Fallout: New Vegas - The Philosophy of Caesar

[Music] foreign five years ago I did an analysis of the book Heart of Darkness and two of its adaptations I made these videos during a very difficult time in my life when I was struggling with my mental well-being and had exhausted a variety of medical interventions I turned to Heart of Darkness during this time because I perceived similarities between my inner struggle and those of the characters in the book and the adaptations they too were struggling with really dark thoughts that they could not reconcile with though granted theirs were murderous and mine weren't for reasons unknown to me at the time I felt that by getting a grasp of what the heart was and why it had such possessive power it would somehow enable me to confront my own inner darkness and prevent it from possessing me like it did the villains in those stories after a month of study I under stood that the term Heart of Darkness described the animalistic side of human beings beside we suppress in order to get along in civilized society from time to time to spiriting events will occur in our lives that will make this uncivilized side break free from its shackles and threaten to take over our personality the greatest heroes are the ones who maintain their morality in the face of this threat and the greatest villains are the ones who honestly contend with it but choose to give in to that horror this is why characters like Colonel Kurtz and Apocalypse Now the movie adaptation of Heart of Darkness are so revered it's also why characters that are based on him such as Thanos from the Marvel Cinematic Universe are elevated as archetypal villains they seem of sound mind educated philosophical qualities that should enable them to contend with their inner Darkness but they nonetheless fail and become corrupted they then become convinced that the only way out of their predicament is to give that Darkness the expression it craves otherwise it will tear them apart from the inside for five years I had wondered how many villains had been inspired by the Kurt's character I wanted to see how consistently the archetypal power of the Kurt's character could carry over to its imitators but the only official examples I could find were Thanos and baron harkinen from Dune but this past year I finally found a new subject in the character of Caesar from the video game Fallout New Vegas the lead designer behind this game Joshua Sawyer confirmed this connection with the following quote both Caesar and Kurtz are men of intelligence and education who traveled from a life of relative Comfort technological Wizardry and civil realization into a Wilderness full of Warring people with relatively low education and a relatively primitive lifestyle both Rose to power and were essentially deified for their intelligence knowledge and Leadership capabilities both cut off communication with the outside world and lived in there until now remote Savage kingdoms using the most brutal means possible to deal with rare instances of dissent While most of the pivotal life events are mirrored between the two characters there is one key difference one that evolves the curtsian archetype Sawyer notes that where Kurtz's Reign Over his people was short-lived Caesar's Reign continues for a long long time a point of Fascination for myself was what might have happened to Kurtz from the novel or the movie if they lived on for several decades what they have learned to contend with them Madness in their soul and if so how with Caesar we find one possibility Caesar is a fascistic dictator who like Kurtz is possessed by the Heart of Darkness and rules through brutal force but unlike Kurtz Caesar seemingly finds peace of mind and does so through a patchwork philosophy one he uses to justify his actions in order to Garner a full appreciation for the terror of that philosophy it would be useful to review some of the key events from his life before he was Caesar he was known as Edward sallow Edward was born in 2226 in an area known as the Boneyard formerly Los Angeles California at the age of two Edward and his mother sought shelter after his father was killed by Raiders thankfully both of them were taken in by the humanitarian organization known as the Followers of the Apocalypse an organization that fell under the rule of the new California Republic at the time as she cooked and cleaned for the followers Edward learned how to read and started taking courses free of charge up until the age of 20 Edward was educated to become an agent for the followers on their behalf he would learn the dialects of tribes inhabiting the Utah region specifically around the Grand Canyon so they may receive the followers humanitarian Aid on the way to the canyon he and his companions discovered a cache of historical texts two of which made a significant impression on Edward one was the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and the other was Julius Caesar's book commentary de Bello galico he was fascinated with these books locking himself away for two weeks just to study them little did he know that the knowledge gleaned from these texts would be soon put to practical use prior to arriving at the Grand Canyon Edward and his team met a Mormon missionary named Joshua Graham a pre-established expert in tribal languages who would help the followers with their humanitarian Mission their first encounter with a tribe known as the Blackfoot went less than ideal the Blackfoot decided to hold them as hostages an act that Joshua chastised himself for due to a potential mistranslation Edward found himself in a dangerous situation but not because he felt threatened by any of the Blackfoot the Blackfoot were at war with seven other tribes each just as pissant as they were but outnumbered like that they weren't going to last long it's one thing to be taken hostage in other to be lashed to a sinking ship unwilling to go down with said ship Edward decided to use the military knowledge he gleaned from Caesar's commentary to educate the Blackfoot I taught them how to use the guns they already had how to strip and clean them how to breathe when pulling a trigger how to reload ammunition they looked at me like I was some kind of a sorcerer so I taught them how to make explosives and started drilling them on small unit tactics when the time came for actual combat Edwards started to become as possessed by the spirit of Julius Caesar as he would soon be by the Heart of Darkness he not only conquered all the other tribes he did so in brutal fashion he boasts about killing every man woman and child who wouldn't yield to him displaying their corpses to other tribes in order to force fealty Edward's justification for these crimes against humanity parallels that of Kurtz Kurtz had become disillusioned with the US government for their moral hypocrisy specifically regarding their actions during the Vietnam war for a Time the U. S military seemed to covertly endorse Kurtz's brutal military strategies because they were effective however when evidence of Kurtz's actions became moral less public knowledge and he refused to accept less efficient methods the U. S military were forced to send an assassin to kill him with no institutional backing for his methods and the horrors of War corrupting him Kurtz's morality became unmoored this mirrors Edward's dissatisfaction with the new California Republic the nation he grew up under he believes that the pre-war culture and government of the U.

S that the NCR was trying to emulate was also filled with moral hypocrisy and inefficiency the NCR has all the problems of the ancient Roman Republic extreme bureaucracy corruption extensive senatorial infighting greed runs rampant the government is corrupt accepting bribes from Brahmin Barons and landowners to the detriment of citizens the NCR is a loose conglomerate of individuals looking out for themselves it's lost virtue no one cares about the collective the greater good this too left Edward with an unmoored morality a fact that was mirrored interestingly enough in Caesar's neutral Karma status quoting Joshua Sawyer once again whatever moral framework he had as Edward sallow among the followers has disintegrated after years of being Caesar I. E it's not so much that his karma is neutral as much as it is alien unlike Kurtz who could only do so much with his loose conglomerate out in the Vietnamese jungle Edward took maximum advantage of his situation he had virtually invoked the spirit of Julius Caesar through his actions assimilating enough of the surrounding tribes into one monolithic culture due to this Edward felt it was only appropriate to change his name to kasar and name those he ruled over his Legion from from the age of 20 to the age of 48 Caesar had conquered all of Arizona and New Mexico with Holdings in Utah and Colorado in total he had conquered 86 tribes as I alluded to earlier Kurtz was unlike Caesar because he had a deeper more profound struggle with the immoral acts that he committed and saw others commit during wartime Caesar however did not or if he did we never saw that struggle Caesar seemed to be more focused on what he perceived to be a greater threat with the ncr's growing influence he predicted a future where they would repeat the patterns that led to not only the downfall of ancient Rome but that of American culture and government a downfall that precipitated the global thermonuclear war of 2077.