JuiceHead claims to have solved Todd Howard's "terminal secret." Do you agree, or still consider the mystery unsolved?

[CerebralHawk]

A few months ago, Fallout YouTuber JuiceHead posted this video. In it, he claims to have solved Todd Howard's "terminal secret." For those of you who don't know, about six months after Fallout 4 was released, Todd Howard was asked in an interview if there were any secrets that fans had yet to discover. And he says yes actually, there's this really big one in a terminal that he hasn't seen anybody talking about yet. So, that set off a treasure hunt as people scrambled to read every terminal entry, especially when the Creation Kit for Fallout 4 released, and people could do so in one place without even booting up the game, let alone going around and searching for terminals. But, a year later, two years later, nothing came up. At one point, Pete Hines was asked on Twitter if anybody found the "terminal secret." Hines said that no they did not, to the best of his knowledge, and clarified that the terminal is not really important in the grand scheme of things.

I don't want to take a view away from a Fallout YouTuber, especially with some of the BS YouTube has been pulling lately, but maybe you don't have the time to watch his video, so I'll post it as a spoiler. So this is my take on Juice's findings:

Spoiler

A terminal in the Institute, in the room where they make Synths, talks about a Gen-3 Synth modification that can basically use VATS without a Pip-boy: it can see the chance percentage to hit body parts, it can see which body parts are weakened, and it can slow its perception of time in order to make decisions and act quicker. For reasons unknown, once you equip the 10mm pistol in the Vault 111 escape, but before you equip the Pip-boy, you can in fact use VATS. This lends some credibility, with the terminal entry, to the fan theory that the Sole Survivor is a Synth. Working against this theory is the fact that the Brotherhood of Steel has a list of Synths, and the Sole Survivor is not on it; however, you have to realize that this would be a deeply personal project for Shaun/Father, and he would not have put his father on that list. A similar plot point pops up in the new Jurassic World movie, Fallen Kingdom, which you should watch if you like the Jurassic franchise and haven't already. I don't want to spoil anything, though the writing was kind of on the wall from the very first Jurassic Park that something like that was bound to happen eventually. That is to say, someone's loved one died, so they use the dinosaur cloning technology to clone their loved one. Obviously it's a new person with new memories to be made and all that, but genetically, biologically, it's the same person, and that's what's implied to have happened in Fallout 4. The secret, if you believe this, is that after Shaun realized he was kidnapped and began plotting against Kellogg, Shaun began observing you, and you died in the cryogenic chamber along with the rest of the residents when the power failed. He quickly dispatched a team to save you, but it was too late. So, he cloned you instead, and gave you memories as best he could. The pre-war stuff, which could be collaborated by memories in Shaun's own brain. And some other stuff that was strong in the mind, kind of like when you go through Kellogg's memories and get his "greatest hits," as it were. In Far Harbor, DiMA brings this up, how you might yourself be a Synth because your memories are incomplete. However, DiMA stops just short of committing to his theory, deferring instead to let it be something for you to think about when considering whether or not to have sympathy for Gen-3 Synths who might not be aware they are Synths (as he assumes Kasumi to be). So, in conclusion, the "terminal secret" is that the Sole Survivor is a Synth... or, at the very least, Gen-3 Synths are being made that can use VATS. Maybe the fact that you can use it is just a bug (that was never fixed) and it's talking about Coursers. Ultimately it's up to you to decide, as an RPG, in theory, should not think for you.

