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  Rhys
RhysBorderlands1
Actor Troy Baker
Patrick Warburton (while under disguised as Hugo Vasquez)
Gender Male
Hair Brown
Age 27
Occupation President and CEO of Atlas

Former President and CEO of Hyperion (Determinant)
Former Hyperion Assistant Vice Janitor (Determinant)

Former Hyperion Middle Manager
Co-Leader of The Group
Family Sasha - Love interest (Determinant)
Fiona - Love interest (Determinant)
First Appearance "Zero Sum"
Last Appearance "The Vault of the Traveler"
Status Alive
Series lifespan "Zer0 Sum" to "The Vault of the Traveler"
Ethnicity Caucasian
Rhys Gallery
"Well, who knows... maybe this is just the beginning."
—Rhys to Fiona before opening a Vault (Determinant).

Rhys is an original character in Telltale's Tales from the Borderlands He serves as one of the two playable protagonists, alongside Fiona. Rhys is also a supporting character in Borderlands 3.

Character

Prior to the storyline, Rhys has worked at Hyperion for many years with his friends Vaughn and Yvette. He mentions casually having an ex-girlfriend named Stacey, who he openly dislikes. His goal was to become like his idol Handsome Jack and run Hyperion.

Rhys is an ambitious man who likes to be the center of attention, but he has an understanding mind about his Hyperion position to Pandorans, who would most likely see him as a supporter to Handsome Jack's destruction of their planet. Later on, Rhys disagreed with Jack about becoming a living vessel with him therefore things went downhill on their relationship.

Appearances

Tales from the Borderlands

  1. "Zer0 Sum"
  2. "Atlas Mugged"
  3. "Catch A Ride"
  4. "Escape Plan Bravo"
  5. "The Vault of the Traveler"

Borderlands 3

The New Atlas CEO

New Tales from the Borderlands

  1. "Start-Up"
  2. "Disruptive Product"
  3. "False Advertising"
  4. "Divestments"

Killed Victims

  • Possibly thousands of Hyperion employees (Caused)
  • Numerous accounts of bandits
  • Numerous accounts of skags
  • Rakk Hive (Episode 2)
  • Gary (Indirectly Caused) (Determinant)
  • Yvette (Determinant)
  • Handsome Jack (AI) (Determinant)

New Tales From The Borderlands

Some Time after borderlands 3 Atlas's HQ is now in space.

Start-Up

in episode 1, Rhys calls Anu to his office, she has been releasing Jabbers out of their cages and has been spending almost all of the researching funds into her own project, her device. She then sells the idea to Rhys, who then asks her for a demonstration. she has no choice but to choose from up to 3 objects in the room, all which will result in Rhys panicking, asking her to bring it back, which she states that she cant as she hasn't figured out how. Which results in Anu being fired.

Rhys is last seen talking to some Tediore troops, trying to get them to join atlas

Disruptive Product

Rhys is only heard in this episode, via the goggles Anu wears. He tells her that Tediore has the Vault key that was on the ship.

False Advertising

Rhys is only seen by a hologram, he tries to say something but Susan the Tediore CEO had everyone via hologram on mute. It is uknown who he was trying to yell at.

Divestments

Rhys is only seen at the end, but only if you selected the fuse ending. he apears twice, asking if anyone knows how all the jabbers escaped and who is responsible for this. then he is seen stating that the death ray will not harm anyone on the Atlas base, before being cut off and fades like everyone else on Promethea.

Weapons

  • Hyperion JR4000 Stun Baton (Can be temporarily borrowed by Sasha).

