Handsome Jack: The "Bad" Guy

For a person who's played the entire borderlands series, it is easy to point out Handsome Jack as the bad guy throughout regular playthroughs. But, considering that Jack has showed a significant change from Broderlands: The Presequel! to Borderlands 2 tells us that there is an underlying truth that has converted him from normal to just absolutely insane. In this guide, I will attempt to argue that Handsome Jack was not in fact the antagonist of this game, but instead, a hero in his own way.

Why We All Think Handsome Jack Is Bad

Isn't It Pretty Obvious?

Well, the answer to that is a definite yes. To start off, the moment from when you start playing borderlands 2, Jack is already trying to kill you. Since the reasons why Jack is considered evil are too many to point out, I'll make a small list to give some sort of overview.

• He tries to kill you
  
• He enslaves his daughter
  
• He murders innocent people ruthlessly
  
• He tried to unleash "The Warrior"

With this in mind, it would be easy to conculde that Jack = Bad. But that isn't exactly the case.

you don't have to listen to the entire echo, but you get the big picture.

Jack Was Once Good

You Musn't Forget That Jack Was Completely Normal At The Start Of The Presequel

At the start of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!, Handsome Jack can be seen as a perfectly fine individual who tries to go out of his way to save the innocent lives of millions (that's a lot of people). Not to mention that he risks his own life to save yours at the start when he volunteers to send you down to the moon's surface. Hell, Even Athena refers to Jack as a hero at the start. Not only that, but Jack clearly views Colonel Zarpadon as crazy, showing that he knows who's bad (atleast he can identify evil from the information he's gathered.)

Sigh, why did things have to change? Makes you want to hate the person responsible for this change.

Why And How Did Jack Change?

If Jack Was Good, Why'd He Become Bad?

I'm sorry for this, but let's take a look into one of Jack's quotes as he begs Rhys for his life in Tales from The Borderlands:
que the sad music people, this part was sad.
"I should have seen this coming -- ever since I came to this nacho-flavored ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of a planet, I've been betrayed by everybody I gave a rat's ass about. My boss. My girlfriend. Hell... my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ daugher. Maybe I deserved it... the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right?"
damn, that scene gave my goosebumps.

Back to the topic at hand. Jack wasn't lying, he was indeed betrayed by everyone he cared about (in his own way of course) you name it. Let's give some names.

• His grandmother (she abused him as a child, can be seen in one of BL2 side quests)
  
• The meriff (Jack literally let this guy who betrayed him go and the dude tried to shoot him right in the back)
  
• His girlfriend (Moxxi teamed up with Lilith and Roland to try and kill Jack
  
• Lilith
  
• Roland
  
• His daughter, Angel (Although this may be exempt from this list due to her imprisonment)

As you play the presequel, you can almost pinpoint the exact moment Jack almost goes cuckoo. And that would be when Moxxi betrayed him with Lilith and Roland. They gave him no reason whatsoever before hand as to what they didn't want Jack to do. No, they just decided to kill him just like that.

When you are fighting Raus (I believe his name is) that space ship dude, Jack says somethinge very noticeable.
Athena: Jack, we could just rush to the Vault -- we don't need to fight the gunship!
Jack: No! you let your enemies live, they come shoot you in the back! I don't want any surprises!

The Fall Of Jack And The Rise Of Handsome Jack

Jack's rage and loss of all feeling towards everyone else finally ends him up at the bottom of the abyss of madness.



"And that is when the hero who saved us on helios died."

So Who Is To Blame For All Of This?

Easy answer, the people who made Handsome Jack and killed the old Jack: Lilith, Roland, and Moxxi. They created a monster that they had to sacrifice so much later on to take down. Roland deserved to die, Lilith desrves to die, Moxxi deserves to die.

If my argument isn't valid enough, let's look at a few more things then. At the end of the story, Lilith decides to kill you despite you admitting your entire story of innocence and non association with the evil Jack.

Next, when Lilith, Moxxi, and Roland decide to kill handsome Jack, they completely disregard your presence on Helios, showing their indifference to your safety.

Finally and most importantly, this:


WHY DID LILITH HAVE TO DO THAT?!
She lost, game over what was the point of ruining handsome jack's face like that when he's done nothing wrong to her yet. She acted so rude and merciless to Jack before he ever layed a finger on her, and when he kills Roland, she asks why. Ill tell you why lilith, it's because you broke the poor man, turned a perfectly fine hero into your worst nightmare.

