‘Fallout’ is now complete and available to all Prime Video subscribers. The series that adapts the famous Bethesda Games Softworks video game takes the license further in certain key issues, such as factions. One of the protagonists is closely linked to the Brotherhood of Steel, a group that in the video games shows a friendlier face than it really is. If we put the series against the saga, Amazon wins on this issue. The piece contains plot spoilers for the first two episodes.
What is the Brotherhood of Steel like in the Fallout saga video games compared to the series?
In the video games, the Brotherhood of Steel is drawn as a faction dedicated to finding and preserving pre-war technology among the remains of the wasteland. They are a group whose structure is not too far from a professionalized army, but the video games do not go into much depth about their habits, ways of acting and rules, both inside and outside of combat. They appear as another entity that has been molded by surviving in communion with each other.
In fact, in the saga it is common to find that the Knights, these enormous soldiers dressed in their imposing armor, fight in combat squads without the support of other companions of different scales. The first change of the series occurs precisely at this point. The Knights go on search and recovery missions in pairs. They are always accompanied by a recruit who has been promoted to Escudero, who acts under his command and serves as support at all times.
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Maximus (Aaron Moten) is one of the examples. The young man promotes Squire to the Lord Knight Titus. He does so by taking an oath that seals the steel of his new master to his back. The honors of the process are left aside when both embark on their first mission. For Titus, Maximus’s presence is no more important than dung. Your first task as a Squire is to clean the urine tank from his power armor. The treatment during the mission is not exactly great either. The Knights are drawn in the video game as honorable characters and always ready for the mission. They draw a certain parallel with the samurai. However, the facade in the series is quite the opposite. Titus is despicable. He has fun killing and does not hesitate to use his squire as a decoy in the face of danger.
Sectarianism and religious fervor for technology: everyone fears the Brotherhood of Steel
But the most interesting image of the Brotherhood of Steel in the series occurs in the moments before Maximus is the new shadow of Titus. He himself suffers it in his own flesh during the instruction to which he submits. In class they are strict and do not hesitate to use violence as a lesson against others. That one already said it: “The ink enters with blood.” An error in recognizing a scheme leads the teacher to hit Maximus with one of the wooden sticks that rule the class with an iron fist.
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Among the students (recruits) there is a certain camaraderie. Basketball is played with stones thrown into a square hoop basket. Everyone is happy when one of them manages to be promoted, but at the same time the smiles hide envy. There is no moment in which they stop wanting to get out there, away from the fake life that they themselves have built around the abandoned military bases.
The series plays very well with the moment in which Dane (Xelia Mendes-Jones) is injured by her own companions. The recruit celebrates her promotion with everyone. The next morning, something as everyday as putting on her boots changes his life forever. Someone had inserted a knife into her left boot. Her foot is destroyed and the promotion is thrown away. It is not entirely clear if it was Maximus or one of his other companions. What is clear is that envy is flying in an environment that until now seemed regal and immaculate, or at least that is what the video game conveyed to us.
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While the recruits are unhappy souls seeking a new opportunity in the wasteland, their leaders are figures who convey a level of sectarianism that we do not find in the games. Their religion is technology, and their mission is to impose martial law by crushing all who go against them, whether they are looters or the Enclave, their greatest rivals. The presence and mannerisms of Elder Quintus (Michael Cristofer) convey rather little sanity. He is one of their leaders. His word goes to mass. But it is also true that an outbreak of madness can lead him to order any action, no matter how violent. Not to mention that he has all the Knights eating out of his hand…