The ending of Borderlands 3 has fans wondering what happened to Lilith and what this means for the future of the Borderlands franchise. Randy Pitchford – Founder of Gearbox Entertainment – unexpectedly posted some insights into the matter on social media.
Randy talks about Lilith’s journey and her abilities throughout the Borderlands games. This is what he said with some added details for context:
- Borderlands (1): Lilith is a playable character in this game and her action skill is called Phasewalk. This ability gives her to power to become invisible and gain movement speed. Randy Pitchford compared this to Frodo back in the day. When Frodo puts on the ring in Lord of the Rings. They both physically enter a different kind of realm while still being present in the current time and space.
- Borderlands 2: Lilith supercharges her Siren abilities when Sanctuary is attacked by the Hyperion Space Station. By consuming the Eridium, she is able to enhance her powers and teleport the city to a new location.
- Borderlands 3: Lilith flies up to the moon Elpis at the end of the main story campaign to stop it from crashing onto the planet Pandora. After a big explosion, we see the Firehawk sign in the sky and everyone is saved. Randy states that Lilith used her Phasewalk ability on Elpis – a Moon that’s made out of Eridium.
My Analysis
My interpretation of Lilith’s final act was that she somehow stopped Elpis’ descent on Pandora and all is saved. I didn’t think about the fact that the moon now looks like a sun and everyone on Epis would have been burned to death.
I kind of forgot about the fact that Elpis was made out of Eridium as it has been a while since I played Borderlands the Pre-Sequel but that would explain how Lilith could supercharge her Siren abilities.
The moon doesn’t look like it’s Phaselocked in a way that Maya, Amara, or Troy would do but it does look like there is still something there.
When Lilith Phasewalked in the original Borderlands you could still see some manifestation of her. Could this Elpis with the Firehawk symbol be something like that? The Moon is physically in a different dimension while still maintaining its position in this time and space.
If Lilith is keeping Elpis in this state of flux does she need to keep consuming Eridium to make this work? Would that mean that there is an inevitable event that Elpis will crash on Pandora and unleash The Destroyer? Gearbox could pull the “New Tales Crystal Card” but I rather see them use that to shake up the Borderlands Universe in a different way.
Did Lilith Really Phasewalk the Moon?
It makes for an interesting story and it wouldn’t be the first time that Randy Pitchford goes rogue to create hype around his games but this could just be his own personal head cannon. A Narrative Director at Gearbox Software replies to Randy’s post saying; “Should I be writing this down”.
Well, this wasn’t the first time that someone listed Lilith’s powers in action because, during Episode 2 of the Borderlands Show [47:18], Randy Varnell also mentioned this.
When Randy Varnell gets asked about Lilith, he chooses the word “Gone” instead of dead like Maya and continues “It looks like we killed off, well that what it looks like for now…”.
Moon = Key
Randy Pitchford reposted his explanation with the quote; Find Elpis, and you find Lilith. This made me think about the easter eggs they were leaving behind when they promoted Borderlands 3 as one of them was; “Moon = Key”.
While most hidden secrets were puzzles, I was trying to decrypt that in some way but it actually was a reference to the story of Borderlands 3 because Elpis is the Vault Key to Pandora.
Now the moon is the key to finding Lilith and resolving this big mystery but we have to wait for Borderlands 4 to find out what really happens next.
