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| “ | At that time, the year 2227, the Institute had made great strides in synth production. But it was never enough. Scientific curiosity, and the goal of perfection, drove them ever onward. What they wanted was... the perfect machine. So they followed the best example thus far - the human being. Walking, talking, fully articulate... Capable of anything. | „ |
| ~ Shaun |
Shaun, also known as Father, is the main antagonist of the 2015 action-adventure video game Fallout 4, the fourth main installment of the Fallout franchise. If the player chooses to side with him, he serves as the deuteragonist.
He is the son of the Sole Survivor (who could be either Nate or Nora), and the leader of the Institute in 2287, desiring to conquer the Commonwealth with his synths while wishing for his parent to takeover the Institute as his successor.
He was voiced by Tony Amendola, who also played Yousef Salim in Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Santos Jimenez in Dexter.
Contents
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Youth
- 1.2 Leader of the Institute
- 2 Endings
- 3 Personality
- 4 Gallery
- 5 Trivia
- 6 External Link
- 7 Navigation
Biography[]
Youth[]
Shaun was born in 2077. He lived with his mother and father in Sanctuary until in October 23, the Great War broke out. His father and mother fled with him to the nearby Vault 111 where they expected to endure the war. However, once inside the vault the inhabitants were frozen in cryo-chambers. Approximately six months following their internment, a revolt occurred and the staff abandoned Vault 111, leaving those frozen within unaware of what had occurred.
150 years later, the Institute found the location of Vault 111. Desperately searching for genetic material unaffected by the radiation-ravaged wasteland for their Third Generation Synth project, the Institute were thrilled when they found out that the Vault housed an infant who never came into contact with the radiation. Conrad Kellogg was sent to the vault to retrieve Shaun. Kellogg opened the chamber in which Shaun and one of his parents (the spouse of the main protagonist) awakened from their sleep. As the parent was unwilling to yield Shaun to the Institute, Kellogg shot him/her and refroze the other cryo-chambers. He then returned to the Institute with Shaun.
Shaun was then raised by the Institute as one of their own, His DNA was used to complete the synths, gaining him the nickname Father. During his youth, Shaun showed great potential and eventually became one of the lead scientists of the Institute.
Leader of the Institute[]
Eventually, Shaun became the Director of the Institute. Learning of his surviving parent, he had them freed. The parent, who would be known as the Sole Survivor, believed that Shaun was still a small boy and searched the Commonwealth for him. Although Shaun did never really know his deceased parent and thus felt no grief for him/her, he allowed the Sole Survivor a way of revenge by delivering Kellogg to them. Kellogg's brain implants also gave the Sole Survivor a way to infiltrate the Institute.
When the Sole Survivor finds Shaun, he is an elderly man who leads the Institute. Shaun grants the Sole Survivor virtually unlimited access to the Institute, having them introduced to the head scientists of the various divisions of the Institute, and also gives them a means of teleporting in and out of the Institute at will. However, this is all in Shaun's belief that the Sole Survivor will be a willing and meaningful part of the Institute - the player siding against Shaun and the Institute will nullify all of these benefits.
As the game progresses, and if the player is still a part of the Institute, Shaun convenes a meeting with the Sole Survivor and the other leading scientists of the Institute to reveal to them that he is suffering from an advanced and aggressive form of cancer, and that despite the Institute's technological advances, he will die soon. In this meeting he also professes his wish that his father or mother will succeed him as Director of the Institute. Objections are raised by the other scientists saying that the Sole Survivor is no scientist, but Shaun will rebuke them stating that the Institute does not need more scientists, but a leader, and that his father or mother is the perfect candidate.
Endings[]
- If the player character sides with the game's three other factions (the Minutemen, the Railroad, or the Brotherhood of Steel) against the Institute and destroys the Institute itself, the Sole Survivor will encounter a dying Shaun one last time. Shaun, bedridden from his cancer, will express his bitterness towards the player character's choices and still believes that the Institute was humanity's last, best hope for survival. After a brief conversation, Shaun will ask to be left alone in his final moments, where he will perish when the Institute's fusion reactor is destroyed with explosives and the Institute's headquarters is annihilated in a nuclear blast, provided that the Sole Survivor doesn't personally execute him.
- B.O.S: The player destroys The Institute and destroys as many synths as possible in the progress.
- Railroad: The player destroys The Institute and saves as many synths as possible in the progress.
- Minutemen: The player destroys The Institute and the fate of all the synths is up to the player's choice.
- If the player character sides with the Institute, Shaun will order the destruction of both the Railroad and the Brotherhood of Steel. Once the Sole Survivor has done this, Shaun will ask them to return to him, where it is revealed that he is bedridden from his cancer. In his final moments of his life, he and the player will have a conversation concerning the future of the Institute and the relationship between them, after which Shaun will die peacefully. A memorial for him will later be found in the Institute.
Personality[]
Upon meeting Shaun, he is shown to be a one-dimensional character, he is the director who shows calm, compassionate, diplomatic and impartial demeanor to newcomers but in the players version he tried convincing the player that everything that the institute has done has been for the future of humanity. As the player furthers the Institute line of quests, he will change his attitude depending on the choices he/she makes and therefore he will either treat you as an ally or as an enemy, all because he has a close minded "either with us or against us" kind of mentality.
In regards to Shaun's feelings and sentiments over his own mother/father, he loved he/her dearly but prioritized the institutes operations over his parents love and had no moral qualms with using them as one of his experiments to see what will happen to them in the commonwealth. But he didn't do this for the wrong reasons but rather best because he wanted to see if his father or mother would still be looking for him after 200 years after the bombs dropped. As he continued manipulating the Sole Survivors actions before finding the Institute he wanted to create a synthetic replica of his own childhood to offer the sole survivor the chance upon his death to reunite and reconcile with his/her prewar formerly lifestyle and family. To better explain all of this means, that we see the regret of an old man who had everything he has ever wanted except a loving parent and therefore he wants to unite his new version of himself with prewar bloodline to eventually form a family and continue to relive the past.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Shaun's likeness is always based on how his father and mother look like. Depending on the player character's race, Shaun can be Caucasian, African-American or Asian. Shaun will also carry over any prominent facial features, such as eye color.
- Shaun can also be killed right after meeting him; though doing so will lock one out from the Institute and Railroad storylines and make the Institute permanently hostile.
- Shaun is one of the few key characters in Fallout 4 whose death is scripted and thus inevitable.
- A few Fallout fans believe the survivor's full name to be Nate/Nora Howard due to Nate being referred to as "Mr. Howard" in a trailer, which would make Shaun's full name Shaun Howard.
External Link[]
- Shaun - Fallout Wiki
