More Fallout Canonocity

Thought this would be another one of those series that I do the first half of and never get around to finishing?

Oh how incorrectly you thought!

Why would I not do New Vegas? I just beat it where as Fallout 3 has been sitting dead in my brain for thousands of years. Anyways, strap in to figure who the Courier really wanted to bang (spoilers: it was everyone).

FALLOUT NEW VEGAS
-The Courier helped House.

evidence: This one was tough, and integral to almost all of the other key plot points in the game... so I thought I'd just knock it out of the way. Caeser's Legion was clearly evil, and evil is never really canon in anything. Furthermore, the complete lack of Legion representation within the available companions further shuts the lid on that possibility (I suppose Raul had some nice things to say about them... but did that really count?). The NCR had me convinced up until they introduced Kimball, Oliver, and Moore. The introduction of the three absolute worst members of the faction at the very end of the game could only be meant to stir up mixed feelings deep within the Couriers chest cavity. The fact that every NPC in the game used the following format when talking about the faction didn't help: "Oh I love the NCR, but I really do have a problem with their suckiness". That leaves an independent New Vegas. While Yes Man is fantastic, you really miss out on some of the NCR's back story by going his route. House isn't really much of a character if you take that path either. Let's show a little loyalty to the man that shot down the missiles headed towards Vegas, am I right? Oh... I guess he saved your life too.

-Archimedes II wiped out the NCR at Helios.

evidence: Call it karma for what the NCR did to the Brotherhood of Steel early on. Honestly, too much mystery surrounds that site for Archimedes not to be activated. How could the Courier even manage to contain his curiosity? The Legion is pretty quick to move in after the NCR get "independence day'd" too... I'm not really sure if that is evidence of anything. Regardless, something like this was bound to happen with Fantastic at the helm.

-Dean died, Dog died, Christine died, Elijah locked himself in.

evidence: The Sierra Madre just has a habit of ruining people. Whether or not the "deadliness" of the resort was in Sinclair's original design, the hotel just found away to make people go dead. That was what Dead Money was all about right? Luckily, Sinclair's last move took Elijah with it... and Dog wasn't around to fix it this time.

-Joshua Graham is insane.

evidence: umm.. he survived a flaming descent into the Grand Canyon? How does one little battle with the Courier fix that?

-Forlorn Hope took back Nelson.

evidence: I dunno, Camp Forlorn Hope is probably the most tragic setting for the NCR. Restoring Hope is also probably the quest that hit me the most, emotion wise (Return to Sender too I guess). I find it hard to believe a non-Legion supporting Courier could let the death trap that is Forlorn Hope continue on as it is.

-Ulysses and the Divide remained utterly pointless.

evidence: There's no way Ulysses doesn't die. His half-baked, misguided spouting of philosophy was the antithesis of logic, and put the Courier through the hellish gauntlet that is "the lonesome road". When the Courier finally got there, he didn't take the time to try and talk Ulysses out of his insanity... he killed the piss out of him. And then he didn't launch the missiles anywhere... because how would that ever be a good idea?

Fallout Canonocity

I'm back!

Based on my blog stats, it looks like all my faithful readers are either nonexistent or disillusioned with me. Either way, I have an update... and it's a Fallout one.

I am now about 90 hours into my second playthrough in New Vegas. This is probably about 110 hours if you include research hours. In my many studies, I feel as if I have gotten myself acclimated with the ins and outs of the Fallout canon (with the exception of the titles done by Interplay. Haven't gotten through those ones yet... Although I did just download the original Fallout, so don't judge).

Pandering aside, the canon is fairly self explanatory with the primary exception being the actions of the player character. Bethesda, the lovable bastards, has not released an official canon. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to go through some of the major plights weighing on the Lone Wanderer and the Courier and inform you what the actually did.

Note: Conventional wisdom would dictate that the good option in all of the quests (morality wise) is canon. This is how it is for Bioware games anyways. I don't believe this to be true for Fallout as some of the good options are incredibly boring and wouldn't serve the purposes of the "fallout universe" well. Plus, I wouldn't have much to write about if I chose all the good options and called it a day. 


FALLOUT 3:
-The Lone Wanderer killed both Overseers in Vault 101

evidence: Amata always seemed to have a stick up her butt when it came to TLW, which didn't make sense because the were practically love interests. Is this because TLW was destined to kill her father? There are two opportunities to kill the guy, plus the new Overseer is creepy enough to necessitate the death of the original. "Trouble on the Homefront" seems rather unlikely without a regime change to inspire it... even with TLW's departure.

-The Lone Wanderer is Male
evidence: A girl in the tunnel snakes? I mean really...

-Megaton was blown up.

evidence: Did you see that explosion? Mr. Burke was right when saying that it was true beauty that was being witnessed on the top of Tenpenny Tower. While the exact timing of the destruction of Megaton is debatable (maybe after the Wasteland Survival Guide was wrapped up), there is no doubt in my mind that it happened, and it is a shadow that plagues TLW. Plus the quest is super boring if you just "repair the bomb".

-Paradise Falls got some new slaves.

evidence: Yes, TLW enslaved some people... particularly that douche in minefield. Another quest that would be particularly boring if you pick the good option, TLW needed to get into to the slaver camp somehow. The ends justify the means right? Plus, maybe it was worth it given the next one...

-Return to Little Lamplight
evidence: The quest is always canon over a speech check... every time. Those kids wouldn't be in Paradise Falls if TLW didn't break them out, so deal with it.

-Harkness was only found out once.
evidence: The android lived on in Rivet City. Getting sent back to the Commonwealth seems unlikely with TLW backing you up. Zimmerman was also kind of a tool...

-The fail-safe in Tranquility Lane was activated.

evidence: The ability to summon the chinese army to do your bidding wouldn't be there if TLW didn't activate it. Plus, eternal torture by Dr. Braun seems a little to similar to I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream for my taste.

-TLW killed Autumn, destroyed the FEV, and activated the purifier himself.
evidence: Debateable before Broken Steel came out. Now that there aren't really consequences for doing things yourself, that was clearly what happened.

-TLW married Sarah Lions.

evidence: They have feelings for each other. It's too ironic (given his name) not to happen!