What Do you Think of Thaddeus?

[Ashleigh825]

I was just curious as to your thoughts on Thaddeus, the new man in Matilda's life.

As you know from reading Chapter Two: Unusual Circumstances from Generation Three, Thaddeus Corcoran is a newly divorced, single-dad who has a love for books, gardening and clean houses. While it's plain to see that he loves his daughter, Juliana very much, he is by no means the perfect father.

Tiari made a comment on my blog about him and I found it very interesting what polar opposite views we have of him, yet we read (well, I wrote, but still) the exact same chapter.

I thought I'd open up a thread for discussion here about Thaddeus. Do you love him? Do you hate him? Are you somewhere in-between about him? Why do you feel that way? Are there any other observations or thoughts about him you'd like to share?

[hrootbeer]

I liked Thaddeus. I noticed how much he cared for his daughter. I thought he was sort of a desperate man doing whatever he could to get by.

I'm not sure I think he's perfect for Matilda, but I understand why she was drawn to him. I think people who have suffered are drawn to others who have also suffered. We're social animals who need to comfort of others.

[Ashleigh825]

Hmm, interesting.

Well, I originally chose Thaddeus for Matilda because he was the only good-looking Sim I could find who didn't have any negative traits. Actually, I think he's quite a Sweetie, heh heh. He has the most adorable, likable combination of traits, but you won't find them out for certain until he passes on and I post his traits in the Charm Encyclopedia, haha.

Yeah, I think he's struggling, too. He struck me as the kind of guy who isn't perfect by a long shot, but tries his hardest to be anyway, which is why I think I admire him so much. He kind of rushed into a marriage because he had a baby too young and even though he knew it was a mistake, he tried his best to make it work for his daughter's sake, what with moving to Sunset Valley for a fresh start and all. I think once he realized that Juliana was in danger with her mother, it was the last straw and he had to end things.

I feel bad for him, really. He's certainly not the perfect dad and he does make mistakes, but everything he does is for his daughter. He loves her more than anything and overall, I think he's probably going to end up being one of my favourite characters from generation three.

[bexstar]

I like Thaddeus. He definitely made some mistakes in life, but he obviously knows it and wants to fix them. He isn't my favorite character, but he is a great character, and I think he was a good decision for Matilda. He loves her, and in essence, helped her fight off her fear of falling in love, which I think is actually what the fear was.

[druelf]

When you first introduced Thaddeus, I was wondering where you were going with him. I kind of figured it would have been a case of him being the best looking sim you could find :-) Did you know about the wife and child before you moved him in (playing wise I mean)

I had a similar problem when I was choosing a wife for one of my heirs.. Indy stone was marrying off sims quicker than I could pair them up with my sims. I got my sim up to a romantic level with his chosen (I knew she was married, everyone was!) only to discover when I moved her in that she had four kids! Oops... She then proceeded to have four more in my legacy house (after divorcing and marrying my heir of course). I tried to make amends by inviting the girls around every now and then, and her 'new' kids would talk to their half-sisters at school.

Needless to say, after that I started 'locking them in' with a gf/bf as teenagers before indy could steal all the good ones.

Story wise : I like what you did there. I was surprised that you moved him and his daughter in so soon after kicking out Christopher. I enjoyed Mandy's reaction too - it was in character (although I suspect one of the reasons she moved out was to take the burden off your ailing CPU) I guess it shows how strong and independent Matilda really is - she still has a defiant streak.

I saw Thaddeus exactly how you wrote him, a guy in a bad spot, trying to do the best for his family. I like it that he was strong, and the way he was so good to Matilda. I'm looking forward to some really cute babies from them!

[Ashleigh825]

Heh, you know, I always say that I'm kicking people out and trying to keep only four to six Sims in the house at a time, but as soon as I move people out, I somehow end up with eight Sims again. Anyway, switching my power plan to high performance is helping with the horrible lag, but it eats up my battery. I need to keep my laptop charging constantly so it won't die on me while I'm playing.

Actually, in the story, Christopher moved out nearly thirty years ago. I just time-skip a lot in order to cover everything. I don't really miss him much, though I am glad he's doing well on his own with Jimmie, Ellie and Thomas. Apparently, he's rich now, too.

I miss Josiah terribly. I wish I could move him back, but I'm playing with a full house again at the moment and the Legacy rules state that you can't move in Sims you've already moved out.

I did know about Juliana before I moved Thaddeus in. I welcomed her with open arms, actually. I love having step-children for my Sims, and I knew bringing Juliana into the house would be great for the story. I don't really mind Indie Stone marrying off Sims before I get a chance to snatch them up for my own Sims. Marriages can always be broken (as sad as that is), and there are plenty of couples who marry but don't have kids for a really long time in my game.

