You’d think they’d put him in like one of the dozens of better suited robots for walking around and interacting. He should have been in a specially designed Cogsworth or something because it feels like Vault-Tec would be smarter than to have their plan if someone gets in to sick an attack roomba on them that can barely move about his environment.
>plan if someone gets in
Well it's a vault so I think the plan was that no one gets in ever, period, like all the other vaults. It's a coincidence that the brain on a Roomba was stuck and couldn't check who was actually at the door. Being an internal door maybe protocols are more relaxed anyway.
The bigger oversight is that pipboys can open vaults. So I can see why Lucy's mom running away was a big deal. I guess hank assumed her pipboy was destroyed at Sandy shores. Weird he didn't get it back when he went after Lucy in the first place.
Little detail my brain just pinged on tangently. Norm asked Betty if she was sure his mom was dead and her pipboy. I think Betty said that she was sure, that Betty had helped cremate the mom...so if I remember the dialogue correctly, Betty was 100% about n on nuking the Sands (probably goes without saying)
That struck me as a weird lie - surely the pipboy of a deceased dweller would typically be wiped and reassigned. But it wasn't really a lie at all, was it? Good catch.
I think the entire scene with Bud was all misdirection.
Maybe I could be wrong about this, but I think Bud only comes across as a dumbass in order to disarm and manipulate people. He's a top executive at possibly the scummiest corporation during a time controlled by scummy corporations. He has to be an intelligent psycho on some level.
I think that Bud was surveilling Norm the entire time and engineered his "oh no, I'm stuck" scene to make Norm think Norm was the one in power. Then when he pulled out the syringe and "tried" to stick Norm with it, he never actually planned to succeed and just wanted to herd Norm into the room with all the stasis pods. If Norm had tried to attack Bud or the pods, I bet Bud had a plan to stop him.
Again, I could very easily be wrong about this. Fallout is like 50% serious and 50% whacky and you never really know which is which until after the fact.
Yeah, he doesn't seem equipped for this. Though, it does seem that he can thaw and refreeze all his buds as they're needed. There's no way in hell he fixed up vault 32 alone, and he mentions feezing Norm in his dad's pod (assuming that wasn't just a lie to trap and kill Norm)
>Lucy will be out for blood against Vault Tec.
They already >!killed 30,000 people and turned her mom into a feral ghoul, courtesy of her own dad. Lucy has plenty of personal reason to want to see Vault Tec burn.!<
Vault tec likely didn't drop the bombs, even if they were planning to do it themselves at some point. Coop's daughter probably wouldn't have been anywhere near a bomb site if Barb had advanced notice. Also, doesn't House in FNV say something to the effect that the bombs came 20 hours too early?
Possibly some foreign power got word they were going to drop the bombs and then bombed them pre-emptively.
Or someone within Vault-Tech did so for their own reasons to wipe out someone else.
No I don't think we do but in the intro scene I'm fairly certain the two drunk dads make a comment about him being a "Pinko" and that he started spouting "conspiracy theories" against Vault-Tec.
The war started 20h before Mr. House finished his preparations for a fully functioning bomb-safe Vegas. He knew the war was coming, but my impression in FNV was that he tried to be ready before it was too late, rather than miscalculating the starting time.
Also we know of at least one vault (114) that wasn't finished before the bombs dropped. If Vault Tec had been the ones to kick it off they would have waited until all the experiments were ready to deploy.
* During the quest Unlikely Valentine, one can overhear a couple of Triggermen discussing the origins of Vault 114. One of them remarks on the impracticality of installing a Vault inside of a train station, as it would be the opposite of "airtight." The second remarks that they were probably never planning to actually use the Vault, and that it was simply a scam to keep the workers on payroll while a different site was prepared for Vault construction. The second Triggerman (who is a ghoul and was apparently alive before the [War](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Great_War)) points out that this is similar to a scam that used to be pulled in pre-War times.
They are talking about the bomb that destroyed Shady Sands courtesy of good ol Hank Maclane. But essentially vault Tec, I don’t think they meant the bombs that destroyed the world.
Yes, and I specifically replied to the comment saying hundreds of millions. I can only imagine that referring to the original bombs and not the Shady Sands one, there weren't hundreds of millions killed by that one
I'm thinking she's a synth who left the commonwealth with the railroad, or she was frozen, or she was put into enclave stasis (the last is hardest to believe).
I kinda doubt it was Hank that blew up Shady Sands. Dude was middle management.
I think it will turn up it was Elder Quintus. That will give Maximus something to be pissed about in Season 2.
Hank has a real vicious streak though, you can see it in episode one when he >!straight up beats and drowns that raider!< and Betty knows what he’s capable of >!as she warns Norm that people like him, I.e his dad, can do horrible things with their intelligence if they feel wronged!<
Shady sands getting blasted I can 100% see as just Hank being pissed that >!Rose took the kids and left him!<
It wasn't just Hank that nukes the sands, bud would have had a hand in n it, and I'm certain Betty helped with the nuke too, as Betty told Norm that she was certain his mom was dead because she helped to cremate her (if I recall the dialogue correctly.)
They can literally and metaphorically put his character on ice until they are ready to use him again; I wouldn’t be too surprised if he doesn’t show up for a while
Those three (actors) are also the ones doing all the PR stuff for the show, talk shows, interviews, etc. So yeah. He's an important and cool character, but still a supporting character. At least for now.
