au where angel lives and joins the b-team + helps mordecai raise baby talon. highly inspired by @mohavegecko who gave me the idea in the first place lol
got my hands on some extra tidbits about angels development and. as much potential as i think she could have had thank god they didn’t go the route of an “evil split personality”. christ.
ive posted most of her concept art already but there’s a few more for this specific look. the 3D model looking very similar to the version of her in-game.
there were also more detailed face models. couldnt get a higher quality version so forgive the pixels.
ily miss nisha kadam. design info under the read more
sheriff persona has sketchy lines + a shaded face. teeth or eyes visible but not at the same time. boyfriend mandated hyperion yellow. (a little silly.) padded shoulders and heeled boots to make her look bigger.
she has several misc scars just as a byproduct of living on pandora but the notable ones are: dog bite on her neck from childhood eridium burn on her left leg from zarpedon’s staff. stab wound across her abdomen from athena post-TPS. shot in the side by roland during the attack on new haven
there is something so so important to me about the fact that throughout the games, mordecai is presented clearly as someone who cares deeply about the people around him. btw.
like obvs there’s his birds, but it’s the people that gets me. he’s the only bl1 vh who remains close with his group throughout the games. when lil and brick were taken and in hiding, he was roland’s right hand for years. after roland’s death, he was there to comfort lilith and grieve him with her. hes the one that gives you the mission in bl2 to find the tapes of jack abusing angel, and he’s fucking pissed about it. he takes an active role in raising tina, and from the dialogue in fight for sanctuary, it seems like he is the only thing by that point keeping lil and brick in contact with each other. he’s also the one encouraging brick to branch out, to get him interests and hobbies outside of fighting as we see in fight for sanctuary (even if brick’s gardening still involved violence, lol).
and while we don’t get to see their dynamics really play out in the games, from the way moxxi talks about mordecai its very obvious that he loved her deeply even though they were only together for a short time and their relationship ended messily. nevermind the fact that in bl3 mordecai takes up training grace and raising her up to be a vault hunter, and her death hits him hard. we get an entire funeral mission for grace, a character we’ve never been introduced to, just for mordecai.
idk!!! it’s just really interesting to me that the character who is usually seen as the solitary sort of loner/scout, he has such deep connections to the people around him. such a guy
i cannot think about the last few missions of bl2 + fight for sanctuary bc i will just explode about mordecai and lilith’s friendship. it is so so important to me. mordecai’s anger and fear towards potentially losing lilith at the end of bl2 and lilith’s worry about him in fight for sanctuary, plus her talking about how he comforted and supported her after roland’s death,,,, agh. im so normal about them.
i CANNOT think about how technically mordecai was with roland the longest, since lilith went into hiding and brick was cast out of sanctuary for several years. can’t think about how we don’t really get any dialogue of anyone supporting mordecai after roland’s death. the bl1 vhs make me ill
This is so silly but I have a cringe ass non-borderlands account that I don’t want to ask from and mohavegecko has anon asks off (I totally understand that) but can you ask him to spill more about the borderlands bandit-centric rewrite she’s been working on bc it sounds awesome.
Also love your art and your fantastic AU content (Angel my beloved…..) You have such a fresh take on the borderlands world and characters and it’s always great reading your stuff. Thank you for being a bastion of Wainlock content <3
im so sorry @anon i didnt know i had them off. theyre on now. and TYSM for being interested in my rewrite. the general idea is that it shifts the POV from the vault hunters to several of the bandit clans over the games. putting this under a read more because its. a lot.
the rewrite will be separated into chapters focused on specific points in or before the games. starting with mapping out the hierarchy in borderlands 1, where the bandits we encounter are united under baron flynt. and how that destabilizes the entire continent whenever the VHs go up the ladder and kill everyone in power. because as it turns out, executing leaders and destroying resource supplies does not actually make a piece of territory safer.
BL1 POV characters planned: baron flynt, reaver, krom, sledge, ninetoes, bonehead, mad mel, possibly the kobb twins, one eyed jack is VERY interesting to me seeing as how hes not a real bandit, but an undercover weapons dealer. a few outsider POVS, steele, pierce, roland possibly. the knoxx dlc and the underdome dlc will also be rewritten, though probably not zombie island and claptrap revolution.
those who survive the events of BL1 end up forming the bloodshots: a massive group of bandits with no apparent leader, who are starting to conquer more territory of their own. the flynts try to push back on the territory theyve lost to regain control over the planet, but now theyre also in competition with hyperion and the crimson raiders. its a war fought from all sides where everyone is hostile to each other and no real ground is kept, especially for the bloodshots who are displaced again and again and again.
this war is all based on this map in captains ship btw. weird how sanctuary is marked in blue. at this point flynt is also still hunting down the people who killed his brother.
two is a little more segmented just from the sheer number of bandit clans we get introduced to, but all of them will get some sort of spotlight. lynchwood especially, as a bandit town run by a bandit that is now under corporate lockdown, similar to baron flynt’s thor pre-borderlands 1.
