Screenwriting, Lyrics, Art, and Investigation
Four main characters in Season One of Fallout have their own separate Story Enneagrams. We don’t meet Maximus until halfway through Episode One when he’s thrust upon us. It’s not a heroic introduction.
ONE
Fellow companions of the Brotherhood haze Maximus. In class he fails tests and looks like a dunce.
Continue reading “Fallout Enneagram: MAXIMUS, TWO”Four main characters in Season One of Fallout have their own separate Story Enneagrams. Lucy is the first post-apocalypse character we meet in the series.
ONE
Lucy is selected to breed. Let’s not sugarcoat her opening situation. Although she’s cheerful and spunky, she, like every other person of a certain age in the Vault 31-32-33 triangle, is forced to marry a stranger. The show encourages us to gloss over those details.
TWO
Continuing Episode One, Moldaver kidnaps Hank. Not until the final episode do we learn why. This is such very clear Trouble for Lucy. Even her violent raider husband wouldn’t prompt her to leave the vault. It’s only her beloved father who jump-starts her journey. Also, Moldaver tells her, “You look like your mother.” This is another mystery unsolved until the finale. Although it hides in the background, this comment is part of the Trouble.
THREE
Lucy exits the vault. The opening of the door to Vault 33 is the Three. Interestingly, it’s also Norm’s Three (which we’ll see in a later post). The Sixes for each character are very different. I really like that their stories lead them in different directions after they share this beat.
Continue reading “Fallout Enneagram: LUCY MACLEAN, ONE”Four main characters in Season One of Fallout have their own separate Story Enneagrams. The entire season begins with Coop, so let’s start with him. He’s the only character to have a —
LEFTOVER NINE
Cowboy Coop performing tricks for a child’s birthday party is a brilliant choice. We see the pre-apocalypse world, and then the moment when the bombs fall and it all ends. Clues about Coop are dropped: he’s paying alimony, he’s famous (or infamous) for a thumbs-up gesture, and he’s called a Commie. Much later in the season these quick throwaway lines will gain context. However, some moments aren’t explained. Where is Janey? How does Coop go from riding a horse ahead of the fallout to becoming a 200 year old ghoul? Structurally, this is a beautiful Leftover Nine. Hopefully, Season Two will have a Leftover Nine that continues to answer these questions.
ONE
The entirety of Episode One goes by before Coop returns. In the cemetery bounty hunters dig up Ghoul Coop. His character is completely changed, or so it seems.
Continue reading “Fallout Enneagram: COOPER HOWARD, THREE”
I’m reminded of a post from just over a year ago.
I told you I would be working on an Encaustic/Enneagram book. The above photo is of a wall in my studio. These are the pieces I so enthusiastically anticipated finishing. I hung them so that I could look at them every day and continue to think about how to make them better. They’ve sat like this for many months now.
Frankly, I don’t think I’m a good enough artist to bring these pieces to fruition at this time. Even the ones that are close to finished don’t tell me how they can be made better. I don’t have 10,000 hours of encaustic time, and it shows.
I wanted to be honest. The process is as important as the product to me. I’m still excited for the project, though. I like the idea, and some day I will continue. Meanwhile, this wall of incompletion waits for me.
Episode 8, the finale, of the Fallout TV series . . .
ONE
Maximus rides in a vertibird crossing the Wasteland. Two Knights in full battle armor stare at him with their inscrutable helmets.
He remembers his pleasant goodbye from Lucy. His hand rests on the mangled fake head.
They approach Filly, where an airship hovers above the town. The vertibird lands and Maximus exits, escorted by the Knights. The Brotherhood flag flies. The town has been taken over. Every member of the BoS lines the square; the Elder Cleric waits for Maximus.
Maximus kneels and presents the head. His old friend Dane takes it from him. Admitting that his Knight is dead, Maximus is chastised by the Elder. We’re reminded that Dane also was injured and that some blamed Maximus for it. An assistant verifies that the fake head holds no artifact.
Knights prepare to execute Maximus on the spot. Clerics recite prayers and sprinkle him with hyssop branches. Desperate, Maximus admits he can lead them to the real head. Dane, becoming more upset, kneels and claims that the razor in their boot was self-inflicted. Allowed to rise and live, Maximus again has a thousand thoughts cross his face as he looks at the Cleric and Dane.
