The Fallout series has consistently managed to strike a tonal balance between being incredibly bleak, and being absurdly humorous. The best story and writing elements of Fallout often come when the game uses its unique brand of dark humor to showcase the depravity and horror of a situation, but still make it light-hearted enough to keep the player investigating.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the games' missions centered around the Vault Overseer characters. In Fallout, a large portion of humanity is still holed up inside underground bunkers called Vaults. These Vaults are governed by one ruling person known as an Overseer. While these Overseers can be moral leaders, some Vaults hide some dark secrets, and not all of Fallout's Vault Overseers can be trusted.

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Comparing the Main Vault Overseers From Each Fallout

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While their intentions may have started off well, many of Fallout's Vault Overseers tend to be blinded by power sooner or later. With Vault-Tec's indoctrination programs confirming that the Overseer is the one "whom we owe everything, including our lives," there's little to wonder about why that's the case.

Overseers aren't just there to rule the Vaults' populations. Just before the Great War, Vault-Tec designed the underground bunkers to be used for a vast assortment of human experiments, ranging from simple social experiments, to more violent and physical alterations. This widespread experimentation project was named the "Social Preservation Program."

In the first Fallout game, Jacoren, the Overseer of Vault 13, has his own role in the program, to keep his Vault locked and isolated from the rest of the world for 200 years. But, due to a water purification chip malfunction, Jacoren must send a Vault dweller to retrieve a new one. Once the Vault Dweller finds the chip and returns, Jacoren asks for a full report on the outside world.

Upon learning on the new Super Mutant faction, Jacoren tasks the Vault Dweller with finding the Super Mutant's home, and eliminating their leader, along with the ability to create more Mutants. The Vault Dweller succeeds, and returns to Vault 13, only to be met with Jacoren at the door who refuses the Dweller's entry, believing that their knowledge of the world is too dangerous, that they could influence other Vault dwellers to leave the bunker, thus rendering Vault 13's experiment a failure. But upon learning of Jacoren's decision to exile the Dweller, the populace of Vault 13 turn on him, and put him on trial, eventually finding him guilty and sentencing him to death for keeping his citizens blind.

Jacoren is not unlike Fallout 3's Alphonse Almodovar, the Overseer of Vault 101. Almodovar grew up in Vault 101 during the days in which outside exploration was simply part of everyday life. Dwellers would leave the Vault during the day, scavenge and learn what they could, and return for safety during the night. However, Almodovar's parents would constantly remind him that the outside world was dangerous, a place to be feared. This soon led to Almodovar's core belief being that Vault 101 should isolate from the rest of the world.

At some point during Almodovar's adult life, Vault 101's previous Overseer went missing in the Wasteland, and Almodovar stepped up, meeting very little resistance from the rest of the Vault. Almodovar used the fear surrounding the Wasteland and the missing Overseer to initiate his plan to lock the Vault for good, but not before letting in a physician and his child. This isolationism eventually leads to his downfall, as during an escape attempt, that child confronts the Overseer, and is forced to kill him in order to leave the Vault.

While Fallout 4's Vault 111 Overseer had a different goal in mind, once again, isolation would prove to be his downfall. Vault 111's Overseer was tasked by Vault-Tec to keep his Vault's inhabitants in cryostasis, leaving only a team of researchers and security personnel awake.

Vault-Tec had given the Overseer orders to not open the Vault until either they had received an all-clear message, or it had been 180 days since the bombs dropped. With a total lack of communication from the outside world, and with the Overseer refusing to answer any questions, the security team grew frustrated. This frustration reached boiling point when the Overseer locked the door to the Vault, and hoarded the remaining rations in his office, causing the security personnel to rebel, eventually leading to the Overseer's death.

On the other end of the spectrum, Vault 76's Overseer takes it upon herself to journey deep into the Wasteland, encouraging the dwellers of Vault 76 to do the same. While she was tasked with Vault-Tec to find three nuclear silos across Virginia, she spends a great deal of her time attempting to discover what happened to the various factions across the Wasteland. Upon discovering that civil unrest quickly led to war between the factions, and upon seeing human settlers returning to Appalachia, the Overseer returns to Vault 76's inhabitants, leading them once again, but allowing them to journey freely across the Wasteland.

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Fallout's Side Quest Vault Overseers

The Vault 76 Overseer giving a presentation

Through Fallout's slew of side quests, players can find out about a few more Vaults across the Wasteland, and how their Overseers went about executing their assigned experiment. Fallout New Vegas' Katherine Stone, for instance, attempted to employ a democracy, whereby dwellers could vote on Vault 11's next Overseer. Unfortunately though, due to some betrayal and murder, riots quickly broke out in the Vault, eventually leading to the death of all inhabitants.

On the other hand, Vault 8's Overseer, from Fallout 2, led his people to the surface, and constructed Vault City, whose eventual democratic system led to a fair and peaceful society. Albert Leris, Vault 106's Overseer, was a member of Vault-Tec's psychological department, and was tasked with releasing psychoactive drugs to his Vault's inhabitants. This soon led to heightened aggression in the populace, and as should be expected by now, quickly led to the death of all Vault dwellers.

Some of Vault-Tec's other experiments include Vault 92's sound-based project, which saw Overseer Rubin play white noise constantly throughout his Vault. The white noise, however, contained some subliminal messages. However, not all of Vault-Tec's experiments are evil, or at least, don't appear to be. Dr. Olivette, as the Overseer of Vault 81, was tasked with finding a cure for all of humanity's various illnesses. However, she kept the Vault's true purpose a mystery in order to save the dwellers from eventual human experimentation.

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