The Obsessions of Ballas | Warframe Lore Explained 

What do you think about Ballas? If you liked it remember to sub and follow me on twitter: twitter.com/smoughtown Check out my Grineer Lore video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SLxBWyZIE2g.html

I don’t see that many people talking about this, but I have to give major props to Ballas’ voice actor for his range, going from emotionally abusive asshole to utter disbelief after getting the narmer veil slapped on his face I felt the pure pain in his delivery of “Mar-Margulis?”, knowing that his descent into the selfish monster he had become was only to be with her once again and that after presumedly thousands of years there she finally was

Man, the "she choose Death over you" line gets me every time.

Ballas seems to me like the perfect embodiment of the orokin empire, believing himself superior and majestic while being monstrous and manipulative (literally used mind control on the entire system and still wasn't satisfied). This rigid personality eventually led him to snap and finally die as the orokin did: disgraced and weak, from their own creations.

Ballas: The origin's most dangerous "Nice Guy"

Ballas is without a doubt one of my favourite villains. It took me time to figure out all the details, but I'm at a point where I can say that I think the New War quest is brilliant. I wasn't sure at first, but when you delve into the world of Warframe, it becomes beautiful.

The New War's storyline is largely about how people keep trying to make Lotus revert back to Natah or Margulis, when she is ultimately an independent person who has transcended them both.

I've been playing the story quests again and one exchange between Ballas and Margulis sticks out to me. Margulis: Do something. Get me out of here! Ballas: You know I can't. Margulis: Can't? Or won't? And you know what? Margulis is 1000% right. It's not that he couldn't, it's that he wouldn't. Just like how he blames everyone else for Margulis's death, he put it on everyone else, or rather on Margulis, to get herself out of trouble by recanting and choosing him. I also think that's why we get the "Margulis, why?" line. I think Ballas truly believed that when faced with death, when she had no where else to turn, surely Margulis would give up and just choose him, right? But she didn't. Even up until her last moments, she chose not just death but the Tenno over him. "My daughters, my sons, I want you to know my last thoughts are of you." Ballas, in all his narcissism, could never understand how she chose a bunch of "devils" over him.

I always kinda felt empathetic to Ballas prior to The New War. I wanted to believe that he was a broken man whose shattered will became shaped by the Sentient. Obviously with the quest he became a lot less sympathetic but this video showed me that honestly he was even more pitiful than I ever realised.

The way ballas speaks to her at the end, ive never been on a sun platform before but the way he talks, I recognize it for sure, ballas, in my mind feels a lot like my own experiences with emotional abuse, I never expected this game to become something so powerful, and I love it

I'm curious how many more Orokin will come out of hidding after ballas's little stunt on the origin system. Narmer might be a good option for the conservative Orokin that want things to return before the fall

He didn't save her not for being a coward, he didn't save her because he felt she betrayed him. He is a narcissist, she chose and couldn't understand how she could choose anyone other than him. When he sentenced her then pleaded with her, he was trying to make her beg for him to save her. When she didn't he blamed her for dying.

I love the fact that under the surface of space ninja shenanigans, is basically a bunch of relatable stories about family.

We can also see further his obsession over Margulis in the Prime trailer for Saryn.

The final confrontation with Ballas was really horrifying to me, a little like the final fight at the end of Castlevania S2 where it becomes clear that all we are watching is a father beat up a son in the cold dark halls of their family home. The mission starts so grand and imposing, facing off against the great armies of Narmer and racing to stop Praghasa from swallowing the sun, and then the scale collapses to just 3 people - a child and their parents.

Yeah pretty good take, he's a very complex character and can take up an entire quest for explaining his wierdness and narcissistic behaviour which combined made him Lotus' controller and psycho partner...

his death was extra poetic for me because i brought Umbra with me throught the entire quest, closuer may rest upon us.

I finally understand who the lotus is. I did a lot of research (or tried to do), and this video, explaining this with the context of the new war was great. Loved your take

I'm glad someone made a video thoroughly explaining why Ballas wasn't just a "Perfect plans and then suddenly maniac" character.

