Are YOU a robot? The SECRET Fallout 4 plot EXPOSED - Rethinking Fallout

[@teph1256]

You know who would accuse the protagonist of being a synth? A SYNTH!

[@iknowuknowthatiknowthatukn4817]

You know who would accuse someone acussing the protagonist of being a synth? A SYNTH

[@discord8424]

You know who would would accuse the person of accusing the the person accusing the protagonist of being a synth? A SYNTH!

[@jwdickieson]

Fuck it we're all SYNTHS!

[@dopaminecoma5909]

Nah I'm Codsworth

[@DelinquentChibi]

I'm a Deathclaw.

[@DesertAvenger]

Like a great man once said: "That's a nice theory, but I doubt Bethesda put that much though into it"

[@bobbibowen9110]

DesertAvenger YES

[@jamiewilliams4003]

You must not know Bethesda too well

[@GraceMcCown]

No, the lead writer's motto when making the game was "Keep it simple, stupid," they definitely didn't put that much thought into it

[@BungieStudios]

David McCown That's the motto of all competent artists and game developers. Else you go over budget and overdue in your schedule.

[@GraceMcCown]

yeah, 2 option dialogue says that they went overboard on the idea, wise guy

[@jamesdinius7769]

Sure you don't see a lie designation next to "I'm a Synth" but you also don't see it next to "I'm human"

[@vogonp4287]

I think the game makes it up to the players to decide.

[@vogonp4287]

I think that the developers purposefully left it up to the player.

[@blackpilloverdose1013]

" Cogito, ergo sum "

[@Jason-zu7qw]

James Dinius That’s because if your character believes they are a human, then it isn’t a lie. Likewise if they say they’re a synth, the sole survivor believes they are a synth.

[@taxevasiongaming]

🤔

[@fuccboi8888]

Little issue with your theory. In Kellogg's memories, he says that every pod but the Sole Survivor's was turned off, so...

[@dolphinerofachero3159]

You just ruined this whole man's career

[@mewacyboi]

He says that the sole survivor is A synth because he/she is impossibly strong and can adapt to almost anything, but so can a random mailman and a 18 year old Who with no combat experience whatsoever can take down an entire alien warship

[@leonardmorka6702]

Yes I knew it

[@ismailfurkanesel8665]

kellogg knows that he is the bait what is stopping him to lie or what is stopping shaun to alter its/his memories not gonna lie i dont wanna believe that sole survivor is a synth but his argumant is strong

[@noratheweeb9387]

Kellog also shows that he is fully aware that you are viewing his memories. It is entirely possible he said that because he knew what Shawn had planned, and didn’t want to spoil the surprise.

[@Jessie_Helms]

“It’s not a conspiracy, it’s an analysis” -Every conspiracy theorist.

[@cammantialive]

CIA shill Lol

[@isaacschmitt4803]

Its the beauty of conspiracy theories: "I can't prove it with evidence because there is none!"

[@Jessie_Helms]

Cam Mantia dude I’m too broke to be a shill

[@redpolscorp]

Sounds like religion, to be honest.

[@shnobo9471]

Red Polscorp how do you know?

[@Vermilionboss]

A really good theory. However... one thing you overlooked deflates the entire premise. The vault tech rep turned ghoul. If those memories were implanted, how would the institute know of someone that was forgotten by vault tech, someone who had only a minor interaction with your character yet is forced to remember after all those years when you come back and meet them and the memory is shared. Shaun was too young to know this guy. If the OG parents are dead then those memories go with them so the institute couldn't back those up. And i don't think the rep would go talking about your character out of all the people he must've met that day to get the institutes attention on some random old world ghoul.

[@SuicidalRevolver]

This needs more likes. This is the few definitive, direct links to the pre-war times.

[@bluedogviking]

You're absolutely right some theories just don't get researched enough and just upload for the views

[@Vermilionboss]

I would more argue at least its an omission for the sake of content than lazyness or lack of effort. Giving the benifit of the doubt. I'm pretty sure if he provided counterpoints then no one would discuss it's plausability.

[@SuicidalRevolver]

There's researching done alright, since his other videos cover many very interesting and obscure points. That said, this one seemed much more forced than others, especially using points that are easily countered by a large sample of evidence. If he was really in it for the views, he would've stayed with Game Theorists.

[@SolidusSnake333]

Could’ve just scanned their brain since it wouldn’t have decomposed. That’s what they did with Valentine and Synth Shaun

[@mindyauron]

Imagine if you were walking through the commonwealth and you see an exact copy of yourself. Same armor, weapons, everything. They are freaked out and so are you. You eventually kill them, search their body... And no component You check yourself And in your inventory, there’s one you can never remove

[@Nyghtking]

That would be like THE existential nightmare, you would both know that you are not real, and that you killed the real you.

[@NooobLP]

well, even then. im still existant. i dont care about that "me" that was born naturally, since i am i and not him if i am a synth i will embrace it. cant change the fact anyway.

[@SweetDreamsHalo3]

Fuck

[@rockyhorrorfreakshow5091]

Mindy Auron I'd just continue my life, safe in the knowledge that no one will ever know the truth

[@BioClay88]

that be awesome, so awesome in fact, bethesda would never do such a thing

[@thequeenemzz]

There is a terminal in the robotics lab with a file called 'unique project' that describes a new gen 4 synth that is basically the player character with all their abilities including vats and only Shaun and A.Benit know about it

[@blendpinexus1416]

@nooooooooo i recon the "gen 4" was the codename given to the sole survivor

[@fearlessfosdick160]

That theory fails the instant one encounters the Vault Tech sales rep in the hotel at Good Neighbor. That is a memory of a pre-war exchange that the Institute would not have known about, so it was not a memory that could be likely to have been implanted.

[@blendpinexus1416]

@@fearlessfosdick160 they could have extracted the most recent memories from the "survivor" and implanted those memories into a synth.

[@ShaggyTheClown17]

@@blendpinexus1416 if that were true then the lone wanderer from fallout 3 is also a synth because you go through bits of their childhood but then leaving the vault you start gaining exp, you can use vats and top time.... no explanation for any of that so unless you're playing a synth in fallout 3, you're not playing a synth in fallout 4 :P

[@blendpinexus1416]

@@ShaggyTheClown17 that's a fun theory to play with.

[@radioaktiv7841]

You try being locked in a cryopod for 200 years. Then see how much you remember.

[@HaydenWalker]

Well I mean they would remember that what happened before it kinda was like a dream that happened quickly

[@dexm881]

@@HaydenWalker The main reason is thawing and freezing during the kidnapping incident. Few people pay attention to this, but one of the main arguments from the words of DiMA can be broken by the fact that the main character was abruptly unfrozen, saw what was happening and was immediately frozen. This could not pass without leaving a trace for the memories

[@Zayl1016]

"You're not lying when you say you're a synth because of the dialogue color." Sure, except right next to it you can say you're a human without lying either

[@PierzStyx]

Which means both could be true.

[@Zayl1016]

Sure, but that should be in a RP sense, not in a sense of being proof.

[@azatmingalimov]

Both ARE true!

[@jataawakend8557]

All in all its still a valid argument, we'll know when fallout 5 comes out hopefully

[@caleballen8633]

@@Zayl1016 That's why this is such a vague subject. It's left open ended enough for you to make you're own conclusions for RP purposes.

[@cringlez1096]

One of your points being how the character can improve their stats, become more bullet resistant, resistant to radiation etc. by this logic are you assuming that fallout 3, nv and 4 protaganists are synths?

[@zackarywellman3365]

Cringlez don’t forget Fallout 1-2. You are a bad ass in those games too

[@shebvixen]

And 76, which takes place WAY before Synths could exist.

[@gendoruwo6322]

we are all Synth.

[@FanGirl9463]

In fallout 3 you are human in the intro your being born

[@thephantomoftheparadise5666]

Well, your character in New Vegas does get shot in the head.

[@PyrrhicPax]

There is one simple way you can definitively know whether your character is a synth or not, and you can find out before ever leaving Vault 111. Here's how: You can use VATS to lock on to the roaches before you get the Pip-Boy.

[@cyl_genderfluid-furry]

I can't tell if this comment is a joke, but based on other factors, I actually wouldn't entirely put it past the team that worked on Fallout 4. I would put it past Bethesda as a company, but based on the Fallout 76 team (the people who actually worked), I imagine they might've cared to put in that much detail.

[@jeremiahbales1060]

That is very good point

[@drej624]

iirc you can't use vats on your first playthrough, on console or PC. when i first played om Xbox in 2015, the game only lets you use VATs after you've already made a save once. likely a glitch

[@yonkyobonky]

Wouldn’t the brotherhood find records of the sole survivor in the synth records though I couldn’t see it being possible unless there are record of his assembling

[@webbmerriam6984]

That's just that Bethesda magic, baby

[@7xXx666xXx7]

There was a terminal entry inside the robotics lab, where they seemed to be testing with an upgrade, given to some selected synths, that allowed them to use a system pretty similar to VATS without the need of a pipboy. The interesting thing is that you as the sole-survivor can use the VATS system before you get the pipboy.

[@skhighglitch4217]

Can Confirm: Made a character a day ago, and you can use vats before getting a robco pipboy

[@calliewickham7551]

That’s because Bethesda doesn’t think about continuity

[@Zarnirox]

Hmm, that's true. While I still personally believe the survivor isn't a synth, that is something to think about.

[@AlindBack]

Huh, that's kind of funny. Because, if you think about it, Fallout 4's VATS is also perhaps the most different version of VATS that we've seen. Wherein FO4's VATS is almost more of a bullet-time, like you might think of as an organic version, while in all the other games VATS stops time entirely, as you might think a computer would do.

[@Nasa1423]

If you think of it that way then you should be able to use your pip-boy before leaving the vault, Yes you might be right but bethesda loves putting minor details in their games that I wouldn't be surprised If it wasn't a mistake.

