History Main / BondingOverMissingParents

** 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.

* ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'' had Alan Parrish talking with Judy and Peter about their dead parents after learning his own parents have died.

* ''Film/FallingForChrismas'': Jake is a widower, and his daughter Avy confesses to Sierra that she misses her mother deeply. Sierra is amnesiac but this starts to trigger memories of her own dead mom, and she is able to bond with the girl as a result.

* In ''Series/{{Bones}}'', one of the first times Brennan is shown sympathizing with another human being is when she reveals to a foster kid (whose foster brother had been killed) that she had been in the foster system too.

* In the ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' episode "Sals's Pizza", there is JurisdictionFriction between the NYPD detectives and the fire department. They argue over who gets to investigate a crime scene of arson. Boone from the fire department warms up to Peralta the cop after he hears why Peralta cares so much for Sal's pizza place. Jake's father was a baseball coach and took the team to eat pizza after every game, but left his family... and one of the worst things about it was that Jake couldn't go with him to Sal's anymore. Turns out Boone's father also left his family.

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

* On ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' Parker and Hardison have this during "The Stork Job".

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "Mindreacher", Dr. Candace Maguire is quickly able to form a strong emotional bond with her patient Judith Wilder as they both lost their mothers when they were young. Candace's mother was sent to a psychiatric institution while Judith's mother died of Parkinson's disease when she was four. Candace even admits that Judith reminds her of herself when she was in her early teens.

* ''Series/{{Community}}'': In "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas", Abed makes some emotional headway on the train with Annie and Troy. Abed tells them that while his Palestinian dad is a staunch Muslim, his Polish mother loved Christmas and would always come to visit him on the 9th to celebrate it even after the divorce. Annie (who is Jewish) then relates that she's also a child of interfaith divorce, and that she celebrated Christmases with her Episcopalian father before he left.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', Zatanna's mother isn't in the picture, and she suddenly loses her father when he sacrifices himself to become the vessel of Doctor Fate, and prevent him from keeping hold of Zatanna. While Robin has been forbidden by Batman to reveal his secret identity (and, with it, the fact that his parents were murdered when he was nine), he's usually the one shown grieving with or comforting her. He had a crush on her already, but the show seems to imply that his empathy was what pushed them towards their kiss in the finale.

* In ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' Luigi and Daisy bond at the restaurant over not knowing their parents, [[spoiler:though Daisy does find her father later]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'', Rean bonds with Fie easily thanks to them not having their real parents around.

* ''Literature/TheLastDogs: Journey's End'': In a case of dogs bonding with their lost owners or siblings, Max gets [[GrumpyBear Spots]] the bluetick coonhound to open up about the wall and how Spots' brother Dots got taken. He appeals to his [[FriendToAllChildren fondness for entertaining children]] by remarking that his owner Emma had wanted to be a conductor when she grew up. This warms the old coonhound's heart, and he becomes more helpful.

* A one-sided version in ''Manga/OnePiece''. In Usopp's introductory arc, Usopp, whose father had left his family to become a pirate and whose mother died of illness sometime afterward, befriends [[IllGirl Kaya]] to help her get over the recent death of both of her parents, having first-hand experience of what she was going through. However, the usage of this trope isn't brought up until the arc is over and Usopp has left the island both of them were living on, and not by Usopp himself, but by Kaya's butler, who had learned Usopp's back story from the other villagers and figured it out.

* In ''Fanfic/PerfectionIsOverrated'', [[Anime/MyHime 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 ''Fanfic/TheArianaBlackSeries,'' 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]].
* In ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'', it's explained as the reason that Papa Smurf is the sole parent figure of a hundred Smurfs.
* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic MLP:FiM]]'' fan fiction ''Fanfic/OurTrueColors'', this is what cements the bond between Applejack and [[spoiler: Pinkie Pie]].

Alice has just met Bob, and although the two of them come from very different backgrounds, they have one very important character trait in [[CommonalityConnection common]]: Both of them have missing parents. It doesn't matter what the circumstances (although the circumstances might be very similar if only for plot convenience); one might have a MissingMom and the other a DisappearedDad, or maybe both of them have parents who were killed due to war violence, or maybe one or both of them never even knew their parents. Whatever the circumstances, this link between them is key to their relationship together.

Variations of this can cover any missing relative, or anyone who is sufficiently close enough to a character that they consider each other family. A relatively common twist on this trope is a [[TheReveal revelation]] that the two characters are missing the same exact person. (e.g., [[Franchise/StarWars Luke and Leia]] [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi learning that they are brother and sister]].)

* Implied in one ''Franchise/StarWars'' comic starring Boba Fett. Boba's latest target tries to throw him off by pointing him in the direction of a possible Jedi in hiding. Boba tracks the man down and blows up his house, but discovers that the man is no Jedi. He is merely the son of a Jedi who died in the battle of Geneosis (the same battle in which Boba's father Jango lost his life) and was left with nothing but his father's lightsaber as a keepsake. The man starts to cry as he states that he had to grow up without a father, remarking that he doubts Boba would be able to understand. As Boba recalls the moment he held Jango's severed head as a child, the man's own son arrives on the scene. He asks Boba if he's going to kill them both. In the next scene Boba tracks down and finishes off his original target.

