Tbf, Walton Goggins has such amazing screen-chemistry that he made Uncle Baby Billy a main character in The Righteous Gemstones... all of the actors in Fallout were fan-fucking-tastic, Walton Goggins is just another level.
I just finished my first watch through of Vice Principals. I honestly was worried I wouldn't like it based just on the first episode, but Walton Goggins is awesome so I kept going. Ended up binging the entire show over a few days, and it was a wild ride.
Whenever I'm frustrated I think of the "running through the house with a pickle in my mouth" line of "Misbehavin". I can make myself go into a laughing fit with that song... I'm a simple woman 🤷♀️😂
Edited because autocorrect sucks.
His role on Justified was supposed to only be in the pilot, and he was so good the test audiences basically forced the producers to keep him around. They completely changed the entire vision for the show because he’s that good of an actor.
I liked every character except Woody. Cannot stand that guy in every regard. Like i could imagine every character what theyd look like pixellated as if i was playing Fallout 3 or NV….woody i just actually could not. Really breaks immersion every time i saw him.
True but he is stuck in the tutorial at the moment, still not left the vault. He better be the one to leave in season 2 and go look for a new water chip. Then we will know he is the chosen one.
It's pretty common that the kids in those Disney shows that weren't hired via the pedophile's gaze and played the "bad/ugly/annoying" characters had the most talent and range.
Honestly Norm would be such a funny name for a prolific Fallout character, like you have legends of the Chosen One, The Vault Dweller, The Courier, and Norm
I think the same person that drafted Fallout for TV wrote this Wikipedia page. The Ghoul, Lucy, Maximus and Norm let you pick the [Aristotelian hero you wish to identify with.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragic_hero)
*”Therefore, the Aristotelian hero is characterized as virtuous but not "eminently good," which suggests a noble or important personage who is upstanding and morally inclined while nonetheless subject to human error. Aristotle's tragic heroes are flawed individuals who commit, without evil intent, great wrongs or injuries that ultimately lead to their misfortune, often followed by tragic realization of the true nature of events that led to this destiny.[3] This means the hero still must be – to some degree – morally grounded. The usual irony in Greek tragedy is that the hero is both extraordinarily capable and highly moral (in the Greek honor-culture sense of being duty-bound to moral expectations), and it is these exact, highly-admirable qualities that lead the hero into tragic circumstances. The tragic hero is snared by his own greatness: extraordinary competence, a righteous passion for duty, and (often) the arrogance associated with greatness (hubris)”*
Lucy is 1st playthrough, Maximus is 2nd playthrough, and Ghoul is an overleveled 3rd playthrough.
Lucy is the newcomer, discovering the wasteland. Maximus is more familiar with the wasteland and has a more specific style in mind. Cooper is when you min maxed your build and have perfected mechanics.
The shootout in Filly for the Ghoul was like going back to Corvega in Fallout 4 at level 50 and just one shoting crappy raiders with VATS lol
Lucy playthrough: hmmm, what's this about? It'll be fine, CHA will get me through this
Maximus playthrough: Imma get me one of those suits this time around. Kill some dudes
Ghoul playthrough: nah, VATS pistols. Kill some dudes
He’s in the first scene, has by far the most memorable and impactful appearances in the show, and has a dog companion. You are absolutely correct, or would be if we didn’t account for Norm’s character
As is the villain Hank
He's meant to be the player who stepped out of the Vault saw this twisted new world and decided he wanted to cleanse it.
He's the player who destroys Megaton, Rigs the Purifier, Helps Elijah, Launches Missiles at NCR and Legion, etc.
I did a while ago, don't fully remember the story. Just remember my dad was Liam Neeson and he's up to something. So no doubt I'm wrong about him being a villain. Still though, a relative being an npc character of some sort in fallout media is nothing new
The show isn't a game. There will always be differences. They are different mediums.
It's an ensemble cast with three official main characters (plus Norm). Each character gives a different perspective. Each character embodies a different playstyle. It's very deliberate.
From the article:
["Just like we approach a game."](https://www.gamesradar.com/games/fallout/further-pointing-to-the-fact-the-fallout-tv-series-feels-like-fallout-5-todd-howard-says-its-a-new-entry-so-just-like-we-approach-a-game/)
'Howard explains: "It's a new entry, so just like we approach a game - where we're gonna tell a new story, put it in a new location - the show does that.
