Abusive Parents - Television Tropes & Idioms

Gendo Ikari of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Also overlaps with neglect over his treatment of his surrogate daughter Rei.
Hiroko "Hiro-chan" Kaizuka's father in Narutaru constantly berates her for anything but a 100% in every class (despite pressure from bullies to do poorly to lower the grading curve), and cuts her ties to the only friends she ever had. That last one finally broke her enough to kill the bullies *and* both of her parents.
Emotional and implied physical abuse of Seto Kaiba by his adoptive father, Gozaburo, in Yu-Gi-Oh! Also emotional neglect of his other sons, Noah and Mokuba. Backfired.
- Ryuuji Otogi as well in the manga, where his father is a crazy clown who carries a whip and uses it on Ryuuji in front of his friends, as well as emotionally abusing him through the guilt-trip of telling Ryuuji he's the only one who can save his father. Cue issues and Ryuuji very cautiously telling his father that it's wrong to want revenge.
- Katsuya Jounouchi has a drunken father who throws bottles at his friends when they try to visit, under the impression that they're Jounouchi.
- Malik's father cuts scars/tattoos into his back as part of a coming-of-age ritual, and uses his adopted brother, Riishid, as a whipping boy. Malik's alter-ego gets revenge.
- Dartz goes insane and tries to kill his own daughter and father... although in that case, it wasn't totally his fault.
The Dark Magical Girl in Princess Tutu suffers from this — her father constantly tells her that she is "hideous" and that "no one could ever love you enough to die for you." He even tries to take her heart to feed his powers at one point. However, near the end it's revealed that he isn't her true father at all, and kidnapped her as a baby — which frees her up to help the main characters kill him.
There is something unsettling about Kyouko's mother in Skip Beat! The few scenes we see of her is when she is openly berating her then six-years-old daughter for not being academically perfect, and then ignoring her. Next we know, Kyouko is doing most of her "family" life with Shou's family, who, cold as they are, she sees as warmer. By the time Kyouko has snapped of her pathologic search of affection and is trying to do her living in another city, it has become more than obvious that the woman just don't care for her, not even to seek fame because of Kyoukos's increasingly notoriety.
Kohane's mother in xxxHoLic sees her daughter only as a financial asset, and maintains her as such. Afraid that anything "unpure" would disrupt her powers as a medium, she forbids Kohane from having any friends and even from talking to people. (This culminates into her throwing scalding hot coffee at Watanuki's face after she finds Kohane eating dinner with him.) Watanuki also notices that she refuses to call her daughter by her name or even touch her. It ends up turning into physical abuse, as well.
Dio Brando's father in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure was an abusive alcoholic who emotionally abused (along with implied physical abuse) his wife and son. Dio ends up killing his father and later becomes one of the most evil bastards in all of anime/manga.
- His son, Giorno, also has a rather abusive step father and neglectful mother, but thanks to Giorno saving a gangster from death with his subconcious use of his stand ability, everything started to change and he went onto become a good man just like his biological father, Johnathan.
General Cross from D.Gray-Man raised Allen Walker and sort of acted as a surrogate father, but it is implied and shown that he heavily abuses Allen (though most of it is shown for comical effect). When Allen was young, Cross would frequently gamble and get into debt, leaving young Allen to deal with the debt collectors (which is the contributing reason to why Allen became so good at cheating in cards). Cross is also shown later punching Allen (again, played for comedy), suggesting that he frequently did this even when Allen was young.
Reiji from Kodomo no Jikan had an alcoholic father and a mother who refused to do anything about it. His hatred for them was so great that he didn't even cry when they died.
- Reiji himself, with his Hikaru Genji Plan
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Fate's mother (technically creator as she was the mother of Alicia) Precia Testarossa regularly flogs Fate for any and all mistakes, and despises Fate because Fate didn't turn out to be as perfect a Replacement Goldfish as she had hoped.
.hack//SIGN had Tsukasa's real life father, who apparently despised that she was a girl, slapped her at a police station when she was caught trying to steal a bra, and killed a kitten that she was trying to raise in a box in an alley.
In the Bakers Dozen episodes of Baccano!, Huey's conversation with Elmer reveals that he's spent quite a deal of time emotionally manipulating his daughter, Chane, for that wonderfully vague and questionable goal of Science! While he does show her something resembling affection, it's very clear that he sees and treats her more like a well trained guinea pig than a human being. He doesn't even consider her human.
Huey: Chane, my animal experiment... Guinea pigs often behave in ways you don't expect.
Roughly half to three quarters of the parental figures in Fruits Basket deserve to be imprisoned for life
In Soul Eater Medusa's Moral Event Horizon moment was stating Chrona was her child (in light of everything she did to hir). This leads to one of the few moments where Spirit actually attacked anyone (with his bare hands anyway).

Close Anime & Manga

Batman sometimes dips into this, depending on the writer. All Star Batman and Robin is the worst offender (Batman forces twelve-years-old Dick Grayson to live in the cave and eat rats), but it's sometimes seen in the regular universe as well. Bruce can go from the world's best father to the cruelest monster imaginable within three issues.
DC comics Deathstroke/Slade Wilson. Even putting aside how he was heavily involved in the deaths of both of his sons you could make a case for this solely on Slade's youngest child. Rose Wilson has spent most of her life since her dad discovered her existence trying to deal with his epic-scale emotional manipulations. After rejecting her at first, he stormed back into her life by having her foster family killed and her kidnapped. Then he lured her into being his apprentice and injected her with the same super-soldier serum that gave him his metahuman fighting abilities (crossing over into Physical Abuse as such). Rose eventually had a psychotic break and carved out her own eye to prove her loyalty to him.
- Crosses over into physical abuse when Deathstroke implants a chunk of kryptonite (which can still give humans cancer) in her eye socket so he could use her as a weapon against Superman.
Wolfsbane's father helped a group of religious fanatics brainwash his daughter to be a programmed killer sent after her teammate Angel. It blows up in his face in an ironic way.
- Given the level of emotional abuse he subjected her to growing up (his hiding the fact that it was he that sired her upon her supposed harlot of a mother being the least of it) and his leading the mob that shot her and tried to burn her at the stake when her powers kicked in, the above shows that he's nothing if not consistent.
When Harry Osborn got his first bike, some boys stole it from him. His father, Norman, took it back only to break it into pieces in front of his son and told him that this happens to his things that he can't guard. Years after, because of his toxic father, Harry started to use drugs. And what Norman is doing currently makes him king of this trope.
- In the recent American Son Story, we learn Norman had sex and knocked up Harry's current girlfriend and made harry think it was him. Worst father ever? You decided.
Oh, and there's Black Tarantula, Spider-Man's ex-enemy, who in the 90's tried to take his son from his ex-wife, both of whom were under the protection of another criminal. He atacked that criminal's headquaters alone, and defeated everyone who got in his way, including Spider-Man. However, when his ex-wife reminded him how his father had destroyed his childhood by forcing him into training and asked if he wanted the same for his son, he just walked away, leaving them alone.

Close Comics

Bill Heslop in Muriel's Wedding degrades his children at every turn, including this little gem in the middle of a restaurant where he was supposed to be impressing a pair of Japanese Businessmen: "Useless. You're all useless! A bunch of useless no-hopes..."

Close Films — Live Action

Roald Dahl's Matilda has this and neglect; they call her names and deride her for not being like them (she prefers to read, they watch endless, brainless television). At one point her father rips up one of her library books while calling it trash. Also her parents leave her (a five year old) alone on afternoons while her father is at work and her mother at bingo.
In Tanith Lee's The Silver Metal Lover, Jane the heroine discovers her mother futzed with her phenotype to make Jane plainer than she should have been, because Mother didn't want the competition. The reader sees all along how Mother passively-aggressively manipulates and undermines Jane at every opportunity. Mother also arranges for the destruction of Jane's android sweetie, because Jane was growing up: growing *away* from Mother.
Tywin Lannister of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. He treated his youngest son like crap for years, culminating in forcing him to watch — and in the end, participate in — the gang-rape of his new wife because she was a commoner.
Micah E.F. Martin's Prophet's House Quintology has Lord John Blackwall, who despises his second son, Jonathan, for outliving Titus, his heir. Then there's Sen'Tan Alecad who engages in Offing The Offspring at every opportunity. Given, he has about eighty kids, so this may be justified.
Jess' father in Bridge to Terabithia The Movie was a borderline case. He was abjectly disrespectful of his son's creativity and constantly making sneering remarks about his son's kind heart and artistic ability. However, he'd started a Heel Face Turn by the end of the movie, brought on by Leslie's death. Jess retained his kindness and creativity, though.
- Janice Avery from the same movie also had an abusive father. For her, it was a Freudian Excuse, in that she was the school bully.
- Janice Avery's abuse is from the book, however, Jess' father being abusive is not in the book at all.
  - Every single novel written by Katherine Paterson has at least one abusive parent. She claims that the reason is because it reflects her childhood.
- Whether his father's actions constitute abuse is questionable, since he only seems to act in that manner at times when his temper might get the better of him, such as when Jess neglects his chores on the farm in favour of his art (and at one point loses the keys to the greenhouse, which would be deduted from his father's salery to replace). The fact that they live close to the poverty line might make his desire for his son to do something that he would see as more practical understandable, if not justified.
Terry Pratchett examples:
- Coin, the Tykebomb from Sourcery was psychically dominated by (what was effectively the ghost of) his father almost from birth, leaving him with almost no personal identity after he was finally freed. May overlap with physical abuse, via Functional Magic; at one point a bystander smells scorched flesh.
- The Truth: William de Worde and his father are not, shall we say, on speaking terms.
In The Lord of the Rings, Denethor despises his more scholarly son Faramir, openly preferring the more war-geared Boromir. It's implied that that's one of the reasons Faramir doesn't try to wake up from a magical coma. This is played up very strongly in the movie, but it's there in the books too; Denethor does mourn Faramir when he's about to die to the point of almost killing both of them in a murder suicide, but he still says that he would've rather lost Faramir than Boromir.
- As in real life, the supposed "favored" child also suffered from the demands of the toxic parent. Boromir's story might have turned out very differently had Denethor been a decent father to both boys. Football dads and soccer moms, take note.

