Line #70 ParentalAbandonment/WesternAnimation


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9	* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'':
10	** [[TheHero Finn]] the Human was left in a forest as a baby and spent his first several years of life not knowing who his biological parents were at all. His adoptive parents, Margaret and Joshua, are deceased by the time the show begins. At the end of Season 5, Finn learns that his biological father Martin is alive and is a prisoner in a crystal citadel, but when Finn meets him, Martin is less worried about making up for years away from his only son and more about escaping the prison. When Finn finally meets his mom Minerva in season 8, it is shown that his dad ran off with him in the night and sent him to Ooo for his own safety, [[spoiler:while his mom had been searching for him ever since]].
11	** It's strongly implied that Princess Bubblegum abandoned her son Lemongrab shortly after his birth because she couldn't handle the responsibility of raising a mentally unstable failed science experiment. According to Jesse Moynihan, a storyboard artist on the show, PB stuck him in a castle to be raised by servants. [[MadwomanInTheAttic She acts like she's ashamed of his existence]]. This probably didn't do him much good.
12	** This happened to Marceline, and was made worse by the fact that she ''really'' needed a parent at the time - [[EverybodysDeadDave the world had just ended]] in a [[AtomicHate nuclear]] [[WorldWarIII war]]. While she and her mom wandered the irradiated wasteland together, her mother became increasingly ill to the point of coughing up blood, and eventually sent Marceline ahead to a safe hideout without her, because said mother was dying and didn't want Marceline to see her death. However, Marceline didn't know that her mom was dying, and assumed that her mom was afraid of her demonic powers and abandoned her out of fear. After living alone in the hideout for a while, Marceline left it and found a father figure in Simon Petrikov... but then he had to abandon her too, because his growing insanity was making him a danger to her. Meanwhile, her biological father Hunsen was strangely absent until Simon summoned him while leaving.
13	* Very few characters in ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'' appear to have parents, presumably as a result of predators. Of the parents mentioned, King Julien's parents left him to pursue a life of luxury ([[spoiler:they were revealed to be alive in Season 3, guest starring]]), and Maurice's parents abandoned him as a baby due to their traditions, and were killed by fossa sometime before the present day, Hector's mom was taken into human captivity when he was a baby, and Pancho is a ManchurianAgent unable to remember if he even had a family.
14	* Sprig and Polly Plantar from ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' are raised by their grandfather because [[spoiler:they were orphaned in a heron attack]]. Sprig is shown to be deeply affected by this, to the point that [[spoiler:he's the most eager to be accepted as a Boonchuy after Anne is forced to bring the Plantars to Earth]].
15	* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', Skippy lives with his aunt with no mention of a mother or father. Years later, in an interview with ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'', Slappy's VA Sherri Stoner claimed, in-character, that Skippy's parents dumped him on Slappy shortly after he was born, then left on a "sabbatical". Played straight however in ''WesternAnimation/WakkosWish'' where the Yakko, Wakko and Dot are portrayed as orphans, and it's implied that [[BigBad King Salazar]] murdered their parents when he seized power. [[spoiler:It would actually make sense for him to have killed their parents as they were the real King and Queen.]]
16	* Used excessively and in a variety of ways in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', [[JustifiedTrope due to the fact that war is raging.]]:
17	** Aang, like all Airbender children, was raised communally by monks, so it's hard to say if he even knew his parents. However, his father-like mentor, his unknown parents, and the rest of his nation were [[DoomedHometown entirely wiped]] out while Aang was [[HumanPopsicle frozen in an iceberg]]. Hence, the subtitle of the show. Katara and Sokka's mother was killed when they were young and as of the beginning of the show their father has left to fight in the war. They live with their grandmother who rather blithely sends them off to travel the world with Aang (though [[spoiler: it is later revealed that she ran away from home herself, which perhaps explains her attitude]]). Toph deliberately runs away from her overprotective parents. This trope even applies to Appa.
18	** It’s not revealed until her [[Literature/TheRiseOfKyoshi tie-in novel]] but Avatar Kyoshi was also abandoned by her parents. They were bandits who decided they didn’t need the responsibility of carrying a kid around with them. She gets taken in by a monk from the Southern Air Temple, Kelsang.