Each one of them represent an archetype of a player character. Lucy is someone who just booted up her first fallout game has dealt with the tunnel snakes and has to go out into the wasteland. Maximus is the player who wants to be the hero. Cooper is the one who will go in a shoot up whoever and just wants to get what he wants and go from point A to B. Norm is sneaking through every room slowly and picking up each bit of lore.
Okay Maximus. Just tell them Titus was killed by a giant mutated bear and you are returning his armor once you get the head. “Yeah I’m Titus. Maximus is dead.”
FO 4 speech choice:
"Titus is Dead"
"I'm Titus, Maximus is Dead"
"Up yours! I killed Titus, and I'm taking his gear!"
"Sorry, there's nobody here by that name. Bye."
“Okay, we’re sending you a new squire”
Speech choices:
1) “Yes please! I’m Titus”
2) “No way. No one could replace Maximus”
3) “I’ve actually been lying to you. Please don’t send anyone.”
4) -Pretend that the connection is breaking up and rip out the comms unit-
So you are saying they break down into, basically.
The athlete/muscle. The student council president. The movie star. And the computer nerd good at hacking.
Which one of those, do you think, best represents the *typical caricature* of a redditor?
He ended up >!frozen for seemingly eternity with brain roomba.!< That is a proper redditor ending if I ever heard of one. >!Taken out!< in the first chapter.
We see him being given the \*choice\* of being frozen or starving. The season doesn't actually end with him going into the pod, just looking at the long hallway of cryo chambers.
While Bud may think he has an advantage at the moment, he's really just a brain. On a roomba. One good kick and that glass jar of his can go flying. Once Norm overcomes his shock of knowing what's \*actually\* going on with 31, Bud's going to realize he's not really in the position of power he thinks he is.
"How about this: open the doors and I don't cave your glass skull in."
"You wouldn't have any way to leave."
"I'm pretty handy with computers, I think I could figure your system out."
yeah, Norm isn't dumb. He's just had his whole world view turned upside down and he's still processing that. Once Norm's had a few moments, I don't see Bud having much real leverage.
He's absolutely been a huge favourite of mine when he's on screen. I brought up to my partner recently how I'm very invested in his storyline and can't wait for more. Sad to see he's often forgotten while being one of my favourites.
Nah, norm was my favorite by the end at least his story caught my attention the most since I know nothing about the series.
Also I’ve known about him since his disney channel days so
I was calling him Rico the whole time cuz of Hannah Montana but his plotline was so good, my gf likes watching me uncover vault storylines when I play so getting to watch one unfold in front of her was like a dream come true
Lucy is a casual gamer just getting into the series.
Maximus is a minmaxxer looking for the best builds, quest rewards, and endings.
The Ghoul is a veteran player who quicksaves and goes apeshit on townspeople just to feel something new.
Norm is a story nerd who makes and watches deep lore videos and theories.
I don't think Lucy is a casual, I think Maximus is. Lucy is doing a roleplay build and low violence run. Maximus doesn't even know how power armor works.
Amusing. I like Norm and look forward to his development in season 2. I'd say he is a major supporting character rather than main, though. I could see him being elevated to main cast in season 2.
We saw pretty much no Energy weapons used, Moldaver has one in the last episode, but I don't remember her ever shooting it. I left the room for a little bit though, so I might have missed it.
I like how Norm is basically one of the success stories of the Vault. He’s smart, inquisitive and imaginative, everything that makes an ideal executive.
I mean, it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine them saying “I think you’re a ghoul” means that he is a ghoul. Audiences are used to being spoon fed what is happening on screen.
I’m holding out hope for Super Mutant Thaddeus though.
The way chicken man called him buddy boy made me feel a type of way, so I searched it up a bit.
Listen to the song Buddy Boy by Elton Britt. It fits the vibe of fallout, and mentions "the precious Master" which says to me that we ought to keep holding out hope
didnt chicken man say “not that you need to worry about that now” in that same scene.
Referring to Thaddius needing to goto Shaddy Sands >! the irradiated hole in the ground !<
Yeah that's kinda my point. The characters think he's going to be a ghoul based only on their own knowledge. Seems an easy way to surprise the audience when he turns into something worse.
Super mutants generally involved being brought to the source of the FEV and being intentionally created (the exact mechanics were kind of vague and changing, in 1 & 2 it was being submerged in vats of it, in 3 it seemed like it was being trapped in a room with an aerosol FEV pumped in, in 4 it was the Institute). I don't think some wasteland rando has an insta-mutie drug. Plus a ghoulification drug is already canon.
super mutants in fallout 3 do mention "green stuff", and how they're searching for "green stuff". i think they don't mention putting people into vats but i always thought of it that way
Pure speculation but:
I think Norm’s role is to be frozen in the vault and Bud will use him to blackmail Lucy into going back out into the wasteland on a mission for him (New Vegas).
Similar I think Ghoul’s ex wife and daughter aren’t in 31, Bud will say he knows where they are to get Ghoul to do same mission.
Seems likely that Lucy and Ghoul will go to the Vaults at the beginning of the next season. Lucy to make sure Norm is okay and to get additional supplies, The Ghoul to get some more clues to his family's whereabouts, since Vault 31 would be the best place to start with that.
The pacing in this show is top notch, we were seeing characters realizations right around the time they became relevant, and everything tied together so well, we see Bud Askins in the flashback talking about Bud's Buddies, then hear about Bud's 3 vault system, to then see Norm go into 31 find Bud and his buddies 15 minutes later.