[CloTi]

Honestly, he's always been mentally unstable. Even when his wife was sick he was freaking out over a vending machine not working. If what happened to his wife didn't happen, something else would have caused him to snap. In my opinion it was inevitable. What bothers me, and kinda ticks me off, is people siding with him giving him excuses for his actions, and making everyone else, especially Lilith, at fault for all of his problems. No one made him a monster, he always was one.

[Jar jar in a jar holding a jar]

I swear to god people who defend Jack are the same people who say Walter White from Breaking Bad is a good role model. COMPLETELY BLIND to all the red flags these two presented from the start.

need i remind you that she betrayed him THE MOMENT he revealed that he has a fucking death star laser at his command that will allow him to obliterate ANY place at any point in time whenever he presses the button? Or the echo logs from BL2 which clearly indicate that he was pretty fucked up after his wife died and took it out on Angel? Or that he was behind tricking Roland and co. to opening Warrior's vault so he could have its eye and take over Pandora?

And you guys defend him because "chlip chlip, but he was SOOOOOOO NICE in pre sequel ;(" . this is ridicolous.

[oo00RAVEN00oo]

PART 3
Most of Jacks actions in pre sequel are simply a reaction to Zarpadons attack and subterfuge. However Moxxi's actions are cold and calculated. She is not allied with Zarpadon, but from the get go she is knowingly steering Jack (and the vault hunter) to a fatal ending, even though that early on, Jacks only goal is to save Elpis.

Lastly, the argument about Jacks daughter is a messy one. There is no definitive timeline, no absolute truth, to WHEN angel was imprisoned, or what Jacks actual motives were. Facts are that the daughter killed the wife and for that she was imprisoned, with full access to the hyperion network. The only facts. You may hear things here and there in echos from BL2 hinting at a timeline, but nothing that is proof.

P.S Lilith vault punched Jack, because it was part of the events foreseen by Zarpadon, it was fated, it was what tipped jack from vengeful to insane and the reason for his mask. It had to happen that way.

[oo00RAVEN00oo]

PART 2
Is a weapons manufacturer inherently evil, knowingly making weapons that will inevitably kill people?
MAYBE a corporate douche bag, but not evil. Money is money, and theres no bigger money than in weapons. That is what Jack was. He designed weapons and robots. He increased his designs power with the use of destroyer parts. Climbing the corporate ladder? yes. Evil? no.

Others have commented "Jack was evil from the beginning". Jack had never been shot at before Zarpadons invasion. You can hear Jack say "woooo never been shot at before, hearts racing" when you save him in the opening scene. Again, he made weapons that killed people, but had never witnessed first hand the effects of his creations. Not evil.

[oo00RAVEN00oo]

UGH word limit - PART 1
A few other observations to backup the OP's theory:

Helios was attacked by Zarpadon for no apparent reason.
Proof: Tassiter says in the first scene "John, your only job here is to observe Pandora, nothing more". Zarpadon attacks Helios killing basically just scientists, their only defense is loaders. Combat loaders aren't even a thing yet, so a defenseless space station. YES Zarpadon has seen a future where 'Handsome Jack' is created but only she knows that at this point.

[HAVOKMACHINE]

its not a theory - its a list of things thats happened during pre sequel

[KENNY]

jack was never good why do u guys jerk off to him lol hes supposed to be the villain with an understandable but reprehensible backstory.

[Zaphos]

Then again, Jack wasn't that good at the start of Pre-Sequel. He almost immediately displays an enjoyment of committing violence that never goes away for the rest of his life.

Various plot points in Pre-Sequel portray Jack in comparison to Zarpadon. The main one is that they both kill some people in order to save others. The difference, really, is that Zarpadon actually comes across as apologetic. Jack seems like he either doesn't care, or actively enjoys the opportunity to hurt people.

Taking Jack at his word will obviously make him seem the victim, because that's how he sees himself, but that doesn't make it the case.

[heyfluffu]

Things he did before the Pre-Sequel: imprisoning Angel, manipulating the vault hunters, intentionally opening the Vault of the Destroyer and creating a GIANT DEATH RAY from the Destroyer's eye. Sure, moxxi, lilith, and roland didn't know these things initially, but Jack's still a Grade-A asshole.

[Crusader Shi Chen]

i will always be on jacks side