Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money Analysis (Pt 3)

Dean Domino

Yes, it's the same Dean Domino who indirectly caused this whole mess. First, some explanation. In the Fallout universe, the people who were irradiated from the bombs turn into what are called "Ghouls". Ghouls are considered mutants though it's probably impolite to call them that. The radiation causes them to appear like zombies though they're not actually dead. On the contrary, they have increased longevity and can live for hundreds of years.

Apparently, Dean Domino is still hanging around the Sierra Madre scheming for a way to get into it. So counting the years since the war, he's been waiting for roughly two centuries. Wow. If DM's message about greed imprisoning us in a hell of our own making didn't seem clear enough, Dean's story is as subtle as the grill of an oncoming semi. In fact, the bomb collar isn't even necessary. He's already a prisoner in more ways than one.

While it's obvious Dean is a greedy asshole, he's guilty of a much greater sin which is pride.  Pride has been called the "mother of all sins", the sin from which all others arise. In Dean's case, it's true. The reason why he sought to con Frederick out of his fortune was not because of envy. The envy was borne of Dean's inflated ego. Dean could not handle the idea of someone better than him, wealthier than him or even happier than him. This is evident in the way he interacts with the Courier. He thinks he's such hot shit, goes on misquoting Shakespeare and talks in a condescending manner.

In the game, Dean cannot handle it when the Courier doesn't act like a lackey. He doesn't like playing second fiddle. If in at any point the Courier back-talks Dean, points out the flaws of his plans, force him to do things or bruise his ego in any way, he perceives this as a personal insult and betrays the Courier in the end. In fact, it is so easy to get the "Betrayal" ending that I think that Dean dying to the Courier in the casino is the canonical ending. Dean finally underestimates the wrong badass and gets himself killed. Fitting.

Even in Dean's "happy" ending where he discovers the truth about Fredrick and Vera, he only feels sad for like, a second, then shrugs it off. He starts off to Vegas seeing it as a ripe fruit for the taking. I think that this ending is actually still a bad ending for Dean. He didn't learn anything and didn't grow as a character. Hell, even Dog/God had an arc. Dean remains a selfish dick and will more likely get himself into trouble than find true happiness.

"Used to open in Paris. Paris. Now this."

 Christine Royce

Christine was a the assassin sent after Elijah. Like him, she too was a member of the Brotherhood of Steel Mojave Chapter. As a character, Christine looks like a mess. She was lobotomized by the Think Tank in the Big MT (long story but she was tracking Elijah there) and now her vocal chords have been cut and replaced when Dean locked her in an auto-doc. Dean did this because the vault only opens to Vera Keyes' voice. 

She is mute in the game and her interactions with the player are all based on her facial expressions and crude sign language. How well the Courier understands her depends on his perception and intelligence traits as well as certain skills such as medicine. I was very impressed with this creativity. Even if she couldn't speak, the interactions with her are way more memorable than anything in Skyrim. However, I should rant about that game some other day.

At first, it was difficult to tie Christine to the theme of DM. She didn't seem like a bad person and was in fact, the only "good" character in the DLC. However, a friend of mine reminded me that Christine went after Elijah for personal reasons too. I know Christine mentioned that Elijah separated her from her lover but I guess I was too stupid to notice how deep it was. In Old World Blues, a later DLC, Ulysses mentions that Christine and Elijah are more similar than Christine would like to admit.

"Christine: ...don't want to argue philosophy with you. Brotherhood are preservationists. Tech in the wrong hands, it's dangerous. Mojave's proof.

Ulysses: No denying that. Proof's here in this crater, all around us. Your tribe, the Brotherhood - haven't met many of you. Wanted to. Thought you might be the last chance for the Mojave... the West. The East. But you're all the same mind, obsessed.

Christine: Elijah is obsessed. He's mad. It's why they ordered his execution.
 
Ulysses: Two are more alike than you know, too wrapped in the wrong bits of history to see ahead. Not judging. I know how it is. People are like couriers, you and him. Sometimes don't even know the message they bring. You all had a new flag. Thought maybe new ideas along with it. What you believe isn't any better than the Bear or Bull. No future in either.

Christine: So says the man with the Old World flag on his back. America, the Commonwealth... burned away.

