The Brotherhood of Steel

Anyone who has read this blog, or spoken to me on Twitter, knows that I have a love/hate relationship with the Fallout series. I am a diehard fan from the late 90's but I've watched as the series has gone down some creative roads that I don't agree with. It's not all bad, far from it, but there's enough there to elicit a sigh and get me shaking my head.

The Brotherhood of Steel is one such aspect of the series that I find troublesome. They were fantastic in Fallout 1 & 2 because they played their part well, primarily because they had a thematic role to play. But in subsequent games they became that friend that hangs around after the party is over... it's nice to see them but at a certain point you just want them to bugger off. If you haven't already, go check out this blog post for a broader view of the Fallout. This post is going to focus purely on the Brotherhood of Steel. 

The Brotherhood of Steel has its roots in the Mariposa Military Base. During the months leading up to the Great War, the soldiers stationed at Mariposa witnessed the horrors preformed by scientists who were experimenting with the Forced Evolutionary Virus. When it was discovered that the scientists were using military "volunteers" for the experiments, the soldiers executed the scientists. Three days before the Great War broke out in October of 2077, the soldiers announced to the outside world that they were seceding from the United States of America. They received no reply. The soldiers figured that if an entire military base going rogue and deserting their post wasn't the most pressing issue for the government, then something bad must be happening. With this in mind, the soldiers rightly called their families inside Mariposa just two days before the Great War broke out.

Now, beyond a really awesome origin story this part of the Brotherhood's history is important for a few reasons. First, it separates them from the United States. Unlike the rest of the soldiers who survived the Great War, they are not remnants of the United States Military because they seceded before the Great War began. Because of this they're not bound by that old doctrine anymore, they are their own faction. They weren't bound to help other survivors or help rebuild the United States. By going rogue they freed themselves of any obligations to anyone else, but that also meant that they were entirely on their own. This is the inception of their isolationism, one of the beliefs that would end up defining them. 

Second, the Brotherhood of Steel and the Super Mutants are intimately tied. The Master's Super Mutants come from Mariposa Military Base... which is exactly where the Brotherhood of Steel came from. They're tied because they have the same point of origin. It could be said that the only reason there are Super Mutants on the West Coast is because the soldiers who went rogue didn't finish the job they started. They may have killed the scientists, but their horrific discoveries were still there and the ability to continue their genetic experiments was just waiting to be picked up by another. The Master's Super Mutants and the Brotherhood of Steel aren't just random enemies, they're linked by a common origin and this is what makes them fantastic foes.

Third, and finally, the Brotherhood learned what happens when technology is allowed to fall into the hands of those too immature, stupid or callous to use it properly. They saw the horrific experiments that were being preformed in Mariposa, they witnessed the Great War first hand, and that's why they're so obsessed with technology. They don't just hoard technology because they like big guns; they have a zealous respect and reverence, even fear, of technology and thus they think they're the only one's who can be entrusted with it. The Gun Runners, the Gunners and Talon Company, they all know about weapons and a few even know how to manufacture them. The Brotherhood is more akin to the Children of Atom. They're a religious organisation that is fanatically devoted to technology and advanced weaponry.

When things settled down after the Great War, the soldiers traveled south to the Lost Hills bunker to establish themselves and start anew. The journey took several weeks and many soldiers, as well as members of their families, died or were killed along the way. This is another contributing factor to their isolationism; they were hounded by scavenging survivors on their initial journey through the wasteland. This was their exodus from their old lives, and it left them scarred both outside and within. 

Once at Lost Hills bunker, the brotherhood went quiet for a while, turning inward to establish and define themselves. They were out in the wasteland, scavenging or trading for supplies and tech but they were largely minding their own business. Their first real big foray into the Wasteland was in 2134, 57 years later, when a group of Brotherhood Knights snuck out of Lost Hills to go explore the Glow for lost technology. The reason they had to sneak out was because the Brotherhood Elders had initially refused their request to leave Lost Hills. So already at this point we're seeing their character being formed, and the internal conflicts that arise between a desire to collect outside technology and a desire to isolate themselves. Somewhat fittingly, the Knights who stole away in the middle of the night never returned home. 

By 2050 the Brotherhood noticed that a group of raiders known as The Vipers, originally Vault Dwellers from Vault 15, were gaining a bit of power in the region. By 2055 they began going after the Vipers directly, not out of any sense of obligation to the surrounding Wastelanders but more to protect their own interests. The Vipers were a massive group of raiders, a veritable army, and they posed a threat to the Brotherhood. It was only after the war with the Vipers that the Brotherhood officially set up a trade relations with the outside world, a full seventy-two years after their inception.

In 2161, a year before Fallout 1 begins, the Brotherhood came across the corpse of a Super Mutant and this was their first real clue that some nasty shit was going down. It wasn't until the Vault Dweller arrived in 2162 that they realized that the dead Super Mutant was intertwined with their own origins. The thing is, they almost didn't learn any of this because they tried to scare off the Vault Dweller by giving him an impossible mission to complete. When he finally did complete the impossible mission, he found out that he was the first outside to be admitted into the Brotherhood of Steel in *decades.* That's how isolationist they are. Once they learnt that the Super Mutants were originating from Mariposa Military Base, their own point of origin, they decided to help the Vault Dweller. 

All this ties together really well, we've got a faction that has firm roots and motivations in the Wasteland. They've got an enemy that's not just an opposing force but an enemy that could arguably be said to be of their own creation, one that they are responsible for.

After the events of Fallout 1, the wasteland starts to evolve and the New California Republic is formed. Thanks to their part in the war against The Master, the Brotherhood of Steel is invited into the NCR and given control of the lands around Lost Hills, which becomes the state of Maxson. But the Brotherhood haven't changed, they're still the same techno-hoarding zealots they always were. A growing faction within the Brotherhood wanted to open their doors to the outside world, now that the NCR was formed, and invite new blood in. This was too much of a radical change in thinking for the elders so they sent these Brotherhood members off in airships to chase down the remnants of the Master's Super Mutant army across the eastern moutnains, effectively exiling them.

By the time of Fallout 2, in 2242, the Brotherhood is a shadow of its former strength and influence. While it was once a powerhouse of advanced technology and research, its isolationist ways weakened it and crippled its reach. The NCR had grown into a powerful new nation, because it was looking ahead. Most of those beyond the NCR typically regressed, or evolved, into tribal societies. Either way, the outside world was changing with the times. The Brotherhood was a small state within the NCR at best, because it was stagnating and always looking to the past. In a world that was progressing, the Brotherhood of Steel was being left behind.

