It’s been just over a year since Borderlands 3 launched. As the fourth title in the main Borderlands series, the first-person looter-shooter stuck close to the formula of its predecessors. After taking control of one of four new Vault Hunters, Borderlands 3 thrust players back into a story of familiar faces and hearty laughs.
Each Borderlands game has featured at least four Vault Hunters for players to choose from, and Gearbox has always done a good job of giving each of these their own unique feel. Unlike the protagonists of a lot of co-op shooters, the Vault Hunters all have well-defined personalities, lives, and backstories. This has made it easy for Gearbox to bring them back again and again as NPCs in future titles. However, there will now be only one Vault Hunter that hasn’t appeared at all in Borderlands 3: Athena, the Gladiator.
Athena’s first appearance in the Borderlands series was as an NPC, not a playable Vault Hunter. A former member of a Crimson Lance assassination-team, she betrayed her comrades in favor of the Vault Hunters in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, the third Borderlands DLC. It wasn’t until two games later that she returned as a playable protagonist in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.
At the end of that title, she retired to Hollow Point with her girlfriend Janey Springs, but now before developing a clear relationship with the Crimson Raiders. Since then, Athena has only appeared in one more Borderlands game. She has a fairly important role in Tales from the Borderlands, the episodic series from Telltale Games. Depending on players choices in the game, she can end up married to Janey by the end of it.
With the exception of Athena, all playable Vault Hunters from the main Borderlands series ow appear in Borderlands 3 in some form. However, Athena hasn’t always been the only one missing. After the last DLC dropped, two other popular characters, Salvador and Axton were MIA but are now getting attention. Salvador, the dual-wielding Gunzerker, and Axton, the turret-deploying Commando, will appear as commentators in the new Arms Race mode, which releases November 10.
Arms Race is replacing a traditional story DLC, and is more of a Borderlands co-op battle royale. Players will drop in as a team, and fight hordes of NPCs in a closing circle. With the inclusion of Salvador and Axton, the DLC has left Athena as the only Vault Hunter without a cameo in Borderlands 3.
Gearbox has previously stated that it never intended to shoehorn Vault Hunters into Borderlands 3 just for cheap cameos, and each returning character would be there for a reason. Many expected her and many Vault Hunters, new and old, to appear in the latest game, genuinely what many fans had predicted from the ending of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. During the final moments of that title, Athena is saved from Lilith by the Watcher, an alien entity with the power of foreknowledge.
Afterwards, the Watcher warned of a war in the future that would require as many Vault Hunters as possible. Some players took this to mean that the Watcher had specifically saved Athena for some grand purpose in the upcoming war. However, if the war it meant was against the Calypso Twins in Borderlands 3, then Athena made no appearance. It’s more likely that it wasn’t, as there wasn’t much need for a ton of Vault Hunters, but if that just becomes a throwaway line or not remains to be seen.
Gearbox’s roadmap indicates there’s more Borderlands 3 DLC on the way, so the possibility remains that Athena may return. Given the set-up in previous titles, it may even be possible she’ll take the forefront of a new plot-line or that the War is finally brought up. While that may be wishful thinking, all fans can do is wait and see if Athena is due to return in the next Borderlands adventure.
Borderlands 3 is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with upcoming releases for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
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