Orphan's Plot Trinket - Television Tropes & Idioms

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alt title(s): Orphans Plot Trinket

Gift from my prince...

Orphans get a disproportionate amount of attention from the plot of any given story, and is it any wonder why? Orphanhood is a plot gold mine.

Right up there with a propensity to stare wistfully out windows, orphans collect an alarming number of plot-relevant knick-knacks. They will usually be a necklace or locket, and generally be a clue to the orphan's family, though they may have some other plot purpose, but they will always be inherited from the family in question. Mysterious swords and the like are very common.

Why living families are so lacking in portrait lockets and the like may forever remain a mystery.

Examples

Anime and Manga

Sheeta's pendant in the anime Laputa: The Castle in the Sky.
- Pazu's photograph of Laputa, also.
  - That's part plot trinket, part metagag: the Joke is that Patzu's father is strongly implied to be Gulliver. Yes, that Guliver.
The similarly inspired Blue Water held by Nadia in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water
Sara's musical necklace from Soukou No Strain.
Arika's pendant in Mai-Otome.
Mikoto and Reito's matching pendants in Mai-HiME. Mikoto's even flares up when she goes into "beast mode".
Fullmetal Alchemist(anime only). Two Ishbalan orphans carry a locket as a reminder of their dead mother, whom the older brother believes to have abandoned them during a raid. When he casts it to the ground out of bitterness, it pops open to reveal eye medicine, causing him to realize she was secretly blind. Not to mention the fact that it saves the younger brother's life in the very same episode.
Pictured above: Candace "Candy" White Andree's locket in Candy Candy, given to her by "her Mountain Prince". Who reappears several years later... and turns out to be Albert, her protector and the leader of the Andree clan.
Suzaku Kururugi's old pocket watch (that belonged to his Disappeared Dad) in Code Geass, which was also a Memento Mac Guffin and saved his life by shielding him from a bullet.
Nadja Applefield's brooch in Ashita No Nadja. The other mementos that either were sent to her in the beginning or she received later also fit to a degree, specially the pink Gorgeous Period Dress and the Nostalgic Music Box.
Mireille's old watch in Noir.
The titular Michiko Malandro and Hana "Hatchin" Morenos from, well, Michiko To Hatchin share the same tattoos on their stomachs.
Bunny Drop provides the somewhat mundane example of the plot trinket being a baby book with Rin's early medical information. It contains the first clue towards Rin's mother (the name "Masako") and is discovered to be where Daikichi's late grandfather hid his will.
Eris' bracelet in Night Wizard.
The reason why Cleao Everlasting tagged along with Orphen in Sorcerer Stabber Orphen was because the sword he intends to use in the spell that will bring Azalie back is actually her Orphans Plot Trinket. More exactly, it belonged to her deceased father.
- Also, toyed with in regards to Lycoris Nielsen's headband. She can't remember who gave it to her due to her Fake Memories, but it's later shwon that her older sister Esperanza did so. It still doesn't become a 100% Orphan's Plot Trinket, since Esperanza still lives (sorta, until she is killed and Lycoris's dad Marco Reika performs an Heroic Sacrifice in the Grand Finale.
In Onegai Twins three orphans all have the same photograph of two toddlers in a swimming pool.
In Blassreiter one of protagonists is an orphan. When he met his sister, she recognized him by the cross he wore, the only thing left from his dead parents.
Gundam Seed Destiny - Shinn Asuka and his sister's handphone. It even parallels the music-playing-locket trope with his sister's last voice mail.
Kannazuki No Miko - Himeko's pink clam shell necklace, although not until The Stinger.

