#synth rant

All this time, I assumed the synths in the Commonwealth were at least part organic because it's well established that they were made from Father's DNA. I mean . . . that's why he's called Father. It's also the entire plot.

I guess they weren't actually made from his DNA but were modeled after it. To be honest, I can't remember Father's explanation because I tend to space out when he's talking.

You know, if this was the case, it would fit my theory well.

Disclaimer: I am not that familiar with FO lore because I'm not as invested in it as I am with other games (see my tag #obsessed nerd/obsessive nerd). Use that to discredit me or hand-wave my opinions as a fan, but whatever. This is my theory.

I have a theory that pre-war people are all super human compared to post-war people simply because they are unradiated.

Look at the Cabots. All of them -- the sister Emogene especially -- can fight and are strong. Emogene walks around the post-apocalyptic world like it's nothing, smashing any raiders that get in her way. Sound familiar? Yeah. She sounds like the SS.

I guess you could say it was their father's whacked out blood that was making the Cabots strong. I can't remember if the family started taking the blood before or after the war.

Point is, pre-war people aren't super human, it's just that all the modern people are weak because they've been exposed to radiation for 200 years, so the unradiated pre-war people, who are strong by comparison, seem like gods to them.

This would explain why the Institute would kill all the other members of Vault 111. Imagine if SS and all her/his neighbors all woke up and decided to take over the Commonwealth. They would all be gods among weak, radiated people. And maybe some of them would be assholes who would rule as tyrants, or else just go on a killing spree. To be safe, the current Institute director ordered all the pre-war people in the vault killed simply because they -- being unradiated and thus "super human" -- posed a potential threat.

I mean, it was enough that they were taking Shaun, a pre-war human, inside the Institute. They brainwashed Shaun heavily growing up, because if he wasn't properly afraid of the surface, he would easily just kill everyone in the Institute and leave if he wanted. They successfully brainwashed him and he never left, even became loyal and afraid of the surface enough that he never went up once except after meeting you.

More support for this theory: because the synths were modeled after Father's DNA (and thus after the sole survivor's), the synths -- and coursers especially -- are typically stronger than humans.

This is why the SS can kill a courser and sees it as nothing, while everyone else is piss-in-their pants afraid of them: the coursers were modeled after pure, pre-war DNA. So they have those "super powers" of a pre-war human, namely the SS.

It seems this knowledge of a pre-war human's superior vitality wasn't passed down in the Institute, as Justin Ayo expresses bafflement that you were able to defeat his courser.

Either that, or Justin Ayo was testing you to see if you had figured out that you could easily kill everyone in the vicinity -- coursers included -- on your own. He was testing the waters, trying to see if you were ignorant of your own power or if you were truly a threat. 

I'm more inclined to believe he was simply testing you to see if you’d figured things out. I’d be surprised if Justin Ayo didn’t have access to a lot of knowledge being SRB.

The other scientists, however, seem baffled at your strength. During "A House Divided," they are shocked when you manage to get past a couple Gen 1 synths and some turrets -- which should be laughably easy at this point -- and can't believe it when you continue to plough through everything they throw at you.

So, the strength, vitality, and danger of pre-war humans seems to be a secret that only a few Institute scientists are privy to.

Perhaps Father, after becoming Director, (and now a harmless old man who couldn’t benefit from the knowledge) learned the truth about pre-war strength and realized that you were probably incredibly powerful and could survive the Wasteland. He released you from the vault, lured you to him, and then once he met you, couldn't even tell you why he would so coldly send you into danger. During the conversation on the roof stop after Bunker Hill, he couldn't tell you about your own super powers because, at that point he still doesn't feel as if he can completely trust you not to massacre his people.

So if all this was true, imagine how that rooftop conversation went for Shaun. He confesses to doing a terrible thing by releasing his own parent into a highly hostile environment where death is a certainty -- I mean, most people would have enough decency not to do this to a random stranger, let alone their own parent, however estranged -- so to the SS, he just sounds cold and cruel. But deep down, he knew you would probably survive simply because you were pre-war and unradiated (though it was still a dick thing to do).

