Listen, there’s been a lot already written about Fallout ahead of Season 2, including plenty of stuff about how tough it was for Walton Goggins to endure the hours of makeup it took for him to get into costume as The Ghoul. While his character has been described as literally looking “like a melted candle,” there’s actually a fairly sizable faction of fans who are kind of into it, and not in a “this is cool makeup” way. More like in a let’s talk about how “The Ghoul is a zaddy” kind of way.
In fact, one of those fans jokingly tweeted about their (seemingly) favorite Fallout character, using the oft-repeated viral “Incels think women only want rich hot chads with sports cars and six packs but at this very moment, women are losing their minds” post starter to talk about the Internet’s new post-apocalyptic cowboy. And he responded to boot!
To be clear, Fallout is going for handsome – in an offbeat way – with The Ghoul. Goggins was clear about this whilst doing press for Season 1. He’s a handsome 52-year-old dude, after all, whether or not he has a nose. The actor previously told Rotten Tomatoes that they wanted to create a “piece” to apply that would “allow” his face to still remain his face so there would be enough for the audience to develop “empathy” for the character. He said:
What we came back to again and again is that we want the audience to lean into this experience. We don’t want them to be grossed out by it. We want them to study his face. We want The Ghoul to be handsome, in a post-apocalyptic, 200-year painful journey, as close to handsome as he could be [way].
It seems to have worked. Honestly, a few weeks after the release of the show, noted parody site The Onion ran a headline that read “Women Explain Why They Are Attracted To Walton Goggins’ Character In Fallout.” Goggins reshared the funny response his showrunner Lisa Joy Nolan had to the joke-y-yet-relevant post too.
People might have all the jokes about the infamously noseless character, but legitimately the responses to posts like these have really leaned into the ghoul as a romantic hero. In fact, everyone's playing along for their favorite ghoul daddy.
- "Guys there’s supposed to be a joke in the headline."
- "Fun fact, not just women."
- "It's called The Goggins Effect."
- "He is an independent man who is one with the wasteland. His looks and ghoulishness just add to the appeal."
- "He can leash me and drag me around the wasteland any day."
- "This isn’t a joke to me. This is real. Sign me up for ghoul Goggins."
- "Would it be a surprise to anyone to admit that I’ve had a thing for ghouls since I was a teenager or…"
At the end of the day, like Law & Order: Organized Crime’s Christopher Meloni or even Survivor’s Jeff Probst, Walton Goggins is having his Zaddy moment. Honestly, if you’d told me before this year, I probably would have thought it would come during The White Lotus Season 3 after Walton Goggins joined that cast, but here we are. Luckily, if you have been into the actor’s recent performances, there’s more to come.
