Letting Go - Why I Love Fallout: New Vegas

Let's celebrate Fallout: New Vegas by taking a look at the game's use of narrative theme and how "Letting Go" brings everything together!

This video is laden with spoilers! I recommend playing the game first if you have not. More of "Why I Love Fallout: New Vegas" coming soon!

[itsclemtime]

Dead Money helped me overcome my depression and I’ll never be able to say thank you to Obsidian because well. They’re gone

[zanard]

As a man who got used to rejection, the lessons of Robert Sinclair struck home with me. Letting go is hard, especially when your heart is gripped by love for someone who doesn't love you back.

[alecneal]

Always saw greed as a big theme in fnv. Every one wants something, and vegas is a place even in today's world where people go to change their fortunes

[TheSilentWalkerz]

I guess I didn’t learn a lesson about letting go when I took everything from the vault and managed to get pasted Elijah.
The only thing I was letting go of was being a poor pleb.

[vercent]

I just finished Dead Money the other day, and interestingly, letting go of the gold and loot and all that wasn't the hard part for me. From the start I fell in love with Christine's character, I felt empathy and regret for her. She made me chuckle a few times and she was such a wholesome, yet tragic character. I genuinely liked the character. At the end, when I realized she would remain there, and I couldn't befriend her or become her companion, I had to let go. Finding the Sierra Madre wasn't the hard part, it was letting go.

[laf]

Dead Money just gives me a feeling that i can't describe.
I don't feel that with any other type of media, it might sound stupid but it's very important to me.
I love this game, and i left my heart at the Sierra Madre.

[duglife]

Oliver Swanick has to let go of his living privileges every time somebody plays through the game.

[Zthewise]

can't bring all the bars with you. *laughs in long haul perk*

[hayleewiley]

At the very end of my Dead Money playthrough, when the Courier is dropped back off in the bunker, there’s a radio. The same type of one that would beep and announce that the collar around our neck would explode in seconds and kill us. But now it was quiet. It’s taunting.

I whipped out my pistol and shot it, same as I did with plenty of other radios.

Letting go isn’t always so easy.

[itsclemtime]

Vera Keyes learn’t letting go the hard way. All Sinclair wanted was to save humanity from the apocalypse, but instead of saving it he made the apocalypse worse.

[m.thorton]

-Todd Howard can't let go of Skyrim
-Emil Pagliarulo can't let go his Oblivion's DB success
-Fallout fans can't let go of New Vegas

[MrROTD]

It was hard to let go both times I got deep into this game 1000 hours at least, it's a masterpiece

[barn_neecle]

i do one big 100% run on new vegas every year, either in summer or winter depending on how i feel and its always unique enough to remember every character i have made the last 5 years and the majority of their choices.

[seanpawley]

Dude, Thank you for making these videos. Im glad other people can see how deep and meaningful this game is. I found your channel from your last "why I love New Vegas" video and im having alot of fun watching all your play through of it. Keep up the good work please.

[sangheilicommander]

You kind of glossed over the Old World Blues literally means people are so infatuated with the past they cannot see the future for what it is

[garekhannigan]

Thank you for sharing this video - A great summarization of the theme that brings many people back to the game, year after year. This idea of letting go and how it's represented through numerous lenses, as well as many other aspects of the game itself, are why I think so many people can return to this title at different stages of their life and still thoroughly enjoy every minute of the experience. While I'm not sure how many times I've played through the game, I do know that I am currently picking the game up again for the third "period" of my life and I'm not only literally discovering new things about the game as a play through, but I've found that the game speaks to me a different way than it did before. Just a testament to how much thought, time, and love was put into this title from the developers.

[wuj-themanthemyththelegen]

YouTube had to let go of their algorythm to finally reccomend me this godly video. And channel.

[skorpionic]

Great video Lyle. The letting go theme and the gold bars of the Sierra Madre also really stood out to me. During my playthrough, when I finally 'got it', letting go of those bars didn't got so difficult. In fact it was a bit sad, in a good way.

