| 1 | %% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=s71xtv1b |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1652866997059671 |
| 4 | %% Please start a new thread to discuss replacements. |
| 5 | %% |
| 6 | ->'''Sour Cream:''' Dad?!\ |
| 7 | '''Marty:''' Sour Cream?\ |
| 8 | '''Sour Cream:''' W-What are you doing here?\ |
| 9 | '''Marty:''' Uh... S.C. Oof! Just look at you. When did you get so tall?\ |
| 10 | '''Sour Cream:''' Uh, like nine years ago.\ |
| 11 | '''Marty:''' Whoa! Ahem, sorry I've been gone so long, but you know how the music biz can be, riiight? |
| 12 | -->— ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse, "Drop Beat Dad"'' |
| 13 | |
| 14 | [[TheTalk In order to create a baby, a man and a woman need to have sex]].[[note]]Barring artificial insemination, cloning, or the odd MysticalPregnancy.[[/note]] Strictly speaking, this is an act of minimal investment for the father, since he can (and sometimes does) skip town long before the consequences come due. Unless the mother-to-be terminates the pregnancy ([[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion which she only very rarely does]]) or puts the resulting infant up for adoption, she is the one left holding the bag... er, baby. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | This trope is what happens when the 'father,' having been absent for much of the child's life, returns and reassumes his parental role. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | It can be justified if DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou. Still, this trope is a bit of a harder pill to swallow when the guy in question suddenly receives a PromotionToParent in spite of not actually having done a whole heck of a lot to deserve it. This trope is commonly averted if the stepfather is a sympathetic character in the story. On the flip side, if there is a stepfather and we hardly even see him, chances are that sperm daddy is going to be the one referred to lovingly at the end of the story. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | SubTrope of ChosenConceptionPartner. Related to NoFathersAllowed. Compare DisappearedDad, which usually involves fathers who stuck around slightly longer after doing the deed. Contrast FirstFatherWins and PlatonicCoParenting. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | '''Be wary of spoilers as you read.''' |
| 23 | |
| 24 | ---- |
| 25 | !!Examples: |
| 26 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 27 | |
| 28 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 29 | * Deconstructed in ''Manga/SakendeYaruze''. When they initially meet for the first time Shino is reluctant but quickly decides to take Nakaya in and they get along well despite the fact Shino wasn't there for the first 17 years of Nakaya's life. However, their relationship proceeds to go through a series of ups and downs, Shino trying to act like a father when Nakaya doesn't want him to or not acting like a father when he does want him to, while Nakaya at times idolizes Shino and then at others pushes him away. In the end, Nakaya decides to move out because he feels uncomfortable with his father's new relationship but doesn't want to ask Shino to give it up because their father-son bond is too new for him to feel right in doing so. |
| 30 | * ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' has a far more nuanced version of this. Gon looks up to his father, Ging, as a great Hunter, and wants to find him and learn more about him, but seems well aware that Ging, who walked out on him when he was a toddler, is not going to be a candidate for Father of the Year. In fact, the reason why Gon decides to be a Hunter is on the dubious logic that it must be a ''really'' great job if it's worth abandoning your son over. He also explains his general disinterest in his biological ''mother'' by noting that his Aunt Mito, who raised him, is already filling that role. |
| 31 | * In ''Manga/PeterGrillAndThePhilosophersTime'', this is the situation that the main character finds himself in. Being declared the WorldsStrongestMan has caused several [[CuteMonsterGirl monster girls]] to go after him so that they can bare a strong child, with all of them ignoring the fact that he is already in a happy relationship. No matter what he does, none of them seem to care. |
| 32 | [[/folder]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 35 | * In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', [[spoiler:the Comedian, who is referred to positively by the end of the book by both the first Silk Spectre (the mother) and the second Silk Spectre (the daughter) though she spends most of the time after she learns her true parentage conflicted about his (lack of) role in her life and the circumstances that led to her conception since he had first attempted to rape her mother but later began a consensual affair with her after he reconnected with her and she believed that he had changed, but he's still viewed as a douchebag by most of the cast and an AssholeVictim at worst.]] This is greatly due to the GreyAndGrayMorality that ''Watchmen'' enjoys. |
| 36 | * Wolverine (in the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe) is revealed as such in ''ComicBook/UltimateWolverine''. He didn't even know that he had a son, Jimmy, until his mother revealed it, and they gave it to another family to GiveHimANormalLife. |
| 37 | ** In the prime Marvel Universe this is exaggerated then played for drama. In addition to his other biological offspring that he may or may not be a father toward, three of his illegitimate sons and daughters [[note]]From six different mothers[[/note]] were recruited by the Red Right Hand to kill Wolverine. Only after savagely killing each one of them did he learn, from the Red Right Hand themselves, that these were his children. This broke him mentally and he tried to make up for it by burying their corpses beside their mothers’ graves. |
