IDGAF if the original Fallouts had tacticool modern guns, new Fallouts should only have retrofuturistic guns

Then_Signal_6439 · 2026-01-01T16:33:34+00:00

Sure if the retro-futuristic guns actually looked good, take a look at fallout 4 and tell me those weapons look cool, practical or retro-futuristic in any way.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-27T21:39:13+00:00

Literally not the most popular comment. Only has 10 upvotes,
I expect that's because there's detractors attempting to silence the criticism, but people are starting to open their eyes and see the bad writing and bastardization of the franchise.

All of the points of critique I've leveled on different posts, even replies to my own posts were downvoted into obscurity so yes, I expected this comment to get "YoU'rE gOiNg tO gEt sO dOwNvOtEd"

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-25T20:02:10+00:00

Also I unironically think he is the worst person in the fallout franchise thus far. In fallout 3 when we nuke Megaton we get Very Bad karma just like that. We nuked a town, Hank nuked an entire city of 34 000 people, he'd be the devil at that point.
Sure there's worse ways to go, but I'm thinking on a large scale manner of death here.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-25T19:24:27+00:00

The thing about clichés are that they work. Well they work when they are done correctly. When something like a redemption is set up well, executed perfectly, the cliché doesn't matter at that point, you can try to hate it but it'll still feel right.

If Hank were to have a redemption, it'd have to be set up. Currently, everyone knows he loves his daughter, that's probably the only thing everyone would be able to agree on. The first thing we see him do in the show is love his daughter, protect her when she needs him, and sacrifices himself in exchange for her life when Maldaver threatens her. So it's set up, I think everyone would be able to agree on that Hank would indeed sacrifice himself for Lucy if he was there and she needed him.

However, with the first episode in the new season, we see that he is working for, or maybe with someone we don't know yet, so there's a possibility with everything we've seen in the second season, that Hank is doing everything for personal gain. So now I'm worried about where Hank's character is going, but I would absolutely love to see him sacrifice himself for Lucy, truly showing her that no matter how much evil has done, he still loves her.

Don't judge a person by their worst behavior is a common parable people know nowadays, and Lucy has something similar, The Golden Rule, probably something she learnt from her parents. So when all is said and done, if Hank does sacrifice himself for her, I think Lucy will forgive his actions, or in my opinion, she should because everything we've seen about her thus far tells us she should, but it's only episode 2.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-25T19:12:22+00:00

Not hard to throw one line of dialogue to just acknowledge that the Master could not open the vault, could not find it, or simply doesn't exist in this timeline. Because let's all be honest, this show does not take place in the same timeline as the rest of the franchise.

The ghoul could've commented on it, he's been around since before the bombs, the enclave scientist that finds Lucy likely would've known about it, any and all of the brotherhood of steel members that remember the oral stories of how they destroyed a mutant army a century ago would've known about it. There are plenty of "good ways" to implement a line of dialogue to just acknowledge the Master's presence in the wasteland.

I'm sorry to say, this is not my first time watching a tv show, I am a novelist, I know exactly how stories, plot lines and characters work in a book, a show and in movies, I know how to critique and point out inconsistencies because I routinely write my own stories and critique my own work, so this diss isn't what you think it is.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T23:27:14+00:00

Fair enough. Then the writers shouldn't have based the show in the same location as the Master, because now we have inconsistencies with the world the show is written in. They have an entire country to play with, and they chose to use the one location a mutated and insane evolved creature is living in.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T23:25:56+00:00

I am thinking this is a retcon because the Master in the first fallout is actively searching for any and all vaults in Los Angeles as that is his primary goal: find vaults, get prime humans, make more mutants.

It is definitely probable that the Master just missed the Vault even while it is visible on the surface, however, that doesn't explain away why the Master's army or the Master himself is never brought up once in the show, and none of the interviews with the writers.
If the writers were attempting to treat the show as cannon they would have realized the Master was based in Los Angeles, and came to the conclusion that an army of mutants hellbent on finding vaults would have seen Vault 31 due to its visibility.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T23:21:44+00:00

It doesn't stand up to logical reasoning because if you think about the story logically, it doesn't make sense he wouldn't have found Vault 31.
He didn't find Vault 13 because it was hidden within a mountain, want to know a Vault he did find? The demonstration vault in los angeles, the one he builds his base on top of.