Matilda definitely still has a defiant streak. Her crazy antics have calmed down with age, but they're not completely gone. She's taking charge of the Charm household and running it the way she thinks it should be run, no ifs ands or buts about it. Parker is having regular heart attacks at the moment over his sister's recent investment endeavors. I can picture the conversation in my head:

Parker: $18 000 to invest in the theatre?!? Are you out of your mind? Do you have any idea of how much money that is?

Matilda: Parker, it's called an investment. I invest a large sum of money into a company in exchange for a share of the profits. Eventually, that investment is going to double and then triple to make us more money in the long run.

Parker: But... $18 000... *pathetic moan*

[pineapple275]

So does that mean Parker doesn't really know about her investment? Maybe he hasn't been to the theatre lately! Ok about Thaddeus. I'm kinda in the middle. I hate how overprotective he was of Juliana when she was with Connor in her room and then he kinda flipped that she was pregnant until she said they were getting married and then he was okay about it. It was really weird. I mean it wasn't even about oh she's too young! It was about I want her married first! He's really sweet though. He tried to make it so Margaret wasn't a drug addict and then he let Matilda have what she wanted and he blamed her cuz he was frustrated for letting her have her way with Margaret and he really only cared about the two of them.

[Ashleigh825]

Heh, yes Thaddeus is a very traditional kind of guy. He thinks that young women should stay at home and stay virgins until they're married so that their fathers can protect them. As much as most women would detest that today, he only wants that for Juliana because he loves her and wants to see her have a stable, happy life. All fathers want to protect their daughters. Matilda's helping him come over to the 21st century, though.

It's frustrating for him to see two people he loves so much unraveling. Matilda is suicidal and Margaret has so many things wrong with her, I can't even begin to list them all. He dances over hot coals and tiptoes everywhere to keep them happy and things still turn out badly. I think that's another reason why he wanted Juliana to stay at home for longer than she did. She was the only stable, put-together person in the house he could cling to.

As for Parker, he knows about the investment. He was horrified at first, but once he saw the huge profit that started rolling into the bank account, he changed his tune real quick, haha.

[pineapple275]

OK it's good that he knows! After he knew about the huge profit? That's sensible. He must have thought that she was wasting money until he saw that! BTW how do you buy things like the theatre and how do you get so much money? My sims are BROOOOOOKE!

[Ashleigh825]

Working your way up the career ladder is probably the most effective way to earn a lot of money. Also, be sure not to spend frivolously. Only equip your Sims with what they need and buy what's within their means. There's plenty of time for upgrading later on when the family has amassed a larger amount of wealth. My founder lived in a small cottage with just the bare necessities for most of her life and even when her daughters and son-in-law got together to build the mansion, it remained incomplete and unfurnished until long after she was gone. I bought bits and pieces here and there until I had a fully furnished, completed mansion.

The option to become a partner of a business will become available when you have enough money to become a partner. The option will appear when you click on the business. Some cost a lot more than others. Once you're a partner, you receive a share of the business' profits. After a while, you'll get the option to buy out the business. This costs more than just becoming a partner, but you have to become a partner first before you can buy the business. Once you've bought the business, you earn a much larger profit. You can also change the name of the business and fire anyone working there who you don't like.

[pineapple275]

Hehe, maybe I'll try to buy the theif's hideout or whatever it's called! My sim's ex works there. Maybe I could fire him and force him to become a hobo like the dirty scum he is! He's so evil! He flirted with his wife's sister right in front of his wife! What kind of husband is that?

[Ashleigh825]

Haha, wow! Yeah, definitely not good husband material.

Heh heh, I had Matilda fire Pauline Wan because she found out she was cheating on her poor elderly Uncle Josue. Now Pauline hates her. It's actually really funny.

[pineapple275]

That sounds funny! I was just playing yesterday and so the ex (Chadd) walks up and rings the doorbell and his kid invites him in. The i tell the kid to tell him to leave. Well he ends up stuck on the front walk in front of the front door and can't leave the lot. I was like GO AWAY YOU FREAK! Well I did cheat. I put on the cheats and deleted him and he reset and went back to whereever he lived before. I still see him around town.

[Ashleigh825]

It's okay to use cheats if a Sim gets stuck or if a glitch causes your game to malfunction. Pinstar said that himself in the official rules, so don't worry.

I might warn you that deleting Sims can cause problems with your game. A safer way to do it would be to pull up the cheat box and type in:

resetsim FIRSTNAME LASTNAME

Just replace FIRSTNAME and LASTNAME with the Sim's first and last names. It should reset them and put them back in a neutral position so you can get them to do what you want again without them being glitchy.

[pineapple275]

I don't know his last name. It's all glitchy there since he has like divorced like ten girls. So it keeps showing up as ?? and I don't know if that would work. Besides, my game hasn't screwed up at about five sim days later I don't think anything will happen. Besides, no one liked Chadd anyway...except his kids and used to be wives.