After seven main games, theBorderlandsfranchise has amassed a large roster of characters. Some are playable characters who fans spent many hours with and got to know well through their idle remarks and ways of interacting with other characters. Some are secondary NPCs with compelling or ridiculous stories, both of which the series has in abundance. Many fans look back on the games as being full of familiar faces and fond memories.
Butnot every character can be a hit with every player.The entire community nearly universally hates some characters, while others have fandoms split down the middle. Whether we hate them or love to hate them, theseBorderlandscharacters are some of the most polarizing personalities in the franchise.
10Ava
The Most Hated Character In The History of The Franchise
Let’s just get this one out of the way immediately:Ava fromBorderlands 3is nearly universally hated by the entire fandom.The young Siren character has a lot of things going against her, and I don’t just mean her tragic background. Ava is a teenager who’s full of angst and is written to be incredibly surly and dramatic, as teenagers are wont to be, which many players find incredibly annoying. Young characters are difficult to write realistically and still be liked, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that Ava has so many haters.
Worse than this, though, is the fact thatAva’s actions lead to a major character’s death inBorderlands 3.For many, causing this death isn’t the issue itself, but rather the lack of repercussions for Ava after the fact. Instead of showing any kind of growth, Ava’s character remains immature and is rewarded for doing practically nothing at all to deserve it.
9The Calypso Twins
Influencers With A (Literal) Cult Following
After the success of Handsome Jack as a villain inBorderlands 2(and, indirectly,Borderlands 1), the third game decided to branch out to a new source of conflict. Unfortunately, it landed on the extremely unlikable Troy and Tyreen Calypso,powerful social media influencers and cult leaders.
This pair is right up there with Ava as being nearly universally disliked, making them more generally hated than polarizing. The twins address their followers through theBorderlandsversion of vlogs, complete with YouTuber cadence and mannerisms, which many fans found irritating. Though villains don’t always have to be likable,the Calypso twins went the extra mile and were just plain annoying,with even their interpersonal conflict culminating in ananticlimactic resolution that fell flatfor most players.
8Davis Pickle
Young And Enthusiastic To A Fault
Chances are, if you didn’t hate Pickle, then you probably forgot he even existed. Theyoung, enthusiastic “fingersmith and scamp"is one of the characters you meet during your adventures throughBorderlands: The Pre-Sequel.Like Ava, the character’s youth is part of the reason why many dislike him.
However, unlike Ava, Pickle is a much more polarizing character. Whilesome players find his boyish antics annoying, others think his boisterous personality and shenanigans are endearing.
7Janey Springs
A Strange Ray Of Sunshine In A Grim World
The world ofBorderlandsis a harsh and unforgiving one, but some characters manage to see the light despite all the doom and gloom. Junk dealer Janey Springs fromBorderlands: The Pre-Sequelis one such character,bringing her chipper and sunshiny personality to the gritty game.And it’s this very juxtaposition that seems to grate on players' nerves, making Janey a delight for some and a difficult personality to like for others.
Besides her wonderfully naive character, Janey is a lesbian who’s often found hitting on Athena and Moxxie. Regardless of how you feel about representation in games, the character’s sexuality seems to be a large part of her personality,turning her into a one-dimensional caricaturerather than a well-rounded addition to the franchise.
6Vaughn
The Bandit King Who Sheds His Complex Character Arc
Vaughn first shows up as a key character in the TellTale GamesTales from the Borderlandsspinoff title. He’s introduced as “The Money Man,” an ex-accountant for Hyperion who’s great with numbers but terrible with tense situations. The character undergoes a huge change throughout the game,going from a cowardly pencil-pusher to a bandit chiefin love with life and embracing the chaos of the world around him.
Which is why so many fans were disappointed by the character’s appearance inBorderlands 3as the leader of the Sun Smashers bandit clan. The character fell short for many, lacking depth andcoming across as a generic, crazed bandit leader.Without the background knowledge of how he ended up here,Vaughn’s amazing character arc is simply wasted inBL3.Anyone who hasn’t playedTales from the Borderlandsmay not mind the silly bandit chief, but fans of the character from theTalestitle dislike how he’s represented inBorderlands 3.
