we have not seen cazadores in the series yet so im hoping they are fucking extinct like they should be please atom just do this one thing for me
At the risk of giving Fallout Tactics far more credit for its writing than it deserves, I do think they gave a better explanation for making Vault Tec the villains of their story than anything that came after: pure incompetent self interest.
A major plot point in Tactics is Vault 0, a secret master control Vault filled with high ranking Vault Tec executives in cryogenic stasis and the central control super computer for the entire Vault network. In the final act of the game, an army of robots starts pouring out of Vault 0 and killing indiscriminately. You just barely manage to break into the Vault to put an end to Vault Tec's mad scheme only to find... There isn't one. Most of the residents either didn't survive the cryogenic process or suffered severe brain damage, and none of the rest have the authority to stop the automated defense systems that identified everyone on the surface as either inhuman or a foreign combatant. Read the terminal entries and you'll find out the board of directors cut the super computer budget by over 90% to afford increasing their own pay, and reallocated space reserved for life support and backup computing into restaurants, smoke rooms, and an indoor big game safari. On top of that, the computer used human brains for processor power, and the committee in charge of choosing the brightest geniuses of their generation judged applicants mostly on the cuteness of their hair cuts.
There's no sadistic doctors torturing people for fun. No conspiracy. No moustache twirling villainy. Just the mundane, corporate evil of a company deciding to spend as little as possible to churn out a buggy, half-baked minimum viable product and spending the rest on marketing and executive perks.
If you find yourself thinking that the show contradicts a Wildcard ending because your Courier wouldn't have let things get that bad, I want you to do a little thought experiment.
Imagine doing radiant quests for Preston Garvey. All day. Every day. For the rest of your life. Because once you've made yourself the only competent authority in Nevada, there will never not be settlements needing your help. I give most of you a week at best before you snap and go on a killing spree.
But if there's a silver lining, at least "the rest of your life" isn't going to be very long. Between Legion, NCR, and Brotherhood assassins, would-be usurpers, and overconfident gunslingers looking to test themselves against a legend, you're not going to be able to stick your nose outside of the Lucky 38 without someone taking a shot at you. And now that you're not The Protagonist of a Video Game, you don't get to rewind time if you lose.
Edward "Caesar" Sallow: "I chose to model my empire after the Romans specifically because it's something unfamiliar to the tribes I subjugated. That way I can cherry pick the aspects that benefit me or just make them up from whole cloth and none of my followers will notice. Superstitious tribals, amirite? I don't actually believe any of this shit."
Caesar like 1 minute later: "So have you ever read Hegel?"
Apolitically killing bandits and savages in my video game with no messages
Me: "Sup Double L, allow me to introduce myself I'm God's Most Autistic Warrior and thanks to my frankly obsessive knowledge of trade routes and mercantilism I can tell just by looking that your supply lines are 🎶fuuuuuuucked🎶.
Lanius: "The lion does not concern himself with supply lines. We need only push onward and take what we want from the settlements we conquer."
Me: "Oooh someone didn't read the Art of War. Yeah foraging and raiding don't work on that scale. Especially when the Fantastic Mr. Fox has spent the past 4 years weakening and destroying every settlement between here and California."
Lanius: "Didn't ask. Don't care. Still gonna conquer the west no matter what."
Me: "Oh come on I know you've seen the spy reports. The NCR spread themselves paper thin trying to hold the Mojave. It'll take everything you have to do the same."
Lanius: "Oh Mars, it's fucking Denver all over again. Fuck that shit."
Me: "Sweet! Guess I can cross 'make the Legion retreat' off my list. Next up embarrassing Gene-"
Lanius: "The fuck you mean 'retreat'?! I'll have you know this is a tactical withdrawal! Totally different thing! You know what? 1v1 me IRL right now!"
Me: "Oh ok guess we're doing this the hard way after all." *inhales everything in the Aid tab*
Despite being largely forgotten or ignored by the fans, Fallout Tactics seems to have been highly influential when it comes to Bethesda's creative decisions. Not simply aesthetically with the Advanced Power Armor design, but also tonally with the treatment of raiders and wasteland settlements, and there's even some repeated/reworked plot points like Vault 0 or the Brotherhood traveling cross-country in airships and conscripting wastelanders to swell their ranks.
New Vegas: "The Brotherhood of Steel is a relic of a bygone age. Their rigid code and violent isolationism that helped them weather the apocalypse and become a major power in the post-apocalypse are now actively hindering them in the post-post-apocalypse. The world has moved on without them and they have not only failed to adapt, but are actively refusing even in the face of their own extinction. Already their existence is largely irrelevant to the rest of the world. In a few generations at best they will be nothing more than a memory, and not a kind one."
Every single piece of Fallout canon that came after: "Nuh-uh."
"Our most iconic faction is incompatible with the setting of a post-post-apocalypse."
"Oh that's an easy fix! We'll just nuke everything all over again and go right back to the normal apocalypse where nothing will ever change or improve in any meaningful way ever again. The best part is we can just keep recycling the same setting and aesthetics we've been doing and neither us nor our audience will ever need to step outside of our comfort zones ever again."
Would you believe that this post wasn't actually related to anything in season 2? It still isn't really since I haven't watched it (and honestly don't *really* have any strong feelings about what I've seen about it). Just stumbled into a topical conversation by fixating on a 15 year old game I guess.
Hey you. Yes you.
C’mere.
*throws you into the last game you played again*
Now with some adjustments based on how it went last time!
New Vegas: "The Brotherhood of Steel is a relic of a bygone age. Their rigid code and violent isolationism that helped them weather the apocalypse and become a major power in the post-apocalypse are now actively hindering them in the post-post-apocalypse. The world has moved on without them and they have not only failed to adapt, but are actively refusing even in the face of their own extinction. Already their existence is largely irrelevant to the rest of the world. In a few generations at best they will be nothing more than a memory, and not a kind one."
Every single piece of Fallout canon that came after: "Nuh-uh."
"Our most iconic faction is incompatible with the setting of a post-post-apocalypse."
"Oh that's an easy fix! We'll just nuke everything all over again and go right back to the normal apocalypse where nothing will ever change or improve in any meaningful way ever again. The best part is we can just keep recycling the same setting and aesthetics we've been doing and neither us nor our audience will ever need to step outside of our comfort zones ever again."
New Vegas: "The Brotherhood of Steel is a relic of a bygone age. Their rigid code and violent isolationism that helped them weather the apocalypse and become a major power in the post-apocalypse are now actively hindering them in the post-post-apocalypse. The world has moved on without them and they have not only failed to adapt, but are actively refusing even in the face of their own extinction. Already their existence is largely irrelevant to the rest of the world. In a few generations at best they will be nothing more than a memory, and not a kind one."
Every single piece of Fallout canon that came after: "Nuh-uh."
It's actually really funny to negotiate an alliance between the NCR and Brotherhood because it's literally the best outcome for everyone involved, and all of them HATE it. And I'm just over there like "You need to eat your diplomacy before you can have your imperialism." (I'm lying of course. Wild Card.)