Spoilers ahead for Borderlands 3.
Borderlands 4 is steadily closing in on its release date, and while I am undoubtedly still excited for the game, it hasn’t been an easy couple of years as a Borderlands fan. Recently, the Borderlands 4 pricing controversy dominated online discussion around the series, and just prior to that there were split opinions on the designs of the upcoming release’s new Vault Hunters. The Borderlands movie completely missed the mark, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands’ painfully short DLC killed the hype around the otherwise enjoyable spin-off, and New Tales from the Borderlands failed to live up to its predecessor. On top of all this, the previous mainline release of Borderlands 3, while well-received from a critical standpoint, was dubbed a step-down from its predecessor by many fans.
To be clear, I’m someone who appreciated Borderlands 3 more than most. The moment-to-moment gameplay, quality-of-life changes, free updates, and excellent expansions all made it hugely replayable for me, plus it’s one of the first games I played with my fiancée. As her first foray into the Borderlands series, many of the criticisms longtime fans had didn’t matter to her, and her loving the game so much helped me like it more too. Still, it’s not as if I didn’t understand the complaints. The lack of replayable, Invincible raid bosses outside of Takedowns meant something was missing, and more importantly, the story was severely lacking. The Calypso Twins were a far cry from Handsome Jack, key moments like Tannis’ transformation and Maya’s death felt very rushed, cinematics were awkward, and most of all, fans hated Ava - me included.
Borderlands 4 Returning Legendary Wish List
The Borderlands series has had its fair share of powerful legendaries and plenty of them have a fair shot of returning in the upcoming Borderlands 4.
As Maya’s spunky new teenage sidekick, Ava was clearly meant to be setup for the future, with Maya training her successor to wield the Phaselock abilities when she inevitably passed. Given her age, it’s no surprise that she boasted the usual, frustrating traits that all teenagers too. She lashed out angrily, acted immature, and was quite unlikable for a majority of Borderlands 3’s runtime. These traits were especially prevalent after her mentor was killed, as she wrongly lashed out at Lilith, and we never really saw an apology. She was more-or-less rewarded for this behavior, too, being handed the keys to Sanctuary 3 and essentially getting crowned as the interim leader of the Crimson Raiders despite doing nothing to earn that honor. With all this in mind, it won’t be surprising if fans are disappointed that she’s likely to play a big part in Borderlands 4, but as shocking as it may seem, I’m glad Gearbox is teeing Ava up for a second chance.
Ava’s Biggest Problem Almost Wasn’t an Issue
Ava’s teenage angst wasn’t the issue; it’s that she lacked character growth and failed to apologize to those around her - and by extension, the fans. Conceptually, Ava is not too different from Kratos’ son Atreus, with the two often compared since 2018’s God of War and Borderlands 3 launched closely together. Like Ava, Atreus has moments of being genuinely frustrating to be around in his first appearance, like all young people do, but these are balanced out by far more moments where the character is likable. More importantly, there’s an acknowledgement on Atreus’ part for his bad behavior, and he treats his big mistakes as a learning experience. Ava doesn’t do this, meaning that the most important part of her character arc is completely missing - though it almost wasn’t.
As part of Borderlands 3’s Director’s Cut content, Gearbox released a deleted scene that took place at Maya’s funeral, and it addressed two of the biggest points of criticism about Borderlands 3’s story. First, it made Maya’s death feel more meaningful, as instead of the handful of characters who cared about her on Sanctuary 3 briefly gathering at the front of the ship, more of her loved ones got together to properly mourn her loss. Secondly, the scrapped scene showcased the missing character development that myself and so many others wanted from Ava, as she has a heartfelt conversation where she owns up to her role in Maya’s demise and actually does something to earn Lilith’s confidence. This scene, and more like it, could have made Lilith passing the torch to Ava feel natural instead of forced.
