Zeus' Rage", "Smite" and "Hades' Shackles" skills can create quite a firework, and her "You've Got Red on You" skill [[LudicrousGibs force dying enemies to explode]]. Also, the Aspis creates a small explosion when it connects with an enemy or a wall.
* HealingShiv: Picking up from Roland in ''1'' and Maya in ''2''. In the Pre-Sequel, she can revive teammates by throwing her shield at them.
* HerdHittingAttack: "Wrath of the Goddess" is a "chain attack" type, "Zeus' Rage", "Hades' Shackles", "You've Got Red on You" and "Smite" are AreaOfEffect type.
* HeroesPreferSwords: Her melee weapon in the Pre-Sequel is a Xiphos [[LaserBlade plasma sword]]. She's also the team's effective leader and the most moral and heroic of Jack's minions.
* HeroicBSOD: A very minor example, but when Jack [[spoiler: vents the Hyperion scientists on the off-chance that ''one'' of them ''might'' be a Dahl mole, her mask of stoic professionalism cracks. Janey calls to check up on her and Athena is still obviously shaken, though she restores the mask pretty quickly]].
* InHarmsWay: Implied to be the reason why she's still a Vault Hunter even after she promised Janey that she retired.
* InjuredVulnerability: "Omega-Senshu" grants her bonus damage against enemies with less than 50% health remaining.
* IShallTauntYou: "Prepare For Glory" causes her to taunt enemies when she pulls out her Aspis, [[PracticalTaunt drawing aggro while increasing her gun damage the more enemies attack her shield]].
* LimitBreak: "Smite" is a powerful ability, but it will work only if you are airborne and have no less than 10 Maelstrom stacks.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: In the Pre-Sequel, she uses a Kinetic Aspis, a shield that absorbs damage and can be tossed at enemies. Maxing out Phalanx skill tree will turn her into a BarrierWarrior, able to tank ludicrous amounts of damage and kill entire groups of enemies without firing a single shot. In Episode 2 of Tales, it's possible for Fiona to steal the shield right in front of her, which gets you the message that [[ItsPersonal "Athena will REALLY remember that"]].
* MissionControl: In the Knoxx DLC.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: It turns out that while she is [[spoiler: mentoring Fiona in ''Tales'', Brick and Mordy show up to catch her. They succeed, but not before Fiona knocks their health down to 50% and slows them down something fierce]].
* MoralityPet: She was this to General Knoxx to an extent, who thought of her as a nice kid for an assassin and was furious at his superiors for screwing her over.
* MyDefenseNeedNotProtectMeForever: Because her shield doubles as a powerful weapon, able to absorb and return enemy fire.
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Despite her increasingly low opinion of him, Athena refuses to leave Jack's side until her job as a Vault Hunter is officially done.
* {{Narrator}}: In ''The Pre-Sequel!'' The game's story is her narrating the events to Lilith, Brick and Mordecai in the present, with the other characters commenting on the story as it moves along. In NewGamePlus, Tiny Tina joins in.
* NeckSnap: Performs one on her prison guard in her intro of the Knoxx DLC.
* NeverBringAGunToAKnifeFight: As stated on the [[GameBreaker/BorderlandsThePreSequel Game Breaker]] page, a combination of a melee build and a powerful Maylay Shield can tear apart almost everything, turning even the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Excalibastard]] into a mere StatStick.
* NotAsYouKnowThem: In a gameplay sense; her moveset and abilities as a Gladiator are ''very'' different from the play-style you'd expect if you were basing expectations on her previous portrayal as a lithe Lance Assassin with a personal teleporter as seen in ''The Secret Armory of General Knoxx''. It's likely the developers didn't want to re-do a similar gameplay style as Lilith and [=Zer0=], and therefore made Athena closer to a knight[=/=]tank playstyle instead.
* NotSoAboveItAll:
** Upon being asked to give a high-five to Tiny Tina for getting together with Janey, Athena does so.
** In ''Tales'', Athena is actually quite emotive, outright yelling at Fiona and Sasha multiple times in frustration at their antics/idiocy, which only happened during a couple of encounters with Claptraps. Not that her Atlas [[SurroundedByIdiots colleagues]] [[NoodleIncident weren't as much of a]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone problem]].
** Notably Athena seems to be enjoying herself when piloting Gortys against the Traveler, if selected for the team.
* NotSoDifferent: With Nisha, as she primarily does what she does [[http://hyperiontrashcan.tumblr.com/post/122763119593/tales-from-the-borderlands-athena-cut-dialogue for the thrill of it]], and with Jack, as she can be as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k5jIvivu3Y insanely vicious against Atlas employees]] as he is with "bandits".
* NotSoStoic: While everything on both Pandora and Elpis [[SeenItAll already passed through Athena]], seeing Fiona [[spoiler:carry an eye of General Pollux in her pocket]] is enough to make Athena [[{{Squick}} weirded out of her mind]].
* NothingPersonal: In TVHM, Athena tells Tina that she's long since gotten over [[spoiler:Lilith, Roland and Moxxi]] trying to kill her since allegiances are always shifting on the battlefield. She's still kind of ticked off about [[spoiler:Lilith ordering her execution after she was done telling her story]] however.
* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler: With Springs]]
* OneLastJob: In the Claptastic Voyage DLC, Athena reveals that she did one final job for Jack before fully leaving his employ. When asked by Lilith why she did so after everything she's been through, she states that even she wasn't going to turn down the ridiculous paycheck he was offering. She even tells him to consider the H-Source her parting gift.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: She ended up answering Jack's call for Vault Hunters because she desperately needed cash after the fall of Atlas. She also agreed to help him get the H-Source so that she would have money to support both her and Springs.
* ThePaladin: As well as being the most moral of the playable characters, statistically she can be built as a CombatMedic with a focus on the defensive abilities of her Aspis.
* PetTheDog:
** Has one in ''Claptastic Voyage'' when Claptrap's Subconscious finally gets sick of all the abuse everyone's been laying on him and leaves, she's one of only two that apologises to him for it.
** Gets a brief one in ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'' if convinced to back down from killing Cassius by Fiona. Moments later, she shoves Cassius out of the way when Brick charges into the facility to prevent him from getting hurt.
* PlayingWithFire[=/=]ShockAndAwe: Her Ceraunic Storm skill tree is focused on dealing Incendiary and Shock damage and uses a stacking mechanic similar to Gaige's Anarchy and Krieg's Bloodlust.
* PhotographicMemory: She's able to remember ''every detail'' of the Jack's quest to save Elpis, recalling everything word-for-word. In True Vault Hunter mode Tiny Tina actually calls her on this, demanding she recall the 17th thing Jack said since the adventure started, and she does.
* PowerGlows[=/=]EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: Aspis, when absorbing incoming attacks.
* PromotedToPlayable: From a questgiver in a DLC to a playable character.
* PunchClockVillain: A LighterAndSofter version. Athena is a good person but is known to have worked for amoral people such as the Atlas corporation as well as Jack, the former because she was raised to and the latter because she needed the money. She repeatedly expresses disgust or anger at what Jack asks her to do over the game, especially as he becomes more unhinged, and eventually walks out and refuses to take Jack's blood money at the end of the main campaign. She ''does'' come back for the paycheck in ''Claptastic Voyage'', but that's only to [[spoiler: support herself and Janey]]. At the end, while Jack is [[spoiler: killing the entire Claptrap line and gunning down Claptrap himself]], she is clearly disgusted by her fellow Vault Hunters and Jack's glee.
* PutTheLaughterInSlaughter[=/=]ScreamingWarrior[=/=]PreAssKickingOneLiner: She ''really'' enjoys melee charges.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: In ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'', her eyes ominously glowing red under [[InTheHood her hood]] is a clear indicator that she is someone you do not want to mess with.
* RedIsHeroic: Default color of her armor is red, and she's the most heroic member of the cast (except maybe Claptrap).
* ReiAyanamiExpy: [[LongList Come on]]. [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair Blue-hair]], [[StraightMan tight professionalism]], a [[MysteriousPast mysteriously]] [[DarkAndTroubledPast dark]] past that included [[spoiler:[[BrokenBird her sister died with her own hands]]]] and a [[HeWhoFightsMonsters significant hatred]] towards [[YouAreWhatYouHate her origin faction]], she is definitely a handful closer to this trope than any other mysterious characters throughout the series. And she had [[SeenItAll seen a lot weirder things]] in life.
* RelationshipUpgrade: Apparently hooked up with [[spoiler: Janey Springs]] after the events of the game, if an amusing exchange between her and Tina during TVHM is to be believed. Later confirmed by WordOfGod, and visible confirmation in their appearance in Tales from the Borderlands Episode 2.
* ScarfOfAsskicking: She wears a scarf around her neck that she also drapes around her head like a hood.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Her reaction to Jack's intentions about [[spoiler: waking the Warrior and scorching Pandora.]] However, she ended up returning to do OneLastJob for him.
* SeenItAll: Athena's seen a lot of stuff, to the point that nothing really weirds her out anymore... up until [[spoiler: Fiona reveals that yes, she's still carrying around General Pollux's eyeball in her pocket because it might come in handy.]]
* ShouldersOfDoom: Her Class Mods take the form of pauldrons for her left shoulder.
* SinkOrSwimMentor: In ''Tales'', her idea of training Fiona is to let her deal with dangerous situations by herself.
* SituationalDamageAttack:
** Kinetic Aspis deals fixed amount of damage plus double the absorbed energy. Damage of "Zeus' Rage" also depends on the amount of energy absorbed by Aspis.
** "Maelstrom" ability grants you stacks of Maelstrom every time you deal incendiary or shock damage. Maelstrom stacks increase all your elemental damage and determines the efficiency of several other abilities.
* SprintShoes: "Ephodos" and "Mercurial" grant her speed bonus when using her Action Skill and after killing an enemy respectively. The latter actually has Mercury's winged shoes for an icon.
* StandardStatusEffects: As well as having an elemental damage-focused Skill Tree, with "Rend", she can inflict bleed damage on her enemies by meleeing them.
* StillWearingTheOldColors: She wears parts of her old assassin armor and uses Xiphos, standard-issued weapon of Lance Assassins. Her Class Mods take the form of pauldrons with the Atlas logo on them.
* SwissArmyWeapon: The Kinetic Aspis, aside from serving as a shield and a throwing weapon, can regenerate health and [[DeflectorShields shields]] as well as revive downed teammates
* TattooAsCharacterType: She has a stylized owl, that also resembles an Omega, on her right hand. It's a reference to both her name (Greek goddess Athena is associated with an owl) and her past (She used to be a leader and a top operative of the [[EliteMooks Omega Squad]])
* TeamMom: Not to everyone mind you, but she acts very motherly towards those she cares about, particularly Clap-Trap (a character most others make a point to despise). [[spoiler: Unfortunately, she's seems to have lost her fondness for him in ''Tales''. As she can be pretty damn mean to him if they're on the same team.]]
* TeleportersAndTransporters: She had a Personal Teleporter Device in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC.
* ThatManIsDead: [[spoiler:As far as she's concerned, Jack the Hero of Elpis died when he became Handsome Jack.]]
* TheOneThingIDontHateAboutYou: According to her, Atlas may have been full of corrupt, murdering bastards--but they made the ''best'' lattes.
* TheStoic: Very serious and to-the-point, for the most part. She mellows out by the ''Pre-Sequel'' as the source of her anger, Atlas, is dead, and now shows more signs of being unable to act like a regular human being, excitable tendencies, and confusion over the concept of flirting and attraction.
** According to ECHO logs left by [[spoiler: General Knoxx, she wasn't always like this, as he notes that she's endearingly excited about meeting up with her sister and leaving Pandora with her. Her stoicism during the Knoxx DLC is likely just because being unwittingly tricked into murdering her sister was still a little raw.]]
* TheMusketeer: Her Xiphos skill tree. "Gun Kata" increases her melee damage after shooting an enemy, "Rend" allows her melee attacks to apply [[StandardStatusEffects bleeding]], "Tear" increases her gun damage against bleeding targets.
* ThrowingYourShieldAlwaysWorks: Her Aspis in the Pre-Sequel can be tossed out ComicBook/CaptainAmerica style. It can eventually be upgraded so that [[PinballProjectile it bounces off of multiple enemies before coming back to her]]. Jack even lampshades this in a trailer, noting that she's just like someone who rhymes with "Schmaptian Schmamerica".
* TokenGoodTeammate: In the Pre-Sequel, Athena is the most moral and stable of the playable characters and serves as a foil to the others (especially Wilhelm and Nisha). As the game progresses, she goes from admiring Jack somewhat to slowly but surely growing disgusted at his actions to the point that it is only her professionalism that prevents her from leaving his team. Not that this stops her from wanting vengeance against [[spoiler:Moxxi and the Vault Hunters]] like the rest of Jack's goon squad.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: In Tales from the Borderlands, she has a demonic-sounding reverb to her voice while chasing Fiona and Sasha, though it's likely just the former's dramatic embellishments.
* UnexplainedRecovery: In ''Tales'', she's attacked and taken away by Brick and Mordecai in Episode 3. While we know from the Pre-Sequel that she and the Raiders ultimately work things out peacefully, it doesn't explain how or why she's [[spoiler: bored out of her skull doing odd jobs for Rudiger in Prosperity Junction come Episode 5.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Despite the fact that she was uninvolved in his more infamous actions, Athena was still instrumental in the rise of Handsome Jack. After telling her story to Lilith, she openly states that she does indeed regrets her actions.
* WhatTheHellHero: After Jack had [[spoiler:Gladstone and the other scientists spaced]], Athena proceeded to call him out for the unnecessary brutality of his actions. Jack simply brushed her off and told her that they'll agree to disagree. In TVHM, she tells Tina that this was the moment when she truly realized what kind of person Jack really was.
* TheWorfEffect: In Tales from the Borderlands, if Loader Bot comes to save Fiona and Sasha, it simply grabs Athena and send her flying with a single throw. The Stranger quickly notes that Hyperion Loaders can't actually do that, something that [[UnreliableNarrator Fiona]] brushes off. [[spoiler:Since the Stranger IS Loader Bot and would obviously know, this probably never actually happened.]]
* YouDontLookLikeYou: She looks noticeably different in the Pre-Sequel than she does in the Knoxx DLC, having a shorter and stockier build, a slightly lighter complexion and a new weapon.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: In the Pre-Sequel, she has what seems to be dark-blue hair.
* YouWillNotEvadeMe: Heroic variant. "Epicenter" causes her Slam attack to generate a Singularity effect, pulling enemies towards her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Wilhelm]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wilhelm_5688.jpg]]

