Jet (like bottle caps; Enclave, and Supermutants) was a local phenomenon that they brought to DC for it's "Me Too!" effect.

I'd have been far more accepting of Jet making the journey to DC than the use of bottle caps; I do not recall if they ever explained how it was made in FO3. But it is actually plausible to me that Jet samples (or even a few cases) could have shown up in the Capital Wasteland; even that they [someone] started manufacturing it for profit ~except that there is not enough people there it would seem... There is nothing (that I found) in FO3 like the Hub or New Reno... or even Redding .

I would even have accepted 'no jet in DC', but there being another drug that was the same identical product; independently discovered ~but not with an identical name.

Harold was never a ghoul; he was an FEV mutant just like Richard; though not like Richard .

I agree with Styles... they really ruined it; Harold was almost like Fallout's quasi-parallel to D&D's Elminster. Imagine if they'd made a D&D game and permanently turned Elminster into a talking tree-stump.

Ghouls are also mutants. He was telling us how he became a ghoul. He just used the word Mutant insted of ghoul. Harold lives/runs a town full of ghouls that look just like him in Fallout 2. He calls people "smooth skin" just like ghouls do, so for all intensive purposes Harold was a ghoul until Bethesda came along.

To be fair the devs of Interplay and Black Isle were thinking of changing how ghouls were created. But Bethesda were the ones that just called him a "Special FEV Mutant."

They should have just left him out of Fallout 3. They ruined Harold. I don't care if they called him a "Special FEV Mutant" but to make him a tree in the ground makes no damn sense. What did he fall into the Mariposa FEV vat with a tree strapped to his head and he bonded to it? It is just stupid what they did to him. Bob was just a tree that started growing after a seed landed in his head. It shouldn't have ended up the way it did.

Just to be clear I don't care that he is no longer considered a ghoul. I don't like that he was turned into a mutant tree stuck in DC.

No, he isnt, he is talking about being turned into an FEV mutant. How did Harold change into a ghoul when he was never exposed to radiation? It takes massive amounts of radiation to change someone into a ghoul and there is absolutely none in Mariposa (there is not a single place you need rad-away inside, nor does the geiger counter ever jump inside the base). Harold was never a ghoul. The mutants came from Mariposa like he talks about, and he was changing after he visited Mariposa, not after radiation exposure. He tells you himself "I'm a mutant" and it's not like the people of the hub don't know what a ghoul is and just started using the term mutant. People know what ghouls are and Harold's memory is still very sharp in Fallout 1, there is no reason to believe he is confused about his own origin.

He also does not look just like every other ghoul in Gecko. Harold is the ONLY green "ghoul" in the entirety of the series, when all other ghouls are flesh colored (sans Fallout 3's glowing ones, in 2 glowing ones were a pinkish white). Just because he hangs out with ghouls doesn't mean he is one. why wasnt he at the Necropolis in the first one then? Maybe in Gecko he saw a similar people and decided to try and help them. The way he talks and who he hangs out with is not a very good indication of of what he is. Chris Haverson says "smoothskin" and hangs around ghouls as well; does that make him a ghoul? In Fallout one Harold's origin and dialogue revolves almost exclusively around Mariposa and Richard Grey (aka the master), the two origins of the Super mutants, so for all intents and purposes he was always envisioned as an FEV mutant.

Radiation turns people to ghouls, FEV turns people to mutants. He was an FEV mutant changed by the fumes coming from the vats of Mariposa, not a ghoul changed by radiation. When specifically talking about changing he says "it was something in that base that changed me." There is no radiation in the base.

Him and richard grey were in the exact same part of Mariposa. How is it the Master can be a mutant, but harold is a ghoul? Richard grey was thrown directly into a vat and harold was knocked unconscious in the exact same room exposed to the airborn chemicals. Richard grey was turned into a disgusting blob of flesh and harold started growing increasingly disfigured. There is not a single bit of radiation in Mariposa, but enough FEV to make a blue whale super mutant.

