History Main / BondingOverMissingParents

[[caption-width-right:350:

[[caption-width-right:350:"Was your [[MemeticMutation mother's]] name [[Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice Martha]], [[SignificantNameOverlap by any chance?"]]]]
%%

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', Negi and Asuna smooth out some initial conflict by bonding over their mutual parentlessness.

* In ''Fanfic/FlyFree'', Robin helps a lot of the [[Manga/{{Naruto}} messed up kids in Konoha]] by sharing parts of her past or things she's encountered. In Sasuke's case, it was this paired with their over-arching standing of being the [[SoleSurvivor Sole Survivors]] of their respective homes (the Uchiha for Sasuke and Ohara for Robin).
* In ''Fanfic/PerfectionIsOverrated'', [[Anime/MaiHime Mai and Nao]] chance upon each other in the hospital, where Mai visited Takumi and Nao visited her comatose mother; Mai learns about Nao's comatose mother at this point. However, one thing that helps them come to an understanding with each other over time is the contrasts between them--Mai has taken care of Takumi since her parents' deaths while Nao has no one of the sort, and Nao's mother could one day awaken from her coma--realizing the difference in their circumstances helps them understand the other and see their own past decisions in a new light.

* In the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic MLP:FiM]] fan fiction ''Fanfic/OurTrueColors'', this is what cements the bond between Applejack and [[spoiler: Pinkie Pie]].

** Shinji and Asuka in ''FanFic/AdviceAndTrust'', which helps solidify their RelationshipUpgrade. They started bonding when Shinji mentioned that his father abandoned him right after his mother's death... and Asuka muttered that the same thing happened to her.

** In chapter 4 of ''Manga/{{Evangelion 303}}'', Shinji talks Asuka about his parent issues: he tells her how his mother died when he was a little child, his father foisted him on a caretaker alleging that he was protecting him, and he doesn't get along well with his father's girlfriend. After hearing his history, Asuka reflects that they're NotSoDifferent after all.

* In ''FanFic/TheFlashSentryChronicles'': When Lightning Blitz helps Big Mac with his Apple bucking, the two slowly start to bond when Big Mac tells Lightning that his parents are both dead, and Lightning says he knows how that feels since he lost his mom at about the same age.

* A DummiedOut conversation in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' has Kumatora and Duster muse about how none of the three human protagonists have mothers. Kumatora is genuinely an orphan, and Duster's mother seemingly died before the White Ship departed. Likewise Hinawa isn't even confirmed to be Lucas's genetic mother.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''WebComic/ElGoonishShive,'' this is the way [[ChivalrousPervert Tedd]] and [[StrawFeminist Susan]] find [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-04-25 a common ground]]. This [[VitriolicBestBuds relationship]] somewhat improves later.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Was your [[MemeticMutation mother's]] name [[Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice Martha]], by any chance?"]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder:Film-- Animated]]

[[folder:Film-- Live Action]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: LiveActionTV]]

* ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}''

[[folder: VideoGames]]

[[folder: WebComics]]

[[folder: WebVideos]]

-->'''Batman''': Your parents, ''and'' your uncle?\\
'''Spider-Man''': Yeah...\\
'''Batman''': [[ItNeverGetsAnyEasier Never gets any easier, does it?]]\\
'''Spider-Man''': No, it doesn't.

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"Was your mother's name Martha, by any chance?"]]

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'', Rapunzel tries to get Eugene and Cassandra to bond by [[LockedInARoom locking them in a cell together for a day]]. Eventually, the two get into a discussion about Cassandra's father, the Captain of the Royal Guard, and Cassandra reveals that he is her adoptive father and she has never met her real parents. Eugene also reveals that he was an orphan as well, having never met his parents either.

[[folder: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[folder: {{Film}}]]

* This is a major CommonalityConnection between the five main characters of ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' - all of them have lost their parents, in one sense or another, and their only real hope of survival (and possibly finding their remaining family members) is to reach the Great Valley.

