Who killed the world? That is the knowingly unanswered question that the women of Mad Max: Fury Road ask the violent, patriarchal despot who enslaved them for years. No one answers that question explicitly; however, given the state of the world in Mad Max: Fury Road, I’d venture to guess that it was men with bombs who turned the land to ash and the water sour. It certainly seems to be men with cars, explosives, and spray-on chrome that keep the land hopeless and mad at the movie’s outset. The film is centered on a group of women who look at a society built on testosterone, blood, and grease, and choose to find another way. They see no acceptable future in birthing future tyrants and suckling the lumbering oafs who will unsuccessfully and brutally rule them. In choosing to reject the homicidal status quo, the women of Mad Max inspired me to take a fresh look at a post-apocalyptic game where the water is sour and the land is ash: Fallout 3.

Given the 1950s-inspired dystopian future depicted in Fallout 3, it’s almost certain that men killed the world there as well. And as with the world of Mad Max, the wastelands of Fallout 3 are also populated with a few fiefdoms governed by egomaniacal, patriarchal rulers. I decided that for this playthrough of Fallout 3, I would follow in the footsteps of Imperator Furiosa and overthrow the most patriarchal society in the wasteland. That meant the Republic of Dave had to feel the might of the Vuvalini of Many Mothers. And so, with that mission in mind, I created my character, Lady Johannesburg III, and set out into the Capitol Wasteland.

Nestled in the far northeast of the Capitol Wasteland, getting to the Republic of Dave was quite a trek, and the picture upon arrival was far from stunning. The Republic looked like a small farm from outside, with a young girl standing guard at the gates. The girl’s name was Rachael, and she was quick to take me to “President Daddy”. Upon entering the facility I quickly scanned the micro-republic: a pair of gender-assigned living quarters to the right, a “museum” to the left dedicated to the greatness of Dave, and in the center, the Capitol. Scampering between these ramshackle buildings were children; there were 3 or 4 of them and they couldn’t have been older than 13. At a firing range to the left, a young man was dumping rounds into a series of trashcan dummies. Once I made my way inside the Capitol building, I met Dave and his wife Jessica. I quickly stated that I was an “ambassador of the wastelands” in the hopes that I could talk the president into letting me stay (so that I could engineer his downfall). Unfortunately, my speech check failed and so I was forced to pay an “unwanted immigrant tax” of one good hunting rifle. And with that, I became a refuge in the Republic of Dave.

After talking to the president about his many Dave-related branches of government, I asked him if I could help run the elections for the next president. Luckily, I arrived at just the right time for the elections. Isn’t that always the way in Bethesda games? All of the good digital actors moving in their own pre-determined routines until the player shows up and an invisible director yells, “Places, people! We have an important event to portray!” Dave played his part in this morality play perfectly, and so my heretofore unknown refugee, who had been in the country for only a matter of minutes, was entrusted with the entire presidential election of this egomaniacal commonwealth.

I was tasked with reminding all citizens of legal voting age to vote. It turned out that no one had ever run against Dave, despite the Republic of Dave’s position as a liberated democracy after the overthrow of the Kingdom of Tom. I knew in that moment how I would topple this democratically elected patriarchy: I would find a willing competitor amongst the women of the Republic and sway people to elect her. After all, I did have a fairly high speech stat and I was wearing my persuasive Naughty Nightwear (+10 to speech!).

The first potential presidential candidate I talked to was Jessica, but she made it very clear very quickly that she had no interest in running for president. It turned out that Jessica was a bit preoccupied with fawning over Dave and disparaging Rosie…Dave’s first wife (no dystopic patriarchy is complete without polygamy). Unfortunately, the women of the Republic were a bit more accepting of this arrangement than Immortan Joe’s wives, and understandably so. Dave isn’t the monster that Immortan Joe is, and dealing with him and his ego is a great deal better than fending for yourself in the wasteland. However, Dave’s form of dominance is still crippling to the other people who live in his republic. All of his wives and children are taught to revere Dave above all things, and to look to him for protection and sustenance, despite the fact that the world of Fallout 3 punishes those who cannot survive on their own. Dave’s policies also relegate his wives to the roles of teacher and mother, despite the fact that Rosie is capable of far more.

I learned of Rosie’s past after my unsuccessful conversation with Jessica. Rosie spoke tepidly of her ongoing marriage with Dave, their past together as raiders in the wasteland, and her displeasure about her position in the republic. She was just the woman I was looking for, and just the candidate that the Republic of Dave needed. After a little speech check persuasion, I was able to convince Rosie to run for president, and she was quick to vote for herself. With Rosie in place, I simply needed to persuade a few other people to vote for her. She was a clearly superior option to Dave’s complacent condescension, so I figured it would be easy.

