Fallout Season 2 has one controversy just waiting to happen

Amazon Prime Fallout TV Season 2 is just around the corner and premieres on December 17th. The first season already delved into the history and setting of the franchise and revealed some incredibly interesting tidbits that fleshed out the lore of the franchise and introduced some notable and surprising new narrative elements. Fallout season 2 now promises to take viewers on a journey, this time to the beloved and titular city Fallout: New Vegas. There, the characters are ready to deal with the fallout from the events of Season 1.

The premise itself is exciting, but it also requires a major downside (or at least a substantial trade-off). Fallout A recent trailer for the second season hints at a few things that may in turn cause the need for a canon ending Fallout: New Vegas. And given that, it could cause some friction between fans New Vegas offered a number of outcomes for players to choose from and write their own story about what “really” happened in the Mojave.

Where Fallout Season 2 Sits in the Franchise Timeline

Fallout Season 2 and 15th Anniversary Perfect Storm in New Vegas

Wars for resources – 2052-2077
The Great War– 2077
Fallout 76 – 2102-2105
fallout 1- 2161
Fallout 2 – 2241
Fallout 3 – 2277
Fallout: New Vegas – 2281
Fallout 4 – 2287
Fallout TV – 2296-2297

The previous Resource Wars lasted nearly 20 years in space and brought major political powers into constant conflict. Of course it was the Great War that lasted two hours when the world ended. Each Fallout the game explored the aftermath of the Great War across the rest of the world.

The show is the furthest along the timeline so far, 15 years later Fallout: New Vegasthere are a number of ways the show can show what happened in the game. It is technically possible to avoid the ending altogether, but that choice would be as risky as canonizing the ending. This would probably mean creating a “real” ending based on the ones available in the game, especially since the show works closely with Bethesda, but it's all a tricky balancing act.

Every Fallout: New Vegas ending explained

Fallout: New Vegas has 4 main endings based on which of the three main factions fans side with. There is also a Wild Card ending that involves the player's avatar, the Courier, undermining them all. There are several different variations in these related to how heavily (or not) the courier interacted with minor factions such as the great khans and boomers, companions and their karma level. The results of siding with everyone or being independent have all important implications for what the Wasteland looks like after the dust settles.

Choice of main faction	The final result
The New Republic of California	The NCR pushes out Caesar's Legion and establishes control over Hoover Dam, New Vegas, and the Mojave.
Caesar's Legion	Caesar's forces decisively defeat the NCR, take control of the Hoover Dam, and rule the area ruthlessly.
Mr. House	New Vegas becomes isolated but relatively safe from the NCR and the Legion under the iron grip of Robert House.
wild card (independent)	With the help of Yes Man, the Courier betrays Mr. House and drives away both the NCR and the Legion.

Relinquishing control to Caesar or Legate Lanius unifies the Mojave, but at the cost of making a dictatorial slave-run society the norm, making life brutal for most survivors. Serving Fallout: New VegasThe NCR is generally considered a “good” ending, although it is not without its complications. While this means that the region is also stabilizing to some extent, the NCR represents a return to the status quo of pre-war government bureaucracy and all the shortcomings that come with it.

Meanwhile, working with Mr. House results in him ruling the Vegas Strip as a despotic capitalist, providing shelter and entertainment to those who can afford it. Finally, the ending of Wild Card sees all of these shackles thrown away, but also includes a wrinkle dependent on whether or not the Courier was able to reprogram Mr. House's Securitron army for himself. If it does, it creates a level of order, but if it doesn't, then “anarchy rules the streets.” Yet in both cases, the city survives to “take its position as an independent power in the Mojave.”

Why this is likely to upset some Fallout: New Vegas fans

what if new vegas without courier caesar

Although it is currently unknown whether FalloutThe new season will indeed choose one of them New VegasWhen you end scenarios or try to work around them somehow, it's much more likely to be the first case. So the bigger question is which one it might be and how it will inform the plot and the characters. Based on the material in Fallout Season 2 trailer, Mr. House seems to be prominent. This could be a speculative clue as to where this might go. If Mr. House is alive during the current events of the show, this could basically mean that a version of this ending will be canonized. That would still leave room for the Legion (which was also glimpsed in the trailer) and the NCR to enter the mix.

Fallout tv s2 trailer screeshot walk to vegas

The bigger problem, though, would be that a show confirming any ending for its own narrative purposes would unfortunately have an inevitable side effect. Such a decision would naturally reduce the sense of authorship players have over their own gameplay and the destiny they personally choose for New Vegas. It would disappoint some of the fans, who would understandably feel that it invalidates their choices and makes their shaping of events irrelevant, in a sense, at least as far as Falloutofficial canon. And while it's probably a necessary sacrifice to keep the show going, it would still be a bitter pill for some fans to swallow, given that it could retroactively diminish their experience of New Vegas.

Of course, it should be noted that players shouldn't feel that a standalone experience devalues their own. It's just an unfortunately common controversy stirred up by these types of adaptations.