#for context I'm from the US and I'm fairly familiar with guns

[tlatia-the-radiant]

- @askthecaptiangeneral

I will club you to death with your own fucking femur

[delafiseaseses]

Y'know what'd be fun? Lookin' at the worldview of Easy Pete.

Yeah, that'd be fun.

Intro

Easy Pete. We all know him, but how much do we actually think about his worldview? Well, let's go over the things he says and see who Pete is.

Also, I wanna format this a bit. With subcategories and stuff. Really give Pete what he deserves.

Who is Easy Pete?

Firstly his name, he explains it as follows "Was a prospector until I decided to settle here to get away from the NCR. Now I just take it easy and help out with the Brahmin and Bighorners.", so he's basically Retired Pete.

He elaborates on what 'Prospector' means in this context as "... means I poked through old buildings looking for working tech and such. Some folks just call it "salvaging," but never liked the term. Way I see it, salvage means it's broken, near-worthless. Me, I looked for the good stuff - guns, chems, spare parts. Good money in it."

When asked if he ever found anything good during his career he says "Nope. Had a pretty good claim once, way out east by the river, but got run off by Raiders. Eventually, got too old to keep going out.", so he survived as a prospector, but never managed to go beyond that. Could've, but it simply wasn't to be. Through this we can understand who Pete is and that's a pretty average wastelander, only made notable by the fact he got to retirement age.

I say 'retirement', Pete's not actually retired so much as he's went from prospecting to essentially being a farmhand, Bighorners use being described by him as for "Meat and hide, mostly. Can't put a pack on 'em - they just lay down until you take it off."

As for how Pete views himself, well, maybe I'm reading into this too much, but when asked about Victor, I sense a bit of projection in Pete's response "The machine? Harmless, no matter what Trudy says. She thinks it's hiding something, but I think it's just a broken down relic with no place to be.", but that's simply my interpretation.

Pete and Explosives

Pete gained his explosives skill while prospecting. Blowing things open, Sunny mentions "... there's this old safe that even Easy Pete wasn't able to crack with dynamite.", which supports this. Explosives is Pete's highest skill. Speaking of skills, his other tagged ones are guns and sneak. The last one is probably also a holdover from his prospecting days

Pete has a stash of dynamite from his prospecting days, as Sunny says "...I know Easy Pete's got a stock of dynamite somewhere..." and he is "... pretty protective of his dynamite. You'd have to convince him you know a thing or two about explosives before he handed it over."

Indeed he views guns as safer than explosives when asked about using it he'll say "Too dangerous. Gonna kill all yourselves if I let you touch it. Better to leave it buried - safer that way.", failing the explosives check leads to "Too dangerous, sorry. Blow yourself up, blow your neighbor up, blow the whole town up.", returning to the subject leads to another reiteration in "Told you before - it's too dangerous for a bunch of amateurs to handle." The line for convincing Pete is reassurance 'I'm familiar with the care and handling of explosives, dynamite included.' due to his worries about the dangers. Indeed, we can infer his reluctance is due to his skill in explosives (and maybe also some past experience seeing explosives used poorly).

Guns, the other combat-focused tag skill of his, seems to be his current go-to. He even tells you to "Keep your gun handy if you go poking around some of the abandoned places around here, like the schoolhouse. Wasteland critters like to move in when Sunny's not looking, so watch out." and, honestly, this is all fairly reasonable stuff.

He's not above reveling in explosions, however, when you throw a grenade he says "Here it comes!" or "Here comes the boom!" and the laying of mines will have him respond with "That'll show 'em!" or "Got any more of those?", so, while he's precautious, he does enjoy a good explosion.

Pete and General Dangers

This'll be a quick bit. Pete's views on Benny and Joe Cobb.

When asked about Benny he says "The one in the fancy suit seemed to be calling the shots, that's as much as I know. Other folks in town might know more. Word of advice, though: if you ever catch up with him, watch out. The man's got cold eyes like a snake. Can't be trusted, I'd say." which... firstly, he shot us, Pete. Secondly, that's a very succinct summing up of Benny. Hell, even Jessup later compares Benny to a 'snake' as well after he backstabs the Khans. Benny is a very untrustworthy man who backstabs people, including the Courier, if you give him any chance to before he realises he's out of his depth.

Famously Pete's opinion on Joe Cobb is even more succinct, though. "Bad trouble."

'That's... helpful.' "Welcome."

