Talk:Flak/Archive 1

Slave
I was looking at the page on slaves and noticed that Flak is missing from there when Red, Arkansas and Susan are all there. I was going to correct it but can't now because the page is protected can someone please fix this.Kiki Keeks 01:53, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

"Ostentatiously gay moustache"
"Several gay organizations have welcomed Bethesda's decision to include well-rounded and openly gay male characters like Flak, Shrapnel and Anthony Ling in the game." - sources? Ausir 21:15, 15 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I must admit that conclusion surprised me a bit: I hadn't considered that he was gay, just that he was the owner of an awesome moustache. Then again, I'm hopelessly out of touch. --hedleyc 14:31, 27 November 2008 (UTC

Grouse does call him "Ol' Queen Flak". Maybe he's a drag queen! --Five Dog
 * That's what tipped me off, otherwise I hadn't considered it, granted I'm always depressed when your game character isn't allowed to display any bi-sexuality. What fun is a role-playing game if you always have to be straight, or brown haired, or human? As far as the Queen statement, Queen doesn't necessarily pertain to just drag queens, but to older gay males who exhibit a far more effeminate nature. Aryeonos 07:43, October 28, 2009 (UTC)


 * Furthermore, the judgement that the moustache is "gay" is a matter of opinion. Would it be possible for a heterosexual man to possess such a moustache? Absolutely. Does the variety of moustache have a cultural link to the gay community? Probably, as does his leather jacket. At least in America. Though not in the 1950s, which is the cultural milieu of the game. Regardless, it's superfluous (not to mention presumptuous) to call it "gay". I would be in favor of removing the reference as I feel it adds nothing to the article. But I'll leave that to others to decide. Just my two cents. -Matt D 12.226.29.60 08:43, 4 December 2008 (UTC)


 * i dunno, but the moustache is called the 'man's man'.


 * I personally don't believe he's a gay character, as I just found him sleeping in Doctor Li's bed. 71.87.48.116 17:33, 22 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I find this hilarious. He's the splitting image of Glenn Hughes. --DarkJeff 17:37, 22 December 2008 (UTC)


 * It's pretty obvious he is gay. I don't understand why so many people are insistent that there is no mnetion of the possiblity of this in the article. There's loads of less well-founded speculation elsewhere in this wiki (eg: the article on feral ghouls is rank with speculation and no references to the source of any information) but I don't see any of you leaping in to remove any of that: It just seems to be Flak and Shrapnel that gets this kind of reaction. Can I confirm that I played the 'gay male' romance plot on Jade Empire and I didn't 'catch gay' from it- two gay characters in Fallout will not do that to you either. If you don't like gay characters in games then you'd better find another past-time cos I've a funny feeling there'll be a lot more in the future. I hope that Bethesda can step in and answer this once and for all.--92.41.203.207 13:30, 17 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, I translated the game into Polish and the translation notes do confirm that they are gay. Ausir 14:48, 17 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you; so, who's going to edit the article? and who'll remove the edit later because they're still in denial?.--92.41.13.83 08:55, 18 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Sorry, Ausir, but how does the Polish translation prove anything? 98.117.100.123 22:25, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't mean the Polish translation. I mean the notes that came with the text for translation from Bethesda that were there to explain the context of the dialogues we were translating. Ausir 22:44, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * OK; they are gay. Case closed. Lets move on before someone starts thinking we're trying to hide something.--92.41.114.52 07:16, 23 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Out of curiosity, where is the "source" that "Several gay organizations have welcomed Bethesda's decision to include well-rounded and openly gay male characters like Flak, Shrapnel and Anthony Ling in the game"? There's no point in arguing that they're gay if it's already been point out, but... WHO is "welcoming Bethesda's decision?"--Kajex Firedrake 10:26, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

i dont care about if he's gay or straight,he keeps glitch-dying in my save,however ive witnessed him drinking nuka-cola A LOT of times,so im thinking he died of radiation poison,also,sometimes raiders try to invade rivet city wen i play,and they take out flak unless he uses the fat man on him (he has a habit of spawning such a random weapon) --werewolfhell

To continue "the topic that will not die", regarding the claim "Given that Flak is confirmed to be gay, Flak and Shrapnel are likely not only business partners, but also lovers", does anyone actually have a citation for this? It would be helpful to know one way or the other. To preempt any sidetracking, I've no agenda one way or the other, just a concern that as far as I can see the assertions that he's gay seem to be as dubious as the infamous Fargoth situation that eventually resulted in discussions about the same being heavily moderated on the official forums. As far as I've seen there's only an implication which is tenuous at best: the aforementioned impressive moustache, sharing a room with his (business) partner and... that's about as much as I've seen, and it's not compelling. If a developer or other spokesentity has actually said "yes, he's gay" then a citation should go in to stymie further debate, otherwise any claim is just speculation in lieu of any other evidence.--hedleyc 23:27, September 3, 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not a developer, but I'm one of the Polish translators of the game, and in the developer notes for translators it's stated that Flak is gay. Given that the notes in question are not publicly released, you just need to trust me on this matter. Ausir(talk) 23:36, September 3, 2009 (UTC)

actually the "chopper" moustache is no longer considered "cool" by the gay community, and in recent years its bring reclaimed by straight men as a symbol of manliness ,but to be honest the more i think about flak & shrapnel bein a gay couple the more it makes sense ;) Rippa1889 15:23, April 11, 2010 (UTC)

