From Baldur’s Gate 3 to Stardew Valley, romance is an endearing and enticing mechanic across gaming genres, and the wastelands of Fallout are no exception. Though not a pervading gameplay feature across the entire franchise, Fallout players have had the opportunity to engage in entanglements, ranging from casual one-night stands to marriage. However, in Prime’s Fallout series, our first shot at on-screen wasteland love story failed to Brotherhood of Steel any hearts.
Vault 33’s Repopulation Directive Colors Lucy MacLean’s Outlook on Love
Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Fallout kicks off with wedding bells, as Ella Purnell’s Lucy MacLean volunteers herself for an arranged marriage with a denizen of the neighboring Vault 32. This marriage serves not only as an impetus for the series’ inciting action but also sets a precedent of sex and romance’s role as a comedic device throughout our upcoming wasteland adventures.
From Lucy’s matter-of-fact rebuff of the romantic confessions of her cousin Chet to her conversational inquiry into her stoic new husband’s sperm count over wedding cake, our protagonist’s pragmatic view on repopulation proves a contributing factor to Fallout’s comedic voice.
Though Lucy’s marriage serves as a somewhat flimsy launchpad for her call to adventure (or, perhaps, her biological clock was somehow eerily synced to Moldaver’s existing plans), this premise at least allows the audience to recognize her relationship with sex as a direct product of her Vault’s culture. Not only does this serve to explain her tone toward her love interest, Maximus, later on in the narrative, but it likewise places Lucy somewhat outside of the boundaries of the contentious Born Sexy Yesterday trope.
Raised in a scientifically minded community indoctrinated into Reclamation Day ethos, Lucy’s neither juvenile nor coyly inexperienced about sex but rather comes across as awkward as a result of her directness and practicality regarding the matter. But, when Maximus’ conversely childlike naivety is mixed into this, the result is a failed experiment in chemistry.
Lucy and Maximus’ Romance Is Intentionally Awkward, but Falls Flat
From the first moment that they’re thrown on-screen together in Filly, it’s ham-fistedly apparent that Lucy and Brotherhood of Steel squire-accidently-turned-knight Maximus will serve as the central romance of the series. On paper, the two make a fitting odd couple as Maximus has an equally awkward approach to amorous relationships. However, unlike Lucy, Maximus’ demeanor stems from a downright hyperbolic lack of awareness that bears some of the show’s most baffling lines of dialogue.
When Lucy first propositions the soldier, in her characteristically direct manner, he notably exposes the following description of sexual intercourse: “For some guys, you know, when they make it move, it gets all big and hard like a big pimple and then it pops. And they could say it happens to anybody. But still, it’s gross.”
Whereas Lucy’s approach to sexual relationships is supported by the pervading culture of her Vault, Maximus’ is less clear. Though The Brotherhood of Steel is a stringent and militant faction in which many members seem to harbor more affection towards power armor than people, I presume the intention behind Maximus’ attitude toward sex is meant to imply an individual blind spot rather than suggest a puritanical culture within his organization. However, it takes just as much suspension of disbelief to buy into the notion that a fully grown adult raised around other people – outwardly puritanical or not – would sustain this exaggerated degree of prepubescent mentality regarding sex.
The internet has already been having a veritable heyday with Maximus’ line: “You wanna make my c*** explode now?” His proposal does congruously harken back to the tone established in Lucy’s short-lived marriage plot, one where an awkward or unconventional approach to sex is used as a source of humor. And while this line has certainly elicited many chuckles from viewers across social media, it ultimately does a disservice to Maximus’ character.
A heteronormative relationship where the woman’s more experienced than the man, a later-in-life sexual awakening, an exaggerated “himbo” trope, or identity on the spectrum of asexuality (criminally underrepresented on television) would all be genuine and interesting lenses by which to explore Maximus’ approach to Lucy, but instead the way he talks about sex is too extreme in its naivety to lend earnestly to any of those conversations.
Despite Lucy’s “cringy” nature being adequately addressed, whereas Maximus’ seems to exist solely to service a few punchlines, their awkward powers combined were not quite charming enough to set the world on fire or even start a flame in my heart. It certainly doesn’t help that the duo serves as the only fleshed-out exploration of love in the wasteland, something Fallout fans have had the opportunity to experience as players with much more satisfying results.
The Wasteland of Fallout’s Still Ripe with Romantic Prospects
In the often polarizing world of video game adaptations, Fallout has ultimately done an exceptional job of capturing the spirit of the beloved franchise. From Deathclaws to New Vegas-specific factions and characters, there are plenty of fans clamoring to see in the show’s second season. But one element I hope to see less of is Lucy and Maximus forced further into a romantic plotline. It’s not that I think the awkward likes of Lucy and Maximus don’t deserve love in the rough-and-tumble wasteland; quite the opposite.
Not only do I hold out hope that Maximus will find someone more (power) suited to his specific dynamic than Lucy in the future, but I’ve already seen it happen. The discarded fanfic treasure trove that was baked into the role reversal between Thaddeus and Maximus, when he was pretending to be Knight Titus proved that Maximus’ demeanor can play off of other characters in the wasteland engagingly. I’m not arguing that Maximus should track down his short-lived squire and pursue a romance in Season 2 – I’ll leave that to the hardworking folks over at Archive of Our Own – rather that this non-romantic setup between the Brotherhood of Steel bullies-turned-allies carried more chemistry than the show’s actual romance.
Fallout‘s finale left Maximus and Lucy separated, which will hopefully allow room for the show to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative by exploring entirely fresh interpersonal dynamics in Season 2.
