History Characters / Fallout4BrotherhoodOfSteel

* [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]]: During "Blind Betrayal," she takes you aside and [[spoiler: requests for you to spare Danse as opposed to execute him]].

* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: The Brotherhood of Steel has made it their mission to exterminate every single synth, ghoul, and super mutant in the Commonwealth, no matter how intelligent or peaceful they may be. Of course no one in the Brotherhood views this as genocide, considering their targets to be little more than "abominations" as a result of "technology run amok".

* WellIntentionedExtremist: He sees committing genocide against Synthkind and wiping out the Railroad to a man as {{Necessary Evil}}s to secure humanity's survival.

* BadassBeard: He steadily grew one over the years, it seems. Helps emphasize his commanding presence and overall demeanor.

* AbsoluteXenophobe: Their members are primarily recruited from the Capital Wasteland, a CrapsackWorld even when compared to the rest of post apocalyptic America where mutants, raiders, and artificial intelligence run amok. Needless to say, the Brotherhood would have no love lost if they succeeded in eradicating all feral ghouls and super mutants, and they certainly wouldn’t allow freethinking artificial intelligence in the form of Generation 3 synths to exist due to the threat they pose.

* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Unlike with ghouls, all synths, no matter the circumstance, must be destroyed according to them as they believe advanced AI will lead to the extinction of humanity. [[spoiler:They take everything at face value, when they discover Danse is a synth they immediately plan his execution, rather than question the data or consider Danse's loyalty to the Brotherhood. However, this is actually justified considering the synths are often used as infiltrators for the Institute.]] Though the synths have a history of replacing people, infiltrating institutions, and destroying entire settlements thanks to the Institute and the extinction of humanity is often the result of advanced AI in other media, including even franchises like ''Franchise/MegaMan'', escaped Synths, for the most part, are content to live their lives in peace.

* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: Played straight with the super mutants and feral ghouls who, at least in the East Coast, are portrayed as being AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters with a few exceptions. [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with the synths; while the Gen 1 and Gen 2 synths are nothing more than emotionless robots on par with Protectrons in terms of intelligence, the Gen 3 synths have shown to be capable of free will and independent thought, with many choosing to escape the Institute and seek freedom in the wasteland, even forming colonies for runaway Synths such as Acadia. Despite this, the Brotherhood does not make any distinction between the groups and will send out a patrol to wipe out Acadia if you inform them of its existence.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Elder Maxson still professes to uphold some of Owyn Lyons' virtues, and despite his pragmatism is clearly shown not to really savor some of the things he and the Brotherhood have to do.
* JerkassHasAPoint: The vast majority of the nonhumans you encounter in the Commonwealth ''are'' AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters but the fact that some members of the Brotherhood are racist against sane ghouls is a KickTheDog moment, although prejudice against ghouls is ''very'' widespread in the Commonwealth, with every major faction having members who are racist against them. By that same token, hatred of Synths is hardly unique to The Brotherhood, either.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Downplayed, [[CultOfPersonality they worship Maxson]], [[FinalSolution believe that genocide is the best solution]] for the synths, supermutants, and feral ghouls, are [[FantasticRacism prejudiced towards non-feral ghouls]].
* NobleBigot: The Brotherhood believes that in order to protect the Commonwealth they must ruthlessly exterminate its feral ghoul, Super Mutant, and Synth inhabitants. Despite this and their racist attitude towards sane ghouls, the Brotherhood does ''not'' target non-feral ghouls for elimination, and are content to keep their presence out of ghoul-friendly settlements like Goodneighbor and The Slog.
* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: If you side with them and accompany their storming of the Institute, the Brotherhood troops are inherently hostile to the Institute scientists, even the cowering unarmed ones, and will ruthlessly gun them down. Especially weird since they recruited Institute scientist Dr. Li earlier in the game (though they only recruited Li because they needed her help to restore Liberty Prime).
** On top of this, they are the only faction that does not give you crap for not sounding the evacuation. And even if you do sound the evacuation, they outright state that they will shoot the ones that try to run to the teleporter.
** Additionally, one of the radiant side missions you may be sent on is essentially child soldier indoctrination, by having a squire tag along and watch you slaughter some enemy rabble of the Brotherhood.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Not quite to the point of a FaceHeelTurn, but they're now much more like the Brotherhood Outcasts and the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel, which is neutral, although unlike the Midwestern Branch or the Outcasts they still protect wastelanders.

* WhatTheRomansHaveDoneForUs: In the eyes of everyone else, they're an antagonist faction trying to take over, but they do genuinely secure their parts of the region for civilian use against even the super-mutants, who roll pretty much everyone else in the game. They're also the only faction in-game that can and do reliably clear out areas of hostiles as well as protect trade routes, though the Minutemen are able to do so after destroying the Institute, which provides a significant boost to their ranks.

* BigGood: For a Brotherhood aligned Sole Survivor and is also the leader of one of the factions that opposes the Institute.

* FantasticRacism: Openly dislikes Feral Ghouls, Super Mutants and Synths to genocidal levels with the Brotherhood of Steel not shying away from their opinion all three should be wiped out completely.

