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Major spoilers in this question, so beware if you have yet to finish the game!

The question isn't so much about what happens to him since the ending is pretty unambiguous in that respect, but rather, what happened to...

his face. Throughout the game you can see the metal clips around his face, which is even a different colour to the skin on his forehead and neck. At the end, after he dies, the mask comes off and you see his real face, with one eye burned and all horrible. Most intriguing is the massive Vault symbol scar, as it looks more like a strip of metal embedded in his skin rather than a scar. You can see his face here.

Is there any reference as to what happened here? Is some past event mentioned or anything? I don't remember hearing anything about it as I was a bit surprised when I found out about it towards the end.

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I am sure it was mentioned during one of the quests. Something to do with him wanting to retain a youthful appearance. – deutschZuid Oct 29 '12 at 10:48
@JamesJiao don't remember that, any idea where that was? Only info I could find (from wiki) is that he'd had it since before he became head of Hyperion – Alex Oct 29 '12 at 11:09
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I have a feeling it will all be revealed in an upcoming DLC. – Jeff Mercado Oct 29 '12 at 14:04
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All speculation, but it seems his Grandmother was a Psycho (you pick up her Buzz-Axe in the mission to find his grandma). It'd also explain why he wanted her dead. Psychos are obsessed with the Vault and the symbol, psychos like cutting people up... – Ben Brocka Oct 29 '12 at 16:57
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Handsome Jack without mask image – iber Oct 30 '12 at 15:46

1 Answer

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This wiki entry on Handsome Jack point out that:

He was wearing the mask even before he took control of Hyperion

Which implies to me that whatever the explanation for his face, it would have to do with something about his past that is unrelated to current borderlands events.

Following that line of thinking, the article also offers 3 possible hypotheses:

  1. His daughter Angel did that to him by accident before she could control her powers.

  2. He was branded by a Vault Guardian or Bandit during his search for the vault (before he leaves it to the vault hunters)

  3. His grandmother (who is known to be a Psycho) did that to him when he was younger.

I personally like (3) because of the part in the article and the game when you find out that Jack had his grandmother killed because of some sort of trauma that he underwent at her hands.

The complete article is here.

In addition, I found this video which is an interview by Anthony Burch and Paul Hellquist which says that there is an NPC in Sanctuary who talks about what is under Handsome Jack's mask. Although, they do say that those are just the fan theories that were bandied about on the forums.

Hope this helped a little at least.

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