Fallout 3: Difference between revisions

== Tropes 0-C ==

* [[0% Approval Rating]]: Despite his soothing, charismatic voice and a virtual monopoly on airtime in Post-nuclear holocaust America, President Eden is widely considered a joke by the people of the Wasteland. In fact many people assume he's either an old pre-war broadcast playing on a loop, or a crazy guy broadcasting from a bunker somewhere. However, when the Enclave makes their appearance on the scene after a 35 year absence, he quickly reaches [[Not So Harmless]] status.

* [[Abandoned Laboratory]]: Vault 87

* [[Anal Probing]]: The ''Mothership Zeta'' DLC sees the [[Player Character]] abducted on board a spaceship and probed.

* [[An Axe to Grind]]: The Auto-Axe and Variants in ''The Pitt'' and the regular Axe in ''Point Lookout''.

* [[Another Man's Terror]]: One vault in ''Fallout 3'' will put the PC through a lot of this.

* [[Anti-Mutiny]]: The East Coast Brotherhood of Steel decided to work to eradicate the East Coast variant of Super Mutants, instead of solely pursuing technology. The West Coast (the leaders) allowed this, but subsequently refused them supplies, back-up, or other tech, and a group of Brotherhood members left to form the Outcasts, which stay true to the original BoS. They're not evil, just rude, elitist jerks.

* [[Human Resources]]: The Little Lamplight caverns produce a kind of edible fungus which scrubs rads ''and'' cures health, and is thus enthusiastically gobbled up by the kiddies. Sounds too good to be true? {{spoiler|It's best fertilized by human flesh.}}

* [[Humongous Mecha]]: Liberty Prime. It is also a bit of a Deconstruction, in that it takes a lot of power to operate. {{spoiler|Reconstructed at the end, in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]}}

* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: Some weapon names, such as Man Opener, Jack (a unique Ripper), Rock-it Launcher, Board of Education, etc.

* [[Idiot Ball]]: Surely the Overseer realizes the lack of genetic stock in the Vault means that every person he has murdered on a whim brings the Vault one step closer to eventually dying out due to inbreeding?

** This is actually one of the arguments you can use to convince him to step down as Overseer. His reaction suggests that he was aware of the problem but chose to downplay its significance because it conflicted with his ideology.

** By the time you have the option to {{spoiler|use the FEV Virus to wipe out all mutated life in the Wasteland, you can't have missed the fact that this will also mean that ''you'' will be poisoned as well. ''You were born in the Wasteland''.}}

* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: {{spoiler|Strange Meat ''[[Soylent Green|is PEOPLE!]]''. The Town of Andale is full of cannibals.}}

** One of the available perks can make you a humanitarian, too.

* [[Intentional Engrish for Funny]]: In ''Operation: Anchorage'', you may come across Chinese computers. Your Pip-Boy will attempt to translate the text on their screens into English, but does a poor job of it. The terminal in Mama Dolce's is also this, but already in [[Engrish]].

** [[Zero Wing|You have no chance to survive]] [[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|in America?]]

* [[Irony]]: James just wanted you, his only son/daughter, to live a quiet, safe, and peaceful existence on your own while he snuck out of the vault into the wasteland in pursuit of his of shattered dreams. Too bad that the very act him leaving is what forced you out of the vault and into danger anyways.

** The Brotherhood of Steel's original mission in the Capital Wasteland was to recover lost technology and the Outcasts left because Elder Lyons made the decision that helping the local Wastelanders was more important than their original goal. By the end of the game (especially with the add-ons) the Brotherhood of Steel has made entirely new weapon systems, reactivated a super robot from the Pre-War period that single handily curb stomped the Enclave, and have recovered so much of the Enclave's advanced technology that they are practically swimming in it. No good deed goes unrewarded, eh?

* [[Item Crafting]]: With a workbench, some schematics, and delightfully [[Vendor Trash|random junk]], you can create some of the most powerful (and [[Rule of Cool|coolest]]) weapons in the game with no fuss.

== Tropes L-O ==

* [[Large Ham]]: An amusing one in the Rivet City hotel if you successfully lockpick the owner's door.

