‘It’s Preposterous’: Fallout Showrunner Shuts Down Fans’ Plot Hole Claims

Summary:

• Fallout: New Vegas fans didn’t like Prime Video ’s treatment of the titular city.
• Season 1’s final shot showed New Vegas devastated, and many viewers felt like the show tried to retcon the game’s events as non-existent.
• According to the showrunners, New Vegas’ fate was part of the natural cycle of violence in the Wasteland and it doesn’t overrule the game’s lore.

The audience loves Prime Video’s Fallout. It’s engaging and easy to understand for those previously unfamiliar with the setting, but it’s also faithful and carefully crafted enough for OG fans to enjoy without feeling unimmersed. But even despite all its pros, there’s one category of people who seem to have a grudge with the new show.

Some Fallout: New Vegas fans are pretty frustrated with the way Prime Video approached its lore; they claim that the new series overrules the game’s events.

Fallout: New Vegas Is an Iconic Game

The first two Fallout games were isometric and frustratingly old-school for the younger audience. When new developers came around with their fresh approach, the setting became much more popular with the general public; but while the new generation of Fallout is typically associated with Bethesda Softworks, it’s not true.

Fallout: New Vegas is largely considered to be the best new-isometric Fallout game, and it was developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Despite being 14 years old, New Vegas still has a massive cult following, and the consequent Bethesda-led games rarely win any points compared to it in fans’ eyes. For many people, Fallout means primarily New Vegas, and they’ll sooner die on that hill than accept anything else.

Prime Video ‘Mistreated’ New Vegas

In the eyes of avid New Vegas fans, Prime Video’s TV show did their favorite game’s lore dirty. The final shot revealing the titular city showed it desolate and devastated, and many viewers felt like Prime Video retconned New Vegas’ events as non-existent. Even Todd Howard, the head of Bethesda, had to address this issue and say that New Vegas is, indeed, canon to the Fallout series.

But the showrunners had very sound reasons to show New Vegas in shambles.

“We really wanted to imply, guys, [that] the world has progressed, and the idea that the Wasteland stays as it is decade-to-decade is preposterous to us. It’s just a place [of] constant tragedy, events, horrors — there’s a constant churn of trauma. We’re definitely implying more has occurred [since the events of Fallout: New Vegas],” showrunner Graham Wagner explained to GQ.

In our book, this explanation makes total sense. Every Fallout game features one or several big-scale conflicts, and there are insidious factions that would do anything to defeat their enemies and establish control over new territories. If New Vegas was nuked, it only expands the Fallout lore, not renders its past non-existent.

And also, it makes the showrunners’ future job a lot easier, so that’s a nice bonus.

Source: GQ