#Susan Coldwell

[krotiation]

i've always been a sucker for your rhysagawa... for valentines day, what about your take on katagawa spamming rhys with valentines?

option 2 is gimme mrs. coldwell in a lovecore fit.. ouuuu big giant heart sunglasses would suit her big hair so well in my mind

Your vision was too good for me to not draw both, god bless you

[rottenzone]

the final part of my silly little sketchbook

part 1 part 2

part 3 part 4 part 5

so this was fun,,,

[mothsgotghosts]

Sometimes I think about if all the CEOS from the various companies in borderlands had to get on basically a zoom meeting with each other for whatever reason and that idea is hilarious to me because whatever they need to discuss is NOT gonna be discussed.

Tourge keeps interrupting the meeting bc he's bored, Rhys keeps interrupting to give his own opinion and also he invited Zer0 to the meeting, Wainwright is Barely paying attention and keeps turning away to talk to someone behind the screen (his husband probably), at some point Clay joins the meeting and gets everyone off track, Coldwell keeps trying to get everyone BACK on track but it's Not Working, you get the idea

[snappedsky]

Borderlands: Skies the Ultimate Treasure Hunter

Mystical powers clash in the final battle between Skies and Susan.

One chapter left.

--

New Tales From the Borderlands Part 11

Skies, Anu, Octavio, Fran, and LOU13 enter the bridge of Tediore’s warship. Across the large room is a window looking out at Promethea. Up on a short balcony, at the main control console, is Susan Coldwell. She glares at the group with mild annoyance as they enter.

“Oh, look, you’re all here,” she remarks, “I don’t know what I pay my soldiers for. But, well, I guess they did manage to take down one of you.”

Without hesitation, Skies fires her pistol at her. Susan doesn’t even flinch as the bullet pings harmlessly off her shield.

“Did you think it would be that easy?” she asks.

“Can’t blame me for trying,” Skies shrugs.

Susan chuckles as she paces around. “Look at you all, on my bridge. Doing what? First attempt at a corporate takeover? A hollow, vainglorious attempt to ‘save the world’?” She laughs mockingly and motions to the green gem shard in Anu’s chest. “You possess one of the most powerful objects in the known galaxies. But it doesn’t negate one crucial, inescapable fact.”

“What’s that?” Fran scoffs.

“You’re weak,” Susan grunts.

“Since the very beginning, from the moment you bumbled onto that shard,” she continues, “had the delusion to call yourself a company, you never had a chance. But why? You have a valuable product, capital, smarts. And yet you all fail, so utterly and completely. Why?”

“Because you never had the spine to start a real company. You can’t stomach the violence of the business world. No iron ovaries. What hope could you have in the big leagues.”

“Skies, you’re the only one with any real power, and yet you waste it with those buffoons,” Susan snorts. “But despite your strength and wealth, you’re still just one person, hoping to take down an entire army, for what? Friendship? Love? Please.”

“Don’t have to stop an army, Suse,” Skies retorts, “just you.”

She just scoffs and types at her console. “Business Lesson One: your weakness provides me with a competitive advantage.” Out of the console, she grabs a container holding the red gem shard as a large, robotic arm rises out of the floor. “Now allow me to show you what we call ‘aggressive restructuring’.”

[shinakazami1]

Shina I'm gonna need a Susan review from you once you've finished the whole game or I might actually die 😔 KEEP THE POSTS GOING I love reading them!!

I HAD ALREADY FINISHED THE GAME SO I CAN GIVE SUSAN SEPARATE REVIEW HERE but I'll post the remaining stuff this week! I played one of Bad endings, so I assume I didn't see everything.

Susan Coldwell review, coming right up (spoilers to New Tales) :

She seems like a BADASS corporate woman. She KNOWS her stuff. It's no wonder Tediore soldiers are my fav part of the game, they're playful because Susan doesn't care for them, at all! Like the BADASS SUPERFAN losing his job and not being able to even get a rent while they get free gym membership (Stapleface mentioned it but, I assume what that means is just 'physical work'), makes it really show how she just, doesn't care.

