let me explain to you the plot of borderlands 4 (kidding. mostly)
tl;dr: the eridians are evil, or, worse, completely uncaring about the things going on in their little sandcastle. the guardians are salty bitches about it and need our help and/or are going to start slaughtering people and im gonna fuckING TAlk ABOUT IT mostly because i need to write this down bc its been bouncing around my head since the game (bl3, not 4. that’d be wild) came out. minor spoilers for Guns Love and Tentacles. mostly that side quest.
tl;dr: tl;dr: eridians bad, guardians mad, and we are caught in the middle of a war that’s about to go down between them. spoilers for GLaT
tl;dr: tl;dr: tl;dr: Fl4k was a warning. Spoilers.
i dont even know where to begin because FUCK THERE’S SO GODDAMN MUCH TO THIS STORY
so im just going to start listing facts or points (+) of this theory that i remember at this very moment and probably forget a lot of them alright i’ll elaborate on all of this i promise. okay? lets go
+the eridians made a bunch of vaults that hold monsters in them
+some of these monsters are clearly constructs. some of them are not
+those that are clearly constructs:
the warrior
the traveler
the sentinel
+those that are not clearly constructs:
the destroyer
the rampager
the serpent
(possibly) gythian
(possibly) graveward (more on this in a bit)
+those that are not accounted for:
the timekeeper (but do keep this bad boy in mind)
+the eridians made the guardians: biomechanical constructs that are somewhat sentient, gaining sentience, and are supposed to guard the Vaults
+we also know now that there are these things called proving grounds with a salty, sentient guardian named the Overseer:
“vault hunter, I thought you might show up sooner or later. so naughty your species, so curious. the vault of vaults has been opened and IT has been released. prove your worth and I will reveal why the masters made me wait for you”
“naughty humans have opened the vault of vaults but the masters will determine who is a fault. until next time, warrior”
“long ago there was a brief spark, the first vault was opened, a light in the dark. a riddle, yes? perhaps it will unravel next time, hunter”
“so, you’ve returned. persistent, yes. or stubborn? or both. are you so desperate to prove yourself?”
“we were created for one purpose by our masters- and we couldn’t even do that right (laughs). but don’t blame us! when a cog breaks, point your finger at the artificer, not the cog! are you a cog, Vault hunter, or an artificer? Or both? prove yourself worthy.”
“pity us not, though the world has been broken. those who sleep will soon be awoken. not long now, seeker.”
“the eridians were our masters, but we failed them. they gave the order then silence. they VANISHED. such is our fate, Vault Hunter. server to a master who has left the house so long ago. prove to me that you deserve an introduction.”
“we were supposed to guard the Great Jail. but no quarter for servants who fail. but servant, that is not quite right. ‘Prisoner’. that is what i am. Until next time, adventurer.”
“a final chance to prove yourself. but will your reward be what you desire? a prisoner in a cell staring out at the fathoms of a sleeping universe. after a time, how would you know if you were prisoner or master? consider this while you prove yourself one last time.”
“it has come to this. one last trial. but will your efforts be worthwhile? that is what we will determine next time, hero”
“I am a prisoner, but you, vault hunter? what are you? hunter, warrior, hero? no matter what name i use, you return to prove yourself time and time again. but prove it to whom, i wonder? perhaps you seek a greater audition”
“it is done and my masters have taken note. would you like to know what they told me right before they vanished? ‘beware the vault hunters, they will take your kind’s place’. now i am free, and you are chained. until next time, guardian”
“well done, but have they taken note? that is what I wonder.”
+ the entire thing about there being a Fallen Guardian we have to kill
+ how the entire thing of the trails are copies of the worlds we visited to open the Great Vault. either the eridians can see through time (TPS) or they built these recently
+how dark Maliwan is probably working together with the Guardians on Nekrotefeyo given the fact they’re working together in one of the trials
+oh and remember how i suggested Maruice’s ghostie goo (ectoplasm) is actually related to eridians and such? YEAH. turns out that was right.
+Nyriad, the unreliable narrator
+the fucking Forgetting
+how the eridians are NOT ACTUALLY GONE FOR GOOD
+the seraphs!!!
+how the guardians are all named after angels, sirens are tied to humanity’s religious imagery
+how tyreen literally only loosened the chains on the Destroyer and the destroyer is going to break free from pandora
+how animals and people like bloodwing, slag psychos, etc mutate due to the eridium on pandora
+the destroyer’s reaction to slag being injected into its eye is straight panic
+the vault monsters that are fleshy were probably science experiments by the Eridians to test eridium and/or the results of being locked in the vaults for ages
+humanity was probably created by the eridians as well (more on that later)
+the Watcher actually WANTS us to have more Vault Hunters, she warns us that war is coming. all we can assume right now is either the Watcher fucked up big time, or she WANTED all this to happen. More on that later.
+the guardians are preparing for war. the overseer seems especially salty about the cause of it.
