I, like many, am quite excited for Borderlands 4. Gearbox, while not a saintly studio with a history of nothing but bangers and good news, still has a knack for creating exciting gunplay like no one else. Years ago, the original Borderlands was one of the first games I bought myself, and Borderlands 2 holds a strong grip on my heart even still.
I missed Borderlands 3. I had other stuff going on and didn’t have the desire for the series’ brand of pop culture-laden humour at the time. But, going back to it now with fresh eyes and no knowledge of its story, I’m left with one major takeaway. Dude, Gearbox has got to do something miraculous to deal with Ava.
Consider this your spoiler warning for Borderlands 3, as you kind of need to know how that game ends to understand the problem. Roughly a third of the way through Borderlands 3, Ava and Maya (a beloved returning character from Borderlands 2) come with you to a vault. Ava, not meant to be there due to being a child, is lectured by Maya as you go inside and get your loot. When you leave the vault, the pair are attacked by the antagonistic Calypso twins. Ava, able to do nothing, talks trash to the evil siblings which results in a scuffle and Maya’s untimely death and her Siren powers getting leached.
The twins weren’t there to kill Maya, but to absorb the powers of the dead vault monster. They didn’t even know you could leach Siren powers. It’s a death directly caused by Ava’s actions. Later, when you return to the main hub, Ava berates the leader of the Crimson Raiders, Lilith, for Maya’s death, blaming her for the loss despite the fact that Lilith had very little to do with the whole affair. Ava does have character growth throughout the rest of the story, easing up on the blame game, but by the end of the story she’s left in charge of the Crimson Raiders and inherets Maya’s powers, both boons she did not deserve.
Now, I would learn after hitting credits that this caused quite the uproar among Borderlands 3 fans back in 2019. Her aggro personality and the consequences of her actions rubbed folks the wrong way. Having experienced this fresh, I can totally see where they’re coming from. She is certainly grating, and somehow manages to fit a more aggravating role than Claptrap. Claptrap. The character intentionally written to be annoying.
But the problem is this: You can’t really ignore Ava going forward! She’s been placed in an incredibly important position narratively. Not only does she lead the de facto “good guy faction”, she’s a Siren too. You can’t really sweep Ava under the rug unless you outright kill her, which Gearbox has proven reluctant to do except in the most hard hitting emotional moments. If Ava does get domed or sucked out an airlock, as it stands it won’t get the same sad reaction as Roland or Bloodwing. It’ll be met by cheers.
There is hope though. Gearbox has proven quite skilled at redeeming characters. Tiny Tina – now just Tina – is perhaps the greatest example of this. She too proved somewhat abrasive in Borderlands 2, but the Assault on Dragon Keep DLC did a lot for her character. Then, when she returns in Borderlands 3, she’s still got her distinct style of humour but in a game with a more modern tone, the result being this wonderful transition from this hyper memey kid to an older-sister-esque wacky side character. It works brilliantly, and is a real highlight of the game.
But it’s worth noting that Tina is exactly that: a side character. Ava does not get the luxary of being a love-it-or-hate-it side experience. She has been placed right at the centre of the story going forward.
As such Gearbox has two choices: It can either totally revamp Ava as a character, accelerating her arc and doing a lot of growing up off screen in the hope it’ll please the fans, or it can hope that Ava as she’s left at the end of Borderlands 3 is a refreshing blast from the past when placed directly next to newer personalities.
It’s a tough one. But even with this Ava problem, I have hope for Borderlands 4’s narrative. The folks who’ve worked on prior games have proven their worth when it comes to creating lovable characters, and while they have their work cut out for them with Ava, I will still choose to go in with an open mind.
