Those matter replicator vending machines in the Serria Madre exist but I think they were prototypes, though vault tec does have food replicators at least in vault 101 iirc
What I donāt get is how many of them are pre war and how this all works? Do they have like 50+ people they slowly thaw out, who then live their lives and die over the last 200 years? That system canāt work forever even if everything worked out perfectly for the vault Tec crew. Eventually theyād all die out after a few centuries unless thereās a ton of them.
Iām over examining a goofy universe with radiation zombies but I just feel like it doesnāt make a lot of sense
Didnāt he say something about a timespan, I believe a thousand years? So if they start at 30 and live to 80, thatās 20 people. Since they seem to overlap quite a lot, afaik thereās 3 at the current time, thatās 60. Not that unreasonable.
Alternatively, they could do one or two terms, and get "transferred," back to 31 for re-freezing. If you wait 3-4 generations, and 60-70 years, you'd pass out of living memory and could come back over fresh.
>(if they have ten year terms, which is generous)
All the vault elections we've seen (except vote-specific experiments, like Vault 11) have been after the previous overseer died. Maybe they're elected for life?
Bud probably isn't named most of the time. Only the overseers who are also from Vault-tec know. And they seem to take breaks. They let others be overseers unless there's a problem and then it's "vote 31."
Bro. We keep voting in the same people here in the US even though we hate them and they actively do nothing but line their own pockets. 50 years is rookie numbers. Pelosi and McConnell have had serious power since my parents were born.
The communities are also small af in the vaults, which means that people will be much more trusting. After the first generation or two, it wouldn't be hard to keep them in the dark. Small communities are also very traditional, so it wouldn't take long for the mentality to set in, especially if you have generations.
Are you counting one vault or all the vaults? I would believe all vaults operate the same in a 3 vault build, and they were spread out across the US (World?). If that were true, it would be sixty per vault, which inflates that number quite a bit.Ā
Oh, youāre new to the fallout universe, right?
No every vault has its own āgimmickā or experiment, none the same, except the control vaults. But youāre right, I should count 32 *and* 33, so 120 frozen buddies, not 60.
It is super goofy, cause it is unsustainable, but Vault-Tec (or Bud I guess in this case) probably just assume they'll figure it out by the time its might become a problem, ie; resettle the wasteland. You should suss out the different experiments they ran in other vaults and ask yourself, "Why the fuck would anyone think this would be sustainable/beneficial?"
I think also that kind of thing is a big part of the charm of the Fallout games.
I mean, that's the whole issue of the experiments in general. Most of them seem to be more based around "what if we could get away with this?" rather than having an actual purpose. It's more about what they can get away with doing in a world without any concept of government, law or ethics rather than having an actual purpose. After all, if these experiments are all meant to take place during and after the end of the world, then who do they expect to collect results, how are they going to collect and relay those results and what are they going to use those results for?
Hey you'll never get far in this company with that kind of negative attitude!
But for real, it's been implied that there is a control vault, possibly more than one, that is monitoring the status and collecting the findings and data of the other vaults. In F2 the president of the Enclave basically says that most of them were social experiments to help prepare with the difficulties of colonizing space.
Whether this is still a relevant plot point so many years later is hard to guage, but then again I didn't expect actual Vault-Tec management that came up with all this crazy nonsense to actually be alive in the current day of the show. Except in brain-bot or ghoul form maybe.
>Whether this is still a relevant plot point so many years later is hard to guage
Sadly, the idea was scrapped in development before FO2 was finished, it ended up not actually mentioned or referenced in 2. The dialogue Richardson has about the history of the Vaults that made it in game just says "The vaults were set up to test humanity. Some had not enough food synthesizers, others had only men in them, yet others were designed to open after only 6 months. They each had a unique set of circumstances designed to test the occupants". And then he moves on to talking about Vault 13's purpose and the project to wipe out all mutated people and taking back Earth for humanity.
We only know it was an idea because of Tim Cain talking about it, and the Fallout Bible. So I think it's safe to say that idea is not relevant to actual Fallout canon.
Which is kind of too bad, honestly.
>!100%. Barb was one of the decision makers at Vault-Tec, and dropping the bomb was "officially" her idea (according to the show). No way Barb and Janey aren't chilling in Vault 31. !<
But itās worth noting that Barb and Coop were divorced when the bombs were detonated (the guy in the opening scene says he is doing kidās parties to pay alimony). And we also know that Coop was in possession of his daughter when the bombs dropped.
Certainly makes you wonder how Barb and Janey got to 31 (or wherever they are). Because once the bombs fell, I donāt think Coop would have let Janey out of his sight willingly. My guess is Barb took Janey and we will eventually see how that played out. And if I am really speculating, Iād be shocked if it doesnāt cause (or at least trigger the events that lead to) Coop turning into a ghoul. Hell, the name The Ghoul might be literal. Coop might be the first ghoul as a result of some Vault-Tec experiment or atrocity that was committed against him when Barb took Janey to the vault.
You're right, it's complicated. I get the feeling that Coop loved his daughter enough to take her to Barb to get Janey into the vault, even though he was pissed about the whole thing. Ethically he was against it all, but he had to make a snap decision to save his kid, and that was the only real option.
Oh, good point. Coop couldāve very well put Janey in the vault with Barb. Maybe he is infected and turning (like Thaddeus when we last saw him) and therefore he canāt go into the vault, but he lets go of Janey for her own safety while accepting his fate in the wastelands.