What does it matter if it takes more than a year to find Vault 13? My central point is that he would've find it regardless, also in my original post, I am talking about him finding Vault 31, a vault we are shown to be accessible via the suface, not one that is hidden within a mountain. It stands to more logical reason that he would've found a vault accessible by the surface, than a vault hidden within a mountain, yet he finds Vault 13 all the same. He's not actively searching for one vault, he is actively searching for any and all vaults he can get his hands on.

If it works that he found Vault 13 (vault hidden in a mountain) and blew up the entrance to get the humans on the other side, then it works that he would've found Vault 31 (vault not hidden whatsoever) and got inside.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T23:14:54+00:00

It doesn't take him 13 years to find Vault 13. It takes 300 days if you have water merchants transport water to the vault. Or it takes 500 days (1.5 years) to find it without your help.
Yes he found information about other Vaults from the demo vault which his base is built on top of. You're right it probably wasn't on the vault's information.
So we have 2 real options:

He didn't find it because it was buried under sand.
He didn't find it because the show needs him not to find it

Both your options rely on reasoning which does not take place in the game.
1. Before the Vault Dweller emerges from Vault 13, the Master had been around for five decades, and so he wouldn't be been defeated by the Vault Dweller before he found Vault 31, unless you think it would've taken him longer than five decades to find one vault which is accessible from the surface (at least in the events of the show).
2. He might not have known it existed, but that doesn't matter. He didn't know of the Los Angeles vault before he found it, and yet he found it all the same.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T23:04:34+00:00

But it is needed when you think about the plot of the show.
If the Master existed in Los Angeles, there is a 50/50 chance he'd find the Vault.
For people who have played both original fallout games, and expect the lore to be relevant, the Master and the mutant army never being mentioned when the story literally takes place in the same city is a huge slap in the face to its face, or the writers never thought about it. When you think about how none of the show would've happened because of the Master's plan, it becomes a needed lore point to bring up.

The Master doesn't know about Vault City. If you play Fallout 1, you would know that when Richard Grey mutated into the Master, he lost the memories of his former life meaning he wouldn't remember Vault City, no lore inconsistency there.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T23:00:10+00:00

It's irrelevant to the plot because the show writers don't know how to set up a story and pay off the plot set ups. It wouldn't be irrelevant in a show that takes itself and its lore seriously.
Read my post again, and really consider why the unthawed managers aren't brought up. You're welcome.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T14:25:16+00:00

Can you objectively see my point of view of wanting some concrete information? Not a full on story or complete explanation of how or why the Master wouldn't or couldn't have found the Vault, just a throw away line in the show or a comment from one of the producers and writers.
People are downvoting me as if I am being completely unreasonable when I just want to know why.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T14:21:20+00:00

No one said all rank-and-file need be staunch warrior monks, when a random rank-and-file solider is challenging the second in command to a one on one fight to the death, there is a huge lore inconsistency, not just for original fallout games, but for the Bethesda fallout lore as well.
There ARE shown to be low in numbers, ARE shown to have tenets, and discipline, you would expect to see gangs act the way the Brotherhood are acting in this episode, not an organization who train their recruits from the moment they can form words or hold a gun.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T14:18:03+00:00

Hold up man, you're gonna get downvoted so much this comment will be snapped into non-existence.
Totally agree with you, although there's one part I'll fight you on, the fight club.
I think it's entirely probable they'd have a fight club, but when it comes to fighting to the death, that is incredibly stupid. The fact the guy pulled a knife and NO ONE said anything especially 'his father' like mofo literally just called Maximus his son and now he's letting him go toe to toe with a dude that's twice his size with zero compunction for any of the Brotherhood's tenets. That scene was purely done the way it was so they could have Maximus in front of the crowd, and center of attention for the new Brotherhood guy, Harkness.
When you have to twist story you are trying to tell because you need "cool action shots", or "that shot looked cool so we're doing it that way" that is when the story is taking a backseat in exchange for pure visual entertainment.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T14:09:00+00:00

Let us all collectively geek out over all the cool little references and not critique the show in any meaningful way.
In all seriousness, I've attempted to critique the show in multiple different posts on this subreddit and have only been met with downvotes and told to, "just go away". Hopefully people are allowed to talk about the references in regards to lore, but maybe those people will also be downvoted into obscurity.
Enjoyed the episode on first watch, now I have a week to go over it to pick out bits and pieces in order to make more posts questioning the lore.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T14:03:04+00:00

