| 1 | ->''Latex and steel, zeros and ones\ |
| 2 | Make up my son\ |
| 3 | This world gave me no child\ |
| 4 | So I built one'' |
| 5 | -->-- '''Music/TheMegas''', "The Message from [[Franchise/MegaMan Dr. Light]]" |
| 6 | |
| 7 | {{Mad Scientist}}s, being the rampant egotists that they are, tend to [[ArtificialHuman clone]] themselves when they want children. Inevitably the children in question are as [[InTheBlood brilliant as their parent]], though there seems to be only about a 50% chance of their brilliance being [[LamarckWasRight of the same sort]]. The clone's childhood, if [[YoungerThanTheyLook portrayed at all]], is frequently awful as they're forced to live up to their parent's seemingly-[[WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent impossible expectations]]. Often, there's some attempt to subject them to the same childhood traumas as their parent had, in order to further force them on an identical path. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | This applies particularly to mad scientists of the {{Evilutionary|Biologist}} variety, and appears to be a primarily literary trope, probably because of the difficulty in finding plausible-looking pairs of actors. Some animals are able to reproduce without mating in which case the offspring receive all their genetic material from the mother, either as a perfect clone or by simply doubling the DNA of an unfertilized egg. In animals with WZ chromosomes, females have the chromosomes WZ and males ZZ, which allows a female to create both female and male offspring by herself. In humans, which have XY chromosomes, an artificial clone of a female person could only be female, while the clone of a male could be either male (XY) or female (XX) by switching the Y chromosome for a copy of the X chromosome. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Compare ReplacementGoldfish, ScrewYourself, and HomosexualReproduction. Not related to traditional single parenthood, wherein two people were involved in the child's creation [[ParentalAbandonment at some point]]. Overlaps with MysticalPregnancy if the conception is supernatural rather than scientific. Compare OurClonesAreDifferent, as the child is likely to be this; even in RealLife, at least two donors tend to contribute their cells to cloning. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Inverse trope to ExtraParentConception. |
| 14 | ---- |
| 15 | !!Examples: |
| 16 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 17 | |
| 18 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 19 | * ''Manga/AstraLostInSpace'': This turns out to be the case for [[spoiler:''the whole starting cast'']]. Each and every one of the kids turns out to be a clone of someone else in the story, usually the person they are raised by. It was all part of an immortality scheme for the originals. |
| 20 | * In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Nemu is the artificially-created vice-captain of Kurotsuchi Mayuri. It's implied that she's an OppositeSexClone of Mayuri, to the point where she shares all of his likes and dislikes. While how much free will she has is debatable, given that she's clearly nicer than him she obviously has at least some. |
| 21 | * ''Literature/CrestOfTheStars'': The Abh, though they are aloof, arrogant and imperialistic, are not as much evil, as they are ''odd'' by the standards of most of the Galaxy, including even their own subjects. One of their oddities is that all their babies are essentially custom-made for the person who just happened to want to reproduce. As they generally do not practice marriage, this makes that person a Truly Single Parent for the said child. |
| 22 | ** With the Abh its actually a bit all over the place. While some are a Truly Single Parent others are more complicated with a wide variety of options, including, but not limited to HomosexualReproduction. The most cherished are the Children of Love who are born from a combination of genes from two people who are in love with each other, even if only one is legally recognised as the parent. |
| 23 | * Professor Naomitsu Madaraki of ''Manga/FrankenFran'' has numerous creations of the FrankensteinsMonster variety who think of themselves as his children. |
| 24 | * In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Father created his "children", the homunculi, by splitting off various facets of his personality -- specifically, the SevenDeadlySins. |
| 25 | * The Angel race in ''Manga/HappyWorld'' reproduce asexually. [[ImmortalProcreationClause They are only able to do this once in their life, to produce a single, or in rare cases, two pure-blooded angel children.]] They are able to reproduce with humans to make half blood angels though. |
| 26 | * In ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo]]'', [[spoiler:[[BigBad Diavolo]]]] was born to an inmate of a woman's prison, who had no contact with any men for far longer than could fit any possible gestational timeframe. The exact nature of his conception is left a RiddleForTheAges. |
| 27 | * ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'': |
| 28 | ** There's an unusual case of this; the cloning was done without the parent's knowledge and [[spoiler: when Quint Nakajima discovered Subaru and Ginga, she raised them as her daughters in a normal, loving environment with her husband since she couldn't have children anyway. She didn't even find out that they were her clones until much later ([[StrongFamilyResemblance although their resemblance to her was part of the reason why she adopted them in the first place]]).]] |
| 29 | ** Uno was also an OppositeSexClone of [[MadScientist Scaglietti]], and several of the other [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Numbers]] were based at least partly on his DNA. |
| 30 | * ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed'': [[spoiler: Rau Le Creuset]] is the clone of Al Da Flaga, who was such a misogynistic {{narcissist}} that he despised his naturally-born son Mwu blaming his mother ("that woman"). Produced by MadScientist Ulen Hibiki, two other Al Da Flaga clones turn up in the Cosmic Era: [[spoiler: Rey Za Burrel in the sequel ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny,'' and Prayer Reverie in the manga ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray'']]. |
| 31 | * ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'': [[MadScientist Orochimaru]] likely didn't have his son Mitsuki through "traditional" means, given that Mitsuki's response to being asked whether Orochimaru "was his mother or his father"[[note]]The answer wouldn't be obvious even if Mitsuki ''had'' been conceived by natural means, because while he's usually male, Orochimaru doesn't care very much which gender [[GrandTheftMe the bodies he steals]] are.[[/note]] was to say that it didn't really matter. |
| 32 | * Although the audience doesn't get to see much of ''Franchise/SailorMoon's'' Silver Millennium, Queen Serenity may well qualify for this trope, albeit an unusually benevolent example. She has no husband, no one ever asks who or where Princess Serenity's father is, and [[IdenticalGrandson she and her daughter look exactly alike]]. This is more obvious in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]], where Princess Serenity is frequently drawn with silver hair, and much of the Moon Kingdom's resources include advanced technology. There's a panel in the manga that shows Queen Serenity bringing the shell of a star to the Galaxy Cauldron, then Princess Serenity's birth. |
| 33 | * ''Manga/SoulEater'': |
| 34 | ** Death the Kid is eventually specified to be a fragment Shinigami's soul given independent existence. [[spoiler:In fact, so is Asura. The first, Asura, was supposed to rid his father of fear, and instead simply grew into an anthropomorphic personification of fear that -- by the time of the series -- cannot be reasoned with and despises his creator. Kid was created some centuries afterward in order to replace Shinigami, the idea being that he could eventually counter his 'big brother's' influence if/when he was freed.]] |
| 35 | ** Reader often speculate Crona is an ArtificialHuman their mother created, given Medusa is a MadScientist [[GuineaPigFamily who uses them as an test subject]]. [[https://twitter.com/Atsushi_Ohkubo/status/635483756036419588 The author stated otherwise]], confirming Crona has a father, even if he's no one but "an anonymous man". |
| 36 | * Ryoko in ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' ({{OVA}}s only) is not really a clone since she was partly created from one of Washuu's egg cells and partly from the Mass (a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] HiveMind), but is pretty close to the trope, and considered a daughter by Washuu. At one point when Washuu is describing Ryoko's origins the other girls suggest that the Mass is her "father" Ryoko angrily rejects the idea. Her childhood was terrible, but mostly because she was enslaved by the villain (who also kept Washu as a HumanPopsicle). Notably, while Washuu is the greatest scientific genius in the universe, Ryoko [[BookDumb isn't]]. Though this might just be a result of Ryouko's complete lack of any kind of education. After all, Kagato was busy with his own MadScientist activities and couldn't devote his attention to direct MindControl of Ryoko 100% of the time. And the last thing he wanted was for her to learn enough that she might figure out how to remove or deactivate the devices he'd installed in her. |
| 37 | ** There's a [[TraumaCongaLine deeply tragic]] side to it, however; [[spoiler:Washu was once HappilyMarried and had a son the natural way. The man was a noble who was summoned to his homeworld for an arranged marriage - and his government took the kid as well. And forced the man to call the trophy wife the kid's mother. Said kid grew up to be Mihoshi's great-grandfather.]] Ryoko's conception (along with her ComboPlatterPowers) was an attempt to avoid that happening a second time... which failed ''miserably'' when a nascent supervillain noticed all the bells and whistles the kid had, charmed his way into Washu's lab, stuffed the mother in a cryotube and turned the kid into a superweapon. |
