Im thinking about how ballsy/stupid Quintus is citing the story of Roger Maxson in the Mariposa Military Base to try to convince the elder of Yosemite to rebel against the Commonwealth, which led by his descendant knowing full well how revered the Maxson name is in the Brotherhood.

Obviously the religious end was a big swing and miss because she had made clear she wasn’t interested in that but using the founding of the Brotherhood like that was such an odd choice to me. Even if the religious angle worked, why would any of them be convinced by using the Maxson name to go against another Maxson?

It really makes me wonder what’s been going on with the East Coast Brotherhood since Fallout 4. Paladin Harkness made it sound like the situation there is pretty dire. But also everyone is afraid of the Commonwealth.

So tonight, as we break bread together, let us forge together something new. Something strong. Something we can be proud of. Something we can build upon. We'll preserve what's best of what's come before and use it. And one day, we will reclaim what was lost. Let us forge a Brotherhood of Steel.

I love great man history. It is entirely inaccurate and a horrible way to represent trends, war, geo-political power, and the thousands of little pieces that all make up 'history.' Great Man History swipes that all away and instead makes history a Biography, where the steps made by an individual would reverberate for eons to come. In real life, the amount of people who could possibly defined as 'Great Men' is minuscule (by my count, its 5) and its usage in chronicling history is dubious if not non-existent

But for storytelling? Hot DOG that gets my blood pumping!

Roger Maxson was a man on the Brink. His commanding officer, Colonel Robert Spindel had just committed suicide, leaving Maxson in command of the entire military brigade established at Mariposa - 1,500-3,200 soldiers, all of whom had to deal with the fact that their government willingly committed horrors against not only humans, but also American citizens. He was able to gather the families of his men, probably doubling their population numbers, and then watched as a week and a day after assuming command, Roger Maxson watched as nuclear flame wiped clean the entire surface.

This was not like Ellen Santiago on the East Coast, a military leader looking for some hope, some direction. This was a man who had declared independence from his country, had the Rose colored glasses ripped from his eyes and watched as consumerism and imperialism consumed the entire world. Mariposa was a military base... and also a corporate research center. Maxson would have been well aware of the economic situation prior to the war and would most likely have come to the conclusion that America was responsible for its own death.

I brought up Great Man history so let me plug one of those Great Men - Charlemagne. If you were gonna be boring about (IE an actual historian), you would look at how the Franks had been rising in local power for decades, and that Charlemagne used the foundation made by his grandfather and the relationship with Rome that had been fostered since the Merovingians to make the largest military powerhouse seen in the West since the fall of Rome. But if you were gonna be BASED AS FUCK (a bad historian but a good storyteller) you would write about how Charlemagne's personal brilliance and skill won the day. And the latter is exactly what Charlemagne would want you to think - so he had his legends made. Codifed centuries later as Chanson de geste, Charlemagne spent the majority of his time as Holy Roman Emperor myth-making about himself. Establishing epics, wondrous stories, and poems. Becoming more than himself and instead being Pater Europae

Roger Maxson: We need to do something bold. We can't just stay the US Army. What's going to happen, and this is only a matter of time, is some general, or some goddamned politician is going to exit a Vault and start ordering us around. And worse they'll order some grunt to start the whole damned cycle again. Another wave of nuclear death. And if that's not enough they'll do it again. You know they will, Lizzy. It ends with us. We won't let them.

Elizabeth Taggerdy: I... I understand. But a Brotherhood? Knights? I'm supposed to call you, what, Elder?

Roger Maxson: Words have power, Lizzy. They build identity. They take on a meaning if you keep using them, even if it didn't exist to begin with. It was the Knights and Scribes after the fall of Rome that protected what was left of Western civilization. So we are the new Knights and our role is similar. But we'll need more than names. We'll need new traditions, our own, well, mythology. Something people can believe to their core.

Elizabeth Taggerdy: Is this necessary?