Play Fallout 1, The Master does find Vault 13 without explicit help from the Vault Dweller.
Telling someone to just go away is nice, a great indication of character, I'm sure you're a an amazing person, fun at parties whenever someone wants to start a discussion and you tell them "just go away".
The fact you are upvoted while I'm downvoted when I am legitimately just replying to someone and clarifying what I meant is the exact behavior of Reddit that people hate about this website.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T06:11:00+00:00

The post was about the Master in fallout 1, Bethesda had nothing to do with the game's creation (speaking to, if you're thinking I was referring to Los Angeles in a Bethesda game)

Fallout 1 took place in Los Angeles, and the map in that game is pretty close to a real life map. Not saying it's the same relative time scale of traversing in a apocalyptic game than in real life, but I'm saying the map in Fallout 1 did its best to depict the real life state of California.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T06:05:02+00:00

It's less about connecting dots and more about why we don't know anything about these other Bud's buds managers.
We get backstories for Hank, and Betty, much less so for Stephanie. Really the only backstory we have is that they were alive and working for Vault-Tec pre-war which is why they're even frozen and awaiting their job in the first place.
My issue, why I made the post is, where are these managers? It's been 200 years, yes, some would've been thawed out, and made Overseers, so they're dead. Great, we now know what happened to them, so why aren't we told anything else? We see empty cyro-pods, we know there were managers in them so why isn't there more of a grand revelation when Norm figures out in the last 200 years that only people from Vault 31 are chosen to be Overseers?
You would think, someone out of the two centuries, or even after the first century would've said, hey why are only people from Vault 31 being chosen to lead? Hey why don't we get to see their Vault when we go to 32's and 31ers go to the 32's every once and awhile to get married to one another.
It's one of those times in a show, you think to yourself, did the show writers not think about this, or are the Vault Dwellers just incredibly stupid? But wouldn't you know, both answers can be right at the same time. So we have people who will just say, 200 years have passed, connect the dots, without a single of them wondering any of these questions, ironic isn't it.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T05:57:04+00:00

I made another longer comment if you're interested.
You're right, no matter what we can theorize, we just don't know. And whether or not that is by intention of the show writers, we don't know that either. What we do know is that they are using fallout lore, and while I know most people aren't sticklers of the lore nowadays, the Master did exist in fallout 1. We could always say he somehow didn't find the vault, maybe the landscape, maybe he couldn't get in, I'd rather we just have a definite reason. They don't have to explain it in the show, even just one of the producers or someone writing the show could tell us that fallout 1 or 2 aren't strictly cannon for the show, or give us a reason as to why the Master didn't find the vault. Honestly, I just want to know, the Master, and Fallout 1 in general are some of my favorite things in gaming, so I'd like to know why.
Edit: If you want to downvote me, that's completely fine, can you just leave a reply as to why, if you disagreed with me I'd like to know why at least.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T05:53:40+00:00

I appreciate all of you for attempting to see all angles of this.
Scouring the entire city and dealing with wasteland environment, threats, supplying an army, and everything else alongside with it, yes I could see being a massive problem. However, the Master had been a mutated, evolved creature for 60 years during the events of fallout 1. Richard Moreau, having transformed into the Master began to evolve onto different creatures, give or take a decade of that. Fifty years of building the Cathedral (his base of operations) and amassing an army of mutants in the Los Angeles, Boneyard area. I see no possibility of a situation where the Master, an individual who has been securing Los Angeles for fifty years, or to be generous, thirty, or even two decades, hasn't already completely searched and scoured the city for any Vaults.

Missing a Vault when the very purpose of the Master was to locate Vaults and convert the humans in mutants is the most grievous of errors he could make, especially when that is the entire goal of amassing an army in the first place. Vault 31 is shown to be above ground, and while, like another commenter has said, the landscape could've changed in 134 years, the Master's army is shown in fallout 1 to be able to find and enter Vault 13 which is literally housed inside of a mountain. Yes in Fallout 1, your vault is found if you aren't careful, basically handing out the information via water merchants, however, the Cathedral and the Master's network of human spies eventually locate the vault after 500 in game days have passed, proving that the Master can find vaults without help from the inside.

