This shriveled raisin of a man is not only one of the most important characters in the
Fallout universe, he’s also one of the most well-written in any video game.
That’s because Robert Edwin House represents one of the toughest decisions you’ll have
to make in a game known for its decision-making.
Even if you haven’t played New Vegas, you should know by now that Mr House has his fingerprints
all over this franchise.
Why?
Well because love him or hate him, this man, he kind of is Fallout.
Think about it for a second.
Can you think of any other character in Fallout’s canon who is more responsible for so many
iconic images in the Wasteland?
The man is portrayed as the quintessential visionary.
1 part Steve Jobs, 1 part Elon Musk, and 2 parts Howard Hughes.
And I killed him...
Yes, I took a super sledge and barbarically exploded the brains of 261-year-old genius
who did so much for the technological advancement of mankind in Fallout's world it would make
any one of the people I just mentioned blush (if he actually existed).
I did it at the time because I thought that it was the right thing to do, and I’m just
going to assume that most of you agreed with me, since killing House is something of a
creative pastime in this community.
Look, I’m no moral authority, on this topic or any other for that matter, but I am going to invite you to
wonder with me today.
Did the smartest man in the Wasteland deserve to go out like he did, or did most of us simply
commit a crime of passion that will ultimately leave Fallout’s world just a little dimmer
in the long run?
After 5 years of making lore videos on YouTube,
I’ve learned that it’s best to avoid definitive statements.
For instance, calling Mr House “the smartest man” in the Wasteland just now.
I’m going to stand my ground on that one though, because while the Wasteland is home
to a lot of smart people, the closest characters who might match him in terms of intellect
would be the literal brains in jars at BIG Mountain, but since they donated their brains
to science before they were done with them, it can be reasonably said that Mr House is
the single most formidable human intellect in a post-war America.
You don’t predict the apocalypse using mathematical algorithms, save an entire city from
annihilation, and live to tell about it a two centuries later unless you have
a very special brain, and Mr House knows that.
Like most of those who find themselves in positions of power, the richest man in Vegas
is inaccessible.
Throughout the game he communicates with us the player, but always at an arm’s length, using either
computers or his securitrons to issue his directives.
House can make a person feel small- 1) because he’s a giant face on a monitor, and 2) because
he’s kind of a douche.
“You aren’t going to ramble on about the virtues of life out in the wastes are you?
They are however aptly named.
For that’s what you’d be out there.
Wasted.”
House’s demeanor might be off-putting- his words insensitive- his mustache offensive-
but what happens when you put his actions under the microscope?
Is it enough to earn him the executioners ax?
When House resurrected Las Vegas from the ashes of the old world it was a ruin- picked
cleaned by scavengers and fought over by raiders.
With the city already a battleground he made alliances with the three biggest tribes and
drove the competition out.
For some, this is reason enough to force House to the guillotine when you first meet him, but if you consider
the fact that every other major faction has done the exact same thing in their respective rise to power,
No, we’ll want a much better reason for killing Mr House in Lucky 38, otherwise
we’re essentially acting no different than those raiders we condemn and butcher on the regular.
Maybe by proving he’s some sort of evildoer.
Someone who uses his influence to violate the rights of others.
Well, that might prove challenging.
You see,this entrepreneur is an old school businessman, and what makes him unique in the world of
Fallout is that he operates his wasteland settlement entirely on the basis of contracts
and mutual agreements.
You know in all my playthroughs of Fallout: New Vegas, I haven’t found a single character who works
directly for House and didn’t sign on willingly- and the vast majority of his “employees”,
as he calls them, are far better off for having done so.
The people who work for him can quit at any time, and whether you’re talking about the
Three Families who were once tribals but now operate lavish casinos, or the residents of
Vault 21 whose bizarre story led to them integrate into New Vegas society- it seems
like this guy has never forced any person or group to work with him against their will.
And I’ll tell you what, from a lore perceptive, that puts House a cut above most in terms
of wasteland leadership.
This isn’t to say bad things don’t happen in Vegas. Bad things certainly happen in Vegas and
House has killed people, but it’s nearly
impossible to find anyone in the wasteland who hasn’t killed to protect life or property.
Oh, and before we go blaming Mr House for the poverty found around Vegas, I’m going
to stop right there remind us that people only want to get into the Strip because of
what House has built it into over the years.
People outside the Strip are desperate because the wasteland is a desperate place.
Now, we can accuse House of not doing enough to help those who are less fortunate than
him, but that’s a whole different discussion.
If “not helping your neighbor” is reason enough to kill a man, then I think we’re
all in trouble.
No, Vegas’s biggest blemish is not Freeside.
Instead, it’s the fact that House gives his tribal friends way too much autonomy.
That's right, too much freedom.
Under contract, the king of Vegas isn’t even allowed to step foot into his own casinos,
and neither is his robot security force.
This is what’s to blame for all the shady things that go down on the Strip.
Even with all this taken into account though, you might decide that House is still less controversial
than those looking to depose him.
