Game Theory: Handsome Jack, Monster or Misunderstood?
So, Jack has been a lot of fun for me and I want to help him out but at the same time, he's a horrible villain, so doing so would be wrong.
That's what they say anyway but what if THEY are wrong? What if Jack is actually not the villain but the hero?
Interesting video theory on Jack. I didn't notice this being posted anywhere before.
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If I remember correctly, you just put the link into the prompt given when you click on the 'link' button.
Also, I believe that there are pages and pages on this topic in the steam threads XP
He's just a likable jerk.
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I've ranted about this enough, you go look for those on this forum and elsewhere. In short, this "Game Theory" does what every Jack fanboy does, overlook that Jack was a mad and manipulative bastard even before the events of the first Borderlands and puts blame on others. It's wrong on a lot of levels, the only decent evidence about Jack that most people ignore, that the video brings up is that Jack was abused as a kid. But really, this video is just meant to get views and be fun, but idiots take it seriously and don't think for themselves and ignore so much background to believe Jack is innocent
I keep saying, he's like the Joker. I love him, but there is no way I'd every pity him.
He isn't innocent in the least, but in all honesty, real life cases of borderline personality disorder have done some really, really messed up stuff. Handsome Jack has a high victim count, but hasn't touched what some of the real life sufferers have. It is an insane mental disorder when at it's worst, no pun intended. Weird enough, it usually occurs in women instead of men. But, trust me when I say he is a poster child for it. I just gotta wonder if the writers did it on purpose or not. Reading the Inside The Box blogs hasn't said anything on it so far.
Of course Jack is the goddamn hero, and those so called "vault hunters"? Bandits! All of them, stupid bandits!
On a more serious note, tales from the borderlands gave us some more insight on Jack and just made me root for him even more, I think he's the goddamn hero, and it's my opinion that cannot be changed by "educating me".
I just love his expression at the end there lmao! That expression made me laugh for a solid minute, I swear!
I know he isn't innocent, but I just can't help myself not to love him.
I feel sorry for his childhood abuse and some of the things that happened to him and I like his character. But I would never trust him or excuse the atrocities he himself has done.
Agreed.
I really hate game theory
Exactly. Borderlands 2 is a game of anti-heros versus a$$hole. Both sides do some pretty bad stuff in the game
I feel that he was once misunderstood, which led him to become insane. He still believes he is doing the right thing, but his narcissistic ego makes him kind of a tyrant. But still, gotta love the guy. He's too hilarious to not like. I vote misunderstood.
Jack certainly loved killing people
When I looked it up I found that he matched much more closely with Antisocial Personality Disorder, more commonly known as "psychopathy". He's the dictionary definition of a psychopath.
That is true, he could just have psychopathy in conjunction with narcissism and a hero complex. The difficult part of borderline personality disorder is a lot of different disorders match it, as well. You could be treated for depression and self-image issues and have borderline personality disorder. We're still learning about it, in particular. In fact, we are discovering that it might be hereditary, in some cases. Man, I love psycology, it's so interesting lol.
I believe The reason that Jack starts a hero in the pre sequel and then ends becoming a ruthless killer of bandits is because he was really pissed off at the moment when he is betrayed by those who he thought were friends (Moxxi, Lillith, and Roland)
Simply because of the fact that he did not deserve it, so he developed a powerful hatred for vault hunters and bandits everywhere and focused on finding a way to annihilate them. He is very very very misunderstood.
So was Hitler!
Handsome Jack, however, was a monster who inflicted suffering just because it would give him momentary amusement.
I feel it's always necessary to separate the two when discussing his actions.
That's some genuine anger, right there.
I knew this thing will come in handy.
In short:
I can feel pity for him but not to the point of excusing his actions.
He never thought of them as "friends". Like, goddamit, what is wrong with you people?
I agree with this.
What I don't understand is why people claim murder = bad in the Borderlands universe.
Well... I don't think that every murder is bad. But there's a difference in killing someone in a fight (which is indeed normal on Pandora) or because they're so goddamn mad they're asking for it themselves (like Face McShooty or Fire Hawk's followers) and killing someone because of 'revenge' (everyone in the Old Haven) or because it serves your whims (slag experiments) or just cause you can (killing your own employees just because they said something wrong like that guy in Opportunity). So I guess it's k if it's funny.
One of these two is A LOT worse than the other. At least Jack is likable and you can understand where he's coming from.
crickets chirp
I think it's more along the lines of who is being murdered and for what reason. The act of murder itself in the Borderlands universe isn't so bad.
Murder? Duh..
Yep, that line explains it all perfectly.
TPS sucks because of it's plot holes and treatment of BL1 characters but I think it does a decent job wneh it comes to Jack's development and tells us a lot about him. Too bad that many people including Game Theory take it all so out of context.
Right, because Hitler was never elected, nor did he hold the support of a certain amount of the German population. The Nazi party didn't have an army, it was very tiny because no one ever liked Hitler.
...If only.
No one said I didn't understand it. I was just thinking "not this shit again".
I remember watching that Game Theory video and enjoying the new perspective on Jack but it still didn't change my opinion of him being the villain. Jack's a great character and easily one of the best bad guys in video games, mostly due to his wonderfully sadistic talks but also because we can actually see the human side still within him.
While in Borderlands 2 Jack is right, we're not the heroes, we're kinda the anti-heroes really, but Jack goes from being Chaotic Neutral to Chaotic Evil in the game so he's still a bad guy through and through. Handsome Jack became another tragic figure of Pandora where he let his own passions get the better of him and everything else got the backseat. i can pity the guy since we've seen more than enough from his past-life to show what created that darkness inside him, but Jack's too far-gone to be forgiven and just forget his errors.
The guy was trying to eradicate most of the population of a planet and killing his own people if they so much as mentioned something he didn't like, way too late to be calling him a hero.
He does according to quotes in the game. They were people he trusted, and they attempted to kill him AND the Vault Hunters. The Vault Hunters never did anything to Moxxi and Lilith. In fact, Claptrap was Lilith and Roland's guide at the beginning of their adventure, and Athena returned a favor for saving her in Borderlands 1 by assisting in killing the Atlas commander each one of them was after. They delibrately attempted to kill all of them, they would be casualities of war. Also, they both are a main factor in Jack's insanity. He started out as someone trying to save thousands of lives on Elpis, they took his pride. They betrayed him, making him lose trust. Punching the relic was the cherry on the shake to complete the process. Jack lost his mind from there, and still used the knowledge. Jack still has good intents, but utilizes it all wrong. He now considers everyone bandits, which he's intending to kill. If he hadn't gone insane, he would have this intent but not recognize EVERYONE as bandits. He even considers Athena a bandit now, and she didn't do anything to betray him, she just left his employ. What he does now is bad, but what he could've been was considered great compared to everything else that happens on Pandora. I may have digressed ALOT to make this no longer make sense halfway through, but I'm still gonna keep it
I'm saying Jack is comical and is a well written video game character made for people's enjoyment, hence why people like him. He probably shouldn't be compared to someone who killed millions of INNOCENT people.
Hitler fight, Hitler fight, Hitler fight! Oh wait, I'm the one participating in a Hitler fight.
It was a joke, and I don't think it's improper. It fits for what was said.