Highlights
- Prime Video’s Fallout introduced fans to a new perspective on the franchise’s war-themed narrative.
- The TV series effectively explores the theme of corporate greed, a key element of the
Fallout
world. - Season 2 has the potential to deepen the exploration of power dynamics and character relationships in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Prime Video’s Fallout was a dream come true for many of the franchise’s fanbase. It allowed fans to enjoy the franchise in a new way, and showed a region of the wasteland that they hadn’t seen since the first two Fallout video games. It also drew in a new audience, creating new fans who may or may not go onto play the games. Fallout takes place in a unique dystopian future, whose blend of 1950s and futuristic technology gives fans an even more unique sandbox to play in. As fun as it is to get into the action, the franchise wouldn’t be complete without its many themes, which the TV series nails.
War. War never changes, as the franchise likes to casually remind its audience. Among all the things that Fallout is, it’s a message to its fans. Is it more satire than a dour introspective? Absolutely, but the message is still there that even at the end of the world, human nature hardly improves. Of course, there are some hopeful themes throughout. The show does a good job at showing that with Lucy Maclean (Ella Purnell). Even Walton Goggins’ ghoulish Cooper has hints of hope in him. But the show puts the more cynical corporate propaganda front and center, which is in line with the video games.
What is the Most Important Theme in Prime Video’s Fallout?
Everyone that has played at least one of Bethesda’s Fallout games knows that the underlying theme to the franchise is that war never changes. That remains a major message within the Prime Video series, except it’s explored from a different aspect: profit. One could argue that the primary motivation for war is to make a profit, especially since there’s typically a boost in economic growth when a war starts. Fallout does a great job at exploring that aspect of the world.
Multiple major corporations from the Fallout world play significant roles throughout the games. Everybody knows Vault-Tec, but there are a few others. The games go to show players that even in an utterly decimated world, there’s no shortage of greed. People are eager to take advantage of the less fortunate in order to climb to the top of the food chain. The TV show does an excellent job driving that message home. This reaches a peak in the first season’s finale, where business executives are devising how they can improve their profits at the end of the world.
The War Profiteers
In the show’s finale, audiences witnessed a small cabal of executives who all but planned the apocalypse. Naturally, there were representatives from Vault-Tec, including Bud Askins and Cooper’s wife, Barb. Most surprising was Barb’s suggesting that Vault-Tec drop the bombs itself. Other representatives were REPCONN’s Chief Financial Officer Julia Masters, West Tek researcher Leon Von Feldon, Frederick Sinclair from Big MT. And there was the most infamous founder of Rob-Co Industries: Robert House.
Mr. House in particular is ruled by greed, but it’s clear that everyone at that table has their own goals. Vault-tec saw America as a failed nation and wanted to wipe the slate clean, creating its own nation in its image. The corporation also wanted to see how far it could push humanity, thus all the different experiments in the vaults. West Tek has its own experiments in mind relating to super mutants, which fans are hoping they’ll be able to see in the second season.
Each of the representatives has played a role, actively or otherwise, in each of the Fallout games. REPCONN was a big name in New Vegas, and certain documents in the game reveal that Julia Masters was selling company secrets to Rob-Co. It’s clear that despite playing a role in the downfall of civilization and becoming one of the top dogs in the new world, being near the top wasn’t enough for Julia. She never actually appears in the games, so her fate could play out in the Prime Video series.
How Fallout Seaon 2 Can Build on This Theme
The finale for Prime Video’s Fallout revealed that the second season is likely to head to New Vegas, where the largely unseen Mr. House resides. Not only does he live there, he runs the place. This would be a good opportunity for the show to divulge more of the plans that the people in the Valt-Tec meeting had for the post-apocalyptic world. It could show more examples of how nuking the world was beneficial, and how they’re now profiting off of the event that scorched the planet. It seems that most of them are in control of their own regions, but don’t have as much control as they would have preferred, what with the Brotherhood of Steel and other factions running around.
Season two needs to explore the relationships between these major players and reveal in more depth how they’re pulling the strings or “running” the world. How much of what’s happening in the wasteland is by design, and how much is out of their hands? Perhaps there’s a lot of in-fighting behind the scenes, or maybe they’re happy with the way things have turned out. It’s telling that Overseer Hank headed for New Vegas. He clearly knew Mr. House would set up shop there and that he never intended to hide in a vault or somewhere similar. The first season already revealed that if things don’t go as planned, like in the event of Shady Sands, certain representatives have to resort to extreme measures.
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