It really feels like this ties up a lot of loose ends. I was wondering what Lotus' motivations were and which words of hers were truths and lies. This really explains everything. Also it actually does make sense the fall of the Orokin was Lotus' doing and not Ballas considering what he's like. I can imagine she starts killing them off with the Tenno and Ballas puts himself into one of the stasis pods (just like Lotus did to us) in order to preserve himself. I wonder when he woke up though. I was initially thinking he was the one controlling Chroma in the New Strange quest and looking for the reservoir. He would've woken up and saw the Moon was gone. "Hushed and Empty is the womb of the Sky." I could be wrong though. The whisper talk is typically associated with Stalker, but it doesn't make sense if he was controlling Chroma.

For a while after the New War, as much as I loved Ballas meeting his end because of his own invention, it felt a bit cheap to me how it was all over as soon as the veil went on his face. But then I thought a bit more about it. The veils work (partially, there's clearly some more direct brainwashing going on as well) by digging through your mind and manipulating past trauma to present an idealized reality where you are relieved of that suffering. The reason we can withstand one for so long is because we've already dealt with our trauma, which helps us resist because we can recognize the veil's manipulative lies for what they are. Ballas, on the other hand, is a complete mess. He's profoundly narcissistic and has nurtured the same guilt, obsessions and delusions for literal centuries. He's never resolved anything, he's never moved on. It's no wonder that he succumbed to the veil as quickly and completely as he did, because he was exactly the kind of person who would be the most vulnerable to it.

the orokin knows every way possible to make their plans work, but they never accounted the consequences, because they cannot die well that's self-explanatory why ballas died

Ballas is by far, one of the best villains in all of gaming history.

This was a brilliant essay. You stated everything I ever wanted to explain to people who said that Ballas' actions were stupid and the quests didn't make sense together. And to people who hated Lotus so blindly arghhhhh :D It's also great that you put so much effort into illustrating the things you said with the lines from the game. Thank you!

Ballas is, beat for beat, the Orokin version of my own mother. Just like Ballas, she would cause any amount of pain in the name of obedience and control. And like Ballas, my mother called me the devil and told me to go to Hell. And especially Ike when Ballas was *blaming* Lotus for "making" him hurt her in the final battle, my mother would say similar things to me and my sister. Suffice to say, I *deeply* enjoyed any chance to hurt him, both in the Sacrifice quest and the climax of New War.

imagine living for 1000+ years to die by a kiss

i wonder how many other orokins like ballas survive? still remember the concept art about the orokin threat, cant wait

Now to see the Duviri version where he is cool space dad and Lotus is the villain. Mark my words it will be a mirror in many ways, Caliban with his fleur de'lys motif is a taste of a line of warframes with the OG Balla touch.

whoever voiced ballas nice work

Really great video, couldn't have said it better myself--I've been sort of analysing Ballas' personality myself for a while now and came to the same conclusions as you, though the Warframe lore is so confusing to me at times that it really helped to watch your video and hear your own take on it like this. Your explanation on Natah becoming Lotus, how Ballas wanted to shape/make his own ideal Margulis by overwriting Natah's already existing personality, was really great and helpful, since that's a piece of lore I was sort of lacking. The one thing I keep wondering about though is the transition from the woman we see that gets taken away by Ballas, to Natah who destroys Umbra with him and then takes his dead body away, to Ballas on a leash as he indirectly talks to us and builds the Paracesis sword, with Natah treating him as if he isn't even there. That whole timeframe and development that slowly leads up to The New War is what really confuses me, if you have any thoughts or theories on that, I'd greatly appreciate it. Just the whole Chimera prologue is what intrigues me a lot, and the scenes where Ballas is on a leash (which was all acting on his and Erra's part, but I wonder for how long that was planned out?). Anyway, great video! Thank you for posting it, very interesting and nicely summed up :) Ok Edit: I just saw you uploaded another video where you did talk about these things, so that's also great haha. Very glad I found your videos.

I respect everyone choices in the new war but after watching this video choosing anything but Natah ses cruel. Unless you see it as a final f*ck you to Ballas by choosing Margulies and then uts like he can't have the one thing he always wanted. Great story telling by DE

This is a great video! Thank you for explaining everything so well it helps me understand the game alot more. 10/10

Excellent video! Thoroughly enjoyed it and you cleared up some questions I had about the Lotus as well. This quest made me very emotional when I realised all the pain the Lotus has been through. I do wonder how much choice she had in becoming the Lorus, because the Drifter does say to Hunhow “she [The Lotus] chose the Tenno” implying some measure of choice. But we’ll never know for sure especially because of her warped memories.