In past posts, I’ve often referred to Father as cold and cruel. I was not saying this because I hate the character (I don’t really) but because it’s a fact. He was raised like a guinea pig in a lab. He was such a void that he had to use science -- the only thing he knows -- to run an experiment on his own parent just so he could understand what love is.

That’s how fucked up the Institute made Shaun. Sure, he seems well-adjusted, but he’s actually not. I think the FEV labs are evidence enough of that. Do you really think people in the Institute were hugging Shaun and tucking him in with bedtime stories and actually loving him? Kellogg being such a dick about that -- by sarcastically assuring you that Shaun is in a good place where he’s safe and loved -- was such  a shitty thing in hindsight.

The seeming super strength of pre-war people would also explain why the SS is so extraordinary. Everyone in the Commonwealth is in awe of the SS (Deacon being their number one fan). They're an overpowered god walking around, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. And it's because they aren't radiated and can even become immune to it, while retaining their pre-war vitality -- unlike pre-war ghouls, who have been weakened by the radiation like everyone else.

The last argument I saw said the Railroad was a bunch of hypocrites because they send you to “indiscriminately” kill coursers, who are synths, the very people they are trying to save.

That’s actually not true.

Every courser you’re sent to kill has thrown in their lot with the Institute and is glad to be serving the same people who enslave them. Every last one you fight in a RR quest is a cold, cruel killer (I’m assuming you actually talked to them like I did on my first playthrough – I don’t talk to them anymore, just kill them), and it’s not like you can talk them down from what they’ve been sent to do. In fact, they’re pretty hell-bent on doing it.

The same way you can’t talk down Gabriel in Libertalia and why the hell should you bother? Gabriel made the choice to be a raider – evidence enough that he is sentient – and so, just like every other raider in the game, I will kill him for attacking me and other innocent people. Ironically enough, Gabriel is the only raider in the game (minus the Forged leader) who just wants to talk to you.

Or at least I would kill Gabriel if Fallout 4 presented that option. I think a person who’s undercover with the Institute would need to bring Gabriel in alive so as not to rouse suspicion. Because the more important thing is infiltrating the Institute, not coddling synths who are grown-ass people who can make bad decisions like the rest of us.

Glory was a courser. She chose to do the right thing and help her brethren. And we meet yet another ex-courser in Far Harbor. They can make the choice to turn against the Institute because they are self-aware. Unfortunately, we are required to kill a great deal of them before they have an epiphany. But who’s to say they will? Could you seriously see X6-88 suddenly turning on the Institute? (Which is a shame because he’s such a cool follower)

What’s more important here? Freeing synths who actually want to be free or coddling some coursers who have already chosen to help enslave their own kind???

The person went on to make another argument that they hated Desdemona and Z1 because you are asked to kill a bunch of innocent Institute scientists when you finally make the attack on the Institute.

Bethesda did this on purpose to make sure that no one got a perfect, happy ending – for which I am glad.

This is war, people. This is the price you pay to end slavery, to free people from cruelty and oppression. It often means that innocent people die in the crossfire. My SS did not gleefully gun down the scientists there. She felt bad for them, but at the same time, ending the Institute and putting an end to its reign of terror is more important than five people.

This is where pragmatism steps in. An idealist would believe that there was some way to stop the Institute without violence or the death of innocents. A realist knows there isn’t. A realist knows that gunning down those five innocent people will free hundreds. A realist knows that in order to survive the Commonwealth, they are going to have to make difficult, sometimes terrible decisions and live with them.

My SS didn’t do the right thing in killing those scientists. She did the necessary thing.  

People who make these arguments sound like Patriot to me, too naive to understand that freedom isn’t free but often comes at a very high price. Did you seriously think no good people died in the Civil War??? Wake up.