All this makes thematic sense, because it's a natural progression of events. The Brotherhood doesn't want to grow; they're stuck in the past and they want to hoard technology and keep out the filthy outsiders who they abandoned and who subsequently hurt them so badly during the Brotherhood's exodus. This has very real repercussions however, because you cannot isolate yourself and hope to advance - that's just not how it works. The Brotherhood never advanced, and they never made anything new, they only ever gathered the best technology that the old world had to offer. That strategy gives you an edge for a while, but eventually the rest of the world catches up. And while the Brotherhood were focusing on hoarding the rest of the world was focusing on advancing. By the time the Brotherhood realized what had happened, it was too late for them to do anything about it because they were set in their ways.

This was all Interplay/Black Isle who put this together, so it was the original creators taking their story to its logical conclusion. When Bethesda took over however, they wanted to set their story far away from the originals but they didn't have the courage, or lacked the originality, to properly divorce themselves from the original setting. They wanted the creative freedom that distance provided, but they also relied upon preexisting content as a crutch. They wanted their cake and to eat it, too. Because of this, Bethesda made it that in 2254 the Brotherhood traveled across the wasteland to the East Coast for three reasons. First, they were to search for the members they'd sent after the remnants of the Master's Army some 90+ years earlier. Second, they were to search Washington D.C. for advanced technology. Third, they were to respond to reports of Super Mutant activity on the East Coast.

All of this is simply weak storytelling. Bethesda should have made wholly new factions for their game on the East Coast, but instead they decided to drag factions and creatures from the West Coast. The Brotherhood of Steel had faded into obscurity by the time of Fallout 2, when they didn't even have the manpower to help the Chosen One defeat the Enclave. They weren't even mentioned in the end credits because they simply weren't important anymore. With that in mind, how does it make sense that they have the manpower to mount an expedition across the continent twelve years later? They get to D.C., and yes there are Super Mutants, but they're not the *same* Super Mutants that share an origin story with the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood is in D.C. fighting a totally different breed of Super Mutants because... apparently that's just what the Brotherhood does?

I have to pay respects to the Outcasts in Fallout 3 though. Bethesda knew enough to know that not all members of the expedition would be cool with their Elder's new humanitarian bent, and so they split away and became a traditionalist faction. The Brotherhood in Fallout 3 are basically knights in shining armor battling monsters, while the Outcasts are the xenophobic techno-monks that want nothing to do with you. Which of them sound more like the real Brotherhood of Steel?

When Obsidian Entertainment, basically a new company comprised of the original creators of Fallout 1 & 2, made Fallout: New Vegas, they knew they had a problem with the Brotherhood. This was a faction present in 2281 that was meant to have been little more than a shell of its former self in 2242. So, why were they still around? New Vegas is a lot closer to Lost Hills than Washington D.C. is mind you, so at least it made sense for them to be present in the game. Obsidian knew they had to incorporate Bethesda's ridiculous contribution of the Brotherhood being powerful enough to travel all the way to the East Coast, so they worked with what had been dumped in their lap.

The Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout: New Vegas is a faction in hiding. The once powerful group who battled raiders and Super Mutants was now cowering in a bunker, because it was at war with the NCR. Their repressively isolationist and technology hoarding ways brought it into direct conflict with the NCR, a nation that was interested in advancing the world. The Brotherhood might have advanced weaponry and power armor but the NCR had thousands upon thousands of soldiers, who were all similarly trained as Brotherhood Knights. Their devotion to technology was so all-encompassing that an Elder, who was a Scribe and not a Knight, had them try to hold a facility against the NCR that any solider knew to be almost indefensible. The NCR crushed the Brotherhood in the New Vegas region and they've been in hiding ever since. 

You can talk to the Brotherhood, even join them if you help them out enough, but even they're starting to realize how untenable their situation is. They're at war with a nation that has the manpower and weaponry to wipe them out, and they're so isolationist that most people end up having kids with someone they're more than a little related to. The Great War was 204 years earlier at this point, and with minimal fresh genes being dumped into their gene pool since then there has to be some serious in-breeding going on. You can broker peace between the Brotherhood of Steel and the NCR in New Vegas or you can wipe them out, either way they're not doing real well.

By the time Fallout 4 happens in 2287, the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel and the Outcasts have reunited and headed north, from Washington D.C. to Boston. They've been bringing in fresh blood for years, recruiting talented wastelanders who show the qualities they look for in their members. They've traveled north to destroy the Institute and their Synth creations, which sort of makes sense, but also doesn't for a few reasons.

First, the Brotherhood's isolationism isn't just a story element that needs to be worked around to make them a viable faction - it's an integral aspect of their character and history. Recruiting wastelanders willy-nilly does "solve" their numbers issue but it's not something that's meant to be solved. It's an inherent flaw in their organisation and belief system. Bethesda didn't evolve the Brotherhood of Steel by opening up their ranks, they destroyed it.

Second, the Brotherhood is all about collecting and hoarding technology. The Institute is arguably the most technologically advanced organisation in the Wasteland and the Brotherhood just... blow it up? How does that line up with their character, or history, at all? They're techno-centric zealots, not techno-phobic Luddites. Wouldn't an organisation that is fanatically dedicated to securing advanced technology want to secure all the technological advancements that were created by the Institute? Wouldn't an organisation that has historically had issues with manpower look at technology that can literally create soldiers from nothing and at least entertain the idea of utilizing it? If anything, the character of Danse just proves that Synths can make fantastic Brotherhood soldiers.

Third, the Super Mutants present in the Commonwealth are different from those present in the Capital Wasteland because these ones were created by the Institute with experiments on FEV. They're even further removed from the Super Mutants created by the Master, so why exactly are the Brotherhood fighting them? Bethesda turned the Brotherhood's xenophobic views of *anyone* not part of the Brotherhood into a xenophobic view of anyone that isn't *human.* There's a big difference there. The Brotherhood fights Super Mutants in Fallout 4 because that's just what they're there to do, to kill anything that isn't human.   

If the Brotherhood had stayed true to their roots and stayed isolationist and continued to hoard technology I could get behind their inclusion in Fallout 4. The Brotherhood taking out the Institute just so they could utilize their Synth-creation technology would have been a fantastic twist for the organisation. The chance to create an endless army of Synths who are fanatically dedicated to the beliefs of the Brotherhood, how could any Brotherhood of Steel member realistically pass that up? That sort of technology would allow them to scour the ruins of the old world and establish themselves, and their beliefs, as the central power. If the only thing keeping them in check was their lack of manpower, what would happen when that was no longer an issue?  

If you don't think something like that would happen, take a look at one of the endings that can happen in Fallout 1 if you happen to kill a key character. 

"The Brotherhood of Steel, under new leadership after the death of Rhombus, becomes an overzealous, techno-religious dictatorship. In 20 years, the Steel Plague devastates the newly formed New California Republic, and starts a Dark Age that could last a thousand years."

