Forgotten Borderlands Facts
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- Many Borderlands voice actors are former Dragon Ball cast members, most notably Dameon Clarke (Handsome Jack/Cell) and Colleen Clinkenbeard (Lilith/Android 18). Gearbox shares the same recording studio as Funimation’s dubs- most of them auditioned just because they were already there. Dameon Clarke was getting ready to leave the sound booth when Gearbox arrived: they gave him some Axton lines just to test the equipment. Things escalated from there.
- Jack’s iconic “man these pretzels SUCK” is not in character. Dameon Clarke was eating pretzels while rehearsing his lines, unaware that they had already begun recording. Lead writer Anthony Burch loved the reaction so much he kept it in. Most of Jack’s laughter is also unscripted, because Clarke found the lines so funny he couldn’t keep it together, but Burch liked what it added to the takes anyway.
- Dameon Clarke came up with Handsome Jack owning a live horse made of diamonds on the spot. The original script made no reference to a Butt Stalion of any kind.
- Anthony Burch wrote almost all of Borderlands 2, except for the quest referencing Top Gun. The creative team was insistent on a Top Gun quest, but Burch had never seen it.
- Tiny Tina is voiced by Anthony Burch’s younger sister, Ashly Burch. You might also recognize her as Aloy (Horizon), Chloe (Life is Strange), or Rutile (Steven Universe). She also wrote the Adventure Time: Islands miniseries.
- Handsome Jack is based on concept art for a protagonist from a proposal for a game Gearbox didn’t greenlight, mixed with Nathan Fillion and Captain Jack Harkness (Doctor Who, Torchwood). The name Jack was supposed to be a development placeholder, but it stuck.
- Speaking of Jack’s development, he was initially not the primary antagonist, but more of a friendly rival vault hunter who alternately worked with and against the protagonist. The amount of dialogue he has with the player is a holdover from a period where he was one of the closest things you had to an ally, and naturally would check in on you. When his character switched gears during development, they needed to fill that time somehow, and the result are the diatribes we have today.
- Axton and Ellie are in a relationship, according to the Borderlands twitter.
- Tiny Tina and Jack both love Taylor Swift. His personal favourite album is “1989″, but he acknowledges “Red” is probably artistically superior.
- Dameon Clarke collects Handsome Jack merchandise, both official and fan-made. He’s even commissioned custom Handsome Jack converse.
- Lilith was a stereotypical geek as a child, and particularly enjoyed the in universe equivalents of Star Trek and DND. She was subject to bullying because of both this and her tattoos.
- Speaking of DND, when Rhys, Fiona, Sasha, and Athena play it in the Tales episode three opening credits, you can tell Rhys is DM based on the placement of the dice screen.
- Brick is a huge fan of Game of Thrones, even going so far as to have read the books. Mordecai prefers Downton Abbey.
- Whenever Handsome Jack has had control of the Borderlands twitter, he has frequently resorted to making users he dislikes canon Borderlands characters with the express intent of making him then able to kill them. Given that this is actually Anthony Burch talking it’s technically word of god that they exist in the universe.
- Mr. Torgue’s given name is Mr. Torgue. His last name is actually Flexington.
- If Jack could bring any celebrity back to life, he would kill Tom Cruise and then resurrect him- which (intentionally or no) implies Tom Cruise is somehow still alive in Borderlands’ distant future.
- Rhys loves fancy socks because his voice actor Troy Baker is also a fan.