Relationships

Sasha

"I think I've been missing you too."
—Sasha to Rhys

Rhys' relationship with Sasha can be good, depending on your choices. Initially, Sasha dislikes Rhys, solely based on the fact that he works for Hyperion. Depending on the player's choices, she can become more open and friendly with him after they become separated from Fiona and Vaughn in Episode 1. During Episode 3, when they're in the Dome, Rhys can either show a romantic interest in her or just stick to being friends with her. However, if the player trusted Jack, Rhys falls unconscious after he falls from the tower and Jack, doing him a favor, controls his body until he regains consciousness again. This can somewhat disrupt their friendship because Jack doesn't quite act like Rhys by teasing Vaughn, snitching on Cassius by directly telling Athena that he's an Atlas employee and slapping Sasha's behind, who angrily punches him in the face and knocks him unconscious, thereby giving Rhys full control of his body again.

In spite of this, Sasha and Rhys become much closer, regardless of Rhys' past. They also share a hug when reunited in Episode 5, if Rhys chose to reject Hyperion. Aside from the common choices; when Fiona and Rhys approach the Vault, there's a romantic option the player can take. Throughout the story, there are many moments that could create a romantic relationship between Rhys and Sasha, should the player decide to do so. He can either admit to liking Sasha and get Fiona's 'blessing' or say he likes someone else, implying that he likes Fiona. The player can also choose not to like either.

In New Tales From The Borderlands, choosing to shoot the plant on the right will cause Rhys to explain that the plant has sentimental value, as while he was on a date with Sasha it almost killed him.

If the player shoots the photo on his desk he will say that its the only photo he has of her, getting more angry sounding than the other choices, though nothing different will happen after.

Fiona

"We did make a good team, didn't we?"
—Fiona to Rhys

Rhys' relationship with Fiona is not heavily shown but they seem to initially (to some extent) dislike each other due to Rhys working for Hyperion and Fiona being a wanted con artist on Pandora, as well as both of them being on opposite ends of the failed "vault key" scam. Throughout the story, the two become closer, with Fiona ignoring Rhys' Hyperion status and calling him her friend and Rhys placing his faith in Fiona (both determinant). In the present day, however, they seem to despise one another immensely, with Fiona going as far as to physically hurt him. The reason for this was because of Rhys keeping Handsome Jack a secret for so long.

After telling their tales, Rhys and Fiona patch things up and become friends again. Before they enter the Vault, Rhys can either place his trust in Fiona and admit he has feelings for Sasha or chose that he has feelings for someone else; which is heavily implied to be Fiona based on his body language and facial expression when revealing to her that he is "interested in someone else." At the end of the episode they open the Vault Treasure together, only to be teleported away. What happened to them is currently unknown, but it's likely they found the true treasure of the Vault of the Traveler.

Vaughn

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry! I would never betray you, bro! Do you forgive me?"
—Vaughn to Rhys, shortly after his 'betrayal'.

Rhys is Vaughn's best friend and a fellow co-worker at Hyperion. They are on good terms, although Rhys can determinedly sell him out. Vaughn will sell Rhys out, but only because he believed it would keep Vasquez away. If you choose to forgive him, you may partake in a bro-fist with him.

Should you trust Jack at the end of episode 2, you can have an interaction with Vaughn at the third episode. He mentions a moment they shared during junior year, which means that they have known each other for roughly nine to ten years or so by the time the game takes place, due to Vaughn's and Rhys' and the age juniors are.

Handsome Jack

"'Everyone thinks they're the hero of their own story...'"
—Handsome Jack, to Rhys during their last talk.

It's rather unclear as to what Handsome Jack and Rhys' relationship is but their similarities are constantly lampshaded by Jack throughout the story. At the beginning of Episode 1, Rhys is shown to be a big fan of Handsome Jack and, like other fans, wanted to become like him. It's revealed that Jack once spat on Rhys when he was alive. Throughout the story, Jack likes to call Rhys by whatever comes to his mind such as 'Rhysie' and 'cupcake' but also degrades him by calling him a 'pitiful little code monkey', believing that Rhys can't follow in his footsteps.