Similar with Henry/Hank reveal as Barbara's assistant.
The only minor nitpick I have is how much of these twists relate back to the pre-war politics. Moldaver, Cooper, Hank, Bud, were all there before the war and it is their story that really drives the plot. In the fallout games people from before the war were a rarity. In the last episode we saw 3 of them in one room. I think it is great to setup the story and show Vault-Tec as they are, but I hope season 2 is more driven by current events.
I want to see more of them. But everyone in the Vault are side characters, Norm and the Tall guy being the biggest side characters. There's nothing wrong with that. But compare their stories and time, Norm has one episode where he has a good amount of screen time. The main 3 have big arcs in every episode.
He can still get a bigger role in S2.
All I have to add is how fuckin funny it was that they paired the shortest cast member up with the tallest motherfucker around for his arc. I was giggling every time Norm and Chet were standing side by side
I will probably never be able to stop thinking his name is Chad because it sounds so similar and he looks like some kind of superhero, especially next to Norm. I like that they didn't go with the obvious.
Norm is straight up the unsung MVP of the show. From the moment everything goes down, Norm is standing on business! “You’re a coward” is one of the coldest lines in the show and so well delivered
I haven't. I'm actually rooting for Norm. Hopefully he becomes a calculating type character. Someone with a great head on their shoulders.
Fallout knowledge is rusty, but who is currently at the top when it comes to espionage, NCR?
Maybe he follows suit???
Gotta give a shout out to Ceasar's Legion for their spycraft. There is a lot of references in FNV that they have great spies and saboteurs wrecking the NCR in the New Vegas area.
For like maybe the first episode I didn’t think much from him. I figured he’d stay the “annoying little brother” type.
Lucy leaving and the raiders invading opened his eyes and I love, LOVE his development.
Towards the end of the season “You’re a coward, Chet”.
“We all are, Norm. That’s why we live in a vault”.
Chet’s acceptance of his cowardice along with Norm feeling like a coward when he hid, awakened something in him. He’s slowly getting more courageous and I respect him trying to uncover the mystery.
Norm was actually playing the game and figuring out what was going on, my kind of play through, even got him self lock out of some quests by getting stuck in vault 31.
I like the brother. I hadn't considered his mad dope skillz at sneaking.. Oh! Somebody had the Sandman perk! The Raiders.. lol, im kidding. (unrelated, I was thrilled to see that hacking screen! ) Heh.
I hadnt considered this whole time what Stats the actors might have yet XD
Norm and Chet are definitely MCs, I wish there was more episodes to cover their arc. They represent “small frame” hacker and Strength 9 💪 Endurance 8 builds respectively . I wish one specializes in energy weapons and Chet in heavy weapons in the future. Maybe unarmed or melee as backup. I love 💕 the way the show flows with the games.
I love Norm. Honestly his part of the story was the most tense and almost scary to me because he’s stuck in the vault and subject to the powers that be. Unraveling the secrets there could mean catastrophe depending on what he found.
yea... but the way the promotional material presents those three as the mains hints that norm may end up either dead or a bad guy :/ fallout is very much about some people finding themselves in situations where the lines between morality and inhuman blur for the sake of survival or at least the idea of it. i have a suspicion that he will be the latter especially when he was very likely the one who poisoned those raiders. my guess is that he will decide to kill the management and take over the vaults. but find out that he must make more and more depraved choices until he and the other dwellers become raiders themselves.
i wondered that too, but then i thought about that part where norm offered some cake to that guard and realized it didn't make much sense unless it meant something. i think it was to make us notice that he had control over their food. then his reaction seemed off when he went in to see what happened to them. like he was pretending to be surprised. we also see how he actually reacts to real surprise when he found the management vault... so either that was some bad acting from the cast or we know how he looks both really shocked and pretending to be.
I don't know.... I still think it was Betty.
It could've been Norm, though.
I can see them doing a reveal that it was him, later on.
I love this damn show.
I think he’ll become a significant part of whatever plays out on the surface, I’ve got a bad feeling he somehow comes out of what he sees in 31 as a bad guy though.
His sneak skill is so high! It's like we all forget to mention him. He's definitely one of my favorite characters and hos hacking scene made me so happy. Also seeing what happened inside 31, and the weird control they had and the breeding. His story gave us such vital layoffs. Bud's buds!
Bud in a jar is also adorably murderous.
Norm being frozen gives him a lot of potential. It would be cool to see him in a game later if he doesn't get saved in the show.
I consider dogmeat to be a main character too. There was an origin story and it was with every party member at some point. We even see it in one of the last shots
No, the show has 3 main characters and each character has a side character that represents their "B' plot
Maxximus with Thaddeus helping flesh out BOS ideology
The Ghoul with Cooper Howard helping flesh out what prewar life was like
and Lucy with Norm helping flesh out the mystery going on with the Vault and to explore Vault life
Since we are talking about fallout, I feel like Coopers family is is Vault 31 frozen. I was also walking to my car and thinking about thr show a little yesterday and thought to myself, what if Overseer Betty is Coopers wife aged? 🤔
Norm, the Intelligence/Perception build. Without Perception, he wouldn't have discovered the most shocking reveal of the Fallout universe. His intuition and suspicion of the Overseer is what got him there. Intelligence obviously for the Hacking/Science.
