History Characters / Fallout4ProtagonistAndFamily

** He has never been exposed to radiation in his life, which is why the Institute took him: they want his never touched by radiation DNA. He has cancer, a disease often caused by radiation exposure damaging DNA.

* AmbiguouslyTrained: The female Sole Survivor is only explicitly stated to have gotten a law degree, though Vault-Tec rep's unwillingness to speak to your spouse about being selected for Vault 111 due to "your family's service to the country", and the protagonist's matching skills imply a military or government background of some kind.

* AbusiveOffspring: Shaun does love his surviving parent deep down and generally tries to be open and honest with them, was clearly hoping and expecting that they would survive out in the wasteland, appoints them to be the next Director, and sets up Kellogg to die for killing his other parent. However, he let them out of the Vault into an irradiated wasteland with no care for their physical and mental health on the assumption they'll somehow learn of and craft a highly complicated device (rather than greeting them as soon as they thaw and bringing them to the safety of the Institute), sets them up to fight various powerful enemies including Kellogg and a Courser, orders his Synths to attack them, leads them to first meet a child synth of himself as an experiment, snaps if they criticise him, and orders them around if they join him.

* BatmanGambit: He pulls one on you if you side against him. See Shaun II.

* DeathByIrony: He has never been exposed to radiation in his life, which is why the Institute took him: they want his never touched by radiation DNA. He has cancer, a disease often caused by radiation exposure damaging DNA.

* FatalFlaw: Cowardice. Father is so absolutely terrified of the surface world "corrupting" the seemingly utopic Institute that he refuses to have the Commonwealth treated as anything more than a useful scrap yard/petri dish.

** If the player outright tells Shaun that they freed the Synths and kills the Courser during Bunker Hill, he will still forgive them and cover up the incident if they apologise.

* MrFanservice/MsFanservice: The first default option for Nate and Nora are quite attractive.

* PetTheDog: Sure, he opposes the Railroad and doesn't see the Synths as people... but he programs his younger Synth duplicate to think he's the real Shaun and the Sole Survivor's son, leaving a tape begging you, his parent, to take him in as such and raise him to become a part of the Commonwealth. He does this even if you and him became enemies. Though whether this counts as PetTheDog or KickTheDog is debatable, considering how ''extremely'' screwed up the whole idea is, not to mention the clear emotional manipulation involved.

* AbusiveOffspring: Shaun does love his surviving parent deep down and generally tries to be open and honest with them, was clearly hoping and expecting that they would survive out in the wasteland, appoints them to be the next Director and sets up Kellogg to die for killing his other parent. However, he let them out of the Vault into an irradiated wasteland with no care for their physical and mental health on the assumption they'll somehow learn of and craft a highly complicated device (rather than greeting them as soon as they thaw and bringing them to the safety of the Institute), sets them up to fight various powerful enemies including Kellogg and a Courser, orders his Synths to attack them, leads them to first meet a child synth of himself as an experiment, snaps if they criticise him and orders them around if they join him.

* AntagonisticOffspring: If you side against the Institute, since he's its leader and all. He tries very hard to avert this, however, and if you're on his side, well...

* KickTheDog: The Institute's FEV experiments, despite not having produced any worthwhile data for almost an entire ''century,'' were continued at his orders.

* MoralMyopia: Shaun looks down on the Commonwealth as a whole, viewing it as a hopeless region doomed to destruction despite the Sole Survivor's efforts to rebuild, stating that the Institute is Humanity's only hope. However, one of the key reasons the Commonwealth has never been able to rebuild & thrive is ''because'' of the Institute's actions & manipulations. Under Shaun's leadership, the Institute has wiped out entire settlements, abducted countless civilians for experiments, replaced them with Synths, unleashed Super-Mutants, and has deliberately sown great distrust & paranoia among the people of the Commonwealth.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: He's become a true believer in the Institute's mission of creating and maintaining a utopia that will "redefine mankind" and prevent something like the Great War from ever happen again. And to maintain that aforementioned utopia, he's perfect willing to have Synths forever remain slaves, annihilate both the Railroad and East Coast chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel, and keep the Commonwealth under a brutal occupation/conspiracy that prevents them from ever posing a potential threat to them

