Tess

Arcade Gannon. Still feeling myself brainless when I’m drawing on the digital surface.

Lanius as Vercingetorix (Gallic Chieftain)

When I’ve seen the depiction of Vercingetorix the first time, I was immediately struck by question “who is it?” Honestly, how devs sculpted Lanius’s face - it’s pure classic Vercingetorix how he is pictured on pictures and sculptures. And when I’ve heard that he was mentioned in “Gallic notes” of Julius Caesar, everything set in place. I’m absolutely sure that one way or another, Lanius’s face is Vercingetorix’s.

Also, it’s interesting that while Edward Sallow playing Rome, late republic Rome is NCR. Bureaucracy, attrition, passivity and absolute disregard of local specifics (only their gear is something absolutely not suitable for Mojave). While Legion, in contrast, playing the role of barbarian force - little harassing raids against NCR patrols and posts, effectively using terrain and liabilities of obvious more advanced “civilization”.

Vercingetorix was a hero of Galls, no disrespect. In fact, he is one of the most famous and popular folks heroes of ancient history. Yet, such man as Lanius, in my opinion, has or could’ve had a potential. By the environment of the tent (bodies of the NCR soldiers don’t count lol) we can see that he eats with his praetorians (there are a few portions on the table), he sleeps on a plain mattress and calls his soldiers “brothers”. That doesn’t excuse the rest of things, but at least it has something to think about.

Visuals:

Mr President and CEO at work.

I have a feeling this man had very bad vision, but wore glasses only at work. So, if you met him and he hasn’t greeted you, perhaps he tried to get if you are acquaintance or some piece of scenery. Arrogant squint - weaponized myopia and astigmatism

Я прекрасно понимаю, что из моей аудитории этот мем не поймет никто, но это слишком шикарно что бы я оставила это без внимания…/

I understand that no one will understand this meme, but it’s too perfect to hide it somewhere from you❤️translation below is from google translator, so…

From the very beginning, everything we hear about Lanius is that he is a beast: ferocious, mindless, violence incarnate. Caesar supplies the most vivid version — a grotesque propaganda myth about a tribal who slaughtered his own people for surrendering. It’s pure boogeyman material: immoral, excessive, violence for the sake of violence.

The problem is that Caesar is a notoriously unreliable narrator. He lies constantly and instrumentally. His stories exist to shape belief, not to tell truth. And this one collapses under even minimal scrutiny.

We are given another account by Lucius, the head of the Praetorian Guard, a far more credible source in every sense:

“He's the best warrior in the Legion. A full Legionary by the time he was 12, he's never lost a battle.”

If this were a fabrication, why wouldn’t it align with Caesar’s myth? Why offer a restrained, almost administrative description when Caesar is literally in the next room? The lack of coordination suggests that Lucius isn’t selling a legend.

Lanius himself dismantles the “mindless brute” narrative the moment he speaks.

He is extremely articulate and eloquent. His speech is vivid, controlled, and precise:

“Our warriors will wash over them in a tide of blood, severing arms before they can attack, legs before they can run, and heads before they can pray.”

Or this:

“They are passable foes. Like their citizens, they prefer their war from a distance — and at that, they excel.”

It’s hard to pick a single line, because almost everything he says is linguistic ecstasy. His vocabulary is rich, layered, and deliberate. This is not the speech of a recently captured tribal. If anything, compared to Lanius, Caesar often sounds like an LA teen with strong opinions on dialectics. Lanius’s language suggests extensive reading, internalized rhetoric, and imagination — even his threats are structured and poetic.

(i can’t not mention this line “ Woman of the West... you will learn your place - in my tent, and again, when you beg for release on the edge of my blade”)

He is also strategically literate.

He understands perfectly well that the Legion is worse equipped than the NCR and compensates accordingly:

“Our forces are better equipped to take objectives than hold them. I do not wish to defend this place if another option exists.”

And he acts on this understanding. Legion forces attack through tunnels, neutralizing NCR firepower in tight, enclosed spaces. That isn’t brute force — it’s applied tactical knowledge. He uses strategic terminology naturally. You do not acquire this kind of competence as a “random tribal.”

Even small details matter. In combat lines, he refers to his soldiers as “brothers.” Someone new to the ranks does not speak that way. That language reflects long integration, authority, and mutual recognition — not an outsider elevated overnight.

Which leads to the most important question: why would Caesar, of all people, make a “noob” his Legate?

Caesar had problems even with his oldest and closest ally. He does not tolerate incompetence, and he certainly does not hand absolute military authority to an untested brute. The far more plausible explanation is this: there already was a capable, literate, trusted centurion — almost a prodigy. Caesar then manufactured the myth. He forged “Lanius” as an image and sent him east to rebuild the Legion Joshua Graham had nearly destroyed through arrogance.

