Max Villareal - Evil or Not Evil?

@DeafSimmer omg, you're the first person I've heard who also believes similar to me as to Mama Villareal's death! My head cannon has always been that since Jacques is the brains in the mafia, someone from a rival crime syndicate took out his wife. I have always seen Jacques' insanity (now "erraticism") and Max's "evilness", as happening as a RESULT of her death, not as a factor in her death or something that happened before. I also believe Max is redeemable, and that he just wants to be loved (both as a child and an adult).

@KiniHokulani I am so glad you find this an interesting discussion too!

@Bloosmoo I'd love to hear what your findings are!!! I ?

I suspect he's one of those kids who have never been told 'no' in their life, bullies others for his own amusement (it's literally in the Renegades description to 'be mean to Paragons'), is the one who really is in charge of the household (as in they mostly concede to his whims), and is generally an awful little snot. So basically, typical youngest child of a rich family. I don't think he's totally irredeemable, but I think being raised as the youngest child, being spoilt rotten by Jacques after his wife's death (really like the idea of her being killed by an opposing syndicate!), and, well, being raised by a career criminal isn't doing him any favours.

I can see Jacques ultimately going to jail and the kids being fostered. Luna and Hugo are old enough that they can probably stay with friends (the Bjergsens would probably be perfect, Luna is friends with fellow Paragon Sofia and Hugo would know Clara from Upper Crusts), and depending on where Max is placed, it could do him a world of good. A household that's down-to-earth and realistic, but who also are willing to give him some boundaries? That'd be the ideal.

If that DOESN'T happen, then I can see him following Jacques into the criminal career and end up a complete monster. Same with Malcolm Landgraab, although in his case, he's already in his teens and I can see him already being interested in working with his mother. Malcolm could be a pretty horrible influence on Max, too.

There are children with serious issues out there that definitely show that they are evil (I for one perceive psychopaths and sociopath to be one and it can show on children irl). The thing is, all the traits provided in The Sims 4 affect the mood rather than personality or interaction. I am not surprised that this kid doesn’t depict a Sim with an Evil Trait.

https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Evil_(The_Sims_3)

I just played the Villareals in my rotation.

Jacques is erratic. He has a late night criminal job. He sleeps in mornings while the children are getting ready for school. When they do see him, he is wandering around the house in his undies, talking to himself, getting into fights, and making endless home repairs. He doesn't parent.

Looking at the children's rooms, Luna's is the only nice one. I think before things went badly for the family, she may have been a little spoiled. Though Luna doesn't have the erratic trait, she is childish and seems a bit off to me. She tries very hard though, became an A student on her own, paints, plays musical instruments, and dances. None of those especially well, but she seems to want to be well rounded. When Hugo bought Max a dollhouse, it pretty quickly became Luna's. She cries if it gets smashed. She sometimes makes an effort with Max, but is too needy herself and too young.

Hugo is the responsible one. He does all the cooking and all the parenting. He was only a B student when he aged up to young adult, but he reads to Max at night and puts him to bed. He repairs the dollhouse. Unfortunately, he now sometimes has to work nights, so He is not around as much. He has tried to buy Max toys. He also refurbished, and cleaned up, his own room a bit and has lost some weight jogging.

Max is an enigma. He never cries over the dollhouse, probably because he smashed it. But he quickly learned high responsibility and good manners. Empathy and conflict resolution were in the negative, but are now, thanks to Hugo, in the positive. He started out with no toys at all. I don't think Jacques even thinks about him.

Since Hugo adopted him as a care dependent, he has been given more appropriate toys which he has used to max out two of his childhood skills and complete his aspiration. He is an A student. Some changes have been made in the Renegades. No more sabotaging. Instead they play darts and foosball and listen to music. They are only mischievous to Paragons now. And they have their own clubhouse. Only children and teens can join.

Will this be enough to redeem Max? I don't know. Malcolm recently became a member. Will he lead Max astray or, possibly take leadership of the club and kick Max to the curb? I guess it depends on where my imagination takes me in the next round of my rotation.

Interesting read! I made up my own story for this household, it will be one of several subject for the upcoming season 2 of my "As Sims Go By" video series :)

I didn't focus a lot on Max though (yet), so I don't know much about how he behaves in my game. He is still a teen, btw. His father Jacques is a main character in my community story, and I find the household, house and background quite interesting :)

Actually, children cannot be diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder (what used to be called "sociopathy" or "psychopathy"). One of the requirements of the diagnosis is that the individual must be at least 18 years old. What children can be diagnosed with though is Conduct Disorder, which can be (not always) a predecessor to Antisocial. Most mental health professionals will not diagnose Conduct Disorder until a child is at least 10 years old, though that's not an official requirement. One of the defining characteristics of Antisocial as well as Conduct Disorder is a lack of empathy. The reason most won't diagnose it before age 10 is that before that a lack of empathy could just be tied to where they are developmentally (all kids mature at different rates and empathy is no exception). So to say children can be psychopathic isn't technically correct. (I'm a counselor, can you tell)? ? Probably why this topic interested me to begin with.

I always picture the child age in the game to be around 8 years old, so to me, none of the children in the game could possibly be evil. That's my opinion (which I heavily based on scientific facts).

Surely it is up to the player to make him do mean things? He never will get truly evil on his own. Sims 4 makes you take more control of your Sim to get the required ends, I've found anyway. They may have emotions but they don't have all that much autonomy -yet.

They do have the power to surprise you though, like using the washing machine or taking the rubbish out without prompting. :)

@ryttu3k that's an interesting connection you've made, the Bjergsens would be a pretty natural choice as foster parents. Though Bjorn flirted with Luna in my Black Widow LP, while she was a Teen, and he was an Adult, so I sort of see him as a creep now. (My Black Widow was engaged to Jacques so Bjorn was just visiting during the Engagement Party). Needless to say Bjorn was promptly added to the list of guys to Black Widow after that lmao. But I'm willing to acknowledge he might not be a creep in everyone's games lol.

@telemwill very interesting, see your findings fit pretty well with my experiences and opinions about the family and their dynamic. I'm glad you shared that!

@Simmerville awesome, I'm glad you find them interesting too. The videos sound really interesting. I know a lot of people complain that the stories for the households in Sims 4 are too vague, but I sort of like that they leave it somewhat open, so the player can form their own story about what happened.

Interestingly, I always saw everyone in that family as trash, except for Hugo. He's like a hufflepuff among the death eaters. Jacques probably killed his wife (or Max did). Luna is your typical privileged-Regina-George type of a sim, and Max is the demon child, like from that movie. I love them so much.

"AbraKadabra;c-17217383" wrote:
Interestingly, I always saw everyone in that family as trash, except for Hugo. He's like a hufflepuff among the death eaters. Jacques probably killed his wife (or Max did). Luna is your typical privileged-Regina-George type of a sim, and Max is the demon child, like from that movie. I love them so much.

I once said in a thread like this that he was probably on a Police Protection list, was given a new identity and hidden out in Windenberg.