!Wilhelm
!!''As "The Enforcer"''
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/ToddHaberkorn (Borderlands 2); Creator/BryanMassey (Pre-Sequel)

-->''"Wilhelm here. Tell me what to shoot and how much I'm gettin' paid."''

Wilhelm is a Hyperion cyborg who [[TheDragon serves]] [[BigBad Handsome Jack]], and who nearly defeated the original Vault Hunters after the events of ''Borderlands''. Originally a legendary mercenary/bodyguard who became obsessed with enhancing himself via cybernetics, he signed on as a Vault Hunter under Jack after he was offered a couple million dollars.

His action skill lets him summon Wolf and Saint, two Surveyor Drones that attack his enemies and heal him respectively.
----

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Wilhelm is happy to work for Jack and disturbingly impressed with [[spoiler: the latter killing the scientists]] but, otherwise, never does anything immoral beyond what he's paid to. His [[spoiler: betrayal of Felicity]] gets a rather odd comment that he feels bad about it [[spoiler: but that he's also jealous of her cool new robot body.]] He also legitimately mourns a Claptrap who dies - "poor guy" - but very quickly gets over it. Wilhelm does seem to have a conscience, but he also has a contract, and his conscience never kicks up too much fuss if he's getting paid.
* AscendedExtra: In ''Borderlands 2'', Wilhelm barely had any characterization beyond being Jack's main enforcer, and he shows up in-game as a relatively easy boss. In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' he gets [[PromotedToPlayable promoted to playable]], and it's detailed how he went from a mercenary to Jack's [[TheDragon dragon]].
* ArtificialLimbs: The Cyber Commando skill tree allows you to replace Wilhelm's arm with a cybernetic PowerFist and his legs with cybernetic ones that let you run and shoot simultaneously.
* {{Badass}}: Not only did he defeat the original Vault Hunters by himself, but even before then he had accrued a reputation as one of the best mercenaries in the business.
* BadassBeard: Generally the first thing people will compliment him on is his beard.
* BadassGrandpa: While his exact age isn't stated, he's clearly much older than all other playable characters in the series and his hair is already going grey.
* BadassDecay: As shown in the credits, a fully upgraded Wilhelm was able to take on most of New Haven solo. However, during the fight with the Vault Hunters of ''Borderlands 2'', he's easy to beat if you've gotten a good corrosive gun, such as Tiny Tina's Teapot, which is conveniently received in a preceding mission. [[spoiler: This is actually because Jack poisoned him before the fight so they would "steal" a power to remotely disable Sanctuary's shields, allowing it to be destroyed by the Helios moonshot cannon.]]
* BaldOfEvil: By the time of ''Borderlands 2'', he no longer has any hair and is more or less a palette swap of a generic Hyperion Engineer.
* BecauseImGoodAtIt: His answer for why he became a mercenary (as well as practically every question involving his life) is "I was good at fights".
* BloodKnight: "I like to fight things" sums up his entire life.
* BookDumb: Refers to books as word-holders in a sidequest and hopes that the questgiver doesn't ask him to read.
* CallBack: His action skill in ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' is to call out two flying drones, which can both attack and heal him. This is a reference to him doing the same thing when you fight him as a boss in ''Borderlands 2''.
** One of his skills is "Rolling Thunder", which was the name of the legendary grenade mod he dropped as a boss.
* {{Catchphrase}}: "No".
* CombatMedic: "Zero Hour" causes Saint to create a healing zone when recalled or destroyed that heals Wilhelm and his allies when they step in it.
* ConsummateProfessional: His only concerns are getting the job done and getting paid once the job's done. Otherwise he couldn't care less about anything else.
* TheComicallySerious: He generally maintains a professional and mercenary demeanor towards others and completely lacks the hang-ups, dramas, goofiness and neuroses of the other characters. Best shown in the Inspirational Posters sidequest, in which Wilhelm is the only character who doesn't indulge Janey's requests to shout something inspiring, and in his backstory logs, where he answers every question about every stage of his life with the phrase "I was good at fights". His explicitly stated motivation in life is "I'm really good at killing people. I want to be a robot." That's it.
* CuttingOffTheBranches: While players can spec him however they want, in the credits Wilhelm is [[http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20141020232528/borderlands/images/9/9f/Wilhelm_Butcher_of_New_Haven.png depicted]] with all cybernetic upgrades (left hand, legs and a ShoulderCannon) from the Cyber Commando skill tree.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', he starts off as mostly human save for a cybernetic eye (and beard.) As he levels up and takes certain skills in the Cyber Commando skill tree, he gains more cybernetic parts and his voice changes, slowly but surely becoming the monstrosity seen in ''Borderlands 2''. Angel even tells Jack that by hiring him, he risks transforming Wilhelm into more machine than man, to which Jack responds sounds pretty awesome. The credits show him complete his transformation.
* DeadpanSnarker: Wilhelm is pretty dry. He'll speak up when needed, and doesn't mind giving honest feedback when asked, but he's not exactly a barrel of joy.
* DesperationAttack: His "Termination Protocols" skill in ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', where his Fight For Your Life mode is replaced with him slowly walking towards his enemies while emitting electricity until he either kills someone or self-destructs in a nuclear explosion. There's also his Vengeance Cannon, which activates when his shield is broken.
* DoNotRunWithAGun: Averted in ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', where the Shock Absorbers skill gives him cybernetic legs that let him shoot while sprinting, with a 20% damage bonus while doing so.
* DoomedByCanon: Wilhelm's fate is pre-determined by the fact he's a boss in ''Borderlands 2.''
* ElectronicEye: He has a scope-like prosthetic in the Pre-Sequel.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Wilhelm is a little disturbed by Nisha's bloodlust.
* EvilCounterpart: To Axton. Both are highly skilled former mercenaries whose main motivation is to obtain vast amounts of wealth, both have the use of lethal, automated machinery to aid them in battle (Wilhelm has his personal drones, Wolf and Saint, while Axton has his Sabre turret), and both ended up in their current situations as a result of failing an important mission involving protection of some kind. What separates them is where their loyalties lie: Axton joined the original Vault Hunters and the Crimson Raiders on their quest to stop Handsome Jack from opening the Vault, whereas Wilhelm continued to work for Hyperion after the events on Elpis and became Handsome Jack's right hand man, and would carry out Jack's most heinous actions.
* {{Expy}}: In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', he looks like a cyborg ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}.
* TheDragon: To Handsome Jack. ''The Pre-Sequel!'' shows that he initially worked for Jack just for the money, but Wilhelm eventually developed genuine respect for him, approving of many of Jack's more morally dubious actions throughout the game. By the end of the game, he's more than willing to serve Jack [[spoiler:just to put a bullet in Roland, Lilith and Moxxi's faces]].
* TheDreaded: He is feared by both Angel and the Crimson Raiders. When you finally face him, Roland and Lilith tell you to run. And prior to all that, he was a legendary mercenary prior to working for Jack.
* DroneDeployer: He can launch Surveyors to give him shields as well as to repair him. In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', his action skill lets him deploy two drones: Wolf, who attacks his enemies and Saint, who heals him.
* FamedInStory: He was formerly one of the most famous mercenaries known and several characters know him by reputation. Unfortunately for him, a botched job in which he failed to protect either a president or an orphanage tarnished his rep quite a bit and made it harder to get jobs in the inner worlds.
* FlatCharacter: PlayedForLaughs. His backstory is he's good at fights. His reason for joining the team? Jack paid him a lot. His deep, dark, secret he's afraid others will know? He likes steak (and robots).
* FreudianExcuse: He was born with a case of bone waste and the constant surgical implants he required made him addicted to cybernetic implants.
* FrickinLaserBeams: His Vengeance Cannon fires typical slower-than-light beams.
* ImplacableMan: Termination Protocols essentially turns him into the Terminator once his health is gone. Rather than crawling on the ground, he instead slowly walks forward while shooting electricity.
* JackOfAllStats: Like Axton before him, he's a pretty good all-rounder who can be specced for offense, defense or both. His action skill is both offensive and defensive at the same time, as he heals while Wolf probes for enemies to shoot. He's also got a JackOfAllStats skill deep in his self-improvement tree that makes him better at a little bit of everything.
* HiddenDepths: Defied. Despite his interviewer trying as hard as he can to get details of his life in an attempt to write a book about him, Wilhelm either can't or won't answer his questions with incredibly short and blunt answers, simply saying that he was good at fights throughout his entire life, he likes steak and robots and he wants to become a robot. His only concern when he finds all his ECHO logs are that people might know that he likes steak.
-->'''Interviewer''': This has been an extraordinary waste of time. What's the point of you, Wilhelm? What do you even want out of life?!\\
'''Wilhelm''': I'm really good at killing people. I wanna be a robot.\\
'''Interviewer''': That's pretty weird.
* KickTheDog: At the end of ''Claptastic Voyage'', he is laughing and high-fiving Nisha when Jack [[spoiler: destroys the Claptrap product line and guns down Claptrap himself]].
* LittleNo: Wilhelm's CatchPhrase. He loves giving blunt "No's" when he's not interested, particularly when Janey's trying to get him to say something inspirational for her posters.
-->'''Janey:''' Now jump up high and say something inspirational.\\
'''Wilhelm:''' No.
* MachineWorship: He's a worshiper of the [[Franchise/RoboCop Almighty Robotic Policeman]].
* MookLieutenant: In ''Borderlands 2'', he's pretty much a regular henchman, but serves as Jack's [[TheDragon Dragon]] in the story.
* NoodleIncident: When asked why he, the best Enforcer in the galaxy, would take up the job for Jack, he remarks that he failed to protect a politician from exploding. But he corrects himself, saying it was an ''orphanage'' he failed to protect.
* NotSoStoic: Technically the most "serious" of the Pre-Sequel's protagonists next to Athena, he is nonetheless extremely prone to nigh-comical HotBlooded behaviour and platitudes.
* NotWorthKilling: If he refuses to kill the surrendering Lost Legion soldier for Jack, he does it because he doesn't see a point to it when they're eventually going to wipe them out anyways.
* OneManArmy: Is stated to have single handedly won the battle of New Haven for Hyperion and defeated all of the four original Vault Hunters without breaking a sweat.
** According to Angel, back when he was a mercenary he had a kill count the equivalent of the population of a small country.
** BadassDecay: This was before [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul he went pretty much full machine]] in Borderlands 2 though. Whether or not [[ILetYouWin his death was part of Jack's plan]], he's clearly much less than he used to be.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: He only agreed to worked for Jack because he was hired for a lot of money. He's generally willing to do just about anything asked of him as long as he gets paid in the end. He makes an exception for people he really hates, such as offering to kill Tassiter for a quarter, or in the case of [[spoiler:Moxxi and the original Vault Hunters]], he'll do it for free. His backstory echo log bluntly lampshades this.
-->'''Jack:''' Hey Wilhelm, wanna come to the moon and hunt a Vault for me?\\
'''Wilhelm:''' No.\\
'''Jack:''' I'll pay you a couple million dollars.\\
'''Wilhelm:''' Okay. ''(End recording)''\\
'''Wilhelm:''' Yep. That's my backstory.
* PistolWhipping: His basic melee attack in ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' is to hit people with the butt of his gun.
* PowerFist: One of his skills in ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' is actually called this. It gives him a pneumatic fist that lets him toss out an explosive punch.
* PromotedToPlayable: In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel''.
* PunchClockVillain: All indications are that Wilhelm does any and all morally questionable actions in the game because he's being paid to do so. That doesn't stop him from having a disturbing cold-blooded streak, though.
* RedBaron: "The Enforcer" isn't just his class name; it also seems to be a sort of nickname he's developed as a mercenary since he's addressed as such by people who know him.
* ShoulderCannon: In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', he can be upgraded with a Vengeance Cannon that activates when he's at low health. In Borderlands 2, his cannon shoots mortars.
* TheStoic: While he can be more expressive when he feels like it, Wilhelm generally keeps his emotions in check and is not one to mince words, to the point that he utterly infuriates the interviewer for his autobiography with how abrupt and short his descriptions of his life are. He's also the only one to not have any particularly extreme reaction towards [[spoiler:Jack spacing the scientists]], to which he just calmly compliments Jack for his ruthlessness and pragmatism
* TakingYouWithMe: With Termination Protocols, he can self-destruct in a nuclear explosion similar to Krieg's Light the Fuse. Like Light the Fuse, if he scores a kill, he actually gets revived. In fact, he occasionally namedrops the trope when in "Fight for your Life!" mode.
* ThisCannotBe: How he reacts to losing a fight against the player characters. "This is literally impossible!"
* TranquilFury: After [[spoiler:Moxxi, Roland and Lilith's betrayal]], Wilhelm calmly describes his feelings about the matter to Janey as such:
-->'''Springs''': Wilhelm, you saved Elpis and Pandora! Whatcha feelin'?\\
'''Wilhelm''': Anger, pain... Lot more people gonna die before I'm done here...
* {{Transhuman}}: His stated goal in life is "I want to be a robot". By the events of ''Borderlands 2'', Wilhelm looks and acts more like a machine than a human being from all the cyberenhancement he's had done on himself. Yes, he becomes deadlier than pretty much every human alive (except the Vault Hunters), but [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul pretty much destroys his personality in the process]].
* TryNotToDie: His idea of congratulating Nurse Nina's new boyfriend.
-->'''Wilhelm:''' You're here because you didn't die. My advice is don't die.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', the more he upgrades himself with cybernetics, the deeper and more distorted his voice becomes.
* WorfHadTheFlu: According to dialog that was accidentally left out of ''Borderlands 2'', [[spoiler:Jack had him poisoned prior to his boss battle.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Nisha]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nisha_6467.jpg]]