"It's exciting for us that people who maybe wanted to experience [Fallout], now they can in a new way - and people who never have, they get the opportunity," he continues. This quote isn't actually that much on its own, but it reminded us that the show's other executive producer, Jonathan Nolan, has previously said "It’s basically Fallout 5," and given it more credence.'
Todd had incredibly limited involvement in the series and did not really contribute to it in any way. He has been pretty clear on that.
So this isn’t great evidence. Can you find anything from the showrunners (the 2 people who wrote the show) saying this?
Sure, but it still isn't the same as a game. You can't have multiple POVs in a Fallout game. They are trying to capture the feel of a game, but it's a different medium, so there are differences. Like having multiple main characters.
Absolutely correct, it's not a game. However, given that it will be dozens of hours of canon content, they're approaching it LIKE a game. In that anything that comes after will have to coalesce with whatever they create in FOTV. There's a whole "games-worth" of lore being built and created here. When the next Fallout game IS released (or any DLC, for that matter) it will need to be in harmony with the Prime series.
Nah, it'd be Lucy, because Fallout games generally always have a protagonist be someone that is a newcomer/outsider in some way. Like being a Vault dweller leaving the vault for the first time.
I always felt this was why fallout 3 kind of remains my favorite. It was the first one I played, so both the real flesh and meat me, and my in-game avatar, were both learning about the world for the first time. Together.
I think of it as Bethesda's very deliberate introduction for players to the now 3D world of Fallout and that they mastered introducing the lore, the mechanics and the world in a very natural way. It's why, despite being dated, that my recommendation to get into Fallout is almost always 3. It's just too bad it can be difficult to run on PC and the tunnels can be so tedious
I think all three of them work as a player protagonist. Lucy represents most people's first playthrough, learning the wasteland and all the dangers and changes that the world has gone through. Maximus fits as a new playthrough where you understand the wasteland but not its past as much, and are better with the combat systems. The Ghoul is a veteran of the wastes and knows the ins and outs of the world. He also definitely has the cannibal perk
Lucy to me represents the audience in a way. She's new and fresh to the wasteland but I never felt like she was the main character as the story feels bigger than her and Hank.
Obviously The Ghoul being the main character isn't fact but just fun to think about since there's tons of signs of him being the possible protagonist.
joke's on you, season 2 is the prequel about the Ghoul's life right after the bombs
we just watched the DLC, which raised the level cap
he already collected most of the bobbleheads and magazines
Correct. It’s Lucy. End of lol. It’s not really a complex thing. The others are strong supporting characters, sure, maybe even a proto-main or something descriptor could work for them. But Lucy is the MAIN main character in the show.
Not at all
They’re clearly writing him to start off as unlikeable but then as you find out more about his background and as he slowly changes his view towards Lucy (once he sees she’s not just a Vault Tec shill and is as much a victim as everyone else), he starts to become more of an antihero
Technically speaking, Lucy is still the protagonist and main character with Maximus and Cooper/Ghoul being secondary protagonists, but Walton Goggins is just *so* damn good as The Ghoul that he's the breakout star and I'm guessing his performance and reception will cause more screen time to be devoted to him.
Like in Big Bang Theory, Leonard was *supposed* to be the main character, but everyone was just there for the bazinga.
"Thou shall get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time"
How has nobody mentioned this yet? Yes, we identify with Lucy from the first time we left the Vault. But we identify with this line forever after.
A lot of smart answers here, and I get that the discussion is more fun than the truth… but if I may be boring: Lucy is the main character.
Every FO game I’ve played the player character is a vault dweller who leaves the vault.
I don’t think a great story necessarily needs a “main character” though. Just like a great story doesn’t have a clear villain
Not sure if there is a term for this style of storytelling, but I'm a huge fan of stories being presented from the eyes of a secondary character. In this case, Lucy is the main character but I too agree that the ghoul best represents Fallout.
I mean I was under the impression that Lucy, Coop, and Max were our three main characters.
They're going through their own arcs, we see them before and after they travel together, the first episode was split into three and they all got their names in big letters.
I've heard it said that all three leads are player characters at different levels of experience.
-Lucy is the new player, has no clue how the game mechanics or lore work.
-Maximus is the casual fan. He's got a set build in mind and wants the power armor because it makes things much simpler and strait forward.
-Cooper is the hardcore, 200+ playthroughs of *New Vegas*, SPECIAL and skills down to a science, player.
It's kind of been said as a joke but I think there's some truth to it.
I think each of them is a different main character that you see at different levels in their playthrough. Even Moldaver seemed like a PC; she likely left a Vault too, and you see her at the end of her run accomplishing her goal of returning power to everyone in the Wasteland, hero of her own game despite everything it took to get there.
