"Okey dokey!"

I mean, I know there's discord in the fan-fic community (when isn't there) about who Lucy should be with (like she's a fucking party favor) but like... the show's going to go with Max. Because the world at large is so not ready for the Ghoul. Any Ghoul, really. And it's clear that Cooper & Barb are like... it. They didn't hate each other, they didn't divorce because they wanted to. They still love each other.

Cooper doesn't love Barb anymore. There's no indication that he still loves her. Or at best, he might still "love" his ex-wife but he no longer "likes" her. Plus we have to remember that it's been over 220 years since he last saw her and he's been changed pretty significantly both mentally and physically. And there's the chance that he still holds her on a pedestal and will learn that she betrayed him and might've been complicit in his arrest and branding as a "commie".

And saying that "the world is so not ready for the Ghoul"?Well, [Hancock hated that], and fanfic writers really are into "enemies to lovers" pairings for many reasons.

As for Lucy and Maximus, well, certainly they are important to each other. But if we're being realistic? Well, any relationship that happens between them in season 3 is going to be very strained at best.

If I were to be charitable, what we see between Lucy and Maximus could be best described as "puppy love". Before they met, neither of them had met anyone from outside their factions who wasn't either A) someone related to them and/or B) someone they grew up alongside. And for Lucy, Maximus was the first "nice" person she'd met since leaving the Vault (Wilzig was creepy and cryptic, Ma June was pretty rude to her, and the Ghoul demeaned her and tried to psychologically break her), and while he's "new" and all that, he's also "safe" in the sense that he wants many of the same things she wants.

Season 2 has come and gone, and by the end of it, Lucy has changed. The things she wants now in life are not the things she wanted in life during the very few days that she was traveling with Maximus. She's not the girl who invited Maximus to come live with her in her vault. Given the circumstances under which they were separated, I think Maximus likely still has this idealized image of Lucy in his head based on what little he saw during their short time together. Since then, we've seen her compromise her morals in a lot of ways, and the show's going to have to address that little fact. I don't think Max will take Lucy's newfound liking for violence very well, for instance.

There was also this that Ella Purnell said in an interview during the Emmy campaign for season 2 (this is before she got the scripts for season 3): "I really don't know. I mean, neither [Lucy nor Max] have really been in a conventional relationship. I don't know if that's where they're headed, I don't know if they would even be able to do that, I don't know if they've just got bigger problems, y'know, trying to save the world or something."

We'll also have to account for Maximus enlisting with the NCR, a group that Lucy has dismissed as "more matching jackets" (in 2x04). I don't see how they ignore that.

Except in the season 2 finale. Where Barb helped Cooper steal cold fusion from Hank and then listened when he told her to let him take the fall and cried while she watched him get arrested. It was very clear in the finale that the President was the one who stabbed him in the back and turned him in. And yes, he has completely changed. Except when he hasn't. He was looking at the post card mighty fondly and their dream of Colorado. Granted, yes, that's where Janey is but -shrug- we'll just have to wait and see on that one. But, again, he didn't ask Hank where his daughter was. He asked where his family was. (Totally badass scene btw)

And the world absolutely isn't ready for the Ghoul. Fallout fans are, a hundred percent. But remember that a lot of people who watch the show, are not fans of the games. Had zero idea what a ghoul even was before the show. Had no idea why so many of us were like "that's the bad place!" when Lucy and the Ghoul approached the super-duper mart. (And damned if there weren't freaking ferals inside). From Gob to Hancock to Deegan (fav), the Wasteland is full of so many awesome Ghouls to write about. We know about them but the wide world who hasn't spent an ungodly amount of time listening to Preston drone on (and on) about settlements, doesn't. Anyway...

Now, I love me a good enemies to lovers trope and personally, the Ghoul is my absolute favorite character in the show (I personally think he's the most interesting character in the entire show but that's me) but that's not the point of the original post. Never was. In a very 'as per my last email' fashion; the post was stating that the show... as in the real show... not head canon space... has already made it clear who Lucy will end up with (if anyone at all). So, there was never a reason to argue about it. For... or against.

Now, head canons / fan-fics? That's different entirely. Which... I also pointed out. Whether or not we agree with the show writers/developers decisions is irrelevant. Which is what... fan fiction is for. Yay.

