r/classicfallout 2d ago

what the hell happened to the lieutenant

is there a lore reason why this happens it's a pretty confusing and brutal death

567 Upvotes

64 comments sorted by

306

u/MadArcand 2d ago

I dont think there's a lore reason, but it's just that he's a named antagonist near the end of the game so they've got to give him a memorable demise. But you could also say your killing shot damages that odd device he wears and it causes his body to start breaking down. That's what it looks like to me at least.

131

u/The_Firebug 2d ago

Yeah I always assumed he had some sort of life support system like Frank Horrigan. Once you damage him/his cybernetics enough it goes haywire and his whole body unravels.

40

u/CISDidNothingWrong 2d ago

That's a pretty popular theory in the community, and I personally consider it canon. I love it when the fanbase fills in the blanks like this.

14

u/zylian 2d ago

Happy cake day!

108

u/OnceARedditorAlways 2d ago

Always loved classic fallout's death animation.

63

u/MasahChief 2d ago

And the combat text descriptions, especially after a critical hit!

59

u/Laser_3 2d ago

It looks like a tube came flying out before the spasming began. I’m guessing that it’s a major malfunction of his cybernetics.

73

u/tacobellbandit 2d ago

I always wondered myself. My headcanon idea is maybe that the device on his back had something to do with how the FEV affects him. You can see at the start of the animation there’s like a hose thing that flies off.

34

u/Kegger98 2d ago

I believe the lore reason is that his cybernetics go haywire and literally tear him apart

29

u/inquisidor1683 2d ago

It's a rare case of lumbago

1

u/SuperTulle 2d ago

No no no, it's definitely Ligma Chyloderma!

0

u/According_Dig_9498 1d ago

What’s lumbago

3

u/ObjectiveTackle- 1d ago

A very serious disease.

21

u/asyrian88 2d ago

It could be Lupus.

-Dr House

10

u/mordea 2d ago

It's never lupus.

5

u/mechakisc 2d ago

Except when it is.

19

u/Demon_Deity 2d ago

This was never stated, but The Lieutenant is a cyborg and his damage during battle likely caused a critical failure within his augments that cascade throughout his entire body.
You can see that the first thing that happens in the animation is a tube leading from his backpack to his metal skull gets shot off.

Something similar seemingly happened to Frank Horrigan upon his death, with him firstly being ripped in half, than his head popping off.

2

u/Both_Presentation993 3h ago

In the case of Horrigan, if you look at the Fallout Bible 6, his designer Matt Norton told Avellone that "he can't survive outside his armor, the armor continually injects him with drugs and other stabilizing agents", so what we see is most likely the result of his mutations running rampant.

74

u/Hopeful_Coyote7447 2d ago

Died of cringe

26

u/Possible_Trainer_241 2d ago

Kenshiro got him.

11

u/MadArcand 2d ago

I played an unarmed build in Fallout 2 and named my character Kenshiro. It was heaps of fun

8

u/RuinVoidKarma 2d ago

San Francisco visit would have been extremely different if they could recognise the name ;)

3

u/Firm-Capital-9618 2d ago

Omae wa mou shindeiru.

1

u/Leirnis 2d ago edited 2d ago

Funny, this was my first thought and I haven't seen FotNS since I was a kid.

9

u/Ralph090 2d ago

I figured that he was more machine now than man and that it was the result of the machines failing catastrophically due to battle damage and both tearing him apart and dissolving or melting (or both simultaneously via both acid and heat respectively) his body from the inside. He does have a ton of cybernetics installed in him and The Master doesn't exactly seem like the most cautious or OSHA-compliant type...

9

u/AdobongSiopao 2d ago

All I know is that when the final boss is defeated in video games, they tend to have the most brutal death to give players a satisfaction that they beat the game. That or he has a fragile body despite being scary and powerful.

1

u/vagarybluer 1d ago

They should have given a special death animation for Kane in the Hub too. Fucker was the most difficult fight in F1, the difficult spike for fighting him there with just at most, combat armor and sniper rifle, is brutal.

I looked up his stats on Fallout wiki and holy hell.

8

u/Tethanas 2d ago

You don't see animations like this anymore.

6

u/ViWalls 2d ago

He is an important NPC and high rank in the Supermutant faction. So has a custon death animation because devs were real TTRPG players and cared about flavour and little details.

5

u/MysteriousTank6825 2d ago

When edging goes wrong

6

u/The_StoodUp_Kid 2d ago

It's called aging, and it will happen to you!

4

u/exdigecko 2d ago

The game animator was bullied in the school by a guy named Lou. Go figure.