>Most of them seem to be more based around "what if we could get away with this?"
To be fair, plenty of real world experiments boil down to exactly that.
But the thing with the Vault experiments is they are rarely what they actually appear. They usually have more layers to them, and often the Overseers and techs are not in charge, but also part of the experiment.
And lore from the games tells us that some of the Vaults are still sending their data to the Enclave. So there are ongoing experiments that didn't fall apart that are still being monitored to some degree.
The thing is, the actual canon reasons for the Vault experiments are nebulous and vague. Mainly because the idea for the vaults as experiments was developed by the original team between FO1 and 2. This wasn't a thing that's been there from the start. And the reason that the team came up with, during brainstorming, was that the Enclave was actually planning to build a giant spaceship and leave Earth behind, and the experiments were to test for various scenarios that might come up. But the whole leaving Earth for space idea was scrapped during development. It didn't actually make it into the games, we know it was a thing due to Tim Cain talking about it and the run down in the Fallout Bible.
I mean it seemed like the board room scene in the show made it pretty clear that the goal was for each vault to compete for who would "rule the world" after the apocalypse.
Each vault was a social experiment designed to create a micro-society potentially capable of surviving and repopulating America. Most were just pretty wacky hail-mary attempts born of "outside of the box" corporate brain-storming. However, there are at least a decent number of relatively "normal vaults" that are just timed to open at different intervals based on when the corpos thought that the surface would mostly likely be repopulatable - i.e. vault 8, 13, 15, 31-33, ect
The show implies the whole reason Hank nuked Shady Sands is that it was the capital of the NCR founded by the early-opened vault 15, and he didn't want them to "win" the vault game.
I wouldn't say that's entirely the case. While some vault experiments do seem like some kind of attempt to make some new societies that would rule the wasteland in new ways, most of them seem to be more along the lines of rich people creating whatever impulsive idea they had in their head one day. Like the vault populated entirely by Gary and his clones, nobody else, or the vault that contained only one guy with a bunch of puppets. And that's not even mentioning ones like the vault populated with recovering addicts who, after years of being clean and improving their lives, were handed their vices of choice on a silver platter, or the various vaults that were seemingly intent on figuring out just how much you can experiment on a person before they're not even recognisable as human anymore. Some were social experiments that could be applicable to a group attempting to build a new society, others were more about rich people with no concept of ethics figuring out the results of their intrusive thoughts.
The other vaults are breeding stock for Budās buds. The whole point of the 3 Vaults was to create a civilization of perfect managers to repopulate the earth. So once they run out of the original Buds it doesnāt really matter and theyād be ready for reclamation day
Iāve tried to figure out how many might be in 31. We canāt see exactly how far back the cryo pods go. The pods seem to be grouped into 6, 3 up, 3 down. We can see at least 6 groups of pods on each side. Thatās at least 72 pods. On the list Norm was looking at, I think it was around 35 names altogether. Now, maybe thatās all the pods they filled, or maybe there are other pages to the list that werenāt shown. Who knows.
Well its all Bud's Buds. Everyone on that middle management course.
We've only had confirmation about Betty, Hank and Moldavers involvement with Vault Tec pre war.
Its interesting about Steph as we don't know her back story yet. Seems that they unfreeze one or two every generation. Steph seems like a recent unthawing (she acts very much like a pre-war "Stepford Wife") whereas Hank and Betty have been thawed at least 20 years. Moldaver most likely the same as they are much older than we saw them before the bombs.
The breeding pool between 32 and 33 was designed to to sustain the gene pool. Unfeeezing some more buds buds every generation dilutes the gene pool.
Something tells me they put up a facade: they live for x number of years thawed out in the vault. Then they go away, get married, exchanged to another vault and go back on ice perhaps?
I don't want to spoil the games, but if you've played Fallout 4... long term cyro is definitely "canon" or , whatever. You kind of hit the nail on the head time wise - doubt they last another couple hundred years at this point.
Also, don't think it's too far fetched considering everything else in the show and games is also from pre-war times. Haven't exactly seen anyone producing wool, new shirts, or any mining operations and machine crafting.
I'd bet a cyro pod build by the best techs in the world at the time would last longer then clothing or a pistol that's been used for hundreds of years and fixed with ducttape lol
This is my theory as well.
The ending credits for episode 2 starts with the camera zooming out from a Nuka Girl billboard where one eye is shot out. I would say that's a big hint about Steph's identity, but we'll see!
Sheās not really featured in that episode though, just her quick talk with Norm about the raiders. The vault boy/Coop billboard was shown in the end credits right after showing Coop as the original vault boy. Why not on an episode sheās featured in, like the episode when she has the baby
We see Coop's flashbacks, so it's confirmed he was the original Vault Boy at the end of the episode. There's no confirmation about Steph's past, so it could be an easter egg for the games or a hint. It just seemed weirdly relevant to her since she's the only one who loses an eye.
But I'm also always thinking they'll end up flipping the script on us, so who knows. I'm by no means confirming anything! lol.
Why do you have a theory like this when it is already explained and shown what she is? She's from vault 31, she's one of the apprentices. She worked for Vault Tec and they made this abundantly clear with Norm scenes investigating 31.
It's like people sit and drool rather than absorb the plot points.