So, having read my take on Juice's findings, and/or watching Juice's video (which I would recommend, he has some great content), do you think the "terminal secret" is solved? Or do you think there's something else out there that people just haven't found yet? I will mention one thing outside the spoiler text, Juice considers the possibility that the "terminal secret" doesn't have to do with a computer terminal at all. There is also an airplane terminal, one of which exists in the game (Boston Airport). There's also terminal as an adjective; though this is a stretch, there are terminally ill characters in Fallout 4, or at least one who comes to mind. There is another fan theory out there, which is not exactly mutually exclusive from the one Juice posits, in that Shaun, in his younger days, traveled to the Capital Wasteland, where he took on the name... James. Yes, some people believe that James and Shaun are the same person, making the Sole Survivor the grandfather of the Lone Wanderer, which is made even more interesting when you consider that some other fans think that Deacon is in fact the Lone Wanderer himself. If that were true, you would think people who met the Lone Wanderer, such as MacCready (as in, Mayor MacCready from Fallout 3, them being the same person) and Sierra Petrovika (the Nuka Cola obsessed girl from Girdershade who appears in Nuka World), would recognize Deacon, even though he's a "master of disguise" (he doesn't fool me, so I doubt he fools many others), but they never do, or at least say they do. And there's no great reason for the Lone Wanderer to even be in the Commonwealth in the first place, and if he was, why would he take on a side role instead of taking charge in the fight against the Institute? (At this point I'd also like to remind you that we met an Institute scientist and Railroad heavy agent in Fallout 3 in the quest The Replicated Man. However, Synths were called Androids back then, but since Android has, since the release of Fallout 3, become a popular mobile operating system, a name near and dear to the hearts of many users, and also the trademark of a massive international corporation, it makes sense that they changed the name.)

 

[Deleted member 10215]

I usually find myself out-nitpicking "lore youtubers" and finding mistakes they made, but this theory in particular fits just well enough, mostly, to seem at least viable.
Theres a part of me that just wants to blame Modern Bethesda's less than stellar writing though, rather than credit them for subtle cleverness like that. I mean, that conversation with DIMA has your character give their "earliest memory" as the day the bombs fell, but they also reference remembering tons of other stuff that didnt happen that day across the rest of the game. (they used to listen to Silver Shroud on the radio, and remember reading about Greygarden in the papers, as just two examples)
As to if that is even the "terminal secret", or if that ever even existed in the first place and wasnt just "subtle" PR to keep people playing, that is where my suspicion definitely peaks.

 

[CerebralHawk]

Yeah, I wish Todd Howard would come clean about the whole "terminal" thing. It was so neat when he first said it, as IIRC the CK hadn't dropped yet, so people were just going out and exploring, which is what you're supposed to do in a Bethesda game. I want(ed) to believe there was something to be found... just like, throwing it WAY back, when I heard there was a chocolate factory (?!) hidden in the first Super Mario Bros. game (!!!), even when I learned the game is like 128k and there's no way there would be alternate assets just used for one hidden level/world... even after all the game's secrets were laid bare, I still wondered "what if." After all, a secret only recently emerged for Punch-Out (originally titled Mike Tyson's Punch-Out) in which a spectator makes a gesture at the exact moment you should punch an opponent... I think E. Honda, but I can't quite recall. This secret was only discovered a couple years ago, way after people had mapped all the data in it. That flew under everybody's radar. Punch-Out isn't Mario or Zelda, but make no mistake, it was a classic of the NES era. Oh, and the Super Mario Bros. chocolate factory rumor surfaced well before the release of Super Mario World for the Super NES, which featured a world called Chocolate Island, so no, it's not a case of wires being crossed. The whole idea of Bowser having kids and his (one) daughter having a whole chocolate island didn't come about until a few years later. Anyway, this was before I was online, so I most likely read about it in Nintendo Power.

In any case, it makes me wonder what the end game was here. To get people to explore? Done. But... for what? With Fallout 3, I think we all knew the Institute/Railroad thing was going somewhere. You could ask to join the Railroad and you were turned down, but it was implied you'd be able to join in the future, though the character was clearly talking to the Lone Wanderer, not the player, though the latter is what was intended. It was an attempt to break the fourth wall. She might as well have said, "not in this game you can't, but in our next game..." And of course I couldn't help but think about Android, being the smartphone OS. Since synths were called androids in Fallout 3, I envisioned a Steve Jobs-based character running the Institute, wanting to control the androids, possibly in favor of something (he considered) better. Something that would mirror the "smartphone wars" that played out in the early to mid 2010s, in the game. It wasn't a great idea, in fact I'll admit it was pretty dumb, but as a phone guy, it was a straw I was grasping for. Then Fallout 4 came out and "android" became "synth" and that sealed the deal.

