Handsome Jack (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ex_break829) wrote2018-02-08 11:43 am
ex_break829) wrote2018-02-08 11:43 am
app.
PLAYER
Player name: Amber
CHARACTER
Character Name: Born "John", goes by Handsome Jack.
Character Age: 40ish, maybe a little older.
Canon: Borderlands franchise.
Canon Point: End of Tales from The Borderlands Episode 4.
History: wiki.
Jack was turned into an AI during the events of Borderlands 2, before the death of his daughter. He then experienced the events of Tales from the Borderlands with a Rhys who allowed him control of the cybernetics and willingly allied with him, giving him access to the Hyperion satellite. He is then taken and restored to his human body for Hadriel.
Personality:
Handsome Jack. A name to inspire greatness. A name that became synonymous with corporate ambition, wealth, and eventually, madness. A name a weedy little paper-pusher gave himself as part of a full personality revamp, going from code-monkey to downright dictator.
But even when he was John, Jack was a little insane. Raised in backwater poverty by his physically abusive grandmother (who would beat him with a circle saw and killed his cat when he didn't clean his room) he gained a protective shell of a superiority complex, and learnt early that violence was the quickest and best answer to all of life's problems. But it was only as he accumulated power that the extent of those personality defects really became apparent. John was just a small fry: smart and savage enough to make a name for himself in a major corporation, sure, but he was still just middle management. He takes credit for helping to design the Helios space station from which Hyperion corp ruled Pandora, but Jack finds it easy to take credit for a lot of things. A visionary, he tends to have wild ideas and relies on his charisma and money to enlist others to organize their practical implementation.
And Jack has a lot of charisma. Whether he's a narcissist or a psychopath, it can't be argued that his particular damage is the sort that hypnotizes other people; a predatory abuser who is incredibly capable of drawing people into his sphere of influence so he can enjoy controlling them. The genius mania inspires awe; the mercurial temper inspires fear; the propaganda paints him as a hero; even his condescending little pet names and easygoing facade can trick people into thinking he wants to be his friend. But his geniality is often as much as mask as the very literal one he wears on his face. Jack needs the attention and approval of others in a deep and inescapable way, he needs to feel like he is always in control and will occasionally exert that control just to reassure himself that he has it, and most of all he is in love with power above all else. Maybe deep down he's still a scared little child, but he isn't hesitant to kill anybody who he even suspects of knowing that.
Still, on a surface level Jack is probably okay to know. Extroverted, friendly, flirtatious, funny, seems to believe in righteous goodness, kind of a condescending asshole, a little new money but not too pretentious. Most of his social circle back home are subordinates that he sees as nothing more than canon-fodder, but he's had two ex-wives and a string of girlfriends, has been kind and thoughtful to his daughter even while he was controlling her, he pays his lackeys well, and he's loyal to those who are loyal to him (spoilers that's basically nobody because he's also crazy.)
Despite feeling like he really needs to have a close relationship to be fulfilled, a string of betrayals have left Jack incredibly paranoid and fairly certain it's impossible to trust anyone. At his canonpoint he is not yet aware his daughter has betrayed him by helping his enemies, and choosing to die rather than live in his service any longer, an act that basically sent him insane. Despite that, his allies, employees and exes have all betrayed him, so he doesn't truly believe love or money is enough to stop someone working against him. For that reason, he lies whenever it's convenient for him, and has several back up plans in place, including hiring surgically altered exact body doubles to dissuade corporate assassins, and making back up copies of his brain as an AI.
Jack's goals are always to gain power and prestige, which, thanks to growing up poor and living in a universe in which weapons are the primary business, he sees wealth and guns as the fastest means to those ends. He generates possibilities and ideas all the time, and has a surprisingly optimistic belief in his own ability to solve a problem and come out on top. Even if he has to solve the problem with his guns.
Or strangulation. Jack has... kind of a weird breathplay kink that carries over into his preferred method of slowly killing his enemies. Actually, he kind of has a lot of weird kinks? He's a pretty promiscuous guy. He's bisexual - while mostly he seems to date women he also flirts an inappropriate amount with his body double. So it's, you know, akin to heterosexuality with some extra appreciation for guys that remind him of himself, which isn't narcissistic at all.