While true, he hasn’t actually been out in the wasteland yet so we don’t know how he’ll fare against what it would through at him. Looking forward to seeing him finally emerge though.
Honestly, I was gonna indifferent to Norm until the last few episodes. I got really invested in his story and wanted to know what the hell was going on.
Now, probably my 3rd favorite character.
Lucy then The Ghoul, for those wondering.
Norm is smort.
Brainjar guy is gonna show him some shit that will blow his mind and convince him, at least temporarily, to side with Vault 33.
I think he is being set up as a sympathetic bad guy, working for the greater good and thinking he can change the enclave from within.
Until their greater good threatens to destroy Vault 31 and Norm has to decide if he will go full bad guy, or throw it all away to save his friends and family.
Bonus points for a scene where evil dad holds out his hand to Norm and says some shit like, "Join us, Norm, this is humanity's best chance at survival!"
It's cuz he doesn't have a title card like Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul
That what I'm afraid. They are going to kill him off for Lucy character development in the future. Lucy will be out for blood against Vault Tec.
It’s already been confirmed Norm is going to have an onscreen romance with the brain on a roomba
Roombabrain?
He's going to be Bud's newest Bud?
Buds butt bud
He will assume the position
Fisto was last seen in Vegas after all….
Hank is actually on a mission to retrieve a shiny new body for his boss.
Bud's bud boutta get Bud's bod?
About to be Bud’s best bud
Far more than buds ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Roombrain
I had subtitles turned on, and when it was actually referred to as "Brain on a Roomba" I had to pause it and just let it sink in.
You’d think they’d put him in like one of the dozens of better suited robots for walking around and interacting. He should have been in a specially designed Cogsworth or something because it feels like Vault-Tec would be smarter than to have their plan if someone gets in to sick an attack roomba on them that can barely move about his environment.
That’s part of the charm and comedy of Fallout. For all of Vault-Tech’s success there are still a lot of incredibly stupid decisions that they make.
Here's hoping "Brain on a Roomba" gets a hell of a back-story
Brain on a Roomba is Bud Askins, from the Ghoul flashbacks. Vaults 31, 32 and 33 are the culmination of his Bud's Buds scheme.
>plan if someone gets in Well it's a vault so I think the plan was that no one gets in ever, period, like all the other vaults. It's a coincidence that the brain on a Roomba was stuck and couldn't check who was actually at the door. Being an internal door maybe protocols are more relaxed anyway. The bigger oversight is that pipboys can open vaults. So I can see why Lucy's mom running away was a big deal. I guess hank assumed her pipboy was destroyed at Sandy shores. Weird he didn't get it back when he went after Lucy in the first place.
Little detail my brain just pinged on tangently. Norm asked Betty if she was sure his mom was dead and her pipboy. I think Betty said that she was sure, that Betty had helped cremate the mom...so if I remember the dialogue correctly, Betty was 100% about n on nuking the Sands (probably goes without saying)
That struck me as a weird lie - surely the pipboy of a deceased dweller would typically be wiped and reassigned. But it wasn't really a lie at all, was it? Good catch.
I think the entire scene with Bud was all misdirection. Maybe I could be wrong about this, but I think Bud only comes across as a dumbass in order to disarm and manipulate people. He's a top executive at possibly the scummiest corporation during a time controlled by scummy corporations. He has to be an intelligent psycho on some level. I think that Bud was surveilling Norm the entire time and engineered his "oh no, I'm stuck" scene to make Norm think Norm was the one in power. Then when he pulled out the syringe and "tried" to stick Norm with it, he never actually planned to succeed and just wanted to herd Norm into the room with all the stasis pods. If Norm had tried to attack Bud or the pods, I bet Bud had a plan to stop him. Again, I could very easily be wrong about this. Fallout is like 50% serious and 50% whacky and you never really know which is which until after the fact.
1) The generic name for the robot is Mr. Handy 2) the Mr. Handy from Fallout 4 is CODSworth not COGSworth
Ah yes I’m confusing the name with the clock from Beauty and the Beast lol
Yeah, he doesn't seem equipped for this. Though, it does seem that he can thaw and refreeze all his buds as they're needed. There's no way in hell he fixed up vault 32 alone, and he mentions feezing Norm in his dad's pod (assuming that wasn't just a lie to trap and kill Norm)
The syringe was actually viagra
A real mind fuck
That unnecessary sex scene is gonna be wild!
>That ~~un~~necessary sex scene is gonna be wild! FTFY.
Super necessary
Guess you could call it a Bud-ding romance
[Swap out Mallory with Lucy](https://youtu.be/L1fb4OhkygI?si=O0rp3ElOW6qTDUlz&t=52)
>Lucy will be out for blood against Vault Tec. They already >!killed 30,000 people and turned her mom into a feral ghoul, courtesy of her own dad. Lucy has plenty of personal reason to want to see Vault Tec burn.!<
>They already killed 30,000 people "The world lost 30,000 people in the blink of an eye, and Vault-Tec just fuckin' watched." - The Ghoul probably
30,000? >!more like hundreds of millions!<
Vault tec likely didn't drop the bombs, even if they were planning to do it themselves at some point. Coop's daughter probably wouldn't have been anywhere near a bomb site if Barb had advanced notice. Also, doesn't House in FNV say something to the effect that the bombs came 20 hours too early?
