Owyn Lyons

Question's in the title, did you think Elder Lyons, despite his altruistic style of leadership, was bad for the Brotherhood?

Many of us know of the Brotherhood Outcasts, the band of renegades led by Paladin Henry Casdin (later ranked Protector) who split from the Lyons Brotherhood of Steel in 2277. Many of us also know how the Brotherhood likes to operate, with chapters being able to interpret their beliefs as they wish on the condition that they fulfil their mission.

The Brotherhood Outcasts split from the main force because they felt that Owyn Lyons had "gone native", and that they were not carrying out their mission.

"The Brotherhood came out here to recover technology from the eastern cities and bases. If Lyons won't do it, then we will."

-Henry Casdin

The Brotherhood Outcasts left the Citadel and took a vast array of technology with them, considered stolen by the Lyons Brotherhood. Despite the Brotherhood's official stance on the Outcasts, we see in the Citadel that a few are actually sympathetic of Outcast views. We further see in the future that many members of Maxson's Brotherhood in 2287 had some pretty harsh views on Lyons.

"I'm proud to be serving under Elder Maxson. I had enough of Lyons and his foolish ways." -Brotherhood Dialogue (Fallout 4)

The Brotherhood Outcasts, as far as we know, were eventually let back into the Brotherhood in the Capital Wasteland when Arthur Maxson negotiated with them.

Many of the Brotherhood Outcasts felt that the wastelanders should be left to their fates, as it was not the duty to protect every local settlement.

"We didn't worry about saving individual communities. We worried about saving the progress of humanity itself." -Henry Casdin

They felt their express duty in the Capital Wasteland was to collect technology.

"After all, they say, everyone knows how to make another human, but the secrets to making a P94 Plasma Rifle are all but lost" -Owyn Lyons

The Brotherhood Outcasts disobeyed orders from their Elder, an act of treason, however they did so with the intention of regaining contact with the Elders back West.

"And when we resume contact with the Western Elders, Lyons is going to be put in his place. Even if that place is in front of a firing squad"

-Henry Casdin

The Elders back West have arguably more authority than Lyons, with the High Elder being absolute. The Outcasts did not betray them. In fact, it can be stated by the Head Scribe that actually it was Owyn Lyons that disobeyed orders and was not true to the Brotherhood's mission.

"He's in charge of this detachment, yes. He's not in charge of the Brotherhood. As loyal as I am to the man, I can't overlook the fact that he disobeyed orders, and it cost us. The West Coast cut us off completely, once they saw what was going on. So now we're on our own. No communications, no reinforcements." -Reginald Rothchild

So, we have a force that disobeyed a disobedient Elder on the grounds of principle and loyalty to their organisation's core beliefs. They are not ostracised or called traitors by the overarching Brotherhood chain of command back West. We see that the Brotherhood have beliefs concerning protecting humanity and its progress, but also that they have a duty to preserve and protect technology from abuse. The latter usually takes precedent in most cases of Brotherhood chapters, with Brotherhood soldiers believing they are indirectly saving humanity and its future.

In this way, the Brotherhood Outcast splinter faction could be seen as a more comparable representation to the West Coast Brotherhood.

When asked about the original Brotherhood back West, Casdin has this to say:

"We were collecting still-glowing embers from the ashes of humanity, before civilisations fire died completely."

We see in 2287 that Arthur Maxson takes many lessons of compassion and duty from Lyons, having been fostered by him. However, we also see the Brotherhood in Fallout 4 behaves much more like the Outcasts, with reminiscient "Black and Red" armour. Their members show a more gruff, no nonsense approach and are dismissive of those who are not Brotherhood, very much like the Brotherhood Outcasts.

"If you're not Brotherhood, you're nothing".

-Brotherhood Dialogue if you have not joined (Fallout 4)

However, one could argue that in an army, this is an act of desertion. Also, if members were allowed to leave and form different groups whenever they didn't agree with their Elder, the Brotherhood chapters would struggle to exist.

So, my question to all of you is, what do you think of this? Do you think that the Brotherhood Outcasts were justified? Do you support or condemn their actions? Do you also agree with the fact that they were let back into the Brotherhood, and that some traitors might be lurking amongst the Brotherhood in Fallout 4?