| 38 | * ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'': |
| 39 | ** [[spoiler: Shura, who's a clone of his father, Yomi.]] He doesn't act exactly as his father does, but that's because he's still a kid, and it's stated that [[spoiler: Yomi used to be more impetuous before he got blinded.]] |
| 40 | ** Also, the Ice Maidens have no fathers, only mothers. If an Ice Maiden gets intimate enough with a male to give birth to a child of his, said child will be male. |
| 41 | [[/folder]] |
| 42 | |
| 43 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 44 | * The ''WebAnimation/BravestWarriors'' tie-in comic by Boom Studios established that Beth Tezuka has no mother and that her father conceived her by [[MisterSeahorse impregnating himself]]. |
| 45 | * ''Franchise/TheDCU'': |
| 46 | ** The late 1980s gave us Vril Dox (a.k.a. [[Characters/SupermanBrainiacCharacter Brainiac]]) and [[ComicBook/LEGIONDCComics Vril Dox II]]. The story fits this trope to a tee, including setting impossible standards for the clone, and subsequent rebellion. Despite the latest continuity reboot claiming that Vril Dox has been operating entirely through robot proxies for thousands of years (Until Now!), it appears this relationship is still intact. |
| 47 | ** ComicBook/WonderWoman was created this way (except in the ''ComicBook/New52'', which {{retcon}}ned her into Zeus's daughter; this was subsequently retconned back): Hippolyta, Queen of the {{immortal|ProcreationClause}} Amazons, was desperate for a child despite their society having no men. She crafted a baby out of clay and prayed to the gods to give it life, and the result was baby Diana. This idea has been tweaked throughout the years: |
| 48 | *** As she was originally envisioned, Diana was just another Amazon, born through natural means. Her father was inconsequential and presumably long dead since he couldn't attain immortality on Paradise Island and he was never named, this has lead to theories that ComicBook/{{Hercules|Unbound}} is her father since he's the only man Polly is known to have slept with across all versions. Her clay-crafted birth was first introduced in ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'' a year after her debut. |
| 49 | *** In MediaNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}, Diana and Nubia were crafted from clay by Hippolyta and brought to life by the Greek gods. |
| 50 | *** In ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'', all the Amazons are female victims of male murderers who were crafted new bodies out of clay and granted new lives with their original memories intact. Since Diana was killed in the womb she was made an infant and given a chance to grow up and was the only child on the island. She was later granted her more marvelous abilities after proving herself by stopping Ares from starting World War III. |
| 51 | *** Despite maintaining both of their names which ''both'' reference their father Hermes, ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'' depicts Atlantiades/Hermaphroditus as the child of Aphrodite alone. As a mater of fact they mostly go by Atlantiades, a name which is entirely a reference to Hermes and Hermes' ancestry. |
| 52 | *** In the {{Elseworld}} tale ''ComicBook/WonderWomanWarbringer'', Hippolyta formed Diana from clay and then Diana was brought to life by the Amazon's patron goddesses. |
| 53 | *** In ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfWonderWoman2016'', all of the Amazons besides the founders were born when their mothers where granted pregnancies by the gods with no men or sexual intercourse involved since this version of the Amazons are not immortal and would otherwise die out. |
| 54 | * ''ComicBook/DogManDavPilkey'' has [[CatsAreMean Petey the Cat]] buy a cloning machine to clone himself for a butler. The machine was unable to age the clones it made, so a kitten clone was created instead. |
| 55 | * ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': |
| 56 | ** Dredd and [[EvilTwin his brother Rico]] were both cloned from Chief Judge Fargo. Dredd himself has been cloned to varying degrees of success. |
| 57 | ** A gangster who gradually lost parts of his body (legs, arms, torso) over the years celebrated his repeated survival by cloning a son from his own genetic material each time. The first two joined his family gang, but the third became a mutated monster with an appetite for human flesh, whom he displayed for spectators. |
| 58 | * ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'': |
| 59 | ** Baron von Blitzschlag sort of does this in ''ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative''; having been given the job of cloning a superpowered deceased trainee, he decides to include some of his own DNA in the process to carry on his legacy. It doesn't go all that well, as two of them die and the remaining one (not too surprisingly) rejects his ex-Nazi supervillain "father". |
| 60 | ** At one point, [[Characters/MarvelComicsGalactus Galactus]] was revealed to have a daughter, ComicBook/{{Galacta|DaughterOfGalactus}}, which led to some rife speculation about who her mom was. Turns out it was also Galactus. [[spoiler:It also turns out that the "parasite" that's been bugging Galacta... isn't a parasite. Not even close. And since she was born this way...]] |
| 61 | ** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} initially appeared to be this to ComicBook/{{X 23}}, but it was later revealed that the scientist who created her mixed in some of her own genes with Logan's, making her Laura's biological mother. |
| 62 | * The orcs of ''ComicBook/OrcStain'' are an all-male OneGenderRace who reproduce this way; an orc's testes are actually symbiotic, flying, independently alive plant-seeds called "Jazzum Spores". At the age of five, assuming an orc manages to avoid getting his penis chopped off first -- orcs use petrified slices of orc "gronches" as their WeirdCurrency -- an orc will wander into the wilderness and painfully ejaculate out one of his Jazzum Spores. It will fly away and bury itself into the ground, growing into an enormous vegetative womb that will ultimately spill out an average of twenty-five teenage orcs, ready to start the cycle over again. |
| 63 | * [[spoiler:Orc Dave]] in ''ComicBook/RatQueens'' turns out to be this. He comes from a line of druids who are symbiotically bound to a grove of trees, each one is born from a pod in the grove. For twenty-five years, their father raises them, then, on their twenty fifth birthday, their father [[{{Transflormation}} merges with the grove]] and their son is born. |
| 64 | * Laurel "Cobweb" Lakeland and her sidekick Clarice (and all their known ancestors) in ''ComicBook/TomorrowStories'' are somewhere between this and HomosexualReproduction. They're clones (parthenogenic reproduction), but their development was triggered by lesbian sex between the previous Cobweb and her sidekick. |
| 65 | * Dr. Alison Mann (no relation to ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'', but eventually a close friend), when she hears rumors of one Dr. Matsumori's cloning breakthroughs, decides to use her own DNA and uterus to beat him to the goal of a viable cloned infant. It did not end well [[spoiler:probably due to an agent of Dr. Matsumori slipping an abortificant into her dinner as she neared term.]] Later, she discovers that Dr. Matsumori had in fact used the same genetic progenitor for his project in an effort to [[ReplacementGoldfish have a second chance at raising the daughter he so estranged from that she renamed herself after Mann's Chinese Theater to irritate him]]. [[spoiler: ''He'' succeeds, eight times over, before his death four years after the {{Gendercide}}. In the DistantFinale we see the cloned Manns (or 'Dr. Men' as Yorick quips) working in the lab. Yorrick notes, "They all talk with their hands, just like her," but says they will never be as good as the original because they don't have Allison's 'a**hole father' to spur them to greater efforts.]] |
| 66 | [[/folder]] |
| 67 | |
| 68 | [[folder:Fanfiction]] |
| 69 | * In ''Fanfic/AeonNatumEngel'', a ''truly'' Single Parent's child appears on a talk show. It's not nice; gender-swap-magic combined with artificial impregnation which makes it possible for parents to impregnate themselves and get children with horrible genetic diseases. |
| 70 | * In ''Fanfic/TheBridgeMLP'', it's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:[[GodOfGood Harmony]] created Celestia and Luna, making her their mother and sole parent]]. |
| 71 | * According to ''Fanfic/TheBridgeHumanitysStand'', Xenilla created Obsidius and Krystalak with his powers. |
| 72 | * ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' fanfic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1077049/1/Cheaper-by-the-Dozen Cheaper by the Dozen]]'' has a MysticalPregnancy version of the trope; when Ranma tried to use Nanniichuan water to remove his Nyanniichuan GenderBender curse, it instead turned him permanently into a girl with an internal, fully functional testicle. As a result, she automatically inseminates herself every time she ovulates; by the time the story takes place, she's been pregnant every ten months for the past ''twenty years'', resulting in about [[MassiveNumberedSiblings two dozen daughters]], all of whom [[StrongFamilyResemblance are clones of her female form]]. She can still conceive the old fashioned way, and in fact is pregnant with a Mousse-fathered son at the time of the story, but it's understandably very hard for a lover's sperm to reach her ova before Ranma's own sperm does. |