That was actually spot on and makes a ton of sense.😌👌🏻

I have to shake my head at all the people wanting to kill the Lotus. She was clearly in trouble, and being used by Ballas very overtly. But some people's instinct was to murder her? Shameful :) Another rock-solid video. This should be required reading for anyone that wants to weigh in on the Ballas vs Lotus story arc.

Thank u for this, this clarifies everything and reassures me that my choice at the very end of the newest quest was correct (at least for me), I chose Margulis

Excellent analysis! Great video.

i have loved this video. in fact after your explanation the motivations of many of the characters make much more sense in light of this. it explains why he betrayed ezzra so easily. he didnt really care about sentients and control at all or at least very little what he wanted was a margulis he could control as well as the tenno under his control. so that the tenno just end themselves.

i personally find the most disgusting thing which he says about Natah is calling her a "barren disghusting thing" it shows him both considering her a mear object along with poking at the fact that she can't have children of her own, he's jabing at the most natural trait that made her the Lotus, her motherly instinct, one of the main things, that took the origional Margulis away from him.

Remember kids: simping is never the right idea. When the Baruuk skin comes out, I'm coloring him like Ballas.

Fantastic job, as usual.

great analysis!

Ballas just has a voice I love to listen to.

This was very astute. Bravo.

Ballas made the same mistake with Natah and the Lotus because he never understood Margulis. No matter what face she wore, it was always Margulis, and she would always make the same choice. With the betrayal of the Orokin, I think there was another motivation, to protect the Tenno from the Orokin. Having defeated the Sentients, seemingly, it would not be long before the Orokin would seek to exploit the Tenno and the Warframes for their own benefit. Indeed, judging by some of the entries in the Leverian, they already had. Lavos was a brutal guard of a high-security prison. Protea was a babysitter to Parvos Granum. How soon before the others would be used in menial, thankless and dangerous tasks.

Ballas was fighting over the Hood against the Groove Street

Love this video, really good interesting perspective on the charachter. Most people devolve him as generic evil but that rarely exists int he real world and ballus is is fair too interesting to deprive the complex layer of reality

Ballas def had the power to step in and lessen her punishment, but for a man named ballas he had no ballas with a silent a

looking at eidelon lotus you can really see her 3 personalities on her body. her face resembling marglius, her hands and parts of her body the lotus, and the energy holding her together the black thing on her head natah.

What's the deal with this guy's body? Like, he starts out relatively normal except for the skin and eyes, but then he gets increasingly more goofy looking to the point where it's a miracle he can even function.

Honestly Rebecca and the VA for Ballas deserve SOMETHING for their work. The New War is by far the best Warframe has to offer next to The Sacrifice, especially the final hour and a half of the quest. Can't wait for Veilbreaker to see Archon Erra 👀

I don't think this is the last time we're going to see Ballas. . Eternalism is a prevalent concept in the quest regarding the drifter and operator, as well as the next major update focused on the Zariman and Duviri.

Is the Ropalyst dialogue canon? I'd assumed it was one of those Narmerisms, rooted in a truth and insecurity and regret (it is kinda fucked up she turned around and facilitated the genocide of her own kind) but twisting and omitting enough to drive her in the direction of his plans (it wasn't deliberate manipulation that she started feeling things, that's just the consequence of the empathy her mimicry required, and it was her choice that she found something more important to her than familial tie). Is there a source that isn't her own mouth confirming that? Much as I love Warframe lore it can be a nightmare to keep up with (which is why I thank the efforts of those such as yourself consolidating and analysing it in such lovely fashion, this video's ace)

Honestly its kinda the same obsession as players wanting mama lotus back. I think thats why its best to let her be Natah.

Bruh i'm so used to my natah customisations that i thought you used my natah look in the thumbnail. Great video tho

Oh dang, didn't know you played & liked Warframe!

I don't think I've ever seen a soulslike lore person cover Warframe, very cool!

You know I was pretty pissed during the final battle but I thought it was for the difficult fight. The stealth I endured and failed constantly... and of course the piss yellow screen burning my eyes in during the same finale what with the narmer aesthetic and the Praghasa death... maybe. But it could also be the disturbing exchange between mostly Ballas and Lotus' retaliation. No one hurts mother, I guess? Even watching this video sort of is rousing something in my throat.

