Multiple fan-favorite Borderlands characters make their way into New Tales From The Borderlands during the climactic sixth chapter of episode four of the game.
During the live demonstration of Tediore’s new weapon, Mister Torgue, Athena, Wainright Jakobs, Rhys, and Katagawa Senior appear on a holo-conference call.
The Tediore CEO, Susan Coldwell, appeals to all of them because they each represent a weapon manufacturer.
New Tales From The Borderlands Conference Call
- Mister Torgue, in his Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands appearance, represents the manufacturer Torgue. The weapons that shoot micro gyro-jet missiles that blow everything up.
- Wainright Jakobs from Borderlands 3 represents Jakobs. The old west guns with a wooden stock.
- Rhys represents the Atlas Corporation ever since the events of the first Tales From The Borderlands.
- Katagawa Senior represents Maliwan as Katagawa Junior – the head of hostile takeovers – was responsible for the Maliwan invasion on Promethea during the events in Borderlands 3 and didn’t survive his encounter with the Vault Hunters.
That leaves us with the question of why is Athena on this conference call. Which company does she represent? To answer this question we have to go back to old interviews with the creative director of Borderlands 3, Paul Sage, where he mentioned that there is a reason why Hyperion now has shields on their weaponry.
…Hyperion with the shields. The shields have their own backstory on why they are on Hyperion.
Paul Sage at E3 Coliseum 2019
Where is Athena? oh… I really want to answer this but I can’t yet…
Paul Sage during Ki11erSix Interview
One of the defining things about Athena has always been her shield. It was her action skill in Borderlands the Pre-Sequel. She could use it to protect herself from enemy damage and reflect it back to her enemies. Traits we also seen with the Hyperion weaponry in Borderlands 3.
For some unknown reason, it appears that after Handsome Jack’s demise, Athena is now in charge of the manufacturer and that’s why she appears in New Tales From The Borderlands as she represents Hyperion. We will probably learn more about her in Borderlands 4 as Gearbox Software is starting these threads.