19	** The villains have it no better. Zuko and Azula's mother [[MissingMom Princess Ursa]] is absent (to say the least) and their [[BigBad father]], [[AbusiveParents definitely not the overprotective type]], seems to have no problem with sending the kid he actually ''likes'' halfway across the known world to hunt his enemies and/or drop the hammer on the Earth Kingdom. [[TheUnfavorite Zuko]] was banished on a SnipeHunt (after being publicly disfigured and humiliated) for [[DisproportionateRetribution speaking out of turn]] when he was no older than fourteen. Mai's parents are seen briefly but seemingly have no interest or no say in her actions (possibly due to Azula's influence, though in "The Beach" Mai says that her mom repressed her a lot to not ruin Dad's high-profile political career) and Ty Lee's apparently did not notice when she ran away to join the circus, due to the 6 identical daughters.
20	** Even the minor and one-shot characters suffer from this in spades -- nearly every young person encountered by the main characters during their travels has lost at least one parent thanks to the ongoing war and its subsidiary disasters.
21	** ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has this tradition continue:
22	*** Played with for the main character who didn't live with her parents because once discovered as the Avatar, she was forced by her father and the Order of the White Lotus to be cooped up and safely trained, because of a plot to kidnap her. But she did get to see her alive and well parents every now and then up until the present. Nonetheless, she's the only main character lucky enough to still ''have'' parents.
23	*** Mako and Bolin lost their parents to a firebender in a mugging, and Asami lost her mother to a firebender during a raid... this didn't go over well with [[StartOfDarkness her father]], [[spoiler:who is now dead to her, and later in the ''literal'' sense .]]
24	*** Kuvira and Bataar Jr. from Books 3 and 4. Unlike most of the examples above, in which the parent died or left [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou for the sake of their child]], Kuvira's parents flat out [[AbusiveParents didn't want her]] and kicked her out when she was 8, resulting in her finding her way into the Beifong household. Predictably, this pretty much shaped her actions [[spoiler: as the final BigBad, seeing her nation being abandoned just like she was]]. Bataar Jr. was also kicked out (or rather, kicked ''himself'' out) after aligning himself with Kuvira, but despite his betrayal he [[EvenEvilHasStandards refuses to lose Opal to Kuvira's giant laser.]]
25	* In ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'', their parents are sometimes mentioned but never seen, and they seem to take no real interest in the sometimes outrageous lives of their children. (In fact, the only who's ever mentioned with any regularity is Beavis' mother, who is said to be a slut; we find out in the film ''Beavis and Butt-Head Do America'' that the boys are the bastard sons of two heavy-metal roadies, and possibly half-brothers (Mike Judge refers to the two as their "dads", however). It could also be the dads are brothers, or half-brothers, making the guys cousins.
26	* Xylene from ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' explains her species, Uxorites, leave their children to fend for themselves as soon as they hatch, and as such cannot understand the concept of parenting in other species.
27	* In ''WesternAnimation/Birdman1967'', in the debut episode of Birdboy, Birdman's on-and-off sidekick, the lad is found separated from his father after an encounter with a supervillain. Birdman promises to help him find his father, but nothing ever comes of it. (His mother is never mentioned.)
28	* ''WesternAnimation/BlazeAndTheMonsterMachines'': There is no trace of anyone's parents in the show, especially the [[TokenHuman Token Humans]] AJ and Gabby.
29	* ''WesternAnimation/BooBoomTheLongWayHome'': the main character, Boo-Boom, is separated from his parents in the first episode due to an air attack on the truck that was transporting them. They don't get reunited until the end of the series.
30	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'': Huey and Riley's parents are never seen or mentioned, and it is not known how they came to live with Granddad. It's pretty heavily implied that they're dead. Partially a case of AllThereInTheManual, or at least in the [[ComicStrip/TheBoondocks comics]]. Their parents are dead, and in the first episode Granddad mentions spending their inheritance on that house (explaining in part why they were able to move to suburbia, hence, the boondocks).
31	* ''WesternAnimation/BubbleGuppies'': We never see the parents of the titular merchildren, though they do get brief mentions.
