I'm also replaying FNV for the bajillionth time and this time I've realised that Arcade Gannon is the perfect foil to Caesar in a way that is overtly textual, I was just too dumb to see it. Arcade is also educated, if not more so than Caesar, but understands the limits of his intellect to order the world. He helps where he can, but will not impose a grand theory of history or a supra-ideology onto unwilling people, hence his support for independent Vegas. He's basically learned from his Enclave parents, and recent post-nuclear history, in a way that Sallow never did. Arcade hates Caesar as a person more than anyone else in the game because he understands what ridiculous, megalomaniacal hubris it is to anoit yourself king of the world because you think you understand what a dialectic and no one else does. This is also why the true worst thing you do to Arcade is sell him into slavery to be Caesar's intellectual amusement and probable concubine (I think Caesar is also gay).
Arcade has got to be one of my favorite characters in the entire FO canon. You’re absolutely right — he’s like a projection of Caesar as he might have been were it not for the unimaginable hubris. It’s too bad that the Followers don’t have a greater role to play in the late-game political struggle, because there’s great potential for a sort of counter-ideological contrast to the other major factions in general and to Caesar in particular.
Incidentally, I think you’re probably onto something regarding Caesar’s sexuality. I can recall at least two companions (Veronica and Cass) who make very strong allusions to that effect.
All the companions bring such heat but yeah Arcade is my favourite. Maybe it's no coincidence I married a gay classicist with excellent Latin and a humanitarian spirit.
With Caesar's sexuality, he copied a lot from ancient Rome but no one made him have to lift the man-loving as well. Cass and Veronica are on the money there, methinks.
I've bought FO1 and F02, played half of F0NV and FO4, and completed FO3... reading this series of articles I really need to go back and play FO1, 2 and NV properly!
It's hard to imagine future FO games having the commentary that I've seen associated with the original games and FONV. I played half of Outer Worlds and other than an enjoyable opening chapter, I thought it's twee anti-corporatism was so overdone to be almost devoid of any real commentary and all the factions were essentially forgettable.
Hope you do! Playing FO1, FO2, and FNV nowadays really brings the generally lower narrative standards of newer RPGs into sharp relief. I had a very similar experience with The Outer Worlds — its handling of its themes came across as predigested and superficial in a way that reminded me unpleasantly of the worst parts of FO3’s storytelling. Obsidian’s done some great stuff since 2010, but I think we’re still waiting on a worthy successor to FNV’s legacy in that regard.
One thing that really stuck me in the game is just how criticisms of the NCR falls short. People fall back on corruption and Brahmin barons, but is the NCR more "corrupt" because large scale agribusiness drove yeoman smallholders like Cassidy out of business instead of raping her to death? The NCR provides a vast array of technologies, the stable lawful government to provide peaceful succession, ability to adapt and incorporate vastly different peoples from Broken Hills to Boneyard to Reno, and the strength to defend it. It wasn't until Kimball's jingoistic adventures that things started to break down.
Really Caesar reminds me of Napolean III of Marx's 18th Brumaire, fusing petite bourgeoisie (wasteland traders) with lumpenproletariat enforcers (wasteland tribes). He has a reactionary, aesthetics obsessed regime consolidated in one person who encourages back biting and treachery. He is the evil, pathetic version of FO1/2's Tandi (who would be great to analyze as a game version of Indira Ghandi), who really built a juggernaut that can pacify the wastes in ways Eddie could only imagine.
I think all Caesar needs is a charismatic adoptive nephew who can convince the NCR that direct command of the Legion is simply a matter of convenience, and he's perfectly happy with no official role in government and is content doing side quests for people around the Mojave
I'm also replaying FNV for the bajillionth time and this time I've realised that Arcade Gannon is the perfect foil to Caesar in a way that is overtly textual, I was just too dumb to see it. Arcade is also educated, if not more so than Caesar, but understands the limits of his intellect to order the world. He helps where he can, but will not impose a grand theory of history or a supra-ideology onto unwilling people, hence his support for independent Vegas. He's basically learned from his Enclave parents, and recent post-nuclear history, in a way that Sallow never did. Arcade hates Caesar as a person more than anyone else in the game because he understands what ridiculous, megalomaniacal hubris it is to anoit yourself king of the world because you think you understand what a dialectic and no one else does. This is also why the true worst thing you do to Arcade is sell him into slavery to be Caesar's intellectual amusement and probable concubine (I think Caesar is also gay).
Arcade has got to be one of my favorite characters in the entire FO canon. You’re absolutely right — he’s like a projection of Caesar as he might have been were it not for the unimaginable hubris. It’s too bad that the Followers don’t have a greater role to play in the late-game political struggle, because there’s great potential for a sort of counter-ideological contrast to the other major factions in general and to Caesar in particular.
Incidentally, I think you’re probably onto something regarding Caesar’s sexuality. I can recall at least two companions (Veronica and Cass) who make very strong allusions to that effect.
All the companions bring such heat but yeah Arcade is my favourite. Maybe it's no coincidence I married a gay classicist with excellent Latin and a humanitarian spirit.
With Caesar's sexuality, he copied a lot from ancient Rome but no one made him have to lift the man-loving as well. Cass and Veronica are on the money there, methinks.
I've bought FO1 and F02, played half of F0NV and FO4, and completed FO3... reading this series of articles I really need to go back and play FO1, 2 and NV properly!
It's hard to imagine future FO games having the commentary that I've seen associated with the original games and FONV. I played half of Outer Worlds and other than an enjoyable opening chapter, I thought it's twee anti-corporatism was so overdone to be almost devoid of any real commentary and all the factions were essentially forgettable.
Hope you do! Playing FO1, FO2, and FNV nowadays really brings the generally lower narrative standards of newer RPGs into sharp relief. I had a very similar experience with The Outer Worlds — its handling of its themes came across as predigested and superficial in a way that reminded me unpleasantly of the worst parts of FO3’s storytelling. Obsidian’s done some great stuff since 2010, but I think we’re still waiting on a worthy successor to FNV’s legacy in that regard.
One thing that really stuck me in the game is just how criticisms of the NCR falls short. People fall back on corruption and Brahmin barons, but is the NCR more "corrupt" because large scale agribusiness drove yeoman smallholders like Cassidy out of business instead of raping her to death? The NCR provides a vast array of technologies, the stable lawful government to provide peaceful succession, ability to adapt and incorporate vastly different peoples from Broken Hills to Boneyard to Reno, and the strength to defend it. It wasn't until Kimball's jingoistic adventures that things started to break down.
Really Caesar reminds me of Napolean III of Marx's 18th Brumaire, fusing petite bourgeoisie (wasteland traders) with lumpenproletariat enforcers (wasteland tribes). He has a reactionary, aesthetics obsessed regime consolidated in one person who encourages back biting and treachery. He is the evil, pathetic version of FO1/2's Tandi (who would be great to analyze as a game version of Indira Ghandi), who really built a juggernaut that can pacify the wastes in ways Eddie could only imagine.
I think all Caesar needs is a charismatic adoptive nephew who can convince the NCR that direct command of the Legion is simply a matter of convenience, and he's perfectly happy with no official role in government and is content doing side quests for people around the Mojave