The show is apparently canon. It’s not like the All Roads comic, Fallout Tactics, or the Fallout Bible where it’s considered flavor materials and only elements of it are later added to the canon.
“We view what’s happening in the show as canon,” Bethesda director Todd Howard told Vanity Fair. “That’s what’s great, when someone else looks at your work and then translates it in some fashion.”
https://www.gamesradar.com/is-the-fallout-tv-show-canon-bethesda-games-todd-howard/
The show takes place in 2296 making it the furthest along we’ve seen the world of Fallout so it might gives us some leads on canon endings of Fallout 3, NV, and 4.
I’ve only watched through the show once but I am wondering what you felt were significant additions to the canon or lore of Fallout?
Here’s some stuff I thought of:
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We knew there were Vault-Tec brand vaults in Canada following the annexation because of letters found in mailboxes outside of Vault 101 in Fallout 3 but a lot of people assumed this would be limited to major cities. Some people believed the settlement to the north mentioned in The Pitt DLC was a reference to Toronto and thought there might be a vault there. The map in one of the latter episodes seems to suggest there are a lot more vaults up there than people thought.
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I feel like there were enough references to the situation the Brotherhood of Steel is currently in with the early episodes to suggest what happened to them in the non-isometric games but I’d need to rewatch it to dig deeper. I don’t know if there are mentions of their command structure or the Mojave chapter. Either would likely be a giveaway. I don’t think the destruction of the Prydwen in Fallout 4 is out of the question. In Fallout 4 Captain Kells talks about the prior construction of airships on the West coast and Scribe Rothchild from Fallout NV mentions a rogue detachment of the Brotherhood of Steel that might be able to fill emerging power vacuums.
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Even with Shady Sands gone I feel like the NCR might still exist elsewhere. The population of the NCR according to a holotape in Fallout 2 is around 700,000 and with around 30,000 people in Shady Sands I feel like that means there were a lot of people outside this region. Unless this is being retconned. The whiteboard in the show, if I recall correctly, had a note that said the fall of Shady Sands was in 2277 which would have put it during Fallout 3 and before Fallout NV.
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I think it has finally been confirmed that Vault-Tec kicked off the nuclear war in some way like the cancelled Fallout film from back in the day originally wanted.
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New Vegas might may have been destroyed. It looks like it isn’t lit up and the buildings have been further damaged.
It seems to be a new drug invented for the show. I don’t actually mind it or think it is a retcon. It makes sense that after 200+ years of ghouls existing, somebody figured out a drug to brute force ghouls from turning feral when they otherwise would.
The show doesn’t say that all ghouls constantly need a daily supply of it, just that Goggins does. He is the oldest Ghoul we’ve ever seen, so with that in combination of other factors he probably would have turned long ago but is forcing it back.
That other ghoul was begging for it as he was turning, but that also doesn’t indicate all ghouls constantly need it.
That ghoul and the one in Super Duper Mart saying their own names trying to retain their last shred of human consciousness was a nice touch.
It reminded me of Admiral Keyes losing his mind to the Flood in the 2nd Halo book, where he just kept repeating who he was as it stripped his mind away.
That quick snap from turning relatively normal to feral is something I have to adjust to. Maybe that’s even how it happens in the newer games and I’m just not recalling it, but I always envisioned turning feral to be a much slower and more sporadic process. Like someone falling into worsening dementia over the course of many years, as opposed to a quick turn like in a zombie movie.
I do agree with your sentiment. I think it should be a more gradual shift to madness. That makes a lot more sense to me, and it’s how I always imagined it.
I liked that they are saying their name trying to maintain that last shred of humanity, but they present as more rabid extreme shifts. Like the ghoul that’s killed and cannibalized going from having fluent conversations and vivid recollections to screaming his name is a bit much…
I think they should be in a confused and disoriented state like in dementia, and they should be near totally nonverbal by the point they’re trying to remember who they even are. If it’s caused by an irradiated brain essentially rotting away, then they shouldn’t be able to articulate and be reminiscing at that point…