#fallout literacy

[ghoulcourier]

“We need more complex female characters.”

Y’all can’t even handle Barbara Howard (fotv).

“She never loved her family.”

Yeah, that why she tried to get her family into a good vault and fought so hard to do so. Yeah, she is part of the people that dropped the bomb, and yes she loved her family. That’s a complex character.

“Why didn’t she stop the bombs?”

Idk if we watched the same show, or if you missed the VERY OBVIOUS SHADOWY MASTERMIND IN THE WINGS. During the board members meeting, we see Barb look up at the observation room for the room they are in to see someone. Then she makes the bomb suggestion. It’s very obvious that even though she is working w them the dropping of the bombs is bigger than she is.

“Well, why are Janey and Cooper out and about when the bombs drop?”

I would usually wait till season 2 to get an answer for this but I’ll throw my hat in the ring for a guess. It was probably his weekend, and I doubt Barb knew exactly when everything would go down. I don’t think many Americans did which is why the intro to Fo4 is the way it is. Cooper probably rushed Janey to the vault. Janey, though she experienced the bomb, did in fact have a spot in the vault. It is assumed, otherwise Cooper would just be asking Hank/Henry about his wife, only. He asks about his family. Janey was probably allowed in, but Cooper’s betrayal of Vault Tec was probably the reason he lost his spot. Barb, freshly divorced, was probably not allowed to save him OR let him into vault. And even if she did leave him outside, he just betrayed her. He JUST divorced her.

If the birthday party scene is anything to go by, Cooper just put Barb’s entire reputation under fire. At Her Job. The same job that is allowing her safety, why would she let him stay in the vault at the risk of maybe losing her own spot and that of her daughter’s…?

Barb Howard is a complex character, don’t slander her just because she gets in the way of your ship. Y’all do the same with Maximus. The ghoul is my fave but with all the Barb and Max slander I need a g*n to defend them.

[photosyntheticfox]

It’s possible that the pre-war magazines were printed on synthetic paper. Which is basically plastic paper, it is water resistant, very hard to rip compared to the pulp/cellulose paper. Our own magazines are a coated fine (usually cellulose) paper. It’s pretty but not as durable as synthetic paper which is used in our packaging I believe it’s used in pharmacy stickers too. Synthetic paper seems to seldom be used without a printer from what I’ve seen. And unlike wood pulp papers, cotton papers or vellum it’s less likely to biodegrade if exposed to the elements. Most likely post war printing is done with anything they can scavenge or use to make the paper.

Woodpulp paper or really any cellulose paper is going to be the closest thing to what we currently use everyday. Easy to rip fold and readily absorbs ink more that coated paper. The downside is it takes plant life to make. The Capital Wasteland plant life isn’t abundant (that doesn’t have Harold involved) it is highly possible that Moira printed on scavenged synthetic paper as it might have been easier to find. Which is why the first ones look so different than the later re-prints which might be uncoated cellulose based given the staining and dog eared pages. It could also be an acidic paper as acid free paper tends to yellow at a much much slower rate and has better stability through the years.

Vellum is expensive, time consuming to make but it’s so durable in the right conditions it can last hundreds of years or more as long as it avoids moisture. A few leatherworker would most likely have figured out how to make it somewhere in the wasteland. It might be used by religious groups in Utah given the arid environment.

Canvas is durable enough for clothes and transporting, if it’s not stretched on a frame, it rolls wonderfully for easy storage. Because it’s technically cloth that you paint it’s an unlikely option to consider for most a forms of written communication. But I consider about those medieval paintings that tell a story with limited wording to be capable of passing on info close enough to include, because not everyone is going to be literate in the post apocalypse.

As for inks, which is a wonder question posed by @huntinthedwellin98 . Carbon based ink like lampblack has been used by so many different civilizations and isn’t terribly hard to recreate. You need some soot, water and something to fix the texture together to the preferred consistency. What that was differed, based on what was readily available in those periods of time and location. The fixative itself is what I struggle the most trying to figure out what post apocalyptic people would use.

Black walnut ink came about later, is does require some oxides to get the tannins out but it’s really remarkably deep brown. I think any plant that produces enough tannins like tealeaves or something mutated like muttfruit might give enough tannins to produce a natural ink. The biggest problem with these inks is they seem to degrade vellum overtime I believe. (Maybe paper too I can’t remember lol)

Petrol based inks aren’t terribly uncommon in our world but with the complete absence of oil in fallout it was probably a soy based oil ink or given that it’s fallout it could more terrible and toxic like lead or some industrial bi-product or radioactive material.

