Fallout Lore - The Republic of Dave

[00:00:19] Hello and welcome back to the Radioactive Ramblings podcast. I am one of your hosts, Aaron, and today I am joined by Richard. Richard, how are you doing today? I'm doing absolutely fantastic. How are you doing today? I'm doing pretty good. We did just do a back-to-back recording, so we have done our hellos and our goodbyes a couple of times already.

[00:00:43] Yep. But we're covering some interesting stuff today. What are we covering exactly on this episode? Yeah, so this is our Fallout Lore Republic of Dave episode, which if you are familiar with Fallout 3, you may or may not remember the Republic of Dave. It's very easy to miss. It's hidden away in the northeast corner of the map.

[00:01:06] But before we get into that, Richard, how can the people get ahold of us if they want to chime in and let us know what they think of this season? Give us an idea of what to cover? All that good stuff. Yeah, we got a few ways. First and foremost will be the Radioactive at the Lorehounds.com for email. We also have a Blue Sky account, Radioactive141, and a TikTok at RadioactiveRamblings.

[00:01:30] We have our own channel in the Lorehounds Discord, but there's also different threads and channels for shows, games, books, really any form of media under the sun. I think we got a music one as well. There's all sorts of stuff, and I like to think we're pretty active in there. I mean, I'm definitely active in a lot of the book ones and the gaming ones because I'm a nerd.

[00:01:56] I mean, I think a lot of the members of that server are nerds, and I think that's great. Yeah, everyone in the community would probably describe themselves as at least a little bit of a nerd. And I think that's a great thing because, like, shit, be proud of it. Hell yeah. So it's just a really great community, and I can't recommend joining up enough. Yeah.

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[00:02:46] But for right now, we just are doing the early and ad-free podcasts. We do the Ghibli podcast very, very early, or Studio Ghibli. Sorry. I don't want to get any hate. I was going to say, what was that? So feel free to check that out. And also in the network are some pretty amazing podcasts. Our parent podcast, The Lorehounds. They're covering Andor right now.

[00:03:11] They're doing every single episode of the three-episode drops, which they are working crazy. They're working very hard to get all that content out there with The Last of Us also coming out. So make sure you go check them out. Also in the network are pretty amazing podcasts like Wool Shift Dust, where Alicia is going to be doing some Dune content over there soon. She talks a lot about the art of adaptation.

[00:03:36] So if you're interested in sci-fi or any of that, make sure you go check it out, as well as the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast, Rings and Rituals, Properly Howard movie review, and of course, Nevermind the music. I like Nevermind the music a lot. They're pretty fun. They are really fun. Mark and Nicole are a duo of psychologists and a music expert.

[00:04:02] So they have really interesting perspectives on the music coming from those two different angles. And it's kind of been my go-to podcast lately. So definitely check that one out. Oh yeah, for sure. But without further ado, The Republic of Dave. This one is a new one for you, right, Richard? This is a new one for me. I feel like I've heard the name once or twice, but that's probably because I do follow some lore accounts here and there. But I have not interacted myself.

[00:04:32] Well, Dave is just, he's a real stand-up guy. And he, of course, is the president of The Republic of Dave, which in reality is just a small little farming community. But they think of themselves as a fully functioning nation state, even though they've only got a small handful of people living there in a few buildings. They do have a school, though. They do have a school. And how much are people taught?

[00:04:58] They're taught the essentials like, you know, information about their glorious president, Dave, such as, as a baby, he never cried and his poop didn't stink. I don't even know what to say. I don't even know what to say about The Republic of Dave, dude. Oh my god. Well, the good thing about The Republic of Dave is that it's been known by many different names because people other than Dave have obviously ruled over it.

[00:05:24] Over the past two centuries, this tiny little village, it's been known as the Kingdom of Larry, the Republic of Stevie Ray, Bill Sylvania, the New Republic of Stevie Ray, and most recently, under Dave's father, we had the Kingdom of Tom, which had some interesting practices like polygamy going on, which Dave didn't really care for that too much.

[00:05:51] He got rid of that once he took over, instituted his democratic reforms, as he called them. Right, but how democratic are those reforms? I mean, can the people vote? They can vote, but, you know, Dave and his family are really the only people who can vote because nobody else actually lives there. And Dave has a wife. Her name is Rosie, and she is officially the First Lady of the Republic.

[00:06:17] She can become the president, actually, through the involvement of the Lone Wanderer, the player character from Fallout 3. Wow, that would be quite a high honor, honestly, becoming the ruler of the great Republic of Rosie? Yeah, I mean, there's two alliterations.