It's interesting though how much she tries to show her superiority. Example - talk with Fran in Ep 1. I feel it is to prove to herself, she has to be superior. That thing seems to be most consistent about her - she ought to be better than everyone else. To prove herself compenent. As if she was recompensating something to herself, and to no-one else around. Her silencing the other company members in Ep 4 also shows it. She really needs her image straight, to see herself above everyone else. A big bully I would for sure get stressed around.

I LOVED the angel echo thing tho. I knew it would be her but I wondered if she was the one who said stuff in the dialect or sth but she did seem cool.

I gotta say though - based on playing the main games, her big idea felt like the closest we've got to New U stations. I really wonder if we will get any mention of it in BL4.

But dear God, the sequence in Ep 5,,,it sucked imo JSJEHEHE LIKE It was surprising at the end of it all, she decided to fight. But her being surprised about the Echo,,,, it did make her a bit funny, more human, just like the Taco friend code. She has parts of herself that show she isn't her own perfect image. LIKE WHY DID SHE PUT HER HANDS BEHIND HERSELF AT THE TACO BIT SHE IS SO SURPRISED AND flustered sjwhehhehw

And her fight in her shards form with Fran is so silly like, she can kill her, others, and she just sort of moves around 😭😭 like shoot Anu, and her being so distracted with all the holograms, true grandma moment. I so admire her hurting herself to prove a point though if she withstood such a heavy beating on her face, I wonder why she didn't consider just getting her soldiers there. My assumption - pride.

In general - She knows what she wants from life and is willing to destroy anyone in her way. Confident, power driven, ruthless. But she still got eaten by her pride in the end. She seems unredeamable but with the way she present herself, it's obvious she's trying to prove something. Too bad we don't hear what since she died JSJEHEHSWJ Susan Coldwell? More like Susan Coldgone

Hope you enjoyed this review and would love to hear your thoughts, esp since when I played the game, I thought of your art of her ><

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

sorta redraw of the ceos scene from new tales but actually accurate because let's be real, none of these people aside from rhys would ever give a shit abt tediore

click for better quality, reblogs > likes

[hands0mejack]

the fact that they literally had a gun in bl3 with ai jack (presumably) in it that's hyperion but reloads like a tediore and they didnt make any reference to it in new tales when the tediore ceo that looks like handsome jacks mom is turning humans into guns is making me INSANE

i feel like gearbox is gaslighting me. they had handsome jacks vaultlander in her fucking office. im going to start biting everyone

[kitsumidori]

I've mentioned before about a borderlands modern au idea and I want to show what I have.

Lilith Cashlin

Leader of The Firehawks (a biker gang in the city of Sanctuary which mostly consists of her friends)

Still trying to move on after her boyfriend was murdered by the Hyperion president.

Works at the city museum along with her socially reclusive friend Tannis.

In place of Lilith's siren tattoos, she has a full arm and leg sleeve tattoo which consists of dragons, phoenix's, unicorns and other fantasy elements.

Took in Angel after her father was arrested.

Is pretty close with the city's local con artist.

Angel Coldwell

Daughter of Jack Coldwell, President of the Hyperion corporation.

Was homeschooled most of her life and because of that, she's a bit naive, socially awkward and has developed social anxiety.

Would have recurring nightmares about Jack coming back to get her.

It was revealed that not only was Jack connected to a series of murders (one of the victims being his own wife), but he was also conducting inhumane experiments on people who he'd bribe/threat/kidnapped.

While incarcerated, Jack pleaded to anyone that would listen that he would never hurt his daughter and was very protective of her, the bruises and bone fractures said otherwise.

Along with that, it was also revealed during the trial that Jack was about to do said experiments on Angel shortly before he was incarcerated.

Jack has since been sentenced to death row.

Harley and Tiffany Williams

Parents of child prodigy, Gaige Williams.

Harley is a retired engineer and part-time boxer who owns his own gym in Sanctuary.

Tiffany is the owner of the Sanctuary Science and History Museum and is an elementary teacher at the local school.

Gaige Williams

Child prodigy and honor student.

Doesn't have many friends due to them sending her as weird and nerdy.

Was the only one that offered friendship Angel since she's an outcast as well.

Lost her arm at a young age, but she now has this really cool robotic arm (with help from her dad) that can crush concrete so that fine.