This is a stupid argument - there's really nothing to discuss. He's obviously gay, there's no speculation needed. Bethesda makes it plenty obvious the sort of relationship the two have, and referring to him a a 'queen' pretty much settles it. As someone with plenty of hands-on gay experience, trust me - he's TOTALLY gay. 96.241.68.192 19:37, June 9, 2010 (UTC)

"Flak Slave Bug"
I've experienced a similar bug where after slaving Flak, Shrapnel is nowhere to be found. This is without failing to disable the collar and this is on the PC version. --98.194.192.55 01:02, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

I've also had this problem on the PS3 --ALegend 01:55, 05 November 2009

Flak Unkillable?
"Before enslaving him, Flak is not killable. This ensures that there will always be at least one live target for Strictly Business. " This seemed incorrect to me, so I just tested it. One dart through the back of the head = one dead Flak. I haven't completed the Strictly Business sidequest- I haven't even STARTED it on this save. Does anyone else have any experiences with Flak being unkillable? Is it only during the time between when you accept the quest and complete the quest? Anyone else have any light to shed on this matter? P.S. I'm running the 360 version, in case it matters. Some Sort 21:34, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Flak is, indeed, killable. I believe after attacking him with the Mesmetron you can kill him (as I did out of a fit of frustration while trying to enslave him).

2 hunting rifle shots to the head seem to do in with Flak. So yes, he is killable. But this leaves a question to be asked; If Flak is dead, along with the other "candidates" for the Strictly Business quest, who are you supposed to enslave? Surely someone must be rendered essential. 64.53.156.55 17:55, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

It could be possible that the NPC marked essential for this quest could be randomly done so. Or possibly the top guy killed all the other candidates for enslavement and it simply marks the last living one as essential.

I don't think any of the four are "unkillable", that makes the quest "Failable", however if you enslave them then quickly free them you are still able to talk to grouse and he will treat it as if you had enslaved them the whole time-IN MY EXPERIENCE-Aryeonos 07:46, October 28, 2009 (UTC)

Killable and Enslavable Ol' Queen Flak
This article could afford some clean up and either an in source strat for enslaving him or a link with an article that omits a crummy strat and p how much people suck at enslaving him. The strat in Flak's article is a gamble at best (one that will almost always fail) and the one on "Strictly Business" is the most sound method that I've used. He is killable though, which I found out after trying to enslave him for an hour. It should be noted that he was killable when Arkansas was alive.

Canadian?
Is it possible that Flak may be Canadian? It seems like he is saying Eh? all the time (although it's a stupid stereotype :P) and since Canada had some impact in the Fallout universe, it may be possible no? omg I totally thought the same thing when I first heard him talk and he said "Eh" all the time. And it's not a stereotype, there were two canadians in my dorm that would punctuate every question with "eh?". Got so contagious that I say it a lot now and people make fun of me :( 67.171.119.158 21:47, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Get him to talk again?
After I enslaved then freed him, I can't get him to talk to me. I know there's a removefromfaction or removefromallfactions command to use, but I keep getting error messages and it doesn't work. How do I fix this?

Shoot him with a fatman or experimental mirv, he'll either say something or nothing.

Flak Enslaved, Shrapnel Gone
Okay, I'm pretty sure everyone has had the bug where Shrapnel leaves after you enslave Flak. Well, it happened to me too, except this time, I got him back. I'd enslaved Flak, but then after freeing him, he wouldn't trade let alone talk. I knew that since Flak ran the shop most of the time, the only way to get Shrapnel to run the shop was to kill Flak (Without Flak running the shop, Shrapnel has to take charge right?). However, even though I didn't know that Shrapnel wasn't in Rivet City anymore, he came back after killing Flak. If anyone runs into this problem, try killing Ol' Queen Flak.--Master of cheeZ 23:48, September 3, 2009 (UTC)

Trapped in flak & schrapnel's room.
Okay because I didn't really like the idea of mezzing Flak out in the open (risking my follower to engage each and everyone of the people in the rivet city market area), I tried waiting for him in his room...guess what?? Big mistake.

When I entered, Schrapnel left and locked the door behind him but he never came back neither did flak. Because my character has a low lockpicking skill I'm trapped inside their room now. The only one to enter is C.J. young but she does not unlock the door but only appears and disappears after waiting.

So I warn you, DO NOT try to ambush flak in his own room when your character sucks at picking locks.