Fallout: radiation, robots, and redemption 

By: Shane Siddall

October 23, 2077, people went about their lives, drove their nuclear fusion powered cars, went to work, kids went to school,  Halloween was right around the corner and  life was good; the annexed territories formerly known as Canada and Mexico had finally fully submitted to American rule and occupation. America was winning the war against communist China and had just secured Shanghai paving the road to Beijing. America was thriving; in the eyes of the American people, everything was right in the world. Then in two short hours, the world as we knew it changed forever; the fires of total atomic annihilation engulfed the world, changing it from the atomic powered world of tomorrow to a burning hellscape. Few escaped the fire of Prometheus, but those who did, did so in vaults, massive underground bunkers that could sustain hundreds of people for decades if not centuries.  Whole generations would survive and thrive in these capsules of the past living with the same culture of pre-great war America, and their mission was to build a new and better America from the empty ruins of a bygone age. But to the surprise of the “vault dwellers,” the ruins of the old world are far from empty. From the power-armor wielding knights of Brotherhood of Steel (B.O.S) who fight with fanatical zeal, to the bureaucratic New California Republic (N.C.R.) who wishes to restore order, to the cult of the Followers of the Apocalypse who raid and pillage without mercy or respite, vault-dweller Lucy and her can-do attitude must navigate a war in a war ravaged world, and must come to terms with the fact that the America on the posters no longer exists, and all that remains are brutal warring factions, that see her as nothing more than a pawn. 

There are many ways to describe Lucy: hard-working, dedicated, naive, very naive. She has lived her entire life in the safety and comfort of the vault in ignorant bliss of the outside world. But she is not special in that regard, every vault dweller is naive and still believes in morals that have been long since forsaken in the wider world. But when she is thrown into the world that has been torn apart and stitched back together in a mutilated way, leading her to fall from her moral high-ground to the level of violence that now perpetuates the wasteland. Through her travels in the hellscape once known as Los Angeles, she meets a brother-knight, Maximus, a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, who fights with a fiery zeal as he seeks vengeance for his parents deaths, leading to him becoming separated from his platoon and running into a overly trusting vault dweller. She meets Cooper, a deformed man and learns that he is in fact a ghoul. Ghouls are people who were exposed to high doses of radiation when the bombs fell which caused him to become “burned”, leading him to be rejected by people causing him to become incredibly cynical. The radiation had an unforeseen effect, that being that he cannot die of old age, meaning Cooper is over 200 years old, making him one of the only people who remember the old world. Lucy must learn skills from both Maximus and Cooper if she wishes to have absolutely any chance of survival, she must learn to be brutal, to be cruel, she must learn to become what she so desperately despises. 

Overall, the “Fallout” T.V series perfectly captures the world of Fallout, from the rivalries that date back to the first entries, to the morbid gallows humor that the franchise has, it is all perfectly captured. Now, I must say that I would recommend that one familiarizes themself with the “Fallout” universe before watching the show as it could be confusing to just be thrown in. But do you need to play some of the games or read any of the books? Absolutely not, there are some explanations given in the show that help put the world together to a degree, although I would still recommend getting some prior knowledge beforehand.  In short, I would give the series a 10/10, the whole universe is perfectly captured, the characters and acting are amazing, the flaws in each of the characters are believable and relatable, and once again that morbid gallows humor is shown in force throughout the series. I would highly recommend that any “Fallout” fan or otherwise watch this show, for even if you know nothing about this world it is still more than an enjoyable watch.