[tossball-stick]

as not great and ultimately good at best and queerbaiting at worst overwatch and borderlands' queer rep is. i cant deny that these characters are still core to my identity. i may not be a gay man anymore but soldier 76 overwatch is still a core part of me because of how i identified with him then. i may not be a lesbian later down the road but i imagine tracer will still stick with me because of how i see myself in her. it was still so so much better than growing up with nothing

[krotiation]

Rhack except they're divorced and keep forgetting they're not a couple anymore

[strongfuck]

💋 (from katagawa)

from this meme.

Rhys was naive to think that rising to the top of the corporate ladder would free him from ever having to attend a New Year's party again. Apparently there's an interplanetary shindig for the Borderlands' biggest corporations and their upper echelons of executive staff-- something about encouraging cooperation and competition, Rhys doesn't really know; he'd zoned out in the middle of Susan Coldwell's introductory speech and had promptly decided he didn't care enough to really think about it.

The same sense of listlessness that used to accompany him at Hyperion's holiday parties fills him as he mingles with people. His reputation precedes him, it seems; in his first year since relocating to Promethea, Atlas' stocks had risen to incredible heights, and he'd begun environmental research that's restored 15% of the planet's habitable spaces so far. People see him and they recognise him-- the bright blue ECHO-Eye and the tattoo on his neck are hard to miss-- and every time, Rhys ends up trapped in conversations that're nothing but indirect dick measuring contests and some supposedly "healthy threatening".

The attention suffocates him, and it gets worse the nearer it gets to midnight. Everyone starts moving about, pairing off in order to have partners for the fabled "New Year's Kiss", and Rhys turns down ten people in two minutes and decides he probably has to escape for the better.

So he slips away as a crowd gathers near the stage in the function area, ready to count down the few minutes to midnight with the giant Tediore-brand clock on the wall. And while Rhys had intended to be alone when he walked outside of the building and into the cold air, he sees someone had already beaten him there.

His eye glows as he attempts to place them, and just as the name of the figure lights up his ECHO-Eye's interface, the man turns around with a raised brow.

"Atlas," he says plainly.

"Maliwan," Rhys greets in turn. And then, because calling a person by their company name is ridiculous, he says, "Katagawa, right? I'm Rhys. Strongfork, I guess, if you want a last name."

"Rhys is passable."

"Cool." He smiles some, stiff and definitely awkward. "Do you have a first--"

"You don't need to know my first name."

"Yeah." Rhys coughs. "No, definitely."

Standing in the cold with his hands in his pockets, Rhys wants to sink into the snow. Katagawa is staring at him with a look that feels almost medical in its intensity, and Rhys isn't sure whether this is better or worse than talking to everyone inside.

So he tries to talk again: "What're you doing out here, anyway?"

"That's none of your business."

"Right. Well, I'm here 'cause I couldn't stand being in there." Rhys' thumb jabs over his shoulder in the direction of the party. "You know, talking to all those people... I didn't even know there were parties like this in the first place until Coldwell invited me."

Katagawa scoffs. "Of course there are parties like this. How else are we going to distinguish ourselves from the ordinary people?"

"Ah." Rhys isn't sure what he expected from the son of two Maliwan executives, but this feels about right. "Yeah. Definitely."

"I'm sure you wouldn't know, being ordinary yourself until recently" -- Rhys' brows furrow slightly at the sight of Katagawa coming closer, close enough to put a hand on his shoulder -- "but being this high up the food chain? It's the best place to be."

"Uhuh." A beat. "You're lucky your parents were such a big deal, then."

"I am more than--" Katagawa shuts his mouth, grits his teeth, and looks away. "My status comes from more than them."

"But it's 'cause your mum's head of Mergers and Acquisitions that you're here, right?"

"Shut up!" Katagawa declares, shoving two hands into his chest. Rhys steps back a measure because of it, but keeps his feet flat on the ground in the end.

He shrugs as he adds, "It's not that bad, you know. You can always move up. I was middle management at Hyperion until I just... took Atlas."

"Are you an idiot? That isn't how it works. I'm..." Rhys takes note of the way Katagawa's fists clench, and in the back of his mind he's glad everyone was stripped of their weapons before coming here. "I'm not next in line for mother's title."

"Well, what number are you at?"

Katagawa's quiet. Annoyed. And then he spits out, "Twelfth."

