I don't think the goal of Fallout is to present some kind of answer to the problems of people it raises -- "war never changes" -- it takes issue with the very idea of finding one perfect model and imposing it, actually. What I see is that you have groups from the past, who would rather kill the world than let it change and grow, and they continue to refuse to let the future be born. They are the big bad of the story overall, the problem that the children of the future (Lucy, Max, Norm, Thaddeus, etc) need to free themselves from. That's why we have the example of a bad parent Hank, who does the same thing to his children or tries to. And his role in destroying Shady Sands is an expression of that logic of the old world: kill people rather than let them make their own mistakes and build their own dreams and hope for better.
Hank, the Enclave, Vault-Tec, House - they all refuse to let the future be born. They refuse to let other people be outside their control. That's the whole metaphor of the brainwash chip. That's the whole issue around the discovery of infinite power: their world could have become a utopia. But the people with power would rather burn it to ashes than let it be outside their control.
And that malignant force does needs to go. But I don't think any of the genuine, organic future groups are going to be presented as absolutely needing to go. Not even the Legion. That logic--to wholly rip people out instead of engage in diplomacy, in complexity-- is a temptation that leads in the direction of Hank et al.
That idea that people are flawed, therefore, they must be ripped apart and made to be "good". I think that the show will continue to be positive about the NCR--OF COURSE, it's a democracy with rights for mutants and all people written into its laws! There's a lot to be positive about--and obviously that side is going to win, but it is aware of its flaws too. People get to come up with their own answers, but those answers will never be perfect.
And one day the NCR will fall or change radically, like all civilizations rise and fall. There is no one fixed answer. I think both Pluribus and Fallout raise the specter of mind control to talk about the same thing: they aren't saying what the one answer, the one good way to be is, they are saying that the idea of there being such a thing is *inherently anti-life*. Against humanity, against freedom and life in its complexity.
It prevents the possibility of a Legion by killing every democracy in its cradle. It prevents war by killing any potential for genuine peace, genuine community. But, while that is a true evil that must be defeated, I don't think either story is arguing for one model for what a true good is. It is, in fact, showing how that logic is beneath their vision of true evil -- if there is one perfect good, one true model, then morally it's justified to force people to become part of it, right???
And I think Max's arc is gonna be about no longer trying to give away his power symbolically and literally (I love how the power armor and infinite power diode make this part of his story so incredibly literal lolol) because only he can make his own mistakes and choices. And we literally see that in how badly in the storyline of the past of Cooper trying to give away his power literally and symbolically (with the same symbol, the diode) went.
Lucy isn't going to end up on a pedestal, and neither is the NCR. And I expect more that there will be destruction, growth, change and political compromise in the Legion's defeat rather than absolute erasure. Because that plays into what they're saying, about how the past trying to kill the future is truly evil, but the future itself needs to be free to figure itself out, including all the mess and ugliness that human freedom brings along with its potential for great dreams and hopes for better.
Both the NCR and the Legion are organic to the Wasteland and modeled after the histories of past that they remember and build in their own way. That is what people do - that's why people influenced by Rome have spent the past several thousand years trying to model themselves on it and claim its legacy. In fact, BOTH the NCR and Legion are doing that! Both are modeled after Rome -- its REPUBLIC (New California Republic!) phase and its tyrannical, imperial phase. And that is just how the cookie crumbles. Humans do both things. And the only thing worse than the bad people are capable of is stripping them of their right to figure shit out and fuck up because you think X model of how to be is so perfect and good you have the right to destroy them to create and maintain it.
