About

One Side Is Murdering People, the Other Is Just Vaguely Problematic refers to a quote spoken by Lucy (played by actress Ella Purnell) in season two, episode seven, of the Fallout TV series to her father Hank, where she contrasts the New California Republic (NCR) faction's methods with the Legion's, the former striving for taxation and bureaucracy in the wasteland and the latter enslaving and crucifying people who disagree with them.

In late January 2026, the scene was turned into a reaction image meme and spread online, sparking debates among the Fallout fandom about the Legion vs. the NCR, particularly over Lucy's claim that the NCR is only "vaguely problematic." It was also criticized by some, who saw it as a commentary on modern-day politics and didn't like the line's inclusion in the show.

Origin

On January 27th, 2026, Fallout season two, episode seven was released for streaming on Amazon Prime. At one point in the episode, Lucy, played by Ella Purnell, confronts her father. When talking about the differences between the NCR faction and the Legion faction, she says, "One side is murdering people, enslaving them, crucifying them, and the other side is just vaguely problematic," suggesting that the Legion is far worse.

That night, Redditor CrisisActor911 posted two screenshots of the scene to the /r/fallout^[1] subreddit in a post titled, "Thank god they addressed it," garnering over 11,000 upvotes and 1,100 comments in two days.

Spread

The scene inspired some memes in the days following the episode's release, along with discourse about modern TV writing and politics.

On January 28th, 2026, Redditor WillingnessBrave7798 posted the same two screenshots to the /r/Arcane^[2] subreddit under the title, "The Plitover and Zaun crisis in a nutshell," garnering over 1,000 upvotes in a day. Notably, Ella Purnell also voices Jinx in Arcane.

That day, X^[3] user @ShitpostRock posted a higher quality meme version of the scene, writing, "This is an actual line from the Fallout show referring to the NCR…," garnering over 16,000 likes in a day. The post suggests that the NCR is more than "vaguely problematic."

Later that day, Redditor ihatethiscountry76 posted the meme to the /r/MarchAgainstNazis^[4] subreddit with the title, "me to people who say 'both sides are the same', Photos taken from Fallout TV Show," garnering over 2,000 upvotes in a day.

On January 29th, 2026, X^[5] user @Turbofurby quoted the post by @ShitpostRock to criticize their take, writing, "OP really is a massive Legion fan, huh. And before someone says 'B-but Bitter Springs!', the NCR acknowledges what happened and admit it was a black eye for them. It was miscommunication and bad intel, literally an accident," garnering over 5,300 likes in under a day.

That same day, an anonymous 4chan user made a post on the /tv/^[6] (television) board sharing the meme with the caption, "How do you respond without sounding mad?" inspiring over 325 replies in under a day.

Also on January 29th, 2026, X^[7] user @Fenrirtheicewo1 posted, "I'm sick and tired of modern speak in media. It sucks ass," in response to the scene, garnering over 450 likes in under a day.

Later, X^[8] user @esjesjesj quoted @ShitpostRock's post, writing, "Did you just not play the game or what," to over 1,700 likes in the same span of time.

Shortly after, X^[9] user @PunishedFredda quoted the post, writing, "Yeah the confederation of r-pe tribes are the bad guys," garnering over 3,900 likes in under a day.

Various Examples

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External References