What was so special about Hopeville?

[PaxVenire]

Ulysses talks about Hopeville being a prosperous settlement with the makings to be a nation that would eventually rival the Bear and Bull, and one that he might finally be honored to wear the flag of and fight for. What exactly was it about Hopeville that made them so ripe for progress? I find it hard to believe that one settlement (maybe two if you include Ashton) could end up becoming such a powerful force in the post-war era, even without the silos unleashing their warheads. The NCR and Legion were already fighting over the town as evidenced by the Marked Men, so how could Ulysses possibly think the town would escape from assimilation into either factions? The town was apparently situated between West and East and acted as a sort of border town so sure, I’d buy that it was a hub town, but a thriving nation?

 

[Yossarrion]

Ulysses is a moron. It just happened to be a town on a major supply hub to go Speech 100: [East.]

 

[PaxVenire]

Ulysses is a moron.

"America is waking up." Methinks not!!

 

[TorontoReign]

Ulysses talks about Hopeville being a prosperous settlement with the makings to be a nation that would eventually rival the Bear and Bull, and one that he might finally be honored to wear the flag of and fight for. What exactly was it about Hopeville that made them so ripe for progress? I find it hard to believe that one settlement (maybe two if you include Ashton) could end up becoming such a powerful force in the post-war era, even without the silos unleashing their warheads. The NCR and Legion were already fighting over the town as evidenced by the Marked Men, so how could Ulysses possibly think the town would escape from assimilation into either factions? The town was apparently situated between West and East and acted as a sort of border town so sure, I’d buy that it was a hub town, but a thriving nation?

Ulysses is a bit psychotic, using scraps of pre-war knowledge to justify mass murder. The plot is not well setup either due to it being DLC so there is that.

 

[PaxVenire]

Just replayed the DLC, still don't get Ulysses' logic regarding Hopeville and Ashton becoming a new nation somehow (brutha the NCR and Legion were already fighting over it!!).

 

[CT Phipps]

Just replayed the DLC, still don't get Ulysses' logic regarding Hopeville and Ashton becoming a new nation somehow (brutha the NCR and Legion were already fighting over it!!).

What I think Chris Avellone was going for is that Ulysses is a guy who is unduly obsessed with Pre-War imagery and believes heavily in metaphor having supernatural meaning, perhaps because his tribe believed in communicating through hair styles (which is a real thing in RL). Ulysses was all in on Caesar's Legion for a time but events left him deeply disillusioned with it, probably due to the defeat at Hoover Dam and the fact Ulysses' SPECIAL stats are high enough for him to realize that Caesar is peddling bullshit. After all, once you know what the USA was, you probably can eventually figure out Ancient Rome existed and wasn't invented by Caesar.

So, he found his way into the Divide and became interested in retiring there. It's apparently not part of NCR but rich and successful enough it might become a rival state ala New Vegas if the Courier plays their cards right. It doesn't need to be any deeper than Ulysses saw that NCR is full of flaws and forged an emotional set of bonds with the Divide (built on a US military base full of ICBMs). Then the Courier blows it up by accident (?) and he's left without a home for a second time and deciding to destroy NCR and the Legion out of a weird sense of revenge/reciprocity so the Wasteland will be forced to start over.

The question is whether Chris Avellone was deliberately making Ulysses obsesed with ascribing symbolism and meaning to meaningless events or if it was an accident and we're meant to actually take his obsessions seriously. Maybe a little of both. Because a perfectly valid reading is Ulysses is just a Legion deserter getting pissed off by his adopted hometown getting nuked in a complete fucking accident involving unexploded ordinance.

 

[JustAShcookius]

Ulysses is interesting in that he knows he doesn't have all the answers, and hates both the present and the past. He is a walking paradox, an anachronism. It is important to note that whatever he talks about, can be inferred to be a puzzle piece to his paradox. There are many such conflicting ideas:
-Ulysses hates the old world for what is brought to the present, and yet wears it's flag on his back as it saved him from death.
-He hates Mr. House for being a hollow empty being herding around empty beings with grand and hopelessly outdated ideals, yet acknowledges his extreme power of directing the events in the Mojave. It even sounds like Ulysses fears House the most.
-He acknowledges Vegas being a bastion of safety and freedom, but as House let the rest of the US burn to save his Vegas, so too he worries that, in time, House will let it happen again.
-He respects at least the Courier's power to bring death, even accidentally, yet knows the life that the Courier is implied to have fostered all over the West. He simultaneously loathes and holds kinship with our protagonist.

Ulysses INVITES you to Hopeville and talks at great length about history because that is his problem. He has lost his compass, his past, and disowns the present. His paralyzing fear actually leads him to believe anarchism is the best solution with the destruction of every major player.

This is a beautiful adage to New Vegas's theme of letting go and knowing your place in things. Ulysses can't let go of the FUTURE. He is cursed to be intelligent enough to know he is a Deus ex Machina capable of bringing a result. Quite simply the deliberation of such a powerful decision destroys him.

Sinclair at the Sierra Madre could not let go of his Vera, Dean Domino his obsession with his image. Christine can't let go of her emotional avarice. The NCR can't abandon their national pride.

Do I need to mention the BOS? At least the Enclave of all factions had a real master plan and the means to execute.

Ulysses can never respect or pledge allegiance to one of the nations. He has exhausted his ability to care. But he CAN still place his trust in an individual, an individual who almost killed him, killed his home, and killed his spirit; an individual who strolled along confidently leaving destruction in his wake; an individual who met death and laughed; an individual just like himself, a person who really does still CARE and who has the POWER to bring change and legacy.

 

[IKnowStuff]

Ulysses talks about Hopeville being a prosperous settlement with the makings to be a nation that would eventually rival the Bear and Bull, and one that he might finally be honored to wear the flag of and fight for. What exactly was it about Hopeville that made them so ripe for progress? I find it hard to believe that one settlement (maybe two if you include Ashton) could end up becoming such a powerful force in the post-war era, even without the silos unleashing their warheads. The NCR and Legion were already fighting over the town as evidenced by the Marked Men, so how could Ulysses possibly think the town would escape from assimilation into either factions? The town was apparently situated between West and East and acted as a sort of border town so sure, I’d buy that it was a hub town, but a thriving nation?

There’s definitely a lot of ways to view this, one way is that Ulysses was just so grief-stricken over the loss that he over calculated the potential of Hopeville to be a lot more than what it would ever be

Ulysses has never really had a concrete place to call his home. He saw Hopeville as somewhere he could lay his “flag” down as he mentions, and there was no group he had to bend his knee toward this time. He tended to it, making sure it was properly supplied and taken care of until it all came to ruin as he quite literally watched his world burn in nuclear fire.

This was his best chance at a place he could find peace in, something that could cultivate a generation of people that could improve the wasteland for the better. But, like many times before, it was ripped from his hands.

It’s pretty easy to say he was irrational during the majority of lonesome road, and maybe through this irrationality he judged the potential of Hopeville for what it was for *him*, not for the rest of the Mojave.

hopefully this provides some kinda possible answer for ya