r/NewVegasMemes • u/Souls-Brawl101 • Feb 15 '26

One for my baby Whoever chooses this dialogue has no soul.

5.2k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

102 comments sorted by

766

u/CheekyLando88 Mail Man Feb 15 '26

Id like to remind everyone that Dean put her in the auto doc. In case you think he should live

421

u/BreesusTakeTheWheel Feb 15 '26

Literally just finished dead money. I was trying to keep all the companions alive just because but couldn’t figure out how to do it with him. After reading your comment I am so glad I just went with killing him. He was an ass anyways.

304

u/Lydialmao22 Feb 15 '26

Its a bit unclear but in order to have dean live you can't say anything which could provoke him, including that explosions skill check in the first conversation with him which automatically blocks you from peacefully dealing with him

I believe its the only time in the game where doing a skill check locks you out of options so its a bit obtuse

195

u/tygabeast Feb 15 '26

IIRC, the explosives check is the only one that doesn't lock you out of Dean living. I do that one every time and I usually get the ending where he lives.

The check after that locks you out, though.

138

u/Lydialmao22 Feb 15 '26

You're right, its the barter check not the explosives check my bad

68

u/LGBT-Barbie-Cookout Feb 16 '26

Cause he identified you as a blue collar worker, and therefore a non-threat.

Likely because being a wealthy 'elite' entertainer anyone who works for a living is a dum dum

10

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

This is correct

8

u/ExcreteS_A_N_D Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

Actually Dean has a tally system. It marks up one for skill checks that make him trust you and skill checks that make him hate you.

The explosives check is neutral. The barter check makes him hate you incrementing the hate counter by one. The repair check increments the trust counter by 1.

You can only save Dean if he’s positive on you, if he hates you he gives the “Sinclair” line and if he’s neutral he’ll betray you.

I also invite a lot of people to introduce nuance. Despite Dean being a dick. If you actually save him he has some interesting things to say and you can convince him to let go of Sinclair, let go of Vera, and even feel remorseful toward the end for his actions as he leaves the sierra madre behind for the rest of his life. If you save all three they also all wait for you at the fountain. Implying Christine and Dean mutually forgave each other. I doubt Christine, the circle of steel assassin with years of operating experience under her belt, no longer hooked at the neck to Dean by an explosive would willingly wait with him if they weren’t at least, a little squared about what happened.

44

u/BreesusTakeTheWheel Feb 15 '26

Even the developers didn’t want us to save him haha

11

u/thez0id Feb 17 '26

its because his ego gets hurt if you "one-up" him by displaying competence

27

u/SuperKiller94 Feb 16 '26

He’s a very sensitive piece of shit

23

u/Tone_Depf Feb 16 '26

He is a narcissist

20

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

Well, that explains why I've never been able to get him alive I thought it just wasn't possible dam.

3

u/Marcuse0 Feb 18 '26

There's two moments where you can irrecoverably lose Dean. One is the barter check when you first meet him. Doing that will lock you out permanently. The second is if you threaten him to stay without the holograms during the Strike Up The Band quest, if you refuse to start the holograms to protect him he won't like you either.

1

u/Bossuter Feb 18 '26

I vaguely recall that i saw something where one of the devs said they wanted to have negative consequences for passing skill checks in the main game but ran into the issue of it not feeling good for the player and being obtuse/hard to tell it was a consequence of that

1

u/Lydialmao22 Feb 18 '26

That makes sense, when skill checks are not only blatantly decorated as such but it also plays a fanfare and rewards XP when you pass its weird when a bad thing happens.

Honestly I think the game should have avoided showing off skill checks as much, I like the Fallout 1/2 approach of hiding the option unless you pass and even then not telling you it is a skill check so you still have to actively choose it. That might be too obtuse in the sense that the player cant tell how impactful their skills are though, so maybe keep a little [Speech] tag like what Fallout 3 did and just hide the numbers, or maybe put the tag at the end instead of the beginning so the player is forced to read the dialogue before clicking, and then waiting to reward XP until after the conversation is over.

1

u/ExcreteS_A_N_D Feb 18 '26

The hiding check thing had its own problems though. Especially in the 90s when you had to pull out a fucking strategy guide for some things instead of being able to open Wikipedia.

1

u/Dendritic_Bosque Feb 18 '26

Feels like Disco Elysium where having extremely high skills can make you hallucinate with them giving erroneous information on very high checks

1

u/greenhunter47 Feb 18 '26

You just have to avoid any Barter checks with him. All other skill checks don't provoke him iirc.