Alcohol inks are not good for printing, they love to spread and would work better for coloring children’s books about dangerous animals like water colors. It’s also more prone to washing out. (In my opinion I just find it temperamental and annoying.)

Acrylic ink is wonderful for art or hand written things but outside of places with labs I don’t know how easily it would be to recreate. But it’s there on whatever you put it on for life it bonds down.

that reminds me, i've been wanting to get into postwar printing methods and what sort of print materials are being widely distributed

canonically, you've got the wasteland survival guide, farming the wastes, and water aerobics for ghouls in circulation, just to name a few, but i haven't seen a ton of discussion on this and i think it's fascinating

i imagine some folks can use terminals or printing presses to mass produce texts, but not everyone would have access to that

there's got to be a popular cartoonist working out of a casino on the strip and some famous penny dreadful author churning out serials

[perfectlypreservedpie]

Absolutely love the way you include Duncan and Shaun in your Fallout art!! Love maccreedy and your sole survivor as cool parents!!

this ask was so nice that I drew some more

[rad-hound]

People usually go into subfandom tags because they want to enjoy content from people who like the same thing as they do, so tagging negative posts with a subfandom tag can feel like you are calling them over to tell them what they like sucks. A common thing I've seen is "[Subfandom] critical" being used so that people who just want to relax and have a good time can filter it out while people who are looking for the topic, good or bad, can still see it.

-

Personally, I like Ghoulcy better because it is a lot less "real", and I enjoy watching unstable dynamics that end in partners who see each other as equals. VaultKnight, on the other hand, involves a member of a genocidal organization lying about who he is to someone who trusts him. While not a "worse" dynamic, it hits closer to home as well as lacking various tropes I enjoy that are present in Ghoulcy.

Alright, so, I see where you're coming from in regards to being hands-off in tagging... "ship discourse," though I'm not really sure how a differring opinion qualifies as discourse. But I'll look past it. After all, I've seen people self-censor in favor of keeping their personal posts off the Tumblr algorithm, so I can respect the request.

However, in saying that "you prefer Gh*ulcy over VaultKnight because of [x] reason," is that not the same as me "having a preference towards VaultKnight over Gh*ulcy because of my own [x] reason?"

I'm not at all saying that you are wrong for your preference, I just find it a little unfair that I can't express distaste towards a ship without it being seen as hate, or me being seen as a puritan, when I could have easily said something like "OH BOOO, GH*ULCY SUCKS! EVERYONE WHO LIKES IT SUCKS!" instead of giving my honest thoughts.

Even if a lot of my thoughts were pretty ham-fisted into the post, when I look back at it. I feel like lumping responsibility onto me for people misunderstanding what I was saying is... I don't know, a bit silly. I shouldn't have to walk on eggshells to have an opinion.

As for VaultKnight, though, while Max does work for a genocidal organization, at the very end of Season 1 when Thaddeus discovers he's been turned into a ghoul, Maximus doesn't immediately pull out his weapon to kill him like some other Brotherhood members might have, as per Maximus's warning for Thaddeus to "get out of there," before the Vertibird arrived.

While it is true that Maximus is a bit of a liar, and lets power get to his head in several instances throughout the course of the season, to say that he is only inspired wholly by evil, selfish means is extremely one-dimensional.

Yes, the fact that he is a Brotherhood initiate is bad, given the tenets the faction stands for, but despite this, Maximus is still capable of performing good deeds, such as curing Lucy of her radiation sickness, or sparing everyone in Vault 4 after a misunderstanding... which is a tenet to his temptation to misunderstand situations. I like characters that aren't completely 100% good OR 100% bad: Cooper also being a shining example of this.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on the matter. My opinion is that I don't like Gh*ulcy, for reasons I personally consider to be justified, as people all have personal taste. I don't care if people like it. My personal opinion isn't a "gotcha" to people who like the ship.

[copdog1234]

I think the problem with being able to binge such a plot heavy show like Fallout is that we don't get to sit and digest every possible thing that happens and so a lot of background shenanigans get ignored for what is explicitly told to us which leads to people not understanding that there was so much more going on in the background than meets the eye. We don't get time to take in the details. And it leads to dumb takes like, "New Vegas was retconned" when it so clearly wasn't.

[edgepunk]

I need to see if the Fallout games are on the Woke Game List

[artemis-pendragon]

She criticism on my media til I'm literate

[averagepsychouser]

Some of y’all need to know it’s okay for villains to be inexcusably fucked up like you don’t have to make headcanons justifying why you like them

[the-desolated-quill]

I swear Fallout: New Vegas fans are some of the most annoying bitchbabies I think I’ve ever seen. Calm the fuck down, will ya?

