What is your opinion about the Brotherhood of Steels attitude in Fallout 4? Rampant Spoilers.

[Emrys of Ailliau]

After playing through the main story and reading a lot of older discussions about this and hearing that a lot of people were upset with the Brotherhoods Purge Ho fascist attitude. Let me start by saying that fascism is at the heart of all government and is the prevailing wind driving all military organisations. The brotherhood as a whole hasn't changed its attitude from the one present in Fallout titles 3 and New Vegas. The only thing that has changed about them is their available resources. In previous games they have always been over extended militarily and partially crippled by infighting. There for the only viable stance for them to take was a defensive one, ie protect yourself and obtain advanced technology.

The Brotherhood of Steels main goal has always been to take the most dangerous technologies away from people so that large harmful events to humanity in general can be avoided. In Fallout 4 we see the Brotherhood of Steel on the offensive. This leads to the elimination or "Purging" of Synths Supermutants and Feral Ghouls. As a strategist I know that it is far more effective to be on the Offensive rather than on the Defensive.

Lets be honest why should you set watches and paroles week after week so that you can fiend off attacks from the afore mentioned bad guys, when you can easily go out and destroy them and be done with it?. The Brotherhoods view, and mine too, is that Every Feral Ghoul that you dont kill will go out and kill some other poor helpless person if you don't kill them, and choosing not to kill the Ghoul puts its next victims blood on your hands as well. Lets face it there is nothing that can be done to save them, there is no negotiation possible, and the person that they used to be would find their current conditions abhorrent and unnatural. So I ask what is wrong with exterminating them as efficiently as possible since you do in this case happen to have the resources?

Moving on to super mutants. Bear with me if I get this wrong from Fallout 3 but didn't they come from a vault/s where the inhabitants were experimented on with the Forced Evolution Virus?
And did they not begin kidnapping survivors in the capitol wasteland and exposing them to the FEV to make more of themselves? I havn't investigated their situation in Fallout 4 yet but so far it looks like they are what they used to be mixed with raiders. Yeah Raiders. Their intellect has improved just to the point where one of them can write Kill Loot Return as Supermutant Orders.
Peachy. I invite anyone to argue against wiping these charmers out after you have been at war with them for a few decades/longer.

Synths. This is where the line gets a little fuzy. Mechanical people so complex that their entire body is manufactured from mechanical cells. Impossible to differentiate between them and real people. Besides the organization that created them being confirmed masterminds behind a number of crazy/evil deeds. Including Mass murder, espionage, theft, manipulation etc. Do the escaped possibly free thinking humanoid synth deserve to be wiped out just because their creators were evil? I recall other tails of mechanical men of similar style and ability Terminators/ Stargate Replicators in particular come to mind and both ended poorly.
However synths in general are still vulnerable to reprogramming meaning that you can never be certain about its intentions. The ability to blend in as humans and be reprogrammed by characters such as the mechanist or escaped institute survivors makes them a credible threat. Yet if they are indistinguishable from humans and may or may not be free thinking is it right or even possible to eliminate them entirely? Is it wise to even attempt doing so earning their enmity and antagonizing the general population with the search and identify method?
Dance wasn't so bad was he? Might have been an Elder himself one day.

[ThePlagued]

In my opinion the Brotherhood overextended their jurisdiction, declared themselves the de facto rulers of the commonwealth and crushed those who believed otherwise, no better than the Enclave.
Much like the NCR they invade where they're not wanted and take what they want.

[ʙ⌁¹¹⁰¹]

At first i liked them and even agreed to join them. But after meeting maxson the first time i hate them. I killed maxson where he stood, and tried to kill evryone in that location. They killed me. So for now i am going to ignore them. Ad victoriam, lol

[Emrys of Ailliau]

Originally posted by B01101:

But after meeting maxson the first time i hate them.

I agree Maxon is headed toward "Father Elijah" territory.

[Emrys of Ailliau]

Originally posted by Cheeki Breeki:

The "Super Mutants" that they are killing aren't just the dumb and violent ones, if you actually listen to their ideals regarding Super Mutants they want to wipe them all out, remember Marcus? Fawkes? The residents of Jacobstown and Broken Hills? They're the same to the BoS as the Raider like Mutants.

I cant think of an instance that the BoS has hunted down and murdered a non feral Ghoul or "Nice" Super Mutant but Im far from 100% done with the game I can see it happening unintentionally because as individuals the BoS seems to be more Zealous than Tactically Aware so they may end up shooting things because they looked like a supper mutant hostile, because its human nature to generalize and despise a group that is in conflict with yours.

[Zubenelgenubi]

Originally posted by Emrys of Ailliau:

I cant think of an instance that the BoS has hunted down and murdered a non feral Ghoul or "Nice" Super Mutant

They want you to kill Virgil at one point.

So it's probably the same reason they use for killing synths, that they're unnatural abominations.