The Brotherhood of Steel are not knights in shining armor, they're not the police, they're not human-purists and they are certainly not the good guys. They're a faction that turned their backs on their fellow countrymen in their darkest hour, and when they found themselves pitted against other survivors of the Great War they isolated themselves and turned inward. They do not trust anyone outside their ranks and they do nothing that doesn't further their own goals, which often bring them into conflict with any and all outsiders. They're a religious organisation whose beliefs are incompatible with the outside world and in the long run these beliefs were meant to spell their doom. 

The Brotherhood of Steel is a faction that had a time and a place where they were designed to make sense, and taking them outside of the parameters of either weakens the series as a whole. The Brotherhood of Fallout 1 & 2 isn't the same Brotherhood present in Fallout 3 & 4. It's not an evolution of the organisation either, but a heel-face turn designed to shoe-horn a previously important faction into the narratives of the sequels. In Fallout 1 & 2, the world is advancing while the Brotherhood is left behind, in Fallout 3 & 4 it is the world that's stagnating while the Brotherhood advances.

The Brotherhood of Steel was meant to be a faction that perpetually looked to the past in favor of reaching for a future. They were meant to fade from relevance and memory until all that remained were mentions of them in the history books. At least, that's what was meant to happen until Bethesda got a hold of them...

Fallout 76

Whelp, I was totally wrong about Fallout 5!

I'm actually okay with this, any new Fallout game is sure to be something interesting so I'm pretty keen to see where this goes. I've seen a few sources stating that this will be an online game, which is something I am decidedly against. I'm fine with a little co-op, but not fully online like Elder Scrolls Online or anything like that. I know Bethesda has been making the series more of a Shooter, but it's an RPG at heart and I'd hate for it to turn into something akin to Destiny.

Now, gameplay interests me less than the story does, so let's dive into that!

The first big shock is that the game is set in 2102, a full 59 years before the first Fallout game was set. Which actually makes sense, because this game is about Vault Dwellers from Vault 76 which was mentioned in Fallout 3. Vault 76 was a control vault, where there were no crazy experiments and people were just meant to leave and reclaim the surface world after 20 years. The more astute of you have probably already noticed, if the Great War was in 2077 and this is set in 2102, that's 25 years! Why the extra 5 years? Who knows... but I'm sure we'll find out. 

Vault 76 was dubbed after the Tercentenary of American Independence, which actually makes perfect sense in thematic terms. You'd want your control vaults, those who are intended to be used to reclaim the United States, to be as patriotic as all hell. These are the people that are going to go out and take back what's rightfully theirs, so you'd want them to be as pumped up as you can make them. It's a small detail, but I like that it builds the narrative.

A minor point here, but this guy is the same guy who narrated Fallout 1, 2, Tactics & 3, and was the news reader in Fallout 4. What he's doing speaking in front of a vault I don't know, maybe he's playing a different character? Also of note in this scene, is the Zetan space ship just below the television. Also, the television is in color - a first for Fallout.

Seems like their was a big party and everyone has already left the vault. Since we already know that Vault 76 was a control vault, the Vault Dwellers would have been preparing for this day since they entered the Vault. That banner, and the general festivities, is rather indicative of their outlook and motivation. They're pumped and they're headed out to retake America. I doubt it goes well, since we know what happens in the future and we've never heard of these guys. They're headed out into a nuclear wasteland full of monsters... what could possibly go wrong?

That Pip-Boy looks a little different to what most people are used to, but that's because it's an earlier model. This Pip-Boy was used in Fallout 1 & 2, the only difference is that the screen was reversed with the buttons and dials. This was done because back in the day of Fallout 1 & 2 you never saw the device on your arm and it made sense to have the layout with the buttons on the left and the screen on the right. But if the device is designed to be worn like a watch, on your off-hand, you'd want the buttons and dials on the right so that you're not reaching over the screen. This same issue arose in Fallout 3 before the developers managed to get it right in Fallout 4. So while this Pip-Boy looks a little different, it is clearly meant to be a throwback to the earlier Fallout games.

Now, there were a few plaques in the teaser but they're hard to get a decent screenshot of, but basically their awards for 'Best Haircut' and 'Best Halloween Costume'. Besides this, there are two that stand out. I can't get screenshots but I can transcribe them.

"Excellence in Bravery - In recognition of the canned mystery meat experiment. You volunteered to eat when no one else would. We are proud of you and glad you are not dead."

and
 

"Outstanding Achievement Award - In appreciation to your commitment and dedication to our isolation program. Sacrificing many so some can live."

That first one sounds like a joke but that second one sounds ominous as fuuuuuck... While it's probably related to the extra 5 years they spent in the vault, who knows what went on in there? I'm sure we'll find out though! 

In terms of the outside world, there's a few things we can speculate. Judging by the song in the teaser "Take me Home, Country Roads" performed by John Denver, I'm pretty sure that the game will be set in West Virginia. Which works, because it's East Coast - Bethesda's territory, and it's close to Washington D.C. which is important for one reason.

Bethesda made their own Super Mutants for the East Coast. As we discovered in Fallout 3, East Coast Super Mutant come from Vault 87 and started appearing in the Capital Wasteland in 2078, a year after the Great War. With Fallout 76 being set 25 years after the Great War, it's no stretch to imagine Vault 87 Super Mutants crossing the border from Washington D.C. into Virginia. They're big and stupid but they're hard to kill, so they should make for good bullet sponges.

Ghouls are going to be in Fallout, that's just a fact. Despite how much it grinds my gears, prolonged exposure to radiation causes people to turn into Ghouls in the Fallout universe. There may be some stuff to do with the FEV (Forced Evolutonary Virus) in there, I'd be happy with that, but I'm pretty sure it's just the radiation. Anyone who has played the series will know that a lot of Ghouls were alive before the Great War, and that the radiation gives them a very long lifespan. If we're playing a character who was around before the Great War, or is the child of someone who was, then it's not inconceivable that we've got some Ghoul family out there in the Wasteland. Just because it's Fallout and we need some enemies to mindlessly kill, I'm sure there will be plenty of Ghouls who have gone Feral and will attack us on sight.

Deathclaws could actually be present, in a fashion. I've covered this in a previous blog post, but Deathclaws were actually created before the Great War to supplement human soldiers on the battlefield. It's just that the Master, on the West Coast, found and messed with them a bit using the FEV. I'd hazard a guess that we'll see Deathclaws, but a much less advanced version of them, more akin to their Pre-War genetic design. 

Robots will be around because they are robots and have always been around, the same with Raiders. Besides that, I'm sure we'll get the usual mutated wildlife present in Bethesda Fallout games - Yao-Guai and Mole Rats, and maybe some mutated version of an animal local to Virginia. I don't know, I'm not American, what the hell lives in Virginia? (A quick Google search just revealed it's basically Mountain Lions and Wolves, which would both be badass for a Fallout game.)