* GatlingGood: His personal weapon, "Final Judgment" is a unique Gatling laser that happens to be one of the most powerful weapons of the game.
* TheGoodKing: What the Brotherhood of Steel considers him to be. This is actually somewhat literal given he's implied to be the ruler of the Capital Wasteland as well as leader of the entire [=BoS=]. Though it could also be subverted given how it's implied that he's taking his cues from the original Brotherhood Elders back out west in Lost Hills.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: For all his more {{Jerkass}} tendencies, he nonetheless believes that what he's doing is for the good of the Commonwealth and its people, and doesn't take any pleasure in doing what he and the Brotherhood deem necessary.

* AbsoluteXenophobe: The Brotherhood is dedicated to completely eradicating every form of intelligent life in the Commonwealth aside from naturally born humans -- this encompasses synths, non-feral ghouls, and supermutants. They speak of this desired genocide as a just and necessary goal, and even finding out that [[spoiler: one of their best soldiers, Paladin Danse, is a synth( who was unaware that he was a synth at all until he was told)]] doesn't give them pause as to whether or not what they're doing is right or even totally necessary.

* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: They believe that all synths, ghouls, and super mutants need to be exterminated, ignoring the fact that there are nonviolent and intelligent members of all the above races. They take everything at face value; [[spoiler: when they discover that Danse is a synth, they immediately plan his execution, rather than question the data or consider Danse's loyalty to the Brotherhood (or even the fact that he had no idea he was a synth until he was told.)]]

* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: Played straight with the super mutants and feral ghouls who, at least in the East Coast, are portrayed as being AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters with a few exceptions. [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with the synths; while the Gen 1 and Gen 2 synths are nothing more than emotionless robots on par with Protectrons in terms of intelligence, the Gen 3 synths are capable of free will, deep emotion, and independent thought, with many choosing to escape the Institute and seek freedom in the wasteland, even forming colonies for runaways such as themselves. Despite this, the Brotherhood does not make any distinction between the groups and will send out a patrol to wipe out Acadia if you inform them of its existence.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: He justifies everything the Brotherhood does by hiding behind supposed necessity, no matter how much thieving, terrorizing, and genocide that involves.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: [[CultOfPersonality The Brotherhood soldiers worship Maxson]] and [[FinalSolution believe that genocide is the best solution]] for the synths, supermutants, and and ghouls.]]
* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: If you side with them and accompany their storming of the Institute, the Brotherhood troops are inherently hostile to the Institute scientists, even the cowering unarmed ones, and will ruthlessly gun them down. Especially weird since they recruited Institute scientist Dr. Li earlier in the game (though they only recruited her because they needed her help to restore Liberty Prime).
** On top of this, they are the only faction that doesn't care whether or not you sound the alarm to let all the noncombative scientists and their families, including children, that they can escape the Institute before you blow it up. And even if you do sound the evacuation, they outright state that they will shoot anyone that tries to run to the teleporter.

** Even more so, you get a side quest from Proctor Teagan to go raid a nearby farm's family for their food. He lets you know that this is sanctioned by Maxson by letting you know that no matter what you do to get the food, you won't get in trouble. You have to go out of your way to actually ''buy'' the food from the people you're intimidating -- otherwise, you threaten or strong-arm them into giving up whatever they have.
* PrinciplesZealot: The Brotherhood's more or less become this. Maxson insists that it's for the good of the Commonwealth and its people.

* TookALevelInJerkass: They're now much more like the Brotherhood Outcasts and the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel.
** Played straight with Proctor Teagan, who asks the player to secure food from Commonwealth farmers "by any means necessary". Of course, it's still up to the player to decide how to accomplish this task, but Teagan's seeming indifference to what actually happens in the field suggests the Brotherhood doesn't care as much about wastlelander wellfare as they say they do.

* WhatTheRomansHaveDoneForUs: In the eyes of everyone else, they're an antagonist faction trying to take over, but they do genuinely secure their parts of the region for civilian use against even the super mutants, who roll pretty much everyone else in the game. They're also the only faction in-game that can and do reliably clear out areas of hostiles as well as protect trade routes, though the Minutemen are able to do so after destroying the Institute, which provides a significant boost to their ranks.
* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: The Brotherhood of Steel has made it their mission to exterminate every single synth, ghoul, and super mutant in the Commonwealth, no matter how intelligent or peaceful they may be. Of course no one in the Brotherhood views this as genocide, considering their targets to be little more than "abominations" as a result of "technology run amok".

* FantasticRacism: Openly despises and wishes genocide upon ghouls, super mutants and synths.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: He believes that what he's doing is for the good of the Commonwealth and its people, no matter how
** While it can be unthinkable to some player characters to want to kill all Synths given the many good ones we've met -- the vast majority of the ones you do encounter in the Commonwealth are AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters, and judging by the Broken Mask Incident, even some of the friendly ones can "malfunction" and suddenly become mindless killers.