And do you really hate the Railroad for asking you to kill a few coursers? The Brotherhood asks you to bully your own settlements. On top of that, they regularly ask you to kill super mutants who haven’t done shit to you, just so they can get their hands on some tech the mutants happen to be sitting on. Super mutants are people too. Yet we-the-player storm into their homes while they’re minding their own business and slaughter them all. Sure, super mutants sometimes attack settlements, but we can’t really judge an entire group of people based on a few.

That would be prejudice.

Bethesda sometimes does things throughout the game to remind us that SMs are people too. You can overhear their dialogue when they’re in their homes, just like raiders. You can sometimes loot teddy bears from them. They scream in horror and rage when you kill their brothers and dogs. They have backstories and scribbled notes, just like the raiders.

SMs have feelings and are people. If Strong isn’t enough to drive this home, I don’t know what is. Maybe that SM in Far Harbor? Eric? Seems like he was added as an afterthought once Bethesda realized they had screwed all the factions up by making them mindlessly, constantly hostile. Your character even says in the game that Gunners are just raiders with better gear – which goes to show that Bethesda either doesn’t grasp the lore or just doesn’t give a flying fuck (probably the latter).

I think people make these arguments mostly because they’re ashamed of the fact that they hate the Railroad and don’t want to look like bigots, so they grasp at straws, trying to justify their disdain. Sorry, but you do look like a bigot every time you sneeringly refer to the RR as SJW lunatics. You look like a real asshole, probably the kind who has that one black “friend” and makes racist jokes about them behind their back. Congratulations! You are part of the problem that is this toxic culture we are stewing in.

I’m not saying there aren’t valid reasons to hate the Railroad. In fact, the more I play the game, the more I dislike them. And I think it was supposed to be this way. There are no easy answers. It was supposed to be hard to blow up the Institute and to pick which path to take.

For me, it was easy to choose the Railroad because I’m not down for slavery. But that path wasn’t perfect and I was still required to do some regretful things in order to make that ending happen.

By the end of the game, my character was weighed down with guilt for having murdered her own son, who she lied to and deceived for the sake of saving the synths. Sometimes she stands at the big hole where the CIT used to be and just thinks of him. And whenever assholes like Carrington give her grief, it just makes her angrier about what she had to do.

The ending is not supposed to be easy or even happy, but – geez – I wish to god there had been no stupid cutscene with SS whining about the Great War.

So you probably wanna know why I dislike the Railroad.

I have one good reason, which I’ve already talked about here.

I really dislike that they wipe the synths’ minds.

I think Glory never gets her memory wiped because she knows it’s stupid too (Glory and I were always on the same page). The Railroad is responsible for Libertalia and everything that happened with Gabriel because they wiped his mind. After the Minutemen fallout, he approached Bunker Hill for food, not realizing he was close to blowing their cover, so they paid him off to keep him at bay. When Bunker Hill refused to help him, he slowly and gradually became a raider as an alternative to starving (could be viewed as an allegory for what people of color have to go through in real life, committing survival crimes because they can’t get jobs and thus becoming “thugs”).

This entire situation is the Railroad’s fault, and yet they never do anything to stop Gabriel simply because they knew him once and feel bad for him. They created this situation and left it to stew (sounds like real life, huh?).

It’s my belief that after everything with Gabriel, the Railroad – rather than realizing mindwipes were bad – started sending synths from the Commonwealth after the mindwipes. Which was dumb. It’s just an unnecessary increase of risk. And what I hate the most is the fact that DiMA blames SS for the mindwipes. Just because you’re part of the Railroad, you’re seen as guilty by association???? Wtfe. Ugh.