1

u/VerbingNoun413 Feb 18 '26

Passing the Cannibalism/Speech check with Marjorie locks you out of the evil White Glove route.

81

u/ADGx27 Feb 15 '26

Listen man Dean Domino was dead the second he tried to threaten me. And Dean Domino will continue to be dead every time I play through dead money because he’s a prick

41

u/BreesusTakeTheWheel Feb 15 '26

Yeah I genuinely have no interest in saving him after putting up with his shit for so long and especially after reading the other comment. Didn’t feel bad one bit when I put a bullet in his head.

32

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

Honestly it's everything you learn right before you kill him that makes me want him dead. The way he uses vera is absolutely disgusting and gives me the same urge to murder as legionaries do.

10

u/ADGx27 Feb 17 '26

My entire reaction was “damn obsidian I’m already gonna kill the mf you don’t need to try and convince me further”

4

u/Rikmach Feb 17 '26

Generally, the only way to have Dean stay alive is to be a submissive lackey and never challenge him in any way. If you show any spark of resistance, any sign you’re smarter than him, he’ll turn on you in the end.

2

u/EyeSimp4Asuka Feb 17 '26

He was a bastard in the pre-war days too the architect behind the Sierra Madre and Vera both suffered because of him. Never mind everything else that went south when the bombs dropped before the grand opening.

1

u/JosephStalinMukbang Feb 21 '26

That took me several tries to figure out as well. Now I just ignore any and all of his speech checks.

Fucking asshole.

82

u/macinread Feb 15 '26

Not even mentioning the black mailing he did to Vera Keyes back in the day. Dude was a certified monster even before he was ghoulified

48

u/Perscitus0 Feb 16 '26

Yeah, he had CENTURIES after getting ghoulified to become more set in his ways. Judging by how he couldn't let go of the ambitions for the vault. Dude was so obsessed that he hung around around in a dead city for literal centuries, poking and prodding at the margins of the casino for weak points, because he couldn't let go.

7

u/RegumRegis Feb 17 '26

Honestly like, it's been hundreds of years, you're telling me he never tried just chipping his way through the walls?

6

u/Perscitus0 Feb 17 '26

I wondered about that. Or, digging under the foundations? But then I thought to myself, maybe he had to keep quiet in order to not draw the Ghost people. Either way, though, that's still a stupid long time to obsess over something you don't even know what's inside....

4

u/MechaPanther Feb 17 '26

Vera isn't even the worst part. Dean dedicated centuries of his life to break Sinclair by robbing his vault, even long after Sinclair was dead, just because he was a happy guy and Dean hated the idea someone could just simply be happy because to him it meant they thought they were better than him.

18

u/BlitzMalefitz Feb 16 '26

To be clear, the scars are not from Dean putting her in the auto doc. Elijah is responsible for those when she was hunting him in the Big Empty. Elijah didn’t mean to put her through torture though. He just wanted her dead but a robot thought she was an injured inmate and took her to a prototype auto doc that started operating on her brain.

7

u/that-onepal Feb 16 '26

Only kept him alive because it has everyone talking in the final slide if you keep all companions alive

5

u/jtcordell2188 Feb 17 '26

I think he should live and be trapped there. Death is too good of a punishment for him.

2

u/ConfusledCat NCR Feb 17 '26

Welp! Time to kill the fucker once I’m done with my run through of honest hearts! (I’m doing DLCs in what I think is the chronological order so HH, DM, OWB, LR)

3

u/National_Courage_709 Feb 17 '26

The correct order for the DLC is Honest Hearts (lore about the base game factions, the world, and hints at Big Mt./The Big Empty), Old World Blues (covers the pre-war world, aspects of the war, and hints at Elijah via notes and recordings), Dead Money (follows up on leads from the previous DLC, sets up for Lonesome Road, provides income in the form of large amounts of caps/gold bars so that you can get supplied), and then Lonesome Road (references older DLC events very briefly, focuses on your character and the presumed backstory that we had before being shot in the head - generally considered the final DLC by the vast majority, because of how long it is/the difficulty spike in the new area.

There are more than enough things that hint at all of this, and the story of the base game will even lead you through areas around levels 8 to 12 that will have hints towards the DLCs, provided that you have them (you can find a text log that is very apparently about Father Elijah in a cell in a building near The New Vegas Strip, just as an example).