| 73 | * In the ''Manga/MonsterMusume'' fanfic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/7390630/chapters/16787725 Daily Odd Life with Monster Girls]]'', Naki the zombie and her sister Hana were created by a MadScientist who they refer to as 'dad'. |
| 74 | * In ''Fanfic/EternalMLP'', Baby Galaxy has no father. Her mother, Galaxy, had a mate, however Galaxy, being a PhysicalGod-like being, ended up impregnating herself (presumably [[MysticalPregnancy magically]]) instead. |
| 75 | * ''Fanfic/{{Evershade}}'': As to Karen by her doctor, after a GenderBender: |
| 76 | --> "This may sound complicated, young lady, but I do believe they have sex education in this day and age. Biologically, when we're born, the parts that become our genitals are practically the same. In those that change genders, that would be you, dear, the set goes from one to the other, from testicles to ovaries, from prostate to uterus. But right now, if you're right, and you're still in transition, then you may be producing both sperm and ova at the same time, and at the same location." She rolled the lollipop in her mouth. "Usually, it takes time for ova to be formed, at least a month, enough time for the leftover sperm to die out. But you? You're a regenerator, whom just went through some drastic changes. Ova might have been created when your sperm was still alive and kicking. It's a rather rare combination of circumstances, but the possibilities are there." |
| 77 | * In the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfic one-shot ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4746187/13/What_a_Bunch_of_Nonjon I Got Soul But I'm Not A Soldier]]'', Harry creates his son Marvin in order to remove [[spoiler: the piece of horcrux stuck in his head, which after Voldemort's defeat is effectively inert metaphysical goop that is slowly killing him, so both Harry and Marvin are part Harry, part horcrux.]] |
| 78 | * ''Fanfic/AndIWillBurnForYou'' has Jiang Xi, Jiang Cheng's son as the result of a spirit-induced MysticalPregnancy. |
| 79 | * ''Fanfic/{{Marionettes}}'': |
| 80 | ** [[spoiler:Dr. Bright Future, the creator of the Marionettes (sapient robots of which Trixie is one), is constantly referred to as "father" by Trixie and a number of other ones (though Teddy refuses to, as he HAS an adopted father). He eventually comes to return the feeling. Flim and Flam are probably the straightest example, as they're actually based off of his mind.]] |
| 81 | ** [[spoiler:Queen Majesty's foal-making mirror]] also appears and is fully capable of [[spoiler:creating a child from a single pony, as it does with Derpy to create Derby Hooves (and heavily implied to have ALSO created Dinky in the past), though it is fully capable of using multiple parents. It's also heavily implied that [[BigBad Masquerade the 45th]] was created by her mother [[GreaterScopeVillain Masquerade the 44th]] using it.]] |
| 82 | * The ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' fanfic ''[[http://cerezsis.tumblr.com/post/173709091046/mother-diamond Mother]] [[http://cerezsis.tumblr.com/post/173739144266/mother-diamond Diamond]]'' is about [[GodEmperor White Diamond]] creating the other three Diamonds to rule alongside her using a special formula. |
| 83 | * The ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' fanfic trilogy ''Spirit Walk'', ''Martial Arts Motherhood Challenge'' and ''Martial Arts Family Vacation Challenge'' by [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/991827/glainfach glainfach]] has Ranma enter a spirit realm and discover that faceless spirits attach themselves to live humans, waiting to be born as that person's children. He also discovers that one such spirit has attached itself to him, and vows to ensure the child's birth one day. He does so by locking himself in female form and having herself artificially inseminated with her male side's genetic material, making it so Ranma is simultaneously the child's father ''and'' mother. |
| 84 | * In ''Fanfic/TwentyYearsLate'', Adam the Thin Man explains to the Human Resistance that, unlike the Sectoids, which are simply cloned en masse, Vipers/Thin Men reproduce through parthenogenesis -- a real-life phenomena observed in some reptiles where the female spontaneously becomes pregnant with clones of herself. It's unclear if this is the result of genetic tinkering by the Ethereals or if they always reproduced in this way, as the author has admitted to disliking the Alien Rulers [=DLC=] that introduced the "Viper King", the only male Viper ever seen in XCOM canon. |
| 85 | * In the ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' Fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Visiontale}}'', [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/8779618/chapters/20125687 posted on Archive of Our Own]], Sans's and Papyrus's father created them using a UterineReplicator, so he would not fall down due to the strain of birthing them without a partner. |
| 86 | * In ''[[Fanfic/YuGiOhTheThousandYearDoor Yu Gi-Oh: The Thousand Year Door, Redux]]'' Francesca's ancestor, despite a [[HeroicVow vow of celibacy]], was able to conceive and bear a child due to a holy ritual invoking the patron god of unicorns. (Although, her unicorn companion was supposed to be the spiritual father of such a child, but as far as physical parentage was concerned, she was the only parent.) |
| 87 | [[/folder]] |
| 88 | |
| 89 | [[folder:Film -- Animation]] |
| 90 | * Elsa in ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' is an accidental one of the magical variety to {{snowlem}}s Olaf and Marshmallow, since she created them with her magic, and she does seem to regard Olaf at least with some kind of maternal affection. Furthermore, in "WesternAnimation/FrozenFever" Olaf calls the small snowmen that Elsa's cold creates his "little brothers", suggesting that he does view Elsa as a parent and other snow creations as his siblings. |
| 91 | * In ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'', evil genius scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba is imprisoned for creating Experiment 626, a bulletproof, fireproof alien monster with a computerlike brain, super strength, and night vision. 626 makes a jailbreak from the detention ship, heading for Earth, where he takes refuge by disguising himself as an Earth dog. In exchange for his freedom, Jumba tries to recover his experiment, who is adopted by Lilo and given the name Stitch. |
| 92 | * Geppetto carved ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' out of wood, so he definitely qualifies. Downplayed in the Disney version, where the Blue Fairy had a hand in bringing him to life. |
| 93 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TrollsWorldTour'', it is shown that a troll of either gender can reproduce by growing an egg in their hair, which then hatches into a baby troll. |
| 94 | [[/folder]] |
| 95 | |
| 96 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 97 | * Dr. Tyrell in ''Film/BladeRunner'' has a relationship like this with his greatest creation [[ArtificialHuman Roy Batty]], though Roy himself is not a clone of Tyrell. |
| 98 | * The inventor in ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'' created the titular character as a robotic son, but died before he could replace Edward's hands with non-lethal prosthetics. |
| 99 | * In ''Film/EnemyMine'', all Drac are both male and female, and reproduce by self-fertilization. (As [[Literature/TheEnemyPapers the novelette]] puts it, "Don't tell a Drac to boff himself, 'cause it just might!") |
| 100 | * ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'': |
| 101 | ** The title character has been this trope a couple times: |
| 102 | *** The infamous [[Film/Godzilla1998 1998 movie]]'s [[Characters/Godzilla1998 Zilla]] reproduces asexually, spawning 200 eggs. This also applies to the Widow in the spin-off animated series (see below). |
| 103 | *** The [[Characters/GodzillaTheGodzillas Shin incarnation]] of ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' is believed to reproduce by budding, based on how a severed tissue sample continues to grow on its own. [[spoiler:The movie's last couple shots, showing Godzilla-humanoids sprouting from the frozen Godzilla's tail, lend further credence to this theory]]. |
| 104 | ** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': At the end of the movie, a Titan egg believed to have been laid by [[Characters/MonsterVerseMothra Mothra]] is discovered. [[spoiler:The director confirmed on Twitter that the egg was laid by Mothra during the hours between her metamorphosis and her death, and also that the offspring will be [[BornAgainImmortality another Mothra with the same]] GeneticMemory]]. |
| 105 | * Creator/JamesGunn [[https://mobile.twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/968576621220331520 said on Twitter]] that the baby Groot at the end of ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' is the son of the original Groot, who is now dead. Considering he's a [[WhenTreesAttack tree]] who grew from one of Groot's remaining twigs, makes total sense. |
| 106 | * ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'' reveals two of those. Blue, the lead Velociraptor from the previous two movies, thanks to some lizard genes in her DNA was able to gestate a daughter by herself. [[spoiler:Maisie, who was already revealed to be a clone in [[Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom the previous movie]], turns out to also be in all ways the daughter of geneticist Charlotte, who carried a daughter-clone [[DesignerBabies cleaned of a genetic disease]] in her womb.]] |