Close Literature

American dark-comedy sitcom TV show Titus. Ken "Papa" Titus was emotionally abusive toward his sons. One of the Too Good To Last shows, canceled due to Executive Meddling.
- One of the quotes from the show:
  "Why abuse a child physically when emotional abuse is far more permanent."
John Winchester might just own this part of the trope. Dean had an "Obey or somebody gets killed" issue while Sam got completely disowned when he wanted to be normal, their tearful phone calls in both Home and Faith got ignored, Dean got used as an emotional punching bag when he was pissed off with Sam and he gave them so little affection that when he acted like a Well Done Son Guy, they thought he was possessed or that there was something incredibly wrong going on.
- To add insult to injury, they were right: daddy was possessed when he was handing out the congrats.
Lost: All the characters have Daddy issues, but Ben's father in particular is so nasty to him (blaming him for his mother's death in childbirth) that the viewer almost cheers when Ben kills him.
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tara Maclay's father has brainwashed Tara into believing that she's a demon.
- Also Amy, whose mother told her she was useless and wasting her youth, stole her body, kept her locked in the house as a prisoner (while still in the wrong body) and almost trapped her in a small cheerleading trophy, forever.
- And then there's Xander's implied difficulties with his parents. He was so worried he might turn out to be a horrible husband and father like his dad that he ended up leaving Anya at the altar, unable to commit to marriage.
  - This Troper always thought Xander was subconsciously sabotaging his own relationships with both Cordelia and Anya, because of this.
- Over in Angel, Wesley says "A man doesn't have to be a demon to terrorize his family." When we meet his father, we see why.
- When Connor was about six his adopted father started tying him to trees in a Hell dimension and running away, to teach him how to track. As he didn't seem to consider this a particularly notable event, that's probably just the tip of the iceberg.
- Can anyone remember seeing Willow's dad ever? Was her mom ever around except when it was going to be unpleasnat or dangerous for Willow? Great parents there.
- This trope is so prevalent in the series and in Angel (and in any Joss Whedon work that mentions parents really) that only one major character was shown to have a happy and loving relationship with her parents. Then she got her soul devoured by an Eldritch Abomination from beyond who then took over her body.
  - I always thought Buffy, Dawn and their mom had a good relationship... and thus the mother must die... of course the mother and father, were unhappy in marriage.
  - And Buffy's dad rapidly turned into a neglectful parent who would rather flee to Spain with his secretary.
Ziva's father. Dear Lord, Ziva's father. Descriptions of her childhood mention that the "fun" activities she enjoyed involved being taken blindfolded into the forest and left to find her own way out. After that he raised her to be a killer, instructed her to kill her own brother, abused his position to spy on her, sent a drunken assassin to pretend to be in love with her, left her to be tortured to death in Somalia without a pang of guilt, and finally tried to frame her for murder. She's cut off all contact with him recently. Shocker.
House: Dr. House's father started out as just a harsh bastard who didn't see eye to eye with his son but then, as is always the way, more than a few nasty things have popped up about him; he doesn't believe in unconditional love, he's apparently never told his son that he was right or did the right thing, he made him sleep outside and take ice baths when he was a child (trust the writers to go for things that are considered torture in some places), refused to speak to him for two months when a twelve-years-old Greg told him (truthfully) that Papa House wasn't his real father and let him go without food if he was ever a tiny bit late for a meal. But, even after all this and in the last fifteen minutes of "Birthmarks", House (in his own guarded way) admits that his father's death has affected him more than he would care to admit.
- Greg House hated his dad so much, he convinced himself that he wasn't his biological son. Not only was he right, but he made the deduction based on red flags spotted when he was fourteen, something that impresses even Wilson. He even deduced his actual father. The accuracy of the second part is never confirmed, though. Whatever kind of lesson this gives is rather ambiguous.
Scrubs: Dr Cox's father was an abusive alcoholic, while his mother simply let his father abuse Dr Cox and his sister. He can't stand the sight of his own sister, because seeing her reminds him of their childhood.
- Jordan once or twice used this as an excuse for why she's so mean, but later admits that they were both very supportive.
Tony Soprano is emotionally manipulated and terrorized by his difficult mother throughout his childhood and well into his adult life. One notable incident featured his mother threatening to stick a fork in his eye when he was only ten years old. Tony's father was outwardly friendly, yet also a manipulative sociopath who indoctrinated his son into violent crime and the mob. It's implied that the various degrees of emotional manipulation and terror Tony suffered under his parents is what turns him into the violent sociopath that heads the New Jersey crime families. Oddly enough, Tony manages to become a better father to his kids than his parents ever were to him (despite being an aforementioned violent sociopath), and his children turn out relatively nice and normal, even if they have a few issues of their own.
In Young Dracula, Dracula shows blatant favoritism for Vlad over his older sister Ingrid, even though Ingrid acts exactly the way he keeps pressuring Vlad to act. One could argue that he's also abusive to Vlad based on his inability to accept that Vlad isn't a younger copy of himself, but it's much less blatant than his abuse of Ingrid.
George Sr. and Lucille Bluth of Arrested Development treated all of their children with varying degrees of abuse, which continued (to an extent) well into their adulthood. Michael and Gob were constantly played against each other (and occasionally manipulated into physically fighting each other) because George believed it to be a way of preparing them for conflict in life. They were also constantly undermined to keep them working for George's approval (Gob' desire to pursue a career in magic is constantly mocked, and his parents make it clear that he is The Unfavourite; Michael had a ridiculuosly extreme work ethic instilled in him, and George would often shoot down his ideas for the family business, regardless of what he thought of them). Lindsey is often reminded of the fact that she has never really achieved anything, and Lucille has made cracks about her weight (when Lindsey doesn't really have any weight problems) since she was very young. Buster was made to have a crippling overdependence on his mother, only for her to discard him whenever she considers him to be an inconvenience or imposition; George is also highly disdainful of his lack of independence and maturity. George would also traumatise his children by making them associate certain unwanted behaviors with severe mutilation, in order to teach them "lessons" (such as leaving a note when they run out of milk). Lindsey's abuse is probably the darkest when it is learned that she is adopted, and Lucille admits they didn't want her and only adopted her to spite Stan Sitwell, who had been trying to adopt her himself. They also spoiled all of their children except Michael to the point that they had virtually no work ethic, which many would consider a form of abuse.
The second season of the new Doctor Who gave us Eddie Connolly, a 1950s patriarch who was a product of his time. He treated his son and wife like dirt, going so far as to lock his wife's mother in the attic to starve to death when she lost her face as part of the Monster Of The Week's plan.
These kinds of parents came up a few times in the original Twilight Zone, specifically the stepfather in "Living Doll" and Jenny's aunt in "The Fugitive". Although the last one really did love Jenny, as she was clearly distressed when Jenny was near death.
What kind of parents did Annika Hansen have? They kept her with them when they flew into the most dangerous area of the galaxy, ignoring the danger while in search of the most dangerous species anyone in the Federation knew of. And we all know how well that turned out. Annika Hansen is the birth name of Seven of Nine.

Close Live Action TV

In First Encounter Assault Recon, Alma already came pre-emotionally abused due to her psychic powers, but it only got worse after her father, Harlan Wade, started using her as an incubator for psychic super-soldiers and pretty much pulling her children out of her hands as she screamed for them. Is it any wonder that she eventually snapped?
King Desmond in Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken makes no bones about the fact that he loathes his son Zephiel and even tries to kill him twice. Is it any wonder this wise, gentle boy grows up to be such a bastard in Fuuin no Tsurugi?
- Ashnard's treatment of his son is more a case of Parental Abandonment, but the fact that he used his son to lure a dragon to his side, and the fact that he kept the boy separated from his mother even after abandoning them both, probably falls into the "abusive" category. Strangely, while the son turned out to be just as good a strategist as the father, he was also fiercely loyal to Ike.
It's heavily implied that in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Manfred von Karma was, at the very least, emotionally abusive toward his adoptive son and biological daughter. Both had breakdowns in adulthood as a result of the pressure he put on them growing up, and let's just say he was famous for having...very stiff penalties for people who would accept anything less than complete perfection. That's not even getting into what the guy is shown actually doing in-game to said adoptive son...
Hojo and Lucrecia from Final Fantasy VII did genetic experiments on their son while he was still in the womb in the name of science. The resulting child, Sephiroth, did not take this well.
Matsuri, Aoba and Jun's parents in Family Project. Jun's are probably the worst. Her father molested her and her sister since they were small children for years until a neighbor noticed and they got taken away. Their mother? Envious. So she starved them for days on end and then would feed them horrible things. Like flat out poison to Jun, which nearly killed her and prevents her from eating anything but snack bars and drinks.