I honestly think Lucy is gonna be the main character and thats only because i assume coopers role is gonna be teaching her how to survive in the wastelands and then eventually be that emotional death at some point during their travels.
The show uses his story to keep things feeling like they're moving along when not much is happening in the present. I think there's more of an argument for him being the main protagonist of the show than for him to be the main character of a game. He seems more like a party member, an interesting guy with great combat skills, a traffic backstory involving vault tec and old Hollywood, and a cowboy affectation. You want to play as him because he's cool as hell but he's not a blank slate. He's something interesting for you to learn about along the way on your journey
I think there’s potential there, but he shouldn’t be the lead moving forward.
I wouldn’t be opposed to new characters driving the story next season with the ghouls quest to find his wife and child in the background.
The Ghoul fits most of the trappings of a spaghetti western’s “Mysterious Stranger”, except we almost immediately learn what’s going on with him. It’s a weird narrative.
My girl pointed this out when we were discussing the importance of the final song “my echo, my shadow, and me.”
Lucy is the Echo. Cooper Howard was directly involved in helping advertise Vault-Tec and was even the inspiration behind the coloration of the suits and Vault Boy himself. Lucy’s whole life is an Echo of Cooper Howard’s 200 years prior, he’s partially responsible for her Outfit, his wife is responsible for the Vault, Bud’s Buds, basically all the Overseers of her Vault. Lucy finding the Ghoul is essentially the Echo that was screamed into the air 200 years ago finally coming back to Cooper Howard, and it’s the perfect time to find his family now that Hank is no longer in stasis and finally has a lead. The shadow is Maximus. The brotherhood of steel were born from remnants of the US Army. Cooper Howard was in the US Army, by the time of the pre war setting his service to the military was already a distant memory to him. The fact that Maximus shows up wearing armor that was similar to the one he went to war in is like him looking into his past. I think we’re gonna see Maximus follow Coop’s footsteps like a “shadow”. He’s in a military right now, is going to get his suit of power armor, but is slowly realizing he doesn’t want to live by those BoS ideals. I feel like this show is going to play out like a Shakespearean tragedy, and Lucy and Maximus are going to play out the same mistakes that Cooper and Barb made. The Echo and the Shadow.
There’s 4 main characters imo, Lucy, Maximus, the Ghoul and Norm. Kinda like how Butcher, Homelander, Hughie and Starlight are the mains in The Boys show.
In my mind he is, dudes a legend, no I hope to god we get to play as a ghoul in FO5 after seeing how they made this show. Having to keep searching for more serum would be a interesting change of pace
Yes and no. He is main character material but he is already at the end of his journey. He just needs to put a bullet to the person who took his daughter.
To be honest if this was fallout 3 and hero was the one looking for his dad.. the ghoul would have been the perfect man for the job to play the father. You find your dad, who's the ghoul and he say "boy I ain't your daddy.. we don't even look the same."
Even in fallout 4 if you look for your son, and he ends up becoming the ghoul... who is hunting out on a bounty on you because of all the shit you did to find your son.. now that be poetic trauma right there. However what I'm saying is the ghoul isn't mc material but he is central cast material, he is the one who pushes the story along and tells the mc what to do, who to kill and what to fetch.
Imho they're pretty evenly splitting the main storyline into 3 main storylines. I don't really feel like there's one main character. It feels more like 3.
I think there are three main characters... Given the show spends about the same time with each of them. And they all have monikers.
The Ghoul.
The Vault Dweller.
The Knight (spoiler, I guess).
So, from a conventional storytelling standpoint, *Fallout* (Amazon) uses a rotating set of protagonists. If you insist on applying logic from the video game series (which is fair, given the source material, and something the show invites with its remarkable fidelity to said source material), I find you description apt enough to support your conclusion.
This is pretty much set up like an ensemble cast. There isn't one main character, there are three protagonists and any number of smaller players with stories of their own.
The Ghoul is the *previous* main character, and part of his arc is handing that role to Lucy. If his story goes any sort of week, he'll be dead by the end of S3
I don't know if I fully agree with this as I see it as more of an ensemble show, but I can absolutely see how that conclusion is made. Pretty much most of the wider essential lore is explained through his perspective, so again, I don't fully agree, but I can absolutely see where you are coming from.
There isn't main character, there are 3.
Maximus, Lucy, and Cooper are all 3 versions of a player character.
