Nora - Linking Diana Rigg's Avengers character Emma Peel to Fallout's game design
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Googled screencaps, newspaper pics and Bethesda artwork - credits to The Avengers, Bethesda, Mirrorpix
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Nora's character is based on a "young Diana Rigg" in FO4's design boards, and links to her Avengers character are clear, but was her jumpsuit an inspiration for original Fallout too?
Nora is Diana's Emma Peel from The Avengers
You've all seen that screenshot (middle far-right in my collage) from the game's cinematic portion. Some might think she's a generic sweetheart but hardcore Fallouteers will know she is Nora, as was originally modelled on a "young Diana Rigg", and with auburn hair. See original FO4 storyboard 37 (I've cropped the crucial frame and design note naming the actress, top-centre). By final release Nora was darker but the sweetheart photo retains Rigg's likeness in face & hair (compare it to my upper colour insert of Rigg). Defining a "young" Rigg really pegs her Avengers career as character Emma Peel, and the inspiration is clear. Of course, both are avenging wrongs. Nora is a smart sleuthing lawyer, Emma a smart sleuthing scientist - and both are capable fighters. But it goes deeper - both are young and soon bereft of ex-military husbands. And both wear an iconic blue jumpsuit with yellow piping. Coincidences? Unlikely!
Emma Peel's Role & Influence
The Avengers (a mix of crime, spying & sci-fi) was a groundbreaking tv show for many reasons. It was the first to have a strong female lead, let alone who was also the brains, muscle and often the cavalry too! She was a super-heroine. And it was a very avent-garde, risqué show - the first to put a lead female in micro-mini, mod gear, spiked dog-collar & pvc stocking suits (you name it, she wore it - often before anyone else on tv). All this not only turned Diana Rigg into a huge sex-symbol but also a feminist icon, a fashion icon and a design icon. And these varied influences still resonate to this day - especially within the industry - not least because of the show's chief costume designer - the famous Pierre Cardin.
Leather Catsuit to Utility Blue Jumpsuit
When Honor Blackman (who'd played Dr Gale in Avengers) left the show in 1964 to be in the Bond film Goldfinger (as "Pussy Galore"), The Avengers producers realised they needed a similarly hot female to replace her, smart like Dr Gale but more of a fighter, and the new character Emma Peel's name was a play on the codename for this new lead female - M.Appeal, i.e. the "man-appeal" role. Many older gamers today still remember the sexy black leather catsuit (first worn by Dr Gale while sleuthing about at night), but sadly this was soon dropped as it proved far too restrictive for the more energetic fight scenes for Emma Peel, so they switched to the more practical jumpsuit you see above. And back in the day she was more well known for her jumpsuits and helped make them fashionable (still often referred to as The Emma Peeler), as you'll probably find at some point by trawling Google's pages of results for Diana Rigg's blue jumpsuit.
The Original Vault Girl?
Many of Fallout's original team would've been in Emma Peel's young male target audience range - the British ITV show ran 1961-69. And from 1965 onwards aired prime-time on ABC in the US (becoming one of the first British TV shows in America, certainly in a prime-time slot). And airing globally not just in the '60s, but repeated throughout the '70s. Hard to imagine Fallout's makers never noticed her in those iconic jumpsuits on their TVs. And if not then any artists & designers they used would've been very aware of her influences from their college reference materials. But did a "young Diana Rigg" pop onto a storyboard simply due to brainstorming for FO4, or were pics & notes of this hugely iconic Avengers super-heroine already in "ideas" folders inherited from the original Fallouts? Could her jumpsuits have influenced the design of the vault suit? At least subconsciously, yes, and very plausibly consciously too, though they'd probably never admit it publicly. Hence, I sometimes like to think Diana Rigg is Fallout Alpha - The Original Vault Girl.
Either way, I put the collage together to introduce her to younger Fallout fans who may only know an elderly Diana Rigg for her great role as Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones. Btw, there's more about her Game of Thrones work in one of my comments below (see entry dated 06 Dec 2022).
Thanks for reading!
In memory of Diana Rigg - uber babe, hugely talented actress, a Dame (female Knight of the Realm), and my Fallout Alpha.
1938-2020
P.S. Notes on Nora and Her Age
Readers may be interested in my notes on Nora's in-game background & age - for now it's just a paragraph or so down in the comments (if they grow I'll make a separate image page).
7 comments
Quite possible she was one of the inspirations behind the look of the Vault suits. :)
P.S. Her jumpsuits weren't all vault-blue, but blue was most common. Piping varied but yellow most common, then white. And some piping/hem patterns match Fallout vault patterns quite closely. The styles were soon named after her as "Emma Peeler" jumpsuits.
Diana was already 74 when she auditioned them (not the other way around). By first read-thru she'd already learned all her lines and didn't use scripts. In filming one GoT director dared suggest she do a scene differently and got dismissed with a terse "Thank you. Go away". She told them when to roll and when to cut, when it was right and when not. No debate. She was right of course - stole every scene. More here.
Nate & Nora's ages aren't explicit, iirc, but vanilla he looks about 34 and she's say 31. And that fits their story, for they supposedly began courting before the Sino-American war (which starts 2066). Even if teen sweethearts that's at least 11 years (or easily more) before 2077. There's also apparently unused game audio files saying Nora was in the military (which could neatly explain how she met Nate). Perhaps she was a cadet before leaving to study law, or maybe she was a JAG (army lawyer). And one line by Nate refers to Nora "dusting off" her law degree so it was clearly all several years ago. Nate is also a decorated war veteran (and a recognised one at that, planning to give an important speech), so you have to factor a number of years for all that history to develop too. They also had a dog together for a while in the past. All of which indicates many years of adult history lived before Shaun. And added together, even allowing for some overlaps or condensed timelines/factors, Nora can't be much under 30 at the very youngest, sorry.
If game devs were basing Nora's age on Rigg/Peel then Rigg was aged 27-31 during her time as Peel. She was 27-30 in 3 seasons on Avengers, but also did two now rare art-house films playing as Peel - Diadem (1966, aged 28) & Mini Killers (1969, aged 31) - see here. I don't think Peel's age is ever explicit (and not in her Avengers wiki bio) but her husband was missing "for many years" in the jungle (long enough to be legally presumed dead) before as a "widow" she becomes an Avenger. In British law it takes a minimum of 7 years before you can even apply for a presumption of death. She's also already had a long history of various experiences and expertise, and already inherited the estate of her wealthy industrialist late father. Added together Peel's prob meant to be in her 30s.
Update: one short comment was removed, not for being crude but because it seemed a bit confusing. They're welcome to repost.
[I've refined the main description to make this clearer - my original wording was a tad confusing - back then there was a British TV company called ABC (Associated British Corporation), who made the show, but the show also aired in the US on the American ABC.]