While Amazon's "Fallout" has already proven to be one of the best video game adaptations ever, fans have been quick to call out a continuity discrepancy. Was it a simple mistake? Or is it all part of the showrunners' plans?
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00:00While Amazon's Fallout has already proven to be one of the best video game
00:03adaptations ever, fans have been quick to call out a continuity discrepancy. Was
00:08it a simple mistake? Or is it all part of the showrunners plans? A big reason for
00:13the show's success is that it's not a flat-out adaptation like, say, The Last of
00:17Us. Instead, Fallout tells an entirely original story with brand new characters.
00:22Of course, there is some overlap, from slightly similar plots to cheeky
00:26references and returning characters in the games. Otherwise, though, it feels
00:30like a totally fresh experience that has something to offer fans and newcomers
00:34alike. This allows the TV show to tell a good and thrilling story without the
00:38restraints of the canon established by the games. This is how we get the entire
00:42pre-war storyline that gives us an origin story for Vault Boy, and a finale
00:46that shows the true evils of Vault-Tec in a way that not even the games fully
00:50explore. It's also how the show, which is set a decade after the events of the
01:02games, can bring in elements from any of them whenever it makes for a good story,
01:05rather than because it's required. For example, the show presents Shady Sands
01:10and the New California Republic in ways much different than what gamers remember.
01:13Shady Sands in particular caused a bit of controversy among some fans, who were
01:18left confused about the timeline of events, and whether the show retconned
01:21the events of Fallout New Vegas. When asked by fans whether the popular game
01:25remains canon or not, Emil Pagliarulo, lead designer and writer of Fallout 3
01:30and 4, tweeted,
01:33In one of the episodes, we visit Vault 4, which hosts a whole bunch of mutants and
01:38survivors of a tragedy. We learn that a lot of them come from the city of Shady
01:42Sands, the bustling capital of the New California Republic, introduced back in
01:46the first Fallout game. This is where Maximus was raised, and where Lucy lived
01:51for a while. The city fell when a Vault-Tec employee, seeing the threat of a
01:55flourishing city on the surface not led by Vault-Tec, detonated a nuke that
01:59obliterated the entire Shady Sands. The problem seems to stem from a single shot
02:04of a chalkboard in Vault 4, that teaches the history of the New California
02:07Republic. The chalkboard puts the fall of Shady Sands as happening in 2277,
02:13followed by a drawing of a nuke exploding. Fans believe this overlaps with the
02:17games, as Fallout New Vegas is supposed to take place in 2281. In the game, Shady
02:22Sands is a vibrant and very much intact town. This led some Fallout fans to claim
02:27that the New Vegas storyline was being retconned out of Fallout lore
02:30altogether.
02:35Given that New Vegas is the one main game in the franchise not produced by
02:38Bethesda Game Studios, who helped produce the show, it's reasonable to
02:42think they might want to erase the game from the new canon. However, as Emil
02:46Pagliarulo said, the game is very much still canon. So what happened to Shady
02:51Sands? Well, the date could simply be a mistake on the part of the Fallout TV
02:55show, or perhaps it's a clever hint that season 2 will show us more of the
02:59decline of Shady Sands. The real question is, does this matter? After all, it's quite
03:04unlikely that this is an actual retcon, as the show could simply fix the date in
03:08the next season if it truly conflicts with the events of Fallout New Vegas.
03:11Given that the season ends with the tease of the city of New Vegas, that's
03:15likely where we're heading. So Shady Sands is probably going to play a bigger
03:19role. That's because in the games, Shady Sands was an important city in the
03:23capital of the New California Republic, which was at war with the city of New
03:27Vegas. In 2274, both parties signed a treaty that would provide electricity to
03:32the NCR while recognizing the sovereignty of New Vegas, while the
03:36former secretly tried to absorb the latter. In Fallout New Vegas, the player
03:41can decide who to support and play an integral role in the future of the
03:44titular city and the NCR. Given that Fallout season 1 shows the New
03:49California Republic as being in shambles and Shady Sands destroyed, it's possible
03:53that we'll get a definitive canonical answer as to the ending of New Vegas and
03:57the fate of the titular city. In that case, the fall of Shady Sands may not be
04:01a specific moment, but a slow decline, possibly due to the conflict with New
04:06Vegas and the Caesar's Legion faction. It's hard to say at this time, but it's
04:11very possible that the timeline controversy may not be a retcon or even
04:14a mistake, but rather an opportunity for new and thrilling stories. Either way, it
04:20goes without saying that we're looking forward to season 2.