History Characters / Fallout4ProtagonistAndFamily

* {{Angrish}}: [[invoked]] Whenever the [[TurnsRed Nerd Rage]] perk kicks in, the Survivor grumbles, then [[SuddenlyShouting abruptly bellows]] a barely-coherent ClusterFBomb. It really ''does'' sound like a normally calm/wimpy person flipping their lid, and [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments all the hilarity that brings]].

* {{Jerkass}}: [[invoked]] The game's GreyAndGreyMorality technically prevents you from being genuinely evil unless you go out of your way to kill non-hostile characters, steal, and become a cannibal. Even then, people will mostly treat you as alright. Instead, the darkest you can roleplay is always choose the sarcastic option which makes you an obnoxious DeadpanSnarker even in the most inappropriate of situations. However, in ''[=Nuka-World=]'', you can become flat out evil by becoming a raider boss and bully the settlers in the Commonwealth, and this is of course ignoring how the game's AlternativeCharacterInterpretation can lead to a lot of your actions being construed as evil (i.e., helping support the enslavement of Synths by the Institute if you agree with the Railroad but still side against them).

* ChickMagnet[=/=]DudeMagnet: They're already [[HappilyMarried married]] at the start in a hetero relationship, but depending on player choice they can get one or more of the following to fall for them: [[HotScoop Piper]], [[BloodKnight Cait]], [[RobotGirl Curie]], [[TheChanteuse Magnolia]], [[OfficerAndAGentleman Preston]], [[TheFundamentalist Danse]], [[BunnyEarsLawyer Hancock]], [[OnlyInItForTheMoney MacCready]], [[BrainInAJar Gilda Broscoe]] and [[CardCarryingVillain Porter Gage]].

* FemaleGaze[=/=]MaleGaze: As shown above, both the female and male Sole Survivors have lovely shots focused on their rears on the back cover of the game's box art.

* MamaBear[=/=]PapaWolf: They bravely travel a vast, dangerous wasteland for the sake of their missing child.

** [[invoked]] The default female name, Nora, comes from [[ComicBook/BatMan Mr. Freeze]]'s cryogenically frozen ([[ContinuitySnarl maybe]]) wife. Victor is also on the list of Codsworth's spoken names, if you'd like to play a male Survivor and make the comparison more appropriate. Unfortunately, the closest you can get to "Freeze" or "Fries" is Frost.

* EveryoneHasStandards: PlayedWith. He personally finds Kellogg to be an abhorrent person and sees his killing of his parent an unnecessary collateral damage. However, unlike you Shaun's had 60 years to deal with the loss of a parent he's never known, and only considers Kellogg useful enough to be kept on a short leash. However, while Kellogg is a brutal, amoral thug who has lost all reason to live but caps, he doesn't normally engage in the kind of senseless brutalities like the destruction of University Point or FEV experiments Shaun has approved. In some ways,]Kellogg's a far-far better person than Shaun ever was.

* DecoyProtagonist: If the Sole Survivor is female, then Nate becomes this, as it's he who provides the opening narration.

* AlasPoorVillain: His death is genuinely heartbreaking, and is practically guaranteed to make the Sole Survivor feel uncomfortable in any ending. Most poignantly, in the endings where the Sole Survivor sides against him, instead of [[VillainousBreakdown furiously rambling, screaming, or attempting to attack]] the man/woman destroying his life's work and seemingly dooming humanity's future (from his perspective, at least), he instead just gives a bitter, weary sigh and coldly asks the Sole Survivor to leave him alone so he can at least ''pretend'' [[FaceDeathWithDignity to die in peace]].

* EveryoneHasStandards: He personally finds Kellogg to be an abhorrent person and sees his killing of his parent an unnecessary collateral damage. However, unlike you Shaun's had 60 years to deal with the loss of a parent he's never known, and only considers Kellogg useful enough to be kept on a short leash.
** Though this is [[AmbiguousSituation arguably]] subverted, as while Kellogg is a brutal, amoral thug who has lost all reason to live but caps, he doesn't normally engage in the kind of senseless brutality like the destruction of University Point or FEV experiments Shaun has approved. [[FromACertainPointOfView In some ways,]] Kellogg's a far-far better person than Shaun ever was.
* FantasticRacism: [[invoked]] Adamantly refuses to believe Synths are anything more than high-functioning machines. There's an AlternateCharacterInterpretation that he's just spouting the party line because the Institute is built on Synth labor. He also loathes cyborgs and bans any research into them, and has a general contempt for the people of the Commonwealth.