In terms of factions, I am praying to the gods of old that we do not even hear, let alone see, the Brotherhood of Steel. Those incestuous techno-priests are all the way on the West Coast at this point, and they don't even control the area surrounding their base until the 2150's. The Brotherhood of Steel didn't even encounter a Super Mutant until 2161, so there's no way they can be all the way out here. I'm okay with another faction that is a remnant of the United States military, but I just really do not want to see the Brotherhood of Steel. They shouldn't have been in Fallout 4 and they sure as hell don't belong in Fallout 76. 

Besides that, anything could happen... almost. The fact that this is set in the past likely means there's going to be some sort of downer or subversive ending. We can't really do too much in the past because it'll affect the future too much, which is already set in stone. I'd say that any sort of events in Fallout 76 will be extremely localized so they're not able to reach out and affect the surround areas. Not even Washington D.C., which is right next door. It could be that we'll see some large scale events, it's just that they're so far back before Fallout 3 that they're no longer an influence in the region. Whatever happens, we know that the Vault Dwellers of Vault 76 do not achieve their dream of reclaiming the wasteland. 

I'm excited. As long as there's still a focus on single player I'm keen to play this game and see what they do in the wake of a far more recent apocalypse. 

My thoughts on Fallout 5

With talk of another Fallout game being on the horizon, I figured I'd throw out an idea of what I'd like to see. Anyone who has played Fallout knows that there's always rumors of another Fallout game on the horizon, so this is more of a thought experiment than anything else. With that in mind, while I prefer the Fallout games made by the original creators; Fallout 1, 2 and New Vegas, I'll take the Bethesda games if I've got no other choice. 

I think the whole East Coast vs West Coast set up is a fantastic way to keep the works of the two development teams separate. As much as Bethesda probably wanted the distance to differentiate themselves, it's become more about them not being able to sully the works of the superior development team. Bad enough they've watered down almost every aspect of the game and story...

Sorry! I'm bitter and rambling.

Because money comes first I'll just assume that Bethesda is making the next Fallout game and that it'll be located on the East Coast. We've already had DC, we've recently had Boston, and now we're at a point where we're running out of iconic East Coast American cities. Miami, maybe, but there was a Fallout Tactics 2 game that was going to be set there. With that out of the way, I think the only other realistic East Coast city for the next Fallout game to be set in is New York City.

Now, obviously NYC got nuked to shit during the Great War. If China was going to war with the United States then NYC is the first place they'd atomize back to the stone age. The fix here is that the United States of the Fallout universe is insanely advanced, just look at Boston's skyline in Fallout 4 to see what I mean. With NYC having a population nearly double that of Boston, it stands to reason that it would be a gargantuan cityscape that once dwarfed all others. Im picturing a skyline so tall that the nuclear blasts didn't even reach halfway up the buildings.

Along with this very vertical map, I imagine there wouldn't be much of the usual blasted wasteland that is so iconic to Fallout and other nuclear war games. They'd have to include Central Park, but there's a lot of other greenspaces in NYC that could feed this need for radioactive desert sands. Finally, a lesson I think the developers should take from Fallout 4 is that just because the city is next to an ocean, that doesn't mean you have to devote a quarter of the game map to being under water.

Anyway, my final idea for NYC would be the headquarters of Vault-Tec. The main Vault where they ran the experiments upon all other Vaults across the United States. This thing would be massive and it would take up most of the NYC underground. As high as the skyscrapers stand on the streets above, that's how far beneath those same streets the vault would go. 

Because it's Fallout, there's going to be Ghouls everywhere, and because it's Bethesda there's going to be Super Mutants and Deathclaws and Brotherhood of Steel... despite all that making no damn sense. Since it's NYC we'd need to get the giant rats, that were once so iconic to Fallout 1 and 2, back into the series. No, not weird looking Mole-rats, actual mutant rats like we finally saw in Nuka-World. We'd need mutated creatures unique to the New York region as well, it can't all be the same madness otherwise what's the point?

The big power players, and probably the antagonists, would be Vault-Tec themselves. They'd have pre-war tech, as well as the mass advancements they've developed since, that would make the Institute look about as threatening as an orphanage of sick children. People were worried about the Enclave, well Vault-Tec are the ones that supplied the Enclave. When Vault-Tec decide it's time to take back the world, they do so in force. Pre-War mercenary armies that were frozen on ice, and safely housed robotic juggernauts that could take on any behemoth that spawned from the radioactive goop. The Brotherhood has one Liberty Prime... Vault-Tec would have ten.

Whatever the story would be, I would hope that Bethesda takes a leaf out of Obsidian's book and makes the world of Fallout 5 one that's full of grey. No black and white, no easy answers... just a quagmire of tough calls and unforeseen consequences. Heck, maybe your character is actually with Vault-Tec and you're part of the effort to take back the world. It'd let your character be new to the world, so the player could learn alongside them, and it would be a fresh take on an old setting.

This is just a random idea I had, it's probably way off the mark. I'm okay with that. Whatever the story may be, we're up to our 5th installment in the main series and there's still a lot of answers we've yet to receive. Let's head to New York City and lets unravel the mysteries of Vault-Tec, it's been long enough.  

Whatever they do, I just hope that Bethesda don't pull a Dark Souls 3 and end the series with more questions left unanswered than otherwise. 

Marcus Fenix needs to die

There's this old adage that legends never die. This is great and all, when the legend has a solid conclusion and there's no sequels but not so much when the story keeps going. It could be said that Marcus Fenix is the heart and soul of Gears of War, so much so that even in the spin-off title they managed to give him a little cameo. But what happens when the story keeps going after the legend? What happens to the legend?

That's the great things about stories, they end. You can wrap a little bow around the narrative and it never changes, you just assume the best. Nobody has to worry about the mountain of paperwork, or the pissed off relatives of those you killed, or the crushing alcoholism that results from PTSD. Unlike real life, stories end... and we don't have to worry about the mess that's left behind. 

Gears of War 4 is set 25 years after Gears of War 3, the original protagonist has had a son and this son, JD Fenix, is now the protagonist of the new series. The only problem is that despite it being 25 years later, and him being a venerable 63 years old, Marcus is still in the spotlight.

For a good portion of the game, you've got Marcus travelling with you as you explore the changed world of Sera. The Locust, the old enemy that Marcus is so familiar with, may be gone but their mutated descendants are emerging from the shadows. It's the new generations continuing the war that their ancestors never truly finished. But with his daddy by his side, it's like JD, and Gears of War 4, have still got their training wheels on.  They're both too scared to let go of their predecessors to strike out on their own. 

There's this moment in Gears of War 4 where Marcus gets taken, and you find him later on in the game encased in this gooey mutant pod. You think he's dead, but it turns out he's actually alive. It was a shitty fake out.

While I do think they should have killed him off, I'm glad they didn't give him such a lame death as being suffocated or dissolved in a pod. Gears of War is about epic battles between heroes and monsters. When Marcus goes out it needs to be with the kind of bang the world of Sera will never forget.