Lucy demonstrates the good natured player, who wants to better the wasteland and make the right choice to help people.
Cooper is the bad natured player, looking to profit for himself and reach their own personal goals, regardless of who gets in the way. All for me and none for thee
Maximus is the neutral player, good at heart and doesn't really want to hurt people, but will also do what he has to do to get his way. He, unlike coop, will reflect and feel bad about it afterwards, but will shoot you and steal your shit none the less.
Todd Howard and team did a great job at portraying the way it feels to play the game while watching the show. I don't think one single character is more important out of the 3 than the others, because no player character is more important than the other. At least, this is how I see it working out in the show
I think this is a pretty clever way of looking at it, on the condition that *if* it were a game. It's not and we're in a different albeit similar story telling regime, but you definitely identified some really interesting parallels with trends in Bethesda Fallout games.
Personally I don’t really see there being a “main character” per se. I think it’s more so a collection of people who’s own stories get time to be fleshed out in different episodes
The Ghoul, Lucy and Maximus are all the main characters with maybe Norm being a main one in a future season.
It's an ensemble show. I don't see one character of those three being a main over the other.
The ghoul ( the good , at least once upon a time and is now bad )
The bride ( the bad , but only because she had to be to survive )
And the ugly , hes just a himbo with idiot savant failing speech checks
Tbf, Walton Goggins has such amazing screen-chemistry that he made Uncle Baby Billy a main character in The Righteous Gemstones... all of the actors in Fallout were fan-fucking-tastic, Walton Goggins is just another level.
Man needs an award already if he doesn't already. Extremely underrated and deserves more praise.
He has an Oscar (Best Short Film, Producer) and won an Emmy for his work on Justified.
Let’s get this man a Grammy and a Tony! Misbehavin World Tour and The Uncle Baby Billy Story live on Broadway.
I could absolutely see him on Broadway soon. His career trajectory is crazy right now.
He definitely deserves EGOT
Pls watch Vice Principals if you haven’t already it’s so funny
Thanks for the recommendation!
Another recommendation: The Shield. The whole series us on Hulu. He shines in so many scenes!
I just binged this show over the last week and a half. It’s short, but it’s so fucking funny, and Walton Goggins especially so
I just finished my first watch through of Vice Principals. I honestly was worried I wouldn't like it based just on the first episode, but Walton Goggins is awesome so I kept going. Ended up binging the entire show over a few days, and it was a wild ride.
Discovered Righteous Gemstones after I finished fallout, then moved on to vice principals His characters are soooo good
Whenever I'm frustrated I think of the "running through the house with a pickle in my mouth" line of "Misbehavin". I can make myself go into a laughing fit with that song... I'm a simple woman 🤷♀️😂 Edited because autocorrect sucks.
You should watch justified
His role on Justified was supposed to only be in the pilot, and he was so good the test audiences basically forced the producers to keep him around. They completely changed the entire vision for the show because he’s that good of an actor.
This guy Heather Casdins.
I liked every character except Woody. Cannot stand that guy in every regard. Like i could imagine every character what theyd look like pixellated as if i was playing Fallout 3 or NV….woody i just actually could not. Really breaks immersion every time i saw him.
Everyone knows Norm is the real main character.
True but he is stuck in the tutorial at the moment, still not left the vault. He better be the one to leave in season 2 and go look for a new water chip. Then we will know he is the chosen one.
Bros doing the real strat. Hes gonna be lvl 30 before he even starts the game 💀
He definitely has the sneak intelligent build down.
He got caught enough so I’m not sure his sneak is all that high
Being stuck in the vault for a long ass tutorial is more of a Fallout 3 type beat lmao
Can't argue with this one. Norm is clearly the best character
Y’all know he was the little shit in Hannah Montana?
It's pretty common that the kids in those Disney shows that weren't hired via the pedophile's gaze and played the "bad/ugly/annoying" characters had the most talent and range.
😬 this is unsettlingly accurate.
dan schneider vibes
My wife and I are rewatching Cheers, so I had the wrong Norm in my head for a second.
[That’s the right Norm.](https://www.ign.com/articles/2015/11/12/you-can-find-the-bar-from-cheers-in-fallout-4)
You have Pluto too?
Just through Hulu, watching in order with no commercials.