Rhys can't help the wince. Katagawa glares at him, though, so Rhys lifts both his hands up in surrender.

"That's not so bad," he says.

"How?" Katagawa rolls his eyes. "How in the world is being the twelfth in line not so bad?"

"You just... have to be better than the first people in line. Right? RIse above the competition. Beat them at their own game."

"You make it sound easy."

"It isn't," Rhys admits, "but it's not impossible, either. I think you can do it."

"You're just saying that."

"No, no, no-- I mean it!" He doesn't really, but the way Katagawa's expression has softened some tells him he's on the right track. "I genuinely think you can do it. You just gotta be patient and try. Stop relying on your parents' names, do something amazing for yourself, and... freakin' impress them, you know?"

Katagawa's staring at him again, but this time Rhys doesn't feel nearly as awful about it. Gone is the laser that would've sliced him from head to toe, replaced now by this look of enlightenment that makes Rhys feel pretty good about himself.

"I should be CEO," Katagawa says.

"You should be CEO," Rhys agrees. "I think you'd be great."

Katagawa's head lifts with new confidence. Truthfully, Rhys feels pretty good about being such an inspiring force in him. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Rhys agrees. "When you rise up, you'll have to let me know. I'd love to work together with you."

Inside, a chorus of voices count down to the new year. Ten, nine, eight...

Katagawa's hand reaches out between them, a smirk on his face. "You promise?"

And Rhys, relieved that they hadn't devolved into a fight, takes the man's hand in his cybernetic one for a shake. "Definitely."

Five, four, three...

Maybe it's the feel good atmosphere. Maybe it's because the conversation turned out better than he expected. Maybe it's just Rhys falling to peer pressure, as New Year's countdowns tend to inspire, if only because he found a person he wouldn't mind giving a kiss to.

He tugs Katagawa forward and presses a chaste kiss to his mouth just as the countdown hits "zero". Fireworks go off, the coloured lights shine around them, and a few moments later, Rhys pulls away and says, "That was for good luck."

Then he lets Katagawa's hand go.

There's something about the look that Katagawa gives him after that-- something Rhys doesn't think about until later, when the party ends for good and he's hooking up to the fast travel network to return to Promethea. Before he leaves, he sees Katagawa staring at him even in the company of his parents (and all his siblings, holy shit, that's an insane number of kids). So he smiles and offers a wave, and Katagawa smiles back in a way that makes him think, hey, I've made my first cross-corporation friend.

"I'll see you around!" Rhys calls, unsure if Katagawa even hears him. Considering the other man mouths something in turn-- something Rhys himself doesn't hear-- he doubts that he does.

It's only when he's rematerialised at Atlas HQ that he takes a moment to process that most recent memory, replaying the footage saved in his cranial drive. Because, as he goes through the recording his ECHO-Eye made, he's pretty sure Katagawa had said I'm going to make you mine.

[jabberwockprince]

out of curiosity:

what is ur least fave manufacturer now

did u enjoy new tales

tell me more abt ur rewrite <- overly complex rewrite haver where katagawa also lives (well. he dies and gets brought back to life. long story) and also the calypsos don't flop. i like seeing other ppls aus and comparing them and such

ok so THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME AN EXCUSE TO RAMBLE ABT BORDERLANDS ACTUALLY. THIS IS. VERY LONG!

I have many thoughts bc this is one of my fave franchises, so a big chunk of this is me talking about New Tales (all under the read more so I don't clog ppl's dashes or spoil stuff <3)

I can answer 1 and 2 together - my least favorite manufacturer is Tediore entirely because of New Tales. It used to be Atlas because I personally didn't like the whole concept of all these major multibillionaire world-ending companies slowly turning "good" because they were now ran by Lillith's allies? Rhys in BL3 was very underwhelming, funny to revisit but very underwhelming.

I liked the vibe Atlas had back in the first Tales, when Rhys was shown to end up as a very capable and somewhat ruthless CEO (with a very good outfit that BL3 entirely forgot about......im stiLL MAD ABOUT THAT.......) not just Your Funny Uncle With The Moustache Getting Bullied In Promethea :tm:

And. Like, I really LOVED the idea of the weakest manufacturers making a big fucking comeback, y'know funny silly cheap plastic gun Tediore is now The Ruler Of The Universe, who could've thought! But....... The way they handled it in New Tales was, pretty lame?

