Video Games

Oops, Fallout 4’s hero Nate might be a war criminal

Except when he isn’t. It’s up to you

Josh Broadwell

Bethesda

It turns out Fallout 4’s Nate, the game’s protagonist, might just be a war criminal from the original Fallout game – or maybe not. Bethesda studio design director and Fallout 4’s lead writer Emil Pagliarulo made the comment on Twitter after the Fallout show’s debut, where he outlined the connection between Nate and the first Fallout, before quickly retracting his statement after fans expressed outrage.

On April 13, 2024, Pagliarulo said that the “great vibes” from Prime Video’s Fallout show inspired him to share a little tidbit, a piece of Fallout lore that never made it outside Bethesda. The first Fallout opens with two soldiers executing a Canadian resistance fighter, a man captured by U.S. forces as they tried to annex Canada. One of them shoots the prisoner, and the other laughs.

Pagliarulo says Nate was the laughing man, which, as fans were quick to point out, makes Nate a war criminal and accomplice to a murder. Some responses said Nate’s history tracked with how they played Fallout 4 anyway, but a sizeable number of people were outraged over their hero, whom you’re meant to sympathize with as he looks for his lost son, was actually a bad person.

Granted, this is Fallout, a world where everyone is at least one shade of nasty. Even the Fallout show goes out of its way to say, repeatedly, that the Wasteland and the world that made it turn people into brutal versions of themselves. The idea of someone doing something terrible in the heat of war, then regretting it later and living a better life – or continuing to do terrible things, depending on how you play – isn’t that hard to believe. Heck, it’s not hard to believe in normal life, either.

Nate lovers weren’t having it, though. The response grew so bad that Pagliarulo posted again later that day and said nothing he says about Fallout is canon.

“Oof. I wanted to share what I thought was a cool Fallout tidbit without realizing how divisive it might be,” Pagliarulo said. “I should have. I get dumb when I get excited… and I get excited a lot.  Not every bit of Fallout info I share is automatically canon. Nate is NOT a war criminal!”

Unless you want him to be, like Pagliarulo does, or you could just play as Nate's wife Nora, who is - as yet - not an RPG war criminal.

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Josh Broadwell
JOSH BROADWELL

Josh is a freelance writer and reporter who specializes in guides, reviews, and whatever else he can convince someone to commission. You may have seen him on NPR, IGN, Polygon, or Rolling Stone shouting about RPGs. When he isn’t working, you’ll likely find him outside with his Belgian Malinois and Australian Shepherd or leveling yet another job in FFXIV.

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