#preston rant

I about died laughing. Then I realized what Deacon said was actually terrible . . . then I laughed somemore.

It really amuses me that Deacon doesn't like the Minutemen and Preston doesn't like the Railroad. They're both kinda hyprocrites for it.

Deacon thinks the Minutemen are small men with too much power -- yet that describes the RR almost exactly if the SS sides with them and helps them blow poeple up.

Meanwhile, Preston wants to protect all people but doesn't acknowledge that synths are people -- which is supposed to be ironic, the black guy being racist. It's the same way X6 -- the other black guy -- is basically a slave hunter/catcher.

Meanwhile, Glory is Harriet Tubman.

Preston does admit at one point that the Railroad doesn't sound "too bad." So he's one up on Deacon.

I love Deacon, though. He's the only follower who just makes me bust out laughing constantly, even if I heard the line before.

Deacon is now my favorite follower after Hancock. Dragging him and Hancock around together is actually pretty great.

I was doing the Liberty Prime quest, and the part where you meet the Atom priest protecting the nukes is really hilarious if you bring Hancock.

Of course, Eddie Winter would say something like, "You broke in here, but at least you're hot."

Hahaha. He is such a scumbag. Have you listened to his last tape to his girlfriend? He secured immortality for himself and left her to die. He couldn't even share the experiment with her.

One thing I REALLY love is the fact that Nick already helped me kill Kellogg (who killed my husband). So killing Eddie Winter (who kills his fiancee) with him is like returning the favor.

Every time I do this quest, I hope that there will be some dlc that expands on Nick Valentine. The original Nick, I mean, and what happened to him once the Institute got him. Maybe we’d finally learn that Nick IS the real Valentine (I think he is. I think his consciousness was transferred like Curie).

I think it would just be great if a dlc expanded on ALL the followers. We'd learn more about Preston, Hancock, Cait, Curie, Piper . . . everyone. Maybe there would be a quest where we have to learn more about them -- or they learn more about our past.

I would LOVE to have a dlc that allows me to build Nora's past even more. Compared to Nate, she was practically neglected.

Your companion/love interest would learn more about you, and their reaction would reveal more about them.

Like, Preston's reaction to the SS’s story is very telling. Once you learn that Pres was suicidal, him saying "Damn!" when you tell him the truth makes sense. No doubt in that moment he was realizing that other people have it a lot worse than him but are still pressing on. I think knowing your story and how much you had suffered and the fact that you just kept going gave him the strength to go on, basically.

I think I discovered how to make Preston's affection max really fast.

I took him back to Quincy and blasted all the Gunners with mini nukes.

Alright. Let me make another longwinded post like I actually know what the fuck I'm talking about.

This is one of those posts that people hate me for. Warned ya.

The problem with Preston. Oh boy. There are a few issues here. And I say that being someone who actually loves Preston a lot. I’ll try to narrow it down to three.

First, Preston is boring. I can admit it, despite the fact I love him. He is boring. That's my opinion. Why do I find him boring? Because his story is something I've kinda heard a thousand times before (Alistair), and what's even worse? They couldn't even put a spin or a twist on it (even Alistair could do some shitty stuff toward the end of Origins). Preston's story is entirely boring and predictable. Maybe even if Preston had more of a sense of humor, but they couldn't even give him THAT.

I know. Preston is actually depressed and suicidal. But humor is a common mask for that, one reason why most comedians are secretly very depressed drug addicts and alcoholics. If I was writing Preston, I would have made him a jokey alcoholic who loved it every time you drank and who was sometimes seen tossing one back himself. That would have instantly endeared him to me (but I'm speaking for ME).

Yup. I just said that. Preston doesn't need to be alcoholic per se to be interesting. But he needs to have a FAULT. And dude is practically perfect in every way. Mary Poppins would be proud.

So basically, Preston's problem . . . is that he's too perfect.

This is something that happens on occasion with black characters. If they aren't raging stereotypes, then they're too perfect. Sometimes when writers create a black character, they tend to tiptoe around giving them faults because they don't want to be offensive. So they have black characters who are either Offensive As Fuck Type A or boring Generic Nice Guy Type B.

If you know anything about black history in New Orleans, I'd say Vivienne was Offensive As Fuck Type A. While Preston (and Ser Barris) is Generic Nice Guy Type B.

So where is the Type C balance? The balance lies in treating black characters the SAME WAY you would treat white characters. You know . . . equality? Give them personality. Give them faults. Give them jokes. Give them . . . something. Anything. But don't give them NOTHING because you are afraid.

Basically, it's very rare that a black character is just a good person with interesting faults (I think Tinker Tom fits that bill very well. I loved him).

I've said it before, but I always thought Mother Giselle was the perfect balance of a positively represented black person in the media (so she's Type C). Mother Giselle was a good person, but she had faults, she made mistakes, and she learned from them. And I thought she was a very interesting character. My characters (and I) were never Andrastian but still enjoyed talking to her and I would have liked some philosophical debates a la Sten from Origins. She was a good character.