!Nisha Kadam
!! ''As "The Lawbringer"'' (The Sheriff of Lynchwood)
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/StephanieYoung

-->''"Howdy, pardner..."''

[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Sheriff]] of Lynchwood, a Hyperion-controlled town on Pandora. She is the current girlfriend of Handsome Jack, and was given the city as an anniversary present. Formerly a bandit who hunted down other bandits, she began working for Jack for the action.

Her Action Skill has her temporarily lock onto enemies while gaining substantial buffs, locking onto critical spots when aiming down sights.
----
* AbnormalAmmo: "The Unforgiven" upgrades her Action Skill so that the bullets she shoots during Showdown not only bounce to other enemies but can also be remote-detonated after it runs out.
* AbusiveParents It's revealed in her personal Echo Logs that Nisha's mother was abusive to her and possibly her father. One of her lines for completing a badass challenge is to brag about how she hasn't felt this good since mom died.
* AllCrimesAreEqual: As the Sheriff. In her case, it's not because she really thinks it's a good way to discourage criminals. She just likes hanging people.
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Her first and last names are Hindi[=/=]Sanskrit, suggesting Indian descent.
* AscendedExtra: Though she gets much more characterization than any of Jack's other henchmen, Nisha is still just a one-off boss in ''Borderlands 2''. She gets [[PromotedToPlayable promoted to playable]] in ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel''.
* AxCrazy: What can we say, she likes shooting things. Though she's not the massacre-while-giggling kind so much as the languid "gimme half an excuse" type.
* BadassLongcoat: She sports a purple duster as the Sheriff.
* BadassNormal: Her comrades are a former assassin trained since childhood with a hi-tech shield, a renowned cyborg mercenary with personal drones, a reprogrammed for combat DoAnythingRobot, an actor with a hologram projector and a huntress with a prototype ice trap. Nisha seems to be largely self-trained by experience and doesn't have any of the other characters' fancy toys, but she is just as capable as other Vault Hunters.
* BareYourMidriff: In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel''
* TheBerserker: She's able to focus her rage into temporary moments of incredible precision.
* CoDragons: The credits of the Pre-Sequel shows that she and Wilhelm served as this to Jack in his war on Pandora.
* CombatSadomasochist: She's equally sadistic and masochistic, this forms the basis of her Law & Order tree, which gives her stacks of Order whenever she takes damage and gives her a chance to heal and when upgraded gives her the chance to return said damage with interest. Several of her comments definitely make it clear that she loves taking pain as much as she deals it out.
* CruelMercy: If you choose to spare [[spoiler: the surrendering Lost Legion soldier]], Nisha will remark she's only doing so to make him overconfident, so she can have even more fun strangling him a few months later when he's not expecting it.
* DarkActionGirl: Loves killing bandits so much that she reduced the town, Lynchwood, to poverty just to hunt them down. WordOfGod even describes her as the most evil character of the series.
** DarkMistress: She's also Handsome Jack's girlfriend. She openly invites anyone who accuses her of gaining her power via nepotism to settle it personally in her broadcasts and states that she has no interest in his vision of utopia.
* DoomedByCanon: Like Wilhelm, she's a boss in ''Borderlands 2'', albeit an optional one.
* EvilLaugh: When activating Showdown, she occasionally lets out a bloodthirsty laugh.
* EvilMatriarch: Her mother. See FreudianExcuse below.
* FauxAffablyEvil: She isn't rude to Janey at all and is more amused than anything by Brick and the Vault Hunters' antics in Lynchwood. She's also surprisingly sympathetic to Nina's suitors, considering that they're (lovesick) bandits. That said, she is still extremely sadistic and AxCrazy.
* ForTheEvulz: Why is she evil? Eh. Seems like a fun way to be.
* FreudianExcuse: Revealed in ''The Pre-Sequel!'' to have had a traumatic childhood. Her mother was abusive to both her child and her husband, who was too cowed to do anything to defend himself or Nisha. Nisha's only real friend was a puppy that she adored - until [[spoiler:it was bitten by something either venomous or rabid. After an accident, the puppy went berserk and attacked her, tearing at her throat, while her mother laughed. Once her father had bandaged her injuries, Nisha killed the dog with a shovel]]. Ever since that event, she's developed a hatred of small animals such as puppies.
* GlassCannon: Outside of the Law & Order tree, Nisha has very little in terms of survivability, but is quite possibly the most powerful character in terms of raw damage potential.
* GunsAkimbo: "One For Each of Ya" lets her copy the pistol she's holding, letting her dual-wield them. Unlike Salvador, it's a permanent upgrade and limited to handguns.
* TheGunslinger: While this is a given considering the setting, Nisha takes this further with her western aesthetic. Her Action Skill in ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' makes her auto-lock on enemies, making her The Vaporizer.
* HangingJudge: They don't call the town "Lynchwood" for nothing.
* {{Jerkass}}: Even aside from her murderousness, Nisha is generally incredibly surly and rude to most folks, particularly Moxxi, who she hates on sight ''and'' calls her a "slutty clown", plus she's shown willingly helping Jack in his rise to power at the credits. She also really, really, really, really hates the Customs Claptrap.
** She does mellow out a small bit in Borderlands 2, which is set 3 years after the events on Elpis. As the Sheriff, she's quieter, more subtle in her actions, and is actually polite to both you and even Brick, who she has been putting up bounties for years. She even considers you a WorthyOpponent, something almost none of the antagonists do, and appreciates you killing bandits in the town. That said, though, she's also hypocritical, tortures people for very stupid reasons (for example, going outside at night), hangs everyone for every single crime, gathered almost every unaffiliated bandit in Lynchwood so she could kill them daily and murdered Brick's puppy.
* JustYouAndMeAndMyGuards: Her version of a 'duel' in Borderlands 2.
* KarmicDeath: For all the atrocities she committed in her life, especially when helping Jack and as the sheriff of Lynchwood, she is ultimately killed in a showdown in Lynchwood by the Vault Hunters.
* KickTheDog:
** When Brick was captured, she tried to torture him, but he didn't break. So she got his puppy and snapped its neck in front of him.
** Upon learning that Athena [[spoiler:was tricked into killing her sister by Atlas]], Nisha proceeds to laugh at her.
** When Jack [[spoiler: personally guns down Claptrap]] at the end of ''Claptastic Voyage'', she is shown laughing and high-fiving Wilhelm.
* LaserGuidedKarma: She committed horrible actions towards Brick, who then pays you to trash her mining operation and rob her bank.
* LaughablyEvil: While several of her KickTheDog actions are taken seriously, Nisha's evilness and her nonchalant attitude towards her actions are occasionally played for laughs, such as her hatred of small animals and her history of terrorizing innocent and not-so-innocent people (her justification for robbing a convent was that "those nuns were dicks"). Her personal ECHO log consists of the screams of a bandit king she tortured with her happily reminiscing on it.
* LifeDrain: Her Celestial Lawbringer mod lets her heal for a fraction of the damage she does in Showdown.
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: She fell in love with Jack the moment he [[spoiler:had a group of Hyperion scientists he suspects of being moles for Zarpedon jettisoned out to space]]. The further he goes through his VillainousBreakdown, the more attractive Nisha finds him. By the end of the game, Jack asks Nisha if she wants to go get a drink with him when this is all over, and she replies by saying that "We're just gonna ''skip'' the drink."
* TheMasochismTango: Handsome Jack's reddit AMA implies that their relationship is like this; it involves strangulation and RussianRoulette, but they both enjoy it.
-->'''Aurelia''': (Upon picking up Jack's ECHO on Nisha) I'm sure the sex will be horrifying.
* MoreDakka: "Unchained" builds up a stack of buffs to her fire rate whenever she shoots her enemies, up to a maximum of 105% [[note]]21 stacks of 5% fire rate buffs[[/note]] by default. With the right guns (particularly a Vladof pistol coupled with [[GunsAkimbo One for Each of Ya]]) Nisha becomes a preposterous bullet hose.
* NervesOfSteel: In contrast to her boyfriend, who goes screams and rants and rages at you through the course of the game, she doesn't sound annoyed at all when you rob her bank, blow up her train and kill hundreds of bandits. And when she does sound angry, she laughs and states very calmly that she likes you and would like you to come and duel with her.
* NiceHat: She sports a wide-brimmed hat as the Sheriff and a stetson in ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel''
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: In Borderlands 2, she was only known as "The Sheriff" by everyone else, with Deputy Winger stating that she came to the town one day, put the town under martial law and declared herself Sheriff. It wasn't until ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' that her name was revealed.
* OnlyOneName: A notable aversion of this in the series. Unlike most people in it, both her first ''and'' her last name are known according to her appearance in ''The Pre-Sequel!'', with the latter only by a quote she gives when killing a lot of enemies.
* OptionalBoss: Lynchwood is a completely optional area that's only visited in sidequests. However, WordOfGod states that the Vault Hunters canonically kill Nisha.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: She was formerly a bandit who was wanted for killing Bandit leaders who murdered their way into elected positions. Not that this doesn't stop her from committing atrocities of her own, such as robbing convents and burning down orphanages.
* PeekABangs: In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', Nisha's hair is always covering her left eye.
* PetTheDog: Despite being one of the biggest sadists in the series, she does have an OddFriendship with Janey Springs. She's always polite to her and even offers to be "besties" with her after finding out how much she likes killing kraggons. She also wishes Nina and Timber Logwood well when they end up together.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Despite her position as The Sheriff, Nisha doesn't seem to do much when it comes to actually protecting Lynchwood from bandits, considering that the town is absolutely lousy with them. She keeps it that way to have plenty of targets.
* PlayingWithFire: Hot Lead makes it so that any crit she makes with a non-elemental gun has a chance to ignite the enemy.
* PromotedToPlayable: In ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel''.
* PsychoForHire: While all of Jack's other Vault Hunters worked for him simply because it's their job, Nisha did it primarily for the chance to kill more people.
* PurpleIsPowerful: Judging by her default color scheme in the Pre-Sequel and her duster as the Sheriff, Nisha has a preference for the color purple.
* {{Quickdraw}}: The inspiration for her Showdown Action Skill, which is essentially an aimbot assisted by some generous gun buffs.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: She heavily agrees with this trope-she starts off (if you have a B2 save file) with a Jakobs iron and a Masher revolver, plus she's shown wielding Jakobs Irons in all promotional material. However, she uses a incendiary Maliwan revolver with a Tediore grip in Borderlands 2, that also fires flares.
* SelfMadeOrphan: It isn't made clear [[DisappearedDad what happened to her father]] (if anything), but one of her lines for completing challenges has her remark how she hasn't felt this good since mom died.
* {{Sadist}}: Making people suffer seems to be her favourite pastime. Hell, she recounted snapping the neck of Brick's dog and making him go into a HeroicBSOD as a result, with nothing but satisfaction and perhaps even ''relish.''
* ShockAndAwe: "Thunder Crackdown" lets her create bolts of lighting when she cracks her whip.
* ShowdownAtHighNoon: Challenges the player to a duel. In actuality, it's an ambush, since she "duels" you from a high vantage point and surrounds herself with her marshals.
* SpaceWestern: She has a strong western theme going on, as both the corrupt Sheriff in the second game and the psychopathic gunslinger in the ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel''
* TranquilFury: Her action skill uses her pent up anger to pull off extraordinary feats. But unlike Salvador, it manifests as sharp precision rather than UnstoppableRage.
* TokenEvilTeammate: The most evil of the ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' protagonists. While Athena, Claptrap and Timothy lean more towards TokenGoodTeammate and Wilhelm is mostly mercenary and respects Jack's pragmatism, Nisha just plain likes killing stuff. Even Aurelia, who's just there because she's bored, [[EvenEvilHasStandards becomes gradually disgusted with Jack]] and is more detached and classy than Nisha's BloodKnight hankering for a gunfight.
-->'''Nisha:''' ''[on why she's fighting]'' For fun.
* TooKinkyToTorture: When a quest forces one of the Vault Hunters to complete an electric circuit with their own body, Nisha seems aroused by the idea. She still has her limits though. When her oxygen tank depletes and she starts suffocating, she may say something like "Normally I'm into this kind of thing, but..." However, even she thinks Wilhelm's addiction to surgical implants is a bit too much.
* UnholyMatrimony: She genuinely falls in love with Jack over the course of ''The [=PreSequel!=]'', and stays in a happy relationship with him for several years, right up until [[spoiler: the Vault Hunters kill her]].
** Jack claims he genuinely misses her in ''Tales''.
* WeaponOfChoice: She prefers Jakobs Irons in all art for the Pre-Sequel and starts with one (as well as having various skills and class mods meant to specifically boost Jakobs), but in Borderlands 2, she uses an incendiary Maliwan revolver with a Tediore grip.
* WhipItGood: Her melee weapon in ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' is a whip. It does less damage and is slower than other melee weapons, but has longer range and can be upgraded so that it steals ammo from enemies.
* WhyAmITicking: With The Unforgiven skill, any enemy she doesn't finish off during Showdown becomes a living bomb that Nisha detonates at the end.
* WorthyOpponent: She respects the Vault Hunters as fellow gunslingers. [[spoiler:Though it doesn't prevent her from being a FlunkyBoss.]] For all intents and purposes, she's mostly amused and actually somewhat impressed as they proceed to rob her bank, blow up her train and kill her men. Even when fighting her she'll occasionally remark "Good shot" if they manage to hurt her enough.
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: After defeating her, the player is informed that they are now the new Sheriff of Lynchwood.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Claptrap]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cptp_5992.jpg]]

![=CL4P-TP=] (Claptrap)
!!''As A Mistake (The Fragtrap)''
->'''Voiced by:''' David Eddings

-->''"Helloooo, travellers! I am a [=CL4P-TP=] steward bot, but my friends call me Claptrap!"''

A type of Hyperion robot designed to provide assistance to settlers and newcomers to Pandora. They are almost universally hated by the population of the planet, and the bandits use them as target practice. The one who greets the Vault Hunters in Fyrestone is the most ubiquitous, and becomes a more major character in the second game, eventually becoming a playable character in the Pre-Sequel.

