(This was a toot on Masto that got out of hand so decided to post it here instead. Apologises in advance, this is a mess of feelings and it's very late and I'm very tired and achy. :'))
Never not gonna be :/ at how the Brotherhood essentially pillaged Rivet City to scrounge any last scrap of Dr. Li's work (Rivet City's reactor) to further their expansion to the Commonwealth in lieu of 'the greater good'.
like FUCK she would never go back to them? ever?
She put years of her life into sustaining the most advanced scientific settlement in the Captiol Wasteland (and the only place producing rad-free crops) only for them to level it to juice up their murderbot. And they still can't fix it, even after stripping Rivet City's reactor and having access to 30 years of her work between RC and Project Purity.
They still need her. But they'll never admit it. Instead they'll lie to her, they'll still play on her goodwill and then they'll threaten her, intimidate her when she ultimately finds out she's been duped. Then she's left in a corner of the airship like an expended tool, like that's a charity when the whole ship thinks she's a traitor regardless. I don't know how anyone can think the FO4's BoS (and even 3's, late-game anyway), can be seen as the universal 'good guys' when they do shit like this.
As much as I hate siding with the Institute for obvious reasons, I can't tell you how cathartic it is to watch Madison finally fix Liberty Prime, only to send him berserk and singled-handedly raze the Brotherhood to the ground with an excessive, exceptional show of force.
A whole goddamn army against one woman.
That's the Madison Li you wanted, right? You never wanted her growing crops in Rivet City, or cleaning water in the Jefferson Memorial, even if that's what she wanted to do.
You wanted her the same way she was after the Enclave mercilessly slaughtered her assistant, after they kidnapped her colleague and after the ferals in the tunnels picked off the rest of her team. You wanted that Madison again, the one you've only seen a glimpse of, when she fixed Prime the first time for you and you waltzed right on through the Enclave's defenses like it was nothing. You lied to her then too, of course, saying Prime was only for defending the Memorial when you had him anywhere but.
You wanted her cornered, out of options. And you wanted her angry.
Well, you got her.
I'm always gonna be gnawing on this regarding her character development
*also in an ideal scenario Ingram & Hayden wouldn't be there bc I love them. also after siding with the Institute you could install Madison as leader and she just stops the whole synth-slavery thing because fuck you![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