If the player chooses to be somewhat respectful of Jack by the end of Episode 4, he'll give Rhys a one-in-a-lifetime chance to rule Hyperion. If Rhys accepts his offer, Jack becomes enthusiastic and Rhys plugs Jack into Helios' system and shortly announces to everyone on the station that Rhys now rules Hyperion, much to the shock of Fiona and Sasha. Afterwards, Rhys wonders if he can do this to which Jack replies, saying that Pandora, Elpis, and Helios was just the start of their reign. In episode 5, Jack states that he had a plan involving Rhys, who's sitting in the chair with his arms restrained, and the whole desk changes to show a golden endoskeleton standing within. Confused, Rhys then finds out that Jack plans to resurrect himself by putting the endoskeleton into Rhys' body, which Jack states that it would not kill him in the process. Rhys becomes scared and angered as he feels Jack betrayed him and escapes, falling down the trapdoor, where he could or could not end up meeting with Fiona, Sasha and Gortys.

After Helios crashes, Rhys wakes up in an escape pod and wanders around the remnants of the space station, ending up back in Jack's office where he sees a solemn Jack slowly malfunctioning. During their discussion, Jack looks back on everything and says that every time he trusts someone, he loses something in return such as his wives, girlfriend, and Angel, finding out about her death through the database. Later, Rhys goes to leave the office when the injector plugs into his head. Now that Jack's in his brain again, he controls Rhys' arm and strangles him which Jack knows that he would go down alongside Rhys. In order to escape from him once more, Rhys impales his cybernetic arm and forcefully rips it from his body. After the fight, Jack laughs and states that there's nothing Rhys can do. As long as he has his cybernetics, he'll always be there waiting to take him out or just watch him wither away with age. Rhys begins to cut out his ECHO-eye, while Jack is begging him not to do it. Either way, Rhys tear out his eye and AI Jack disappears. Rhys can choose whether to crush AI Jack in his ECHO-Eye and kill him, or keep it and put it in his back pocket where Jack is then trapped inside the void of the ECHO-Eye instead. Near the end of the episode, Fiona asks if he genuinely wants to follow in Jack's footsteps. Rhys replies, saying that he learn one thing from Jack: that Jack was successful, but it doesn't mean that he would follow step by step like Jack did.

Yvette

"Rhys... I am so sorry."
—Yvette to Rhys

Rhys and Yvette were on good terms and helped each other, be it lunch or climbing the ladders of Hyperion. When Rhys and Vaughn first land on Pandora, she sends down a Loader Bot, per their request, to defend them from bandits but in Episode 4, she was in fact helping Vasquez tracking them down. Their relationship can either be completely severed as Rhys can leave her to die on Helios or let her fall into space. If Rhys forgives and saves her, she makes up for it by helping him and remains loyal to him afterwards.

Cassius Leclemaine

"I have heard a rumor that you are in charge of Atlas now."
—Cassius to Rhys

Rhys's relationship with Cassius is quite stable. When he heard that Rhys was in charge of the Atlas corporation, he was more then glad to help him with the rebuildment.

Zer0

"This is intresting/ I´ve never done this before/ You have done well Rhys."
—Zer0 to Rhys

Rhys and Zer0's friendship is quite stable depending on the player's choices. Rhys seems to admire Zer0 quite a bit, and seems quite excited at the prospect of working with him.

Loader Bot

"Righteous father! I've found you!"
—Loader Bot to Rhys (Determinant)

Their relationship is highly determinant. He follows Rhys‘ orders because it is what he was made for. When he later shows up, he can be either happy or not too happy of seeing Rhys. In Episode 2, his behavior towards Rhys is determinant. If Rhys didn't blow him up, he will treat Rhys as a very good friend, even partaking in a bro fist, but if Rhys blew him up, he will constantly take opportunities to emotionally and physically hurt Rhys in a passive aggressive manner. In Episode 3, Rhys may have the option to befriend Loader Bot again.

