#i wrote this at 1am last night i was typing away on my notes app

[starions]

Who is Butch's dad???

The biggest mystery of Vault 101 to me if the fact no one knows who Butch’s dad is, not even him, and Ellen was never married. According to the official Fallout 3 guide, the reason Butch acts out and is an overall terrible person is because his mother being an alcoholic and his lack of a father pushes him to be rebellious. Seeing the Lone Wanderer with perhaps the only caring dad in the vault may be why he targets them the most.

My theories are:

1) The Overseer. This one is far fetched, I know; but it is interesting to consider. If he is Butch’s father, it would make sense for him to enable Ellen’s alcoholism to keep her from sharing Butch’s father. Who would believe the vault drunk? Him employing the Tunnel Snakes may be to keep a close eye on Butch. However, considering the vault canonically has abortion pills according to voice lines, he would probably have Ellen flush out a pregnancy to avoid scandal.

2) Allen Mack. To be honest, everyone is related to the Mack family for some reason so let me throw him into the ring. This has some gross implications though; considering Susie refers to Butch as “dreamy” and Christine (who is a cousin to the Macks) “puts out,” I would like to wipe this one off the table all together. Also, Allen seems to love his wife Gloria very much, seeing how his personality completely switches after she dies.

3) A wastelander. This one is my favorite. If we take Butch’s birthday from this wiki at face value, he was born at the tail end of 2257, meaning he was conceived in February of 2257 give or take. If Alphonse closed the vault doors in 2257 or 2258, Ellen could have been one of the vault dwellers who made a trip to the wasteland beforehand. It could be plausible she met a wastelander, fell in love, Butch was conceived, and the vault doors were closed before or shortly after he was born. The loss of her love could have sparked her alcoholism, and again, if she says anything about the vault once being open, who would trust the vault drunk?

This is so interesting to me, especially since it was never touched on in the game. Maybe there's some tension in the vault from women who don't trust there husbands, wondering if their partner could be the father of Ellen's child, especially because she's regarded as a "fading beauty."

I almost posted this on /r/falloutlore before I read that speculation was against the rules :P oh well