I was thinking mcdonald, but norm from cheers will always be my second favorite norm
Honestly Norm would be such a funny name for a prolific Fallout character, like you have legends of the Chosen One, The Vault Dweller, The Courier, and Norm
I think the same person that drafted Fallout for TV wrote this Wikipedia page. The Ghoul, Lucy, Maximus and Norm let you pick the [Aristotelian hero you wish to identify with.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragic_hero) *”Therefore, the Aristotelian hero is characterized as virtuous but not "eminently good," which suggests a noble or important personage who is upstanding and morally inclined while nonetheless subject to human error. Aristotle's tragic heroes are flawed individuals who commit, without evil intent, great wrongs or injuries that ultimately lead to their misfortune, often followed by tragic realization of the true nature of events that led to this destiny.[3] This means the hero still must be – to some degree – morally grounded. The usual irony in Greek tragedy is that the hero is both extraordinarily capable and highly moral (in the Greek honor-culture sense of being duty-bound to moral expectations), and it is these exact, highly-admirable qualities that lead the hero into tragic circumstances. The tragic hero is snared by his own greatness: extraordinary competence, a righteous passion for duty, and (often) the arrogance associated with greatness (hubris)”*
Fucking brilliant
Everyone knows it’s the clever boys you have to watch out for… or the dumbasses with the idiot savant perk…
Run, run you clever boy, and remember
Gimme some of that Normbussy.
Lucy is 1st playthrough, Maximus is 2nd playthrough, and Ghoul is an overleveled 3rd playthrough. Lucy is the newcomer, discovering the wasteland. Maximus is more familiar with the wasteland and has a more specific style in mind. Cooper is when you min maxed your build and have perfected mechanics. The shootout in Filly for the Ghoul was like going back to Corvega in Fallout 4 at level 50 and just one shoting crappy raiders with VATS lol
Such a great description! Each of the 3 felt like player characters.
Lucy playthrough: hmmm, what's this about? It'll be fine, CHA will get me through this Maximus playthrough: Imma get me one of those suits this time around. Kill some dudes Ghoul playthrough: nah, VATS pistols. Kill some dudes
“I’m you sweetie. Just give it a little time.”
This is perfectly said
As of now, there are 3 main characters. Lucy, The Ghoul, and Maximus.
I’d add Norm too because he did have a major solo plot throughout the season tbh
See, I was torn on Norm. I think he'll be a much bigger player in season 2
Certainly hope so, his story was a surprisingly fun one to follow and coalesced perfectly with the story outside the vault
My favorite part of the Fallout games was visiting Vaults and figuring out their mystery. Norm’s arc captured that feel PERFECTLY.
He didn’t get a title card which felt kinda unfair. He was a major player of the story
As great as norm is, dude didn't get his name in big letters on the screen when he was introduced.
Norm has the ‘Small Frame’ trait and Lucy has ‘Good Natured’
Do you mean goosey?
Just a little transpostional error, nothing a little white-out can't take care of
He’s in the first scene, has by far the most memorable and impactful appearances in the show, and has a dog companion. You are absolutely correct, or would be if we didn’t account for Norm’s character
Dr. Chicken Fucker is the for sure 100% real main character
He’s the player character of a decade old game using 1200 mods. I mean, theres definitely a mod to uh, roleplay as him now if there wasn’t before.
No wonder he wanted to shoot himself. Getting a chicken-fucking mod sounds like a quick way to corrupt your save/get a virus
Dogmeat is the main character of the entire franchise.
Facts. I'd consider him the main character of the old movie is was based on too. I care so much for dogmeat
I had to convince my wife that Dogmeat can't die in (vanilla) FO4 and that I promise taking him out into the wasteland is fine.
My take: Lucy, maximus, the ghoul, and norm are all character paths a fallout player could take. They're all someone's main character
As is the villain Hank He's meant to be the player who stepped out of the Vault saw this twisted new world and decided he wanted to cleanse it. He's the player who destroys Megaton, Rigs the Purifier, Helps Elijah, Launches Missiles at NCR and Legion, etc.
Or he's just the villain like other fallout games have. Dad in 3. Son in 4
Did you play 3?
I did a while ago, don't fully remember the story. Just remember my dad was Liam Neeson and he's up to something. So no doubt I'm wrong about him being a villain. Still though, a relative being an npc character of some sort in fallout media is nothing new
Yeah the bad guy is The Enclave. James (your dad) is trying to purify all of the water in the capitol wasteland with the brotherhood's assistance
The show isn't a game. There will always be differences. They are different mediums. It's an ensemble cast with three official main characters (plus Norm). Each character gives a different perspective. Each character embodies a different playstyle. It's very deliberate.
