Is the point of F:NV to "let go of the past?"

The Followers of the Apocalypse I'd add fall into this category as per inventing ways to help humanity that weren't solely built on the past.

Arcade put this perfectly when he said something along the lines of "We can't raid old hospital buildings forever".
 
I, honestly, disagree with the sentiment and am one of the guys who would side with NCR or Mister House in real life.

I NEVER sided with NCR in my games, though.
 
You disagree with the sentiment of letting the past go and re-building a future for humanity?
 
I've always liked the idea of New Vegas bring about letting go.
It's why I say Fallout best works as a trilogy.

We have the game that sets up the World and events.
We have the game that showcases a world lost in its progression, trying to take the ideas of old and bring them into a new age.
And finally we have a game which shows us that the old world has to let go. We need to move on, we had our old world, now it's time to pass the torch.
 
This is kinda why I wished Dead Money be the last DLC for New Vegas, this whole idea of 'beginning again' it makes much more sense after playing the others, you've fought Ulysses and the Brains at the Big Mountain, now it's time for you to have one last adventure...and let go.
 
nooooo the poiint of new begas is to shot tht 1 gui named bennster and he sez whot in the gosshdarrn?


Seriously though, I do think the poinnt of New Vegas was to let go. It was kinda Obsidian's message to us saying, "Let go of Fallout and us, it will never be the same"
 
Gay Tony said:
You disagree with the sentiment of letting the past go and re-building a future for humanity?
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Generally, yeah, I think the past is an excellent place to begin reconstruction of the future. If I were to start again, I'd start from the top of the last place and build from there rather than trying to wipe the slate clean. I don't have a lot of faith in the whole "begin from the beginning narratives." It's why I think the Chaos Ending of Deus Ex is the worst one.

Then again, I'm not arguing with reality when I state beginning again is a bad idea versus rebuilding the past. I'm arguing with Chris Avellone/Ulysses and he's nice enough you can WIN with this argument in Lonesome Road.

No, you're starting over with MISTER HOUSE. :) The embodiment of all the good of the Old World!
 
I think the point of "letting go" in this context is rather to not dwell on the past and move on from it.. That doesn't mean the past isn't useful to learn from or take knowledge/technology to build for a new world.

Just that the nostalgia, regrets, and dwelling on the past alone will not move a person and in a much larger context humanity or society forward at all.
 
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Sheepo said:
What I'm wondering is, what is everyone's idea on what the "take-away" message of the game is? As you can see by my title, though I'm not at all sure of my position, is that the universal "point" to the game is to let go of the past.
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I'm not sure either, especially after Lonesome Road. This DLC took the idea of "letting go" being the main FNV motive and turned it upside down in my mind; leaving me under ipression that while "letting go" might look as a very convenient and regardful solution for most of the problems or nightmares of the past, it might be a double-edged sword too. Let me explain plox:

With Courier's previous travel through the Divide and unintentional awakening of nuclear missiles hidden in undergound silos by "message" he carried, whole Courier became a metaphor for me. Could it be that various factions across the Mojave are couriers of the same type? Carrying messages they don't understand or don't know they're carrying at all? Forgetting the past only to create exactly the same social system responsible for previous doomsday, creating "civilized" society with exactly the same flaws the old world's society suffered with? Caesar or NCR, both major faction are following different ideology, yet both are walking the same way full of mistakes their precedesors walked towards their own doom.

Could it be that Ulysses became aware of this and tried to ruin the nascent civilization in order to make them start again in a different way? And, most importantly, to remind them that "letting go" and repeating the same mistakes is the same as walking in circles, leading a single man or whole civilization back where they came from?

(I don't think this "letting go" was some subliminal message for the fanbase. Guys from Obsidian are well aware that there's quite a dedicated modding F2 community with big projects still going on.)
 
valcik said:
I'm not sure either, especially after Lonesome Road. This DLC took the idea of "letting go" being the main FNV motive and turned it upside down in my mind; leaving me under ipression that while "letting go" might look as a very convenient and regardful solution for most of the problems or nightmares of the past, it might be a double-edged sword too. Let me explain plox:

With Courier's previous travel through the Divide and unintentional awakening of nuclear missiles hidden in undergound silos by "message" he carried, whole Courier became a metaphor for me. Could it be that various factions across the Mojave are couriers of the same type? Carrying messages they don't understand or don't know they're carrying at all? Forgetting the past only to create exactly the same social system responsible for previous doomsday, creating "civilized" society with exactly the same flaws the old world's society suffered with? Caesar or NCR, both major faction are following different ideology, yet both are walking the same way full of mistakes their precedesors walked towards their own doom.

Could it be that Ulysses became aware of this and tried to ruin the nascent civilization in order to make them start again in a different way? And, most importantly, to remind them that "letting go" and repeating the same mistakes is the same as walking in circles, leading a single man or whole civilization back where they came from?