If you look at the Art of Fallout 4, you can see that Mama Murphy was originally black in some concepts, but they made her white. If I had to guess, I'd say they were afraid of being accused of depicting a stereotype black person on drugs. But I think it would've been great if Mama Murphy had been black. Mama Murphy isn't getting high and robbing people at gunpoint (and hopefully she wasn't when she was Mad Murphy). Mama Murphy is a good person with a vice. And that's it. If she'd been black, she wouldn't have been a stereotype at all. Not in my book.

The second problem with Preston: he is a walking quest dispenser. For this reason, it took me a long time to get to know him, because I got sick of hearing about the Minutemen and settlements being in danger every time I clicked on him. You have to make an active effort to look past that and discover the person he is. Otherwise, he is just that guy harassing you with quests, and it becomes annoying really fast. It's become my practice to take Preston back to Quincy for some nice revenge, then drop him off at the Castle and leave him there. If you keep your visits to the Castle low, he and Radio Freedom won't be able to force quests on you.

And it's sad that it has to be that way. I shouldn't be so aggravated by a character just for giving me endless quests! Making him a quest dispenser was a HUGE mistake and a HUGE disservice to his character. They pretty much screwed him over where the fanbase is concerned, because so far, I have seen very few people who loved Preston compared to the following Nick or Piper or Deacon or Hancock have.

Preston was a wasted opportunity at a character who could have been ten times cooler. But they made him give out annoying radiant quests, and on top of that, made him talk about the Minutemen constantly and nothing else. Even Preston's ambient dialogue revolves around the weather or other boring crap. They never bothered to give him anything remotely interesting to say. Even making some remark about his family or Quincy or SOMETHING every now and then would have been great.

The third mistake with Preston? They wavered between making Preston leader of the Minutemen and making YOU leader of the Minutemen. Which sucks. In The Art of Fallout 4, Preston is clearly referred to as the leader of the Minutemen. But in the game itself? He's the leader in all but name. Honestly, I wish Preston had been the general and I had just helped him rebuild his faction. Everything would have made more sense.

And I loved being able to instill confidence in him again. Right after he told me his story about how he was suicidal and ready to give up until I came along, we went to a settlement, and the settlers came up and thanked him for all he was doing. It was so nice to see him getting patted on the back after everything he'd been through. I've seen players express jealousy or annoyance at this (because after all, we do a lot to help too) but I find it truly remarkable that Preston was able to hold out as long as he did when traveling from Quincy all the way to Concord. I find Preston truly remarkable and he deserves every cap those settlers give him for being one of the only Minutemen to survive as long he did, to hold his ground and protect the people of Quincy.

I'm not sure what people are talking about when they say he sucks in battle. He's blown a raider's head off in front of me several times. I recall red ash piles always surrounding me because of him. Though I won't pretend he isn't glitchy. Sometimes he doesn't help at all, or he can't become a follower after you take the Castle, and pc users have to use console commands to fix him.

In short, Preston suffers from "let's make him too nice so he's not offensive" syndrome and "here's another radiant quest to annoy you" syndrome. Two deadly things that almost killed his characterization.  

Me: I wanted the easy xp and companion approval that comes with your quests.

Sole Survivor: I'm glad too, Preston.

Did this yesterday.

Returning to Quincy with Preson wasn't as fun as I thought it'd be. Mostly because I'd already run  by the place when the Brotherhood was attacking, and they killed mostly everyone. Then Tessa came running out, and Nick and I were forced to kill her. So by the time I grabbed Preston and came back, only Clint, Baker, and a few Gunners were left, but we merrily killed them all, and Preston's approval shot up.

I loved the stuff he shouted at them about messing with the Minutemen. It was gold. He has some really great battle banter.

Next playthrough, I'm taking Preston back to Quincy ASAP. And we'll kill all those motherfuckers ourselves. No Brotherhood of Steel is going to take our fun away next time. Oh no.

At the end of the video, I got Preston's first private conversation -- because he glitched out after I took the Castle and I wasn't able to talk to him for a long time until I fixed it with console /sigh/ -- and he laughed and called himself naive for being shocked that the Minutemen were corrupt.

Preston *was* naive, and I'm pretty sure my jaded, hardened lawyer Nora thought so. But I wanted her to tell him there are worse things in the world than being naive. I wanted her to tell him to never let the world take his childlike purity of heart or make him hard and bitter. But he didn't needed to hear that. Preston will always be a pure and good little lamb. He's awesome.

Been pla‌ying with Preston since, and I forgot how awesome he really is. He is one of the few companions who actually protects me instead of me having to protect him. Every. Single. Time. an enemy is right on me -- he blows their friggin head off! And he's always so concerned about YOU, asking if you're alright constantly or giving you encouragement. And if you take him to a settlement, it's so cute the way he tells all the settlers "the general" will fix everything. He has so much confidence in you and is so blown away by you. He's always willing at the drop of a hat to follow you into hell. He's always nothing but grateful that you saved his ass. He is just your number one fanboy.