a question, regarding the problematic

[camwyn]

I'm currently plagued by a plotbunny or two in the Fallout universe, all revolving around the events that led up to the founding of the Brotherhod of Steel. Fallout is set in the 1950s scifi movie version of the future, in a world where the fifties never really ended and social change was remarkably slow- there were women and racial minorities inthe armed forces, but very few. At least, if the Mothership Zeta content is anything to go by- a squad of medics captured by aliens in 2077 contained three white men, one black man, and one black woman. The simulation of prewar military life in Operation Anchorage contains several women among the infantry as well as in the medical tent, and there is a black lieutenant serving in a logistics officer position.

This is not the problematic part. If that's what the prewar Fallout military looked like then that is what I have to work with. My problem arises elsewhere.

Roger Maxson, the eventual Brotherhood founder, is canonically the second-in-command of a unit headed by Colonel Robert Spindel. We know nothing about Spindel except that when he learns the awful truth about what his men have really been guarding all this time- biowarfare experiments on live human prisoners, for more than a year- he locks himself in his office for days and has a nervous breakdown. Eventually he shoots himself. His last words are an apology before he pulls the trigger. That's all the canon says about him.

My problem is that today I realized I was picturing him being played by Denzel Washington. I'm not sure if I should write him that way or not. I'd avoid the issue by making Maxson black instead, but we've seen Maxson's grandson in canon and John Maxson doesn't look mixed. He looks like a really old white guy with an enormous nose. I plan on making sure there are other minorities among the soldiers naamed in canon, but.... given what Spindel winds up doing, can i/should I make him a Denzel character? Or would that be grossly inappropriate?

Comments

[duane-kc.livejournal.com]

I don't see why not; *someone's* going to have to play the part, after all, and it's not like you're going to force the actor to actually carry out the role, after all.

[batyatoon]

I see the issue; I'm honestly not sure.

(I am so helpful.)

[milkshake-b.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what my opinion is worth because I don't even see the problem. The role isn't an irredeemable monster or someone killed just to prove the superiority/provide growth for the White Dude. What that Spindel learned was so awful it drove Maxon, a genuinely good person, to just start killing the scientists who told him about it. And, speaking as a theoretical actor, I understand a good breakdown scene is always really fun and interesting to play.

[camwyn]

I have two images of Denzel!Spindel in my brain. One is from the moment when he and Maxson are both looking at the experiments for the first time:

"Does the name 'Tuskeegee' mean anything to you, Captain?"
"You mean like the airmen, sir?"
"No."

And the other is just before Maxson and the others break the door to his office down. I can hear him quoting Horatio's line about being more an antique Roman than a Dane; that may even be the line that causes Maxson to order the door rammed open, because he knows what comes next.

I'm seeing Spindel as a hell of a gentleman, probably a West Point graduate, probably a combat veteran sent home from China after a severe injury. He's educated and has a fondness for the classics. Finding out that his superiors took advantage of his sense of honor to make himbguard something horrible precisely because they could trust him never to pry into what he wasn't authorized to know... that's a big chunk of what pushed him to his final choice. And it is so very easy to see Denzel in that position.

[silveraspen]

I was thinking of Tuskegee as well.

And the motivation you ascribe -- it'll be a hell of a sensitive thing to write, but it was a hell of an awful situation in real life, and looks like the game's intended to evoke that same horror.

[camwyn]

This is actually just a part of the game's historical background. The first Fallout game takes place a good eighty or so years after Roger Maxson's time; in that game you meet his grandson, who is by now an old man and a general. The information in canon that I gave above is part of a couple of bits of info the player character can uncover long after everyone involved is dead, along with Maxson's own journal entries from the thirteen days of hell between discovering the experiments and the day the atomic bombs fell. It is very definitely intended to evoke that same horror- according to Maxson's diary not only did Colonel Spindel lock himself in his office and have a breakdown, but the others of Maxson's unit started rioting when they saw what had been done behind their backs. When they find out that this was all done under government orders, they officially declare themselves in mutiny and full secession from the United States- and the crowning element of the 'something is badly badly wrong' is that nothing happens. The world is so screwed up by that point that the War Department can't be bothered to respond in any way. Three days later the bombs fall and it's a moot point, but... yeah. That whole time period is meant to be nightmare from beginning to end for anybody with any kind of decency. It's very much a 'now we are all sons of bitches' situation.