(I don't think this "letting go" was some subliminal message for the fanbase. Guys from Obsidian are well aware that there's quite a dedicated modding F2 community with big projects still going on.)
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Well the big thing about Ulysses is you prove him wrong.

The point of Lonesome Road is that you wear the color of your faction on your back and convince him to let them start anew.

Old World ideals or not.

Albeit, I'm not sure what Ulysses argument against an independent Vegas is.
 
I'd even say the point of "legging go" is rammed in your face now and then.

I wouldn't say it's solely about letting go of the past, but also about re-building and taking the best ideas and learning from mistakes of the old world.

I've heard some from this thread say Independent Vegas is the best for this very point of "letting go of the old world". Which is flawed in my opinion. For one thing Yes Man and the army of robots are literally House's per-war relics. Even if blow up, it brings the Mojave and New Vegas into a state of Wild West which has already been tried and done in human history. Nothing really "progresses". Even in the Boomers ending for Independence they don't even travel or interact with outsiders anymore like they do in NCR and House endings. The Brotherhood still stays isolated in their old ways if they don't align with NCR.

Sure all the main factions in New Vegas are tied to the Old World in some way. The NCR is created from Pre-War democratic values and bureaucracy, the Legion as previous empires, and Mr. House as a member from the old world.

Though Mr. House was very much about the future of humanity and mankind, even talking about putting humans in space. NCR was about uniting and bringing the wasteland together again.


NCR and House were much more future oriented than Yes Man and Independence by their ending slides alone.
 
valcik said:
I'm not sure either, especially after Lonesome Road. This DLC took the idea of "letting go" being the main FNV motive and turned it upside down in my mind; leaving me under ipression that while "letting go" might look as a very convenient and regardful solution for most of the problems or nightmares of the past, it might be a double-edged sword too. Let me explain plox:

With Courier's previous travel through the Divide and unintentional awakening of nuclear missiles hidden in undergound silos by "message" he carried, whole Courier became a metaphor for me. Could it be that various factions across the Mojave are couriers of the same type? Carrying messages they don't understand or don't know they're carrying at all? Forgetting the past only to create exactly the same social system responsible for previous doomsday, creating "civilized" society with exactly the same flaws the old world's society suffered with? Caesar or NCR, both major faction are following different ideology, yet both are walking the same way full of mistakes their precedesors walked towards their own doom.

Could it be that Ulysses became aware of this and tried to ruin the nascent civilization in order to make them start again in a different way? And, most importantly, to remind them that "letting go" and repeating the same mistakes is the same as walking in circles, leading a single man or whole civilization back where they came from?

(I don't think this "letting go" was some subliminal message for the fanbase. Guys from Obsidian are well aware that there's quite a dedicated modding F2 community with big projects still going on.)
Click to expand...


I think he used that to justify his vengeance. I actually like the mod where you can talk him into joining you afterward. It would have explained more of his motives if they left it in.
 
I first apologize (I'm Canadian, its what we do ... lol), as I recognize this is an old post, but found it so interesting. I have just completed my first play-through of New Vegas, which I decided to pickup after enjoying FO4 so much. FO3 is next, so I am going backwards.

When I try to grasp the morality behind the Fallout story, the words or "War .. War never changes" keep coming to the forefront of my thinking, even when considering the concept of "letting go to the past" and how they correlate.

Fallout brings me back to the Russian obsession days of the "Cold War" and the ongoing discussions of "blowing ourselves back to the stone ages", that was common in the era. Everyone's biggest fear was the next world war and the impending nuclear end of the world!

I say this, as a potential connection to "not letting go", as a result of risking the reliving of humanities mistakes (highlighted by the many examples of humanities gaffs represented in each of these groups), yet even after surviving "the power of atom", we (fallout world) are still going down the road of savagery and war!

From this one could extrapolate "war never changes", to humanity never changes, which is behind the Institute's (FO4) hidden motivation behind the development of the human substitute (Synth).

The moral of the story here is that, regardless of the motivations of individual groups, regardless of the one the player perceives as either better or more Pius that the other, all our human and fundamentally flawed for this lust for power and resulting war that will continue this revolving history of destruction as long as humans are in charge.

So long story short, I believe holding on to the past is an important element in the moral thread of this story, in that it feeds directly to main moral statement behind Fallout, that is humanities basic nature to destroy itself and changing it with more war is purely a new definition for insanity. 2-cents
 
NCR - Trying to bring democracy and the old USA back.

Legion - Trying to bring monarchy and ancient Rome back.

House - Trying to bring the mafia and Las Vegas back.

Yes Man - Trying to bring the Wild West back.


None of the endings are actually letting go of the old world and trying to bring something new to the table. If they are, it's an offshoot of old world tried ideas.
 
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