Film

Little Orphan Annie's half-a-locket.
One of the few things played mostly straight in Spaceballs: Lone Starr's medallion.
Will Turner's piece of treasure in Pirates Of The Caribbean.
An odd variation appears in the film Waterworld. The orphan character doesn't own any trinkets left her by her parents, although she does have that tattoo on her back. She does, however, hum a distinctive tune as she works on her drawings — no one asks her about it, but presumably she doesn't remember where she got it from. At the end of the movie, we come to a house on the only piece of dry land in the film, and the characters find a music box that plays the exact same song. The two skeletons lying on the nearby bed, then, are her parents.
"Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight."

Literature

In Dan Abnett's Gaunts Ghosts novel First & Only, Gaunt received his father's ring from his father's commanding officer, when he was orphaned. Later, he uses it for its security codes.
Piers Anthony's Incarnations Of Immortality has a few, most notable the living ring Sning, who's passed around quite a lot, down to Orlene (who gives it to her lover Norton, before he becomes the incarnation of Time). The catch is, Orlene's not an orphan (though she thinks otherwise), both her parents are Immortal Incarnations. War and Nature respectively. And her grandmother is Fate.
Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files: Harry's pentagram-shaped pendant, from his dead mother.
Making this trope Older Than Radio, Oliver Twist's locket, which belonged to his mother Agnes and was the proof of his identity. Sally the nurse stole it, then she gave it to Bumble's wife, and then she and Bumble gave it to Oliver's half-brother Edward Leeford aka Monks... who threw it into the Thames river to ruin Oliver's chance to inherit the fortune of their father. It didn't work, since Nancy and Mr. Brownlow still managed to help Oliver.
Esmeralda's necklace/baby slipper in The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.
Subverted in Esther Forbes' Johnny Tremain — Johnny knows what the Orphans Plot Trinket does, but when he tries to use it to reconnect with his relatives, they refuse to see him. They change their minds eventually.
Tia's box in Alexander Key's Escape to Witch Mountain.
Subverted in Terry Pratchett's Feet of Clay. Nobby Nobbs, who comes from a poor family, has a shiny, golden ring, and could be a descendant of the throne to Ankh-Morpork. It later turns out that it is all a cunning plan, and the ring (and other valuable items he owns) were probably stolen by the countless generation of thieving Nobbs'.
- Well, except that at the end of the book he mentions he has several other similar trinkets.
- Also, Carrot Ironfoundersson is a) an orphan, b) has an old sword (beat up and completely nonmagical, but by Discworld logic this makes it an Infinity Plus 1 Weapon), and c) has an almost magical aura of leadership, but d) is not even slightly interested in being King.
JK Rowling uses this in the Harry Potter stories:
- Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone: Harry himself has the Invisibility Cloak he inherited from his father, James.
- Considering all these necklaces, it's only fitting that the cruelest twist on the trope should come in locket form. It fits the letter of the trope exactly, but the spirit is a different matter altogether. Slytherin's Locket belonged to Voldemort's mother, Merope Gaunt, who sold it for a few galleons while pregnant, and which her son later stole and turned into one of his Horcruxes. Voldemort also used to "collect" (that is, steal, after harming or killing their owners) "trophies", some of which were later turned into Horcruxes as well.
In Tombs of Atuan, the second Earthsea Trilogy book, Ged finds the MacGuffin on an island inhabited only by an orphaned brother and sister who turn out to be of royal descent.

Live Action TV

"Professor Yana" in the Doctor Who episode Utopia has a very significant pocket watch he was found with as an "orphan in the storm".
Andros' and Karone/ Astromena's matching lockets in Power Rangers In Space.
Friends: Chandler invokes this trope when he suggests that he and Monica give up one of their adopted children (which were unexpectedly twins):
Chandler: We'll give each of them half a medallion. Than, years from now, they'll find each other and put that medallion together, and be reunited. Now that's a fun day for everyone.
- Chandler clearly watches much too much television.

Mythology

Theseus's father recognizes Theseus by the tokens he had left for him.

Tabletop Games

In the Call Of Cthulhu board game Arkham Horror, the Orphan starts with an Elder Sign.

