The protagonist of Fallout 4 is now canonically a war criminal
Interplay/BethesdaWar… War never changes… unless you’re the male protagonist of Fallout 4, apparently because he’s, by definition, a war criminal now.
While you can customize your main character in Fallout 4, both characters have backstories. The woman, Nora, is a lawyer, and her husband is a soldier hardened by war, who’s oddly conveniently on leave when the bombs start falling during the game’s prologue.
Canonically known as Nate, the male protagonist of Fallout 4 was officially confirmed to be one of the characters we can see in the opening cutscene of Fallout 1. In the scene where his fellow soldier executes someone, Nate laughs about it. It’s not a great look for this Sole Survivor.
Bethesda Studio Design Director Emil Pagliarulo posted on X (formerly Twitter) what was planned to be a simple, fun fact to tie the Fallout timeline together a bit more. However, it also confirmed that Nate is complicit in a war crime, as he’s captured on video laughing as his colleague waves to the camera.
Executing an unarmed prisoner of war is considered a war crime, and since Nate is present, that makes him complicit in the event and, therefore, a war criminal. If this were in the wasteland, all bets would be off, but this takes place before the world ended, so rules of engagement are still in effect.
After fans pointed out that we actively play as a war criminal in Fallout 4, Emil followed with a three-post thread trying to defend the seemingly innocent tidbit of lore, though it inadvertently describes even further why Nate is, in fact, a war criminal.
Since Nate’s personal code of ethics seems to serve him a little too well in the wasteland of The Commonwealth, maybe consider playing as the female protagonist, Nora, next time you play through Fallout 4.