Continue reading “The Beginning”Episode Seven of the Fallout TV series . . .
ONE
The Wasteland. Someone uses a metal detector, looking for shell casings.
It’s a father and son who live in a little shack made from recycled scrap. (YAY!) Inside, though, instead of daughter Sandra, they find Coop. He eats a chicken dinner and watches them. These people obviously know and distrust each other. Coop wants information: the location of that “madwoman in the hills”, Moldaver. Son Tommy resists while his father begs him to tell Coop. Finally he admits that she’s at the Observatory. The boy draws a gun on Coop, who shoots him first. Walking away through the Wasteland, Coop takes a hit on his inhaler.
Transition to pre-apocalypse Coop at the communists’ meeting in the funeral home chapel. Moldaver (who isn’t yet known as Moldaver) speaks to the group. Coop, flushing with anger at her speech, stands up to leave. She stops him. They have the expected confrontation, and then Moldaver goes low, saying she knows Coop’s wife. The two speak privately in the hallway.
Moldaver’s company developed cold fusion, a process subsequently acquired by Vault-Tec. In the middle of a world resource war, infinite energy could bring peace. She gives him a listening device and asks him to spy on his wife.
Roll title.
(There is no TWO or THREE.)
Continue reading “The Radio”Episode Six of the Fallout TV series . . .
ONE
A black-and-white pre-apocalypse advertisement from Vault-Tec featuring Coop. Smoking a cigarette on camera, Coop shows off Vault 4. (A sign, unremarked, over a door says: Test Subjects.) Rad-proof (and Red-proof, wink) the vault will house 200 people. Here is the Hawthorne family, part of a community of scientists who are living a five year trial in the vault. Coop encourages the audience to reserve a vault spot today, and then the director calls, “Cut.”
Shift to color as the camera pulls back. It’s a wrap. The Hawthornes, who aren’t actors, ask if they were alright. Coop exits the apartment. His wife is in the residence hallway. Bud Askins, a slimy fellow, corners him. While working for a defense contractor, Bud designed the T-45 power armor, something Coop already knows. Bud tries to palm off the T-45’s flaws, but Coop, who wore the armor in the Battle of Anchorage, won’t let him slide.
As Coop longingly watches his wife walk away from her conversation, Bud keeps him from leaving. He wants to talk about “time”, the ultimate weapon.
Escaping, Coop hugs his wife from behind, suggesting they clock out early. Barb is uncomfortable, possibly because his cuddling makes her look unprofessional. (Either that, or she doesn’t want her husband to touch her.) She tells him, sorry, but the wrap party is at their house. Coop takes the news with good humor. Cut to their home.
Continue reading “The Trap”Episode Five of the Fallout TV series . . .
ONE
Over a brazier, Thaddeus recounts their fight with the gulper. Inside the power armor helmet Maximus laughs, enjoying himself. It’s a friendly moment of camaraderie.
Inspired, Thaddeus asks for Knight Titus to brand him. Maximus is horrified but agrees. He heats his gauntlet in the fire.
Thaddeus screams as he’s branded. Maximus says, “Told you. It hurts.”
Immediately rebounding, Thaddeus exults about their success in finding the target and how popular they’ll be back at base. There, on a board behind him, sits Wilzig’s head, just another companion around the campfire. Maximus, feeling guilty or worried, prepares to confess that he isn’t Titus. As a squire, Thaddeus is ready to hear any secret, he says.
Continue reading “The Past”
Episode Four of the Fallout TV series . . .
The title suggests that the Rules of the Magic concerning Fallout ghouls will be explained. In the game, feral ghouls are humans who were radiated into madness; civilized ghouls are humans who were radiated into immortality. The level of exposure is the difference between them. And the post-apocalypse generations mostly distrust ghouls, either because of their looks or their feral cousins. However, if you’re a ghoul, that’s it. The radiation levels set your identity and now you continue with normal life: love, commerce, and survival.
In the show, the Rules for ghouls are different. Let’s see how detailed their explanation gets.
This is a dark episode. Some gruesome details are going to be necessary for this breakdown.
Continue reading “The Ghouls”