I Chose To NOT Kill This Fallout Character; From A Storytelling Perspective, I Regret It

When a video game challenges you to make choices, there a different approaches you might take.

You might go for the pragmatic choice, the one that gives you the greatest advantage going forward or grants the best rewards. You might go based on what you yourself would do in that situation. Or you might go with whatever your character would do.

(There's also the next way I'll be playing my dearly beloved Red Dead Redemption II and literally flipping a coin when faced with a decision for a layer of unpredictability.)

Sometimes, the outcome of that decision leaves you feeling less than proud of yourself.

That's what happened with my recent, first-ever playthrough of Fallout 4.

It wasn't because I was going against my gut instinct or against my character's morals and feeling bad about it, or because I got a bad ending.

In fact, in the moment, I felt like I was making the right call. It's what I would have personally done and, judging by the way I played him, what my Sole Survivor would have realistically done, too. But as I continued to think about it in the following days, I began to regret it.

It wasn't because it altered my game significantly, but because it didn't feel fitting for the NPC it revolved around.

If you haven't already guessed from the title, I chose to keep a particular character alive rather than kill them off. Here's who I chose to spare and why, strictly from a storytelling perspective, I wish I hadn't.

Spoiler warnings for Fallout 4, Telltale's The Walking Dead, and Life is Strange. But first, some context...

Fallout 4 is set in the year 2287, a few centuries after a nuclear apocalypse has rendered the world a hostile wasteland. You play as the Sole Survivor of an underground vault who was cryogenically frozen after the bombings started, who witnessed the murder of their spouse and is now on a mission to find their kidnapped son.

As you explore the ruins of the world you once knew, you'll have the opportunity to align yourself with several characters and factions, each with their own quest lines.

Among these factions is The Brotherhood of Steel, whose core mission is protecting humankind from technological threats and abusing dangerous tech they don't understand—namely artificial humanoid beings known as Synths.

Danse, via the Fallout Wiki

The player's introduction to the Brotherhood is through Paladin Danse, who eventually becomes the Sole Survivor's mentor as they enter the ranks of the Brotherhood.

I had a feeling I was going to end up aligning with the Brotherhood when it came time to make that decision. For one thing, I went through more than a little trouble on my end activating their storyline, even resorting to modding my game to complete a quest because it wouldn't acknowledge the fact I'd successfully taken out all of the surrounding enemies, subsequently nixing my ability to earn achievement trophies (I can still hear, "Check your fire, we've got hostiles" in the back of my mind. IYKYK). But even apart from that, I genuinely liked them. And they seemed the more fitting for my Sole Survivor.

A lot of that has to do with Danse. I thought he and my Sole Survivor meshed well in both priorities and combat style, and I was certain he was going to be my ride or die when I finally took on the Institute.

That's not exactly how it worked out, though.

After retrieving encrypted data from the Institute, we're told that one of the files obtained is a list of synths that have gone rogue, and one identified as M7-97 shares the same DNA makeup as none other than Danse.

Danse isn't actually human. He's a synth. The very thing he's loathed and sought to destroy.

Upon this revelation, the Brotherhood's leader Maxson tasks the player to track down Danse and execute him. Letting him, a synth, walk free would go against everything the Brotherhood stands for.

I wasn't sure what to expect when confronting Danse. The turrets on the rooftop had me bracing for fierce combat. Equipping my most powerful weapon, I entered.

Danse was docile. Out of his power armor, he looked more human than ever. Less menacing as we're meeting at eye level. Defenseless. He knows we've been sent to kill him and is resigned to his death. As it turns out, he didn't know he was a synth. And now that he does know, he's come to terms with what has to be done next.

He admits he feels it's the right thing to do, as disobeying orders will put the Sole Survivor in hot water with the Brotherhood, and allowing him to live would betray everything he's believed up until now. As he puts it, "I'm a synth, which means I need to be destroyed... I need to be the example, not the exception."

It's up to the player to decide whether or not to execute Danse. In my playthrough, I spared him.

But, of course, it's never that simple.

Danse argues against it, but eventually comes around and gives you his holotags as "proof" you got the job done. However, Maxson is waiting for you outside the bunker.

Maxson reprimands you for disobeying a direct order and gives you one last chance to execute Danse, threatening to do it himself if you won't. When Danse's speech about his humanity despite being a synth and his loyalty to the Brotherhood goes ignored, he's once more accepting of his death and thankful to us for reminding him that he's more than his mechanics. "Whatever you decide," he assures us, "know that I'm going to my grave with no anger and no regrets."

I once more stood up to Maxson's command. I wasn't going to let my friend die after everything we'd been through.

Eventually, Maxson relented, disowning Danse and swearing that if he and anyone from the Brotherhood of Steel cross paths again, he will be killed on the spot no matter what.

Danse tells you he's decided to remain at the listening post he's hunkered down in and promises he'll be ready to jump into action when the Sole Survivor needs him.

That's essentially where the storyline ended with Danse. I went on and checked in with Maxson and charged right into the next quest, but days later, I found myself wondering if I'd done right by Danse by letting him live.

Even though it's what I would have done and what I think my Sole Survivor would have, from the storytelling perspective, I don't know if keeping Danse alive was the most impactful course.

One thing I've enjoyed about Fallout 4 is how straightforward it isn't. Your long-lost infant son is now the man at the helm of your greatest adversary, but it's because it's all he's known and wasn't a malicious calculation on his part. You as the player have to do some unpleasant things in the name of survival and for the sake of mankind.

