History Main / ChangelingFantasy

* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': Harry is orphaned and raised within an abusive household, but discovers early in the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheSorcerersStone first book]] that he's a wizard, extremely well-off thanks to his parents' inheritance, and a celebrity within the wizarding world. However, most of the parental figures he acquires either abuse or betray him, or are killed, and the Dursleys who raised him get slightly sympathetic by the end. (Well, his aunt and cousin do anyways. [[EvilUncle The uncle]] stays a {{jerkass}}.)

* In ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'' and its SpiritualSequel ''Fanfic/GhostOfYou'' Herminone and Neville (or "Navel" as these things put it) were actually pureblooded vampires all along whose parents died in a car crash and were adopted by abusive muggle parents.

Perhaps this is due to the greater acceptance of adoption today. It used to be extremely taboo and "shameful" to discover that one was adopted. Nowadays the Changeling Fantasy is evolving into dualism; with the main character having one foot in both worlds. Yes, they have a fantastic lineage; [[HappilyAdopted but it's their down-to-earth family that ultimately shaped their values]].

Often overlaps with MosesInTheBulrushes and/or SwitchedAtBirth and very often IJustWantToBeSpecial.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* In ''Literature/EvilGenius'', by Catherine Jinks, Cadel Piggott (who knows he's adopted) learns that his father is Dr. Phineas Darkkon, who is, well, an EvilGenius. Subversion occurs when [[spoiler:Cadel learns that his adoptive parents are actually in the employ of Darkkon, and deliberately cold so that Cadel would bond with his real father when they meet]]. Subverted some more when [[spoiler:Thaddeus Roth, Cadel's therapist and Darkkon's right hand man, claims that HE is Cadel's real father]].

* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': Harry is orphaned and raised within an abusive household, but discovers early in the first book that he's a wizard, extremely well-off thanks to his parents' inheritance, and a celebrity within the wizarding world. However, most of the parental figures he acquires either abuse or betray him, or are killed, and the Dursleys who raised him get slightly sympathetic by the end. (Well, his aunt and cousin do anyways. [[EvilUncle The uncle]] stays a {{jerkass}}.)

* Flipped around around and inverted in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII''. When Angelo's family died, he went off to the Abbey in hopes of having a place to live and at having a future, not having anything left to his name cept for a small sack, thanks to his dad being a bit reckless. The first person he meets at the Abbey who kindly greets him tells him it'd be his home from then on turns out to be his half brother, who was cast out and disinherited by said father because of Angelo's birth... and ''immediately'' tears into him, telling him to leave the abbey, accusing him of attempting to destroy his life there, and from then on, was never kind to him in the least bit.
* Played oddly in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVII''. The protagonist's foster mother actually ''did'' give birth to the him; he was conceived hundreds of years ago and gestated for seven months, at which point his real mother turned into a mermaid (thus lacking a womb) and the Spirit of Water teleported him into a random woman's womb at a random point in the future.

* Rather savagely parodied in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', in which a dream-avatar cuckoo sums up this trope with the line "Girls' fantasies are much simpler -- their families aren't their families, their lives aren't their lives. Little cuckoos."

** Agatha doesn't know that she's sole surviving heir to a dynasty of {{Mad Scientist}}s, or that her adoptive parents are their iconic assistants Punch and Judy (although she did know they were Frankenstein-esque "constructs"). She preferred her normal life. In a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] of sorts, her mother is evil, and she has tried to possess Agatha, practically succeeding.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in Sharon Creech's ''The Wanderer'': Sophie constantly thinks of her adopted family as her biological one, until she is finally forced to admit that she is adopted and that the sea (which she likes a lot) killed her biological parents.

* For an unusual (and very Byzantine) subversion, see Caroline Cooney's teen novel [[Literature/{{Janie}} The Face on the Milk Carton]] and its sequels.

* The Creator/RogerZelazny novel ''Changeling'' has its plot built on this trope. No, it is not the TropeNamer (see ChangelingTale). It's a subversion because Pol (né Daniel) acknowledges that the family that raised him was nothing but supportive, and openly admits that his real father was a terrible man when he went off the deep end, especially after learning more in ''Madwand''.

* Neal Stephenson's ''The Diamond Age'' is an interesting subversion. Nell is ''actually'' the biological child of Brad and Tequila, but over the course of the novel she comes to believe that her true mother is the woman who she can feel speaking to her through her Primer. [[spoiler:And to some extent, she is correct: Miranda does behave far more like a parent to Nell than either Brad or Tequila, notably by sacrificing her own career and freedom to make sure Nell will be safe]].
* Subverted in the short story "Dragon's-Eyes," by Margaret Ronald.
* In ''Evil Genius'', by Catherine Jinks, Cadel Piggott (who knows he's adopted) learns that his father is Dr. Phineas Darkkon, who is, well, an EvilGenius. Subversion occurs when [[spoiler:Cadel learns that his adoptive parents are actually in the employ of Darkkon, and deliberately cold so that Cadel would bond with his real father when they meet]]. Subverted some more when [[spoiler:Thaddeus Roth, Cadel's therapist and Darkkon's right hand man, claims that HE is Cadel's real father]].