* AbsoluteXenophobe: Their members are primarily recruited from the Capital Wasteland, a CrapsackWorld even when compared to the rest of post apocalyptic America where mutants, raiders, and artificial intelligence run amok. Needless to say, the Brotherhood would have no love lost if they succeeded in eradicating all feral ghouls and super mutants, and they certainly wouldn’t allow freethinking artificial intelligence in the form of Generation 3 synths to exist due to the threat they pose.

* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Unlike with ghouls, all synths, no matter the circumstance, must be destroyed according to them as they believe advanced AI will lead to the extinction of humanity. [[spoiler:They take everything at face value, when they discover Danse is a synth they immediately plan his execution, rather than question the data or consider Danse's loyalty to the Brotherhood. However, this is actually justified considering the synths are often used as infiltrators for the Institute.]] Though the synths have a history of replacing people, infiltrating institutions, and destroying entire settlements thanks to the Institute and the extinction of humanity is often the result of advanced AI in other media, including even franchises like ''Franchise/MegaMan'', escaped Synths, for the most part, are content to live their lives in peace.

* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: Played straight with the Super Mutants and feral ghouls who, at least in the East Coast, are portrayed as being AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters with a few exceptions. [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with the Synths, while the Gen 1 and Gen 2 synths are nothing more than emotionless robots on par with Protectrons in terms of intelligence , the Gen 3 synths have shown to be capable of free will and independent thought, with many choosing to escape the Institute and seek freedom in the wasteland even forming colonies for runaway Synths such as Acadia. Despite this, the Brotherhood does not make any distinction between the groups and will send out a patrol to wipe out Acadia if you inform them of its existence.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Elder Maxson still professes to uphold some of Owyn Lyons' virtues, and despite his pragmatism is clearly shown not to really savor some of the things he and the Brotherhood have to do.
* JerkassHasAPoint: The vast majority of the nonhumans you encounter in the Commonwealth ''are'' AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters but the fact that some members of the Brotherhood are racist against sane ghouls is a KickTheDog moment, although prejudice against ghouls is ''very'' widespread in the Commonwealth, with every major faction having members who are racist against them. By that same token, hatred of Synths is hardly unique to The Brotherhood, either.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Downplayed, [[CultOfPersonality they worship Maxson]], [[FinalSolution believe that genocide is the best solution]] for the synths, supermutants, and feral ghouls, are [[FantasticRacism prejudiced towards non-feral ghouls]].
* NobleBigot: The Brotherhood believes that in order to protect the Commonwealth they must ruthlessly exterminate its feral ghoul, Super Mutant, and Synth inhabitants. Despite this and their racist attitude towards sane ghouls, the Brotherhood does ''not'' target non-feral ghouls for elimination, and are content to keep their presence out of ghoul-friendly settlements like Goodneighbor and The Slog.
* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: If you side with them and accompany their storming of the Institute, the Brotherhood troops are inherently hostile to the Institute scientists, even the cowering unarmed ones, and will ruthlessly gun them down. Especially weird since they recruited Institute scientist Dr. Li earlier in the game (though they only recruited Li because they needed her help to restore Liberty Prime).
** On top of this, they are the only faction that does not give you crap for not sounding the evacuation. And even if you do sound the evacuation, they outright state that they will shoot the ones that try to run to the teleporter.

* PrinciplesZealot: The Brotherhood's more or less become this. Still, Elder Maxson insists that it's for the good of the Commonwealth and its people.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Not quite to the point of a FaceHeelTurn, but they're now much more like the Brotherhood Outcasts and the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel, which is neutral, although unlike the Midwestern Branch or the Outcasts they still protect wastelanders.
** Played straight with Proctor Teagan, who goes behind Arthur's back and asks the player to secure food from Commonwealth farmers "by any means necessary". Of course, it's still up to the player to decide how to accomplish this task, but Teagan's seeming indifference to what actually happens in the field suggests not everyone in the Brotherhood cares that much about civilians.

* WhatTheRomansHaveDoneForUs: In the eyes of everyone else, they're an antagonist faction trying to take over, but they do genuinely secure their parts of the region for civilian use against even the super-mutants, who roll pretty much everyone else in the game. They're also the only faction in-game that can and do reliably clear out areas of hostiles as well as protect trade routes, though the Minutemen are able to do so after destroying the Institute, which provides a significant boost to their ranks.
* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: The Brotherhood of Steel has made it their mission to exterminate all of the Super Mutants and synths viewing them as a threat to all of humanity. The Brotherhood of course doesn't view this as genocide, considering both to be little more than "abominations" as a result of "technology run amok". With synths it's left up to the player's discretion to decide if they are right or not.

* BigGood: For a Brotherhood aligned Sole Survivor and is also the leader of one of the factions that opposes the Institute.

* FantasticRacism: Openly dislikes Feral Ghouls, Super Mutants and Synths to genocidal levels with the Brotherhood of Steel not shying away from their opinion all three should be wiped out completely.