Maybe that's part of the toxic masculinity. Jack sees himself as a hero, something he uses to rationalize his amoral acts of violence and destruction, and part of that is looking the part. He tries to strike a balance between the warrior king and the philosopher king, making himself look like a physically intimidating and masculine figure while still prizing intellectual achievement and success. This also carries over into the Hyperion propaganda he distributes, where he is a hypermasculine figurehead. Handsome Jack, particularly, was a persona invented to escape any weedy nerd stereotypes and come off as a dashing savior of the planet Pandora, with a good jawline and winning smile and one boot on the bandit bad guys.
Finally, while a lot of the time he tries to act like a CEO should complete with liquor cabinet and expensive gadgets he has some dubious taste: his favourite color is this awful yellow, extra-canon interviews and the like make it clear the only music he's really interested in is Taylor Swift, he collects weird shit like the goatee of the former boss he killed, and in he buys a diamond-encrusted unicorn who shits guns and names her Butt Stallion (and is then disappointed when Butt Stallion isn't all that tame.)
Inventory:
Outfit (concept art, in game)
- Yellow henley-style shirt with Hyperion logo.
- Long white button up shirt.
- Brown waistcoat.
- Short-sleeved black jacket.
- Black trousers.
- Brown lace up boots.
- Belt
- Thumb ring
- Watch (this is kind of a smartwatch in the game but those capabilities will be nonfunctional)
- The mask (this is a synthetic copy of his unscarred face that staples over his real one; it moves like a regular face, however it is a shade paler than his real skin and hides the damage in his left eye.)
- Class mod (looks like The Contemporary CEO)
- Thigh holster with gun (looks like Win-Win Vision) and shield (just gives some extra HP, in game terms.)
Abilities: No superpowers. Jack comes from a universe where weapons and fighting are a big deal. Since he's rich as hell, mostly he relies on others to do the fighting for him, and a lot of his capabilities during his B2 boss battle fight are provided by external technology (such as the surveyor-bot that flies around and generates a shield/renders him invisible, his holographic digital doubles, and his high damage guns and wrist lasers.) He's like Batman, kind of: take all the gadgets away and he's just a fit human guy with a lot of combat experience.
At the end of "Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel", Jack takes the treasure from an alien Vault and its overwhelming power gives him a glimpse of the future, as well as an extraordinary amount of knowledge about alien technology and secrets (which he uses to get really rich.) Despite having that Vault symbol scarred onto his face forever, he didn't actually get any lasting superpowers from this, either; just more knowledge than one human should hold, and it's really only relevant to his universe. (Here's the short cutscene in which he takes the Vault treasure, for context.)
Jack is CEO of Hyperion for a while and combines that knowledge with ruthless business skills to turn it into a weapons megacorporation. As such he has experience in management of everything from security to R&D. He has a strong interest in mad science and a background in computers (in TFTB he says he personally wrote most of Hyperion's security software, he programs some killer robots, he personally designed a giant fuck-off laser and was in charge of construction of the Helios satellite, he works out how to use toxic byproduct for genetic mutation, basically he's pretty skilled in most STEM subjects.)
Flaws: A lot of these have been covered by the personality section, but some brief dot points:
- Power-hungry.
- Hypocritical.
- Enjoys killing, and finds extreme violence kind of funny.
- A hero complex that he uses to justify amoral acts.
- Enslaved his own daughter because her powers were useful to him.
- Had his own grandmother killed.
- Willing to destroy the environment for profit.
- Needs to be in control of a situation or he will become apocalypticly angry and dangerous.
- Requires attention and adoration so much he will actively force it, while bruising his ego is seen as deserving of lethal retaliation.
- Needy boyfriend.
- Paranoid enough that he can see "betrayal" where none exists.
- Condescending.
- Literal dictator.
His entire personality is psychopathology and toxic masculinity covered by a veneer of manic charm, I cannot stress enough how much he is the worst. (I do have an opt-out post in my journal.)
