Companion you hated most on a personal level?

Also Arcade was born when the Enclave was already falling so he wouldn't have any way of showing us what it was to be on it... The only thing he knows is that there were some good people in the organization but he still disaproves of their ideology and methods.
Click to expand...
That's my point, I would have liked to have a follower that would give me an idea of what life was like for them, Boone gives us a flavor of the NCR military, Cass gives us the flavor of NCR civilians life, Veronica shows us the Brotherhood, Lilly shows us the Super Mutants, and Raul shows us what it was like to be alive when the bombs first fell. Arcade should show us what life in the Enclave was really like. I suppose Arcade was meant to show us what life was like in Vegas but he also fails at that, he shows us life through the lens of a man caught between different worlds and different loyalties, to the Enclave, to the followers, to his adopted family. He's interesting from a sociological viewpoint but I expected more.

I also wish they had a Legion companion that would give us a more insightful view of the Legion rather than the propaganda we get from both sides of the river.
 
Cass plays that role. The Legion is functionally a pack of rapists and murderers Caesar has trained like dogs. No legionnaire is a decent man. Cass just shows the benefits of the system, and that it's not truly oppressive.
 
It is pretty oppressive, the options with the legion are getting enslaved into servingthe army either for cannon fodder or incubator or living your life fearing that if you fail to produce enough to pay the Legion tribute they may turn around and force you into the other option.
 
I liked Veronica, but that's because I'm partial to the Enclave and BoS factions--I just love both stories behind them. Veronica is very interesting to, in that she's pretty much the polar opposite of most BoS members (she'd probably have been right at home with Lyons).

Arcade was interesting as some have said, but he was born right around the fall of the Enclave--actually, wasn't he 1 year old when the LW bombed the Oil Rig? So like others have pointed out, it would've been nice to have had an older follower who could've provided some insight into the Enclave and their lifestyle; i don't think we've ever actually gotten that yet.
 
THe Lone Wanderer didn't bomb the oil rig, that was the Chosen One. The LW bombed the mobile base.
 
Walpknut said:
It is pretty oppressive, the options with the legion are getting enslaved into servingthe army either for cannon fodder or incubator or living your life fearing that if you fail to produce enough to pay the Legion tribute they may turn around and force you into the other option.
Click to expand...

Not according to Raul and pretty much every PC in Legion land.

Safety and security at the expense of any concept of "democracy", that's the Legion.
 
I don't think they did talk about democracy, but that's kind of Wumbology's point; there's nothing remotely resembling democracy in Legion society, but there is a measure of safety and security from the various raiders and feuding tribes of the Wasteland. That's supposed to be the tradeoff: give up political autonomy and personal freedom in exchange for protection. If you talk to Cass about the Legion and caravan life, she says that a number of people, including some NCR citizens, see that as a fair deal, and might actually welcome Legion control of the Mojave.

To answer the OP, I liked all of the companions, although I had some issues with Cass precisely because her loyalties seemed so conflicted. She complains bitterly about the NCR, but also says that they are her homeland/family and that she will fight fiercely to defend them against the Legion, but then admits that life as a caravaneer is much better under Legion control, and then scoffs at the idea of the Followers or the Brotherhood ruling the Mojave. I suppose one could argue that she has a nuanced view of the different factions, but her indecisiveness came off as kind of annoying to me. She's still a great companion though and unless I'm playing an especially greedy or sadistic courier, I always choose to take out the Van Graffs and let her live.
 
But why even mention democracy? They don't actively reject democracy, they are just utilitarians.
 
Actually, now that I'm replaying NV, Caesar talks a lot about democracy and its attendent weakness and corruption if you ask him about the NCR....so I would say that yes, they do actively reject it. It's their rejection of NCR that creates the "dialectical conflict" Big C is so obsessed with. Caesar talks a lot about why he prefers an absolutist military dictatorship to a democratic system, and says that the NCR is the first opponent which he is ideologically opposed to.

