u/GYROMOMENT

The fallout show completely destroyed the setting of the West Coast in the franchise. People will say that it's been fifteen years since New Vegas, and that fans of the game, and the older games in general(1,2,3) don't actually want the setting to change. That's true actually, they don't like it when things that have been built up over nearly twenty years and multiple entries in the franchise are destroyed for spectacle, and shallow fan service.

The most obvious point of this is the fact that the Great Khans are still around fifteen years after the events of New Vegas. In NV, the Great Khans were essentially on their last legs and way past their prime as a force in the Mojave. They lost the Battle of New Vegas to the newly formed Three Families and House's securitrons, and got chased down and nearly wiped out at Bitter Springs by the NCR. In New Vegas they are stuck essentially in Red Rock Canyon as a proxy force for Caesar’s Legion, and the main supplier of drugs for the Fiends. Also, the Great Khans in most of their endings besides one where they leave the Mojave for Wyoming, they either assimilate into the Legion and lose their identity, side with the NCR and put on a reservation, die either through a speech check by the Courier saying that they never had honor or glory, or just dying out due to being on the losing side of the war in the Mojave. So why are they still around, and in Novac of all places? Red Rock Canyon is more defensible than Novac since it literally has one entrance most people would know about. And in addition, I guess they also turned the Dinky around too, since they can’t use that as a sniper's nest. And to add insult to injury they are stated to be in Shady Sands, but we see Shady Sands in season 1 and there isn't even a memento of Khans there. In fact apparently the Khans are such a threat that Lacerta Legate counts them as threats to the Legion alongside the NCR and Brotherhood of Steel. The only reason why the showrunners did this was to dangle a faction from the game to the audience and do a very cynical in house joke about the Khans nearly being wiped out by the fallout protagonist(The Vault Dweller, Chosen One, Courier Six and now Lucy and The Ghoul) but ultimately surviving by the skin of their teeth. On a minor note, they didn't even do the joke right, the Great Khans would be known by a different name just how their name evolves from the Khans/Khans of New California to the New Khans to the Great Khans.

Another example of this is the NCR. Throughout season one and two until the final episode its main very clear that the NCR hasn't functioned as a nation state ever since their capital got nuked, and that new settlements like Filly, and groups like the Knights of San Fernando are operating in core NCR territory with impunity and even wipe out Griffith Observatory's NCR remnants led Moldaver, and this defeat was framed as the last hurrah of the NCR. There is no mention of their other cities or territories like Arroyo, New Reno or Redding. Maximus in season one when at Shady Sands says “it didn't work out.”  In season two during a meeting between Quintus and Maximus a map of the West Coast can be seen, and it outlines the territories of the major players in the region. The two warring Legion factions and each of the Brotherhood chapters are on the map, but the NCR is not. And the Ghoul when talking to the NCR soldier and Ranger seen in season 2, tells them off and says it's been fifteen years when the NCR soldiers tried to appeal to the good the NCR represents and does. When the Ghoul goes to Camp Golf, it's clearly abandoned and left in ruins. But then during the finale, a magical battalion comes in and saves Maximus from being killed by the deathclaws. The problem comes in where the battalion is stated to be from the east, which is Legion territory. And if the Legion is still at war with the NCR they would fight this battalion and or make mention of them, and not be surprised by the Ghoul telling them that the two NCR soldiers are still the Mojave. Also how are they being resupplied, how are they maintaining their firearms and other gear. Whose paying them? The NCR isn't some holistic army, nor are they fantical like the Legion, so how was this battalion still a functioning unit after fifteen years without pay and resupply? Only Ymir Knows.

The Brotherhood of Steel has been reduced to the meme of them stealing toasters and pulleys for being too advanced for the average wastelanders and being hysterical morons. The Western Brotherhood is supposed to be a rigid, declining power whose traditions are killing them slowly while new powers like the NCR, Legion and Vegas are replacing and beating them. In juxtaposition to the Western Brotherhood is the Eastern and Midwestern who are largely successful in representing an evolution of the Brotherhood's ideology. The Eastern Brotherhood does allow outsiders to join their organization and will destroy technology they find to be too dangerous. The Midwestern Brotherhood does much the same to a more “liberal” extent by accepting anything with a pulse in their ranks, and forming a neo feudal empire in the Midwest. In New Vegas in Veronica's companion quest, no matter the Elder or the technology shown to this Elder, they never accept Veronica's idea of evolving, citing the Codex. Veronica says “we'll die” and the Elder will either say “I know.” or seethe about HELIOS ONE. Now with a fifteen year gap, and the NCR's decline, it makes sense for the Western Brotherhood to make a “comeback”. 