Ulysses: America sleeps. And until it's dead, I carry it. Just like I carried you. More than hope. Belief. There's voices here in the Big Empty, I want to talk to them. Not like your Elijah did. Got questions. Want to hear history give its answer"

When Ulysses mentioned them being "wrapped up in the wrong bits of history", he could either be alluding to the Brotherhood's general philosophy or their common troubled history. I'm going with the latter. Christine went after Elijah for personal revenge. I guess that fits.

In the good ending, Christine becomes the warden of the Sierra Madre and looks after it. This is in contrast to Elijah's goals of using the technology for evil. It is ironic how Elijah, an Elder, could so willingly disregard the Brotherhood's core principles. Christine instead, keeps true to the Brotherhood's doctrine of preserving technology and keeping it out of the wrong hands. Her vocal chords heal and uses her new voice as Vera Keyes to replace the "siren song" broadcast into a farewell message for the courier.

Summary

Dead Money tells a story on how greed and obsession can make us all prisoners. It's a simple tale really but it's one told very well. "Letting go?" "Begin again?" Words to live by. I like games that have a moral point to them. Dead Money, out of all the DLCs, is the best in my opinion. The tight gameplay is enhanced by the well written story.

"Wait a moment. Before you go, I... we... hope you've enjoyed your stay. Farewells can be a time of sadness -- letting go, difficult. As a guest of the Sierra Madre, you know that truth more than anyone. Frederick Sinclair believed that one's life could be made anew every day, that fortunes were more than the wealth in your hands. Love, life, family, those to care for and those who will care for you: to those who know these joys, the Sierra Madre holds little they don't already have. Out in the world, beyond these walls, that is your chance to begin again. I hope that you will return in happier times. Until then, the Sierra Madre, and I, will hold you in our hearts" 

Let go and begin again.

Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money Analysis (Pt 2)

Major Themes

Two phrases keep repeating themselves through Dead Money: "letting go" and "begin again". Now what do these phrases mean? It's important to remember these because providing context for them helps us understand the theme of the story. Greed is an important element also and ties-in with the whole problem of "letting go". Keep thinking of the two phrases. Their meaning will come later and the lessons will explain themselves.

One way to tell if a story is good is if the characters all tie-in to the theme and story in a way. This is what makes characters "strong", stand out more and the story is better understood through them as well. To use a different game as an example, this is the reason why characters in Mass Effect are so beloved by their fanbase. Players wouldn't give two shits about something like the Krogan genophage unless a character like Wrex or Mordin would give us a better understanding of how it affects people (or aliens?) and make us care. The same can be said in Dead Money. In DM, the characters are not just important to help the player progress but also to service the plot.

So let's use the characters. I think that's a good method. Let's start with the very first person you meet.

 Elijah

Elijah is the disgraced former Elder of the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel and is the main villain of DM. He was such a genius that even as a Scribe, he rose to the rank of Elder despite Elders normally being from the Paladins.  His leadership was unorthodox to say the least. The Brotherhood's doctrine is to hoard advanced technology in order to keep it out of the hands of your typical clueless waster. But Elijah wanted to provide tech to the people of the wasteland to get more recruits, a plan he passed on to Veronica, one of the Courier's companions. He was forward-thinking and well aware of the Brotherhood's stagnation.

But then he found the HELIOS solar power plant and wanted to claim it for the Brotherhood. This bought them in conflict with the NCR who also wanted it for themselves. Despite being outnumbered, Elijah continued to insist on holding the plant despite the advice of the Brotherhood Paladins. It was a disaster and the Brotherhood eventually lost HELIOS and many men with it. Elijah simply disappeared afterwards and set out to find "one of the greatest treasures of the Old World". 

He found the Sierra Madre and became absolutely obsessed with it. He captured people and put bomb collars on them, enslaving them to help him crack it open. His crimes did not go unnoticed. The Brotherhood decided that Elijah was just too dangerous and sent an assassin after him. 