** Mr. Buckingham: YOU HAVE INSULTED MY HONOR AND FOR...THAT YOU MUST DIE! *flamethrower*

* [[Second-Hour Superpower]]: The Pip Boy 3000 and the V.A.T.S targeting system is given to you during your 10th Birthday Party.

* [[Sequel Hook]]: Picking up on a mention from ''Tactics'', both this game and ''New Vegas'' imply there's another faction of the Brotherhood of Steel operating in Chicago, and it's also hinted that super mutants have been sighted and the Enclave is suspected to have another base nearby.

* [[Short-Range Long-Range Weapon]]: All the guns in the game have an [[Arbitrary Maximum Range]], but it can be especially noticeable with the sniper rifle. Sniper-type players are known to fail to make long-distance shots that would have been possible in some other games, never mind [[Real Life]]. The bullet simply disappears before it reaches its target.

* [[Shout-Out]]: Way too many to list here, but the ''Mad Max'' films are referenced most prominently. A full list can be found [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_cultural_references here.]

** In the game's opening, one of the images shown is the head of a statue, lying amongst a pile of rubble. This could be reminiscent of the poem [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|"Ozymandias"]], as is the [[Look on My Works Ye Mighty and Despair|general theme of the entire game]].

** You find a highly-intelligent Super Mutant named Fawkes in Isolation Cell 5 of a vault that was a secret government installation testing the use of gene and germ therapy on unwilling subjects. [[V for Vendetta|Sound familiar?]]

* [[Sickening Crunch]]: When you take fall damage.

* [[Sinister Subway]]: Every wrecked metro system in the Capital Wasteland is either crawling with mutants or raiders. And given that they're dark and dank with at least a few systems flooded with radiation in either form as well as the occasional laid trap...

* [[Speech Impediment]]: Biwwy of Widdle Wampwi- er, Little Lamplight. If you feel like being a jerk to a little kid, you can tell him to stop talking like that, but he will say he doesn't know what you are talking about. He'll trade you his Wazer Wifle (the item is actually named this in the game interface) for caps, or give it to you for free if you have the Child At Heart perk.

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To Bethesda's run on the ''[[Terminator]]'' games from the 1980s to 1990s. Ironically, the ''Broken Steel'' add-on for this game would be released within the same month as ''[[Terminator Salvation]]'' and its video game tie-in.

* [[Stealth Pun]]: James is shown to have an affinity for scotch throughout the game. Scotch, a type of whiskey, gets its name from the Gaelic 'usquebaugh', which translates into modern English as...wait for it..."water of life".

* [[Stopped Clock]]: Every single clock you see is stopped at the exact time the Chinese attack occurred. Seems like some of them would have been wind-up or something...

* [[Stripperiffic]]: The worn slave wear from The Pitt and some of the Raider wardrobes. Also, the Sexy Sleepwear and the Naughty Nightwear.

* [[Stronger with Age]]: The East Coast super mutants function this way, going all the way up to the [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Super Mutant Behemoth]].

* [[Subliminal Seduction]]: The true purpose of Vault 92 was to brainwash its residents—all musicians—through white noise seeded through the speaker system and recording equipment, with the purpose to make them ultra-loyal super-soldiers upon receiving a simple command phrase. [[Foregone Conclusion|Naturally]], [[Ax Crazy|things]] [[Insane Equals Violent|went]] [[Gone Horribly Wrong|horribly]] ''[[Gone Horribly Wrong|horribly]]'' [[Gone Horribly Wrong|wrong]].

* [[Suicidal Overconfidence]]: Your being in a [[One-Man Army|huge powered armor and toting a gun bigger than you]] won't stop [[Too Dumb to Live|leather-armored raiders from taunting you and]] [[Curb Stomp Battle|firing their peashooters at you]].

== Tropes T-W ==

* [[Teenage Wasteland]]: Big Town which is made up of people who grew too old to live in Little Lamplight.

** Little Lamplight itself is a child version of this.

* [[They Call Me Mister Tibbs]]:

** Usually a bad sign; if their [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]] didn't give you a clue, their lack of a first name should make you immediately suspicious of Mister Burke and Mister Crowley.