* GatlingGood: His personal weapon, "Final Judgment" is a unique Gatling laser that happens to be one of the most powerful weapons of the game.
* TheGoodKing: What the Brotherhood of Steel considers him to be. This is actually somewhat literal given he's implied to be the ruler of the Capital Wasteland as well as leader of the entire [=BoS=]. Though it could also be subverted given how it's implied that he's taking his cues from the original Brotherhood Elders back out west in Lost Hills.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: For all his more {{Jerkass}} tendencies, he nonetheless believes that what he's doing is for the good of the Commonwealth and its people, and doesn't take any pleasure in doing what he and the Brotherhood deem necessary.
* JerkassHasAPoint:

** While is may be unthinkable to some that Maxson would [[spoiler: turn against Danse after his years of loyal service to the Brotherhood,]] it is perfectly justified [[TheChainsOfCommanding from a command perspective.]] The risk of Danse being a ManchurianCandidate is simply too great to ignore, especially considering [[spoiler: Danse didn’t even ''know'' he was a Synth,]] and the success of the mission and the lives of everyone else in the unit has to be prioritized over [[spoiler: any individual soldier’s life, no matter how dedicated. Danse seems to understand this, he knows too much about the Brotherhood’s operations and accepts that his status as a Synth makes him unable to perform his duties as they are to be expected of him.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Arthur has reincorporated some of the West Cost Brotherhood's dogma back in, making it a mix of the West Coast and East Coast policies. This has taken the Brotherhood

** And since the Outcasts were reintegrated within their ranks, quite a few members look down on human wastelanders as well.

* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Unlike with ghouls, all synths, no matter the circumstance, must be destroyed according to them as they believe advanced AI will lead to the extinction of humanity. [[spoiler:They take everything at face value, when they discover Danse is a synth they immediately plan his execution, rather than question the data or consider Danse's loyalty to the Brotherhood. However, this is actually justified considering the synths are often used as infiltrators for the Institute.]] Though the synths have a history of replacing people, infiltrating institutions, and destroying entire settlements thanks to the Institute and the extinction of humanity is often the result of advanced AI in other media, including even franchises like Franchise/MegaMan, escaped synths, for the most part, are content to live their lives in peace.
* CaptainCrash: Their vertibird pilots seem to want to plow their vehicles into any structure they can find. This is mostly due to ArtificialBrilliance on the part of enemies, who will ignore the armored vertibird and instead shoot the [[SnipingTheCockpit unarmored pilot]], sending the vertibird and anyone in it to a fiery demise.

** This can be reversed if the player goes for the Minutemen ending and decides to wipe out the Brotherhood, in which they can suffer a downright ''humiliating'' defeat at the Minutemen's hands. Their CoolAirship is shot down by mere artillery fire, and with fully upgraded defenses, especially with DLC installed, their attacking vertibirds can be shot down without the Sole Survivor needing to fire a single shot.

* EagleLand: They see themselves as the"beautiful" type, while many Commonwealth residents, including Preston Garvey, view them as the "boorish" type. In actuality they are the "mixed flavor" type.
* {{Expy}}: With their power armor, drop tactics, use of overwhelming force, and hatred of non-humans, the Brotherhood of Steel is doing a passable imitation of Warhammer 40,000's Space Marines. The comparison only gets stronger when you find out there are cults dedicated to worshipping Elder Maxson, which the Elder is not a fan of and deliberately suppresses. This mirrors the Emperor's relationship with his Space Marines, most notably the Word Bearers Legion.
* FantasticRacism: This was an InformedAttribute of the Brotherhood in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' and previous titles, and in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' it rears its ugly head, with the Brotherhood planning to exterminate all Synths, Feral Ghouls, and Super Mutants, although ferals and the FEV variant of Super Mutant in this region are all violently hostile. Also, while they don't seek to exterminate sane ghouls, they're still racist towards them, viewing them as freaks, as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIkzFmtFVjs shown by their interaction with Hancock if you bring him to the Prydwin.]]

* {{Foil}}:
** To the West Coast Brotherhood of Steel. The new Brotherhood of Steel has merged the ideology of the West Coast Brotherhood of Steel and Elder Lyons due to the reformations of Elder Maxson. Elder Lyons came to the East Coast to find a missing contingent of Brotherhood soldiers and to investigate the reports of Super Mutants in the D.C. area, and ended up trying to move his chapter to follow the 'spirit' of the Codex. Elder Maxson's pragmatic enough to retain some of Owyn Lyons' reforms and not stick ''too'' blindly to the Codex, allowing the East Coast Brotherhood to avoid the fate that befell the Mojave chapter. This is evidenced by their willingness to recruit outsiders and their work at establishing order throughout a chaotic wasteland.
** The Minutemen, as the organization, is very similar to how they used to behave in the Capital Wasteland, only lacking technology. The Minutemen have also adopted a Revolutionary War image and iconography while the Brotherhood utilizes pre-War power armor to adopt a feudal image. Both groups openly recruit wastelanders, and both have a problem with having bigoted members (though in the Brotherhood's case this is more because of dogma and less because of individual prejudice).
** To Caesar's Legion. Much like how the Legion emulates Rome (or at least cherry-picks what suits them), the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel is evoking feudal/medieval imagery, albeit infused with technology and memories of its US military origins. But whereas the Legion's ultimately unstable and desperate to firmly establish its "New Rome" in New Vegas, the Brotherhood under Elder Maxson have ''already'' managed to pull it off in the Capital Wasteland without making life hell for the locals.

