A part of me partially prays he somehow is returned in Fallout 4 in some form. Maybe mutated seeds created smaller Harolds?

What is your stance? I know his appearance and subsequent possible death in 3 upset a few people, daresay some even claim he was "Murdered" by gamesas.

What do you think?

I didn't care for Harold and the associated quest, so I hope he is gone for good.

Nah, he's dead. Burnt to a crisp.

I think the appearance on any recurring characters is going to depend on the start date of the game and if there are any time jumps. As far as Harold in particular, I think he is pretty much screwed. Maybe his fruit will make an appearance.

Well last time we saw him he couldnt move on the count of bob......(was that the name of the tree?)
And unless bob is one of those migrating trees from valenwood then we arent going to be seeing him.

He was interesting, but I'm not going to miss him. Hope he's gone on to that great orchard in the sky...

Harold was fine, the first time I met him, while he just had a small tree growing out of his head. I actually was very surprised to find him again in FO 3. He made a long journey from the West coast to the East coast, just to become rooted to the spot. I would have been perfectly fine, if he had just been mentioned in passing. Instead, I had to make a decision to either kill him or let him suffer... geez. I'm perfectly fine with him NOT appearing in any future game, because as far as I'm concerned, he's gone.

Yeah, Harold's depressing. I don't want depressing stuff in my post-holocaust game.

see as burning Harold was purely option, and killing him also was option, I think we will have a good chance of seeing him in Fallout 4.

A good chance? Out of all the characters from 3 you think Harold the now rooted to the ground tree mutant is a good chance to make a 600 mile trip up north?

Harold is now a chord of wood stacked neatly and drying outside of my Megaton house.

But... if they really want to bring him back, they could.

Sure he is rooted. But if Oasis spreading winds up being canon, I can see others wanting to find the source of this vegetation explosion, in hopes of bringing flora back to their neck of the wastes.

Forests grow, possibly he can become some mutated like fungal organism that has super highways under ground. Sprouting throughout the world, eventually it gets a bit to hectic in a later game, not because he's trying to take over everything, he's just has no control over the growth. Eventually the choking no vines, gnashing brambles , and digging roots strangle him hold a large area, and well it's going to need a bit more than some trimming to get the job done.

I can totally see Harold become a big part to a main quest in future fallout game. But then again he has always been more of a side character throughout the series.

Could have sworn I read somewhere that is it possible for there to be multiple Harold's as a result of the plant's seeds spreading. Not sure where I read that :/

Harold and the tree are two separate entities, right? I mean, it's a tree growing through, and slowly absorbing, Harold. Even if the tree bore fruit and was planted to become a new tree, there would be no Harold .

Or am I missing something?

I thought they were symbiotic beings, but what one feels, feels the other as well. It broke my heart in Fallout 3, I decided to let him live for selfish reasons, them being that I knew him and Bob for so long. I just could not do it. Besides he was not aware what good he caused in Oasis so this schould be preserved with him.

I doubt they can bring him back though. Not without a rather illogic excuse to make him move about, and not without making a quite heavy moral decision canon. Have they done that before?

I always want to meet characters form previous games, but only ones that stuck in my head. Dr. LI might make an appearance, but honestly I wouldnot care for her. It was nice seeing Marcus in NV. As for Fallout 1 or 2 characters I doubt we could see anyone that is not a Mutant or Ghoul, thirty years is a long time in the Wasteland. But there are few memorable people left.

Thinking about it, NV had quite a few, Cassidy's daughter for example, who was exactly like old Cassidy, well without the weak heart, and Dr. Henry who was rather more sympathetic than in Fallout 2. And Jacob of course. Any character from these games would have had a long journey to wander.

Apart from Dr. Li do we know of one person that might have travelled to the Capital Wasteland and beyond?

Not a fan of Harold.

But, a new spin on the Republic of Dave? Yes please!

You know I just don't really care, his appearance or non appearance will not effect my enjoyment of the game....nice nod to the earlier games, but I don't see any reason why he would make another appearance.

437 Miles actually but your point remains valid.

If the games a few years after FO3 then references sure, but otherwise it was a tiny thing in DC never mind the distance to Boston.

As others have stated the timing of the game would seemingly preclude his appearance in Fallout 4, and I don't think his inclusion in Fallout 3 was congruous with his appearances in Fallout 1 or 2; he was entirely insipid and forgetful as a character in Fallout 3 other than the gimmick of him being a tree.Much in the same way I remember parthurnaax from Skyrim purely because of the novelty of him being a talking dragon (same premise applies to Alduin and Odahvin).

So much this!

I also vote for more Republic of Dave.

You get to build your own settlements... you can be President Dave. Hell if you romance a companion and it turns out your spouse is alive you can even score the polygamy aspect.

Let the man (tree?) rest in peace.

While I don't hope for a Harold again in this game, I do hope we have characters with stories like Harold. There is some interesting back story, something you have to do for them to save them, or not, and some outcome that has some consequences, at least for the character.

Hey, this is a Bethesda Game, you know we are going to have something like this, so the only question is, what and who and how and where and why? OK, that was 5 questions but I kind of mashed them all together.