you guys are batting 100s with the chewy questions tonight tysm for this food....

if he had come back.... if Lucanis had come back and made actual tangible change... i don't think things would have changed. i think illario was already on this train wreck that he couldn't stop, but i do think he might've... tried harder to stop it? reached out? expressed remorse himself? it would've been more of a moment of "i started something i cannot stop" and things might've gone... differently in the aftermath of their relationship rather than how things played out.

i like how iwas so fuckin braindead i couldnt answer this for a whole day OKAY OKAY THOUGH,Laurence: HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOY is it...complicated? Lok sure does like him, he’s made a promise or two to him and intends on keeping them. hes also made a small point to get laurence to smile when others can see it as often as possible. he just wishes laurence would let him sleep sometimes. Eschale: a good kid with a (pretty) good head on his shoulders. kinda goofy. loks horrified of that weird imp he’s got around that eats eyeballs, and lok still thinks that imp is just a horrifying looking cat. he trusts this kid, he just has some growing up and a lot of learning to do. not that great of a boat pilot.

Ash: Reminds him of a little sister whos mission in life is to figure out everyones business. lok thinks shes a sweetheart and feels bad every time he forgets she’s blind, but he appreciates her tenacity and definitely doesn’t want to see her bad side. 

Iggy: who lost their weird.......sassy....weirdly dressed child?? whos kid is this?? whys he talk like that?? lok thinks iggys dramatics are fucking hilarious and has warmed up to him a little, but still keeps his guard up a bit. the fact that iggy floated right into gunfire without a second thought has lok thinking he’s Not All There in his head but he appreciates his dedication. 

Sitius: lok was immediately wary of Sitius at first, but being around him this long lok just sees him as another goofy kid with a lot of figuring out to do. he’s sure his heart is in the right place, he does good things, but lok’s seen a lot of people like him in his life and knows you can’t do much but let them make their own choices and hope for the best. he likes his horse but is also rightfully Uneasy around it

Vonnus: out of everyone else, lok sees vonnus like a son honestly and he isn’t even really sure why. he’s a little rambunctious and thinks on the fly a lot and lok appreciates it, and when it comes to thievin lok thinks he’s got a lot to learn. lok plans on teaching vonnus how to shoot one day. he’ll never trust vonnus to set his nose again though.

HEY! So it’s been a minute since I’ve played FO4 so I’m going off of the wiki entry for Vault 75 and Oxhorn’s video exploration of Vault 75 which is not usually how I like to figure things out but it’s all I have available to me right now and I don’t want to keep you waiting for your ask to get answered.

I think the question is whether the Gunners originated from Vault 75 or just happen to base their operations out of Vault 75. I couldn’t find definitive info one way or the other but I think both ideas are plausible!

The brainwashing and reprogramming the kids were subject to within Vault 75 are similar tactics to what the Gunners employ. Maybe one of the genetically engineered child soldiers survived the mutiny and created the Gunners once they reached Uptopland?

"One day, children, you will.” Said the Overseer. “That's why you must do your best at classes and training every day. So you can grow up big and strong, and go make Uptopland a happy and safe place for poor people who live there.”

Sue and Roy smiled at that, and ran off to their lessons, eager to help.

An issue I see with this scenario is that the Gunners aren’t very moralistic, they don’t see themselves as the saviors of the Wasteland as say The Brotherhood of Steel. It could have played out similarly to what we see with General Becker’s terminal entries in Libertalia - that this child soldier tried enacting what they’d been taught about saving Uptopland, only to find out that it wouldn’t work that way, and was eventually disillusioned and abandoned some of their morals in order to survive.

Another issue is that the Gunners aren’t really super soldiers as we encounter them. Maybe their scientifically modified genes didn’t pass down the ranks but the military training did? That could explain things.

It could also be that Vault 75 is just a good place for a paramilitary group to set up shop; the vault has military training facilities, ammunition, guns, and a controllable entrance/exit. It’s a smart place for them to be. The Gunners could’ve stumbled across this vault like they did with Vault 95 and hit the commando jackpot. New recruits could be brought here for basic training and reprogramming. They can resupply. They can use the fortifications.

I imagined the Gunners like modern-day doomsday prepper groups, or even more closely related to the indigenous paramilitary group Tony Poe created during the Vietnam War (an inspiration for Col. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now), which would certainly play into the way Macready talks about the Gunners being like a cult.