* Zigzagged. The titular character from Creator/OscarWilde's ''The Star Child'' is the adoptive son of a poor woodcutter, who believes that he's actually born from an actual star. He is then approached by a beggar woman, who claims to be his biological mother, but the vain star-child cruelly rejects this notion and mocks the woman instead. He is then cursed to become ugly and despised by everyone until he learns humility, after which the beggar woman reveals herself to be the Queen, and takes the child back to be the crown prince and eventually crowned king.
* In Creator/EvaIbbotson's ''The Star of Kazan'', the main character, Annika, a [[MosesInTheBulrushes foundling]], despite having a loving family, endlessly dreams of the rich woman who will sweep into the house one day and tearfully ask for the baby she abandoned in a church years ago. When such a woman really does appear, Annika finds that she does not like life as a [[AristocratsAreEvil noblewoman's daughter]] and, at the end of the book, [[spoiler: is perfectly willing to accept that the woman is not her real mother, as expressed by her ''jumping off of a boat'' to get away from her]].

* The main character of ''Mio, My Mio'' by Creator/AstridLindgren is this. His actual father is a king in a magical land.

* In the sixth book of L. J. Smith's ''Nightworld'' series, ''Soulmate'', Hannah learns that she is an old soul, and emotionally related to Thierry.

* ''Myth/KingArthur'' is raised by Sir Ector. Though treated well, he's considered of lower rank than Ector's biological family, who have no idea of his true identity.

* In ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'', we meet a little girl named Rosine, a bright, imaginative child with a terrible [[AbusiveParents home life.]] Her favorite fairy tale was about an a boy by the name of Pirkaf, who while loved by his parents never fit in amongst humans and eventually came believe he was a elf (due to being in similar appearance) and ran off to live with them. Believing the same about herself Rosine runs off as well but she obviously ignored the ending of the fairy tale. [[spoiler:Pirkaf meets the Elves and learns that he is indeed human; his appearance was caused by the magic used to save him as infant thanks to his parents begging request for help. Upon hearing this Pirkaf runs back home only to find mysterious forest had sprung up overnight, caused by the Elves' anger over no one mentioning how they saved the boy's life, and Pirkaf -- now completely alone -- wept and wept.]] [[spoiler: In the end Rosline finds no Elves and falls in despair only made worse by being found by her abusive father who then starts beating the crap out of her at that moment her [[DespairEventHorizon deepest despair]] activates a [[ArtifactOfDoom certain little egg]]. The summoned Godhand grants her wish to become an elf by transforming her into a fairy-like Apostle in exchange for both of her parents' lives.]] She has since taken to creating a "fairyland" where the children that she kidnaps are turned into her creepy little pseudo-elves in a very twisted version of the ChangelingTale, one that eventually comes crashing down when Guts comes calling.

* In ''Comicbook/SuburbanGlamour'', the teenage protagonist learns that [[ChangelingTale she's a literal changeling]], and is the daughter of Fae royalty. She's initially elated to have the chance to get out of her dull, miserable life in a small middle-of-nowhere English village, but soon comes to realize that her Fae family are controlling and distant, and that [[WhatTheHellHero they did abandon her for seventeen years without any explanation]] and as such have no right to barge into her life and start making demands of her. She decides to remain with her human parents, who at least love and respect her even if they don't always understand her.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''FanFic/{{Anthropology}}''. A unicorn named Lyra is thrilled to discover she has human parents and gladly gives up her magic power and life in Equestria for a pair of glorious hands.

** ''Guardians of the Galaxy'': Peter Quill spends the [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy first movie]] wondering who his real father was and in [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 the second movie]] he turns out to be a small-time god who is immortal and has [[ThePowerOfCreation the ability to control the molecules around him]] both of which are passed on to Peter. [[spoiler:He is revealed to be an OmnicidalManiac who killed Peter's mother and has no qualms using his son as a battery to help further his goals. Peter has no problem killing Ego, despite that he would become a normal human for doing so]].

* ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Fire Emblem Gaiden]]'' has both protagonists being this. Alm, actually Prince Alpine Rudolf of Rigel, was raised by a retired Zofian General. Meanwhile, Celica is the princess of Zofia, but was raised in a monastery as priestess. [[spoiler:The reason for their upbringing was a massive XanatosGambit by King Rudolf in order to end the reign of local deities of life and death Mila and Duma]]

* In ''{{ComicBook/Blackbird}}'', Nina Rodriquez discovers that magic is real and that her long-dead mother is actually both alive and a major leader of a secret society of invisible wizards known as paragons. Nina's efforts to retrieve her kidnapped sister from her mother -- and get a satisfactory explanation for why her mother abandoned her family and is trying to erase her memory of finding her (and of her sister's very existence) constitutes the first arc of the story.
** Eventually Nina discovers that her sister was forcibly inducted as a paragon despite her mother's wishes [[spoiler: in what was basically a version of Film/SophiesChoice]]; in fact, Nina herself had died in an earthquake years before and was partially initiated as a paragon in order to restore her to life -- and her mother is desperate to prevent her from following her and her sister into a life that she considers to be tantamount to damnation.

* In the comic strip ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'', Jeremy's parents eventually revealed that they had been raising him in a dull middle-class existence when they were really [[spoiler: dull middle class people]].

