The writing is extremely lazy, it also pushes the same dangerous/fascist idea that western media is saturated with nowdays, that everything bad that happens is the product of some shadowy Illuminati puppetmasters.
Also If you look at the general response so far people are bending over backwards to invent reasons why the writers are actually very smart, this is the same thing that happens with all slop (Star Wars is the archetypal example I think) - ‘oh maybe the writers didn’t actually mean this/are holding back information for next season/have some bigger picture in mind that will make it all make sense etc.’
While the set gives shadowy Illuminati, all the big capitalists getting together in a room and going "Well there's gonna be an economic crash if there's no nuclear war, so we HAVE to nuke the planet" isn't even a conspiracy, that's just capitalists doing capitalist things.
I hope S2 goes into the evolution of the pre-war gov't to mask-off fascist enclave.
I'm not very critical though, the dialogue sounding like it could be in a fallout game, and the little gimmicks like the player walking up to a random person and pointing a gun at them like "Oh, I didn't know that's rude" gives me dopamine.
I hope S2 goes into the evolution of the pre-war gov't to mask-off fascist enclave
see i think that was a weak point, because the prewar gov't was 1,000% fascist and the pre-war stuff they've put in so far is extremely tame McCarthyism references. they were doing genocide on hippies, canadians, mexicans, and chinese americans before the bombs dropped
that everything bad that happens is the product of some shadowy Illuminati puppetmasters.
That's part and parcel of Fallout though, no? There was already rampant speculation on Vault-Tec starting the war and the US govt by the end was basically Vault-Tec and the Enclave in a trench coat.
I never really played the games so maybe I’m missing something. But I don’t really understand why capitalists that already own and run everything would decide they need to create a post-apocalyptic wasteland. I mean the main reason we’ve never had nuclear war irl is because no-one benefits. And then the show is so devoid of politics or ideology, but in that case the motives of people who would give over their entire life to, for example, just running a vault underground, becomes hard to imagine.
IRL you had RAND, which did game out beneficial nuclear war. The idea was that only America would survive (as long as we did it first) and it would hurt our enemies more than us. Then the wealthy could maintain a relatively normal lifestyle, like the vault dwellers, while reaping the unharmed natural resources (oil, minerals, metals) of former enemies.
Of course, like you said, the material forces of the real world kept that from happening. The game world doesn't have the material limitations we do.
Because they're trapped in an endless resource war with China that is on the edge of total world annihilation. They're conspiring to do a controlled burn rather than going to the negotiationing table with China.
They'd rather burn everything down then lose the world to China I think is the play that they're going for.
they're on some libshit but 'fiduciary responsibility' getting explained as a negative thing it's left libshit at least
of course the ‘communists’ in the show turned out to be smug liberals who apparently knew everything abou VaultTecs plans, and negelected to tell anyone or do anything about it except for have meetings amongst themselves? lmao
i mean how long have we been yelling at the general public that exxon mobil is trying to murder us all, lmao
"worth"? Idk, I'm not paying for it. Yarrr matey!
Once again banging this drum: gigantic plot hole in the first 15 minutes. Lucy uses her PipBoy to detect radiation on Monty to figure out he's a raider. Literally everybody else in the vault had a PipBoy on for the entire wedding. Nobody noticed the radioactivity?
They were just careless. They never thought someone would get into another vault. I thought it was stupid too, but they were just super dumb and naive. Not necessarily a plot hole. And it shows how sheltered (literally) that vault dwellers are.
Okay sure they're all incredibly fucking stupid, fine, whatever. Are their PipBoys stupid? If they're so fucking stupid, how has their community survived for 200 years? Why would you ever turn off your geiger counter when even it is powered by a nuclear battery? Fallout is a universe where the dishwasher is powered by a Demon Core for fucks sake
Them being naive isn't the bad writing, but the way this information is revealed is absolutely terrible. It requires many leaps of logic and it could have been omitted entirely and have her realize they were being raided when her new husband tries to kill her. It's sloppy, sloppy writing that should have been excised in a revision.