| 38 | * [[ComicBook/TheScarecrow Jonathan Crane's]] father is one in ''Year One: Batman/Scarecrow'' since he was conceived in a TeenPregnancy, and he finally tracks down and meets his father...[[{{Patricide}} to try to kill him]]. Sadly things are not that better for him in the New 52 and ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' continuities where he is actually raised by his father (poor [[{{Pun}} bastard]], can't catch a break). |
| 39 | * A justified example of this happens in ''ComicBook/{{Katmandu}}'', when Markree, the younger brother of the main protagonist Liska, had to basically play this role in order to give her elder sister's [[QueerRomance wives]] children. The justification runs with the fact that none of Liska's wives want to have children with either of the latter's male mates, and also the fact that the setting takes place in their world's equivalent of the 18th century, and as such, they don't have other modern methods to conceive children. |
| 40 | [[/folder]] |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 43 | * ''Roleplay/DCNation'': Lian Harper refers to Cheshire as a "glorified egg donor." Her stepmother (Donna Troy-Harper) is "Mom in all the ways that count!" Cheshire is less than happy to learn this. |
| 44 | * In ''Fanfic/TheNewRetcons'', Wilf starts regarding both [[ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse John and Elly Patterson]] as this, once Elly loses her mind and claims that her youngest daughter April isn't her daughter at all and throws her out, and John doesn't try to seek treatment for Elly and gives up on convincing Elly that April's her daughter. April's own feelings on the matter are...complicated. |
| 45 | ** [[spoiler: For years Stan Watson believed his son Michael regarded him as this since that was what Elly told him. He's angry when he finds out that she never told Michael that Stan was his biological father, letting him believe John was his father the whole time.]] |
| 46 | * It's very popular in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' fandom to have [[DisappearedDad Phineas and Candace's absent bio dad]] and [[MissingMom Ferb's missing bio mom]] be their respective gender's version of this trope. A particularly strong example appears in [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7738981/1/Capturing_the_Past ''Capturing the Past'']] with Stacy out and out stating this trope albeit not by name. |
| 47 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' fanfiction ''[[http://dark-solace.org/elysian/viewstory.php?sid=4134 The Light of the World]]'' plays with this, in that it's revealed that Dawn, Buffy's magically created sister, was created from Buffy (making her the "mother") and Spike (making him the "father"). Spike slipping easily into the life makes sense because A) Dawn currently doesn't know he's her actual father, and B) even though she appears to be fourteen (and remembers fourteen years of her life), she [[YoungerThanTheyLook really isn't that old at all]]. |
| 48 | * ''FanFic/ChildOfTheStorm'': |
| 49 | ** Harry is initially distinctly unamused by James/Thor's absence from his life until the start of the story, demanding an explanation. Given that Thor's [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou reason]] was that a) traumatic death in mortal form drove him nuts, necessitating b) his memories being blocked, and he booked it to Earth literally the moment he got them back (and wasn't remotely pleased about the mind-wipe), he's pretty forgiving and more than willing to accept freely offered love from a very good parent. To Odin, who blocked those memories and forbade any mention of it, for fear of Thor snapping back into that madness until he'd cooled off, less so - and while he does come around, he's always a bit frostier towards his grandfather. |
| 50 | ** John Constantine is in Wanda Maximoff's eyes to their daughter, Hermione Granger. She has excellent reason to think this, given what he pulled with the Zataras. |
| 51 | ** Hermione, in turn, has a very complicated view of her biological mother when she discovers the truth, which boils down to 'I don't want you or the superpowers I inherited from you' and 'why didn't you want me?'. She was perfectly happy just being Hermione Granger, being very HappilyAdopted and fiercely resents the upheaval in her life, but she also bitterly resents the fact that Wanda had to be openly strongarmed into getting involved in her life before this point, while being an admittedly very much needed loving ParentalSubstitute to her godson, Harry, leading to perceptions of ParentalFavoritism. The short answer why is ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies, a desire to make a clean break/not draw attention to Hermione, and while both children are loved equally (... probably), due to a confluence of factors, Harry is probably ''easier'' for Wanda to love. |
| 52 | *** Peculiarly, however, she gets on rather well with her biological grandfather, Magneto. |
| 53 | * ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines''. The youngest of the infamous Seven Brothers of Orre, some of the most heinous criminals in the ''Pokémon'' world, has traveled to just about ''every'' region and left his mark by impregnating women all over the place, siring hundreds of children, including [[spoiler: Ash Ketchum, of all people]]. |
