by Scott Creighton
My argument for why I believe Amazon's Fallout TV series is a modern day retelling of Homer's The Odyssey.
notes for video below fold.
protagonist in the Odyssey is Odysseus a.k.a. (Ulysses) who was a king returning from war (War... war never changes) and in Fallout it's Lucy (Lussey) who is daughter of an Overseer of Vault 33 (like a princess). She is of noble birth to a position of status.
both Odysseus (Ulysses) and Lucy are forced to travel the world engaging all sorts of adventures with various advisories, each one representing a different sin or weakness. Mythical creatures like Gulpers, Yao Guai and rabid Ghouls populate the Wasteland just as others did in the world Ulysses had to cross.
One of the trials they face in their journey across the Wasteland is they fall into a trap looking for first aid kit and end up in Vault 4 where they are plied with creature comforts of vault life. Piles of food and even pop-corn and TV. Who runs Vault 4?
Question
In the amazon fallout tv trailer has any one else noticed that one of the vault dwellers who I think is the overseer looks like that cyclops from the Percy Jackson movies? For some reason the cyclops does remind me of the overseer from the first game! Like why? Is it an editing error? Fallout doesn't have cyclops? That feels more like a elder scrolls race! But I'm really excited to watch the fallout show!
They don't get it. A Percy Jackson movie? please....
'Afterward, Odysseus and his men landed on a lush, uninhabited island near the land of the Cyclopes. The men entered the cave of Polyphemus, where they found all the cheeses and meat they desired. Upon returning to his cave, Polyphemus sealed the entrance with a massive boulder and proceeded to eat Odysseus' men. Odysseus devised an escape plan in which he, identifying himself as "Nobody," plied Polyphemus with wine and blinded him with a wooden stake. When Polyphemus cried out, his neighbors left after Polyphemus claimed that "Nobody" had attacked him. Odysseus and his men finally escaped the cave by hiding on the underbellies of the sheep as they were let out of the cave.'
and this is from The Odyssey
in Fallout, like in The Odyssey, regular humans have to try to survive the trials and tribulations caused by the competing Gods in Olympus. In The Odyssey it's pretty straight forward while in Fallout it's less but by the end of the 8th episode we come to understand our great corporate overlords caused the whole thing (WWIII) and now their offspring (and in some cases, they themselves) are still trying to rule the world with conflict as season 1ends with an episode titled The Beginning (of another great war for control of the new world)
there are 24 books in The Odyssey and I believe there will be 24 episodes of Fallout broken down to 3 seasons.
'Crucial themes in the poem include the ideas of nostos (νόστος; "return"), wandering, xenia (ξενία; "guest-friendship"), testing, and omens. Scholars still reflect on the narrative significance of certain groups in the poem, such as women and slaves, who have a more prominent role in the epic than in many other works of ancient literature'
The three main protagonists in Fallout are:
Lucy (wonderfully played by Ella Purnell)
Maximus (Aaron Morten) who is a Squire to Knight Titus... quite literally his slave.
and The Ghoul or Cooper Howard (Walter Goggins)
there are three characters who were alive 200 prior to the events of Fallout tv series. I will not spoil who they are (aside from the obvious ghoul pictured above) but they serve as what I think are modern day representations of gods since they are apparently immortal (with one exception at the end)
and I will tease this much, one of them, I believe, represents Athena who helps Odysseus in The Odyssey.
Yes, the Odyssey is an epic tragic poem whereas Fallout is very humorous. However, The Iliad, Homer's other epic poem, included a great deal of humor while still being classified as an epic tragic poem. The two aspects of story telling are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
The story of man's struggle against the will of the gods and the obstacles they put in our way is present in both works, as long as one understands the modern day equivalent as I do... and as Yuval Noah Harari, Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, Elon Musk and the rest of the WEF understand them.
Fallout argues that they gods decided humanity would be better off under their ultimate control and the way to do that was one last war to literally end all wars with them and their offspring ruling what was left and rebuilding in their corporate image.
This is the struggle our protagonists find themselves in the middle of.
One of the last lines in season 8 has The Ghoul talking about finding the gods who are still pulling the strings.
They then tease Season Two with a view of a Death Claw skull and a peek at New Vegas.
Having binge watched Season One yesterday, I can certainly recommend it. The series was made with care and attention to detail and performances from the cast were outstanding across the board.
Even Michael Rapaport's short lived time in the first episode was spot on as he played a bully and coward who gets his comeuppance running away and screaming.
Type casting.
For these reasons and others I don't have time to include here, I believe Fallout is a modern day retelling of Homer's Odyssey. I think it's handled masterfully by the writers and directors and everyone involved and I have yet to see any other review make this connection... though I have to admit I have not searched to see if they have.
p.s. In May of 2023 a new mod was released for Fallout New Vegas called The Odyssey
p.p.s. as of this morning I cannot find any reviews of the TV show making the comparison between the two. How disappointing that must be for the makers of Fallout.
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