* GoodIsNotNice: They're a group of xenophobic, dogmatic [[KnightTemplar KnightTemplars]] who don't hesitate to destroy any group that tries to interfere with or attacks them, (Like with the Railroad and/or a anti-BOS Sole Survivor led Minutemen) are willing to ShootTheDog if they view it as necessary, plan to exterminate every synth they find and generally tend to look down on human wastelanders. Despite all of their faults, are good as they genuinely want to bring peace and stability to the Commonwealth and its inhabitants and protect humanity from dangerous threats to its existence. (including even human factions like the Institute, Raiders and Gunners) They regularly send out patrols to take out anything that could pose a threat to normal wastelanders.

* JerkassHasAPoint: The vast majority of the nonhumans you encounter in the Commonwealth are AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters but the fact that some members of the Brotherhood are racist against sane ghouls is a KickTheDog moment, although prejudice against ghouls is ''very'' widespread in the Commonwealth, with every major faction having members who are racist against them. By that same token, hatred of Synths is hardly unique to The Brotherhood, either.

** Ironically given their history with the group, they've become this trope to the Enclave. Like the Enclave, they are now invading an outside territory that doesn't want them around, (though not out of conquest like the Enclave) claiming they are here as benevolent liberators to bring peace and order to the Commonwealth, and they see themselves as humanity's one true hope to restore civilization. This is accentuated by their prominent usage of vertibirds and the darker color scheme they've adopted for their power armor; when a player sees a vertibird land in the wasteland and disembark a patrol of power-armored troops to take control of the area, it ''really'' echoes ''Fallout 3'' where the Enclave would do the same thing. Fortunately the key difference between the two groups is that the Brotherhood ''are'' trying to be a good group and they truly mean what they say as these patrols are done to eliminate threats to wastelanders and provide safe travel as opposed to the Enclave who detain random civilians for mandatory genetic scannings and kill them if they fail the test.

-->''"Look around you! Look at the scorched earth and the bones that litter the wasteland. Millions... perhaps even billions, died because science outpaced man's restraint! They called it a "new frontier" and "pushing the envelope", completely disregarding the repercussions. Can't you see the same thing is happening again?"''

The leader of the Commonwealth Brotherhood of Steel and Captain of the ''Prydwen'', originally seen as a young squire-in-training in ''Fallout 3''. Unlike his predecessor Elder Lyons, he is much more aggressive and favors destroying all Mutants, Feral Ghouls, Synths, and the Institute itself.

** Alternatively, he can be swayed if the Sole Survivor makes it clear that they are willing to throw away their position in the Brotherhood, and all the respect that comes with it, if it means sparing [[spoiler:Danse.]] He doesn't ''like'' it, but he accepts it, and still promotes them upon returning to the ''Prydwen''.

* BigGood: For a Brotherhood aligned Sole Survivor and is also the leader of one the factions that opposes the Institute.

* {{Expy}}: Of King Arthur. Besides sharing his name, he is the rightful heir to the Brotherhood of Steel, was sent to live with a foster father for his safety, reunited his divided faction, is the implied ruler of the Capital Wasteland, and is on a ship called the ''Prydwen''.
* FakeUltimateHero: Subverted. All of his history reads like a MilesGloriosus list of improbable achievements which talk about how he's the greatest badass who ever lived, which combined with the pseudo cult of personality springing up around him, may make a player think he's cowardly braggart who can't back up his reputation. Then at the end of the game, he leads from the front in the attack on the Institute (with a gatling laser and ''no power armor''), gunning down synths left and right while having noticeably better stats than the other Brotherhood members (if fought during the Institute ending [[spoiler:he takes to the field with Vertibird, gatling laser, and tricked out power armor ''after surviving a Vertibird crash'']]), showing that it wasn't just talk. And even if his fight with a Deathclaw was exaggerated, he still fought one at age 13 and lived.

* FinalBoss: He's the closest thing the game has to one if you follow the Institute questline, since the Institute has no real equivalent (the closest being a trio of EliteMooks with no dialogue or plot role) if you attack them by following any of the other factions. To clarify, in the final Institute mission [[spoiler:he attacks you via Vertibird at the very end, and if you shoot him down he'll take to the field personally in a full suit of T-60f power armor, the second-best power armor in the game, which coupled with his enhanced health and customized gatling laser make him an especially tough fighter]].

* TheGoodKing: What the Brotherhood of Steel considers him to be. This is actually somewhat literal given he's implied to be the ruler of the Capital Wasteland as well as leader of the entire [=BoS=]. Though it could also be subverted given how it's implied that he's taking his cues from the original Brotherhood Elders back in the Lost Hills.
* {{Hypocrite}}: He leads an organization that was founded on the principles that a nuclear bomb was not to be used again. Only for him to give explicit orders to recover [[spoiler: the warhead-throwing Liberty Prime]] and use it against the Institute. [[spoiler:In his rant against Danse, he says the line "The ethics it's trying to champion aren't even its own," forgetting the fact that the ethics Danse are championing are in fact ''his'' own]].
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: For all his more jerkass tendencies, he nonetheless believes that what he's doing is for the good of the Commonwealth and its people, and doesn't take any pleasure in doing what he and the Brotherhood deem necessary.

