TheBorderlandsseries is full of dastardly mega-corporations throwing their weight around and exploiting anyone and anything they can get their hands on, and coming up against these companies forms the basis of a lot of the franchise’s campaigns. Whether it’s the pioneering Atlas, Handsome Jack’s Hyperion, or the destructive Dahl Corporation, there are plenty of organizations to choose from when it comes to representing how evil capitalism can be in theBorderlandsuniverse.
WhileHyperion and its charismatic leaderduring the events ofBorderlands 2is probably the name that will come to many players' minds when they think of the worst mega-corporations in the series, Dahl is an unexpectedly underhanded contender as well. From exploiting planets to betraying and abandoning its people, the Dahl Corporation has a long history of bad behavior throughout the games, and could even be worse than Hyperion when it comes to balancing out their various despicable acts.
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Corporate Greed And Capitalism
One of the themes that runs throughout theBorderlandsgames is the destruction wrought by large companies when they put profits over people. With the race to control planets, extract resources, and locate Vaults and various Eridian artifacts, many ofBorderlands' mega-corporations have ruined lives as well as landscapes.Corporate bad guys like Handsome Jackare some of the series' most popular and recognizable villains, but while his company Hyperion is a front-runner when it comes to evil capitalist conglomerates, Dahl is another company that could actually be even worse.
The Dahl Corporation is a visible presence throughout the mainlineBorderlandsgames, either through characters, weaponry, or bits of lore that players can pick up. Following Atlas' discovery of the very first Vault, Dahl was one of the many mega-corporations to join the race to find more, difficulties and damages be damned. In an attempt to explore more fringe planets, Dahl created a presence on Pandora, sending a plethora of personnel like researcher Dr Patricia Tannis to try and locate a long-rumored Vault hidden somewhere on the planet.
Dahl had amajor impact on Pandora, creating settlements and building infrastructure like mining facilities and wind turbines to make the planet more habitable and (more importantly) profitable. It also created the ECHOnet, allowing communication across large distances and showing that some of its technology wasn’t so destructive. However, its negative actions far outweighed its positive ones, and this is showcased clearly during the events surrounding Sanctuary.
Players can discover ECHO recordings in the Caustic Caverns underneathSanctuary inBorderlands 2that detail the discovery of crystalisks by a Dahl security group. Officer Elyse Booth reported to Dahl Overseer Amelia Harchek that the crystals they were sent to mine were part of harmless sentient beings, and therefore they should move their mining operation to another location. Unimpressed by her reasoning, Harchek ordered Booth to mine the crystals and kill the creatures, but Booth refused. Booth was killed for her insubordination and her death was used as a warning to the miners, who were forced to collect the crystals and turn the previously docile crystalisks hostile.
It’s clear Dahl has no qualms about killing its workers, especially when there’s a profit to be made. This became even more apparent when the long winter that Pandora had been enjoying while Dahl set up its operations there came to an end, meaning that its dangerous wildlife began to emerge once more. Many of Dahl’s employees were killed, and to make matters worse, Atlas was also trying to bully the corporation into leaving the planet as well. Rather than send reinforcements or launch an expensive rescue operation, Dahl abandoned its workers on Pandora – most of whom were miners and researchers, not soldiers – and many of them were killed or joined the ranks ofbandits and Psychos that players would later encounter.
Dahl also did Colonel Hector and his men incredibly dirty – a military group that were initially sent to Pandora with the promise of rewards for their service to the company. Instead, they were tricked into becoming a mining force tasked with extracting the planet’s riches. They took to their new role grudgingly, and even presented Dahl withan Eridian artifactthey had found. Instead of improving their situation, Dahl took the artifact and sealed the mine, trapping the Colonel and his men and leaving them to die.
But the corporation’s history of betrayals and bad decision-making doesn’t stop there. Starting another vast mining operation onPandora’s moon Elpis, the company intended to strip it of its resources. However, its intrusive and reckless operation caused a catastrophic event called “The Crackening,” which resulted in the loss of the moon’s atmosphere, making many parts of it completely uninhabitable. Innocent residents and workers died, and the moon was almost completely shattered in the process. Dahl once again abandoned the area, leaving people behind to live with and try to fix its own mistakes.
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Comparing Dahl To Hyperion
The Dahl Corporation is indisputably an awful company, as evidenced by its multiple dealingsacross Pandora and Elpis, its continuous pursuit of profits over the welfare of its people, and its incredibly exploitative practices. Much of its workforce was made up of convicts and criminals, which it believed could be used as cheap labor both in the sense of remuneration and with reference to the value Dahl placed on their lives. Quick to abandon its workers once a situation became difficult, Dahl is a prime example of a company that has no loyalties or morals. However, anyone who has played aBorderlandsgame knows that Hyperion is hardly an example of an ethical company either.
Hyperion makes no secret of how it operates, with its cutthroat corporate environmentshowcased inTales from the Borderlandsand its motto of “success requires making every opportunity count” displaying its ambition. It’s also responsible for empowering Handsome Jack and allowing his infamous despotic reign over Pandora before his death inBorderlands2. Much like other corporations, Hyperion intends to hunt down and open Vaults, despite the potential devastating consequences for local inhabitants. But Hyperion is almost comically evil, with plans of domination and its overly-egotistical work culture. In contrast, Dahl has caused arguably more chaos with its carelessness and cold attitude toward the areas it inhabits and the people it employs, making it seem far more dangerous than Hyperion.
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