| 107 | * Thanks to the TimeyWimeyBall, ''Film/{{Predestination}}'' contains a truly absurd example of this. Thanks to a StableTimeLoop and being a {{Hermaphrodite}} (started female, then surgically made male due to reproductive trauma), the original female protagonist was impregnated by a male future version of herself. (This plot is based on ''Literature/AllYouZombies''; see the Literature folder.) |
| 108 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': |
| 109 | ** Shmi Skywalker. In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Anakin is said to have been conceived through the Force, and thus has no father. Qui-Gon Jinn believes he was conceived by the midi-chlorians, which in ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' is backed up by a novel which implies Anakin's birth was the Force retaliating against Literature/DarthPlagueis' attempt to create life. |
| 110 | --->'''Qui-gon Jinn:''' Who was [Anakin's] father?\ |
| 111 | '''Shmi Skywalker:''' There was no father. I carried him, I gave birth. I can't explain what happened. |
| 112 | ** Alternative sources in the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' continuity have instead implied that Darth Plagueis more directly created Anakin through a Force technique that allowed him to induce parthenogenesis in women, which was something he discovered as a side-effect of his quest to unlock Force-powered immortality. |
| 113 | ** Jango Fett from ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' was the genetic template for the Republic's clone army, and part of his payment was an extra, unaltered clone to raise as his son, Boba (the mainline clones were genetically modified to mature more quickly and be more obedient to authority). The clones consider themselves a BandOfBrothers and in ''Legends'' continuity many consider Jango their father. Boba, at least, doesn't view the clones as his family and denies the argument from one of his "brothers" during an arc in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' which resulted in a number of clones being killed either by Boba or his allies. |
| 114 | ** The novelization of the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' movie makes it clear that Rotta is Jabba's son — and his alone: Hutts are hermaphrodites. Jabba's father was named Zorba, and likely was the same deal. However, this aspect only applies in the ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]]'' continuity, as Hutts are a two-gendered species and reproduce heterosexually in the rebooted canon. |
| 115 | [[/folder]] |
| 116 | |
| 117 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 118 | !!!'''By Author:''' |
| 119 | * Creator/IsaacAsimov: |
| 120 | ** "Literature/FirstLaw": Emma, a robot, somehow gave birth to a child. When a human [[MamaBear threatened her child]], she [[AIIsACrapshoot breaks]] the [[ThreeLawsCompliant First Law]] in order to protect it. |
| 121 | ** ''Literature/FoundationAndEarth'': The Solarians eventually engineered themselves into a race capable of this because [[DeliberateValuesDissonance their idea of freedom is to depend on no other person and to never meet anyone]]. |
| 122 | * Creator/RobertAHeinlein provides several examples in his works. |
| 123 | ** ''Literature/AllYouZombies'' features a character that, through some truly amazing feats of TimeTravel, is simultaneously [[spoiler:[[MyOwnGrampa his own mother, father, daughter, and son]]]]. |
| 124 | ** In ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove'', protagonist Lazarus long has this pulled on him by the people involved in his latest rejuvenation, as a way of getting him out of the ennui of WhoWantsToLiveForever. They conspire to bear twin {{Opposite Sex Clone}}s of him that he adopts and raises as his own children. |
| 125 | * Two examples from Creator/JohnVarley: |
| 126 | ** [[spoiler:Kenneth "Sparky" Valentine]] from ''Literature/TheGoldenGlobe'' turns out to be an (illegal) clone of his father. |
| 127 | ** The Titanides from the ''Literature/GaeaTrilogy'', while technically male and female, actually have three sets of genitals making for an absolutely ridiculous number of possible reproductive permutations one of which is (you guessed it) solo, in which a female Titanide impregnates herself. Solos tend to be considered a little odd. |
| 128 | |
| 129 | !!!'''By Work:''' |
| 130 | * ''Literature/TheBadPlace'': The [[spoiler:{{hermaphrodit|e}}ic Roselle, who is the product of brother-on-sister rape and fully reproductively functional as both male and female]], self-impregnates three times, resulting in two sons (one the villain, the other a co-protagonist) and a pair of twin daughters. |
| 131 | * ''Literature/CountToATrillion'': Menelaus deduces that the story about the princess's mother is nonsense, and her only parent must have been her father -- she was posthumous, though. |
| 132 | * ''Franchise/CthulhuMythos'': Some of the [[EldritchAbomination Outer Gods]] and other entities were spawned by only one parent. For example, Nyarlathotep, the Nameless Mist, and Darkness are offspring of Azathoth, who is their sole parent, while the Nameless Mist is the sole parent of Yog-Sothoth. |
| 133 | * ''Literature/{{Cyteen}}'' is all about the version of this trope where the progenitor's childhood is reproduced so that the progenitor herself will be reproduced as exactly as possible. Additionally, Justin is his father's clone. |
| 134 | * In ''Literature/TheDemonWarsSaga'' by Creator/RASalvatore, the Powries have the unique ability to do this as part of their playing with OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame. If slain in battle, a powrie's kith and kin will often seek to cut the dead powrie's heart out and bury it under a cairn; after about a lunar month, a new powrie youth will crawl forward. Strangely, no matter the original gender of the heart's bearer, "cairn-born" powries are always male, which can create a gender disparity in some powrie communities who are forced to rely too heavily on the ritual. These "cairn-born" do visibly resemble their progenitor but are not reincarnations; they are referred to as the "sons" of the original powrie whose heart was used. |
| 135 | * ''Literature/DowntimingTheNightSide'' uses the same setup as ''Literature/AllYouZombies'' to {{invert|edTrope}} this trope. Yes, the protagonist is both mother and father (via several time loops and a GenderBender inflicted by the setting's time travel AppliedPhlebotinum) but she/he is two different parents from the children's perspective since he/she was the father on one time loop and the mother on another, as well as effectively two different people due to CharacterDevelopment. |
| 136 | %%* ''Literature/TheLastDragonChronicles'': Liz Pennykettle. |
| 137 | * ''Literature/ForgesOfMars'': The tech-priest Vitali Tychon created his [[OppositeSexClone daughter]] Linya by cloning himself. |
| 138 | * Played with in ''Literature/GlorySeason''. The women on the planet undergo either parthenogenetic or allogamous (sexual) reproduction, depending on what time of the year they mate with the male. |
| 139 | * ''Literature/TheGoldenOecumene'': In the {{Backstory}}, main character Phaethon was "born" when a computer simulation of his father Helion's personality became self-aware... [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone after causing an]] EarthShatteringKaboom. |
| 140 | * ''Literature/TheHanSoloTrilogy'': Hutts, being hermaphrodites capable of asexual reproduction, often are this. Their children refer to them as simply "my parent" in this case, rather than "mother" or "father" (Hutts sometimes also switch gender identities during pregnancy, so this makes sense). |
| 141 | * ''Literature/{{Herland}}'': All of the women in Herland reproduce by parthenogenesis, so they are "single mothers" in the most literal sense. This began when the men were killed in a disaster and then civil war, with one woman giving birth afterward by herself. All women after this are descended from her. |
| 142 | * ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': This has been mentioned as having happened. There are even laws in place stating that a clone is legally the child of the tissue donor and can legally inherit from them -- so long as the cloning was authorized by the donor or the donor's estate. That caveat is to prevent cases where someone clones a rich man, kills the rich man, and then has the clone claim his "father's" fortune on behalf of his creator. |
| 143 | %%* This trope plays a significant role in ''Houston, Houston, Do You Read?'' by Creator/JamesTiptreeJr. |
| 144 | * ''Literature/ImperialRadch'': [[EvilColonialist Fosyf Denche]]'s daughter is actually her clone. This isn't unusual in and of itself in the Radchaai GalacticSuperpower, but in Fosyf's specific case, it's a sign of her {{Narcissis|t}}m and an avenue of DomesticAbuse, since she frequently reminds the daughter that she can be disowned and replaced as heir at Fosyf's whim. |
| 145 | * In "Jaycee" by Creator/FredricBrown, twenty years after the first human parthogenesis experiments were performed, people discover an unexpected side effect. |
| 146 | * ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': Bladi Conversion is a {{downplayed|Trope}} example. While the person-to-be-converted is conceived and born in the standard fashion, the Bladi who converts them does so by replacing their parent's genetic information with their own. Biologically speaking, the convertor becomes their only parent. [[spoiler: Basilard becomes Zettai's third biological father in this fashion, after expelling the blood of his EvilUncle, who had expelled the blood of Zettai's original father, in his turn. This leads to a lot of expectations neither is prepared for.]] |
| 147 | * In ''Literature/TheMonsterMen'', Professor Maxon to the men he created. (He also wants to create a perfect one to marry to his own daughter.) |
| 148 | -->''"Though there are twelve more," continued Professor Maxon, "you were my first born son and I loved you most, dear child."\ |