| 54 | * ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestriaProjectHorizons'': The males in Stable 99 serve as both this and [[SexSlave "recreation"]], as the population is heavily controlled and predominately female. The Stable's 40 males, referred to as either P or U depending on their race, [[YouAreNumberSix are given a designated number according to their age.]] Once they reach 21, they're euthanized to make way for the next P-1 or U-1. |
| 55 | * This is Izuku's view of his father Hisashi Midoriya in ''FanFic/ConversationsWithACryptid''. Hisashi is a little bit more involved than most because he remains married to Inko and provides financial support to her and Izuku, but Izuku doesn't even know what he looks like and has no emotional connection to him. [[spoiler: This was not by choice. All for One dearly wished to spend time with his family, but his enmity with All Might and later his massive injuries prevented him. Once he breaks out of prison and is restored to health, he spends most of his time trying to make it up to them.]] |
| 56 | * Inverted in ''Fanfic/{{Witchcraft}}''. Giovanni chose Ariana for his DarwinistDesire with the promise that Ariana would not have to interact with the child. For the next decade, Ariana only saw her son Silver in passing. This changes once she's arrested and Silver begins visiting her jail cell. |
| 57 | * ''Fanfic/TheLastSon'' has a reveal in Book Four that Black Canary, Siryn, and Banshee are half-siblings, sharing the same father, with the implication that they might have more half-siblings elsewhere they might not know about. |
| 58 | * Zigzagged in the ''Film/CabinFever'' fanfic [[https://www.wattpad.com/story/197976919-cabin-fever-promises-to-keep Cabin Fever:Promises To Keep]]. Practically since [[OneNightStandPregnancy her daughter's conception]], Marcy relegated her one-time lover, Paul, to this status in her mind, largely so that she wouldn't have to deal with the grief of [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy him dying shortly after she became pregnant]]. But at the same time, she has been raising their daughter to be proud of him. Over the course of the story, Marcy reconciles her complex web of emotions surrounding Paul and ultimately comes to regard him fondly, as both a personal hero and as an excellent (though justifiably absent) father to her child. |
| 59 | * ''Fanfic/TheVictorsProject'': Cecelia uses both Tanni and Brutus to get pregnant in order to make the Capitol see her as a mother and reduce the number of people [[SexSlave who want to buy a night with her]]. |
| 60 | * ''Fanfic/TheDevilsInTheDetails'': Matt did not even know that he had a son until after Peter's mother and step-father's tragic deaths, and even then he left it to Ben and May to decide when Peter knew who his real father was. Peter did not find out that "Uncle Matt" was actually his real father until he read it from a note Ben left for him before his own death. |
| 61 | * ''Fanfic/TheresMoreMagicOutThere'': Alya refers to her and Nora's birth father as this, given he stole their mother's selkie skin and forced her to marry him before the three got away from him. |
| 62 | * ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': In "The Seven," Bolt's father Blaze conceives his son after first digging under and then jumping over two fences to have sex with Cheyenne, a puppy mill female. Immediately after doing so, he runs off to escape the puppy mill owner, who chases the interloper away with a baseball bat. Blaze never sees Cheyenne again, nor does he participate in raising the pup. |
| 63 | * In ''Fanfic/CodeGeassThePreparedRebellion'', Milly actually refers to her father Roderick as such [[spoiler:on the eve of the assassination of him and his wife]], since she hated him the first time that she saw him and Melisande, as neither of them had any real interaction with her at all for ''years'' after she was born, leaving her to her grandfather and the servants. Her opinion of her mother is even ''lower''. |
| 64 | * ''Fanfic/DynamiteAndALaserbeamRedux'': Yoshimura Kira's father is this to her. |
| 65 | [[/folder]] |
| 66 | |
| 67 | [[folder:Films -- Animated]] |
| 68 | * ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtheadDoAmerica'': Beavis and Butthead are wandering the desert, and happen upon two men who bear an uncanny resemblance to them. The two men reveal that they were once roadies for Music/MotleyCrue and that 15 years prior, they had stopped in the boys' hometown of Highland and "scored" with two chicks (Beavis and Butthead's [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen unseen]] biological mothers). They leave, and neither duo knows that the two roadies-turned-drifters were the boys' fathers. (Which is probably for the best, considering how poorly Butthead's father spoke of both Highland and the boys' mothers.) |
| 69 | [[/folder]] |
| 70 | |
| 71 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 72 | * In ''Film/AboutScout'', Scout tells her father Ray that the only fatherly thing he ever did was knock up her mom. Which doesn't stop him from getting custody of Scout's little sister Lulu after she almost overdoses on Gram's medication. |
| 73 | * ''Film/TheBigLebowski'': Maude Lebowski takes the "glorified" out of this when she has the Dude become the father of her child. She doesn't want to have to see the father socially, nor does she want the father to be invested in the raising of the kid. The Dude, of course, is cool with this. |
| 74 | * A GenderFlip version in ''Film/TheChamp'', wherein Andy's ex-wife swoops in and wants to take their son Dink away, years after she divorced Andy and left them both for a rich new husband. |
