#Montana West

[batfamgalore]

Oliver: I knew you two couldn’t stay mad at each other.

Dick: Oh yeah. We’re closer than ever.

*Dick and Roy hold up their hands and they are both handcuffed together*

Bruce: You wanna tell me how this happened?

Roy: Well, Wally thought-

Bruce: Oh man, I wish that boy would stop doing that.

[kas-e]

Cold day in the Wasatch.

[media-illiterate]

FOTV'S PLOT MAKES NO SENSE

So since this is going to have MASSIVE spoilers for the new show, I'll put most of it behind a readmore. But, TL/DR: Destroying Shady Sands would not bring down the NCR, because they have at least seven other major cities that could and would take over!

So, lets start with a map:

This is map (made by me) very roughly represents the NCR as it exist circa 2277. All major settlements are labelled, but do note that there are dozens of minor settlements scattered around the whole of California, and into Oregon, Nevada, and Mexico.

Nuking Shady Sands, even if you used the largest nuclear bomb ever made, (The Tsar bomb: coming in at 100 megatons, it is the upper limit of practicality for a bomb, because any larger and the explosion would've vented into the upper atmosphere and reduced the bomb's effect), it would still only destroy Shady Sands. Maybe vaults 13 and 15, the closest settlements to it (given their nature as vaults, however, I think they'd survive).

Notice all the other settlements? WHERE DID THEY GO, TODD?

Now, exploding Shady Sands would still be really fucking bad for the republic, but I think it would be fully survivable. We don't have hard numbers for the population of the NCR, but in New Vegas it is explicitly in the hundreds of thousands, (and rising). So we can substitute the demographics of, say, Alaska (710,000 people). The largest city in Alaska, Anchorage, has ~290,000 people living in it, as of the 2020 census. That's a large chunk of the state's population, but its not even half.

I think Shady Sands would probably be a lot smaller than the Hub or Boneyard (not to mention San Francisco, Vault City, or New Reno) because it started out as a small farming village when the others were already major settlements. So, at most, nuking Shady Sands would only disrupt the NCR, not kill it. Even if the NCR broke up in the aftermath, Lucy's vault should still be smack in the middle of the Boneyard, probably one of California's largest settlements.

But! That's not all! Not only does this show contradict established canon at every turn, it doesn't even do it well, because there is an argument to be made that a few well placed nukes could bring down the NCR!

And its already part of the damn game:

This handsome, gravelly-voiced genius already mathed out how to, as he calls it, "cut the bear's throat": bomb the NCR's trade routes to the outside world, and watch them wither away on their own. His plan is a thousand times more interesting, and more feasible, than how the show brought down the NCR (blowing up one (1) city and acting like that would destroy an entire nation).

In fact, if they really wanted to get rid of the NCR, they could've easily just made that ending to Lonesome Road canon. But, lets face it, this show cannot be bothered to even look at the games for inspiration.

I like almost nothing I see coming out of the show. Its a thin veneer of fallout painted onto a story that bulldozes the very series it claims to be part of. The zombification of ghouls, the centering of the Brotherhood, the badly written raiders playground of a wasteland: its all of Bethesda's worst writing choices, just transmitted to a new medium.

I hate it here.

[misery-has-no-company-now]

Meanwhile, in the central north...

South Dakota: You can trust me! Let's not forget who pulled you out of the river when we were six.

North Dakota: Let's not forget who pushed me in.

***

Wyoming: I have feelings for you.

Montana: You do?

Wyoming: Yes, I feel you're very annoying.

[ibetittering]

FREAKING OUT THE MUSIC IS BACK I'M SO HAPPY

[kemetic-dreams]

"Stagecoach" Mary Fields, America's first African female postal worker, was known for her fearless delivery of mail across hundreds of miles in the dangerous Wild West.

Born a slave in the 1830s in the South, Fields found work with the help of a nun named Mother Amadeus after the Civil War. Initially, she worked in an Ohio convent, then moved to St. Peter’s Convent in Montana.

Despite working among nuns, Fields was far from nun-like. She was a regular visitor to saloons, smoked cigars, got into brawls, and wasn't shy to use her guns. After an altercation with a janitor at St. Peter’s, she was set up by Mother Amadeus with a job at the U.S. Postal Service in 1895.

Fields, the first African woman and only the second woman overall to hold a mail route in the U.S., demonstrated great resilience and courage. In her 60s, she dutifully protected her mail with a rifle and a revolver, unfazed by danger.

She often traveled 300 miles a week to cover her route. In snow, she would strap on her snowshoes and carry the mail in a sack across her shoulders, ensuring it reached its destination.

