Bud Askins is a senior junior vice president of the Vault-Tec Corporation and the overseer of Vault 31 in the Fallout TV series.
Background[]
The archetypal Vault-Tec executive, Askins is corrupt, sleazy, single-minded in his devotion to the corporation, and likes vanity license plates (JST ASKIN).[2] Before coming over to Vault-Tec to oversee operations in Southern California, he spent a decade working at West Tek as part of their product management team. He oversaw the initial rollout of the T-45 power armor in 2067, ignoring design flaws in favor of pushing out the product as fast as possible. While he joked that at least they looked great, he also completely ignored that these flaws had resulted in numerous American soldiers being killed. After leaving West Tek, he switched from Product Management to Human Resources research at Vault-Tec, pursuing what he called "workflow optimization of management timelines," based on the principle of destroying the competition by outlasting them.[3]
Bud's competence was unquestionable; his social skills very much were, as he routinely failed to identify social cues, such as boasting about the T-45 to Cooper Howard, a veteran who witnessed the power armor fail and kill his comrades in arms. Undeterred, he consistently tried to buddy up with Howard, despite the actor detesting him.[4] He also continued to work with Howard's wife, implementing the Societal Preservation Program, or rather, its subversion: the grand Vault experiments. While Barb told her husband that she was only reluctantly working with Askins,[2] in reality, she was one of the main architects of the experiment. Under her supervision, Askins would design the Three Vaults of Santa Monica, 31, 32 and 33, as an extension of his Bud's Buds executive training program.[5] Reasoning that trying to save a failed nation was a doomed prospect, Askins outlined a plan to keep Vault-Tec alive using the network of Vaults for an eugenics program; this program involved mixing graduates of Bud's Buds, kept in cryonic suspension at Vault 31,[6] with the dwellers of two other Vaults acting as breeding pools for his "Buds" to create a class of super managers to inherit the wasteland after the inevitable Great War.[7]
Bud would become the overseer of Vault 31 (and secretly the mastermind behind the events in all three Vaults), implementing the project over the next hundreds of years by having his brain extracted and placed in a robotic shell. Rather than a full-sized Robobrain, he elected for a small, rechargeable platform described as a Rollerbrain or "brain-in-a-Roomba."[5]
Fallout TV series[]
The Trap[]
Bud and the Hawthornes attend the wrap party
Bud Askins is introduced in the sixth episode, during the filming of the promotional video for Vault 4, awkwardly introducing himself to Cooper Howard. After failing to make a good first impression, he tries his elevator pitch ("The future of humanity is Management"), but is interrupted by Barb, who snatches Howard away. Askins is later seen at the wrap party, trying to attract the attention of Cooper, but fails to do so.
The Beginning[]
Bud Askins as a robobrain in 2296
Askins appears for the first time in the post-War era, after Norm infiltrated Vault 31 after tricking Askins into opening the door. Askins' robot chassis got stuck behind some boxes and Norm frees him. After an initial scan, Askins realizes that Norm is only half-Hank and tries to sedate Norm, who easily evades the chassis' built-in syringe by simply stepping back. Powerless to stop him, Askins reveals the grand plan to Norm, before sealing the cryonic chamber and forcing Norm to choose between slow death by starvation or climbing into one of the cryopods to enter suspension, like his father.
Personality[]
Bud Askins is a visionary with a unique mindset. He believes that the ultimate weapon of mass destruction in the world is time, and using that mindset, they can beat all competition that stands in the way of Vault-Tec. He strongly believes in management and its key role in the future of humanity. Bud is also known for his overwhelming personality, which Cooper, another character from the show, experiences when he meets Bud for the first time.
Appearances[]
Bud Askins appears in the Fallout TV series episodes "The Trap" and "The Beginning," as well as in the Vault Seller's Survival Guide. His voice can also be heard in "The Ghouls", in a fragment of Vault Seller's Survival Guide episode "Bud's Buds!" playing in Vault 32.
As of July 18, 2024 (version 1.18.0), a Rollerbrain was added to Fallout Shelter as a pet, but it is not explicitly specified to be Bud.
Behind the scenes[]
Bud's "roomba" design evokes a concept illustration of a Vault maintenance Robobrain unit by Adam Adamowicz.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Vault Seller's Survival Guide: "The Winning Team!"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Barb Howard: "Bud Askins... he licensed them from RobCo. We're integrating them with the Vault-Tec admission systems."
Cooper Howard: "Bud Askins."
Barb Howard: "Bud Askins. Trust me, I know. The company's filled with guys like him. But Vault-Tec exists with or without me. Doesn't do anyone any good to complain from the sidelines."
Cooper Howard: "All I'm saying is we have this one life. Do you really want to spend your nine-to-fives working with these assholes?"
Barb Howard: "I need this job, Coop. It guarantees us a spot in the vaults."
Cooper Howard: "We got money. We can buy a spot in the vaults."
Barb Howard: "One of the good vaults."
Cooper Howard: "What's that supposed to mean?"
("The Trap") - ↑ Bud Askins: "Mr. Howard, great work today."
Cooper Howard: "Ah. Oh, thanks. Thanks, man."
Bud Askins: "Bud Askins. I oversee our Southern California operations."
Cooper Howard: "Ah."
Bud Askins: "I, uh, came over to Vault-Tec in Q3 after a ten-year stint at West Tek."
Cooper Howard: "West Tek."
Bud Askins: "It's a defense contractor."
Cooper Howard: "Oh, I'm, uh, very familiar with you guys. You designed the T-45 power armor."
Bud Askins: "First of its kind. No, I-I oversaw the-the rollout. You know, the design flaws were ridiculous, but they sure looked great."
Cooper Howard: "I wore the T-45 when we almost lost the great state of Alaska to the Reds. Those design flaws of yours cost a lot of good men and women their lives."
Bud Askins: "Yeah. Product management was never my bag. I'm more focused on HR R&D now. Overseeing workflow optimization of management timelines. I'm all about scale. Most people think scale means increasing global market share. That's thinking in three dimensions, and I'm talking about four. Because what is the ultimate weapon to destroy your competition? It's not outselling them. It's not outsmarting them. It's time."
Cooper Howard: "Hmm."
Bud Askins: "Time is the ultimate weapon."
Cooper Howard: "Uh-huh."
Bud Askins: "Yeah. Sounds complicated, but the future of all humanity comes down to one word."
Cooper Howard: "Yeah, what's that?"
Bud Askins: "Management."
Cooper Howard: "Well, I'm awful happy for you, Buck."
Bud Askins: "Bud. Bud Askins."
("The Trap") - ↑ Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 6: "The Trap"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 8: "The Beginning"
- ↑ Norm MacLean: "Is this where my dad's from?"
Bud Askins: "You'll never find out. Oh. He's gonna find out. These are Bud's Buds. My Buds. America outsourced the survival of this country to the private sector. But it would have been insane to keep a failed nation alive. So, we kept Vault-Tec alive instead. A well-trained staff of highly supervised junior executives from my own assistant training program. Because the future of humanity comes down to one word: Management."
("The Beginning") - ↑ Norm MacLean: "So what's Vault 32 and 33? Just people to be controlled?"
Bud Askins: "What? No! When you put it like that, it sounds downright morally questionable. They're our breeding pool, the ultimate expression of HR R&D. Genetically selected to breed with my Buds to create a class of super managers. People with positivity, people who make lemonade. People who will inherit the Earth after we've wiped the surface clean."
Norm MacLean: "We wiped the surface clean?"
("The Beginning")
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