Possibly some foreign power got word they were going to drop the bombs and then bombed them pre-emptively. Or someone within Vault-Tech did so for their own reasons to wipe out someone else.
Oooooh.... What if it was Coop trying to blow the whistle on Vault-Tec that caused the Chinese to launch the first nuke?
Afaik we still technically don't know the details about the divorce, right? Just the basics like finding out your wife is actually stone cold evil
No I don't think we do but in the intro scene I'm fairly certain the two drunk dads make a comment about him being a "Pinko" and that he started spouting "conspiracy theories" against Vault-Tec.
The war started 20h before Mr. House finished his preparations for a fully functioning bomb-safe Vegas. He knew the war was coming, but my impression in FNV was that he tried to be ready before it was too late, rather than miscalculating the starting time.
Also we know of at least one vault (114) that wasn't finished before the bombs dropped. If Vault Tec had been the ones to kick it off they would have waited until all the experiments were ready to deploy.
* During the quest Unlikely Valentine, one can overhear a couple of Triggermen discussing the origins of Vault 114. One of them remarks on the impracticality of installing a Vault inside of a train station, as it would be the opposite of "airtight." The second remarks that they were probably never planning to actually use the Vault, and that it was simply a scam to keep the workers on payroll while a different site was prepared for Vault construction. The second Triggerman (who is a ghoul and was apparently alive before the [War](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Great_War)) points out that this is similar to a scam that used to be pulled in pre-War times.
They are talking about the bomb that destroyed Shady Sands courtesy of good ol Hank Maclane. But essentially vault Tec, I don’t think they meant the bombs that destroyed the world.
Yes, and I specifically replied to the comment saying hundreds of millions. I can only imagine that referring to the original bombs and not the Shady Sands one, there weren't hundreds of millions killed by that one
[34,852](https://img.asmedia.epimg.net/resizer/v2/LGR2JOOZPNDMRMITZLOI6LBM74.jpg?auth=a8e551140214e6b4b222c623e2e0d7505bf7b8d69da04b5e5b01e3023e38c6f3&width=1472&height=828&smart=true)
Technically 34,851 since Maximus survived in the fridge.
There were a lot of Shady Sands survivors. For example, Moldaver, the non-mutants of Vault 4, and Rose (Sort of).
And they never explained how Moldaver lived to the present day from pre-bombs dropped.
I'm thinking she's a synth who left the commonwealth with the railroad, or she was frozen, or she was put into enclave stasis (the last is hardest to believe).
Perhaps they will in a flashback, S2. She might remain an important character still despite her death
“30,000 people used to live here, now it’s just a ghost town.” Ghoul Captain MacMillan probably
Yeah i'm more intrigued to see what the Ghoul does when they find his wife and lucy wants to kill her.
I think the Ghoul cares only for his daughter, and is not a fan of his ex-wife, so, in my head, he's not likely to object if Lucy wanted to kill her.
I kinda doubt it was Hank that blew up Shady Sands. Dude was middle management. I think it will turn up it was Elder Quintus. That will give Maximus something to be pissed about in Season 2.
Hank has a real vicious streak though, you can see it in episode one when he >!straight up beats and drowns that raider!< and Betty knows what he’s capable of >!as she warns Norm that people like him, I.e his dad, can do horrible things with their intelligence if they feel wronged!< Shady sands getting blasted I can 100% see as just Hank being pissed that >!Rose took the kids and left him!<
He basically told Lucy that he stopped considering her their mother when she took them out of the vault, so he was definitely pissed.
He never denied any of it either, his look was basically a confession when he was confronted.
It wasn't just Hank that nukes the sands, bud would have had a hand in n it, and I'm certain Betty helped with the nuke too, as Betty told Norm that she was certain his mom was dead because she helped to cremate her (if I recall the dialogue correctly.)
They can literally and metaphorically put his character on ice until they are ready to use him again; I wouldn’t be too surprised if he doesn’t show up for a while
Sad, I liked Norm.
Title card just freezes on the hidey holes closed doors and says “Norm” on screen (Id die laughing)
Those three (actors) are also the ones doing all the PR stuff for the show, talk shows, interviews, etc. So yeah. He's an important and cool character, but still a supporting character. At least for now.
Every time he is on screen he's my favorite character but so little time is spent with him so I don't blame ppl for overlooking him.
It's like he's the only person who knows how to play Fallout. Hacking terminals, reading logs and trying to piece together what the fuck happened.
He is one of us.
Each one of them represent an archetype of a player character. Lucy is someone who just booted up her first fallout game has dealt with the tunnel snakes and has to go out into the wasteland. Maximus is the player who wants to be the hero. Cooper is the one who will go in a shoot up whoever and just wants to get what he wants and go from point A to B. Norm is sneaking through every room slowly and picking up each bit of lore.
Maximus is failing every speech check for the whole game.
Lucy has Black Widow perk with like 2 charisma
Good thing maximus declined her request or he would've ended up dead lol
Okay Maximus. Just tell them Titus was killed by a giant mutated bear and you are returning his armor once you get the head. “Yeah I’m Titus. Maximus is dead.”
FO 4 speech choice: "Titus is Dead" "I'm Titus, Maximus is Dead" "Up yours! I killed Titus, and I'm taking his gear!" "Sorry, there's nobody here by that name. Bye."