It's just a shame that there's no clear indicator in Fallout 4 what Fallout 5 will be about. There was no reference to Fallout 76 in Fallout 4 (unless it was added later) because 76 started life as a multiplayer mod for 4. It was not originally intended to be its own world (in West Virginia). I know there are no nods to Fallout 5 simply because BGS has no idea what they're going to do with it, but I'm thinking it will also be more of a reboot than the last few. So it'll be more disconnected. Maybe not set in the northeastern US at all. Since Bethesda is no longer limited to Rockville, MD; they have offices in Texas and Canada (Montreal) now, a Fallout in or closer to one of those places is possible. Or, who knows, now that BGS and Obsidian are both under the Microsoft umbrella, a New Vegas 2 collaboration. I mean, one can hope!

 

[Deleted member 10215]

The only 'hook' in 4 that really stands out as a "this is for use in 5" to me, is that the core game tells you The Gunners are being funded from outside the Commonwealth, for some mysterious reason. I guess its just a 'tradition' of Bethesda's to imply a detail or two about the next game in the franchise (Elder Scrolls does it too).

 

[CerebralHawk]

Interesting. I never picked up on that. I mean, I remember them saying that, but it never triggered my Spidey-Sense as anything that would be important later. Though it did make me curious, because there really isn't a network that crosses state/regional lines, other than the Brotherhood of Steel and NCR, and even those networks rely on hand to hand communications — they do have radios, but they don't seem to be long-range. Though, Maxson and Danse did seem to have some kind of long-range communication in place. I guess I just would have liked to know more... maybe if there were a line about the Gunners being funded by "some group called the Enclave," that would have done it for me. That would have tied the Gunners to greater Fallout lore, and possibly set up a future DLC or story point in a future game.

If the Gunners are funded from outside the Commonwealth, does that mean there are Gunners outside the Commonwealth, or do their patrons keep them at arm's length? Surely somebody has to be going back and forth. Also, what funding do the Gunners really need? They pretty much take what they have. It would make sense if they were funded by the Enclave, though, as the Enclave is basically what's left of the US military. That would explain why the Gunners tend to stick to military outfits and use real (as opposed to pipe) weapons. But, while there's no evidence in Fallout 4 to suggest so, they could have simply raided an old military supply depot. There are a few small depots in the Commonwealth, but you never find any useful ordinance in them. Just a little ammo, and the occasional Sentry Bot. Still, if the Enclave is the remnants of the US military, and the Enclave is funding the Gunners, and providing them with arms and armor, what is the Enclave's endgame? The Gunners never actually do anything. They brought the Minutemen to the brink of annihilation. That's about it. Oh, and they harassed our boy R.J. MacCready, formerly "Mayor MacCready" of Little Lamplight. And they provided the Sole Survivor with some nearly free arms and armor, and maybe a few caps on the side for selling the same. The Enclave never established anything remotely resembling a presence in the Commonwealth, so... why fund a raider gang there?

What if — and I realize this is controversial — they pull a Volition and reuse the Fallout 4 map in Fallout 5? I'm referring to Saints Row: The Third and its sequel, Saints Row IV, where the latter featured a re-skinned version of the former's map. What if Fallout 5 took us beyond the Commonwealth, but allowed us to fully visit the Commonwealth? If you had an endgame save (any save after the fate of the Commonwealth was decided), it could be imported, settlements and all. Your Sole Survivor becomes a voiced NPC with whatever name you gave them. They may even offer quests! But you start as a new player, possibly in new lands outside the Commonwealth, and you're up against the Enclave and their Gunners. Since Fallout 5 most certainly won't be out before Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI, we can assume it most certainly won't be out for at least ~8 years. It could launch with the PlayStation 6 and the next Xbox, or, like Cyberpunk 2077, it could launch for both generations. At that point, console gamers at least would welcome the opportunity to return to the Commonwealth, at least as long as there was enough new content to justify a whole new game. Saints Row IV more than justified reusing the old map. It added superpowers, with power-up orbs placed around the city you could collect. It changed the mechanics of the game, and it introduced a way to wrap up the stories of several main characters, hearkening back to the first and second game in the series. Ultimately it was a whole new game, despite being set in the exact same location as the previous title. Saints Row: The Third is still the superior game, but not by as much as one might think. Both are absolutely worth playing, even today. (Personally, I think they've aged better than their Grand Theft Auto contemporaries, which is to say Grand Theft Auto IV.) Could Bethesda pull the same trick? Would they? I think a "yes" to the second question is far more likely, but I still have some faith in Todd Howard's team, that if that's the way they choose to go, that it will be fun for years to come.