Yo @SmoughTown, have you incountered the ninkanas in the Zariman ship on operator mode? It makes a really eerie tone

the trailer for the new movie 'Crimes Of The Future' made me think of the beginning of the Orokin.

wow thats nuts never knew most of this

Warframe has the best lore ever

Ballas -- the man made his love story a history.

Ooo lore uwu

Basically the guy is repressing his guilt over being the one who ultimately killed Margulis. He tried to manipulate Margulis into giving up the Tenno while maintaining his own high position. In the end, he chose to keep his authority over risking any of it to save Margulis. He regretted it thoroughly, but knows he wouldn’t do it any different which makes it worse. So, he blames everyone and everything else while refusing to accept any consequence.

welcome to san andreas, it's cj from grove street

Unpopular opinion coming right here: I just don't understand these double standards. Ballas lost Margulis, so he replaces her with Lotus. When he gets the chance, he tries to reprogram her. Ballas can't stand the idea of anyone else having the new Margulis. When he feels she is being taken away from him, he attacks the other, who's dark past has been revealed in the meantime. Now change Ballas' name to Tenno. We wanted the mother figure just as Ballas wanted Margulis. We had and made the choice regarding the programing at the end of the New War. Ballas stabbed us, oh no, I wonder who stabbed who at the first chance he had. And we f**cking manipulate everyone in the galaxy by giving them fake hope and a helping hand which never solves the problem but only pretends to deal with it. Meanwhile deep down we know we could deal with any f**cking creature, god or goverment. At least we could wipe out the entire Corpus station in a minute on Venus I tell you that! But the very thing that disgusts me is the hypocrisy the Tenno shows: The reason we don't save everyone is because we wouldn't be needed. Then, the thirst for power and the hunger for domination that we quench by using warframes to showcase that our void given power is inevitably the end of all who crosses us, would leave an unfulfilled thirst for power. So we selfishly lead them to believe that we can only do so much, but there is hope for the liberation of the galaxy, you just have to trust in the Tenno. We might as well have put that veil on them the first place. Lastly, don't get me wrong, the masks did manipulate the people who did not want to join Narmer. But the majority had enough of the Tenno's massacure and just as Ballas said "They wanted to kneel". So unlike us, whos kill every Corpus and Grinner soldiers on sight, Ballas gave an illusion for those who didn't want to join him. So I guess he chose a pretty gentle method for the civillians AND the soldiers as well, just remember what happened with Kahl. (Of course those who chose violence got rekt.) Even Eudico said that finnaly she got that weight off her shoulders and it felt so good to finnaly rest. So what does the Tenno do, who thinks about Ballas as a toxic, selfish, narcissistic evil? Well, they sacrifice the peace of the galaxy and almost end the entire system by risking the destruction of the Sun to get back their mom figure. Wow XD

In a way, I feel for the man. He was deeply in love with Margulis, and had to suffer her growing apart from him after the tenno's arrival. Not only that, but he had to see the woman he dearly loved suffer, and get hurt at the hands of the tenno. In spite of all of his boasting, and his curses towards Margulis, Natah, and the Lotus, all he wanted was to go back to the time in which Margulis was his world and he was hers. As for Natah's line, "she chose death over you," I don't think Margulis did this. She chose not to forsake lives that could be saved, even knowing it would cost her her very life. Ballas wasn't really in the equation when she took this decision. I *do* think Ballas actually believes what Natah says, and feels betrayed by his lover. But ultimately, like the veil showed, if Margulis suddenly popped into existence once more, he would let everything go just for one more second with her. Overall, I think it's a pretty tragic love story. And if I'm honest, I wish we could see scenes of Margulis and Natah's pasts before everything that went down.

I agree 100% he's a pretty well written and complex villain that I've seen in a game in a long time. Dude was messed up

Basically ballas was a love sick puppy that want senpai to notice him.😺

What I want to know is what is up with this bloke’s arm? Imagine you’re in a room, you’re in the center of the room, and he enters from a doorway, instant eye contact. Everything is fine. Until he goes all go go gadget extendo armo and suddenly you feel this mf’s gangly-ass fingers running up and down your back.

Interesting character, but a horrible, horrible person

Bruh I thought that was Justin Trudeau on the thumbnail.