Player name: Amber
CHARACTER
Character Name: Born "John", goes by Handsome Jack.
Character Age: 40ish, maybe a little older.
Canon: Borderlands franchise.
Canon Point: End of Tales from The Borderlands Episode 4.
History: wiki.
Jack was turned into an AI during the events of Borderlands 2, before the death of his daughter. He then experienced the events of Tales from the Borderlands with a Rhys who allowed him control of the cybernetics and willingly allied with him, giving him access to the Hyperion satellite. He is then taken and restored to his human body for Hadriel.
Personality:
Handsome Jack. A name to inspire greatness. A name that became synonymous with corporate ambition, wealth, and eventually, madness. A name a weedy little paper-pusher gave himself as part of a full personality revamp, going from code-monkey to downright dictator.
But even when he was John, Jack was a little insane. Raised in backwater poverty by his physically abusive grandmother (who would beat him with a circle saw and killed his cat when he didn't clean his room) he gained a protective shell of a superiority complex, and learnt early that violence was the quickest and best answer to all of life's problems. But it was only as he accumulated power that the extent of those personality defects really became apparent. John was just a small fry: smart and savage enough to make a name for himself in a major corporation, sure, but he was still just middle management. He takes credit for helping to design the Helios space station from which Hyperion corp ruled Pandora, but Jack finds it easy to take credit for a lot of things. A visionary, he tends to have wild ideas and relies on his charisma and money to enlist others to organize their practical implementation.
And Jack has a lot of charisma. Whether he's a narcissist or a psychopath, it can't be argued that his particular damage is the sort that hypnotizes other people; a predatory abuser who is incredibly capable of drawing people into his sphere of influence so he can enjoy controlling them. The genius mania inspires awe; the mercurial temper inspires fear; the propaganda paints him as a hero; even his condescending little pet names and easygoing facade can trick people into thinking he wants to be his friend. But his geniality is often as much as mask as the very literal one he wears on his face. Jack needs the attention and approval of others in a deep and inescapable way, he needs to feel like he is always in control and will occasionally exert that control just to reassure himself that he has it, and most of all he is in love with power above all else. Maybe deep down he's still a scared little child, but he isn't hesitant to kill anybody who he even suspects of knowing that.
Still, on a surface level Jack is probably okay to know. Extroverted, friendly, flirtatious, funny, seems to believe in righteous goodness, kind of a condescending asshole, a little new money but not too pretentious. Most of his social circle back home are subordinates that he sees as nothing more than canon-fodder, but he's had two ex-wives and a string of girlfriends, has been kind and thoughtful to his daughter even while he was controlling her, he pays his lackeys well, and he's loyal to those who are loyal to him (spoilers that's basically nobody because he's also crazy.)
Despite feeling like he really needs to have a close relationship to be fulfilled, a string of betrayals have left Jack incredibly paranoid and fairly certain it's impossible to trust anyone. At his canonpoint he is not yet aware his daughter has betrayed him by helping his enemies, and choosing to die rather than live in his service any longer, an act that basically sent him insane. Despite that, his allies, employees and exes have all betrayed him, so he doesn't truly believe love or money is enough to stop someone working against him. For that reason, he lies whenever it's convenient for him, and has several back up plans in place, including hiring surgically altered exact body doubles to dissuade corporate assassins, and making back up copies of his brain as an AI.
Jack's goals are always to gain power and prestige, which, thanks to growing up poor and living in a universe in which weapons are the primary business, he sees wealth and guns as the fastest means to those ends. He generates possibilities and ideas all the time, and has a surprisingly optimistic belief in his own ability to solve a problem and come out on top. Even if he has to solve the problem with his guns.
Or strangulation. Jack has... kind of a weird breathplay kink that carries over into his preferred method of slowly killing his enemies. Actually, he kind of has a lot of weird kinks? He's a pretty promiscuous guy. He's bisexual - while mostly he seems to date women he also flirts an inappropriate amount with his body double. So it's, you know, akin to heterosexuality with some extra appreciation for guys that remind him of himself, which isn't narcissistic at all.