* {{Gaslighting}}: Leads you to believe that S9-23 is him and that you've only missed ten years of your son's life, [[ForScience just to see how the young Synth would react to extreme emotional stimuli.]] Father never seems to [[LackOfEmpathy consider how traumatic this could be for his parent.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: Shaun doesn't consider Synths to be people, yet in the end, sends his 10-year old Synth duplicate to be adopted by his parent, with a tape from him requesting that the boy be raised as the Survivor's actual son and treated as family (though that can be {{Hand Wave}}d as a possible {{Heel Realization}} on Shaun's part and his attempt to make up in part to the Sole Survivor). He also bans any research into cybernetics, but still secretly conducted experiments with FEV to see if it could be controlled.

* LastRequest: Shaun wishes you to take care of Synth Shaun as your own son. Even before that, he actually frees you because he's dying and wants to both make you Director of the Institute and have you kill Kellogg.
* LifeWillKillYou: He is dying of cancer. Not even as a result of radiation exposure, as he's never left the Institute. He simply contracted it due to bad luck and the Institute is unable to cure him.

* MeaningfulName: "Shaun" is an Irish name meaning "God is gracious." He was certainly a gracious and vital gift for the Institute, as his [=DNA=] was necessary for the creation of all modern Synths.
* MirrorCharacter: To James, the father of the Lone Wanderer in ''VideoGame/Fallout3''. Like James, you find out Shaun has been an influence in the Wasteland in greater scope than is first apparent, and they are involved in large-scale scientific research projects that will benefit humanity. However, the difference is that James' efforts were truly altruistic and would improve the Wasteland for all, while Shaun has been almost fully indoctrinated to the Institute's philosophies and has only a marginal interest in helping the Commonwealth. The narratives of ''Fallout 3'' and ''Fallout 4'' in regards to James and Shaun also heavily parallel each other: James fled to a Vault after the death of his wife to raise the Lone Wanderer in safety; Shaun was taken from a Vault to the Institute in a raid that involved the death of the Sole Survivor's spouse, and he was raised in the safety of the Institute. The storyline heavily concerns around the player trying to find and locate them, thematically flipping the narrative from being a child searching for their father to a parent searching for their son.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Shaun's first time on the surface caused him to decide the Commonwealth isn't worth saving and that the Institute should just isolate itself and keep doing its thing -- with no regard for the lives of those above ground.
* TheSlowPath: It's revealed that Shaun is the current leader of the Institute, taken from the Vault after 150 years in cryogenic stasis. He ends up waiting an additional 60 years for his surviving parent to eventually arrive at the Institute's base of operations.
* TheSociopath: Shows off a noticeable LackOfEmpathy, does experiments for the sake of satisfying his own curiosity more than anything, lies to you if you fail Charisma checks, and justifies atrocities by saying it's for the good of humanity (without explaining how). He even admits to the Sole Survivor that he's never known love in the sixty years he was raised by the Institute, and that his desire to be with his only surviving parent is something akin to "biological nostalgia."

** Part of Shaun's reluctance to aid the Commonwealth and refusal to grant Synths equal rights is because it would fundamentally ruin the Institute's high standard of living. While this perspective is incredibly selfish and ultimately incorrect, it's still completely understandable why he would believe this.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Heavily downplayed. On the one hand, he still looks and acts like an elderly man regardless of his actual age. However, his cancer has prematurely aged him, to the point where looks more like a man in their late seventies rather than a sixty-year-old.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: He's dying of cancer by the time you meet him. While the Institute can extend his lifespan, they cannot fully cure him and he would rather pass on naturally.

* EarlyBirdCameo: He's the young Shaun that stayed with Kellogg in Diamond City. His appearance there ends up skewing the Sole Survivor's perception of time passing, making them think it was only ten years instead of sixty.

* GiveHimANormalLife: The real Shaun sends him to you in order to give the both of you a chance at becoming a real family.

* 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.