Also, how do you know that the tree didnt start to mutate as it grew from harolds head? the only nutrients it could get would be filled with FEV. Who is to say what happens to a plant that is constantly being treated with FEV? In one of his ending it even talks about how strong the tree had gotten and how it's seeds can grow in even the most desolate wasteland. We know that radiation does almost nothing to plants, but we also know that FEV makes things highly resilient and strong.

You are trying to lay something at bethesda's feet that they didn't even do. They didnt turn Harold into an FEV mutant, just a tree. The only thing Bethesda did that really killed suspension of disbelief is the fact he is in the Capitol Wasteland.

Harold was never a ghoul; he was an FEV mutant just like Richard; though not like Richard .

Also here is a quote from Tim Cain on Harold


If you want to call him an "FEV ghoul" that's fine, but he never had radiation induced ghoulism, and therefore is not a "traditional" ghoul.

You're thinking too much. Here, just take some more jet.

I am wrong now about Harold. Before Fallout 3 came along the common consensus was that he was a ghoul. In Fallout 2 he lives with ghouls, not only that is the leader of them. He acts like a ghoul and he looks like a ghoul. So if it lives with ducks, looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and acts like a duck, then what is it? well it is a duck. But yeah I am wrong because he is officially a FEV Mutant now.

A human that has alot of radiation in their system and then is exposed to alot of FEV becomes a ghoul. At least that how it used to be, how people thought it was.

But as I said I don't care if he isn't considered a ghoul. I really don't. I execpt that he is "Special FEV Mutant."

The devs of Interplay and Black Isle were debating about what should create a ghoul. FEV/radiation mix or just Radiation. It makes sense to have radiation as the cause because it explains ghouls outside of the Core Region. So Harold was going to be changed (settled) anyways.

I am not pissed at Bethesda calling him a special FEV mutant. I am pissed about him being turned into a giant mutant tree thing stuck in DC.

It doesn't make a damn bit of sense. Fallout 3 is less than 40 years since Fallout 2. I am supposed to believe that he went from Gecko all the way to DC, mutated into a huge tree in that time? Made worse by the fact that the game makes it look like he has been there for decades.


Edit: All I am saying is that there was a time where people assumed he was a ghoul. We since learned that he isn't a ghoul. So the matter is settled.

So yeah I am wrong that he was never a ghoul. But I am not wrong in that people once thought he was a ghoul which is what I was saying.

40 years seems like a long time to me. U.S. West Coast to East Coast would be what, about 2500 miles? If you managed just 2.5 miles per day - not much - that would take you just 1000 days or 3 years. Assume he's not actually heading directly there, but kind of meandering from place to place. Assume too that the tree is gradually taking over, slowing him down. So, give him 15 years to cross the country, 5 times as long as my example. Heck, give him 20 years. That still leaves 20 years for the tree to root and for Oasis to form around him. Plenty of time, I should have thought.

Makes kind of sense. But the canon ending says that he was being slowed down by the tree(Bob) which means that he cant have been there for much time as he would probably take 25 0r 30 years to get there due to him being a walking tree.

Can someone explain to me how jet got there though? I cant seem to understand the focus of that discution as first your making assumptions of it being carried over by merchants, then you start talking about making the most out of one package by filling with oxygen? Confuses me

Bethesda offers a great explanation:

I'm still quite new to the lore and such, but surely, if Allistair Tenpenny can travel from England to the Capital Wasteland, Jet traders can make it coast-to-coast?

Tenpenny and jet both lacked details about their arrival to the DC.

Harold made it from one coast to the other so why not jet?

The main problem is that none of these things are explained. Hey look at that old British guy who has an incredibly limited back story, look at Jet that has somehow made it to the other side of the country in a far weaker form and look at Harold who decided to leave Gecko for whatever reason and make his way to the other side of the country to become a tree that is worshiped by a bunch of post war hippies.
In other words:
= A wizard did it
The classic Bethesda explanation.

I never read Bethesda's explanation of jet. Where would we find that?

Seems pretty logical that wizards are the cause of all the things we can't explain in Fallout 3. That or underpants gnomes

LOL ... Im guessing you dont believe in the bible ... cuz this is strangely similar.

The truth is ... bibles get written every day ... the trick is to write your own.