CT Phipps
Carbon Dated and Proud
One thing I really like about Fallout as a franchise it's villains tend to be on the more intelligent side than is typical in video games. It also makes the point that just because they're genius masterminds, they're not necessarily RIGHT. Indeed, pointing out where their logic is askew is one of the hearts of what makes the world work.
1. The Master is the obvious best example of this as he wants to make a humanity that can survive the Wasteland. The fact it's sterile is an obvious blow to his plans and makes him suicidal. However, even before that, his plan doesn't make any goddamn sense because he's attempting to turn humanity into Super-Mutants so they can survive the apocalypse....when the entire game is about showing how humanity is surviving the apocalypse just fine. He's the self-appointed messiah no one wanted.
2. The Enclave works as villains because they claim authority and hierarchy that the audience (the player) recognizes but would be equivalent of a Confederate General showing up and declaring all citizens of Kentucky should follow his orders. Their plan is also ludicrous because they are using arbitrary criteria that claim that you are not human anymore that clearly is something you can only tell under a microscope (at best). FEV could wipe out all mutants on Earth but would there be ANY ecology on the planet if they succeeded? Unlike the Master, Dick Richardson and Frank Horrigan remain unrepentant to the end.
3. Fallout 3, Fallout 4, 76....okay, not everyone fits this criteria. In fact, I'd say the best villain of Fallout 3 is definitely the DLC version of Lord Ashur. The Pitt is by far the best material made for Fallout 3 except for Tranquility Lane. Ashur believes he can rebuild America's infrastructure and start actually restoring the world but he's using slave labor to do it (viva la capitalism!) and the only thing he's actually restored manufacturing wise is bullet making. Which is a cool metaphor if it's deliberate. Sadly, you can't talk him down.
4. Caesar can certainly talk a good game about the harsh realities of re-establishing civilization in a Post-War society but NCR represents a direct challenge to his narrative as does Mr. House. Caesar claims he needed to create the Legion as a culture to absorb all of the surrounding tribal peoples and turn them into a conquering horde to rebuild the world with plans of making something better in the long run. However, House did the same thing with New Vegas' tribals and they didn't need to become vicious raiders (and arguably, like Caesar, he didn't change them nearly as much as he thinks). NCR as a functioning gender equal democracy without slavery also shows Caesar's anachronistic values aren't needed.
How does this apply to Fallout: The Series?
1. Vault-Tec is someone who is introduced as a group that destroyed the world for their profits and yet all evidence shows their plan has gone horribly arry. They nuked the world to have a monopoly on the post-war world and rebuild using mad science. Except Vault 4 shows their experiments went wildly out of their control, humanity rebuilt itself without them (Shady Sands is a bad example because it was founded by Vault dwellers), and they're not really any closer to taking over the Earth now than they were in the beginning. Indeed, Hank may have nuked NCR not because of any desire to get rid of rivals (that is Moldaver's speculation) but purely out of spite for losing his kids in a messy divorce.
1. The Master is the obvious best example of this as he wants to make a humanity that can survive the Wasteland. The fact it's sterile is an obvious blow to his plans and makes him suicidal. However, even before that, his plan doesn't make any goddamn sense because he's attempting to turn humanity into Super-Mutants so they can survive the apocalypse....when the entire game is about showing how humanity is surviving the apocalypse just fine. He's the self-appointed messiah no one wanted.
2. The Enclave works as villains because they claim authority and hierarchy that the audience (the player) recognizes but would be equivalent of a Confederate General showing up and declaring all citizens of Kentucky should follow his orders. Their plan is also ludicrous because they are using arbitrary criteria that claim that you are not human anymore that clearly is something you can only tell under a microscope (at best). FEV could wipe out all mutants on Earth but would there be ANY ecology on the planet if they succeeded? Unlike the Master, Dick Richardson and Frank Horrigan remain unrepentant to the end.
3. Fallout 3, Fallout 4, 76....okay, not everyone fits this criteria. In fact, I'd say the best villain of Fallout 3 is definitely the DLC version of Lord Ashur. The Pitt is by far the best material made for Fallout 3 except for Tranquility Lane. Ashur believes he can rebuild America's infrastructure and start actually restoring the world but he's using slave labor to do it (viva la capitalism!) and the only thing he's actually restored manufacturing wise is bullet making. Which is a cool metaphor if it's deliberate. Sadly, you can't talk him down.
4. Caesar can certainly talk a good game about the harsh realities of re-establishing civilization in a Post-War society but NCR represents a direct challenge to his narrative as does Mr. House. Caesar claims he needed to create the Legion as a culture to absorb all of the surrounding tribal peoples and turn them into a conquering horde to rebuild the world with plans of making something better in the long run. However, House did the same thing with New Vegas' tribals and they didn't need to become vicious raiders (and arguably, like Caesar, he didn't change them nearly as much as he thinks). NCR as a functioning gender equal democracy without slavery also shows Caesar's anachronistic values aren't needed.
How does this apply to Fallout: The Series?
1. Vault-Tec is someone who is introduced as a group that destroyed the world for their profits and yet all evidence shows their plan has gone horribly arry. They nuked the world to have a monopoly on the post-war world and rebuild using mad science. Except Vault 4 shows their experiments went wildly out of their control, humanity rebuilt itself without them (Shady Sands is a bad example because it was founded by Vault dwellers), and they're not really any closer to taking over the Earth now than they were in the beginning. Indeed, Hank may have nuked NCR not because of any desire to get rid of rivals (that is Moldaver's speculation) but purely out of spite for losing his kids in a messy divorce.