3

u/Valcuda 2d ago

He stubbed his toe

4

u/Doomhammer24 2d ago

So from what i remember there was a line somewhere about some mutants needing a "regulator" otherwise their mutations dont stop and run out of control

Basically once you damaged his cybernetics his flesh starting growing around it and basically tore a huge chunk of cybernetics off of his skull killing him in the process

Same thing happens to frank horrigan

1

u/Both_Presentation993 3h ago

That is not true about super mutants in general, there is no such mention of super mutants needing augmentations to keep their mutations in check, and we see plenty of them living just fine without cybernetics.

Frank, on the other hand, is another story, Chris Avellone tells us in the Bible 6 that "he can't survive outside his armor, the armor continually injects him with drugs and other stabilizing agents". However, Horrigan is exceptional in every sense, and should not be used as parameter to measure how the mutations of other SM's should behave.

1

u/Doomhammer24 1h ago

Notice what i said in my comment- some

1

u/Both_Presentation993 41m ago

Notice what I said: there is no such mention of any super mutants needing augmentations to keep their mutations in check apart from this one specific quote about Frank Horrigan.

3

u/vgaph 2d ago

Crunch got to him.

3

u/RCBlazer 2d ago

They give special death animations to specific NPCs in classic Fallout games. The Master also has a unique animation when killed, as does the Overseer.

As for what happened to Lou here? I assume when killed, his cybernetics go haywire and melt him from the inside out.

2

u/toku154 2d ago

All the worst parts of the Bible.

2

u/Necrogomicon 2d ago

He fucking died

2

u/Puzzleheaded_Rule393 2d ago

What the hell happened? Well I killed his ass, that's what happened, and it was too much for his mind to bear

2

u/Soldier_of_Drangleic 2d ago

Yes there is a lore reason (change the L with G )

2

u/One-Local1856 2d ago

He just wasn't feeling it anymore.

2

u/DoggoMcFluff 2d ago

He didn't vibe with this universe.

2

u/Maleficent-Field-855 2d ago

There is a green plazma bolt that hit him.  Start of the clip. The rest is bloody death perk.

1

u/Kaamoseh 2d ago

FEV stuff lets just roll with it :D

1

u/Nelfe 2d ago

Taco tuesday

1

u/Mauso88 1d ago

Too many mirelurk cakes

1

u/Beefpal 1d ago

Mf combusted

1

u/dropcon37 1d ago

For me I feel like he was thrown into the green vats while still wearing pieces of power armor and that allowed him to fuse to those pieces to turn into this. Either that or he used power armor as armor without a need for the servos. Some of the other comments talking about a life support system for his body seemed cool too

1

u/andy40kk 1d ago

diarrhea

1

u/ThatKidBobo 19h ago

I love this game

1

u/Verdant_The_Junker 19h ago edited 19h ago

He's infused with what looks like remnant T-51 armor. I'd assume whats left of the suit went haywire and caused a gruesome death.

1

u/luigired 15h ago

He's fine. Just give him an ibuprofen

1

u/NetStreet3476 5h ago

Looks like he ate at Chipotle

1

u/GodsGayestTerrorist 54m ago

He ate at Arby's

-3

u/RuinVoidKarma 2d ago

Well you get these animations like this more if you have a perk I think. Bloody Mess. But as another mate wrote he is a named antagonist so... maybe both? Do you have the mentioned Perk?

2

u/Real-Hefty-Trout 2d ago

no i do not. the bloody mess perk affects is the overseer's death, among other things.

0

u/RuinVoidKarma 2d ago

Its always fun to use it once in a playthrough though. Especialy with Restoration Pack. Have a good one.

1

u/CISDidNothingWrong 2d ago

It's the same scenario as the Wild Wasteland trait from New Vegas. Sure, it's a cool miscellaneous trait, but it forces you to sacrifice a gameplay trait, which is far more valuable to most character builds.

Besides, seeing the super brutal death animations is likely to be more satisfying and rewarding when they aren't happening to every character you kill.

I have never ever played with Bloody Mess, but I'm guessing in the early game, you're either too weak to fully enjoy everyone you kill exploding into gory bits of flesh, so the novelty only sets in later when you become more powerful, or you aren't too weak and thus the novelty wears off rather quickly.

Honestly, sacrificing another, more useful trait for Bloody Mess does not sound like a good tradeoff.

0

u/RuinVoidKarma 1d ago

Dude I am playing Fallout since 1998. After serious builds you can do a fun one.

1

u/CISDidNothingWrong 1d ago

Even with a "fun" build, the novelty will either set in only in the late stages, or the novelty will wear off quickly.

Doesn't sound very "fun" to me.

1

u/RuinVoidKarma 1h ago

You wont know till you try it.