** While it can be unthinkable to some player characters to want to kill all Synths given the many good ones we've met -- the vast majority of the ones you do encounter in the Commonwealth are AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters, and judging by the Broken Mask incident, even some of the friendly ones can "malfunction" and suddenly become mindless killers.
** Arthur is also right with his fears about science outpacing humanity and how dangerous it can be if mishandled. Humanity was nearly rendered extinct because the leading powers couldn't handle their technology with warfare, and the Super Mutants exist because of the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV). In fact, [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Edward Sallow]] is the only BigBad of any ''Fallout'' game who ''doesn't'' use immoral old world technology in an attempt to destroy the bulk of humanity (the Master and his FEV, the Enclave and their bio-weapon, the Calculator and his robot army, the Institute and their C.I.T. tech, Elijah and the Sierra Madre, Calvert and his psionics, etc.). If this sort of thing continues with the Institute, then the rest of humanity may face another man-made extinction event. Though this also has a bit of hypocrisy given the Brotherhood's over-reliance on technology themselves, and their tendency to go off the rails as seen with the West Coast BOS attacking the NCR, one of the only factions capable of restoring civilization.
** [[spoiler:Considering the Institute's normal "kill-and-replace" attitudes and the Broken Mask Incident in Diamond City, he isn't completely wrong about the volatility of Synths in Blind Betrayal; anything from a single order from the Institute to a ''software glitch'' can set them off into a murderous frenzy, and with Danse having access to power armor and energy weapons, one could imagine the level of destruction he could cause if set off.]]

** His NewEraSpeech that proclaims the Synths worse than the Atomic Bomb and that no thinking machine could ever be considered to be equal to mankind. This speech will always be after the Sole Survivor has met Nick Valentine and Codsworth.
** [[spoiler:When confronting Danse about his status as a synth, he goes on an extended rant about the horrifying nature of Synths and refers to him as "[[ItIsDehumanizing it]]". Even Danse, his most loyal and dedicated soldier up until now, is upset at Maxson's ungrateful nature. If you don't successfully persuade him to spare Danse, but refuse to execute him personally, Maxson will do so himself by slashing Danse's throat with a combat knife.]]
* LastOfHisKind: He's the last known descendant of the Brotherhood's founder, Captain Roger Maxson, US Army. And thus bears a significant burden.
* MirrorCharacter: He has quite a few similarities to his predecessor's ArchEnemy, Colonel Autumn. Given that Autumn represented a slightly more "liberal" version of the Enclave, abandoning the group's original intent to exterminate all "impure" humans (a.k.a. anyone not from the Enclave or a Vault), while Maxson represents a more reactionary version of Owen Lyons' chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel, the two manage to somewhat meet in the middle. Both are conquerors who want to use their army to bring order to the Wastes "for the good of the people" (though Maxson at least seems to have a better grasp of what that actually means than Autumn ever did), and both are notable for their BadassLongcoat. Should you side with the Institute, Autumn and Maxson also both serve as the FinalBoss of their respective games.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Arthur has reincorporated some of the West Cost Brotherhood's dogma back in, making it a mix of the West Coast and East Coast policies.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain:[[spoiler:He suffers a humiliating CurbStompBattle which destroys the ''Prydwen'' if his opinion on synths offends the Sole Survivor enough to go against him.]]

* NotSoSimilar: In spite of the above, Maxson and his version of the Brotherhood are ultimately much more sympathetic than Colonel Autumn and his version of the Enclave. Rather than shooting wastelanders on sight for crossing their path, they try to maintain at least a neutral relationship with most of them. Maxson also is never cruel just for cruelty's sake, keeps his word when he gives it, and can sometimes be convinced to be reasonable by a charismatic Sole Survivor, whereas Autumn would randomly shoot hostages to make a point and had a habit of pulling YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness.

-->'''Arthur Maxson:''' Your true reward rests in the hearts and the minds of the people you've saved

* TookALevelInJerkass: Adult Maxson is noticeably more fanatical than he was in ''Fallout 3''. Justified in that he has probably been indoctrinated over the last 10 years by the Brotherhood, as it's suggested the Lyons both died shortly after the events of ''Fallout 3''.
* UnwittingPawn: Arthur Maxson was appointed by the Elders of Lost Hills to be leader of the East Coast Brotherhood. It's implied he's been taking orders from them ever since and thus "his" godlike leadership is just a facade.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Back in ''Fallout 3'', anyway. He's definitely less optimistic and upbeat.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Most of your Good Aligned companions (including [[NiceGuy Garvey and Wright]]) have a mild-to-severe dislike of the Brotherhood of Steel -- even if you're a member and traveling with others. Still, for all their faults, the Brotherhood's forces are at least reliably non-hostile towards the player and neutral Wastelanders when encountered out in the Wasteland (so long as you don't antagonize them), and will helpfully fight any Raiders or hostile mutants they come across. Justified as, well-intentioned or not, the Brotherhood are more or less [[OccupiersOutOfOurCountry invading the Commonwealth]] ([[NotSoDifferent not unlike how people in the Mojave perceived the [=NCR=]]]).