His action skill has him run [=VaultHunter.exe=], a buggy program that analyses the battlefield and grants him a random ability it deems appropriate for the situation.
----
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating:
** The various Vault Hunters, Janey Springs, and The Guardian Angel are the only people that treat him with anything resembling civility. Everyone else sees him as a tool (both senses of the word) or as a complete annoyance. ''Tiny Tina's Assault On Dragon Keep'' forms a running gag that whenever Claptrap says ''anything'', he completely ruins the moment, much to the expressed sighs of everyone who hears him. In fact, because of this, we can probably remove most of the Vault Hunters from the list of people who treat Claptrap with civility, which limits it to just Roland and the Guardian Angel. [[spoiler:And those two are both dead]].
** This even extends to the game itself, as if you choose Fragtrap as your character class you will be given three prompts asking if it's what you REALLY wanted to play.
* ActionBomb: Clap-In-The-Box digistructs a large bomb, which will explode after a short delay, dealing heavy Explosive damage to enemies and allies alike.
* Adorkable: And how, even for a robot!
* AIIsACrapshoot: Claptrap - and really his entire model line - is erratic and unreliable at the best of times. ''Pre-Sequel!'' reveals that this is because the Hyperion AI researcher who designed them in the first place actually died before he could fix their programming. They're so problematic that Jack ultimately just destroys the entire product line because he hates them that much, and due to a bad (and downright surreal) experience with one trying to unlock a door.
** When Jack is trying to make Claptrap into a viable robot soldier, he gets frustrated and furious because every time he activates it, Claptrap just won't stop dancing. Eventually [[spoiler: Angel]] suggests that the best way to make Claptrap work as a soldier is to "work with the idiocy, not against it." Thus, VAULTHUNTER.exe.
** It turns out that this is the reason why VAULTHUNTER.exe is as random and uncontrolled as it is: [[spoiler: the aspect of the code that would have made it work properly, known as Shadowtrap, was actually self-aware and so hostile and malevolent that Claptrap's own security systems automatically quarantined it.]]
* AnachronismStew: Some of Claptrap's special abilities are shout-outs to Borderlands 2's generation of vault hunters—"Funzerker" or "Mechromancer," for example—who may not even be on Pandora yet. (Claptrap even says he has two robot arms, as a reference to how Gaige has one.) But then, RuleOfFunny.
* AscendedExtra: [=CL4P-TP=] robots were ubiquitous in the first game, but rarely showed much personality beyond either cheerfully helpful or wailing in overblown despair when broken. They served mainly as a way the characters could access new zones or upgrade their backpacks. It wasn't until Claptrap's web series that he actually developed the passive-aggressive persona that appears in the ''Claptrap's New Robot Revolution'' DLC and subsequently the second game. Eventually, the Pre-Sequel even made Claptrap a playable character.
* BadBoss: The web series has Claptrap as a director, and frequently having Steve shoot crew members that fail in some way.
* BeamSpam: Laser Inferno summons disco ball, that shoots elemental lasers in all directions.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: Claptrap has been involved in many of the series' events, having not only been the very first NPC character met in the series, but also sparked the Claptrap Robot Revolution and was also a key player in the rise and fall of Handsome Jack, having been both a prototype combat unit under his service as well as helping the Crimson Raiders in their war against him. The Pre-Sequel confirms that it has indeed always been the same Claptrap unit rather than a different one.
* BoringButPractical: For all of the flashy and sometimes literally insane special effects ''Vaulthunter.exe'' can have, one of its most useful use is simply the fact that it always fully heals Claptrap when triggered.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Out of necessity. In the second game, he has a "secret stash" that lets him transfer items between "My minions that ''you'' control. (Look, it's for twinking items between your characters)".
* BroughtDownToNormal: After the events of the Pre-Sequel, Claptrap loses both his combat protocols and stair-climbing wheel. Where it not for [[spoiler:[=ShadowTrap=] sacrificing itself to save him]], he wouldn't have even survived. He apparently manages to get back to some degree of his previous badassery by [[spoiler: the time of the final battle in ''Tales From the Borderlands'']].
* ButtMonkey: Oh '''God''' is he ever.
** He spends most of the second game after the intro getting either ignored or verbally abused by the majority of Sanctuary's citizens.
** The intro isn't any easier on him. In the span of about two hours, [[EyeScream he has his eye ripped out]], falls off a cliff, [[ElectricTorture gets electrocuted]], [[StuffBlowingUp gets blown up by a massive artillery cannon]], and gets [[ColdBloodedTorture used as a torture doll]] by a bandit leader. This being ''Borderlands'', it's all played for laughs.
** During the quest to reclaim his ship, a group of pirates proceed to beat Claptrap, while he suggests that they instead talk it out. While showing them a hypothetical of how such a conversation would go, Claptrap inadvertently convinces himself that ''the very people beating him have the moral high ground'' since he doesn't actually feel pain and hitting him makes the pirates feel better. That's right, Claptrap convinces himself that he should be beaten up.
** In the Pre-Sequel, selecting him as a player character causes the game to prompt you three times if you're serious about playing Claptrap, saying that you must have chosen wrong and that you can't possibly want to play such a pathetic character.
* CantUseStairs: In the second game, this is pointed out, and the player is forced to use a crane to hoist him. In the Pre-Sequel however, this problem is dealt with by Handsome Jack specifically mentioning installing a stair-climbing wheel on him, which was removed along with his combat subroutines some time after the events of Elpis.
* CatchPhrase: "Greetings, traveller!"
** " Aannnnnddd... open!"
** "Hellooooo, travelers!"
** "MINION!"
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: According to the loading screen, Claptrap can be affected by things that shouldn't affect him (like being set on fire) because he really, ''really'' believes he's a real Vault Hunter, and this somehow makes him vulnerable to some of the same things as squishy organic Vault Hunters. In actuality, Claptrap is treated in-game as an armored unit and still takes more damage from Corrosion.
** When lit of fire, he remarks that his chassis is made of galvanized human skin.
* CombatMedic: His "I Love You Guys!" skill tree make him a potent team medic as well as all-around support character. Maniacal Laughter grants him and his buddies health regen the more elemental damage he deals. "You're... GOING TO LOVE ME!" causes a healing nova around any enemy he kills. "It's a Trap... Card" causes him to create an explosion that heals allies while damaging enemies whenever his shields are depleted. He also has certain [=VaultHunter.exe=] mode that can only be activated in co-op focused on either directly healing teammates or instantly reviving them at the cost putting himself in FFYL Mode.
* ComebackMechanic: Claptrap as a Fragtrap is the undisputed master of comebacks, as he has multiple skills related to Fight For Your Life mode in all three of his skill trees. He has two skills that [[CriticalStatusBuff vastly increase his damage output in FFYL]], one that gives him regeneration afterwards so he stays alive longer better, one that draws aggro so enemies are easier to kill and he can recover, another that makes him periodically emit nova explosions while sending out minitraps to seek out enemies and explode on them in FFYL... basically, properly-specced, Claptrap may go down but it almost never means he's ''out.''
** He also has a near-instant downtime, whereas other characters take a while to slump over during which they can't be controlled. This means Claptrap is far less likely to lose track of a target when he goes into FFYL.
* ConfusionFu: Essentially the crux of his gameplay. Because it's malware, [=VaultHunter.exe=] is unpredictable and has the potential to turn any situation into anything from a bizarre victory to a humiliating defeat in a flash. Similarly, his Fragmented Fragtrap is focused on getting random buffs to a specific gun type at the cost of a debuff to all other guns, forcing him to switch weapons much more often than he otherwise might. Lampshaded by [[spoiler:Angel]], who told Jack that if he wanted to make Claptrap into a combat unit, he needs to work ''with'' his inherent stupidity rather than around it.
* CowardlySidekick: To the Vault Hunters of the first and second game. Whenever they enter a dangerous situation, Claptrap will quickly run away and scream for help. Even during his time as the Fragtrap he's still fairly cowardly.
* CurseCutShort: An Out of Game example. Claptrap won the award for Best Character at the 10th annual Spike Video Game Awards. During his introduction, he casually strolled through his room and repaints himself into a tuxedo and top hat while giving his thanks for just being nominated, though he hoped that he would win too. At the end though, he rushes towards the camera, ready to flip off the audience.
-->'''Claptrap:''' For those of you who are voting for me, thank you! And for those of you who aren't, well you can F- '''(OFF AIR)'''
* CyberCyclops: Claptraps all have one single glowing optic lens.
* DelinquentHair: A mission in ''Borderlands 2'' gives the player the option to give him Bullymong fur... so he can turn it into a mohawk. In the Pre-Sequel, when activating Funzerking, he gains Salvador's mohawk and beard.
* TheDeterminator:
** His abilities have elements of this: Going into Fight For Your Life makes him more dangerous, not less.
** The end of ''Claptastic Voyage'' shows him [[spoiler: determinedly clinging on for life after being shot by Handsome Jack and dumped in the frozen wastelands, thanks to Shadowtrap's HeroicSacrifice.]] Sir Hammerlock sums it up.
--->'''Hammerlock''': Seems we've got a bit of a fighter here....
* DittoFighter: In the Pre-Sequel, several of his [=VaultHunter.exe=] abilities are taken from the Borderlands 2 characters. The icons for the abilities even has Claptrap dressing up as said characters.