First of all, from what I remember at the top of my head, Tediore was founded by a woman - Mrs Tediore, right? And then in New Tales, there's a bunch of dialogue/jokes about how Susan Coldwell broke the glass ceiling and how revolutionary it is for a woman to be CEO but. Again, Mrs Tediore founded Tediore.

And then, in that very same fucking game, there's yet another woman as a CEO that no one bats an eye to (IM NOT GONAN THINK.A BOUT THE IMPLICATIONS OF ATHENA BEING THERe. IM JUST NOT). And this also comes from a franchise with a lot of women in very important positions - pointing out how Susan Coldwell is ruthless and important because she's breaking the glass ceiling by being a woman in power when there's many, many, many other female characters doing even cooler shit just....really downplays Susan as a villain. It also puts a weird light onto the already established characters like, Moxxi, who is fully aware of the way people perceive her and uses it against them. Or Lillith who had to step up as the new leader of the Crimson Raiders. Or Maya's journey of finding herself outside a cult that used her. Or Tyreen's entire journey and what led her to have a god complex. As if THEIR struggles and stories aren't that miportant when compared to the vague shit Susan did to become CEO of TEDIORE out of all things lmfao

And putting Susan Coldwell ASIDE of Tediore, they still don't have a leg to stand on, they really just weren't that much of a threat at all. All new characters that were meant to be threatening FROM Tediore just. Died. Gone. Irrelevant. A blink and you miss it.

Something about Borderlands that I really like is that, when one of the major companies or big groups within the setting go through changes like, a new leader or a discovery or something, then it's got big consequences for everyone. It's not just "oh hey i'm the new boss, the previous is dead". You can see it in Atlas' rise to power after figuring out eridian technology and in their subsequential fall that lets other companies get the headstart colonizing other planets. You see it most notably in Jack's own rise to power and then fallout, all the people it affects. His presence AND absence means something to the story.

But Tediore? The entire company becomes so fucking irrelevant the second Susan Coldwell gets the fucking Cosmo and Wanda looking ass gems, they don't affect anything at all. Promethea was shit from the beginning, the process of rebuild was fueled by Atlas and Promethea remained Like That because of Atlas Choosing To Move Headquarters To Space :tm: not because Tediore's sudden arrival.

The moment Jack became CEO, Hyperion as a company affected A DOZEN of characters, with or without his direct intervention - Tediore in New Tales just sits there as a cheap way to bring back manufacturers who haven't done anything relevant to the story so far because all the other ones are too busy being part of the good guys now . They're just a stepping stone for Susan and nothing else and it's very fucking sad?? The real scary villain of New Tales is the introduction of GOD-LIKE SENTIENT GEMS, not a company like we're used to. It makes everything feel disconnected, it makes death and life feel cheap in a franchise that insists on how much every group of protagonists has survived and faced together.

Anu's character revolves around Atlas and her brother. Her entire journey starts because she's fired and her brother needs help. Tediore has nothing to do with any of these things. And entire thing she has about how she'd like to remain peaceful and non-violent? Why not fucking bring PANGOLIN, or ANY of the fucking shield/health companies that exist????

Then there's Octavio, you can argue that he's the most affected by Tediore's involvement because his entire theme is about the community of Promethea, but they do essentially nothing with that aspect of him in the game so it falls flat on its ass. His entire goal is to be popular and have a company, but all it led to was a small consultation company? It's so weak, it only makes him look like the comedic relief and nothing else, which in turn only makes his strained relationship with Anu all the more sad. AND THAT WAS MY FAVORITE PART of this game, the fact that Anu and Octavio's relationship as stranded family was a focus and that you could tackle it, but tackling it through dream sequences with the fucking magical gems is cheap and I seriously can't even remember if there's any actual scenes of these two talking to each other for real, without any dream sequences in the way

And then there's Fran, who does have some of the funniest moments in the entire game and whose design make me really happy. But like the others, she has. no involvement with Tediore, her fucking store got destroyed by MALIWAN.