* WalkingSpoiler: On account of being a big part of the bait and switch on Father's identity.

** One could make the case that he's more of a counterpart to Mr. Robert Edwin House (also from ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''). 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.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: A straight example with Nora, who was a law school graduate who took maternity leave while she had Shaun. It's only when she wakes up 200 years in the future after witnessing the murder of her husband and abduction of her baby that she turns into a survivalist in the wasteland.

* OneHundredPercentAdorationRating: The people of the Institute revere him, both for being the DNA source of the Synth project and for his tutelage as Director. After his passing, everyone mourns him, and a memorial is set up in the atrium - something no previous Director was given.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: If the Synth duplicate of himself as a ten year-old is anything to go by.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: 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 AsskickingEqualsAuthority 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.

->'''Voiced by:''' Tony Amendola

** In a twisted sense, as he still genuinely loves and cares for the Sole Survivor, [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas his only surviving parent.]] Most poignantly, his final words with the Sole Survivor in the Institute ending are him thanking them for all of their help and imparting some advice on leading the Institute before he dies.
** Additionally, he truly cares about the Institute, not just as an organization, but as a people. The best way to [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talk him down during "The Nuclear Option"]] is to promise to save as many Institute personnel as possible.

* AmbiguousDisorder: He displays some sociopathic tendencies during his reign as the Institute's Director.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: You can have Codsworth call you '''Mr/Ms. Badass''', among others.

* AdultFear: Shaun is taken away by the Institute and you are unable to stop them. Depending on how you feel about them, learning that he's become their leader, mind and soul, may be an even worse one.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: It's only through the treatment of Synths as slave labor ''and'' the constant oppression of the Commonwealth to prevent them from becoming anything more than a useful petri dish and resource-gathering site that the Institute can maintain its high standard of living. Father's desire to continue maintaining an unstainable status quo because it lets him live such an easy life can be seen as a parallel to people not trying to fix serious problems like GlobalWarming or institutionalized racism because of the sacrifices that ''they'd'' have to personally make to do so.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: It's only through the treatment of Synths as slave labor ''and'' the constant oppression of the Commonwealth to prevent them from becoming anything more than a useful petri dish and resource-gathering site that the Institute can maintain its high standard of living. Father's desire to continue maintaining an unstainable status quo because it lets him live such an easy life can be seen as a parallel to people not trying to fix serious problems because of the sacrifices that ''they'd'' have to personally make to do so.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: It's only through the treatment of Synths as slave labor ''and'' the constant oppression of the Commonwealth to prevent them from becoming anything more than a useful petri dish and resource-gathering site that the Institute can maintain its high standard of living. Father's desire to continue maintaining an unstainable status quo because it lets him live such an easy life can be seen as a parallel to people not trying to fix serious problems like GlobalWarming or institutionalized racism because of the sacrifices that ''they'd'' have to personally make to do so.

* MirroringCharacters: To James, the father of the Lone Wanderer in ''VideoGame/Fallout3''. Like James, you find out Shaun has been an influence in the Wasteland in greater scope than is first apparent, and they are involved in large-scale scientific research projects that will benefit humanity. However, the difference is that James' efforts were truly altruistic and would improve the Wasteland for all, while Shaun has been almost fully indoctrinated to the Institute's philosophies and has only a marginal interest in helping the Commonwealth. The narratives of ''Fallout 3'' and ''Fallout 4'' in regards to James and Shaun also heavily parallel each other: James fled to a Vault after the death of his wife to raise the Lone Wanderer in safety; Shaun was taken from a Vault to the Institute in a raid that involved the death of the Sole Survivor's spouse, and he was raised in the safety of the Institute. The storyline heavily concerns around the player trying to find and locate them, thematically flipping the narrative from being a child searching for their father to a parent searching for their son.

* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter:

*** One could make the case that he's more of a counterpart to Mr. Robert Edwin House (also from ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''). 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.

* GiveHimANormalLife: Real!Shaun sends him to you in order to give the both of you a chance at becoming a real family.

* 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 Brotherhood of Steel, and keep the Commonwealth under a brutal occupation/conspiracy that prevents them from ever posing a potential threat to them

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas[=/=]EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: In a twisted sense, as he still genuinely loves and cares for the Sole Survivor, his only surviving parent. Most poignantly, his final words with the Sole Survivor in the Institute ending are him thanking them for all of their help and imparting some advice on leading the Institute before he dies.