[00:06:40] I like that. I like the Republic of Rosie. I wonder, that must be part of that. Yeah, if she becomes the president, it would have to be. Dave's not around anymore. Yeah, why would it be the Republic of Dave if Rosie was the leader? Alternatively, it could become the Republic of Bob, who is Dave's son. How are you going to lose re-election to your own son? It's kind of messed up. Well, you see, the Lone Wanderer can kind of rig the election one way or another.

[00:07:09] And typically, the neutral option is kind of seen as rigging the election in favor of Dave's son, Bob, because Dave's not the greatest guy. He's kind of, I don't want, he's not the worst person in the world, but he's also just kind of a jerk and not a good leader. So, you could keep him in power, and that's kind of the bad option.

[00:07:31] And then the good option is electing Rosie or rigging the election in Rosie's favor, because Rosie is, in fact, the most level-headed person. And she's also very outspoken about how bad of a ruler Dave is. She is not the biggest fan of her own husband. Fair enough, I guess. I mean... I don't know if I'd be too big of a fan of Dave if there was only one school, and everything that you're taught is about how great Dave is.

[00:07:57] I mean, if I were to run a small community, I would probably also be teaching people about how great I am. That's never going to happen, because they're going to be too busy learning about how great I am. Oh, you think you're going to be the next president of the Republic of Richard? You need to get out of here. I am. I'm basically Darrow, the way my charisma is unmatched. Pro put all of his skill points into charisma. Yep. If Dave loses his re-election, something pretty interesting happens. He leaves his family behind.

[00:08:27] He leaves his kids, he leaves his wife, and he decides, screw all of you, I'm leaving to go found the new Republic of Dave. And he goes to this location called Old Olney, which is just absolutely overrun with Deathclaws. You have to clear them out in order for him to actually move in. Isn't that like Quarry Junction? It's kind of like Fallout 3's Quarry Junction, for sure. And if you go and talk to him like three times, he'll attack you.

[00:08:57] Just straight up attack you. Go and talk to him once, and he's like, You suck. I hate you. You made it so that I'm no longer the leader of the Republic of Dave. But, you know, it's alright, because I'm going to found a better Republic of Dave right here. And then you talk to him again, and he gets a little bit more pissed off that you're still sticking around. He tells you, get the hell out of here. Talk to him a third time. You're mincemeat. Dave is after you, and you don't want to make Dave angry. Mincemeat is crazy.

[00:09:26] Yeah, I mean, surely you can't take down Dave. You just took down a bunch of death claws, but Dave is too big of a challenge. Well, I mean, yeah, they made a Republic for him. Yeah. Crazy that in the history of the Republic of Dave, there have been multiple new Republics of whoever. You have the New Republic of Dave and the New Republic of Stevie Ray. I wish that we had been around for the Republic of Stevie Ray. Really? I yearn for the old times.

[00:09:56] I yearn for Bill Sylvania. I mean, that one was pretty unique. Like, the name? I'm pretty sure that Bill Sylvania was Dave's grandfather, if I'm not mistaken. Well, I would have loved to be around for it. Hell yeah. Do you think that the Kingdom of Tom was the only one with the polygamy, or was it like everyone before Dave was rocking with that mindset? I don't think Bill would have done that. I'll be honest. You know, Larry might have.

[00:10:25] Stevie Ray could have. So could the second. And then Tom? Tom we knew was a polygamist. The layout of the town is interesting because they have a museum dedicated to the history of the town. And I'm pretty sure it's just like Dave related things, which is pretty funny. Yeah. And also, why are you calling it a town? It's a booming nation state. My bad. My bad. They, I should give them the respect that's due. That's my mistake.

[00:10:55] Yeah. Don't disrespect Dave. All the men live in one little shack and all of the women live in the other little shack. So they've essentially got dorm style housing. God, I can't wait for the Fallout 3 remake and to just like, I don't know, see Dave and his Republic. I mean, if the Bethesda roadmap from the Zenimax, like Microsoft merger.

[00:11:21] I don't know if you have seen the court documents from when they were investigated for potentially being Monopoly. They had to release their release schedule. And the Oblivion remake was supposed to come out back in like 2022. And the Fallout 3 remake was scheduled for like two years after that in 2024. But obviously COVID like slowed everything down and the merger slowed everything down. So we're years and years behind schedule.

[00:11:50] So we could be seeing a Fallout 3 remake at some point. But I don't think it'll be this year or next year. I think that we're at least two years out from that. Anything but Elder Scrolls 6, all right? Dude, is Elder Scrolls 6 even real at this point? It's going to be like the clip of One Piece when it finally gets dropped. It's going to be like, Elder Scrolls 6 is real. And then Kanye is going to start playing. Yeah.

[00:12:19] Chase and I were talking about Elder Scrolls 6 the other day. And he was talking about how at this point, there's just so much hype because of how long they've waited after announcing it. And how long it's been between the games that it's going to be really hard for them to please anyone. It's going to have to be a perfect game. It will have to be. And I don't think that Bethesda makes perfect games. They make really fun games. But perfect is not what I would call them. Here's my thing.

