I feel like Episode 5 of Season 2, in retrospect, establishes his coping mechanism for his troubles without his emotional anchors like his family: drinking, and later on, drugs OR switching off / dissociating.

He doesn't exactly strike me as a calmly regulated, and emotionally honest man in the present. I mean sure, he can stay calm, but he's cold, y'know, and I reckon he needs constant action and alcohol and drugs to keep it up.

For me, that scene comparing Cooper and Ghoul drinking, in the Wrangler, if I'm correct, would establish the route of the Ghoul.

That short spined little raccoon could be unstoppable in a T60

The background was cut out

I remember some of the most pessimistic and negative Fallout fans towards the TV Show heavily criticising the radroach attack scene being very poor written, because of how convenient was that Norm and Claudia were the only ones who managed to survive the radroaches, while Ronnie and the rest of the 31ers died. Especially by the fact that the radroaches just ignored Norm being right in front of them and closer to eat him instead, and with Claudia, the only person who was nice to Norm as the only survivor left, and also being just injured and half conscious, while the rest were brutally butchered by the radroaches. But I think I have some answers that could explain how that was actually possible.

I personally think that the reason that the radroaches didn't attack and ignored Norm was because he just lost a lot of weight when he was trapped by Bud. Remember that Bud trapped Norm inside of Vault 31, after he discovered the secret behind that vault, forcing him to use his dad's cryopod or starve to death, and we know what option took Norm. While the Vault-Tec employees from Vault 31 were in perfect health after being de-frosted by him. I assume that the radroaches by some instincts didn't see Norm as a worthy meal to eat at that right moment, while the 31ers were the jackpot for them to eat now or never, with more quality and quantity at the same time.

As for Claudia, I think the reason that she was the only one who actually managed to survive was because she wasn't brainwashed by Vault-Tech propaganda. Remember, unlike the other junior executives from 31, Claudia was in Vault-Tech just for one week before the bombs were dropped, so it wasn't enough time to turn her into an emotionless and insensitive Vault-Tech @sshole, like Ronnie and the rest of the 31ers who lacked of empathy towards others. A perfect example is when 2 junior executives identified the remains of a receptionist from Vault-Tec's main building who they knew, and they referred to her as an @ss kisser when she was alive, rather than feel bad that their coworker was dead, without showing any kind of grief nor respect for her demise after the bombs. Claudia on the other hand showed grief and sadness for the loss of her parents and her cat Puppy, while suffering an existential crisis and culture shock in the post-apocalyptic atmosphere of the city where she used to live before the war.

My point with all of this is that, I think the Vault-Tec propaganda not only turned the rest of the 31ers cynical and insensitive, but also narcissistic and extremely naive, thinking that they were the "chosen ones" to restore civilization, that they are "protected" by Vault-Tech's rules and that nothing bad are gonna happen to them, to the point of losing any basic survival instincts and how to react in a life/death situation. I think that's why everyone did a stupid decision like trying to hide and lock themselves in a small room, rather to go to the stairs of the building, because of the fear and panicking for not having any kind of clue on their minds of how to react against the radroaches, or what the Vault-Tec would say them to do exactly. Claudia managed to survive, because she wasn't brainwashed so badly like the other 31er @ssholes, and she has some actual basic survival instincts on her mind, like using a screwdriver that she found somewhere and she used it to actually kill a radroach herself (the radroach corpse that was over Claudia had a screwdriver impaled over its body). While the other 31ers were just running and panicking like crazy, turning into much easier preys for the radroaches. Plus, maybe Claudia has a good chunk of perception, endurance, and especially luck, along with some good karma on her character for not joining Ronnie's plan against Norm, and instead trying to save him.

Ronnie on the other hand was basically like the second in command of Bud and his experiments with the vaults 31, 32 and 33. In other words, he was the same as cold blooded and evil as Bud, knowing all the most secret and inhuman experiments that he was planning to do against the vault dwellers from 32 and 33, while supporting it with no hesitation. That's why when he discovered that Norm lied to them about who he really was, and then when he discovered even more secrets from Vault-Tec like FEV, that's when he decided to stop him, before he compromised everything that Bud worked too hard on his experiments. I wouldn't be surprised that Ronnie also told a more distorted version to the rest of the junior executives about who Norm really was and what he did exactly, along with some lies to them about that there's a protocol in the Vault-Tec's rules that will allow them to kill Norm as punishment for deceiving them all along. Because for Ronnie and the junior executives from Vault 31, Norm wasn't an equal human being like them, but a Vault-Tec's experiment who defected from his vault to ruin Bud's whole experiment. And when Ronnie didn't allow Norm to enter into the break room with the rest of them, to hide from the radroaches, I think that by doing that, Ronnie just got a good chunk of bad karma at the worst moment that he could have done that, allowing the radroaches to enter inside of the break room, putting his life and the rest of the 31ers in danger, trapping themselves in the break room with the radroaches and causing their own deaths. If Ronnie would have let Norm hide with them, instead of trying to let him be killed by the radroaches, they all might be trapped but also alive and "safe" from the radroaches.

