A thought and a question...

RangerBoo

RangerBoo

Resident Schizo Poster
SPOILERS


Okay so maybe I am looking over this a little too much but when you met back up with Shaun (aka SonDad) he says that his DNA is in all 3rd Generation Syths (how I don't know but lets just roll with it.) and that he, them(the Syths) and you are related and are family through science(!). So given the fact that you can romance Danse, Curie and Magnolia who are Syths doesn't that make them your grandchild? If so then doesn't that mean that if you romance them that you are technically committing incest? :shock: What do you guys think? Am I putting WAY too much thought into this or did Bethesda once again not think things through?
 
Last edited:
RangerBoo said:
I am putting WAY too much thought into this or did Bethesda once again not think things through?
Click to expand...

I think you're putting way too much thought into a story in which Bethesda did not think things through.

I haven't gotten that far in the story so I really can't say but I suppose very strictly speaking it would be some weird form of robotic incest.

This doesn't fill me with hope that the story and writing will improve as I go further.
 
Last edited:
RangerBoo said:
Okay so maybe I am looking over this a little too much but when you met back up with Shaun (aka SonDad) he says that his DNA is in all 3rd Generation Syths (how I don't know but lets just roll with it.) and that he, them(the Syths) and you are related and are family through science(!). So given the fact that you can romance Danse, Curie and Magnolia who are Syths doesn't that make them your grandchild? If so then doesn't that mean that if you romance them that you are technically committing incest? :shock: What do you guys think? Am I putting WAY too much thought into this or did Bethesda once again not think things through?
Click to expand...
damn u spoiled who was synths m8
 
r0b0wnz said:
RangerBoo said:
Okay so maybe I am looking over this a little too much but when you met back up with Shaun (aka SonDad) he says that his DNA is in all 3rd Generation Syths (how I don't know but lets just roll with it.) and that he, them(the Syths) and you are related and are family through science(!). So given the fact that you can romance Danse, Curie and Magnolia who are Syths doesn't that make them your grandchild? If so then doesn't that mean that if you romance them that you are technically committing incest? :shock: What do you guys think? Am I putting WAY too much thought into this or did Bethesda once again not think things through?
Click to expand...
damn u spoiled who was synths m8
Click to expand...

Sorry about that. I will put a spoiler tag on my post so others won't get spoiled.
 
I think you hardly comprehend how DNA works. Most of the DNA you find in any other animal is identical to human DNA because our cells have to do a lot of the same functions.
As Generation 3 synths have bio-mechanical bodies which can bleed, eat, drink, feel emotion and pain, you sort of need some of that DNA to allow them to do that. Calling them "family through science" is just romanticizing the concept, because in reality they have most certainly tinkered with alleles and whatnot to make sure the gen 3 synths aren't just exact clones.
The fact that they can even kidnap people and make replacements shows that they are most proficient in DNA research, which further proves the point that they are as different as you and I. DNA is, after all, what determines what we look like and such traits.

And on a personal note I think that interpreting Shaun's endearment of the synths (he's called Father for fuck's sake) as a corny type of consanguinity is another baseless attack on Bethesda. I'm all for actual criticism of the game, because yes it has its fucking flaws, but this is over the line. You're shutting your eyes tight to scientific facts and reason and use every opportunity and excuse to demean the people who made the game.
 
Incest is a sexual relation between someone who is too closely related to you, not someone who is in some way related to you. So the question is "how close is too close", since if you were to marry your fifth cousin (i.e. you have a great great great great grandparent in common) nobody would really object to that. Digging deeper, he cultural taboo of this is that sex sometimes results in children and inbreeding depression results in less fit offspring (this is true in all animals.) But since Synths are robots they're almost certainly sterile, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Plus I mean, it is a wasteland. Cultural norms are way up in the air.
 
Justalittlebaby said:
I think you hardly comprehend how DNA works. Most of the DNA you find in any other animal is identical to human DNA because our cells have to do a lot of the same functions.
As Generation 3 synths have bio-mechanical bodies which can bleed, eat, drink, feel emotion and pain, you sort of need some of that DNA to allow them to do that. Calling them "family through science" is just romanticizing the concept, because in reality they have most certainly tinkered with alleles and whatnot to make sure the gen 3 synths aren't just exact clones.
The fact that they can even kidnap people and make replacements shows that they are most proficient in DNA research, which further proves the point that they are as different as you and I. DNA is, after all, what determines what we look like and such traits.

And on a personal note I think that interpreting Shaun's endearment of the synths (he's called Father for fuck's sake) as a corny type of consanguinity is another baseless attack on Bethesda. I'm all for actual criticism of the game, because yes it has its fucking flaws, but this is over the line. You're shutting your eyes tight to scientific facts and reason and use every opportunity and excuse to demean the people who made the game.
Click to expand...

Whenever someone on the internet says "you don't understand how [science] works" it has been my experience that the person writing that doesn't understand it either.

When you say that OP "hardly comprehends how DNA works" and then proceed to attempt an explanation for why make-belief synths need human DNA, I think you lose any credibility as an authority on how DNA actually works.

Suspension of disbelief is a tenet of being immersed in a fictional universe and that is why I personally don't nit-pick every little detail of the writing. However, Fallout 4 doesn't have small holes - the writing is FULL of major holes. The only audience that could let such large holes slide are the exact target demographic for the game - people who do not play role playing games.