Plot holes are excusable. Hell, my favorite example is Empire Strikes Back (how in the fuck did they travel to another star system without a hyperdrive?) but there's things that make up for it. Before I closed the episode to leave for work early, I saw a neat pre-war sequence starring Walton Goggins and a fun bit of Vault life very heavily bogged down by the writers making sure to cram in as many references to the window dressing of the games as possible, so you know you're watching the Fallout show about Fallout like the famous Fallout video game series.
Idk maybe I'll give it another shot but tbh I'll probably just be fast-forwarding to the parts with Cooper
Except the very instant Lucy turns her PipBoy on it starts clicking, without her having to switch to geiger counter mode. Also, it literally can't be turned off in any of the games, but that's neither here nor there
Easy headcanons:
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Everyone muted their notifications to focus on the big party, and they only turned back on when the pipboy itself was switched back on
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Moldaver had some method of masking radiation signatures long enough until it was time to attack. Given
Episode 8 spoilers
she's a pre-war scientist who also leads an NCR spminter faction with all the infrastructure needed for cold fusion,
that's not a crazy stretch.
There's also the fact that exposure to radiation doesn't make human beings radioactive but that's excusable in the same was as FEV making zero scientific sense
If somebody got covered in radioactive dust and never bathed (which is on-brand for Bethesda Fallout characters who still have skeletons in their living rooms 200 years later) it would set it off.
Now she just doesn't notice he smells like shit but you know what I'm over it because Walton Goggins is that good
not even headcanon, it's stated in the show that the vault suits are supposed to block radiation, no? that doesn't pan out in all the games stats iirc but it would in the show, until the dude gets naked it'd be contained by the suit
Iirc that line is a question from Cooper that never gets answered, although it is backed by FO4 stats. Only issue is that they'd still be giving off rads from their uncovered heads
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It's got the iconography and the aesthetics down pat. It's really worth it as a Fallout fan for that alone. For about an episode or two, anyway.
I'm finding the writing distractingly inconsistent, I outright dislike one of the main characters in a way that makes it hard to watch their scenes, and all of the thought provoking elements of Fallout lore is nudged out to explore Brotherhood and Enclave stuff again.
I would recommend it if you genuinely like Fallout. On it's own, I think it's a really, really messy show.
according to the show
four years before the events of new vegas
the BoS nuked shady sands
absolutely ridiculous. if someone genuinely likes fallout they should not engage with a work so careless with the world.
it’s hitting a big old reset button on a post-post-apocalyptic city with running water, electricity, paved roads, medical care, food production, electoral politics and laws
It's fucking stupid because a post-post-apocalyptic city setting is excellent -- you could throw in parts of the show where the MC explores the wastes or something. It would give it more depth, but Bethesda loves an unrealistic, unchanging wasteland for some silly reason.
To be fair, Chairs Avellone (who wrote some of New Vegas's best stories) also wanted to reset the wasteland with nukes and tunnelers. It's not a bethesda-only thing.
Which is funny because that's just using the plot point of the Circle of Steel trying to do the same thing from Van Buren, which was already modified to them fighting a war with the NCR in New Vegas and blowing up their gold reserves
I get the whole ""guys in power armor" thing is cool, but for Christ's sake, do something else
New factions, new ideas please
Is it true that New Vegas is completely destroyed too? It would be hilarious if Todd was so salty that he just couldn't allow it to exist
hadn't heard that but i guess it could be even worse
I've heard that, too. Seen some screenshots. Not too happy. But I've resolved to actually watch it myself so I'm not mislead in any way. If its as lore breaking as it sounds I have no idea why they would write around the one part of the universe that lore nerds are obsessed with.
I'm on episode 2, at least, and it's good, so far.
I have a feeling it's going to be good, but I can already see some drawbacks.
Once you know the drawbacks, though, you know what to expect and keep your expectations in check.
i hear it's bad, and not just because hodd toward is a piss baby
I thought it was very fun, I'm about to start the third episode. It's no Shogun, but it's quite fun. As other people have said here, they nailed the look and feel of the setting, and my slop devouring brain loves that they sometimes use sound effects straight from the games. It really tickles all my nostalgia neurons, and I quite enjoy it. But I'm a fan of the franchise, so YMMV.
