Breakdown (Warning: Heavy Spoilers Ahead)
- Fallout Season 1 is set later than any of the games
- The series reveals that Sandy Shores, thr capitol of the New California Republic, has been destroyed
- Fans have bickered that this destroys Fallout canon when it doesn’t
The Fallout TV series has launched to critical acclaim. Despite some issues, the new Amazon Prime exclusive has been heralded as one of the greatest video game adaptations yet. However, some fans are complaining that the show’s treatment of Shady Sands breaks canon, when it doesn’t.
Now, there are multiple lore inconsistencies found within the Amazon Fallout show, but considering the franchise’s history that’s not surprising. Fallout has been a series of near-constant inconsistencies with games like Fallout Tactics having some major story changes that result in the creation of Fallout 3 but other additions that are largely non-canon.
In the first season of the Amazon show, the canon outcome of Fallout New Vegas is revealed. Shady Sands, the first capital city of the NCR (New California Republic) has been destroyed by a nuclear blast. Some point after the events of New Vegas, which held numerous references to the fact that the NCR was struggling to keep the peace with threat of starvation, the Fall of Shady Sands occurred with political infighting resulting in a nuclear explosion.
Does Fallout Season 1’s Shady Sands ruin New Vegas?
In one episode of the TV series, when visiting Vault 4, a blackboard shows the timeline of Shady Sands. This timeline reveals that The Fall of Shady Sands started in 2277 with an arrow showing the event resulted in a later nuclear blast. Bizarrely, fans have taken this to mean that Shady Sands was destroyed in 2277 despite the fact the capitol still exists in Fallout New Vegas in 2281.
At no point in the show is it specifically stated that Shady Sands was blown up prior to 2281. In fact, no specific date has been given for the capital city’s devastation. However, with context clues, we can assume it occurred sometime around 2281.
For example, we see Brotherhood of Steel member Maximus as a ten year old child in the aftermath of the town’s explosion. With Maximus’ current age sitting around 20 years old and the current year in the show being 2292, we can assume the explosion occurred just after the events of Fallout New Vegas. In fact, with the Courier of New Vegas having the choice to blow up the NCR in the Lonesome Road DLC, Shady Sands’ destruction is most-likely caused by us as players.
Furthermore, Bethesda Game Studios design director Emil Pagilarulo has publicly stated on Twitter that New Vegas is still canon. Because it is.
Even between the non-Bethesda games, the Fallout games have never been entirely consistent with each other. While the Fallout series has some fantastic lore, it’s never been worried about having a completely faultless canon. Even the two best games in the series, Fallout 2 and New Vegas, open their own cans of worms with lore changes and canon inconsistencies.
However, the new Fallout TV show does not erase the events of Fallout New Vegas. Instead, it picks an option for what happens after. The Courier didn’t save the struggling NCR, and the hope of the Mojave has been set back. However, there are still remnants of the faction that aim to restore the wasteland, it’ll just take a lot longer.
Once again, it seems that fans are jumping the gun with complaints, as social media is wont to do. At the end of the day, don’t let a still-unexplained event ruin your enjoyment of the show. Instead, hope it gets properly explained in Season 2 or draw your own conclusions.
With fans spending years clamouring for Fallout New Vegas 2 or a follow-up to the game, Amazon’s Fallout series is finally what we’ve been asking for. Sure, the distance between locations has been altered for TV, but we can just assume some form of fast travel is in place in this regard.