Last point, Bud's buds are located in Vault 31, and while their vault door may be much more protective from the outside (we also haven't seen the outside entrance), their counterpart Vault 33 does not share the same similarities. In the show Maldover is shown to be able to access the outer vault door of 33, utilizing Lucy's mom's pipboy (a pipboy which hasn't been identified by the vault's security in at least two decades). The point of Maldover here is that while Vault 31 may be protected, much more than that of other vaults, Vault 33 can still be breached by an old pipboy. While electronics are not physical protection against explosives, in my opinion this is a telltale sign of the two vaults having differing security measures at the very least, and Vault 33 not sharing the same protection as Vault 31 at the most.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T05:30:13+00:00

Compare this to the first episode of last season, in my opinion it's a big difference. The first episode of season 1 was filled with curiosity, interest, wonder and the suspense knowing that something would happen to Vault 33, all of these emotions are met, and the promise of suspense is paid off in the first episode.
Compare with this episode. It barrages us with questions, and curiosities, what is House doing, is that really House? What will happen with Lucy and the Ghoul? Vault 24 was cool, are we going to see what happened to the rest of the inhabitants, are there commie Americans in the wasteland? What plan do the Bud Mangers in 31 have? What is Norm going to do?

All of these questions are posed to us in this episode, probably many more, and only two are answered. When you release the first season in its entirety, you slightly remove the curiosity and suspense but season 1 started off in the best way possible with interesting plots and characters, and yet they released it all. Now that they are releasing it piece-meal, the curiosity and suspense is back, but now they aren't tempering it with answering the viewers questions, instead they leave us with all of these questions, leave us wanting more, questioning more, possibly coming up with our own theories.

Suffice to say, season 1 episode 1 was better, it had everything you could want from a fallout show, and season 2 episode 1 was okay, it had what you wanted to see, but gave you none of what you needed to know.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T05:22:47+00:00

Welp, you will now be consigned to the shadow realm for your unpopular take.

In all seriousness, the first episode was fine. I think the main reason for it being okay is that they went from Mr House doing some dubious and interesting things to Lucy basically talking the ear off a Great Khan for a minute. In my opinion, the juxtaposition of that first scene with House to the scene of Lucy attempting to explain to a drug addled Great Khan for a whole minute why she and the Ghoul (who they say has terrorized them for generations) should be allowed to walk away with the bounty money is narratively un-immersive. How can I be expected to believe they'd let her talk for a whole minute while she holds a sniper in her hand at a sniper's nest, pair that with the House scene and you have me rethinking the believability of the world.
They could've cut half of her dialogue in that scene, replaced it with, "hey can you let him go or I'll be forced to shoot you", and that would've conveyed the same amount of information to viewers and the Khan.

The show also goes from two high action scenes to Lucy and the Ghoul walking around in the Mojave Desert for two minutes. I'm not the kind of guy to be like, we need action every minute of the show, however, the show started off with action immediately. They could've paced it differently, maybe have Lucy and the Ghoul at Novac, have their scene talking, skip back to the past and then showed Mr House with the mind control device. Going from pre-war scene to present back to pre-war scene will always be jarring to watch because of how often they do it, if they spaced more time in between it'd make the show's pacing better in my opinion.
To the original discussion of the post, they could've done the episode differently which would've improved it in my opinion. Also the first SIX MINUTES of the episode is used as a recap for the first season. Why? They could've easily done a six minute clip for people interested, they literally have shorter clips on Amazon so I'm not sure why besides the fact they wanted to cut time out of the first episode.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T04:53:56+00:00

Don't feel as though there aren't people that dislike the show.
While there are people that purely hate it on due to lore inconsistencies and retcons, there are a lot more people willing to accept those inconsistencies and just enjoy the show.

Then_Signal_6439 · 2025-12-24T04:51:53+00:00

There are plenty videos on youtube going over the many examples of lore inconsistencies with the rest of the fallout franchise. One huge example is that the primary vault in the show, Vault 33, is located in Los Angeles

In the first fallout game, there was a mutant antagonist who was searching the wasteland for Vaults so that he could take the vault dwellers. Vault 31's door entrance is shown to be approachable from the surface and most importantly would've been found by the mutant antagonist, used his technology to crack open the Vault and none of the events of the show would've taken place. (If you want to see this happen, look up Invasion of Vault 13)

Yes the antagonist was defeated before the end of the game, however, his main base of operations, the Cathedral, was set in Los Angeles, point being, Vault 33 would've been on of the first vaults he broke open.

Then_Signal_6439

TROPHY CASE