It's a long shot, but it would be neat to see Bethesda canonize Sim Settlements and put ASAMs in Fallout 5. Basically retcon the mod for Fallout 4, while introducing it as a new mechanic (bringing Kinggath and co. on board, of course!) in Fallout 5. So you have the "old" settlements imported from Fallout 4 and then you have your Sim Settlements stuff for Fallout 5 — even on PlayStation. Again, shot in the dark, but, it would be nice!

 

[Drakenred65]

Um I thought someone figured out that “ father” uploaded himself into young Synth Shawn.

 

[chrisjames]

I generally find myself nitpicking "lore youtubers" and pointing out their errors, but this idea fits just well enough, for the most part, to appear at least plausible.
However, there's a part of me that would rather blame Modern Bethesda's poor writing than applaud them for subtle wit like that. In that interaction with DIMA, your character mentions the day the bombs fell as their "earliest recollection," yet they also mention plenty of other things that didn't happen that day throughout the rest of the game. (As just two instances, they used to listen to Silver Shroud on the radio and remember reading about Greygarden in the newspapers.)
I'm not sure if that's even true.

 

[Wasteland_Survivor]

The only thing I can think of possibly is - Shaun was an accident. He wasn't meant to be taken.
The design was originally to take a different person but they got the tubes mixed up.

An probably one of the people in the tubes is a Generation Zero Pre-War Synth who ended up escaping after the Vault fails.

 

[ThunderboltDragon]

I think the special project mentioned in the terminal is the child Shaun synth.

 

[LadyAthena]

I like to go on the idea that you're actually a synth.Feels like the Far Harbor story with DIMA was designed to make the player REALLY consider it. Without Bethesda completely blowing the story and secret for new players by going "Yea you're a synth" out in public. It's a huge secret that allows people to consider, and or find it on their own, but is just vague enough to keep people debating it as well. There are plenty of tip offs to this, like when DIMA asks you what you're earliest memories are. No matter what option you choose it's always the day the bombs fell or very well near it. He specifically asks you to remember "The earliest memory". Yet all memories of yours even ones before when the bombs fell could very easily have happened within weeks of the bombs.

This does highly suggest that you could in-fact be a synth. The fact they made one of the clues a VERY specific moment in the beginning the story that you can use VATS before the pip boy, a very small section of the game, while also making this tiny tid bit of information on a random terminal in the Insititute, again suggests these were all done very deliberately as to not be completely noticeable. I've honest played this game 100x over, and never realized you could use VATS before the Pip boy. Or if I did years ago it never really was something I noticed as strange. Even learning that you can use it only with the pip boy. THe moment was so short it was barely noticeable, thus hiding in plain site.

To me all these things sum up to "You're a synth". Plain and simple.

----------

As for people claiming it's just lazy bethesda writing, I disagree on that part. These things are too well placed and subtle in just the right way to all be an "oops" mistake that just happened to make a great secret.

The "oops" mistake of lazy writing, is having a face sculptor.. who apparently even after re arranging your features and cutting into you can't tell they're working on a synth.

 

[Deleted member 10215]

I mean personally I use an Alt Start mod that makes it 100% explicit that Player Character is a Synth myself (with you being given the 'cover story' of telling people the base-game's backstory instead of the truth), and it barely causes a hiccup. Already just have to imagine stuff happening 'offscreen' rather than the game itself supporting roleplaying fully, so yeah.

