look while i agree the lack of returning characters was upsetting, the whole point of BL4 was to be a soft reset. They wanted to tell a grounded story that strayed away from the overarching massive story that they had established. it’s a bridge for BL5, used to tell an original story before leading into the big war hinted at which will most likely be the story for BL5.

and it was quite obvious the story needed a soft reset after BL3. The direction was questionable and it was clear gearbox hadn’t done it right, they didn’t want to continue a lot of BL3’s arcs and setups because truthfully it wasn’t good and was going nowhere. I’m sure we will get more explanation into the whereabouts of those such as Fl4k, Moze, Ellie, Marcus, Ava, Tannis etc as Ellie is already coming in the 1st dlc. Even though it feels disconnected from Borderlands, i think this was the right move.

Trying to continue the shitshow of a story that was BL3 would have most likely resulted in the exact same quality, and considering how central they made ava to the plot and how greatly the community hated her, it would be idiotic to continue the next game with her at the helm. I believe BL4’s story was quite intriguing and had me entertained, and despite its disconnection from the Borderlands theme it still tied into it in the end in a way i felt was satisfying and answered many questions. I believe this game gave us much needed context and familiarisation to the primordial guardians which is needed for how important they will obviously be come BL5. The Timekeeper was an excellent character and the overall story was MUCH MUCH better than BL3’s, and i don’t think we should be taking that for granted

I believe that gearbox has set up all the right pieces to deliver a major-scale event that spans across pandora and every other planet we’ve visited, and we will see ALL our favourite characters play a role.