[houseofpurplestars]

I love that ella made the decision to explicitly say, "you are not a product, you're a person." THAT is how you do it. That is how you interact with media. You're not supposed to buy everything they sell you.

[theboyskisser]

So like, Maximus and Dane are gonna make each other's cocks explode in season 2 right

[o0katiekins0o]

In one of my fallout groups some guy left this long screed about how The Ghoul's speech about the T-45 power armor welding flaw under thr chest plate was "one of many plot holes" because- if that were true- why didn't he just huck a grenade at Maximus in Filly?

The fact that he didn't is "proof" the show is full of plot holes...

And I think everyone was very kind to this person- gently answering that

A.) Maximus is wearing a T-60.

And

B.) There was absolutely no reason to attack Maximus when he was an obvious novice flying that power armor "like a shopping cart" and being the perfect distraction while he tried to nab Wilzig.

But I had to add "It's not a plot hole that a 200+ year old professional mercenary wouldn't make the same decisions as you. You are not a 200+ year old professional mercenary. Take a moment to recognize that your impulse to self insert into your favorite character ruined your media comprehension."

I feel like that is an encapsulation of everything bad about trying to share Fandom spaces with cis het males. They feel so entitled to a self insert that when the one they choose doesn't do what they want it's "bad writing" and a "plot hole".

No dude. You're just not that guy. You never were.

Even their media comprehension is narcissistic.

[corbasm2]

here's a fun media literacy tip for all you writers

If your villains in any way, shape, or form are an allegory for the United States, around 25-45% of your fanbase will immediately think of them as badass and as the "good guys" OR think that they don't actually represent America.

[d1sc01nf3rn0]

I'm not disliking the fallout tv show, but I certainly could be enjoying it more (and the Amazon new ad policy isn't helping)

It feels weird cause is not like I am disappointed. I saw (or tried to) Westworld and it fucking sucked. It was the kind of fake deep plot full of blood and sex that impresses people that have little media literacy, and it annoyed me how the supposed plot twists were so obvious that I dropped it at the first season. So I wasn't expecting anything grand from the Fallout show, considering it was 1- created by the same guys, and 2- probably created due to the lawsuit Kilter Films lost to Bethesda after basically trying to create Fallout Shelter two.

A cashgrab series created by a cashgrab company.

But I still wanted to be proven wrong, I wanted to eat my words and be surprised. I mean, Amazon Video has a lot of great series, I'm currently watching Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and it's great. Why can't Fallout be great too?

It sucks cause it is my favorite videogame franchise (next to Castlevania, which doesn't fucking count cause it's dead), and it only shows me that just as what happened to Disco Elysium, all the games I enjoy that started as a satire and critique of capitalism, are doomed to end up replicating exactly that.

I could make an entire critique of all the things that are wrong with the show adaptation (except Norm, Norm is great and he should've been the protagonist. Getting real Fallout 1 Vault dweller vibes from him) but is just feels pointless, it feels like a waste of time. I could make a great critique of how Mrs. Maisel excels at capturing the struggles of a divorced Jewish woman trying to be a comedian in the 50s; but what can I even say about the Fallout show?? It doesn't completely suck, because granted, there are some things they managed to portray really well; but most of the show reeks of that Kilter films fake deep pretentious stench, and I hate that. I watched the show cause I love Fallout, but man I really wanted to be wrong about it.

And the worst part is that this applies to basically every single piece of media that exists nowadays. It's not supposed to provide a message, is supposed to create profits and be simple enough for people to understand it and not create TikTok videos complaining it endorses imaginary stuff. Of that I am disappointed.

[rad-hound]

Maybe I could have worded my last post less... I don't know, accusatory in nature, but I feel I am still allowed to have an opinion on the subject, as a person who has watched the Fallout show + consumed accompanying media.

I tagged it as "Gh*ulcy" because I was talking about the ship, and the tag was relevant to the topic. Do people on Tumblr not tag things according to topic relevancy? I tag things depending on what the subject is, and in the case prior, it was the ship itself, and my vices / curiosities regarding its popularity.

I don't mind that people disagree with me, I'm allowed to be unagreeable, and I'm just as allowed to have my unagreeable, unimportant opinions as people are allowed to like and ship Gh*ulcy, which I literally said I didn't care about, personally. Not sure how many more "differring opinion ≠ hate" classes some folks on Tumblr need to sit through before it starts to make sense.

Do what you want forever. Not everything is black and white.

[vaultboyenthusiast]

you're right, a 16 yr old white boy should probably just stay quiet on these topics.