| 75 | * In ''Film/DangerDiva'', Stanley doesn't ''want'' to have a kid but has no choice since he wants to stay alive, so Devi is artificially inseminated with his sperm and left to deal with it on her own. [[spoiler:Except not; when they tried she was already pregnant with Scattering's child.]] |
| 76 | * {{Deconstructed}} in ''Film/TheKidsAreAllRight'', which takes a serious look at the ethical ramifications of this trope. Paul's apparent status as an instant parent comes off as insulting to Nic, as she and Jules were the ones who actually raised the kids. At the same time, the kids' desire to know their bio-daddy is shown as nuanced and reasonable--he is, after all, the only biological connection between them. |
| 77 | * Used in ''Film/MammaMia'' with a generous dose of LampshadeHanging. No one else on the island thinks the heroine's desire to find him makes a whole lot of sense, and she even realizes this herself at the end of the movie. At the end all three dads decide they're willing to be her dad at the end, too. One-third of a kid isn't bad... |
| 78 | * In ''Film/MoscowDoesNotBelieveInTears'', Katya's lover Rudolf dumps her when he finds out she's pregnant. Twenty years later he runs into her again and insists on meeting his daughter, much to Katya's displeasure. |
| 79 | * Exaggerated in ''Film/{{Starbuck}}'', a Quebec film. The protagonist, David Wozniak, sold a great amount of sperm to the sperm bank, fathering over 500 people under a pseudonym. Once most of them grew up, they tried to nullify his anonymity through legal means. David sued the sperm bank to prevent this from happening and won the case. Not long after, he decides to reveal his identity publicly. All his children began to love him dearly. |
| 80 | * In ''Film/AStoryOfFloatingWeeds'', Kihachi, the leader of an itinerant theater troupe, has never even told Shinkichi that he is his father, and he's been away for years at a time to boot. This does not stop him from getting all self-righteous and trying to act like a protective dad when one of the actresses in his troupe seduces Shinkichi. |
| 81 | * In ''Film/SupermanReturns'', Superman fills this role. He ditched Lois for five years without giving an explanation to anyone. He seems to have had no idea (until the end of the movie) that he had even gotten her pregnant. |
| 82 | * In ''Film/TokyoTwilight'', in which mother Kisako tries to reinsert herself in her daughters' lives after abandoning them 20-odd years ago when they were small children. Younger daughter Akiko doesn't even remember her; older daughter Takako tells her mother to bug off. |
| 83 | [[/folder]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 86 | * ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'': It is considered completely normal to have a sperm donor as a father, as men are very rare. Women of the lower classes usually go to so-called "cribs" to get pregnant, and the sperm donor is documented to avoid inbreeding. Only from middle-class up do people have an actual ''father''. The Whistler family has a shared grandfather and shared father, and may not be otherwise related at all -- Jerin suspects that his grandmothers just pretended to be sisters, in [[ItMakesSenseInContext order to be able to rise to middle-class.]] |
| 87 | * ''Literature/{{Contact}}'' (by Creator/CarlSagan): [[spoiler:The man Ellie thought of as her curmudgeonly stepfather turns out to be her biological father, and her late, loving "dad" was merely the man who raised her. When Ellie learns this, she immediately starts referring to her biological father as "her father", a practice which most RealLife people who were adopted as children don't actually engage in.]] |
| 88 | * ''Literature/CormoranStrikeNovels'': Cormoran is the illegitimate son of Jonny Rokeby, a rock star who fathered Strike with a groupie and only met the boy twice. When Rokeby, ill with cancer, tries to make amends and connect with 39-year-old Strike, Strike refuses. |
| 89 | * ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Harry was this to his daughter for the first eight years of her life, albeit [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou through no fault of his own]], since his on-again-off-again lover [[HotScoop Susan Rodriguez]] didn't bother to tell him the girl existed until she got kidnapped by some of Harry's numerous enemies. Harry was ''not'' happy with her mother about this, and as soon as he's able to have something resembling a normal human life again a few books later, he starts spending more time with her. |
| 90 | * ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor'': Maia's father, the elven emperor, immediately banished his mother, Chenelo, to a country estate when she got pregnant, for no better reason than that the marriage had been arranged and he had really loved his recently deceased wife. Of course, Chenelo being a goblin didn't help any. The only time Maia ever met his father was at Chenelo's funeral, eight years later. When the emperor and his three eldest sons die in an accident, Maia succeeds to the throne and has to pretend that he is sad about his father's death, wearing full court mourning and all. |
| 91 | * ''Literature/HyperionCantos'': Martin Silenus' father. Not only was he completely uninvolved in Martin's upbringing, he was completely uninvolved in his ''conception'', as well; ''long after he died'', his wife decided to hop onto a machine "part squirt gun and part dildo" to squirt his preserved seed into her "at the magic touch of a trigger" when "the moon was full and the egg was ripe." Yeah. |
| 92 | * ''Literature/KamalAndBarnea'': {{Subverted}}. When Danielle tells Ben she's pregnant, he's excited about being a father again and having a family with her, but she wants to raise the baby alone, convinced that a child with a Jewish mother and Palestinian father would be an outcast. |