[@SuicidalRevolver]

Few points.... The Institute did say explicitly that they shut down all other pods to "tie up loose ends". Taking this as a bluff or actual lore coming from in-game characters is apparently up for debate? FO3 and FO:NV had similar traits that turned you into a literal Grim Reaper of the wastes. Perks like Adamantium Skeleton could be taken in those games as well. It's a gameplay mechanic. The options are only there when your character is intentionally trying to misinform. In the dialog tree with DiMA, IF that choice was taken, in THAT instance, then the Sole Survivor believes he/she is a synth. In addition, the Sole Survivor definitely remembers more of the past than just the intro moments, as he/she makes numerous references throughout the game that are so minor (Recognizing Greygarden's robot voices, remembering commercial jingles, stating "Grognak and the Jungle of the Bat Babies... my favorite!", etc) and unknowable to present-day people. Dunno, seems like the evidence was cherry-picked for this one...

[@rainenelson8659]

SuicidalRevolver while i kind of agree with you,the snippet about Grognak occurs right BEFORE the bombs fall...

[@SuicidalRevolver]

You don't say something is a favorite unless you have read it outside of the context of the introduction scene. There's also many natural interactions and unique dialog choices that requires knowledge and memory outside of what was in the intro. The fact that you have agency and control over the events of the intro should also be evidence of this not being a programmed memory. We didn't just watch a cutscene - we lived through it.

[@SuicidalRevolver]

Oh, and another conclusive evidence that makes these memories GENUINE instead of programmed: The only way a memory can be recovered from a brain is if the subject had a brain implant prior to death. Kellogg is the only dead person that had their memories accessed. Many of the references (and as mentioned by Downwardspiral, Codsworth referring to past events and SS not objecting to it) require firsthand experience of the pre-war, and there are no evidence within the institute that they compiled this memory through... interrogating ghouls? (not sure how it'd even work but the important thing is that there are zero evidence suggesting they went through this ordeal)

[@bybyman3]

You're right. I don't think the playable character is a Synth. Also to add on to the memory thing. When asked about his health when entering the brotherhood, the playable character can say that his grandfather told him to not get so close to the TV. This is even more proof that the playable character is human because Shaun wouldn't have been able to program that due to not knowing about his parents life/past and pre-war America. Plus synths aren't supposed/or don't have memories of being a child really. And I agree, this video seemed to be quiet cherry-picked.

[@zufieusagi7509]

One thing i have to point out there is the fact that Dance a proven synth does have memories of being a child if i recall correctly.

[@asurich2559]

Yes, you do become extremely powerful in the wasteland. All of the fallout protagonists do that and those people were not synths.

[@sansguerra2265]

*Or are they?* jk

[@rojiii69420]

Agreed. You can become a literal nuke in Fallout 3 with the nuclear anomaly perk

[@oreo-postraphe]

@@rojiii69420 I guess its dependant on which perks are canon

[@stm7810]

@@rojiii69420 there's a few radical mutations and then there's going above 10 in all special stats, having VATS without a Pipboy, gaining PhDs worth of knowledge in a single perk, bullets bouncing off of you, solar power, fully unbreakable bones etc. meanwhile in the other games even maxed repair was the messy skill you'd expect from a normal person, their shots sloppy, whilst a laywer starts off with incredible accuracy, and the ability to upgrade power armour with a toaster and a desk fan.

[@NobodyParticularlyImportant]

Well....*cough cough* Fallout 3 lore. Bethesda might be known for buggy games and forgetting to implement things, but people forget that they can actually tie complex stories into a whole, just look at the HP Lovecraft and lore on the "interloper" which spans through the series as far back as the possibility of synths do, even Fallout 2 has vague references of the possibility of synthetic organisms. Bethesda stuck to this and made it an integral part of the game, it's not hard to believe that maybe all protagonists are tied to the institute in one form or another and spoiler spoiler, the institute isn't the only faction that has delt with human augmentations...ever play the DLC for Fallout 3 where a part of your literal brain gets removed with such precision that it leaves no ill affects on your body's ability to survive? Edit: There's also the mission Replicated Man in Fallout 3 that heavily references the Institute's hand over DC before they're ever properly introduced in Fallout 4.

[@tapnaporsnap4645]

The reason that you can see the memory stuff when you noclip the opening scene is because it's part of the memory scene also. They just reuse the same scene twice, same exact assets in the same spots.

[@connormcconnell7805]

Three times if you go to the memory den and convince the owner to let you use it

[@Notstephjr]

Love the smell of fallout theories in the morning.

[@CapnBlood]

Yes and Sean wanted you to tear it all down (the institute). He felt a Frankenstein making clones of himself

[@jakubhornicki5249]

in my now is 23 30

[@verpesdich8009]

Same

[@sargduck]

Kellog was instructed to cause a malfunction in all the cyro chamber except the sole survivors one

[@wolfcub1835]

Exactly this dude didn’t look at enough terminals and didn’t pay enough attention to the storyline

[@PinkFloydBootlegs]

Wolf Cub Explain to me, when you enter the Mechanists lair, the robot voice says "No life detected"

[@wolfcub1835]

Cigar is the mechanist lair part of a dlc?

[@wolfcub1835]

Cigar if so I think that’s a different bunker but if you mean somewhere in vault 111 then it’s because no ones alive your out of the cryopod so it can’t detect if you’re alive

[@b99b12]

@@PinkFloydBootlegs because ADA enters the detection arch and not the SS. You have to turn it off to completely enter the lair

[@nonamegiven202]

Counterpoints 1. Kellogg memories "I never knew why we didn't just refreeze the rest of them" AKA it wasn't actual system error but the Institute actively killing them thus the SS surviving is a purposeful action made by the institute as well to have them as the "Back up", forward supported by "even then, I knew it was a mistake to leaving (them) alive" 2. The paradox and conflicting information of the Memories, Your statement is 'the SS only remember what a synth needs to know' but that would imply that the Institute themselves MADE those memories up to that point, which then adds the plot hole of the them remembering the Vault-tec Rep and the dialog about the speech, where the Institute would have to have beat the odds of hearing the story from the Vault-Tec rep to add that into the Memories and finding the speech Memo at fraternal Post 115. THEN the points in the game were the SS does reminisce on the past too "My family and I used to listen to every new episode on the radio" for example. 3. Capabilities- we have 4 other examples of people with varying level skills do such massive deeds as well. Gameplay disconnection does not mean lore 3.a But if we ARE using gameplay as lore, the fact that it's highly implied that Synths don't need food, water, and especially sleep (to the point where a known synth is laying in bed awake at night and Eve within the Institute doesn't even have a bed) then the SS is a synth unless they are playing on survival then they are human. 4. The kill code and secret, your theory is built on two things, that Shaun was able to secretly create a synth that looks just like his parent WITH false memories put in (something the institute doesn't actively do, Nick and Synth Shaun were just using scanned brains as their based) in the institute without anyone noticing is in itself highly improbable then add in the problems of after a few decades your lake of aging is going to give you away to everyone and lead to best case the institute just removing you or worst case a civil war/rebelling of said synths against his people. And that we would have some program fail safe, just having one that's set to trigger if the SS kills Shaun (or even taking aggressive action against him) would had fulfilled this role and protect the institute. Shaun is (poor written) a logically person and not a prideful one like House for example.

[@zeyode]

1. Kellogg also implied that the reason they didn't was likely to tie up loose ends (something they often try to do whenever possible). By the time gen 3 synths are a thing though, Shaun is no longer needed aside from his role as Father. The institute got what they needed out of him, and leaving the parent alive would just be another loose end. Whoever ran the institute before Shaun would have most likely had the parent killed. 2. In the theory, the sole survivor was frozen to death. And as we saw with kellogg, memories can be recovered from dead brains so long as it hasn't decomposed too much. Well, the cryo pods do exactly that anyway. So it's possible that Shaun had the brain of the parent that wasn't shot in the head scanned. 4. It was a direct order from Shaun himself to make you the leader of the institute. Even if you are a synth, the institute can't technically do shit about it. Not only do you have the direct orders of the previous director that you'd be the new director. You're a stronger combatant than even a courser, so they can't brute force you out. Assuming you side with them, you'd also be responsible for enough accomplishments with them that you'd have earned the respect of many of them as well.

[@nonamegiven202]

1. Yeah but killing off your backup is just dumb, "it's better to have and not need then to need and not have", and the Institute isn't suppose to be dumb. Honestly, you think they would just set up a cryo lab in the institute and move them there. 2. I mean putting aside the whole scanning an inactive dead brain with no neural and neurons activity need for personality and all (that Kellogg's implant wasn't believable either, how did the one of the hippocampus with a implant host personality and personal thoughts on the subject, not even thoughts at the time, but literally Kellogg think back on it ) , that would then even more invalidate the far harbor conversation, with you literally forgetting things that were programed into your mind. and so bring up question on why not just try to revive the SS altogether in that case, the body would basically be perfectly persevered at the point of death 3. 4. The Institute can act as they like, i mean just a teleporting mishap that leaves you 6 foot under solid dirt is enough (or about 2 miles above the ground), and they are not going to respect you, you are just be a machine to them, that switch would flip just as quickly as the BoS turn on Danse who been with them for years (more then a decade for sure, as he was a squad leader at the time of FO3)

[@bigboss2174]

Dude you have great points, but you need to edit that whole fucking paragraph. You have so many grammatical and spelling errors it's looks like watching a dog get neutered. Can barely understand what you are saying, it could get way more likes if you fix that shit and work on your english. How about trying to say something smart instead of trying to sound smart. Because you said alot of smart things, you just ruined it when you tried to sound smart. Like Shoddy, he just tries to sound smart but if you pay attention rarely does he actually say anything that's actually smart.

[@nonamegiven202]

I'm just rambling on the internet for fun, it's takes my college paper for me to try to sound smart and actually proof read.