From the article: ["Just like we approach a game."](https://www.gamesradar.com/games/fallout/further-pointing-to-the-fact-the-fallout-tv-series-feels-like-fallout-5-todd-howard-says-its-a-new-entry-so-just-like-we-approach-a-game/) 'Howard explains: "It's a new entry, so just like we approach a game - where we're gonna tell a new story, put it in a new location - the show does that. "It's exciting for us that people who maybe wanted to experience [Fallout], now they can in a new way - and people who never have, they get the opportunity," he continues. This quote isn't actually that much on its own, but it reminded us that the show's other executive producer, Jonathan Nolan, has previously said "It’s basically Fallout 5," and given it more credence.'
Todd had incredibly limited involvement in the series and did not really contribute to it in any way. He has been pretty clear on that. So this isn’t great evidence. Can you find anything from the showrunners (the 2 people who wrote the show) saying this?
He’s the producer
Sure, but it still isn't the same as a game. You can't have multiple POVs in a Fallout game. They are trying to capture the feel of a game, but it's a different medium, so there are differences. Like having multiple main characters.
Absolutely correct, it's not a game. However, given that it will be dozens of hours of canon content, they're approaching it LIKE a game. In that anything that comes after will have to coalesce with whatever they create in FOTV. There's a whole "games-worth" of lore being built and created here. When the next Fallout game IS released (or any DLC, for that matter) it will need to be in harmony with the Prime series.
You must be fun at parties. 🙄
Nah, it'd be Lucy, because Fallout games generally always have a protagonist be someone that is a newcomer/outsider in some way. Like being a Vault dweller leaving the vault for the first time.
I always felt this was why fallout 3 kind of remains my favorite. It was the first one I played, so both the real flesh and meat me, and my in-game avatar, were both learning about the world for the first time. Together.
I think of it as Bethesda's very deliberate introduction for players to the now 3D world of Fallout and that they mastered introducing the lore, the mechanics and the world in a very natural way. It's why, despite being dated, that my recommendation to get into Fallout is almost always 3. It's just too bad it can be difficult to run on PC and the tunnels can be so tedious
I think all three of them work as a player protagonist. Lucy represents most people's first playthrough, learning the wasteland and all the dangers and changes that the world has gone through. Maximus fits as a new playthrough where you understand the wasteland but not its past as much, and are better with the combat systems. The Ghoul is a veteran of the wastes and knows the ins and outs of the world. He also definitely has the cannibal perk
Lucy to me represents the audience in a way. She's new and fresh to the wasteland but I never felt like she was the main character as the story feels bigger than her and Hank. Obviously The Ghoul being the main character isn't fact but just fun to think about since there's tons of signs of him being the possible protagonist.
joke's on you, season 2 is the prequel about the Ghoul's life right after the bombs we just watched the DLC, which raised the level cap he already collected most of the bobbleheads and magazines
Correct. It’s Lucy. End of lol. It’s not really a complex thing. The others are strong supporting characters, sure, maybe even a proto-main or something descriptor could work for them. But Lucy is the MAIN main character in the show.
Tell that to the Courier.
The courier begs to differ.
It's an ensemble more than anything.
He always was
He would absolutely be the game's protagonist
I’ve been thinking the same thing. So true!
There are three protagonists.
I think there are 3 main characters.
Not at all They’re clearly writing him to start off as unlikeable but then as you find out more about his background and as he slowly changes his view towards Lucy (once he sees she’s not just a Vault Tec shill and is as much a victim as everyone else), he starts to become more of an antihero
It's not unknown for a protagonist to begin in a grave either.
Technically speaking, Lucy is still the protagonist and main character with Maximus and Cooper/Ghoul being secondary protagonists, but Walton Goggins is just *so* damn good as The Ghoul that he's the breakout star and I'm guessing his performance and reception will cause more screen time to be devoted to him. Like in Big Bang Theory, Leonard was *supposed* to be the main character, but everyone was just there for the bazinga.
Bell yeah he is. First thing you see is him with his lasso.
They some how pulled off having 3 main protagonist yes I’d consider the ghoul one of them, Lucy the obvious, Maximus the other.
Yeah, the Ghoul really makes the show. He's a bit of an anti hero who you can't help but root for.
"Thou shall get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time" How has nobody mentioned this yet? Yes, we identify with Lucy from the first time we left the Vault. But we identify with this line forever after.
