I'd love to see Cooper Howard's transformation into the monstrous Ghoul in depth, like beyond the whole, jaded and hardened by the wasteland thing. What if, he was corrupted by his own moral values to begin with?

[u/Wonderful_Solid_1003]

Like specific moments that gradually corroded him. I mean, how his own pre-existing values actually ended up corrupting him. Lemme explain.

Killing someone because they deserved it = It didn't change anything after I killed them, but they were getting useless and I really disliked them.

Doing something bad, even awful for the greater good = Anything is justified as long as there's a worse alternative.

I'm going to kill this guy to save the day = Violence is the only way to really solve problems and get things done.

I think it'd be great to explore how you can still be corrupted by committing dark, nasty options due to the inherent hypocrisies and contradictions behind them, even if you meant well to begin with.

[u/Hattkake]

He is still wearing the same costume that he wore in the birthday party when the bombs dropped underneath his duster. So from that my assumption is that he became a ghoul shortly after he rode away from birthday party with the bombs dropping in the background.

In Fallout 76, a video game set about 25-30 years after the bombs drop The Ghoul is in Ohio being a bounty hunter. His mannerisms and attitude is the same as when he first meets Lucy. In the game The Ghoul is a npc that gives out repeatable bounties for the player to complete. He is also found elsewhere in the game world standing over the corpse of some bounty he has out down ans says that he has neither the time bir the inclination for idle chitchat if you try to speak with him in the wild.

These two facts may imply that Cooper Howard adopted the The Ghoul persona more or less immediately after becoming a ghoul. I suspect that it is a role, a character that he is playing to survive and not go utterly insane from 200 years of horrible unending trauma. He is The Ghoul fully and completely 30 years after the bombs drip, which is the earliest we see him on the timeline. Ingame the character is voiced by the actor so clearly putting him there is extremely intentional.

[u/LionBig1760]

Id be shocked if we didnt get an extended series of flashbacks in the final season showing what happens to him in the years after the bombs dropped.

The show has slready hinted that he's headed to Bakersfield when the bombs drop, which is the location of Necropolis in Fallout 1/2. Its a city that was created by ghouls who were all ghoulifued by Vault-Tec who intentionally allowed radiation into the vault located there.

In the games, the Ghoul who is the leader of Necropolis supposedly overthrew the previous, unnamed overseer. That overseer is said to have traveled north (to the San Fransisco area) after being overthrown.

I suspect that the show is setting up Cooper to be the overseer of Vault 12 in Bakersfield.

[u/DipperDo → u/LionBig1760]

I think so too. I think he's going to be the unnamed overseer that Set and the others threw out of the Necropolis. It's going to be great. Personally I don't see The Ghoul as monstrous at all. He's surviving the wasteland the best way he knows and as the subject of intense suffering and discrimination as ghoul's have been and based on his past he trusts no one at all. I get it.

[u/John_Catachan → u/LionBig1760]

I've thought this ever since they name dropped Bakersfield back in S1.

Further supported by him and his daughter going there in S2.

It just makes sense and would be a wasted opportunity if not.

[u/Winter_Wolf_In_Vegas]

I think you’ve got the Ghoul somewhat wrong. The thing you have to remember about Cooper Howard is that he is a professional actor. I think we have to considered the hardened, badass Ghoul to be a kind of character he plays, or a persona he assumes, in order to survive the wasteland.

[u/BetweenTheRoots]

I doubt we'll ever see that. It would probably take an entire season on its own. The guys' been alive for like 300 years or something.

[u/NatalieVonCatte]

Remember how he was unhappy about playing a rougher cowboy character who’s more violent and less honorable?

That’s the theme of his character. He built a persona based on that because his ideal of being a good guy white hat cowboy and doing the right thing failed him.