[00:12:48] I was actually watching a... I don't remember who made it. But I was watching a really good video essay on this. It was called, like, Why the Best Games Have Bad Aspects to Them. And I think that, yes, there are games that are perfect, don't have any bugs, don't have any gameplay issues, whatever, for the average player. But I think that games that do have a little bit of jank, do have a little bit of...

[00:13:16] You know, have some issues with them, are better. Because they're not geared to any one person, if that makes sense. I'm kind of butchering the guy's point. Because whatever this guy said was definitely said better. No, I think you're right. Like, there's a reason why I've played Skyrim probably more than a dozen times since I was, like, eight or nine years old.

[00:13:44] And that's because Bethesda games just have a certain charm to them. A certain... Yeah, I mean, you feel like you can really impact the world. And part of that is because of the jank. You have all of this weird stuff going on. Like, in Oblivion, you can just start flying when you do stupid spellcraft stuff. And you usually die. Because you land too far. I don't know.

[00:14:12] Just ridiculous things are always happening. And it makes you feel more immersed in the world in a weird way. You would think it would take you out. But these RPGs are just made for a different era. And I think that era of RPG gaming can definitely use a resurgence. Yeah, yeah. I'm with you on that. I'm really hyped for Ghost of Yotei. The Ghost of Tsushima sequel. It comes out October 2nd.

[00:14:42] And, like... Listen. It's just gonna be Ghost of Tsushima. Except we get more weapons. We get a gun. And we have a wolf companion. My one problem with the wolf companion that's gonna, like, show us where to go and everything. Instead of the guiding wind. Yeah. I know that wolf is gonna die. I know it. I feel it in my bones. Because... And this is... Spoilers for the third act. Like, the final act of Ghost of Tsushima. So...

[00:15:12] Skip forward, like, a minute or whatever. Don't... Don't listen to this if you don't want to get it spoiled. They did something illegal. They killed your horse. That you bond with the entire game. And that is so fucked up. You can't do that. That never happens. Ghost of Tsushima on my list for so long. I know. Dude, I've played it, like, three times since it came out. It's so peak. Like, I keep waiting for a Steam sale for it to drop low enough that I can...

[00:15:41] Or that I want to buy it. But I think it's one of the games that I think it's worth it. I bought it. You know, I bought the Director's Cut Edition on my PlayStation. It's like 70 bucks. Worth it. Worth every penny. I'm probably gonna get the collectors of Ghost of Yotei. Yeah. I... I gotta hop on Ghost of Tsushima before that one comes out. Yeah. Is it gonna be only PlayStation on release? Unfortunately, yes.

[00:16:11] I have time, then. I have to wait three years after it comes out before I can play it anyways. Yeah. Dude, one of my coworkers is planning on getting a PS5 just to play Yotei before it, like, gets spoiled for him. Because Ghost is one of... Like, the original is one of his favorite games. That's fair. I mean, I got an Xbox One back in the day just for Fallout 4 because that game was coming out.

[00:16:39] So I understand the love and the grind for that. Yeah. It's gonna be such a peak game, though. Hell yeah. Yeah. This episode was a little bit shorter just because The Republic of Dave is more of a goofy one-off thing than it is a serious lore element. Yeah. But I think that that's okay that we have a few of these shorter episodes this season. And... Yeah, like we were saying before we started recording this one, like... Or at least I was saying, like, I like these short ones. You know, it's like...

[00:17:08] You can knock it off the list as, like, we did this, we're good, we're done, and we had a fun time making it. Hell yeah. And also, it gives us a little bit of time where if we want to talk about random stuff like Ghosts of... Ghost of Tsushima and Yotei, yeah. Yep. And then we can do that. Or if we want to talk about the Oblivion remake, like... It gives us a little bit more freedom. So I like these ones. Yeah. But...

[00:17:35] Anyways, I think we already talked about how the player character, the Lone Wanderer, can get involved. So we won't go over that again. But any final thoughts on the Republic of Dave? Any closing thoughts on... I guess anything. It doesn't even have to be Republic of Dave related. Closing thoughts. Everyone get a PS5 and play Ghost of Yotei. They are not paying me, but they should. I am the number one promoter.

[00:18:03] Of Sony's single player, third person, over the shoulder, like narratives. Their peak. Buy and play them all. I know it's expensive, but it's worth it. Yeah. I agree. And on that note, I think that this episode of... Wild Wasteland has come to a close. Thank you all for joining us.

[00:18:32] And we will be back next week with a topic that has yet to be determined. But trust, we're going to come up with something goofy. Thanks, everyone, for joining us. Thank you.