| 93 | * ''Kismet 2'': A rare female example -- Savannah refers to her estranged mother, Trisha/Peaches, who abandoned her as a toddler as "the ho that donated her egg". |
| 94 | * ''Literature/MayTheBestManWin'': Jeremy's dad left when his mom got pregnant. For one of the school's costume days, Jeremy dresses as a sperm cell, and explains that he's dressing as his father, "or at least his biggest contribution to my life." |
| 95 | * ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': Some of the kids at camp get this; many of the kids in the Hermes Cabin are not Hermes's children but unclaimed by their actual divine parent, or who have a divine parent who does not have a cabin at camp, and this does lead to bitterness and resentment among some campers. [[spoiler:In ''The Last Olympian'', Percy puts a stop to this policy by asking, as his reward for stopping Kronos' uprising, for the gods to acknowledge their children at age 12, and that all the gods have their own cabin for their children. The gods aren't all that pleased about it, but Percy did just save all their hides, and that resentment fueled a great deal of the conflict, so they agree.]] |
| 96 | * ''Literature/SavingMax'': The titular Max is the product of a short-lived affair with an [[AwfulWeddedLife unhappily married]] attorney who doesn't know he exists. |
| 97 | * ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': |
| 98 | ** Discussed in ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'' when Robert mentions he once threatened to bring his oldest known bastard, Mya Stone, to court and acknowledge her. Cersei [[ShameIfSomethingHappened implied doing so might be 'unhealthy' for the girl]] and the matter was dropped. |
| 99 | ** Robert was also this to his only acknowledged bastard, Edric Storm. While he left him entirely in the care of the castellan of Storm's End (as bringing him to court would have been 'unhealthy'), Robert made token efforts to look after him. Edric, on his end, wishes Robert would pay more attention to him. |
| 100 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'': Doing this is a ''grave'' insult among Mandalorians. As in "make out your will beforehand" insult. A Mandalorian father who does ''not'' stick around to raise and train his kids is violating one of the six actions central to their society and therefore considered a ''traitor.'' |
| 101 | * ''Literature/SteelBeach'' (by John Varley): Used twice when Hildy refuses to inform her baby's father that she's pregnant even though her own mother's constant refusal to identify ''her'' father causes her considerable angst. [[spoiler: After the baby dies her reasoning shifts from a selfish "mine, all mine" to "why ruin his [the father's] day?"]] |
| 102 | * ''Literature/YouLookDifferentInRealLife'': Nate Hunter is the product of a TeenPregnancy by a guy who left town before he was born. He knows his father only from old photographs. |
| 103 | [[/folder]] |
| 104 | |
| 105 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 106 | %% * Hotdog in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', after he's {{retcon}}ned as Nicky's father. |
| 107 | * ''Series/{{Bones}}'': In "The Salt In the Wounds", Booth and Brennan uncover a murder connected with a group of teenage girls who formed a "pregnancy pact"; the girls agreed to get pregnant and raise their respective children together without the aid of the fathers. Brennan found this an acceptable solution. Booth, not so much. |
| 108 | * Inverted on ''Series/{{Community}}''. Jeff finally finds his father in season four, and William puts himself on the pedestal by attributing Jeff's self-reliance and independence to him leaving. Jeff tells him to go to hell. |
| 109 | * Rebecca on ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'' is a RareFemaleExample in that she donates an egg when Darryl decides that he wants another baby. She doesn't want to be involved in the child's life and doesn't even carry the baby since Heather volunteers to act as a surrogate. Later explored -- she decided to be the egg donor during a dark time in her life and associates the baby with that, and is worried that her own issues might manifest in the child. In "I Can Work With You" she babysits the kid and becomes more willing to be involved. |
| 110 | * ''Series/CriminalMinds'': Rossi finds out he has an adult daughter, Joy, conceived at the end of his second marriage, who his ex-wife never told him existed. Joy herself didn't know her stepfather wasn't her biological father until he was on his deathbed. Shortly after, she's calling Rossi "Dad" and using his last name professionally since she didn't get to be Joy Rossi growing up. Granted, Rossi had literally no idea she existed, and he started making an effort immediately after getting over the initial shock, but it's still jarring that a grown woman who by all accounts ''had'' a father is so quick to replace him. |
| 111 | * ''Series/{{ER}}'' does it with Sam's son Alex. Just as Luka (Sam's boyfriend) has become a suitable role model and father figure, his felon birth father Steve appears for the first of several times, causing a lot of conflict. The long plot has its ups and downs including Alex visiting his dad in prison and ending dramatically with Steve abducting Alex and Sam, raping the latter and being shot by her. |
| 112 | * ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' devotes a full episode to that. Will's birth dad Lou comes and Will's excited about taking a trip with him, only to be abandoned again. The episode ends with Will sobbing in Uncle Phil's arms and realizing he's the closest to a real father he could ever ask for. |