** Miniontrap is essentially Axton's Sabre Turret, particularly how it fires out massive volleys of missiles.
** Funzerking is basically Salvador's Gunzerking, though with more limitations and uncontrollable firing.
** Blightbot gives him a minion with Maya's Blight Phoenix power.
** Mechromagician is a combination of Deathtrap, Anarchy, Discord and Close Enough.
** Shhhhhhhhhh...trap is [=Zer0=]'s [=Decepti0n=] ability, only without breaking invisibility when shooting.
** Meat Unicycle is basically Buzz-Axe Rampage without the ability to toss the axe. The fiery explosions are a reference to the Flame of the Firehawk shield that was popular with most Krieg builds.
* DoAnythingRobot: Claptraps are designed to be able to perform a wide variety of tasks, from basic manual labor to combat, though that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be competent at it due to their faulty AI. It was because of their flexibility that Jack decided to create the Fragtrap rather than use a more up-to-date robot.
* ADogNamedDog: Claptrap is both the name of the brand of robots as well as the name of the individual units unless they're given unique designations.
* EyeSpy: How he finds his stolen eye mentioned earlier, though he has to be within range
* FlawedPrototype: All Claptraps have faulty programming that makes them highly unreliable for even the most basic of tasks as well as a built-in failsafe that keeps anyone (including Hyperion employees) from tampering with them. Their creator Lawrence [=DeQuidt=] was about to fix this before he died, leaving them as the dancing annoyances that everyone knows and hates.
* FreedomFromChoice: Why does he fight for Jack?
-->'''Claptrap:''' Because my programming forbade me from doing otherwise.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: For all three groups of Vault Hunters. He tries his best to be friendly and helpful, but ''no one'' really seems to like him or even treat him halfway decently, with the possible exception of Angel and Janey Springs. The various Vault Hunter groups keep him around out of a combination of necessity, proximity, and possibly pity.
* FullCircleRevolution: His Robolution quickly goes from legitimate outrage over the treatment of robots on Pandora, to "Kill Meatbag". Also, the Robolution is a HiveMind controlled by the original Claptrap; he even lampshades this in one of his speeches in which he calls upon the other Claptraps to overthrown their oppressive human masters in service to him, their new master.
* GemEncrusted: In Episode 4 of his web series, he claims to own a toilet seat made out of diamonds. He can't use it because he's three feet tall and can't reach the seat, but he likes having it. Also, no bowel system.
* GoodBadBugs: In-universe; [=VaultHunter.exe=] is malware that Jack installed on top of Claptrap's basic software to make him combat-ready. Because of this, it's hard to predict and has the potential to be as dangerous to Claptrap and allies as it is to their enemies. When activating his skill during multiplayer, other characters generally comment how ThisIsGonnaSuck, yelling at him to do something that won't screw them over.
* GrenadeSpam: Torgue Fiesta spams grenades in all directions. Like Clap-In-The-Box, it could deal heavy damage to enemies and allies alike.
* GuestFighter: He's one of the four main characters in Telltale Games' ''VideoGame/PokerNight2''. Depending on whether or not he puts collateral in, you can win Handsome Jack's mask for [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 the Spy]] if you're on PC, a Bloodwing item for your Xbox LIVE avatar if you're on Xbox, or a dynamic theme for your [=PS3=] involving him crossed-over with the other characters playing poker, such as running away from an alien tractor beam with [[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Sam]], or giving a rose to [=GLaDOS=] from Portal.
* GuestStarPartyMember: In [[spoiler: ''Tales From the Borderlands'', he's the Mystery Vault Hunter that can be hired if you either never spend a single cent throughout the campaign or if you let Felix live]].
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Steve the Bandit, according to his web series and ''VideoGame/PokerNight2''. [=GlaDOS=] even refers to Steve as Claptrap's best friend.
* ImmediateSelfContradiction: If you [[spoiler: choose him as team mate in episode 5 of ''Tales from the Borderlands'' and welcome him aboard]], he'll say that as long as they keep a cool head, with his vault hunting expertise there's nothing they can't do. Then he actually ''sees'' the size of the monster they'll be fighting, and starts screaming about how they're all gonna die.
* IJustWantToHaveFriends:
** Invoked by the "I Love You Guys!" skill tree, which focuses on making him a great support character with team buffs and healing in a desperate attempt at making his teammates like him.
** At the end of his tree is the ability to offer a high-five, granting the deliverer a health regeneration and fire rate bonus. Claptrap can receive this if he is left hanging or [[DevelopersForesight melee'd by an enemy with his hand up]].
--->'''Claptrap:''' I just want to be loved! ''(sobbing)''
** His need to have friends is so intense that toward the end of ''Claptastic Voyage'', he [[spoiler: refuses to merge with Shadowtrap and the H-Source to inflict a swath of destruction across the galaxy because it would involve killing those he views as his friends]].
* InvisibilityCloak: Part of an upgrade in the second game that lets him sneak past Hyperion's "Competitor Deterrence Field." Of course, he really doesn't need it, since he is technically Hyperion technology and not organic.
** In the Pre-Sequel, he can essentially mimic [=Zer0=]'s [=Decepti0n=] as one of his [=VaultHunter.exe=] abilities.
* KickThemWhileTheyreDown: The name of one of his skills in the Pre-Sequel, in which he draws aggro while in Fight For Your Life mode by tossing out insults.
** Funnily enough, this actually helps him survive easier, since enemies like to keep their distance during [=FFYL=] mode so you can't get your Second Wind. He may get kicked while he's down, but it helps him get back up.
** In Borderlands 2, he gets shot into a bandit camp and you find him being kicked by four bandits. During that time he somehow managed to convince himself that the bandits have the ''moral highground'' (due to him not being able to feel pain and allowing the bandits to vent their rage is actually good for them).
* KillAllHumans: Pretty much his motto during his Glorious Robolution phase.
* KissingInATree: During the quest to recover the echo logs of Jack scouting out prospective Vault Hunters.
-->'''Claptrap:''' Jack and Nisha sitting in a tree.\\
K-I-Z-Z-my-spelling-circuits-have-been-replaced-with-weapons-protocols.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Thanks to Jack and [[spoiler:Angel]] jury-rigging him into the Fragtrap, Claptrap lost most of his memories such as the Robolution and presumably the entire events of the Pre-Sequel.
* LastOfHisKind:
** As of ''Borderlands 2'', he is the last robot of his kind in existence thanks to Handsome Jack.
** He discovers transmissions from another Claptrap unit in ''Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt''. [[spoiler:[[YankTheDogsChain It's dead.]] And it exploded, so there's no chance it can be repaired.]]
* LaughingMad: By building stacks in Maniacal Laughter through dealing elemental damage, he and his teammates start laughing uncontrollably.
* TheLoad: In Borderlands 2, he generally cowers from danger and can be incredibly unreliable when serving his supposed purpose of unlocking doors (as seen in him unlocking the gates to Hero's Pass). In the Pre-Sequel, all the other Vault Hunters treat him as this due to his [=VaultHunter.EXE=] having the potential to backfire spectacularly and directly impair them in battle.
* LongList: His list of weaknesses; see WeaksauceWeakness below.
* MadeOfIron: Claptrap survives a ''lot'' of punishment in ''Borderlands 2'' without any signs of major injury, including a near-direct hit from a giant artillery cannon.
* MasterOfUnlocking:
** A mild example. Claptraps guard the gates to new areas of the world, and must grant the player access for them to continue.
** In the sequel, Claptrap finds himself in this role once more, this time because his compatibility with Hyperion technology means he's the only one on the Crimson Raiders' side who can bypass Hyperion security, at least with the proper upgrades. Considering the fact that he was partially responsible for Jack's rise to power, this may very well be [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou the only reason why they still let him live]]. Even then, he can be quite unreliable, as shown in his repeated failure with the gate to Hero's Pass.
** In the Pre-Sequel!, he loses this ability due to stair-climbing and combat protocols taking up the space needed for this software, much to his dismay. (Though several other Claptraps encountered in the game still have it. One of them averts this, in a big way, however, causing the Fragtrap to go from envying him still having the ability to open doors to considering him a disgrace to the Claptrap line for being unable to get a particular door open.)
* MachineWorship: [[spoiler:A group of savages in the ''Borderlands 2'' DLC "Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt" worship Claptrap... until he insults Handsome Jack, whom they also worship.]]
* MickeyMousing: When in Pirate Ship mode, he fires his cannons to the tune of the 1812 Overture.
* MoodWhiplash: After destroying [[spoiler:The Eye of Helios]], Janey chimes in and asks Fragtrap what he thinks about all that has happened so far. Claptrap lists off a bunch of horrible atrocities he was forced to commit or watch, before realizing that she called him by his name, where he cheers that this is the best day of his life.
* MoreDakka: His Funserker effect digitally clones his equipped weapon and forces him and his allies to fire uncontrollably. It burns through ammo at a very fast rate, but is notably devastating with Jakobs brand weapons, shotguns, or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Jakobs brand shotguns.]]
* MusicalPastiche: The music that Claptrap's Blightbot dances to sounds like ''Music/DaftPunk'''s "Around The World".
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: In ''The Pre-Sequel!'', he can't really do much to oppose Jack, since he's Hyperion property.
* NiceGuy: He ''tries'' to be this way to the people of Sanctuary, often being friendly and complimenting their clothes. Unfortunately for him, he just comes off as supremely annoying to everyone around him.
* NotSoDifferent: His personality is actually ''a lot'' like Jack's, being an approval-seeking Jerkass with questionable social skills, LaughablyEvil tendencies, and a predisposition to quickly going nuts when given actual power. The key difference is that Jack is a lot smarter and thus able to be both snarky and a ManipulativeBastard, while Claptrap is inefficient at dealing with others and just comically inept in general.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:Jack shoots him after using the H-Source (which Claptrap helped get for him) to kill every Claptrap in existence, then dumps him in a junk pile with the rest. Shadowtrap, the remnants of the Fragtrap programming, sacrifices himself to keep him functional long enough for Sir Hammerlock to find and fix him]].