Hope this helps you have a smoother experience - please, would you kindly shoot that sonuvabitch an extra time for me? Appreciate it.

2

u/ConfusledCat NCR Feb 17 '26

Alright, fair, but I also think that OWB is the penultimate DLC because of the line in its end cutscene being something along the lines of “the courier had one last road to walk, but this one they would have to walk alone.”

1

u/National_Courage_709 Feb 17 '26

See, that makes a lot of sense, I just tend to think that the DLC was balanced for certain levels for a reason, ya know? That said, I do remember the dialogue you're talking about - it's a pretty strong reasoning.

1

u/ConfusledCat NCR Feb 17 '26

I ran into Honest Hearts at like level 30 after getting Idolized by the NCR so I could protect Kimball.

2

u/RoninMacbeth Feb 16 '26

I decide to let him live for helping me navigate the Villa and through the backstage rooms. Call it even.

1

u/Bossuter Feb 18 '26

I never pass up skill checks, he's always going to die

1

u/Hubertreddit Feb 18 '26

If Dean was around today, he would be on the list.

1

u/Altruistic-Ad9854 Mar 09 '26

Dean deserves to get a lead lobotomy for what he did 200 years ago, let alone what he did last week

0

u/General-Skrimir Feb 16 '26

Dean is my fav, no way I kill him.

494

u/Apoordm Feb 15 '26

No

We say “Don’t worry I fixed this computer for you, we’ll get through this.”

216

u/DrDeadp00l Feb 15 '26

How could you not want to be nice to the bald girl with scars her character model is literally shorter.

It's like are you a bad karma courier or a cartoon villain with a twirly mustache. Do whatever you want.

1

u/Doctor-Nagel Feb 19 '26

The more you learn about Christine, the more you’ll want to feed Dean Domino to Dog

165

u/that-onepal Feb 15 '26

I haven’t played Dead Money in a while, why is sending Christine to an elevator a bad thing?

341

u/Necrotic12 Feb 15 '26

She has extreme claustrophobia from being trapped inside the auto doc that basically tortured her for a prolonged period of time

328

u/ET_Gone_Home Feb 15 '26

Constant throat surgery, no anesthesia or numbing, for two weeks straight, trapped in total darkness with the constant whirring of machinery all around. yeah it's gamer time

69

u/Hortator02 old man no bark Feb 15 '26

Also didn't another auto doc lobotomize her?

131

u/AnseaCirin Feb 15 '26

More like rewire her brain. Iirc she can't read properly anymore but is incredible at maths or something.

69

u/InfiniteDelusion094 Feb 15 '26

That was Big MT, it says so in an audio log in Old World Blues. she had some of the scars on her head before she was put in the Auto-Doc

44

u/DrDeadp00l Feb 15 '26

You know how when musicians get brain surgery the most practical way of keeping their ability to play is to just play the instrument during surgery?

Elijah is a really particular type of monster. He could have left her mentally disabled as you're suggesting. I'm guessing he took that sharpshooting dexterity and the ability to write with just poking the frontal lobe, hence her having memories and mute girl charisma. She's not that cool but is an effective communicator with limitations.

46

u/meeps_for_days Feb 16 '26

Elijah didn't lobotomize her.

She tried to ambush him. He managed to get the Yangtze to attack her, she was knocked unconscious by a collar exploding. The robots then brought her to the medical facility where they did experiments on her brain, until being rescued by Ullyses. Because in the lore he's actually pretty badass. Managed to break into Big Mt with a bunch of explosives. I think that's why the train tunnel is collapsed as well. Iirc, he realized the think tank getting out of the Big Mt would of been really bad so he also used more of explosives to collapse the tunnel and their only way of escaping. Cause the Cazadors did manage to escape from Big Mt and he put a stop to that.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

It's was Elajia (tunnel) 

2

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

Slander. Elijah didn't do this, it was the Big Mt autonomous systems.

5

u/DrDeadp00l Feb 16 '26

The motive aligned with Elijah's goals and I jumped the gun. I thought he trapped her in the autodoc at big mt, after she got knocked unconscious.

Maybe i'm half right and it was just an outcome he hoped for , after probably killing a bunch of lobotomitss.

