Skip Broke

Skip Broke is one of the pre-created, yet unplayable, Sims featured in The Sims 2 as ancestors of playable, pre-created Sims. Though deceased when the game begins, he is in the relationship trees of playable Sims Dustin Broke, Beau Broke and Unborn Son Broke, who are his sons, and of his widow, Brandi Broke.

During his adult lifetime, he resided in Pleasantview, one of the neighborhoods that ships with The Sims 2. As a child, he lived in Riverview, one of the towns that is available for The Sims 3. He is playable in The Sims 3. He does not appear in The Sims, and his whereabouts during that time are not mentioned.

Life Leading up to The Sims 3
Skip Broke is a child living in Riverview with his parents Flo and Flat, his older sister Ruby, his uncle Buck, and his cousins Trigger and Susie. Although he marries Bob and Betty Newbie's child, he is only 7 days younger than they are. This means that, for a while, Bob, Betty, and Skip are all teens at the same time.

As a child, he closely resembled his son Beau Broke.

Life Leading up to The Sims 2
By the time the storyline has reached The Sims 2, Skip Broke is already deceased. His death by drowning is explained as a "suspicious pool ladder accident", and is believed to have happened in the pool in the back of the family's house -- which has no ladder. "Suspicious" hints that the accident wasn't just a stroke of bad luck, but at the same time, it doesn't clearly say that there is a killer somewhere. For that reason, Skip's death is something of an open-ended mystery. He can be resurrected though he has no grave.

Skip's past life is explained in the family photo album. When he met Brandi, he immediately fell in love with her and they were engaged (later - married). Judging by pictures in the album, it appears that they lived at the Newbies' for some time. It's not clear whether they moved out or rebuilt Betty and Bob's old house. When the already mentioned "suspicious pool ladder accident" happened, he left Brandi to take care of Dustin Broke and Beau Broke alone. He had taken an important part in Dustin's early life, and had taught him to walk and talk, even though he did not have the family aspiration.

Two Skip Brokes
In Brandi's memories there are two Skip Brokes, but which one is real and which is not is quite debatable because one Skip appears in the family photo album, while the other one appears in the relationship tree - and is also resurrectable. However, the Skip that appears in the family photo album is not resurrectable, which means he is unplayable, unlike the resurrectable and playable Skip.

They look alike in some ways. Both Skips wear black and white T-shirt with jeans. But the unresurrectable Skip has light blue eyes and thick eyebrows. The resurrectable Skip has green eyes, a narrower face and a different nose. The unresurrectable Skip is the true father of Dustin Broke and Beau Broke, although they are not linked to him in the relationship tree. This is also proven in Brandi's memories, which show that she met the resurrectable Skip only once, and then she married the unresurrectable Skip.

When it comes to their character, both Skips have the Aries zodiac sign, but unresurrectable Skip has the Popularity aspiration while resurrectable Skip has the Romance aspiration.

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Timeline Discrepancy Between The Sims 2 and The Sims 3
It has been noted that Skip Broke's age between the two installments of the game in which he appears fails to add up. In The Sims 2 he is shown to have died as an adult, presumably not too long before the start of the game, since his children are still very young. However, in The Sims 3, which is set 50 years in the past, he appears as a child alongside teenagers Bob Newbie and Betty Simovitch, who canonically become the parents of his wife, Brandi. Some players have taken this to mean that Skip is in fact much older than was initially believed, that there was a significant age difference between him and his wife, and that he must have been close to the Elder life stage when he died. Others, however, have dismissed the discrepancy as an error on the part of the creators.

Interestingly, a 2009 blog post by SimGuruRain on the official The Sims 3 website addresses the issue directly. SimGuruRain, who was the producer responsible for the development of Riverview, makes the following comment about the Broke family:

The Broke family has their roots in the more rustic area of town. If you've played The Sims 2 you'll have a very interesting time telling this story. (Hint: You'll have to Skip twice for it to work.)

While the comment makes it clear that the producers of the game were aware of the discrepancy, the exact nature of the quote is enigmatic. Possible explanations include the Riverview Skip being the father of the Pleasantview Skip (which would place The Sims 3 in an alternate timeline, since in-game both recognize Flat as their father), or Skip somehow becoming involved in time travel that allows him to 'skip' two generations in order to make the ages match - already hinted at by Don Lothario's appearance in Riverview, and made possible in-game to an extent in Ambitions and Into the Future. Other fan theories have speculated that perhaps the comment refers to Brandi, who would need to skip out and into the neighbourhood in order to reach the same age as her husband. Alternatively, the comment may be taken simply as an Easter Egg, referring to the fact that there are two versions of Skip Broke in The Sims 2.