Ever since Amazon’s well-received Fallout TV show released last week, the community has been divided over certain revelations in the series. One specific piece of information led many to believe that the show, which is officially considered canon to the video game series, attempted to retcon Fallout: New Vegas. Bethesda director Todd Howard has now come out to clarify the confusion.
Before we proceed, we need to issue a spoiler warning for the Fallout TV series since it’s difficult to discuss Howard’s clarification without dipping into details from the show. The hotly debated scene in question takes place in episode 5 when Lucy and Maximus stumble upon Shady Sands, a massive human colony that aimed to restart civilisation after the bombs fell – at least, what was once Shady Sands as a giant crater from a nuclear explosion now stands where the colony used to be. Keep in mind, the show is set in the year 2296.
Lucy finds a chalkboard outlining key dates regarding the establishment and eventual demise of Shady Sands, showing that the “fall” of the colony took place in 2277 in what many assumed was a nuclear explosion. It’s easy to deduce that much from the chalkboard as right after the 2277 date, an arrow on the timeline points to a grim drawing of a mushroom cloud. However, problems seemingly arise when you take into account that Fallout: New Vegas is set in the year 2281.
The NCR (or New California Republic) was a federation that mainly established a capital in Shady Sands. The NCR are prominently featured in the New Vegas game, meaning it would be impossible for them to wholly exist (let alone recover from a nuclear wipeout or not even talk about it) if Shady Sands was nuked in 2277, before the events of New Vegas that take place in 2281.
As some fans quickly pointed out, the arrow pointing to the explosion on the chalkboard signifies an undisclosed amount of time had passed from the “fall of Shady Sands” in 2277 to Shady Sands actually being nuked – meaning that the “fall of Shady Sands” (whatever that could mean) and the nuclear explosion that actually destroyed the colony happened at different times. Some argued that the explosion actually took place shortly after 2281 and the events of New Vegas – Todd Howard has now confirmed that this is indeed the case.
The show doesn’t make this very clear, to be fair, which is what led to so many theories that the TV show was attempting to retcon New Vegas. Clarifying the confusion, Howard recently told IGN:
“We’re careful about the timeline. There might be a little bit of confusion in some places. But everything that happened in the previous games, including New Vegas, happened. We’re very careful about that. All I can say is we’re threading it tighter there, but the bombs fall just after the events of New Vegas.”
The final shot of season 1 shows the New Vegas skyline, suggesting that we’ll be visiting the iconic location in season 2 of the TV show. Perhaps more answers will be given about the fate of Shady Sands, the NCR and what New Vegas ending will officially be made canon.
The Fallout TV show is now streaming on Prime Video. Make sure you read our full review of season 1 too.
Source: IGN