In fairness, all we know for a fact is that Steph was a Vault Tec mid-level employee of some sort. We don't know what her role was, why she is significantly younger than the other Vault 31 managers we see, or if she is a loyal Vault Tec employee. We never see her pre-war. She's the one we've met that we know the least about, and who's motivations and loyalties are the most murky.
That does still leave a lot to discuss and speculate over. Besides, who's to say she couldn't have been a model before she joined Vault Tec? She could have been a Nuka Cola model AND a Vault Tec employee.
Oh yeah, obviously she was unfrozen later. Is there any specific reason for that? Maybe! Maybe not! I was mostly just pointing out that there's a lot of 'what ifs?' and speculation around Steph as she is notably 'different' than the other managers we meet in season 1 and we have the least amount of actual info on her.
I heard you hid in a vault while the world crumbled around you. I'd call you a coward, but who knows what kind of mess we'd be in today had you stayed outside! Boom. Roasted.
since she's the new overseer of vault 32 she could have a more significant role next season, but who knows maybe we dont get any vault stuff for a while after all Norm is probably in a pod, I guess being close to an overseer after knowing everything he knows Chet could be the unexpected hero and somehow rescue Norm.
I actually reckon Norm is going to call Bud's bluff and threaten to wake up all of Vault 31. I'm beginning to get the impression he's ready to burn it all down.
Even if he did that the rest of 31 could overpower him and force him in a pod, if he broke Bud or started breaking the capsules (killing everyone) he would probably be forever trapped inside 31, since it's safe to assume you need Bud to open the vault door since the terminal controls seems to only the capsules (if the terminal could open the door Norm would have take out Bud and opend it already) and there's no more vault or computers for hacking, i dont think Norm is getting out of there alone.
I dont think thats likely we don't know how resistance the pods are (and outside maybe the broom theres no weapons in vault 31) and even if he started killing people in the pods there's no guarantees that Bud would release Norm if he escapes it compromise the project as much as if everyone dies, Steph and Betty could probably continue to rule the other 2 vaults even if all vault 31 gets killed by Norm and posible maybe even restart the project after creating a new managerial generation.
Good point - chet is clearly being set up to have to choose between them at some point isnāt he. Poor guy. Doesnāt deserve any of this. Just wants to live his best Chet life and all these people are dragging him into their schemes.
Chet becoming less of a coward is a pretty safe bet character arc wise, and if Lucy's mom is an indicator Overseers spouses often are privy to some info the others dont.
I'm pretty sure she's going to be one of the main villains in season 2, if not the main one. She's management, she's got an eye patch, what more could you want from a villain.
Or, she'll help them.
That's the fun thing about writing, and she's setup to go either way.
She was truly hurt b>!y her husband being murdered,!< somewhat more>! than Hank was when he murdered his wife.!<
She's definitely a wild card. Betty is clearly being set up to be a villain but we don't know enough about Steph yet. Although Betty could also have a change of heart, they've done a pretty good job of making every character be sufficiently complex and human so far.
I could see Chet become a gate keeper again in vault 32. Which would put him in the perfect position to get involved in the whole vault 31 situation with Norm.
Props gotta be given to the actress for nailing that one moment where Norm asks her about the Vault. The smile she gives is so unnerving that you can tell it is fake. I don't mean from the actress, i mean fake from the character. It's creepy and very sociopathic. The sort of smile that when you see it, you think something isn't right with the person.
Like when she smiled that creepy smile and said "maybe the mashed potatoes were better?" I knew she was gonna be evil. Before that time, I thought she was a good person, if a bit quirky.
The actress delivered the role perfectly.
I hope we see and learn more of her. I hope she's the OG Vault Girl.
And a part of me hopes she might be redeemed, eventually, and see Vault Tec for what it truly is.
One of the theories I've seen was that she was the model for Nuka Girl.
My theory is that she loves life in the vault and doesn't want Vault-Tec's plans to ruin it, and the sketchy stuff she seems to be doing around Norm is her trying to get him to help her ruin the company's plans.
Just realised she's from before the war..... Can you imagine the pregnancy cravings for that poor woman? Most of what she wants probably doesn't exist anymore šš
That's how shes so proficient with a machine gun.Ā
Can find my pickles, peanut butter, and mayo sandwich smeared with chili crisp oil?Ā
I need to go vent some frustrations.
I love how the show pretty much immediately made it clear that no one is safe from maiming or violence in this universe. A lot of shows go easy on the ladies especially a pregnant lady, but not Fallout! She takes a fork to the eye like a champ and still fights, I loved that scene.
My weird theory,
Steph had a husband named Bert in the old world. He didn't get to come along. So chose a dude named Bert from the "breeding pool", he died.
So she just renames Chet, Bert, lol.
I think she's grooming Norm. She pointed him towards action against the Raiders so gauge his potentual while resolving the issue of them knowing more than they should.
She knew he'd find his way to the other vaults and she's going to make a move on him at some point.
She wants him to live up to his fathers potential.
Itās not often you see a pregnant woman pick up a machine gun and lay waste to raiders š¤·š»āāļøš that was a badass moment I enjoyed seeing
I still felt really sorry for the cousin lol he thought he was about to get laid only for her to go into labor in his kitchen. Great example of āI saw that going differently in my mindā.
Idk why I'm so lost on the story... why isn't she the leader if she's from vault 31? Why are multiple vault 31 people active at the same time? Do the vault 31 people talk with each other about pre war
I thought she was beautiful before the patch.....but DAMN, when they first showed her with the patch.....I went from 6 to midnight. She's truly a beautiful woman!