Gortys

"Rhys, I love you, but please stop saying obvious things!"
—Gortys to Rhys, during their battle against the Traveler (Determinant)

Rhys and Gortys get along well and they like each other no matter what. In Escape Plan Bravo, Rhys (disguised as Vasquez) can choose to insult Gortys by calling her a stupid robot. Gortys would initially feel hurt, but after the guard leaves, Rhys apologizes to her and Gortys easily forgives him. Gortys can even admit that she loves him, but she thinks that he is sometimes annoying.

Hugo Vasquez

"But you. I respect you, Rhys. That's why I'am going to make you Assistant...Vice...Janitor."
—Vasquez depromoding Rhys

Prior to the events of Tales from the Borderlands, Hugo was the bitter rival of Rhys. Both men shared a mutual hate for one another and they both wanted to become powerful just like Handsome Jack. Vasquez is a much more evil and ruthless man than Rhys, as he was willing to murder people to get the job he always wanted.

Trivia

  • Rhys is voiced by Troy Baker, who also voices Joel in The Last of Us (Ashley Jonhson, who also voices Ellie in The Last of Us, is Gortys' voice actor), Snow Villiers in the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, Delsin Rowe in InFamous: Second Son (Laura Bailey, who also voices Serah Farron and Abigail "Fetch" Walker in the respective games is Fiona's voice actor). He has also voiced Bruce Wayne/Batman in the game Batman: The Telltale Series and it's sequel Batman: The Enemy Within, also created by Telltale Games, alongside Laura Bailey who played Selina Kyle/Catwoman in both games
  • Sam Witwer was the originally announced voice actor for Rhys, as well as being one of the first confirmed voice actors for the whole game. However, it became clear to the writers during Episode 1's many iterations that Witwer simply wasn't right for the part, and reached out to Baker. Baker gladly accepted the role, as he was already a fan of TellTale Games. The reason for this was Witwer's performance made it so Rhys felt "kind of like a douchebag" and that they needed a "loveable douche bag."[1]
  • Tales From The Borderlands was the first Telltale game to have determinant romance options. The second is The Walking Dead: The Final Season.
  • Rhys' Echo-Eye can be changed to Jack-ipidea
  • Rhys's shoe size is US 13 as stated by scanning Fiona in Episode 2 "Atlas Mugged".
  • Rhys' colorful striped sock is a nod to Troy Baker's own love for colorful striped socks.
  • Rhys, Vaughn, Fiona, Loader Bot, Sasha, August, Handsome Jack, and the Kidnapper are the only characters to appear in every episode of the game.
  • Rhys is confirmed to make a return in the coming Borderlands 3, along with Vaughn. The time that has passed between Tales from the Borderlands and Borderlands 3 is about five years.
  • Rhys had an ex-girlfriend named Stacey.
  • According to the Telltale Cosplay guide for Rhys, Rhys got his cyberware to help him get ahead in the data-mining department. It was paid for by his quarterly bonus, which he received for arranging a lucrative (though controversial) Eridium mining deal. Vaughn also mentions it in passing very quickly before entering Vasquez's office in episode 1.
  • Rhys is the only character of the main group to not have his age confirmed. However, it is highly likely he is 27, the same age as Vaughn as they went to college together at the same time.

References

Tales From The Borderlands Characters
Hyperion RhysVaughnLoader BotJackYvetteHugoSaul
Felix’s Group FionaSashaFelix
Hollow Point TectorJaneyScooterTommy
Prosperity Junction RudigerShadePenumbraBewmNakayamaSteele
Vallory's Group AugustKrogerValloryFinchGary
Atlas GortysCassiusDumpyPollux
Bandits Mask VendorBossanova
Vault Hunters Zer0AthenaBrickMordecaiCL4P-TP
Vault Monsters The Traveler
Unnamed Or Unseen Characters KidnapperMarcusMoxxiLilithAngel
Alive characters appear in green. Dead characters appear in red. Unknown characters appear in blue. Determinant characters appear in purple.
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