* NotSoDifferent:
** To the Institute. The Brotherhood of Steel is a descendant of a Pre-War organization with advanced technology they intend to use to make the Commonwealth a better place (through force). And the two groups ''hate'' each other.
** Ironically given their history with the group, they've become this trope to the Enclave. Like the Enclave, they are now invading an outside territory that doesn't want them around, (though not out of conquest like the Enclave) claiming they are here as benevolent liberators to bring peace and order to the Commonwealth, and they see themselves as humanity's one true hope to restore civilization. This is accentuated by their prominent usage of vertibirds and the darker color scheme they've adopted for their power armor; when a player sees a vertibird land in the wasteland and disembark a patrol of power-armored troops to take control of the area, it ''really'' echoes ''Fallout 3'' where the Enclave would do the same thing. Fortunately the key difference between the two groups is that the Brotherhood ''are'' trying to be a good group and they truly mean what they say as these patrols are done to eliminate threats to wastelanders and provide safe travel as opposed to the Enclave who detain random civilians for mandatory genetic scannings and kill them if they fail the test.

* NotSoDifferent: He has quite a few similarities to his predecessor's ArchEnemy, Colonel Autumn. Given that Autumn represented a slightly more "liberal" version of the Enclave, abandoning the group's original intent to exterminate all "impure" humans (a.k.a. anyone not from the Enclave or a Vault), while Maxson represents a more reactionary version of Owen Lyons' chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel, the two manage to somewhat meet in the middle. Both are conquerors who want to use their army to bring order to the Wastes "for the good of the people" (though Maxson at least seems to have a better grasp of what that actually means than Autumn ever did), and both are notable for their BadassLongcoat. Should you side with the Institute, Autumn and Maxson also both serve as the FinalBoss of their respective games.

* RealityEnsues:
** The Brotherhood airship is their primary base and nobody considers spreading out their soldiers or conquering new areas to use as a new base. [[spoiler: So when the other factions decide to attack the Brotherhood, they simply blow up the ''Prydwen''. Hydrogen gas is extremely flammable and the resulting explosion ''eradicates'' the Brotherhood of Steel.]]
** [[spoiler: The Brotherhood of Steel is able to figure out the password for The Railroad's headquarters, why? the Brotherhood has an education system. The scribes are extremely erudite and able to figure out the password. Also, the password is "Railroad", because in the post-nuclear society people are largely ''illiterate'' due to the erosion of the education system.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: He leads an organization that was founded on the principles that a nuclear bomb was not to be used again. Only for him to give explicit orders to recover a nuke and use it against the Institute. [[spoiler:In his rant against Danse, he says the line "The ethics it's trying to champion aren't even its own," forgetting the fact that the ethics Danse are championing are in fact ''his'' own]].

** They do have a glaring flaw in their doctrine - most notably how they handle the rare case, when reckless science creates sentient life - especially sentient life that is, for all intents and purposes, just as human as the rest of the wasteland. Synths in particular, highlight this flaw spectacularly. But the ability for one faction to destroy the others is a lot closer to GameplayAndStorySegregation than any actual flaw.

The same Brotherhood of Steel chapter from ''Fallout 3''. Arthur Maxson has since become the current leader and the chapter has become an amalgam of the Western chapters and Lyons' version of the Eastern chapter. It is still friendlier to Wastelanders like before but no longer considers protecting the public their mandate; rather, the protection of the public has become an indirect benefit due to their emphasis on establishing order throughout the wasteland and attacking violent Super Mutants, raiders, ferals, and other threats that endanger the people of the wasteland. Additionally their recruiting tactics are fairly open compared to the original Brotherhood, who very rarely accept outsiders.

* FantasticRacism: This was an InformedAttribute of the Brotherhood in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and previous titles, and in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' it rears its ugly head, with the Brotherhood planning to exterminate all Synths, Feral Ghouls, and Super Mutants, although ferals and the FEV variant of Super Mutant in this region are all violently hostile. Also, while they don't seek to exterminate sane ghouls, they're still racist towards them, viewing them as freaks, as [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iIkzFmtFVjs shown by their interaction with Hancock if you bring him to the Prydwin.]]

** One terminal has a BOS member offer to go "Feral hunting" with his companions, stating that he finds the very existence of ferals disgusting.

* AscendedExtra: He was just a kid back in Fallout 3, and a ''[[BitCharacter minor extra]]'' to boot!

* TookALevelInJerkass: Adult Maxson is noticeably more fanatical than he was in Fallout 3. Justified in that he has probably been indoctrinated over the last 10 years by the Brotherhood, as it's suggested the Lyons both died shortly after the events of ''Fallout 3''.

