Atrus is a terrible father

[admiral1018]

I recently replayed the Myst series through this game, and I don't think it had really occurred to me until this playthrough what a horrendously terrible father Atrus was. I get that some families just have bad apples no matter what the parents do, but if you end up with two genocidal psychopaths who torture scores of innocent people and even plan to kill their own parents, I'm sorry, you get an 'F' as a father.

I know Catherine tries to explain this by saying that Atrus was away a lot when the boys were younger while he was writing the various ages, but a distant father does not translate into someone becoming a sadistic serial murderer. Also, Catherine's downplaying of what the boys did in her journal really calls her parenting into question as well. The boys hated her enough to trap her on Riven, so she couldn't have been a spectacular parent either.

But even after the failures with his two sons, Atrus again shows off his terrible parenting by dumping his 10 year-old daughter on the player-character (while also giving you repair work that would prevent you from fully watching her). This sets off a chain of events that lead to Yeesha getting abducted, brutalized, and likely traumatized for life. And this is all met with an "oh well, she's a strong girl" at the end.

When I replayed Myst 3 this last time, I opted for one of the alternate endings. Even after solving all the puzzles in Narayan, I linked back to Tomahna and left the book right in front of Saavedro. Letting him take his hammer and put an end to Atrus (and maybe Catherine) seems like the ideal outcome for everyone.

[Ghidrah1]

Psychopaths develop by nature and or nurture, the brain's wiring is different with them, at early ages the exhibit personality traits, -0- empathy, lack of impulse control, I, Me, Mine and don't care how they get it.

[8u9i0o]

You are missing the meaning of life! Fathers are usually bad. Kids grow up scared and poor. Makes for competent and useful adults. Not the wussie snowflakes or useless thugs we have today.

[8u9i0o]

There are a lot on different outcomes for Myst III. One has Saavedro come running up the stairs and then he kills you.
Yeesha likely traumatized for life? Did you see her in URU?

[Ghidrah1]

Depends on what you allow to happen

[Aquila37]

Don't know if you are sick or just not paying attention, but Atrus spent a lot of time with his sons before they turned on him. As he did with his young girl. strange you wound come up with that!!

[Ghidrah1]

While he did take the boys with him on his wanderings, Atrus was also self absorbed in his work, (writing of and perfecting worlds) the boys spend tonza time on their own in all the worlds they traveled to.
How else could they have taken control of and dominated all the places they did without daddy knowing what was going on until long after the damage was done?

[つづく]

Atrus' father was a psychopath, and he's kinda nutty too in his creativity but not loving. It's no surprise that his sons would end up the way they did and he wouldn't know how to handle it because he's not a people person. Yeesha is going to be the same, but I didn't the last games yet to see. Sirrius is a horrible swindler just like grand-dad, but if you notice Acchenar is a lot like Atrus when he gets older. I think in Myst they could make him not so bad, because he's not really THAT evil.

[Ghidrah1]

Achenar was sadistic too but he grew out of it while trapped on the island, I think the monkey things taught him how to be humane, which exposed his atrocities to his own brain. Then his sister finalized it.

[elbonians]

admiral1018, yes, that is my thought exactly. Their inspiration for becoming psychopaths, aside from neglect, seems to be from reading HIS books. And he just can't figure out how it happened!

And then, as punishment, he just locks them in isolation for like 20 years. And what world did you build for them, mister world builder who loves books? Was it a library full of reading materials that will make them into better people? Oh, just kind of a void? Okay. Oh and now you're wondering if they're ready to re-join society but just not 100% sure about that. Okay. Good enough to have unsupervised access to your daughter though.

Wait wait back up... THEY HAD ANOTHER KID? Ok yeah Atrus and Catherine are terrorists. But the girl seems ok so it might be the previous Catherine actress who had the evil gene.

[Ghidrah1]

Sirrus is the main badguy in the stories, Achenar eventually comes to his senses on the world he's stuck on and comes to realize, (not being as smart and more emotional, he was a pushover to his power obsessed brother) then comes to the defense of Yeesha.

Pay attention to the 2 worlds both brothers were exiled to, which one would you prefer to be on?

[B]

well.. like father like son. If you have the chance to read the books you'll see the relationship that Ghen had with Atrus. Obsessed with D'ni ages, raising his son to become a sequel of himself. Atrus' chance was to get the full commitment of ti'ana when she was taking care of him, that's what made him a strong man able to resist falling into Guen's megalomania.
Unfortunately he left his sons to raise themselves alone on world where they were considered as gods and with almost no control...
To be fair (and that's my only opinion) I don't really like the storyline after Riven. Even though Exile wasn't too bad, it still was a very basic and kind of lame adventure to me. (it's not even clear who we play, as the "stanger" of the 2 first games is back home). Ubisoft definitely lost me on the licence. To me Myst is the 3 books, and the 2 first games.

[B]

Originally posted by Eldin:

You’re the stranger in the first 4 games. Uru as yourself and in 5 you are Watson. A bit open to interpretation on that that one as some still say stranger

Originally posted by B:

well.. like father like son. If you have the chance to read the books you'll see the relationship that Ghen had with Atrus. Obsessed with D'ni ages, raising his son to become a sequel of himself. Atrus' chance was to get the full commitment of ti'ana when she was taking care of him, that's what made him a strong man able to resist falling into Guen's megalomania.
Unfortunately he left his sons to raise themselves alone on world where they were considered as gods and with almost no control...
To be fair (and that's my only opinion) I don't really like the storyline after Riven. Even though Exile wasn't too bad, it still was a very basic and kind of lame adventure to me. (it's not even clear who we play, as the "stanger" of the 2 first games is back home). Ubisoft definitely lost me on the licence. To me Myst is the 3 books, and the 2 first games.

How is the stranger back after Riven ?

[capnb76]

Are these comments about issues in the games story line or are there more personal issues in our own lives that we are venting?