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alt title(s): I Am Your Father
Darth Vader: If you only knew the power of the dark side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.
Luke Skywalker: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!
Darth Vader: No. I am your father.
Luke Skywalker: No... that's not true! That's impossible!
Darth Vader: Search your feelings. You know it to be true.
Luke Skywalker: NOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOO!
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

A specific variety of The Reveal. A parent-child relationship between two characters who were previously thought unrelated is revealed, usually with generous dollops of melodrama — blood is, after all, Thicker Than Water. Beloved of soap operas, made famous by the Star Wars films (from which the trope takes its name, though as you can see, it isn't an exact quote). For maximum melodrama, the parent giving the reveal is the villain, and the one who the reveal is given to is the hero. In cases like this, count on at least one scene where the hero worries that he or she will eventually end up like the parent.

Sometimes it's a bogus revelation, and at the end of the episode or plotline the Reset Button is pressed to restore the previous relationship — or lack of one.

Though the trope itself is too fundamental to become Discredited, any use of the actual line nowadays will be met with a groan and a "Not again!" from the audience. Also a popular insane fan theory.

Compare with Mysterious Parent, or Are You My Mummy where the characters were thought to be related, but are not parent and child.

Oh, and by the way, it was being mocked back in 1790 by Jane Austen in Love and Friendship (with four grandfather-grandchildren relationships revealed in under a page), so Older Than Radio at the very least.

Subtropes include Long Lost Sibling and Luke You Are My Father. Sister tropes include Luke I Might Be Your Father. And, of course, abuse these and other plot twists enough, and it turns out that Everyone Is Related.

Spoilers incoming, in case you haven't figured it out yet.


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  • In Sonic the Hedgehog: Erazor's Revenge, it is reveled (by the author) that the evil Genie of the Lamp, Erazor Djinn is the father of Sharah the Genie of the Ring, the lesser genie.

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