32	* ''WesternAnimation/ButterbeansCafe'': While we do see the parents of some of the residents of Puddlebrook, the parents of Butterbean, Cricket, Dazzle, Poppy and Jasper have yet to make appearances.
33	* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': Free room and board on Hope Island is part of the Benefits Package of being a Planeteer, so even the few parents who are still alive are mostly out of the picture.
34	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}}'': As shown in a flashback in "[[Recap/CentaurworldS2E5BunchOScrunch Bunch O' Scrunch]]", [[spoiler: Durpleton]]'s parents ended up leaving their little child alone in a grim wasteland, demanding [[spoiler: him]] to earn their approval. They reunite when [[spoiler: their son]] is ''47'', only to make it clear they regret nothing.
35	* ''WesternAnimation/CleoAndCuquin'': We never see the parents of the two titular characters and their four siblings.
36	* Gadget from ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' lost her father a year before the team was formed. Due to lack of information, many fan theories exist about what actually happened. Her mother is never mentioned.
37	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'': The whereabouts of Chowder's parents (and of Panini's and Gorgonzola's parents) are never revealed or discussed.
38	* ''WesternAnimation/CornAndPeg'' live on their own with no traces of their parents to date. The same goes with their other friends.
39	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'':
40	** Daria Morgendorffer's home life is made more interesting due to her needy self-obsessed father - a man who lives in his own unhappy childhood and still has issues to resolve - and her workaholic mother who places job before family for the greater part of the time. This is one of the factors that shaped the Princess of Snark's alienation and mordant cynicism.
41	** That is nothing compared to the home life of Jane Lane. There is a reason why HandsOffParenting was formerly called Casa Lane Parenting because the Lane parents just ... weren't there and left their kids to their own devices.
42	* ''WesternAnimation/DaveTheBarbarian's'' [[BattleCouple parents took off to fight evil]], leaving their kids and Dad's magician brother in charge of Udragoth.
43	* ''WesternAnimation/TheDavincibles'': Pablo and Zoë Davinci live with their uncle Leo, who is apparently also their legal guardian. No mention is ever made of their parents.
44	* Parents in ''WesternAnimation/DragonBooster'' are suspiciously absent, considering that their offspring are competing in dangerous sports with giant reptiles. Parm has a mother, mentioned once and never again, and Kitt has apparently left home or is an orphan (nothing is ever said about her parents). Only Artha (the protagonist) and Moordryd (his rival) have onscreen parents: Moordryd's dad is the BigBad, while his mother, Zulay, is implied to be dead (the ambiguity of the line spawned numerous fanfics), while Artha has quite possibly the worst case of ParentalAbandonment ever: his mother is never mentioned, while his dad, Connor, disappears in the first episode and is presumably dead... right up until the second season finale, when it is revealed that [[spoiler:Mortis, who's been helping the heroes the whole time, is Connor in disguise. The reason for abandoning his children and letting them believe he was dead? They wouldn't have become independent.]]
45	* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'':
46	** Huey, Dewey, and Louie have been raised by their uncle Donald ever since they were hatched. The mystery of what happened to their mother Della (Donald's twin sister) forms the MythArc of the first season, while their father is a non-entity. [[spoiler:Della would later reunite with her family part way though Season 2 after having spent a decade trapped on the moon.]]
47	** Donald and Della were in turn raised by their uncle Scrooge (a time travel episode reveals that they were already living with him by the time they were preteens). Exactly what happened to their parents is never made clear, [[DeathByAdaptation but they're presumably dead]].
48	** Webby is being raised by her grandmother, with her parents going unmentioned. [[spoiler:Justified, as the finale reveals that she's a DNA clone of Scrooge himself, so she never HAD parents in the first place.]]
49	* In ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', we never see anyone at all in the show except for the children that live in the neighborhood. Sometimes parents and older siblings are alluded to, but they are never actually shown, except for [[spoiler:Eddy's brother in TheMovie.]]
50	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': In one episode, Timmy earns the wrath of a rich kid named Remy Buxaplenty, whose fairy godparent, Juandissimo Magnifico, used to date Wanda. It's revealed that Remy's parents are always too busy to spend time with him, and this, along with the fear that Timmy might wish he was richer than Remy, drives him to challenge Timmy to a magical duel, with the loser losing their godparents and getting their memories erased. When it seems like Remy might win, Timmy tries to convince him to call it off, saying he doesn't care if Remy has a godparent. Remy's response is just ''[[JerkassWoobie heartbreaking]]''.