* There's a scene in ''Film/{{Twins}}'' where Vincent mocks the idea of his origins.

* Opal Whiteley, or Princess Francoise Marie de Bourbon-Orleans (1897-1992) (both names are engraved upon her tombstone along with the words ''I spake as a child''), was a TeenGenius naturalist from Cottage Grove, Oregon who kept a diary (now a respected classic) from the age of five or six. Stories about her life vary depending on who is telling them, but she seems to have believed almost from the beginning that she was adopted and was really the daughter of Prince [[http://bit.ly/1s9FjUq Henri d'Orleans]] of France (himself a naturalist who wrote several books on geography). She later went to India to retrace his travels, and was a guest of the Maharajah of Udaipur. She later suffered a severe head injury during the bombing of London, became a CloudCuckoolander and ended her days in a hospital for the insane. By all accounts she was very respected there, and behaved consistently as a person of noble birth.

** ''Guardians of the Galaxy'': Peter Quill spends the [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy first movie]] wondering who his real father was and in [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 the second movie]] he turns out to be a small-time god who is immortal and has [[ThePowerOfCreation the ability to control the molecules around him]] both of which are passed on to Peter. [[spoiler:He is revealed to be an OmnicidalManiac who killed Peter's mother and has no qualms using his son as a battery to help further his goals.]]

* This trope is invoked in ''Fanfic/BlackkatsReverse'' when Kurama decides to play himself as Naruto's uncle and ends up kidnapping him. Naruto doesn't mind, because Kurama showers him with love, teaches him things about his parents and how to protect himself, and makes him meet other kids like him - who also become Kurama's wards via abduction.

* Don Bluth's Princess ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'' is a long-lost, [[LaserGuidedAmnesia amnesiac]] Russian princess. (With an interesting twist: prior to her discovery of her true heritage, she plans to ''pretend'' she's the princess and takes appropriate lessons in history and protocol. Then she's in for a surprise when the BigBad, who swore to destroy the entire royal family, comes after her…)

* ''WesternAnimation/BarbiePrincessCharmSchool'': Blair Willows [[DoorstopBaby was adopted by her poor foster mother]], became a waitress, then enter the titular school as a Lady Royal. [[spoiler: The ending reveal Blair was Sophia, the lost princess and heir to the throne, all along.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'': The woman whom Rapunzel calls "Mother," who raised her—and who keeps her cooped up in a tower, makes demands of her, and insults her—isn't her real mother. Her real parents are a kindly king and queen who love her unconditionally and still celebrate her birthday every year as they wait for her to find them again.

* The premise of ''Film/ThePrincessDiaries''. Subverted at first because Mia resists the idea of going from socially awkward, pathless San Francisco high schooler to ruler of a foreign country for most of the movie.
* Inverted in ''Film/Shazam2019''. Billy (secretly) becomes an extraordinary superhero while [[spoiler: his biological mother is living a mundane, less-than-stellar life and wants nothing to do with her son.]]

* ''Literature/OliverTwist'' by Creator/CharlesDickens is a low-rent version, where the missing parent turns out to be middle-class--but given that the title character was thoroughly poverty-stricken, it's a major leg up.
* In Creator/EvaIbbotson's ''The Star of Kazan'', the main character, Annika, a [[MosesInTheBulrushes foundling]], despite having a loving family, endlessly dreams of the rich woman who will sweep into the house one day and tearfully ask for the baby she abandoned in a church years ago. When such a woman really does appear, Annika finds that she does not like life as a [[AristocratsAreEvil noblewoman's daughter]] and, at the end of the book, [[spoiler: is perfectly willing to accept that the woman is not her real mother, as expressed by her ''jumping off of a boat'' to get away from her]].
* PlayedWith in ''Literature/TheSecretOfPlatform13,'' also by Creator/EvaIbbotson. The heroes are looking for a missing prince kidnapped by RichBitch Mrs. Trottle. They meet Ben, a very kind and intelligent servant boy, who's ecstatic to hear this...[[SubvertedTrope before they all realize that]] they're actually looking for Raymond, a SpoiledBrat being raised as Mrs. Trottle's son. Raymond, while quite happy to hear that he's even more special than he thought, is reluctant to leave his family unless the heroes can bribe him with more than he's already getting. [[spoiler:DoubleSubverted at the end, when a letter from Ben's (supposed) grandmother reveals that he was the kidnapped prince all along]].
* In ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'', Shasta turns out, in the end, to be a prince. An unusual example in that TheReveal comes after the climax; he goes through the entire book believing himself to be a commoner. He does overhear at the beginning, though, that the man he thought was his father really found and adopted him, and he briefly fantasizes that he might be anyone, even royalty. Then he has to run away and seems to forget all about it. Shasta is also an unusual example in that, although he's happy enough to learn that King Lune and Prince Corin are his father and brother, he's considerably less thrilled to discover that this means he'll have to be king someday. (His brother Corin is delighted to be shoved off the throne. "Princes have all the fun!")

