#he might call sole weak. he might hug them. he might throw meat at them. maybe he has an epiphany.

[slocumjoe]

Strong for character bingo

I have a few thoughts on Strong and none of them are in his, or his writers', favor. So here it is.

The Strong Rant.

This was done over a sleepy morning and has no real structure to it, so forgive me for the rambling

This is a Deep Cut but remember back in Fallout 1 and 2 where the mutants were...another people? Another kind of person trying to survive the wastes. They had their own thoughts, dreams, opinions of themselves and others. Remember Marcus? Remember the town that was founded on the site where a Brotherhood soldier and a mutant gave up fighting because they didn't see the point anymore?

Super Mutants were a creation of the Master to try and save humanity but turning it into something stronger. They were a mark of people, one person, thinking that they alone had the right to decide what was best for everyone else. But the Mutants themselves also had their own ideas of what was best. They made friends, had family, tried to move on and just get through life like everyone else.

And in Fucking 3, Bethesda made them orcs. Not even good orcs.

A good orcish people, in my opinion, put family and community above all else. They value being close together and to nature, living simply and not worrying about frivolous shit like politics or money. They are perfectly happy with their village and their farming, and they can slaughter anyone who dares interrupt anyway. Pacifists; they chose peace because they are capable of incredible war.

This is not Bethesda's Fallout orcs.

Stupid, bloodthirsty, almost animal in nature. There is nothing else to describe Bethesda Mutants as but adaptation failures. I have a lot more problems with how Bethesda went with their Fallout, but the Mutants are, like, at the top of that list. They're lazy. They exist because there's nothing else noteworthy to shoot at in 3. It's pathetic.

Now, I didn't finish 3, but I know the Mutants came from one of the Vaults. That is a piss-poor excuse for why you brought over a group localized in the far west to the far, far east, but y'know what? That could work as an excuse for why these Mutants suck. The Vault made them wrong, fucked up the process. I'll bite, there. I still don't like it, but the text smoothes itself out.

BUT THEN THEY DID IT AGAIN IN FUCKING 4.

The Master, one of the BEST VILLAINS in video game history—his master plan, the plot of the first game in this series, is now background information in TWO DIFFERENT UNDERGROUND BUNKERS as filler exposition to justify you being able to kill Mutants in the east.

What the fuck, Todd.

The Institute, the synths, everything about 4's plot is awful writing. It could have been good, but they'd have to actually do something with the, let's be honest, first draft. And that would take work. Bethesda is great at coming up with ideas, and interesting topics, and greater at leaving them to fawn over something irrelevant. Synths, the concept, the themes? Incredible, let's base half the story around finding Kellogg, and the other half finding Shaun. And then things end, like, two hours later.

But the fucking Mutants.

Why can't there just be Mutants from the capital who wandered over? The Brotherhood wandered over. But nope. We have to explain why I can't walk through three blocks in Cambridge without Shrek running at me with a bomb. And again, why are they Orcs? Because the Institute fucked up.

So, Fallout 4 has another issue; and its an obsession with representation. Another rant, again. But it's not interested in the wasteland, the Commonwealth; its interested in the history of America. We have a ghoul named John Hancock. There are Minutemen. There's a newspaper called Publick Occurances. The plot shoehorns in a literal Railroad. It wants to do that, and everything else is a box to tick off. We get 1 ghoul. 1 actual synth. 1 companion for each faction. 1 Super Mutant. One more box ticked off.

Now we're actually to Strong.

Strong is an orc. He's a bad orc, and his personality is so contradictory, he's not even a character.

Here are some things Strong likes.