51	-->'''Remy''': But... ''I'' care if ''you'' do! My parents are never home! I never get to '''SEE''' them! [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Why should YOU get real parents]] ''[[ArmorPiercingQuestion AND]]'' [[ArmorPiercingQuestion godparents who love you]] '''''[[ArmorPiercingQuestion WHEN I DON'T!?!?!]]'''''
52	* ''WesternAnimation/FanboyAndChumChum'' have the same living situation. They live alone despite being young boys. In fact, ''all'' of the child characters have no parents seen or mentioned (save for Yo who mentions her dad in one episode). The only aversion is Oz, who lives with his mother.
53	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Fangbone}}'': The title character's parents are never seen in the series with the exception of a few flashbacks. Fangbone himself states that they are away on some kind of quest in one episode, but otherwise, he never really has any contact with them and sometimes talks about them as if they were dead.
54	* ''WesternAnimation/FetchWithRuffRuffman'': Ruff's parents went missing long before the start of the series. [[spoiler: He eventually finds out that they are still alive and reunites with them in the final episode.]]
55	* The ''WesternAnimation/GarbagePailKidsCartoon'' shows Clogged Duane's parents (both parents being seen in the episode "An Egg-citing Adventure" and his mother also appearing in "Elliot Messed Up"), Patty Putty's mother (who appeared in "Elliot Messed Up"), and Elliot Mess's parents (also shown in "Elliot Messed Up"), but neither Split Kit nor Terri Cloth's mother and father appear in the series.
56	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'':
57	** Tom, along with Princess Katherine, The Magus, Tom's mother, Mary, & Finella, fled from the castle of King Kenneth II when he was slain by Constantine, who later usurped his throne. After using the Grimorum to find a way into Avalon, The Magus is forced to give up the magical book because it can't be taken into Avalon. To keep it away from Constantine, so he won't be able to find them, Finella volunteers to protect the book and go into hiding from the King of Scotland. Mary volunteers to go with, deciding that protecting this magic book is more important than raising her only child, who at this point in the story wasn't even ten years old.
58	** Demona didn't even try to stop the Magus and Katharine from "stealing" the eggs from the Wyvern Rookery, even though one of those eggs held her own child. In an unusual twist, the Magus and Katharine had in fact been entrusted with those eggs by Goliath, and they ultimately took better care of the eggs than Demona herself could have done, making this a rare positive example of this trope.
59	* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'':
60	** Soos' dad left him when he was four and never visited, only sending postcards on his birthday every year, with an empty promise that he’ll visit "next year". His grandmother reassures him that he'll visit someday, but in some (Spanish) lines she says to herself, it's clear she thinks the father is a terrible person. As for his mother, we never see her.
61	** And of course, Dipper and Mabel's parents are only seen briefly in the first episode (even then, only their arms are shown) where they send them to stay with their grunkle Stan for the summer just to get them out of the house.
62	*** Altrough the Pine twin's parents personalities are pretty much unknown for this case to be called a real Parental Abandonment.
63	* Sam-I-Am’s mother from ‘’WesternAnimation/GreenEggsAndHam’’ dropped him off at a orphanage when he was a young child, his main ambition is find green eggs and ham that taste like the ones she used to make him, he eventually does and sets off on a quest with Guy-Am-I to find her which will set off the events of Season 2, his father wasn’t mentioned.
64	* Neither Fee nor Foo from ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBeaks'' apparently have guardians. They're [[WildChild feral kids]] who live by themselves and no one bats an eye. [[spoiler:Their parents do show up in the final episode however.]]
65	* In both versions of ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse'', Teela is HappilyAdopted by Man-at-Arms, having been left with him by the Sorceress, her actual mother. However, this is handled differently in each version:
66	** in the original, Teela knows she's adopted, but not her parents' identity; Duncan claims her father was a "great warrior" (the only time he is mentioned), and that her mother's identity is a secret he's sworn to keep, promising her she'll learn it someday, but not from him. She does, and her mother tells her that she is also her heir, but can only retain the knowledge when ready to claim that birthright. (He-Man learns the secret and remains a confidant, but the issue is not addressed again.)
