A Fallout series fan has debunked several myths about the start of the war, the player being a synth, and Mama Murphy

A fan of the Fallout series decided to once and for all address some of the widespread myths within the community. Redditor Otherwise-Student570 on the r/Fallout subreddit thoroughly examined several popular fan theories, demonstrating their invalidity.

Specifically, they refuted the rumors that the Sole Survivor is a synth, proved the falsehood of assumptions that Mama Murphy was a scientist from the Institute who kidnapped Shaun, and also that P.A.M. instigated the Great War.

Here's what the internet detective wrote:

The Sole Survivor is a synth

The reasons are we can use VATS before the Pip-Boy. When DiMA asks us about our memories we only can answer with the bombs. And that the memories in Memory Den about Vault 111 can be fake.

The reasons why this theory is wrong are numerous. But we will focus on the important ones. First of all, when you see the whole world change literally in front of your eyes, or course that memory will be implanted in your brain and will be the one to recall immediatelly. We can only use VATS after we obtain a weapon. Meaning that it is a game mechanic and not an actual proof of replacement. Besides, the Chosen One from Fallout 2 can use VATS without the Pip-Boy. Why there are no theories about the Chosen One? Lastly, the "fake" memories in Memory Den can only be accessed with console commands and that's because the game uses the same cell for Vault 111. Plus all the Pre-War memories we have. The Institute is also Pre-War, but the current personel and even Father are not. So the chance to fabricate these fake memories and have them close to the real ones are fake. Also, if Father wanted in secret to create a Synth parent, why didn't he create the dead spouse as it was intended for the player to do?

Dogmeat is a synth

Similar to the previous one, Dogmeat is also a synth candidate. He is the only healthy dog in the Commonwealth. He is purebred and we find him in Red Rocket because the Institute placed him there.

The reason why this theory is false is because there are many more halthy and purebred dogs. Just because we don't see other german sheppards, it doesn't mean they don't exist. The developers probably wanted to make Dogmeat unique and avoid friendly fire if you fought similar dogs. The reason why he was in Red Rocker is because he went there to find a possible ally to help Mama Murphy. He is not Mama Murphy's dog, but he helped her in the past, so he can help her again.

No-Bark Noonan in the Chosen One

The reasons are the crashed Highwayman close to Novac. The That Gun that looks like a weapon from Fallout 2. And lastly, a mod adds the Armored Vault 13 Jumpsuit in the crashed Highwayman. Why a mod is used as proof? I don't know. Also something about a Molerat that taught him stuff and... he plays cards?

This is theory is false because for various reasons. The crashed Highwayman is actually too far and if you look the map on the wiki, nor Novac is visible from the Crashed Highwayman, nor the Crashed Highwayman from Novac. So that means that it is not close. Also it is more possible for Bruce Isaac to have stolen the car and run away from the Bishops and crashed the car to hide the evidence That Gun is a gun that looks like the .223 FMJ, but this weapon was never used (or we have proof that it was used) by the Chosen One. Maybe Sulik? But definitelly not the Chosen One. The Molerat thing is a reference to the Brain in GECKO, but it didn't teach the Chosen One anything. It informed the Chosen One about the power plant and how to disguise themselves as a "renewed one" so the Ghouls can help them. The cards things in because he plays Caravan, but Caravan is different than Tragic the Garnering. It is possible to learn multiple card games, but at least he would have mention the other card game just in case you are also interested.

Mama Murphy was the scientist who kidnapped Shaun

The reasons are her knowledge of Sanctuary's existence. Her age "matches" the time gap. And the Sight can be another Institute experiment.

This theory is false because first of all, the age does not match. She is at her 60's-70's. Not 80 or 90. She doesn't know about Sanctuary. Even if the scientists went there on foot, Sanctuary would look like generic ruins to them. Not an actual named city. And chances are, they were teleported inside the Vault or at least on the platform. Lastly, the Sight could have been an Institute experiment, but there is no evince for that. Plus, the Sight works the way it does because probably someone else asks her to use it and not herself. If she wanted to use the Sight (like she does with the Deathclaw in the beginning), she doesn't need drugs to use it.

Pam started the Great War

What Pam does is to predict things based on variables provided to her. And humans tend to mess things up, so her predictions are inaccurate and she decided to eliminate the fauly variables (humans). So the way to do so is... Nuclear Apocalypse.

However, this theory falls apart because of Pam's role. She predicts things. She doesn't care about results. The same way your calculator calculates things. Your calculator doesn't care if the result should've been 10 and turns out to be 6. Same with Pam. She predicts that your mission will be a success/failure. She doesn't care if you fail/succeed and prove her predictions wrong. She admits that she is in not accurate with her predictions and even warns you beforehand. So it is up to you, the player, to decide wether you will believe the prediction or not.

Another player Vg65 shared couple of other myths:

People say that Colonel Autumn and his rogue forces would've been better for the Capital Wasteland than Lyons. Lol no, he kills you even if you co-operate by giving him the code, so that shows what kind of an asshole he'll be.

Also, his Enclave group might have more advanced technology than the Brotherhood, but their lack of numbers would get them run over by the super mutants over time. So overall, Autumn winning would be a crap outcome.

Another theory that needs to be debunked is that power armour was made to replace tanks/makes you as defensive as one. No, their main advantage is to allow one person to operate heavy weaponry like a Fat Man, missile launcher, minigun, etc. with ease, turning them into a mobile offensive beast. Meanwhile, their defensive capabilities are mostly secondary to that, and can go down to small-arms fire. Even the pinnacle of pre-war armour, the T-51b, got overrun at HELIOS One when outnumbered. Plus, Fallout 4 has one of Paladin Brandis's T-60 crew get downed by a raider using a hunting rifle (.308 shot).

Then there's the Fallout 1 ZAX info which states that the T-51b can absorb over 2,500 Joules of kinetic impact, which further debunks the power armour = tank theory. We don't know how far over 2,500 Joules the T-51b can go, but it's probably not higher than 3,000 or anything. For reference, a typical .308 round has about 3,600 Joules upon leaving the gun, and steadily decreases with distance and other factors (at 200 yards, a typical .308 has roughly 2,700 Joules of energy).

Of course, there are other factors like the type of bullet (e.g , AP rounds), the area where the power armour is hit, the fact that power armour has different layers, etc. Even if a bullet does penetrate, it could be weakened enough that the operator is still safe (exoskeleton, underarmour, etc. could get in the way). And besides, even if the ZAX figure is lower than some of our real-life plates, PA has the major advantage of taking more hits without having you feel them. Meanwhile, real-life plates can quickly deform or transfer energy to you, causing bruises and whatever else. They're unable to take as many hits as a power armour might.