Whenever I play Fallout, I embrace the role of a goofball who manages to survive a number of extraordinary situations by the skin of my teeth. Whether I complete a quest by talking an evildoer into killing themselves or nuke an entire town by accident, I’m always making mistakes that come to define my flawed yet lovable character.
You could roleplay as a super serious member of your Vault who emerges into the world with determination in their heart and murder on their mind, but these games are always the most fun when you react to things spontaneously. Yes, you might need to reload a save or end up accomplishing your goals in the most unorthodox way possible, but that’s part of the joy.
Why Lucy MacLean Is The Perfect Vault Dweller
Something that always surprised me when playing Fallout 3 is how capable your character is, considering they spent their entire short life being raised in an underground vault where most of the things you could possibly want are handed to you on a silver platter. Yes, you’re asked to play your role in this strange dystopian society, but otherwise it’s a reasonably comfortable yet ignorant way of life.
But once you’re unleashed onto the Capital Wasteland, you can present yourself as not only a supremely capable survivor who becomes the go-to for solving society’s ills, but an individual who will eventually go on to save the entire country. Dialogue will occasionally touch on how your character is taken aback by the presence of ghouls or giant insects, but otherwise fails to capitalise on the potential of being a stranger in a strange land.
This is something the Prime Video adaptation expanded on brilliantly with the character of Lucy MacLean. Ella Purnell portrays this bubbly symbol of post-apocalyptic Americana with undeniable pep that makes it hard not to root for her. But when the show first kicks off, and she is thrust into the Californian wasteland to fend for herself, she’s ultimately useless.
It’s only through sheer luck and the rare kindness of strangers that she’s able to survive, and even as we head into the second season, she is still learning so much about the world that the vault once protected her from.
Okey-dokey – Lucy MacLean
Aside from running experiments and dooming the world to nuclear oblivion in pursuit of big profits, Vault-Tec one day intended for the inhabitants of its underworld shelters to reinhabit the world. However, it simultaneously wanted to protect them from everything going on outside with constant streams of propaganda.
Through little fault of their own, most vault inhabitants are blissfully ignorant of how terrible the outside world has become decades after the bombs fell, and only once she leaves is Lucy forced to learn such harsh truths. But she takes all this in her stride, and despite everything, remains a lovable dork trying to do the right thing.
Just like my character in Fallout, she is goofy, kind, unpredictable, and weirdly capable at the art of survival. We catch a glimpse of this in a recently released clip of the second season in which Lucy tries to negotiate with a group of raiders in the town of Novac as the Ghoul finds himself hanging from a noose. She needs to act fast or things are going to go very wrong.
Lucy MacLean Isn’t Cringe, She’s One Of Us
From the safety of Novac’s giant dinosaur sculpture with rifle in hand and Dogmeat by her side, Lucy attempts to negotiate with a group of raiders while the Ghoul’s life quite literally hangs in the balance. As expected, she handles it like an absolutely lovable dork.
She tells them that in the hunt for her father across the wasteland she is close to starving to death, and so a plan was hatched to hand over the Ghoul, bag a hefty bounty, and free him before the hammer came down. Job done. But things don’t go to plan, hence why Lucy is trying and failing to talk them down. She is basically failing a speech check here, which is signature Fallout.
She even says please, hoping politeness will twist the arms of homicidal maniacs who probably eat human meat for breakfast. It’s giving Jackie Taylor.
This clip is great, but unfortunately, some online critics have described Lucy’s behaviour as being written by “quirk chungus female millennials” who have no idea how to write a script and accurately represent video game characters. One — Lucy MacLean isn’t a video game character, she’s original to the TV adaptation. Two — she is acting exactly like I and so many others do in Fallout.
Besides, I’d describe Fallout: New Vegas as the ultimate cringe millennial video game, with much of its writing being dorky, self-aware, and filled with jokes in its dialogue that perfectly reflect the lines being spoken by Lucy in this brief clip.
Part of me wonders if certain circles of the internet are just dumping on a female character for no good reason, or feel hurt that Fallout is allegedly being misrepresented with this show as its tone and atmosphere favouring Bethesda’s take on the series over everything that came before. Lucy MacLean doesn’t deserve any of this hate though, and I wager she will continue being a massive highlight once the second season drops later this month.
Fallout
- Release Date
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April 10, 2024
- Showrunner
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Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan
- Writers
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Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan
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Ella Purnell
Lucy MacLean
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