67	** In the remake, Teela is also her heir, but believes Duncan is her true father and that her mother is dead. Duncan is ''not'' as accepting of this, [[WhatTheHellHero scolding the Sorceress for failing to be a proper mother]]. Unfortunately, the revelation of the power within her only proves the Sorceress has a valid point, as she mishandles it. A later episode shows flashbacks of the past, including Teela's father, a wounded amnesiac soldier. It is hinted that Duncan may well be her biological father, but it is also hinted later that it may be Duncan's brother, Fisto. In any case, the series ended before this could be explored more.
68	* ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'''s niece Penny. He seems to be her only relative, although the backstory is pretty non-existent for her.
69	* Dib and Gaz of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' have a father that is more concerned with his latest invention and his television show than whatever his children are doing, and a mother who is never mentioned (naturally, EpilepticTrees abound). Zim himself is a borderline example, as while technically he has no parents ([[Film/TheMatrix Irkens are grown, not bred]]), his entire motivation is pleasing the parental figures of the entire species, the Tallest, who hate him and exile him to the far end of the known universe.
70	* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'':
71	** Jade is left by her parents in the first episode, and although they are alive, they are only referred to twice during the rest of the series. Jackie as well, it is implied, was sent to America to train with Uncle when he was a kid. His parents are never mentioned.
72	** Paco's parents are never mentioned and it's possible they don't exist at all. El Toro, who is probably not his father, serves as a father-like figure to the boy.
73	* It's honestly easier to find ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' characters with parents in their lives than ones who don't. So many have missing parents:
74	** Jerrica's and Kimber's father died of a terminal illness at the start of the series; the first scene is his funeral. Their mother died when they were children in an airplane accident. Jerrica especially holds baggage about this because she got into an argument with her mom before she left.
75	** Aja and Shana only refer to their biological parents once. They mention their biological fathers in a single passing line in "Father's Day" by saying they have video tapes of them. Aja and Shana were the Benton's foster children and have lived with them since their tweens.
76	** Jerrica's mother was a foster child herself and that's why she wanted to foster children.
77	** Pizzazz's mother abandoned her and her father at a young age. Her father was distant to her growing up and spoiled her with gifts, instead of actual affection. This is a big reason why she ended up a rotten AttentionWhore.
78	** Out of the other Misfits: Roxy never mentions her parents, but we know she [[TheRunaway ran away]] as a teen. Stormer's parents are never mentioned either. Jetta is the only Misfit with two, known, living parents. Their groupie, Clash, has two parents too (and in fact is a DaddysGirl).
79	** The main characters run a foster home called Starlight House. None of the girls reference their parents except for Ba Nee, who is bent on finding her presumably deceased father and we know her mother has passed. All she knows is her father was a redheaded American soldier. In the final episode [[spoiler:she is reunited with her father, who had amnesia about his events in the army and didn't even remember marrying her mother until his memory cleared up]]. Licensed books call the Starlight Girls orphans but it's unknown how canonical they are to the cartoon.
80	** Reoccuring character Danse's parents are unknown for most of the series. There's an episode all about her parents though. Her mom was a famous ballerina who fled Yugoslavia for America but her whereabouts are unknown. Her father [[spoiler:was presumed dead but is alive]].
81	** Minx's and Rapture's parents aren't mentioned, but their bandmates Riot's are shown. His father is a masculine, former army member who disapproved of his son being into music, which he deemed for women and 'sissies'. He disowned Riot when he quit the army to be in a band. Eventually they reconcile after Riot's mom ends up hospitalized due to stress. According to the SeriesBible, both Minx and Rapture's parents are alive. Minx's are divorced but her dad is still in her life.
82	* Subversion: The teen hero team The Ultimen in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' is initially presented with a variety of ParentalAbandonment issues; by the end of their first appearance, it's revealed that this is actually because they are clones with FakeMemories implanted.
83	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': One of Mr. Cat's fake backstories was that shortly after he was born, he was tied up in a sack and thrown into a river to drown. Fortunately, he was saved by a salmon and [[RaisedByWolves raised by it]].