Alright, enough prelude.

Pete's opinions on the Mojave's political situation.

Pete's opinions on the Mojave Wasteland's political situation was hinted at with his reason for retiring to Goodspirngs being partially '...to get away from the NCR.'

When asked 'What's wrong with the NCR?' he explains what he meant there "Don't get me wrong - the NCR's got a lot of decent folk in it. It's just that they make you part of them whether you like it or not. Towns like Goodsprings and Primm don't stay independent for long, not if you've got something the NCR wants. Still, the NCR keeps the Legion away." which is very true. The NCR's full of decent (even good) people, but... they will annex you and you don't get a say on the matter. This is shown all over the game, I once called Hsu an imperialist bastard after he outright admitted the NCR wanted to annex the Mojave. I also pointed out in that the fact that 'keeping the Legion away' is one of the good things the NCR does for the locals (which, I'll admit, was a sentence partially influenced by Pete's view here).

In the NCR ending, if Goodsprings is sided with in the Ganger conflict, it's implied that Pete moves on to escape the NCR once again "Goodsprings saw more trade along I-15 after NCR gained control of the Mojave Wasteland, but with that came a heavy burden of the Republic's taxes. Some old-timers, unable to handle the cost, were forced to move on, grumbling all the while.", this would make sense. Pete's clearly not a very rich man, his lifetime of prospecting didn't gain him much.

The Legion, though, Pete doesn't like at all and yields his biggest response in the entire game "They're slavers, led by a guy named Caesar. Or Caesar. Not sure how you're supposed to say it. A couple of years ago they tried to take over Hoover Dam, but the NCR beat them back. The NCR didn't - or couldn't - finish the job, though. The Legion's got its strength back and is getting ready for another round at the Dam. My money's still on the NCR winning, but you never know. We've been hearing stories about Legionaries on the Nevada side of the river, so keep a gun handy. You don't want to get caught by them." Pete sums up the Legion very well in the first two words 'They're slavers', he seems to have heard someone say Caesar the way that the Legion says it, but isn't 100% sure if that was right or not. He notably never directly calls them 'Caesar's Legion', possibly due to this.

We could speculate on where he heard Caesar said Legion-y, but I wouldn't read too much into it. He was down by the river, he probably just met a Legionnaire.

In this he also critisies the NCR's failing to properly defeat the Legion after Hoover Dam. However, while he clearly don't like the NCR, he certainly favours them over the Legion (which I find a very sensible viewpoint).

If asked about Hoover Dam he sums up why it is so important "The Dam powers a lot of New Vegas. And then there's all that clean water lying in Lake Mead, too. Anybody who owns the Dam owns the territory.", which is quite right (and why House/We also go for the dam). The NCR, of course, controls the Dam for now, but Pete probably don't think they own the Mojave yet due to it being contested.

In a Legion ending the following is said on Goodsprings "The Legion, preoccupied with its acquisition of New Vegas, scarcely took notice of the town of Goodsprings. Many locals moved on, fearful of Caesar's long shadow. Only the old and the stubborn remained.", personally I think Pete is one of the people who moved on. Probably him, Sunny and Trudy (maybe some Goodsprings Settlers including the blonde lady). I think the 'old' there could be Mitchell due to his wife's grave and the 'stubborn' would be Chet, I just don't think Pete would value Goodsprings over his safety. That's my interpretation, though.

House and the Independent ending sum up Goodsprings as a whole with no mention of anyone moving on. House's being "After Mr. House gained control of New Vegas, he sent a Securitron to Goodsprings as a token of appreciation for helping the Courier. Victor was a mixed blessing, however, as he continually monitored the town for Mr. House.", at best I'd guess Pete's view on Victor changed and independent is "With New Vegas' independence formally declared, Goodsprings thrived. More travelers stopped by Goodsprings on their way to and from the Strip, and the locals grew prosperous from the traffic.", so I'd say that of all the endings Easy Pete, and all of Goodsprings, does the best in an Independent run.

Conclusion

Easy Pete is a character who's backstory and skills are interlinked rather well. Honestly, they all make sense and are well incorporated into his character.

Easy Pete's views strike me as all rather common and natural for the situation. Like I said, I think Pete's a pretty average local wastelander. The NCR isn't great, but the Legion is far, far worse, so on that metric the NCR is the best of the two options, but... not one Pete benefits from.

The possibility that'll most help Pete is one he couldn't've possibly considered.