[@Magekenric]

Poopergeist Small bit on 2 Technically, Kelloggs memories didn't come from a dead brain, they came from a cybernetic augmentation. The things you pick up and use from him aren't actually his brain. They were additions.

[@thegadgetguy555]

7:05 nope. There are multiple times (particularly in Nick Valentine's plotline) where the soul survivor says "oh, I remember that guy" like Eddie winter or the creator of the graygarden robots, so that is wrong.

[@bobross9581]

A lot of this video is wrong.

[@Toni-lo9ms]

Knowledge of facts ≠ memory. Semantics aside, you can "remember" information you learn (or have downloaded) without remembering an experience involving that information.

[@CumradFluffy]

When you do the Warwick quest, you learn that the Institute kidnap people and interrogate them. They make copies with I dare say maybe 60-75% memory accuracy? Just doing Valentine's quest, you learn about the brain scans they are capable of (and probably one of the many ways they possess to replicate copies of humans). Your point goes both ways. The synth theory is there so you should challenge your view of free will and what constitutes being human. Are synths human? No, they are another species entirely, but with a will of their own (at least the capacity for it). What are the differences between being programmed over the course of your infancy and teens or having a memory pre-built? At one point in either cases, you'll experiences life, interact with your environment and learn (synths are man-made biological machines, perfect replicas of humans). Anyway I digress :P

[@Toni-lo9ms]

@@CumradFluffy Nick is an interesting case, by the way. When I'm playing a full on Brotherhood or Institute guy I never know how to treat him. He isn't just a programmed synth but either an actual human or a copy of one (depending on how you see it philosophically) downloaded into a synth body. By the way, you realize that means you could be both a synth and the original sole survivor. Coma + brain scan + empty synth (as with Curie) equals Sole Survivor as Nick 2.0 My personal theory is that the Institute's end goal is immortality via download into synth bodies, though, so I'm biased in favor of my spin on the you are a synth theory.

[@CumradFluffy]

@@Toni-lo9ms I personally see and treat synths the same way I see aliens in sci-fi games such as Mass Effect. They are self-aware, just not humans (so yes, I tend to believe them as threats if a faction of them take over the Institute, but not as individuals). Doesn't mean they should not be treated like people. The Institute goal for me is to control/spy the surface. Shaun has other plans, I believe he downloaded a copy of his younger consciousness into synth Shaun (being afraid of death and a final ploy to keep is legacy alive, to make you the Director), a test that goes towards your hypothesis. But I think that it's a secret project of his alone, since top scientist like Madison Li are kept in the dark. Whatever which faction I choose, I always strive to do good. Actions speaks louder than words, and the Sole Survivor's are mighty indeed. An example, If I become the Sentinel of the BOS (you know, the Second-in-command), I will steer the BOS in a brighter way, helping settlements and the Minutemen too, basically trying to resurrect Lyons views. The individual synths are not the threat, the Institute is (they do destabilize the surface, kidnap and murder at their leisure, release the Super Mutants, etc). I would give my fellow knights new ideals, undermining Maxson totalitarian attitude (I'm always questioning/insulting him :P). It's not just headcannon, what you do as a player has consequences.

[@greatshax68]

Oh hey, the Institute brought back Shoddycast!

[@Vagrant123]

IT'S A SYNTH!

[@MistahBryan]

No, Frost Fledgling is not a Synth. I can vouch for him. Beep Beep Beep #Totally Not a Synth

[@redpolscorp]

I am not going to fall for that... again...

[@havelthejock3761]

Kellog himself in his own memories said the institute wanted the player character kept alive.

[@PierzStyx]

Yes, because the player is a valuable Institute piece of machinery.

[@superquantumunitintelproce5222]

Yeah he said it "in case" Shaun doesn't work they would have an extra human but Shaun worked so...why keep you alive?

[@redholm]

Why send another team to the vault to get you out? And by the time Shaun worked out he might want to keep you alive as you are his sole parent.

[@Aurik-Kal-Durin]

But Kellogg probably doesn't realize that the malfunction would kill everyone in the Vault, including the one that was meant to be kept alive. He most likely doesn't know that the player character is a Synth; he says it himself, he thinks he can handle some soft pre-war Vault Dweller... he doesn't realize that the person he's fighting is actually an unshackled Courser on steroids!

[@redholm]

+Aurik Kal-Durin Pretty sure when in his memory he said something along the lines of "I don't know why we did't just freeze the others again" Because the Institute only wanted to keep you as a backup. So he knew they where all dead.

[@pscyokilla]

8:05 "quick mastery of skills with little experience " if thats the case than every fallout character is a synth lol

[@rangopistacho6928]

It ain't hard to aim a gun

[@stm7810]

there's the human rate of getting better with guns, learning basic medicine or hacking, and the Sole Survivor learning complex science including nuclear physics, weapon production that took whole pre-war factories, improving power armour beyond what the best scientists made, completely unbreakable bones, immunity to addiction, endless water breathing and regenerating health, a thing which explicitly required an implant in New Vegas.

[@skycrafter2042]

@@stm7810 no in new vegas you could just regain hp from a perk too all those "super human perks" he mentioned are all thing all of them could do.

[@stm7810]

@@skycrafter2042 Oh, yeah, I replayed it without mods and you're right, I forgot health regen perks were vanilla because of the monocyte breeder being a joke. Courier 6 is awesome!

[@skycrafter2042]

@@stm7810 even tho corier cant be as high level as ss i belive he could defete him in a fight with mid diff he is very powerful and knows the wasteland like a glove

[@pinkplanetproductions2305]

One hole in the theory, those aren't the soul survivors only memories, he tells what's his face in diamond city what baseball really is because he remembers it, there's other examples of other memories too, also you can't really count perks as reasoning for being a synth because you have to remember it's a game and perks aren't part of the story line

[@birdnoir5841]

Because it's so hard to download a memory about, you know, the most popular sport in boston.

[@TheSleepiestPlurals]

knowledge and memory aren't the same thing. You can know about something, but have no memory of having actually learned it. You see this all the time with amnesiacs, some of which have no long term memory at all, no recollection of anything beyond a few minutes of short-term memory, yet they can still perform complex skill-intensive tasks and know facts about the world. (Even though those facts are only the ones learned before they became amnesiacs)

[@arbitrarynumbers5852]

Yeah, we've been murder tanks for all the fallout games. It's not a valid point. I'd also say we can pass the Covenant test but a gen 4 may be able to do that. I've heard a strong point of argument is that your characters death inventory doesnt have a synth component, but that's not really solid proof. In the end people complain theres no role playing in our rpg, but the synth argument has been going since the beginning, why try to pigeonhole the character but at the same time complain that our character has too much of a set story. Play as a synth or as a human it's an rpg.

[@SoultalkOG]

VATS BEFORE PIPBOY, PLANTED MEMORIES, it’s all a lie. You are indeed a gen 4 synth.

[@aimworkin]

Your argument is invalid. -Danse

[@Crisco_Disco]

You see several occasions where you do actually seem to remember things from the old world...silver shroud, baseball, conversation with Daisy the goul...so it can go either way I think but I doubt it...I think like most things you get to decide...one constant is there is zero fucking way the institute would let a synth be the director

[@DeCarbonZo5979]

Why might that be?

[@krystalkruspe3529]

The human mind is a wonderful thing, and synth minds likely have the same psychology. Our mind will happily fabricate memories in order to fill in gaps lest the lack of information scare us.

[@finnweber4656]

Krystal Kruspe cool story bro but the human brain doesn’t make up factual 200 year old historical information with no other way of knowing without having been there on a whim

[@charthezombiehound8952]

you are confusing something here, you seem to assume people only have 1 type of memory while we actually have several types. Sensory Short Term Memory Long term Memory Long Term memory is in itself divided into explicit implicit then there are subdivisions on these, but we don't need to get into more detail than this. implicit memory is unconscious while explicit is conscious. Something like remembering Silver shroud, baseball even some of the aspects of Daisies conversation falls into implicit memories, the knowledge of how it actually was was programmed into your character's brain and the brain does the rest, have you ever had one of those tricky memories of something that happened a lomg time ago that were completely different? sometimes people tell you... "you weren't even there" or "no, that happened to me, you were just watching on the side"? that's because your brain has the knowledge of that event and fills the gap with faux memories. The brain is very complicated.

[@rileyhouston7934]

We know that father let us from the vault as an "experiment". Who's to say that he decided to play another experiment about how a synth would react to being given authority and power.

[@ItzHawkFox]

But in Kellogg’s memory he comments on why the scientists couldn’t just refreeze the others. The scientists killed the other vault dwellers, not some error. They could’ve easily picked and chosen who to kill and who to spare. This is some game theory level of incompetence here dude, cmon

[@ItzHawkFox]

KindredofLegousa Nora is very dead, what are you talking about

[@monetum1392]

@KindredofLegousa tf does that even change ? Of course she was frozen . She was in a frickin refrigerator for 50 years since she was killed ! Of course she would be frozen .

[@ItzHawkFox]

Lukas Sakul ohhh I thought he meant alive and still in cryo. But he meant literally frozen.

[@monetum1392]

@@ItzHawkFox glad to make things clear :)

[@OlaftheGreat]

Even on his deathbed Father never tells you you're a synth, even if you tell him you just want to see the place burn. In fact, in response to that specific dialog choice, he says "It's hard to believe we're related."

[@manuzitolasilva1672]

Very well remembered, this is an important point.

[@muskau]

Things you missed. VATS is usable before you get the Pip-Boy, something thats noted on the Institute terminals about Gen 3 Synth abilities. The player icon for Institute quests is a Synth Uniform. Father never explains why he made a child synth of himself and have Kellogg been seen with him weeks before you are released from the Vault. Despite all this planning that Kellogg noted himself, and Father admitting he wanted you to kill Kelogg, Father says he released you "on a whim" The game explores the fact that not only that you can download memories from near dead brains (Kellogg) but that you can drop an entire personality into a Synth (Curie) Everyone in Vault 111, while dead ,are still perfectly preserved 200 years later, which would in theory, allow a person to be dropped into a Synth body. Father was able to keep all of the Institute in the dark on the FEV Project, and the escape of one of their scientists.

