Athena Inconsistency
First of all, it's very vague to begin with as to who would be considered a "vault hunter." I know pre-sequel semi designated them as such, but none of the select-able characters (with possible exception of Lady Hammerlock) actively hunted vaults. So at best, they are mercenaries that stumbled upon the vault of wisdom, under Jack's guidance. So there's that.
Now, this creates a huge problem in terms of Tales Athena portrayal, in that she will always state that she enjoyed hunting vaults. Yet, as far as we can tell, she never did! She accidentally found one (again, based on Jack's instruction), and never actively sought out other vaults (hence, completely missing in BL2).
Now, I assume vault hunter designations are for hunters with exceptional skills that actually hunt vaults. There are plenty of skillful and resourceful individuals, but you wouldn't consider them "vault hunters." Or else, you have to consider Moxxi, Mr Torgue, or even Patricia Tannis are more qualified to be called "vault hunters" than Athena.
So one, it's weird enough that the BL canon considers Athena to be a vault hunter. But two, it's strange for Tales to have in their stories of how Athena enjoyed vault hunting. In fact, at the end of pre-sequel, I more or less get the vibe that Athena detest the wandering life style and working under Jack's employ to hunt vaults. In another word, she's the exact opposite of the ambition and drive of a vault hunter. Thoughts?
Comments
In the pre-sequel, the playable characters were hired to find a vault.
They ended up fighting a legion of lost soldiers first, but their original intention was always vault hunting.
It's the same way that in BL2, the playable characters were hired to find a vault but ended up fighting Jack the majority of the game until they "accidentally" came upon the vault as a result of it.
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deleted... going to do more research
Jack hired Athena and the others to find a vault. Helios just came under attack when they arrived.
What if Athena was looking for a Vault during the events of BL2?
Well the term "vault hunter" doesn't exactly mean "you need to find a vault in order to hunt for a vault."
They could have always been trying to find a vault, just never did find one until Jack.
They were literally hired to hunt a vault. Helios was just under attack when they got there, which was how they all ended up fighting Zarpedon.
How does that not make Athena a vault hunter?
Yea, I rewatched the intro to TPS, apparently there is an obscure line to the effect of "come to the moon, hunt a vault, be a hero"
In my defense, if you missed that very easily missed line, the chain of events logically make sense to be, Jack got in trouble, call help, retook helios, hunt vault.
I mean, within the main story missions, it's literally that line... till... o btw, head here because vault is opened; so going strictly on feel, no it doesn't feel like Athena, Wilhelm, Claptrap, or Nisha were vault hunters. But alas, an obscure reference is a reference none the less.
My bad.