| 113 | * Averted on ''Series/{{Friends}}'', where Phoebe's dad eventually comes back eighteen years after abandoning her and her mother, only to find Phoebe quite pissed at him. Eventually she warms up to him, but it doesn't come even close to "glorified". |
| 114 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 115 | ** Noblemen are ''expected'' to be this to their bastard children, who are commonly just left with their mothers or fostered by another family. That Ned and Oberyn avert this is considered remarkable to the court in King's landing, although it's perfectly normal in the North and Dorne (respectively). It even brings down the ire of Ned's wife, who is not from the North. |
| 116 | ** Jaime sired all of Cersei's children but wasn't a father figure to them for fear that people might get suspicious about their paternity. As of Season 5, he begins to regret this. Cersei tells him he has no right to call Myrcella his daughter, and Myrcella herself says he doesn't really know her. |
| 117 | * ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': |
| 118 | ** In one car, Luke's nephew Jess comes to live with him. Jess has never known his father. The string of stepfathers he's lived through are implied to be pretty unreliable. Luke is the closest, most stable thing to a father he knows. But when his Bio Daddy comes to town--doesn't even say anything, mind you, just rocks out to a Bowie song with him--Jess drops Luke, his girlfriend, and everything he's come to care for just to spend some time with Daddy out in California. It was an [[PoorlyDisguisedPilot aborted attempt at a spin-off]]. |
| 119 | ** Arguably Rory's father Christopher qualifies. Lorelai realized early on that Christopher was too immature to be a husband and father, refusing to [[ShotgunWedding marry him]], much to their parents' chagrin. While Christopher may have wanted the family with Lorelai and Rory, he was never more than an intermittent presence in their lives until Rory was in her late teens. [[spoiler:In the revival, when Rory finally asks him why he was never there and why he didn't change Lorelai's mind in raising her alone, he fully admits to being young and stupid. He also tells Rory that after he saw how Lorelai first held baby Rory, he knew that there was nothing he could do to convince Lorelai otherwise and just let her.]] |
| 120 | ** One episode addressed this. Christopher accuses Lorelai of turning Rory against him and not letting her be with him more. Rory steps in and calls him out about how this and the above were not her mother's fault, but his, and that she avoided him because she wanted to. |
| 121 | ** Also addressed when Christopher attends a Yale event and Rory's schoolmates' parents are talking about how they had to be there for their kids all of their lives, helping out with assignments, coaching the soccer team, etc. Christopher felt bad and tried to overcompensate it with not very good results. It's not certain whether he ever fulfilled the role in more ways than being an "executive parent" (paying tuition, attending college graduation). Luke, on the other hand, was indeed ''always there for her.'' |
| 122 | ** Luke himself later finds out that he had a daughter he was never told about by an ex-girlfriend. He freaks out when he realizes that he's basically been this to her for the last 13 years. In fact, his relationship with Rory (specifically, Lorelai's character reference for him as a caring, reliable father figure) is part of what helps him earn shared custody when things get nasty between him and the mother (because she wants to move away and sees no problem with cutting him off from the daughter she never gave him a chance to know). |
| 123 | * ''Series/{{Glee}}'': |
| 124 | ** Subverted, though in this case it's an egg donor. Rachel eventually does learn that Shelby Corcoran is her biological mother, but she can't see her as a mother figure, and Shelby simply isn't fit to be a parent. Rachel keeps living with her dads and doesn't see Shelby again. |
| 125 | ** Quinn treats Puck as this for most of the first season, deciding that Finn (who thinks the child is his) will be her baby's real dad (that is until the truth comes out and he dumps her for cheating, lying, and manipulating him). |
| 126 | * When Nathan Petrelli on ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' finds out that the daughter he thought had died as an infant is alive and well it leads to this exchange with his mother: |
| 127 | -->'''Nathan:''' I'm this girl's father, Ma!\ |
| 128 | '''Angela:''' You're a [[TropeNamers glorified sperm donor]]. Don't get emotionally attached. |
| 129 | * On ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', Amaro had an affair with his target's sister while on an undercover assignment, and ten years later discovers this resulted in a child. They were [[StarCrossedLovers forced apart by the end of Amaro's assignment]] and weren't able to find each other afterward, meaning she never got a chance to tell him she was pregnant and had to raise the child alone. Amaro immediately tries to establish a relationship with his son and is extremely pained that he missed so much of the boy's life. |
| 130 | ** Subverted with Declan Murphy, the father of Amanda's oldest daughter, Jesse. While he knew she existed, he basically got Amanda pregnant and left, though since Jesse was the product of a one-night stand, it hasn't caused Amanda that much angst over the intervening six years. They cross paths again in season 23, and Declan awkwardly brings up the fact that he bailed and has missed Jesse's entire life. He's done a lot of soul searching (and therapy) since then and recognizes that he never should have slept with Amanda (being her superior) and that he regrets leaving her and Jesse. But he doesn't insist on seeing Jesse or try to insinuate himself into her life, and seems satisfied when Amanda reassures him that she and Jesse are happy. |
