not interested in watching the fallout tv show at all but i do need josh sawyer's opinions on it to be intravenously fed to me

Man, I really have given a Legion character a solid try on this Fallout: New Vegas playthrough, but I may just abandon Caesar at the last second.

Big ramble inbound about role-playing in New Vegas. Be warned.

Jamie despises the NCR. Hates thinking about politics, always felt powerless in the face of the neo-American monster spreading all around her home. I wanted to role-play someone so angrily, bitterly "apolitical" that she fell into supporting fascism. Caesar gave her a chance at power, at sticking it to the NCR, feeling important for the first time in her life. ...But she doesn't genuinely believe in the Legion's values. It's not like she's supporting them because she fucking loves slavery. She's more like Caesar himself than any Legionary—the rules are just a path to power, to be ignored as she sees fit. Hell, she's a woman fighting in support of a nation that subjugates women in every way (and to be clear, she loves getting to be the exception). I went through most of the Legion path quest with her, role-playing as someone who ultimately thinks the Legion's values are full of bullshit, but enjoying the power trip it gives her.

Then came the DLC! I role-played her going to Zion in Honest Hearts as her trying to get away from all the constant politics over Hoover Dam. God knows she doesn't need the money from the caravan job, that reason wouldn't swing. Starting with that conceit meant that something along the way would have to motivate her back to helping the Legion slaughter NCR at Hoover Dam. I figured Ulysses would do that in Lonesome Road. I wanted her to have some kind of arc, y'know?

Unfortunately, Old World Blues took my power-hungry gal with no real patriotism, and handed her a giant science lab littered with weapons of mass destruction. She didn't kill the Think Tank scientists, but coerced them into working for her. The Big Empty is her horrifying, beautiful oyster. During Dead Money, Elijah told her exactly how to use this Old World technology to wreak havoc on the Mojave. Why does she need Caesar anymore? She can wage war on the NCR completely independently. No one can make her feel powerless again.

In Lonesome Road, I tried to come up with a way for Ulysses' ramblings to give her some pro-Legion epiphany. But that doesn't feel authentic to how I've played this character. It feels more genuine for her to kill the fuck out of Ulysses for judging her, and come out more angry at the "Bear and Bull" than ever before. If anything, Ulysses trying to nuke the NCR just reinforces the lesson that she doesn't need the Legion to destroy the Woke Gay NCR she hates so much. She can wipe all of it away.

I was trying to do a Legion playthrough with a twist. Instead, it ended up being the story of a woman who thought she needed the Legion to exercise her rage, but amassed so much power that she lashed out against them too. A story about how people who act in service of power, rather than ideals, will ultimately betray everyone around them.

....And that's how my Legion run turned into another ding-dang Yes Man run at the last second! Ring-a-ding, baby!