#eliana definitely plays off how much the brotherhood's path pains her - particularly to the sole survivor

[wandercr]

no, you know what ... i'm gonna talk more about the brotherhood, sorry, y'all.

i know this opinion is semi-controversial, and disagreeing is totally fine by me, but i 100% believe that the brotherhood, to some degree, arranged sarah lyons' death. i doubt it was outright assassination, but the details about her being killed in action are left very vague. ( which could also be poor writing, but i'm giving bethany esda the benefit of the doubt just this once. )

now, where most people get finicky with this is regarding arthur maxson, to which i think i'm stating the obvious ... he has no idea that her death is related to the brotherhood, and he wasn't involved in it. the kid was fourteen/fifteen, at most, and had a hero worship crush on sarah. he wouldn't kill her. wouldn't sanction her death. let's not be ridiculous.

there's obviously a lot of discontent in the brotherhood in 2277 about how things are run under elder lyons. it isn't a leap to assume that there are members who would gladly usurp owyn and sarah to install someone more aligned with the brotherhood's original ideals.

i've always imagined there's turmoil between sarah's death and arthur's rise to power, in which there either is no solid leadership at all, or those that do become elder only last a few weeks to months, at most.

in comes arthur: young, desperate to prove himself and able to be manipulated. i think by the time we meet him in fallout 4, he's more or less making his own decisions, but at 16? 18? someone is pulling the strings, and i have no doubt that the brotherhood's reconnection with the outcasts leads to his further indoctrination to the brotherhood's original path.

for eliana, this lack of stability is basically hell on earth. she doesn't trust the faction she credits with saving her life; project purity probably becomes less of a priority; she's a piece of propaganda for brotherhood recruitment, rather than a respected knight, and she has nowhere to go, because the brotherhood has been her life for almost a decade. her voice, her opinion, her status, all of which meant something once, becomes drowned out by the brotherhood's senseless greed and power grabs.

basically, tldr; the brotherhood sucks? the brotherhood sucks.