** In the Literature/WitchWorld novel ''The Jargoon Pard'', Kethan was SwitchedAtBirth to ensure his mother [[HeirClubForMen had a son]]. ContrivedCoincidence ensures he meets his birth parents and the girl they are raised, and he ends up with them. (This combines with HappilyAdopted, though--the girl stays with them, too.)
* Creator/ChristopherPaolini's ''[[Literature/InheritanceCycle Eragon]]'', which features the titular {{Farmboy}} becoming a DragonRider and leaving the village where he grew up with his adoptive parents. He knew they were not his real parents from the start, however, and didn't find out until much later on who his real father was.
* In the sixth book of L. J. Smith's ''Nightworld'' series, ''Soulmate'', Hannah learns that she is an old soul, and emotionally related to Thierry.
* In Creator/JamesThurber's ''Literature/The13Clocks'', at the end, the [[AristocratsAreEvil Wicked Duke]] reveals that the Princess Saralinda is not his niece; he had kidnapped her.
* In ''Literature/ChroniclesOfNick'' and ''Literature/TheDarkHunters'', this is usually a bad thing. Your absent parent is usually a demon or a [[JerkassGods jerkass god]], so you will probably have [[WhoWantsToLiveForever a long, but emotionally and mentally tiring life]] that will make you bitter against those [[HumansAreMorons stupid humans]].

* The title character of Zilpha Keatley Snyder's book ''The Changeling'' spends almost the entire book trying to convince herself and a friend that she is just that.

* In the ''Literature/{{Tunnels}}'' series, Will learns that he was adopted and that his real parents are inhabitants of the Colony, a secret civilization BeneathTheEarth. Subverted, however, when his biological parents turn out to be just as unpleasant as his adoptive ones.
* The ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series has an odd take on this. While the [=titular=] dragon ''is'' considered a valued and unique [[OrganicShip piece of ordinance]] in the British Aerial Corps; when he goes to China he finds out that A) dragons in general are treated as large [=citizens/subjects=] with wings rather than talking warbeasts and B) ''he'' is by rights part of the Imperial Household. While he does return to Britain, it is with plans for reform on his mind.
* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}},'' [[TheWoobie Tobias]] admits that he spent his childhood hoping that his [[ParentalAbandonment absentee parents]] had abandoned him because they were secretly spies or in the Witness Protection Program or something. In fact, [[DisappearedDad his father]] was [[spoiler:a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] alien who left [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou to fight a war]]]], while [[MissingMom his mother]] was [[spoiler:unable to care for him due to medical problems]].

* ''Literature/HerFathersDaughter'': Linda knows her father is her father, but she seriously doubts that her sister is her sister. When she turns eighteen, she learns that her mother's DeathByChildbirth, and when her father remarried, he and his new wife had agreed to raise their children like actual sisters. (But it couldn't be hidden because it was InTheBlood.)
* The story of the ''Literature/TheUglyDuckling'', who in the end turns out to be a young swan.
* In Creator/GeneStrattonPorter's ''Literature/{{Freckles}}'', it's inverted; the hero is convinced that his birth is as lowly as it seems, and the other characters set out to persuade him otherwise.
* The main character of ''Mio, My Mio'' by Creator/AstridLindgren is this. His actual father is a king in a magical land.
* It's mentioned in ''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia'' that Jess has these fantasies due to the fact he is considered so unusual compared to the rest of his town (or really, the entire town). Subverted as he's not adopted.

* ''Literature/TheCasteelSeries'': Heaven, who grew up in extreme poverty in the country backwoods to a neglectful father and a stepmother who runs her ragged, learns that her birth mother actually came from a wealthy family and from then on frequently dreams about one day escaping her miserable life in the backwoods and finding her wealthy relatives. When she gets to do just that in later books, she learns that her fantasy isn't all it's cracked up to be — while she does get to live a more comfortable, luxurious life and have access to the higher education she never would've had in the Willies, she's still scorned by the upper-class students at her school and her mother's family turns out to be even more screwed-up than her adoptive one.

* Emma's story in ''Series/OnceUponATime''--she's found on the side of the road as a baby and grows up believing her parents abandoned her. In reality they're Snow White and Prince Charming who sacrificed themselves to send her to the real world and free her from the curse which is keeping them trapped in Storybrooke.
** The same also applies to Henry, who yearns to be with his [[TheChosenOne birth mother]] over his adoptive one, who of course is the Evil Queen.

* Odo in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' discovered that he was actually a member of a dangerous race of [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifters]] who were also the leaders of [[TheEmpire The Dominion]], the BigBad of the series. Bonus points here, because his species was (due to their powers) actually ''called'' "changelings", just as the [[ChangelingTale changelings in legends]] did.
** This is a variation in that it's evident from the beginning that Odo is from another species (its more the revelation of what place his species occupy in the Dominion that comes as the shock), although he has no clue who they are and longs for their discovery just as in the trope.
** Subverted by the fact that Odo's adoptive culture is friendlier then his home culture.

