Game Theory: Handsome Jack, Monster or Misunderstood? (Borderlands 2/The Pre-Sequel!)

Special thanks to Ubisoft for partnering with us for this episode!

In honor of the Borderlands: Handsome Collection hitting shelves, allowing you to play Borderlands 2, the Pre-Sequel, and all associated DLC, we're analyzing Jack, the STAR of those games, to determine whether he's truly a monster or just a little misunderstood.

Check out the Handsome Collection for PS4 and XBoxOne

Thanks to 2K for making this video possible.
ESRB Rated Mature

Music:
Thanks to Bignic for letting me use his song "Blade Runner!"

Thumbnail Art:
Handsome Jack's Face courtesy of Princess Bloody Mary

Twitter: @MatPatGT

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[GameTheory]

*These* ► *spam* ► *comments* ► *are* ► *the* ► *worst*

[Spubl]

"Everyone thinks they're the hero of their own story" -Handsome Jack

[rinthesquare]

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions, right? And the one's you love litter the roadside.”
-Handsome Jack

[fetch]

"Hyperion: We're not the bad guys in this one!"

[gruffkibbles]

The pretzels line was not in the script the voice actor was eating when recording the line, I LOVE that fact

[raymalik]

I'm surprised he didn't mention Angel's death, that impacted Jack heavily as well

[tenthant]

He's also voiced by a wholesome voice actor. My friend asked Dameon how he can laugh legitimately while voice acting and he says, "I'm not sure, usually I'm murdering someone when I'm doing a voice role." (Met him at a convention in Wyoming, totally worth the trip.)

[GreebleClown]

“A misunderstood hero who just needed a little bit of love.”
And a good therapist.

[sinister_cat]

"A classic case of child abuse." Yes mat, every abusive parent owns a buzzaxe.

[GameTheory]

Let's put it on the table now. The FNAF Game Theory will be the next GT episode uploaded.

Before that is a Smash History and DeadLock...then....FNAF. Let's end this ;)

[WEB-]

This actually has MUCH more evidence in the side quest in Borderlands 3(sorry couldn’t remember the name of side quest) anyway, in the side quest you see how much Jack cared for his daughter and his wife, he was worried that she was a siren because she would be at great risk; and when she got taken by some bandits, she accidentally activated a turret and killed Jack’s wife and the bandits. You can hear the horror and despair in Jack’s voice at seeing his dead wife. To make sure it doesn’t happen again, he has to loc angel up so she doesn’t get threatened, taken, or hurst anyone else. Jack at least tries to make it better by connecting her to the Hyperion New-U system, but absolute power corrupts absolutely, so she was then forced to charge the vault key and she was more of a prisoner than a girl who was trying to be protected by her father.

So yeah, Jack actually has numerous reasons for being mad about family, he was beaten from his grandmother, he lost his wife to his daughter, and he went mad with power to try and fill that hole in his life.

So...as MANY people have already said....this isn’t a theory, it’s just a fact.

[Kaint]

He charges me with a spoon, a frickin' spoon and I'm dying laughing right? So I scoop out his stupid little eyes and his kids are like "WAAAA" and he's bumping into stuff
-Handsome Jack

[thomasfrench]

Jack is the embodiment of the phrase, "the path to hell is paved with good intentions"

[nobodynowhereneveragain]

Also let's not forget Brick makes you kill nearly all his men for his own amusement.

[GamingbrosPlayhard]

If you pay attention to Jack’s voice after being betrayed by Lilith, Roland, and Moxxi in the Pre Sequel, you can really hear the emotionality in it when you think about everything he’s been through. It makes me personally feel really bad for him.

[ergosum]

Borderlands 3 actually bolsters this idea kind of quite a bit.


SPOILERS:
We find out he wasn't lying about Angel killing her mom. And the entire incident was incited by an attack by bandits. Bandits literally lead to the collapse of his entire family. It's no wonder he hates bandits enough to want to raze an entire planet of a bunch of rogue killers and replace it with a metropolis like Opportunity.


Of course, he wanted to the dictator of the said metropolis, but that's neither here nor there. The Pre-Sequel does show that he's been essentially betrayed all his life in his attempt to just imbue a little order on Pandora, and save the lives of those on Elpis.


Borderlands kind of went from just a story about mindless killing and adventure...to a story about how the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[EchoTriux]

I don't think he saw himself die with that relic.
At the end of Borderlands 2 he says something like "It wasn't supposed to end like this I am the goddamn hero". In the relic he never saw the vault hunter you play as, either.
I think it just showed him what to do, not what would happen when he did it, Which is why he's so determined, he has no idea he'll die yet.

Either way, Lillith's punch probably stopped some of the transfer of knowledge, so maybe he did see what WOULD happen but Lillith interrupted the part where the vault would show his death.

[RockieRotten]

of course we're the villains, when fighting Nomads, their dialogue always consists of "Leave us alone!"

[bigcazza]

tales shook me to my core with his ending, "please dont send me back there its not like they say, theres nothing there". literally gold a cold chill while sitting near a fire

[HatKidPeck]

Tales from the Borderlands can play into this, as SOON as Handsome Jack thought Rhys was gonna betray him (if you play it like I did)
He acts out in violence FOR NO GOOD REASON after being by his side the whole game (if you played it like I did)