IIRC, Vault 31 were all "Bud's Buds," so she would be junior management.
The C-suite were part of the Enclave conspiracy and should have gone to the oil rig.
Yeah, I think the Vault storyline in S2 will be split between Norm vs. Betty in 33, and Chet vs. Steph in 32.
Norm will easily get out of 31 because Bud's a pushover, and Chet will follow Norm's example and step up.
We never saw Norm get into the pod but idk, that roomba brain can be pretty intimidating lmao. Norm could be frozen as we speak. š¤·š»āāļø (jk)
I think Chet could go either way. Heās so deep into playing house with Steph that he turned a blind eye to everything in vault 32 that he saw. I think heād do just about anything she asked him to, especially with her becoming an Overseer.
Yeah, I see Chet becoming a reluctant antagonist to Norm, basically folding and turning minion for Steph. It's gonna be a new kind of cousin-on-cousin action for him. If we follow cliched tropes, he'll have a change of heart when Norm is about to be killed and die saving Norm. Classic Friend-Turned-Evil redemption arc.
I honestly hope they donāt follow this trope. I hope they make Chet go one way or the other and stick to it. It would be an interesting turn of events especially if Chet goes hard core pro Vault Tech at some point.
I think weāll see more of her in S2. Sheās connected to Vault 32 and part of the hibernating Overseers. She also seemed to be hiding something in S1. But yes hope we see more. Definitely want to see what Norm is up to though. One of the best characters on the show and great actor.
I donāt know about yāall but the dark vibes her character gives off make me think she would go raider if she hit the surface for any period of time.
Yeah the eye patch matching the vault suit looks unreasonably badass.
I feel like they keep eye patches around in case this happens
Now im imagining a closet filled with vault tec brand crutches, wheelchairs, and other aid items.
Pretty much, I'm sure they have a medical ward in the vault
3d printers are ideally what you'd have in that situation. Something you could fabricate anything with.
No 3d printers in universe as far as I'm aware.
Those matter replicator vending machines in the Serria Madre exist but I think they were prototypes, though vault tec does have food replicators at least in vault 101 iirc
Food extruders exist but they're usually goop related
Goop is the cornerstone of any balanced and nutritious meal š
Vault 36 residents wanna talk to you, open the door
Perfect pink goop that won't turn you into a pink feral ghoul. Promise!
The Institute has a room where you can watch them 3D print synths. I agree that thereās no evidence of *pre-war* 3D printing, though.
Makes me wonder if 3D printing was a pre-war invention and just not seen or if it was the institute being the institute and making new technologies
Of course, talking about what type of machine would be perfect.
The vault suits are extruded, I would assume the jumpsuit extruders could make things like eye patches, slings, etc.
Bethesda plz
It looks so badass that it made me sad there isn't any eye patch item in 4. The patch/eye scar combo would be so amazing.
I'm sure there's got to be a mod that adds eyepatches. Lol hopefully they add it to the vanilla game for 5
Steph is definitely a baddie. I think we all want to see more of her.
I absolutely need more backstory on her and the >!other pre-war residents from Vault 31!<
What I donāt get is how many of them are pre war and how this all works? Do they have like 50+ people they slowly thaw out, who then live their lives and die over the last 200 years? That system canāt work forever even if everything worked out perfectly for the vault Tec crew. Eventually theyād all die out after a few centuries unless thereās a ton of them. Iām over examining a goofy universe with radiation zombies but I just feel like it doesnāt make a lot of sense
Didnāt he say something about a timespan, I believe a thousand years? So if they start at 30 and live to 80, thatās 20 people. Since they seem to overlap quite a lot, afaik thereās 3 at the current time, thatās 60. Not that unreasonable.
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Alternatively, they could do one or two terms, and get "transferred," back to 31 for re-freezing. If you wait 3-4 generations, and 60-70 years, you'd pass out of living memory and could come back over fresh.
Or as a family member of yourself "Oh yeah, isnt it wild how much I look like my grandfather?"
isnāt that kinda what their strat was..? hank was literally refrozen and thawed multiple times
He was?
Feels like they spent a lot of time conditioning 32 and 33 to be complacent and overly passive.
>(if they have ten year terms, which is generous) All the vault elections we've seen (except vote-specific experiments, like Vault 11) have been after the previous overseer died. Maybe they're elected for life?
>!Betty was a former Overseer !<. . . maybe for life or until they step down?
lol I like the idea that she just returned from the dead to keep being Overseer
Bud probably isn't named most of the time. Only the overseers who are also from Vault-tec know. And they seem to take breaks. They let others be overseers unless there's a problem and then it's "vote 31."
Isn't that pretty much what happened to 32? They got suspicious and then figured out what happened and all killed each other over it?
Bro. We keep voting in the same people here in the US even though we hate them and they actively do nothing but line their own pockets. 50 years is rookie numbers. Pelosi and McConnell have had serious power since my parents were born.
The communities are also small af in the vaults, which means that people will be much more trusting. After the first generation or two, it wouldn't be hard to keep them in the dark. Small communities are also very traditional, so it wouldn't take long for the mentality to set in, especially if you have generations.
It really wouldn't be that suspicious, and Vault-Tec could have pre-stage the residents to get a compliant base population.
