Nate the Rake

About

Nate the Rake is a nickname given to the male Fallout 4 player character, Nate. The nickname references Nate as a war criminal for his purported actions during the annexation of Canada, an event in Fallout lore where the U.S. took Canada for its resources and incorporated it into the U.S., which involved the execution of protestors and resistance members. The nickname was given to Nate in April 2024, when Bethesda Game Studios' design director Emil Pagliarulo made a post on X / Twitter claiming that a soldier shown next to another soldier executing a Canadian in the first Fallout game is Nate, inspiring memes about Nate being a war criminal over the following months. The "rake" in Nate's nickname refers to a leaf rake, as he was purportedly responsible for killing Canadians, or, "raking them up." Following the virality of the tweet, Pagliarulo backpedaled on the claim, claiming it is not canon.

Origin

On April 13th, 2024, X^[1] user @Dezinuh aka Emil Pagliarulo, the design director for Bethesda Game Studios, posted, "Given the great vibes recently, and the millions of amazing Fallout fans (that's you!) I feel like the time is right to finally share an unknown link between Fallout 1 and Fallout 4. Remember the Fallout 1 opening movie? Annexation of Canada? SAME. GUY. (No, NOT the shooter!) 🤓" garnering over 14,000 likes and 3,000 reposts in three months (shown below).

Nate is the default name for the playable male character in Fallout 4.^[2] The screenshot that Pagliarulo shares in the post is a cutscene from the first Fallout game that details the annexation of Canada, an even in Fallout lore where the U.S. took Canada for its resources and executed protestors and rebels.^[3]

That day, some people who read the post began making memes about Nate being a war criminal. The earliest known use of the nickname "Nate the Rake," a reference to a leaf rake due to the Canadian flag featuring a leaf, suggesting that Nate "raked" Canadians, was posted by X^[4] user @FiggerPick that day (shown below).

Spread

Memes about Nate being a war criminal, along with the nickname Nate the Rake, were further popularized over the following months. Due to the response, about four hours after making his first post, Pagliarulo made another post to X^[5] backpedaling the claim, writing that Nate being the same person as the soldier in the first Fallout game is not canon and that it was only discussed internally but never made official (shown below).

Despite the claims Nate being a war criminal is not canon, memes continued to reference him as such.

On April 13th, 2024, a forum thread was started on NMA-Fallout.com^[6] titled, "The Male Sole Survivor from Fallout 4 is Canonically a War Criminal," with user Aurelius Of Phoenix posting a meme to the thread on April 16th, writing, "Nate the Rake is canon in my mind" (shown below).

On April 14th, YouTuber^[7] Rat King posted a video compiling examples of the discourse and memes surrounding the claim, garnering over 154,000 views in three months (shown below, left). On April 20th, YouTuber^[8] Chad Nobark posted a meme edit about Nate being a war criminal that gained over 110,000 views in the same span of time (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Related Memes

John Fallout

John Fallout or John Fallout Scam refers to a fake DM from a Fallout character named "John Fallout" as part of the Fake Celebrity Scam Messages meme. Following the virality of the fake DM in April 2024, TikTokers started to create more lore about the character that allegedly appears in Fallout 4.

Search Interest

External References