#less branching out and more diving from one hole into another but y’know

[cuteniaarts]

Behold, my latest and most enamouring new obsession:

Malina, Lady of the Chief of the Northern Water Tribe. As if Red Lotus child OCs weren’t niche enough

[theggning]

1/2 Why do you think Danse hates ghouls? Super mutants, sure, they caused the death of Cutler, & they are so brutal that even PRESTON wants them exterminated. Synths, fine, if you buy into the idea that technology out of control, rather than corrupt rich elite, caused the apocalypse, and if you know that synths murder and replace humans, then I can see why the idea of machines with a will would be terrifying. I wish he had realised that they are victim-blamed slaves, but propaganda is a bitch.

Pardon me, anon, I’m not very good at tumblr so I don’t know how to post your asks all together. In lieu of this, I’m just going to post the other two parts together here and answer all at once:

2/3 But sentient Ghouls? They have nothing to do with technology. If anything, they are an example of humans hurt by technology, so you'd think Brotherhood propaganda would love them, like 'look at what the big bad science did to those poor guys!' They are usually very meek, and the aggressive ones are part of groups of aggressive humans like raiders or gangsters. And the scars can't be a problem for a military group whose members are often horribly injured. So what's with the hostility?

3/3 For that matter, do you think Danse will overcome his bigotry towards ghouls once he finally comes to terms with his worth as a synth?

Y’know, I don’t think Danse actually hates sentient ghouls.

When people list Danse’s likes and dislikes in short they often characterize him as hating mutants, synths, and ghouls-- he certainly hates feral ghouls (as do most wastelanders, really,) His perk even gives you a damage boost against all three enemy types. But I think “mutants, synths, and ghouls” are more of a list of the Brotherhood of Steel’s enemies and thus an appropriate perk for Danse to offer.

Because for the most part Danse DOESN’T treat sentient ghouls any differently than other people. He is notably kind to Billy the ghoul kid and hates it when you’re not. He is supportive of Kent Connelly, likes it when you encourage him to follow his dream (even if he’s a little skeptical of the practicality) and loves it when you save his life. He likes when you’re polite to Daisy in Goodneighbor, and likes when you help her by clearing out the library at her request. He is complimentary to the residents of The Slog and expresses admiration for their ingenuity, and hates it when you’re rude to them or disparage them.

There’s really only two sentient ghouls that Danse is actually rude to: Hancock and the Vault-Tec rep. And Danse is super quick to jump to insulting them for being ghouls, absolutely, which points to him at least somewhat buying into the BoS’ overall disdain, but I also don’t think he’s rude to these two specifically BECAUSE they are ghouls.

Hancock openly and actively hates the Brotherhood. He’s a chem addict and at least in Danse’s eyes, a criminal. I ain’t gonna say Danse is RIGHT to dislike him for these reasons (or to call him a “filthy ghoul” as his first retort,) but Danse is nothing if not hardcore lawful neutral, and a chaotic person like Hancock is going to grate on him no matter what they are.

And Danse is super, unnecessarily nasty to the Vault-Tec rep, but I almost wonder if this is more because he was with Vault-Tec. Danse vocally hates Vault-Tec. He talks about their cruel experiments and abuse of technologies, and includes them among the hated pre-War corporations that he believes doomed the world. No, it’s really not cool that Danse jumps straight to calling him a “thing,” but given his really acid reaction to this guy in particular, I have to wonder if it wasn’t intended to be a swipe at his affiliation with Vault-Tec rather than purely anti-ghoul bigotry.

So anyway, I’m not going to say Danse doesn’t have some issues with ghouls, likely ingrained into him by drinking the Brotherhood Kool-Aid, but I feel like it’s often overstated how much he dislikes them. He is perfectly accepting and nice to most of the named ghoul NPCs that companions can interact with, and for those he’s rude to, there’s other reasons why he might be acting that way. I do think any prejudice Danse may have will soften once he’s removed from the Brotherhood influence. He is clearly fully capable of treating ghouls with respect and kindness- perhaps something ingrained into him during his time living as a wastelander in the Capital.

As for the Brotherhood as a whole? They’ve always had some human supremacist problems. I’m not familiar with the earlier games, and diving down the Brotherhood rabbit hole is a MESS, so I’m not sure if there’s any canon information as to why that is. Maybe they believe ghouls are already a “lost cause” or maybe they buy into the “all ghouls will eventually turn feral” idea (which is actually not canon, by the way. Widely-accepted fanon.)  But ghouls and any other types of sentient non-humans are generally looked down on by the Brotherhood, are not allowed to enlist*, and are treated as second-class citizens at best and targets at worst.

And this is a problem with the Brotherhood as a whole, absolutely NOT something caused by Arthur Maxson. In FO3, the Brotherhood is callous about the lives of ghouls and its soldiers are freely allowed to take shots at ANY ghouls they see, even sentient ones. And that was the “nice” Brotherhood led by Elder Lyons. By FO4, Maxson has discouraged his people from opening fire on sentient ghouls-- and presumably, they’re treated like all other civilians, as far as being compensated for their tech and traded with rather than robbed from. I may give Maxson a ration of shit from time to time, but he is quite a bit LESS shitty than other Brotherhood elders on this front. That doesn’t change the BoS at large’s shitty attitudes towards anything nonhuman, which is so deeply baked in that I think a lot of its members don’t question it anymore. (You’re not supposed to ask questions in the military, especially not one designed like the Brotherhood.)

ANYWAY. Tl;dr: Danse is kind of shitty to a couple ghouls, but for the most part treats them as fairly as anyone else, I suspect this is because of the overall Brotherhood influence; the Brotherhood is shitty to ghouls at large because reasons.

* Allegedly, the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel (based in Chicago) recruits ghouls and mutants. This branch is the result of a BoS group that crashlanded in the area, and hard up for recruits, they developed a far more open recruiting policy. These guys are from Fallout Tactics, another game which I have not played.