Marcus Fenix needs to die, for both JD and the new Gears of War trilogy to find their feet. They're certainly big shoes to fill, but he has to leave before his son, or anyone, can take his place. If the new trilogy wants to be taken as seriously, and be as well received, as the first then it has to move on from the past and establish some independence. 

It was cool seeing most of Delta Squad appear in Gears of War 4, but the time for fan service has come and gone. JD and his friends need to leave the veterans behind and step into the darkness on their own, because that's where the real story hides.

A study in the most commonly used words in Post Apocalyptic Titles

I was mucking around on Amazon last night, checking out the post apocalyptic works of other indie authors, and I decided to check the regularity of which certain words appear in titles. I spent most of yesterday with my butt glued to a chair watching videos on self publishing and one of the topics was book covers. Contrary to popular belief, you don't want a cover that's a unique little snowflake... you want one that's easily recognizable to your readers. This got me thinking about whether or not the same applied to titles. Which is how I ended up on Amazon checking out other peoples works.

Anyway, after a bit of fudging around, I gathered the following list of most commonly used words in the titles of self published post apocalyptic works. Keep in mind, there's something like 30,000 post apocalyptic titles on Amazon so I only grabbed 85-ish titles. This is not a solid representation of what's actually out there, it was just a bit of fun.

1. Last - 6

2. Dark - 5

3. Sky - 4

4. Day - 4

5. Surviving - 3

6. Fall - 3

7. Stand - 3

8. Extinction - 2

9. Rising - 2

10. Chaos - 2

Not a bad list, there's some fairly evocative words in there, if you were so inclined you could jumble them all about and come up with a few serviceable titles. 

I woke up this morning and thought I'd take it a step further. I jumped onto Wikipedia and grabbed their list of post apocalyptic titles, which can be found here. It's a collection of post apocalyptic books, comics, games and movies... again, it's not 100% comprehensive but there are 958 titles in there so it's quite a step up from the initial test. After ditching filler words, such as 'a,' 'the,' 'when,' etc, I came up with the following list.

1. World - 30

2. Last - 28

3. War - 24

4. Earth - 21

5. After - 15

6. Dead - 15

7. Time - 14

8. End - 14

9. Planet - 13

10. Apocalypse - 12

11. Day - 12

12. City - 11

13. Dark - 10

14. Man - 9

15. Invasion - 9

16. Star - 8

17. Night - 8

18. Dawn - 7

19. Legend - 7

20. Machine - 7

Again, obviously not a complete list but we're getting some definite post apocalyptic flavors here. It's good to see words that describe the scale of the event, such as 'world,' 'Earth' & 'planet,' but we're also getting words like 'war,' 'invasion,' & 'dead' that could potentially speak to the cause of the apocalypse in question. To save you the trouble, the only words to appear on both lists are 'dark,' 'day' & 'last.'

It might not seem like useful information, but there's something to be said for having a title that's easily recognizable as post apocalyptic. Between the 27 words from both lists, you could combine any two of them for a potential of 351 titles. Most of them are going to be rubbish ('Invasion Man'? Ugh...) but the potential is there. Even if you just used one (or more) of these words in a lengthier title, it would still be a title that people will more easily recognize as post apocalyptic. Of course, you could always take one of the variations of the words listed - 'dark' can become 'darker' or 'darkest' for example.

I'm going to play around with these two lists and see what I can come up with, if nothing else it'll be a bit of fun.

Surviving After!

Chaos Star!

Extinction Day?

Dark City... wait, that's actually the title of a pretty good movie.

Shipping The 100

The 100 is a show that I find problematic. A lot of people around me describe reality television as a "guilty pleasure," well... I can't go so far as to watch reality television and I will continue to wholeheartedly judge those that do, but I can watch The 100 as a guilty pleasure. It's cheesy and the story makes little sense at times, but it's got an interesting cast of characters who go through some serious development across the seasons. The one thing that keeps me coming back though is that it's managed to pull on the old heart strings more than a few times, which is never easy to do. 

A big part of The 100's fanbase is focused on the idea of 'shipping.' Don't freak out if you don't know what that means, when some post apocalyptic pals asked what my favorite 'ship' was I said that it was obviously the Battlestar Galactica.

Oh JJ, poor... blissfully unaware, JJ.

'Shipping' is short for relationships based around TV show characters, and it's one of the driving forces of The 100's popularity. There are whole wiki pages dedicated to the naming of the various couples that could potentially arise on the show. 

Now, personally... I don't care who's banging who in a story. Fictional sex and feely-feels don't really do anything for me. But as a storyteller I can get behind the crafting of compelling relationships between characters, so that's how I've had to frame this fan phenomenon. So without further ado, here's my thoughts on some of the relationships in The 100.

*sigh* what am I doing with my life?

Kabby - Kane & Abby

Probably one of the most unexpected relationships in the show, Kane had some surprise character growth early on that set him up to be an interesting character. He's an ex-politician with a religious upbringing who now acts as a diplomat and advocate for peace where ever possible. Abby is the doctor on the show and has been fairly consistent, she lost her first partner in space and mainly cares for her daughter. It's little surprise that they're together, at this point they're the only two characters of that age group that're still alive, but the writers have actually put some effort into the relationship so it never seems forced.

Memori - Murphy & Emori

These two got together because they were both on the outside of society for various reasons and they're both willing to screw anyone else over to survive. They've each got some baggage that influences how they think and react to certain situations and so you could tell that it was more a relationship of convenience than anything more compelling. They were both in similar situations when they first met and so they got together, but by season 5 Emori is trying to improve herself and so they've drifted apart. Sad, but they were each only ever keeping the other company until something better came along for them both. 

Bellarke - Bellamy & Clarke

This is the big one that everyone wants to happen, but personally I hope it never does. These two characters became leaders of the first group of Sky Crew to make it to the ground and while they were at odds most of the time, they quickly came to respect one another. The problem is, because this show is aimed at high school girls there's a lot of fake drama instilled into the narrative and because of this Clarke tends to be a very weak protagonist. She flip-flops around and changes her mind and her world view more times than you can count. Honestly I think she's the weakest part of the show, but the fans love her so they want to see her get together with the leading man.

Becho - Bellamy & Echo

These two have an interesting history together, they first met when she was imprisoned in an old bunker and he managed to save her. Then they had the old back and forth of flirting and betrayal that's so common in this series and finally, after being stuck on a space station for years, they got together. They're both compelling characters in their own right, both comparably powerful and because of the time jump they've already been together for a few years by this point. They're back down on Earth now though, so anything can change at this point.