** His criticisms of the other factions - the Brotherhood's [[KnightTemplar zealotry]], the Railroad's [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized ruthlessness]] and [[AndThenWhat lack of a long-term plan for the Commonwealth]], and the Minutemen's [[DoomedMoralVictor failure]] - are neither unique to him nor without merit.

** His criticisms of the other factions - the Brotherhood's [[KnightTemplar zealotry]], the Railroad's [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized ruthlessness]] and [[AndThenWhat lack of a long-term plan for the Commonwealth]], and the Minutemen's [[DoomedMoralVictor ineptitude]] - are neither unique to him nor without merit.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: In a twisted sense, as he still genuinely loves and cares for the Sole Survivor, his only surviving parent. Most poignantly, his final words with the Sole Survivor in the Institute ending are him thanking them for all of their help and imparting some advice on leading the Institute before he dies.
** Additionally, he truly cares about the Institute, not just as an organization, but as a people. The best way to [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talk him down during "The Nuclear Option"]] is to promise to save as many Institute personnel as possible.

** Though this is arguably subverted, as while Kellogg is a brutal, amoral thug who has lost all reason to live but caps, he doesn't normally engage in the kind of senseless brutality like the destruction of University Point or FEV experiments Shaun has approved. In some ways, Kellogg's a far-far better person than Shaun ever was.

** Additionally, "Nora" also sounds very similar to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Aerospace_Defense_Command NORAD]], an organization formed by both the US and Canda that provides aerospace warning for most of North America created during the Cold War out of fear for being caught unprepared from a Soviet first strike. "Nate" also sounds similar to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO NATO]], the geopolitical bloc and military alliance originally created by the United States during the Cold War to help "contain" Communism's spread. Both names are quite fitting since the ''Fallout'' universe is set in an AlternateHistory where the Cold War essentially never ended.

** That said, by the end of the main story, no matter the choices made, s/he is, indeed, [[spoiler:the "sole survivor" of his/her family and their Vault.]]

** As a borderline example, the Sole Survivor can potentially romance Curie, a Ms. Nanny medi-droid after she undergoes BrainUploading into a [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Synth]] body, or Magnolia, a synth singer living in Goodneighbor. They can also choose to romance [[spoiler:Paladin Danse,]] who turns out to have been [[TomatoInTheMirror a Synth all along but unaware of it]].

* SadClown: A sarcasm-prone Survivor is this in a nutshell. Their snarks very often stem from how pissed off, disappointed, or ''done with'' the world they've become.
--> '''Sole Survivor:''' My favorite ballpark's become a shanty town. Today's been [[SarcasmMode great]].

* StoutStrength: Similar to Acrofatic above, nothing is stopping you from setting the Sole Survivor's build to "obese" and their starting Strength and Endurance to 10.

The protagonist's infant son during the prologue, taken away from them in a tragic turn of events. It's later revealed that he was kidnapped by The Institute for his near pristine Pre-War DNA and ultimately became the head of the Institute. He meets up with the Sole Survivor as a man in his sixties, and is now named "Father," with him hoping to convince the Sole Survivor to join him and help rule the Commonwealth.

* AlasPoorVillain: His death is genuinely heartbreaking, and is practically guaranteed to make the Sole Survivor feel uncomfortable in any ending.
* AmbiguousDisorder: He displays some mild sociopathic tendencies during his reign as the Institute's Director.

