Now I know you’re looking at this thinking, “how the hell is a man who lost his kid a good father figure?” Well, it's true Ethan does lose his son early on in Heavy Rain, but it’s the determination to get him back that makes him such a valid dad.
Yes, of course he’s going to have severe emotional issues when you get him back and yes you might be paranoid for the rest of your life, but Ethan will do ANYTHING to see his son again.
If all else, the fact that Ethan Mars is permanently etched into the annals of gaming history with his repeated "JASOOON" shouts is enough to cement him as one of the all-time great dads. Not necessarily because he's a testament to the fatherly profession, but rather because his search for his son had some unintentionally hilarious consequences.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