And it even makes sense for a chapter like the Knights of San Fernando to exist. But the show doesn't do anything too interesting with them, in fact it makes them comically stupid with them playing with LIVE grenades or not knowing what sex is. This chapter is supposed to lean more into the quasi religious reverence the Brotherhood has for technology, with their scribes being Clerics and Knights having Catholic and pagan influenced rituals prior to battles and being promoted to knighthood. But they allow a pristine car to be destroyed for shits and giggles. It would be one thing if the other schismatic chapters did that, and the Knights of San Fernando objected to it. But they did not. “Oh it's supposed to show how far the BoS has fallen” The Brotherhood outside of 3 were never inherently good guys, and only did good things out of what would be good for them. Even in 3 the Brotherhood shoots ghouls on sight, and wipes out most of the Pitt(which is fair enough). It would just make the most logical sense for a radical Western chapter of the Brotherhood like the Knights of San Fernando to care about technology. The other Brotherhood chapters are insanely childish in their beliefs(atheists essentially in comparison to San Fernando, robot fuckers and misogynists). The funny thing about the Coronado chapter is that their entire belief in not allowing women in their chapter is made fun of in Tactics. After the Brahmin Wood mission a tribal tries to convince his sister not to join the Brotherhood and lies to her saying that they only accept men. Also when Quintus summons the other West Coast chapters to plot against the Eastern BoS  the Lost Hills, the Mojave and Montana chapters are all absent. And apparently they have the manpower and intelligence to attempt to build their own liberty prime, have their Prydwens and wear T-60 PA cause I guess Brotherhood chapters having their own aesthetic is a no go. How is it the Eastern BoS from 4 needs cold fusion to fight their mystery enemy in the Commonwealth when in their ending the Institute and Railroad are both destroyed, and the Minutemen are led by Nate, who's also a Sentinel in the Brotherhood in their ending. So I guess the raiders with pipe pistols got upscaled.

For Caesar’s Legion, and Mr House/Vegas in general, they are essentially there for fan service more so than anything. The Legion is there for Hank to explain his idiotic ideology to Lucy and for Lucy to espouse the writer’s incest fetish(Imagine walking into a Roman larper camp where they are torturing people openly and arguing about who’s gonna get the rights to marriage with you, and you mention the fact you had sex with your cousins), and to set up for season 3’s conflict with the NCR. Though the problem lies in the fact that in the state the Legion is in, they shouldn't even be a threat really, they were playing King of the Hill over Caesar’s corpse for 15 years. Which is an entirely separate issue since Caesar dies in his bed after suffering from his brain tumor, and in which Lanius becomes Caesar. So where does that leave the succession crisis as portrayed in the show? Why is Caesar’s corpse in a ditch when he died surrounded by the praetorian guards and Vulpes? It would be one thing if the civil war was ignited by Lanius trying to get rid of the Frumentarii, since he has a disdain for their tactics, and Vulpes, being a snake and opportunist, revolts. But it's a general succession crisis that should lead to basically a warring states period for the Legion realistically. For House and Vegas, I don’t even know why he was brought back. He died "multiple times” to presumably the Courier which shouldn’t be possible unless the House in the show is Yes Man, but that would be completely dumb(since Victor is still up and running, and Yes Man wouldn’t need to larp as House lol). The Independent and House endings in Vegas hinge on the upgraded securitron army to be able to project force against the NCR. But it's very obvious that the securitron army is destroyed and not relevant since the Platinum chip isn’t mentioned, nor is Hoover Dam in season 2. Also the Strip is in ruins and House’s whole plan wouldn’t be able to put into motion, and since the larger NCR is seemingly also destroyed, which is another integral part of his plan for a better future. 

So at the end of season 2, the whole fifteen years cope falls apart since we are essentially repeating the events of New Vegas and I would also argue 3. Except this time the Enclave returned, since it's what Clara would have wanted. In another one of their super secret base in Colorado. The Brotherhood again is rebuilding a Liberty Prime, and will obviously be the one to fight the Enclave for a “Bad Meets Evil” moment in season 3. There will be a third battle of Vegas but without any of the actual reasonings for it like the last time. How would House project power and influence without Freeside’s support(who support the NCR for some reason even though they were basically a foreign power abusing them), and no securitron army? Why would the NCR care about the Mojave when their homeland is in ruins and they would logically have more support there(the NCR had a million citizens by the time of NV). So the only one with an actual reason to conquer Vegas is the Legion due to them wanting to honor the previous Caesar, and for Lacerta to gain legitimacy, but honestly that's just me writing for the writers. The show runners legitimately just agree with The Master on how there’s no hope for the wasteland, and threw away interesting ideas for easy fan service, and spectacle.