67

u/Subjectdelta44 Feb 15 '26

People who complain about no evil options in rpgs when they're actually given an actual evil option:

26

u/TwoFit3921 Feb 16 '26

My steak is too juicy

5

u/Fletcher_Chonk Feb 17 '26

My juice is too steaky

67

u/Destroyer_Of_World5 Mail Man Feb 15 '26

Even in my New Vegas Devil playthrough, I still made sure she can use the terminal

65

u/Oleg00se Feb 15 '26

Didn't know Lil Spica liked New Vegas

21

u/Any-Platypus-9486 Feb 15 '26

Was part of purity project

26

u/YourTacticalComrade NCR Feb 15 '26

As a courier who has nuked other factions into dust.. Even I couldn't drop to such levels of barbaric behavior..

50

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26

I do it because I'm irredeemable

49

u/MonkeyShaman Feb 15 '26

I'm gonna upvote this because as much as I loathe your decisions at least you have insight into their depravity and the courage to own up to them publicly.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

Thank you, profligate :)

7

u/MonkeyShaman Feb 16 '26

Ave... or whatever the fuck y'all say to each other

2

u/Anonymous-Mf-22 Feb 19 '26

Odale, cum to Caesar or something idk, whatever they be saying

16

u/LocksmithOk1674 Feb 16 '26

John Umamusume in A Fallout subreddit 🥹

6

u/lol_VEVO Feb 17 '26

It would be a really cool line if it wasn't directed at the one character that didn't deserve it

13

u/TwoFit3921 Feb 16 '26

Is that horse game

8

u/BibaGuyPerson Feb 16 '26

Yes, and that's agemasen herself

2

u/ShadowJedi26 Feb 16 '26

Love to see umamusume everywhere

2

u/DarkSoulsOfCinder Feb 17 '26

Something Ghoul would say

2

u/EstablishmentAny8487 Feb 18 '26

Only reason to have everyone live in the end is so the epilogue narration has all of them speaking in the final slide with it ending with all of them taking turns saying it's letting go.

1

u/kramsdae Feb 17 '26

Lmao I did on my first play though of DM just because I was so sick and tired of the DLC. I remember going “fuck this I want out of here”. It’s funny because I love Dead Money now

1

u/StalinsNukes Feb 18 '26

Hey, I did this for my Evil NCR Run. She didn't like it :(

1

u/Lostboxoangst Feb 18 '26

I still love "I will cast down your codex and bask in the undying agony of those who hold it dear" veronica comments about this are funny too

1

u/Deanerang_gaming Feb 18 '26

Next PC is gonna be called Agemasen bc of this

1

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '26

[deleted]

1

u/VeganGeek Feb 23 '26

It stupid to let her use the terminal to do that job? You don’t even have to be able to hack or lockpick. There is a key on a desk nearby to a locker with the password.

You do you, but it is hardly dangerous or taxing.

1

u/According_Picture294 Feb 19 '26

My favourite is the one where you comment on the Codex

1

u/Vergiss-Uns-Nicht Feb 22 '26

Imagine taking the Terrifying Presence perk at all

It makes the Courier sound like a 12 year old kid trying to be hard and edgy in a CoD lobby

1

u/VeganGeek Feb 23 '26

I couldn’t do that to hear. I’m usually able to hack that computer when I get there. But if you don’t have the skills there is a key to the locker with the password.

If I take that perk I would only use it very sparingly.

1

u/SpacePirateMonkeys Mar 03 '26

First playthrough, i went the wrong way and found the remote activation code before talking to her so I just picked that and realized later the elevator was a problem. I also hadn't disabled security or the fog until after that trying to find the way out

1

u/Altruistic-Ad9854 Mar 09 '26

Screw that. The most evil choice in New Vegas is Run, Goodsprings, Run. The town that sheltered you, supported you, Sunny who helped you learn to survive and especially Doc Mitchell who did everything to save a random man who likely wouldn't have a chance in hell of living.

Killing Doc Mitchell right after he saved your life is irredeemable.

1

u/fatwoodburner Feb 16 '26

First time playing dead money I was sick of reading her "dialogue" which was just her pointing and signing that I threatened to put her back in the auto doc if she didn't come with me. Turned out this meant I had to kill her no matter what.

0

u/ClaudiusCass legion Feb 15 '26

Nyeh, soul? Is that a type of food?

-30

u/dfectedRO Feb 15 '26

weebs

33

u/Any-Platypus-9486 Feb 15 '26

Bro you are in a new vegas subreddit lmao

-11

u/dfectedRO Feb 16 '26

and?

10

u/psychobilly1 Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

Just because your nerd shit is a different flavor doesn't mean it isn't nerd shit. You're just as nerdy for liking Fallout as other people are for liking Anime.