| 149 | The younger man was horrified.\ |
| 150 | "My God, Professor!" he cried. "Are you mad? Can you call this thing 'child' and mourn over it when you do not yet know the fate of your own daughter?"\ |
| 151 | Professor Maxon looked up sadly. "You do not understand, Dr. von Horn," he replied coldly, "and you will oblige me, in the future, by not again referring to the offspring of my labors as 'things.'" '' |
| 152 | * ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'' features a character who attempted this as part of an {{Immortality}} scheme. He commissioned ''two'' clones of himself -- one of each sex -- and had one of them raised in the same manner as his mother, intending for her to "give birth" to his male clone and raise it as he himself was raised, thus providing personal continuity as a form of LegacyCharacter. When the program suffers a catastrophe, he gives it up in favor of BrainUploading. |
| 153 | * ''Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries'': Dan Sylveste is actually a clone of his father Calvin, with some attempt at childhood trauma reproduction. Unusually, this fact is kept secret even from him, by covert body modification to make him look more like his "mother". |
| 154 | * In Creator/StephenHunt's ''Literature/TheRiseOfTheIronMoon'', Lord Starborn to Starsprite -- whom he then casts out, unnamed; it is Black and Coppertracks who name her. |
| 155 | * ''Literature/ATaleOf'': |
| 156 | ** It turns out that Circe's three older "sisters" created her magically. |
| 157 | ** It's revealed that [[spoiler:Maleficent]] created [[spoiler:Aurora]] in a similar manner. All of [[spoiler:Maleficent's]] good was taken and put into [[spoiler:[[IncorruptiblePurePureness Aurora]]]]. |
| 158 | ** The Queen of the Dead are implied to all reproduce this way. Gothel is essentially a clone of her mother Manea while her two sisters, Primrose and Hazel, [[spoiler:were actually stolen from local villages and raised to keep Gothel company]]. |
| 159 | * The Ullerans from Creator/HBeamPiper's ''Literature/UllerUprising'' are a {{hermaphrodit|e}}ic race. Self-impregnation is difficult but not impossible though it is generally considered taboo. The chief of the one Ulleran tribe that practices it refers to his offspring as "little me". |
| 160 | * ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': |
| 161 | ** The Durona group is an extreme example -- Lilly Durona clones herself ''forty'' times and forms an entire research hospital out of her clones. |
| 162 | ** Miles Vorkosigan's clone-brother Mark Vorkosigan was raised by the mad scientist who created him, but there's some question of whether he is legally Miles's brother or his son. Either way, he is relieved when Miles produces other heirs. |
| 163 | * ''Literature/WeAreLegionWeAreBob'': Each new Bob is a copy of one of the Bobs that came before, making father/son and brotherly relationships obvious. The Bobs still notably avoid referring to each other that way, though. |
| 164 | * {{Subverted|Trope}} in "When It Changed" by Joanna Russ: in spite of being a OneGenderRace, the women had discovered how to replace cloning with merging ova. |
| 165 | * In the ''Literature/WildCards'' book ''Deuces Down'', when the Jokertown Boys are looking for someone to use VirginPower to help Alicorn shapeshift back from a unicorn, they mention a devout nun with the power of parthenogenesis who has helped them in the past. |
| 166 | * ''Literature/WingsOfFire'': Jerboa I uses her animus power to create Jerboa II "Boa", who she keeps around for more than a thousand years while using her powers to edit her mind to be the ideal child whenever Boa does something she doesn't want. Eventually Boa realizes the truth and effectively kills her mother. |
| 167 | * In ''Literature/TheZeroStone'', the ship cat eats something and is pregnant, not with a kitten but with Eet, who later admits that he did what he could with what he had. |
| 168 | * ''Literature/{{Xenocide}}'' has Ender Wiggin produce two clones of his siblings from his mind via some other-dimensional circumstances. Genetically, they are apparently identical to the original Peter and Valentine, but they are referred to by in-universe and out as Ender's children and treated as such. |
| 169 | [[/folder]] |
| 170 | |
| 171 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 172 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E6TheDoctorsDaughter "The Doctor's Daughter"]] sees the creation of the Doctor's daughter Jenny. His DNA was taken at gunpoint and recombined to form a new person of which he is genetically both mother and father. Everyone on the planet Messaline was made that same way. |
| 173 | * ''Series/{{Hyperdrive}}'': First Officer York creates a clone of himself from his own cells including skin flakes, nail clippings and certain other emissions. |
| 174 | * On ''Series/{{Killjoys}}'', Dutch finds out that [[spoiler: Aneela created her by essentially cloning herself. When watching her own childhood memories by [[MemoryJar bathing in green liquid]], she decides she wants to bring them to the real world and pulls a copy of her childhood self out of the memories.]] |
| 175 | * ''Series/{{Pandora}}'': Jax gets pregnant mysteriously with a clone of herself in Season 2, and gives birth to a daughter who she names Bloom. |
| 176 | * ''Series/SoWeird'': Fi dates a boy who discovers himself to be a clone of his scientist father. |
| 177 | * In ''Series/{{StargateSG1}}'' Vala Mal Duran does not know the father of her daughter Adria (and not just because Vala's implied to get around a bit); it turns out the child [[spoiler:was created by the Ori to lead their armies.]] |
| 178 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': |
| 179 | ** In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', tribbles apparently reproduce through parthenogenesis, as they're said to be ''born'' already pregnant. |
| 180 | ** Dr. Noonien Soong from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' has Data (and EvilTwin Lore). Data is not really a clone in any sense of the word, but he does share his creator's likeness, and is possibly a result of his creator wanting to better his "offspring". (Note that Data has a large portion of Dr. Soong's memories.) Ironically, Soong was not actually a single "parent", as he had a wife who was the androids' "mother". |
| 181 | ** Data himself also tries to create a child, Lal, who's built to work almost exactly like Data, although she quickly gained her own personality. He also had B4, who he did not create, but did copied all of his memories into, creating the android equivalent of a clone. |
| 182 | ** Dr. Lewis Zimmerman from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' also put a lot of himself in his creation of the EMH Mark 1, although he never really regarded any as sons except the Doctor, when he finally met him. Incidentally, they also look exactly alike. |
| 183 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': God created the entire angel race singlehandedly, and is considered their father. |
| 184 | [[/folder]] |
| 185 | |
| 186 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 187 | * In ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'', [[spoiler: the voidfish asexually produced a child.]] |
| 188 | [[/folder]] |
| 189 | |
| 190 | [[folder:Religion and Mythology]] |
| 191 | * A recurring theme in Myth/CelticMythology is that of a divine being being transformed into an animal (or in some cases, grain), eaten by a woman, who became pregnant with them in their new form. |
| 192 | ** This theme also shows up with some frequency in various Native American legends. StrangeMindsThinkAlike? |
| 193 | *** Or cultural osmosis since it is pretty much proven that the Vikings reached the American continent. Why not some Celts even earlier? |
| 194 | * Many variations in Myth/GreekMythology: |
| 195 | ** Athena was born from Zeus' head, and while in some versions she's his alone in others she had a mother, the goddess Metis, who was pregnant when Zeus ''[[GodEating ate]]'' her. Some versions also have Hera giving birth on her own to Hephaestus as a response, etc. (Of course, the second myth would contradict most versions of the myth of Athena's birth, because they claim that Hephaestus used a hammer and chisel to split Zeus's skull open and free Athena, meaning he would have had to have been an adult at the time.) |
| 196 | ** One of the eldest Greek goddesses, Gaia, was able to to give birth to several deities without needing a sperm donor, notably Ouranos and Pontos. |
| 197 | ** And before Gaia, there was her parent [[PrimordialChaos Chaos]], who produced Gaia, Tartarus (Hell), Eros (Love), Nyx (Night) and Erebus (Darkness) without help from a partner--though given that Chaos was the only entity in existence at the time, they didn't exactly have a lot of options. |
| 198 | ** According to the better-known myth, Aphrodite was born from the cut-off genitals of Ouranos. |
| 199 | ** Nyx from Greek mythology did this. A lot. Sources disagree on exactly which children were hers alone and which she had with her husband (and [[BrotherSisterIncest little brother]]) Erebus, but it was at most four. And she has like twenty kids. |
| 200 | * In the mythology of the Hindu religion, Goddess Parvati created her son, Ganesh, using the saffron paste with which she had decorated her body. |
| 201 | * Myth/NorseMythology: |
| 202 | ** Búri, the grandfather of Odin, was born from the cow Auðhumla licking the salt from a stone. Another common interpretation in the Nordic countries is that Búri had no parents. He came into being within the stone, and Auðhumla merely freed him. |
| 203 | ** His son Borr, Odin's father, also has no mentioned mother, and it has been interpreted that this is because he was born solely from Búri. |