Close Video Games

Oasis's (adoptive) father in Sluggy Freelance uses mind control technology to turn her into his slave and personal assassin, who he plans to use to fulfill various Fanservice fantasies.
- To a lesser extent, it's heavily implied that Riff's mom, Dr. Lorna, deeply screwed him up when he was a kid. If she treated him anything like how she treats every other human being on the planet, it's amazing he's not an even madder scientist than he is now.
Leeza's father, Admiral Blake, in Terinu is implied to have merely been an Absent Parent when she was growing up. Now that she's an adult he's rebounded into a Manipulative Bastard, getting her fired when she thwarted his plans for Teri, sticking her with the boy's gaurdianship so he could still keep an eye on them both, the culminating in arresting her and sending her to prison when she threatened to go public with the news that humanity wiped out Terinu's race.
The Order of the Stick: The only way in which Roy's father seems to care at all for either of his children is the extent to which they can fulfill his blood oath. He's especially abusive regarding Roy's career choice.
- So much so that when Roy dies, he offers his father a bargain: Roy will only cooperate if his father agrees to go away and leave the entire family alone for eternity. For double points, Daddy jumps on the bargain and scoffs that Roy made his price so low.

Close Web Comics

In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Norman Osborn barely conceals his contempt for his son Harry. This manifests in snide criticisms about his son's issues, hobbies and successes and also in blatant, stunningly passive-aggressive displays of Parental Favoritism towards Harry's best friend Peter Parker, when both boys are present. This is of course, when Norman isn't dismissing Harry and ignoring him entirely in favor of his job. Harry's mother does this too, not even verbally acknowledging him when he greets her. As a result, Harry has...issues.
In King of the Hill, Hank's father Cotton is an abusive Jerk Ass of the highest order, who has considered Hank to be a horrific failure ever since, quite literally, the day he was born. (It is said in one episode that this is because he was born in New York instead of Texas.) While there are incremental moves towards a better relationship between the two, they always backslide by the end of the episode due to Cotton's aforementioned jerkass nature and Hank's difficulty and distaste for anything emotional. When Cotton is finally called out on his deathbed, it made for one of the best scenes in the show's entire 12-year run. Despite this abuse, Hank is one of the most well adjusted characters on the show.
- Of course, a few episodes later we're introduced to Kahn's father-in-law, who has implied that he would have Kahn killed if he could get away with it.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Fire Lord Ozai not only had a favorite and an Unfavorite child, but he brutally scarred the latter, Zuko, and has attempted to kill him multiple times. Zuko found a better father figure in his uncle and mentor Iroh and eventually outgrew the need for his father's approval.
- Ozai exiled and disowned Zuko when he was thirteen, for ... speaking out of turn in a war meeting (the kid was not supposed to be there in the first place, but the level of punishment was overkill). In addition to burning a good fourth of his face off, Ozai loudly and publicly called Zuko an embarrassing failure and a traitor without honor, for the high crimes of idealism, a degree of rudeness, and reluctance to face his father in a duel to the death.
- Ozai isn't a very good parent to Azula, either. He encourages her psychopathic and murderous tendencies, while her mother, by contrast, tried to get her to be more compassionate. I'm not sure if it qualifies as "abuse" but it is her eventual downfall.
  - Ozai probably learned to be a schmuck from his dad, Azulon, who at one point orders Ozai to kill Zuko so he would know what it is like to lose a son.
- Also in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Toph's parents are in continual conflict with her. They basically locked her in the house, ostensibly to "protect" their helpless little blind girl.
Abe Simpson of The Simpsons would waver between being a decent parent that Homer liked and a distant and condescending jerk toward him. Homer himself often does inconsiderate Jerk Ass things, including calling Bart an accident to his face ("But it's cute when I do it.") and putting a cell phone tower in his daughter's room.
- In one of the episodes where they are telling fairy tale stories, the Hansel and Gretel story has the kids stumble past their older siblings (skeletons on Bart, Lisa, and Maggie), who have long since died of exposure.
Ulrich Stern's father in Code Lyoko. It's little wonder why Ulrich grew up so withdrawn...
Sugah Mama treats Oscar this way in The Proud Family.
In the GI Joe cartoon, Low Light's father not only openly mocked him as a child for his "cowardice", he forced the kid to prove himself by dumping him in a junkyard at night and telling him not to come home until he had killed twenty rats. Even as an adult this gives Low Light recurring nightmares.

Close Western Animation

Hayate of Hayate the Combat Butler has incredibly neglectful parents — they spend all their money of gambling, and steal from Hayate to fund their habits, eventually selling his organs to the ~~Yakuza~~ Very Nice People to pay off their debts.
- They also stole a ring from him when he was a child given to him by the goddess Athena. He desperately wanted to trust and love them. He put his place in heaven at jeopardy to argue with Athena that they were good people; so she put all of her love for Hayate into that ring. His parents smiled, said they would take good care of it, and hawked it at a pawn shop. Hayate was kicked out of Athena's grace.
In the Prince of Tennis anime, Kevin Smith's father George is an emotionally scarred alcoholic who heavily neglected Kevin by subjecting him to Training From Hell *and* not caring if the child was around when he was drunk. Kevin openly tells his teammate Billy that his father is a worthless person and that's why he wants to beat Ryoma, to not be like his dad.
Gaara of Naruto was horribly neglected by his father who ordered him killed on several occasions. This left Gaara to be raised by his uncle Yashamaru, who initially respected him... but said uncle ultimately ends up betraying him and being killed by Gaara, leaving the latter to trust no one.
In Yu Yu Hakusho, Yusuke's mother clearly cares about him a great deal, but she's also an alcoholic and does almost nothing to actually look after him.
In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, although Tsuna's mother loves him, she definitely doesn't really care enough about his future or his self-esteem to count as a very good parent (including not doing anything about his truancy or poor grades, and constantly belittling him in front of his friends and the girl he likes as "No Good Tsuna" — honestly, he's only 14 years old). And then there's his father, who went missing for most of Tsuna's life, and only reappears suddenly to force Tsuna (without even asking Tsuna if he wants to first) into becoming a Mafia crimelord that will be targeted by countless assassins.
Gauron from Full Metal Panic certainly qualifies in relation to the twins Yu Fang and Yu Lan. Not surprising, considering his personality. He cares little for their physical or mental wellbeing, and is shown to mainly care about using them for his plans. There are hints and implications that his relationship with them also might not strictly have been a pure, father-daughter kind. He also didn't seem to care that, by having them work in Amalgam, they were being raped and beaten by Gates (which was apparently happening to them ever since they were young children). Despite all this, they still obsessively love him.
Riza Hawkeye's father of Fullmetal Alchemist appears to have been so absorbed in his alchemy research he disregarded the wellbeing of his daughter and the state of his home. Hawkeye said that her father "at least" made sure she got an education. As well, her father's tattooing of a massive alchemical array on her back could only be described as physical abuse.

Close Anime & Manga

In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic, ~~Evil Sonic's~~ Scourge's father Anti Jules made very little time for his son. Scourge would describe him as full of "empty words". It's heavily implied he was killed by his son.

Close Comics

Adrian's parents in the Adrian Mole series border on neglect, though it is played for laughs.
- They don't have much time for each other either, as they are usually busy having affairs with neighbours and people they work with.
Warrior Cats: Crowfeather. The only reason he had Breezepaw was to get his clan to forget about him running off with Leafpool, and it really shows in how well he treats his son.
- For that matter, most of the characters ignore their family completely. The families of most of the characters who were born before the beginning of the series are unknown because they never acknowledge being related to anyone.
Also played for laughs in the Teenage Worrier series, where Letty's parents are rarely at home, refuse to cook or buy groceries, smoke in the house and largely ignore her in favour of their younger son.
While his sisters suffer Sexual Abuse, Thomas Raith is generally neglected until it's time to insult somebody by having him appear in his father's place. It's implied that if Thomas hadn't used Obfuscating Stupidity to play the Airheaded Playboy role to the hilt, he would've been offed.
Subverted (sort of) in Coraline. Yes, the heroine's parents never have time for her, but the alternative is much, much worse - and we see that the parents do care for Coraline when they finally find time.

Close Literature

Oh, John Winchester, you crazy bastard. Is there any chance you could possibly forget about hunting for one day? Especially when your eldest son is twelve, your youngest is nine and it's, oh yes, CHRISTMAS!
- Sure, go ahead, John, leave your nine- and five-year-old alone in a motel room with a loaded shotgun for days while you hunt a monster that preys on children. I'm sure that'll work out just fine.
- This troper still thinks he was using them as live bait.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer gives us Buffy's divorced dad, who starts out okay but then slowly weans himself out of her life, and Willow's mother, who is only interested in her work, sees Willow as a statistic, apparently only ever talks to her to impress political viewpoints on her, and is generally so disinterested that she was surprised to see Willow had cut her long hair when it had been like that for months.
Pushing Daisies. After his mother died, Young Ned's father dropped him off at a boarding school and never came back. He found a new family, with two new sons... And then abandoned them, too.
The final episode of the original Twilight Zone centered around two children of neglectful parents who find a child's paradise at the bottom of their pool.

Close Live Action TV

First Encounter Assault Recon gets another mention here, considering Harlan Wade had Alma locked up inside a psychically shielded vault and kept in a drug-induced coma for the majority of her life.
Tales of the Abyss has Luke fon Fabre. He was held captive in his own home for seven years because he's meant to be used as a sacrifice to fulfill a prophecy to give the Kingdom a short-lived prosperity during a war. His father is distant to him in the beginning, than when Luke becomes a hero by lowering the Outer Lands to prevent them from sinking into miasma, he refuses to let Luke contact his friends, as he is "above" them. While his mother is a kind woman, she is rather doting on him, seeing as she is often bed-ridden and lonely. It doesn't help that after all that Luke has done for the world, both seem to prefer their real son, now known as Asch, over him.
Angela in Seiken Densetsu III; her mom ignored her for the majority of her life and then tries to kill her at the beginning of the game. Granted this is because she was being manipulated by Koren but still...