[amanofnoreputation]

The subject of Fallout is war. And it's theme exists on all levels.
It exists on the highest level as the war between America and China that resulted in the end of the world.
And on the lowest level in your moment to moment choices and encounters.
It is constant is space, constant in time. It never changes.

Conjoined to this theme is greed. Why does war never change?
Was there really too few resources to go around? Or did the old world simply want too much? War is an attempt at control. On the furthest frontier of prosperity and peace it had ever achieved, the human race collapsed. Because they wanted more. And so the poverty of the world is an outward manifestation of the poverty in their hearts.

This seems to present a problem and a solution. If greed leads to conflict, then surely we must find ways to be content. To let go.
But not only is this difficult, the more we recognize the need to divest ourselves of selfishness, the more abstract and dangerous forms of selfishness we invest ourselves in. One cannot simply choose to let go; choose to be good. If you could, you already be good. Or to phrase it another way, because you've seen the advantage of not desiring things, you engage in the paradox of desiring not to desire; you consider yourself wealthier than other people by moralistically choosing to possess less.

"War never changes" is a curse with a hidden blessing.
You don't need to let go because it will happen one way or the other.

No matter which nation wins the Mojave, there is always the caveat that they may not be able to hold it. Caesar may live for many years after his triumph, but he will ultimately die. The NCR may add one more province under their belt, but that's also one more province they have to garrison, supply, and maintain under conditions where supplies and manpower are already overextended. Mr. House may secure his precious Vegas, but he has no true friends. It's obvious that practically everyone under him is plotting to betray him. Benny was two thirds of the way there. What's stopping the same thing from happening while the courier is roaming the wastes? Yesman obeys the courier, but also anyone else. Even if he does not develop his own will, like Caesar, the courier can only maintain his city state for so long.
Suppose America had defeated China before the bombs were launched. It would only be a matter of time before a new enemy arose, if not from without then from within; the Earth only has so many resources either way.

What I'm proposing is that it isn't so obvious that the victor of a war hasn't actually lost. Victory wins you the chance to go on until a new battle finds you. Whereas failure has the chance to curb your ambitions. And failure is as inevitable as death.

Ulysses condemns every faction in the Mojave on some level, and yet, he of all seems to have the greatest conviction in symbols and nations. How can this man criticize the NCR for clinging to old world ideals when he walks around with stars and stripes on his back? Of all people, he is the one who implores you to stand by your convictions at Hoover Dam. He of all people beckons you into the Divide, full accepting that you may kill him at the end of the road.
The answer is that Ulysses has embraced the inevitability of conflict and decay, and in so doing has changed his relationship to the cycle whereby nations rise and fall.
His confrontation with the courier isn't his inability to let go but rather his means of doing so: "I have a problem with this man. Something in me will not let me live it down. So I will let the strength of arms decide the outcome. If he will not fight me, that too will be a sign and my resignation. Should he come, I have my right to retribution. If he kills me, so be it. My home is gone.
"I do not beileve he can convince me to stand down, but at the same time, I never stood with him face to face. Perhaps I am wrong. Only one way to know. One last lonesome road to walk."

You're not talking about someone who's failed to think these things through and come to the totally obvious conclusion that he needs to let go, but rather someone who's come out the other side of that process and found their resolution. He's let go of his tribe. Let go of the Legion. Let go of the Old World and it's ghosts. Let go of his home. Home. The one thing even Joshua Graham never lost. All that's left is one loose end. One last message to be delivered.

I wouldn't say it's always right or wrong to let go, but rather "something's gotta give." People get stuck because they can't choose between alternatives. It's not that Veronica *can't* leave the brotherhood or can't stay -- she's stuck between the two.
Even in situations where there isn't any obvious dichotomy because the circumstances confronting the characters seem so incontrovertible, there is still an internal choice: It's not that Boone can't move on, but rather that part of him hasn't. And if he chooses that part, he will choose to die as the man he was rather than go on as the person he's been reduced to by the death of his wife.

[bonseez]

This video is super impressive lyle, very well edited, insightful commentary, flows together perfectly. This is really something to be proud of. Really looking forward to the rest of this mini-series.