Roger Maxson: What else can I do? Declare myself President? Make you a Senator? Look around. Something's killing us more than the rads and freaks out there. Depression. People have lost everyone. Every goddam soul. Wives, kids, loved ones, heck even the mailman. We need to replace it with something otherwise people's souls will wither. We'll be little more than walking dead men.

This quick move paid dividents to the Brotherhood as a whole and the Maxson family as a rule. America was a corrupt, bloated institution that would lead to its own death and cannibalization - so Maxson changed it. A cult of personality, a subculture independent from what came before it, a pseudo-monarchical meritocratic collectivistic state. Bound by their tenets and their Leader

Roger Maxson was a visionary, a man who knew that he had to become more than a man, had to become a symbol. And in fact, so did his entire Brotherhood. That what saved them from the ennui of the Enclave and NCR - they're something new, with their God King looking down at them. And it is this same legend and mythology that will allow for their unification under Arthur Maxson as the new High Elder. Two centuries later, people are still willing to join, fight, and sacrifice for the ideals of the Brotherhood and for the Name of Maxson, and with the adaption of some of Lyon's (and honestly, Roger Maxson's) strategies of recruitment, Arthur has ensured that they will keep going too.

Pictured: Roger Maxson's hero card artwork, as depicted in Fallout Shelter Online.

The Power Armor worn in this depiction is the Ultracite Power Armor from Fallout 76.

You can read more about Roger Maxson, founder of the Brotherhood of Steel here:

Or, Arthurian themes and allusions in the Brotherhood of Steel mythos as seen in Fallout 4. (But that’s a lot of words.)

Yep. We're doing this. 

First, some obligatory caveats: there is no single Arthurian canon, just 1500 years of assorted fanfic based on the whims of whoever was writing at the time. For this extremely highbrow Tumblr meta, I have ignored most of it and drawn on my favorites. Also Wikipedia.

Also, I am not an expert in Arthurian literature (or Fallout lore, come to that), and I preemptively beg the pardon of anyone who is.

Finally, in no way am I claiming that all these parallels and thematic echoes are deliberate or even significant. In fact, I'd break it down into:

Clearly deliberate allusions, whether in or out of universe;

Probably coincidence, but could be someone deliberately capitalizing on a coincidental similarity;

Almost certainly coincidence, but fun to speculate about; annnnd

Blatant Monty Python references. (Because of course there are.)

I'll start with the big one.

Arthur Maxson, boy king and unifier

(source)

So across all the retellings and variations of King Arthur’s life story, there are a few consistent elements, particularly in his early life and rise to power. Some of these threads are echoed in the Fallout universe, specifically (and unsurprisingly) in the person of Arthur Maxson.

Both the legendary King Arthur and Arthur Maxson were born with a claim to power lying in their ancestry, both were fostered away from their families, and both proved themselves in combat at a young age. 

King Arthur united the warring kingdoms of Britain into a single entity, making them stronger against outsiders and receiving general admiration and acclaim. Arthur Maxson united the divided factions of the BoS after the events of Fallout 3 and is held in similarly high regard by his men.

The name Prydwen is a reference to the ship of the original King Arthur. Presumably, Arthur Maxson (or someone in the BoS who anticipated his promotion) christened the airship in a deliberate homage to the Arthurian myth.

King Arthur is associated with his legendary sword. I think it’s notable that Maxson’s legend is associated with a bladed weapon, too. ("He killed a DEATHCLAW with a COMBAT KNIFE!”)

Probably coincidence, but fun: the historical emperor Magnus Maximus, who pops up a lot in early Arthurian legend, was known in Welsh as... Macsen. (⌐■_■)

Round Table, but make it dieselpunk

(Continued under the cut.)

He had an endgame, a goal, a vision.

(Basically the whole idea behind this is that SoSu was romantically involved with Roger Maxson before the bombs fell and now they are faced with his only living descendant- Arthur Maxson.)

How could you have been so foolish?