 

[MoreThanKelp]

It's plausible that Player is a synth. My favorite roleplay is as Mr. House, re-embodied by the Institute because he's the one who set it up.

 

[msalaba]

a VERY specific moment in the beginning the story that you can use VATS before the pip boy

I'm not 100% sure but I do not believe there is a way to prevent the player from using VATS. (to my knowledge)

 

[Deleted member 10215]

If it were Oldschool Bethesda, like Morrowind-era, I'd believe that the "VATS without Pipboy" thing was a deliberate choice; they used to love doing that kind of meta stuff. (remember that the command-console canonically exists in The Elder Scrolls, it's just that very few people other than The Player Character ever become aware of the nature of their reality enough to use it)
But these days... [Sarcasm]

 

[smitty420]

Later he said the terminal wasn’t that important to the Easter egg, it was just the starting point. By now most people think he was referencing PAM being Skynet. If you read her programmers terminal entries she seems to warn them that using her is dangerous and she even warns the SS that acting based on her predictions is “unwise.”

basically, PAM was built before the Great war and it was her construction that not only guaranteed the war but accelerated its onset.

 

[smitty420]

The only 'hook' in 4 that really stands out as a "this is for use in 5" to me, is that the core game tells you The Gunners are being funded from outside the Commonwealth, for some mysterious reason. I guess its just a 'tradition' of Bethesda's to imply a detail or two about the next game in the franchise (Elder Scrolls does it too).

The gunners were going to have a DLC involving Quincy but it was scrubbed early and the faction and that portion of the map were added to the vanilla game. So they just made them more organized raiders, but they need an “unspecified” employer otherwise they would just wipe out all the other raider gangs and expand across the map. What SS2 is doing maybe be very close to the gunners original plans.

 

[jshwea]

I watch his stuff. I think he has put some real thought into and it makes sense. But until Todd or Bethesda confirm it, we will never know.
IMO, Todd said this, after over hearing the staff talk about it, and never knew the answer himself. But helps the hype train!

 

[smitty420]

Dima’s convo sounded more like he asked literally everyone if they could prove they were human, more than to make the player consider the SS is a synth. My signature is sarcastic, I don’t actually subscribe to this theory, especially the Shaun’s revenge on Kellogg part. It’s 100% dependent on a child raised in a lab would have any sentimental attachment to his birth parents, and not be grateful for pulling him out of the vault in the first place.
The cryovault didn’t fail, it was sabotaged by Kellogg and the SS was deliberately left alive (Kelloggs memories literally say that.). And there’s no actual proof that Father was really Shaun. The baby could’ve died from rad poisoning the day it was kidnapped and Father just claimed to be Shaun as a means to get the most dangerous MF in the commonwealth on their side.

the case for the synth SS is fun but there is absolutely no in game reason to believe it.

however, jar jar binks was emperor palpatine’s master. That’s right, binks was a Sith Lord.

 

[LadyAthena]

Dima’s convo sounded more like he asked literally everyone if they could prove they were human, more than to make the player consider the SS is a synth. My signature is sarcastic, I don’t actually subscribe to this theory, especially the Shaun’s revenge on Kellogg part. It’s 100% dependent on a child raised in a lab would have any sentimental attachment to his birth parents, and not be grateful for pulling him out of the vault in the first place.
The cryovault didn’t fail, it was sabotaged by Kellogg and the SS was deliberately left alive (Kelloggs memories literally say that.). And there’s no actual proof that Father was really Shaun. The baby could’ve died from rad poisoning the day it was kidnapped and Father just claimed to be Shaun as a means to get the most dangerous MF in the commonwealth on their side.

the case for the synth SS is fun but there is absolutely no in game reason to believe it.

however, jar jar binks was emperor palpatine’s master. That’s right, binks was a Sith Lord.

You know... I never considered Father might not be Shaun, that would be a hella easter egg as a plot twist on the plot twist.

 

[a1fox3]

Ya I know I am very late to the party but there is one thing players never talk about.
Why would father allow MC/PC to blow everything up if MC/PC was a synth with recall codes?