I don't know who you are, but I know you exist, because there's no reason so many people would complain about them so frequently otherwise, so I'm going to say this right now...
Knight Maximus is one of the best characters in any Fallout related thing ever. Never in my entire life have I ever given a shit about a member of Brotherhood of Steel's story (outside of Veronica and Danse, but you understand-), and in turn, he's made me care about the other BOS characters in the TV series. He's kind, he's strong, he's hella badass and has fought (and defeated!) multiple wasteland mutants by himself, he's sweet and innocent, but he's not stupid and he has a strong sense of justice and his own morals that he sticks by. And he respects the hell out of Lucy Maclean, and we love men who are supportive of strong, independent women!
You can say whatever you want, but Aaron Moten is very good looking. 😍 (also, I might be a little bias, because I love characters that have scarred lips, so 🤷♀️)
And then there's Barb Howard. I'm gonna be honest, when I first got into the show, I didn't really think much of her, she was Cooper's pre-war ex-wife, mother of Janey and executive of Vault-Tec. I never hated her though, how could I? As heartbreaking as it was that she lied to Cooper for so long and her actions (or in actions?) caused the end of the world, she genuinely must've thought she was doing something for the protection of her daughter. And c'mon, you'd be an idiot if you looked at any of the pre-war scenes of Cooper and Barb and didn't think she loved Cooper (especially the scene where he gets all drunk and she's taking care of him after??? I cried-). Knowing Barb how I know her now in Season 2, I still don't believe she's evil, I can never believe she's evil. But she's not being manipulated either, she knows exactly what Vault-Tec's plans are, and she was actively making decisions in their whole plan too. But she probably genuinely thought she was saving her family. She was acting in best interest of her daughter, and no, it wasn't right, anything of what she did, I'm not justifying that at all. But honestly, if my daughter was that young, and the world was under threat of nuclear war, I'd probably take drastic measures too to make sure she survived. So maybe I'm part of the problem in the end- (Also, if she was part of the Enclave, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest. Those people are scary, I'd do anything they say too-).
Barb is such a complex character, and that's great, because normally when black women are put in villainous positions, it's always...problematic, you know? (even if it's not meant to be).
Also, Frances Turner is so damn pretty, look at her eyes, please, ma'am, I'd destroy the world for you-🥺💞
If you, like, viscerally HATE Max and Barb for some reason...I don't know what to tell you. Kinda weird to so passionately hate fictional characters.
Looking at you people who said Cooper Howard should've DIED when he was impaled 🤨...
And it's always sus when the black characters in a show get a lot of hate. It's one thing if they're villainous, or even vaguely problematic (Max is BOS, I would excuse you if you didn't like him for that reason, but I got my eyes on you so watch your ass-). It's another thing when they're not the only one whose villainous and vaguely problematic when so many non-black characters in a show are worse than them.
Last time I checked, Hank "evil old white man" Maclean ACTUALLY bombed a place, and as far as I know, Barb's only Vault-Tec related crime was being responsible for Lucy's vault inevitably running into problems with it's water chip (she also lied to Cooper, but I don't blame her for that, she knew he wouldn't agree, why the hell would he? I support women's wrongs!). And it feels like people like Hank more than Barb. That's sus as hell.
....Uh, yeah, that was it. Rant off? Was this a rant? This was something...
All this to say;
If you ship Vaultknight, awesome.
If you ship Ghoulcy, awesome.
If you ship Barbcoop, awesome.
If you ship all of the above, in a polycule, you go to heaven-