The Courier and the Divide

[TheBlueKidd]

I'm not sure if this has been addressed before (my apologies if it has), but it's something that's always confused me. The Lonsome Road DLC attempts to add some back story to our ambiguous protagonist. Ulysses suggests that the Courier has a huge connection to the Divide, but in game dialogue options make it seem like the Courier doesn't even remember the place or know what Ulysses is talking about. Of course Ulysses being traumatized over the destruction of the Divide and his obsession with the Courier drove him a little bit off the deep end, so it could just be the ramblings of a deeply disturbed man clinging to the past and not knowing who to blame.

 

The wiki says "However, eventually, a small survivalist community established itself in the area, created by the Courier. Kept alive, it prospered, and more settlers moved into the new city. It prospered enough in fact, to draw the attention of the New California Republic, who began to annex it swiftly for a newly established supply line across the treacherous Divide into the Mojave Wasteland."

 

"These actions drew the attention of the Caesar's Legion, which, in its bid to take the Mojave, attempted to cut the new supply line (the Long 15 and New Canaan were the two first), sending Frumentarii and assassins to explore the area after a sizeable force of legionaries struck against the Republic's forces located there. But this war did not destroy the settlement. That was the work of the Courier, who, returning to the Divide again, carried a package from Navarro by order of the NCR, containing the activated ICBM detonator to the Divide, a short time before the NCR and the Legion jumped to each other's throat. When this device was close enough, it remote linked with the ICBM computers, sending a signal to the dormant nuclear missiles lying in the silos beneath the ground. They then began detonating one after another, splitting the earth, cracking and twisting the landscape, causing massive earthquakes. Entire companies of NCR soldiers in the Divide were trapped together with their Legion foes. The disaster created the Divide as it exists now: a wind-beaten maze of twisting canyons, skin-flaying dust storms and horrific abominations."

So we know that the Courier had been through there enough to get people to start settling in the area (or possibly founded the settlement themselves?), and if the wiki article is correct that means the Courier had to be near the Divide when the missiles were launched and destroyed the Divide. They must have been in the area and escaped or were just close enough to observe the destruction without being in harms way. My question is, why wouldn't the Courier remember the Divide or its unfortunate fate? The amnesia argument is invalid because Obsidian has confirmed that the Courier did not suffer memory loss after being shot by Benny.

Edited August 11, 2013 by TheBlueKidd

[scottmack]

Either Ulysses is a crazy habitual liar, Or its just a product of bad writing. Dont think anyone really knows.

[XTgrndr]

I'm assuming the Courier did not suffer complete amnesia, but lost some of their memories.

 

I guess some of those were about the divides.

 

With some cases of amnesia, it's not unknown to forget most of your past, but still be able to function in society normally.

 

In particular, your skills are the thing you will retain most, due to some quirk of neurophysiology.

For example, being able to write, talk, shoot, whatever even if you can't remember how and where you learned these things.

[TailAbNormal]

Actually, The courier never knew about the settlement. He was just the 1st person to ever cross the Divide and survive.

The People who followed his route created the settlement, and Ulysses eventually found his way there and made It his home.

 

The only way the Courier could've not known about all this is if right after he passed through the Divide the 1st time to deliver whatever It was he was delivering, he left to return home. Then, after the settlement in the divide was created, the courier returned for a 2nd time, Activating the missiles along his path.

 

Since the Courier had no idea It was his fault the divide was destroyed, It only makes sense that the Nukes went off sometime after he left, And that nobody had any idea they had ever been activated.

[peadar1987]

I think the wiki has it wrong. I recently played Lonesome Road paying special attention to what Ulysses was saying. From what I can see:

 

-The Courier used to work in California (several dialogue options reference this)

 

-The courier used to deliver to the divide from the west, before the explosions (this would explain all of Ulysses' talk about the courier "creating" the community. They didn't actually found it, but the deliveries and trade they and their colleagues brought helped make it prosperous. It also explains why the courier doesn't recognise the divide. Not only has it been changed beyond recognition by the explosions, they've also only ever approached it from the west before)

 

-One of the deliveries the courier made was the package that set off the weapons. If there was a delay of a few days before it was activated, the courier would have been a long way off. The explosions would have been underground, so no mushroom clouds, the courier would only have felt an earthquake, and they're hardly uncommon on the west coast.

 

I don't think it's particularly clear, especially with all of Ulysses' talk of "home", but he quite often has strange ideas, and phrases them in even stranger ways.

 

Anyway, that's how it makes the most sense to me!

[wabbawabbajack]

I think most people make the mistake of taking Ulysses' words as gospel and don't question the truth of what he says to you. He strikes me as someone reasonably intelligent who recently underwent a great trauma in his life and as a result has a propensity to exaggerate, rationalize and distort events. Despite his badass status, Ulysses is a broken man who's seen first hand the bloody result of his actions, of acting for Caesar, of reliving the past and blames you for destroying his "home."

[Moraelin]

Well, in my Courier's case, I think it was her finding a computer game on a computer in a bunker and trying to play it that caused the mishap. The game was called "Missile Command" :tongue:

 

Of course, having the launch codes might have played a part in that too.

[phoneyLogic]

As far as I understood, the Courier has no memories about what happened before he got shot in the intro. And I also believe that the courier was some kind of a paragon for Ulysses. At the point, the Currier messed up with the devide, Ulysses may have had to make some sense with it. But I could be wrong, its been a long time since I played LR last. Edited October 11, 2013 by tortured Tomato

[charwo]

I;m under the impression that the Courier's memory is slightly Swiss Cheesed from the shooting. As in most of the character's life is remembered but this incident was not. Although, in my Courier's case it's slightly different: Theresa remembers all too well what happened in the Divide, she knows that the package did it, but she also doesn't believe it was the package itself. That lost technology would have been logically delivered into an NCR scientific outpost, and they would have to have set it off as canonically, the Courier was well away from the Divide when it blew up. For Theresa, her responses to Ulysses were partial lies intended not to further antagonize him.

[Relios]

Im sorry but....if the courier in fact didn't suffer from memory-loss, why is it that (depending on how you go, of course) the courier basically spends the first quarter of the game just trying to find out who shot them, despite the fact that they stare down the culprits for about half a minute before being shot? Why does he/she need descriptions of the two largest factions in the west, despite being a proficient courier? You're telling me that someone that has been carrying packages from California to Nevada doesn't know who the hell the NCR, Caesar's Legion, Brotherhood of Steel, or Enclave are? For the sake of gameplay and easing you into the story, you ARE playing as an amnesiac. (Kind of conflicting that Doc Mitchell asks for a medical history.....)