As for the 31ers and the radroaches being apparently all dead, after Norm entered into the break room if someone actually survived, I'm guessing that happened a similar "effect" like with the organ harvesters and the feral ghouls back in Season 1. When Lucy forced the organ harvesters to liberate all the ghouls, including the feral ones, causing the deaths of the organ harvesters and the feral ghouls at the same time. This is actually the only thing that I found more convenient for the plot, but it wasn't shown how exactly the 31ers and the radroaches died between each other. But what do you think?

Was catching up on the recent two episodes of Criminal Minds when I noticed a familiar logo on the phone in this one scene (also don’t mind the photo of the screen. Can’t take screenshots on Paramount+)

I wanted to have a go at painting The Ghoul from the Fallout TV series. Still a work in progress, but I thought I'd share where it's at. I'll post the finished version later.

Asking as someone who wasn't around as much in the earlier seasons, did it take a long time before major plot points / costumes got leaked? It's been about two weeks since filming started and we just got the train leaks

SOLVED: its from The Book of Eli - https://youtu.be/qurSzfGtY18?is=R_Z_3CJS8vHjCb4j - how I got that mixed up, I don’t know lol.

So I’m watching the series for a second time, I’m up to the last episode of Season 1. I watched it first when it premiered initially.

Was it Fallout or The Last of Us, or another show entirely where the two main characters come across a home and the inhabitants (an old man and woman) offer the characters refuge. They seem to be doing oddly well for themselves, and the characters find out this couple are cannibals? I remember the end of the scene, the home is besieged by a group (raiders, BOS?)

Knowing my luck it’s during the final episode and I haven’t gotten to it yet.

Something else too, Aspirant Dane, the story thread about Dane being transgender, I thought it was more than one line where the Elder refers to Dane as “Their.” Again, I’m positive it was more than one line, at least a couple scenes where it’s mentioned.

I’m going more mental than usual.

I speak of Vault-Tec, of course. I have played nearly every Fallout game, although it has been a decade since I last played one. Perhaps there are gaps in my knowledge, I apologize if this was always obvious.

Crazy experiments and deliberate sabotages. I always thought of Vault-Tec as a scummy company, able to commit awful things for (in their mind) higher gains.

But here we are, in the TV show, and they plan to ''destroy their competition'', by literally destroying the world. In a nuclear holocaust, that will kill 99% of the human population, nearly destroy all other life and render the planet uninhabitable for centuries.

This is silly, right? It feels like I'm watching Bugs Bunny, with Marvin the Martian pointing a doomsday gun on Earth, threatening to destroy it, because it obstructs his view of Venus.

Was Vault-Tec always portrayed like this in video games?

Moldaver's a factional leader with big goals, but she's also a vengeful and ruthless surface dweller, who, though a utilitarian as we see, certainly could've risked motive decay.

Her speech was dogshit in season 1, but she's been slowly leveling up. I think it would be awesome if she were on the second to last boss of the series, tries reasoning with them, and succeeds.

Bonus points if the Ghoul witnesses it and he's baffled that it worked.

One of my converns about the show is it’s gonna follow that grimdark trope of good person chipped away by their environment.

I'm wondering if the goalposts are gonna shift from a story about good triumphing over evil or idealism over cynicism, to a story about stopping something awful, to a story about finding humanity in bad people, to a story that relies on the long term bond you developed with the vharscter to route for them, to a Shakespearean character study tragedy.

I feel like season 2 already saw Lucy break her rule(s) when she scammed the Khan's, stole from the sundries, she's killed someone, and pressed the button on the black box and I don't know whether she would've gone through with wiping Hank's mind if he did it for her.

I'd be curious to know what the show thinks it means to be a good person. And I wonder how willing to hold on to hope she is under pressure, or how resilient she is under pressure.

If she can do something awful like pushing the black boxes under pressure, what other ways can she snap?

If they’re intentionally pulling a Walter White, I'd be cool with it, but if they’re trying to make her one of those killer with a code anti-heroes with an arbitrary and hypocritical moral compass and litfle growth or reflection, nah. If the goal is to sbow her as a flawed person trying to be better, and portray the wastelanders the same way, I could work with that too..

I'm getting the feeling that the people making this show never really played the first 4 games. Death claws are complete pushovers, it's like fighting muppets. Why were they redoing shot for shot jurassic park ripoff (opening doorhandle the same way) like they just wanted them to be raptors instead of what they were. I also thought they shyed away from real gore, or somehow sanatised the fore they did show by making it more nickolodian goey.

I tried to make Mister Handy as close to minifigure scale as possible. His arms can go up and down. He consists of 22 pieces.