Close Video Games

Vaarsuvius from The Order of the Stick qualifies as a neglectful parent to his/her adopted children, considering how s/he left her/his family to become an adventurer, a fairly dangerous profession, without giving any idea when V would return. And, despite having access to magic that can communicate with them, s/he does not bother to call home.
- In fact, in over 600 strips, the children are not even mentioned until an ancient black dragon threatened to eat them in revenge for Vaarsuvius killing the dragon's child.
Zip's parents in DDG are strongly implied to be examples of the neglect and emotional abuse types.

Close Web Comics

Clara, Clara Clara to an almost criminal extent.

Close Web Original

File Helga's parents, Bob and Myriam in Hey Arnold under Neglect unto Abuse. They're not BAD persons per se, but Helga was The Un Favorite growing up (Word Of God stated that her mother Myriam was an alcoholic), and for a while it was her Freudian Excuse to be the school bully... but if the series finale is to be believed, she grows past it and ends up not only married to Arnold, but President of the United States.
- Not even the favorite child, Olga, had it easy. The excessive and asphyxiating attention from her parents (especially Bob) shaped her into an insecure, hysteric, overachieving, whiny Extreme Doormat and Shrinking Violet who breaks down to a ridiculous degree if she makes a wrong step. In her own words, "[Helga,] you're lucky to have them not all over you."
Dr. Venture of The Venture Brothers seems to have absolutely no interest in his sons, and treats them as walking organ bank and largely not caring if they live or die because he can clone them ad nausea. His own father has been shown as unintentionally emotionally traumatizing young Rusty through his womanizing ways.
- This changes ( a little) in season 4, when Dr. Venture begins grooming Dean to follow in his footsteps. On the other hand, he does not take it well when Hank turns into a rebellious Emo Teen.
In Invader Zim, Dib's superscientist father is portrayed as neglectful, obsessed with his work to the point of not even recognizing his son in one episode. Dib seems to have responded to this by becoming similarly obsessed with his pursuits and indifferent towards his father, while sister Gaz seems eager for his company and attention.
Timmy's parents in The Fairly Oddparents are quite neglectful and extremely selfish. They do love him though; they're more like Adult Children than truly evil abusers. Still, there are times when they put Timmy's happiness after their own, and in the "Wishology" trilogy they fail to notice he's been in Fairy World for an extended period of time, and don't notice they forgot to take him on two family vacations. It speaks volumes when, in part one, Timmy shrugs off the fact that they don't remember they have a son. The mother has even openly spent Timmy's college fund on stuff for herself when viewing the home shopping channel.
- At one point when they notice "fly head Timmy" eating garbage, they refer to how they frequently forget to make dinner for three people (they only make dinner for themselves). Seriously, these are some of the worst parents in all of television.
- As bad as Timmy's parents are, Remy Buxaplenty's are even worse. They spend a minute a day with their son and don't even remember his name. If "Remy Rides Again" is any indication, they've only gotten worse.
Ron's parents in Kim Possible are barely involved in his life, and barely involve Ron in their decisions either, to the point that the major revelations in their family, moving to Europe in the first Movie, and adopting a baby, are revealed to Ron with his parents saying "This is our way of telling you..." after he walks home from school to find a "SOLD" sign on his house, and then by finding that his room has been changed into a nursery. Ron repeatedly gets parental-type advice from his angry teacher, Mr Barkin and it seems that Kim's family play a bigger role in his life than his own.
- They also repeatedly dump his baby sister on him so they can go out. This is all Played For Laughs.
  - Comparing the family state of Ron, an only child for most of the series, to Kim, with brothers and extremely involved and supportive parents is quite jarring, and shows up a few times in the show itself, including Ron's "freakout" at losing "everything he ever cares about"... which amounts to Kim and a fast food joint.
It's explicitly stated in Metalocalypse that Skwisgaar's standing as the world's fastest guitarist (in the world's greatest band) is due to the sheer neglect of his mother, who was also Miss Sweden 1956.
Danny Phantom's parents border on neglectful, especially his father, because they're so obsessive about ghosts (with a yearly fight over whether Santa Claus existed or not during Christmas that resulted in various bad luck to Danny). Though the series has also taken into great account that family means as much to them as does ghost hunting; going to great lengths to protect their children and to show how much they love them.
Duckman's mother forgot her son's name, didn't care that he skipped school because of bullying, went on a cruise when an auto accident left him on the brink of death, and missed his graduation and wedding.

Close Western Animation

Pokémon: Chimchar and Charmander were treated this way by their former trainers before Ash came to the rescue. Chimchar even had a bit of character development an episode after being caught by its new trainer to get used to the drastic change.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: Precia Testarossa whips her daughter for not bringing her enough Jewel Seeds.
- Abuse is a leading cause of Dark Magical Girls in general.
Soichiro Arima from Kare Kano, who had very violent parents who beat him until he was abandoned and sent to live with his more generous aunt and uncle.
- Note that in the manga... Arima's birth father, Reiji, actually realized this was wrong and directly asked his older brother to raise his kid so little Arima would have a normal life from then on. Also, several years later Reiji comes back and attempts to make things better (though seriously, threatening him and Yukino at gunpoint to make sure your boy listens to you?). Arima's mother Ryouko, on the other hand, remains abusive — Reiji came back to Japan intending to kill her on behalf of their son.
Shiina's parents aren't together anymore in Narutaru, because her mother Misono strangled her once. Shiina also gets emotional abuse from her, since Misono was so mentally damaged by the death of her older daughter Mishou that she convinced herself that Shiina, born some days before Misho's demise, was to blame. And when Mom actually redeems herself? She's almost immediately murdered.
Misaki Aoyagi, Ritsuka's mentally unstable mother in Loveless, abuses her remaining son after the eldest one, Seimei, dies in very odd circumstances. While the anime mostly implies the abuse, showing her screaming and throwing things and one brief silhouette of her strangling him, the manga goes into almost graphic detail with the maddened Misaki hitting, biting, stabbing (with a fork), and trying to drown her 12-year-old son, all the while screaming about how he's not her real child, how she wants the "true Ritsuka" to come back, and how she should have had him aborted. The best part is that his father is implied to live with them, yet does nothing to stop it.
- I think there's a shot of him at one point standing by the door while she's beating Ritsuka.. Or So I Heard.
In Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Giorno Giovanna was mentally and physically abused by his stepfather, and was neglected by his mother. It's a good thing he never met his real father, Dio Brando, or his childhood would have been even worse than that.
A recurring theme in the semi-autobiographical stories by horror manga author Hideshi Hino. Dad is an abusive alcoholic pig slaughterer while mom went violently insane the day the Author Avatar was born with a smile on his face and a blood clot/his dead twin's head in his hand — "Demon child!". Mom enjoys tying up lil' Hideshi and torturing him while Dad has to tie up mom in order to control her. Incidently, Grandpa is a yakuza and/or a gambler while Grandma believes she's a chicken/is violently raped, murdered, and stuffed down a well, depending on what story you're reading.
Creed from Black Cat was physically and emotionally abused by his mother (a prostitute) when he was young, causing him to become a Draco In Leather Pants.
.hack//SIGN also indicated that Tsukasa was physically beaten as well, such as when Krim was just getting upset caused Tsukasa to have a flashback, started to cry "Please don't hit me, please don't hit me." Tsukasa's father is also implied to be the "crazy man" who tried to kill Tsukasa's real body in the hospital bed. .hack//LINK: Twilight Knights has shown more delightful images from Tsukasa's real life childhood, showing multiple body-wide bruises.
In Kannazuki No Miko, Souma and Tsubasa were often beaten by their father; one flashback shows him holding a baseball bat. This drives Tsubasa to murder him, and is the main reason for Tsubasa joining Orochi.
While really more of an Abusive Uncle, Complete Monster Teppei Hojo from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni definitely fits this trope. He beats Satoko and forces her to do chores for him, threatening to burn down her beloved brother's room if she doesn't comply. It's revealed later on that he's also a pimp, and is engaged in a fraud scheme with one of his working girls to scam half a million yen out of Rena's father. Teppei's fate changes in each of the three arcs he appears in. He is murdered by Keiichi in Tatarigoroshi-hen, murdered by Rena in Tsumihoroboshi-hen, and arrested by Child Services in Minagoroshi-hen.
- Though she is rarely mentioned, it is implied that Satoko's aunt behaved in a similar manner.
Similarly, in Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, Rosa is this towards Maria.

Close Anime & Manga

The most recent incarnation of the DCU's Firestorm was physically abused by his father.
In Runaways, Chase Stein's Mad Scientist dad beat him for doing badly at school.
Marvel Comics' Tabitha Smith/Boom-Boom was abused by her father until she ran away from home. This is a pretty commonplace trope for their mutant characters.
Cassandra Cain is an odd case. She received plenty of emotional support and positive reenforcement from the man who raised her from birth to around age eight (who was also eventually revealed to be her biological father), however shooting her until she learned to get out of they way and preventing her from learning language to so that segment of her brain would read bodies instead qualify as abuse under any definition imaginable.
Brenda from the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle comics. Her father reportedly knocked her around on a regular basis at first, but then upped the ante and put her in the hospital when the police questioned her about Jaime's disappearance, causing Brenda's crime boss aunt to have him killed.
Obsidian's adoptive father was physically abusive when he was drunk. Unfortunately, he was drunk pretty much all the time. During his time as a villain, Obsidian killed said adoptive father.
Marvel Comics Bullseye possibly has abusive father. Whatever it's true or not, guy is dead.
Carnage, another crazy supervillain from Marvel has serious issues with this. At last one of his parents was abbusive. He said once, that his mother tried to kills him, but his father saw this and killed her. Hoever, another time he said, that his father killed mother, whe he was trying to kill him. Possibly his grandmother was that same kind of person. For both father and grandmother it didn't end well.
Darkdevil from Spider-Girl, by a gambling alcoholic uncle. Not to be confused with his other uncle.

