User blog comment:The Milkman/The Writing of the Ending/@comment-4835791-20120529220359/@comment-4237253-20120530123050

Oh yeah! That was rather contrived. I remember when Fawkes said "Sorry, your destiny is to go in there and die of radiation poisoning because death is always heroic, and needless sacrifice for no reason is always poetic!" Ok, I might be paraphrasing just a little, but you get my point.

Other than that nagging detail, everything about your sacrifice would be a poetic death. They should have shoehorned in some reason for Fawkes, Charon, your crazy robot companion or that barber who bullied you as a kid to not be able to go in there and activate Project Purity. Maybe they get killed at the last second, forcing you to make a tragic decision? Of course there is also Sarah Lyons, but then sacrificing yourself would have an even greater impact on multiple levels. Not only are you giving up your life for the greater good (or Eden's version of it) you are nobly offering up your life to save another. If I could romance anyone from Fallout 3, it'd be her. Taking a bullet for her is a great way to go out.

Back to the topic at hand however. You did touch on a serious mistake on Bethesda's part that BioWare made as well: Needless sacrifice. Like I said in the "The Jesus of Science Fiction?" The sacrifice is extremely contrived and utterly unneeded.