Although the first Borderlands 3 Season Pass has wrapped up, Gearbox isn't done with the latest franchise entry yet. The Designer's Cut added some cool new DLC, though it was a far cry from the same level of story as past DLC. It seems the Director's Cut is bridging the two, with the upcoming DLC set to release on March 18 with some new story missions.
Every DLC for Borderlands 3 has lined up with a movie genre (a casino heist, a dark Cthulhu-horror story, a western, and a psychological thriller), and it seems this latest story set of mission does too. Led by Ava, players will be resolving a big murder mystery in Borderlands 3 Director's Cut, but official advertisement of the DLC on the Borderlands website makes it seem much bigger than a story just resolving Ava's storyline.
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What's known so far is that Ava is leading this investigation, there's some "supernatural" aspect to the killings, and perhaps most interestingly, the official Borderlands site states that" What you find will send ripples throughout the rest of Borderlands 3’s story, but we’ll let you solve those mysteries yourself." The fact that it connects to the core story is, in and of itself, a big deal. None of the other DLCs did this, all being self-contained stories, which begs an important question: how could this happen?
With the murders taking place on multiple planets and the murdered characters are likely not important, the likeliest connection to the main story will be the identity of the serial killer (or however it's exactly explained.) So, characters are dying, Ava is investigating, and the murderer likely being the story connect has a ton of potential. Whether it's connected to the Children of the Vault, to Sanctuary, to the Vault Hunters, or to the potential Borderlands 3 multiverse, it'll be interesting to see this as set-up for Borderlands 4 or beyond. While total speculation, there is one identity of the murderer that could both pay off on the Borderlands 3 story and pose an interesting set up for whatever's to come.
As many know, Borderlands 3's ending implies Lilith dies, but there's no body found. It seems possible that Lilith is "missing" rather than dead, and if she turned out to be the murderer, it could explain a lot. It explains how it's happening on multiple planets, it could explain the supernatural elements of the death (especially if they are in any way pyro related), and it would explain why Ava is interested in an otherwise borderlands-related series of deaths.
The explanation could be anything as to why Lilith may have crossed to the dark side, but there's a lot it could pay off: a "dark" Lilith could set up the Great Vault Hunter War that the Watcher predicted. It could pay off the growth of Ava and the realization that, perhaps, Lilith has suffered a fate worse than death saving everyone. No doubt, many would try to save Lilith, and that could set up a really good story exploration of Eridians, the Destroyer, the Sirens, and more. Indeed, perhaps she became the "key" that Elpis was, being warped and twisted by the power of the Eridians and falling more in line with the secret Siren of old...the mysterious Seventh.
Only six sirens were known to exist at one time; however, Borderlands 3's Eridian Writings reveals the existence of a seventh. She, according to the lore, must never be found and her abilities are incredibly dangerous, which in and of itself poses a big mystery about why Nyriad does not want this Siren found. Perhaps this Siren was somehow involved with Elpis as the key, now living on through Lilith. Again, though, this is all speculation, but with the upcoming Director's Cut DLC sending "ripples through the rest of Borderlands 3's story" [emphasis added], it's hard to think of what else would be worthy of such a description.
Borderlands 3 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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