I Could Make You Care

Now, for the first 2 games and New Vegas we don't really know much. What we know is that there's a fascist military group known as the enclave who were a sort of US deep state even before the war, and that the government teamed up with corporate interests to preform vaguely MKULTRA-ish experiments with the Vaults. Basically, the government was an extreme version of the 50s American jingoism and McCarthyism.

This is well and dandy, I guess issues come up more when we get to the later games, especially 4, where it seems like none of this extreme plotting and societal civil unrest which would exist is seen. The society as presented in 4 also seems quite progressive, gay people are featured in the opening, and none of the baggage of say, civil rights not existing are included. Now on a baseline, I don't want settings to be more conservative, homophobic and sexist etc., but it becomes a very confusing setting when it's displayed both as this jingoist extreme thing with fascist tendencies aswell as a progressive place where everyone is seemingly equal. If you're focusing on the 50s as your setting, and American nationalism in the 50s, then you can't have McCarthyism spoofs and anti-communism as a societal paranoia norm while also general equality is the norm without misunderstanding why McCarthyism and nationalist jingoism is bad. A massive harm done in anti-communist paranoia is how it degrades and vilifies any progressive movements (women's rights, civil rights, homosexuality) as being morally un-American and therefore connected to communism. To ignore this just makes any critique of MacCarthyism and jingoism weird!

Legion Camp

Concept art for Fallout: New Vegas

THE FOLLOWERS OF THE APOCALYPSE

never underestimate my ability to cross brooklyn nine nine over with anything

Veronica thinks Christine left the Brotherhood to get away from her homophobic parents, but she apparently joined their version of internal affairs and remained even more committed to the Brotherhood than Veronica is. That raises the question of how Veronica didn't know about this, what role the Brotherhood's culture actually played in Christine's decision, and how much Christine knew about Veronica's status, because Veronica's dialogue makes it sound like they talked in person before Christine "left". Maybe Elijah tampered with messages to Veronica. That would explain why she got over the breakup quicker: she thinks Christine dumped her via text.

But by far the most wrong thing Veronica says about Christine is "I'm sure she's moved on." Girl, you can’t imagine how Not Over you Christine is. It is vital to the themes of Dead Money that Christine hasn’t let go of Veronica. She’s so not over Veronica, she went on a mission of vengeance to kill the guy who broke them up. Yeah, he's committed other atrocities since then, but she definitely volunteered for the job when his name popped up on the hit list. Being too brain-damaged to write and getting her vocal cords scrambled couldn’t stop her from expressing how being separated from Veronica has filled her with murderous rage. Can relate.