[@trentenkunz6773]

The thing with the pipboy is probably just to help with aiming the gun for new players

[@thesupersonicstig]

VATS makes no sense anyway. Why would a civilian model of Pip-Boy have something that helps you aim a gun at someone's face? And if it can do that, then why are prewar soldiers never seen using military models of them?

[@nicktrovato139]

The biggest issue I have with this entire notion is that the Institute would have your recall codes if you attacked them (they obviously don't).

[@krazykoala3035]

@@nicktrovato139 your wrong. The institute didnt know, only father/shaun new.

[@sephirothdomain1]

I don't think father would put a decal code in the sole survivor . more of a raw untouched experiment especially since he planned on making you the director

[@NickNembus]

You overlooked one key terminal entry that explains all the deaths. Overseer's terminal/Operations Protocol Manual/Staff Duties/Science Staff Members of the research team must daily monitor the vital signs of cryogenically preserved residents. Cardiopulmonary and cognitive activity in particular must be recorded hourly. *Life-saving intervention is only permitted if greater than 80% of the resident population has perished while in cryogenic suspension, and must not interrupt suspension*

[@kabrozkabroz]

Its kinda fucked up to think that right there spells out the real purpose of the vault, the people were generally never intended to be released, vault tec just wanted to know how long you could freeze people for.

[@thundamuffinz1669]

Well that's vault tech for ya! A better future... *DEAD*

[@ChrisSauce77]

Very evil. Very Vault-Tec. It does kind of sync up with the idea that they did refreeze em all after unloading the one parent to get Shaun out. Then when it progressed, natural regulation and lack of maintenance caused a system failure to which your player character was the only one who survived.

[@erikvale3194]

Except other entries show everyone had already left long ago. Like, well before Kellog came back. Noone to do the intervening.

[@SilenceYouFools1]

Their motto isn't *incorrect*, considering the traditional place to put coffins

[@ZOIDGARTH]

"They froze to death." Actually, the terminals say asphyxiation and Kellogg killed everyone but the protag in the vault.

[@ZOIDGARTH]

You're probably in the same area in the intro as in Kellogg's head because they only have to set up the scene once in one location with two triggers. One for the intro and one for the memory. It was a development shortcut

[@xChimkin]

i think the dima part is suppose to determine your headcanon in whether or not you're a synth. that's all

[@Ceyrenn460]

Ah, its glad to hear Austin's voice over on ShoddyCast again.

[@NeroSeries]

Revan460 same the channel kinda felt weird without him

[@playcebovision5319]

Except when he screams, ugh

[@jaydubcee_]

So you’re saying that Father somehow created a generation 4 synth under the noses of everyone in the Institute, transported that Synth to Vault 111, had him take the place of his dead father, dispose of the corpse, then unfreeze him sometime in the future to exact revenge on Kellogg? And that, to you, is more plausible than you just miraculously being the only survivor of a horrible cryogenic experiment? Gen 3 synths are fairly new to the wasteland, so even if you were a synth, you would’ve had to have been made quite recently. And if you, the protagonist, had died, in what way would Father have been able to extract memories from the frozen brain of his parents which has been lying dead for 50+ years in an underground bunker? I admit that Far Harbor’s dialogue was creepy, but I think it was meant more to make you think about the philosophical and existential question: “How do you know you are you and the world around you is real?”

[@PierzStyx]

This really is the only criticism that seriously challenges the theory. For it to work you have to assume that Shaun is sneaky as Hell. But, even then. It *is* possible. We don't see it happen, and Shaun destroyed any evidence that it did happen if it did. But it could. On some level it wouldn't be that difficult. He would just have to slightly alter the coarser programming. And the frozen brain thing isn't hard. If the Institute can copy the brain of a living person they should be able to copy the perfectly preserved brain of a dead person.

[@jaydubcee_]

It’s really not that plausible. To shatter that theory with any evidence is not gonna change the mind of anyone who already believes it is, so I’ll just offer this: Do you honestly think Bethesda put that much time into it?

[@ironfoo1]

Father didn't do it for revenge. He did it really as a grand scheme experiment. One that was borne out of the fact that he knew his days are numbered as the leader of the new world, and he wants to see what his father/mother would have done, given the tools at his disposal.

[@tinyfistm.2607]

I'd say he used the chassis of a courser (Gen 3+, explains your inevitably superhuman physical powers and how you _can_ take down coursers/anything else with little trouble) but without the limiting safeguards that the institute would almost certainly have built into coursers to prevent _them_ from going rogue. But the main upgrades I'm thinking about would be his own line of custom OS upgrades built off the Gen 3 (similar to what he was working on with Nick and DiMA leading to both Shawn and to you.) Software upgrades would be much easier to hide from the rest of the Institute than a new physical chassis, and would explain why you don't have a level cap or restraint on being able to do superhuman feats.

[@flopzee5066]

i should point out when you meet shaun on top of CiT, he goes on saying this confirms what i feared, the world is fucked, underground is all we have now and tht he had no reason to be up topside so he never did... BUT! earlier when u first meet him, he mentioned he had seen topside before... sooo there is a possibility he did replace his mum/dad with a synth. that or they fucked up his script

[@bobross9370]

If you go to Diamond City and talk to the baseball vendor your character explains how baseball works to him, how would he know how this works if he could only remember what happened after he woke up?

[@PierzStyx]

How did Nick know about Winters and the dead girlfriend? The Institute can literally copy human brains and transfer the memories to a synth.

[@ChrisSauce77]

I think the general idea of copying memories of the original human ... they only go as far back as necessary. So Winter, his gf, and the case shutdown being unresolved, plus going to the experiment he signed up for ... that's all he'd need. In Shaun's case, all he'd need is to see how the world ended with nuclear war, going into the vault, being temp unfrozen to see his or her spouse's killer and that murder, and that's it. BBBanks makes a good point if this is the consistent part about synths only having so much original human memories leading up to the time of replacement. Remember that guy who was suspected of being a synth at that old sewage plant ... Roger Warwick? How he was a synth, and he was so different from his old human original ... the human version was an asshole and abusive, but this synth Roger was supportive and peaceful? Human Roger probably had shit happen to him growing up that fueled the hostile attitude and abusive nature, something that the synth clearly didn't have as part of his programming. That kind of explains it to me that gen 3s only have so much prior data in memories leading up to the point of replacement, which can cause the synth to not entirely or at all resemble the behavior of the human it replaced.

[@ChrisSauce77]

Exactly. The explanation could be that such info is downloaded to a synth's mind, so that it can reference concepts and human pass-times that nobody else would know about beyond the Institute ... but that's also not very likely, nor is stuff like a dead sport in baseball at-all important to the Institute.

[@sirsunman7826]

chris sauce and the base ball thing is not the only "unsesery memory" the sole surviver knows the name of the rabco ceo the name of the nuka cola creater and so forth those memorys are pointless yet he/she has them

[@flopzee5066]

Simple, he said that if sole survivor is a synth his memories were copied, it doesn't mean they left prewar memories out... even pointless ones. when did it ever say he/she 'only' has specific memories?

[@ThatFont]

This almost explains the lack of traits, like ‘Small Frame’ giving weaker limbs for agility; we don’t get to decide if SS has weaker limbs or other debuffs not related to surviving or damage. Our flesh can technically be exceptional if you want to consider the ghoulish perk, and even these features can be explained by being part synth since we were supposed to be being sought by the institute for having clean, pre-war DNA. People keep mentioning other synths saying we’re human, but how could they recognize a new-gen synth that was made to be more human-like?

[@cyberninjazero5659]

It wasn't a "system wide failure" it was deliberate sabotage of every other pod. BOTH Norah and Nate were meant to be backups Kellogg is the idiot who shot one of them but the institute scientists WOULD ABSOLUTELY know whether or not their Backups would die from what they're planning Father as an institute scientist sent someone to open your pod and that's where the tutorial starts. Joseph Anderson did a really great job piling up the evidence against this theory I'd recommend his video for more on the topic.

[@davidaward82]

still, being able to use VATS without the required tech is a big clue. TBH i think it was purposefully left vague.

[@DVankeuren]

@@davidaward82 SS can use VATS because of the PIP Boy

[@davidaward82]

@@DVankeuren you don't get the pip boy until the vault entrance. You can use vats from the moment you leave your cryo pod. The vats tutorial is between the overseers office and when you get the pip boy. I'll have to start a new game and test it too, but I think vats is disabled before you're frozen, but active from the moment you wake up.

[@fernandocontreras1577]

@@davidaward82 one of Bethesda team members flat out said that the ss was intended to be human ..confirming it was an oversight from Bethesda soooo....DEBUNKED!.wah wah waaahh

[@fernandocontreras1577]

@@davidaward82 plus father could of just used reset code if you decided to turn on the institute..to many plot holes in this theory. I think it's not a right or wrong answer. They made some those plot twist last minute based on the dlc to get the player thinking. Plus when you play the game multiple times you have conversations with other npcs recalling memories from the past. Either he intentionally left that in the video or did not look into it more or even played the game long enough.

[@lonestoner8297]

You're back on Shoddy?!?!?!? Yesssss Rethinking!!!!

[@trippysnow3791]

Lone Stoner Execute Order 66

[@ComicSansPony]

The free cam argument for the opening cut scene is flawed. The synapsis background you can see in free cam mode was probably a lazy short hand for the programmers since you can revisit the cinematic in the memory den from a different perspective.

[@redholm]

It could also simply be that they did it to save space. Which more games should do. By doing it like this you save a little bit of space. Which means you can fill said space with something else.