| 131 | * ''Series/ModernLove'': He is somewhat involved in the preparation for the birth, but Ted wants very little to do with Maggie's pregnancy after she tells him about it. |
| 132 | [[/folder]] |
| 133 | |
| 134 | [[folder:Mythology]] |
| 135 | * Myth/ClassicalMythology: |
| 136 | ** Some portrayals of the Hercules myth show Zeus as being distinctly hands-off, allowing other Gods to harass Hercules at will. Admittedly, Zeus' parenthood here is glorified for good reason, since his parentage is what makes Hercules a Greek SuperHero. In fact, more often than not in Greek Mythology, the spawn of the gods get some kind of nifty powers which at least make the being dumped off by your parents pill a little easier to swallow. Zeus and ancient patriarch and/or warrior gods in general have a habit of leaving little bundles of Demi-joy all over the mortal landscape and then doing bupkis about them. And while other Greek gods didn't see their children picked on as much as Zeus', their children typically didn't see much of the divine parent, either. Which might've done them a favor, since Hera often [[WomanScorned actively hounded]] the ([[DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal often unwilling]]!) mothers and children, with other gods sometimes having to step in to try and save them. |
| 137 | ** Also, as it turns out, ''not'' getting the attention of Zeus is far better than the alternative. When Zeus finally took a good look at the mortal world, he decided there were far too many demigods running around, and ''orchestrated the Trojan War to thin their numbers out almost to nonexistence''. |
| 138 | [[/folder]] |
| 139 | |
| 140 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 141 | * Recalled in very realistic and bitter fashion in ''Music/DeathCabForCutie'''s "Styrofoam Plates". Mind you, he's saying this [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead at said sperm donor's funeral]]. |
| 142 | -->It's no stretch to say that you were not quite a father\ |
| 143 | But a donor of seeds to a poor single mother\ |
| 144 | That would raise us alone\ |
| 145 | We never saw the money\ |
| 146 | That went down your throat through the hole in your belly |
| 147 | %%* ''Music/{{Everclear}}'''s song "Father of Mine". |
| 148 | %%* "Papa's Song" by ''Music/TupacShakur''. |
| 149 | * ''Music/TheGaslightAnthem'''s "Keepsake", though the lyrics make it clear that he doesn't expect an instant relationship or much of anything. |
| 150 | -->''And I'm not looking for your love, I'm only sniffing out blood\ |
| 151 | Just a little taste of where I came from'' |
| 152 | * ''Music/{{Heart|Band}}'''s "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" is about a woman whose partner is unable to impregnate her, so she picks up a hitchhiker to perform the honor. |
| 153 | [[/folder]] |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 156 | * Whether this applies in ''TabletopGame/{{Scion}}'' is on a case-by-case basis, and usually connects to how the Scion's mortal parents were. In general, the worse a Scion's mortal family, the more likely they'll be relieved to discover they had a divine parent. Most of the sample characters are still a little bitter at the circumstances; in the opening fiction for ''Scion: God'', Donnie Rhodes makes a point of barging in on his mother (Aphrodite - a rare glorified ''egg'' donor) to inform her that his (mortal) father is dead - and showing no surprise at her lack of reaction. |
| 157 | * In both of Creator/WhiteWolf's [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse Werewolf]] [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken lines]], it's noted that werewolves aren't typically the most involved parents, given that they've often got duties that put them in the line of fire on a constant basis, a feeling about them that unsettles normal humans, and Rage that's constantly threatening to boil over. The games also note that this isn't exactly a guilt-free matter for the parents -- as they've got wolf-life aspects in culture and mindset, they feel a need to protect their mate and young. It's just that sometimes, the best form of protection involves staying away, no matter how much that sucks. |
| 158 | [[/folder]] |
| 159 | |
| 160 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 161 | * Cernd in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate 2'' is eventually revealed to have left his wife with child when [[StealthPun he heeded the call of nature]] and became a druid (it's implied that he knew this, which was why he left her). He has a sidequest that involves retrieving said child from its abusive stepfather (who probably killed Cernd's wife)... And then leaving it to be raised by druids. [[spoiler:If you keep Cernd in your party through ''Throne of Bhaal'', his [[WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue character epilogue]] reveals that his son grows up a bitter, bitter person since his father is always busy with being a druid. The son becomes an EvilSorcerer who threatens large parts of Faerun, and Cernd tries to stop him: The two fight each other to the death.]] |
| 162 | * Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Contrast}}'' where despite Vincenzo being Didi's biological father, she loves her stepfather Johnny more. |