BL2 POV characters planned: captain flynt, deputy winger, ellie, flanksteak, sheriff nisha, possibly tiny tina and/or fleshstick. brick, maybe. salvador is a definite and krieg is a maybe bc i think a VH pov might be useful but only through the scope of a bandit VH. opposition POVs as well. handsome jack, crimson raiders. i am fighting every impulse within me to not make a religious connection between angel and the bloodshots.
all of those bandit leaders are again killed by the vault hunters on their warpath to stopping handsome jack. collateral, in the games. id like it to be different in my rewrite! i want their deaths to have value, which is limited by the type of game that borderlands is. its a lootershooter, kill the bad guys and move on and never think about them again. i will not be doing that <3
then the transition to BL3 where all of the varied bandit clans we have just get put into the melting pot to fuel the cults need for bodies. before i get to this part of the rewrite i will have to replay the game because its the one im least confident on. Its also a bit more of a struggle because of how little we have in terms of named COV bandits. the twins ofc get a spotlight, and its the detail of bloodshot tattoos on shiv means he lived through barons rule, atlas, the crimson raiders flooding the bloodshots out of sanctuary, hyperion, the crimson raiders flooding the bloodshots out of the dam, AND hyperion. and then uhm. you kill him with like three bullets.
im less interested in the maliwan side of the COV, so i wont touch very much on it for this rewrite or have a POV character within maliwan but im also not going to sidestep promethia and athenas in their entirety. there will be a focus specifically on the opposition research sidequest and whatever else i can pick through on the planets.
and then theres eden-6, carnivora, and to be perfectly honest, though nekrotafeyo might get mentioned in passing, i have no intention of doing very much with it at all. maybe some tyreen POV chapters but thats all i got in me. im so sorry. i do not like typhon enough to dedicate more than that to him. and then the end of the game and all of the consequences that follow as the bandits once again lose their leadership, but also are freed of the constant threats they have been living through for decades.
im not entirely sure if i will cover TPS, or tales 1 and 2 but im considering it! at this point i already have a lot on my plate with the main title games, but maybe ill be able to get around to it eventually.
Yay thank you for responding to my bandit au ask! Follow up question. Does Nisha surviving change the inter-bandit clan politics at all, especially with the COV trying to get everyone to assimilate? I imagine she wouldn’t play nice, or go down without a fight.
and yes hello I see you on Angel + religious something or other with the bandit clans. If there’s anything more there please elaborate. Angel cults sound interesting as hell, moreso in light of her being alive in this AU. How does she feel about her position as a religious figure?
ty for your ask! another read more situation because this ones even longer than the first. somehow.
nisha surviving does cause some problems in BL2, though because of lynchwoods isolated nature those complications are more to do with the slabs and the crimson raiders than anyone else. the hodunks are also in uncomfortable proximity, living in the dust, and the zafords juusstt out of reach in the highlands. lucky them, because even though nisha is ‘technically’ on the crimson raider’s side for the remainder of their war with hyperion, her opinions on the other bandits clans do not change. there is a sense of lawfulness and control that separates her from them. something that simply makes her Better.
her anger with hyperion is all-consuming, which is what helps her integrate so well with the crimson raiders for the brief time they work together. its the only thing that overpowers the general bloodlust she displays when facing the rest of pandora. shes on a warpath because she specifically feels spurned and that is what pushes her out of the BL2’s vault hunters way long enough for her to survive. some assholes shooting up her town and blowing her bank? thats funny. her grievances with handsome jack? thats personal.
also worth adding in that wilhelm lives in this AU. orrrr…he lives up until the bunker fight, at least. its always been the dumbest thing in the world to me that he gets killed off so easily in BL2. hes the actual threat he deserves to be in my rewrite. mentioning this because nisha is also there.
and nisha absolutely does not go down easy when it comes to the COV, which puts her between a rock and a hard place with them and the crimson raiders. lynchwood had dissolved, as much as she can try and hold onto power within the town, its purpose is gone. lynchwood was only ever made to profit off the eridium underneath it, she admits this herself, and it was gift wrapped to her on her anniversary to ensure the mines had their protector.
so hyperion goes down, the mines lose their worth, and lynchwood enters a sort of limbo. she cant keep people in because theres no money coming in from hyperion. lynchwood isnt like other bandit clans, theyre not raiders, they dont go on the offensive for resources, and even if they did, nisha cannot provide for an entire town like a billion dollar corporation can. so people starve and people leave.
nisha is furious, of course. she keeps a handful of her riders, those who are actually loyal to her, and she stays in the outskirts of COV territory for her own survival. but she’s not sitting on her hands, she did enough of that already as sheriff of lynchwood. thinking of her active role in BL3…hm. again, id have to play the game to refresh my memory. its been a while! she fights the COV parallel to the crimson raiders, but not necessarily alongside them. i have a few times in my head planned where they butt heads, though. specifically her skag riders chasing after carnivora alongside the crimson raiders. which is just fun to imagine. mad max style.
and now angel! my idea isnt completely thought out, but! this starts at the end of BL1, angel heralds the death of baron flynt and commandant steele by leading the vault hunters and because there is that immediate power gap, the bandits who would become the bloodshots try to find anything they can cling onto, and they cling onto her. this unexplainable voice from the radio, watching from above. a very convenient idol to turn to in their time of need!