| 204 | ** Another example is the first generation of the Jotun (i.e. the "giants"), whom were all born of from the armpits of the first Giant Ymir, who was himself created from the meeting of fire and ice in the void of Ginnungagap. There is also a mention of a six headed son of Ymir's left and right leg (... Though this trope is averted if you count the legs themselfs as his parents, and not Ymir.) |
| 205 | * Mary to Jesus, at least in mortal/biological terms. |
| 206 | ** In Literature/TheFourGospels, Mary was a virgin engaged to marry Joseph when an angel (traditionally identified as Gabriel) appeared to her and informed her she would birth the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. Joseph himself planned to quietly break off the engagement to spare Mary's honor, but the angel then appeared to him as well to explain things. Joseph married Mary and raised Jesus as his own son, and for this reason Joseph is the PatronSaint of fathers and fatherhood in forms of Christianity that use a concept of sainthood (and is respected as Jesus' father-figure in Islam, which, generally speaking, doesn't do saints, at least not in the same way as Christianity). Emphasized in Catholicism, where God even made Mary immaculate[[note]] sinless, even spared from the stain of original sin [[/note]] since Jesus would be drawing his flesh and blood entirely from her. |
| 207 | ** Some Christians believe that Jesus already existed before becoming a mortal, as God's begotten Son. So by that interpretation Jesus has two Truly Single Parents at the same time. |
| 208 | ** There are no caveats in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Muslim]] account. Islam accepts the Virgin Birth, but Literature/TheQuran also says very pointedly that God was not begotten and does not beget. The Muslim version of the story is that God willed that Mary become pregnant with Jesus without Him or anyone else being the father. No, this doesn't make sense: it's not supposed to. It's a miracle. |
| 209 | * Myth/JapaneseMythology: |
| 210 | ** After his wife, Izanami, died giving birth to Kagutsuchi, the god of fire, [[MaternalDeathBlameTheChild Izanagi killed the latter out of grief]]. From Kagutsuchi's blood, several new deities were born, including martial arts god Takemikazuchi, warrior god Futsunushi, and mountain god Oyamatsumi. |
| 211 | ** The "Three Precious Children" -- Amaterasu, the sun goddess; Tsukuyomi, the moon god; and Susanoo, the storm god -- were born when Izanagi purified himself following a visit to the Underworld. Amaterasu was born from his left eye, Tsukuyomi from his right eye, and Susanoo from his nose. |
| 212 | [[/folder]] |
| 213 | |
| 214 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 215 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 216 | ** Beholders reproduce without any need for mating. Instead, after reaching adulthood, the womb located beneath every beholder's tongue will spontaneously generate a litter of offspring. In 5th Edition, beholders instead reproduce by dreaming each other into existence, a process that, once again, involves a single "parent" individual. |
| 217 | ** Flumphs reproduce entirely asexually -- every couple years, an adult flumph will simply bud off an infant. |
| 218 | ** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'': |
| 219 | *** Halaster Blackcloak makes a number of clones of himself (all of which were as crazy or worse than he was) before he died. Whenever two of them meet (like in the ending of the first chapter of Hordes of the Underdark) they hold a rather amusing argument over which is the original and which is the clone. |
| 220 | *** Finder Wyvernspur attempted something similar, feeling that his music was too perfect to be trusted to mere bards who would change them to suit their interests at the time and wanted them to exist unchanged by time. As such, he created what was in essence a clone of himself to use as an immortal repository of his music but his abuses of the newly created creature as it was developing left it with a burning and eternal hatred of its creator and it refused to ever sing a note of his "father/mother's" music and killed one of the apprentices that was part of its creation. Later he teamed with an alliance of evil creating a daughter feeling she would be more pliable (and unbeknownst to him one of them created dozens on the side) to try and prove he was right and ended up with a raft of daughters all different in personality and crafted backgrounds (none knowing off of their created past outside of Alias). |
| 221 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'': Like D&D flumphs, bantrids have no genders and reproduce asexually via budding. |
| 222 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The [[MessianicArchetype Emperor of Mankind]] created the twenty Primarchs at least partly from his own DNA. They end up scattered through [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the warp]] by the [[GodIsEvil Chaos gods]], helping him pull the scattered Human worlds into a single Imperium; years later one of them decides [[PrideBeforeAFall HE ought to be the Emperor]] and things go all to shit. Most of them also had adopted parents that greatly shaped their later worldviews for good or ill. |
| 223 | [[/folder]] |
| 224 | |
| 225 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 226 | * ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]'': Caulder/Stolos is probably the most prolific Truly Single Parent this side of [[Franchise/StarWars Jango Fett]], making no less than four different clones (which didn't really look much like him except for hair color and complexion, and [[OppositeSexClone most of them aren't even the right gender]]) and then making a bunch of backup clones for each clone type. The four end up ranging the entire spectrum of good and evil. [[spoiler:On top of this, at the end we find out that he's actually a clone of the first Caulder/Stolos, the only survivor after the original and his clones decided that ThereCanBeOnlyOne of them and killed each other.]] |
| 227 | * In ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' Angel is the Truly Single Parent of Sera. Rather than cloning, however, Angel is a fully functioning hermaphrodite who created Sera from her own sperm and egg. |
| 228 | * Inverted in ''VideoGame/DragonBallOnline'' and ''VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse''. Majin Buu split himself to create his wife, with whom he then had children in the "traditional" way. |
| 229 | * In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'', [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 4000 year-old]] reclusive wizard Divayth Fyr has created four {{Opposite Sex Clone}}s of himself, who are variously referred to as his "[[ParentalIncest daughters]]" and his "[[ScrewYourself wives]]". When discussed, his affection toward them seems more fatherly than sexual, but he still has a DirtyOldMan aura about him. Perhaps surprisingly, this isn't seen as very {{Squick}}y, at least within his [[MageTower tower]]. |
| 230 | * Asexual reproduction is the norm for dragons in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', which are actually alien refugees from a dying world; indeed, all the dragons on the planet are the descendants of a single clutch, which their father Midgardsormr carried with him through space looking for a safe world to hatch them on. They are known to take mates, but purely for the sake of companionship, and their gender identities are a matter of personal preference rather than any biological distinction. [[BizarreAlienBiology Baby dragons grow and change their forms in accordance with environmental pressures, so it would seem that mixing genetic material is irrelevant to species diversity.]] |
| 231 | * ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': |
| 232 | ** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', the ''Hidden Truths'' DLC reveals a case of this. [[spoiler: Dragon Anankos gave his Madness a human form, which became the Dragon girl [[TeamPet Lilith.]] He then used her as a pawn in his plans, knowing that [[WellDoneSonGuy she loved her "father" and badly wanted his approval.]] Then Anankos's kindly Human Side reached out to her and then died in a HeroicSacrifice for her, causing Lilith to have a HeelFaceTurn and devote herself to the Avatar - aka Human Anankos' normally conceived child.]] |
| 233 | ** Implied in the case of the Goddess (aka [[spoiler:Sothis]]) in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''. There's no mention of her ever having a mate or a husband, and her children the Children of the Goddess are said to have been born from her blood, implying something magical rather than a physical pregnancy. |
| 234 | * In ''VideoGame/GiantsCitizenKabuto'', secondary protagonist Delphi was created from elemental essences using powerful magic by her "mother", the evil Sea Reaper Queen, Sappho. In their final confrontation, [[OffingTheOffspring Sappho even threatens she will reclaim Delphi's life force and use it to create a better daughter]], only to end up getting her JustDesserts. This doesn't stop Delphi's EccentricMentor Yan from somehow mistaking Delphi [[LukeIAmYourFather for his own bastard daughter]], to her great disgust. |
| 235 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'' Nyx states that this is the case with Chaos, who she refers to as both her mother and her father due to Chaos' [[OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous nature]]. Also the case with some of Nyx's other children including Thanatos and Hypnos since the [[AllThereInTheManual codex]] mentions those two as being explicitly fatherless. |
