The way that you put it doesn't sound horrid.
Because that can damn well be an interesting theme if done right. But this is Bethesda we're talking about.
New Vegas was about "letting go," so to speak. And it works brilliantly.
Chris Avellone is gold like that.
I didn't really see the theme of "letting go" in New Vegas proper (obviously that was the theme of Dead Money). It was more of a statement on war and government. I think one of the major themes was the idea that you can't fundamentally change a society quickly or (generally) without violence. Of course it was also interesting as a discussion of democracy, totalitarianism, and anarchy.
Ah. A lot of New Vegas is about how institutions have ideologies informed by the Old World or tradition.
The Brotherhood of Steel, at its best, represents the regulation of the worst abuses of high technology. But they get narrowly fixated on a few small energy arms. Veronica is your mouthpiece here and advocates making new recruits and expanding the Brotherhood's mission to more high-minded humanitarianism. Plus, you win rep with the Brotherhood if you choose not to nuke anything in Lonesome Road.
The Followers reveres knowledge, medicine and books. Their mission is noble and not malicious, but they're ineffectual in the shadow of greater powers. Caesar was birthed from their ranks.
Caesar models itself off of Roman autocracy.
House idolizes Vegas and will do anything to bring back the worse excesses of capitalism and his version of Vegas at any cost, whether the wasteland needs it or not.
The NCR represents governmental bloat and overreach. And even though it wants to be an Old World democratic republic, it behaves more like a neocolonialist empire. It's citizen soldiers are honest and good salt of the earth, even if their government is not.
The minds of the Big Empty pursue scientific knowledge to the point of quackery and devoid of any real purpose, which died with the nuclear wars of the old world. Doctor Klein even works that as a theme into the name of his colleagues. They're an Ouroboros, incestuously eating away at themselves. Their genius wasted and squandered and needing to be contained.
Dead Money is about a lot of people with grudges well past their date of expiry.
Ulysses is all about all of that shit.
Marcus pretty much gives you a rundown about why Caesar and everybody else is fucked up and how it really wasn't different from his own failed revolution with the Master. He's all world weary and wise.
The Enclave Remnant side quests are all about these grizzled vets whose glory days are long gone, even if their cause was questionable in the end, it
meant something to them.
The Khans are all bitter about their loss against the NCR and the Vault Dweller. Your quests with them can convince them to move on to become greater than just a bunch of raiders scratching out a living in the dirt. If you don't they just fight a losing war until the NCR scatters them to the wind.
There's a lot of existential meditations about whether you're just thoughtlessly imitating the culture around you or actually doing something. Being an individual and all that. It's the recognition of your circumstances and choosing to let it go or modify it that determines whether you are greater or lesser than you are.