5Tiny Tina
The Explosive Character Who Doesn’t Seem To Age
Tiny Tina makes an explosive appearance in the firstBorderlandsas a bomb-loving, fast-talking 13-year-old kid. Tina’s background, as with many otherBorderlandscharacters, is a tragic story, and the young girl deals with it the only way she knows how to:by dressing things up in cute pink bows and then blowing them up.
Tiny Tina was the first voice acting role of Ashly Burch, who later went on to deliver incredible performances as Aloy from theHorizonseries and Chloe fromLife is Strange.
Despite being a young character like Pickle and Ava, Tiny Tina actually starts out beloved by most fans for her great energy and ridiculous lines. For some players, though, Tina’s big personality can still be annoying, which led some to avoid herspinoff gameTiny Tina’sWonderlands.By the time she appears inBorderlands 3, Tina is a young adult of around 18 or 19, butshe still comes across as immature and young,which can also be either endearing or irritating.
4Handsome Jack
The Villain Who’s Done Some Unforgivable Things
While the originalBorderlandshad Angel as a guide to the Vault Hunters,Borderlands 2introduced her father andthe series' most iconic villain, Handsome Jack.By the events of the second game, Jack had gained control over the Hyperion corporation as well as the entire planet of Pandora, erecting statues in his image and using military troops to keep everyone in line—including thefour new Vault Hunters.
Handsome Jack is the mostmemorable and liked antagonist in the series, yet he isn’t without his haters. The villain is charming and charismatic, buthe also does terrible things to the people of Pandora and his own daughter.He’s set up to be sympathetic and likeable, due in part to his past, but his horrible deeds are just too dastardly to overlook for the portion of fans who hate him.
3Claptrap
The Ever-Present Robotic Comic Relief
Claptrap is a one-wheeled, one-eyed robot that acts both as auseful source of information and the comic relieffor theBorderlandsgames, quickly becoming the mascot of the franchise. His first words to the player in the originalBorderlandsset the character up perfectly:
“Allow me to introduce myself - I am a CL4P-TP steward bot, but my friends call me Claptrap!Or they would, if any of them were still alive.”
The small yellow robot is the last of his kind, and desperately desires companionship, but his often clueless personality can be off-putting at times.
Due to his size and inability to surpass even small obstacles like stairs,Claptrap comes across as a lovable underdog. But he can also be pushy and demanding, often with hilarious results. The character was well-received by the community, but byBorderlands 3,some fans felt that he wasgetting overused and growing more annoying than funny.For others, the silly little robot’s antics will never grow old, making Claptrap one of the most polarizing characters in theBorderlandsseries.
2Typhon DeLeon
Ancient Vault Hunter Who Left A Trail Of Destruction Behind
Typhon DeLeon has the dubious honor of being one of the most polarizing characters inBorderlandsdespite only briefly appearing on-screen. Most of what we know about Typhon comes from his ECHO logs scattered throughout the world inBorderlands 3.Typhon was the first Vault Hunter,driven not by a desire for fame and fortune, but by a scientific curiosity about the world around him.
Despite his best intentions,Typhon’s naive exploration of the world nearly leads to its ruin.He’s the direct cause of the monumental power possessed by his twin children, Tyreen and Troy, who go on to become the hated antagonists ofBorderlands 3. If that weren’t enough to make him disliked, Typhon is also criticized for his childish turds and smut, and the lengthy logs players have to listen to as they fight their way through the game.
1Lilith
The Original Siren
The red-haired Lilith wasthe very first Siren in theBorderlandsseries, introducing the concept of the powerful magic-wielding Vault Hunter. While the series hasgone through nearly 20 Vault Huntersover the course of the mainline games, Lilith has remained a staple. She went from being one of the Vault Hunters to leading the opposition against the various forces of evil threatening her home planet, before making the ultimate sacrifice at the conclusion ofBorderlands 3.
I personally love Lilith, so I was very surprised to learn that she’s one of the most polarizing characters in theBorderlandsfranchise. While some see her as a strong character who’s done her best in the face of adversity, others find her to be too brash and headstrong, and a terrible leader who’s too unstable and impulsive to make good decisions. Putting all that aside, some fans simply can’t let go of theBorderlands 2fight against the Warrior, in which Lilith repeatedly and unnecessarily shrieks at the player that “the lava’s rising! Get to high ground!”