And Lanius succeeded.

In three years, he rebuilt an army that Caesar and Joshua had spent decades creating. He survived the brutal Denver campaign, exploited the Hangdogs’ weaknesses, conquered them, and even introduced innovation — war hounds — into Legion doctrine. That alone disqualifies him from the “mindless enforcer” label.

It also explains why Joshua Graham has no idea who Lanius is. The name didn’t exist yet. The image was constructed later.

Finally — and most tellingly — Lanius is reasonable.

He can be persuaded not to take Vegas, not through emotion, but through economics, logistics, and attrition. And this line, for me, is very important argument against bloodthirsty beast:

“The East was a hard-fought campaign. Even now, Caesar drew too much of the Legion's blood needed there for… this. Hoover Dam is but a place. I will not have it be the gravestone of the Legion — whether quickly, or as you describe, slowly… by attrition.”

None of this applies to a “beast tribal.”

Lanius is a deeply underestimated character. Almost everything we know about him is propaganda or half-truth — and that is precisely where Obsidian’s writing shines. Their characters are never simple. Every major figure has an underlayer, and Lanius’s is one of the most carefully hidden — and most rewarding — in the game.

Art- mine.

Yes, as I wrote in the previous post, he isn’t the world’s first softie — but his persona is written far too carefully and deeply to reduce him to “evil technocrat” to what he is reduced in series.

House is deeply sentimental.

He loves the Old World and openly longs for it. He adores Vegas and wants it preserved and restored exactly as he remembers it. He even speaks about the Lucky 38 almost tenderly:

“Perhaps you were referring to the Lucky 38? The years haven’t been kind to her, but still she manages to impress.”

He keeps a collection of snow globes and eagerly pays a ridiculous 2,000 caps for each one:

“I enjoy them. There’s something about a little diorama set inside a glass dome that I… {beat} find pleasing.”

This is also why he inspired the tribe that became the Omertas to impersonate the mafia.

“They reminded me of a certain criminal element Vegas used to attract. I told them some stories, gave them some clothes — and they ran with it.”

Just imagine it: a 250-year-old man teaching a tribe how to cosplay the pre-War mafia because it made him nostalgic. That’s not evil mastermind behavior — that’s a lonely intellectual indulging in memory. He may posture as an aloof techno-god in a coffin, but deep down he wants to live inside one of his own snow globes, where nothing went wrong and everything is still in its place.

House also doesn’t behave like a purely detached CEO toward the Courier.

He slips constantly into instructive, passive-aggressive grandpa mode:

“Arrogance was their undoing. There might be a lesson in that.” (When courier says that Omerta wasn’t a challenge)

“Can’t put the genie back in the bottle, is that it? Maybe you should’ve thought of that before you conspired to destroy my property.”

“And whose idea was it to offer yourself up as a sacrificial lamb? Really — what did you expect?”

He’s grumpy, but even when the Courier fails, he scolds first and then adapts anyway. From cut content, he even says that Benny was like a son to him — and that if he had ever had a child, he would’ve wanted them to be like the Courier. This line appears at the very end of the game, where manipulation would be pointless. That makes it land as sincere.

And then there’s his snark.

House isn’t cold — he feels a lot. His irritation just isn’t explosive like Caesar’s; it’s precise, sarcastic, and restrained.

For example:

“Last I knew, President Kimball wasn’t scheduled to visit the Lucky 38. Be on your way to Hoover Dam, will you?” (When courier roaming around instead of going to the Dam)

But nowhere is he more merciless than when talking about the Brotherhood of Steel:

“No, they greatly prefer the sort of technology that puts people in hospitals. Or graves, rather, since hospitals went the way of the Dodo.”

“The world has no use for emotionally unstable techno-fetishists. Just wipe them out, will you?” (Sure, Rob, you shall be the only one)

“Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for the stories of noble paladins on crusade. Dross!”

“We’re talking about a coterie of bulging-eyed fanatics who think all pre-War technology belongs to them.”

That’s not detached machine logic. That’s academic bile. A pissed-off intellectual tearing into people he despises.

His pettiness even shows in his joke about Caesar’s baldness:

“I don’t want you harming a hair on that man’s head — assuming you can find one.”

He absolutely thought about that joke for years before delivering it. Yes, Robert, you’re older, richer, and immortal — and you’re still bullying Edward over his hairline.

And of course, the ass jokes:

“…the Chip is a little too large to be {beat} secreted away…”

Emotionally arrested MIT nerd remains undefeated.

House presents himself as aloof and unreachable, but that’s defensive elevation.

