Is Ballas considered good or bad?

[Corvid]

Ballas is an Orokin, and therefore a jerk by default, but he seems to be one of the more reasonable ones. Regarding whether he's good or bad... we really need to know more before we pass judgment.

 

[SeaUrchins]

Ballas is a complicated character, whether he is good or bad depends on how DE want to present him. However, he is for sure more interesting than the Natah/Lotus drama queen.

[Kronxito]

4 hours ago, (PS4)Frostelus said:

From what we know so far, Ballas is an Orokin executor, who suggested to kill the Tenno for the safety of his presumed lover, Margulis, but failed. However, he was also the creator of several Warframes, as heard from the latest Prime trailers, so I'm a bit confused. Warframes were made for operators to use in various situation, yet Ballas was the one who wanted to get rid of the Tenno in the first place. So, did Ballas have a change of heart at some point or something? Could anyone correct me if I'm missing something?

He was in love with Margulis. When she died, he decided to continue her work. This is my guess.

[Duckboy3825]

Margulis was our mother figure at the time and she and Ballas were in love with each other. So in a way, that basically makes Ballas our step-dad that we hate but are forced to love.

Ballas and the rest of the Orokin executors believed that the Tenno were demons from the Void and were going to one day destroy them all. Margulis saw the Tenno for who they really were, scared little children scarred by the Void. After Margulis' death Ballas wanted to finish what Margulis had started. He also saw great power and potential in the Tenno, as they could exploit the Sentient's weaknesses and save the Orokin. (Still in the end the Tenno end up destroying the Orokin : / )

May want to add a spoiler tag.

[Avernal]

Going to go with amoral - his actions can be seen as evil by some but are inherently without good or evil in them - he does it for the lulz.

Think people are likely on the money when they say he decided to continue Margulis' work, which would explain his narration of the Warframe previews.

I also reckon he might very well be our ominous and slightly evil sounding "Hey, Kiddo" father figure from TWW and now again as The Man in the Wall from CoH

[(PSN)A_SimpleName]

4 hours ago, aligatorno said:

Good and Evil are relative. 

Hate to be at that Thanksgiving Dinner table. Family Gathering.

Edited July 14, 2017 by (PS4)A_SimpleName

[HellDevil]

I belive ballas is netrual! In the past of warframe where the orokin and sentients were at war, someone had to be in the middle of the tornado of courrption and madness of the ageless and dark. Think about why he kept making warframes, why he still serve the banner and pride of the orokin.

[LightningsVengance]

He sure looks evil, that's for sure.  But hey, looks aren't everything. :P (or... really not much for that matter) this was from Tennocon,the art panel but some speculate Void Degradation because of hos his left hand is formed.

Edited July 14, 2017 by LightningsVengance

[Tesseract7777]

I think Ballas is one of those "it's complicated" characters. 

He's sort of bad, but there's some good in him... something redeemable, the question is whether he will be redeemed or not, I think. 

Time will tell thuogh. 

[(PSN)Tactless_Ninja]

8 hours ago, maj.death said:

There aint a soul in Warframe who is "just" good or bad.

They tried really really hard to make the Queens into mustache twirling villains. They even make fun of you for having dead parents and the PSAs in the Kuva Fortress amount to "nya kys if you cant work, now go do muh biddin nya"

Ballas runs along the lawful evil character scale. He has some semblance of structure and order in his plans but they mainly benefit himself first and foremost.

[(XBOX)SweatyPick3L]

Ballas was going to execute children...if u are willing to hurt children you are scum, evil and disgusting and deserve to die. Ballas was disgusting scum and deserves death. 

[Newnight]

3 hours ago, LightningsVengance said:

He sure looks evil, that's for sure.  But hey, looks aren't everything. :P (or... really not much for that matter) this was from Tennocon,the art panel but some speculate Void Degradation because of hos his left hand is formed.

To me that form does look uncomforting but not evil. He may have not been able to perform a new continuity and may have gone the augmentation route ( the arm has metal in it but why it is stretched is a mystery). Actually he could in fact be on his last leg if you look at him: Blue skin, pupilless eyes, a weapon at his side, and his other leg is hidden in an odd manner plus being awake and hidden somewhere is prob not doing anything for him. As a character i believe he is complicated and can be written in a way that could give him a redemption  ( in our eyes) to his character if we got some more information and I can feel some pity for him. Half  the tenno here would execute him on the spot before he could say anything and if either the corpus or grineer found him.... very bad things would occur.

[Crashen]

The Orokin had an almost spiritual aversion to the Tenno, seeing them as literal demons from hell, irredeemably corrupted by the Void and driven insane. Now, admittedly, this doesn't quite line up with the Operator's memories of the Zariman, where the adults were insane and the children maintained some semblance of sanity and culture. So calling for their execution is questionable. But, it gets tricky applying modern day contemporary morals to a setting wholly different from it. For example, in western culture, the idea of eating a dog or a cat is abominable, they are our friends and companions, while cows are delicious walking steaks! But in certain asian countries, dog and cat are just another protein and food source. Meanwhile, in India, eating, harming or disrupting cows is blasphemous and not a very good thing at all. To muslims and jews, pork is Unclean but chickens are fine. 