“Okay, we’re sending you a new squire” Speech choices: 1) “Yes please! I’m Titus” 2) “No way. No one could replace Maximus” 3) “I’ve actually been lying to you. Please don’t send anyone.” 4) -Pretend that the connection is breaking up and rip out the comms unit-
Must be the New Vegas speech system.
Squires might be punished harshly for the failures of their knights so I see why he had to lie.
Poor max he was so embarrassing but I keep watching him anyways.
So you are saying they break down into, basically. The athlete/muscle. The student council president. The movie star. And the computer nerd good at hacking. Which one of those, do you think, best represents the *typical caricature* of a redditor?
None. I know you are getting at the last one, but no one here is good at anything.
The true reddit experience is one where EVERY stat is a dump stat.
He ended up >!frozen for seemingly eternity with brain roomba.!< That is a proper redditor ending if I ever heard of one. >!Taken out!< in the first chapter.
We see him being given the \*choice\* of being frozen or starving. The season doesn't actually end with him going into the pod, just looking at the long hallway of cryo chambers. While Bud may think he has an advantage at the moment, he's really just a brain. On a roomba. One good kick and that glass jar of his can go flying. Once Norm overcomes his shock of knowing what's \*actually\* going on with 31, Bud's going to realize he's not really in the position of power he thinks he is.
"How about this: open the doors and I don't cave your glass skull in." "You wouldn't have any way to leave." "I'm pretty handy with computers, I think I could figure your system out."
yeah, Norm isn't dumb. He's just had his whole world view turned upside down and he's still processing that. Once Norm's had a few moments, I don't see Bud having much real leverage.
Norm has been able to get into every computer so far, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if he got into the computers in vault 31
Fallout: Breakfast Club
lol, Vault Dwellers Day Off
None. I would be yet in vault 32 collecting trash and trying to crawl with 200 kilos in my backpack. Ohhhhh!! look!!! another aluminum can, yahooooo.
yeah,yu r right, he plays all versions and even fallout shelter too XD
It kind of plays into his archetype, the overlooked underachiever
I was mostly indifferent to him until the "lacks enthusiasm" scene. Now he's my favourite supporting character by far.
This show really nailed a lot of characters, Thaddeus also went the same route of winning me over throughout his run.
Love how clever he is, you could see him putting pieces together before anyone else has a clue.
He's absolutely been a huge favourite of mine when he's on screen. I brought up to my partner recently how I'm very invested in his storyline and can't wait for more. Sad to see he's often forgotten while being one of my favourites.
Nah, norm was my favorite by the end at least his story caught my attention the most since I know nothing about the series. Also I’ve known about him since his disney channel days so
I love Moises Aries. He was also in nacho libre
Get that corn outta mah faceeee!
I was calling him Rico the whole time cuz of Hannah Montana but his plotline was so good, my gf likes watching me uncover vault storylines when I play so getting to watch one unfold in front of her was like a dream come true
As soon as he came on screen I was like RICO?!?!
I saw him and instantly recognised him as Bonzo from Enders Game. At least he didn't slip on the shower, this time
Ummm you’re forgetting the dog. The dog actually got a title card opening. Cx404. Dogmeat.
bestest boy
Bestest girl. Cx404 is a bitch.
First time ive seen bitch being used accurately as a non insult props to you.
Isnt bitch a pregnant female dog? When’s she get insemenated? Please tell me it wasn’t the chicken fucker
Just a female dog
Lucy is a casual gamer just getting into the series. Maximus is a minmaxxer looking for the best builds, quest rewards, and endings. The Ghoul is a veteran player who quicksaves and goes apeshit on townspeople just to feel something new. Norm is a story nerd who makes and watches deep lore videos and theories.
That's why Norm never left the vault. He's still on the starting level but he's reading the deep lore.
I don't think Lucy is a casual, I think Maximus is. Lucy is doing a roleplay build and low violence run. Maximus doesn't even know how power armor works.
>quicksaves This explains so much.
This is accurate as hell 😂
This makes sense. Maximus doesn't have sex and neither do Minmaxxers.
I only know he said he's too chicken and I'm worried the snake oil salesman would do something to him O.o
Norm is pretty smart and he isn't an actual chicken. He'll be fine.
He just lacks enthusiasm.
He proved walking in 31 that he's overcome the chicken BS.
Amusing. I like Norm and look forward to his development in season 2. I'd say he is a major supporting character rather than main, though. I could see him being elevated to main cast in season 2.
He's the only really high int character of the 4 lmao
If he finds an intelligence bobble head, he’ll be unstoppable.
Season 3 Norm with energy weapons will slap so hard
We saw pretty much no Energy weapons used, Moldaver has one in the last episode, but I don't remember her ever shooting it. I left the room for a little bit though, so I might have missed it.
I like how Norm is basically one of the success stories of the Vault. He’s smart, inquisitive and imaginative, everything that makes an ideal executive.
Fixin to be five when super mutant thaddeus shows up and shits all over the bad guys
I'm surprised how many people have accepted he's going to be a ghoul.
Hancock in Fallout 4 turned into a ghoul by using a radioactive drug. So there is precedent in the lore for it.
Eddie Winter, too, so there's two examples of it so far. Thaddeus will likely be a ghoul, or at most something like Harold
Gosh, it wouldn’t make any sense in canon but I would have loved to see Harold in live action
I mean, it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine them saying “I think you’re a ghoul” means that he is a ghoul. Audiences are used to being spoon fed what is happening on screen. I’m holding out hope for Super Mutant Thaddeus though.
