Why do so many people hate the Eastern BoS? I keep on seeing complaints about how "Bethesda took a dump on Fallout lore by adding the East Coast BoS". What? As far as I know, the Eastern Brotherhood was originally just a small group of Brotherhood members that were sent from the West to the East as an expedition led by Owyn Lyons. Now the goal of this expedition was to re-establish the connection with the Midwestern Brotherhood. As the attempt was unsuccessful, it was decided they continue further west. They soon arrived in the Pitt, where they "lost" one of their members, Ishmael Ashur. They soon continued into Washington DC, where they met head on with the Vault 87 super mutants. Pushing the super mutants into inner DC, the expedition soon gained recognition from the people of the Capital Wasteland. While attempting to irradicate the mutant menace, they also discovered the Pentagon. Trekking into the ruins of the Pentagon, they discover Liberty Prime, and numerous technological goodies. Due to this discovery, Lyons was promoted to the rank Elder. By now, the East Coast BoS was official. Instead of heading back to the Western Brotherhood, Lyons' group was given the order to stay, and so they found a new home in the Pentagon, now called the Citdadel. As they stayed in the CW longer, Elder Lyons soon started to dwindle from the BoS' original cause, which was to gather as much tech as possible, no matter the cost. And so Lyons started to try and aid the CW, putting tech as a second priority. The East also started recruiting from the general population, which was apparently looked down upon in the Brotherhood. Discovering Project Purity, Lyons started putting his resources towards trying to get Project Purity to work. Hearing of the East Coast's new goals, the West cut off all communication with the East. Lyons' defection is a sign of diversity. You can't have everyone follow a hive-mind, and Lyons was one of those that didn't. And since Lyons was such a big figure, more started following him, even after the West cut off communications (though some still remained loyal to the original BoS cause, like the Outcasts). As it happens, the Brotherhood was not alone in the West. Their old enemy, the Enclave, had also made a home in the Capital Wasteland. Now this part actually does make sense. If you just got utterly destroyed in the West, wouldn't it make sense to get your remaining assets as far as possible (towards the East)? Soon, the Enclave, the BoS, and the super mutants were having a brawl. Now can someone please tell me how any of this breaks the Fallout lore? I'm not saying that I'm completely right, as I'm not a lore buff, but I just want someone from the other side of the argument to tell me why I'm wrong.

It isn't that people are making the case that Lyon's Brotherhood and the Enclave being in Fallout 3 is in anyway canon breaking. It's more the argument that Bethesda should have come up with original factions and come up with an original story line for Fallout 3. That gets us into debates about which Fallout is better and such and I can see how it is seen as people just crapping on Bethesda.

There's also debates about Lyons being a competent leader or not and if is actions screwed the group over.

Now Super Mutants being in Fallout 3 will spark debates about canon and whether their being there or not goes against canon. But that's another matter and at this point in the forums here I am sure people are tired of that debate and just except that they are in the game. I am inclined to agree.

The issue I've found for most people is not how Lyons is portrayed in relation to the BOS, since its made very clear his actions aren't approved by the rest of the Brotherhood leadership. And we have an entire faction (the Outcasts) to show how the Brotherhood is supposed to act.

People normally hate Lyon's BOS because 1. Horrible writing of the storyline and 2. the fact that we are railroaded into following them. To the point where there is literally no option but to support them.

Kill off everyone non-essential in the Citadel? Nope. Still gotta serve them.

Decide to side with Eden? Nope. Turns out the virus svcks, gotta get back to ol' man Lyons.

Want to do anything but work with Sarah and her daddy for the main questline? Screw you pal, get back to serving the Brotherhood.

Its annoying, and ham-fisted.

Also this ^

Annoying and ham-fisted accurately describes the writing in all of Bethesda's games. I hope they hire real writers for their next game.

one day someone will make a mod that re-writes the entire storyline for fallout 3 into something awesome.

unless they already did.