[@livtempleton]

Say Synth theory is true: I wonder if another facet of the sole survivor experiment was to test the limits of free will and emotional motivators? After all when you first come face to face with synth Shaun, father explains a moment later that he was testing shauns emotional responses. Given there are more and more synths showing they are fully aware people and not just high functioning AIs, Shaun could also be testing in the sole survivor how a synth might act with only one emotional motivation, rather than a complete programming and indoctrination. I might be wrong, but I think the institute hasn’t ever intentionally left a free roaming synth on the surface, unaware of what it is? Those sort usually are freed ones with mind wipes.

[@cyrosphere0154]

1. The institute sabotaged the cryo pods, except yours. That's why you're the backup, the others were liabilities. 2. The fighting mechanics where you're OP is in the other fallouts (3 and NV) as well. 3. The choice where it says he's not a synth isn't a lie either. 4. The rest *WAS* a theory!

[@DUDEGUY-de4zt]

How can say something so controversial yet so brave

[@Draevan13]

Regarding point 1, I might be wrong, but when you talk to Shaun on the roof of the CIT ruins after the Battle of Bunker Hill quest, he tells you that he "kept you alive all those years." Meaning yeah, they sabotaged all the pods except yours.

[@si6ck]

Lmao in the Old Fallouts you are really under powered against almost everything. 5 people will kill you with ease in FO1-2 but in the rest you kill those 5 people like it's another tuesday.

[@cyrosphere0154]

Roemmelious the Glorious what I meant was pretty much Fallout 3 and NV

[@si6ck]

You should edit it so you don't confuse people then

[@bturx2180]

WE DON'T MIND YOU DOING FALLOUT CONTENT

[@2Potates]

It's what i'm subscribed for.

[@bread1828]

same

[@maximwannabepro3021]

Same

[@sverian4011]

Who made videos on it over a year ago.

[@sverian4011]

Unless its others theories. Who made their vids over a year ago.

[@AyBee9725]

Westworld. Detroit Become Human. This. Gotta love people’s obsession with manifestation of humanity outside of humanity itself.

[@xfrobie9773]

Don't forget furries.

[@StableLies]

What about NieR

[@XenoZbornak]

It's been going on for quite sometime. Don't forget the old Westworld (1976) staring Yul Brenner.

[@GoklasM]

Welp, of course. Human is not a perfect machine. We need to create a new species, which will be better than us, but will share our common goals - learn&conquer everything. Then we shall replace human race with these new beings - of course, not by genocide. Then they shall do that too, if they will ever create something better. Like evolution, but programmed.

[@hazeltree7738]

@Danny Chesney Still an awesome game.

[@СемёнОпович]

>in months you can become the most powerful person on the planet [Big Iron plays in the distance]

[@matthewwatson3593]

During the Kellogg memory sequence he literally says they killed everyone on purpose to tie up loose ends except the main character so they could have a DNA backup this theory was poorly researched.

[@girlslaughingjp]

It’s not poorly researched, you don’t need a live body for DNA.

[@chrisseger2346]

Right, so why wouldn't they have just shot both the parents, dragged them back to the Institute, and froze them? Because it wasn't simply for DNA. C'mon, use your brains.

[@davidaward82]

that was 60-70 years before. as the theory said, when the previous director knew you were no longer neccessary, wouldn't they most likely have simply tied up the last loose end?

[@fernandocontreras1577]

@@davidaward82 no you goober even one of Bethesda team members came out said the sole survive is intended to be human lore wise.

[@davidaward82]

@@fernandocontreras1577 oh no, a single team member. To counter your inane attempt at a response, Bethesda's official stance has been "we're not saying, it's up to the player to decide" Hence the option to say you are one.

[@daemiax]

Counter Arguments: - If you're suggesting that the " bullets hurt less" sound like a synth update, than the protagonists from the older fallout games are also synths, which does not make sense.Also, eating and not gaining weight happens in Skyrim as well, so there are synths in Skyrim now? -The memory scene, is the same for kelogg's memories as well. and we know that he was not a synth, he was a human with synth add-ons .

[@justabeardedguythatisahero9848]

Fallout 4 is more of a realistic game than those you mentioned above , when you use TCL in consul commands and glitch out of the cryo-cell , you can see it is just a memory to give you motivation case closed m8 , made by Shaun . other things that does not happen to synths but happens to you like being affected by radiation , was surely implemented in order for you not to be skeptic of what have been done to you .

[@daemiax]

Case not closed, The realisticity of the game does not mean we will throw the history of Fallout out the window. A What about using TCL, before the bombs drop, why does that not have a " memory Cell " glitch?. Your arguments are invalid.

[@justabeardedguythatisahero9848]

when you go in the brain of someone in fallout 4 , like kellog brain you will see his neurons , same happens when using total conclusion off , here see this part of the video above 13:25 here is your fatal proof evidence

[@daemiax]

Disagreed...

[@justabeardedguythatisahero9848]

as you wish , but let me remind you that bethesda are nothing but a bunch of assholes who destroyed fallout by making it a more friendly lovely wasteland , bad story writing and stupid characters , so don't expect these people to respect the fallout lore just like us the "real fans " .

[@Peckles1231]

Yeah, no. There are way too many things contradicting this theory. 1: Why doesn't Shaun use your recall code to shut you down the moment you attack the Institute? If he is worried that someone else would shut you down and end the 'experiment', he just wouldn't tell it to anyone else. He and the rest of the Institute clearly oppose you if you go with the other factions and triy to stop you at every opportunity, so they definitely care more about surviving than fulfilling his little experiment. He is also clearly resentfull of you when you meet him on his deathbed during the last mission in the MM/RR/BOS ending, so i don't think this is a case of 'just as planned' lol. 2: Shaun doesn't consider synths to be human or even capable of true free will, why would he let some machine take control after his death? He thinks they just follow their programming and aren't capable of making their own decisions. A synth wouldn't work as a long time leader anyway because they don't really age as humans do. The other people in the Institute would notice their leader was a synth in 10-15 years at the latest. 3: Shauns 'revenge' plan makes no sense whatsoever. He doesn't care about Kelloggs brutality, the people on the surface mean nothing to him and neither do his parents. Even if he did, why make this super convoluted plan and build a super synth that looks like one of his parents when he could just sabotage the molecular relay and teleport him into a rock or drop 50 gen 1 synths on top of him? That seems like a much safer solution. 4: Survival mode: Dialogue between Institute scientists establishes that synths don't need to eat, sleep and they can't get diseases. The player character gets ill all the time and he isn't immune to hunger or sleep deprivation either. If he was superior to coursers, why does he have these massive flaws? Sure, you might say: Hey, you are just programmed to feel hunger' but considering that you actually die if you don't eat for a couple days, i find that to be doubtful. 5: Where did the Institute get your memories of the last day before the bombs fell? They are clearly real, because Codsworth and the vault tec rep still exist in the game world and reference events of that day. The institute couldn't have gotten them if the real parent died in their cryo pod. 6: Brotherhood DNA testing. The BoS finds out about Danse because his DNA matches that of a synth. Why doesn't the sole survivor get found out the same way? 7: Why doesn't Dr. Amari notice that the player is a synth when you use the memory loungers? Given that she is the person who performs all the mind-wipes for the RR, i would think she would be able to tell from her scans. 8: All the other player characters from the previous fallout games were capable of taking ridiculous perks and mastering complex skills in record time, why do you single out the SS as if he was something special in that regard?

[@thesupergamer5894]

You forgot that most modern synths have VATS built into them, and you can activate VATS before getting the Pipboy

[@159tony]

Holy shit that is a good fucking point!!

[@glamrockbonnie5983]

Then that means the fallout 2 protag is a synth since you can use vats before you get the pip boy so no it doesn't work

[@brandonroman772]

He has more memory then that if you ask the guy in Diamond City about the baseball bats the Soul Survivor we'll talk about how they used to play baseball before the war

[@Jessie_Helms]

The problem with your logic is it’s the same way in all Fallout Games. We don’t suspect The Courier, Lone Wanderer, Chosen One, or.. (legit I don’t remember the other protagonist’s name...) as being synths, yet they can do just as much as the Sole Survivor. Say what you will about everything else, but that point is invalid.

[@SolidusSnake333]

Justin Helms Vault Dweller my dude

[@braxinIV]

Justin Helms if they went with this theory originally, I think it would have made a better story, IMO

[@scottyjennings4226]

Justin Helms what if there all synthetic.

[@vulpesdecinere972]

His first point of the original you being dead is also a far reach. The player character was a backup, which means they had to make sure to keep you alive in case Shaun did not make it. That is until you are no longer important. So they just let you go to see how far you will push yourself to finally have your son back, since he's the only part of the old world family that you have.

[@Jessie_Helms]

scotty jennings some of them predate the synth program by like 30 years I think though.

[@PunknPixels]

what would be the point of reinserting a synth into the system? How are you able to tell the guy in Diamond City about baseball? How do you have a conversation about prewar life with the woman in Goodneighbor? How do you have a conversation with Codsworth about what happened? Why wouldn't Shaun make a synth of his other parent? And like you said - Kellogg is smart. He'd obviously know that the spouse of the person he murdered and parent of the kid he kidnapped would come looking for him if s/he ever got out. And for the cutscene being Kelloggs memory sequence - it's far easier to just re-use that asset. it's less stable becaUse, well, obviously. It doesn't have all the other elements to run the way it does in gameplay. Besides, from this interpretation, The Courier is a synth.

[@timgreen03]

Austin : it’s outlandish to think that one member could survive The Courier getting shot in the head and surviving ; am I joke to you

[@159tony]

But he didnt survive.. and he got shot twice.. the courier is a zombie.

[@stm7810]

Courier 6 has Project Brazil

[@teph1256]

the problem with the memory point is that you DO have memory of other things trough the game, like the silver shroud radio for example. And dimma isn't exactly trustworthy, he's a massive manipulator and conviced the person you were there to save in the first place that she was a synth when she's a human. And if you are a synth, why not stop you when you start shooting at the institute.