I think it's essentially the Twisted Metal show, but better. Not by much, but better. And just like TM has Sweet Tooth as an incredible breakout character, Fallout has The Ghoul, but I think that says more about Walton Goggins than the show itself!
i just finished and came on here to talk about it great timing on the thread
dislike: some weak characterization, pretty weak comedy, obvious and annoying logistical problems, weak worldbuilding
like: i got hooked in by some of the fanservice, and i think the story wraps in a pretty satisfying way. the Brotherhood of Steel remain shitheads
spoiler rants/praise:
spoiler
FUCK the iron man power armor, this shit so fucking stupid, Mr Todd Howard, in your video game you insisted on making the entire art direction follow, the suit has a massive, clumsy jetpack. i even think that's stupid but come on a walking tank is not propelled into the air by a wrist-jet.
cold fusion in a universe where regular hot fusion exists. has anybody who worked on fallout taken a science class? fucking fantasy macguffin writing. in-universe fusion was a coveted and early roll-out thing in the US only, which is why the rest of the world was still fighting over oil & other resources, but the post-war US still had it it's a plot element elsewhere in the show. nothing cold fusion promises is not already present in the Fallout universe.
ghoul juice. like who made ghoul juice. how is it still being made. why. i mean sure they could be saving it for next season like omg West Tek made ghouls before the war and the no-crazy-juice, but man it's just so unnecessary and contrived. need a reason for Ghoul to sell Valutie? he needs regular damn drugs. he's a shithead.
i thought the Shady Sands nuking was going to be extremely dumb, from the worst New Vegas dlc. that first impression was incorrect tho, and i think they answered 'where is the NCR' and 'why would that happen' reasonably well. i have to assume that the wacky 'lawless waste' thing had to be somewhat localized and temporary while the area reeled from the decapitation of central administration, but like the Hub and shit would've kept on chugging.
I'm 2 episodes in and it feels like they nailed the setting. That's all I got to say so far though.
Kinda sad that it skips over the most interesting time periods in the universe - but overall it is fun and not terrible. Sometimes the tone whip-lashes between serious and ridiculous too fast, which makes it hard to take either seriously.
I had never heard this before comrade and after reading a hell of an effort post
i feel free
Show
A friend of mine, who is a huge fan of Fallout, recommends it. He said some of it can be half baked, especially with some of the goofier elements, but the horror scenes more than make up for it. I'm going to torrent it based on his recommendation.
fallout show comes out
nearly immediately, WW3 kicks off
what did they mean by this
When she saw the NCR flag and the music played.spoiler
I don't like the power armor stuff and I hope they back away from it in the future. Use it sparingly. I also don't want Fallout 3 shit in it yet but I know Todd can't wait to make it about the East Coast and shove Fallout 3/4/76 into it.
I also don't like that so many pre-war people survived through magic. The executive assistant to a Vault-Tec VP is given functional immortality through cloning? The twist of pre-war people being alive is, again, something that should be used sparingly. And they shouldn't get away with them being just as they were. Immortality should only come at a price like being a brain bot, mutant, or ghoul. It's a plot point that John used a lot in Westworld as well.
spoiler
Wait, who was cloned? I think I missed something.
spoiler
All those pods in vault 31 were back up clones for vault tec execs. Unless I missed something. The brain bot said it was genetic backups.
spoiler
Oh I thought they just put them on ice. I think I missed that line about genetic backups.
I enjoyed it. Narratively I'm not particularly invested nor am I a Fallout fan, but the show has a lot of interesting things in sets/costuming/locations/etc and I like the cast. Walton Goggins is basically a cheat code for having at least something captivating in your show.
Given this is Hexbear I should though I should mention that if you're looking at it because you've heard it's got an anti-capitalist message, it'll be a disappointment. It's there but it's just so fucking stupid.