* MoralMyopia: Shaun looks down on the Commonwealth as a whole, viewing it as a hopeless region doomed to destruction despite the Sole Survivor's efforts to rebuild, stating that the Institute is Humanity's only hope. However, one of the key reasons the Commonwealth has never been able to rebuild & thrive is ''because'' of the Institute's actions & manipulations. Under Shaun's leadership, the Institute has wiped out entire settlements, abducted countless civilians for experiments, replaced them with Synths, unleashed Super-Mutants, and has sown great distrust & paranoia among the people of the Commonwealth.

* ActionDad / ActionMom: Depending on your chosen gender. You both had an infant son and can fight your way through legions of raiders, mutants and robots in the Commonwealth.

* ActionDad: Or [[ActionMom mom]] depending on your chosen gender. You both had an infant son and can fight your way through legions of raiders, mutants and robots in the Commonwealth.

* AbusivePrecursors: Invoked by Piper if she hates the Sole Survivor.

* MoralMyopia: Shaun looks down on the Commonwealth as a whole, viewing it as a hopeless region doomed to destruction despite the Sole Survivor's efforts to rebuild, stating that the Institute is Humanity's only hope. However, one of the key reasons the Commonwealth has never been able to rebuild & thrive is ''because'' of the Institute's actions & manipulations. Under Shaun's leadership, the Institute has wiped out entire settlements, abducted countless civilians for experiments, replaced them with Synths, unleashed Super-Mutants, and has sown great distrust among the people of the Commonwealth.
** Shaun's attitude is displayed during the non-Institute faction endings as he is on his deathbed. As his surviving parent leads an assault on the Institute itself, he decries how his/her actions are an atrocity that dooms humanity. The Sole Survivor can express bewilderment at this statement, pointing out how the Institute has made, and continues to make, themselves enemies with virtually everyone in the Commonwealth, who would be justifiably hellbent on destroying them.
--->'''Sole Survivor''': "Seriously? All the enemies you've created, you can't imagine why I'd be standing here?"

** Shaun's attitude is displayed during the non-Institute faction endings as he is on his deathbed. As his surviving parent leads an assault on the Institute itself, he decries how his/her actions are an atrocity that dooms humanity. The Sole Survivor can express bewilderment at this statement, pointing out how the Institute has made, and continues to make, themselves enemies with virtually everyone in the Commonwealth.

** Shaun's attitude is displayed during the non-Institute Faction Endings as he is on his deathbed. As his surviving parent leads an assault on the Institute itself, he decries how his/her actions are an atrocity that dooms humanity. The Sole Survivor can express bewilderment at this statement, pointing out how the Institute has made, and continue to make, themselves enemies with virtually everyone in the Commonwealth.
--->'''Sole Survivor''': "Seriously? All the Enemies you've created, You can't imagine why I'd be standing here?"

