This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
From YKTTW:
Tabby: I feel like this has to have been covered somewhere on the site, but damned if I can find it: Long-established character has a vagueish past, and either nobody's asked about their family or they've staunchly avoided any mention. Family shows up, and we discover that Character has been actively escaping them. If they're just embarrassing or annoying, there's either An Aesop about love or they're just never mentioned again. If they're evil, there's a showdown. The examples that immediately spring to my mind are Shego (Kim Possible) and Tara (Buffy The Vampire Slayer).
Airbud: Maybe we could call the trope White Sheep, as in the opposite of being a black sheep of the family.
Ununnilium: Not quite the same thing, though. How about Family Reunion Of Dread?
Tabby: "Dread" implies more foreknowledge than is evident in most instances of the trope that I've seen. Family Reunion Of Doom works, though, if a bit dramatically.
RSPaulette: How about "Prodigal Family"? As an inversion of the Prodigal Son literary trope, taken from the Bible parable...
Ununnilium: Prodigal Family! Yes!
Tabby: I love it!