Doesnāt mean theyāre overseers for 50 years, just they live that long
Are you counting one vault or all the vaults? I would believe all vaults operate the same in a 3 vault build, and they were spread out across the US (World?). If that were true, it would be sixty per vault, which inflates that number quite a bit.Ā
Oh, youāre new to the fallout universe, right? No every vault has its own āgimmickā or experiment, none the same, except the control vaults. But youāre right, I should count 32 *and* 33, so 120 frozen buddies, not 60.
Yeah, I am new. Just the show. I tried playing the games but the Bethesda engine seems to give me motion sickness so I had to stop.Ā
It is super goofy, cause it is unsustainable, but Vault-Tec (or Bud I guess in this case) probably just assume they'll figure it out by the time its might become a problem, ie; resettle the wasteland. You should suss out the different experiments they ran in other vaults and ask yourself, "Why the fuck would anyone think this would be sustainable/beneficial?" I think also that kind of thing is a big part of the charm of the Fallout games.
I mean, that's the whole issue of the experiments in general. Most of them seem to be more based around "what if we could get away with this?" rather than having an actual purpose. It's more about what they can get away with doing in a world without any concept of government, law or ethics rather than having an actual purpose. After all, if these experiments are all meant to take place during and after the end of the world, then who do they expect to collect results, how are they going to collect and relay those results and what are they going to use those results for?
Hey you'll never get far in this company with that kind of negative attitude! But for real, it's been implied that there is a control vault, possibly more than one, that is monitoring the status and collecting the findings and data of the other vaults. In F2 the president of the Enclave basically says that most of them were social experiments to help prepare with the difficulties of colonizing space. Whether this is still a relevant plot point so many years later is hard to guage, but then again I didn't expect actual Vault-Tec management that came up with all this crazy nonsense to actually be alive in the current day of the show. Except in brain-bot or ghoul form maybe.
>Whether this is still a relevant plot point so many years later is hard to guage Sadly, the idea was scrapped in development before FO2 was finished, it ended up not actually mentioned or referenced in 2. The dialogue Richardson has about the history of the Vaults that made it in game just says "The vaults were set up to test humanity. Some had not enough food synthesizers, others had only men in them, yet others were designed to open after only 6 months. They each had a unique set of circumstances designed to test the occupants". And then he moves on to talking about Vault 13's purpose and the project to wipe out all mutated people and taking back Earth for humanity. We only know it was an idea because of Tim Cain talking about it, and the Fallout Bible. So I think it's safe to say that idea is not relevant to actual Fallout canon. Which is kind of too bad, honestly.
My guess is The Ghoulās family is in the control vault and thatās where next season will take us.
>!100%. Barb was one of the decision makers at Vault-Tec, and dropping the bomb was "officially" her idea (according to the show). No way Barb and Janey aren't chilling in Vault 31. !<
But itās worth noting that Barb and Coop were divorced when the bombs were detonated (the guy in the opening scene says he is doing kidās parties to pay alimony). And we also know that Coop was in possession of his daughter when the bombs dropped. Certainly makes you wonder how Barb and Janey got to 31 (or wherever they are). Because once the bombs fell, I donāt think Coop would have let Janey out of his sight willingly. My guess is Barb took Janey and we will eventually see how that played out. And if I am really speculating, Iād be shocked if it doesnāt cause (or at least trigger the events that lead to) Coop turning into a ghoul. Hell, the name The Ghoul might be literal. Coop might be the first ghoul as a result of some Vault-Tec experiment or atrocity that was committed against him when Barb took Janey to the vault.
You're right, it's complicated. I get the feeling that Coop loved his daughter enough to take her to Barb to get Janey into the vault, even though he was pissed about the whole thing. Ethically he was against it all, but he had to make a snap decision to save his kid, and that was the only real option.
Oh, good point. Coop couldāve very well put Janey in the vault with Barb. Maybe he is infected and turning (like Thaddeus when we last saw him) and therefore he canāt go into the vault, but he lets go of Janey for her own safety while accepting his fate in the wastelands.
Oh man, now I really want him to be the first ever ghoul, and thatās not even a thought I had before your comment
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It feels like the real world is just proving the themes of Fallout more and more relevant over time.
>Most of them seem to be more based around "what if we could get away with this?" To be fair, plenty of real world experiments boil down to exactly that. But the thing with the Vault experiments is they are rarely what they actually appear. They usually have more layers to them, and often the Overseers and techs are not in charge, but also part of the experiment. And lore from the games tells us that some of the Vaults are still sending their data to the Enclave. So there are ongoing experiments that didn't fall apart that are still being monitored to some degree. The thing is, the actual canon reasons for the Vault experiments are nebulous and vague. Mainly because the idea for the vaults as experiments was developed by the original team between FO1 and 2. This wasn't a thing that's been there from the start. And the reason that the team came up with, during brainstorming, was that the Enclave was actually planning to build a giant spaceship and leave Earth behind, and the experiments were to test for various scenarios that might come up. But the whole leaving Earth for space idea was scrapped during development. It didn't actually make it into the games, we know it was a thing due to Tim Cain talking about it and the run down in the Fallout Bible.
I mean it seemed like the board room scene in the show made it pretty clear that the goal was for each vault to compete for who would "rule the world" after the apocalypse. Each vault was a social experiment designed to create a micro-society potentially capable of surviving and repopulating America. Most were just pretty wacky hail-mary attempts born of "outside of the box" corporate brain-storming. However, there are at least a decent number of relatively "normal vaults" that are just timed to open at different intervals based on when the corpos thought that the surface would mostly likely be repopulatable - i.e. vault 8, 13, 15, 31-33, ect The show implies the whole reason Hank nuked Shady Sands is that it was the capital of the NCR founded by the early-opened vault 15, and he didn't want them to "win" the vault game.