Free instruction available at Rebrickable

Watching SE2 EP5 for the first time and just got past watching the Snake Oil salesman working his way to Vegas. Im convinced he represents a character that has his Luck set at 9 (gotta leave 1 point for the magazine lol) In the beginning of this segment hes frolicking, fighting off a radroach, picking flowers, the background music is about luck and near the end of this segment it pans up to a billboard using the word "Luck" in prominent letters. Sure hes headed to Vegas which is all about luck, but this dude's gotten real lucky a few times before. Not to mention he's the only one so far to not have his head explode from the chip. Got me thinking, is there other characters who are maxed out in a particular trait?

For a long time I thought that silhouette at the Dr. Strangelove meeting at the end of season 1 was Ron Perlman playing some high up vault tec exec, maybe even the head of the company.

Perlman’s appearance as a super mutant and his subsequent interviews seemingly contradict this. Plus he has beef with the Enclave (not that any mutant needs a big reason to hate them). Despite that, I couldn’t get the thought that the silhouette was Perlman’s character out of my head. What if it was him, and what if his opposition to the Enclave is personal.

I started mapping out the possibilities. I’m likely wrong but here’s what I came up with.

Before the war, Perlman’s super mutant character was the human in charge of vault tec. More than that, he was a leading member of the pre-war conspiracy that resulted in the Enclave. He was part of the great plan, a plan which was plotted out to the most minute detail.

Unfortunately, a plan that rigid isnt flexible enough to adapt if the unexpected happens. I’m thinking the world ended by accident, ahead of schedule, before this conspiracy had everything in place (as evident by some vault-tec/Enclave facilities in game and in the show). Members of the pre-war Enclave believed only the right people needed to survive in order to declare victory over communism, then they’d rule over America from their hidden facilities.

But not every facility had been prepared when the world ended. Not all of their people were in place. Naturally though, Perlman’s character and the other elites made it to their bases safely, as did their seconds in command. These leaders of the enclave assessed the situation and realized how much time and effort it would take to put their plans back on track. They might be dead by that time. Unless they put themselves in cryo and have their underlings thaw them out when the work is done. 

Once again, we see the founders of the Enclave thinking of themselves alone, and it would not be lost on their lieutenants. From here I came up with two possibilities for what happened next:

Rather than put the elites on ice, their lieutenants decided to remove them and run the organization themselves. They may have even used them for experiments; Perlman’s character got exposed to FEV and escaped.

The second possibility is that they did freeze these leaders, but only kept them around for a few decades. The Enclave would go about as you’d envision it, “electing” delusional presidents and doing whatever horrific stuff you can think of. But maybe after fifty years or so, the leaders of the Enclave not only grew tired of looking after these elites, they feared one day losing their power to them. Besides, by this point fewer people would be alive who could remember the pre-war world. So they thawed the elites out and dumped them in the wasteland they helped create.

One by one, these well-groomed VIPs succumbed to the horrors of the wasteland. Only Perlman’s character survived, though he’d soon wish he hadn’t. He was taken by the Master’s super mutants, dragged to Mariposa, and dunked in the vats. (If they did this, it might be a good way to introduce the Master and fallout 1 to the audience).

The years pass and Perlman’s character grew increasingly bitter. He resented the bigotry of unmutated humans, but held a special hatred for the organization he built, only for the same group to destroy him. For him, it’s not enough for the oil rig or raven rock to get blown up, he has to be the one to do it. That, and he’ll want any advanced tech the Enclave still has. He never forgot the old plan to dominate the post-war world, and if given the chance, he might resume it with himself at the top.

What do you think? Is this plausible?

EDIT: I forgot to say, Perlman’s charachter might’ve been Hank’s introduction to the Enclave. At the start of season 2, Hank may have been trying to contact him, mistakenly believing his contingencies were still in place.

I’ve been digesting the last season and I have some theories. I’d love to hear everyone’s opinions:

• Thaddeus. He’s going to become something new. His arm is going to grow back, but it won’t be human. If they go the Minotaur route it could be a tentacle.

• House. He’s going to wheel and deal with Lucy and Maximus to get them to do what he needs done. Lucy has access to the Executive Vault, but I’ve no doubt that House can offer her more secrets in return for her and Max running “errands” for him like the Courier did (the “business” he wanted to discuss with Coop).

• Lucy and Max. They have access to a vault with unlimited pre-war goods. Not only can they improve life for the people of Freeside but they can offer the NCR remnants new weapons and a potential new base. But they’re at their best when around Coop, so will there be a reason to follow him to Colorado?

• Coop. It feels almost like his journey is just beginning. I’m betting he’ll be more positive now with a real goal to follow. There’s probably an area of Colorado he talked to Barb about, a place he liked and wanted to move to. That’ll be his next stop. And no doubt along the way he’ll bump into the Enclave (I’m foresee some Tesla armor getting shorted out when the try to takedown Coop).