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Plot hole about Dahl and coming to Pandora? : r/Borderlands
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r/Borderlands
• 7 yr. ago
CCP115
ADMIN MOD
Always waiting for Mordecai to see

#
Plot hole about Dahl and coming to Pandora?

After replaying Patricia Yanni's minecart mischief, AI realised something: She says Dahl came to Pandora to mine Eridium, even though Eridium only came after the opening of the vault in BL1. However, in BL1, Tannis makes it clear the bandits are already convicts and Dahl has left the planet (her included).

So my issue here is why did Dahl initially come to Pandora? And did they leave because of Atlas or other reasons?

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gnome_idea_what
• 7y ago

In BL1 one of Tannis's echo recordings mentioned Dahl mining Eridium before the opening of the vault. I think in BL1 Eridium was supposed to be some made-up valuable resource in the background, and got made into a big thing in BL2. No one thought to fix the story to accommodate it.

optimalgooby
• 7y ago

Iridium is a real element, thats what she was talking about, not eridium. According to wkipedia it was named after the greek god iris, which would fit with borderlands love of greek mythology. Or they just decided to retcon it. In which case maybe the eridium was just "activated" or something. Like there was some type of energy source in the vault, or the destroyer used magic (not to big of a stretch considering sirens, and angels description of destroyer being immortal, but you can kill its physical form) to give it the properties found by Hyperion.

RaynSideways
• 7y ago
• Edited 7y ago
Hey, stand in front of this!

If I'm remembering right, eridium was always a resource on Pandora, but after the opening of the vault it exploded in prominence. Dahl came to Pandora (along with many other companies) because as a lawless frontier planet it had decent money-making potential in terms of colonization, mining for generic minerals, etc.

At one point Dahl's miners stumble across a vault key fragment; Atlas, who already had people on Pandora, realizes what this means and lands its private military, the Crimson Lance, on Pandora, intending to seize it. Atlas had already become extremely powerful because of Eridian technology they'd uncovered on another planet, Promethea, and understood the significance of the vault key piece. Dahl, realizing it's about to be attacked, bails out and, in the confusion, abandons most of its hardware and workforce (many of whom were convict slave labor) on the planet.

By the time BL1 comes around, Dahl is gone. And after the vault opens and eridium becomes extremely common on Pandora, Hyperion quickly moved in and asserted control of the planet. By that time it was too late for Dahl to come back and jump on the bandwagon--Hyperion beat them to it.

deadsome
• 7y ago
That's MR. Skaggles to you!

Something to do with the Destroyer's death made Eridium much more plentiful on (and actually regenerating within) Pandora.

Always made me wonder if the dimension The Destroyer was trapped in/originally from might have been related to the dimensional energy the Sirens use for their abilities (since Lilith has shown sirens have an eridium connection).

CCP115
• 7y ago
Always waiting for Mordecai to see

Hmm that's a good explanation thanks

JetStrim
• 7y ago

but then, why hyperion built Helios at Elpis? i mean isn't it under construction while BL1 happened? did jack anticipate the oppening of the vault? if so, how much did jack know of the eridians?

RaynSideways
• 7y ago
• Edited 7y ago
Hey, stand in front of this!

Helios didn't start construction until after BL1.

If you pick up audio logs in BL2, you find out Jack is actually the reason the first vault was opened. He had Angel contact the vault hunters and guide them to open it.

We don't know how, but somehow he knew it'd cause eridium to pop up all over Pandora, but he was too cowardly (or perhaps just not strong enough) to open it himself. So he manipulated events so that the vault hunters would open the vault and destroy Atlas (the only company that was a threat to Hyperion), so that he could swoop in and take over.

They built Helios over Pandora when Jack convinced Hyperion's leadership that Pandora could turn a profit (this was before he bullied/killed everyone in charge and made himself CEO). Everything that happened in BL1 was part of his plot to become leader of Hyperion and ruler of Pandora.

JetStrim
• 7y ago

jack should really come out on BL3 and explain things. i mean how did he know about the truth on Pandora, the epic vault hunters that WILL open the vault, that atlas would fall, the eridium will explode on pandora.

but a question: how long is the gap on BL1 and BL2? on my mind it's just a year or two. which i thought that it would be impossible to built Helios on that short amount of time. that's why i think Helios is under construction already on the events of BL1

tangential_quip
• 7y ago

Jack should have not play any role in BL3, his story arc is done. And nothing needs further explanation. Knowledge of the existence of vaults was widespread after Atlas found one on Prometheus. Jack didn't really know the truth about the vault of the destroyer, he just thought it was a huge cache of technology like the one Atlas found. Everything else that happened is just a consequence of the events of BL1. Jack was just situated to take advantage of the situation, he had no prior knowledge of the outcome.

And it is definitely 5 years between 1 and 2, it is one of the first things Angel says in BL2.

V_Dawg
• 7y ago

It's 5 years afaik

RaynSideways
• 7y ago
Hey, stand in front of this!

Without spoiling anything, Jack's story arc is (as far as we can tell) finished as of the conclusion of Tales from the Borderlands.

It probably was a few years between BL1 and BL2, since the entire events of the Pre-Sequel took place in between. Plus, in BL1 you can always see Elpis in the sky (much like in BL2) and Helios isn't there.

I believe it's said somewhere that Helios was moved into orbit above Pandora at some point, so it might have begun construction somewhere else and then was moved mid-construction. Plus in the Borderlands universe we have digistruction, robots, expendable workers, etc, so we don't know how long it would take to build a station like Helios.

In terms of what Jack knew, the only thing he seemed to know for certain was that the vault opening would spread Eridium. The rest--the vault hunters finding the vault, Atlas falling--these were events he orchestrated. He made sure those things happened by having Angel help the vault hunters.

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Caliado
• 7y ago

It was always around but then got more plentiful once he first vault was opened (Jack knew this would happen somehow, that's why he wanted to open it).

I think headstone mine from the first game was supposed to be an eridium mine. I've assumed the purple juice thing from knoxx dlc is also something to do with eridium but I could be wrong.

CCP115
• 7y ago
Always waiting for Mordecai to see

That purple juice makes a lot of sense, as it takes place after the vault... Wow I never realised.

I suppose it was the beginning of BL2 (hand drawn cutscene) that implied Eridium didn't exist before the vault.

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Insecurity_exe
• 7y ago
Ooh look, a barrier between me and your breath

Eridium OVERFLOW was the result of the vault opening.

Think of it like a dam; there's water being stored and it exists. Dam breaks, water floods out like crazy.

Same with Eridium. Rid-rock exists before the vault's opening, but very little is able to be accessed. Vault opens, Eridium floods out.