+ graveward was killed at some point, so the guardians brought it back using the ships, so that they could use their souls to posses it (further proved by the loot: Grave, relic, and Ward, shield)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
alright holy fuck
that’s a lotta stuff to go over!!! Let’s do this thing.
Let’s start with the Eridians themselves
so. these bad boys. We never really knew much about them, but it was always kinda assumed they’ve been long gone bc of the destroyer, or just out of reach.
now that bl3 dropped we’re supposed to assume that they’re all officially dead bc of Nyriad/the Destroyer
and i am here to say that Nyriad is an unreliable fuckin narrator because she doesn’t know the whole story. in fact, she admits to not knowing everything!!
here’s what I actually think is going on, and yes, I believe 100% the eridians are shady motherfuckers who decided to play god:
the eridians are from a dimension that isn’t ours. we can assume this is a higher dimension, bc of all their weird space/time fuckery, especially the Vaults.
the eridians decided to do some science experiments. they make the vaults and use our dimension to store them and put all their experiments inside. they make guardians to guard their vaults, and they realize they can do better in the ‘making a fully conscious being’ department. they make humanity. they make sirens after experimenting with eridium. they decided to go big or go home, and they make giant monsters. after all that, they realize they fucked up, because there is one monster they cannot contain anymore, after all the shit they put it through
so the eridians realize they done fucked up and escape fully to our dimension, where they placed us and the guardians and all the science experiments they didn’t want to deal with at the moment. The Destroyer follows them
they land on nekrotefeyo, their ‘first landing’ in our dimension (hence the quote above). This, or the eridians had been in our dimension for a while now. Nyriad never says where the Eridians came from, just that they and humanity lived side-by-side, so it’s likely they’d been here for a bit, sending scientists back and forth, just doing their experiments all willy-nilly. And I would bet they created the Destroyer in that time frame.
“for their curiosity, they were rewarded with doom” i believe is a correct statement, but not in the way Nyriad thinks. I think the eridians created the destroyer to see if they could, to test the bounds of what was possible. and it backfired on them in the worst way.
Nyriad also says this, but I have a hard time believing her here
the most this is is speculation, because if none of the civilizations who met the Destroyer had nothing else to pass on, then humanity would not know of their existence. (I mean, she even says ‘SURELY it had different names’) Humanity has no record of other (intelligent) alien life in the universe, or their own civilizations being destroyed by the Destroyer*. It’s just the Eridians.
*There is a reason for this, but let’s hold on for now.
So why tf do I think humanity was created by the Eridians? well, for one, I like the parallel to them having a god-complex. If they haven’t created humanity, then they definitely fucked with us to create Sirens. Sirens have a strong connection to Eridium and the Vaults (and other Sirens).
second, the murals in (most of) the vaults in bl3
show human-like figures hanging out with kids, and one touching something that seems oddly similar to a relic
like so
(on the left there)
there are also these really tall cloaked figures standing (t-posing) near the end of the mural
and most statues are depicted with robes on
a lot of the human figures in the mural are shown helping each other stand up, coming up from the ground like they’re being created, looking around (up at the sky at rays of light), and standing with a lot of eridian junk (there’s a vault symbol next to one). they’re also not shown to be wearing any sort of clothing, even tho extra steps were gone in to show the robed figures
it reminds me a lot of how a lot of religious texts describe humans as being molded from the earth or dirt or whathaveyou
long story short, it very much reminds of something like a creation myth, so i imagine humanity was, in fact, created by the eridians.
ESPECIALLY this smaller one reaching up to touch the relic
there’s no concrete proof for this, but its a hunch i have after studying this mural for a while. especially after Nyriad constantly questions why the Guardians were made to be on the brink of consciousness. humanity is Guardians 2, electric boogaloo. guardians were a mix of machine and bio goop, we are full bio goop. and that means we are curious, and have emotions, and are very naughty.
that or vice versa, eridians made humanity, realized we weren’t as subservient as they wanted and made the Guardians to fill that niche. Also, most importantly, the Guardians were literally made to be disposable. That’s their entire purpose. Their bodies will degrade, but then their souls will just eventually find another vessel. They’re trapped forever.
EITHER WAY
the Eridians created humanity and the guardians around the same time. enough that the guardians are likely vvvv salty about it.
humanity was made. Sirens came after that, through eridium experiments by the Eridians, explaining their connections to Eridium, as well as the other dimension (the one we are assuming Eridians are from) (think about the Lab Rats and Sirens and such)
so were the eridians preparing for something? war, maybe? possibly. they need firepower and obviously they wouldn’t sacrifice their own people when they have perfectly good constructs, so they’ll use their naughty meat slaves.
but the eridians need more than the sirens. they keep dying, and given the failsafe measures, its hard to keep track of them if one decides to let their powers go, despite the fact they added in, like, a siren gps for sirens to find other sirens and be drawn to them and shit
their big boy guardians, their constructs, aren’t doing enough to defeat their enemy
they start experimenting more with eridium. They learn it has the power to mutate things (mostly elementally, but also causes an increase in size, especially the longer/more they’re exposed to).