Each culture and belief has it's own reasons to their dietary restrictions, be it religion or practicality, but these are fairly substantial differences in one aspect of our current world. The Orokin Empire is wholly removed from what we know, with an entirely different set of morals, beliefs and practices, that spread across and dominated the Origin System. Their morals, to us, seem inhuman. That is because they are. They are no longer humans, as they have achieved scientific advancements bordering on the divine that have shifted their perspective far far away from what we know. And, to the best of our knowledge, their beliefs and culture permeated *all* worlds, *all* 'humans'. When literally the entire human race believes something, who is there to argue against it? Now, yes, there are exceptions such as Sylvana and Margulis, and doubtless others. But that is just a drop in the bucket, until we learn about a rival empire with opposing beliefs. Until then, they are lone voices of dissonance speaking out against 'human' nature.

So, judging Ballas by his culture's standards, he is probably a good guy. By our standards, he is a bad guy. In 'reality', I think he was a lot more complicated and had more shades of grey, just like everyone else. I do think he loved Margulis, and hated the Tenno, at least once they maimed her and blinded her. I think he saw the potential danger they represented, both to the Orokin, and to Margulis. I think Ballas is a consummate survivor, and knew that he had to play the Orokin game if he wanted to keep living, even if Margulis chose to defy it. Yes, he pronounced her death sentence, but I think he was torn between duty and his love, and only one of those would see him lose everything that day. So knowing that throwing in with Margulis wouldn't change anything, he chose to survive. Later, I think he helped create the Sentients, and when they turned on the Orokin, I think he was held responsible. I don't think Ballas continued Margulis' work out of love or nostalgia, not at first, but out of survival. He needed to find a way to cover his &#! for the massive F*** up that was the Sentients, so he took the Tenno and Transferance and turned it into a weapon to fight the monster he unleashed. 

But I also think he DID change, over time. I think after Margulis died, he began to take a closer look at the Empire he served. It's decadence and casual cruelty, something he had been a part of, something he probably indulged heavily in shortly after her execution. I think he began to see the rot that Margulis had seen. And I think, as he designed more and more Warframes, he saw the danger they posed, saw the threat they represented... and knew he and the Orokin deserved it. The Warframes began to become less utilitarian, and began to take on more artful aspects. And I think as he designed them, he created them with a knowledge and a purpose. I think he KNEW they would be the death of the Empire. He might not have known HOW or WHEN, but he knew the warframes would be the instruments of the Orokin Empire's downfall. He designed them that way. Nekros, and Valkyr I think, speak to this. Those two frames represent what the Orokin had lost, and what would be their doom. Other warframes were created for different purposes, Saryn and Oberon were meant to clean up, after the Orokin were destroyed, for example.

I don't know if he survived the fall of the Empire, I think he did because after all, he is a survivor and most likely a coward at heart. I don't think he was surprised that the Tenno turned on the Orokin, I think the question is, did he meet their blades with acceptance, or did he have a back-up plan and escape the doom he had wrought?

[Skulldozer115]

Im honestly not sure, if anything though, I feel like he was a necessary evil.

[Miser_able]

Seeing as how he weaponized a therapy for sick kids, yes mega D-bag. 

[Evanescent]

No-one knows, which is the best way. I hope he stays ambiguous. 

[FireSegment]

12 hours ago, (PS4)Frostelus said:

Warframes were made for operators to use in various situation, yet Ballas was the one who wanted to get rid of the Tenno in the first place. So, did Ballas have a change of heart at some point or something?

Only tenno can use warframe, but ... my theory is that may be it wasn't the case for Ballas at all.

What if the frames wasn't built for tennoes in the first place? and we just happened to be the best at controlling them much later on. 

We would need to watch the prime trailers again with the possibility that he was talking about himself as the wielder of those bio-mechanical machine, or ... that he "tame" those frame rather than created it.

 

 

[Dewsitine]

pretty much what @Crashen said. I think ballas and marg met. Then, he reinforced the connection between them. Later on, they started to have feelings for each other. Full blown love ensues. ( I would love if ballas' class can't have any lovers of any type at all for appearance sake) They can not consummate due to some unknown thing. Plan to expand begins or is underway. Zemermin is lost and found. Marg uses her and her huby's power to prolong tenno lives while he was afraid it will be the end of her. Then her time came and maybe convinced him to protect the children by any means. He iced them and later brought them back with the research that marg has done for the "glory" of the orokin. By this I suspect that he is a smoldering of his former self with a grudge to the orokin. Space mom takes appearance of marg to seduce or whatever to let her on the warframe project. He loved her or at least the image of the dead lover. She is plotting the downfall he has either become aware or knows of it; decides to help her. The tenno went on a slaughter with him taking precautions to not be dead and watch the world burn.

