Fallout Star Defends His Character, Says the Ghoul Isn't Sadistic — But Come On

Out of Fallout ’s four main characters, Cooper Howard aka the Ghoul wins all the charisma and first impression prizes possible, without a doubt. This Deadpool of the Wasteland is tough as nails, virtually unkillable, and cynical beyond any belief son of a gun, and that’s why we love him so much — but at the same time, he’s sadistic and messed up in more ways than we can be bothered to name.

But for lead star Walton Goggins, the Ghoul is his baby, so the actor will defend him despite his very obvious… Flaws, shall we call it.

The Ghoul Star Defends His Character

Recently, Walton Goggins took part in Amazon’s Anatomy of a Character where they took a deep dive into Cooper Howard’s past, present, and future. When the topic of his relationship with Lucy MacLean came up, Goggins disagreed with the common sentiment that the Ghoul was torturing her out of pure sadism. Here’s what he said.

“The Ghoul is far from sinister. He is just using [Lucy] as bait. It is just another obstacle. It’s just another experience during the day. He doesn’t mean to harm her. She’s just a tool that he happened to come across looking for something that he needs to use in order to get what he has to do and survive another day in the Wasteland,” the actor explained.

As much as we love Cooper Howard as a character, we don’t have the rose-colored glasses required to see him as a positive character — so we can’t agree with Walton Goggins here. Barely anyone who actually watched Fallout and remembers the dynamic between the Ghoul and Lucy can agree with him, to be entirely honest.

The Ghoul Is Indeed a Staunch Sadist

While sure, Cooper uses his Vaultie prisoner as bait, he deliberately treats her terribly. We can discount the “feeding her to the Gulper” and “selling her for organ harvesting” to his (still perverted) vision of what’s necessary for survival, but there’s one scene in particular that defeats any anti-sadism arguments about the Ghoul.

Cooper made Lucy drink heavily irradiated water for no reason whatsoever. He didn’t have to do that; he won nothing from it. The Ghoul simply wanted to have a giggle, turning an innocent girl into a ghoul or killing her with radiation, and that’s that. His sadistic smile as he drank all the water while looking the severely dehydrated Lucy dead in the eyes also showed quite a lot about him. And then, the irradiated puddle.

So no, the Ghoul is absolutely a sick sadist — even if there is some Cooper Howard left behind his centuries-old mask of an unhinged bounty hunter. We might see the real Coop come to life the more he spends time with Lucy, but for now the verdict can’t be reasonably argued against: the Ghoul’s actions can’t be justified.

Source: Anatomy of a Character via Variety