84	* ''WesternAnimation/LibertysKids'':
85	** James' parents were killed by a lightning strike.
86	** Henri's parents died while immigrating to the colonies, leaving him to be an indentured servant for some time.
87	* Bunga from ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'' was raised by Timon and Pumbaa, and his parents are never seen or mentioned.
88	* Charlotte from ''WesternAnimation/MakingFiends'' claims that her parents are astronauts in space, however, the series implies that her parents are dead.
89	* In ''Literature/MaxAndRuby'', Ruby and Max's parents are never mentioned, though they do have a grandmother. The only characters with a parent that's seen in-show are baby Huffington, whose parents show up fairly often and Roger Piazza, whose dad runs the local grocery store.
90	** The 2016 reboot of the series introduces their parents into the show.
91	* In ''WesternAnimation/MonsterAllergy'', Zob, Zick's father, left Zick before the series. He returns in the series only for him to become the IncredibleShrinkingMan.
92	* In ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'', Joe's mother [[spoiler:Nurse Bendy]] left him with his father, although he thought she died, as his father told him.
93	* Adam Lyon of ''WesternAnimation/MyGymPartnersAMonkey'' seems to have parents, but they don't seem to object to him attending middle school with the animal kingdom. They explained why in one episode but [[TheUnintelligible we couldn't understand them]] (they have fur allergies and were in containment suits at the time).
94	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
95	** Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom's parents are never seen, with their family matriarch, Granny Smith, acting as their guardian. While Applejack and Big Macintosh are at least old enough to live on their own (they stay on their farm due to the family business), Apple Bloom clearly isn't. Made even stranger seeing as the Apple family is the most detailed in the show. [[WordOfGod Word of]] [[Creator/LaurenFaust Faust]] and says that she and and her crew tried to come up with an explanation for where their parents were, with ideas such as them [[WhenYouComingHomeDad being travelling salesponies]] or simply [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest being dead]], but they never figured out what to do with them, so it's [[ShrugOfGod left ambiguous]] in the series.
96	** Many fans thought the Season 3 episode "Apple Family Reunion", with a title like that, would finally shed light on the situation. [[spoiler: [[TheUnreveal It doesn't]]. There's a whole ContinuityCavalcade of every single Apple member seen in the series up to that point and even several new members, but if Applejack's parents were there they weren't identified. The closest we get is a pair of shooting stars that show up twice, which a [[WordOfSaintPaul storyboard artist]] has said is symbolic of their absence, which could mean a great many things.]]
97	*** This was ultimately addressed in the Season 7 episode "The Perfect Pear," which showed the Apple siblings' parents and how they [[StarCrossedLovers ended up together despite their hardships]], along with very strong hints that both of them are dead. They're spoken of exclusively in the past tense, several characters tear up when reminiscing about them, and Apple Bloom speaks of things to "remember them by."
98	** No word on who Spike's biological parents are. All that's known is that his egg was in the care of Princess Celestia and was hatched by Twilight long before the series began.
99	** Scootaloo has no known biological relatives to speak of either. The closest we get is "Parental Glideance" implying she doesn't have supportive parents, whatever that means.
100	*** Her parents were finally revealed in "The Last Crusade", where they were revealed to study animals in far away places too dangerous to take a foal with them. She was left in their home in Ponyville and cared for by her aunts, though they had their own home outside of Ponyville so they were not as attentive as they would like.
101	* Implied in ''WesternAnimation/NiHaoKaiLan''; Kai-lan's parents are never mentioned or addressed, even when other family members are featured.
102	* ''[[WesternAnimation/ObanStarRacers Ōban Star-Racers]]'': Eva saw her mother die in an accident when she was five, and was subsequently put in a school by her depressive father. When she finds him ten years later, he doesn't recognize her and has apparently grown into a [[StayInTheKitchen misogynistic]] JerkAss [[WellDoneSonGuy who repeatedly dismisses her]]. Then again, [[JustifiedTrope the plot revolves around their issues.]]
103	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOblongs'' episode "Milo, Interrupted", it is revealed that Helga's parents left on vacation a year earlier and never came back... [[spoiler: until the end of the episode, where it is revealed that they survived by eating the other passengers on the plane they took after it crashed.]]