On my most recent playthrough as Nose Nora, I started to dislike the RR even more after Patriot’s death, mostly because of the way Desdemona seems to blame you for the kid’s naivety. After Patriot’s funeral and shitty suicide letter, my character began to distance herself more and more from the RR. And now, knowing that Desdemona – and Carrington – both treat you like shit after everything you’ve done to help them, right down to killing your own son, it’s going to be hard to go back to the RR quests on subsequent playthroughs, knowing how many crappy attitudes I’ll have to deal with by the end.

But I’m glad Bethesda did it that way because it’s very realistic. You don’t do the right thing to be praised. You do it because it’s right. Ending the Institute was necessary. Choosing to free the synths was right.

That being said, you can not apply that same logic to Nuka World, and – lol – I can’t believe people are trying to.

Players aren’t angry about Nuka World because we wanted to be rewarded for being good. 

Players are angry about Nuka World because we wanted fulfilling content for being good. 

Me, Dragon Nerd

This is a quote from a Blogspot post of mine about the Brotherhood of Steel.

And I'm posting it here because the arguments people make in defense of the Brotherhood are disturbingly similar to the ones made in defense of Nazis. Then you all wonder why we jokingly call the BOS Nazis.

This is why.

I'm also posting this here for the crazy male gamers who stalk my blog looking for their confirmation bias. I want you to stumble across this. I want you to.

You can't create sentient people -- robots, super mutants, synthetics, ghouls -- and then turn around and slaughter them all when you tire of them.

Yet so many Fallout fans advocate this shit that it's frankly disturbing.

Richard Spencer, a white nationalist, stood on a stage and said that black people should all be murdered en masse because white people have no further use for us -- after bringing Africans here, making them slaves, and then creating modern-day black people by raping our ancestors.

All of it is so disturbingly similar . . . it's fucking horrifying. It's horrifying that the idea of killing anyone who isn't like you is so readily accepted by such a wide range of people.

No, the ghouls and super mutants and synths aren't real people. But, just as in all science fiction and fantasy, they REPRESENT real oppressed groups.

Because writers learned long ago that the only way to discuss serious issues and get them across without a bunch of fan whining is to dress people of color and queer people and women up like orcs and elves and shit.

The allegory is there, whether you see it or not.

Yes, the Brotherhood is a fictional faction and the synths and ghouls and super mutants are fictional people.

But the racist ideology in the equation is very, very real.

If you need to understand how the synths are actually enslaved and how they are human, look at my tag "synth rant" because I just can't type all that again.

But seriously. Did we play the same game????

The synths are people. They are entirely organic, except for one chip in their brain that allows the Institute to control them. Hating them is like hating a human with a plastic limb.

Even if the synths weren't organic, they are still sentient, and therefore PEOPLE.

Amazing that people are willing to accept that the krogan from Mass Effect -- talking turtle-dinosaur people -- are sentient people whose lives have intrinsic value. Amazing that people are willing to accept that the geth -- completely synthetic robots -- are sentient people whose lives have intrinsic value.

But no one can grasp that human synths are sentient people whose lives have intrinsic value?

Why would a raider respect the Railroad? What the FUCK?

If you're with the Institute, he says they are shady and even gets a sort of scared look on his face.

If you're with the BOS, he says they're just raiders in uniform (true).

Gage despises the Minutemen and thinks Preston is a pathetic sheep (calls him a sheep to his face). His feelings make sense because the Mintuemen stand for the exact opposite of what the raiders are.

But if you're with the Railroad, all Gage has to say is that he respects that. I'm a bit baffled.

When I first played Nuka World, I thought he was just saying that to butter me up (would have been smart of him to anyway). But after seeing what he says about other factions, I think he was being honest.

People demonize the Railroad and call them a bunch of radicals, but they're actually as good as the Minutemen. The Minutemen can also blow up the Prydwen (children on board and everything) yet no one calls them crazy radicals for it???? Meanwhile, when blowing away the Institute, Desdemona will caution you to evacuate everyone first.

