History Series / Fallout2024

** Continuing the trend set in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', "The Ghoul" is easily the best looking of his kind in any ''Fallout'' media. Other than his baldness and lack of nose, he barely has any signs of the radiation-induced decay that most other ghouls have had in the games, with perfectly normal teeth and eyes and skin that looks merely aged and leathery, not outright rotted. According to Nolan, they "hired [[Creator/WaltonGoggins the actor]] for a reason", and as such [[RealLifeWritesThePlot the typical ghoul characteristics were dialed back so the actor could emote properly through the makeup]]. Other ghouls look similar, if only slightly worse. {{Inverted}} in one major case in the Season 1 finale: a far more rotted feral ghoul that is barely more than a one-armed skeleton with (some) skin appears, but barely moves because Moldaver has restrained it to a chair. [[spoiler:The Ghoul in question here is Lucy's mother, Rose]].

* AbortedArc: Vault 33's water chip is revealed to be broken in a nod to the first game's plot but, aside from a short background mention of a water crisis, it plays no further role in the story other than [[spoiler:leading another election in Vault 33 and land Betty as the new Overseer]].

* {{Gaslighting}}: In hindsight, Cooper was being gaslit by his wife to thwart his suspicions about the vaults. When he brings up valid concerns about what freedoms people will have in the vaults, she guilts him by bringing up how hard it was for her when he was at war and accuses him of being insane for putting "trivial" concerns over survival. With the reveal that she ''wants'' the bombs to drop, it's clear that this was all a way to manipulate Cooper.

* AbortedArc: Vault 33's water chip is revealed to be broken in a nod to the first game's plot but, aside from a short background mention of a water crisis, it plays no further role in the story.

** The ''Fallout 4'' theme plays when Lucy discovers [[spoiler:an NCR flag in a classroom in Vault 4.]]
** A [[DarkReprise mournful version]] of ''4'''s theme plays at the start of Episode 7, as we're shown [[spoiler:a father and son pair of scavengers wearing the signature armor and helmet of the NCR Veteran Rangers (implied to be the father's and that he was once a Ranger), indicating just how far the once-great civilization has fallen]].

* TitleThemeDrop:

** A [[DarkReprise mournful version]] of the same theme plays at the start of Episode 7, as we're shown [[spoiler:a father and son pair of scavengers wearing the signature armor and helmet of the NCR Veteran Rangers (implied to be the father's and that he was once a Ranger), indicating just how far the once-great civilization has fallen]].

** [[spoiler:The ''Fallout 4'' theme plays when Lucy discovers an NCR flag in a classroom in Vault 4.]]
** A [[DarkReprise mournful version]] of the ''Fallout 4'' theme plays at the start of Episode 7, over the [[spoiler:NCR scavengers]] searching for lead.

* TitleThemeDrop: [[spoiler:The ''Fallout 4'' theme plays when Lucy discovers an NCR flag in a classroom in Vault 4.]]

* AdaptationalHeroism: The New California Republic (aka the NCR) in contrast to the Brotherhood (who get AdaptationalVillainy) are largely treated as unambiguously good and heroic in their efforts to get [[spoiler:the Cold Fusion reactor online to restore power to the Wastes and ultimately succeed -- at the cost of their lives.]] In ''Fallout 2'' and ''New Vegas'' the NCR are portrayed as rather incompetent and very corrupt especially in the latter game, quite unlike their more idealistic portrayal here, where they're easily the most heroic faction between [[spoiler:Vault-Tec]] and the Brotherhood of Steel. Arguably justified, in that both [[spoiler:TheRemnant of [=NCR=] forces led by Moldaver seem to consist only of "true believers" in the NCR's ideals]], and the major [=NCR-related=] characters (i.e., [[spoiler:Moldaver, Maximus and the Shady Sands survivors living inside of Vault 4]]) all clearly have a [[spoiler:NostalgiaFilter for their functionally extinct homeland]].

** Hank [=MacLean=], a Vault Overseer, doesn't consider wastelander lives to be worth anything. [[spoiler:When his wife leaves him (and Vault 33) to live in Shady Sands, he nukes the town out of spite, not caring that this annihilated tens of thousands of surface dwellers, as he didn't even consider them ''people'' for daring to exist outside Vault-Tec's control.]]

* SchizoTech: The West Coast Brotherhood has a flying fortress of an airship, VTOL dropships, and multiple suits of PoweredArmor, but their only means of transmitting images is by having radio operators tell the receiver where to mark lines on graph paper with a pencil. {{Justified|Trope}}, in that the transistor never became widespread in the ''Fallout'' universe prior to the Great War, making electrical digital transmission impractical.

* FantasticRacism: Just about everyone on the surface has this towards ghouls, considering them liabilities likely to turn [[TechnicallyLivingZombie feral]] at any moment. The Brotherhood takes this to another level, considering exterminating ghouls to be one of their duties. [[spoiler:The one place we see ghouls being treated like people is with the NCR remnants, serving as another good reminder of just what was lost with Shady Sands.]]

* SchizoTech: The West Coast Brotherhood has a flying fortress of an airship, VTOL dropships, and multiple suits of PoweredArmor, but their only means of transmitting images is by having radio operators tell the receiver where to mark lines on graph paper with a pencil. {{Justified|Trope}}, in that the transistor was never invented in the Fallout Universe, making electrical digital transmission impractical.