** In Volume 4 they have Sylar's Changeling Fantasy actually turn out to be ''true'', in that he really was adopted, and his biological father turns out to have been a powerful supervillain… but it's subverted as Sylar finds him a "big disappointment" due to all the VillainDecay his dad had undergone, courtesy of Princesse, apparent poverty, and sheer boredom with life. Its implied as well that he never really did much with his abilities anyway other than kill people for their power [[spoiler: and Sylars mom]], and was just a self-centered JerkAss who doesn't give a crap about his son and never did. [[spoiler: When he finds out Sylar has a HealingFactor and is effectively immortal, he tries to kill him for it and get a new lease on life. Except Sylar overpowers him without much effort.]]
* ''Series/TinMan:'' DG is a waitress and part-time college student with little direction in life. She's plagued by a vague, unsettling feeling she doesn't belong in Kansas and strange, recurring dreams. [[spoiler: Turns out she's princess of the O.Z., descended from and named for her ancestor Dorothy Gale, and the people she thinks are her parents are a pair of robots]].
* In ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', Peter is revealed to actually be the son of "[[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome Walternate]]" from the parallel universe.
** Initially played straight, as Peter is happy to return home and reconnect with his real family. Later subverted as it becomes readily apparent that, due to losing his son to his doppleganger from a parallel universe, Walternate's sanity became even more damaged that his counterpart. Given how the latter spent 17 years in a mental insitution, that's saying a ''lot!''

* The incarnation of Link in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' was involved in this. His whole life he thought he was a Kokiri, but after coming back to the [[HiddenElfVillage Kokiri Village]] after seven years, he finds out he’s actually a Hylian. How? It turns out Kokiri [[NeverGrewUp don’t age]], and Link was the only one who’s a grownup. Then, the Great Deku Tree Sprout tells Link that his Hylian mother gave him to the Great Deku Tree when he was a baby before she died. That baby would later be raised by the tree as a Kokiri for his whole childhood along with the other Kokiri children.

* Both tropes are explored and played tragically straight in the short story "[[http://strangestoriesaboutsadpeople.blogspot.com/2009/10/changelings-and-fair-folk.html Changelings and Fairfolk]]" at ''Strange Stories About Sad People.''

* ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' meets her mother from a past lifetime (her parents were still her parents in this life) and turns out to be the heir to a magical kingdom. [[IJustWantToBeNormal She just wants to be normal]].
* ''Manga/CeresCelestialLegend'' has the real parents using the {{Masquerade}}--and utterly evil.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has the protagonist grow up in a relatively normal, if somewhat wacky, household. Except for that whole "ability to perceive ghosts" thing. What Kurosaki Ichigo doesn't know is [[spoiler:that his father is also a {{shinigami}} himself and has been so from the beginning. That raises a lot of questions about his true purpose and origins]].

* In ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'', we meet a little girl named Rosine, a bright, imaginative child with a terrible [[AbusiveParents home life.]] Her favorite fairy tale was about an a boy by the name of Pirkaf, who while loved by his parents never fit in amongst humans and eventually came believe he was a elf (due to being in similar appearance) and ran off to live with them. Believing the same about herself Rosine runs off as well but she obviously ignored the ending of the fairy tale. [[spoiler:Pirkaf meets the Elves and learns that he is indeed human; his appearance was caused by the magic used to save him as infant thanks to his parents begging request for help. Upon hearing this Pirkaf runs back home only to find mysterious forest had sprung up overnight, caused by the Elves' anger over no one mentioning how they saved the boy's life, and Pirkaf--now completely alone--wept and wept.]] [[spoiler: In the end Rosline finds no Elves and falls in despair only made worse by being found by her abusive father who then starts beating the crap out of her at that moment her [[DespairEventHorizon deepest despair]] activates a [[ArtifactOfDoom certain little egg]]. The summoned Godhand grants her wish to become an elf by transforming her into a fairy-like Apostle in exchange for both of her parents' lives.]] She has since taken to creating a "fairyland" where the children that she kidnaps are turned into her creepy little pseudo-elves in a very twisted version of the ChangelingTale, one that eventually comes crashing down when Guts comes calling.
* Relena Darlian from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' learns early on that her birth parents were the rulers of a pacifist European nation, but it comes with a lot of "howevers". She didn't find out about this until her adoptive father was assassinated. Her adoptive family is very warm and loving, and they weren't boring by any stretch of the imagination (her father being an important diplomat who took her on business trips all over the planet). Also, her adoptive father was her birth father's right-hand man, and he was specifically asked to take Relena to safety as TheFederation attacked their homeland. On top of all this, the "adoption" happened when Relena was two years old, meaning that while she loves her birth parents, she didn't really know them. As a result, while she reveres her birth parents as important people, she seems to love the Darlians more, and takes up their name once more in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWingEndlessWaltz Endless Waltz]]''.
* Alois Trancy from the second season of ''Manga/BlackButler'' claims this is what happened to him, since he went missing as an infant (which caused his mother [[DrivenToSuicide kill herself from despair]]) and reappeared years later after living with a foster family in an ordinary village and was taken back in by his father, the late Earl Trancy. In the first episode it's mentioned that he claims fairies abducted him, which his uncle is incredibly suspicious about and intends to prove he's a fraud. [[spoiler:The uncle's right, Alois is actually Jim Macken, an ordinary boy who was only posing as the Earl's son… and was actually his SexSlave until he snapped and killed the Earl by making a contract with a demon.]]

