this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2024
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Borderlands
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I've been thinking about this more recently after trying to get my partner into BL2 after she saw my friends and I playing through 3. She lasted about an hour and a half into BL2 before she wasn't interested, and in all fairness? It was the same for myself and my friends who'd spent 500+ hours in it previously. Even scooter's nonsense was failing to get any giggles out.
The concensus on 3 is largely on point, but somewhere along the line people decided Jack was a great villain and BL2 was incredible. I can't say I agree, in spite of having a blast when it came out but I think it's fair to credit that to playing with friends. It was just such a huge expansion from BL1s flat story and pushed further with abandoning the brown syndrome BL1 just barely sidestepped. Jack is currently being viewed with rose-tinted lenses, he was always annoying (just not as grating or recently experienced as the Twins) and the humor really does fall flat more than it doesn't.
I'd say you're right that it is a time capsule, and it's not without its charms, as you said, but people are on the bandwagon puffing it up due to nostalgia, frustrations with BL3 (and the movie), and these articles talking about wanting to cut down on the toilet humor.
Edgy won't do it, they need to figure out how to be cleverly dumb rather than in your face aggressively dumb which the Twins and Jack both did.
That's entirely fair. And if they make a more subtle humor then I'm here for it. I think the real comedic goal should be between 1 and 2. Cutting down on the toilet humor and going darker could mean they're headed in exactly the right place, but my fears are that they're going to overshoot and what I love about the series is that it's willing to be ridiculous and I'm so used to "darker" meaning either bigoted or humorless.
I fear you're probably correct in how it will play out. Popular culture stuff has been in a vicious cycle of ping-ponging between reactionary extremes for a while now.
That said, I agree with you, it's somewhere between 1 and 2, but I think 1 was carried by breaking the norm at the time, so the humor can't have the same impact it did then due to it being expected now and other franchises jumping on similar humor since.