[@alexmcd378]

Memories aren't evidence. Institute could collect the survivor any time after Kellogg got Shaun, copy their memory like they did with Nick, and put the synth in the cryopod.

[@GodwynDi]

@@alexmcd378 Memories aren't evidence, but failing to address it certainly weakens the argument.

[@alexmcd378]

@@GodwynDi not really. We know the institute has the ability to copy memories from a human into a synth. They could have pulled the survivor out at any time, copied their memories into a synth of them, and put the synth in the freezer in your place. That synth would have all of those memories. Gray garden, silver shroud, all of them. They wouldn't even be fake. They're be your memories, but you're still a synth.

[@Wolfs0n]

It all falls apart with the Radiation bit. The synths are canonically immune to Radiation but for whatever reason in gameplay the gamma guns and shit still hurts them. Not only is the opening sequence pretty much all the proof you need the protagonist isn't a synth radiation still harms them. There is also a flaw in Dima's logic. When he asks what is your earliest memory and you answer it. He continues by asking if you can remember any finer details cuz that is what synths don't have. But in the opening scene there is a comic on the counter. "Grognak The Barbarian: The Jungle of the Bat Babies". The male protagonist reads out the full title and specifically says it is his favorite. Also in the Silver Shroud quest there is a dialogue option where the protagonist states they listened to it with their family every weekend. The protagonist's memories and dialogue about said memories are too finely detailed where as other synths have too many gaps. The theory holds no water

[@davidaward82]

Nick. Personality transfers work. while a completely manufactured history, a'la normal synth, would have gaps, a complete copy... far less so.

[@Wolfs0n]

Iyammarrok 'Rok' He has a shit ton of memory gaps. His memory is worse than most synths. The only things that are permanently etched into his memory is the traumatic events leading to the death of the real Nick's girlfriend. Other than that he can't remember any 1 specific case, he has trouble remembering the last time he met with Mr. Nakano even though Elie says it wasn't that long ago. She also says Nick has frequent memory problems and she ends up having to write everything down. Nick is the worst example you could possibly use man, you just solidified my point.

[@davidaward82]

@@Wolfs0n that is explained fully in the far harbor dlc. Nick awoke initially with nick's full memory, but he only has so much space and forgot a lot. Dima on the other hand upgraded his storage... Far from solidifying your point really. You have to run through far harbor with nick in tow to get his whole story

[@Wolfs0n]

Iyammarrok 'Rok' his full story that he needed to be REMINDED of. As a prototype his memory is faulty and again these were mostly things that happened within recent years 5 - 10 max. The later generations the 1 issue they still haven't fixed is a synths memory or rather they used the wrong method. Instead of expanding memory space or anything like that they instead program the mental data banks. The institute just Basically condenses enough files of significant memories to pass for the person they are replacing. But again finer details they simply can't recognize and when questioned on them the synth freaks out and goes haywire. My point is only getting more solidified the more you try to use Nick as an excuse to justify this bare bones theory that Bethesda already debunked without knowing it. This whole "Is the sole survivor a synth" theory only exists cuz of Dima and the Far Harbor DLC as a very piss pour attempt to fuck with the player's head. Undertale did a better job with Sans constantly breaking the 4th wall. Psycho Mantis did it better by reading the memory card.

[@davidaward82]

@@Wolfs0n when nick first woke up he had the original nick's full memory. When the sole survivor first wakes up he has shain's parent's full memory. Still not sure why you're claiming that Nick's memory deteriorating over decades is proof that i'm wrong... Nvm though.

[@HunterX05]

Holy crap, Austin's on ShoddyCast again!

[@unematrix]

unfortunately so... remember when this channel made lore videos :'(

[@beeebz1192]

@@unematrix Fallout:Brotherhood. That was the movie they said they was going to make. It's been over a year since its announcement. I realise it takes time to do a project so big but an update at least? Or is this project dead? If anyone knows any info on the movie please inform me.

[@Mitsurugi2424]

Why did he leave?

[@Chu8rock]

He owns it.

[@HunterX05]

@@Mitsurugi2424 game theory

[@michaeltelson9798]

There are two memories that appear. Your first conversation with Daisy in Goodneighbor and the microphone at the Fraternal Order where you give the start of your speech

[@FL_nar_Rayya]

A few counter arguments driven from game mechanics logic: The whole scene of your son taken by Kellogg is made in a Kellogg's brain environment to recycle the scene, that way they can use the whole complete scene twice without having to use more memory space to make 2 different scenes. For the point of inhumane strength and powers it's called gameplay over realism, if a game's too realistic it becomes too brutal to most players, if realism is overlooked the game becomes more fun. Could you explain how a double barrelled shotgun can fire endlessly without having to reload with the legendary "never ending"? Gameplay cheat, realism overlooked and plot holes.

[@FL_nar_Rayya]

It sure is that's why I like to weight the arguments. It sure as hell didn't debunk the whole DiMA scene or Shaun's motives.

[@redholm]

Don't forget that you don't have as inhumane strength in Survival. Still a lot but not nearly as much. You can just imagine that the player is carrying the items or dragging them along while over encumbered.

[@ThrillaWhale]

This. Disappointingly, most of the “evidence” presented for this theory is just selective highlighting of standard game mechanics. Unless you want to argue that every fallout protagonist was secretly a synth, being overpowered and ranking up perks isn’t evidence that the player is a one.

[@RoraxPlays]

clearly you have never used the tools provided with the game. If they wanted to save space they would of put you in the memory simulation. They didn't. its an entirely unique space even if it is a copy of that /slice/ of the simulation scene. in other words. They weren't thinking about memory footprint or harddrive space.

[@ISoloYouRelax]

I actually wouldn't mind a fallout spin off that's extremely realistic.

[@josephdoria5237]

What about the Mr. Handy near the U.S.S. Constitution that identifies you as a veteran/spouse of a veteran?

[@flopzee5066]

plus if you are a synth you are biologically identical the robot wouldn't know any different

[@Shadowhawkdark]

Just because the main player could be a synth that doesn't mean that their memories are false. Shawn's father was most like likely actually a veteran, and the memories were implanted correctly to match that, if they are a synth.

[@anwaraisling]

Facial recognition. Simple.

[@Voitan]

Old machines like that do not have special sensors capable of detecting even 3rd gen synths.

[@briangeiswite4452]

Where do female synths come from of they are genetic copies of Shaun?

[@richardginocchio2688]

Ok, it makes sense, bbbbbuuuuuutttttt, the pod the sole survivor was in was preserved when the institute caused the failure, they needed to save a backup subject Incase Shaun was killed during experimentation,

[@gabrielperez9757]

I find this theory sounds like a maybe at first but if you really think about, it's just false

[@anthonyp.4734]

Or that's just the story they tell you because people figuring out they are synths tend to freak out.

[@malachisparks4506]

Everyone else was shot, but you. The pods didn't fail.

[@oldchannel5421]

@@malachisparks4506 The pods failed, the terminal beside the row of pods you're in aswell as the one in the second Cryo pod room says the life support failed. Interestingly, Despite the life support failing and everyone consequentially dying, you don't die.

[@Someguy_Ontheinternet]

Here’s something that I don’t know if you’ll count but I do. covenant has a test which test if a person is synth or not even. though it’s the goat test it some how worked. I forgot her name but the person they captured from the caravan is a synth. if you side with convent and kill her she has a synth component which means the test work and the sole Survivor did pass so that shows that the player is not a synth Please let me know if I got the story wrong

[@MandoMonge]

5:30 "This created an avalanche of bugs..." so, every Bethesda game ever?

[@That1CrappyGuy]

I still believe the Sole Survivor is pure human, but I will say this was a pretty good theory/analysis

[@fern1009]

Yah, it's just difficult to imagine that the people who made Fallout 4 would have thought of such a good plot twist as the main character being a synth.

[@Treydies]

Venatio not sure if sarcasm or not

[@fern1009]

Fallout 4, at least in the main quest, was a bit plain - certainly not varied. And of course Father's behavior and your role as a main character don't make a whole lot of sense. We are just expected to believe this guy released (possibly) his mother into what he knew was a hellscape without so much as a "hi how do you do?" It's just bad, un-creative writing.

[@Luis519RS]

Actually they are best at doing easter eggs. So the fact its not an on your face kind of plot makes is exactly the kind of exposition they do.

[@Hedgehobbit]

Venatio They way the sole survivor is released makes no sense regardless of whether or not Nate or Nora is a synth. In either case, they should have taken him directly to the Institute right when he woke up so they could make sure he had their mindset.

[@Callous_Cloki]

A great channel died and now is back walking around like nothing happened ........you're the synth :D :D :D

[@reikokunatenshi805]

If the Sole Survivor is a Synth, falling of the Prydwen is a noble duty then I guess, ad Victoriam!

[@Promethe_S]

Theres a line at the beginning of the game, right before the first bombings are announced, where Nate or Nora asks if you want to go to the park later. Responding sarcastically refers to the 'event' where Shaun was conceived the previous year. It's a memory the player never sees. This is why I don't think the sole survivor is a synth.

[@ScrawnyMcMassive]

"You were a robot all along" is the "It was all just a dream" of scifi media

[@thepunkrockchristian]

Is the Vault Dweller or Chosen One a synth? What about the Lone Wanderer or Courier? You lost me when you started using game mechanics to make your theory seem legit.

[@sevenproxies4255]

I'd argue though that neither the vault dweller or the chosen one grow in power as fast as the Sole Survivor does. In Fallout 1 and 2 a lot of your characters prowess stem from skills and what type of equipment and weaponry you use. Perks are useful but not nearly as OP as some of the perk levels can be in Fallout 4. In Fallout 2 for instance, even at a high level, wearing power armor and everything you can still get fucked up completely by random encounters with super mutants or Enclave patrols. All it takes is a stray critical hit with a turbo laser or something and it's game over.