Her commitment to her job and strong character made her a local hero in Cascade, Montana. She was the only woman allowed to drink at the local bar who wasn't a sex worker, ate for free at the Cascade Hotel, and the townspeople built her a new home when hers burned down.

After eight years of mail delivery, she started a laundry business. Upon her death in 1914, the Cascade community held one of the largest funerals the town had ever witnessed in her honor.

[angelx1992]

[goldengay49]

Shhhh, don’t show this to Texas or Wyoming

[retroappaloosa]

on the road again

[womanology]

I feel like Idaho moves every time I reference the map of USA

[pamietniko]

Travel Diary: My journey to The South

out on the open road

Montana

[ryanmoody]

C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa Figures From The Nacelle Company

[misery-has-no-company-now]

For angst purposes (and loosely based on Nevada Joins the Table) -

Gov has a lot of control over these states; far more than any other. The higher the percentage of federal land in the state, the more control he has over that state.

Nevada practically has to agree to everything Gov wants. He barely has any choice in his life anymore. Gov practically owns him.

The top 5 states (Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Alaska, and Oregon) can actually easily be summoned by Gov just by him saying "(State), come here." All the 10 can be summoned by Gov actually but the lower 5 (Wyoming, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico) are tougher to call like that since they have more power to refuse but the upper 5? No choice. Whatever they doing, it doesn't matter. They are forced to stop it and appear in front of Gov. Nevada and Utah have on multiple occasions been called in the dead of night when they were fast asleep (yes Nevada needs his beauty sleep) to 'see' Gov and they had to go. In front of the other states, Gov just pretends that with the exception of Nevada, he cannot summon any of these other states without Florida's help. But when no one else is there, he uses the power he holds over them thanks to the federal land he occupies in these states freely as he pleases.

Gov also uses this to his advantage by forcing these five to agree with him on whatever he says doing the meetings, much to their (and everyone else who knows') anger.

They spend many a night crying in each other's arms due to the helplessness that engulfs them daily. Sometimes there's also bitterness towards and resentment against the other states who are 'more free' than them. But it's not like they can do anything about it anyway, though the other states sometimes try to help them by convincing or forcing Gov to not do something he wanted to towards them/make them do something he wished for.

Since some of the states on this list were amongst the last few ones to be admitted to the union (like Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Alaska), they didn't realise for quite a long time that Gov's power over them was not normal, and that most of the other states had a lot more control over their land and themselves. Nevada and Oregon are kind of older in terms of statehood (so is California but he's not in the top 5 so didn't feel the effects this much) and thus they knew from the start that this was not right; but obviously again there was nothing they could do. It just hurt them more since they were aware of the freedom they were denied.

Literally all these states are in the west. Except Washington and Montana (and I guess Hawaii too but she doesn't consider herself as in the west since she joined the meeting of misfits so...yeah), all the western states are in this list and highly under Gov's control (maybe that's why the west decided to take turns in being the leader, because none of them wanted to be around him for longer than they needed to be, and that's why Washington went first). Gov finds it more convenient and easier to deal with have meetings with the west and all the western states (including the other two) are kind of scared of him and his power even if not all of them show it.

Since New Mexico and Wyoming are my go-to angst states (aka the ones I apparently love hurting the most), even though they have more control due to a smaller percentage of their state being federal land and Gov technically should have less power over them, he has hurt them and threatened them so much (like with atomic bombs in New Mexico's case, implying/outright announcing that he might take away their statehood and make them a territory under his charge again to both of them, then in Wyoming's case reminding him how much the others forget that he is a state - and now Gov is one of the few who remembers their existence, etc.) that he exerts a lot more authority over the two of them too.

All of this is largely why the West is so messed up :( [in their heads, I mean]. That's all I have for now but feel free to add on. Unfortunately for these states, I consider the west the best for angst (:

[doueverwonder]

West Floor of the Statehouse hc

like the midwest ones but in one post:

as u can see the Southwest kinda dominates the style of most of the floor itself, but the color scheme leans towards dark blues and greens to keep the PNW happy.

if you can say nothing else you can say it is by far the brightest and most colorful of the floors.

they have a roomba with a knife taped to it. it was one of Colorado's highdeas. Montana executed the plan.

Alaska & Hawaii technically have rooms on the west floor, but Alaska still prefers the garage and Hawaii is yet to be seen.

It doesn't look like it but they actually have so much smart home bullshit, that post about saying 'alexa play despacito' jokingly at your friends house then it actually plays and you stand there like a deer in headlights. yeah stuff like that happens a lot when other states visit.

Utah is allowed 1 beige mom corner.

that's all.

[wyldwesternorchidology]

All the gear

Photography by Mackenzie Holmberg

Source: @ bonafidecowboy on Insta

[sophsphotos]

Readying the horses. Great Falls, Montana. 2024.