* [[Wacky Wayside Tribe]]: The majority of the sidequests and characters you encounter have absolutely no bearing on the central questline of the game, and many (i.e. the superheroes or the Republic of Dave) are stand-alone one-shot jokes. This is in contrast to ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', where most of the sidequests and characters had some ties to the central NCR-vs-Legion conflict or were otherwise interconnected with other events and characters elsewhere in the game. As a result, ''Fallout 3'' is more of an episodic TV show, while ''New Vegas'' is more of a [[Myth Arc]] mini-series.

* [[Warp Whistle]]: Fast-travelling. No explanation is given of how you can effectively teleport, so it's best seen as a "skip to the end of the journey" option—time skips ahead each time you travel, and does so in proportion to the distance you've gone. While you get to avoid all the [[Random Encounters]] you might otherwise face, there's a fairly high chance that something will spawn right on top of you the second you arrive at your location.

* [[Wasteland Elder]]: There are multiple examples. Such as Manya, the oldest person alive in Megaton, who can tell you the history of its foundation, as well as the elderly leaders of the children of the atom. There are also ghouls that still survived since the original bomb drops, one of which says that her interesting story is somewhat boring.

* [[Weapon, Jr.]]: The tutorial has the player learn to shoot with a BB gun on their 10th birthday.

** Just about everyone in Canterbury Commons believes The Mechanist is doing more harm than good. While he's sincere about protecting the town, it's agreed that his heavilly-armed robots are doing a lot more damage than the mutated ants.

* [[Wham! Episode|Wham Mission]]: ''The Waters of Life''. Specifically, {{spoiler|the point when its revealed that not only are the Enclave still active despite the events of ''2'', but they also intend to forcefully take control of Project Purity for their own sinister ends.}}

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Depending on your actions, you can get quite a few of these.

** Dad gives you one when he finds out you destroyed Megaton, while Three Dog calls you a "scumbag" if you kill the mutants wanting to get into Tenpenny Tower—and calls out the mutants when they ''kill'' every human in Tenpenny Tower.

** You get called on this if you kill the Overseer during your escape. And again if you kill the new Overseer in the sidequest "Trouble On The Homefront" (or the same one, if you didn't kill him before). And, no, they won't accept "but he was shooting me" as a good reason.

** In ''Broken Steel'', if you choose to target the Citadel after reaching the Satellite room in the Mobile Base Crawler, upon landing back at the [now destroyed] Citadel, the Brotherhood of Steel will immediately find out that it was your doing. They will then declare you a traitor in their eyes, and will shoot you on sight.

* [[While Rome Burns]]: Dukov and his two party girls spend every day huddled inside a building doing nothing but drinking, partying, getting high, and having sex. The fact that they are almost completely defenseless and surrounded by super mutants and other monsters is something they choose to simply ignore.

** [[Informed Ability]]: The girls only stay with Dukov because he's apparently a [[Retired Badass|pretty good shot]], hence why they can do all that partying.

* [[Wise Beyond Their Years]]: Most, if not all, of the residents of Little Lamplight.

** The Lone Wanderer themself. They are ''nineteen'' at the time they escaped Vault 101, and one of the first things they get the option to do is ''disarm a nuclear bomb''.

* [[Worst News Judgement Ever]]: Three Dog of Galaxy News Radio talks about the player character and ''only'' about the player character. There are precisely two news stories in the entire game that aren't directly related to you or your father. This makes sense most of the time, as the player tends to do things that are noticeable enough to be considered newsworthy, but some of the things he reports on are less than noteworthy - he even does a story about you finishing a fetch quest involving collecting soda bottles for a strange woman out in the middle of nowhere. This is lampshaded with "Christ, talk about a slow news day..."

* [[Wrench Wench]]: Moira Brown. You, if you play as the female version of the Lone Wanderer and spend up enough on Repair skill points.

* [[Written by the Winners]]: A terminal in the ''Operation: Anchorage'' DLC mentions that General Chase was constantly changing the Anchorage simulation until it was largely divorced from the reality of what actually happened out there.