And Danse, a man who's sworn to eliminate synths at all costs, is a synth himself.

I'm not saying he deserved to die. But I am saying it would be the best ending to his arc from a storytelling perspective.

To be fair, this isn't the first time that I've felt this way about a character evading death in a video game...

Though I've alluded to it in past posts, I don't believe I've ever gone in-depth about my feelings towards Life is Strange's ending, specifically "Bay or Bae." The game tasks the players to make one last choice in its final moments: sacrifice Max's best friend and determinant love interest Chloe to save her hometown from a storm by going back in time to the start of the game and allowing Chloe to be shot, or preventing Chloe's death one last time and allowing virtually everyone in Arcadia Bay to perish. For me, sacrificing Chloe is the right decision. To save her would undermine her acceptance of her fate and the lessons Max has learned throughout the story. It's for the greater good versus sacrificing many lives in favor of one; to me, at least the way I'd probably play Max (for context, I didn't get to actually play Life is Strange because I didn't have a system to run it when it was released and relied on YouTube playthroughs), I don't see her making that selfish choice.

This is also how I felt about Clementine's fate in the final season of Telltale's The Walking Dead—which I do have a post about. Long story short, keeping Clem alive after being bitten ruined what was otherwise a full-circle moment and what I think would have been the perfect ending to her story. There were already so many aspects of this installment that mirrored her time with Lee in the first game. She's now the surrogate parent to a child learning to navigate the cruel wasteland and having to make the tough calls.

There were so many callbacks to that journey. And once Clem lost her signature hat at the start of the final episode, I had a feeling we were going to lose her. Seeing her grapple with imminent death while making sure AJ would be safe and able to survive without her would have made for a compelling conclusion. One I would have accepted without difficulty.

But that's not what we got.

Ignoring the immersion-breaking questions like how amputating Clem's leg kept the virus from spreading when it didn't work for Lee's arm even though she looked as done-in as he did and how AJ managed to not only keep her from bleeding out but get her back to Ericson's, seeing her return alive and in arguably better shape than expected kind of deflated that emotional build-up for me.

The twist of Clem surviving didn't have the same emotional impact as Lee dying. From a storytelling perspective, Clem should have died, and I stand by that hot take all these years later.

This brings me back to Danse.

I don't dislike letting him live. It adds an intriguing layer of complexity to Maxson's leadership, as he's begrudgingly willing to betray his own orders out of respect for Danse's loyalty to the Brotherhood. It's a matter of blind loyalty and how quickly the cause or group you've been so loyal to can turn against you if you're not with them 100%, even if that's no fault of your own. Seeing Danse reckon with this discovery and find his new identity offers a nice parallel to the Sole Survivor trying to navigate a brand-new-to-them world and figure out what kind of leader they want to become, and it's something I wish I'd gotten more of.

However, allowing Danse to live doesn't feel like the thematically fitting end to his arc. He's dedicated his life to the Brotherhood and emphasizes the importance of upholding the cause and protecting his brethren no matter the cost—even if that means his own life.

The turnaround from Danse being prepared to die to his acceptance of your mercy felt inorganic to me (no pun intended), too quick to believe. Giving up his entire ideology and everything he's dedicated himself to in a matter of minutes so swiftly didn't line up with his personality up until that point.

Granted, I passed the first persuasion attempt I made so that could be part of the reason it felt like such a 180. If you fail and have to try another conversation route, there's more of a back-and-forth before Danse accepts your mercy.

Even as you're talking him off the proverbial ledge, he's not saying he wants to die. It's not that he's overwhelmed by the emotional revelation of him being a synth and feels that he can't take it. He's saying he needs to die because he's a synth. In his mind, being a synth makes him a traitor. That's just the way it is. He's upholding the Brotherhood's mission above his own life, as he's done as long as we've known him. It's heartbreaking, sure, but executing him is consistent with his character and brings a fitting closure to his arc; even though he is a traitor in his mind, he's still staying loyal to the Brotherhood and its mission in his final moments by eliminating himself. It's poetic.

I don't see this decision on Danse's part as just being a matter of following orders, though. It's because Danse cares about the Sole Survivor and the Brotherhood.

You can still take Danse with you as a companion, but you'll be fired at if you cross paths with the Brotherhood so there's a risk that's involved. And as much as I love having Danse with me, I feel like he wouldn't want to put you, his friend, in danger by coming along and potentially encountering the Brotherhood; and as bad as he feels about the Sole Survivor being the one ordered to end him, I'm sure he'd feel worse if it were Haylen or Rhys who saw him out and about and therefore had to execute him. That's where his humanity lies.

I also found out that you can let Danse unalive himself if you ignore the mission altogether for too long or leave partway and come back, but that works for me even less.

In my mind, the best course of action from a storytelling standpoint is allowing the Sole Survivor to attempt to persuade Danse to change his mind but ultimately accept his wish to execute him. It heightens the emotion of the moment while honoring Danse's character and morals.

It may not be the happy ending or the ending we want for Danse, but it feels like the the right ending for his character. The same way Clementine's death would have been a fulfilling conclusion to her story, and sacrificing Chloe embodies both her growth and Max's.

If you've played Fallout 4, how did you decide Paladin Danse's fate? Was it an easy choice for you, or did it make you question yourself? Be sure to tell me in the comments!

Until next time, readers, ad victorium.