| 163 | [[/folder]] |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 166 | * ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' features a matriarchal society that views men as the lesser gender, due in part because drow females are generally larger and stronger than their male counterparts. Noble classes place heavy importance on producing strong female heirs and as such men are often bartered and traded between clans to mate with women of other clans to produce strong children. Depending on the couple and the circumstances it may either be this trope or ChosenConceptionPartner. One clan in the setting forgoes this and is practicing methods and experiments to negate the need for a man and allow for HomosexualReproduction. |
| 167 | [[/folder]] |
| 168 | |
| 169 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 170 | * ''WebVideo/EmpiresSMP'' Season 2: The Old Sheriff claims to have fathered 14 children and be MarriedToTheJob, which do not make a very good combination for fatherhood. Jimmy actually calls him out on this, and apparently, the fact that the Old Sheriff even got away with not paying child support is because he got stuck in the caves for decades. |
| 171 | [[/folder]] |
| 172 | |
| 173 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 174 | * Averted in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' when Finn finds out his human father is alive and trapped in the Crystal Citadel as a prisoner/criminal in an alternate dimension. Despite having a caring (if demanding) stepfather, Finn is determined to find and form a relationship with his biological one, probably thinking he had a good reason for not being in his life. Turns out his father, Martin, is an immature jerk who treats Finn's attempts at emotional bonding with little more than irritation, only baiting him with paternal affection when it leads to him getting what he wants. In the end, Martin completely abandons Finn with a group of other escaped interdimensional convicts, directly causing Finn to lose his arm and leaving him and Jake alone to deal and nearly get killed by the Lich. Needless to say, Finn is left utterly devastated after all this. |
| 175 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': Sterling Archer was in a coma for a good chunk of his daughter A.J.'s life. Played for laughs when he finally meets her after waking up and she tells him that her mother Lana once called him a "sperm delivery device". |
| 176 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' had a bit involving Superman's x-ray vision revealing a fetus growing in Lois Lane, prompting him to bail on her with the excuse that he "forgot something on Krypton". Non-canon prequel? |
| 177 | * ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' had Aku do this unintentionally, and not in the way you'd expect: [[spoiler:Aku discovered an all-female cult that worships him, and as a reward, he dropped a portion of himself into a chalice before leaving. Then, the HighPriestess of the cult ''drank'' the whole chalice, (doing such would normally turn someone into an Aku clone like it did Jack) which magically impregnated her and caused her to give birth to seven half-human daughters]]. |
| 178 | * Implied in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''. In a FullEpisodeFlashback, we see that Greg's manager Marty had a fling with Vidalia and a year later she was the single mom to a baby boy. The episode "Drop Beat Dad" confirms that Marty is Sour Cream's father, but implies that he only saw him occasionally until he was six, and then Marty abandoned Sour Cream entirely until the events of the episode. By the end of the episode, once it becomes clear Marty only cares about his son inasmuch as he can profit off of him (using one of Sour Cream's DJ gigs to [[spoiler:shill a terrible soda brand]]), Sour Cream effectively disowns his father in favor of his stepfather Yellowtail. |
| 179 | * The titular character's father in ''WesternAnimation/TrollHunters'' abandoned him the day before his fifth birthday. He is referenced only once or twice in the show and its subsequent spin-offs and is portrayed as a deadbeat. It was implied that he left his family for another woman. An inversion of the original story in which it was Jim's mother who walked out on her family. While his father raised Jim as a lone parent. |
| 180 | * ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'': |
| 181 | ** Averted twice, first by the father, then by the son. Superman is not at all happy that someone cloned him, and refuses to claim responsibility for Superboy. If you keep up on the comics, you know that [[spoiler:Superboy has two fathers, and the other is Lex Luthor]]. And when he shows up, he clearly wants to instigate this kind of relationship with Superboy ([[ManipulativeBastard for his own ends, as you'd expect]]) and Superboy turns him down flat. [[spoiler:The trope is later played straight to a point when Superman accepts Superboy as a little brother, a relationship both of them are okay with after their initial awkwardness.]] |
| 182 | ** Subverted by [[spoiler:Black Manta]] and Aqualad. Aqualad appears to have this relationship with him, even though he did nothing (worse, he's attacked and tried to kill Aqualad in the past) to have that respect. However, it's made clear in "Depths" that Aqualad is only using him to get closer to [[BigBad The Light]], and refers to him quite coldly as "my ''biological'' father", showing that the attachment is fake. Also played with in that [[spoiler:Manta's]] attachment to him seems to be genuine given the distress he shows when [[spoiler:Kaldur gets {{mind rape}}d into catatonia by Miss Martian]] and Kaldur himself [[spoiler:shows regret when he drops the act and takes his father down near the end of the season]]. |
| 183 | [[/folder]] |
| 184 |
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