Elijah's flaw is his ambition. All he cares about are his goals and damn anyone who gets in his way. He originally intended to use technology to establish the Brotherhood's dominance. But now, he sees the technology in the Sierra Madre as a way to establish his vision of a new order. Before he does however, his plan involves killing everyone in the Mojave with the poison cloud in the Sierra Madre to start over, to begin again or "Wipe the slate clean." as he calls it. To put it simply, Elijah is an obsessed, delusional, genocidal madman whose grand vision of a better future for mankind is betrayed by his cruel treatment of people as disposable tools.

Elijah is as much a prisoner of the Sierra Madre as the people he's enslaved. Greed is not limited to money. Greed is an obsessive, inordinate desire to acquire something (anything) and keep it to yourself. He's completely oblivious too. He expresses confusion as to why his prisoners succumb to greed and kill each other to get more loot. He probably thinks he's above them all because his cause is noble. Obviously not. Greed is greed. It's also interesting to note that he encourages the player to "kill the others" after the break-in for seemingly no reason. And he still thinks he's not like the common greedy killer? 

Like many others, he was lured to the Sierra Madre to reverse his fortunes and "begin again". Unfortunately, he cannot let go of his ambition and it leads to his comeuppance when he makes the mistake of crossing the wrong badass, the Courier. His figurative trap becomes literal when the Courier outsmarts him and traps him inside the vault he so desperately wanted to get into - a poetic death. The Sierra Madre claims another fool who wanted to gain what it promised.

 "But getting there - that's not the hard part. It's letting go."

Dog/God

Dog/God is a super mutant who once served in The Master's army in the original Fallout. He appears to be a nightkin and as is common among nightkin, has a split-personality disorder. He has two personalities. The Courier can switch between which personality would be dominant by playing an audio tape of either Elijah's voice (Dog becomes dominant) or his own voice (God becomes dominant).

Dog is what his name implies. Dog is a dumb beast who can barely communicate with the Courier. Dog is consumed with a powerful hunger and I don't mean a metaphorical kind of hunger. I mean dog will literally eat anything from ghost people to his own bomb collar (which he did). Dog also desires a master-figure, someone who will tell him what to do. He found this master in Elijah, who quickly saw potential in having this strong brute as a tool. Dog obeyed, happily too, and went about capturing "assistants" for Elijah, one of which was the Courier.

God, or "The Voice", as Dog calls him, is the exact opposite. God is articulate, cunning (as his attempts to subvert Elijah seem to indicate) and strong-willed. He hates being under the thumb of Elijah and does not take kindly to the Courier who he perceives as just another greedy scavenger. He argues a lot, doesn't like being told what to do and is very hard to order around in the game. Earning God's trust takes a lot of effort and it's tempting to just use Dog and be done with it. 

God hates Dog (it seems, at first) and Dog feels the same to God. God tortures Dog by being a voice in his head, perpetually trying to wrest him away from Elijah control at every waking moment. Dog physically abuses himself in horrible ways in an effort to block the voice of God.

Dog and God have very interesting character dynamics. One desires to be controlled while the other desires to be in control. One is consumed by the baser instinct of hunger while the other is obsessed with something far more complex. Maybe there's an intended reference to the Freudian model of the psyche. Dog is the id while God is the superego. All dog wants is the simple gratification of sating his hunger and having everything thought out for him by a master. God wants to control Dog to achieve freedom from being helpless.

In the bad ending, Dog cannot take his inner conflict anymore and kills himself in an effort to destroy God. However, in the good ending, the Courier manages to combine the two personalities and Dog/God is made whole again. God even admits that he doesn't really hate Dog and only wants what's best for him. When they are combined, they become a rounded out individual that balances the needs of both. Dog/God's ego emerges as well as his sense of self-identity. In other words he becomes the master of himself.

How does this character relate to the theme of DM? While Dog's hunger can be considered as greed, Dog/God is more of a comment on the nature of  the individual and less about the Sierra Madre treasure (which doesn't matter to neither Dog nor God). Both personalities are extremes from each other and are both harmful. Dog cannot control his hunger and thus, himself by extension. Because he cannot control himself, he cannot accept God, who is actually himself trying to force control. God is driving Dog crazy in the process despite his best intentions and it all eventually leads to attempted suicide.

