It's all grey areas. They aren't inherently evil or good. All the factions are doing what they think they need to do to survive and build a new society. As the player we get to make judgement calls and back them up with our own ideals of right and wrong.. which, depending on our outlook, could be viewed as being completely and utterly evil by someone with a different set of morals. The Brotherhood think they are doing good, I think I am doing good, the Enclave thinks it is doing good, Microsoft thinks they are doing good.. etc, etc, etc.

The Brotherhood were always [censored]s who think they know what's best for everyone else. I suspect there's no real need for a conspiracy, they might be after the Institute tech and that's where the player joins the conflict. I for one welcome the opportunity to kill those bastards.

This right here is exactly what I meant with the title, The Winter Soldier, where Nazi scientist from Hydra where accepted into SHIELD, I thought that was implied lol

what about outcast teaming up with survivors. i mean the outcast would be really out numbered so if they wanted any hope of defeating the bos they would have to take new people to get there numbers up. yes i understand that they wouldnt want to do it cause they want to stick to the old ways but if its either accept new members our die out eventually its really not much of a choice

i just can't see it, the outcast split of because they didn't like Lyons sharing tech and letting wasterlanders join, it would totally defeat the purpose of them leaving in the first place.

maybe bostons broke off for diffrent reasons

maybe bostons broke off for diffrent reasons

maybe bostons broke off for diffrent reasons

I'm fairly certain the outcasts where specific to Lyons' chapter, possibly there was another separation in a different chapter but these wouldn't be the outcasts, bur rather another branch of the BoS tree

They could've named it for many reasons! Celebrating his birth; maybe he rode on it too the CW (he was sent to Lyons AFTER they had already established their base in the Pentagon); maybe it was already named Prydwen in the first place.

It is possible that Arthur Maxson shows up, but if he's in a "leadership" position, he is either a figure head meant to boost morale, or he's a genius strategist. Only way a person who is 20 or younger would be allowed too "lead" in a group like the BOS that has shown to be a meritocracy, you earn your rank, it is not handed to you.

But most of what I've said in my previous post, is based on game lore. Bethesda could be switching it up though, so I might be wrong. This is just my opinion.

I think Lyon's brotherhood is more likely to be infiltrated by raiders that want their stuff.

Well for one we know he didn't ride it too the Capital because how he got to the capital has been mentioned in Fallout 3, in a minor party of people whom were taking him away from all the Brotherhood infighting and the NCR war. Clearly the airship has been constructed post F3 or it would have been mentioned.

And yeah, it's named for King Arthur's ship and Bethesda don't do subtly that well.

Meritocracy? The Maxson's have historically lead the Brotherhood of Steel. We don't know enough about the Brotherhood of Steel's internal policies to know how promotions work.

All that is said, is that he was sent East to Lyon's, it's speculated that it was done so in order for him to avoid the Brotherhood infighting (probably the Circle of Steel) and the NCR War. There is no mention of how he crossed, which leaves this open to speculation. And if it happened years ago, they are probably more worried about the current situation with the Enclave and the Purifier than an airship.

His father was not a High Elder of the BOS but a paladin when he died, leaving Arthur the last Maxson alive. So while yes the Maxson's have been leaders, they've been groomed for the position and thus they take it when the previous Maxson dies or they are deemed ready by the ruling council of the West Coast BOS to take up the position of High Elder. As for their internal policies, we actually do know how promotions work, at least for West Coast BOS; you do your job competently, you get promoted eventually; you find an amazing tech find, you get a promotion; you show an extreme aptitude for sciences and leadership, and go above the call of duty, you get promoted. It's a meritocracy. If it wasn't, than Jonathan Maxson, Arthur's father, should've been a High Elder on his death, rather than a paladin.

Yeah sure, if the Brotherhood of Steel had an airship it would have noway featured in Fallout 3. Not to mention where they would store it.

Yeah, because favouritism doesn't exist? It's either pure monarchy or pure meritocracy... just like IRL right? The Maxsons were clearly favoured for high leadership because of their family history and see no reason. Whilat rocking around in an airship named after him, that wouldn't be the case now.

More to the point why would a game designer pick that name unless they where trying to create that connection?

because it sounded cool.

Nah to much thought involved for just sounding cool, I mean ship names are usually like "Retribution" "Avenger" "Defiant" and the like, this is to heavy handed not to be related

It wouldn't be featured if it wasn't in the Capital Wasteland, would it? As I said, it probably just dropped him off with Lyons, and after that returned West.

Favoritism does exist in the BOS... but the BOS is not a monarchy. If someone's not ready, they aren't ready, no matter how much they are favored. The Maxson's are favored for leadership... when they are ready and have proven themselves for it apparently. Otherwise, why was Arthur's father not already a High Elder? Because the ruling council did not deem him ready to become High Elder.

And the airship was named Arthur? We don't know much about the story. You could be right and Arthur is in the game, but as I said, if it's been 10 years or less, he's not likely in a leadership position unless he's a genius strategist, or just a figure head for morale boost. Unless the BOS have turned more into a monarchy... but I don't really see that happening.

No, the airship is named after a boat King Arthur used in some story.

Fallout franchise has always used Arthurian references withing the scope of the brotherhood. This was mentioned by Gizmo once in another thread and no one has mentioned it since. In Fallout 1 and 2 also had Arthurian references. So just because the ship has ties to Arthurian lore does not mean that it is specifically related to Fo3 events.

I have mentioned it before, and, as mentioned in other threads, all the Arthurian stuff in past games, except Tactics, was in easter egg random encounters.

how do you know that there was any thought put into it at all.

I know there are people who believe the Enclave family members are in RR, but I don't. I don't think a military base and your command HQ for military operations is the place to keep your kids, elderly, and non-military or non-science folk. Especially when Enclave should have access to other secluded places to keep them out of harms way. As safe as RR was supposed to be, I don't see them keeping their famlies right in the middle of where they are going to be conducting missions of warfare, especially seeing how that would be repeating the same mistake they did in FO2, keeping their civilians on a rig that gets blown up.

I know:P But he implied the airship was named after Arthur... not after his ship/shield.

Because Prydwen is not a common enough known name to be something that had very little thought go into it, you would need to either be a huge fan of the law or researched it to have come up with that, its very unlikely someone just throw that out there without purposely trying to make that connection