Unintended Consequences

Unintended consequences

One of the unintended consequences of the Railroad's methods is that newly freed synths tend to be fairly impressionable when they start their new lives. This isn't because they're any less capable than any adult human of the same (perceived) age, but because they have limited lived experience in their newfound lives. As they live their lives and have experiences, this goes away. The problem is life in the wasteland is hard and they tend to latch onto people who don't always have their best interests at heart.

The Railroad wipes their memory and gives them a new identity, but afterwards they're on their own and kind of have to hope for the best. Because of the nature of the Railroad, they kind of have to work like this. They wipe a synth's memory and give them a nondescript background usually growing up as an anonymous orphan in a vague region with no real specifics. They tend to avoid giving too much detail because that makes it easier to follow up on these things and can consequently put that synth in danger without the synth even realizing it.

I came up with this theory while reading up on Danse's backstory and trying to figure out what parts of his memories are real and which aren't.

For the purpose of this thing I'm writing, I'm going to assume the Institute didn't give Danse those memories (I think that's an incorrect assumption on Danse's part). As far as the Institute is concerned, he's just a missing synth called M7-97. He wouldn't have a name nor would they bother to give him this backstory. It's far more likely that this came from the Railroad.

It would not surprise me to learn that Deacon actually knew Danse when he was rescued.

Check out this companion swap dialogue -

Danse: There's something you're keeping from me, Deacon. If I find out what it is and I don't like it, there will be hell to pay.

Deacon: Well good thing I have nothing to hide then.

What if Danse has an inkling of recognition of Deacon? Usually Deacon has a witty retort to the other companions when swapping people out. Instead he just plays it off. What if, on some very remote level, Danse recognizes Deacon juuuuuuuust enough to know that he's got some kind of secret that Danse just sort of unconsciously zeroes in on. Not enough to actually recognize it for what it is, but it's just enough to spook Deacon a teeny tiny bit.

That's Deacon's way of side stepping a VERY awkward conversation and shutting Danse down because “trust me bro, you REALLY don't want to fuck around and find this out.”

I also love the idea of Deacon knowing about Danse's identity the whole time and just not saying anything. Whether he likes or dislikes Danse is irrelevant, he's still going to keep that secret because he helps all synths. Even if they're being a dick.

But also Deacon would also be acutely aware of the consequences of the Railroad's methods on the synths and has probably seen a lot of them end up in all kinds of arrangements in their lives that aren't good for them. He knows the Railroad's methods aren't perfect because of this, but it's the best they can do with the level of secrecy they have to keep up. They wipe the synths' memories, give them a new identity, and hope for the best.

Anyway, back to Danse's backstory:

He's an orphan from the Capital Wasteland selling scrap. It's pretty nondescript and vague. Most (or at least a large number of) orphans in the Capital Wasteland end up in Little Lamplight.

It would have been really awkward if the Railroad gave Danse that memory and then you come across MacCready, who was the mayor in FO3, who'd never met Danse before. That could have easily outed Danse. So he was just in the Capital Wasteland selling scrap. Lots of other nondescript people did that.

I think his memories start at Rivet City. That's when you get a specific location and you get a specific person (Cutler). From then on getting recruited by the BoS, being mentored by Paladin Krieg who died at Adams Airforce Base, those are all specifics. If you played FO3, you get to see some of those things first hand. Also the Brotherhood keeps pretty good records of their soldiers (they even have their DNA on record). It would be extremely easy to prove whether or not Krieg and Cutler existed. Cutler was even on the Prydwen for some time.

Danse's description of meeting Cutler also makes sense. Danse had just been given a new identity and he sells scrap. Maybe the Railroad gave him some caps before he went to Rivet City. Danse also likes weapon mods and power armor. He seems to be a tinkerer. Maybe the Railroad gave him the scrap selling background because it seemed to fit. At least then he'd seem competent enough for that backstory to be believable.

He says that he and Cutler watched each other's backs in Rivet City and kept each other out of trouble. Integrating into human life as an adult from scratch comes with a learning curve. Perhaps Danse was fortunate enough to come across a human who was actually a decent person and helped him out instead of taking advantage of him and Danse returned the favor when he could.

Then the Brotherhood comes into town and they decide to join. Junk vending makes for a pretty meager existence, so they joined for pragmatic reasons (like most people who join the military).

Danse then gets assigned to Krieg who sees Danse is a bit different and pushes him harder than the other recruits. At that point, he still has relatively little life experience as Danse. Danse doesn't know why he's being pushed, so he tries harder to compensate for it. (Krieg is probably the closest thing to a father figure he's ever had). Because of this, he latches onto the ideals.

At that point he's all in. And maybe it isn't necessarily that bad under Lyons's Brotherhood. It wasn't perfect, but at least they were trying to help the people of the Capital Wasteland.

But then he sees Lyons's BoS start to fall apart.

And then Maxson comes to power and this is when it becomes problematic.

He had people in his life who looked out for him, but being in an organization when you have little frame of reference for anything else tends to skew your worldview. It basically has the same effect on Danse as someone who grew up in a cult. Most cults are relatively benign until they get a leader that can use those qualities in people against them.

Maxson's Brotherhood was far more dogmatic and fanatical (cultish) and more isolationist. When you're on the Prydwen in game, there's an announcement on the loudspeaker that fraternization with the locals is forbidden. Maxson does NOT like outsiders.

And that sort of cements it for Danse. He's been in the Brotherhood for almost his entire free life. He doesn't know much else outside of it and he doesn't really have much chance to experience life outside of the BoS. He's essentially trapped in a cult with a charismatic leader who had no problem ordering Danse's execution when his synth nature was found out, something Danse didn't even know himself. He even internalized the Brotherhood's teachings so hard that he agreed that he should die (even though he really wants to live).

What started out as what is normally best case scenario for a freed synth ended up being a nightmare scenario in the end. It's a horrific unintended consequence from the Railroad's methods of rescuing synths. And that's not to say anything bad about the Railroad. It's just the best they can do considering the circumstances and resources they have.

When looking at cults irl, considering victims of cults to be dumb or weakminded is a misnomer (and blames the victim which isn't cool). There are a lot of smart, capable people who fall in with cults. It's a thing that happens. Usually they're at a vulnerable point in their lives and a charismatic leader zeroes in on it and takes advantage of it. Being a newly freed synth with minimal life experience and no real connections would be a perfect victim for a cult.

I would imagine a lot of other synths have stories like this.

On a side note, I hope Danse appears in something else in the future. I think you could look at his character arc in FO4 as him realizing his life as an individual has value and then he can have an arc elsewhere where he's in the process of unlearning a lot of the more problematic parts of his worldview that come from the Brotherhood. Even if they didn't cut a lot of his content from the game, it would be unrealistic for him to be totally cool with all synths, super mutants, and ghouls even after learning he was a synth. That process doesn't happen overnight.

If anything, Danse learning that he's a synth should be the inciting incident for an even larger story. (At least it would if I had my way.)