War, war never changes. They are always fought by men and women who have a vision. A vision of how the world should be. They will go around, sharing their vision, inspiring others to join their cause, making this world conform to their vision. In some ways, it is the most selfish action possible. To bend the world to your whims
But then they will meet another vision. One that shows another tomorrow. And they will try to reason with it’s followers. Show them the error of their ways. How the world that they envision is the right one and The Others are misguided. And somewhere during these conversations, the reality dawns on both sides: These visions are incompatible. It’s “either/or”, not “and”.
But of course their own vision is the correct one and The Other’s are wrong. Because otherwise, that means They were right and you were long all along. And that just can’t be.
At some point, one side will believe that their vision is worth fighting for, dragging the others into the conflict. And so the old adage becomes true. War becomes Diplomacy continued with other means. They will preform the most heinous of acts, slaughter countless of Them. And they will do it all (they say) not so they can live in the world they want, but for some higher “ideal” that they decide to hang their banner on. For freedom. For survival. For a better tomorrow. But in the end it’s all the same: An excuse to help them sleep, as they try to force their vision onto reality.
I finished Fallout 4 yesterday. I enjoyed my time with it tremendously, the gameplay was about what I wanted from it. But what I really liked were two parts of the story of the main questline.
This is not a review. The game has it’s problems, but I won’t talk about that. It’s just me thinking out loud, about things I felt during the game. And it goes without saying, but FULL TOTAL SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
In Fallout 4, you fail. It took me a while to realise that, but you fail at what you set out to do. After your spouse gets killed and your son Shaun is kidnapped, you vow to your deceased husband/wife that you will find your son and make those who did this pay.
I tore through the Commonwealth, looking for my son. I helped were I could, but whenever someone stood between me and my son, Hell on Earth was unleashed. I would do anything to make what little family I had left in this Wasteland whole again.
And as I finally got into the Institute, I found him. There he was, a few years older, but still a child. Still the son I knew. And when Father walked in, I was ready to blow his head off. This monster, how dare he kidnap my son. Have my wife killed!
And then the other shoe drops. Father was the real Shaun, the kid just a duplicate. The son I once knew is now an old man, in charge of the Institute and dying to boot.
At first, I thought I could still save him from the Institute, show him how I saw the world, teach him unconditional compassion. But as we worked together, it dawned on me. I was too late. The Institute had gotten to him and had made him into the man he was now and there was no way to change that. I had failed. The Shaun I knew was gone forever.
Even so, I kept trying. As Shaun brought up my involvement with the Railroad, I wanted to explain to him why I was with them, how the way he was treating the Synths was wrong. I told him, honestly, the Railroad were my allies. No more lies.Despite that, he ordered me to kill their leader. And I knew that was the point of no return. As the conversation ended, I said to my empty room: “Goodbye Shaun. I am sorry I couldn’t save you son.” That was the last time we talked as family.
I love what Bethesda did with Shaun. Not only is the reveal completely unexpected and does it still make total sense, but it puts the main character in such a strange conflict. Congratulations, you have found your son. But at the same time they are no longer that son anymore. So now what? What do you do when the son you came to save no longer believes in what you believe? No longer even exists? Do you come around, just to perserve your family, or do you go against your own flesh and blood?
Either way, you have to face the fact that you lost. Even if you decided to follow in Shaun’s footsteps, you only get a brief time together before he dies and you can’t save him. You could say killing Kellog is revenge for your spouse and some form of succes, but seeing who he was and why he did what he did, I couldn’t help but understand him. He was trying to be the man his father never was. Actually take care of is wife and child. Sure, he killed people, but he did it to provide for his family, to give them a life they deserved. In many ways, he was just like me.
But that wasn’t the only moment that hit me. As I said, I worked with the Railroad throughout the story. They were a natural fit for me, as I value freedom to make one’s own choices very highly. I was hoping to free the Synths and get them out with as little violence as possible. I believed naively I could do it with minimal conflict.
Then the Brotherhood attacked.
I still don’t know exactly why they attack Railroad HQ. I guess it was because The Railroad were helping Synths escape the Commonwealth, out into the wider population. The Brotherhood feared the Synths, thought they would destroy humanity from within and take over. They thought they were saving the world.
After I fended off the attackers, Desdemona told me about her plan to stop the Brotherhood from attacking: Go up to their base and blow the whole thing sky high.
I wouldn’t have any of it!
I wanted to save the Synths, not get into a bloody war with a faction that was trying to do the right thing, in their own misguided way. But she pointed out, rightly, that if we didn’t strike, they would just attack again and again until we were all dead. We really had no choice.
And that’s when it hit me. War really never changes.
As things spiraled out of control, each horrible step made sense. Of course we had to blow up The Prydwen. No way the Brotherhood would just leave us alone. Of course I had to blow up the Institute. If we saved the Synths, no way the Institute wouldn’t come after us in full force, trying to get back what they believed they owned. I realised I was being dragged into a war I didn’t want to be in. But in many ways, it had been unavoidable from the very start.
I would have loved a option in the game to talk everyone down, make them sit their asses down and hash out a treaty. But I think Bethesda made the right choice in not allowing that. Because it drove their main motto home way better. That no matter what you do, what you believe in, war never changes.
As the nuke went off and the ground buckled under the Institute’s demise, I realised fully how I had failed. I hadn’t found my son,just a man I never really knew. I hadn’t killed the cold-hearted monster I thought killed my wife, just a shell of a man. And I hadn’t created the Commonwealth I wanted to live in, just destroyed the people who stood in my way.
Vedalken Treehouse 