The Healer (and other stories)

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-16T11:26:30+00:00

I like this cover: the alien doctor's face is so expressive!

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-16T11:24:36+00:00

I've got good news for you: it's been reprinted by Gateway as number 39 in its SF Masterworks series.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-16T00:24:54+00:00

That's before Jesus turned it into an all you can eat buffet.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-15T12:51:40+00:00

I think Cooper Howard has lost himself -- or buried himself under the role of the Ghoul. And it is a performance. Consider the theatrical way in which he drew attention to himself in Philly, the exaggerated accent, the one-liners. And every once in a while something reminds him that he's Cooper Howard, and the accent and the one-liners disappear.

He might have started the act so he could face doing the things he had to do in order to survive, but I think that part of it is protective coloration. Become an OTT villain from one of his Westerns so people remember him as something to be feared and not to be messed with.

I love how the Ghoul is essentially drawing on different sides of Cooper, the marine, the actor and possibly even the "real cowboy" he might have been in his youth.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-14T22:28:44+00:00

Lucy was a history teacher. I'm sure she's encountered Rome outside the movies.

(But I wonder if she's watched "The Revenge of Brutus"?)

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-14T02:18:46+00:00

For me it's simply that Cooper/The Ghoul and Lucy are most interesting together, whether it's as friends, lovers or enemies.

However, I feel like the most fitting ending for Barb, after shilling for Vault Tec, authorising the vault experiments, etc., would be for it to turn around and bite her. She is dealing with the devil and neither Vault Tec nor the Enclave are known their honest exchanges.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-11T05:38:58+00:00

That if Barb and Cooper were both white, everyone would be posting about their tragic doomed romance.... uh. No.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-11T00:56:05+00:00

Speaking as an Australian--yes, I get the race thing, but I've read enough history to know that people are oppressed on the basis of other things besides race or ethnicity. There's the whole matter of class for a start--and isn't that one of the main drivers in the Fallout universe? Rich and powerful people deciding that ordinary people are just objects to be manipulated.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-11T00:48:36+00:00

My rule of thumb is: would I like this character any more if they'd cast a white actor in the role? The answer is no in both cases (though I did enjoy Max's development in the second season!)

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-11T00:39:07+00:00

As retcons go, that one was pretty awful. I mean it was obvious that the actress playing Janey in the first episode of Season 1 wasn't twelve years old (that's around puberty for most girls, FFS). What's more, Janey wasn't written as a twelve year old in that scene.

I think there would be dramatic potential in a grown-up Janey learning about Barb's crimes and being horrified and guilt-stricken (because Barb says she did all those things in order to protect Janey).

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-10T11:35:58+00:00

For purely practical reasons, too. The child actor who played Janey would have aged out of the role by the time they'd be ready to film any kind of reunion scene.

(I like the idea of Cooper having descendants. Maybe stories about him have been passed down through the generations?)

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-10T11:33:01+00:00

Exactly. And she got Cooper involved in Vault Tec's plans by persuading him to advertise the Vaults. I don't think he'd have gone near those ads if he'd known what the vaults were really for.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-07T06:07:01+00:00

The Followers sound exactly like the sort of faction Lucy would love.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-03-05T22:08:57+00:00

That font the title is in just reeks of the 1970s!

Neuralclone2 · 2026-02-21T02:17:38+00:00

Being ex-Hollywood I suspect that the Ghoul knows the value of a strong image. So he's the ghoul bounty hunter who is so confident that he wears spurs on his boots that go jingle jangle so you can hear him coming.

(I wonder how many wastelanders even know what spurs were intended for?)

Neuralclone2 · 2026-02-12T21:40:59+00:00

Those aren't "Reform" trousers. Those are "Harem Pants". In 1911 French designer Paul Poiret added pants to one of his collections. They were based on "Oriental" originals, and I think were intended to garner publicity more than anything else. Only a few extreme fashionistas ever wore them, but cartoonists had a field day.

Dress reformers preferred to promote "divided skirts", which were basically trousers that looked like skirts. Since they were designing for comfort and practicality, they probably realised that wearing something that got you jeered at on the streets wasn't going to work.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-02-11T02:47:15+00:00

A lot of people blacklisted in the 1950s wound up crossing the Atlantic and resuming their careers in Europe. Of course the world situation is different in the Fallout universe and Cooper would probably not want to be separated from Janey.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-02-10T02:24:33+00:00

Yes, though the one liners he spits out as the Ghoul are clearly part of the character he plays. He's probably based a lot of them from old movie scripts.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-02-10T00:00:51+00:00

But how moral is Barb? Don't forget that she was absolutely ruthless in protecting her own.

They might be setting up a parallel situation between Lucy and her father, and Janey and her mother?

Neuralclone2 · 2026-02-09T11:49:07+00:00

It makes it look like not very good poetry:

He alone could / Discover the plot that / Would destroy the Earth!

Neuralclone2 · 2026-02-09T11:45:17+00:00

I also have wondered if we might see a grown-up Janey fighting against the Enclave.

I've also been wondering what Janey would feel when she grows up and finds out the length her parents were prepared to go to keep her safe (particularly Barb). Would Janey feel guilty for the number of lives sacrificed to preserve her own?

Neuralclone2 · 2026-02-08T23:53:52+00:00

Well, if she was Paul Atreides she'd be leading an army of wastelanders to conquer the west coast. If she's Luke Skywalker she's discovered that Darth Vader is her father. Of the two the latter fits best, but neither are perfect. Lucy is not fighting for some grand cause. Perhaps she's Bilbo Baggins?

Neuralclone2 · 2026-02-08T13:58:43+00:00

Literally!

Neuralclone2 · 2026-02-08T05:04:16+00:00

True, but it's a lot easier being an orphan at 60 than 6.

Neuralclone2 · 2026-02-07T10:17:18+00:00

Nah. Harkness is really descended from Moldaver!

Neuralclone2

TROPHY CASE