That is it for what I have in my mind and please excuse my possibly broken sentences. I skip steps as I do not want to elaborate and try to get my main idea / time line across.

[(PSN)Silverback73]

13 hours ago, GrayArchon said:

Ballas has been involved in many Orokin undertakings, from the creation of the Sentients to the Transference project. He's also the Orokin who made Ordan Karris the mercenary into Cephalon Ordis as a punishment. The Detron Crewman synthesis imprint shows his willingness to be deceptive and underhanded, and the story of Cephalon Ordis shows his vengeful streak. He can be heard arguing against the Transference project in the Second Dream, likely because of the pain it caused him in losing Margulis. Many of his actions depicted so far can be interpreted as him being "bad". However, he is also the narrator of the prime warframe trailers, and his monologues there can sometimes speak of nobler intentions (Saryn Prime, Oberon Prime, arguably Vauban Prime). As commented before, Warframe is rarely a game with clear-cut morals.

He was an A****** who had a soft spot for Margulis because she stirred love within his Sterile, cold heart.

He served the Empire and loved her for helping rekindle what little humanity hadn't been stripped out by his "immortality".  He probably promised her that he would not kill her children, but could not betray the empire.

Ultimately, he likely used Warframes and weaponized transference as the way to satisfy both conditions.  Once she was executed, though, he was probably terribly bitter or colder and more inhuman than ever.

Edited July 15, 2017 by (PS4)Silverback73

[GrayArchon]

On 14/07/2017 at 6:45 PM, Crashen said:

Later, I think he helped create the Sentients, and when they turned on the Orokin, I think he was held responsible. I don't think Ballas continued Margulis' work out of love or nostalgia, not at first, but out of survival. He needed to find a way to cover his &#! for the massive F*** up that was the Sentients, so he took the Tenno and Transferance and turned it into a weapon to fight the monster he unleashed. 

Why would he be held responsible for the creation of the Sentients? He was openly opposed to their development and talked about destroying them. Of course, he was secretly in favour of their deployment and worked towards that end, but the blame probably fell on Executor Tuvul, if anyone.

[(PSN)bddacres]

On 7/14/2017 at 0:07 PM, (PS4)geomancer1980 said:

Didn't he have her executed...

 

I am half moon/half sun... so not me...

He didn't flat out kill his lover. The council voted on it and to not seem sympathetic or, show signs of treason he agreed

[Crashen]

21 hours ago, GrayArchon said:

Why would he be held responsible for the creation of the Sentients? He was openly opposed to their development and talked about destroying them. Of course, he was secretly in favour of their deployment and worked towards that end, but the blame probably fell on Executor Tuvul, if anyone.

Good point. Very good point. There goes that theory!

[(XBOX)Solargeo]

On 7/14/2017 at 0:07 PM, (PS4)geomancer1980 said:

Didn't he have her executed...

 

I am half moon/half sun... so not me...

agreed. Paragade for Life!.. More Paragon then Renegade  75% Para n 25% Rene give or take some %

[AuroraSonicBoom]

If someone today enslaved every child below 13 to become a soldier in a war against aliens to save humanity, and succeeded, do you call him a monster or a hero?

Would your mind change if the war would be lost?

 

If you answer those questions, you know what to think about Ballas.

[Sirfol]

MMMMMMMMMMMH.

I think Ballas is the one who devised the plan to kill the orokin.

He loved margulis but hated us, when margulis was sentenced to death even if he said "I agree" in reality had decided for vengenance. He was powerful, probably a genius with a big ego so i think instead bending to the will of the judges, there and in that moment, had decided to kill all of them, but he was without power to do so.

The sentient project came and he was reluctant, but i think he changend his mind for that sole objective. The events didn't go as he planned an saw in the tenno some sort of "legacy redemption" he decided they were at fault for the event of margulis but at the same time he decided they could redeem themselves doing what he coudn't. So he devised a plan, and that plan is Natha. He was informed of every particular of the sentient project, so he could contact his daughter/piece(of hunhow) (or whatever it is) making her wish so strongly his womb wasn't a lifeless desert, he whyspered words of probability, words of transformation, words of belief in a idea, in a light, and in individuality. Who is lotus and how she describe herself? a warrior? a traitor? a revolutionary? no, simply a mother, no more natha, Lotus.

For me natha is another victim of ballas she manipulated her, not only he has the string of the tenno but he had the ones of they're hope and love too, he used them for his vegenance, for his ruin, because that's what he is, a ruined man strecthed in life as in morals. For he he want to redeem himself, but with all of enviroment that made him like that.

The Orokin stole everything from him, so he stole everything from the orokin.

Edited July 18, 2017 by Sirfol