26 November 2025

Fallout Season 2 Has One Controversy Just Waiting to Happen

By newsgame

Amazon Prime’s Fallout TV season 2 is just around the corner, premiering on December 17. The first season already delved into the history and setting of the franchise, revealing some incredibly interesting information that filled out the franchise’s lore and introduced a couple of notable and surprising new narrative elements. Fallout season 2 now promises to take audiences on a journey, this time to the beloved and titular city of Fallout: New Vegas. There, the characters are set to deal with the fallout of season 1’s events.

The very premise is exciting, but it also necessitates a big downside (or at least a substantial compromise). Fallout season 2’s recent trailer hints at a few things, which in turn, may set up the need for a canon ending to Fallout: New Vegas. And this could cause some friction among fans, given that New Vegas offered a range of outcomes for players to choose from and write their own tale of what “really” occurred in the Mojave.

Where Fallout Season 2 Sits on the Franchise Timeline

Fallout Season 2 and New Vegas' 15th Anniversery Perfect Storm

The Resource Wars – 2052-2077
The Great War– 2077
Fallout 76 – 2102-2105
Fallout 1- 2161
Fallout 2 – 2241
Fallout 3 – 2277
Fallout: New Vegas – 2281
Fallout 4 – 2287
Fallout TV – 2296-2297

In-universe, the preceding Resource Wars lasted nearly 20 years and brought major political powers into constant conflict. Of course, it was the Great War, which lasted two hours, that saw the world come to an end. Every Fallout game has explored the aftermath of The Great War across the remains of the world.

With the show being the furthest down the timeline thus far, 15 years after Fallout: New Vegas, there are a variety of ways the show can demonstrate what happened in the game. It’s technically possible to avoid the ending overall, but that choice would be as risky as canonizing an ending. This would likely mean establishing a “true” ending based on the ones available in the game, especially since the show works closely with Bethesda, but it’s all a tricky balancing act.

Every Fallout: New Vegas Ending Explained

Fallout: New Vegas has 4 main endings depending on which of the three major factions fans side with. There is also the Wild Card ending that involves the player’s avatar, the Courier, undermining all of them. Within these are several nuanced variations related to how extensively (or not) the Courier interacted with minor factions like the Great Khans and the Boomers, companions, and their karma level. The results of siding with each or going independent all have important ramifications for what the Wasteland looks like after the dust settles.

Major Faction Choice	Ending Result
New California Republic	The NCR pushes out Caesar’s Legion and establishes a hold on Hoover Dam, New Vegas, and the Mojave.
Caesar’s Legion	Caesar’s forces decisively defeat the NCR, controlling the Hoover Dam and ruthlessly ruling over the area.
Mr. House	New Vegas becomes isolated but relatively safe from the NCR and the Legion under the iron grip of Robert House.
Wild Card (Independent)	The Courier, with Yes Man’s help, betrays Mr. House and drives both the NCR and Legion away.

Giving Caesar or Legate Lanius control unites the Mojave, but at the cost of a dictatorial, slave-driven society becoming the norm, making life brutal for most of the survivors. Helping Fallout: New Vegas‘ NCR is generally considered the “good” ending, though it’s not without complications. While it implies the region also stabilizes to a degree, the NCR represents a return to the status quo of pre-War government bureaucracy and all the shortcomings involved in it.

Meanwhile, working with Mr. House results in him lording it over the Vegas strip as a despotic capitalist, providing shelter and entertainment for those who can afford it. Finally, the Wild Card ending sees the shackles of all these cast off, but it also contains a wrinkle hinging on whether the Courier was able to reprogram Mr. House’s Securitron army for themselves. If so, it creates a level of order, but if not, then “anarchy rules the streets.” Still, in both cases, the city survives to “assume its position as an independent power in the Mojave.”

Why This Will Likely Upset Some Fallout: New Vegas Fans

what if new vegas without courier caesar

While it’s currently unknown if Fallout‘s new season will indeed pick one of New Vegas‘ ending scenarios, or somehow attempt to skirt around them, it’s much more likely that the former will be the case. The bigger question, then, is which one that might be, and how that will inform the plot and characters. Based on the material in Fallout season 2’s trailer, Mr. House looks to be prominently featured. This could be a speculative clue, then, as to the direction it may be going in. If Mr. House is alive during the show’s present events, it could essentially mean a version of that ending being canonized. This would still leave room for the Legion (which was also glimpsed in the trailer) and the NCR to be involved in the mix.

Fallout tv s2 trailer screeshot walking to vegas

The greater issue, though, would be that the show confirming any ending for its own narrative purposes would come with an unfortunately unavoidable side effect. Such a decision would naturally diminish the sense of authorship that players have over their own playthroughs and the fate they personally chose for New Vegas. It would disappoint portions of fans who would understandably feel it invalidates their choices and renders their shaping of events irrelevant, in a sense, at least in terms of Fallout‘s official canon. And while this is arguably a necessary sacrifice in order for the show to proceed, it would still be a bitter pill for some fans to swallow, given that it might retroactively detract from their experience with New Vegas.

Of course, it should be noted that players shouldn’t feel like a separate experience invalidates their own. It’s just an unfortunately common controversy stirred up with these types of adaptations.