* In ''Fanfic/KaraOfRokyn'''s backstory, [[Franchise/{{Superman Kal]] and [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]] bonded over the fact that both of them lost their parents at a very young age.

* ''VideoGame/AceAttorney'':

* ''ComicBook/{{Grandville}}'': One of the first things that allows Billie to warm up to LeBrock is him revealing his father died by french fire during the independence fights. Since both of Billie's parents died in a british separatist bombing, it allows to sink in for her that despite their opposing nations, they both know loss and have to live with it.

* One of these leads to TheReveal in ''Film/TheParentTrap''.

* In ''FanFic/TheFlashSentryChronicles'' (''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' and ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls''): When Lightning Blitz helps Big Mac with his Apple bucking, the two slowly start to bond when Big Mac tells Lightning that his parents are both dead, and Lightning says he knows how that feels since he lost his mom at about the same age.

* Franchise/{{Batman}} and the first two Comicbook/{{Robin}}s bonded over their parents being violently killed in front of them.
** He also bonded with Franchise/GreenLantern Hal Jordan the same way; for all the different ways they're at odds with each other, they're still boys who lost their fathers early on.
*** There's even some symmetry in how their fathers died and what they did about it: Bruce's father was killed by a criminal, so Bruce fights crime. Hal's father died in a plane crash, so Hal became a test pilot (who also fights crime, but the test pilot thing is more integral to his personality).

* In ''Fanfic/TheArianaBlackSeries,'' [[MarySue Ariana]] and [[SatelliteLoveInterest Neville]] first get together when she's depressed about her [[MissingMom dead mother]]/[[DisappearedDad absentee father]] and he tells her about his parents' [[DrivenToMadness mental health issues]].

-->Asuka took a long, deep breath as he leapt up, dashing away the flood of emotions that Shinji's effortless penetration of the barriers she had erected had brought up. His story of how he had lost his mother was so similar, the skeptical, College educated part of her mind immediacy denied the possibility of a pure coincidence, but she simply didn't know what to think... except that perhaps Shinji Ikari might not be the stuck up, show off jerk she had thought he was...

-->'''Shinji:''' I saw her crying in her sleep once. Poor Asuka... I understand now how she feels.

* This is a point which helps to forge some of the friendships between students at [[Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook Skyhold Academy]]. A number of the students, such as [[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition Cole]] and Jim, are orphans, and their backgrounds are directly related to how they came to the school.

* On ''Series/{{Bones}}'' one of the first times Brennan was shown sympathising with another human being was when she revealed to a Foster Kid (whose foster brother had been killed) that she had been in the foster system too.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive,'' this is the way [[ChivalrousPervert Tedd]] and [[StrawFeminist Susan]] find [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-04-25 a common ground]]. This [[VitriolicBestBuds relationship]] somewhat improves later.

-->'''Batman''': Your parents, ''and'' your uncle?
-->'''Spider-Man''': Yeah...
-->'''Batman''': [[ItNeverGetsAnyEasier Never gets any easier, does it?]]
-->'''Spider-Man''': No, it doesn't.

* A variation in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels''. In the first episode of the series, when Ezra gets mixed up with the ''Ghost'' crew, he befriends Sabine, the crew member most closest to his age. Ezra asks her what happened to her parents, to which she simply answers, "The Empire.", and she asks what happened to his, but is called away to a meeting before he can answer. Later in the episode, Ezra reveals that he doesn't have any parents either. Then later in the season, when Ezra refuses the opportunity to discover the fate of his parents (because his thought process is that if they're dead, then they're gone, but if they're alive, then they never came back for him and/or he could have saved them), Sabine urges him otherwise so he can find closure. Much later in the show, the two switch roles, with Sabine being the one reluctant to see her estranged family and Ezra telling her that she can still make amends with them while he'll never be able to see his parents again.

* One of the (many, many) bonds Mulder and Scully share in ''Series/TheXFiles'' is that both lose their respective fathers early in the series.

** Merlin and Gwaine do this over their deceased fathers.
** Merlin who has a DisappearedDad and Arthur who has a MissingMom.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''