A lot has been said about video game adaptions in the past and how they’re bad. But, thanks to movies like The Super Mario Bros. Movie and television shows such as HBO’s The Last of Us, there seems to be an uptrend of Hollywood finally taking their video game adaptions actually good. The latest video game to get the treatment is Bethesda’s Fallout series. And as someone who loved the latter games, the 3D ones to be specific, I just have to say it’s a really great show. The folks at Amazon Prime captured the feel of the games while still telling a totally fresh story with new characters to fall in love with.

Now, I’ve finished the entire season and I’m really hoping Amazon Prime greenlights a second season. Mostly because there are some plot threads that they haven’t tied off yet. Still, I do believe there are going to be some things the sequel won’t focus on as these are rather inconsequential to the grand story they’re telling at the moment. So, let me send out these inconsequential questions out in the ether in the hopes someone over at Amazon Prime reads them so they can write in an answer to them.

Oh, and since I will be talking about some specific plot points from the Fallout series and possibly from the games, I’m going to be putting out the massive SPOILER warning now. You have been warned.

#1 How long was Moldaver’s group waiting in Vault 32?

In the first episode, Lucy, the main character, volunteers herself to mate with a member of Vault 32. Unfortunately, it turns out all of the original members of Vault 32 are already dead. They’ve already killed themselves after finding out the secret of their triad of Vaults. Instead, it is Moldaver’s group of New California Republic members/raiders who enter Vault 33 dressed up in Vault 32 jumpsuits. They do this in order to capture Hank, Lucy’s father and the Overseer of Vault 33.

I do have to ask, though: how long was Moldaver’s group waiting in Vault 32? I mean, were they waiting months on end in the hopes Hank’s Vault 33 would want to marry off someone? I guess they could’ve been there for just a couple of days since the only reason they activated their plan then was because the Cold Fusion reactor was being sent to the New California Republic’s base of operations. Still, couldn’t Moldaver have expedited the execution of their subterfuge by sending a message that they needed to trade something. Why wait?

Speaking of Moldaver…

#2 How old is Moldaver anyways?

A big mystery of Fallout is why Moldaver kidnapped Lucy’s father. It’s actually the reason why Lucy sent out to the wasteland in the first place. Well, it turns out Moldaver is actually a pre-Great War scientist who was working on Cold Fusion until Vault-Tec bought up the company she was working for as well as the other companies who might be interested in her work. Two centuries later, she became the Flame Mother and one of the leaders of the New California Republic and also feared throughout the settlements of the Wasteland, including Filly.

Wait, the Great War was a little more than a couple of centuries in the past! How could she have survived for that long without becoming ghoulified in any way? Well, yeah. That’s what I, and many other people, are asking!

Of course, the most plausible answer is she must have been cryogenically frozen before the bombs dropped. It’s totally possible Vault-Tec captured her and froze her so that, in the future, she could be unfrozen to continue her cold fusion research. Or she is actually a ghoul but it’s not showing. Or some “magical medicine” she developed. Whatever the case, I don’t think the writers thought up an explanation but did think it would be shocking to see Moldaver in the past.

Speaking of Filly…

#3 Why did the Brotherhood of Steel invade Filly?

After Maximus is retrieved by the Brotherhood of Steel as he seemingly has the head, the macguffin everyone is after, he isn’t taken back to the Brotherhood of Steel’s base where he was originally deployed from. Instead, he is flown to Filly because, apparently, the Brotherhood of Steel invaded the location and set up camp there. I do find it odd that, despite Maximus and The Ghoul shooting up the place just a couple of days ago, the central square looks much better that quickly.

Still, I don’t get the logistical reasoning why the Brotherhood of Steel would annex Filly. I mean, if they wanted to gather the pre-war tech found there, they could’ve just pillaged the area. Why secure it and set up a base there? It’s not exactly the most easily defendable area, is it? It would actually be more of a drain on resources to keep a base there, come to think of it. So, why even attack Filly and make it a command post?

Speaking of The Ghoul…

#4 Why didn’t The Ghoul shoot Maximus’ Power Armor’s weak point during their fight?

During the last episode wherein the Brotherhood of Steel attack Moldaver’s base of operations at the Griffith Observatory, The Ghoul managed to take out a couple of Power Armors as Cooper is familiar with them as he wore them during the annexation of Canada. He remembers the old models had a weakness just underneath the breastplate and it turns out the new Power Armors still have that inherit weakness, which he fully exploits.

So, if he knew about this issue, why didn’t he use it to his advantage during his fight with Maxiumus? Storytelling-wise, it’s basically plot armor for the protagonists. But it does seem silly that The Ghoul conveniently remembers that weakness during the final episode so he take take out multiple Power Armors so easily. Also, why wasn’t this fixed? I mean, if things were to break down, wouldn’t you try to fix it?

Speaking of things that needs to be fixed…

#5 What happened to the water chip issue of Vault 33?

So, while we do follow Lucy, Maximus and The Ghoul throughout the Fallout series, we do occasionally return back to Vault 33 to see how they’re handling life after the attack. Well, it turns out not so well! One of the issues is that the Vault’s water purification chip has been damaged. If that sounds familiar, well, that’s because you’ve played the first Fallout game! You’re an OG! Congratulations! And that’s not even a Fallout game made by Bethesda!

It is implied that Betty and the other former Vault 31 dwellers sabotaged the water chip to improve Betty’s changes of being voted in as Overseer as Hank is MIA. This is because most of the residents of Vault 33 have had the slogan “When things look glum, vote 31” burned into their brains. And having no water chip must be one of the glummest things out there! So, Betty was a shoo-in.

But what happened afterwards? I mean, did they manage to repair the water chip after Betty was voted in? What did Betty do to remedy the issue? I guess they could just use the Vault 32’s water chip since they did repopulate it with their own kind. Still, it’s never explained how Vault 33 will solve their water problem.

BONUS: Why isn’t the snake oil salesman more successful?

The ghoul creature has always been an integral part of the Fallout universe. Ghouls are usually regular human beings who have been irradiated horribly, usually from the nuclear fallout from the Great War. A lot of ghouls actually retain their humanity but some of them start to lose their minds, becoming feral in the process. That’s in the games, though.

In the Amazon Prime series, it looks like there is another way a person can become a ghoul: by inhaling a medicine that seemingly heals all injuries. This is demonstrated by the Brotherhood of Steel squire, Thaddeus. After Maximus almost destroys Thaddeus’ foot with his power armor, the snake oil salesman you’ve seen in the chicken farm and the landfill town of Filly, offers to heal him in exchange for a fusion core. While you might thing the medicine won’t do anything, it actually heals Thaddeus’ foot lickedy-split! It turns out, unfortunately for Thaddeus, the medicine turned him into a ghoul as he seemingly can’t be killed anymore, even after being shot through the neck with a crossbow bolt.

So, I gotta ask, did the snake oil salesman rich? Sure, you may think being a ghoul is a fate worse than death for you right now. But think about living in the wasteland and having the regenerative properties of a ghoul! In fact, some humans in the games intentionally expose themselves to radiation in the hopes of becoming an almost unstoppable ghoul. I guess there’s a risk of becoming feral. But Thaddeus didn’t even realize he was a ghoul until he was shot in the neck! So, if he marketed his “magic medicine” as a surefire way to become a ghoul that retains their intelligence, why wouldn’t people jump at the chance?

What other inconsequential questions popped into your head while watching Amazon Prime’s Fallout series? Let me know in the comments section below!