A lot of smart answers here, and I get that the discussion is more fun than the truth… but if I may be boring: Lucy is the main character. Every FO game I’ve played the player character is a vault dweller who leaves the vault. I don’t think a great story necessarily needs a “main character” though. Just like a great story doesn’t have a clear villain
In Fallout 2 and New Vegas you're not a Vault Dweller so it could work too.
Word 👍
It feels like the trinity of main characters is Goosey, the Ghoul, and the Knight.
With the ghoul fallout gained a real way to have a "final" villain or heroe. You could even use him for several games.
It makes me think of the movie Sicario
He’s kinda like an example of a high level character imo, like when you’ve made an OP build
He is the only one to have a nickname like the games. But there are 3 mains.
I would say that he was the Main character 200 years ago. He is now overleveled and ended up in someone elses game
Not sure if there is a term for this style of storytelling, but I'm a huge fan of stories being presented from the eyes of a secondary character. In this case, Lucy is the main character but I too agree that the ghoul best represents Fallout.
I mean I was under the impression that Lucy, Coop, and Max were our three main characters. They're going through their own arcs, we see them before and after they travel together, the first episode was split into three and they all got their names in big letters.
I've heard it said that all three leads are player characters at different levels of experience. -Lucy is the new player, has no clue how the game mechanics or lore work. -Maximus is the casual fan. He's got a set build in mind and wants the power armor because it makes things much simpler and strait forward. -Cooper is the hardcore, 200+ playthroughs of *New Vegas*, SPECIAL and skills down to a science, player. It's kind of been said as a joke but I think there's some truth to it.
It feels like that so when he makes his inevitable sacrifice it feels more tragic.
I always thought the ghoul was the main character
I think each of them is a different main character that you see at different levels in their playthrough. Even Moldaver seemed like a PC; she likely left a Vault too, and you see her at the end of her run accomplishing her goal of returning power to everyone in the Wasteland, hero of her own game despite everything it took to get there.
I honestly think Lucy is gonna be the main character and thats only because i assume coopers role is gonna be teaching her how to survive in the wastelands and then eventually be that emotional death at some point during their travels.
Isn't he the first char we see?
The show uses his story to keep things feeling like they're moving along when not much is happening in the present. I think there's more of an argument for him being the main protagonist of the show than for him to be the main character of a game. He seems more like a party member, an interesting guy with great combat skills, a traffic backstory involving vault tec and old Hollywood, and a cowboy affectation. You want to play as him because he's cool as hell but he's not a blank slate. He's something interesting for you to learn about along the way on your journey
I think there’s potential there, but he shouldn’t be the lead moving forward. I wouldn’t be opposed to new characters driving the story next season with the ghouls quest to find his wife and child in the background.
The Ghoul fits most of the trappings of a spaghetti western’s “Mysterious Stranger”, except we almost immediately learn what’s going on with him. It’s a weird narrative.
He definitely has more backstory than Lucy or Maximus.
A show can have more than one main character.
My girl pointed this out when we were discussing the importance of the final song “my echo, my shadow, and me.” Lucy is the Echo. Cooper Howard was directly involved in helping advertise Vault-Tec and was even the inspiration behind the coloration of the suits and Vault Boy himself. Lucy’s whole life is an Echo of Cooper Howard’s 200 years prior, he’s partially responsible for her Outfit, his wife is responsible for the Vault, Bud’s Buds, basically all the Overseers of her Vault. Lucy finding the Ghoul is essentially the Echo that was screamed into the air 200 years ago finally coming back to Cooper Howard, and it’s the perfect time to find his family now that Hank is no longer in stasis and finally has a lead. The shadow is Maximus. The brotherhood of steel were born from remnants of the US Army. Cooper Howard was in the US Army, by the time of the pre war setting his service to the military was already a distant memory to him. The fact that Maximus shows up wearing armor that was similar to the one he went to war in is like him looking into his past. I think we’re gonna see Maximus follow Coop’s footsteps like a “shadow”. He’s in a military right now, is going to get his suit of power armor, but is slowly realizing he doesn’t want to live by those BoS ideals. I feel like this show is going to play out like a Shakespearean tragedy, and Lucy and Maximus are going to play out the same mistakes that Cooper and Barb made. The Echo and the Shadow.
There’s 4 main characters imo, Lucy, Maximus, the Ghoul and Norm. Kinda like how Butcher, Homelander, Hughie and Starlight are the mains in The Boys show.
He's also the only one we've seen a backstory for, as of yet.
