Name: Paladin Danse (though he's been stripped of the title by his canon point)
Door: Door Pass

Canon: Fallout 4
Canon Point: About two weeks after the resolution of the quest "Blind Betrayal"

Age: Chronologically 20; looks and acts closer to 40
Appearance: Link

History: Wiki

Personality:

Dutiful

"I need to be the example, not the exception."

The rose-colored glasses with which Danse views the Brotherhood of Steel could be cited as further evidence of delusion or brainwashing (see below), rather than commitment to duty. There certainly is an element of that in the way he consistently sees the organization as it claims to be, and as it should be, rather than as it actually is.

But his devotion to that ideal stems from his wholehearted belief that nobody but the Brotherhood can possibly protect what's left of humankind from extinction. Convinced though he is that everyone would believe in the Brotherhood's cause if they weren't "blinded by rumors and misinformation," he still swears that he would gladly spill his own blood to defend the civilians who don't appreciate it or want him there.

When he discovers that he is one of the "technology run amok" creations he's previously insisted are the biggest threat to humanity, he begs the Sole Survivor to kill him or allow him to kill himself rather than let him continue to exist as part of that threat. He refuses to accept that he or anyone else deserves special treatment or to be elevated above the rules, and hates few things more than hypocrisy.

Brainwashed

"I might have been exiled from the Brotherhood, but I'll be damned if I'm going to stand idly by while you tarnish its name."

Some players think it's a bug or an oversight that even after Danse is kicked out of the Brotherhood on pain of death and forced to spend the rest of his life fleeing from the members hunting him down for sport, his voice lines in praise of it don't change. It's not a bug. Danse is capable of massive cognitive dissonance when justifying his continued faith in the organization that wants him dead, even when he's been convinced that he deserves to live. The fact that he requires such thorough persuading of this in the first place is proof of the hold the Brotherhood's philosophy still has on him, and to some extent always will.

He needs repeated convincing that his mere existence as a synth isn't inherently harming anyone, and that he deserves to maintain relationships with human beings in the same way he's done all his life, always prefacing his doubts about that with "After everything the Brotherhood taught you..." or "The Brotherhood would say that..." or "You're betraying what the Brotherhood stands for." He still can't bring himself to believe that other synths deserve the same grace that he was given, or that they count as people too, because he only barely and precariously believes it of himself. He never does change his mind about the Railroad needing to be destroyed, despite the fact that he almost certainly owes his own freedom to it.

He has a habit of imprinting on specific people when he doesn't have a larger group or philosophy to devote his loyalty to, but whether this is because of Institute programming or Brotherhood brainwashing or just simply who he is as a person is up in the air. Either way, it's clear to see why he's been such a useful weapon to those who want to use him as one.

Bigoted

"I can't believe you're replacing me with this...thing."

By a number of standards, Danse is refreshingly egalitarian. He's more than happy to serve alongside or take orders from soldiers of any ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. His open and seething prejudice is not the sort that might apply to anyone from a mundane Earth setting, and half of it is internalized and applies just as strongly to himself as to those he hates--but in the world he comes from, it's no wonder that nobody actually likes him outside of the domineering and widely-resented organization he represents.

He's been taught to separate his post-apocalyptic society into "human" and "subhuman," and anyone in the "subhuman" category--usually those mutated by radiation or the Forced Evolutionary Virus, but the philosophy applies as well to synths for being lab-created rather than born--poses a threat to be wiped out. His reasoning is that these groups result from unchecked use of the kind of dangerous technology the Brotherhood exists to control, and he's not actually wrong about this, but it leads him and the rest of the Brotherhood to take it cruelly out on innocent people who find themselves the victims or pawns of that technology through no fault of their own, as well as on the ones who do pose actual threats.

Danse has been known to feel empathy and make exceptions for radiation-mutated ghouls who show no signs of harming anyone, but he's inconsistent with it, and seems to feel guilty enough about those exceptions to double down and be even more needlessly unkind to other ghouls as if making up for it.

Codependent

"Being with you has made me realize that I never want to be alone again."

Given how wholly his identity was wrapped up in the Brotherhood and the notion that he was defending his fellow humans from outside attack, it isn't a surprise that Danse feels completely hollowed-out and bereft of any purpose in life once he loses all of that at once. He's self-aware enough to be able to articulate this, and to reject a less-charismatic Sole Survivor's romantic advances by explaining that he's in no position to engage in a healthy relationship until he figures out who he is on his own without all the things that once mattered to him.

If he is persuaded to enter a relationship, however, he becomes desperately devoted (and the direction notes to the voice actor do use the word "desperate") to the point where he's terrified to let his partner out of his sight lest anything hurt them while he can't protect them, says he doesn't know what he'd do without them, waxes feverishly poetic about how fate brought them together and would never tear them apart, and claims this is the only time in his life that he's ever known real happiness. He seems hyper-aware of any slight changes in the player's attitude toward him and worriedly blames himself for any shifts in approval.

While not too extreme or dangerous, it's evident that he's leaning on the relationship as a substitute for a sense of self in a way that isn't healthy or well-adjusted, and would probably do that with just about anyone who stepped into that vacuum at the right time.

Powers and Abilities: Danse can't really do things that a human soldier can't, but he can endure a lot more than the average human.

His stamina and immune response are moderately enhanced and he can heal more quickly from injuries, but his synth biology is most notable in the fact that he literally can't alter his body type in any significant way no matter what he does. He doesn't age and can't gain or lose weight or muscle; he's designed to stay exactly how he came out of the lab, unless he loses a limb or something. He doesn't need to sleep, though he can still feel tired and choose to do it; similarly, he can survive on very little caloric input, but he'll still feel like he's starving if he doesn't eat.

Inventory: One Brotherhood-issue laser rifle, one extra clip of fusion-cell ammo for it, and one set of holographic dog tags.

Samples:

Thinking
Communicating