[Gon]

The BoS want to gather up all the really cool toys and then lock them in a box, never to be seen again. Never mind if they can be used to aid humanity, thats just tough. That is their entire mandate - Collect the toys.

[big stupid jellyfish]

Originally posted by Zubenelgenubi:

Originally posted by Emrys of Ailliau:

I cant think of an instance that the BoS has hunted down and murdered a non feral Ghoul or "Nice" Super Mutant

They want you to kill Virgil at one point.

So it's probably the same reason they use for killing synths, that they're unnatural abominations.

Virgil is not a 'nice' supermutant though. He performed horrific experiments with FEV on human subjects for years and then let the supermutants loose on the Commonwealth.
He only helps you because he needs the cure for himself and becomes an insane killer like all other east coast supermuants and tries to murder you if he doesn't get the cure within a week.

[big stupid jellyfish]

Originally posted by Gon:

The BoS want to gather up all the really cool toys and then lock them in a box, never to be seen again. Never mind if they can be used to aid humanity, thats just tough. That is their entire mandate - Collect the toys.

Well no, they want to keep potentially dangerous technology from away 'irresponsible' hands, they have no problem with stuff like project purity. They use technology all the time to help humanity, they just don't trust anyone else with it.

[big stupid jellyfish]

Originally posted by Cheeki Breeki:

If you're talking just about Fallout 4 then other than the case with Virgil I can't name a time that has happened, however the BoS commit acts like this (and worse than this) in Fallout 1, 2 and NV.

You can't really blame the east coast BoS for crimes that happened decades ago on the other side of the continent.

[Phoenix VII]

I think they're exactly what the Commonwealth needs and I say that as someone who was anti-BoS in New Vegas. The Institute created almost every problem that plagues the Commonwealth now and the Minutemen are too weak to be entrusted with the Commonwealth, IMO, so that leaves the Brotherhood, who, unlike the other factions, immediately start attacking raider/super mutant/feral ghoul areas as soon as the Prydwen arrives.

And contrary to the worries of some folks, there are no good Super Mutants in the Commonwealth, zip, nada, zilch. Even Strong should get a bullet between the eyes, ASAP. Only good East Coast Super Mutants are Uncle Leo and Fawkes and they're both in the Capital Wasteland. As for Synths, they're the second biggest blight on the Commonwealth after the Super Mutants, if you don't see them as humans then you'll probably see them as another nuisance that the world is better without, I know I did.

[Phoenix VII]

Originally posted by Cheeki Breeki:

The "Super Mutants" that they are killing aren't just the dumb and violent ones, if you actually listen to their ideals regarding Super Mutants they want to wipe them all out, remember Marcus? Fawkes? The residents of Jacobstown and Broken Hills? They're the same to the BoS as the Raider like Mutants.

Why do people blame the BoS for crap they never did? Jacob fought Marcus but then they became friends and founded Broken Hills. The canon ending for Broken Hills was that the town was abandoned after the uranium mine was depleted, and none of the secondary endings involve the BoS. Jacobstown was harassed by mercenaries hired by the NCR.

[Trehek]

In my opinion, the problem with synths is that they are programmed by guys with questionable intent and have goals even they aren't aware of themselves. The problem is similar to the difference between Battlestar Galactica's Boomer and Athena. One doesn't know who they are and are therefore unpredictable and harmful, while the other one chooses who they are. In Fallout 4, Valentine can easily be seen as a good guy because he knows who he is and he has chosen to be a good guy. Danse on the other hand doesn't know who he is, which makes him much harder to trust.

The synths as a whole are also a issue on a mankind scale. If their secretive and questionable programming can cause them to be hostile to mankind, they can be a threat to our species. Is saving a few good synths worth it on such a scale?

[Killzone]

I always kill Sisterhood members on sight, they arent gonna get their little technology safe space while I roam the wastes.

[PorcusGrunzus]

Maxson is a combination out of the traditional Brotherhood and Lyons Brotherhood.
With the difference that he is way more agressive in my opinion.
Often he is really not better than the enclave.

The only group I usually go with is the institute. Let alone because you can get their leader and decide in which direction they will go. They stopped FEV experiments already before. Now they only have to get a different view about their Synths... They created them and THEY are responsible for them. Also they should treat them as Humans because they pretty much ARE.
But thats what you can do while you are their new leader. Also they should stop making them just to replace folks... That makes no sense and just causes problems.

No group is perfect though, well except maybe the minutemen but Garvey and this Settlement crap goes on my nerves as it is right now. Should be fixed... Or better... Should have never been in the game like that.

[Gon]

Originally posted by big stupid jellyfish:

Well no, they want to keep potentially dangerous technology from away 'irresponsible' hands, they have no problem with stuff like project purity. They use technology all the time to help humanity, they just don't trust anyone else with it.

No. Thats Lyon's offshoot of the BoS who the game makes a point of saying has nothing to do with core BoS doctrine.