After the New War i never touch my paracesis My tenno is haunted by it

Ballas wanted a boyfriend-free girl to become a sweetheart from the ground up

Does ballas have prime reach on his right arm

Epic

Despite what Ballas did, I can't help but sympathize just a bit with him. Even StallordD makes a good observation on his obsessions.

Bruh i was playing new war while my girlfriend was in the room and when it got to the ballas verbal abuse scene all she said was "Holy fuck, what a narcissistic dick" She wasnt watching or anything just working on her computer 😂 heard ballas talking and didnt like what he was saying (for good reason lol)

i guess the 3 choices you get to make her be at the end of new war would be: Margulis- margulis spirit which resides in natah but she was not the original soul of the body and the reprogramming of natah was not natural. Lotus: A combination of natah and margulis which is a fait choice but still not who Natah truly was. Then Natah who went through all these challenges and hardships to become a new natah with greater understanding which i think is the best choice. The imitation of margulis is not who Natah is. Natah is daughter of Hunhow and sentient, body of a sentient but with the lessons of Margulis and Lotus

I like Ballas as a villain because DE wasn't afraid to go all-in with him. It would have been far too easy to make Ballas an 'I want to rule the world just because' villain, but no, as indicated by the pre-quest warning, there were aspects of true psychological delusions and emotionally abusive aspirations behind his actions.

i thought the title said " The Obsessions of Balls "

Can we get a video for pazuul

Ballas has all the hallmarks of a narcissist; listening to him was like living with my father again, and killing Ballas felt like when I finally became free from my father, after a lifetime of narcissistic abuse. Narcissists of this caliber are master manipulators, and there are few (if any) depths they won't sink to in pursuit of narcissistic supply. I could write a novel on how neatly Ballas displays the hallmarks of narcissistic personality disorder, so I'll leave it at this: I have never so viscerally *hated* a fictional character before, nor have I ever been more satisfied to see him die.

I wonder if teshin know who ordis was back in the. Orokin era

So which lotus is the good one natah? Normal lotus? Margulis?

I had never before searched for who is lotus bc i know that player will say she is a mother a lover for tenno who betrayed her own kind for us blah blah blah So i said that she betrayed her own kind betrayed us betrayed ballas betrayed us again and killed ordis and back to kill ballas so how can i make shure that she will not try to kill us when she can But now im sure that Ballas is greatest man ever Bc he apologized for margulis 2 times about his fault ''Margulis, please forgive me'' ''forgive me, but of course you are imprisent just as she was '' lines And he tryed to fix everything but he was always the evil and what make him angry again that after he saved Erra life after the old war and being killed by Umbra wich he saw it a perfect death ,Natah revived him and Erra make him his pet I see it will be more better if someone revived Ballas again but this time natah will try to kill him but we tell her to do not So this time he will find his margulis and will see us as the one who fixed the wound inside him so he will love us and we will finaly see The maker who created the warframes Ballas take us to Tau system

Ballas is such an amazing villain. Who could have imagined that the final boss of the main arch of warframe would be an abussive ex boyfriend

Canonically speaking how many tenno still exist?

The Warframe storyline has had too much time to breathe between story quests being released. The motivations of the Orokin and the Sentients were seemingly so beyond human understanding before, that I really built up this mystery around them in my mind. It really came down crashing, when both Balas and the sentients ended up having such human motivations, that I feel it lost some magic for me. That's not to say that they're bad characters now - it's all very satisfying and has a great emotional payoff, I just wish that Hunhow and Erra didn't bicker like... well, me and my dad, and had some grander aspirations that did not seem so emotionally driven.

Ballus is literally me

I think they could have made him a better villain. He was just too comically evil in the new war. For me the best villains are ones where they exist in a gray area.

Ok, so all this time am just wondering, why did Erra help Ballas torture his sister?

Executor. Leader. Liar. Lover. Abuser. Yeah and no one knows how he managed to rule at the End in "The New War" instead of Erra who used Ballas as a "Pet" before

Bro if this game wasn’t free they would’ve been made a sequel

Why am I just realizing the tenno are named after the ship. 10-0 Ten-Oh Tenno

13:17 i never saw him attempt to behead her when i beat it on my ps5. he just stabs her

I always just thought he was a simp

New quest is out

Its Justin trudeaus real form