From the first trailers of Prime Video’sFallout,the hit series based on the wildly successful Bethesda game franchise, it was clear which character would emerge as the fan favorite. Cooper “The Ghoul” Howard, played byWalton GogginsofJustifiedandThe Righteous Gemstones, is the best character in a great show. He’s a character who’s conceptually cool with a depth that makes him more than just a novelty.We watch as he goes from washed-up actor with divorced dad energy into an actual badass, irradiated cowboy. He goes from portraying black hat figures to actually becoming the kind of man he plays on screen in this post-apocalyptic hellscape. Despite his rough appearance as a result of over 200 years of radiation exposure and a brutal sense of survival over morality, more than finding him cool,people think he’s hot. He’s television’s most eligible bachelor right now, he’s all over the fan fiction website Archive Of Our Own, and the internet is a buzz with the same question: Is it weird that I find The Ghoul hot?
So he doesn’t have a nose. Who cares?On his own, The Ghoul is a solid romance candidate in genre fiction. Everyone loves a bad boy, and The Ghoul has those specific qualities that take him from just another amoral bounty hunter to someone who you could try to change and make better (even if it never actually happens in real life). His backstory also helps. He’s a man with experience as a husband and a father, and while things don’t work out with his wife Barb (Frances Turner), he still adores his daughter.Even centuries later, he yearns for his family and wishes to see them safe. When shown genuine compassion by protagonist Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), there’s a slight potential for change. Oh, and he also has a dog. That’s a bonus. In short, that old Cooper Howard is deep within The Ghoul somewhere, and that sense of pathos has a way of melting the audience’s hearts.
In a future, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles brought about by nuclear decimation, citizens must live in underground bunkers to protect themselves from radiation, mutants and bandits.
The Best Characters in the Fallout Games Are Also the Weirdest Looking
No, it’s not weird to find The Ghoul hot, and it’s okay to admit it, but this goes deeper than just The Ghoul. Starting with the games, romanceable NPCs have been a part of the series since the first installment. Each game has an array of everyday human characters that you can smooch, but there are outliers, especially inFallout 4when romanceable traveling companions are introduced. This gives us the most significant example of a kissable ghoul, John Hancock, the mayor of Goodneighbour.Like Cooper Howard, this ghoul is a fan favorite of the companions you can romance. He’s got a free-wheeling attitude and a good heart underneath all that bravado.Another unconventionally attractive dreamboat is Nick Valentine,a defunct and decrepit synth (Fallout’s version of Androids) who is basically a 1940s noir detective. Although he’s not romanceable in-game,there is a clear demand for it considering the popularity of mods that let you change that.
It gets you thinking about the other popular romance options in role-playing games — a significant example beingMass Effect. A fellow science fiction series with no shortage of aliens whom Commander Shepard can fraternize with, including Garrus, Thane, Liara, and Tali’zorah. In any game,the presence or lack of dating options doesn’t get in the way of people falling head over heels for charactersthat could never exist in the real world. Whether it’s romancing a loyal bug husband inMass Effector flirting with a buff tiefling with an engine for a heart inBaldur’s Gate 3, there’s no shortage of options for some thirsty gamers. There’s no shame in it when it’s all just pixels. What does it matter as long as the writing and acting are lovable and compelling?
Hot Monsters Are a Common Archetype Used in TV and Movies
But those are video games, right? Just pixels. What does that have to do with theFallouttelevision show? After all, it’s an entirely different medium, like comparing animation to live action. If you were thinking that, you would be dead wrong. Monster loving is deeply woven into television history, all the way back to its early days. The Ghoul may be similar to other bad-boy lone wolves, but he has just as much, if not more, in common with unconventional monster hotties throughout the decades.
In the 1960s, Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) very quickly became not only the most popular character in the soap operaDark Shadowsbut the second-most popular vampire next to Dracula. In fact, Frid’s vampire has beencredited as one of the watershed hot vampiresthat went on to inspire the aesthetics of movies and shows likeTwilightandTrue Blood. Also in the ’60s,Leonard Nimoygot more fan mail for his performance as SpockthanWilliam Shatnerdid for Captain Kirk. He as only the first in a long and impressive line of belovedStar Trekaliens who get a romantic subplot of some kind.
Similar toRon PerlmaninBeauty and the BeastandRobert CarlyleinOnce Upon A Time, Goggins is a beloved character actor who sits down in the makeup chair and leaves with a unique (and hot) appearance. Sure, they may look like a lion or whatever Rumpelstiltskin was, but they also have a fandom entirely to themselves — even Disney’s Belle had no issue falling in love with the Beast when he was in beast form. It’s an established character trope, and it works almost every single time. Not only is it okay to admit that The Ghoul is hot,but he was specifically designed to be sexy. Goggins knew that this attraction was an important asset to the character,telling Collider, “We wanted him to be sexy, on whatever level, in a ghoulish way.” I think we can safely say they accomplished that goal.
Falloutis available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.
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