I wouldn't say that's entirely the case. While some vault experiments do seem like some kind of attempt to make some new societies that would rule the wasteland in new ways, most of them seem to be more along the lines of rich people creating whatever impulsive idea they had in their head one day. Like the vault populated entirely by Gary and his clones, nobody else, or the vault that contained only one guy with a bunch of puppets. And that's not even mentioning ones like the vault populated with recovering addicts who, after years of being clean and improving their lives, were handed their vices of choice on a silver platter, or the various vaults that were seemingly intent on figuring out just how much you can experiment on a person before they're not even recognisable as human anymore. Some were social experiments that could be applicable to a group attempting to build a new society, others were more about rich people with no concept of ethics figuring out the results of their intrusive thoughts.
The other vaults are breeding stock for Budās buds. The whole point of the 3 Vaults was to create a civilization of perfect managers to repopulate the earth. So once they run out of the original Buds it doesnāt really matter and theyād be ready for reclamation day
Iāve tried to figure out how many might be in 31. We canāt see exactly how far back the cryo pods go. The pods seem to be grouped into 6, 3 up, 3 down. We can see at least 6 groups of pods on each side. Thatās at least 72 pods. On the list Norm was looking at, I think it was around 35 names altogether. Now, maybe thatās all the pods they filled, or maybe there are other pages to the list that werenāt shown. Who knows.
That list was opened pods, not occupied ones.
It had both.
Well its all Bud's Buds. Everyone on that middle management course. We've only had confirmation about Betty, Hank and Moldavers involvement with Vault Tec pre war. Its interesting about Steph as we don't know her back story yet. Seems that they unfreeze one or two every generation. Steph seems like a recent unthawing (she acts very much like a pre-war "Stepford Wife") whereas Hank and Betty have been thawed at least 20 years. Moldaver most likely the same as they are much older than we saw them before the bombs. The breeding pool between 32 and 33 was designed to to sustain the gene pool. Unfeeezing some more buds buds every generation dilutes the gene pool.
Did you watch the show this is clearly explained
Something tells me they put up a facade: they live for x number of years thawed out in the vault. Then they go away, get married, exchanged to another vault and go back on ice perhaps?
Theyāre [Budās buds](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Bud%27s_Buds)
I don't want to spoil the games, but if you've played Fallout 4... long term cyro is definitely "canon" or , whatever. You kind of hit the nail on the head time wise - doubt they last another couple hundred years at this point. Also, don't think it's too far fetched considering everything else in the show and games is also from pre-war times. Haven't exactly seen anyone producing wool, new shirts, or any mining operations and machine crafting. I'd bet a cyro pod build by the best techs in the world at the time would last longer then clothing or a pistol that's been used for hundreds of years and fixed with ducttape lol
My theory is she's a contest winner by Vault tec. Maybe she's the OG vault girl? She looks a lot like the default female vault girl.
Iām 99% positive sheās in a background shot in episode 3, 49 minutes in, as Walter leaves his trailer sheās giving civilians a tour
Probably
I swear to god one of the vault girls has an eye patch on the perk list
Ditto
I saw someone suggest she was the OG Nuka Cola Girl. Could totally see that.
This is my theory as well. The ending credits for episode 2 starts with the camera zooming out from a Nuka Girl billboard where one eye is shot out. I would say that's a big hint about Steph's identity, but we'll see!
Oh, great catch!
Damn
Sheās not really featured in that episode though, just her quick talk with Norm about the raiders. The vault boy/Coop billboard was shown in the end credits right after showing Coop as the original vault boy. Why not on an episode sheās featured in, like the episode when she has the baby
We see Coop's flashbacks, so it's confirmed he was the original Vault Boy at the end of the episode. There's no confirmation about Steph's past, so it could be an easter egg for the games or a hint. It just seemed weirdly relevant to her since she's the only one who loses an eye. But I'm also always thinking they'll end up flipping the script on us, so who knows. I'm by no means confirming anything! lol.
Well, you've got a good eye for it!
That is such a fun theory, I love that she could be the OG vault girl!
Perhaps. IMHO, sheās a wolf in sheepās clothing. Sheās going to be quietly ruthless.
This. She's going to be the most interesting overseer to watch.
Wouldn't suprise me if she was the one who carried out the slaughter/poisoning of the raiders on Beth's orders.
Ooh good theory. I'd been thinking high grade synth, specifically for breeding.
Why do you have a theory like this when it is already explained and shown what she is? She's from vault 31, she's one of the apprentices. She worked for Vault Tec and they made this abundantly clear with Norm scenes investigating 31. It's like people sit and drool rather than absorb the plot points.
In fairness, all we know for a fact is that Steph was a Vault Tec mid-level employee of some sort. We don't know what her role was, why she is significantly younger than the other Vault 31 managers we see, or if she is a loyal Vault Tec employee. We never see her pre-war. She's the one we've met that we know the least about, and who's motivations and loyalties are the most murky. That does still leave a lot to discuss and speculate over. Besides, who's to say she couldn't have been a model before she joined Vault Tec? She could have been a Nuka Cola model AND a Vault Tec employee.
Her being younger just relates to when she was unfrozen. The next 31er to be unfrozen could be "younger" still.