* SchizoTech: The West Coast Brotherhood has a flying fortress of an airship, VTOL dropships, and multiple suits of PoweredArmor, but their only means of transmitting images is by having radio operators tell the receiver where to mark lines on graph paper with a pencil.

** Lucy and the other residents of Vault 33 wait for the long-promised Reclamation Day, when they can leave the Vault and start a new civilization above ground. Upon reaching the surface, she discovers that not only has a civilization already formed, but it has already been decimated.
** [[spoiler:To crush their competition, Vault-Tec acquired the rights to cold fusion, a form of limitless energy that would've solved the resource shortages plaguing the world overnight. They also made certain that if anyone took the cold fusion catalyst prototype they kept in storage, it could not be activated unless given an employee ID and password from a Vault-Tec executive.]]
** [[spoiler:Perhaps worst of all, as Cooper learned after placing a bug on his wife's Pip-Boy and listening in on an executive meeting, Vault-Tec ''encouraged'' the inhumane experiments conducted within their Vaults by divvying up control over the Vaults among their subsidiaries as a competition to see who can create the best post-Great War civilization. To further incentivize investment in their Vaults, Vault-Tec also conspired to '''''[[GreaterScopeVillain drop the nukes that kickstarted the Great War, themselves]]'''''.]]

** The Enclave is shown to [[JokerImmunity still exist]] despite all their setbacks in ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' and ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', and is clearly far more than a vestige of its former self like they were in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' (which also briefly mentions an outpost in Chicago). It is shown that they have a fully dedicated research facility and are clearly up to ''something'' with fusion technology, but the extent of their resources, personnel, and overall role in the current timeline (beyond Wilzig defecting from them) is glossed over in the first season. Likewise, their connection to [[spoiler:Vault-Tec]] is unclear, since Wilzig displays intimate knowledge of [[spoiler:the Vault experiments and knows who Lucy is, though he may have learned that from Moldaver]].
** [[spoiler:While Vault-Tec is revealed to be a GreaterScopeVillain by not only conspiring to profit from the Great War but even planning on ''firing the first nukes'', it's left vague whether they actually ''did'' or if someone else jumped the gun ahead of them. Despite that Mr. House was in on Vault-Tec's "strike first" plan, he was still one day off on his preparations for the Great War... but we don't know if that's because America and/or China suddenly started the Great War themselves or because Vault-Tec left House out of the loop before ''they'' started it.]]
* AmbiguousTimePeriod: [[spoiler:It's left vague when exactly the Vault-Tec meeting took place in one pivotal flashback scene, among the only main hints being that Cooper Howard was still at the top of his game and married to Barb. By the time the Great War happened, [[RewatchBonus it's clear on later viewings]] that enough time had passed for Cooper to have both separated from his wife and seen his career prospects go down the drain as a result of his falling-out with Vault-Tec. Eagle-eyed fans have pointed out a newspaper in a flashback in Episode 6, but it's too blurry to tell if it's from January 2075 or 2077.]]

* AscendedExtra: SeriesMascot Vault Boy is given a name and a backstory from before the bombs fell and made the Wasteland. [[spoiler:The Ghoul was his body model and the inspiration for his "thumbs-up" pose back when he was a normal human actor named Cooper Howard.]]
* AuthoritySoundsDeep: Brotherhood T-60c power armor has a vocal modulator that produces a deep, booming voice that sounds little like they do when out of it.

** As far at the denizens know, Vaults 31, 32, and 33 all work together to thrive. [[spoiler:What the dwellers of the latter two Vaults don't realize is that Vault 31's sole purpose is to serve as a repository for Vault-Tec's hand-picked Overseers for Vaults 32 and 33, all comprised of pre-war Vault-Tec upper brass kept in cryogenic stasis until needed. Vaults 32 and 33 serve as a breeding pool for the former, selected to create a new generation of super-managers for Vault-Tec's new world. When the denizens of Vault 32 discovered the truth, they descended into chaos, murdering their Overseer before turning on each other and themselves. Lucy [=MacLean=]'s father, Hank, is one of them.]]

* NoZombieCannibals: Just like the rest of the ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'' franchise, feral ghouls do not attack other ghouls, feral or otherwise. When Lucy ignorantly releases an entire pack of them locked up at the clinic, they attack the normal humans and no one else.
** Although, amusingly, this is ''technically'' averted just based on the trope name, as the Ghoul carves up a ghoul friend of his, Roger, for 'ass jerky'.

** The Enclave is shown to [[JokerImmunity still exist]] despite all of the setbacks done to them from ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' and ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', and is clearly far more than a vestige of its former self like they were in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' (which also briefly mentions an outpost in Chicago) by having a fully dedicated research facility and clearly up to ''something'' with fusion technology, but their actual capacity to be a major factor and their overall role in the current timeline beyond Wilzig defecting from them is glossed over in the first season. Likewise, their connection to [[spoiler:Vault-Tec]] is unclear, since Wilzig displays intimate knowledge of [[spoiler:the Vault experiments and knows who Lucy is, though he may have learned that from Moldaver]].
** [[spoiler:While Vault-Tec is revealed to be a GreaterScopeVillain by not only conspiring to engineer the Great War but even planning on ''firing the first nukes'', it's left vague whether they actually ''did'' or if someone else jumped the gun ahead of them.]]