And then by the end Tediore is just fucking gone ok bye

DO YOU SEE WHY TEDIORE AND SUSAN BEING THE BAD GUYS MAKES SENSE BUT AT THE SAME TIME, IT DOESN'T? THEY'RE IRRELEVANT, BRO, IT MAKES ME MAD. IF YOUR VILLAIN DOESN'T HOLD UP, YOUR ENTIRE STORY CRUMBLES!!!!!!!!!!!!

As for the 3rd question

Ok so I have like. 5 different rewrites/AUs. Because I'm a VERY normal borderlands fan, NO ONE look at me. i refuse to write this in a coheretn way, i have to go to work in 10 minutes and i'm in my pjs

The closest to canon, in which I just adhere to the major beats of the story and try to expand on events that went unnoticed, characters that ended up underdeveloped or straight up ignored / OOC. etc. In this one Katagawa dies, but not before I expand shamelessly on his strained and complex relationship with his family and the company and how blurry the line between those things (yes im thinking about the barcodes) and his abilities as a proper corporate shithead with lots of money, resources and enough genius to STEAL FROM FUCKING ZER0, WHY IS NO ONE SCREAMING SO HARD ABOUT THAT, THIS FUCKER STOLE FROM ZER0 OR BOUGHT SOMEONE WHO COULD DO IT and thought process behind it all. This one also started because I felt horrible at the way Ava was portrayed in BL3, cause the writing is painful but I do love the introduction of a clearly immature Siren to the group of veterans who are supposed to know better and the struggle that comes with accepting change and loss. Also because that Maya kill pissed me off, I love the Calypsos but my god that was so fucking lame for Maya? But this one was written way before New Tales so,,,

The closest to canon V2. in which I take New Tales into consideration. And it pains me. And I never finished it because I'm not strong enough. But trust me when I say I'm making those stupid fucking magical rocks as eldritch and unsettling as possible. If you want to play with life and death so fucking badly you're going to bear with the consequences, you're gonna come back right and wrong as many times as you want and you will never be the same do you FUCKING HEAR ME ANU. I AM SPEAKING DIRECTLY INTO YOUR BRAIN. YOU CAN PLAY WITH DEATH AND LIFE AS MUCH AS YOU WANT TO, BUT I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO MAKE THOSE THINGS LOSE ANY MEANING. Anyway Katagawa does die here too! and he comes back wrong! and dies again

The self indulgent one, in which everything I would've loved to happen, just happens. And New Tales doesn't exist! Sasha and Fiona are there doing things! Commandant Steele DOES get lore! Athena does NOT fucking become Hyperion's CEO <3. And I expand a little on how the TPS gang were, in fact, a very dysfunctional found family whose love language was ultraviolence and how Timothy and Claptrap cope with everyone's deaths. And Pickle is there too somewhere, having fun. And Gaige doesn't get forgotten until some DLC, she's part of the B team from day 1 and her alcoholism is addressed. And the sirens sisterhood is developed upon outside of just the ones within the Crimson Raiders, something or another about how sirens are still really alien beings and therefore they have vastly different. opinions, thoughts, feelings, experiences? that are inherent to being a siren because you are, in fact, borrowing the power of all the sirens that came before you. the loss of identity is very cool, i think, especially when its paired with the actual choice to remain as you are out of love for your friends. something something, lillith and maya are actively choosing to keep their respective humanities and nourish it, rather than kill it for power like tyreen mightve done. something about how sirens and eridians are so similar but so different. something about Guardians specifically being misguided in their hatred towards sirens due to the loss of their masters. I do think about the Guardians left behind by the Eridians throughout all the universe a normal amount, thank you

The delusional one, in which Angel also lives and Timothy is there. And he has some sort of dysfunctional weird friendship with Katagawa. I feel like the majority of borderlands fans just, have this specific AU in their heads somewhere - specifically just making Angel alive and having her be around Timothy. Like, it just feels like good catharsis for both of these characters, whether they end up as found family or go their own separate ways. But I'm putting all these three through absolute hell before they can finally move on from their shitty pasts with each other as found family. And Ava is Angel's little sister because they both deserve to have a good familial figure in their life that isn't. A Guy That Reminds Them Of Someone Who Hurt Them In The Past. there's something to be said here about me drawing parallels between Katagawa and Troy but we're not getting into that now. And Katagawa forms an identity outside corporate business and understands that he has no fucking right stepping into his surviving sister's life despite having grown as a person. And Troy gets to betray Tyreen and their unhealthy power dynamic is addressed properly and it culminates into BOTH of them fusing with the fucking Destroyer and they die together, with themes of "I do love you, you're my twin, you're my sibling, we came into this world together and we will leave it together, and i'm sorry i took our friendship for granted".