As a reference, check out this video of Caesar. He starts talking about NCR at 8:08:



Also I wouldn't describe the Legion as utilitarian; on the contrary, I would say are highly ideological. Many of their decisions make no sense from a practical or utilitarian standpoint; for example, the exclusion of women. They are only utilizing 50% of their population in many important tasks, something that appears wildly inefficient from a utilitarian/pragmatic standpoint, but perfectly logical and acceptable from an ideological standpoint that sees women as inferior to men. The same could be said of their rejection of certain technologies; if Caesar was a utilitarian, he would try to highjack the Securitron Army for his own use, rather than destroying it. Caesar's Legion is certainly ruthless, but this is not the same thing as being utilitarian.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well I was wrong I guess. Caesar did come from the NCR so I guess his ideology has some roots in his rejection of their society.
 
Speaking only of the base game, I would have to say Cass. There's really not much to her, she's just a depressed drunk.

Regarding Arcade, I liked him, but I can see why he's hard to like for some people. Most of the companions are motivated by powerful personal reasons. With Arcade, everything is intellectual. Boone hates the Legion because of what they did to his wife, Arcade hates it because he disagrees with them ideologically. Veronica tried to change the Brotherhood because they're her family and she wants to save them, Arcade turned his back on the Enclave long ago. Even his work with the Followers isn't important enough to him that he won't run off with a random Courier. Arcade always thinks with his brain, never with his heart. He doesn't have a personal connection to anyone in the wasteland.

That said, I liked him because I can identify with him, and I feel he's one of the more believable characters in the game. Not everyone has a traumatic backstory to be vengeful and emo about. I think in a war type situation many people would be like Arcade, unsure where you belong struggling just to make sense of the whole thing.
 
I'd have to say Arcade.

I mean don't get me wrong, he's an alright dude, but I find him far too Idealistic and he seems to miss the bigger picture other than "Muh freedumbs".

Plus, his sarcasm grates on my nerves.
 
Lily. I finally get to have a Nightkin companion and it's a senile old lady nightkin. Poor choice of comedic value Obsidian.

And to a lesser extent, Raol. And it's strictly because Danny Trejo voiced him.

I have nothing against Danny Trejo. In fact just the opposite. I enjoy him. So when I heard Danny Trejo's voice and heard some of the comments from Raol, I thought ok.. this is gonna be a funny SOB. Not so much. Total and complete waste of paying Trejo to voice a character.
 
I would first say that the work they've done with follower in New Vegas is impressive.

I still think that some of the follower from Fallout 2 were the greatest (Marcus, Myron or Vic, for instance) but the average wasn't that high. If we say it quick, i would consider that half of them were great while half of them were forgettables.

On the other hand, I find none of the FoNV followers as great of the greatest of Fo2, but the game provide the best average quality of followers of the whole series.

All of them have quest associated to recruit them, all of them have one or two quest have quests after you recruited them (with a different outcome), each of them has an humongous number of possible fates in the endings, and a proper role in the setting. I would also say that most of them has an impressive quality that shows the develloppers hard work. You can spend countless hours talking with Raul, Cass or Veronica with a big smile on your face, as they are not only fully fleshed out, but all have some specific traits that make them so unique.

But i would stick that they are ALMOST all great. I personnally can't stand Rex. He is the unavoidable dog that you have in each installment. He has nothing original, and he suffer deeply of the comparison with K-9. The only good things about him is that he is related to the King and Dr Henry, two great characters. The character on itself is pretty forgetable, but without him, the average quality of followers would be 100% perfect. (and even then, he is still better than half of Fo3 followers)

On a lesser extend, i think that Lily is less devellopped than the others, which is a shame, as she has the best concept of all. Come on, a grandma turned knightkin, who haven't dreamed of that kind of character ? On the other hand, even if the various nightkin characters are somehow underdevellopped, the New Vegas provide the best look on the super-mutants community since Fallout 1 (and Broken Hills on Fo2). And i have big hopes on Dog/God... (still haven't tried the DLC)
 
Last edited:
Can Sticky count?



Edit: Oh, I suck. I didn't realize this was in the NV forum. I guess I don't like Raul. I think he's a huge whiner. It's like... come on man. You're 200 years old. Get your shit together.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top