they create seraph crystals, condensed eridium, which mutate things at an increased rate. These become discarded eventually for reasons below
they begin finding other kinds of life and mutating the hell out of it using eridium/seraph crystals, in order to create their giant buttfuck squish monsters. These monsters are probably pissed the hell off bc they’re mutated and also probably being attacked by people. so they rampage, killing everything in their path.
the eridians need a way to store the big boys and also take them to the battlefields where they’ll annihilate the enemy, so they create the Traveler and the traveling Vault (which is why there was really nothing of substance in that Vault OKAY TAKE IT). Perhapeth the big flesh monsters mutate more due to being locked inside the Vaults and constantly exposed to eridium/whatever energy is in the other dimension.
Things are going well, and the big flesh monsters help turn the tide of war in favor of the Eridians, until the other party is completely wiped out by what they dubbed the Destroyer. So the eridians decide ‘well, we had our fun, time to put the monsters in their cages and forget about the seraph crystals’.
and most of the big boys, creation and mutation alike, are shoved in their Vaults, guarded by the Guardians so they can’t be released bc of naughty humans. except for one, notably the uncontrollable Destroyer. because it wiped out their enemies, now it wants more, with its insatiable hunger, so it turns its eyes on the Eridians and Nekrotafeyo
sort of explaining why the planet looks like it fucking exploded
the destroyer began to give it the SUCC
but there’s more about that planet
cuz the inside is all glowy and green and you totally know where this is going because i told you im pretty sure the eridians created humanity along with the guardians
i think this is the giant storage unit for all the souls, including the Guardian souls. humanity is depicted being pulled up from the ground in the Vault murals.
lemme explain here
I think nekrotafeyo is where the Guardian souls are stored, like one bigass computer. That’s also, we can assume, where the Eridians got the spark for humanity as well.
around the game, when u ‘kill’ guardians, you can watch their sparks leave (they’re the red glowy things), they fly upwards and disappear. You can also see blue/green versions of these floating around and not doing anything, notably outside the Rampager’s Vault.
I am curious if these color differences indicate a difference in wisp type (guardian v human) or if the red means they found another vessel and blue means they chillin. It is interesting to note that the Rampager has the ability to succ the wisps, so its possible its also related to the Destroyer. I mean, its way smaller, but it does IMMEDIATELY start wrecking shit as soon as it leaves the Vault.
anyway there’s more to this, because now we get to talk about ~ghosts~
if u didn’t heed my warning earlier, there are spoilers for guns love and tentacles past this point!!
DOES THIS LOOK FAMILIAR TO YOU?????
THIS IS JUST HANGIN GOUT IN THE CORNER OF THE ROOM BTW
LITERALLY NEKROTAFEYO
and let’s not forget the Halloween event that showed ghosts are a v real thing in the borderlands and not just on carpenter planet
like super real. and the ‘hecktoplasm’ we get fuels a portal to heck. literally another dimension. that BY THE WAY is powered by a Maliwan device. that BY THE WAY is filled with Maliwan troops.
cuz remember on Nekrotafeyo where there are a bunch of Maliwan soldiers, but they’ve all got the DARK prefix to their name? you know how in the proving ground the dark maliwan troops are fighting side by side with a bunch of Guardians?
something fucky is afoot.
reminds me a lot of the terror effect
ANYWAY
i believe nekrotafeyo is where the eridian stored the sparks for both humans and guardians, that’s where they are coming from, and when nyriad questions how tf the guardians got that spark (stolen like fire of the gods), its because they’re slowly gaining sentience over time, probably relating to how many times they’ve been killed (returned to the core and then back again). because i 100% believe the eridians created the guardians just as an endless, permanent workforce, and the guardians that have been disposed of time and time again are starting to realize that and get SALTY. the reason i do not say that the guardians are gaining sentience with regards to how long they’ve been around is bc there’s such a huge difference between the intelligence of The Watcher and just a normal-ass Guardian that I have to assume their developing sentience has a different trigger.
anyway back to the eridians getting the succ from the destroyer. the eridians realize they can’t just run away from it back to their home dimension, maybe bc its tied to that dimension due to the vault mutations (i vaguely remember typhon mentioning that the destroyer is a dimensional horror) so they have to imprison it somehow. How do they do that? well it is fucking terrified of eridium (when you inject the eye of the Destroyer in TPS, it panics and freaks out), probably due to all the fucked up experiments they did on it, so let’s imprison it using that.