** He's also one to Mr. Robert Edwin House (also from '' New Vegas''). Both are intellectual leaders who, through very different fashions, predate the Great War. As in the above, both are also elderly men (though House is massively more so) who also both lead the most scientifically inclined factions in their respective games. Both are also morally ambiguous, with [[TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil House being more of a moral grey between the NCR and Caesar's Legion]] and [[ALighterShadeOfBlack Father being one of the more moral members of an amoral faction]]. Both are also sheltered from the realities of the waste, and both are to some degree responsible for the success of their faction and the troops used by them (Securitrons are an invention of Mr. House, and Gen 3 Synths are derived from Father's genetics). Father, though, is the leader of the Institute and genetic template for Synths, but he is not irreplaceable; most notably, [[PlayerCharacter the player themselves]] could fill the same role and was kept alive, in part, for that very reason. Similarly, House can be usurped by the Courier and Yes-Man. House is the sole reason New Vegas is what it is, and he is the sole reason the Mojave Wasteland is less destroyed than other regions. The Commonwealth fared better due to circumstances entirely unrelated to Shaun (mainly dumb luck and being a low target in general for the Chinese). House is also sheltered not as much by choice but instead by the fact that he physically cannot leave his containment without dying. Father prefers to stay inside the walls of the Institute and refuses to see them in ways that threaten his personal worldview of the Institute being humanity's saviors. House is less ignorant, as he shows an understanding if one rather cold and mathematical of the other factions around him and their leaders. Father keeps a close eye on other factions through the Institute's SinisterSurveillance. House is also focused on his own faction - New Vegas itself - but interacts with the others, wishing to have the NCR's citizens and soldiers as customers and taking a far dimmer view to Caesar's Legion. [[SelectiveObliviousness Father dismisses the whole of the Commonwealth as a lost cause]] and wishes for nothing more than to dominate it. In this way, both have autocratic ambitions, but Father more so, over a greater area, as House does not want to annex any of the NCR. Another similarity comes from their games' narratives: Three of the endings to ''New Vegas'' involve killing House, and three of the endings to ''Fallout 4'' involve siding against Father.

* AuthorityInNameOnly: If you decide to follow the route of the Minutemen, in theory you are their leader, in practice the true leader is Garvey and you are his right hand. [[spoiler:The same goes for if you become the Institute's leader, you just take orders from the directors to do various tasks.]] However, this is an AcceptableBreakFromReality, as sitting in on meetings and listening to bickering underlings every day would be boring and frustrating the the vast majority of players.

* TheAllegedBoss: If you decide to follow the route of the Minutemen, in theory you are their leader, in practice the true leader is Garvey and you are his right hand.

* MamaBear: For the Female Sole Survivor.They bravely travel a vast, dangerous wasteland for the sake of their missing child.

* AllegedBoss: If you decide to follow the route of the Minutemen, in theory you are their leader, in practice the true leader is Garvey and you are his right hand.

* AuthorityGrantsAsskicking: You're the leader of the Minutemen if you accept Garvey's offer, the second in command of the Brotherhood of Steel as a Sentinel if you side with them, and the single most dangerous person in the Commonwealth. [[spoiler:You can also become the leader of the Institute if you side with them.]] Also doubles as AsskickingLeadsToLeadership because Garvey selects you, in large part, because ''you'' wiped out a large group of raiders (and a Deathclaw) by yourself and Maxson promoted you in light of your impressive service. You can actually be General and Sentinel at the same time.

* BadassBaritone: The male Sole Survivor has a notably deep voice, courtesy of Brian T. Delaney.

* NeverGrewUp: Maybe. While there are Institute scientists who explicitly say that synths cannot age, but they are not members of either the Robotics or SRB divisions of the Institute, the ones most likely to intimately understand synth biology. Those divisions don't explain one way or another, but it is worth noting that there are synths who have explicitly been above ground and undercover for '''decades''', cover that would be difficult to maintain if synths had no way of showing the passage of time without returning to the Institute to be "aged" manually. Additionally, the comment about him never aging falls into AmbiguousSyntax - the scientists could be talking about Synth Shaun being unable to physically age, or they could be talking about Synth Shaun ostensibly being "[[DeadlyEuphemism retired]]" as soon as his role in luring the Sole Survivor into the Institute's clutches is finished (meaning that he will never get the chance to grow up [[DeathOfAChild as he would be killed beforehand]]).

