Posting this before the Fallout season 2 finale:
So there’s been much talk about the ‘canon’ New Vegas ending, with the show being somewhat ambiguous but with viable cases for a few different variants. Allow me to bring up what I suspect could be the ending they’re implying.
(See below ;) )
What HASN’T happened:
- Ceaser’s Legion has not taken Vegas, as there’s a distinct lack of crucifixes beyond the camp. Lanius is likewise not in control of the legion or even a potential new Ceaser, likely as he’s dead. Conversely, the legion camp on Fortification Hill does not seem to have been torn apart by a million Securitrons. (This is important later)
- The Kings have, at a minimum, outlived House’s physical form (he requires you to wipe them out in his dedicated ending)
- The Brotherhood Mojave chapter is not present at the big western brotherhood meeting. (Legion and House endings require you to destroy it, with Yes Man heavily nudge-nudge implying that you should as well. NCR can wipe them out but can also form an alliance with them.)
- The Khans have not moved on to Idaho or wherever but also have not been wiped out or further persecuted (too much) by either the NCR or the Legion
- NCR still had outposts including Camp Golf present last time the Ghoul was in town. They haven’t been banned from the sovereign Mojave by House’s treaty nor were they run out by a victorious legion or securitron army.
- Securitrons appear to have been upgraded, but not in numbers large enough to resist, say, a Deathclaw incursion. (This is very important for later)
- The Fiends are notably absent.
Obviously everyone and their mother has pointed out the Yes Man Securitron near House’s terminal. But clearly the ‘golden’ Yes Man ending didn’t pan out. Now, There is a variant of the Independence ending where instead of summoning an invincible robot army to paradoxically enforce anarchy, you brick the dam. This removes access to the brunt of the Securitron army with the trade off of leaving the Mojave economically useless to the NCR.
Okay, so let’s wargame here:
- Courier Six deals with Benny, leaves Caesar alive (or at least with his head unexploded), whacks House’s (physical form) then installs Yes Man.
- They destroy the brotherhood on behalf of some faction, spare the kings, spare the Khans, and degrades the Fiends to the point where the NCR cleans them up during the Battle of Hoover Dam.
- During the finale, they brick Hoover Dam, slay Legate Lanius to repel the legion, then shoo the NCR off now that the dam is useless. New Vegas has a small contingent of upgraded Securitrons, but not a standing army’s worth of them. New Vegas is independent in a truly anarchic fashion. The courier walks off into the sunset, their companions all go their separate ways. Etc.
This would leave:
1. The legion camp on the hill still existant and Ceaser’s comatose body recoverable. And with Lanius dead there’s no designated heir.
2. Some Securitrons still around the strip and even upgraded, but not enough to withstand, say, a Deathclaw attack.
3. NCR outposts remaining on the outskirts of the region to keep an eye on the legion.
4. House’s physical form out of the picture, after which Yes Man goes away for some undisclosed upgrade process. (Let’s assume House’s presence in the penultimate episode cliffhanger is an AI in his image)
5. No one person or faction ruling undisputed over this state of anarchy.
… which is basically the scenario we see in the show. I’ll also note there’s not a lot of talk about the strategic importance of Hoover Dam in the show, which further supports my thesis, here.
Obviously Ceaser is likely dead by now regardless of ending anyway, and the NCR’s destruction would economically devastate the Strip in any non-legion ending. But this does seem to be the ending that would ‘mesh’ best with the season 2 scenario.
I mean maybe House’s corpse will be revealed to still be alive in that pod in the finale. We’ll see, but I’d bet a few caps that the scenario described works as well as any other.
(The other option is a ‘soft’ NCR victory where they stick around but Hoover Dam isn’t quite the climactic event it’s depicted as in the game, and the legion still makes some trouble until Shady Sands getting nuked ruins everything anyway.)