Theater

Oliver! is an adaptation of Oliver Twist, so naturally this trope occurs in the musical.
Likewise Annie's.
'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum'' has the gaggle-of-geese rings Erronius gave to his children before pirates kidnapped them as children.

VideoGames

Cless's pendant in Tales of Phantasia.
Luna's pendant in Lunar: The Silver Star.
Rena's pendant in Star Ocean: The Second Story.
Relm's Memento Ring in Final Fantasy VI.
- Also Terra's Pendant. Though it's never really referred to in the plot, it is sitting there in your Key Items inventory.
The Holy materia in Final Fantasy VII.
In Final Fantasy V, Faris' pendant is not a Plot Coupon, but does serve as a really obvious foreshadowing to Luke I Am Your Father.
The user-named girl's pendant in Mystic Quest (a.k.a. Final Fantasy Adventure, the first game in the Seiken Densetsu/Mana series).
Apollo's bracelet in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, although it is never acknowledged as such by the character in question. Also, he's not exactly an orphan.
Ephraim and Eirika, the main characters of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, honorary orphans as of the opening cutscene, have the Lunar and Solar Bracelets, which are very handy for opening sacred shrines and giving the two of them their class promotion.
- Don't forget Neimi's handmirror. If not for it, you wouldn't have the recently orphaned Colm and Neimi in your party; also, several of Neimi's supports allude to how important it is for her. It was owned by Neimi's deceased mother, a high-ranked cleric.
- In Path of Radiance, while Ike and Mist do become orphans at the beginning of the game, their mother died before the game's events. As such they have two mementos from her: a medallion that she carried and left for Mist, and a lullaby.
Tetra's charm in The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which turned out to actually be a piece of the Triforce, passed down by the royal family, meaning she's really the current Quee, er… Princess Zelda.
Dante and Vergil's lockets in Devil May Cry. Also, their swords - Yamato, Rebellion, and Force Edge - to a lesser extent.
Shing's Soma in Tales Of Hearts is inherited from his grandfather. Kohak Hearts carries his memento of his mother, and The Ace Chalcedny carries the memento of her mother.
Lloyd's Exsphere in Tales Of Symphonia which was grown on his mother and refined perfectly, allowing him to have angel wings in the finale.
Played straight in Castle Of The Winds with the Amulet of Kings.
Dart from Legend Of Dragoon retrieved a shiny red stone which belonged to his rather from the ashes of his Doomed Hometown. It turns out that the stone is one of several Dragoon stones which allow you to turn into a dragoon, his father was 600 years old (and fought in a war to save humanity) and, isn't really dead.
The Dragon's Tear from Breath Of Fire II.

Webcomics

Agatha's locket in the webcomic Girl Genius has pictures of her missing parents, and also suppresses her mad scientist abilities.

Western Animation

The animated feature Anastasia had the title character's "Together in Paris" necklace.
Gosalyn's lullaby in the pilot for Darkwing Duck.
Esteban's medallion in The Mysterious Cities Of Gold.
In The Land Before Time, Littlefoot is given a Treestar (star shaped leaf) by his mother before she dies. The significance is that there is almost no food in the area and the little there is is dying. This one leaf was still very green. However half way throught he movie, Littlefoot is forced to leave it behind when the Big Bad attacks and it gets crushed.
Robyn Starling from The Movie of Tom And Jerry had one. Or, she would if the film were actually real, and not just a a figment of our deranged imaginations.
Even Winnie The Pooh gets in on this action in The Tigger Movie, in which Tigger is suddenly revealed to own an empty locket that supposedly connects him to his long-lost family. They turn out not to exist. We never find out where the locket came from.
The writers pulled one out of their asses for Leela.

Real Life

The Foundling Hospital in London has cabinets of these tokens, left by mothers surrendering their children in the 1700s. This troper finds those particularly heartbreaking, as the tokens were never returned to the children, thus none of the children could actually trace their heritage.