A guide to the canon material in Fallout, as well as other considerations.
0:00 Intro
0:34 Current accepted canon
7:00 Other interpretations
If you want to join my channel membership:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAy33is15KpxfkRz5HHw-Gw/join
A guide to the canon material in Fallout, as well as other considerations.
0:00 Intro
0:34 Current accepted canon
7:00 Other interpretations
If you want to join my channel membership:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAy33is15KpxfkRz5HHw-Gw/join
https://discord.com/invite/ac3FtEKuGa
gamestwiceover@gmail.com
I was literally just searching about this subject yesterday, amazing timing.
Love the vids!
the fallout fandom is the absoulute worst when it comes to talking about anything
Opinion of Fanon friendly "canon"?
I don't like Fallout 4 or 76, but I accept them as canon because future games that might be good will include 4 and 76 as their canon.
After playing Fallout 4 I started debating if NV was remotely canon since Cesar's legion had no presence.
at the the time of NV I thought Cesar took over all the east and wiped out the Lyonhood and took over the capital wasteland.
but the DLC Nuka World introduced more NV lore such as Sarsaparilla.
When it comes to canon in Fallout, I think that if something is in a game it's 100% cannon, if it's retconned in a sequel then the new cannon takes over, if it's never mentioned again, it's still cannon but just not important to the wasteland. I think that tactics is cannon but the endings are not, I think the destroy ending happened but that the overly optimistic ending with the brotherhood being in control is not.
I'm from the group that accepts the canonical single player games. that is, fallout 76 enters the tactics group as semicanonical.
By my will, I would drop the 4 from the canon too, but they have more value than the 76 so it can stay, for now.
I'm someone that does not consider 76 canon no matter what Bethesda says. For me its just an awful game that deviates a lot from what Fallout was.
I can't help myself from trying to figure whats canon in the games themselves. Like canon choices and endings, I know these games are about choice but the film maker in me wants cohesive and set path to the stories I enjoy. Strange I know but I can't help it when playing these games
I just follow my own headcanon. If Bethesda doesn't care enough to keep the lore coherent then I'll make my own.
Talking fallout cannon is difficult considering it more or less changes to the whims of the current developer.
I love learning about the story of van buren and see how much was adapted and used to supplement the existing story/narrative of FNV.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Ayo, wish you all happy holidays
I like the idea of treating different combinations as distinct named canons instead of the true vs false categorization of a singular canon system.
Absolutely an unpopular opinion incoming (please remember it's an opinion; if you disagree that's fine) but I don't care about canon for anything. To me I just wanna have fun with the game and don't really worry about this stuff. Of course I do see the appeal to it especially for such immersive and well established IP's such as Fallout
There's a lot of questionable stuff: Certain easter eggs like teddy bears, homicidal mannequins, mysterious stranger, canonicity of how VATS works, etc.
Anything that is not fallout 76.
I think 76 should be in its own category.
Though I think the world itself is cannon the rest is Kida ish
I don't think vault dwellers would just nuke west Virginia especially since they got the mission to rebuild America.
I don't think the brotherhood of steel is cannon in west Virginia
The events like the alien events are an deffo non cannon and smaller ones like Nuka-cola on tour because why would people 25 years after the nukes set up a festival?
Fallout 76 isn't canon for me.
For me only Fallout 1,2, and new Vegas are cannon
I don´t know why when I was younger (and probably even now) I thought New Vegas wasn´t canon because is wasn´t related to 3 or 4 and even after you played those games there isn´t a lot of the things that happened in New Vegas, I am not saying that they should add what was the ending the Courier actually chose but just like the robco materials with some Mr house related acknoledgement or how there are some sayings or rumours about a tribe that are near the missisipi river that are trying to reclaim the wasteland with someone name ceaser or such, some may be difficult to put in a game like 4 where is set like 10 years apart from New Vegas but I highly doubt that there is not a possible way to include such references, it can still be ambiguous on what actually happened in the battle of hoover dam.
Yes, there is reference of New Vegas in Fallout 4 and even 76 but still is kinda difficult for me to acknowledge it as such as bethesda doen´t seem to care about what is happening in the west coast and they barely say something related to the NCR and is even mind blowing that they at the very least acknowledge the west coast chapter of the brotherhood of steel but even with that it seems like they could easily get rid of what happened in the west coast and start fresh with the same ideas but getting rid of what happened in fallout 1, 2 and New Vegas.