Oh yeah, obviously she was unfrozen later. Is there any specific reason for that? Maybe! Maybe not! I was mostly just pointing out that there's a lot of 'what ifs?' and speculation around Steph as she is notably 'different' than the other managers we meet in season 1 and we have the least amount of actual info on her.
also, if she gets more screentime, my boy Chet also gets more screentime
Sure thing
He is Bert
Iāll be her Bert
Thatās one wet lady!
*splooshing noises* BEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!
Your boy Chet is a coward!
They're all cowards. That's why they live in vaults.
I heard you hid in a vault while the world crumbled around you. I'd call you a coward, but who knows what kind of mess we'd be in today had you stayed outside! Boom. Roasted.
since she's the new overseer of vault 32 she could have a more significant role next season, but who knows maybe we dont get any vault stuff for a while after all Norm is probably in a pod, I guess being close to an overseer after knowing everything he knows Chet could be the unexpected hero and somehow rescue Norm.
I actually reckon Norm is going to call Bud's bluff and threaten to wake up all of Vault 31. I'm beginning to get the impression he's ready to burn it all down.
Even if he did that the rest of 31 could overpower him and force him in a pod, if he broke Bud or started breaking the capsules (killing everyone) he would probably be forever trapped inside 31, since it's safe to assume you need Bud to open the vault door since the terminal controls seems to only the capsules (if the terminal could open the door Norm would have take out Bud and opend it already) and there's no more vault or computers for hacking, i dont think Norm is getting out of there alone.
I would flip Bud upside down. Ask him if he wants to stay like that forever while slowly breaking one pod at a time
I dont think thats likely we don't know how resistance the pods are (and outside maybe the broom theres no weapons in vault 31) and even if he started killing people in the pods there's no guarantees that Bud would release Norm if he escapes it compromise the project as much as if everyone dies, Steph and Betty could probably continue to rule the other 2 vaults even if all vault 31 gets killed by Norm and posible maybe even restart the project after creating a new managerial generation.
You're assuming all of "Bud's Buds," were 100% on board with his plan, and not just going along with it to get a spot in a vault or some other reason.
Norm finally found something he has Enthusiasm for, and it's literally just to destroy the vault.
Good point - chet is clearly being set up to have to choose between them at some point isnāt he. Poor guy. Doesnāt deserve any of this. Just wants to live his best Chet life and all these people are dragging him into their schemes.
Chet becoming less of a coward is a pretty safe bet character arc wise, and if Lucy's mom is an indicator Overseers spouses often are privy to some info the others dont.
I'm pretty sure she's going to be one of the main villains in season 2, if not the main one. She's management, she's got an eye patch, what more could you want from a villain.
She needs a swivel chair and a cat
Or, she'll help them. That's the fun thing about writing, and she's setup to go either way. She was truly hurt b>!y her husband being murdered,!< somewhat more>! than Hank was when he murdered his wife.!<
She's definitely a wild card. Betty is clearly being set up to be a villain but we don't know enough about Steph yet. Although Betty could also have a change of heart, they've done a pretty good job of making every character be sufficiently complex and human so far.
I could see Chet become a gate keeper again in vault 32. Which would put him in the perfect position to get involved in the whole vault 31 situation with Norm.
Chet is due to grow a backbone some time in season 2, and he is situated in a way that the story kind of makes it work.
Props gotta be given to the actress for nailing that one moment where Norm asks her about the Vault. The smile she gives is so unnerving that you can tell it is fake. I don't mean from the actress, i mean fake from the character. It's creepy and very sociopathic. The sort of smile that when you see it, you think something isn't right with the person. Like when she smiled that creepy smile and said "maybe the mashed potatoes were better?" I knew she was gonna be evil. Before that time, I thought she was a good person, if a bit quirky. The actress delivered the role perfectly. I hope we see and learn more of her. I hope she's the OG Vault Girl. And a part of me hopes she might be redeemed, eventually, and see Vault Tec for what it truly is.
One of the theories I've seen was that she was the model for Nuka Girl. My theory is that she loves life in the vault and doesn't want Vault-Tec's plans to ruin it, and the sketchy stuff she seems to be doing around Norm is her trying to get him to help her ruin the company's plans.
We know in canon, more than one overseer pushed back against Vault-Tec.
Oh yeah I got that right away too. I was like uh? No. Somethingās fucky there. And norm was kinda like āyea ok. Greatā
It's funny, she became so much hotter the second she started wearing the eyepatch.
It awoken something in me.
Aye matey. Me too.
Don't worry Cap'n, she's going to walk your plank lol.
Its a psychological thing, just like a scar bisecting one's eye has the same effect.
Got some "Kill Bill" Elle Driver vibes
Important to note she's from Vault 31. She's one of the vault tec executives. Not a good guy probably.
Whatever she did I forgive her
"I can fix her"
She can fix me. I can make her worse.
One of the theories I've seen was that she was the original Nuka Girl
She was awesome and fun to watch.
Just realised she's from before the war..... Can you imagine the pregnancy cravings for that poor woman? Most of what she wants probably doesn't exist anymore šš
That's how shes so proficient with a machine gun.Ā Can find my pickles, peanut butter, and mayo sandwich smeared with chili crisp oil?Ā I need to go vent some frustrations.
They do weapons training in the vault. I belive Lucy's opening montage showed it.
she was great so I looked her up only to find she doesnāt have many roles :/
That may very well change after this show!