And once we do that, we should probably get the FUCK outta dodge, bc these science experiments are getting c r a z y, let’s remove ourselves from the experiment and observe from beyond
so what do they do?
they get one of their sirens to operate a Machine they built that will send them back home. all of them, at once. we’re going home, fuckers. seeya. and obviously they will not tell humanity, because humanity will want to come with, like a lost puppy. and they will constantly question the other dimension and pester the eridians about it. humanity is annoying and the eridians have 1 big regret, im sure.
they’re also leaving the Guardians to do their dirty work for them, keep the vaults closed so that humanity won’t open them and send the Eridian’s pissed off creations after them. Also explains why there are no Guardians for the Vault of the Warrior (is an Eridian construct) and why the Traveler had Guardians inside it but not on the outside (to keep it running). The only Vault that made me do a big think is the Vault of Elpis. But more on that later.
so they tell this siren that the machine is going to kill them all, and use their energy to power to machine (lol) to close the Destroyer in Pandora, giving a perfectly good super powered monkey severe anxiety.
they also (apparently) do this ‘Forgetting’ thing, which Nyriad mentions, which makes humanity forget that we lived side-by-side with the Eridians and also everything about the Destroyer. which is so DUMB of the Eridians.
because SERIOUSLY people, if you don’t want your idiot children opening something, the one thing you don’t do is make them FORGET WHAT IS INSIDE OF IT SO THEIR CURIOSITY GETS THE BETTER OF THEM WHEN WHAT’S INSIDE OF IT IS LITERALLY ‘HEY, YOU’RE ALL GONNA DIE’. literally pandora’s box. LITERALLY- that’s half the reason I think this is all just one big experiment to them. They don’t give a FUCK about us, actually. they just want to see what will happen. they named the fucking planet Pandora ffs.
like YEAH some people would probably try to open it, to try to kill the Destroyer. but guess WHAT FUCKLENUTS we could have had humans working to keep pandora sealed instead just your cryptic ass guardians. CURIOSITY IS A DANGEROUS THING
and listen. there’s a lot of reasons i believe the machine actually sent the eridians home. even if they actually are just morons and thought the Forgetting was the best thing to do for humanity (scoff)
fdgdsffssfgfsg
all-home
there’s more to this
what are we up to? i stopped writing this like 3 days ago and just came back to it
you guys know the whole story now. im not saying my whole entire backstory is fully correct (like, a lot of it is major speculation) but i do firmly believe these few points:
the eridians are from a higher dimension than our own, and came here for science, or to escape the destroyer
nekrotafeyo is named “first landing”
they have an obvious connection to another dimension thru vaults, eridium, and sirens
the eridians either created or experimented with humanity, eventually leading to Sirens
sirens have this connection to both eridium, vaults, and the other dimension
they have similar powers to some Guardians
on Elpis there are ‘pseudo-Sirens’ created upon exposure to chemical sludge near the Vault
Sirens probably are the result of very exact experimentation, meanwhile these fake Sirens are not
The Leech is able to create ‘Anointed’ who have Siren-like powers and turn to eridium when killed
In bl2, the Lab Rats can see the other dimension when phaselocked by Maya after they were experimented on with eridium by Hyperion
unlike other enemies who only see ‘blue’
every vault monster is the way it is because of the eridians doing shit, including the destroyer
the reason the rampager is so angry and begins destroying everything right away? it was mutated by the eridians/being locked in the Vault. It was stuck in there with a bunch of Guardians, probably either conducting more experiments or there as ‘prison guards’
the destroyer appears frightened of slag in TPS when you inject it, but it also gains power from it- pretty similar to Sirens, and if eridium caused these mutations it could explain the fear
eridium causes LOTS of mutations as we can see throughout the history of the borderlands games. i’ve written 2-3 long-ass posts about this now, i think y’all get the idea lol
terry, badass wildlife, slag/burning psychos, etc
we don’t know how long the destroyer/rampager/etc was exposed to eridium. We’ve only seen (relatively) small doses/exposure times
the eridians lied to Nyriad and are in their home dimension right now, probably laughing at us. or at least like ‘holy shit quick write this down’. this is probably all an experiment to them
I just have this FEELING
so sudden, and new
but really tho
The Overseer basically TELLS us that the Eridians are still out there somewhere
she calls them her masters, talks about how they left the ‘house’, then talks as though they can still see us in the present
Actually you know what, let’s talk all about the Overseer’s lines now because they’re dummy important
copy and pasting this because i forgot...
“vault hunter, I thought you might show up sooner or later. so naughty your species, so curious. the vault of vaults has been opened and IT has been released. prove your worth and I will reveal why the masters made me wait for you”
so IT is most likely the Destroyer. i have the firm belief that Tyreen just ‘slipped its chains’, as Nyriad puts it in her log right before the fight
like r u seriously telling me the eater of worlds is the size of a single story house lmao
NO
bigg
‘why the masters made me wait for you’ “MADE ME” I get the feeling she is here against her will, until her mission is completed
and that mission is to see which humans can pass the trials/the execute the trials
why? we’ll get to that. but she even hints that the reward may not be what we want.
“naughty humans have opened the vault of vaults but the masters will determine who is at fault. until next time, warrior”
so the second time she references her ‘masters’
Vault of Vaults is the vault of the destroyer. which is interesting to me. I guess it makes sense, is a big vault with other, tinier vaults on the surface.