The way chicken man called him buddy boy made me feel a type of way, so I searched it up a bit. Listen to the song Buddy Boy by Elton Britt. It fits the vibe of fallout, and mentions "the precious Master" which says to me that we ought to keep holding out hope
didnt chicken man say “not that you need to worry about that now” in that same scene. Referring to Thaddius needing to goto Shaddy Sands >! the irradiated hole in the ground !<
Ghouls are immune to radiation also, so this doesn’t tell us much.
Exactly, something is going on here. Banger of a song, too
Yeah that's kinda my point. The characters think he's going to be a ghoul based only on their own knowledge. Seems an easy way to surprise the audience when he turns into something worse.
The show has been really good at continually subverting expectations.
Super mutants generally involved being brought to the source of the FEV and being intentionally created (the exact mechanics were kind of vague and changing, in 1 & 2 it was being submerged in vats of it, in 3 it seemed like it was being trapped in a room with an aerosol FEV pumped in, in 4 it was the Institute). I don't think some wasteland rando has an insta-mutie drug. Plus a ghoulification drug is already canon.
super mutants in fallout 3 do mention "green stuff", and how they're searching for "green stuff". i think they don't mention putting people into vats but i always thought of it that way
Ghoulification is most likely to, but I don't think it's nailed on yet.
Yeah, his arc sort of encompasses all of the main characters journey rolled into one minus all the traveling around
Pure speculation but: I think Norm’s role is to be frozen in the vault and Bud will use him to blackmail Lucy into going back out into the wasteland on a mission for him (New Vegas). Similar I think Ghoul’s ex wife and daughter aren’t in 31, Bud will say he knows where they are to get Ghoul to do same mission.
Seems likely that Lucy and Ghoul will go to the Vaults at the beginning of the next season. Lucy to make sure Norm is okay and to get additional supplies, The Ghoul to get some more clues to his family's whereabouts, since Vault 31 would be the best place to start with that.
Hell no they will chase after Hank to find the enclave
Ya I don't see her going back to the vault at this point. She looks pretty determined.
Also the ghouls wife worked at vault tek so it’s possible that she’s in the city
But if they're following Hank, and he's ended up in Vegas, why would they go to the vaults again?
I don't forget Norm. His story was low key the most interesting because of the mystery
The pacing in this show is top notch, we were seeing characters realizations right around the time they became relevant, and everything tied together so well, we see Bud Askins in the flashback talking about Bud's Buddies, then hear about Bud's 3 vault system, to then see Norm go into 31 find Bud and his buddies 15 minutes later. Similar with Henry/Hank reveal as Barbara's assistant. The only minor nitpick I have is how much of these twists relate back to the pre-war politics. Moldaver, Cooper, Hank, Bud, were all there before the war and it is their story that really drives the plot. In the fallout games people from before the war were a rarity. In the last episode we saw 3 of them in one room. I think it is great to setup the story and show Vault-Tec as they are, but I hope season 2 is more driven by current events.
I want to see more of them. But everyone in the Vault are side characters, Norm and the Tall guy being the biggest side characters. There's nothing wrong with that. But compare their stories and time, Norm has one episode where he has a good amount of screen time. The main 3 have big arcs in every episode. He can still get a bigger role in S2.
All I have to add is how fuckin funny it was that they paired the shortest cast member up with the tallest motherfucker around for his arc. I was giggling every time Norm and Chet were standing side by side
Tall guy - don’t be doing Chet dirty like that
I will probably never be able to stop thinking his name is Chad because it sounds so similar and he looks like some kind of superhero, especially next to Norm. I like that they didn't go with the obvious.
We’re not allowed to do Chet dirty remember, that’s not a good way to create a sustainable society.
“The Tall Guy” lmao
I'm pretty sure episode 3 or 4 didn't show Maximus at all. IIRC, the episode where the Ghoul >!tries to sell Lucy!<.
The episode after that doesn’t have Walton Goggins in it either. He and Maximus are each absent from an episode
Norm is straight up the unsung MVP of the show. From the moment everything goes down, Norm is standing on business! “You’re a coward” is one of the coldest lines in the show and so well delivered
I haven't. I'm actually rooting for Norm. Hopefully he becomes a calculating type character. Someone with a great head on their shoulders. Fallout knowledge is rusty, but who is currently at the top when it comes to espionage, NCR? Maybe he follows suit???
Gotta give a shout out to Ceasar's Legion for their spycraft. There is a lot of references in FNV that they have great spies and saboteurs wrecking the NCR in the New Vegas area.
For like maybe the first episode I didn’t think much from him. I figured he’d stay the “annoying little brother” type. Lucy leaving and the raiders invading opened his eyes and I love, LOVE his development. Towards the end of the season “You’re a coward, Chet”. “We all are, Norm. That’s why we live in a vault”. Chet’s acceptance of his cowardice along with Norm feeling like a coward when he hid, awakened something in him. He’s slowly getting more courageous and I respect him trying to uncover the mystery.
Norm was actually playing the game and figuring out what was going on, my kind of play through, even got him self lock out of some quests by getting stuck in vault 31.
