Grandmother Should be to Fallout 5 What Adoring Fan Was to Starfield

Bethesda Studios is widely known for its expansive and ambitious RPGs, stretching back to the developer’s early years with The Elder Scrolls series, then with its acquisition of the Fallout IP, and most recently in its massive open-world space-faring adventure, Starfield. While by and large its stories and narrative beats are grounded and serious in nature, particularly given the setup and framework of Fallout, there are still elements and situations of humor that crop up, sometimes in surprising or hidden interactions.

In Starfield, fans could run into a couple of such interactions during the course of their journey. If players choose the Hero Worshipped starting trait in Starfield, a recruitable companion called the ‘Adoring Fan’ will appear and offer to join their crew. In another random event not dependent on any specific character skills or traits, players can meet and board a craft inhabited by a kindly ‘Grandma.’ Both were wholesome and amusing, with the Adoring Fan actually a nod to his first appearance in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Now that Bethesda has shown it is willing to have characters like these in multiple titles, it might be fun for them, or similar ones, to be featured again in Fallout 5.

Bethesda Should Continue Including Characters Like Grandmother and the Adoring Fan in Fallout 5

Bethesda’s History of Comical and Charming Side Characters and Companions

First seen in 2006’s epic fantasy, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, if players completed the chain of quests to become the Grand Champion of the Arena, the Adoring Fan would show up and shower them with praise, and could act as a follower as well. Thus, it came as a (possibly pleasant) surprise to see a version of him appear in Starfield’s NASA-punk world. Although he could join players as a crew companion, some fans found Starfield‘s Adording Fan to be a bit too much eventually. But the fact that he was there at all is a nice extra touch that provides flavor and connectivity between the two games.

Starfield‘s Grandmother is perhaps more agreeable to fans, being a lovely (if a bit lonely) elderly lady who seems to cruise around Starfield‘s stretches of space, appearing at random spots to provide players with some old-fashioned rest and relaxation, offering them a helping from her stores of food and other supplies as well as a chance to have a friendly chat. It’s a small but often welcome pit stop, adding additional charm to Starfield‘s adventures.

Fallout 5 Should Continue Bethesda’s Tradition of Having Whimsical Side Character Encounters

Given that Bethesda has now included at least one reoccurring comical side figure in two separate titles unrelated in setting, it’s possible that some of them, or similar, characters/companions could come back in upcoming games. Bethesda’s next Fallout endeavor might consider having new depictions of one, or both, of these characters wandering the wasteland, waiting to be met by fans, some of whom may be familiar with and remember them fondly (or not) from previous experiences.

It might even make them more viable gameplay-wise in some way, as Fallout 5 could shake up some of the series’ standards, and one minor way to do so might be to have Grandmother return, this time in a full companion role, as the Adoring Fan was in Starfield. This would create a neat bit of circular continuity across the studio’s major brands, connecting all three IPs through these characters in a creative manner. In any case, there’s little stopping it from including and calling back to Grandmother, or the Adoring fan, in a future Fallout.

Fallout 4

Released

November 10, 2015

ESRB

M FOR MATURE: BLOOD AND GORE, INTENSE VIOLENCE, STRONG LANGUAGE, USE OF DRUGS

How Long To Beat

27 Hours

Metascore

87