Nah, Barb more likely betrayed him there. I think she was the one who stabbed Cooper in the back. That's her putting on crocodile tears to hide her part. It was probably always Barb and Hank's intentions for the diode to end up in the Enclave's hands, and the Enclave used Cooper as a pawn. It's pretty convenient that the President was in town at the time that the handoff was to take place. It's also convenient that when Cooper confronts Barb, she's all resigned and saying "there's nothing we can do," but she suddenly does a 180 when Cooper brings up the idea of giving the cold fusion directly to the President.

Certainly the writers want us to think that Cooper and Barb were reconciled. But the point where the season 2 flashbacks end leaves things ambiguous as to what happened, and we'll be learning more in season 3. We don't really know much about Barb and Cooper's relationship anyways.

I'm also of the mindset that Cooper fell out of love with Barb. The biggest piece of evidence for this is that in 2x06, Cooper only says his own name and Janey's while he's convulsing on the pole and trying to stave off turning feral. In addition, he was originally going to have hallucinations of Janey and Lucy while he was in the Super Mutant's lair. He'd hallucinate his daughter and the woman he'd been traveling with for weeks...but not his ex-wife in any capacity. This scene was written and filmed, but was cut because it was filmed on a day that Walton Goggins was inconsolable due to being away from his son. The fact that it got that far before being cut makes me see it as canonical. I think Cooper's interest in finding Barb is because she's the mother of his child, and it's Janey he most cares about finding.

I can’t imagine them having Lucy and Max go the whole season and never talking, while they’re standing with each other all season.

I bet they reestablish their relationship early on and it’s cute and awesome.

We saw in S1 how they handled a hiccup, when Max revealed he’d been lying about who he was and Lucy and him talked and she still asked him to live in the vault with her… because you know, talking to someone is key to making a relationship work!

The whole fact that Lucy never once mentioned Maximus in any conversations with Hank or the Ghoul. Compare that to Maximus having conversations about Lucy with Dane and Thaddeus. That could be oversight by the writers due to being pressed for time. Or it could be a sign of Lucy bottling things up because of how she was raised to suppress her negative thoughts. Or it could be a sign that Lucy's feelings for Max aren't as strong as his feelings for her are.

In 2x04, as Lucy and the Ghoul left the camp, she mocked and dismissed the NCR soldiers who nursed her back to health as "matching jackets". Maximus is likely going to be joining the NCR's army as he re-connects with his roots. I could see that being a point of contention between them, especially with things like:

Lucy's lack of closure with the Ghoul. Sure, the Ghoul betrayed her to her dad...but he also came back and saved her from being chipped, and then left, but not without leaving her a little gift in the form of his bootgun. And by Ella Purnell's own admission in one post-episode 5 interview, the betrayal stung so much for Lucy because by this point in time, the Ghoul has become the person she's closest to in the wastes. Which makes sense given that they'd been traveling together for at least a month if not more by the time the betrayal happened. And I can't help but think that she feels like things weren't resolved between them after the betrayal, given that he ditched her.

House likely courting Lucy as a potential employee. Given what he said to Cooper about how "everyone works for me eventually," and the fact that Cooper ditched him to go on his personal mission, House probably wants a new human asset on the ground to help him in whatever war is coming with the Enclave. Given they showed House's face briefly flicker on the monitor in the last shot as Lucy and Maximus were looking out the Lucky 38 penthouse windows, I wouldn't be surprised if he decides to recruit Lucy. House can take advantage of:

Lucy's inquisitive nature and her desire to learn more about what her dad was doing, and take advantage of the aforementioned thing about her not wanting to be a "matching jacket". He might even have the means to figure out that Lucy is someone who can be persuaded to do questionable things for a "good reason" (her massacre of the Kings ghouls shows what she's like when her inhibitions are lowered).

Those particular traits not only would be ones that House might use to convince Lucy to work for him, but they'd also be ones to create a wedge between her and Maximus. Maximus has lines he won't cross (he refuses to kill ghoul children, hence why he killed Xander), but it's hard to say what Lucy's limits are, and I don't know if Lucy knows those either.

Maximus is not exactly the inquisitive kind either. We saw this on display in Vault 4, where Birdie easily distracted him with a goodie basket and a residence he could unwind in while Lucy was busy investigating the vault to find out its lore. If Lucy wants to find answers to what her dad was up to, and "meet her makers", I could see this putting her at odds with Maximus.

