I recently played the original Fallout for the first time, and it was really cool! One thing I noticed, however, was the tendency of your NPC companions to graciously permadeath-sacrifice themselves to protect you (or, usually, for no reason at all).
The worst offender of this was Dogmeat (the ancestor of the Fallout 3 dog of the same name), who, by nature of being a dog, was unable to hold a gun, and who attacked enemies by running directly at them, which usually took him on a collision course with every environmental hazard and bullet between himself and his target. Also by nature of being a dog, Dogmeat was unable to wear armor, so he was converted to dog slurry by anything more threatening than a gentle breeze.

The latter third or so of the game is kind of famous for being nearly impossible for Dogmeat to survive through (Dogmeat I's canonical cause of death is by red forcefield), and it's considered an achievement for the player to trick the game into letting him live. It is not easy.


I realized after drawing this that it was pretty similar to an earlier comic I did! Either I'm super into not letting imaginary dogs die or I'm becoming a parody of myself.