Fallout Gamers Abandoning Prime Video Show Are Missing the Point

Die-hard Fallout lore enthusiasts aren’t too pleased with some of the big changes that the second season of Amazon’s Fallout TV series has already made to the pre-established canon, especially where Fallout: New Vegas is concerned.

It’s understandable, and I can’t entirely say I disagree with a lot of the points that Fallout fans have been bringing up online.

However, the issue is… nobody was ever going to be truly happy with how the writers have handled Amazon’s Fallout TV series, and it would seem that this is something that executive producer and director Jonathan Nolan understood from the start.

Over on the r/Fallout subreddit, one user’s post discussing fans giving up on the Fallout TV series because it’s “destroying Fallout lore” has been gaining a lot of traction.

The post features a quote from T3’s interview with Jonathan Nolan, prior to Season 2’s release.

"I don't think you really can set out to please the fans of anything," Nolan revealed. "Or please anyone other than yourself.”

"I think you have to come into this trying to make the show that you want to make and trusting that, as fans of the game [ourselves], we would find the pieces that were essential to us... and try to do the best version."

Fallout Season 2 official poster, Amazon

This quote is popping up again in light of some controversial additions that the writers have made to the Fallout lore in the latest two episodes of the show, such as the revelation that The Strip is abandoned, that the American government was responsible for the creation of Deathclaws, and, seemingly most controversial, that The Kings ultimately became feral ghouls.

You know what the funniest thing about all of this is? This is (at least) the second time this has happened.

Some of you might be too young to remember this, but when Bethesda took over the franchise and released Fallout 3 in 2008, I remember seeing these exact same discussions online over and over again.

Fans of the first two Fallout games were furious at Bethesda for making changes to pre-existing lore and for, supposedly, ruining the canon. And now, almost 20 years on, fans of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are upset at the TV series for the same reason.

The fact of the matter is that these are choice-driven games with decades of lore and thousands of different outcomes. As a result, there is no feasible version of the Fallout TV show that would have pleased everyone without being labelled as non-canon from the start.

Whatever your opinion is, I think it’s fair to say that the version of Fallout that we’ve got is… ultimately far better than what any of us expected when we heard that a Fallout TV series was in the works.

And if it really, really upsets you that much, I highly suggest that you just make up your own head canon. Just pretend that whatever you thought happened at the end of Fallout: New Vegas is what actually happened, and that the events of the TV series are just a dream that Dogmeat had at some point.

But, be warned– you will be upset all over again once Fallout 5 comes out. On the plus side, that’s probably at least a decade away.