[@TheMaflan]

Same tbh. There is more empirical evidence that the indoctrination theory is correct, than this. ITs actually funny and more enjoyable to belive it so, for gameplay and roleplaying perspective. But its more likely, bethesda re-using things, and being lazy writting things that at the time, seems innocent

[@thepunkrockchristian]

I see what you mean, but using the perk system, as well as the ability to run for miles without getting tired or eating countless boxes of sugar bombs without gaining weight as a way to prove his theory seemed a little desperate, no offence. In a film or TV series those points would be valid, but in a game those things are just ways to keep it non restrictive.

[@Iqbalx1]

Connor Taylor only one that possible in being a synth is the courier due to him surviving a headshot

[@sevenproxies4255]

@D O W N W A R D S P I R A L: They did it way too easy all the way back during Fallout 3, sadly. Ever since bethesda got the license, you don't really have to fight for your survival at all in their Fallout games.

[@Dr.MantisTobogganMD]

Because the Institute has full recorded episodes of The Silver Shroud and Comics of Grognak.

[@jenniferlawrence886]

THAT DONT MEAN ANYTHINH

[@richard6196]

The system-wide faliure in vault 111 was induced by the institute strike-team. The gaps in the sole survivor's memory are there to allow for the player to make their character into what they want them to be. The intro sequence thing is most likely down to just laziness. Why render a sequence twice if you can get away with doing it just once?

[@homingice6444]

*bethesda makes a game where they show you some of your childhood years and experiences* Everyone: we hate it! We even made a mod to cancel it out. *they dont make it to get you to play the game as quick as possible.* Everyone: laziness. Me: 👀

[@TheSpiritsLease]

@@homingice6444 I think most people didn't want an intro backstory at all... Which is why they love New Vegas' approach so much.

[@SwordWieldingDuck]

@@TheSpiritsLease how having military backstory ANY different from having courier backstory? They are exactly the same in a sense that your character had A PROFESSION before and that's it.

[@gutar5675]

​@@SwordWieldingDuck What the hell are you talking about? They have a set family and a voice, as well as an entire backstory that the whole story is based around. It isn't the same at all. And anyone can be a courier, but being in the military requires being a certain type of person.

[@SwordWieldingDuck]

@@gutar5675 being a courier requires being a certain type of person as well.

[@JohnQDarksoul]

What. You're immediately wrong. Father says to you, face to face, that he unlocked your pod just to see what would happen.

[@thegreatandpowerfultwily394]

I thought the reasoning behind the player character in every Fallout being so strong was because of the FEV in the atmosphere. I mean, think about it. The FEV in a dense liquid state can evolve a human into a super mutant instantly, but if it were a small, almost non-existent dose as a gas that permeates throughout the planet, helped along by the background radiation that burns like an invisible flame across every stretch of land on Earth... Then that explains everything. It's why the PCs all slowly level up and gain strange beneficial mutations and perks. "Solar Powered", "Aqua Boy", "Toughness", if you think of it all as small evolutions then it makes sense as to why we're such a prominent being in the Fallout games. We're quite literally growing stronger through all our struggles, adapting to the new landscape almost. It would also help to explain why seemingly every *vault-dweller* has a lot of potential. The Vaults could be administering the FEV in these small quantities as an experiment across every Vault. It just makes sense if you think about.

[@redholm]

I find that to be a good enough reason :P That or we are literally blessed by god :D There are things that point to the supernatural being very real in this universe.

[@DragonRider-pj4qs]

its fun to speculate dont try to ruin the fun

[@dirtydirtybiker]

cool theory, makes a lot of sense

[@dr.elijah7742]

No if you get more tough that means that your using more of your arm let's say even *if* radiation went in your body it would work to but you need to *put* more skills in toughness perk you need to be strong so I guess I see where your coming from but I don't think so

[@ragecagezillamagillagorill24]

That could make sense, I mean the super mutants in FO3 are coming from a vault you can't access in-game if I remember references correctly.

[@marcowikman3635]

What about when you encounter Moe Cronin in Diamond City and you have to explain to him what baseball is? You character would have to have knowledge about that and since Shaun was a baby he would have no idea what American Baseball was. Just something to think about.

[@jaffusmaximus]

@@rosebirb12 no Heinrich Himmler was not a synth Or maybe

[@alexmcd378]

Memories aren't sufficient proof. You could have been stolen, memories copied, and your synth replaced in the pod any time between Kellogg and the emergence from the vault.

[@stm7810]

your description shows that you know very little about the sport beyond what a paragraph in a history book might brush over.

[@KassCrout]

Synth : immune to diseases (according to Doctor Carrington's dialogue). Human : diseases in Survival, Molerat Disease in Vault 81, chems addiction…

[@joylove1182]

No, my character is an Alien-Vampire-Mermaid-Fairy-Witch.

[@jacobtellone7278]

Joaniah Smithia my character is a 7 foot tall white dick....because i couldn't program a 9 foot tall black dick cause to many glitches. imagine a 7 foot tall white dick using its ballsto run and two pubes for arms the whole time the dick head flaps about as you run and everytime you meet a female character it stand up straight. not gonna lie this legit how i get women who are married or have boyfriends get into bed with me.

[@AlejandraLopez-nb2yj]

I think you are playing the sims 3 jejejej jk

[@startingbark0356]

My character is Trevor Phillips from GTA 5

[@PinkFloydBootlegs]

Who cares

[@zulda1396]

13:15 That's Kinda Pushing It On What Is Evidence And What Is Something Done To Save Time

[@BarokaiRein]

Yeah,makes no fucking sense to use something that can be done with console commands as "evidence" nor does it make sense to use other game mechanics that have been part of the series for a long time as evidence. These guys are literally just scraping at the bottom of a barrel. It's pretty fun to see the hundred or so positive comments they chose to push up the rankings by liking them to make it look like everyone in the comments agree with them.

[@alexmcd378]

There's enough evidence for each side to make it believable, not that I think Bethesda did that on purpose. Ultimately I decided human is canon, but there's more than enough to justify which ever side you choose. Especially once you rule out memories as evidence. Institute could collect the survivor any time after Kellogg got Shaun, copy their memory like they did with Nick, and put the synth in the cryopod. All memory/prewar problems solved.

[@vicsrealms]

Hmm, "Overthinking Fallout 4." ~grin~

[@tomlawrence1335]

One big flaw....during the memory playback Kellogg clearly stats " I dont know why we didn't leave the others alive maybe the old man didn't want to many loose ends"....

[@FaytVanguard]

On the Executive terminal in Fraternal Post 115 is a speech memo mentioning Nate being a decorated war hero. (Only you and your wife knew about this. Shawn never knew this.) In the main hall there is a lectern, beside which is a speech microphone; if one interacts with it the player character says "War, War never changes." The Speech you never gave. (Shoddy argument about your Toughness, is more about the level system. If your playing on Survival, you will die like anyone else.) But if you want to believe your a synth thats up to you. (And you as player control that, do to how you want to play.)(Bethesda intended both options to open for interpretation.) Basically if your playing on easy, your a Synth basically. But if your playing in Survival..... your human basically.

[@thebl00dybaron]

I think I just found one more key piece of evidence that you may have missed. If you choose to ignore Dogmeat until after you explore Kellogg's house, Nick will call him using a special frequency that he says you won't be able to hear (presumably because he thinks you're a human). BUT, you do hear it. That's got to count for something right?

[@ananousous]

Didn't know that happened, interesting find

[@neutronstar973]

It most likely a dog whistle so the ss is dog

[@MattyFez]

The cryopod was actually a simpod. The whole of Fallout 4 is a simulation like Tranquility Lane

[@Austin-bc1yh]

the reason for the memory stems in the vault boils down to reused assets

[@kenadams3630]

I mean The Sole Survivors power isn't really a point all Fallout characters are basically Demigods by the end of the game. I always had a theory that the real Vault Experiment was some kind of secret Enclave Super Soldier Program.

[@michaelbell3241]

I see a flaw in this theory, and it involves the Vault Tech Salesman from the beginning of the game and that you later find in GoodNeighbor. There is no possible way that anyone could have known that the VT Salesman could have stopped by just before the bombs dropped, except only for the Soul Survivor and the VT Salesman. It’s even backed up when the SS runs into him in the hotel. The VT Salesman remembers him and even comments about his appearance after 200 years. Therefore it seems likely there is no way those memories were fabricated or that the SS is a filthy Synth. Most likely the SS was just that, the Soul Survivor due to plot shielding.

[@Edmar_Fecler]

about the vault: i was under the impression that the institute had intentionally killed everyone but you. its been a while, so is this (my interpretation) wrong?

[@UndarZ]

They killed the scientists who maintained the vault. They probably just kept maintaining your pod from a distance.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

Edmar Fecler No you're right that's what happened

[@Dizarrey]

UndarZ the scientists who maintained the vault left/died when security busted out. They ran out of food less than a year in the vault.

[@rchowins]

What? Your character gets better and progress his/her skills? In a RPG? What sort of madness is this?

[@stm7810]

compare the perks to all previous games, it's not that you improve it's the amount of inhuman improvements, like perfect not ugly ghoulishness, regenerating health, bullet deflecting skin etc.

[@pyrovonfire7966]

@@stm7810 You turn into a walking nuke in Fallout 3

[@skycrafter2042]

@@stm7810 you could litteraly get all of these preety much from perks in fallout nv and 3 too. all those feets arent really unique to ss

[@HorrorfanlikesZombie]

Press [X] to doubt.

[@Kydrou]

Press [F] to pay respects.

[@PurplePicaro]

Here I go doing an institute run.

[@stevesmith7793]

one big problem, if survival mode is still in cannon, then by the fact that you need sleep and food/water. means you're not a synth

[@ironfoo1]

danse does all these. so do the other synths. they are still synths, or they would question why their own existence.

