#Someone said Moxxie's father might hire him so.....

[derit-s]

Whatever you do don't think about Blitz facing Striker again and him mentioning how Stolas kept saying he was going to come for him and how well he triked that rich idiot into believing he cares, how much easier it made his job for him that he didn't

[bullets-and-masks]

Lilith’s Character Analysis

Hey, guys!  As requested by @valoscope I’m taking a deep dive into Lilith’s character. Differently from Krieg, that had as an objective creating a plausible backstory for,I decided my goal with Lilith is to look further and perhaps clarify the biggest divide in regards to her in the fandom: Why did Lilith do what she did in the end of TPS?  (Spoilers for all games and the Borderlands comics anthology.)

Let’s go by this order  - Borderlands (when she first appears), BL2 (we get to know her), Comics (to further what we know), and then TPS (oh the discourse)  Borderlands:  Lilith is a playable character in Borderlands (1) and unlike BL2, the first game doesn’t include ECHOs with extra bits of backstory liying around. As a result, anything that can be grasped about Lilith is from the main story - that has very little to do with WHO the original Vault Hunters are and her quotes. Lilith’s quotes are mostly all centered around her being a badass with a short temper, often hushing things to happen and going after danger. She celebrates victories and thinks highly of herself and her siren powers.  In short, Lilith in Borderlands is cocky, self assured and short tempered, enjoying what she does and proud of being a siren.  Borderlands 2 (oh how the tables have turned) In Borderlands 2, Lilith becomes a NPC deeply connected to the story, assisting the player and being one of the main characters related to what’s going down. We also get DLCs and tidbits of her personality outside a conflic situation.  Lilith in Borderlands 2 starts as presumed dead. We learn later that her and the other vaulties decided it would be best to hide. Under the alias Firehawk, she gives up being with Roland and her friends to draw Bloodshot bandits away from Sanctuary. It’s under this alias that she first meets the player.  She appears with flaming wings and greets the player with “Sup”, something we learn she likes saying before or after using her powers.  After Lilith goes back to Sanctuary we start to get a better grasp of her personality as her friends gather up. Lilith likes saying stupid/mean jokes but actually worries about her friends and saving Pandora, helping as far as she can. In the mission In Memorian, the player picks up old ECHOs of Lilith after she hid as firehawk, all of her trying to talk to Roland after their relationship has gone cold and awkward. Lilith is also awkward, seemingly searching for reasons to see Roland, but quotes like “I liquified a guy”, said with surprised/fearful tone, even if she says it was awesome later, show that she trusts Roland and is the kind to actually search for help - and that she doesn’t quite undertand the extent of what she is. And that maybe she was also lonely among crazied bandits. In the mission Where Angels Fear to Thread, Angel warns the player and the Vault Hunters that no siren should go in the mission. Lilith debates this and then complies, only to show anyway.  This has caused great divides in the community, many blaming Lilith for allowing the Warrior to be woken, but with all we learned the conclusion is: Lilith’s confidence and love for her companions makes so she goes, she wants to help terribly and ends up as doing things work. Lilith makes a mistake.  Then, we have the DLCs. The biggest points of interest in the DLCs is that they happen after there’s no more danger, so we get to see Lilith more relaxed. In Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, Lilith disciplines Tina, wants to help with her grief. She also admits to being a nerd, and that she was bullied when little for liking geek stuff and for her tattoos, going so far as to keep Mr Torgue from playing because he doesn’t seem like a nerd and she’s worried his only interested because geek is trendy.  In Sir Hammerlock and the Son of Crawmerax, there’s a small dialogue involving the original Vault Hunters and showing that Lilith really likes Talon, Modercai’s new bird. She doesn’t mind being bit and sounds really proud of how Talon is going.  In short, we learn in Borderlands 2 that Lilith’s own nature is still a source of confusion, surprise and pride for her. She’s still cocky and violent, not taking long to make decisions, but she seems to want to stick to the plans, she really wants to make a difference for Pandora and she’s terribly awkward with feelings of any kind, but likes being near her friends and even seemed lonely. Comics: Borderlands Origins Lilith’s chapter in Borderlands Origins starts by her telling the reader she’s a siren, followed by this monologue: 

(Image Description: A starry sky with yellow text boxes that read “There are six of us in the entirety of the universe. Or so I’m told. Prophecies can be fuzzy with the specifics.”)