* In ''{{ComicBook/Blackbird}}'', Nina Rodriquez discovers that magic is real and that her long-dead mother is actually both alive and a major leader of a secret society of invisible wizards known as paragons. Nina's efforts to retrieve her kidnapped sister from her mother- and get a satisfactory explanation for why her mother abandoned her family and is trying to erase her memory of finding her (and of her sister's very existence) constitutes the first arc of the story.
** Eventually Nina discovers that her sister was forcibly inducted as a paragon despite her mother's wishes [[spoiler: in what was basically a version of Film/SophiesChoice]]; in fact, Nina herself had died in an earthquake years before and was partially initiated as a paragon in order to restore her to life- and her mother is desperate to prevent her from following her and her sister into a life that she considers to be tantamount to damnation.
* Rather savagely parodied in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', in which a dream-avatar cuckoo sums up this trope with the line "Girls' fantasies are much simpler--their families aren't their families, their lives aren't their lives. Little cuckoos."
* Subverted in ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'' by Gran'ma Ben being a member of the young Thorn's real family as well. Thorn wasn't so much adopted as she was sent away with her grandmother for her safety, who's just as much a hidden royal as Thorn is. As Thorn goes through the story and returns to her rightful position, Gran'ma Ben is right alongside her (for the [[IJustWantToBeNormal most part]]), returning to her royal position also. Also deconstructed in that Thorn is upset and angered by the reveal that her own grandmother has been lying to her for years, and it takes a while for Thorn to forgive her.

* In ''Comicbook/SuburbanGlamour'', the teenage protagonist learns that [[ChangelingTale she's a literal changeling]], and is the daughter of Fae royalty. She's initially elated to have the chance to get out of her dull, miserable life in a small middle-of-nowhere English village, but soon comes to realize that her Fae family are controlling and distant, and that [[WhatTheHellHero they did abandon her for seventeen years without any explanation]] and as such have no right to barge into her life and start making demands of her. She decides to remain with her human parents, who at least love and respect her even if they don't always understand her.
* The ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strip companion Izzy was adopted, and--having tension with her adoptive parents--often indulged in these kind of fantasies (which were often alluded to in the strip). By the end of her time with the Doctor, however, she'd adjusted to who she was and returned to her adoptive parents. The identity of her true parents was never revealed.

* In Creator/DavidLynch's ''Film/TheElephantMan'', the title character occasionally expresses a wish to find his real mother, on the hope that she could "love me as I am." What makes this so tragic is the subtle implication (which is historically true, by the way) that she clearly abandoned him for being… [[TheGrotesque well, you know]].

* In ''Film/JupiterAscending'', Jupiter Jones is the genetic reincarnation of the Queen of the Universe. There are three groups that are looking for her: the Queen's elder son who wants to kill her so she can't reclaim the inheritance he received, the Queen's younger son who wants to marry her (and then kill her) so he can steal the inheritance, and another group trying to protect her.
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** ''Guardians of the Galaxy'': Peter Quill spends the [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy first movie]] wondering who his real father was and in [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 the second movie]] he turns out to be a small-time god who is immortal and has [[ThePowerOfCreation the ability to control the molecules around him]] both of which are passed on to Peter. [[spoiler:He is revealed to be an OmnicidalManiac who killed Peter's mother and has no qualms using his son as a battery to help further his goals.]]
** ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'': Erik "Killmonger" Stevens is an example of an evil changeling. A seemingly ordinary boy from Oakland, is actually a prince of the [[HiddenElfVillage secretly wealthy African Nation of Wakanda]]. He acts as black ops soldier and then mercenary to gain the skills and connections, and then goes to Wakanda to claim his birthright. After taking the throne from [[TheProtagonist Prince T'Challa]] by TrialByCombat, Erik attempts to send out weapons to terrorist groups only to be stopped by T'Challa taking back the throne.

* Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth, by Creator/HPLovecraft, features a young man who travels to New England to explore his genealogy and who ultimately learns that his great-grandmother was the queen of a race of amphibious fish-people, and that he is destined to eventually metamorphosize into a fish-person himself. But once you actually ''are'' a fish-person, you think it's awesome.
** ''Tales of Innsmouth'' is a collection of stories by various authors, one of which raises the point that said fish-people will be Very Vengeful about their city being torpedoed thanks to his running to the authorities--the protagonist finds the perfectly preserved flayed skin of the original character. He is still alive as a skinless fish-man though.
* For an unusual (and very Byzantine) subversion, see Caroline Cooney's teen novel [[Literature/{{Janie}} The Face on the Milk Carton]] and its sequels.
* In ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'', Quasimodo's birth parents are glamourous and exciting gypsies, but they abandoned him on the steps of a church, where BigBad Archdeacon Claude Frollo--about 16 at the time--took him in ''[[AntiVillain out of kindness]]''. Naturally, Disney couldn't cope with all this moral ambiguity, and in their version, Quasi's birth parents were very loving, and Frollo killed them, taking the child in out of guilt, and not even raising him himself.
** It's implied that Quasi was traded for [[spoiler: Esmerelda when she was just a baby and he was about 4]] and was then taken by the church. His parents were such nice people, don't you think?

* In Creator/LMMontgomery's ''Literature/TheBlueCastle'' the trope is inverted in universe--Valancy's relatives explicitly talk about whether she is a changeling because of her sudden peculiar behaviour, and it gets shot down because of her age.