I really wish we got an explanation as to what the Vault of the Architects was. might even explain the pyramid key ;-; fuckin pyramid key
so when i first heard this i thought there was some sorta ‘the masters will determine who is at fault’ rift between humans (the calypso twins or the vault hunters)
but now after learning more i realize this is probably between humans and guardians
are humans at fault for being naughty, or are the guardians for failing their only purpose?
i get the feeling the eridians will blame the guardians. the less favorite child :(
“long ago there was a brief spark, the first vault was opened, a light in the dark. a riddle, yes? perhaps it will unravel next time, hunter”
sooo im pretty bad with riddles
either this takes place long before our recollection of events, or this takes place around when typhon opened the first vault on promethea
what i think this means is possibly the beginning of Guardians gaining sentience
nyriad describes the smarter guardians as ones having a ‘spark’. i believe this is what the Overseer is referencing here- their gaining consciousness
THAT, orrrrr the guardians saw themselves fail at their only task and began to realize they could do more with their lives
failure breeds success, after all
“so, you’ve returned. persistent, yes. or stubborn? or both? are you so desperate to prove yourself?”
the differences between humanity and the guardians. humanity has strong desires/emotions, the guardians don’t
or, at least, they didn’t.
“we were created for one purpose by our masters- and we couldn’t even do that right (laughs). but don’t blame us! when a cog breaks, point your finger at the artificer, not the cog! are you a cog, Vault hunter, or an artificer? Or both? prove yourself worthy.”
lots to digest here
one purpose - to keep the Vaults closed
the guardians recognize they are only cogs in a machine, that they’re only tools, and it seems that they’re becoming bitter
‘point your finger at the artificer’ obviously blame the Eridians, not the guardians
‘are you a cog... or an artificer. or both?” i think is very important. i think this is another hint that humanity was created by the eridians
‘or an artificer, or both’ showing that humanity can step out from the shadow of whatever the eridians planned for them and make their own choices/destinies. the guardians can’t. ... yet.
“pity us not, though the world has been broken. those who sleep will soon be awoken. not long now, seeker.”
‘though the world has been broken’ - either bc the Eridians left them/the Vaults have been opened
more importantly “those who sleep will soon be awoken”
what i think this means, personally:
Graveward is a vault monster that appeared deceased (already killed or just died of natural causes) when we got there
but it was combined with a bunch of ship parts
this is confirmed both by the art book and by just LOOKING AT HIM lmao
these ship parts are likely a way to resurrect him by allowing the guardians to posses him
guardians are biomechanical constructs, so it makes sense that they would begin scavenging ship parts from eden-6 to fit to graveward
so they can have a stronger body to pilot
something had to be pulling those ships in to crash
also, this means BALEX didn’t do anything wrong lol
when you get to the vault, tannis is confused, because there should be a vault monster, but there’s only guardians
that is, until you kill Grave and Ward
they (and a bunch of other Guardian souls) then possess Graveward, bringing him to life- or, awakening him
what i think this means: the guardians are going to start possessing more and more stuff
why this means ‘those who sleep will soon be awoken’ possibly vault monsters who are killed aren’t actually killed, they’re just put in a sleeping state and the guardians will be using their tech to control them with guardian souls
the guardians stuck in that big ol computy machine somewhere (god pls let it be nekrotefeyo) are ‘sleeping’ and by taking control of those vault monsties, they will be able to wake up and pilot their own bodies
that is, there are too many souls, too little bodies, so they need more vessels
tl;dr: MORE GUARDIANS
also can we talk about how Sirens can absorb guardian souls pls?? bc what the FUCK tannis
ugh how fuckin’ creepy would it be if the eridians made the fleshy Vault Monsters and used the guardian souls to puppeteer them
seriously though, Tannis absorbed a bunch of Guardian souls why are we not talking about this
how was that not an important plot point
is tannis going to be okay?? i love tannis. please don’t hurt her. are guardian souls just pure energy?? what does it mean??? GEARBOX-
“the eridians were our masters, but we failed them. they gave the order then silence. they VANISHED. such is our fate, Vault Hunter, server to a master who has left the house so long ago. prove to me that you deserve an introduction.”
i think its really important that the Overseer doesn’t say the Eridians are DEAD. instead, she says they just ‘vanished’ or ‘left the house’
i think this further proves they’re still out there somewhere. probably watching over us like creeps
literally from the new DLC... come on. COME ONNNN
also confirmation the eridians are the ‘masters’ the Overseer is referring to all the time
side note i have the game sitting open on my other screen and wainwright just asked someone to drink him under the table what the f-
it does sound like they’ve been forgotten as even servants to the Eridians because she specifically says “were” and “but we failed them” probably meaning the Eridians were their masters UNTIL the guardians failed to keep the Great Vault from being opened
though i do think “prove to me that you deserve an introduction” is interesting
like do we not deserve one yet? well, not until we complete the trials she’s supposed to test us with
“we were supposed to guard the Great Jail. but no quarter for servants who fail. but servant, that is not quite right. ‘Prisoner’. that is what i am. Until next time, adventurer.”
kinda repeating what we learned from the above quote
‘Great Jail’ they put the Destroyer in evil baby jail for his crimes
no quarter for servants who fail - yeah the eridians are like ‘wow you guys suck, fuck you guys’
‘prisoner, that is what i am’. the guardians are all stuck in their roles. they’re trapped here
“a final chance to prove yourself. but will your reward be what you desire? a prisoner in a cell staring out at the fathoms of a sleeping universe. after a time, how would you know if you were prisoner or master? consider this while you prove yourself one last time.”
