Fun Fact: Handsome Jack, Was a Placeholder name... But everyone loved the name that much that it became his actual name

Jack. The villain who didn't start out as a villain. Tried to really be an actual hero but slipped off the stairs ascending to hero-dom and fell into the fiery pits of villainy and insanity. His actions were not morally correct but with the shit he went through before his fall. Harvey Dent said it best: "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain." Kind of suits Jack to a T.

"You are a Bandit, and I am the GODDAMN HERO!!!" -HANDSOME JACK. Best video game villain ever.

handsome jack is the embodiment of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

You see the main problem with a character like Jack is that you write him too well. causeing all antagonist after him to not feel as complex or as charismatic towards your audience.

I will say thou, the voice actor for Jack is the goddamn hero... No, but really, amazing performance.

Jack definitely isn't a good guy but if I was crossed as many times as him, had my daughter killed, had everything I cared about taken, I'd be pretty fucked up too

That mission in Borderlands 3 broke me. Hearing all of Jack and Angel's backstory was so fucking sad, yet it's all played like a joke by Tannis. I was so tearful, furious, and frustrated.

It was such an interesting way to reveal backstory, but it played like it was nothing important and not worth getting into. The writers... what the fuck were they thinking?

I mean if you concider borderlands 3 he was kinda right about the bandit thing.

The scene where Jack kills his boss makes me both giddy but also gives me chills

Bay faaaaaaaaar my favorite villain in any media, period. His descent into madness and belief that he is the actual hero is amazing because he is right in a certain sense. The vault hunters are, in essence, just mercs while Jack tried to civilize Pandore before the power got to his head. We probably won't get a villain this good in any game in a while, change my mind!

The problem with Jack is that 90% of his dialogue was improvised, which is why his presence was so distinct compared to everyone else’s, because, essentially, he had his own writer, separate from the rest of the cast.

But this also means that the Borderlands team could never successfully write the character on their own, or create a good enough follow-up villain for the sequel. And they didn’t. I watched a three hour breakdown of how Borderlands 3 fails, and I still don’t remember the main villain’s name. I remember that the story hinted that her brother might have a plot to overthrow her, due to jealousy, but then he dies, and that whole plotline is forgotten.

The other issue is that the Borderlands writers, especially Randy, seem extraordinarily petty. All of the new fan-favorite characters that were introduced in Tales from the Borderlands, were either completely flanderized over a single DLC for B2, or they were flanderized, AND had their voice actor changed, or, they were just not in the game with no explanation as to where they were. Like, you may not remember it, but “Rhys” was f*cking TRENDING on twitter, every time a new trailer for Borderlands 3 dropped, and fans spotted a hint that he’d be in the game. People f*cking LOVED tales, and its cast, and how it expanded on the characters that already existed.

And Gearbox just said “Nope, f*ck that”, just like how they had constantly tried to reel in Jack’s VO.

Oh, and Randy Pitchford is a sexual predator who physically assaults his staff.

The best villains are the ones that genuinely believe what they’re doing. Jack genuinely felt like the good guy, which makes him even scarier

Jack's descent into madness began when he lost his wife, so in the end all he really wanted was revenge - vindication for the asshole for forced his own daughter to kill her mother. And I cannot say I blame him. I'd do the exact same fucking thing probably, just without the whole locking my daughter away bit that is.

I’d love to see the history of face mcshooty

Jacks idea: ✅
Jacks execution of said idea and his morales: ❌

In 2019, I met the man behind Handsome Jack, Dameon Clarke. Meeting him made me love the character even more than I thought was possible. He was incredible to talk to.

You can kind of feel bad for John//Jack near the end of BL2, he's lost the one person he still actually "cares" for—Angel, and in his mind, he doesn't realize that it was HER choice to die.

It's actually really heartbreaking, but then you remeber that Jack is just as psychotic and insane as every other bandit you kill along the way to defeat/destroy the Destroyer at that point.

I can't help but feel bad for John (Handsome Jack), he's grown up fatherless and was constantly abused by his grandmother. Out of all of the characters from the Borderlands games, John is by far, the character who's gone through the most worst changes, he was fired by Harold Tassiter, dumped and almost killed by Moxxi. The final straw was Lilith punching the vault symbol, branding John's face with it, from that last moment there Handsome Jack was ultimately born. In Tales From The Borderlands, Jack reveals some things that happened in his life but I won't get into that. This is why John is my favorite character in the Borderlands franchise, he technically DID save Elpis but he had to do it at a big cost. Props to Dameon Clarke for his performance as John/Handsome Jack, amazing voice acting and performance.

He always had good intentions but stress and insanity drove him to sociopathy. Deep down he still has good intentions to revive Pandora, but in a very different way.