He has low self-esteem, high social awkwardness, and an intense fear of being belittled. So he places himself somewhere untouchable — above everyone — where rejection is impossible. He craves recognition, legacy, and to be remembered.

He literally writes his own obituary, where between “last hope for humanity” and “tragedy befallen mankind”, he adds literally : “He lived 261 years. How many people do that? I mean, come on.”

That’s not godhood. That’s insecurity with a PhD.

He desperately wants to be recognized — and genuinely cannot believe he could be accepted as he is, without the techno-deity performance. The romance cut lines only reinforce this: they’re awkward, cautious, reverent, and deeply human.

The problem with the series’ portrayal of Robert House is not that he is shown as evil.

House is a bad person by ordinary moral standards.

The problem is that he is “evil” in the wrong way.

To understand House, common morality is insufficient.

Class matters.

House is first and foremost a monopolistic bourgeois. This is not a personality trait — it is a structural position. His personal quirks matter, but they are secondary to the logic of capital he operates within.

The Strip is his enterprise.

The Three Families are his employees.

He does not care how immoral their actions are as long as they are profitable:

gambling people into ruin, organized crime, sex labor, indulgence of the worst human impulses.

If it brings income, it is permitted.

This is not sadism.This is capital.

Capital does not operate according to everyday morality. It operates according to expansion. Whether people suffer, degrade themselves, or destroy their lives is irrelevant to its function. In this sense, House is alienated from common morals — not amoral, but operating within class logic.

His fixation on robots and automation is equally consistent. Humans are expensive, unpredictable, and politically inconvenient. They require wages, stability, and reproduction. Machines do not. Robots are constant capital — cheaper, controllable, and ideologically neutral.

House still needs people — as consumers and labor — but not as political actors.

This is why mind-control fantasies are nonsense. House doesn’t want puppets. He wants systems.

Being bourgeois does not automatically make someone morally evil. History shows capitalists funding hospitals, charity, even labor movements. Class enemy does not equal personal enemy. Even Friedrich Engels despised his own class while remaining bourgeois.

House could have been kinder.

He simply isn’t.

Personality still matters. House is alienated, socially closed, distrustful of humans as a species. He explicitly prefers machines because people are unreliable. He is a socially awkward engineer with a god complex, limited emotional literacy, juvenile flashes of humor, and stiff old-world manners.

He is ruthless, unsentimental, pragmatic to the point of inhuman -

but he is not a thrill-seeker, not a social butterfly, and not a chaos enjoyer.

A man who calculated survival probabilities for centuries does not loiter in pubs or indulge in pointless violence for fun.

More than that, if we apply Georgi Dimitrov’s definition, House’s Vegas can be described as fascistic — without mass politics. This is an open dictatorship of capital without liberal or democratic mediation. No chauvinism is required. People are simply irrelevant as political subjects.

The objection is not that House is “bad”.

The objection is that he is portrayed out of character.

House is not a cartoon villain.

He is cold, coherent, alienated, and rational.

As a faction, House embodies capital itself: pragmatic, controlling, undead, outdated.

A lich in a tower, consuming human lives to sustain a system that outlives them.

That is why I love this game and Obsidian writing so much. No faction is pure. No choice is simple.

House is not evil because he is mad. He is evil because he is consistent.

Favorite color: purple 💜😈

Last song:

Last book:

Opened for myself Edgar Allan Poe 🐦‍⬛

Last and favorite stories - Mask of Red Death and Fall of House of Ushers.

Currently watching:

The last was Supernatural. I’m very slow in pop culture, lol and very heavy for everything new

Currently playing:

Sims 4 by default, but also Town to City, very cozy and relaxing city building simulator. Perfect to relax nerves in the end of December!

House in series is so out of character that is impossible how to do it worse. Yes, House is bourgeois lich in the game, how Caesar called him “wizard in tower”, but he was not fleshy rich slacker who would lounge in questionable places.

House is control freak, he is obsessed with systems, with numbers, calculations, he would not risk that much. Plus he is alienated not because of money elitism (my opinion, because he is canonically self made), but because he is obsessive with his industry nerd.

He is misanthropic, yes, manipulative, yes, but he prefers work with predictable systems, robots (he says it himself in game lines). That’s on what he prefers to rely on. Not some weird mind control devices.

He doesn’t use wealth in the game for personal benefit, money are tools for his “vision” of sorts.

As well as he isn’t charismatic. He is, in some way, but he has huge blind spot in social life. He chose Benny as his protégé. That alone tells us something. Because for everyone Benny is the least reliable man in the world.

That’s not our fossil granddaddy. Anyone but him.

For actors and speech writers I have zero questions of course, they do their best, I’m not blind hater of a show. But the concept of House absolutely has zero relevance to canon Robert.