Murven - Murphy & Raven

These two are my favorite characters on The 100. Murphy has got the most compelling backstory and has had some serious character growth, he went from revenge driven psycho to reluctant hero. Raven has been through the grinder as well, she's lost more than most and has been wounded in ways that everyone else is lucky enough to have avoided. They're not together but by season 5 they're stuck on a space station alone together so anything is possible. It's been heavily hinted at that Raven is the only person that Murphy respects and she's got enough clout with him that she can call him out on his bullshit. I think they'd make a good pair, mainly because they've both been through enough and they each deserve a break!

A lot of the fans were shocked when season 5 came about and Becho was a thing, largely because it seemed to preclude Bellarke from happening. I'm okay with this, like I said I think Bellamy is waaaay better off with Echo than Clarke. They're simply a more interesting couple, their different backgrounds and comparable skill sets make them a solid pair. Bellamy and Echo can stand together as equals, but Bellamy could never stand as an equal to Clarke on account of the fact that she's the protagonist and messiah-like savior of the world so many times over... despite being such a weak goddamn character. Honestly, in terms of narrative I think Clarke's best character outcome is to be doomed to walk alone, like Jaha.

My fear though, is that Echo will be killed off so that Bellamy has a clean excuse to get with Clarke... simply to accommodate and appease the ravenous fans. It's one of those "getting what you want, not what you need" type situations. It's silly and shallow and it will be a weak and unsatisfying ending, so I hope this doesn't come pass. Despite the shoddy world building at times, the writers of The 100 have managed  to make the relationships pretty compelling so I have faith that they'll come up with something appropriate.

There's a whole heap of other relationships that're pretty good too. Monty & Harper are great together, they're probably going to be that background couple that're always together. Clarke was actually pretty good with Lexa, both being leaders of their respective peoples. The world lost it's shit when Lexa was killed and some ridiculous pledge was developed to try and give gay characters perpetual plot armor, which is just dumb. Nathan was with Bryan for most of the series, and they were good together, but Bryan was killed off for some reason. After this, four seasons in, the writers sort of revealed Jackson to be gay... which seemed like a kneejerk reaction to avoid another Lexa situation. More quote filling than an organic narrative choice.  

It's weird, but the relationships in this show are actually one of the main draw cards, even for me. It's always interesting seeing how these people evolve and whether or not they stay together after they do. The drama is a little contrived at times, and the world building is nigh-terrible, but there's enough solid storytelling to keep me interested. I'm never going to give it a free pass but I'll always give it the time of day.

PS - Can I just point out that all these people have been fucking for seven years at this point, and yet somehow nobody has been knocked up? It's the post-apocalypse, there's no rubbers... how are they avoiding babies?

Human Cruelty

I got home from work last night and I decided to sit down and watch a movie. I have a lot of free time on my hands that I don't know how to properly fill just yet.... shut up, I'm working on it. Anyway, I randomly thought of that Kurt Russell Western I'd heard about a few years ago, and so I tracked down Bone Tomahawk.

Bloody hell, that was not a good movie to watch right before bed. 

Long story short; a sadistic tribe of Native American cannibals (nicknamed the "Troglodytes") kidnap a few settlers, a posse is formed and a shit storm ensues. I don't want to get into too much detail, because despite this whole blog post it's a great movie and you should totally go watch it, but there's this scene that has really stayed with me. 

Gore/Trigger/Puke Warning for the next paragraph. Also, spoilers?

This deputy is stripped naked and held by a pair of Troglodytes while a third scalps him... and he's held so tightly that all he can do is hang there and scream. Then his own scalp is stuffed into his mouth and it's nailed in there with a wooden stake. After that he's spun upside down and the Troglodytes proceed to hack between his legs with a bone axe, and you hear the deputy screaming and then whimpering through his scalp and then he goes mercifully silent just before his legs are pulled and his whole torso splits apart like a chicken wing... 

It was fucking horrific. 

There's another scene where the settlers come across the women of this tribe of cannibals, and they're all pregnant... but also armless, legless and with stakes in their eyes. The film goes to great lengths to both show and tell you that this tribe is a bunch of horrific fucking monsters. There's even an Native American who lives with the settlers who straight up tells the posse that if they go looking for this tribe then they're all going to die.

Just the sheer brutality of this tribe was enough to turn my stomach. It's not so much the gore, though I'm no fan of torture porn I've seen enough zombie movies to have become used to it by now, no it was the conscious intent and willful disregard for human life and dignity that did me in. How far do you have to stray from any kind of moral system, or even your own innate humanity, to be able to hack apart another person while they're still alive? How do you even dehumanize another human to the point where they're just meat, not even a living thing that needs to be quickly killed and then eaten but tortured to death and then eaten? How do you get to a stage where you can eat people and impregnate women with no arms, legs or eyes? What has to happen to a person for them to accept that kind of behavior? 

It made me think of this story I read back in university, I'm sorry but I can't remember if it was the Aztecs or the Incas... but this king or priest (fuck, I'm butchering this story) had been overthrown and so his former subjects tied him up into a ball. Then they rolled him down the stone steps of the temple and kicked him around until his back broke. Just... the sheer level of malice required to kick someone until their back breaks baffles and horrifies me. How do you actively make someone's life so full of pain and suffering that they'd choose death just to escape it? The fact that someone could do these sorts of things is terrible to think about, because if one of our species can do it then that means that any one of us could do it too.

But Bone Tomahawk had one last card to play, in the form of Matthew Fox's character - a smooth talking, well dressed, ladies man who is dead eye with a six shooter. He's soft spoken, intelligent and funny all the way through the film, and then half way through you find out that he's an Indian Hunter who has killed 116 Indians in his life. He is a fantastic foil for the Troglodytes; they may use bone weapons and eat other humans but this guy, who is wrapped in the finery of civilization, is a mass murderer as well.  He's never married, he doesn't have kids, he lost his mother and sisters to an Indian raid when he was ten and his whole life has just become this hate-fueled quest for vengeance against them.

The shit we people can do to one another keeps me up at night. I'm used to post apocalyptic stories where people are forced into terrible circumstances and are pushed beyond the limits of morality, I deal with fictional stories about this stuff on a daily basis. But then I go an open a history book and I'm absolutely appalled at some of the things people have done, some of this shit makes you ashamed of the human species.

I hate to end this with a cliche, but they say that truth is stranger than fiction. Well, it's also infinitely more horrific as well. I can pull some twisted shit out of my arse (metaphorically speaking, of course) but it will never compare to some of the horrors that have really happened. The French Revolution, The Raft of the Medusa, Colonial Australia, literally any place communism has come into power, the horrors of fiction can never match these horrors... because they actually happened. 

Post Apocalyptic Music

A lot of authors have this thing where they've spent so long working with a character, that they start to hear songs that they use to help define them. If an author spends long enough working on a project then they're likely to end up with a whole goddamn mixtape that they think perfectly defines their character and their fictional struggles. 