Close Comics

In The Prince of Tennis badfics, one EXTREMELY common plot device is to make the parents of one of the characters physically, emotionally, sexually and/or mentally abusive, to throw said chara in the arm of his/her (but most usually his, since yaoi fics use it more often) True Love. The most common victims are the fathers of Shuusuke Fuji and Kaoru Kaidoh.
- Heck, even dōjinshi use this cliché. In one of NEGAHYST Circle's Niou x Yagyuu dj, Masaharu Niou and his mother are routinely abused by Niou's alcoholic father, as a plot device to throw Niou in his partner Hiroshi Yagyuu's arms.

Close Fan Works

A bit of narration in Terminator 2: Judgment Day has Sarah Connor reflecting on the fact that every would-be father figure Sarah had chosen for John was abusive or in some way unfavorable... except the reprogrammed T-800 sent to protect John.
- Also, John is tipped off about the T-1000's replacing his foster mother partly by the fact that "she" suddenly starts being nice to him.
Mommie Dearest, which is based on the infamous exploits of Joan Crawford. Faye Dunaway's Crawford is painful to listen to at times.
In Broken Blossoms Lucy Burrows is regularly beaten by his father, who eventually kills her.

Close Films — Live Action

Mackie Messer from Wild Cards was physically abused by his mother. Possibly sexually as well.
Davy Rice from the Jumper book was physically abused by his father.
- In fact, Davy's learning to deal with the emotional effects of the abuse he and his estranged mother suffered is a major subplot of the novel.
Count Olaf from A Series of Unfortunate Events was the Baudelaires' legal guardian, and really, he covered all the abuses. He hit Klaus, called Sunny names, and was going to force Violet to marry him all to get the family fortune. It was mainly played for dark comedy, but in The Movie, Olaf's abuse was a bit less comedic and a bit more shocking. The Baudelaires also managed to avoid the Freudian Excuse and grew up fairly well because they had each other to lean on despite the horrors plaguing them.
Beverly Marsh from Stephen King's It, whose father took the Overprotective Dad archetype into abusive levels, and it was also implied that he held sexual feelings for his daughter. The man that she married, Tom Rogan, was just as abusive as her father.
- It's hard to tell if Henry's bat-shit craziness was a result of heredity or environment. There's also a whole chapter on the disappearance of a boy who turns out to be one of It's victims. Newspaper clippings chronicle an investigation revealing that the boy's stepfather killed another stepson with a hammer.
And the title character's mother from Stephen King's Carrie, whose insane religious fanaticism led to physical and emotional abuse upon her only daughter, whom she believed to be the spawn of the devil since Carrie was conceived through marital rape. She tried to kill her once when she was a baby, and when the two had their showdown following Carrie's telekinetic rampage at the prom, she tried to kill her again, putting a knife through her daughter's shoulder before Carrie killed her by either stopping her heart telekinetically (book and newer film version) or using several knives to stab and pin her to a door (1979 film version).
In one of the most harrowing treatments of the subject in a children's book, Willie in Goodnight, Mister Tom is regularly beaten and starved by his religious maniac mother. He is eventually found locked in a cupboard after a week's incarceration, cradling his dead baby sister.
Terry Pratchett has used this a few times. Young Nobby Nobbs fears prison because his father's in there, and he used to break Nobby's arms. And while the Grey House isn't exactly parental abuse, it's still... icky.

Close Literature

Scrubs: It was revealed in Season Five and referred to in later seasons that Dr. Cox's (and his sister's) father was a violently abusive alcoholic who showed love by throwing bottles at his head and missing on purpose.
- And let's not forget The Janitor's parents who kept him in a "Baby Cage" (which was actually a pet carrier). One would assume this was just another one of his many Blatant Lies if he weren't so distraught by the fact that know one else had ever heard of a Baby Cage and were so horribly disturbed when he gave one as a present for a baby shower.
  - Don't forget the overheard phone conversation with his mother, "no mom, playpen/baby cage is not like tomayto/tomahto."
  - The Janitor also has occational flashbacks in the show to his mother cheerfully assigning him bizarre and rather cruel punishments when he was messy. One example that springs to mind was making him eat his dinner off the floor (with no plates), because he got crumbs everywhere. "Soup night was the worst..."
Logan in Veronica Mars was belt-whipped onscreen by his father, whilst his mother looked on.
In Supernatural's "Nightmare", the first psychic child Sam and Dean meet is Max Miller. Max is a slightly deranged, telekinetic, abused child who was beaten by his father and uncle almost daily. He killed them both and, instead of killing his mother (before shooting Dean dead) like he was going to, he ends up tragically killing himself.
Not quite true parentage, but in Deep Space Nine Doctor Mora Pol was the scientist that was supposed to figure out what Odo was initially, subjecting him to a lot of probings and unpleasantness (though he was under pressure from the Cardassians at the time). Eventually he figured out that Odo was sentient, but didn't quite realize just how much Odo resented being subjected to the crap that he was. Even years later, Doctor Mora didn't realize how much of an ass he was to Odo, constantly interrupting him and telling him that he was responsible for Odo becoming the man that he was and educating him in interacting in society (which would make him the closest thing to a parent Odo would have), leaving out the parts where also he electrified him, subjected him to vacuum, and used a "protein decompiler" on him. Eventually, it took Odo trying to maul/kill him while under the Changeling equivalent of a mind altering substance for him to realize that a lot of what Dr. Mora did was not appreciated, and he became somewhat less an ass to Odo in subsequent episodes.
Arnold Rimmer and his three brothers were abused by their father in various ways; the most severe of them was the use of a Rack to try to accelerate their growth-as Rimmer's father had been refused entry to the Space Corps for being an inch below regulation height. Indeed, all of the abuse they suffered was to make them succeed where Rimmer Snr. had failed; unfortunately, Arnold continually tries to use this as an excuse for his constant failures and annoying behaviour, whilst his brothers each become successful in their own Space Corps specialty.
- Ironically, a deleted scene from the series six episode Rimmerworld reveals that Arnold might be the best adjusted of his brothers: at some point before the accident that left Red Dwarf without a crew, Rimmer's three brothers suffered long-delayed psychotic breakdowns, each one resulting in a significant body count.
Part of Michael Westen's backstory is that his father physically abused Michael and his younger brother Nate. It's never mentioned if Mr. Westen beat Madeline as well (though good luck with that, considering the woman carries around a shotgun), but 3x07 "Shot in the Dark" has Michael, Sam, and Fiona helping a mother and two boys on the run from an abusive stepfather.
- It also confirms the abuse is the reason why Michael is taking such a "domestic" situation so seriously:
  Madeline: For two little boys getting kicked around by their father? Michael would take on the entire Chinese army.
- Michael's background with his father was used in an episode overtly, when he was hired by a mother to get her son back from his father. The character's narration mentions that it's a bad idea to get involved with causes that have emotional impact, since they can lead you to make bad decisions. The mother who hired him turns out to be an assassin, after the father of the boy. After Michael and the target escape, the assassin tells Michael that she has been following his progress for the last decade (after he nearly managed to catch her following one of her hits, without knowing who she was), and she used the 'father kidnaps son' story specifically because he has problems with thinking clearly in such scenarios.
On The West Wing, the only flashback showing Jed Bartlet's father includes him hitting his teenage son in the face for challenging him over the issue of banned books at his school (of which his father's the headmaster). This is not a one-time incident; over the course of the series, it's mentioned that Bartlet Sr. resented his son for being so intelligent, and there's also the fact that Jed was raised Catholic like his mother while the other kids were raised Protestant, which apparently was hard for Bartlet Sr. to take.

Close Live Action TV

In Guilty Gear X Sol, Badguy takes a part in bounty hunting of Dizzy. He finds her and beats the hell out of her. And it's possible not only that he is her father, but also that he alredy knew it, when he get after her.

Close Video Games

Occurs so frequently in Survival of the Fittest that it isn't even funny. A good example would be Mariavel Varella (V2's favourite ~~Mary Sue~~ Villainess), although a large majority of V1 characters seem to have them too, and the trope is also strongly evident in V2. Fortunately, it has apparently dried up in the third game,, being far less common. Not rare enough, however, for a majority of handlers not to be thoroughly sick of the trope though.