104	* ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons'' had this occur in the "Jelly's Day" shorts. While each short has Jelly visited by one of her relatives (her cousin Hargus in the first short, her Uncle Betty in the second short, and her Auntie Broth in the third short), she lives by herself and it's never explained where her parents are.
105	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
106	** The title characters are missing a [[DisappearedDad biological dad]] and a [[MissingMom biological mom]], respectively. However, their remaining parents are HappilyMarried to each other and have HappilyAdopted their stepchildren, so any issues with this are confined to FanFic.
107	** Some fans have noted that throughout the whole first two seasons, [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Vanessa]] seems to be the only child/teen character with two biological parents; everyone else seems to have a mom but no dad (or in Django's case, a dad but no mom). This recently changed when we finally saw Jeremy's father.
108	** Doofenshmirz's parents couldn't even be bothered turning up for his ''birth.''
109	* ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks'': The parents of the three heroes are never seen nor mentioned.
110	* The ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' gang members either have no parents or just very hands-off parents who don't seem to care that their teenagers go all around the world, hunting down villains in Halloween costumes. Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' series.
111	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'': Drew and Doyle were separated from their parents (and each-other) when they were children during a blizzard in the Himalayas, with Word of God confirming that their parents died. [[spoiler:In actuality, it wasn't a storm that killed their parents and separated the siblings, it was a yeti, who is actually the series BigBad[='s=] real identity]].
112	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'', King Gerard's parents are notably absent from his life at the time he first appears as Prince Gerard in "The Clockwork Smurf". His aunt Imperia has taken care of Gerard, but desires to be coronated queen in her nephew's place, so she has him confined to the dungeon up until his twelfth birthday, where he will be ReleasedToElsewhere...a plan that was foiled by the arrival of Clockwork Smurf.
113	* The absence of Cartman's father in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' is focused on in the first season finale and second season opener. It's said that Cartman's father was actually [[spoiler: his mother who is a hermaphrodite. However, years later in the 200th and 201st episode, it's revealed that this was a lie. His real father was Jack Tenorman, a member of the Denver Broncos, whom he had killed and grounded into chili, although he's more distraught that he's half-ginger than that he killed his father.]]
114	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Ezra Bridger's parents were arrested by {{the Empire}} on his seventh birthday for [[VoiceOfTheResistance making anti-Imperial broadcasts]], and none of his relatives and family friends took him in out of fear of Imperial reprisal. [[spoiler:He never sees them again, as [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E09Legacy "Legacy"]] reveals they died offscreen leading a prison break.]]
115	* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Jasper's criticism of Amethyst being overcooked indicates her abandonment at the kindergarten was intentional. Though this DEFINITELY wasn't the first time Amethyst had to experience this, as Rose hung out with her less when Greg came into her life, and Pearl and Garnet began to treat her as worthless when Rose left.
116	** Steven himself subverts this, as while his father Greg doesn't live with him (due to the Gems), Greg does spend as much time as he can with him, and not only pays for Steven's expenses, but also built the house he lives in by hand. However, Greg's former manager Marty plays this straight with his son Sour Cream, having apparently abandoned Sour Cream and Vidalia after he was born, rarely seeing him (the last time before "Drop Beat Dad" being nine years before).
117	* ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'':
118	** The entire main cast is made up of 14-year-olds, and the show is one of the awkward cases in which nobody even mentions their parents. The closest we ever get is an aunt. And considering how many times they brush death, it's amazing they're allowed out of the house at all. (In fact, the only brothers we see freely admit to hatching out of eggs, leading to much speculation about how exactly the cast are born.)
119	** In "Origins", Aerrow mentions that his, Finn's, and Piper's families and home terras were destroyed by Cyclonians. Stork mentioned an attack on his own terra, but nothing about his parents; Junko is similarly vague.
120	** It is also heavily implied that Lightning Strike, the last leader of the original Storm Hawks, was Aerrow's father. Sure, Aerrow's only ever referred to as a "descendant", but considering Lightning Strike died in his twenties or thirties 10 years before the start of the series and Aerrow is 14...