Well, as some of you know I spent the worse part of 7-ish (I forget exactly) years on Days Too Dark, and during that time I encountered quite a few songs that I thought fit quite well with the story and themes I was trying to put forward. Some of the songs were actually mentioned in the book itself for this reason, others were just songs that worked really well with the overly angsty crap that the main character is drowning himself in. 

Below is a list of songs that I felt meshed well with Mars and Days Too Dark as a whole, the specific number of them is curious and not just because there's almost enough for a stand alone album here. So, without further ado... the Maralinga Marquardt Mixtape!

1. Battle Cry - Imagine Dragons

2. New Divide - Linkin Park

3. Down Under - Men at Work

4. What I've Done - Linkin Park

5. Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen

6. Thunderstruck - ACDC

7. In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins

8. Paint it, Black - The Rolling Stones

9. Monster - Imagine Dragons

10. The Unforgiven - Metallica

11. Carry on Wayward Son - Kansas

12. House of the Rising Sun - The Animals

13. Back in Black - ACDC

14. Demons - Imagine Dragons

15. Nine Inch Nails - Hurt

16. Gary Jules - Mad World

17. Knocking on Heavens Door - Guns'n'Roses

18. Silence - Marshmello

Now... there's an obvious theme there, one that I'll get into at a later date. But even with a cursory glance one could tell that these songs speak of conflict, torment and a shitty self-esteem. There's a few hints in there at where the story is going to go too, so if one were to listen to each of these songs they might have an idea of the roads that Mars is doomed to walk.

Funnily enough though, the song that I think speaks for Mars the best is the last addition - Silence, by Marshmello. There's a kind of sorrow about things that've happened, but also a regret about the choices that've been made in response to those troubling events. That's exactly the kind of mood I was going for with Mars, he's someone who has legitimately been through some seriously fucked up shit, but his own choices haven't made his situation any better. It's a great song, and if you haven't heard it then you should definitely give it a listen.   

These are just the songs that have lyrics that I think suit what I was going for with Days Too Dark, and will be going for with the subsequent books in the series. There's a whole other slew of songs that I've got saved on YouTube that're pure inspiration, but I'll get to them in another blog post.

Fallout, Halo and Gears of War

Contrary to the popular opinion of most fans, I actually really enjoyed Fallout Tactics. Whether you prefer Fallout 4 or Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout Tactics was a step away from the norm that brought a breath of fresh air to the franchise while simultaneously expanding the lore. Fallout Brotherhood of Steel can still go die in a ditch though...

What was great about Fallout Tactics was that it took a series that was originally a single character experience and made it squad based. You weren't just a Vault Dweller or a Chosen One, you were an entire squad within the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel. One on one, or one on many, combat is great; it's always fun to rush into a mob of Super Mutants with a Minigun and just tear shit up... but Fallout Tactics required, well, tactics. 

The setting was roughly the same, the world of Fallout Tactics sort of did away with the Retro Futurism typically found within the Fallout franchise and went with straight Futurism. The key element that differentiated it from the rest of the series was the fact that you had a whole group of soldiers to work with, which gave you gameplay options. But it wasn't just an option, you actually had to rely on setting up your squad strategically for an encounter otherwise half of them were likely to end up as ground chuck. It terms of gameplay you could switch between turn based and real time strategy, which allowed you to set up for those aforementioned encounters and slow things down to act with a bit more precision... or to go in guns blazing. It was a great game, and if you're a fan of the series then I wholeheartedly recommend you give it a go.

Now, let's take a slight jump to Halo and Gears of War. Both are Microsoft franchises and both had exactly the same story in their initial trilogies. Humans have been at war with (Covenant/Locust) for a while, eventually humanity discovers that the enemies have been having issues with zombies (Flood/Lambent) and soon these zombies start infecting humanity as well. Eventually humanity finds a way to not only push back the (Covenant/Locust) but the (Flood/Lambent) as well. They've seriously got the exact same story, it's just that one's a bit more sci-fi while the other is more of a gritty war movie.

The reason I bring this up is that the Halo franchise eventually got a Real-Time Strategy series called Halo: Wars. You played as this group of humans that were flung far off into the galaxy where they went on this whole adventure that didn't really have any impact on the greater plot of the original trilogy. The game was pretty well received, it was Halo after all, and eventually it even got a sequel.

Now we get to the crux of this whole blog post - this is exactly what Gears of War needs. Fallout got a squad based tactical role playing game while Halo got a real time strategy game. Gears of War needs something similar, because if it can work for Halo then it can most certainly work for Gears of War.

The story of Gears of War allows for this, perfectly. Gears are soldiers that fight in squads, for the survival of all mankind, against the ever encroaching hordes of Locust. These monstrous humanoids can pop up anywhere from below the ground and have a tendency to attack in mass with a retinue of horrifically gargantuan beasts by their side. The entire series you've fought through campaigns with squads of 2-5 members, so the tactical squad based combat would suit. Also, there have been countless massive wars fought with primarily infantry units in the series canon... because it's right there in the name - Gears of *War!*

Seriously though, the way the creators have woven perpetual conflict into the very fabric of the setting is fantastic. 

For those who don't know, there's actually a few comics and novels set within the Gears of War universe. They really flesh the setting out a whole lot more than the games ever do, I cannot recommend them enough. My point is that there are countless conflicts within the timeline of the original trilogy that could be the basis of an entire games worth of content, or you could just do like Fallout and Halo did and create an all new campaign in a previously unexplored area.

I would literally burn down an orphanage full of sick children to get a game set in the early days of the Pendulum Wars. You'd start out fighting the Indies (other humans) then somehow get lost down in the Hollows and end up fighting the Locust long before the Human/Locust War ever even began... and you'd know your characters are all going to die at the end because you already know what's going to happen in the future!

Oh man, that'd be so cool.  #nerdgasm

The thing is - this idea isn't even mine. There was actually a game like this already planned for the Gears of War series, it's just that it was never completed. There's a very basic version in the video below, with a lot of assets taken from the original trilogy. Take a look and see for yourself, at the very least the idea has merit. 

It worked for Fallout and it worked for Halo, it could totally work for Gears of War as well. At some point the series should take a small step away from 3rd person shooters and into the more complex realm of real time strategy or squad based tactics games. It might not have the same capacity for multiplayer that the core games do but the series is certainly robust enough that it could manage a strong single player experience.

As I've previously stated, Gears of War is one of those series that I love, it's my Star Wars and/or Star Trek. I not only hope to experience it for years to come, I hope to see it diversify what it has to offer and spread out into different game types. 

What we really need is a Gears of War role playing game... but that's a post for another day.

Mad Max - Mental Health in the Post Apocalypse

There is this scene in Mad Max Fury Road that resonated with me, much more so than the rest of the film already did. Max and Furiosa have led the escape from Immortan Joe and Max is driving the War-Rig through the desert. It's a long journey but eventually the group comes across a transmission tower. The ruins of the old world are already sparse in the Wasteland, we saw some oil derricks and flare stacks at the start of the film but that's it, so this relic of the old world already stands out. What makes the situation even more strange is the fact that there's a naked woman atop the tower.