this is ENTIRELY based off of angels siren telepathy whatever sometimes having closeups of her eyes and the bloodshot clan symbol being eyes btw. thats it thats what kicked this off. if you give me long enough i can make Anything in borderlands circle back to angel she is my everything.
and good question! seeing as how angel is ~13 at the time of BL1, at first she buys into it for a sense of human connection because of how isolated she is. shes a child, she doesnt understand the consequences of indulging these people in their beliefs, because shes too busy indulging herself in playing pretend with these new “friends” of hers. we know that angel has had contact with pandora outside of vault hunters, so why not with the bandit populations?
as she gets older that opinion changes. the bloodshots solidify, and they grow, and soon it isnt just a bunch of desperate people that she can play barbies with. and she changes too- with the opening of the vault, eridium floods the planet and it doesnt take very long at all for her to become reliant on it. nothing is “fun” anymore. (nothing was ever really fun, but now she is old enough to understand it. this is also my way of explaining her playful nature in 1 becoming more restrained in 2.)
so she disconnects. this happens maybe a year or so pre-BL2, so she’d be around 17. the bloodshots lose their idol, their god has gone silent, and theyre facing blow after blow from a war on three different sides. so they turn to someone else. enter marcus! professional war profiteer. he floods the bloodshots with guns, gives them a fighting chance, and angel becomes a memory as they refocus on the war. when they get their hands on roland and try to ransom him off, angel tries to intervene, but now that they have been promised something tangible, they reject her.
and then the fight at the dam happens, the bloodshots are swarmed by vault hunters and hyperion alike, and they lose a good portion of their number. angels first reaction is surprisingly apathetic, which immediately disgusts her. these are people she has known for years now who have been mowed down by her friends and her father’s death machines. people she, at some point, felt a strong sense of responsibility for. to at first feel nothing for their deaths shocks her and (in her mind) puts her too close to her father for comfort. its another crack in the wall of angel’s rebellion, she is terrified of the apathy and potential hatred she could foster for these people, and she wants to rip it out before it takes root.
her contact with the bloodshots has been lost, though, and its not long after 2 that their population starts to wane. angel post-BL2 is set on trying to help everyone on pandora, including the bandit clans, but she is just one person, one teenager at that, and her hold on the planet feels so small now that shes no longer connected to the control core.
so, for a year maybe, or however long it takes from the end of 2 to helios falling in tales, she feels very stuck. she’s sick, still not fully recovering from her eridium addiction, and her world has gone from being trapped in the control core with satellite access to the entire world to living in sanctuary and being unable to help in a way that she truly wants to.
and then helios does fall, and she finds a way. but thats not really bloodshot focused and this post is long enough as it is so. If youd like to hear more about that i can explain! just not on this post omg
i can’t think about the moment in the son of crawmerax dlc where brick laughs at mordecai when he says he’s sober and clearly doesn’t believe him or i will blow up. btw.
just. from brick! thats gotta feel like hell. nevermind the fact that it took him telling brick and lilith directly that he was sober for them to put it together, and even then there was that moment of disbelief when he told them.
i keep seeing your art and i cannot say enough how much i love the way you draw angel! immediately designated as the angel person who i see sometimes in the borderlands tag.. 0)
TYSM this is so sweet omg. so happy that u think of me as the designated angel poster its all i strive to be. heres another angel sketch from a while back!
never understood why jack had a portrait of moxxi up in his casino. the place went under after BL2, and at that point they hadnt been together for years. and its not like what they had together was particularly happy or long lasting, either. they were together for maybe a month before breaking up pre-TPS, and thats not even mentioning what happens between them during the game itself, so…
maybe its a trophy? it doesnt feel like one when theres also one of angel. but its all i really got because presumably hes been in a much happier relationship with nisha for years, even though the portrait does feel too sentimental for a woman hes hated for the past Forever.
speaking of nisha, there’s no portrait of her or his wives. which is doubly weird because surely theyd be here too if moxxi is. idk, moxxi and angel are just a strange pair to have it just be them. by themselves is fine, moxxi alone is easily a trophy. and imo its just weird for a portrait of angel to be in the casino in the first place. some secret siren, huh?
if angel was raised on pandora it means that she and jack lived as residential settlers during dahls occupation. grogmouth likely worked for the flynts who, being a high status family at the time, in turn worked for dahl.
baron flynt was the warden of thor, a dahl mining rig that doubled as a prison. the companys sole interest in pandora to begin with was to extract eridium and find alien relics, so a siren would be a priceless bargaining chip for their efforts.
all of this to say its very possible that the flynts were the ones who sent out the order for angel to be kidnapped.
in my rewrite nisha gets detained by the raiders post-BL2 and locked up on sanctuary. hammerlock takes the chance to question her abt her time on elpis with aurelia.
Did I ever share my rounded up outline for my Angel lives au thingy… Don’t believe I ever did that. Here it is. She exploded instead of dying and dropping to the ground but its ok dont worry about it shes fine. Slightly outdated design also but its fineeeeee
