"I don't really have a problem with them. People around here tend to see them as invading marauders planning to burn and pillage the countryside. But I've been to Arizona, boss. Before the Legion, it was a nasty place, so thick with raiders you couldn't trade with a town two miles up the road. Caesar's laws aren't nice, and their actions aren't always pretty. But then, neither am I, but you keep me around."
To start this off I am taking Raul at his word here and not going to try and twist things to make it seem like he said something different lmfao. I've seen people in the past try and write it off too as "How could they write a Latino man supporting the legion this is Bad Writing" and I think that's a very dismissive statement to not only Raul within the universe and his respective story but also......ahem. Nuances we can see irl.
I think there is a very logical jump for Raul to make to say what he did. I'm not going to asterisk this post with "This isn't justifying what he said and Legion Is Bad" because this post is made for big kids who understand character analysis for what it is.
Time to get into this.
Raul's feelings towards Legion makes (some) sense once you start picking away at him. Foremost he is pre-war, which I think is something that heavily plays into his views. We can assume he was a relatively privileged man given his family's ownership of a successful horse ranch near the country's capital during a time when 'Murica was trying to stake claim on oil and other resources in Mexico.
But setting aside his socioeconomic status, he also grew up in a world with relative stability and a systemic justice system. He grew up being aware of law/order and the bad guys getting punished in some capacity.
And he most certainly would have never known the level of depravity that the post apocalyptic world brought. To me, it makes sense that someone pre-war might have some foundational beliefs that would make them have ambivalent or even positive feelings towards a faction that has "shown" it can bring "stability" to the wasteland.
But even so, I think further into what he's lived through and think that this reinforces his obsession with securing "safety"
What's your take on the NCR?
"They're all right, I suppose. Had a bit of tough going there at the beginning - you know their first town was nearly wiped out by raiders? Anyway, they've got their good points and their bad, just like a lot of the old governments from before the War."
It's not lost on me how his replies to both major "political" factions relate to raiders in some way. Its also obvious that NCR is trying to replicate old world government.
"You think so, boss? Because I remember a time when a lot of people stuck to their duty no matter what. It ended with nuclear bombs falling on my hometown."
Which I don't think Raul has much confidence in that emulation.
Old world government actively failed him, raiders took his home, raiders took his family. He had to make the decision to take care of Rafaela or hunt down the raiders that burned his home and killed his family and in the end he failed both these things. His "success" at wiping out raiders was always a reaction to the things caused by his "inaction".....that is, in his mind. He was one man doing his best, and it wasn't enough.
He understands that this is more than just kill one bad guy and everyone's saved. There needs to be a system.
But even more than that, I think there is a much deeper and personal element to this.
"I've been to Arizona, boss. Before the Legion, it was a nasty place, so thick with raiders you couldn't trade with a town two miles up the road."
Legion's methods are brutal, objectively. They are a terrible faction, objectively. However anecdotal evidence is one fucking bitch of a thing to convince idiots away from, especially if they have deeply emotional and personal ties to it.
Raul again faced being one pre-war man thrown into a pit of the worst post-war depravity you can witness. He also, once again, is faced with the reality that he's had his heart ripped out once again, and blames himself for being reactive to a situation that he, in reality, really couldn't have prevented by his lonesome.
Seeing Arizona "tamed" probably struck a deeply personal chord for him.
I also think a large part of his past experiences hit him directly in the manhood. What is a man if he can't protect that which he loves most? He probably grew up in a traditional home with traditional culture that played into the machismo he likely embodied and had shape his own views and values. His failures took blows to his self worth and image.
This, mixed with Legions own emphasis on masculinity, probably does not help in how he is at best neutral, worst accepting, of Legion.
So, in short, I do think that Raul's opinion on Legion is something he actually stands behind and wasn't just them needing a character that was "pro" Legion in some way. His stance is contradictory in a way that is very...human, and in a way I don't think a lot of folks care to try and see how one can live through what he has and still have positive opinions about The Rape Faction.
Though,
I again stand by the fact that I do not think that Raul would be an easy companion for Couriers to truly get on with. He's more akin to your conservative uncle that's chill/neutral enough to still get invited to family gatherings but is opinionated out the ass and a stubborn bitch about. He probably has some unspoken respectability threshold that you need to meet before he would open up to you, and even then it'd be navigating a minefield of losing that respectability for most Couriers.
While I think Legion is nasty enough that he could be swayed into understanding that, I think the conversation is locked behind a tangle of knots that one has to be strategic about pulling at lest he tighten back up.
He's a complicated ass and I wish more people would treat him that way.
Nick wasn’t entirely used to going to another office rather than interlopers stepping through his door. Especially not lately. He’d taken an unfortunate spill a few days prior, and repairs on his leg were taking... a while. It sapped his motivation to get up and about every time he had to bargain for parts to make his knee work again.
So he was hobbling when he sidled through her door; a courier, which was unfortunately what he needed, because at the moment he couldn’t do it his damn self. At least it was a dignified limp, if that was possible.
Boone didn’t drink often, but he had a hard time turning down a free round when it was given to him at the airport. He didn’t usually get gifts, but the beret gave him away.
The only people in the world that could be thankful for him instead of hateful. Boone didn’t agree with them, but... free drinks.
“You’re staring, kid.” Not quite as hostile as it usually could be. The whiskey calmed the edge in him.
