It falls it’s not a direct adaptation of a popular game—it’s not a Black Isle/Interplay classic or a Bethesda/Obsidian revival of the series—which means there’s plenty of room for it to carve out its own franchise fantasy in its corner of the wilderness. That hasn’t stopped fans of the game, especially since the show is starting to play directly with plot bits from the games, from the explosion where the show is from a source, big or small. But in this week’s episode of the show’s second season, the series is already returning to its biggest and most controversial twist… and it’s tying in to another interesting twist it’s facing this season.
After the first episode picked up on Ghoul and Lucy’s trip to New Vegas, “The Golden Rule” explores the now estranged Maximus, back firmly in the hands of the Brotherhood of Steel after being cut off from finding Lucy again at the season one climax. It’s an overarching episode about how the consequences of Maximus’ actions throughout the second season hit home to develop and his determination to survive despite those benefits no matter what the cost. But before we get to all that (and the possible rifts between the Brotherhood), it opens with a flashback to a defining moment in Maximus’ life and one It fallsThe most controversial options: the destruction of Shady Sands, the heart of the New California Republic, by Vault-Tec techniques.
In isolation, it’s a beautiful sequence—poignant and sad in equal measure, not just because of the impact on poor young Maximus as his parents sacrifice themselves to protect him from the explosion, but because of that inevitable nightmare of seeing a civilization that was able to truly thrive and establish itself after the war ended. Enduring, of course, is that Vault-Tec (especially with Hank and his own hatred of the NCR for taking his wife from him) cannot last, because the future of the wasteland motivated by society rather than capitalism is a greater threat to its survival than any nuclear war.
But it’s also interesting that the season returns to this moment before we rejoin Maximus as an adult, the horrors of his childhood loss making him the man he is. The destruction of Shady Sands was a huge shock It fallsSeason one—and fans of the show, and not for good reasons. In the game series, Shady Sands was the heart of NCR as a successful, large team It falls world political situation. Although the main show itself is set decades after the modern games, the destruction of Shady Sands was established as occurring between the events of Falls: The new Vegas again Fallout 4—representing what some saw as disrupting the franchise’s continuity and seeming like a betrayal of what the games had established, not just in terms of religious rules, but in wiping the slate clean for a brighter future. It fallsland to preserve the desert state forever. In many areas of residence and rehabilitation efforts It falls that it had given us over the years, Shady Sands and NCR’s continuation was arguably one of the most promising results—but at the show, it all came crashing down in an instant.
Instead of resolving that debate, It falls he simply stands by it with the confidence that it still tells its own story, rather than being seen or contradicting the established events of the games. If anything, the sequence represents the series telling the audience that this change is more important to the show than simple world-building tweaks, and this explanation It falls is willing to explore the emotional and thematic impact his loss has on the world and its characters. Interestingly, revisiting it now, It falls and ties the destruction of Shady Sands to another controversial step away from the drama that made up most of the second season: the arrival of Robert House as a major player and his (and apparently Vault-Tec’s) plans to control the minds of others with brain-computer communication chips.
Almost in a cheeky style, It falls pays direct homage to the games by including the chip’s role in the destruction of Shady Sands. It’s revealed that a nuke is being smuggled into the heart of the city by an NCR army equipped with one of the machines, who can only mutter “guarding the Mojave almost wishes you a nuclear winter” over and over again before moving on, nodding to a repeated line of NPC dialogue that appears. The new Vegasan NCR equal to Skyrim‘s “arrow to the knee” meme. But the interface chips, and their communication with Mr. House and Hank MacLean alike, themselves quickly became another common point of contention for the show among fans of the game: while there are plenty of pieces of technology around mind control. It fallsthere is no such thing as an interface chip in games, and it has nothing to do with anything House was planning as he and RobCo prepared to survive the upcoming war as tested in it. The new Vegas.
By bringing these two points of contention together—or rather, the points of separation between the show and the games—It falls it has the confidence to tell its audience that it is telling its story, inspired by, but not seeing, the games. It’s a refreshingly subtle tone of video game adaptation, as we see more and more of it, and more and more it makes a selling point of fidelity to the game’s source material. It fallsit doesn’t spoil the games here, so far at least: it shows its love for the franchise by being brave enough to push things in new directions and do things its way. They may clash at times, but it’s a unifying effect that enriches both the show and the wider franchise. Even if they have to include the city to make the proverbial omelette, this time.
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