Maybe that's part of the toxic masculinity. Jack sees himself as a hero, something he uses to rationalize his amoral acts of violence and destruction, and part of that is looking the part. He tries to strike a balance between the warrior king and the philosopher king, making himself look like a physically intimidating and masculine figure while still prizing intellectual achievement and success. This also carries over into the Hyperion propaganda he distributes, where he is a hypermasculine figurehead. Handsome Jack, particularly, was a persona invented to escape any weedy nerd stereotypes and come off as a dashing savior of the planet Pandora, with a good jawline and winning smile and one boot on the bandit bad guys.
Finally, while a lot of the time he tries to act like a CEO should complete with liquor cabinet and expensive gadgets he has some dubious taste: his favourite color is this awful yellow, extra-canon interviews and the like make it clear the only music he's really interested in is Taylor Swift, he collects weird shit like the goatee of the former boss he killed, and in he buys a diamond-encrusted unicorn who shits guns and names her Butt Stallion (and is then disappointed when Butt Stallion isn't all that tame.)
Inventory:
Outfit (concept art, in game)
- Yellow henley-style shirt with Hyperion logo.
- Long white button up shirt.
- Brown waistcoat.
- Short-sleeved black jacket.
- Black trousers.
- Brown lace up boots.
- Belt
- Thumb ring
- Watch (this is kind of a smartwatch in the game but those capabilities will be nonfunctional)
- The mask (this is a synthetic copy of his unscarred face that staples over his real one; it moves like a regular face, however it is a shade paler than his real skin and hides the damage in his left eye.)
- Class mod (looks like The Contemporary CEO)
- Thigh holster with gun (looks like Win-Win Vision) and shield (just gives some extra HP, in game terms.)
Abilities: No superpowers. Jack comes from a universe where weapons and fighting are a big deal. Since he's rich as hell, mostly he relies on others to do the fighting for him, and a lot of his capabilities during his B2 boss battle fight are provided by external technology (such as the surveyor-bot that flies around and generates a shield/renders him invisible, his holographic digital doubles, and his high damage guns and wrist lasers.) He's like Batman, kind of: take all the gadgets away and he's just a fit human guy with a lot of combat experience.
At the end of "Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel", Jack takes the treasure from an alien Vault and its overwhelming power gives him a glimpse of the future, as well as an extraordinary amount of knowledge about alien technology and secrets (which he uses to get really rich.) Despite having that Vault symbol scarred onto his face forever, he didn't actually get any lasting superpowers from this, either; just more knowledge than one human should hold, and it's really only relevant to his universe. (Here's the short cutscene in which he takes the Vault treasure, for context.)
Jack is CEO of Hyperion for a while and combines that knowledge with ruthless business skills to turn it into a weapons megacorporation. As such he has experience in management of everything from security to R&D. He has a strong interest in mad science and a background in computers (in TFTB he says he personally wrote most of Hyperion's security software, he programs some killer robots, he personally designed a giant fuck-off laser and was in charge of construction of the Helios satellite, he works out how to use toxic byproduct for genetic mutation, basically he's pretty skilled in most STEM subjects.)
Flaws: A lot of these have been covered by the personality section, but some brief dot points:
- Power-hungry.
- Hypocritical.
- Enjoys killing, and finds extreme violence kind of funny.
- A hero complex that he uses to justify amoral acts.
- Enslaved his own daughter because her powers were useful to him.
- Had his own grandmother killed.
- Willing to destroy the environment for profit.
- Needs to be in control of a situation or he will become apocalypticly angry and dangerous.
- Requires attention and adoration so much he will actively force it, while bruising his ego is seen as deserving of lethal retaliation.
- Needy boyfriend.
- Paranoid enough that he can see "betrayal" where none exists.
- Condescending.
- Literal dictator.
His entire personality is psychopathology and toxic masculinity covered by a veneer of manic charm, I cannot stress enough how much he is the worst. (I do have an opt-out post in my journal.)