Desdemona actually cares about human lives. Gasp! Caring about synths doesn't mean *not* caring about humans. That's like expecting the people who ran the real Underground Railroad to be concerned about poor white trash. That's like going to an event for Cancer and screaming WHAT ABOUT AIDS????

Focusing on one issue doesn't mean you don't care about anything else. Could the fandom be this dumb??? I guess so.

The Railroad are clearly good guys. I think Gage probably respects them for being such a small faction and yet destroying both the BOS and the Instutite (the latter of which he really seems to fear). The fact that you orchastrated it would earn you some points with him too.

Like . . . I want to help synths and stuff, and I feel like the Railroad has the most interesting quests (compared to the Minutemen and the BOS, which all boils down to fetch quests).

But Deacon is just so cool. The way he begs Desdemona like a puppy dog to let you join. The way he lies to make you look really awesome. It's kinda like his exaggerations are really how he sees you, this awesome badass who probably really could have carried him while fighting an army of synths. It's extra hilarious if SS is female.

And then the fact that Deacon has been watching you since you left the Vault -- it's very likely that he was Travis' informant -- and on top of that, he constantly sends work your way to help you out. I firmly believe Edward Deegan was pointed in your direction by Deacon, who can be seen spying on you at Bunker Hill.

Then Deacon also gives you what might be the best pistol in the game -- Deliverer. I'm using a custom pistol this playthrough (mauser off Nexus), but when I was playing pure vanilla, Deliverer was easily the best pistol, better than anything I could make.

I dunno. Deacon is pretty cool. I love the Railroad but he makes it that much harder to ever turn against them.

Also, I hate the Institute and the BOS, so I'll probably never play a character who sides with them.

So . . . someone bought me Fallout 4 dlc for my birthday . . . lol. If you've followed this blog for a while (hi, by the way) you will know why that is funny. I basically swore all year not to play any dlc because I was convinced it was all filler, fetch quests, mindless shooting galleries, and crap.

I been playing Far Harbor this weekend and it's pretty decent. The puzzles suck ass, and I have already installed mods to bypass them. But still . . . I'm . . . amazed. Because it looks like Bethesda actually *listened* when fans made reasonable complaints about the game. They actually listened??? Holy fucking ass crackers. They actually cared what we thought?????

I honestly didn't think bitching and moaning would make a difference. But it seems it did???? Does this mean they actually care about serious feedback???

The first thing they did right? Far Harbor is not yet another mindless shooting gallery (like Automaton, sadly). I was surprised when I found my character standing there listening to several conversations for several minutes. They can't fix the dialogue wheel or rewrite what was basically a preset protagonist without rewriting the entire base game, but what they managed to improve upon was decent enough. For the first time since I first played FO4, I felt like I was participating in a story instead of being asked to run here and kill this (which some of the quests still boil down to), and that's the way an rpg should be: STORY first, shooting gallery second.

Another thing I noticed: Bethesda actually allowed the player to earn an npc's respect??? Wha....??? Bethesda is pretty notorious for trolling the player with mean and surly npcs who insult them regularly (I miss Braith. Compared to the boring kids in this game, she was awesome), but in Far Harbor, you can actually do something to change that OR you can say fuck it and let everyone keep being a douche. I decided to do the quest to earn the town's respect and it was nice to return and have them going on in awe about telling stories to their kids about me. I dunno. I just hope Bethesda doesn't steer too far away from their "mean npcs" stuff, though. It's kinda a staple of Beth games that npcs just hate the player. Honestly, if I want everyone to kiss my ass, I'll play a Bioware game.

I also noticed that you can join the Children of Atom. Not enough factions and wanting to role play something besides “goody goody suburban parent” was a common complaint when FO4 first came out. I was one of the people who wanted to join the Children of Atom and oh how disappointed I was the first time I entered the Glowing Sea only to find the pointless camp in the center, which only exists in the first place to point you toward Virgil. I was pleasantly surprised that the Children of Atom had an entire quest in FH, and that you could even join them in their madness. New tattoo, hairs, and armor too. (the tattoos are pretty great)

Honestly, I think it would be interesting to role play a protagonist who went mad and never found Shaun or anything. 

