@thebexvalentine Sorry, essay ahead, but I'm so happy that you brought this up. I think about this dichotomy CONSTANTLY. I have a conspiracy theory that there was a companion writer and a story writer who each had a hand in writing Piper, and who each created her to serve a different purpose.
The story Piper, who you meet to get you into Diamond City, is more world building than character. She's there to give you information about the institute, to set up the conflict between synths, humans, and the institute, and to give you an understanding of how the general public views synths. Because of this, as well as an added bonus of setting the tone and feel of the game/new location, she's allowed to be a little scummy and manipulative (as a treat).
I do feel like people exaggerate what was actually in the paper, but she does make an intentional comparison between a damaged synth and McDonough, intended to insinuate that McDonough is a hidden danger. It kind of weaponizes the assumed presumptions about Synths against an opponent that she disagrees with, as opposed to being a factual, honest look into the idea of McDonough being an infiltrator.
Beyond that, people bring up tricking the guard, but a really telling piece of characterization that I think is ignored is the interview. In it, after she clocks you as a vault dweller (and even if you tell her that you're 200 years old and Don't Know What The Hell Is HappeningTM), she leads you on to say that Shaun was kidnapped by the institute. That read as really scummy to me when I replayed the game -- to try and get a grieving mom to play into her agenda against the institute.
Now, I like all of this!! I'm not a nun, I'm not going to complain about a woman lying to a cop or whatever. I think you could even play on this further. Piper has a little sister to take care of as well, and they need to eat. There's definitely a want to create headlines that sell -- maybe Piper could be a little self aware about the fact that hateful rhetoric about Synths is a hot seller. She could justify it by saying, "Well, I don't think that EVERY synth is replacing people, just some!! I'm just Asking Questions!!" A character who is trying to do the right thing, but is constantly pushed around by other factors (money, society) plays very well into both the setting and themes about fallibility within Fallout 4.
I personally really love this version of Piper. Such a flawed, self - aware, scheming personality is a character archetype that's very rarely given to women in the media, and it makes sense to me that someone who has grown up in the society of Fallout would write/behave like this.
The ISSUE is that I think the companion writer took a look at the basic notes of her character and then created a very different arc. Piper the companion is supposed to be sympathetic -- so they sanded off all of the rougher edges mentioned above and made her arc into a very safe, "I'm lonely and nobody likes me because I do the right thing :(( thank you for saving me and being my friend :))" even though that is LITERALLY the opposite of the character seen above. I'm not saying she would need a full redemption arc or to *pay for her crimes*, but you should be able to pick a characters brain and ask them to consider why they do the things they do, even if it doesn't lead to a changed perspective. You can't do that if the writer won't acknowledge the character that they're writing -- and, in this case, the story won't acknowledge that she done fucked up.
(To be frank, I think they also knew that most of the people playing Fallout 4 would be Gamer Men who wanted a hot, uncomplicated woman to follow them around, and needed to make her a little more appealing/not *too* obnoxious and flawed. Better make her adorkable and have a thing about being a caretaker to Nat as well!! This is an admittedly uncharitable take).
Regardless, I don't think either character is *bad* per se, but they're not congruent and it leads to an unsatisfying narrative. The story set up a conflict about a character creating an ultimately harmful paper, and then tries to gaslight you into thinking that, actually, no, Piper is the Goodest Girl and it's just those mean citizens who are complaining about her because they don't understand her :(((
A hypothetical good version of Piper Wright would be (at least in my opinion) a character who tries to do the right thing, but is still a girl who grew up in bumfuck nowhere and is now in one of the most insulated areas of the Commonwealth, and ultimately has a little sister that she needs to feed. She is very much a product of her society and is prone to propaganda about Synths, and, wanting to protect her community, writes misinformed stories about how they're replacing people. She even utilizes them to push her own agenda and sell papers, justifying it as "Well, these synths are bad anyways, so what's the harm?" One of the things I regret about my original post was my wording about bigotry and paranoia -- I don't think Piper is, like, a conspiracy nut or intentionally bigoted/malicious, but, as mentioned above, she is a product of her society.
Her arc would be about becoming involved with actual Gen 3 Synths, and seeing how they operate. I'm envisioning a quest where you would help her write a comprehensive article about Synths, and you would have conversations railroad members, who note how they're treated worse because of her paper. You could find information from a courser or whatever about how the institute is spreading propaganda about replacement Synths to prevent their escape. As she goes back to write her paper, you see a scene where Nat gangs up on one of the other kids in Diamond City, and accuses him of being a synth, causing her to do a lot of self reflection on how her paper, and by extension her attitude towards Synths, is negatively impacting her community and a group of people that is being hurt by the institute, same as any other person.
You could either convince her to write a fully researched, sympathetic view of Synths where she disputes the idea that they're evil, or you could encourage her to be even more exclusionary. If you go down the "evil" route she becomes more self - serving. I could even imagine her liking the brotherhood, because "they're willing to do what needs to be done." I'm thinking J Jonah Jameson, but girl. Absolute menace of a woman who will do anything for a good story.
Anyways sorry this was so long but I have a lot of ThoughtsTM on Piper.