It’s almost unfair to compare House to other figures like Caesar because
since taking control of the Strip, House hasn’t been playing the game of wasteland conqueror.
By that I mean, he doesn’t have dreams of an earthly kingdom or empire.
His head is in the stars.
“New Vegas is more than a city -
it's the remedy to mankind's
derailment.
The city's economy is a blast furnace in which can be forged the steel of a new rail line,
running straight to a new horizon.
What is the NCR?
A society of people desperate to experience comfort, ease, luxury...
A society of customers.
Give me 20 years, and I'll reignite the high technology development sectors.
50 years, and I'll have people in orbit.
100 years, and my colony ships will be heading for the stars, to search for planets unpolluted
by the wrath and folly of a bygone generation.”
What I'm offering you is a ground floor opportunity in the most important enterprise on Earth.
What I'm offering is a future. For you and for what remains of the human race.
It’s funny, House “plays” New Vegas like you would play Civilization if you were
going for a “science victory”.
Interstellar colonization is the goal, and in that way, he offers a very compelling “long-term”
solution to mankind’s current problem.
The problem of a fragile species on a fragile planet.
I feel like most of us end up killing House because we see him as a sort of dictator and
therefore a threat to freedom-loving people, but all sole-proprietors are dictators in
their own ventures right?
Remember, there’s no evidence to suggest that anyone is “born” into Mr House’s employment.
Working with him is completely voluntary.
I always just assumed that by siding with Mr. House I was signing the death warrant on Wasteland democracy,
but a vote for Mr. House doesn't necessarily mean a vote against a New California Republic.
Quite the opposite in fact. House's vision for the future, it's completely dependent on them.
And that makes him the single most power ally the republic has. Period.
During his dialogues, House might refer to himself as an autocrat, but he just isn’t an
autocrat at least not in the way that Napoleon was, or Henry the eighth, or Caesar.
When I killed Mr House I wasn’t dethroning a dictator so much as I was killing a powerful
CEO.
But wait, that’s not right.
Apple’s CEO doesn’t command an army of killer robots… at least not yet he doesn’t…
House has to be held to a higher standard right, because he’s not just dealing in
bottlecaps is he?
He’s dealing in human lives.
And this is where the scale starts to tip
in the other direction, because who’s to say Mr House doesn’t lose his mind one day
and decide to use his unchecked power for ill?
Does absolute power corrupt absolutely?
When I was a kid I ran the simulations, I can tell you for a fact that if a business
tycoon left to his own devices long enough- bad things will
happen.
There’s a revealing moment in Fallout New Vegas where House slips and in doing so, shows
us his true colors.
The Brotherhood of Steel represents an organization in the Mojave that hasn’t threatened, or raised
its hand against an independent New Vegas.
They do however represent something that Mr House finds abhorrent.
A stray variable.
A variable that if left alone, might tamper with one man’s perfect formula for the future.
So, logically, the mathematician does what the mathematician does best.
He simplify his equation.
Unfortunately for the Brotherhood, that means killing every living soul in Hidden Valley.
People who stand up for Mr House will tell you that the Brotherhood of Steel were bound
to attack Vegas eventually anyway, so a preemptive strike like this one?
It’s justified.
While we could sit here and debate the moral implications of preemptive strikes
I’m going to sidestep the issue entirely and just say this… the moment
House commits himself to an unprovoked attack like this one- he ceases to be just another wastelander defending
his property in the interest of his employees.
He becomes something more, something that might be terribly dangerous if left unchecked.
Let's not forget, this shriveled raisin was once the greatest salesman in old world America.
He does an impeccable job of selling us on a dream of the stars; it’s tempting.
House might very well be the perfect human specimen, but if you believe that humans are
inherently flawed, and that even the best of us falls short of fully reliable- well,
maybe unchecked power in anyone’s hands is just a bad idea.
There’s a great quote from the British philosopher Alan Watts, and it goes like this:
By that definition, House is a tyrant.
Even if he hasn’t committed a crime against you yet, the mere fact that he could and has
no accountability if he does, well- you can see how that could be a problem.
As another great philosopher once said:
So back to the original question.
Does the smartest man in the wasteland deserve the death sentence?
Well, we all have to decide for ourselves, BUT, if that answer isn’t good enough for
you, the closest thing the Fallout universe has to any godly authority would the developers
who made it, and well, curiously enough- they decided to weigh in.
Apparently killing the wasteland’s greatest mind will not net you good karma.
Don’t be quick to mistake that for an endorsement though.
If you don’t at least dethrone Mr House from his seat atop New Vegas, the game judges
you harshly for it.
The ending has Ron Pearlman straight-up accuse you of siding with a tyrant.
The decision to keep Mr House around will depend heavily on whether you personally think the
wasteland has room for yet another social experiment.
The game manual itself says as much…
Ladies and gentlemen that’s it.
Some complex thoughts about a complex choice in a complex game.
If you did end up killing House, try not to feel too bad about it.
His little game of Kerbal was likely doomed to fail away because… well, ya know.
Aliens.
I’ve been Josh.
We’ll catch ya later.