As some of us know, Roland dies by Jacks own hand. However, The game allows respawning through the new u stations. These stations are used by Vault Hunters to respawn once dead. So if this reasoning is correct, is it safe to assume that Roland would respawn once dead?
No the new-u stations aren’t canon, they’re just there for gameplay
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I realize you’re new here, Cova, but this very idea has been debated forwards, backwards, rode hard and put away wet. Roland isn’t coming back because the New-Us are a game mechanic and don’t actually exist in the “lore” of BL 2. The head writer has already basically apologized for putting in the kill yourself quest because it goes against Roland being (and staying) dead. Besides, if he did come back, then Tina’s DLC will have meant nothing.
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It’s a borderlands plot hole. Basically, New-U’s do not exist, and that one mission where they are treated as being cannon is meant to be ignored.
They really want Roland to stay dead, even though they brought Jack back to life. Twice (I’m counting Jackenstein and TftB).
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What about robojack?
Well, the other topic that’s been done to death is how the New-Us could be cannon without breaking the story. There’s nothing so irrational as a bunch of people rationalising out a plot-hole in a video game set in a fictional universe!
I actually had some ideas about that (finally), not all of which will be original but which, hopefully, tie up some of the remaining loose ends.
So, to the issue at hand:
New-U versus Fast Travel
The FT stations are obviously part of the story, so we can assume that the technology of any New-U stations would be similar. Some points of comparison between the two:
- While both digistruct you at the destination, one also restores full health and adds ammo to your back-pack.
- To use a FT station, you have to stand in front of the starting one and be scanned; you are then reproduced exactly as you were (shield and health, ammo, stacks, etc.) In contrast, New-Us trigger whenever you die
- In BL1, you get your Dahl echo recorder and then you have your DNA scanned into the New-U system long before the FT system is up and running.
My conclusion from this is that FT can be used by anyone with a code but the information to reconstruct you is only compiled when you get scanned, and it’s dumped as soon as you’re digistructed on the other end. In contrast, your information is permanently stored in the New-U system, and constantly updated via your echo recorder. This networking and storage costs a lot of money (much more than just a FT station), so only those who pass a credit check are deemed worthy of New-U status. As a Vault Hunter, you contribute greatly to the economy generally and keep paying up every time you respawn, so Hyperion has a vested commercial interest in keeping Vault Hunters in the system as long as possible.
OK, on to the plot-holes!
Roland
- Since Roland is actively trying to take Hyperion down, he’s obviously out of the New-U system (along with Lilith, Brick, and Mordecai). So, when he’s dead, he’s dead.
You
- Either:
- Angel locked your file so you can’t be deleted or
- Jack simply forgot about you after Train to Catch completed (weak)
- Jack wants you alive until he can kill you for himself in person, but you get there early and he hasn’t had a chance to delete you yet (or 1 was in place and he hasn’t had time to hack around it yet)
Jack
- This is the hardest one, and actually a bigger plot-hole than Roland or the “Kill Yourself” mission (which simply makes no sense whichever way you look at it.) Why is JACK not in the New-U? Maybe:
- He was vain enough in his hero complex megalomania to think that no-one could possibly ever kill him
- He was afraid that a rival coming up in the Hyperion ranks (much like he did) would alter his own record, so he was relying on the virtual Jack revealed in Tales from the Borderlands
- He was in the system, but Angel erased or disabled his profile when she locked yours
Invincibles
- OK, this is where it gets fun! Why does Pyro Pete keep returning? What about Hyperius? Voracidous? All the others (human, humanoid, or just plain animal)?
- Human/Humanoid: all former Vault Hunters, on contract to Hyperion. If they ever need to use the New-U to respawn, they have to do a contract as repayment, which is why they never return straight away (giving you the chance to pick up the loot!)
- Animal: these all swallowed a previous human/humanoid Vault Hunter right at the point of the final echo update before dying/respawning (think Sub-Level 13 in TPS). So technically, they’ve become the VH they consumed and have passed the Hyperion credit check. Presumably they’re respawned somewhere someone needs eating, and then FT’d back to wait in their lair.
I think that’s about it. Still more plot-holes than a slice of Swiss cheese, but it was fun!
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I’ve personally retconned the New-U stations and Roland’s sudden inability to come back to life after Jack shot him due to the fact that Jack killed him with a weapon that prevents the New-U station from working on the victim. Jack, as CEO of Hyperion, allows only himself access to that tech (since it would otherwise be too powerful for anyone else to wield from his point of view).
As far as Jack not New-U spawning, part of me thinks that whatever Lilith did to him precluded its use (I mean… did she teleport his brain somewhere else? She’s never used that skill before in combat, and she was mad). The other part of me thinks (as @VaultHunter101 mentioned) that any number of people at Hyperion, not stoked about Jack as CEO, disabled his profile in the New-U system when they saw that he was confronting a Vault Hunter down on Pandora, and hoped for the best.
Really, I get that they’re not canon, but it works for me.
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Maybe Jack didn’t come back because, when Lilith fried him, she destroyed his Echo device too, which stopped the New-U from activating. In BL1 ClapTrap says you need the Echo to use the New-U. So, no Echo device for Jack, no New-U.
Or, and someone has to check on this since I don’t remember exactly, maybe if Jack died while inside the energy dome from the key prevented the Echo device from triggering the New-U. I think the dome is still there until the key is removed by Lilith.
My biggest question is why Jack wanted the vault hunters at all. In BL1, he needed them to open the vault for the Eridium. But why this time? If he didn’t bring the vault hunters to Sanctuary, he would have had the Warrior with no problems.
Problem with that is, all he would have to do is wait for the Warrior to appear, then wipe them out.
I personally think very few people are in the New-U System because very few people can endure that hateful pretty female voice and what she says after you respawn. “So, how are things?”
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I like when you die several times in a row, like killing the Warrior in UVHM, and the voice goes something like “What, you again?”
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also on top of all of that in the pre sequal if you look at the little pamphlete stand in concordia theres a pamphlete that talks about things that arent canon (you have to use a snooper get a good look) one of the things on the list is “NEW-U Stations”