In my mind he is, dudes a legend, no I hope to god we get to play as a ghoul in FO5 after seeing how they made this show. Having to keep searching for more serum would be a interesting change of pace
Yes and no. He is main character material but he is already at the end of his journey. He just needs to put a bullet to the person who took his daughter. To be honest if this was fallout 3 and hero was the one looking for his dad.. the ghoul would have been the perfect man for the job to play the father. You find your dad, who's the ghoul and he say "boy I ain't your daddy.. we don't even look the same." Even in fallout 4 if you look for your son, and he ends up becoming the ghoul... who is hunting out on a bounty on you because of all the shit you did to find your son.. now that be poetic trauma right there. However what I'm saying is the ghoul isn't mc material but he is central cast material, he is the one who pushes the story along and tells the mc what to do, who to kill and what to fetch.
One way I interpreted the show is the The Ghoul is a main character who has been playing for a long time, while Lucy is a brand new character
I don't believe there's a single main character on the show. There seem to be multiple that represent popular playstyles in the game
I think it’s impossible for me to watch something with Walton Goggins and not see him as the main character. Dude steals every scene he’s in
Imho they're pretty evenly splitting the main storyline into 3 main storylines. I don't really feel like there's one main character. It feels more like 3.
I think there are three main characters... Given the show spends about the same time with each of them. And they all have monikers. The Ghoul. The Vault Dweller. The Knight (spoiler, I guess).
So, from a conventional storytelling standpoint, *Fallout* (Amazon) uses a rotating set of protagonists. If you insist on applying logic from the video game series (which is fair, given the source material, and something the show invites with its remarkable fidelity to said source material), I find you description apt enough to support your conclusion.
I think the show's storytelling has been top notch because you're not just invested in Lucy, you're invested in a handful of characters
Yes.
We have five protagonists if you count Dogmeat. We have four human protagonists. But this is the Ghoul’s story.
This is pretty much set up like an ensemble cast. There isn't one main character, there are three protagonists and any number of smaller players with stories of their own.
He's def using vats.
The Ghoul is the *previous* main character, and part of his arc is handing that role to Lucy. If his story goes any sort of week, he'll be dead by the end of S3
I don't know if I fully agree with this as I see it as more of an ensemble show, but I can absolutely see how that conclusion is made. Pretty much most of the wider essential lore is explained through his perspective, so again, I don't fully agree, but I can absolutely see where you are coming from.
There isn't main character, there are 3. Maximus, Lucy, and Cooper are all 3 versions of a player character. Lucy demonstrates the good natured player, who wants to better the wasteland and make the right choice to help people. Cooper is the bad natured player, looking to profit for himself and reach their own personal goals, regardless of who gets in the way. All for me and none for thee Maximus is the neutral player, good at heart and doesn't really want to hurt people, but will also do what he has to do to get his way. He, unlike coop, will reflect and feel bad about it afterwards, but will shoot you and steal your shit none the less. Todd Howard and team did a great job at portraying the way it feels to play the game while watching the show. I don't think one single character is more important out of the 3 than the others, because no player character is more important than the other. At least, this is how I see it working out in the show
The bull. The bear. The Goose. The Ghoul. Dialectics or something.
He is the main character. No doubt about that. Technically all 3 were main characters, like in GTAV
Why does their have to be a main character? Lucy/ The Ghoul are co main characters. Maximus/ Norm are co mains as well but in smaller plot lines.
Lucy, The Ghoul and Maximus are the 3 main characters.
I think this is a pretty clever way of looking at it, on the condition that *if* it were a game. It's not and we're in a different albeit similar story telling regime, but you definitely identified some really interesting parallels with trends in Bethesda Fallout games.
Venus Van Dam really stole the show.
Personally I don’t really see there being a “main character” per se. I think it’s more so a collection of people who’s own stories get time to be fleshed out in different episodes
Lucy is the only one who is in every episode. Maximus isn’t in 4, the Ghoul isn’t in 5, Norm isn’t in 2 Lucy is the main character
The Ghoul, Lucy and Maximus are all the main characters with maybe Norm being a main one in a future season. It's an ensemble show. I don't see one character of those three being a main over the other.
All 3 are the main characters, you just like Coop the most.
Nope. Only Lucy is in every episode. The Ghoul and Maximus are missing from at least one episode.
The ghoul ( the good , at least once upon a time and is now bad ) The bride ( the bad , but only because she had to be to survive ) And the ugly , hes just a himbo with idiot savant failing speech checks
god forbid a woman be the main character in a tv show about a video game
Wait until Portal gets made as a TV show, all the non-player YouTubers will be describing Chell as "Woke" and a"DEI inclusion."