It turned out that it wasn’t even an option. Despite the fact that you can convince Rosie and Bob, Dave’s oldest son, to run for president, you cannot convince anyone to vote for them. There is literally no option to convince other voters to select a non-Dave candidate. You can tell people that Rosie and Bob are running, but none of them will even entertain the idea of voting for someone other than Dave. Yet, one ever-present dialog option you do have is to declare, “Your republic is forfeit, prepare to be reclaimed by the wasteland!” You always have the option to declare war on the Republic of Dave via a dialog option or by opening fire on the citizens of the Republic. But, no matter what I tried, I could not use any of the compelling information about Rosie’s past nor her policy ideas to persuade anyone to vote for her. This speaks to a discrepancy in how Fallout 3 treats diplomacy and violence.

Violence is the ultimate problem solver in the wasteland; VATS is always one click away, and you can kill almost every person between you and what you want (there are only a handful of story moments where violence is deliberately removed as an option). If the world of Fallout 3 was as brutal and mad as the world of Mad Max, I could understand why violence would be your skeleton key solution. However, Fallout 3 is a game where speech and bartering are supposedly valuable skills. There are entire societies attempting to rebuild some semblance of normalcy in the wastes, but because of how the speech and combat systems are implemented, you cannot apply persuasion as universally as you can violence. Even in the times when diplomacy is the most sensible solution, it sometimes isn’t an option. Although it makes sense that the borderline indoctrinated inhabitants of the Republic of Dave wouldn’t vote for anyone other than Dave, it is a bit incongruous that I had no ability to try and persuade them. I wore my Naughty Nightwear for a reason, and that reason wasn’t shooting and stealing.

With that unfortunate revelation over with, I prompted Bob to run for president (one less vote for Dave!) and encouraged everyone except Dave to vote. At this point, I had two means to overthrow Dave: kill him, or steal the key to the ballot box and rig the vote. I wasn't exactly equipped to fight Dave, and my stealth skills were likely too low to pull that off without alerting the entire republic. The republic needed a change of leadership, not a bloodbath. That left me thievery as my only real choice at subterfuge. I told Dave that he was the last person who needed to vote, and while he walked over to the polling box, I crouched (which is the only way to stealthily do anything) and stole the ballot box key from his pocket. After he entered his vote, but before he started counting the ballots, I opened the box and removed every vote except the lone vote for Rosie. The revolution came without one bullet fired.

The changes came swiftly after that. Dave decided to leave the Republic. Unsurprisingly, it turned out that he was less interested in living in a democratic country, and more interested in affirming his self-worth via elections. On the one hand, I found Dave’s petulance at losing the election to be fitting for his entitled paternalistic worldview; on the other, I appreciated the fact that he didn’t immediately turn to violence when he lost the election. Dave seemed like the kind of person who would lose his temper when things didn’t go his way, but when the time came he went peacefully. That was a refreshing change after the violent carnival of Mad Max. Once in power, Rosie changed the name of the country to The Democracy of Rosie and talked about some new policy changes. She even rewarded me with Dave’s gun Ol’ Painless. Regrettably, that was the extent of the changes. Other than some experience points and a few new lines of dialog, the Democracy of Rosie was indistinguishable from the Republic of Dave.

Like so many of the sidequests in Fallout 3, Election Day ends with some grand words, items, and experience, but not much else in terms of noticeable changes. Getting Dave to leave was a minor achievement I suppose, but I envisioned so much more. Maybe the Museum of Dave could become a school or other government building. Or, perhaps the settlement could allow new people in without Dave’s myopic xenophobia. Mad Max: Fury Road ended with scores of happy peasants celebrating a new ruler with uplifting music swelling in the background, not some robotic children continuing on their digital rails as though nothing happened. I suppose my hopes were unfounded, but I wanted more. Aside from some main story missions and the side-quests at Megaton and Tenpenny Tower, the world of Fallout 3 is remarkably unchanging and I wanted to see revolution. The most sweeping change you can make to most locations is to kill everyone, whereas the constructive changes generally aren’t reflected in any tangible ways after the initial conversations are over.

With the patriarchy conquered, I left the Democracy of Rosie as quickly as I arrived (though it still said The Republic of Dave on my Pipboy). Just outside of the gates, I noticed Dave walking alone through the wilderness. I tried to talk to him, but all he would say was that he was going to annex Old Olney, a nearby ruin. I decided to follow him. There was something sad about watching a dejected patriarch wander through the wastes, dead set on establishing a new micro-fiefdom. All of his followers were stripped away, and he had to rely on his wits (which weren’t worth a lot given the AI in Fallout 3) and the busted rifle I gave him. The former president was wounded by common bloatflies and wild dogs, but he would not be dissuaded. It was in this moment that a thought occurred to me: what if Dave was every bit the survivalist mastermind that he claimed to be? He was a good shot and he seemed self sufficient. Maybe he really was a superior leader and strategist. Maybe he did earn his spoils in the Republic. The thought fluttered around for a moment before Dave arrived at Old Olney and a deathclaw promptly slashed off his head. There went the wise and omnipotent President Dave. Long live President Rosie!

If you want to hear some more about Fallout 3 and how we imagine the post-apocalypse, I recorded a podcast episode with some of my friends about the game.