How Fallout: New Vegas got Mormonism right

WorstUsernameEver

But best title ever!
Kotaku has a guest editorial from Skip Cameron on how Fallout: New Vegas got his faith, Mormonism, right. Worth a read:<blockquote>I take no offense at the story of Graham becoming Caesar's first Legate and actually thought it was exciting to have a Mormon figure so prominently in the history of one of Fallout's principal factions. One big reason for this was because his fall was precipitated by very human failings (fear of death, lust for power, pride, etc.), not a failing specific to his religion. Consequently, Graham becoming a ruthless villain doesn't feel like an attack on Mormonism any more than Caesar forming the Legion feels like an attack on the Followers of the Apocalypse (which it doesn't).

But it is Graham's life after the Legion that sheds light on another reason why I appreciate Obsidian's handling of Mormonism so much.

After failing at the first battle of Hoover Dam, Caesar has Graham covered in pitch, set on fire, and thrown into the Grand Canyon. Graham, already renowned for his resilience as much as for his cruelty, survives. Stripped of power, title, and purpose, he returns to New Canaan filled with remorse for what he had become and for the shame he brought to his people.

Here again, Obsidian avoids the lazy cliché of religious people being hypocritically unforgiving and intolerant and has the Mormons of New Canaan forgiving the penitent Graham, embracing him as a returning prodigal.

I'm not sure if Obsidian was touching on the general theme of sin, repentance, and redemption common in most all of Christianity or if they looked more specifically at Mormon history, but this type of story played out repeatedly in the early history of the Mormon church. There were multiple times that high-ranking Church members betrayed Church leaders by swearing false affidavits (i.e. Mormons planned to overthrow the government) which resulted in repeated imprisonments and even near execution, only to later have the traitors return seeking forgiveness and finding it extended by a magnanimous prophet and people (see W. W. Phelps, Thomas B. Marsh, Oliver Cowdery).

Regardless of what inspired the plotline, once again I appreciated that the core Christian tenet of repentance, forgiveness, and redemption figured so prominently in the story of saint-turned-sinner-turned-saint, Joshua Graham.

As a fun side-note regarding the fictional Graham and a famous real-life Mormon, Fallout: New Vegas project lead J. E. Sawyer said in an online Q&A that one interesting aspect of Mormon history is that John Browning, inventor of the M1911 pistol, BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle), and M2 .50 Cal Machine Gun, was a Mormon from Ogden, Utah. Joshua Graham, perhaps in a show of hometown pride and religious camaraderie, seems to be quite a fan of Browning's M1911 .45 Caliber pistols.</blockquote>
 
Learned a couple of things, not bad for a Kotaku article.

But holy hell, that comment section. :lol:
 
Kamoho said:
Learned a couple of things, not bad for a Kotaku article.

But holy hell, that comment section. :lol:

Bah, it's not like they making fun of a real religion.
 
Walpknut said:
Curiously, Josh Sawyer is an atheist.

I like his writting and ideas a lot.

People most knowledgeable about religion and the Bible are usually atheists. Funny how it works.
 
Tagaziel said:
Walpknut said:
Curiously, Josh Sawyer is an atheist.

I like his writting and ideas a lot.

People most knowledgeable about religion and the Bible are usually atheists. Funny how it works.

Well that is often because they read the thing and came to the conclusion of "Fuck this shit, I'm out"
 
oh look a video game designer actually bothered to research major religions of the place his game is set in how about that
 
The writing may have been well researched and all that, it still was very boring and dry to me. Easily the worst DLC for me of the bunch.
 
His interest probably stems from visiting Zion National Park, which gave him the idea to have it set here. Most of the geographical features in Zion are named by Mormon settlers.

P.S. Visit Zion National Park.
 
I'm not sure I agree that Graham's arc really ends up back at "saint", at least not in the traditional Mormon sense. If anything, Graham struck me as more of a microcosm of Caeser's thesis-antithesis-synthesis pedagoguery. Joshua started out a Mormon missionary, because a ruthless military leader, and ended up with some combination of both traits. By way of example, witness the use of both Daniel and Salt-Upon-Wounds as foils for Graham's more complex personality.

I also can't really recall Graham expressing much in the way of shame or remorse.
 
Isn't Joshua Graham in Honest Hearts still burning with desire for genocide - i.e. slaughtering all the White Legs in Zion? I mean, one of the main points of the DLC is the ability to talk him down from indiscriminatory killing.
Funny how the writer of that article considers him a "saint-turned-sinner-turned-saint", when what I saw was a bitter, remorseless, racist and genocidal maniac. I guess him considering Graham a "saint" tells you all about Mormonism you need to now.
 
warsaw said:
Jebus said:
when what I saw was a bitter, remorseless, racist and genocidal maniac.

Care to explain any of these points?

Here's some quotes directly from the Fallout Wiki:

"I don't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it's just a chore, like any other."
"I want to have my revenge. Against him. Against Caesar. I want to call it my own, to make my anger God's anger. To justify the things I've done."

Etc.
 
Well that's not exactly genocidal. He hates Ceasar (I would be slighlty annoyed by the guy who covered me in fire and threw me into the Grand Canyon myself) and knows the White Legs are his catspaws. Given that he can't reach Big C, he takes his anger on the next best thing. It's not like the WL have any sort of redeeming quality.

I do agree that saying he comes back as a ''saint'' is a bit silly. Graham is still a killer, he may say it's a chore but when it's someone he hates he clearly enjoys it on some level. The fact that the Courier can sway him towards having a bit more mercy still means that he's not a mass murdering madman, but hardly a saint either. Grey morality, ho!
 
I wonder if the Mormons in the Fallout universe brought back the age old Mormon practice of killing travelers and stealing their children so they can get more Mormons.

Always wondered that since VB.
 
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