The thing is, Max takes one look at this scene and shakes his head... because he's not having any of it. 

Now, you could pass if off as Max's survival instincts being so finely tuned that he can spot a trap a mile away, but I think there's more to it than that. See, if this whole scene was to simply showcase how crafty Max is, they could have placed anything as bait - food, fuel or weapons. The sorts of things that Max, and any man, would *need.* But the trap wasn't set with a bait that a man would need, it was set with a bait that most men would *want.* This is where the writers got it right and where the Vuvalini got it wrong.

(Side note - Can I just point out how bad it is that this trap was even set in the first place? You never really stop to think about it while watching the movie, because the outcome is averted... but look at the intended situation. There's a woman as bait, which means the intended victim was a man. This man would walk along, see a naked woman (who was screaming for help, mind you... so, as unlikely as it is in the Wasteland, he could genuinely want to help her) and go towards her. The trap would spring, Valkyrie would cease to be a helpless maiden and become the warrior-goddess she is and, backed up by the other Vuvalini, would proceed to kill this random guy. It's a subtle nod to the fact that the Vuvalini aren't much better than any of the men in the film. This is backed up by something The Dag says later on, but I'll get to that another day.)

Max is someone who is haunted by his past, by the things he's done and by the things done to him, hence the title of the franchise. All throughout Fury Road we see him being hounded by visions of friends and family, those he's lost along his journey. In particular, there is a little girl that haunts him every step of the way. The only hint we get at Max's relationship with this little girl is when Immortan Joe's favorite wife, Splendid, falls from the War-Rig and is run over by Immortan Joe himself. There is a momentary flash, to Max's past.

This is actually a very important scene in the movie, with the apparent death of one character bringing back memories of the death of another character. Throughout the film we're hearing whispers and seeing flashes of people who are long dead, they meld into the world and seem to harry and haunt at Max at every turn and this scene shows them for what they are - invasive thoughts. Max is someone who is traumatized by his past, to the extent that memories of his past will flash in his brain continuously and without warning. He's lost people close to him, so losing more people makes him think of the people he's already lost, and so he avoids people at all cost. 

"Here they come again. Worming their way into the black matter of my brain. I tell myself they cannot touch me. They are long dead. I am the one who runs from both the living and the dead. Hunted by scavengers. Haunted by those I could not protect. So I exist in this wasteland. A man reduced to a single instinct - survive."

When Max sees Valkyrie standing naked atop the transmission tower, he's not making an intellectual observation about it being a trap. His brain is activating self defense protocols and throwing up walls, telling him it's a trap to protect him from potentially getting close to someone only to lose them later on. There's a reason the Vuvalini used a naked woman as bait, they know that most men will want a woman - as a potential partner, for base physical release or even simply as a meal. The problem here is that Max is having none of that, we can see this early on in the film when he first meets Furiosa and the Wives.

Max is not interested in getting close to any of these people, he even tries to ditch them before being forced to let them on the War-Rig with him. It's part of his whole story arc; having to learn to stop running, face what happened to him, and let others get close to him again. Max's brain isn't allowing him to even remotely consider relationships, let alone sex, at this stage in his life. He's been so traumatized by losing others that his brain is operating under the assumption that the safest path now is to avoid all emotional connections, for fear of subsequent pain.

So when he saw Valkyrie sitting there, he thought the same thing that any guy would think. But then that thought was overridden by the urge to get as far away from that as possible, simply to escape the possibility of more pain in his life. It takes a certain level of trauma for a guy to see a naked woman and think "threat" instead of "awesome!" And this is why this scene resonated with me, because I've actually been through something similar. Anyone who has read my book, Days Too Dark, probably knows that it's largely based on my life - which, as I always put it, has been "interesting." 

Back when I was eighteen I came home from work one night, I stepped into my bedroom and found two random girls in bikinis laying on my bed. I would like to say that I turned on the charm and tried my best to woo them, because that's what any normal teenage guy should have done... but that just wasn't what I was. No, my initial reaction was spin around and throw up my fists, then stalk through the house looking for the people that were obviously trying to kill me. I saw two scantly clad babes laying on my bed and alarm bells started blaring in my head.

You lose people, you get betrayed, you get abused - your brain blows any potential risk way out of proportion and does its best to protect you. And why shouldn't it? That's what it's there for. If our ancestors saw a sabertooth tiger out in the wilds, they didn't stop to wonder if it was dangerous, they just fucking ran. This is because those that didn't run never got the chance to breed, simply because they were too busy getting shat out a few days later. Our brains are good at making shortcuts to save time and increase our chances of survival... which sometimes leads to overreactions in the modern world. If a situation, perhaps one involving other people, consistently results in mass amounts of pain and suffering then your brain is going to do it's best to get you out of similar situations.

The problem here is that once those shortcuts are ingrained they're very hard to get rid of, and this is where mental and emotional health issues result. You still want a connection with others, but your brain is operating under the assumption that it's going to result in pain and/or suffering, so it puts a stop to it. Max saw a naked woman standing alone in the desert and his brain perceived the situation as a threat. I saw two hot chicks in bikinis on my bed and my brain perceived the situation as a threat. Both of these reactions are the result of past traumas and they take a lot of time and effort to work through, to undo the lines of defense that your brain has erected... for your protection. 

I'd tell you what happened with the two girls in the bikinis, but that will ruin a part of the story in the sequel to Days Too Dark... needless to say, it didn't go how you'd expect. Although I didn't get the movie treatment, where a character can move on from all their issues within the time-frame of a single movie, I did spend the time, effort and money to move on from a lot of these issues. And I think that's important, because without help it's entirely possible to end up as someone like Mad Max - someone who runs from the living, and the dead. And I can tell you from personal experiences, that it's not as cool or as badass as it sounds. 

Mad Max Fury Road was a fantastic film that had so many layers of plot and backstory written into it, I truly believe that it's one of those films that will stand the test of time. Max's character was so well written, I keep coming back to him over and over just to bask in how flawed he is and how meaningful his character growth is. Far too often we see characters, such as Wolverine and Batman, that are said to have deep-seeded issues resulting from personal trauma... but then they're also shown to be these suave love machines that bed almost every woman they meet. You can't have it both ways, you can't have the cause without the effect... if they're not fucked up by what happened, then it obviously wasn't that big of a deal. Trauma isn't just a trait you can throw onto a character to make them seem dark and brooding, it has to have real and debilitating consequences in the story. Trauma has to be something that characters need to overcome... otherwise, what's the point? 

It was nice to finally see a male character with emotional issues portrayed in a fashion that's more realistic, and it was nice to see him make some headway towards better mental health.