TheBorderlandsfranchise has always been jam-packed with quirky, larger-than-life villains, andTiny Tina’s Wonderlandsis no different. FromChartreuse LeChance, to Knight Mare, the game is full of boss fights that are both mechanically engaging and story-driven. By far one of the most engaging fights in the game is the final one, against the Dragon Lord himself, the main antagonist ofTiny Tina’s Wonderlands.
Voiced by Will Arnett ofArrested DevelopmentandLEGO Batmanfame, the Dragon Lord hinders the protagonists' progress throughoutTiny Tina’s Wonderlands. While other bosses in the game are controlled by the Bunker Master (Tina herself), the Dragon Lord seems to operate from his own free will, determined to destroy the heroes once and for all and rule over Wonderlands. But all isn’t quite as it seems, the Dragon Lord actually has quite an emotive origin.
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The Dragon Lord’s Origin
Towards the end ofTiny Tina’s Wonderlands, players will enter the Hall of Heroes. As they cross the threshold, Tina will tell them that this is where the heroes of the Wonderlands are laid to rest, to which the Dragon Lord remarks, “not all of them.”
After a tense fight withthe boss Knight Mare, an abomination with the head of Queen Butt Stallion and a suit of armor body, Tina remarks that the party shouldn’t blame her for the twisted nature of the boss, they should blame the Dragon Lord. The Dragon Lord fires back with, “it could never be her that twists good things into monsters. It could never be her fault.”
As the player leaves the Hall of Heroes, they’reteleported to a void, standing before the Dragon Lord. He explains that he wants to show the player what Tina did to him, and what she’s doing to the player-character right now.
A flashback sequence then plays, with an even tinier Tina being taught the rules of her very first Bunkers and Badasses game by a disembodied voice only credited as “The Notetaker,” who is heavily implied to beRoland from the first twoBorderlandsgames. Roland says that this game will let Tina be the hero, and use her imagination to “change the world.”
Tina’s then prompted to make her character, her Fatemaker. She designs the “coolest, most powerful hero that everyone wants to be friends with,” and names him the Dragon Knight. Excited from creating her first character, Tina confides in the Notetaker that she’s really enjoying playing a game with a friend, as she’s never really had one before.
Being sold into slavery at a young age, Tina and her parents were human test subjects for Hyperion and Handsome Jack’s numerous experiments. These experiments eventually led to her parents' death, and seeing no other way out, Tina used a grenade she had stashed away to escape. Tina then lived alone until theVault Hunters seek her help inBorderlands 2.
As Tina plays her first Bunkers and Badasses adventure, the Dragon Lord narrates over the top, saying that at that moment, Tina feels like she’s recovered something that she lost, that she finally feels at home again. The flashback skips to the end of the adventure, whereTina’s Dragon Knight characteris stood before a giant “hate cathedral,” and she’s asked what she wants to do.
Tina excitedly blurts out that the Dragon Knight runs in, grabs the Sword of Souls, and blows up the cathedral with all the enemies inside. The castle then blows up, apparently killing thousands inside, and the Notetaker informs Tina that she’s just turned her character evil.
Tina then storms away from the table, throwing her Dragon Knight model on the floor. The Dragon Lord then explains how this choice has unfairly changed him, that he never chose to be evil. The Dragon Lord says that being abandoned led him to gain sentience, and now he has one purpose, to turnthe Fatemakersagainst Tina, or in failing that, eliminate them.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlandsis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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