* NeverGrewUp:
** As a Synth child, he will never physically age. However, it's unknown if this will actually last, considering basic entropy and how most Synths are primarily organic creations anyway.
** To expand on this: There are Institute scientists who explicitly say that synths cannot age, but they are not members of either the Robotics or SRB divisions of the Institute, the ones most likely to intimately understand synth biology. Those divisions don't explain one way or another, but it is worth noting that there are synths who have explicitly been above ground and undercover for '''decades''', cover that would be difficult to maintain if synths had no way of showing the passage of time without returning to the Institute to be "aged" manually. Additionally, the comment about him never aging falls into AmbiguousSyntax - the scientists could be talking about Synth Shaun being unable to physically age, or they could be talking about Synth Shaun ostensibly being "[[DeadlyEuphemism retired]]" as soon as his role in luring the Sole Survivor into the Institute's clutches is finished (meaning that he will never get the chance to grow up [[DeathOfAChild as he would be killed beforehand]]).

** They serve as one to the Lone Wanderer from ''VideoGame{Fallout3''. The Lone Wanderer was a teenager who left a life of comfort and safety in Vault 101 to search for their father. By comparison, the Sole Survivor is a family man/woman who left the cold and decrepit remains of Vault 111 to find their son.

** They serve as one to the Lone Wanderer from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''. The Lone Wanderer was a teenager who left a life of comfort and safety in Vault 101 to search for their father. By comparison, the Sole Survivor is a family man/woman who left the cold and decrepit remains of Vault 111 to find their son.
** And to an extent, they're also one to the Courier from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout New Vegas}}''. The Courier was an experienced Wastelander who set out on a [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge quest for revenge]] against the guy who shot them in the head, and ended up dragged into a three-way battle between the NCR, the Legion, and New Vegas for control of the Mojave Wasteland. Conversely, the Sole Survivor is a FishOutOfTemporalWater who finds themselves in a post-apocalyptic future, with no experience of surviving a post-apocalypse America, and must enlist the help of one of the squabbling factions just to find their son.

** He's also one to Mr. Robert Edwin House (also from '' New Vegas''). Both are intellectual leaders who, through very [[HumanPopsicle different]] [[HollywoodCyborg fashions]], predate the Great War. As in the above, both are also elderly men (though House is massively more so) who also both lead the most scientifically inclined factions in their respective games. Both are also morally ambiguous, with [[TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil House being more of a moral grey between the NCR and Caesar's Legion]] and [[ALighterShadeOfBlack Father being one of the more moral members of an (admittedly amoral) faction]]. Both are also sheltered from the realities of the waste, and both are to some degree responsible for both the success of their faction and the troops used by them (Securitrons are an invention of Mr. House, and Gen 3 Synths are derived from Father's genetics). Father, though, is the leader of the Institute and genetic template for Synths, but he is not irreplaceable; most notably, [[PlayerCharacter the player themselves]] could fill the same role and was kept alive, in part, for that very reason. Similarly, House can be usurped by the Courier and Yes-Man. House is the sole reason New Vegas is what it is, and he is the sole reason the Mojave Wasteland is less destroyed than other regions. The Commonwealth fared better due to circumstances entirely unrelated to Shaun (mainly dumb luck and being a low target in general for the Chinese). As well, House is sheltered not as much by choice, but instead by the fact that he physically cannot leave his containment without dying. Father just prefers to stay inside the walls of the Institute and refuses to see them in ways that threaten his personal worldview of the Institute being humanity's saviors. House is less ignorant, as he shows an understanding, if one rather cold and mathematical, of the other factions around him and their leaders. Father keeps a close eye on other factions through the Institute's SinisterSurveillance. As well, House is focused on his own faction - New Vegas itself - but interacts with the others, wishing to have the NCR's citizens and soldiers as customers and taking a far dimmer view to Caesar's Legion. [[SelectiveObliviousness Father dismisses the whole of the Commonwealth as a lost cause]] and wishes for nothing than to dominate it. In this way, both have autocratic ambitions, but Father more so, over a greater area, as House does not want to annex any of the NCR. Another similarity comes about as a result of their games' narratives: Three of the endings to ''New Vegas'' involve killing House, and three of the endings to ''Fallout 4'' involve siding against Father.