121	* In the cartoon ''WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo'', Chiro's parents have never even really been mentioned. If he had different caregivers than his parents, they aren't mentioned either. The kid just walks into a Super Robot, befriends some robot monkeys, and no parent/guardian seems to even care where he is. (Aside from the fan theory that Skeleton King may be Chiro's father.)
122	* Lance from ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan''. His father [[spoiler: supposedly]] died when he was very young, and he presumably had a MissingMom, because custody was more or less given to the king and Modula, who sent him off to a military boarding school.
123	* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':
124	** The Titans are conspicuously independent, lacking even {{mentor}} {{superhero}}es (* cough* Franchise/{{Batman}} * cough* ). However, many of their parents are actually accounted for: Robin's origin, although it is never covered in any detail, is hinted at in one episode and would dictate that his parents are dead. It also comes up a couple times in Season 4: [[spoiler: Raven's mother appears briefly in one episode, and her father is a demonic overlord named Trigon (also evidently dead by the end of the season). It is also implied that Cyborg's parents and Beast Boy's parents have passed on, as well.]]
125	** There's no excuse for Starfire though. In one episode they go back to her home planet, and are greeted by her "nanny". The rest of the episode involves Starfire's evil sister Blackfire usurping the throne and trying to marry Starfire off to stop a war. The fate of the original king and queen? Never mentioned.
126	** [[AllThereInTheManual The comic book]], ''ComicBook/TeenTitansGo'', explained that they fell ill after their son (and Star and Black's brother), Wildfire, was sent off the planet and never recovered from it.
127	* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' uses a weird version of this in "Powerless in the Face of Death". You might call it a backwards subversion. It opens with a montage of Dr. Venture's month-long trip around the world to "find himself". Brock is chasing after, to get him to come home, face his responsibilities, and "deal with what happened to the boys". Doc's sons had been killed at the end of the previous episode, so this seems to mean that he is just running from his grief, and Brock wants him to come to terms with it emotionally. What gradually becomes clear is that "dealing with it" really means replacing the boys with a pair of reprogrammed clones, which Doc has done fourteen times before. (The boys are rather death-prone.) So his procrastinating a month on this does amount to Parental Abandonment, although his sons never knew it.
128	* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'': Keith was orphaned at a young age; it's confirmed that his mother left him, and in a tie-in vlog video on Dreamworks' Youtube channel, he theorizes that this might be the part of the reason he seems to push people away before ''they'' can reject ''him''. Season 6 reveals his father died when he was a child. Needless to say, Keith's abandonment issues run pretty deep.
129	* Omi from ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' is an orphan who was raised by monks his while life. Even in the episode where he thinks he found his real parents, those turn out to be nothing but robots built by Jack Spicer and made to look like his parents with Hannibal's Moby Morpher. However, at the end of the episode, Master Fung reminds him that he does have a family (even though not a biological one).
130	* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' is worthy of mention for its almost complete aversion of this trope. Despite living away from home, all the teens except Scott and Rogue have a loving family or foster-family to go home to in the obligatory Christmas episode. Kurt suffers from [[spoiler: combined MissingMom / ParentalBetrayal]], but still notes that his foster parents are great to him. The Brotherhood, on the other hand, have not fared as well -- their parents are all absent for no apparent reason, {{Jerkass}}es, or [[spoiler: the BigBad (Quicksilver does seem to be treated pretty well, though, all things considered)]].
131	* {{Discussed\|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/XMen97''. [[spoiler:Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor's child, Nathan, has been infected by a Techno-Organic Virus by Mr. Sinister. In a desperate attempt to save him, Bishop elects to take Nathan into the future to try and save his life. However, his time travel device doesn't have enough energy to bring Cyclops or Maddie with them. Cyclops, in despair, laments that he doesn't want to abandon his child like his father did to him and begs people for help, but ultimately concedes but refuses to see him go. Maddie, however, imparts a psychic imprint on Nathan, letting him know that he was never abandoned and his parents had him in their thoughts]].
132	* The titular bunnies from ''WesternAnimation/YinYangYo'' have Master Yo the panda as their sensei and father figure, but so far their parents have not been mentioned... though some of their friends (and enemies) have parents ("CAAAAAAARL!"). [[spoiler: It was later revealed that Master Yo ''IS'' Yin and Yang's Father.]]
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Context ParentalAbandonment / WesternAnimation