What Wilzig said to Lucy in season 1 still holds relevance: "You are a vault dweller, but if you're going to survive, you need to start acting like a surface dweller. Question is, will you still want the same things when you have become a different animal altogether?" When Lucy invited Maximus to come back to Vault 33 to live with her, she was still in the mindset of a Vault Dweller. She's changed significantly since then, and so has Maximus. What they had could be best described as a "puppy love", as Maximus was the first nice person she met outside of the Vault, and seems to want most of the same things she wants. But she only really knew him for a few days before leaving him at the Observatory. What she wants in life now has changed, and so have Maximus'.

Lucy's dad worked for the Enclave. It was established in Fallout: New Vegas that the NCR dislike the Enclave enough that they treat the descendants of known Enclave members like war criminals. If Arcade Gannon joins the Remnants and fights for the NCR at Hoover Dam, he's forced to go on the run once word gets out about his origins (if the Courier sides with the NCR) or he's arrested and imprisoned (if the Courier sides with the Legion). Given this, when the NCR learns that Hank is the man who destroyed Shady Sands and kidnapped several NCR Rangers for his project AND that he's a member of the Enclave (something that'll inevitably come out if they get any soldiers down into the management Vault), it's possible that they might not be too trusting of Lucy, even though she spent season 2 pursuing him to bring him to justice. This was even foreshadowed by the Ghoul during the "matching jackets" exchange.

I mean, I know there's discord in the fan-fic community (when isn't there) about who Lucy should be with (like she's a fucking party favor) but like... the show's going to go with Max. Because the world at large is so not ready for the Ghoul. Any Ghoul, really. And it's clear that Cooper & Barb are like... it. They didn't hate each other, they didn't divorce because they wanted to. They still love each other.

Cooper doesn't love Barb anymore. There's no indication that he still loves her. Or at best, he might still "love" his ex-wife but he no longer "likes" her. Plus we have to remember that it's been over 220 years since he last saw her and he's been changed pretty significantly both mentally and physically. And there's the chance that he still holds her on a pedestal and will learn that she betrayed him and might've been complicit in his arrest and branding as a "commie".

And saying that "the world is so not ready for the Ghoul"?Well, [Hancock hated that], and fanfic writers really are into "enemies to lovers" pairings for many reasons.

As for Lucy and Maximus, well, certainly they are important to each other. But if we're being realistic? Well, any relationship that happens between them in season 3 is going to be very strained at best.

If I were to be charitable, what we see between Lucy and Maximus could be best described as "puppy love". Before they met, neither of them had met anyone from outside their factions who wasn't either A) someone related to them and/or B) someone they grew up alongside. And for Lucy, Maximus was the first "nice" person she'd met since leaving the Vault (Wilzig was creepy and cryptic, Ma June was pretty rude to her, and the Ghoul demeaned her and tried to psychologically break her), and while he's "new" and all that, he's also "safe" in the sense that he wants many of the same things she wants.

Season 2 has come and gone, and by the end of it, Lucy has changed. The things she wants now in life are not the things she wanted in life during the very few days that she was traveling with Maximus. She's not the girl who invited Maximus to come live with her in her vault. Given the circumstances under which they were separated, I think Maximus likely still has this idealized image of Lucy in his head based on what little he saw during their short time together. Since then, we've seen her compromise her morals in a lot of ways, and the show's going to have to address that little fact. I don't think Max will take Lucy's newfound liking for violence very well, for instance.

There was also this that Ella Purnell said in an interview during the Emmy campaign for season 2 (this is before she got the scripts for season 3): "I really don't know. I mean, neither [Lucy nor Max] have really been in a conventional relationship. I don't know if that's where they're headed, I don't know if they would even be able to do that, I don't know if they've just got bigger problems, y'know, trying to save the world or something."

We'll also have to account for Maximus enlisting with the NCR, a group that Lucy has dismissed as "more matching jackets" (in 2x04). I don't see how they ignore that.

Kate O’Flynn, Hamish Linklater & Stephen Root

Kate O'Flynn as Patricia in Season 1 of Widow's Bay

The New California Republic had begun to completely change after the death of their second President, Tandi. Her vice president was heavily criticized, since she didn’t have the same protections Tandi did. Tandi campaigned for the creation of their nation and was the daughter of the first president, Aradesh. The VP turned president didn’t even serve the full term before she was impeached for not being strong enough, based on her lack of military action in the Mojave following the execution of 38 NCR travelers. The next president was more of a tool for the rich and immediately lessened Tandi’s limit on how much land and brahmin any one person could own. He escalated things in the Mojave and a war broke out with the Brotherhood. He was impeached by Kimball, a general turned statesman who you know from New Vegas as the current president during those events. He completely repealed the act that limited land and brahmin ownership and continued helping the rich. Only reason he even maintained office is because they found and held Hoover Dam. NCR was wasting money and spreading itself too thin. Heck, easiest way to tell was to see how worthless NCR dollars had become by the time of New Vegas. Less than half the value in caps.