‘will your reward be what you desire’? we learn that the reward is actually being a guardian, so... it’s not great, if our deductions hold any water
‘a prisoner in a cell staring out at the fathoms of a sleeping universe’ - what the Overseer probably sees her position as guardian of the trials as a prisoner- same with all the other guardians stuck watching over the Vaults
i do also think this may be in reference to the fact she’s stuck in this dimension with us while the eridians ran away
“I am a prisoner, but you, vault hunter? what are you? hunter, warrior, hero? no matter what name i use, you return to prove yourself time and time again. but prove it to whom, i wonder? perhaps you seek a greater audition”
‘hunter, warrior, hero’ note she calls us by a bunch of titles throughout her greetings/goodbyes. but we are not satisfied by any of them
clearly we’re not proving ourselves to HER, since she questions who we are trying to prove it to
‘greater audition’ is likely in front of the ‘masters’ who are the eridians. remember, we have to prove to her first that we are worthy of an audience
“it is done and my masters have taken note. would you like to know what they told me right before they vanished? ‘beware the vault hunters, they will take your kind’s place’. now i am free, and you are chained. until next time, guardian
the eridians know what we’ve done- now humanity takes the place of the guardians
“beware the Vault Hunters, they will take your kind’s place” seems like a pretty fucked up thing to say
but also, more proof the Eridians knew what the FUCK was up, kyle
humanity is just guardians 2: electric boogaloo
the trails were ultimately a test to see if we were up to the task
and now that humanity (or, at least, the Vault Hunters) has taken the place of the normal Guardians, the others are free to do... something
what... i wonder.
i do think it is interesting that the Overseer is pretty morally gray here. like, she’s trapped here to oversee the trials for however long the Eridians have been gone, to see if humans are truly the successors to the Guardians
she obviously doesn’t want to be here, calling herself a prisoner
she even warns us that the reward won’t be something we want- i imagine she might not exactly be able to tell us WHY we will not like it, she is being watched by her masters (the Eridians)
like, i get WHY she doesn’t tell us what’s going to happen. if i were trapped there, I’d do the same thing
but here’s the thing
since we are (we assume) fully squishy and not mechanical in any way, we still have our free will (unlike, we can assume, the guardians)
so we’re not literally trapped in one job forever- we can choose whatever we want to do
so WHAT exactly do i think the guardians are going to do? well, they’ve got an entire army’s worth of souls, they’re resurrecting dead Vault Monsters, and they can modify their bodies now to become more weapon-like
what do I think is happening? The Guardians are preparing for war with the Eridians- they want to destroy their creators, and with us becoming the new guardians, there’s this loophole that allows the old Guardians to finally, FINALLY do whatever they want
(Is Fl4k supposed to be foreshadowing for this? Yeah, I believe they are!!)
+ also before i forget: the entire thing about there being a literal Fallen Guardian we have to kill
i believe this has to do with the fact when you kill it, it drops money. since we can assume the trials are crafted/designed by the Eridians, we can assume the Fallen Guardians are apart of that design as well. It drops money, which probably shows how it’s become corrupted compared to the other guardians. it has desires (collecting wealth). Since the Guardians are inspired by angels (especially in TPS), it’s probably supposed to be a direct callback to that
alright so I think you all are probably like CRUDDY THE PRE-SEQUEL
and like, yeah, that’s what i’ve been building up to the whole time
The Watcher!!!
“War is coming, and you’re going to need all the Vault Hunters you can get”
Let’s just look at the Watcher’s actions throughout TPS and Tales (well, her inactions in Tales, as well as 3)
In tps, the Watcher brings Zarpedon to the Vault, allows her to see the future, and creates the Lost Legion
so we all assume that yes, she’s trying to stop the Elpis Vault (and, by extension, Pandora) from being opened
but here is the thing. the lil thing. the BIG thing actually.
she stops us from killing zarps in the BEGINNING of the game
in the middle-ish when we kill zarp for realsies, she is NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. Zarp lets Jack know where the Vault actually is and little miss alien face IS NOWHERE AROUND
when you are inside eleseer, lilith mentions that the Guardians there actually let her through, like they WANTED her to be there
now let’s remember Lilith’s actions in tps (and remember that she is IN NO WAY at fault here. jack is a dickbag. you try to tell me this is lily’s fault and i’ll kick your shins into your asshole)
while jack is seeing the future about the Vault of the Warrior, she punches the treasure of Eleseer into his face. this cuts off the vision, so unlike Zarps all Jack sees is that he opens the Vault of the Warrior. Nothing about the Destroyer destroying everything.
and still, the Watcher is nowhere to be found.