*** You could make a case that he's more of a foil to Mr. House, also from [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Fallout: New Vegas]]. Both are intellectual leaders who, though in very [[HumanPopsicle different]] [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 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. 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 themself]] 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. As well, House is sheltered not by choice, though, so much as the fact that he physically cannot leave his containment without dying. Father just prefers to stay inside the walls of the Institute. 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. He wishes to have NCR's citizens and soldiers as customers. He takes a far dimmer view to Caesar's Legion. [[SelectiveObliviousness Father dismisses the whole of the waste 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 NCR. Another similarity comes about as a result of their games' narratives. Three of New Vegas's involve killing House. Three of Fallout 4's involve siding against Father.
** Also to James, your father from ''Fallout 3''. Like James, you find out Shaun has been an influence in the Wasteland in greater scope than is first apparent, and they are involved in large-scale scientific research projects that will benefit humanity. However, the difference is that James' efforts were truly altruistic and would improve the Wasteland for all, while Shaun has been almost fully indoctrinated to the Institute's philosophies and has only a marginal interest in helping the Commonwealth. The narratives of ''Fallout 3'' and ''Fallout 4'' in regards to James and Shaun also heavily parallel each other: James fled to a Vault after the death of his wife to raise the Lone Wanderer in safety; Shaun was taken from a Vault to the Institute in a raid that involved the death of the Sole Survivor's spouse, and he was raised in the safety of the Institute. The storyline heavily concerns around the player trying to find and locate them, thematically flipping the narrative from being a child searching for their father to a parent searching for their son.

* EvenEvilCanBeLoved: In a conversation with Shaun after the battle of Bunker Hill, the Sole Survivor can admit that they still love him regardless of whether they agree with him or not.

*** He truly cares about the Institute, not just as an organization, but as a people. The best way to [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talk him down during The Nuclear Option]] is to promise to save as many Institute personnel as possible.

* FantasticRacism: Adamantly refuses to believe Synths are anything more than high-functioning machines. There's an AlternateCharacterInterpretation that he's just spouting the party line because the Institute is built on Synth labor. He also loathes cyborgs and bans any research into them, and has a general contempt for the people of the Commonwealth.
* FatalFlaw: His fear of the surface world.
* FatherlyScientist: Utterly averted. Despite the name "Father" coming from his DNA being used to create Gen-3 Synths, Shaun repeatedly insists that Synths are [[JustAMachine just machines and nothing more]]. The only one he shows any fondness towards is the one designed to be a younger clone of himself.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: He's become a true believer in the Institute's mission of manipulating society above ground into a form they feel is safe to share their technology with and rebuild society into a form that won't repeat the mistakes of the old one. That includes allowing Synths to forever remain slaves and the annihilation of both the Railroad and East Coast Brotherhood of Steel.

--> '''Shaun II:''' I don't know why the Institute said the Commonwealth was so bad. Look at all the stuff people are building!

** 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.

--> '''Shaun II:''' If humans make Synths, who makes humans like you and me?

*** You could make a case that he's more of a foil to Mr. House, also from [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Fallout: New Vegas]]. Both are intellectual leaders who, though in very [[HumanPopsicle different]] [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 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. 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 themself]] 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. As well, House is sheltered not by choice, though, so much as the fact that he physically cannot leave his containment without dying. Father just prefers to stay inside the walls of the Institute. 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 SinisterSurveliance. As well, House is focused on his own faction, New Vegas itself, but interacts with the others. He wishes to have NCR's citizens and soldiers as customers. He takes a far dimmer view to Caesar's Legion. [[SelectiveObliviousness Father dismisses the whole of the waste 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 NCR. Another similarity comes about as a result of their games' narratives. Three of New Vegas's involve killing House. Three of Fallout 4's involve siding against Father.

*** You could make a case that he's more of a foil to Mr. House, also from [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Fallout: New Vegas]]. Both are intellectual leaders who, though in very [[HumanPopsicle different]] [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 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. 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 themself]] could fill the same role and was kept alive, in part, for that very reason. (Though, even this is a similarity, as, in one ending, The Courier can replace House.) House is the sole reason New Vegas is what it is, and he is the sole reason the Mojave Wasteland is less destroyed than the East or West Coasts. As well, House is sheltered not by choice, though, so much as the fact that he physically cannot leave his containment without dying. Father just prefers to stay inside the walls of the Institute. House is less ignorant, as he shows an understanding, if one rather cold and mathematical, of the other factions around him and their leaders. As well, House is focused on his own faction, New Vegas itself, but interacts with the others. He wishes to have NCR's citizens and soldiers as customers. He takes a far dimmer view to Caesar's Legion. [[SelectiveObliviousness Father dismisses the whole of the waste 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 NCR. Another similarity comes about as a result of their games' narratives. Three of New Vegas's involve killing House. Three of Fallout 4's involve siding against Father.