(Image Description: A starry sky with yellow text boxes that read “It seems when you’re a little girl, you can look up at the stars as if they will live on forever. As you grown into a woman, you reaize that stars die just like anything else. Thrashing, heaving, clutching at anything not to go quietly into the black.”) This text already shows not only a deep sense of loneliness - the only out of six like her in the whole of existence - but also that much of Lilith’s personality might come from this stuborness to not die quietly.  Enter the flashback to when she was little. By her size and inteligence, I’m willing to guess 6/7yo+. Lilith watches as her dad dies (not specified of what). His last words are “Promise me you’ll see the galaxy” and “I’ll see you among the stars”. Right after that, an old lady, the oldest siren, walks up to Lilith. The old lady had been looking for her. Lilith watches as she dies and simultaneously gets her own siren tattoos. She asks the old lady what she should do, too, but the only answer Lilith gets is: 

(Image description: white speech bubbles over a orange and yellow background. they read: “That is up to you. Do as you will and grow as you might. We siren have no code, we’ve only our song. It is yours to sing now.”)  From this, we gather that Lilith has no one else to be with her. As the old siren dies, it’s understandable that Lilith has now two very different types of loneliness; literal and the one that comes from being turned, unwillingly, into something not quite human, and something that makes her unique and alone. The old siren also tells Lilith she will NOT be seeing her father among the stars.  The flasback ends and takes us to Lilith in a bar in Pandora. Later she gets in Marcu’s bus and Borderlands the Game starts from there.  In short, what we understand from Borderlands Origins is that Lilith had to fend off on her own since little, probably making so she’s really proud of her habilities and surviving. With time she starts enjoying this power, which comes with the short temper and will to keep going after challenges to push herself. Coupled with this comes the great sense of loneliness of being a siren, and of carrying her father’s wish forward. In my opinion, this turns many of Lilith’s actions into a search for a sense of purpose, of place.  (not that she’s not having fun with it).  Also, wether one considers the comics canon or not despite being written by one of Borderlands writes and being considered so, nothing above is news. It’s all in her behavior and extra game content.  On to Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel  TPS is told by Athena, one of the people (and playable characters) hired to help Jack. Lilith’s actions in TPS are short and sweet. She’s actually barely in the game.  Lilith and Roland are helping Jack because he wants to stop Zarpedon from blowing up Elpis, Pandora’s moon.  Shortly before they defeat Zarpedon, though, Jack gets word that one of Hyperion’s scientists might be a spy. He proceeds to throw all of them out in space and then says something about how it felt good. His tone is also glad, truthfull. Among other actions and commentary, this makes so Lilith, Roland and Moxxi decide not help anymore - because Jack might actually be... Not their brand of good.  This decision culminates in Lilith later phasewalking into the Vault and punching a vault relic Jack’s found. It’s unclear wether or not her intention was to brand his face, but clear she wanted to destroy it - too much power for not a very good man.  Pre-Sequel Epilogue:  The TPS Epilogue goes down after BL2. Lilith’s pissed about Roland’s death, and her conclusion is that killing Athena for having helped Jack is what she wants to do. What she wants because it’s cleary a harsh action decided with anger, as many of Lilith’s actions.  Mordecai and Brick note that this isn’t like her.  (All is stop by eridians that say war is coming and we’ll need all the vaulties we can get)  In the Claptastic Voyage DLC, Lilith also apologises to Athena, admitting her blame on Jack’s rise - should’d killed him, not just branded/punched the relic. Her apology comes with the realization and admission that ordering to kill Athena made her just like Jack; Lilith understand’s her shortcomings and tries to fix it. She doesn’t shy away from blame  In short, TPS Lilith along with companions took actions based on their own morallity and what they thought would be best to Pandora and Elpis. In the epilogue, Lilith displays high levels of anger and impulse decision making - she’s very led by emotions, BUT is able of seeing her wrong doings and wanting to do better. Conclusion:  Lilith is a very harsh person, both proud and short-tempered. She has fun with violence and her powers, but also goes out of her way to help people and those she holds dear. Many of her actions can be pointed towards not having enough interactions and education, specially in patience and strategy; and certain interactions. Lilith is a nerd and well intentioned, some of her behavior even seeming like what someone would do to look cool. Her temper gets the best of her. She’s the kind to look for purpose in quick missions, friends and helping. While much of Lilith’s character can be explained, it shouldn’t be excused. People can grow and change out of what they are. Lilith is a great, flawled character, and I’d like the conclusion of this analysis to be that she can grow as a person and character.  She did what she did in the end of TPS because that’s what she ( and Roland and Moxxi) judged as the best to do at that momment; making sure an unhinged man didn’t have so much power in his hands.  Regarding the Discourse:  No, it’s not her fault for Handsome Jack being Handsome Jack. She didn’t make it any better, and it’s her comment that names him “handsome”, but the man was already dangerous and unhinged. It’s not the fault of her character and temper either; it was a decision taken by at least three people.