-->'''Sir Hammerlock:''' We've got a bit of a fighter here, eh?
* OnePersonBirthdayParty: The sidequest "Claptrap's Birthday Bash" involves delivering invitations to people for Claptrap's birthday. None of the guests accept the invitation, so you end up alone with Claptrap. With the decorations he set up. And boxes of pizza. It's sad. The kicker is what he says once you turn in the quest.
-->'''Claptrap:''' That was the best party I've ever thrown!
* OneWheeledWonder: Claptraps move around via a single wheel. While they're capable of being mobile, they're less capable when it comes to stairs.
* OnlySaneMan: At least to some degree in his own product line. When on the mission to get into Jack's Office, he has to enlist the aid of a standard [=CL4P-TP=], who lacks the experiences and developed personality of Claptrap. During the fiasco, he finds himself becoming incredibly annoyed, more than any of the humans, at the dumb antics of his own kind. Him gaining more individuality than the standard [=CL4P-TP=] from his accumulated data as the Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap, as well as the Fragtrap, and interacting with people more than any other robot in the series may very well have contributed to him persistently surviving as the LastOfHisKind.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: He's the smallest player character of the series, but is still as capable as any of Jack's Vault Hunters.
* ThePowerOfFriendship: The "I love you guys!" skill tree, which can, among other things, create healing shockwaves, give regeneration bonuses to revived teammates, and offer high fives that buff the both players.
* PrimalFear: Loneliness. Specifically, [[spoiler: ''other'' people's loneliness]].
* PromotedToPlayable: In the Pre-Sequel, Claptrap is one of the playable characters.
* QuirkyBard: While the other Vault Hunters have clear focuses, Claptrap is much more of a wildcard gameplay-wise, particularly with the Fragmented Fragtrap.
* RandomEffectSpell: "[=VaultHunter.exe=]" analyses the battlefield and activates the effect it determines most suited for the situation from a long, strange list. Some are good, some are... not. You won't know until you activate it. At least you're guaranteed full health and health regen no matter what.
** '''''F'''unserker'': Claptrap gains the ability to dual-wield his guns (by digitally cloning his equipped weapon) while also causing him and and his allies to fire uncontrollably. Essentially a copy of Salvador's action skill with more stipulations.
** ''Mechromagician'': Increases your and your teammates' damage while also decreasing your accuracy as well as tossing out a miniature Claptrap that flies around attacking enemies. Claptrap also gains constant health regen as well as ricocheting ammo in this state. As the name implies, it's a mimic of Gaige's action skill.
** ''Shhhhhhhhhh...trap'': Tosses out a decoy while also turning invisible. The player stays invisible for the entire duration instead of until an attack is done, but doesn't get [=Zer0=]'s massive damage bonus.
** ''Miniontrap'': Tosses out a miniature Claptrap that acts as a turret, copying Roland/Axton's Action Skill.
** ''Blightbot'': Claptrap summons a minion with Maya's Blight Phoenix power that flies around applying elemental damage to everyone.
** ''Meat Unicycle'': Pulling out a giant buzz-axe, Claptrap temporarily channels Krieg and goes on a melee rampage while also causing fiery explosions. Also buffs melee damage for allies.
** ''Senseless Sacrifice'': Only available in Co-op; Claptrap downs himself to revive any other downed teammates.
** ''Medbot'': Only available in Co-op; Claptrap gets a healing laser used to restore health to teammates and enemies.
** ''Rubber Ducky'': Claptrap and other players dons a rubber ducky innertube, causing them to bounce around uncontrollably while also deflecting bullets.
** ''Gun Wizard'': Unlocked with the "You're... GOING TO LOVE ME!!" skill. Gives you and the team a massive increase in fire rate and reload time.
** ''Torgue Fiesta'': Unlocked with the "I Am Rubber, You Are Glue" skill. Causes Claptrap and his allies to toss out grenades uncontrollably, with the potential of [[FriendlyFire causing a party wipe]].
** ''Laser Inferno'': Unlocked with the "Rainbow Coolant" skill. Summons a disco ball that fires lasers in every direction in the surrounding area.
** ''One Shot Wonder'': Unlocked with the "Tripleclocked" skill. Fires all the bullets in your magazine every time you shoot, complete with massive recoil that pushes you back with every shot.
** ''Pirate Ship Mode'': Unlocked with the "Livin' Near The Edge" skill. Claptrap whips out four giant cannons that [[MickeyMousing fire in tune with the 1812 Overture]].
** ''Clap-in-the-Box'': Unlocked with the "Kick Him While He's Down" skill. Claptrap runs around with a BigBulkyBomb that explodes after a period of time. If he fails to do damage to either enemy or ally, he is downed.
* ReforgedIntoAMinion: In the Pre-Sequel, Claptrap was reprogrammed by Jack into a combat unit.
* RobotBuddy:
** [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] to a degree. The player characters bear no ill will towards the Claptraps, but both the bandits and Lance do. There are multiple side quests involving Claptrap repair, since people tend to use them as target practice. In the ''Robot Revolution'' DLC, Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap goes mad and starts a robot revolution in retaliation for all the mistreatment.
** [[spoiler:The irony behind this is that the Claptrap in question was created to kill the Vault Hunters, who in turn might be the only people on Pandora willing to repair and treat Claptraps well.]]
** In the second game, however, Claptrap is treated as a SmallAnnoyingCreature whose main use is his ability to bypass Hyperion security.
** In the Pre-Sequel, all the player characters hate Claptrap, treating him and his action skill as a potential burden.
--->'''Nisha''': I hate you more than I hate puppies, Claptrap.
* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: As the Fragtrap, Jack had to sacrifice his door-unlocking processors as well as bypass memory preservation in order to make place for combat subroutines and an all-terrain wheel, which explains why Claptrap has no memories of events prior to Borderlands 2.
* SadClown: See StepfordSmiler.
* SeriesMascot: The first of two. The second one is [[MemeticBadass Steve]].
* SirSwearsALot: Only in the Claptrap Web Series, [[spoiler:and his appearance in Episode 5 for ''TalesFromTheBorderlands'' seems to reference that by having a few lines from him with a ton of [[SoundEffectBleep bleeping]].]]
* SmallAnnoyingCreature: In the eyes of practically everyone on Pandora.
* SmallNameBigEgo: He's convinced that everyone in Sanctuary will welcome him back with open arms and considers the second game's Vault Hunters to be his minions.
* SoundEffectBleep: Whenever he swears, it's bleeped out in-universe by his own hardware. After helping [[spoiler:build the eye for what would become the Constructor bot in Jack's army]], he yells "[[Series/BreakingBad YEAH! SCIENCE, BITCH!"]] Bitch is bleeped out, despite the word not being censored by asterisks. Of course, since everyone in their game has their cursing censored, it's not especially notable.
* SpannerInTheWorks: For Professor Nakayama, he's the reason Nakayama's ship crashed and gives the vault hunters the entrance code for it at the end of Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt.
** ''Claptastic Voyage'' shows that he's been this for most of his existence in one way or another for just about everyone he's met.
* StepfordSmiler: Part of his programming.
-->'''Claptrap:''' Jack dumps everything he kills here... bandits, Vault Hunters, claptrap units. If I sound at all pleased about this, it's because my programmers made this my default tone of voice! '''I'M ACTUALLY QUITE DEPRESSED!'''
** UpToEleven [[spoiler: in Claptastic Voyage where it's revealed that he's fully aware of how much everyone hates him and how much he screws up. After turning down Shadowtrap's offer out of UndyingLoyalty to his friends, he is shot and (almost) killed by Jack while at least two of those 'friends' laugh in the background. He may also be aware that in helping Jack get the H-Source, he killed his own product line, and thus is part of the reason that he's the LastOfHisKind.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: In the first game, he's just some NPC. In ''The Pre-Sequel'', he's a Vault Hunter. Inverted from ''The Pre-Sequel'' to 2, however.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Becomes a lot less helpful and a lot more full of himself in the second game.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Both his enemies and his teammates underestimate his fighting abilities.
* UndyingLoyalty: [[spoiler: Shows this towards his fellow Vault Hunters during the Claptastic Voyage DLC, when given a WeCanRuleTogether offer by Shadowtrap, Claptrap turns him down because he considers the Vault Hunters friends.]]
* UnknownRival: To Handsome Jack. He's convinced that everything Jack does to Sanctuary is part of a plan to destroy him, the last Claptrap, but Jack never so much as acknowledges his existence. He even thinks [[spoiler:Jack specifically had the large stairway leading to the Hero's Pass installed because he knew Claptraps can't climb stairs.]]
** Jack's hatred for Claptraps is such in the Pre-Sequel that it might, honestly, be true.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Stairs. And electrocution, and explosions, and gunfire, rust, corrosion, being kicked a lot, viruses, being called bad names, falling from great heights, drowning, adult onset diabetes, being looked at funny, heart attacks, exposure to oxygen, being turned down by women, and pet allergens!
* WhatHaveIBecome: PlayedForLaughs. This is his response word-for-word when Jack orders Claptrap to fetch another [=CL4P-TP=] to open the door to his office, and tells him that he shouldn't bother doing it himself because his combat and stair-climbing subroutines replaced his door-overriding protocols.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: After obtaining the H-Source, Jack used it to destroy all Claptrap units and personally shot the Fragtrap himself as well as destroying his stairclimbing/combat subroutines, though [[spoiler:Shadowtrap]] ensured that he survived to be [[WeCanRebuildHim eventually repaired]] by Hammerlock. Jack even foreshadows it at the end of the Pre-Sequel, where he notes that his new robot army has made him redundant.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:"Jack"]]
[[quoteright:400:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0d405cbaec060b5631f1783e08398a47.jpg]]