Caesar’s Legion was obviously going to fall apart after his death. Many different characters in the game state as much. If you have House, Ulysses, Markus and Joshua all agreeing on something then it has some merit. It was a twisted ideology started by one charismatic man who was on death’s door. Most were held in line by fear but a lot of that disappears when the clear chain of command goes. I suspect that they’ll fall apart whether Lanius wins or loses nexts season as it’s only a matter of time before the other get power hungry. That’s not even mentioning the former tribes and towns back east.

The Brotherhood was falling apart well before the start of the game. Losing at Helios One and being abandoned by their Elder. Retreating underground and somehow becoming even more distrustful of the outside world. Their lack of change was the whole point of Veronica’s personal quest and the source of the faction’s overall problems in everything they’ve appeared in. They’re characterized by an unwillingness to compromise and being so stuck in their ways that they rarely make allies and often make enemies.

Then there’s House and the other miscellaneous factions in the city itself. I mean, just to keep the game’s ending ambiguous you have to have something happen to House since all but one ending involves his death. It’s also not wild to imagine it falling apart as the Mojave does around it via war and other problems. A town built on tourism won’t thrive without tourists.

I'd say, complete the Brotherhood quests up until "Blind Betrayal". Then complete "Blind Betrayal" by convincing Maxson to exile Danse. After that, assign Danse to one of your settlements. Then start the "Mass Fusion" quest for the Institute (since the Railroad questline piggybacks off the Institute's), as relaying to Mass Fusion from the Institute will brand you an enemy of the Brotherhood.

Squire Maxson's training is proceeding well, and the boy certainly has an aptitude for small arms. But I often worry about his emotional state. He is child surrounded by killers, being groomed to become a killer himself. Maybe I've become too cynical, too soft in my old age, but I wish I could give the boy a more normal childhood. Ironic, considering his upbringing is so much like my own. Maybe that's what scares me.

With what we see in Fallout 4 does line up with this.

New Objective: Protect, guard and eradicate any threat near the charge (Nora)"

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The theory of Danse being a courser sits well in my brain cause after blind betrayal and having his identity crises mixed into it, his courser systems boot up and Nora becomes a new status of loyalty. Pretty much unlocked scary dog privileges but 5x the intensity!

.

I also liked both the colored and the black and white!

I wanted to add that this song was what inspired me to draw it :3

I have a bit of a theory regarding the insane pivot of the BOS between fallout 3 and 4, and it mostly has to do with the Enclave. In 3 the Brotherhood of Steel is this altruistic, good meaning and helpful faction that wishes to do good for most of the capital wasteland.

In Fallout 4, they’ve pivoted HARD into a fascistic Army-state intent on wiping the Commonwealth clean of any and all creatures and factions they consider to be a threat. Why is that?

One could chalk it up to Maxsons reforms and call it quits there, but I believe that the Brotherhoods change in demeanor runs far deeper than just Maxson. I believe that either A: elements of the Enclave infiltrated the BOS after broken steel, or B: Lyons BOS recruited some of them into their ranks.

The evidence is a little flimsy but this is what I’ve got: Danse describes the conflict in the Capital wasteland as a civil war (he could obviously be referring to the Outcasts, but the outcasts were refolded in after Maxson took charge and it would not be unbelievable for former enclave members to create a revisionist history). We also know that shortly after the events of broken steel, the BOS becomes entangled in a war with Super Mutants (who would be particularly useful in a war against these mutants? Enclave personnel, specifically those that worked on project purity). There’s also the fact that the BOS pivoted so hard ideologically from Lyons brotherhood, going so far as to predate on the settlements they once helped, and acting far more like an Enclave contingent rather than, well, the BOS.

House is gonna send Max and Lucy to Colorado (obviously) and Thaddeus being their friend is gonna tag along, but because of his current and worsening condition, he and Max are gonna split off from Lucy, they will turn back to take Thaddeus to the nearest settlement for help while Lucy pushes on to Colorado.

Along the way Lucy is gonna hear some commotion and sneak around being nosey!! And what else does she find than that Coop has been captured and his captors plan on a hanging. Lucy watches and waits and without warning, She SHOOTS THE ROPE!!! Freeing him, they team back up and maybe kiss if I’m lucky