Borderlands 4 Was Right to Subvert Expectations With One Character

A core focus of any new Borderlands game is its cast of Vault Hunters. With players being asked to embody at least one of these characters for their entire playthrough, fans expect a new set of Borderlands Vault Hunters to boast personalities and abilities that are distinct not just from one another, but from all the Vault Hunters that have come before them. By most accounts, Borderlands 4 has understood this assignment.

Rafa the Exo-Soldier, Vex the Siren, Harlowe the Gravitar, and Amon the Forgeknight make up Borderlands 4‘s cast of Vault Hunters. As expected, each protagonist has their own unique set of skills and their own immediately identifiable personality. And in the case of Amon, there’s much more to the hero than meets the eye.

Borderlands 4’s Amon Is Far From a Brutish Barbarian

When It Comes to Amon, Looks Can Be Deceiving

At first glance, Borderlands 4‘s Amon looks like a stereotypical barbarian that one would find in just about any D&D-inspired RPG, albeit one with a more Sci-Fi post-apocalyptic twist. Amon is incredibly tall, large in stature, and has a haircut reminiscent of popular depictions of Viking warriors. Amon is also heavily armored, and seemingly has a penchant for oversized melee weapons.

Over the last few decades, characters that look like Amon have often been given very similar character traits, motivations, and personalities, forging a behavior profile over time that many now expect to see from characters that look like this. Characters that look like Amon are often portrayed as being obsessed with combat and honor, and lack any other distinct interests or personality traits, which can often make them come across as rather one-note.

But, much to the benefit of Borderlands 4‘s story, Amon doesn’t really fit this barbarian character archetype.

Amon Is a Strong, But Sweet Hero

Born into a cult that worships the Lovecraftian monsters that emerge from Borderlands‘ Vaults, Amon was young when his entire family – and the rest of his cult – was killed by one of the creatures they revered. Amon has spent the rest of his life since trying to stop others from making the same mistakes. With a traumatic past and a serious cause driving him forward, fans might expect Amon to be rather jaded and cold. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Borderlands 4‘s Amon is actually a pretty big people person. Much like the other Vault Hunters, Amon is happy to communicate with all of the game’s quest-givers, but unlike Rafa, Harlowe, and Vex, Amon is also overjoyed about imparting wisdom wherever he can. Amon is also a very sweet and caring character, and that’s routinely expressed throughout Borderlands 4‘s runtime via the Vault Hunter’s more innocuous lines of dialogue.

One of Amon’s sweetest lines can be heard when players leave their game idle during Kairos’ nighttime. Amon will say, “The night is heavy, and I hope people are using the buddy system,” which refers to a system in which colleagues or friends assist one another through difficult or dangerous tasks.

This subtle line does a remarkably good job of showing how good-natured Amon is. Though he may be a fearsome warrior capable of cutting through a horde of Psychos in the blink of an eye, he’s also a hero who cares about the safety of others, even those he doesn’t personally know. The calm and expressiveness of Ray Chase’s performance as Amon also gives the Vault Hunter an eloquence that some may not have expected based solely on the character’s visual design.

Released

September 12, 2025

ESRB

Rating Pending