So Jack opens the Vault of the Warrior, Lilith learns she can activate the Vault Map, the events of Tales happens, and Lilith has Athena tied up and is about to shoot her
WHEN FINALLY
FUCKING. FINALLY.
THE WATCHER SHOWS UP
and tells us that ‘we’re going to need all the vault hunters we can get’
now let’s TAKE A STEP BACK HERE
obviously. OBVIOUSLY.
this is pretty backwards from what the Guardians are actually meant to do: keep the Vaults closed. If she wanted us to NOT open the Vault of the Destroyer, she probably should’ve just come right out and told us what’s up.
no, I think she 100% wanted the events to happen in the way they did.
Because remember, after this, SHE NEVER SHOWS UP AGAIN!!!
not in tales, where she could have stopped the Vault of the Traveler from opening (in fact she could have let Athena die and lowered the team’s chances of defeating the Vault Monster with whatever canon choices there are), not in 3 when she could have prevented the twins from doing any number of things they did, not to give advice to lily on sanc-iii, not during Commander Lily (even though she’s mentioned briefly) she did FUCK ALL
she did J A C K S H I T
it’s because she wanted this to happen. she WANTS the vaults open.
why? well, see above. The Guardians want the Vault Monsters all killed so they can resurrect them as big boy guardians
and that war she’s talking about? it wasn’t the war in bl3. That’s why she never shows her face. she’s talking about war with the Eridians.
Which is probably bl4.
alright im tired. eridians bad. guardians okay-ish. they might try to kill us all and use our bodies as vessels, who knows.
anywaY this was all an elaborate plan for me to explain the backstory of h2o au and why magic is real in the borderlands universe and why they decide to FIGHT- [gets dragged off computer by a cane]
wow this is a 36 page document, why can’t i be this enthusiastic about school??
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POST-SERIES THINGS, HOW MALLY GOT TO THE OYSTER WORLD.
(Notice for spoilers to Sy/fy Alic/e if you haven’t watched it and care abt spoilers or smthn)
WHICHEVER method of Mally during the miniseries we go with (Method one: She joins Hatter and Alice on their endeavors when Hatter goes to find her in the forest. Method two: She’s been trapped in the Casino for awhile, after Jack Heart finds out where she is, goes to interrogate Hatter, and she turns herself in to ensure he doesn’t get in trouble for it.) This is how it ends up.
As Bean pointed out in this one post from probably 2014 or so since I was already following bean by that point, that I will forever be linking to even tho Bean doesn’t write Hatter anymore n tries to hide the fact that Bean can do math better than basically everyone or at least me, before Hatter goes through the looking glass to find Alice, it’s at least three months in Wonderland time. That’s why he’s all healed up, has nicer hair, changed his hat, god better clothes, all that.
Whatever happened, I do have it where Mally was with him during that time. Whether it’s the healing period from being trapped for so long, or just her trying to fix him up because he’s a wreck and in denial of being a wreck, either way, she’s not the kind to ditch her friend. Especially when the new king is the same dude who she was forcibly engaged to before she ran away, gaslit her, tried to convince her to ‘work with him’ and he could ‘convince his mother to let her go’ before she was sent down to the asylum, she’s not happy about the current royalty. That, on top of how he’s treated hatter in the past (I know the series doesn’t go into it but I highly highly highly doubt Hatter was that antagonistic towards Jack just out of jealousy and because he was the Queen’s son, it seemed a bit more personal than that. ) she ain’t about that.
But, she notices just about everything about Hatter. Now, of course, as much as I don’t say anything bc I don’t want ppl to be all ‘oh you’re trying to force ship’ when a: i’m not. b: unrequited shit. c: this was canon for her when I wrote w other hatters throughout 2013 or so through 2015, I didn’t say anything, I avoided saying anything, but Mally definitely has always had some kind of love for him. It’s in her nature, she is in love with Hatter, and she won’t say anything, so I don’t either. We all know how I am, I don’t even tell people when I do ship the muses and would wanna write it out cause yknow, I have massive anxiety about that and scaring people away so if I let them come to me abt it instead its not my idea first and I can’t be ‘awful or terrible’ for being a person yknow how it is.
Anyways, she definitely would have noticed that he was missing Alice. And, while from how we know my writing goes, she has those reflections of the original wonderland, she has vague memories of the original alice ( which, in the version where she was taken by Jack and put back in the asylum, those memories expand a lot. Thus meaning, she remembers a whole lot more about the original wonderland because she can’t avoid it in that situation.) she liked Alice H, but she didn’t view her as the ‘legend’, she didn’t see her as an ideal, she honestly would have preferred if he wanted to go find the OG Alice, but long and behold.