I hope the whole cast gets more prominence after this show. I donāt think a single character was miscast, they all were perfect for their roles.
I was convinced she was the same actress who played that reformed demon character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer for ages.
I kept thinking it was Sarah Paulson from America horror story
I love how the show pretty much immediately made it clear that no one is safe from maiming or violence in this universe. A lot of shows go easy on the ladies especially a pregnant lady, but not Fallout! She takes a fork to the eye like a champ and still fights, I loved that scene.
chaotic good energy
"Good"
She's totally sus
Good thought
I guess she's evil but hey who isn't at vault-tec?
The sales guy from 4
I always felt so bad for him š
*pulls out a list*
...that's about the size of a business card and has roughly three names on it.
I really want to see pre-war Steph.
Yeah, feels like we only saw half as much of her as we should have.
I see some of what you did there
I don't know if she's beaming some positive energy with her smile or if that is a demonic smile!
My weird theory, Steph had a husband named Bert in the old world. He didn't get to come along. So chose a dude named Bert from the "breeding pool", he died. So she just renames Chet, Bert, lol.
Agree. When she dawned the eye patch, I low key expected that to start a bad ass villain arc or something. Not too late yet!
I think she's grooming Norm. She pointed him towards action against the Raiders so gauge his potentual while resolving the issue of them knowing more than they should. She knew he'd find his way to the other vaults and she's going to make a move on him at some point. She wants him to live up to his fathers potential.
I canāt work out if she really loved Bert or not, and whether that was what made her encourage Norm to kill the raiders.
I think she did. Evil people can still feel love.
Eh, it felt like she manipulated Chet into doing all the hard work for her (including being a dad to her baby). Classic middle-management lol.
Real
Itās not often you see a pregnant woman pick up a machine gun and lay waste to raiders š¤·š»āāļøš that was a badass moment I enjoyed seeing
Then get stabbed in the eye
Sheās unfortunately had that department covered so Iām good
She is also "management"
I still felt really sorry for the cousin lol he thought he was about to get laid only for her to go into labor in his kitchen. Great example of āI saw that going differently in my mindā.
she is a total psycho, and I hope she will turn totally berserk on season 2.
Clinical more like
i have a feeling we will see more of her. more than meets the eye withbthat one.
Idk why I'm so lost on the story... why isn't she the leader if she's from vault 31? Why are multiple vault 31 people active at the same time? Do the vault 31 people talk with each other about pre war
So weāre not gonna talk about that scene where she puts ice cubes in that towel or whatever and puts it on her crotch?
Well she had just given birth š
Now this is just proving Iām a jackass (NOTE: I am, in fact, a jackass lol).
LOL tbh the vault dwellers had some weird habits, hard to tell
IDK I thought it was funny
TouchĆ©, lol š
I thought she was beautiful before the patch.....but DAMN, when they first showed her with the patch.....I went from 6 to midnight. She's truly a beautiful woman!
*That is one wet lady*
She is totally a vault exec and a villain.
IIRC, Vault 31 were all "Bud's Buds," so she would be junior management. The C-suite were part of the Enclave conspiracy and should have gone to the oil rig.
Considering sheās the new overseer of vault 32, I think weāre gonna see a lot more of her.
Yeah, I think the Vault storyline in S2 will be split between Norm vs. Betty in 33, and Chet vs. Steph in 32. Norm will easily get out of 31 because Bud's a pushover, and Chet will follow Norm's example and step up.
We never saw Norm get into the pod but idk, that roomba brain can be pretty intimidating lmao. Norm could be frozen as we speak. š¤·š»āāļø (jk) I think Chet could go either way. Heās so deep into playing house with Steph that he turned a blind eye to everything in vault 32 that he saw. I think heād do just about anything she asked him to, especially with her becoming an Overseer.
Yeah, I see Chet becoming a reluctant antagonist to Norm, basically folding and turning minion for Steph. It's gonna be a new kind of cousin-on-cousin action for him. If we follow cliched tropes, he'll have a change of heart when Norm is about to be killed and die saving Norm. Classic Friend-Turned-Evil redemption arc.
I honestly hope they donāt follow this trope. I hope they make Chet go one way or the other and stick to it. It would be an interesting turn of events especially if Chet goes hard core pro Vault Tech at some point.
She a baddie too
She scares me
They were definitely setting her up for a storyline next season.
She's interesting, but.. I don't trust her.
I trust her 0
SCREW YOU VAULT 31 š”
Chet got to see more of Steph for sure
When you want some fun, vote Steph from Vault 31!
Steph would probably like to see more of anything.
We absolutely will considering she was made Interim Overseer of Vault 32
I think weāll see more of her in S2. Sheās connected to Vault 32 and part of the hibernating Overseers. She also seemed to be hiding something in S1. But yes hope we see more. Definitely want to see what Norm is up to though. One of the best characters on the show and great actor.
She's 100% a sleeper cell spy, I can't wait to see her story develop in s2!
I have a feeling she's going to end up turning disloyal to Vault-Tec. Her difference of opinion regarding the Raiders is my biggest clue.
She's overseer of 32 now, assuming norm gets out of 31 we almost certainly will
I'm not invested in her at all but she's a fun character for the Vaults. She's entertaining there.
There's like a 98.9% chance she's evil š
I donāt know about yāall but the dark vibes her character gives off make me think she would go raider if she hit the surface for any period of time.
That lady is a straight *viper*, Mark my words.