Yet something else I noticed: the Railroad is criticized by DiMA, using the same arguments I used in a post I wrote here last year. I recall saying that it was wrong for the Railroad to wipe the synths' memories because they were robbing them of a valid experience that would shape them as people and give them wisdom for their suffering. For example, Gabriel's (that rogue synth who became a raider) memory was wiped by the Railroad, and because he couldn't remember being a synth or how much he suffered before as a slave, he was quick to bring misery on others. Not even quick, really. He joined the Minutemen, then tried to keep his people in line, then gave up and started robbing people because it was easier then starving. Point is, if his memory hadn't been wiped, Gabriel would have learned from his time in the Institute and would have been a better person for it. Instead, he was left to fumble in the dark, and a lot of people were killed.

Of course, when DiMa started lecturing me, I wanted to punch him in his face (lol). It's not like my character was responsible. Hell, if I'd been given the option, I'd have protested the memory wipes as foolish. But I wasn't given that option (that I recall), and my character felt the RR was the best option to wipe out the Institute, through infiltration and rebellion, so that's what she did.

Another thing DiMA commented on was the fact that destroying the Institute meant destroying all means of creating more synths. People who hate the RR constantly harp about how foolish it sounds to destroy the means of creating synths if synths are actually people. Forcing them to go extinct is cruel, right? No. I think this is a weak argument, and it sounded pretty weak coming from DiMA, just as it sounded weak coming from fans. Creating the synths in the first place was immoral -- as immoral as purposely conceiving a child who you know will have AIDS. The synths are doomed to live in fear, suffering, and pain, which is why places like Acadia and the RR existed in the first place. Bringing them into a world that won't accept them -- and will likely only enslave them -- is terrible. I was happy to make the creation of the synths stops. Because it meant no more people would suffer needlessly or bring suffering on others. The Institute was evil for basically playing at Zeus (lol) and needed to be stopped. We do not have the right to create an artificial slave race. Just . . . no.

But of course, you can't make any of these arguments in the game (to my knowledge). So even though *I* was mad at DiMA (for making valid points I myself had already made . . . lol) my character just apologized to him. Then DiMA patted her on the head (figuratively speaking) and they both moved on.

I actually thought DiMA was pretty cool-looking and wanted him to be a follower the first time I saw him. But Nick going on about his face made no sense, when all the older synths had Nick’s face too. He should have been more disturbed that DiMA shared his voice.

Some of the side quests are also just really great (if you're approached by a handy bot named Pearl, go with her).

Longfellow is also a really great follower. I love it when he starts rambling and singing when he's following me. He keeps apologizing for being surly, but he's easily the nicest guy on Far Harbor. I instantly liked him. I moved right into his house with him and didn't feel bad at all.

I just wish Bethesda would have given us one more female follower . . . We got Ada but, dude, she's a robot. Is there a follower in Nuka World at least???? Why were there so few female followers???? There are three. *Three.* Even a female super mutant would have been pretty sweet at this point.

I dunno. I'm not selling Far Harbor as "spectacular," just moderately decent and entertaining enough for me to sit here and write about it. I have not finished it yet (the dlc is massive) so I will be writing more as I go along, I guess.

Honestly, from what I'm seeing so far, FH is probably the only dlc with decent storytelling (and therefore worth buying). The only one. I would have killed for two Far Harbors and less The-Sims-wannabe stuff packs of filler garbage that I don't need.

With the developers love of scifi, robots, and aliens, they could have done SO MUCH with this game but instead gave us what? Nuka cola guns or something?

Well, at least Bethesda tried with Far Harbor. Maybe on Fallout 5 they'll use their whole ass.

(God, let there be no Fallout 5)