I won’t pretend that a fully animated version of this bonus content from Borderlands 3’s Director’s Cut would have fixed every issue with the game’s story, as it wouldn’t have. Troy Calypso’s arc would still have ended abruptly, fans would still have taken issue with Rhys’ characterization, and characters like Tiny Tina would still have felt underused. However, this one scene would have addressed the biggest areas of criticism, which would have made it easier to focus on the high points of Borderlands 3. While there would be a long road needed to make Ava a lovable badass in her own right, and win back scorned Maya fans, it’s a path worth taking. Hastily killing her off would not only make Maya’s sacrifice pointless, but in my eyes, it would be a waste of a character who has a fair bit of potential.
Borderlands 3’s Director’s Cut released in March 2021 as part of a smaller, second Season Pass. Given this Pass’s lack of the meaty expansions Borderlands is known for, and how much time passed between its release and the base game’s launch, many players may have missed out on the Maya funeral scene.
Borderlands 4 Has Some Serious Destiny Vibes
Borderlands 4's latest deep dive gameplay trailer proves that the looter-shooter shares more than its genre with Bungie's Destiny 2.
Why I’m So Confident That Ava Can Still Be Redeemed as a Character
While Ava was a poorly executed concept, that does not mean that the concept itself is bad. In fact, I quite like the idea of a Siren being built up to eventually take on the powers of the person they’re learning from, and the idea of a character that gets the endorsement of two of Borderlands’ most powerful Sirens suggests they too will be a force to be reckoned with one day. As such, instead of giving up on Ava and caving to the backlash with a quick death in BL4, continuing to develop her and redeem her will hopefully be the path Gearbox takes, as I want the chance to see what Maya and Lilith saw in their successor. Plus, Gearbox already started to address the Ava problem with its final Borderlands 3 DLC, and there’s even a moment in the base game where Ava is likable. Expanding on three specific areas of Borderlands 3 could be all that’s needed for BL4 to successfully overhaul Ava:
- The aforementioned funeral scene - Confirming that this moment canonically happened, either through dialogue or a fully animated flashback where players see it play out, could go a long way. Additionally, flashbacks to Maya and Ava’s relationship could show that there was more to the duo than Ava disrespecting her big sister figure.
- The "Mysteriouslier" missions - As part of Borderlands 4’s Director’s Cut, the Vault Hunters partner with Ava to discover a mysterious alien threat, learning Lilith is alive in the process. In these entertaining missions, Ava has some genuinely fun moments where she shows some more layers to her personality, such as her quirky love for murder mystery podcasts. Her willingness to instantly rescue Lilith displays heroism, too, something she lacked in the base game. Emphasizing these traits in BL4 would make a difference.
- The "Invasion of Privacy" side ques t - While it’s Private Beans that steals the show in this side quest, it takes two to tango. Beans messing with Ava’s things and reading her diary to make fun of her as players fight through Athenas makes for one of the funniest side quests in the game, partially due to Ava’s reaction to his trolling. For me, this has been the best bit of content featuring Ava thus far, as I laughed at her plight yet felt a bit bad for her at the same time. Making her both a bit of a softie and the butt of some self-aware jokes in BL4, just like with this quest, could be a good move that makes her more endearing.
With Amara mentioning that she’s petsitting for Ava in Borderlands 4’s State of Play footage, it’s only a matter of time before the blue-haired Siren pops up in the hunt for Lilith. Hopefully, she’ll have developed as a character in the time since and will be given plenty of scenes to make viewers laugh and do things of worth. If she does get some proper time to shine, and earns her glory as opposed to having it handed to her, then the first of many steps can be taken to winning fans over. While spending even one more second with Ava will likely lead to eyerolls from a portion of fans, for any gamers like myself who haven’t completely written Ava off yet, it will be nice to (hopefully) see the character’s potential realized this time around.
Borderlands 4
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 82 /100 Critics Rec: 88%
- Released
- September 12, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
- Gearbox Software
- Publisher(s)
- 2K
