Axton

Axton is the playable Commando class character in Borderlands 2.

He was revealed on February 21, 2012, in the Borderlands 2 Launch Date Trailer.

Background
Originally from Heironymus, Axton once had a military career. After his pursuit of personal glory led to numerous compromised missions, his wife and commanding officer Sarah divorced him and sentenced him to the firing squad, while not-so-subtly suggesting that he instead flee to the border worlds. Taking the hint, Axton went AWOL and became a mercenary, ultimately taking his skills, and his precious turret, to Pandora where he felt they would be more appreciated.

Axton became aware of the Vault thanks to a radio advertisement orchestrated by Handsome Jack, who had been monitoring the Commando's most recent bounty hunt.

Skills
Action Skill: Sabre Turret

Axton is able to deploy a versatile Dahl Sabre Turret, a veritable arsenal with 360° rotation and a weapons complement that can be upgraded to include multi-rocket launcher and a portable nuke. The turret's cooldown is 42 seconds, the same as Salvador's Gunzerking skill.

Guerrilla
Short-range engagement. Focused on getting Axton into the fight and improves the turret's ability to perform continuous high damage attacks (the turret as heavy suppression fire support)

Gunpowder
Medium-range engagement. Focuses more heavily on medium range explosives and weapon damage. Improves many of Axtons offensive combat stats, and improves the turret mostly as a tactical deploy/distraction.

Survival
Defense-oriented. Focused on defensive stat boosts and abilities, using the turret frequently, and pulling Axton back from the brink of death.

Quotes
When reviving an ally When being revived When getting a headshot When downed  Deploying a turret General Combat Level Up Critical Hit kill
 * I'm not going to say you owe me, I'm just implying it.
 * Wow. Do you work out?
 * Don't worry. I won't tell anyone.
 * Hey, It happens to the best of us.
 * Didn't know you cared!
 * You deserved it. Bitch.
 * Cool story bro.
 * Whabam!
 * Ha! Did you see his face?
 * Medic!
 * I need help over here!
 * Did you meet the missus?
 * Wanna meet my girlfriend?
 * Go get 'em, honey!
 * Auto gun, deploy!
 * Let's get to killing, sweetheart!
 * Stand in front of this.
 * Killing time!
 * YOU get a bullet! YOU get a bullet! EVERYBODY gets a bullet!
 * STRONGER, SMARTER, more sexually attractive.
 * SPLOOGE!

Trivia

 * When using Axton and getting the voice modulator from Angel he makes funny remarks with it before doing the next story mission. (This is true of all 4 characters.)
 * Axton's turret is manufactured by Dahl.
 * Axton's wife Sarah died a few years before the events of Borderlands 2. She was also his former commanding officer, and Axton wears her dog tag.
 * Axton is wanted for war crimes, the bounty on his head is $5,000,000,000.
 * Axton dislikes cats.
 * It is apparent that Sarah before the events of Borderlands 2 had given her wedding band back to Axton before he was to be executed by a firing squad, avoiding it only because he went to Pandora.
 * One of Axton's skins is called "Double Down Brown Town", a reference to the Destructoid podcast "Podtoid".
 * Another, "Red Fraction" is a reference to the game Red Faction
 * If Axton is the chosen character to start out as, an ECHOlog will be in your inventory about Axton and his wife Sarah. Sarah gives Axton back her wedding ring saying how she didn't like diamonds anyway.
 * When Axton deploys his Sabre Turret he sometimes addresses it with pet names such as "sweetie", "honey", "the Mrs.", or his "girlfriend".
 * Axton is voiced by Robert McCollum, who was the voice of the war mage from the Orcs Must Die games.
 * Axton's personal backstory ECHO recordings are located in Lynchwood. There is a YouTube video detailing the exact locations.
 * It is speculated that Axton's character may be bisexual in nature, but it may just be an oversight by the producers. Anthony Burch explains more.