For me, Fallout 1, 2, 3, NV, and 4 (and its DLCs like Far Harbor and Nuka World), are entirely or majorly canon.
But, games like behind-the-scene material (as you mentioned) for main entries (except 76), Tactics, 4's Automatron, and 76 (both the launch and Wastelanders versions) as semi-canon, mostly, or semi-alternative canon.
Van Buren, BoS, 4's Workshop DLCs, and other non-video games (and possibly the future live-action adaption) are either mildly or full-on alternative canons (with my fan theory that 3 seems unintentionally adopting BoS's concept of recruiting non-BoS members into their organization, through a different way).
And finally that some Easter eggs in the main entries (including 76), Shelter, a smaller/obscure parts of 76, and cancelled Fallout projects like its Film are truly non-canon.
Fallout 76 will never be canon to me, I don't give a fuck. I hate it. I hate the change, I fucking hate the additions too
The biggest debates are always about the random encounters/wild wasteland and some questionable quests like the one with the ghost in F2 and the entirety of Mothership Zeta.
I don't think the majority of the random encounters are canon, I don't think any wild wasteland should be considered canon and while I'm not a big fan of the ghost women, Sulik did talk about bone spirits so I guess it's true. Zeta on the other hand is stupid, I hate it and I'll never consider it canon, if you want wacky sci-fi shit do it like Big MT.
"Fallout" 76 isn't canon
hell its not even a Fallout game.
I agree with most of the chart you created, but I'd like to add another level of canonicity: "flavor material". That would include stuff like Fallout Tactics. The general events and concepts of the game are canon, but specifics, like people involved, are not canon. Developers of newer games can draw inspiration from the "flavor material" level of canonicity.
The West Coast has all the well-written and original Fallout content that Interplay, Black Isle and Obsidian were creating, and Bethesda's garbage is all in the East Coast. I don't think they're connected, I think they're both Fallout and they have their own seperate canons, kinda like the Ghostbusters reboot; I don't want to believe it being part of the original canon, just something like say, an alternate universe
I operate with the excepted mainstream but personally, I see the fallout 2 mods of Sonora and Nevada as cannon to me.
there's so much wacky and silly stuff, unexplainable stuff, and stuff that contradicts itself every time it appears in this franchise that while i respect anybody who tries to make it all coherent i do think it's best to canonize whatever you want within your playthroughs
whatever is less of a annoying nonsense
The internet has decided that whatever New Vegas fans say is canon.
This means that the talking death claws from fallout 2 are no longer canon since NV fans complained that the supposedly mute Deathclaws can roar in fo4.
The canon BoS ending in fo1 is also no longer canon since the isolationist BoS in fo3 isn't isolationist enough for NV fans.
Power armor in the first two games is also not canon since it needs special training according to them.
The drivable car in fo2 is also no longer canon. Why? Because someone spotted tire tracks in fo4 and in order to complain about Bethesda this means that missing functioning vehicles are no longer an engine limitation but actual canon.
Funnily enough even the BoS in NV isn't lore accurate for NV fans since the BoS would never start a large scale war like they did on fo4 which means the war with the NCR is no longer canon as well.
And I personally like to think the fallout universe is in the multi-verse, and Bethesda games are in alternate reality for the main games. Most the same stuff happened but they’re deviations.
I do not consider all of fallout 76 as canon. I mean the main quest line probably is but the seasons with events like nuka world are probably not. I really do not have a problem with this because fallout 76 is about having fun. Some people including myself still wish there as a hard survivalist mode but it does not look like they are going to do that because they figure they are making more money with the fun rather then challenging fallout 76.
I want to explore a new Fallout post apocalyptic world game when it's on sale like under $20. I'll watch trailers, but I haven't bought games day one since I was a teenager in the mid to late 2000s and 20s in the early 2010s. Haha
I'm 33 and honestly don't give a shit about where fallout goes. I enjoy watching your videos when I drink. Haha
nothing 76 is canon mmo are never canon as they are often ignored when a new games come out.