Despite her relatively large role in Borderlands 3, Ava's gotten the Jar-Jar Binks treatment in Borderlands 4, wherein she's almost totally sidelined. Amara, another returning character from the third mainline game, is drafted in to pet-sit for Ava, who's been off gallivanting for months prior to the plot starting.
Where is Ava? We don't know. She's just elsewhere, resulting in all sorts of speculation about Gearbox's thought process and what this might indicate. There's a growing belief Amara's positioning is more than narrative convenience, and she's actually been placed into Ava's mold within the story.