* In ''Literature/TheBadSeed'', Christine Penmark has always had this thought in the back of her mind that she was adopted, though unlike most examples of this trope, the idea fills her with horror. Her parents profusely deny this, and her friends assure her that this is a common childhood fantasy and no more. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for her, it turns out that she was right, and her biological mother was a psychopathic serial killer… who may have passed on her murderous nature to Christine's daughter.]]

* Neal Stephenson's ''The Diamond Age'' is an interesting subversion. Nell is ''actually'' the biological child of Brad and Tequila, but over the course of the novel she comes to believe that her true mother is the woman who she can feel speaking to her through her Primer. [[spoiler:And to some extent, she is correct: Miranda does behave far more like a parent to Nell than either Brad or Tequila, notably by sacrificing her own career and freedom to make sure Nell will be safe]].

* In ''Evil Genius'', by Catherine Jinks, Cadel Piggott (who knows he's adopted) learns that his father is Dr. Phineas Darkkon, who is, well, an EvilGenius. Subversion occurs when [[spoiler:Cadel learns that his adoptive parents are actually in the employ of Darkkon, and deliberately cold so that Cadel would bond with his real father when they meet]]. Subverted some more when [[spoiler:Thaddeus Roth, Cadel's therapist and Darkkon's right hand man, claims that HE is Cadel's real father]].
* The Creator/RogerZelazny novel ''Changeling'' has its plot built on this trope. No, it is not the TropeNamer (see ChangelingTale). It's a subversion because Pol (né Daniel) acknowledges that the family that raised him was nothing but supportive, and openly admits that his real father was a terrible man when he went off the deep end, especially after learning more in ''Madwand''.
* [[ChangelingTale Subverted]] in Literature/{{Coraline}}. The Other Mother is, in fact [[spoiler:an evil faerie]] and the Other Father is [[spoiler:a servant of said faerie. The other world is [[CrapsaccharineWorld a horrible place to live]]]]. In the end Coraline is very happy to have her own parents back.

* The last arc of ''Literature/{{Aztec}}'' introduces us to Malintzin. When Mixtli meets her, she is an orphan brat with delusions of grandeur. Aztec custom names the child by their day of birth (hers is One Grass) and they're given a full name on their seventh birthday, but because she's an orphan, her name remains One Grass (Ce Malinali). By the time he meets her later, she's become Cortez' interpreter and consort to one of Cortez' men. She's also made up a back story for herself: that she was [[IndianPrincess formerly royalty]], but her family sold her when they fell on hard times. The "tzin" suffix (which means lord/lady and is assigned to nobility) is entirely fabricated.
* ''Literature/TheAccursedKings'' is a novelisation of the history of France in the 1300's. A secondary plot involves the substitution of the genine newborn prince with an expendable commoner double - this is so that a suspected assassination attempt, if successful, would not kill the real heir. But when the double is indeed murdered and it is falsely believed the real Heir is dead, the actual royal baby is packed off to rural France to be brought up by the kind of barely-there nobility who only just squeak onto the scale. Only one or two people - including the Pope - know there is indeed a surviving and legitimate royal heir. Scroll forwards by twenty years when that child, now an adult, learns his real story. Alas for him, the people who grabbed the French throne have no interest in surrendering it, and he discovers it really doesn't matter a damn that he's the real deal. He doesn't have the power to do anything about it, and dies, held incommunicado in a prison, the last Capet heir to the throne of France.

* Subverted in ''Series/KyleXY'' at the end of the first season where the main character supposedly found his real parents. In fact, [[spoiler:Kyle was grown in a lab, the parents are actors, and Kyle goes along with the plan to protect his adoptive family, a situation which lasts a whole episode and then requires Kyle to make up another story for why he's returned]].
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': Parodied. In the episode "My Mother the Fiend," Veronica finds out who Trina Echolls's real parents are. After the big reveal, Trina confides to Veronica that she had always dreamed that her real parents were movie stars. To which Veronica answers: "Trina, your parents ''were'' movie stars…"

* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'''s Peter Bishop was kidnapped by an alternate reality version of his father when he was seven. This (combined with the fact that crossing over permanently damaged the fabric of reality) kicked off [[BigBad Walternate's]] StartOfDarkness and attempts to destroy the other world. Needless to say, Peter had some issues with Walter after finding out.
* Inverted by ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Alex learns she's not really the daughter of the leader of the Others, but that of a crazy woman who lives in the jungle. She's still happy about it, though.

* Alistair in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', although he is well aware that he is actually a blood heir to the throne, he doesn't want it in the least bit, and actually treats this like this isn't really impressive. However he ''does'' know that he has a half-sister in Denerim, and when he meets her, she is almost enraged to see him (or even find out he still ''lives''), and asks for money because she's not very wealthy (and has ''plenty'' of children) and Alistair is kinda… saddened more by finding out his half sister is incredibly rude than that he could actually become [[spoiler:King of Ferelden]].

* Flipped around around and inverted in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII''. When Angelo's family died, he went off to the Abbey in hopes of having a place to live and at having a future, not having anything left to his name cept for a small sack, thanks to his dad being a bit reckless. The first person he meets at the Abbey who kindly greets him tells him it'd be his home from then on turns out to be his half brother, who was cast out and disinherited by said father because of Angelo's birth… and ''immediately'' tears into him, telling him to leave the abbey, accusing him of attempting to destroy his life there, and from then on, was never kind to him in the least bit.

* ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Fire Emblem Gaiden]]'' has both protagonists being this. Alm, actually Prince Alpine Rudolf of Rigel, was raised by a retired Zofian General. Meanwhile, Celica is the princess of Zofia, but was raised in a monastery as priestess. [[spoiler:The reason for their upbringing was a massive XanatosGambit by King Rudolf in order to end the reign of local deities of life and death Mila and Duma]]
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' downplays this trope, as the main character's foster family is Nohr royalty, but their 'father' is an insane tyrant held together by conquest and the ''survivors'' of his family's brutal infighting. The MC's birth family, the Hoshido clan, are peace-loving but honor-bound racists. The main decision tree depends on which family the MC chooses[[note]]Birthright for Hoshido, Conquest for Nohr, and Revelation for "I'm siding with neither until they realize how pointless this conflict is"[[/note]].
* [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]], [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]], and ultimately [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. [[spoiler: As the [[CloningBlues replica]] of the real Luke fon Fabre, Luke is essentially a "[[ChangelingTale changeling child]]" left in place of the "real" one. He [[HeroicBSOD doesn't handle it well]] and it leaves him with crippling [[HeroicSelfDeprecation self esteem issues]] all on top of the one closest to being his parent (in [[ParentalSubstitute actions]] and being responsible for his creation) being the BigBad. It's subverted when his "fake" parents accept him as their own son despite his origins; though Luke struggles to accept himself as a Fabre long into the latter parts of the game.]]

* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'', Rocko Sasquatch is shocked to learn he is actually [[spoiler: a [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Sasquatch!]] (Did that really need a spoiler tag? Oh well.) His tribe abandoned him because he was born bald]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' uses the "evil real family" subversion, with a surprising lack of GenreBlindness--the BigBad is aware of this trope and exploits it.
** Well… more just an [[TheEvilPrince evil older brother.]] In the comics, we see a vision of Elyon's birth parents, who seem to have been good people before dying.

* Link ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' was involved in this. His whole life he thought he was a Kokiri, but after coming back to the [[HiddenElfVillage Kokiri Village]] after seven years, he finds out he’s actually a Hylian. How? It turns out Kokiri [[NeverGrewUp don’t age]], and Link was the only one who’s a grownup. Then, the Great Deku Tree Sprout tells Link that his Hylian mother gave him to the Great Deku Tree when he was a baby before she died. That baby would later be raised by the tree as a Kokiri for his whole childhood along with the other Kokiri children.

* ''Film/PansLabyrinth''. Although Ofelia rather loves her human mother, and seems to have loved her long-dead father, it's presented as an unambiguously better thing to live in the underworld full of magic. Mostly because dad is dead, mom is very weak-willed, and new stepdad is a zealous fascist. Unlike most examples, Guillermo del Toro actually takes into account [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the implications of such a statement]].

* ''Who's Your Daddy?'', about a boy who inherits his father's (played by Wayne Newton) porn empire.

* ''LightNovel/TheTwelveKingdoms'':

They may even have an OrphansPlotTrinket to signify their heritage. Compare CinderellaCircumstances, where the [[CanonicalListOfSubtleTropeDistinctions main difference]] is that the heroine is always worse off and doesn't have to be [[SwitchedAtBirth switched]], if the parent fell on hard times and [[WickedStepmother remarried]].

* Invoked and defied in ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', in which Miles tells his clone-brother Mark that most orphans dream of the changeling fantasy about having royal parents (which Cordelia and Aral technically are). Mark bitterly rejects this, saying he "always knew the score".
* The ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' series. Then again, both of Harry's parents are dead--and most of the other parental figures he acquires either abuse or betray him, or are killed. And the Dursleys who raised him get slightly sympathetic by the end. (Well, his aunt and cousin do anyways. [[EvilUncle The uncle]] stays a {{jerkass}}.)

* In Literature/TheCasteelSeries, Heaven, who grew up in extreme poverty in the country backwoods to a neglectful father and a stepmother who runs her ragged, learns that her birth mother actually came from a wealthy family and from then on frequently dreams about one day escaping her miserable life in the backwoods and finding her wealthy relatives. When she gets to do just that in later books, she learns that her fantasy isn't all it's cracked up to be — while she does get to live a more comfortable, luxurious life and have access to the higher education she never would've had in the Willies, she's still scorned by the upper-class students at her school and her mother's family turns out to be even more screwed-up than her adoptive one.
* In ''Winterhouse'' series, Elizabeth Somers, whose parents died when she was four, and who was living with her uncaring uncle and aunt since, discovers that she is the granddaughter of Northbridge Falls, owner of the eponymous Winterhouse Hotel.

* The [[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]] episode, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire "Dragonfire"]], is discussed and subverted. At one point in a moment of vulnerability, Ace confesses to Mel that as an escape from her miserable life back in Perivale she used to dream that she was actually a Changeling from the stars who would one day be whisked off to an alien world. Then, one day, she actually was whisked off to an alien world... only to end up in the same miserable life she'd had back home.