Close Web Original

Arpo Butcher in Sons of Butcher.
Toki Wartooth in Metalocalypse was brutally beaten at the hands of his father, reverend Aslaug Wartooth. His offenses include whipping him heavily, leaving him (mostly) unclothed and out in the bitter Norwegian cold, and chaining his wrists together and letting him hang from the ceiling.
Clay Puppington in Moral Orel often takes his son into his den and belts him whenever his exploits causes Hilarity to Ensue before giving out a Spoof Moral based off of bigoted 1950's beliefs. He gets even worse as time goes on. The show gives him a particularly disturbing Freudian Excuse for being the person he is by showing how as a kid he accidentally caused his mother to die of a stroke, at which point his father became so emotionally distant that him slapping Clay is the only form of emotional acknowledgment to the point that he provoked his father whenever he can. Clay himself states in a drunken rant that he believes that the true meaning of "family" is constant and total suffering for people you despise for the sake of being a "good person".
- The abuse gets very horrifying without being sexual. Just watch the two-part episode "Nature". It speaks for itself.
As stated earlier, Fire Lord Ozai shot his son in the face with a fireball and tried to kill him a couple of times.
Although it's Played For Laughs, Homer chokes Bart on a semi-regular basis.

Close Western Animation

Mayu from Elfen Lied was raped by her stepfather, this being the reason why she ran away from home.
- To add extreme insult to injury, her already-distant mother, when Mayu told of this abuse, did not disbelieve her or ask her to not say anything, she slapped and berated her out of jealousy, treating her violated daughter as a sexual competitor! While in the anime, she refers to Kouta and Yuka as the mother and father of the group, in the manga, she is understandably still phobic towards guys, and while she respects, admires, and is grateful to the pair, any overt parental associations are kind of shut out. This troper can entirely sympathize.
  - Ironically, she bonds the most with Bantou who generally treats her like crap (mostly verbally).
It is implied that Akira Sakura suffers this at the hand of her father in the Narutaru anime, and practically spelled out in the manga. And she calls him out by stabbing him to death.
The manga Bitter Virgin focuses on Hinako, age 16, who is revealed to have been a victim of sexual abuse from her stepfather. Made worse by the fact her mother refused to believe it was happening until this abuse got Hinako pregnant for the second time. The experience left her with a powerful phobia towards men.
Kira from the manga Mars is raped by her stepfather. That's how her shyness and fear of boys gets explained.
In the Ikki Tousen manga/anime, Straight Arrow Little Miss Badass Ten'i (Dian Wei) is raped by her father and she kills him in revenge.

Close Anime & Manga

The DCU's Damage was sexually abused by his foster father.
According to Elektra: Assassin, Elektra of Daredevil was sexually abused by her father at the age of five, after which she was told it had never happened until she more-or-less believed it.
One of Ben Reilly's girlfriends, Elizabeth Tyne, who decided to become a Self Made Orphan.
- Made worse in Spider-Girl of all universes, where it's implied that after turning herself in, Elizabeth spent the rest of her life in prison for killing the jerk. Oh, and her son ends up being (physically) abused by her family, too.

Close Comics

Succubus, one of the characters from the Wild Cards series, was used as a sexual toy by her parents.
Harper and her stepbrother from the Grave Sight series by Charlaine Harris were nearly sold into prostitution as children by their drug-addicted parents.
In the book, film, and musical of Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Celie's adoptive father sexually and physically abuses her, not only impregnating her twice but taking the children away as soon as they are born and giving them to the local church. Celie believes that he drowns them.
Felice in the Pliocene Exile Saga by Julian May. Introduced as a sadist and violent sociopath, it's revealed that her parents sated their boredom and idle lust with her, and otherwise thoroughly neglected her. She later gains her all-consuming power after being sexually tortured, stripping her mind to a bare core of personality and conveniently also removing all her mental blocks. An attempt to heal her mind succeeds in making her sane, but it was far too little, far too late to save her soul. In the end, she's removed from the game via her mind being trapped in a crystal along with her torturer, condemned to torture each other forever.
Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne had a husband who, in addition to physically abusing the title character, had a decidedly unwholesome interest in their teenage daughter Selena, who suffered sexual abuse at his hands in addition to manipulation into being afraid of her mother in order to keep her from talking about it. It is this, along with the stealing of their children's college money in order to spite her, that would ultimately lead to Dolores's decision to murder him.
Lord Raith of The Dresden Files seduces his female children when they start to be a threat to his position.
- Seduced? Thomas outright stated they were raped. Laura turned the tables on him. And kept this fate from falling upon their youngest sister Inari.
In Russell Banks's The Sweet Hereafter (and the critically acclaimed film adaptation by Atom Egoyan), fifteen-year-old Nicole Burnell is molested regularly by her father. Following the accident around whichh the plot of the book revolves, which leaves her paralysed, she even expresses some relief that he won't find her attractive any more.

Close Literature

Child abuse of all flavors is one of the specialties of Law and Order SVU, but since rape is the other, sexual abuse against minors is one of their most frequent case types. Female circumcision is one plot that shows up more than it in all likelihood would.
Supernatural implied heavily that Bela was abused by her father in this way when she was fourteen. In that case, can you blame the poor woman for wanting to make a deal with the devil?
In Twin Peaks, murder victim Laura Palmer, repeatedly raped over several years and later killed by her father Leland. Of course, Leland is supposedly not entirely responsible because of possession by BOB, an evil spirit.
- Frankly, this troper always thought that excuse just allowed the creators to gloss over a very serious issue. Saying the Devil made you do it doesn't make everything okay.
- Particularly when you realized that Bob doesn't forcibly taken over a person. In traditional "posession" fashion, he has to be invited or allowed in; either through an active desire, or by exploiting the posessee's fear and weakness of character (referred to by Deputy Hawk as "imperfect courage"). In Leland's case, it was strongly hinted that he started out lusting after his daughter, making him an example of the former. In Dale Cooper's case, he allowed his fear for Annie Blackburn's fate, combined with guilt over his affair with Windom Earle's wife, to push him over into the latter.
Ricky Underwood in The Secret Life of the American Teenager who was abused by his father at a young age, leading him to be placed in a foster home. Sets him up for this rebellious womanizing attitude that the high school girls are oogling over.

Close Live Action TV

Spring Awakening has Martha and Ilse, who both suffer from this sort of abuse. The song "The Dark I Know Well" is all about sexual abuse.

Close Theater

Ah, Tsukihime, what form of angst don't you have. One of the characters is the seemingly cheerful and carefree maid Kohaku. Spending her childhood locked in a room and being raped daily by her master, Shiki's adoptive father Makihisa Tohno, made her a literal Emotionless Girl: she put on on a horrible cheery mask to hide her feelings, and in some routes of the game, she plots to kill every member of the Tohno Family as revenge.
- Some? Just because you never see the effects in the other routes doesn't mean she wasn't doing it. As a VN, it makes the most sense to assume that everything's exactly the same in all the routes except for those things which are changed by the player's choices.
- Also, Fate Stay Night has Sakura, who has a very similar backstory to Kohaku.
In a scene near the end of No More Heroes, it's revealed that Travis' father constantly molested his sister. She eventually gets revenge by killing him, his wife, and attempting to kill his son. Although, having a sexually abusive father is quite possibly the most normal thing about her story...

Close Video Games

Hayate from Hayate The Combat Butler suffered this in spades.
Common plot element in Gunslinger Girl. Claes in particular.
A one-shot manga by Rumiko Takahashi that opens with a son trying to escape from his parents, since they keep trying to use his bone marrow to create gold and thus solve their financial woes.
Yuki from Fruits Basket.

Close Anime & Manga

The scam in The Glass House.

Close Films — Live Action

Sensei in the Japanese novel Kokoro, albeit through his uncle. It's one of the reasons why he crossed the Despair Event Horizon.
Wild Cards: The Amazing Bubbles was supposed to have had money from her modeling career put into trust for her until she was of legal age. But her parents instead funded their own decadent lifestyle. When she found out and sought legal help against her parents, they took the money and ran, leaving her with what they couldn't carry. And in a nasty parting shot, they also slashed open her beloved stuffed toys.

Close Literature

In the series finale of Malcolm in the Middle, Lois actively made sure Malcom didn't get that high paying job which he EARNED by sole virtue of merit (IIRC the motive was control). Probably the most selfish thing she's ever done in the series. She's also said at one point that she'll happily throw Malcolm's future away to save Reese (the family failure)
- Actually, she did it because she felt that accepting the well paid job would be throwing his life away — she thought he could become President. She also said that the reason for this was so that there would finally be someone in power who knew what it was like for families like theirs, and someone who would actually do something about it.
  - Not that this makes it any better, mind you.
- Hal kept a $10000 grant Malcolm earned a secret from him.
An episode of Law and Order Special Victims Unit had parents set their adopted child to be killed by white supremacists to collect the insurance money.
Married with Children: Bud Bundy has had his scholarship money stolen by his parents.

Close Live Action TV

Parodied in The Simpsons, in which an orphan is glad he doesn't have parents because of this trope.
- Homer took all the money Bart earned as a baby in another episode.
In Futurama, Bender adopted kids for child support, then neglected them, which also qualifies under neglect unto abuse.
Timmy's mother in The Fairly Oddparents has openly spent Timmy's college fund on stuff for herself.

Close Western Animation

Michael Jackson was a victim of this.
Gary Coleman was an even worse victim of this trope.
Jackie Coogan's parents took all the money he earned from acting. The Coogan Act was eventually passed into law as a result.
Disgusting example: there are cases, in Sweden, of parents signing over their cars to their underage children so that the Police can't collect on any parking Tickets, since the Police can't collect on underage ticket-holders. Guess what happens when the child turn fifteen....