The one with OCs, in which I use my and my friends' OCs to shamelessly insert them in the narrative and this one is my absolute favorite because BL3 enforced my main plot AND THEN NEW TALES RUINED IT WITH ATHENA AS THE CEO OF HYPERION SO ANYWAY, IM LOOKING AWAY. MY OC AND KATAGAWA HOLD HANDS AND MAIM EACH OTHER, IDC

[snappedsky]

Borderlands: Skies the Ultimate Treasure Hunter

Susan Coldwell hosts an exclusive show, with Skies as her 'willing' guest.

If you like, please reblog!

--

New Tales From the Borderlands Part 8

Susan Coldwell stands on a stage in front of a shrouded audience and five special holo-calls- all of them muted- as she hosts an exclusive ECHOcast. Beside her, she has displayed the Green Eridium in a sealed container. She has promised a once-in-a-lifetime demonstration and an opportunity for a merger with Tediore, or face their swift and utter annihilation.

“See, since the beginning of civilization, we have pioneered ways to hurt one another,” she explains as she paces along the stage. “From the stick to the stone to the stick with a stone tied to the end of it, onward throughout the ages, to the Laser-Sploder, the Rebel Yell, and who can forget the iconic Face-Melter? Hmm?”

“Each one a rung on the ladder toward power, a ladder we all RACE to climb. But...thanks to the research efforts of Tediore, and a few very gracious volunteers...” She trails off as she chuckles darkly and turns away. “Bring me the treasure hunter!”

Two Tediore soldiers point at each other. “Me or him?”

“Either one of you!” Susan barks.

They both race off the stage like scared puppies and return quickly, pushing a hovering, vertical table. Skies is bound to it with metal bracers on her wrists and ankles, and a large cuff covering her entire right arm. She smiles brightly as she’s hovered into the middle of the stage in front of the five holo-calls.

“Whoa, what a show!” she exclaims, “look at this audience! Mr. Torgue and Katagawa Sr., so nice to meet you. Athena, long time no see. Wainwright, always nice to see you. And...Rhys...”

She staggers for a second at the look on his face, but recovers quickly and widens her smile. “Okay, I know this looks bad, but everything is under control.”

“Skies!”

Her smile quickly drops at the voice as she looks over and spots a group of people at the edge of the stage. Octavio and Anu are locked in cages, LOU13 is lying face down on the floor, and Fran is cuffed in her hover chair, all of them under guard by armed soldiers. Anu and Octavio wave awkwardly.

“Goddammit, why are you guys here?” Skies barks, “I told you not to get into trouble until I’ve killed Coldwell, and you go and get captured by Tediore!”

“You’ve been captured by Tediore too!” Fran points out.

“That’s...different,” she insists, “I...wanted to be here.”

[kyndaris]

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Following on from the massive Pokemon Violet, I felt it imperative that I tackle something smaller in scale for my next game. I was, after all, planning to travel overseas soon anyways so sinking 30ish hours into a 100-hour game and then return after three weeks away didn’t feel like the best use of my time. Don’t get me wrong. It’s doable, true, but it wouldn’t be much fun. And so, I picked a game that I knew could be completed in record time and still have all the craziness that the series has come to be known for: New Tales From the Borderlands.

Following on from the events of the first Tales of the Borderlands and the divisive Borderlands 3, which was known for the way it riffed on internet culture, New Tales From the Borderlands stars characters that are no longer denizens of Pandora. 

Welcome to Promethea and Meridian City! 

You would think that going to a different planet and seeing what they had to offer would be a breath of fresh air after being stuck on a desert planet for so long. Pandora’s story has been retrod countless times and so, yes, I did think it was refreshing to see a game take place in a different part of the Borderlands universe and provide new things to savour (even if Meridian City did feature in Borderlands 3). Unfortunately, when it comes to the Borderlands franchise, one cannot escape from the fact that even in space, capitalism knows no bounds. And in this action-adventure game, instead of a rockrolling adventure with space treasure hunters, New Tales from the Borderlands focuses on tackling the issues of unscrupulous megacorporations and their primary interest of making money and more of it by an means necessary. Mostly in the context of corporate wars of one-upping each other as often as possible.