She’d convince him to do what was best for him.
Even in the situation where he’d be trying to help her out of that trauma, she’d still tell him not to worry about her, because she only wants what would make. him. happy.
And yeah, that fucks her up when he actually goes.
I don’t think she said that with the belief he’d actually go, so him actually going definitely wasn’t expected. She wouldn’t have wanted him to go, she wanted him happy, but I think inside she actually thought he’d just choose her over someone he knew for three days. That’s her headspace, don’t twist my thought process on this bc I actually ship this specific version of h/attice but mally would still be like ‘you knew her for three frickan days dude’
so she’s extremely not okay during the first few weeks after he left. Jack tried to contact her during that time, he’s still trying to get her to work with/for him, she’s not about that. Even in a completely damaged state of mind, she ain’t gonna go with Jack Heart for anything.
But, during that damaged period, is when the Cheshire Cat comes back. She’s talked to him before, he’s the only one with complete memories of the prior world and the current world, he doesn’t actually tell anyone anything. He talks to her about the Wonders. She does wander off to try and find the Vorpal Blade, and she does. In the process, she comes across Necros.
Necros spoke to her for a few moments, and ultimately when she said she didn’t want to be around him, he left her alone. One of the first people since Hatter to show her any ounce of respect like that, tbh. She does have a moment of time where she ends up in the Court of Swords, learns her mom is a Queen, all that jazz, realizes her own mother wants to use her for something, nothing pretty comes of that.
But, within a few weeks, she ends up having a breakdown in the forest, she’s alone, she’s abandoned, nobody wants to help her, everyone she meets wants to use her, the one person she thought wouldn’t hurt her left her for a girl he knew for three days. and then Necros finds her, alone in the forest of Wabe, he doesn’t say anything to her, but he does offer her a hand, and she ends up going with him. That’s how she ends up coming to the underground.
Necros, Celeste, the underground just treats her nicely. She’s not used to it, she sees that nice treatment as a huge ‘what the fuck’ tbh, she’s just like ‘idk what’s happening rn but they arent hurting me so’ Necros has Monstrous Crow train Mally further, as Monstrous Crow can replicate others powers and helps them to fully achieve their ‘perfect’ status. From what she understood, they weren’t helping her to ‘use’ them, they were trying to help her not have to isolate herself anymore. With Monstrous Crow’s powers, they were able to develop a stronger version of her brother’s injectables that allowed others to touch her (as, March and Hatter were the only two that weren’t affected by her extremely cold temperature).
This was a lot stronger than the one her brother developed. They made one that she could take instead. Granted, if she takes it, it weakens her excessively for days at a time, so Necros doesn’t recommend she take it over convincing whoever else to do it, cause they only need one injection and they’re done, never have to worry about it again. She’d have to do it every few days and it hurts her, they tried finding a way outside of that, because she could get to the point of her own power where she can stop it, but she’s not there yet. She might never get there.
And, she chose to stay with them because the idea of completely getting rid of the Hearts family and bringing the true royalty back to Wonderland (the High Arcana, since the White and Red families weren’t around anymore, either finding a surviving relative fit to rule or convincing the court of fools to stop keeping away from it) and Mally actually made it go beyond that. She wanted Alice to come back and rule because nobody would be more fit to rule than her and Necros agreed, thus it seemed fitting to put her in charge of their operations in the Oyster land.
Now, a lot of the underground are magical and they’re scientists. They learned methods to transfer back and forth from the oyster world without the time shenanigans that happen with others. This basically means that they can use the looking glasses they made to traverse back and forth and the time they spend in oyster land, when they go back to wonderland the same amount of time still passed. They went beyond the study of realm travel to ensure they didn’t lose anything.
Monstrous Crow went with her, and the original idea was ‘saving’ oysters that... were better than average humans, and who were suffering in their realm and needed to be accepted, needed people to help them feel better about themselves, honestly because who better to convince to be on your side than someone longing for positive attention. Mally still helps with that, but she’s also going beyond that, and she’s trying to find out where Alice Liddell went. What happened to her.
She knows that after 150 years of their time, it could have been more for the oysters, and she knows oysters dont live that long. But she also knows Alice wasn’t all human, that there was something supernatural about her that gave her the ability to control aspects of Wonderland. Therefore, she believes that she can’t be entirely gone. Part of her had to be reborn into someone or something else and that’s who Mally’s trying to find, particularly hoping that she’ll be like Mally is and have recollections of the past. That’s her main goal.
But, there’s another goal she has too. She is actually trying to find Hatter. I think it’s more for closure on her end, to learn if he’s happy, see if his ‘ditching her’ made life better for him. That would lead to a lot more emotional spikes on her end cause, lbr, she’s gonna think abt the fact that he was only happy after leaving her behind, she acts extremely self confident but internally she’s a mess.
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