J.O.I.N.: The Journal of Interactive Narratives

Wise Fool on Radio: Three Dog’s Role as Shakespearian Jester in Fallout 3
 by Timothy H. Smith

            Early in Fallout 3 the host of Galaxy News Radio (GNR) introduces himself as “Three Dog—jockey of discs and teller of truth.” He explains his interest in “fighting the Good Fight” and believes his broadcasts provide a necessary contrast to Enclave Radio’s propaganda. He presumes (correctly) that Enclave President John Henry Eden has less than admirable intentions and aims to “tell the Wastelanders what time is it is.” But the oftentimes silly dissident is more than a merely amusing distraction for players; he is also the narrative’s self-reflexive centerpiece. Through his commentary and song selections he actually functions much like Shakespeare’s famous fools, enriching, contextualizing, and commenting upon the game’s central narrative.

Three Dog

            Discussing the jester’s role in King Lear, Lawrence Green writes, “The Fool is continually focusing on Lear from different directions which shift as quickly as Lear responds to them” (Green 261). In Fallout 3, Three Dog similarly reacts to the player-controlled Lone Wanderer. His response to the character’s taking a break from the main quest to find the Declaration of Independence for the Capitol Preservation Society is perhaps most illustrative of his humorous—but insightful—reflections on the character’s decisions: “The kid has recovered one of this country's most important historical artifacts—the Declaration of Independence. Huzzah! The time of British oppression is finally over! Now we can finally turn our attention to the super mutants, raiders, and radscorpions.” Three Dog’s reports on events’ ramifications also remind the Lone Wanderer of his influence (or lack thereof) across the Capitol Wasteland. For example, should the player fail to save a town from super mutants, Three Dog will broadcast, “Now, I've got new reports from the settlement known as Big Town. Somethin' about super mutants takin' residents prisoner... All I know is the kid could have helped, and didn't. Nice going, asshole.” On a smaller scale he will refer to the character’s general reputation, calling him the “Scourge of Humanity” or “Ambassador of Peace,” among several other possibilities.

And while he may not sing self-reflexive songs like his predecessors—such as Feste does throughout Twelfth Night—Three Dog does jockey songs that resonate consonantly within the Fallout universe. The Ink Spots’ “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire,” for example, speaks to the game’s central conflict between personal interest and communal responsibility as early as the first cinematic. The song’s opening lyrics, “I don’t want to set the world on fire/ I just want to start a flame in your heart,” mirror the initial position of the Lone Wanderer, who has been chased out of his comfy underground vault into a harsh nuclear wasteland. Exiting Vault 101, the Wanderer seeks out his father for answers but finds himself forced into a struggle over water sources. As competing influences pull him in different directions, he loses any hope for a pleasant, anonymous lifestyle with the last remaining member of his family. And with his father’s eventual death he has nothing left to do but act as possible messiah. The verse’s lyrics, “I’ve lost all ambition for worldly acclaim./ I just want to be the one you love./ And with your admission that you feel the same,/ I’ll have reached the goal I’m dreaming of,” therefore function ironically, as the Wanderer ultimately has no choice but to “set the world on fire”—one way or another. Such is the tragedy of the song’s inclusion, for his personal interest is inevitably squashed by the responsibility he has thrust upon him. Becoming either hero or villain of the wastes is his only option, thereby furthering the irony that the world has already been set on fire literally, anyway. 

            Other songs on Three Dog’s GNR reflect less on the plot but do contextualize the Lone Wanderer’s unpleasant quest. Danny Kaye’s “Civilization” progresses from the position of a person in the jungle unwilling to move to the cities, singing, “Bingle, bangle, bungle I'm so happy in the jungle, I refuse to go./
Don't want no bright lights, false teeth, doorbells, landlords, I make it clear/ That no matter how they coax him, I'll stay right here.” In a clear case of dramatic irony, the song, which was written before the war, presents a cynical view of civilization that civilization has since justified with nuclear destruction: “They have things like the atom bomb,/ 
So I think I'll stay where I ahm
./ Civilization, I'll stay right here.” Also on GNR, Roy Brown’s “Butcher Pete” accentuates the game’s violent aesthetic: “Butcher Pete’s got a long sharp knife
. /He starts choppin’ and don’t know when to stop
. / All you fellas gotta watch your wives/ 
‘Cause Pete don’t care whose meat he chops.” This story of a man chopping women like meat mirrors the behavior of raiders and slavers the Wanderer meets throughout the Wastes (and potentially even the player himself, should he choose to act malevolently).

As a DJ trying to “always dazzle ‘em and spread the word,” Three Dog is thus jockeying in a way that jives with A. J. Close’s succinct definition of Shakespeare’s fools, who are “connoisseurs of the different species of human folly, and are adept at demonstrating, by urbane satire, that their fellow-men are as much fools as they” (Close 350). Basically, Fallout 3’s Three Dog may be goofy and bark foolishly, but at least he barks wisdom, allowing the Wanderer (and by extension the player) to reflect on his behaviors in much the same way one of Shakespeare’s wise fools provoke thought among a production’s participants. His character ultimately reminds people that effective storytelling techniques transcend particular artistic mediums and work in literature and interactive platforms alike.

[Final Note: It is therefore unadvisable for those wishing to explore Fallout 3’s narrative fully to shoot Three Dog with a laser pistol.]

Sources

Close, A. J. “Sancho Panza: Wise Fool.” The Modern Language Review Vol. 68, No. 2 
           (Apr., 1973), pp. 344-357

Fallout 3. Version 1.7.03. July 31, 2009. Bethesda Softworks. June 2011.

Green, Lawrence D. “Where’s My Fool? Some Consequences of the Omission of the Fool 
           in Tate’s Lear.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 Vol. 12, No. 2, Elizabethan 
           and Jacobean Drama (Spring, 1972), pp. 259-274