The message here is temperance, which is the opposite of Dog's gluttony and also kind-of the opposite of Greed. Dog is found in all of us perhaps. Everyone has a "Dog" inside of him or an "id" if you prefer. Our baser instincts lead us to harm ourselves and do stupid things. Dog's hunger, Elijah's obsession, people's greed, lust etc. are all the same. 

The message, I guess, is to let go of our greed and master ourselves. It was Dog's gluttony that trapped him, albeit indirectly, as a slave to Elijah.

"Dog forgot himself, as did the voice that raged within him. After their passing, a new voice spoke within the mutant's shell. It was difficult for the voice to remember the two it once was... there was the beast, Dog consumed by hunger... ...and the other in reverse... the one consumed by control. Both were driven by need for the other. The Courier brought them together, somehow, joined the two into one."

Continued in Part 3

Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money Analysis (Pt 1)

Fallout: New Vegas is an RPG that I like very much. It has great storytelling, dialogue and characters. It is one of the best games I have ever played.

What I like about it the most are the DLC expansion packs that were released later on. While it's easy for companies to just rush out a piece of crap DLC for quick bucks or worse yet, purposefully withhold content at day one to charge extra down the road, the expansions of FO:NV are quality stuff and are well thought out stories in themselves. I'd like to explore these games a bit and give comments about its story and themes. Let's start with the very first DLC, Dead Money. 

But first, some History. Once upon a time there was a rich businessman named Frederick Sinclair who was friends with a singer named Dean Domino. Dean was envious of Frederick's fortune so he hatched a scheme to con him out of it. Dean introduced his fellow singer and accomplice, Vera Keyes, to Frederick and he fell in love with her almost instantly. He fell so in love with her, he worked to build the Sierra Madre Casino, a casino where anyone could reverse his fortunes and begin again. This was his ultimate tribute to her. It also served as a bomb shelter to protect them from the threat of a possible nuclear war with China.

The Sierra Madre was equipped with advanced technologies to survive an apocalypse. It had matter replicator devices, hazardous environment suits and tools made with futuristic alloys that never dull or wear out. It also had a security system that used holograms that could move and interact with physical objects to a limited extent. It was designed to be self-sufficient.

Eventually, Frederick found out about Vera's duplicity. Heartbroken, his love turned to hatred and he set about making the Sierra Madre into a deathtrap, planning to lock Vera and Dean into the treasure vaults below. Vera, overcome with guilt, had a change of heart and confessed to him about the plot to swindle him out of his fortune. Frederick relented and tried to undo the traps he set and to return the Casino back into its original purpose.

Sadly, it was too late. On the night of the grand opening, the same night the bombs fell, the security holograms activated and slaughtered the guests. The Casino shut itself tight; nothing could get in or out. Frederick died to poisonous gas in the Casino ventilation system while he was trying to undo the electrical system for the trap. Before he died, he activated the emergency broadcast system hoping that it would lead the authorities to rescue Vera. Unfortunately, the broadcast system played the Sierra Madre welcome message instead; an invitation for visitors to come and seek their fortunes and a trap luring people to their doom for years to come. Vera remained locked in her hotel suite by security not knowing what happened to Frederick. She overdosed on drugs and killed herself. Dean remained locked outside the Casino and became a ghost that forever coveted the treasures within.

The Sierra Madre remains sealed, shielded from the world by a mysterious cloud of poisonous gas and guarded by macabre "ghost people." The Courier (you) is captured and enslaved by a man named Elijah who is obsessed with the secrets of the Sierra Madre.

 "Has your life taken a turn? Do troubles beset you? Has fortune left you behind? If so, the Sierra Madre Casino, in all its glory, is inviting you to begin again. Come to a place where wealth, excitement and intrigue await around every corner. Stroll along the winding streets of our beautiful resort, make new friends, or rekindle old flames. Let your eyes take in the luxurious expanse of the open desert under clear star-lit skies. Gaze straight on into the sunset from our villa rooftops. Countless diversions await: Gamble in our casino, take in the theater, or stay in one of our exclusive executive suites that will shelter you and cater to your every whim. So if life's worries have weighed you down, if you need an escape from your troubles, or if you just need an opportunity to begin again, join us, let go, and leave the world behind at the Sierra Madre grand opening this October... We'll be waiting." 

 

Continued in Part 2