!"Jack"/Timothy Lawrence
!! ''As "The Doppelganger"''
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/DameonClarke

-->''“And the world just got [[TwentyPercentMoreAwesome 25% more handsome!]]”''

An actor by the name of Timothy Lawrence who was surgically altered to look and sound like Jack to act as his body double. (Not the same body double that appeared in Borderlands 2, but definitely inspired by him as an excuse to give players a chance to play as someone resembling Jack).

His action skill allows him to summon two Digi-Jacks to attack his enemies, with another automatically spawning when one dies. His "The Hero of This Story" skill tree focuses upon making himself and his Digi-Jacks more directly powerful with grenade spam and health regeneration. His "Greater Good" tree is filled with kill skills and skills that benefit from him using his Digi-Jacks as disposable cannon fodder, capping off with a skill that makes all his kill skills trigger when a Digi-Jack dies. His "Free Market" skill tree is based around weapon-swapping and equipment management; giving him benefits for using different weapons on the same enemy or passing the benefit of one brand of gun onto another when he swaps.
----
* ActionBomb: The "Optimism" skill makes it so that Digi-Jacks explode when they die.
* ActionSurvivor: Unlike every previous Vault Hunter in the series, Timothy isn't a veteran soldier, legendary Siren, hulking strongman, hardened bounty hunter[=/=]mercenary, career assassin, or even jury-rigged combat robot. He's just a really unlucky actor with student debts, caught in a really bad situation, and unlike Gaige (who takes to Pandora rather quickly) is more or less scared out of his mind at the beginning of the game (though by the end game he's more miserable than anything). And yet he still manages to hold his own alongside a bunch of hardcore badasses with ''much'' more combat experience than him.
* {{Adorkable}}: Falls into stammering BuffySpeak around Moxxi, because of... [[DistractedByTheSexy many reasons.]] Gets even worse when [[spoiler: she's in her mechanic's overalls.]]
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Digi-Jacks can't move from the spot they spawn in, so if an enemy is out of direct line of sight or hiding behind cover, they toss a spark of light like a grenade instead of shooting at it directly. It's pretty accurate and fairly powerful.
* ArmCannon: The default weapon of the Digi-Jacks, which can be upgraded to become shotgun lasers. With the "Merger" skill, he can fire off wrist lasers just like the actual Jack; it's a ''really'' powerful shock-element laser beam that fires in a stream for several seconds.
* BadassBoast: "When you see this face...''run''."
* BadBoss: The "Greater Good" skill tree is meant to channel Jack's selfishness and cowardice, meaning that it benefits the most from letting your minions and teammates do most of the work for you. The capstone makes it so that every Digi-Jack death counts as a kill for "Jack", meaning that he can get Second Wind as well as activating his Kill Skills when they die.
** BenevolentBoss: On the other hand, the "Hero of This Story" tree is what Jack ''thinks'' he is, encouraging you to keep your Digi-jacks alive through the skill, which increases their damage, grants them copies of your shield to make them more durable, and even rewarding you for going in and taking hits yourself. The capstone turns your first Digi-jack and roughly every third one afterwards into a badass EliteMook.
* BreakTheCutie: He starts off the game as a largely clueless actor scared out of his mind by the calamity caused by the Lost Legion. By the end of the game, after all the horrible crap he's gone through and become complicit in he's just too miserable to care about anything and regrets ever agreeing working for Jack.
-->'''Springs''': Hey, sorta-Jack! Great job with the laser!\\
'''Timothy''': Yeah, thanks! Just had to [[spoiler:help kill a few innocent people and nearly got murdered by the girl of my dreams]] but... yeah, whoo! Go me... ugh, I hate my life...
* BodyDouble: He signed a contract in which he agreed to be Jack's body double for 20 years, complete with plastic surgery and a voice implant. Unbeknownst to him, the process is permanent and can't be reversed. [[spoiler: Towards the end of the game, when Jack is well into the process of turning into a supervillain and starts making enemies left and right, Tim realizes that as Jack's body double, there's going to be a ''lot'' of very angry people out there trying to kill him.]]
* BottomlessMagazines: Jack's Cache allows Jack go get free stacks of "Cache" with each kills. Up to a maximum of 4. Throwing a grenade with 4 stacks spends the Cache instead of grenade ammo. And since grenade kills do earn Cache, Jack can essentially have endless grenades for the duration of an encounter, if his enemies are numerous enough and his grenade blasts large and powerful enough to earn 4 kills each.
* BroughtToYouByTheLetterS: He has a letter "H" on the back of his jacket and [[ChestInsignia the chest of his t-shirt]]. Like the real Jack, he's a walking Hyperion advert.
** Donning the skins of another corporation like Vladof Hammer or Spirit by Maliwan will have him wear a jacket that mocks the corporation in question. Vladof gets a slogan of "If You Want to Miss" while Maliwan has "Get Your Ponce On!"
* CasanovaWannabe: It appears that he can be smooth when he wants to be, but he can't control his mouth around Moxxi. Unfortunately for him, she's not interested in someone who looks like her ex-boyfriend.
-->'''"Jack:"''' ''Wow'', you're...really pretty. Are you...sure we're not still dating?\\
'''Moxxi:''' Sorry, sugar, I know my ex from a body double. You're not salivating enough.
* CastFromMoney: Not cast from money ''per se'', but with ''Money is Power'', Jack gets a damage buff for every bit of money he picks up, so long as he doesn't die or spend any of it.
* CatchPhrase: "Jack" and his Digi-Jack [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial often insist that they are "The Real Jack"]].
* CoolButInefficient: "Inspire" has Jack occasionally give you cheesy compliments or smarmy insults, which does absolutely nothing for you as far as gameplay is concerned.
* CowardlyLion: While he's a bit spineless at times, this doesn't from fighting monsters and baddies like the other Vault Hunters though in his eyes it's not like he has a choice.
* CursedWithAwesome: Despite the fact that his transformation was of dubious consent and is irreversible, "Jack" finds that his new-found handsomeness is great for picking up chicks.
* DoWellButNotPerfect: He jokingly asks his Digi-Jacks not to do too well, so they won't make him look bad.
* DoppelgangerAttack: His Action Skill involves creating digital copies of him to attack his enemies. If one falls, another is made in its stead.
* EliteMooks: "Promote the Ranks" lets him create Badass Digi-Jacks, which are bigger, gold-colored, and all-around better.
* ExpendableClone: Many of his skills benefit him when his Digi-Jacks die and he's even got one skill, ironically named "Accountability," that increases in power when his Digi-Jacks or allies get damaged but goes down when he himself gets damaged, so to get the most out of it he has to hide like a wuss.
* ExplosiveLeash: He's convinced there's a bomb in his new face that would explode if he tried to get the surgery reversed.
* FingerPokeOfDoom: Effectively, if you use his "Investment" skill. After you shoot one enemy, it begins accruing "interest" for five seconds and shooting it with a different weapon once will make it explode proportional to how much you've ranked up the skill. A single pistol bullet, five seconds, and a single submachinegun bullet can make mooks ''explode'' and can even seriously damage a badass enemy.
* GoodOldFisticuffs: "Jack" just throws out a single punch with his left hand when you use default melee. His ''bare'' hand, mind you. No weapon or even a pair of knuckle-dusters or reinforced gloves. [[InvulnerableKnuckles His bare fist against rock monsters, armored foes, robots, enemies on fire...]]
* GrenadeSpam: Invoked. "Just Compensation" [[EquivalentExchange increases its bonuses for every grenade missing from your supply]], thus urging players to spend grenades whenever possible. He's also got a skill in the same tree called "Jack's Cache" that gives you a free grenade every four kills. He can also have his digi-jacks through a grenade each with "On my Mark".
* IMeantToDoThat: His reaction to failed missions.
* HardLight: He refers to his Digi-Jacks as holograms.
* ISayWhatISay: A variation. "Jack" and the actual Jack share the same voice and ECHO portrait, so when the two are talking, it sounds like Jack is having a conservation with himself.
* MesACrowd: He only has two Digi-Jacks at once, but more keep appearing if the initial ones die, meaning he can flood the enemy with disposable copies of himself. With all 4 players playing Doppelganger, you can have up to 13 Jacks running around at the same time; the real Jack, 4 Doppelgangers, and 8 digistruct copies.
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Whether he likes it or not, Jack is still Timothy's boss and his best shot at getting out of Elpis. That doesn't stop him from resenting the guy for putting him in horrible situations and for making him complicit in increasingly horrifying actions.
* NiceGuy: Once he gets over his fear, he's actually one of the friendlier protagonists of the series. In essence he's TheHero that the real Jack ''believes'' himself to be (although he's still too intimidated by the real Jack to confront him on most of his more morally questionable decisions).
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Jack had big plans. Timothy Lawrence had unpaid student loans. Add one and one and you have Jack's brand new body double.
* OnlySaneMan: Timothy is what happens when you put a completely average person in the middle of the insanity that is common within Borderlands games.
* PrimalFear: Heights. Poor guy screams in pure terror when using jump pads and geysers, or when jumping in vehicles.
* PunchclockVillain: Similar to Claptrap, Timothy is by no means evil but doesn't really have much of a choice considering that he's under contract as Jack's double and him dying would mean he got his face altered for nothing.
* RousingSpeech: "Inspire" lets Real!Jack occasionally call you up and either "inspiring" you with praise or "disillusioning" you with put-downs. In-practice, this has no actual in-game effect aside from giving you more Jack dialogue.
* ThemeNaming: Many of his skills (most prominently the Greater Good skill tree) are generally named after corporate buzzwords, much like how Jack named Hyperion weapons.
* TheMinionmaster: Unlike other pet classes in the series, he goes for quantity over quality.
* ThrowDownTheBomblet: He has skills that give him free grenades, bonus grenade damage and a chance to reload weapons when throwing a grenade.
* TwentyPercentMoreAwesome: "And the world just got 25% more handsome!"
* ScrewYourself: The real Jack is very much attracted to his doppelganger, which the fake Jack finds disturbing.
* SurgicalImpersonation: Of Jack, obviously. It's implied that the surgery was done against his consent, but he failed to read the fine print on his contract.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Gearbox openly acknowledges that the Doppelganger is simply their way of justifying having Handsome Jack as a playable character despite him being a major NPC.
* UnEvilLaugh: One of his reactions to critical hits.
* UnPerson: All records of any "Timothy Lawrence" have been destroyed to better solidify his "job" as a body double. He's also legally forbidden to use his real name, at best saying that it rhymes with "Jimothy".
* WeHaveReserves: His "Greater Good" skill tree focuses on getting stronger by letting his allies (both his Digi-Jacks and his teammates) die for him.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Considering that the Body Double from ''Borderlands 2'' wasn't him (since Handsome Jack has a ''lot'' of body doubles, and that particular fake Jack was an Engineer wearing a hologram), then his fate after the ending of the pre-sequel is left in the air.
* WhatTheHellHero: Late in the game, if he refuses to kill a surrendering Dahl soldier on Jack's orders, he delivers a simple, solid, and brutal criticism to Jack, who still believes himself the hero of the story.
-->'''Doppleganger''': [[spoiler: I'm not you, Jack.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Aurelia]]
[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/34d67e0c13a996dcd0bfe07155a0917f.png]]

!Lady Aurelia Hammerlock
!!''As "The Baroness"''
->'''Voiced by:''' Kenneisha Thompson

-->''"Darling, I'm simply going to kill you for fun. It's not personal, I just bore easily."''