* GoodIsNotNice: They're a group of xenophobic, dogmatic [[KnightTemplar KnightTemplars]] who don't hesitate to destroy any group that tries to interfere with or attacks them, (Like with the Railroad and/or a anti-BOS Sole Survivor led Minutemen) are willing to ShootTheDog if they view it as necessary, plan to exterminate every synth they find and generally tend to look down on human wastelanders. Despite all of their faults, are good as they genuinely want to bring peace and stability to the Commonwealth and it's inhabitants and protect humanity from dangerous threats to it's existence. (including even human factions like the Institute, Raiders and Gunners) They regularly send out patrols to take out anything that could pose a threat to normal wastelanders.

* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: Played straight with the Super Mutants and feral ghouls who, at least in the East Coast, are portrayed as being AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters with a few exceptions. [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with the Synths, while the Gen 1 and Gen 2 synths are nothing more than emotionless robots on par with Protectrons in terms of intelligence , the Gen 3 synths have shown to be capable of free will and independent thought, with many choosing to escape the Institute and seek freedom in the wasteland even forming colonies for runaway Synths such as Acadia. Despite this, the Brotherhood does not make any distinction between the groups and will send out a patrol to wipe out Acadia if you inform them of it's existence.

[[Characters/Fallout4ProtagonistAndFamily Sole Survivor and Family]] | [[Characters/Fallout4Companions Companions]] | [[Characters/Fallout4MainStoryCompanions Main Story Companions]] | [[Characters/Fallout4Factions Factions]] | '''The East Coast Brotherhood of Steel''' | [[Characters/Fallout4TheRailroad The Railroad]] | [[Characters/Fallout4TheInstitute The Institute]] | [[Characters/Fallout4CommonwealthCitizens Commonwealth Citizens]] | [[Characters/Fallout4DiamondCity Diamond City]] | [[Characters/Fallout4Goodneighbor Goodneighbor]] | [[Characters/Fallout4IslandCitizens Island Citizens]] | [[Characters/Fallout4NukaWorldCitizens Nuka-World Citizens]]-]]]]]

This is a page for the members of the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel within the ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' Commonwealth. For other characters in other groups, look at their respective pages.

* GoodIsNotNice: They're a group of xenophobic, dogmatic [[KnightTemplar KnightTemplars]] who don't hesitate to destroy any group that tries to interfere with or attacks them, (Like with the Railroad and/or a anti-BOS Sole Survivor led Minutemen) are willing to ShootTheDog if they view it as necessary, plan to exterminate every synth they find and generally tend to look down on human wastelanders. Despite all of their faults, they at least try to be good as they genuinely want to bring peace and stability to the Commonwealth and it's inhabitants and protect humanity from dangerous threats to it's existence. (including even human factions like the Institute, Raiders and Gunners) They regularly send out patrols to take out anything that could pose a threat to normal wastelanders.

** Ironically given their history with the group, they've become this trope to the Enclave. Like the Enclave, they are now invading an outside territory that doesn't want them around, (though not out of conquest like the Enclave) claiming they are here as benevolent liberators to bring peace and order to the Commonwealth, and they see themselves as humanity's one true hope to restore civilization. This is accentuated by their prominent usage of vertibirds and the darker color scheme they've adopted for their power armor; when a player sees a vertibird land in the wasteland and disembark a patrol of power-armored troops to take control of the area, it ''really'' echoes ''Fallout 3'' where the Enclave would do the same thing. Fortunately the key difference between the two groups is that the Brotherhood ''are'' trying to be a good group at heart and they truly mean what they say as these patrols are done to eliminate threats to wastelanders and provide safe travel as opposed to the Enclave who detain random civilians for mandatory genetic scannings and kill them if they fail the test.

* GoodIsNotNice: They're a group of xenophobic, dogmatic [[KnightTemplar KnightTemplars]] who don't hesitate to destroy any group that tries to interfere with or attacks them, (Like with the Railroad and/or a anti-BOS Sole Survivor led Minutemen) are willing to ShootTheDog if they view it as necessary, plan to exterminate every synth they find and generally tend to look down on human wastelanders. Despite all of their faults, they are good as they genuinely want to bring peace and stability to the Commonwealth and it's inhabitants and protect humanity from dangerous threats to it's existence. (including even human factions like the Institute, Raiders and Gunners) They regularly send out patrols to take out anything that could pose a threat to normal wastelanders.

** Ironically given their history with the group, they've become this trope to the Enclave. Like the Enclave, they are now invading an outside territory that doesn't want them around, (though not out of conquest like the Enclave) claiming they are here as benevolent liberators to bring peace and order to the Commonwealth, and they see themselves as humanity's one true hope to restore civilization. This is accentuated by their prominent usage of vertibirds and the darker color scheme they've adopted for their power armor; when a player sees a vertibird land in the wasteland and disembark a patrol of power-armored troops to take control of the area, it ''really'' echoes ''Fallout 3'' where the Enclave would do the same thing. Fortunately the key difference between the two groups is that the Brotherhood ''is'' a good group at heart and they truly mean what they say as these patrols are done to eliminate threats to wastelanders and provide safe travel as opposed to the Enclave who detain random civilians for mandatory genetic scannings and kill them if they fail the test.