In New Tales from the Borderlands, players step into the shoes of three different individuals: Anuradha Dhar, Octavio Wallace-Dhar and Francine Miscowicz. The three of them are, as our erstwhile narrator Marcus called them: absolute nobodies. ONe is a scientist working for ATLAS. She has big dreams and on the day that Tediore invades the city down on the planet below her where her adopted brother lives, she had just been fired from her job for releasing living test subjects aboard a space station. Octatvio, on the other hand, is a street-wise entrepreneur wannabe. He might not be the smartest tool in the shed, hustling from one get-rich-quick scheme to the next, but there’s a lovable charm to his character. And then finally, there’s Fran, the owner of a froghurt shop that was damaged during the last megacorp attack on the city. She, unlike the others, has a penchant for punching things. Given her proclivity for anger, her desire for violence is quite understandable.

After having one of the worst possible days in their lives, our heroes come together to get revenge on Tediore. In so doing, they stumble upon something beyond their own comprehension. Escaping from the vault located down in the sewers of Meridian City with a healing shard, they strive to make something out of their terrible circumstances and start a business.

So begins what felt like a days long journey that sees them to try to hawk their idea of a healing ray device, fail in their plans as they get captured by Tediore before getting embroiled in a ‘save the world’ scenario as they face down chairwoman: Susan Coldwell. It’s an oddly paced story that comes off as both whacky and endearing in equal measure. The characters all have large chips on their shoulders, which serves to impede the start of their adventures, but are all neatly resolved by the end. Which actually has five different endings that are dependent on the relationships between characters and their overall team score - represented, of course, with skateboards. Why? Well, L0U13 simply wouldn’t have it any other way. And after seeing these mechanics in so many games I’ve played, why not denote relationship status with skateboards? It seems to work just as well as any other metric.

But what I loved about the game was seeing Anu, Octavio and Fran coming together to solve the problems before them. In my blind playthrough, the team were a bunch of strangers at first. However, as the game went on, they started to trust each other better. I still didn’t get the arguably ‘best’ ending but all of my team members survived AND they were able to pursue what they were individually interested in. 

Just like the Telltale game that came before, New Tales from the Borderlands game mechanics are quite simple. Yes, there are areas where Anu, Octavio and Fran can explore their environment, usually a tightly confined place, but most of the gameplay comes in the form of choosing a response for a conversation or pressing a button in reaction to a quick-time event. 

In fact, much of the game felt like sitting down and watching a movie unfold with me, the player, with the occasional prompt to have me press something on the gaming controller. 

Still, in comparison to the first Tales from the Borderlands, I was impressed by how smooth and fluid the motion of each character was when I could explore the environment. They also included a few fun options by having Fran engage in a turn-based battle with her anger management bot! And the writers were quite smart when it came to dealing with battles.

Whilst the Borderlands franchise usual MO is to have vault hunters shooting up a storm in a vault, Anu, Octavio and Fran don’t have the luxury of being armed with guns. Even if they did, none of them are particularly skilled with them. Rather it’s their wit and ingenuity that see them through. 

And while I couldn’t control most of their actions - seeing as they were mostly scripted - I did enjoy how they were still able to defeat what felt like huge threats by taking advantage of whatever skills they did have and what opportunities were provided to them in the environment.

Was it the perfect game to wind down after playing through Pokemon Violet and trying to catch ‘em all? Yes, I think so! It was just the thing I needed to serve as a palate cleanser after getting too rundown by another very long and huge open-world game. Will I be playing a lot of these types of games? No. They work in small chunks and I think I need to be in the right mood for them. But they do serve as a fun way to just sit back and enjoy a story. 

Oh, and the fact that Fiona makes an appearance at the end, voiced by the ever lovable Laura Bailey (who made a cameo at the Encanto Bowl performance that was shown on Disney+ with toddler Ronin) was just icing on the cake! Here’s hoping for more expansion of the Borderlands universe and figuring out the mysterious of the ancient alien race that came before.