Perhaps it was the last breath of hope you had fueling your actions, whatever shred of a dead past you could scramble to sink into. Of course, you knew damn well that your love didn't survive. There was no way that he could've. Against all odds, you knew deep within the pit of your stomach that Roger Maxson- the man you called your dearest, had burned to a heavily irradiated crisp. His acerbic wit couldn't have saved him, nothing could've.

Just like with everything else you knew, he was yet another piece of a world that was violently ripped away within the blink of your eyes.

Or..at least that is what you had thought.

When the truth of his survival reared its atrocious face, the sorrow you felt couldn't have been consoled even by sleep. No tears shed, yet all the hollowness of true melancholy sickeningly twisted your gut. Nothing could quite compare to this final blow. Roger Maxson, the man you adored, the man you had planned to make caramel apples with as a part of your Halloween festivities- not only survived the bombs, but didn't bother to even see if you had made it. Instead he courageously created this..this Brotherhood Of Steel.

Was there a greater pain than knowing you were purposefully abandoned? Sure, there was comfort in the musing of him leaving you within that icy prison for your own safety..but you didn't even know if that was a thought that ever crossed his mind.

So, again, How could you have been so damn foolish?

Joining the faction your former beloved created was a strange decision on your part. At least you were safe. Hell, the routine, the safety, and the ability to trust another person was probably the best thing to happen to you since you entered the wasteland. Alas, following the trend of your horrid life- this too was disrupted.

It was simple enough to board that vertibird with your new commanding officer, even friend, heavens know it wasn't the first time you flew in one. Roger was always able to weasel his way into being able to use military resources for anything but their intended purposes. It was actually quite liberating, being able to fly so high with the promise of meeting whatever unlucky bastard it was that assumed the position of the man that broke you.

That's when it all came crashing down.

The moment you entered the glorious metallic halls of the Prydwen, something told you to turn on your heels and leave it all behind. Something felt wrong deep down, and yet even your own intuition couldn't have prepared you for what met you next. The very second you locked eyes, you felt sick to your stomach.

Ice blue eyes. Those terrible, gorgeous eyes, blazing into you with some terrifying strike to your very soul. Yes, a plethora of people posses blue eyes- some even more beautiful than the pair that stared back at you with unamused confusion. However none could quite compare, for you knew these were the eyes of the man that haunted your dreams at night. Shadows of his loving kisses, passionate trysts, and even the sorrow those remarkable eyes held whenever the man behind them had to bid you fair well and leave you for months on end at your little home all alone.

Those were Roger's eyes. You knew it. You knew it the second he looked at you, you knew it and you hated it.

As though that wasn't enough, the Paladin at your side had confirmed this painful conclusion- proudly announcing that you now "stand in the presence of Elder Maxson, last of the revered Maxson line." That in itself was enough to make the floor lose its solidity, feeling as though instead of being stable- it was now swaying like an untamed sea beneath your feet.

The longer you gazed upon the esteemed boy in front of you, the more it hurt. The more you could spot similarities of Roger in another man, a man that descended from him.

It was all you could do to stomach speaking to him, your throat catching on every sentence as an unbearable throb in your chest began to resurface after months of laying dormant. That night hadn't been any easier- the realization that Roger not only abandoned you, but also had an entire family with another woman carving away at what was left of your fragile sanity. That was supposed to be you..you were his wife, not some other woman. What did you do to deserve this pain? All you could do was stare emptily at the ceiling above you, sleep not even once serving as an option.

Now you truly felt that your life had been shattered.

This would absolutely have been hilarious. I could see a female sole meeting him too, either through her husband - or like in my Nora’s case, because her family has military ties xD

Arthur: I am a descendant of Roger Maxson, a great man who, seeing the atroci-

Nora: Captain Roger Maxson? From California? 

Arthur: Yes, he was-

Nora: He was horribly crude. He would chew with his mouth open and drank beer from the bottle at dinner. I am not even surprised he formed a militant cult. Actually, I have a funny story about that, you won’t believe this [blablabla...]

Arthur: :[