| 236 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'', Henry Lawson had himself cloned to create his daughter Miranda, who also received significant genetic engineering to become a perfect human and powerful biotic. After she ran away, he created another one as a replacement. [[spoiler:Oriana, whom Miranda kidnapped as a baby and secretly gave to foster parents.]] For some reason he apparently stopped trying to get his perfect heir and instead [[spoiler:focused on getting Oriana back over the next decade or so]]. He created a lot of other clones before, but those were discarded as failures. Which perfectly fits the character of his other projects. [[spoiler:Building a fake refugee camp to gain free bodies for Ceberus' cyborg slave army and turn all the unfit children and elderly into zombies for weapon tests and combat training.]] |
| 237 | * In ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'', somewhat in the original series and especially in {{Fanon}}, Mega Man, Roll, and to a lesser extent Proto Man are all treated as Dr. Light's children, despite merely being RidiculouslyHumanRobots created by him. (Though this may be partly because he simply has more regard for his creations than the series's [[BigBad other major robotics genius]].) |
| 238 | * In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' [[spoiler: Solid and Liquid Snake are the cloned children of Naked Snake (Big Boss).]] But [[spoiler: not perfect clones. The donor egg was from a Japanese woman and they were brought to term by EVA.]] |
| 239 | ** [[spoiler: Solidus is implied to be a perfect clone though.]] |
| 240 | * The Founder in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2: Mask of the Betrayer'' split off three distinct aspects of her personality into separate characters: [[spoiler:Lienna, Nefris, and Safiya]]. |
| 241 | * A very odd inversion of this in Hugo from ''VideoGame/{{OFF}}''. He is a young child dependent on his parents, [[spoiler:The Batter and Vader Eloha]], to raise him and care for him. However, not only is [[spoiler:he the creator of both beings]], but [[spoiler:is presumed to be the creator of most beings in the game, including the Three Guardians who made the Zones]]. |
| 242 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Parkasaurus}}'', it's possible to give dinosaurs the parthenogenesis trait, which allows them to lay eggs without having an opposite-sex member of their species present. |
| 243 | * Arceus from ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''. In one event you can see Arceus create an egg for you ([[MindScrew using a ritual that apparently involves Google images]]). Said egg becomes a level 1 legendary, which can double as a DiscOneNuke. |
| 244 | * In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'', [[HalfIdenticalTwins Alexia and Alfred Ashford]] were created from their father Alexander's genes along with those of supra-genius ancestor ([[{{Squick}} don't think about that too hard]]) Veronica, apparently in an effort to restore their disgraced [[AristocratsAreEvil family name]] to its former glory. |
| 245 | * ''VideoGame/TheSims'': |
| 246 | ** In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', if you use the Tombstone of Life and Death, you can choose to "simulate a genetic merger with" the Sims that are currently on the lot. The selected Sim (the one who would be getting pregnant) is included on that list. Children produced through this method will always be a gender-switched clone of the parent (at least, in facial features and coloring). |
| 247 | ** Brandi Broke's unborn son is a pre-made example, though it does list a father on the child's family tree. |
| 248 | ** In ''VideoGame/TheSims3: Into the Future'', the bios for Ceres and Atom Beaker say that they are clones of Loki Beaker (from Strangetown in ''The Sims 2'') that were accidentally sent to the future. |
| 249 | ** Also children made via Clone Voucher (including the Landgraab clones from Lunar Lakes). There's also the Clone Drone elixir and the Science Skill cloning, but clones from those don't end up related to anyone on the family tree. |
| 250 | ** In addition, it's also possible to do this in Create-A-Sim. |
| 251 | * In ''VideoGame/SuperLesbianAnimalRPG'', Javis creates four "sons" for himself using magic and fragments of his own life essence, in order for them to serve as commanding officers in his plans to [[spoiler:take over and reset the planet Reverie at the behest of Queen Verena.]] At least one of them seems to think that [[spoiler:Verena]] is his mother, but she explicitly denies this. |
| 252 | ** As it turns out, Bartholomew is also an example. He created Cathrine with dark magic back when he was an evil wizard. |
| 253 | * ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'': The Teladi discovered after being isolated from their homeworld due to shifts in the jumpgate network that their unfertilied eggs could still hatch via a parthenogenetic process, though only female offspring were possible. As a result, Teladi in the games are effectively a OneGenderRace. |
| 254 | * Dmitri Yuriev of ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' cloned himself six-hundred-odd times to create the [=URTVs=], inducing mutations only in the last [[strike:three]] four embryos to create the Variants. |
| 255 | [[/folder]] |
| 256 | |
| 257 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 258 | * ''VisualNovel/Ever17'' has [[spoiler:You'haru]], whose daughter is a clone of herself. |
| 259 | * [[spoiler:Kuchiki Toko]] in ''VisualNovel/TheShell'' has no father, though her mother didn't realize because she had been having sex with someone. However, this man was completely sterile. |
| 260 | [[/folder]] |
| 261 | |
| 262 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 263 | * ''Webcomic/AkumasComics'': Both Jenny Wily and the Undertaker only have a father. Jenny was a test tube baby, and the Undertaker's father The Sprite Eater could reproduce asexually. |
| 264 | * ''Webcomic/{{Bomango}}'': Gogo is shown to be able to reproduce asexually when Didi grew and budded off of her. However they see each other as twins, not as parent and child. Also they might be able to reproduce sexually as well because both Didi and Gogo have different sexual/romantic orientations. Gogo is straight. Didi is a lesbian. |
| 265 | * In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Elliot can be considered this in relation to Ellen as she is his OppositeSexClone though her creation was entirely unintentional and they live as brother and sister. |
| 266 | ** Uryuom aliens can produce egg shells that can be injected with 2+ DNA sources (that of the producers and/or other species) to make a child. Normally, two Uryuoms are needed to make the egg shell, but the one who fathered [[spoiler:Grace and her brothers]] had an "abnormality" that allowed him to create egg shells without a mate for [[spoiler:the breeding project he worked for]]. |
| 267 | * In Zarla's [[http://zarla.deviantart.com/art/Anesthetic-s-for-babies-607934275 Handplates]] comics (an alternate universe spinoff of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}''), Gaster cuts circular pieces of bone from the palms of his hands (thereby also explaining the holes in his hands) and uses them as genetic templates to grow Sans and Papyrus in test tubes. |
| 268 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', [[spoiler:John]] is ultimately the "biological parent" (or at least the midwife--shit be truly weird) of all the B1- and B2-universe players, through the ectobiology and [[StableTimeLoop time shenanigans]] of SBURB. |
| 269 | ** Among the troll players, the parent-equivalent is... [[spoiler: Karkat]]. Which not only reflects their role as the above human's foil/counterpart, it's also [[ShownTheirWork a nifty reference to their sign's mythological role in the Western Zodiac]]. [[spoiler: It also glitched the A-1 session pretty badly.]] |
| 270 | * In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'', Jean tells Bob confidentially that [[spoiler: the genetic cocktail which accidentally produced Molly the Peanut Butter Monster contained genetic material from many creatures, including some human -- Jean's own. This only accounts for a small part of Molly's genome, but Jean ''is'' Molly's mother, just a little bit.]] |
| 271 | * Helen Narbon and Helen B. Narbon of ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}''. [[EmbarrassingMiddleName The B is for Beta.]]. In turn Beta created the transgenic human-gerbil hybrids Artie and [[spoiler: Zeta]], at least one of whom has called her "mom". |
| 272 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Unity}}'', one of the species can reproduce parthenogenetically. [[spoiler:Juni Melrose, the main character, is the parthenogenetic offspring of Hira Melrose - and eventually, adopts Hira's second (also parthenogenetic) child. In the spinoff series "Planetfall" we see that some time later, there are quite a few Melroses running around.]] |
| 273 | [[/folder]] |
| 274 | |
| 275 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 276 | * Creator/{{Amoridere}}: This is the case with [[http://tokiandcowiki.wikidot.com/wiki:toki Toki]] and her twin sister [[http://tokiandcowiki.wikidot.com/wiki:doki Doki]], the females of whose species can reproduce through parthenogenesis as is their case. |
| 277 | * In the [[Literature/ChakonaSpace Chakat Universe]], all hermaphrodites therein are of course able to do this, though they're not supposed to unless they have no other option. (This was done by a villainous skunk in one of Gildedtongue's adventures. Shi is the only canon example so far.) |
| 278 | * The ''WebAnimation/DrMonster'' video "Sinfant vs. Deady Bear" introduces Dr. Monster's son Sinfant, who appears to have been conceived without a mother to speak of. |
| 279 | * ''Literature/LoomingGaia'': |
| 280 | ** Scylli is an intersex cecaelia capable of both laying eggs and fertilizing them, making him able to have children all by himself. |
