Myron Van Buren is the name of a very mysterious individual in Survival Island on Poptropica. He is the villain of the island.
Characteristics[]
Personality[]
Myron Van Buren is a complex and contradictory character. He is a skilled hunter and a ruthless killer, but he is also intelligent and cultured. He is a polite and amiable person, even when chasing you down. However he is shown to get angry easily when you disobey his orders. Examples being to yell "No tomfoolery in the trophy room!" when you start jumping, when you try to walk ahead of him during the tour he says "Let's not rush the tour!", and when you try to walk past him after he says to go to the dinning room he yells, "I said, don't tarry!". He is British on his father's side, and (supposedly) African on his mother's side. It can be assumed that he inherited many skills from his parents.
He is a very proud man who has an obsession with hunting and animals. His family is a lineage of hunters, which he's also proud of. Being the last living descendant of the Van Buren hunting family, he seeks to prove himself as the greatest hunter of all time. Van Buren wants to hunt you to finish his collection of stuffed species in his trophy room. Despite his egotistical personality, he is shown to treat his staff with respect, specifically his butler Winston.
Myron is shown to have a sense of humor, although it's a twisted one. As a prank, he has Winston pretend to be a dead trophy. He also makes a joke against his taxidermist, saying that he "should have his head" for his shoddy work on a taxidermy alligator. He laughs at his own jokes.
He sleeps with a sword under his pillow and is sensitive to loud noises, so it can be assumed he is always on high alert and is protective of himself, most likely because of his occupation as a hunter.
Appearance[]
Myron Van Buren is a very old man. He has wrinkles and a scar along his left cheek. His skin is tan. His eyes are relaxed, and his mouth is shaped into a sly grin. He has grey hair and mustache, along with a brown pouch and belt. His hat is beige with a brown stripe, decorated with teeth. Around his neck, he wears a necklace made out of animal teeth and stones. He has a brown shoulder bag, and a matching belt. He also wears a beige vest and green pants.
Storyline[]
Throughout the island, he is seen constantly observing your Poptropican. It is also shown that he has hidden cameras all over the woods. At the end of Distress Signal, he answers to your radio for help and arrives in his chopper to rescue you. He then brings you into his cabin in the woods and excitedly informs you of a big hunt the next day.
He gives you a tour of his trophy room and introduces you to his butler Winston before he has his chef prepare dinner for you. However, he drugged the steak so you would fall asleep when you eat it. You wake up in a locked bedroom with security bars blocking the window. There is a family crest on the wall of the room with three lights. Turning on two lights at a time reveals a secret message written by a mysterious individual with the initials M.M. telling you to meet him in the woods.
While you escape, he is asleep in his bedroom. When you get to the building gates, Van Buren wakes up and greets you. He tells you that the hunt is about to begin. When you ask him what animal he is hunting, he informs you that you are the quarry. After this, you run off into the woods with him following close behind. You manage to escape him when you fall into a hole. In the hole, you meet a man who has been on the run from Van Buren for a year and he reveals his plan to defeat Van Buren. He enlists your help to retrieve items for a trap, which you set up in a mill. However, Van Buren anticipates your plan and uses your own trap against you. Van Buren's previous victim then enters the scene riding on a bear and you manage to trap Van Buren on a waterwheel where he is assaulted by beavers. It is unknown what becomes of him after this.
Role on Reality TV: Wild Safari Island[]
He appears in Reality TV: Wild Safari Island as a contestant. If you click on him he says "Run if you must, but I will catch you."
Trivia[]
- Myron Van Buren's family tree shows that he has a sister.
- Myron and his sister are mixed. As seen in his family tree, their mother is dark-skinned while their father is white.
- It is implied that his sister and parents are dead, as a newspaper in his trophy room says that he's "the last descendant of the legendary Van Buren hunting family."
- You are not his first victim, as evident by a manifest left by the pilot of a crashed plane.
- He claims he is the greatest big game hunter in the world.
- He resembles Harold Mews in numerous ways:
- Both are extremely rich.
- Both have butlers.
- Both have their own mansions.
- Both own helicopters, and use their helicopters to rescue you during the course of the island.
- Both are obsessed with animals and strange creatures, albeit for different reasons.
- Myron Van Buren is a homage to General Zaroff from "The Most Dangerous Game," a short story written by Richard Connell. In the short story, a boat crashes on General Zaroff's island, where he has a large hunting house in the middle of a forest. He shows the crash survivor to a large room with the heads of animals he has hunted on the walls, speaking of how he has grown bored with animals and now hunts "the most dangerous game," and tells him of a hunt the next day. The next morning, Zaroff reveals that he is hunting the survivor himself. In Van Buren's trophy room, a newspaper slip on the wall says that he hunts "ever more dangerous game."
- Van Buren is possibly also a homage to Van Pelt, the big game hunter from the movie Jumanji, as they are similar both in appearance and personality.
- Along with Fiona, Van Buren is one of the few Poptropica characters whose voice can be heard.
- He sleeps with a stuffed toy lion, and his pajamas are made from lion fur.
- He has a sword under his pillow when he sleeps.
- Although his father is of British descent, he has a Dutch surname.