james after finally escaping the tranquility lane sim, getting out of his pod, running over to hug his kid and noticing the massive 6'8" ghoul hovering behind them

UGH, I HATE MY DAD—

in my mind James "Dad" Fallout3 tries his best to be a very nice father but he isn't really a good father. the lone wanderer is his precious little blessing so in some ways he coddles them but also the lone wanderer is his only child and so he *has* to make sure he's raising his them correctly. he displays pretty blatant bias towards the lw in any situation involving other children or maybe even vault dwellers in general but when he is dissapointed he makes sure that the lw knows just how dissapointed he is and that their mother would be dissapointed too. he pushes the lw to study and make good grades while they're growing up but by the time they're old enough to work and stop going to school he's too lenient to *insist* they work consistently, or perhaps at all really. he teaches the lw his own beliefs and values and never stops expecting great things from them in hopes that maybe they could maybe grow up to be like him or their mother or maybe even something even better but he's too soft for them to teach them real discipline or hard work and only ever sternly scolds them whenever he disapproves of them, then gives them the cold shoulder and leaves them to wallow in shame, and then makes up only after the lw has had enough time to have that shame put some weight on their shoulders, rinse and repeat until the lw has some inferiority/superiority/guilt complex and doesn't know how to fix or help themselves other than maybe to pray and hope things work out and all is forgiven.