| 281 | ** Divines are capable of creating sapient monsters with their divine powers. Whether they consider the monsters their family depends on the divine. |
| 282 | * Planet Shield from ''Literature/{{Phaeton}}'' designates specific people to be the truly single parents of massive litters, one of which resulted in Nakira. Also the Aud's have been their own truly single parents over and over since the 16th century. |
| 283 | * Penny Polendina in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' was built by Pietro Polendina and refers to him as her father. What truly puts it into this category is him [[spoiler:literally donating parts of his [[OurSoulsAreDifferent Aura]] to animate her and make her a true, synthetic person as opposed to just another machine.]] |
| 284 | * In ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'', this is [[MadScientist Dr. Insano's]] method for creating [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Son of Insano]]. |
| 285 | * In ''Literature/ThaliasMusings'', this is Mnemosyne to the Muses, Demeter to Persephone, Hera to Hephaestus, and Zeus to Athena. |
| 286 | [[/folder]] |
| 287 | |
| 288 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 289 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'', Dr. Robotnik creates a {{Ridiculously Human Robot|s}} son in the form of Robotnik Junior. |
| 290 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': |
| 291 | ** This is a more ambiguous example, because of [[FlipFlopOfGod the moral differences of the writers and the disagreements between them]], but Princess Bubblegum is thought of as being this. According to Jesse Moynihan, Princess Bubblegum is Lemongrab's mom, although only in the sense that she made him and gave him life. He may share ''some'' of her DNA, according to Jesse, but most of the other writers on the show don't view the princess as being a mother to her experiments. This is supported by the fact that she doesn't act like a parent at all. |
| 292 | ** One episode had her use some of her own DNA to create Goliad and use Finn's DNA to create Stormo, who Finn refers to as his son. |
| 293 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Persona Assistant", Roger the space alien sprouted what he thought was a brain tumor, but turned out to be a son he called Rogu. Roger is capable of sexual reproduction, but he produced Rogu asexually. |
| 294 | * The titular paternal unit of ''WesternAnimation/AugieDoggieAndDoggieDaddy''. Similarly, there is no mention of whoever gave birth to Augie. |
| 295 | * Dr. Von Reichter from ''WesternAnimation/{{Cybersix}}'' creates his "son" José with science. Von Reichter doesn't seem to consider José his son so much as José thinks of [[WellDoneSonGuy him as a father]]. |
| 296 | * The various cloned Dannys (and [[OppositeSexClone Dani]]) in ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' all refer to Vlad as father, though technically parenthood should be either Danny himself or Jack and Maddie, what with them having Danny's DNA. |
| 297 | * Professor Farnsworth of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', a true Mad Scientist, clones himself a son from a growth on his back. Instead of having a birthday, his clone ends up celebrating his growth-scraping day. |
| 298 | * ''WesternAnimation/GodzillaTheSeries'': The Widow reproduces asexually. |
| 299 | * In ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', [[HeroAntagonist Dib]] may well have been created by his father Membrane as an experiment, according to [[WordOfSaintPaul Eric Trueheart]]. {{Fanon}} holds Dib is his clone because the two look basically identical. Fans are left to their own guesses where [[CreepyChild Gaz]] came from. |
| 300 | * ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': Olympia Hill / Majestia created RobotGirl Aeon which she treats as her own daughter. |
| 301 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'': Dr. Nora Wakeman created Jenny all on her own, but she does try to date and give her a father-figure. |
| 302 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': The GrandFinale indicates that [[spoiler: the Titan is King's one and only parent.]] |
| 303 | * Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain''. The Brain attempts to take over the world by cloning himself, which he hopes will lead to a chain reaction where his clone will clone itself, and that clone will clone itself, etc. He would be a Truly Single Parent...until one of Pinky's toenail clippings accidentally gets in the cloning device, making the resulting "clone" essentially [[HomosexualReproduction the son of the two title characters.]] |
| 304 | ** Played straight in the fourth episode of [[WesternAnimation/Animaniacs2020 the Animaniacs reboot]], where Brain creates a robot version of himself named B.R.A.I.N, who calls him "father". |
| 305 | * Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls' father, Professor Utonium, made them in a lab out of sugar and spice and everything nice, plus Chemical X. Later on, it's revealed that Mojo Jojo, the primary enemy of the girls and formerly the assistant of Utonium, was responsible for accidentally adding Chemical X into the formula that created the girls. Mojo Jojo fits the trope in another way, as he created the Rowdyuff Boys without any help from anyone. (Later, after they are brought back to life by Him, he competes with the other villain for their affection; each villain tries to prove that he is more evil than the other to win them over.) |
| 306 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'': It's revealed toward the series' end that [[Characters/TheSecretSaturdays Francis and his father Epsilon]] [[spoiler:are actually the latest two in a long line of TykeBomb clones created by their agency, with each successive clone being raised by the directly-preceding clone to one day assume their position and continue the cycle]]. |
| 307 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[ChristmasEpisode Holidays of Future Passed]]", set [[DistantFinale thirty years in the future]], [[DoggedNiceGuy Milhouse]] and [[WiseBeyondTheirYears Lisa]] have a daughter named Zia. However, they arranged to have her made out of only their best genetic material...which means she's just a clone of Lisa. |
| 308 | -->'''Lisa:''' You parked the car. That helped.\ |
| 309 | '''Milhouse:''' Yeah, I guess... |
| 310 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekProdigy'': As the last member of his species, [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport the Diviner]] created Gwyn as an OppositeSexClone of himself to complete his mysterious mission if necessary after his death. |
| 311 | * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': When Steven spits out some watermelon seeds, they turn into Steven-shaped watermelon people and animal-like melons, brought to life by Steven's magical saliva. Later on, he creates Pumpkin, a doglike pumpkin for Lapis and Peridot. In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'' follow-up series, when Steven accidentally nicks his finger on a cactus and the saliva on his finger creates Cactus Steven. |
| 312 | * ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': The continuities in general do this a lot with their robot characters, given that they only need a single set of hands (or even no hands, in some cases) to build them. |
| 313 | ** Played with in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated''. It is strongly hinted throughout seasons 1 and 2 that Isaac Sumdac created Sari artificially. [[spoiler:Eventually, she's revealed as a [[MechanicalLifeform Cybertronian]] protoform that scanned Isaac's DNA instead of a vehicle. Given their BizarreAlienReproduction, and the [[LeftHanging unknown origin]] of Sari's non-standard protoform, there may or may not be someone who could also be considered her "parent".]] |
| 314 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'': Rusty is very secretive about the identity of Hank and Dean's MissingMom. Him making his sons into a series of clones to replaced the dead ones has made viewers speculate even the originals were made artificially with only Rusty's DNA, but the show's creators denied this early on into the show's long run. In the GrandFinale, [[spoiler:we learn the boys ''do'' have a genetic mother, [[ZigZaggingTrope but she was simply an egg donor]] and they were born from a UterineReplicator. Rusty carried it on his person while they gestated, and when he mentions "the person who gave birth to [Hank and Dean]", it's implied he means himself.]] |
| 315 | [[/folder]] |
| 316 | |
| 317 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 318 | * This can happen in some species of animals (and plants) through the various means of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexual_reproduction asexual reproduction,]] including [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis Parthenogenesis.]] The downside to this kind of reproduction is that there isn't much genetic variance among the offspring. |
| 319 | ** Mostly in insects and suchlike, but the largest creature capable of this (in extremis; mostly it uses normal sexual reproduction) is the Komodo dragon. Imagine that. They do not need males to breed, just resources. And they're three-metre long armoured lizards. Be very afraid... |
| 320 | ** Other parthenogenic vertebrates that have been recorded include boas and pythons, amphibians, sharks, turkeys, and even condors. |
| 321 | ** A few species have specialized in this to the point they don't even have the capacity to reproduce sexually anymore; see the Real Life section of OneGenderRace. |
| 322 | * Most microorganisms are sexless and reproduce [[BizarreAlienReproduction by dividing]]. |
| 323 | [[/folder]] |
| 324 |
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