Building settlements

Helping settlers, saving kidnapped settlers

Being tough to Travis and encouraging him to toughen up

Giving Sheffield soda

The coding fucked up here, because the 'disliked that' pops up, but Strong likes helping Billy the ghoul kid, even says he should be with his people

Helping Preston and being nice to him

Telling Desdemona you're against slavery

Telling Ricky Dalton saving synths is noble

Making Darla turn on Skinny by girlbossing her up

Helping the people during the U.S.S constitution quest

Buying from Erikson

So, looking at this, Strong values helping people,, community, taking care of your own. Like...the good Orc I described. And Strong wants to find the milk of human kindness. Does he know what kindness is? Does he want to learn how to be kind, because he thinks that is what the Super Mutants lack? Humans build cities, have families, advance in their world. The Super Mutants are raiders, cannibals. Does Strong realize that kindness and community are what rebuilds a society?

But here's where Strong gets fucky.

He also likes;

Killing Desdemona??

Being mean to Blake Abernathy??

Choosing violence where he should, really, dislike it, like threatening Madison Li?

Asking for more caps, when he also dislikes it?

KILLING SETTLERS???

Okay, so he changes his mind randomly. He'll be nice to Preston, but mean to Blake. He likes Desdemona and the railroad, but also...killing them. He dislikes it when Sole is rude, or uses Charisma for more money, but...doesn't. What?

Gets weirder with his dislikes.

Stealing and pickpocketing. Okay, that's a moral standing. He thinks it's wrong. But...he likes cannibalism. You can eat people, but don't take their stuff.

Asking for more money??

Being nice to Magnolia. Why?

Healing Dogmeat. Why? He likes helping Danny??

Helping the Vault Tec rep, when really he should like it, because that's building a community...which he likes...because he likes settlement stuff...

Siding with the railroad. Goes against liking Desdemona and helping synths.

Rescuing synths in RR quests. Which is it, buddy?

Talking to Erikson

Killing Phyllis Dally for being a synth...again, what is his opinion here

Giving Moe Cronin baseball stuff. Why? What's the point?

My problem with Strong is that I can't figure out who he's for. Danse has his people, Preston his, Cait hers...who, when picking up Fallout 4 for the first time, finds Strong, sticks with him for the whole game, and is able to max affinity with him naturally?

When I first played, I gravitated to Hancock and maxed him out without a guide, or even quickloading until I got whatever option he liked.

But Strong...if you like synths, you might think he does too. If you help synths, he ends up disliking it. If you help settlers, he likes it. If you kill them, he loves it. If you steal, he dislikes it. If you cannibalize people, he likes it. If you ask for caps, he dislikes it. If you ask for caps, he likes it. He is fucking everywhere.

Is he a immoral companion? I don't know, he likes Preston, and helping settlements, and being kind to kind people. But he also likes killing Virgil, bullying Blake and Wiseman at the slog, and again, eating people.

Look at Strong and his affinity checks and tell me what his values are, what kind of person he is. Does he value community, or every man for himself? Does he hate theft and materialism, or does he like caps? Does he want Sole to treat people accordingly, or does he want them to be mean to everyone, except Preston for some reason? Does he like Preston, or does he like killing settlers? Does he like killing settlers, or building towns for them and saving them? What the fuck does Strong do?

Hancock values community, dislikes authority, is a party-guy, and while he wants Sole to be kind, doesn't want them to stand for someone else being an asshole. Nick wants them to be the bigger man, and not butt heads just to butt, even if he likes them snarking occasionally. Strong apparently flips a coin and goes from there.

I can't stand in-game Strong because he serves no purpose. He has no perspective to share, no ideals or hard stances, no backstory, nothing. He doesn't represent his group, at least, not well. He doesn't develop at all and find that Milk. He doesn't even have a preferred faction to end with, he just wants the Railroad dead for no reason. He voices siding with the Institute, but he also hates the Institute in his voice lines, so what the fuck?

I just...I'm not willing to do the mental gymnastics to like Strong, or even justify him. If I have to do math to figure out a character, that character is not finished or properly realized. Like, X6 got shafted, too, but I don't need to talk myself through what X6 values. He's a more professional mercenary who dislikes anything that isn't the Institute. Done. But there's more there if I wanted to dig deeper and fully psychoanalyze him.

Strong is Strong. He hates and likes everything at once and good like figuring out which is which without a guide. Stick to cannibalism but don't steal. Sure. Thats a moral compass, I guess.