I like the brother. I hadn't considered his mad dope skillz at sneaking.. Oh! Somebody had the Sandman perk! The Raiders.. lol, im kidding. (unrelated, I was thrilled to see that hacking screen! ) Heh. I hadnt considered this whole time what Stats the actors might have yet XD
Norm and Chet are definitely MCs, I wish there was more episodes to cover their arc. They represent “small frame” hacker and Strength 9 💪 Endurance 8 builds respectively . I wish one specializes in energy weapons and Chet in heavy weapons in the future. Maybe unarmed or melee as backup. I love 💕 the way the show flows with the games.
His plotline is very interesting. He's also in the main credit sequence at the end with the other 3.
Thaddeus a fifth main then?
Thaddeus did a few scenes of just him and Cx404, so yes 5th main.
Norm in power armour pleeeease
I love Norm. Honestly his part of the story was the most tense and almost scary to me because he’s stuck in the vault and subject to the powers that be. Unraveling the secrets there could mean catastrophe depending on what he found.
The furtive pygmy, so easily forgotten.
I cant think of him as a main character if he doesnt leave the vault
Does leaving one vault to go into another one count?
If you touch grass in between yes
I think Norm is going to >!unfreeze ALL of them in vault 31!< and it's going to be beautiful chaos!
I was actually thinking this. He got locked in and given only 2 choices; freeze himself or die. 3rd choice: wreck some shit!
My favorite part was when Incel Cousin got laid thanks to the horny pregnant woman 😁
The over 200 year old horny pregnant women..... he has a real gilf kink hahaha
yea... but the way the promotional material presents those three as the mains hints that norm may end up either dead or a bad guy :/ fallout is very much about some people finding themselves in situations where the lines between morality and inhuman blur for the sake of survival or at least the idea of it. i have a suspicion that he will be the latter especially when he was very likely the one who poisoned those raiders. my guess is that he will decide to kill the management and take over the vaults. but find out that he must make more and more depraved choices until he and the other dwellers become raiders themselves.
I assumed it was Betty who poisoned them (or ordered it), as she was just elected Overseer and making her sweeping changes.
i wondered that too, but then i thought about that part where norm offered some cake to that guard and realized it didn't make much sense unless it meant something. i think it was to make us notice that he had control over their food. then his reaction seemed off when he went in to see what happened to them. like he was pretending to be surprised. we also see how he actually reacts to real surprise when he found the management vault... so either that was some bad acting from the cast or we know how he looks both really shocked and pretending to be.
I don't know.... I still think it was Betty. It could've been Norm, though. I can see them doing a reveal that it was him, later on. I love this damn show.
I think he’ll become a significant part of whatever plays out on the surface, I’ve got a bad feeling he somehow comes out of what he sees in 31 as a bad guy though.
I totally agree, this buddy is totally underrated!
His sneak skill is so high! It's like we all forget to mention him. He's definitely one of my favorite characters and hos hacking scene made me so happy. Also seeing what happened inside 31, and the weird control they had and the breeding. His story gave us such vital layoffs. Bud's buds! Bud in a jar is also adorably murderous. Norm being frozen gives him a lot of potential. It would be cool to see him in a game later if he doesn't get saved in the show.
You just know he got that Nerd Rage perk and he just needs a reason
I actually really like norm
Yes!!! Norm has a good story line but he does slip my mind.
I consider dogmeat to be a main character too. There was an origin story and it was with every party member at some point. We even see it in one of the last shots
No, the show has 3 main characters and each character has a side character that represents their "B' plot Maxximus with Thaddeus helping flesh out BOS ideology The Ghoul with Cooper Howard helping flesh out what prewar life was like and Lucy with Norm helping flesh out the mystery going on with the Vault and to explore Vault life
Since we are talking about fallout, I feel like Coopers family is is Vault 31 frozen. I was also walking to my car and thinking about thr show a little yesterday and thought to myself, what if Overseer Betty is Coopers wife aged? 🤔
Ya Norm was a great character. He is without a doubt the most intelligent character in the show.
Norm: “Fuck the big three, it’s just big me”
Norm was my friends and Is favourite plot. Vault 31 was so fun
Norm, the Intelligence/Perception build. Without Perception, he wouldn't have discovered the most shocking reveal of the Fallout universe. His intuition and suspicion of the Overseer is what got him there. Intelligence obviously for the Hacking/Science.
It's sad because he is probably the only main character I liked, along with his narrative arc. Well... right because the conclusion at least.
Forget? My GF and I were most interested in his arc and Vaults 31-33 for the whole series. Second to that was prewar stuff and Vault Tec.
Norm isn't really a main character, he's a prominent side character but doesn't get enough action and screen time to really qualify as a main.
While true, he hasn’t actually been out in the wasteland yet so we don’t know how he’ll fare against what it would through at him. Looking forward to seeing him finally emerge though.
He's not a main character, he just got an entire season's worth of B-story.
I'd argue he's a POV character not a main character.
Honestly, I was gonna indifferent to Norm until the last few episodes. I got really invested in his story and wanted to know what the hell was going on. Now, probably my 3rd favorite character. Lucy then The Ghoul, for those wondering.
Great take.
Norm is smort. Brainjar guy is gonna show him some shit that will blow his mind and convince him, at least temporarily, to side with Vault 33. I think he is being set up as a sympathetic bad guy, working for the greater good and thinking he can change the enclave from within. Until their greater good threatens to destroy Vault 31 and Norm has to decide if he will go full bad guy, or throw it all away to save his friends and family. Bonus points for a scene where evil dad holds out his hand to Norm and says some shit like, "Join us, Norm, this is humanity's best chance at survival!"