Close Real Life

Gambino, Guts' adoptive father, is an asshole to Guts in Berserk. Berating him on a daily basis, attempting to murder him while telling him that it was his fault that his wife died, telling him that he's a demon child and that he should've died, putting him through extremely harsh training, selling him to a stranger for one night who rapes him, and putting him out on the battlefield at a young age.
- And not to be outdone by the main character, a flashback reveals a very young Casca was sold to a noble who needed a new serving girl. Unfortunately, the noble wanted a different kind of service from her than cooking or cleaning. Saved by Griffith, Casca joined him as a mercenary in his band until the Day of the Eclipse when in a supreme act of tragic irony, Griffith, in his very first act upon becoming Femto, raped her in front of Guts. Princess Charlotte also suffered an attempt by her father after a confrontation with the still human Griffith forced The King to confront how he really felt toward her in addition to the cold emotional kind from her mother, and Farnese had to suffer quite a bit of the emotional kind from her dad. Let's face it, it sucks to be a kid in the Berserk universe, except for the following example.
- Averted with: Schierke, a young witch, raised by another witch, who was a kind, gentle, grandmotherly type, and one of the only characters in that world who could be called truly good.
Fruits Basket is the absolute epitome of this trope! Part of the curse is that often parents will either become extremely overprotective of their possessed child or they will reject it completely. Let us count the ways...
- Yuki is used by his parents as a tool for furthering their financial gain. His mother abandons him to live with the already screwed-up Akito, who starts out kind to Yuki but eventually becomes emotionally abusive toward him[and some say physically]. They show no affection toward him but have great interest in the value that his curse can bring to their household. They control every facet of his life and keep him locked away unless they stand to gain from it, pretending not to hear him when he protests. This leads Yuki to seek the mother he never had in Tohru rather than a romantic partner, in a non-squicky way.
- Kyo is feared by his own parents because of the volatile nature of his curse. His mother becomes obsessively overprotective of him, not out of love, but an attempt to learn to love him and protect her reputation, which Kyo sees through at a young age. The strain of the constant ruse and Kyo's temper drives her over the edge to suicide. At this point, Kyo's father abandons him and demands he be kept in solitary confinement, as is tradition for the rejected Cat-Spirit-Possessed. This is delayed by his later adoption by Kazuma.
- Momiji is rejected straight from birth by his mentally-unstable mother. She was prone to screaming and throwing things in despair, eventually driving herself to madness and appealing to have her memories erased. She told the doctor, Hatori, that she rejected ever giving birth to such a creature... in front of Momiji. He then lived with Hatori and was visited by his father occasionally, but forbade to see his beloved younger sister Momo. It's hinted in the manga, though, that his dad is starting to eae up and may let him meet up with Momo some time later, when they're older.
- Kisa's father is unaccounted for in the story, and her mother is so overprotective of her that, after Kisa runs away from home due to bullying, she nearly reaches a breaking point and gives up on raising her. Things get better, though.
- Isuzu aka Rin is raised lovingly by her parents until she expresses doubt that they could be happy all the time when the other families are experiencing such pain. It's then that they snap, and the happy days are revealed to be nothing but a facade they kept up to keep things stable in the house. After their true feelings come out, they ignore Rin entirely, occasionally yelling at or physically abusing her. After she runs away from home and falls ill, her parents arrive at the hospital to officially disown her. She lives with Kagura from then on, and later with Kazuma.
- Akito is raised as a man by her jealous mother, Ren, in order to separate the god-child from her husband Akira (Ren ever demanded this as a condition to not have her abort the unborn Akito, under the excusse that a female leader would "make the Sohma clan look bad". After Akira's death, Akito is continually manipulated and demeaned by Ren, who tries to take the Zodiac members from her. In terms of emotionally abusive parents in Fruits Basket, Ren's is the worst case, making Akito into the delusional and violent monster s/he becomes as she grows older.
- Most of the other Zodiac members express a rift between them and their parents to a less dramatic extent (like Wholesome Crossdresser Ritsu and his mother Meshou, who genuinely loves him but is asphixiatingly overprotective and is just as much of a Shrinking Violet as she is), but only two children, Hiro and Kagura, can claim healthy, normal relationships with their parents.
  - Not only members of the Zodiac are hurt by parental abuse in this story, though: Arisa Uotani is raised by a neglectful, alcoholic father who pays her so little mind that she joins a gang and rarely comes home, after her mom leaves them for someone else. Machi Kuragi is driven to compulsive acts of violence after being raised by a mother who forced her to be perfect. Nothing she did was ever good enough, and the incredible pressure drove Machi to insecurity and depression. After her baby brother was born, the mother's hopes were invested in him and she falsely accused Machi of being murderously jealous, separating the siblings and making poor Machi even more disfunctional. Tohru's mother Kyoko was rejected by her parents after she joined a gang as well. Beforehand, her father only expressed contempt for her, and her mother sheepishly ignored the abuse and only worried about what others said about Kyouko's bad behavior. Even after her husband died, they only called to tell her not to come home with her child. Even normal people have terrible parents in this story!
Ranma ½: Genma Saotome manages both emotional and physical abuse (constantly insulting and demeaning him, stealing his food, the Neko-ken) of Ranma, and isn't much better towards his wife. Soun Tendō manages emotional neglect of his three daughters, due to the huge Values Dissonance. Finally, "grandfather" Happōsai rounds off the sexual abuse with groping and molesting anything that looks even vaguely female. And somehow none of these people are considered examples of this trope!
- Though she gets a lot of glossing over, both in the series and in reality, Nodoka Saotome, Ranma's mother, actually covers emotional abuse just as well as her husband, if not more so. While it was not her idea, and she is a traditional sort of woman, her dedication to a contract that Ranma "signed" when he was barely a toddler, incapable of understanding what was going on, is insane. Worse, the conditions of said contract are so vague as to be almost non-existent — the verbal part of the oath was "Ranma will become a Man among Men", while the written contract simply states "I will commit Seppuku", sealed with Genma's thumbprint and baby Ranma's handprint. Despite this, she is perfectly willing to consider it valid, and is so dedicated that she carries a sword whevere she goes, just in case she should meet Ranma and have to call him to go through with it. She even bathes and sleeps with it! Ranma is thusly forced to hide himself from her, masquerading as "Ranko Tendō", a fictious cousin of his fiancée Akane. Even when they do finally meet face to face, while she doesn't demand he go through with the oath for his Gender Bender curse, she doesn't call the contract fulfilled either. Even at the end of the series, it's still in application, meaning she can threaten him with a torturous death by disembowelment whenever she pleases.
In Kannazuki No Miko, Himeko lost her biological parents at a young age. Her foster parents' treatment left her with serious self-confidence issues.
Thankfully, no character in Glass Fleet suffers all four forms of abuse, but together the three main characters manage to combine all four. Vetti, the main antagonist, suffers extreme emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of his stepparents. Cleo suffers mildly from physical abuse, and Racine's father's neglect of her is minimized by her older brother's involvement in her life. As it turns out, Vetti and Cleo's abuse was for the sake of a prophecy.
Several of Kaori Yuki's works feature Abusive Parents.
- Rin's mother and Ian's father in Fairy Cube.
- Alexis, Cain and Jizabel's father, in Count Cain a.k.a. Godchild. Physical, emotional, strongly implied sexual abuse...
- Adrian's mother in Boys Next Door.
This troper believes that Mr. Fujinami, of Urusei Yatsura, fulfills at least several of the types of abuse in regards to his daughter Ryuunosuke. Apparently solely because of his insane levels of chauvinism, he is convinced that a "mere" girl is unable to run his precious (run down) tea shop, and so he has forcibly raised her as a boy, despite her protests, since her mother ~~died~~ probably left him. He refuses to allow her to buy any feminine clothes, both by refusing to give her money to do so and stealing/destroying any she does manage to get, demands she speak in masculine fashion, refers to her only as a male, frightens off any boys she acts interested in, encourages girls who are attracted to her, insults and mocks her feminity, and otherwise goes out of his way to thwart any attempt by her to discover her feminine side. He routinely enforces his desires with violence, and though she is quick to degrade him and beat the tar out of him in return, he always manages to beat her. For some insane reason he has dozens of pictures of himself, baby Ryuunosuke and women hired for that purpose posing, so many so that even he can't remember which one of them is the real Masako Fujinami, and so Ryuunosuke will never know what her mother looked like. Despite his daughter's extreme distaste and discomfort, he set up for her an Arranged Marriage with a male-to-female Wholesome Crossdresser.

Close Anime & Manga

Rorschach from Watchmen was physically abused by his mother, as well as being exposed to things that are Harmful To Minors.
- What he ended up seeing as a kid returns throughout the comic as a pattern on walls, in his childhood drawings, in various shapes (including the shape of his mask at times), and actually is echoed at the very end when Dan and Laurie make the same shadow in a far more peaceful situation. Additionally, Ozymandias ends up alone, casting a singular shadow on the wall in contrast to the double ones shown throughout the book. So Yeah.
- Speaking of Laurie, her parents — all three of them — are... not very good at it either.
Then there's Bruce Banner's father, Brian. He'd been abused by his father, leading Brian to believe his father was a monster, that he had inherited the 'monster gene', and that any children he had would be monsters too. Brian initially chose to ignore Bruce, believing him to be a monster in the making. When it became apparent Bruce was a child genius, Brian saw his worst fears confirmed, and started beating both Bruce and his mother, Rebecca. After several years of abuse, Rebecca attempted to escape with Bruce, but Brian killed her and intimidated Bruce into saying Brian hadn't done anything to them. The truth only came out when Brian got drunk and boasted about what he'd done. Brian was locked up in a mental institution, dying shortly after release. End result? Bruce developed multiple personality syndrome - and after a certain accident with a gamma bomb, his personalities became the various Hulks.
Darkseid is all over this trope. He has three known sons, all of whom he treats badly to various degrees. He feels nothing but contempt for Kalibak, ignoring, mocking, and blasting him with Omega Beams whenever it suits him. His other son Grayven is pretty much an outcast. Oddly enough, the son Darkseid favors most is Orion, the one he sent away to be raised by his enemies. This didn't stop Darkseid from killing Orion in the opening of Final Crisis.
And even he isn't as bad as Felix Faust. Faust manages to be the worst father in comics with one act: selling his infant son's soul to a demon for power. Luckily (well, sorta), the demon Nebiros decided to screw over Felix and gave the kid the power instead — after taking the soul of course. Turning your own son into a soulless abomination of the universe in a selfish bid for more power takes abuse to an whole new level.
Midna considers Calvin's parents to be this, via Alternate Character Interpretation. Sure, Word Of God says they love him, but you sure wouldn't know it what with all the shoving around and kicking Cal has to put up with. His dad says he would've preferred a dog multiple times, which may have something to do with it.
- One example comes from an early story arc, where Calvin drops his father's binoculars and breaks them. When he spills the beans, what does Calvin's dad do? No, he doesn't just calmly accept the fact and sit down to have a talk with him (at least, not at first). Instead he screams at him, doing everything short of biting off a piece of the furniture, and comes about a millimeter away from throttling Calvin.