Not everything needs an explanation. However, you just said OP is "shutting their eyes to scientific facts and reason." Really? You think make-belief synths requiring human DNA is a scientific fact?​ Because that is what you just said. What school of medicine did you study at?
 
RangerBoo said:
SPOILERS


Okay so maybe I am looking over this a little too much but when you met back up with Shaun (aka SonDad) he says that his DNA is in all 3rd Generation Syths (how I don't know but lets just roll with it.) and that he, them(the Syths) and you are related and are family through science(!). So given the fact that you can romance Danse, Curie and Magnolia who are Syths doesn't that make them your grandchild? If so then doesn't that mean that if you romance them that you are technically committing incest? :shock: What do you guys think? Am I putting WAY too much thought into this or did Bethesda once again not think things through?
Click to expand...

Likely the latter, and I'm reminded of Bioshock Infinite by the way this is handled.

Hell, Father could easily be seen as the alternate Booker, AKA The Prophet.
 
I don't think this is the time nor the place to give a lecture about DNA. My point was not to explain how DNA can be used to replicate multicellular organisms (mainly because you're absolutely right. I don't have a clue how), but to give an explanation as to why all synths are not so similar, and to encourage the prospect of not being deliberately oblivious to the scientific fact that because of that, it would not be anything close to incest.
In short, you must think, even a little. It helps.

If you want to know why the Institute needs DNA to make synths, the answer is probably more simple that you might expect: Because it's convenient. They want to make people, so why not use the building blocks that people are already made of? Nature already did all the work for them, they just have to find out which block goes where.

I'm still not sure what you think is the bigger problem, that synths exist, or that they need DNA to be made. In Fallout 3, there's a certain Dr. Zimmer looking for an android in Rivet City, and I don't suppose that's another of Bethesda's "major holes"? Zimmer even mentions the Commonwealth and the Institute. Are synths such a big deal now just because they're in the spotlight and an easy target?
 
Justalittlebaby said:
I don't think this is the time nor the place to give a lecture about DNA. My point was not to explain how DNA can be used to replicate multicellular organisms (mainly because you're absolutely right. I don't have a clue how), but to give an explanation as to why all synths are not so similar, and to encourage the prospect of not being deliberately oblivious to the scientific fact
Click to expand...

You keep using those words. "Scientific fact." I don't think it means what you think it means.

Then you go on to say "If you want to know why the Institute needs DNA to make synths, the answer is probably..." No. I do not want to know why because I have this faculty called Suspension of Disbelief. This suspension of disbelief is what allows me to enjoy fictional universes without getting wrapped up in the details. The problem with Fallout 4 is the writing is so empty and full of holes that even Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who coined that term, would not excuse it.

Suspension of disbelief means that: if a writer could infuse a "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgement concerning the implausibility of the narrative. Well the problem with Fallout 4 is that the writers did not "infuse" the story with any semblance of truth or human interest, making suspension of disbelief difficult or impossible for me and a lot of other players.

Zimmer in Fallout 3 was a far better character, and the synths were far better in Fallout 3. Why? Because it wasn't part of some cheesy story where your kidnapped son is somehow saint of the synths. Since Skyrim, Bethesda has jumped to making the protagonist the head of every guild and head of every faction with minimal to no effort. The Fallout 4 story is bad, and you're just trying to sound authoritative by dropping these two words: "scientific fact" and saying things like "you hardly understand how DNA works."
 
Last edited:
Of course this is not science: http://genetics.thetech.org/ask-a-geneticist/genetics-inbreeding

It's fiction. DNA doesn't behave as we have empirically observed for many, many years.
Even if you're referring to mere sex without reproduction between family members or close relatives, you're wrong. Because they're simply not close relatives or family members. Synths are not created through natural means. There is no meiosis. No parents. There is a scientist typing what he wants and a machine creating it. This will not lead to incest unless specifically chosen.
 
fakeangel said:
It's still the same genetic material.
Click to expand...

The same genetic material used to create blondes, brunettes, Africans, Asians, eye colors, height differences, so on and so forth? This can only hold true if they cherry-picked the genome of things that are essential to help with tasks that are found in every other animal and afterwards equipped the body with certain characteristics.
But for the sake of the argument, let's say that's true. Then would it be incest? Certainly not. If the only DNA that is used is the same DNA found in every other human being, which is essential for our basic survival and bodily functions, then you can't call it incest because if you do then all sex is incest, and that's absurd.
 
At the end of the day it doesn't really matter because you know based on Skyrim and Fallout 4 that Elder Scrolls VI will have you playing from the start as some kind of God-King that is in charge of every major competing faction from the start of the game because "reasons." Contrast this with Fallout 3 where you're part of a larger picture - you're not blindly promoted to head of the Brotherhood like Skyrim makes you head of the Mages Guild. In Fallout New Vegas you're a courier and gain success within the competing factions, but they don't just go "Oh look some random Joe let's make him the new Caesar!"

In Fallout 4 some guy I just met started calling me General of the Minutemen, and my kidnapped son is calling shots at the Institute, and the Brotherhood of Steel, an organization that tried to have me killed by sending me to The Glow, immediately welcomed me as a rank officer in Fallout 4. GREAT WRITING!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top