The sister and arch-enemy of Sir Hammerlock, Aurelia is the heiress of the Hammerlock family fortune who travels the galaxy to hunt dangerous creatures and to plague her brother's existence (often both at the same time). Growing bored, she came to Pandora on safari, eventually getting tangled up with Jack's entourage.

Her action skill has her throw out her Frost Diadem Shard located on her left arm. The charm automatically homes in on nearby targets and attaches to them, dealing Cryo damage in an area around them.
----
* AndTheAdventureContinues: After the events of the Pre-Sequel, Aurelia cut off all ties to Jack and hunted Vaults in other worlds, which explains why she was never involved in the events of [=BL2=].
* AngryFistShake: She lets one out when she's going into Fight for your Life.
* ArmorPiercingSlap: Her basic melee attack is a straight-up bitch-slap. Her capstone for the Contractual Aristocracy tree is a backhand that deals Cryo damage while motivating her allies.
* BadassFamily: At the very least, both her and her brother are proficient hunters. However, she and her brother have a fairly strained relationship, having made his life miserable during childhood as well as her EgomaniacHunter tendencies.
* BigSisterBully: To Sir Hammerlock. A fair amount of her dialog has her relishing her brother's misery and one of the reasons she took up hunting is so that she can murder the creatures he's studying.
-->'''Aurelia''': Hang on, I feel incredibly happy all of a sudden! Alistair must be in pain!
* BlingBlingBang: She starts out with purple-quality guns unlike the other characters and the "Quality Not Quantity" gives her a buff to damage and fire rate to Blue-quality or higher weapons while giving her a penalty for green and whites.
* BloodKnight: Like Nisha, she only became a Vault Hunter because killing lots of things seemed like a fun way to pass the time. Evidently, as much as Jack dampened her vacation, she still had enough fun that she agreed to help him find the H-Source.
* BottomlessMagazines: "Silver Lining" adds a bullet to her magazine anytime she kills someone with a crit with the exception of rocket launchers, meaning that if she's really good with a sniper rifle she potentially never has to reload.
* BriefAccentImitation: When taking on Hammerlock's sidequest, she hides her identity so that she wouldn't have to deal with him by putting on a ridiculous cowboy accent.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: It's implied in the Holodome DLC that Lilith sent Axton and Gaige to Eptah with the goal of killing her on their way to the Vault, but was forced to change her mind after [[spoiler:the Watcher alien]] told her to gather all the Vault Hunters she can get.
* ColdSniper: Taken to the trope name's literal extreme, as she focuses entirely on cold damage and sniper rifles. Some of her skills involve increased critical hit damage on the next shot with a sniper rifle after missing with it, dealing more damage the further away she is from her target, and causing novas to be released from the enemy she just scored a critical hit on, among other skills. Her cap skill for "The Huntress" tree has a wheel spinning when she's looking through the scope of a rifle. Her shots take on the elemental damage of whatever the wheel lands on when she fires. This makes using an elemental rifle even more powerful if you land on the same element.
* CripplingOverSpecialization: Her Contractual Aristocracy is heavily reliant on having a co-op partner, making it very inefficient for single-player.
* DistractedByTheSexy: When first talking to Moxxi, she simply can't keep a straight face thanks to her cleavage.
* EarlyBirdCameo: While information about her was originally leaked online long before her original announcement, she was first officially referenced in the Holodome DLC, in which Axton and Gaige mention bringing her back to Sanctuary.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Aurelia might be a classist snob who treats killing hundreds of things as a vacation, but even she finds Jack's growing madness a bit too much for her taste. After the scientist scene, she does nothing, but starts openly insulting Jack and even outright shows contempt for him. The only Vault Hunters who are close to this are Athena and Timothy. The former never says it to his face and simply stops working for him and the latter simply resents ever wearing Jack's face.
--->''(On Jack telling her to kill the [=RK5=] [which is completely unnecessary])'' Look, darling. Bloodlust can be fun but you're taking it a shade too far.
** At the end of ''Claptastic Voyage'' she mentions that while she's all for sacking "the help," she finds [[spoiler: Jack destroying the entire Claptrap product line using the H-source]] to be "a bit... extreme."
* EvilCounterpart: To Sir Hammerlock. While Alistair is a QuintessentialBritishGentleman who seeks to study wildlife, Aurelia is a snobby RichBitch who just wants to murder them and mount their heads on the walls of her turbo-mansion.
* EgomaniacHunter: Her hobbies include riding her hoverbike around her turbo-mansion and murdering exotic creatures throughout the galaxy.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: "I Never Miss" gives you a stacking increase to your crit as long as you never miss with a sniper rifle. Once you do, all your stacks are gone.
* {{Fiction 500}}: As well as living in a turbo-mansion, Aurelia brags about how she owns a planet like it's nothing.
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: She's rich, so she starts the game with a big chunk of cash, and a couple of purple-quality guns.
* GlassCannon: She has tremendous damage potential, but she's also the squishiest out of all the Vault Hunters in the game. Many players have complained about the difficulty of playing her in UVHM, especially against bosses such as EOS.
* GratuitousFrench: She loves to pepper her dialog with various French words and phrases.
* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: She seems to consider the Scavs and Lost Legion no different from the fauna of Elpis: big game for her to hunt.
* TheFashionista: Her default outfit is her Designer Ensemble and she is known to [[CruellaToAnimals make fancy attire out of the creatures she's killed]]. The wide-flared fur collar of the jacket is the most prominent feature.
* HairTriggerTemper: Her introduction video shows she has a big one. Just because someone grabbed her shoulder, she freezes everyone in Moxxi's bar in [[DisproportionateRetribution retaliation]]. Her entourage of Brick, Mordecai, Wilhelm, Athena, and Nisha were the only ones not frozen... [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Steve]].
* AnIcePerson: Her action skill deals Cryo damage, and she has an entire skill tree dedicated to Cryo, with the capstone being a Kill Skill that lets her deal Cryo damage with all weapons.
* IceQueen: Both figurative and literally, as an upper-crust and arrogant aristocrat.
* IdleRich: Due to her inheritance she has no need for an actual job, which led her to take up big-game hunting so that she has something to do with her time. She even starts off with a large chunk of cash.
* IndenturedServitude: The name of one of her skills. It and the "Contractual Aristocracy" tree focuses on turning other players into a servant-master relationship, where both players benefit by having ''them'' take various forms of punishment first. Just like Gaige's Ordered Chaos, the whole tree depends on the mandatory skill. The contract is as follows:
-->I, the undersigned hereby agree to [[HumanShield receive & distribute bullets, pain, and/or misery on behalf of Lady Aurelia Hammerlock]]. I acknowledge that this contract is binding in perpetuity, & I am entitled to no payment of any sort beyond an occasional verbal compliment from Lady Hammerlock, which itself need not be delivered with any degree of enthusiasm. I will also refer to Lady Hammerlock as "madam" or "your ladyship". [[TakeThat I shall NEVER refer to her as "m'lady," on pain of wearing the Perpetual Thorned Fedora of Menoctius for the rest of my living days.]]
* {{Jerkass}}: Described as cruel and selfish by her brother (who calls her heart a "necrotic lump of flesh") and even Axton finds her intimidating.
-->'''Gaige:''' Lilith was all like "Go hunt the Vault on Eptah!" And then "Don't kill the Vault Hunter, bring her back! WAR IS COMING!" Tch.\\
'''Tina:''' Oooh. You got another Vault Hunting buddy? I wanna meet her!\\
'''Axton:''' No. You don't. Aurelia is the meanest.
** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: A very small heart that she would likely pawn off the second it gains more value. She is less about being kind for the sake of kindness and morality, and more about being kind for the sake of being classy. That said, she is one of the few Vault Hunters who feel bad forcing Felicity to be a Military AI (she doesn't want to think about it as it would ruin her vacation), was repulsed by Jack's ejecting of the scientists, and when Claptrap finally had enough of being taunted by the Vault Hunters, she actually apologizes to him.
* LadyOfAdventure: She's a wealthy huntress who travels the galaxy shooting dangerous creatures for fun.
* LongRangeFighter: She is very effective at dispatching enemies from distance, though she does have some counter-attack options such as knocking back enemies when activating her Action Skill or releasing a Cryo Nova whenever she gets hit with a melee attack or when her shield runs out.
* MeaningfulName: Aurelia is the feminine version of Aurelius, which is derived from the Latin word for Gold.
* PowerHair: She styles her hair in this fashion, though she leaves a single white bang hanging out in front.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: She tears into Jack when the rescue mission is over and tells him to kill himself. No other character does this. It's anyone's guess why Jack didn't have her executed.
-->'''Aurelia:''' Right. That's it. I had my fun, Jack, so I shall leave you with this one final piece of wisdom that your plasticine face will surely ignore: Kill yourself. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Darling, I'm evil. Let's not kid ourselves, but you. You're just something else entirely]]. You're far better off opening the throat beneath that ludicrously soul-patched face than [[LaserGuidedKarma suffer the bloody karma that I imagine the universe has in store for you]]. And with that, I shall bid you adieu. [[SophisticatedAsHell Additionally, your breath smells like farts]].
* RichBitch: Much of her dialog is her talking down to others for not being as ridiculously rich as her.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Like Athena, Aurelia cut all ties with Jack after finding the Vault, though like her she ended up coming back to help him get the H-Source.
* ShoutOut: One of her head models is called "Amazing Grace" and is modeled after Actress [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Jones Grace Jones]].
* SixthRanger: Unlike the other characters, Aurelia isn't actually hired by Jack so much as she just decided to join his team as part of her vacation. Because of this, she cares nothing about the fate of Elpis and is not above openly insulting Jack when she feels like it.
* SkunkStripe: A long white stripe right down the front of her bangs.
* SophisticatedAsHell: Much like her brother, despite her uppercrust demeanor she is not above petty and childish insults.
-->'''Aurelia:''' In the immortal words of The Bard: Suck it!
* StatuesqueStunner: As somehow par-compliment to Borderlands 2 (to Krieg), she is surprisingly the tallest female Vault Hunter within the series. Considering the way she models differently on the turret mount like sitting on the side of a bike, unlike most characters.

* AGodAmI: After she finds out that a cult has formed around her, she's actually pretty flattered (although she admits to it being horrible), [[spoiler:until she finds out they were sacrificing innocent residents of Sanctuary[[note]][[NoExceptYes She kinda likes it though.]][[/note]].]]

* NoExceptYes: Axton's not saying you owe him when he revives you, he's ''implying'' it.

[[/folder]

[[folder:Wilhelm]]

[[folder:Nisha]]

[[folder:"Jack"]]

[[folder:Aurelia]]

[[folder:'''The Mystery Vault Hunter (Spolier Warning)''']]

* {{Badass}}
** BadassNormal: Just a regular human with serious military training.
** BadassInCharge: As Commander of the Crimson Raiders.
** BadassInDistress: He ends up captured by the Bloodshots early on in Borderlands 2. How? [[spoiler:He was taking a piss and the Bandits knocked him out]].

!!The Pre-Sequel!!

[[/folder]]

!!Vault Hunters
[[folder:Vault Hunters in general]]