Quote Originally Posted by GloatingSwine View Post
We're not talking about "hidden lore", we're talking about a Doylist explanation "Bethesda intended to do this but changed it later because people guessed it on the internet".

It's an attempt to understand why it sucks not fix-fic it.


(Of course, there's a simpler explanation which also explains Fallout 3, which is that Bethesda wouldn't know a well told story if it bit them on the arse and they really thought all of this nonsense was clever.)
There's 2 twists that, added on top of "you were a Synth all along!" could make for good storytelling potential:

1- you are not the first you

There were other Lone Survivor synths created before you. They all had adventure, and became leader of their respective factions, somewhat unaware of each other's, before you arrived in the Commonwealth. Since each emerged at 20 years of intervals, there was little chance of them crossing path.

They all became various sort of individuals, reflecting the various path you can take as a player. Some were good people, some were evil. Some were ambitious and imperialist, others just wanted to help in low key manner.

It would inject the theme that you could become anything you want, that your path isn't preset. Also, it would make for good, understandably powerful endgame antagonists as they are.. As skilled as you.

Twist 2- unrelated to twist 1

The original Nate and Nora are alive. Well, they were alive. They got captured with Shawn, and were invited to join the Institute. Your mirror self actually died of natural causes recently, but your original partner is still alive, albeit extremely old and on their death bed.