[@flopzee5066]

yea synths are biological robots, they have working digestive system, brain, heart, lungs etc etc... they eat, they suffer radiation poisoning, they get wounded, they are just much tougher and faster and you can regenerate health with the right perks you can't be human and regen health no matter how battered and shot you get unless you're patched up in hospital and have to recover for weeks on end back to perfect health. i know theres many games like tht but most of them you play gods, demons and other supernatural creatures that have the same abilities.

[@stevesmith7793]

Actually it's stated in the game that while the synths can eat, they don't have to. You never see a synth sleep, because they don't require it. I think i could make an argument that most of the npc's in the game are synths because a lot of them never sleep.

[@iii8410]

Synths could be programmed to eat, drink and sleep

[@JamesMichaelDoyle]

Can, and need to are different.

[@munroharper755]

I'm sad now.... he didn't say "But that"s just a theory a GAME theory"

[@Manfromthenorth0551]

Unfortunately there's too much evidence against this theory. And the evidence supporting it is very surface level.

[@bucketofcancer383]

Such as? I’m genuinely curious

[@demanischaffer]

BucketOfCancer Daisy and the SS talking about pre war, the vault tech representative recognizing you and vice versa, the SS talks about nuka world and many others

[@michaelterry6576]

TheReal Lifehacks Misc knowledge it's not that far fetched it was programmed in, and the SS if they were a synth were based on a real person so of course they would be recognized, and the final day was in the SS memories.

[@Jan_Strzelecki]

But the Institute doesn't have the technology to extract memories - otherwise they wouldn't have to torture kidnapped people for information. The other evidence is the SS being absent from the Institute synth files - if they were a synth, the BoS would've found out about it, just like they found out about Danse.

[@Manfromthenorth0551]

BucketOfCancer One of the biggest ones is Father's attitude towards synth. He has absolute conviction that Synth are tools and not people. A mobile computer. Even when faced with evidence that Synth have sentience and free will he stubbornly holds to his ideals. Plus Father is extremely loyal to the Institute and would never let the Sole Survivor get to the point of threatening the Institute if he were a synth. Plus his whole experiment is "What will my Father do, will he survive?" He wanted to test his Father/Motherto see how he would react to the new world and if his Father/Mother would even survive and search for him. That experiment is rendered moot if the SS was a Synth.

[@shawnfarmer1066]

"Does this unit have a soul?"

[@21yarpen]

Not really best analisis ever... 1. Pod fail . It wasn't failer made by accident, it was made by institute scientists. They wanted child for research. To be specific they wanted pure DNA sample from child to make gen 3 based on them. All gen's 3 are based on Shaun DNA. Killing another parent (so killing both) by institute by purpose makes no sense, this backup makes a lot of sense. You are also poor in terms of DNA and are related. They don't know at this point, when if will need you, or if you even useful. But from the science point of view, killing you right there is stupid. 2. DIMA. He is full of bullshit. Period. Girl, for who you even go to Far Harbour, isn't a synth and DIMA does not correct her. In the end he can't know it. To be sure, you need either: a) Data from Institute servers about it. You can find many synths there, but not main character. b) Blowing head off and looking for parts. 3. Being OP argument...really? Fallout 3 hero was some vault dweller doing nothing all the time and learning some stupid shit in their "school". You leave vault and for some strange reason you are OP like hero in fallout 4 or new vegas. You can use any weapon, lockick, hack, run, jump and save the world by destroying enclave and super mutants. It is gameplay choice. Period. In same way like hp regen from eating soup. 4. Perks system. Even in fallout 1 and 2 perks were like this. This is "fallout style". Fallout 3 has even few very similar ones. Look at solar powered for example. Or cyborg. Fallout isn't realistic game. Never was, never be. Fallout 76 perks cards looks even more OP and silly in that regard. 5. Pre war "run" to vault isn't the only memory hero has. There a plenty of mentions about memories around many quests. Hero could say that he remember and watched Silver Shroud, he can mention how works baseball, he remembers some scientists which made robots in one settlements. And many many more. In that "sense", hero of fallout new vegas looks more like a synth. Like few "memories", no family, noconnections, no real reason to be in Nevada. In theory the Courier was working and wandered around states doing his job. And for some strange reason, he has either 100% amnesia, or he does not have any connection to anyone really. No family, no friends, no nothing. Why he even goes and chase Benny? Why he even care? Shoudn't he just say: "I survived, I'm very lucky, fuck this I go home"...but he does not said it. Why? Sole survivor is different. He remembers how Boston looked, that Diamond City was just a baseball stadium. But he is "in home". His only connection to his life before was is Shaun. Everything else is destroyed or died. Like full reset. The same with fallout 3 hero. Vault was all of his/her life and past. That's why when he/she left vault, she/he searched for father. Only connection with past life. 6. Nobody in institute knows about hero being synth. Even Shaun does not mentioned it (including his logs). 7. If you really died when Kellog was taking Shaun, so like 60 years before events, how they extracted memories from you to make a synth? Broken mask incident is 2 years later so we know that after 2 years gens 3 still got "problems". Either way hero was laying dead frozen. When and how they extracted memories? Who done it? You are saying that it was Shaun plan. If so, how they done it? If they could make synth out your dead body after decades, why they ignored second parent? It wasn't a headshot, so brain should be in the same state as "dead frozen" parent. Game suggest that swapping ppl with gen3 is always connected with kidnapping living ppl and after making a copy killing the human. If they know how to copy dead ppl, why they bother with kidnapping?

[@jimviathin_1622]

Great points!

[@kyleroark8633]

Fallout 4 release: " Great job on the story everybody" Far Harbor DLC: "But, hear me out, what if the sole survivor was a synth?" Bethesda has no consistency, that's a theory I could get behind.

[@alucardbloodmoon9580]

Kellog refers to the Sole Survivor as the "backup" in the beginning of the game, meaning there was a good reason to keep him/her alive. And after all, once re-frozen there would be zero reason to go back and kill a perfectly preserved source of DNA if needed anytime in the future Father admitting that he turned his surviving parent lose from cryo-freeze because he wanted to see what would happen. He had no need to do this with a synth, since the Gen 3 synth program had been going a while and he already had data collected on how they fair out in the wasteland. What he did not have any data for was how his pre-war parent would cope and adapt to the wasteland, or if that parent would look for him, or if that parent would seek revenge against Kellog. Sure he could program a synth to do those things, but all that would prove was what he already knew...a synth will carry out its programming just like any computer would. However, to find the answers he wanted, he needed the real thing, his surviving pre-war parent.Kellog's statement during the brain drive quest. "We left alive the one person we shouldn't have." (or something to that effect) indicating that he believed the surviving parent was the original human, not a synth. And Kellog was likely in a position to know the truth. Kellog believed up to his death that he was dealing with the real surviving parent, going so far as to allow that parent to just walk away. Again finding out in the brain dive that he know that kind of revenge...

[@srslybro8769]

Is mario a synth? I cant become buff when eating a mushroom.. Or.. Maybe im only programmed to not get buff.. Or.. Oh my.

[@deriknoah3833]

Wait when you eat you dont get tall? Oh my god!

[@fumothfan9]

Theres a metal version and other versions of him and his brother. You may be onto something

[@lordchungus8997]

Welp, I'm gettin' the shotgun

[@TheDKing67]

But how does he know how baseball was played?

[@enoughothis]

Another point is that the Institute does not leave loose ends EVER. The Sole Survivor is the biggest loose end the Institute has ever made. I think you were initially kept as a backup but once the Gen 3 Synth program was a success there was no more need for a backup. Until Shaun needed a successor that it...

[@fearlessfosdick160]

If the SS is a synth, he is likely a prototype gen IV and designed from the ground up to be self actualized, self aware and intentionally possessed of free will. So, he wouldn't be a loose end exactly, but doing exactly what he was designed to do. The real giveaway, if one is looking for evidence that SS is synthetic, is that the SS has access to VATS which in this game universe was an invention of the Institute and provided to gen III combat models. You find a reference to this in the robotics lab on a computer. In humans, VATS is a function of the pipboy, but in the SS case he can use VATS before he acquires one. The biggest problem with this theory is the existence of the ghoul Vault Tech sales rep. That is a pre-war exchange that the Institute would not have known about, so that memory could not have been implanted.

[@enoughothis]

@@fearlessfosdick160, exactly. A Synth SS is not a loose end, because as Father says, it's all part of the experiment, but a human SS is.

[@wreckwrack3197]

Your character is a synth if you want them to be. Hence why it's a roleplaying game. Most of this evidence has the real answer of "Because, game". For example, Gordon Freeman from half life is a scientist. Nothing more, nothing less, yet he can master weaponry that is literally not from this world. Why? Because game. On another note, the only reason you can't tell Dima your memories is because Bethesda decided it would be a good idea to downgrade from plenty of choices in dialogue to; ↑: Question ←: Sarcastic →: No (Mean yes) ↓: Yes

[@raciallyambiguous6474]

The player character takes radiation damage. Synths don't. Ergo, player character isn't a synth. Also, in the perks you can mutate into a ghoul. An ability that sythns don't posses.

[@MagicAggros]

Gen 3 synths take radiation damage actually.

[@trentenkunz6773]

@@MagicAggros how did he make a gen for if you need giant machines to make a gen 3?

[@MagicAggros]

@@trentenkunz6773 What do you mean?

[@giganticzombie]

I much prefer these videos over "the science of..." its a lot calmer and his voice is enjoyable in these videos, still enjoy TSO videos though

[@Treydies]

I miss the days where he would get super hype with the yelling and the cursing. Good times.

[@TheKazragore]

I love both kinds of videos. THE SCIENCE is like Kyle Hill's Because Science series; taking cool science fiction elements and working through them to see how they would work in the real world. I love that shit.

[@purpledevilr7463]

So I didn’t need to kill that family for immortality?

[@drunkmangrenade8967]

More evidence is the fact you can use VATS just before you get your hands on a Pip-Boy at the beginning of the game.