SPOILERS FOR FALLOUT 3 ENDING
At the end of Fallout 3 you need to enter an irradiated chamber to fulfill your family dream of bringing pure water to the wasteland. Both of your parents die dreaming of accomplishing this mission. That is until the Broken Steel DLC released adding more options to the game.
Fawkes is Super Mutant, a mutated human imune to radiation. You find him trapped in a cell, and can either release him, end him, or ignore him. If freed he will come to your rescue later in the game, helping you escape an evil faction. In the original ending he refuses to enter the end game irradiated chamber, saying he would be stealing your fate if he activated it on your behalf. In the update, he will say that as you changed his fate, he will change yours.
My friends and I have debated for years whether the game was wrong not to have the option from the start, if Fawkes original refusal makes him a monster, if it really makes sense to follow your fate if it means death, and so on.
When I was younger I hated Fawkes for sending me to my death, but looking at it now I see the devs point. Id be curious were others land.
I don't think his refusal makes him a monster, but I do think it was a cheap copout "But thou must" for no good reason, and it's still stupid that the game treats you worse for choosing to send Fawkes in.
Yes, it was a "noble" sacrifice, but for what end? Clean water? Great. Now the only thing tying potentially several disparate factions together is a martyr whose death they can puppet for their own causes.
It was a cheap end, and one of the weakest parts of FO3 for me, and BoS didn't really make it better by tacking on "You survived, you hero".
I hated him when I first played. He was my favorite character and it was a real, "Et tu Fawkes?" moment.
Most people wont even know who the vault dweller was, the only fame would come post death as people spin the tale. It all feels a bit half baked.