** In chapter 4 of ''Manga/Evangelion303'', 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 [[NotSoDifferentRemark they're not that different after all]].

* As in canon, ''Fanfic/LostInCamelot'' sees Arthur and Merlin (''Series/Merlin2008'') have a bonding moment when they talk about how Arthur never knew his mother or Merlin his father. Prior to that scene, Merlin had shared a similar moment with his lover Bo (''Series/LostGirl'') where the two acknowledge that neither of them know their fathers (although in Bo's case she's glad of that ignorance given that her father was almost certainly her mother's rapist).
* In ''The Form of Survival,'' Yiereth bonds with both Kanan (her lineage-nephew) and Barriss over their lost Masters.
* This is a point which helps to forge some of the friendships between students at ''Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook''. 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.

* ''Film/Cinderella2015'' [[AdaptationExpansion enhances]] Cinderella and Prince Kit's relationship with some of this. [[spoiler: The King is mortally ill in this version, and at the ball, the long-orphaned Ella shares a moment of sympathy with the prince over this fact.]] In a deleted scene, they also talk about their deceased mothers together, and the film's final scene shows the royal newlyweds gazing together at portraits of their parents, [[spoiler: now all four dead,]] and Ella remarking that they would have loved each other, before they emerge onto the palace balcony to greet their people.

* In ''Film/{{Rags}}'', One of the first real bonding moments between Charlie and Kadee is when they both open up about having deceased mothers, and proceed to joke about having their own "My Mom Died" t-shirts. This makes them go from friendly acquaintances to actual friends.

* Jerin and Ren in ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' both have dead fathers and living mothers, and talk a little about it.

* One of the (many, many) bonds Agents Mulder and Scully share in ''Series/TheXFiles'' is that both lose their respective fathers early in the series. Scully's father dies unexpectedly of heart attack in season 1. Mulder's father is murdered by the conspiracy in season 2.

** Kanan touches on this with Ezra in one episode. Ezra is upset with people getting in the way of him finding out more information about his parents, and when Kanan tells him to calm down, Ezra tells him that he doesn't know how it feels. Kanan says that he's right, because as a Jedi, he was taken from his parents as a baby. Ezra apologizes and Kanan tells him that it's okay, it's too late for him now, but not for Ezra.

* ''WesternAnimation/Primal2019'': {{Inverted}}. The thing that bonded Spear (a caveman) and Fang (a tyrannosaur) was that they both lost their families. One day while hunting for food for his family, Spear hears screaming and runs to see his wife and children being eaten alive by a pack of Horned Tyrannosaurs. Then after some time has past, he sees the same Horned Tyrannosaurs attacking Fang and her babies. Spear steps in and teams up with Fang to fight them. When it appears that they have slain all the Horned Tyrannosaurs, Fang's babies come and gently play with Spear's hair. Then the Horned Tyrannosaurus alpha appears and before Spear or Fang can do anything, it eat Fang's babies alive, to their shock and horror. Spear and Fang fight together and kill the alpha. Nether of them are satisfied, having both failed to protect their families. Fang just lays down while Spear sadly walks alway. Later, while walking on a beach, Spear sees Fang following him, and after a moment of consideration, Spear accepts Fang, and the two head off into the night as a new family.

* 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 {{Sole Survivor}}s of their respective homes (the Uchiha for Sasuke and Ohara for Robin).

* In ''Film/AreWeThereYet'', When Lindsey and Kevin see their Father through a window that he's not sick, and with a woman and infant implied to be his new wife and child. Lindsey and Kevin realized that their father lies about being sick, so he does not have to see them and cut them from his life. When Nick found out he shows sympathy to the kids and told them how his father abandoned him. Lindsey and Kevin decided to accept that their father does not want them in his life and accept Nick as their new father figure.

** In chapter 4 of ''Manga/Evangelion303'', 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.

* ''Film/{{Footloose}}'' has a minor variation; Ren has a DisappearedDad, and Ariel has a dead brother. They bond over this while [[ItMakesSenseInContext screaming at a train]]. Ren and Reverend Moore (Ariel's father) also later have this scene together for a moment to establish that they are NotSoDifferent.

* In one episode of the first season 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. Then Eugene tries to invoke this trope to bond with Cassandra, asking her what she did fantasize her parents were, but Cassandra tells him [[TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason she doesn't want to discuss this with Eugene]]. Eugene feels very offended and accuses Cassandra of defying this trope, but the audience will discover in the third season that Cassandra did this not to deny Eugene of bonding, but because [[spoiler: she is repressing the painful memory of being abandoned by his mother the day she kidnapped a baby Rapunzel.]]