Close Comics

Sybil, starring Sally Field. A girl is abused so badly she splits into multiple personalities to protect herself. The psychology may be dubious, but the depictions of the abuse are harrowing.
- This troper had to watch it as a character study for her beginning acting class. To this day she won't go near buttonhooks and she will never paint her kitchen green.
Eastern Promises. Semyon is physically and verbally abusive well into Kirill's adulthood. It may have gotten worse now that Kirill's a grown man, and is also, at least implicitly, because Kirill is likely gay. It comes across as worse in contrast to how Semyon treats the little girls in their family, which seems genuinely avuncular. Well, maybe not all the little girls in his family — Semyon also orders Kirill to murder one of his illegitimate children, who would be Kirill's own infant half-sister.

Close Films — Live Action

Harry Potter:
- In Harry's case, the Dursleys were physically, emotionally and mentally abusive to Harry.
- In Dudley's case, the Dursleys were an odd sort of mentally abusive because they raised Dudley to be a bully with an entitlement complex. This is made more obvious in the last book, where Dudley finally thanks Harry for saving his life in the fifth book and wishes him luck. His parents are horrified.
  - Not to mention that Petunia spoils him so much that he was morbidly obese up until Order of the Phoenix.
- Severus Snape's Backstory indicates his father, Tobias, was physically and emotionally abusive. For extra points on the tragedy meter, Snape spends much of his adult life handing out the same kind of emotional abuse he received from others.
- Voldemort's mother, Merope Gaunt, also definitely suffered some level of parental abuse. Some fans interpret it as going even further.
In Cloud of Sparrows, Emily was raped by her evil stepfather, and her brothers were regularly whipped and beaten at the slightest pretext.
Eve Dallas of the In Death series was regularly beaten, starved, raped, and otherwise tormented by her father, until she finally killed him, at age eight. This leads her to become a police officer, in order to never again be a victim.
- If that wasn't enough in the long cutie break that was her childhood, she winds up with Trudy Lombard, who had a pattern of fostering girls, treating them like slaves, forcing them to take ice-cold showers (the reason Eve takes 100+ degree ones), and so on. It was bad enough that just seeing Lombard again (she had come to blackmail Eve and Roarke) hit her like a Shell Shocked Veteran's flashback.
In the Deepgate Codex series, the god Ulcis' abuse of his daughter Carnival lists so heavily on the holy shit meter that it might as well be breaking it. He only kept her mother alive so that he could rape her to his enjoyment, and was not pleased when she got pregnant, especially because as an angel's mother, she died in childbirth. Although he named his daughter Rebecca, he more commonly referred to her as a freak or with expletives—she calls herself Carnival as in carnival freak, and WILL NOT be referred to as anything else. He had his soldiers gang-rape her often and very brutally; when years of this treatment didn't break her, he executed a vicious Mind Rape on her and hanged her from Deepgate's chains. She got loose—as a rather psychotic amnesiac. It wasn't for 3000 years, until Carnival finally got acceptance and kinship from Dill and Rachel (and bloodily killed Ulcis), that she finally started to calm down a little.
In the How Not to Write a Novel section "A Novel Called It" (named for a Real Life account of this), the made-up "excerpt" serving as an example of this trope has a heroine who is beaten by and forced to toil for her emotionally abusive dad, valiantly hoping that her little brother Tiny Tim will be safe if she takes the brunt of his cruelty. The authors proceed to discourage the use of this trope in fiction, as it is both hackneyed and depressing.

Close Literature

Both Niki Sanders and Elle Bishop in Heroes were abused by their fathers, though neither actually remember it. In Niki's case, her alter ego due to Split Personality does remember and also suggests that her father killed her deceased sister. Elle's father is alleged to have performed invasive experiments on her when she was very young, with the memories of this being removed through the use of another character's ability, and is shown to be generally cold and manipulative toward her.
It's heavily suggested that Faith of Buffy The Vampire Slayer was a victim of parental abuse. Her mother was a neglectful alcoholic who was likely physically and mentally abusive. As well, Faith's rather twisted relationship with sex hints at possible sexual abuse.
Despite his outwardly sunny, joking exterior, Tony DiNozzo implies that his parents were physically and emotionally abusive, in addition to being alcoholics.
- That's not even mentioning the fact that Tony's dad went on a buisiness trip with chibi!Tony to Maui, but then he forgot him there!

Close Live Action TV

Silent Hill. Let's count: Dahlia Gillespie, Leonard Wolf, Thomas Orosco, the unnamed Mrs. Orosco, Walter's parents, Helen Grady, Adam Shepherd, and those are just off the top of my head. There's been, what, one good parent in the series?
- Worse, Adam Shepherd can be seen as a sympathetic character.
- At least, Harry Mason, the protagonist of the first game, is a Papa Wolf to the max.

Close Video Games

Quain'tana from Drowtales has a virtual laundry list of all the horrible things she's done to her children:
- Syphile: physically beating her, verbally berating her and handing her over as a plaything to Sil'lice.
- Mel'arnach: Imprisoning her and having her beaten for disobeying, and it's also implied that she had her men rape her in an attempt to conceive an heir. She also took Mel's child, Ariel, to raise as her own daughter.
- Laelle'aell: No apparent abuse besides being raised The Spartan Way, and she was actually considered the pride of the family until she was possessed by a demon, at which point she was discarded except for use as a mass killing machine.
- Kel'noz: No apparent abuse, but was witness to all of the above and admits that she's a terrible mother, also seems to be a Manipulative Bastard with his own agenda.
- Koil'dorath: No apparent abuse, but being and adult and one of the few people capable of having a chance of fighting back when she was adopted probably helped.
- Ariel: Being taken away from Mel, her mother and handed over to Syphile to raise (unsurprisingly Syphile did a terrible job and gave Ariel much the same treatment she had received) and not seeing her for 10 years, rejecting her as a suitable heir until she killed a boy who had tried to kill her in a Sadistic Choice between him and one of her few allies.

Close Web Comics

Generator's dad, in the Whateley Universe. Physically and emotionally abusive, especially after Generator's mother was killed (which may have been dad's fault). Generator would have been beaten to death if she hadn't manifested her mutant power right then. Money? All gone now that dad's on the run from the police for other crimes. The only reason dad didn't rape her is probably because she wasn't a girl back when she was living with her father.

Close Web Original

Orel Puppington from Moral Orel whose abusive alcoholic father beats the hell out of him in almost every episode, and in one of those, he instinctively reaches for his belt even though Orel hadn't done anything wrong and had to (innocently) have this pointed out.
- Also his best friend Doughy Latchkey who is paid his "allowance" by his neglectful parents to not come home.
Meg Griffin from Family Guy went from being mildly neglected to her family's favorite punching bag. Played completely for laughs.
Poor Butters manages to hit nearly every single instance of this trope and then some — he's frequently punished by his parents for every little thing (even if he didn't do anything at all!), yelled at by them, and all-around belittled and humiliated. In "Jared Has Aides", he's alluded to being physically beaten by them; Comedy Central later yanked it off the air for this reason, though it can still be seen on the South Park Studios site. It's even implied that one of his other family members performed anilingus on him at one point. Many of the other boys receive this treatment in lesser ways, but Butters is probably the most extreme case.
Dr. Doofenschmirtz of Phineas and Ferb, played for laughs. He was the Unfavorite of both his parents, his mother preferring his older brother Rodger while his dad preferred a dog, which he named Only Son. His father made him replace the family lawn gnome after it was repossesed, forcing him to stand still for hours and through the night. Another episode revealed that his parents failed to show up at all of his birthdays, including the one that featured his own birth. He often uses this as his Freudian Excuse for his evil plans.
It's been hinted that Ed from Ed Edd N Eddy suffers from both emotional abuse and neglect. His mom treats him like The Unfavorite in contrast to his spoiled sister Sarah, while his father seems largely apathetic to both his children:
Ed: It's Sarah! We are so doomed! Help me, guys! She'll tell Mom and Mom will tell Dad and he'll say "Not now, I just got home from work!"
- Probably best seen when Ed unconsciously sublimates the abuse to Johnny Twobyfour in an All Just A Dream episode.

Close Western Animation

And unfortunately it's... Truth In Television.

Close Real Life

Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Examples

Emotional Abuse

Neglect

Physical Abuse

Sexual Abuse

Financial Abuse

All of the Above