Basic Trope: A lie about an absent parent is revealed.
- Straight:
- Alice was told all her life that her father Bob was a war hero who died in combat. As an adult, she learns that he was never in the military and walked out on the family.
- Alice believed that her Disappeared Dad Bob died tragically of cancer before she was born. In reality, he went to jail for murder and her mother Cheryl cut off contact with him to keep his distance from their daughter.
- Alice believes the loving Dave is her father until he and Cheryl reveal that Bob, her Wicked Stepfather, is actually her birth father.
- Exaggerated: Alice learns that all the relatives she grew up with aren’t related to her (or even each other) and they all had secrets to keep from Alice.
- Downplayed: Alice is told that her hand-me-down shoes were originally from her grandmother. She then learns that they aren’t actually from her grandmother - they’re from her great-aunt. It’s ultimately such a minor detail that Alice doesn’t even get angry, but is rather confused at why this wasn’t disclosed earlier.
- Justified:
- Alice’s mother Cheryl didn’t want to tell her daughter that Bob deserted them until she was old enough to comprehend it, so she made up a story in a misguided attempt to explain his absence.
- Cheryl didn’t want to tell Alice that her father was a murderer whom she lost contact with because that would’ve been too traumatic for a young child to handle.
- Cheryl had an affair with Bob years ago while still married to Dave. Cheryl herself either didn’t know that Bob was Alice’s birth father until recently or thought it unwise to tell her child the sordid details around her conception.
- Subverted: Cheryl didn’t lie about the fact that Bob was in jail for killing someone.
- Double Subverted: Bob is actually in jail for assault and bank robbery.
- Parodied: A minor lie in the family history - such as where Alice got her hand-me-down shoes from - is treated as the worst lie in the history of all lies.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Nothing about Alice’s life was hidden from her.
- Inverted: Cheryl tells Alice literally everything about her family, regardless of how trivial, to the point that Alice wishes that Cheryl had secrets.
- Enforced: The showrunners decide to give Alice a bit more angst by revealing a detail about her life wasn’t entirely true in order to draw viewer interest.
- Lampshaded: “How do you think her daughter would react if she found out everything she knew was a lie?”
- Invoked: Consummate Liar Alice is bored with her perfect existence that she decides to tell people that her mother lied to her about her father’s identity growing up to get attention.
- Exploited: Dave learns that his wife’s ex-husband and the father of his stepdaughter, Bob, is a murderer and decides to use this to taunt and manipulate the fragile Alice further.
- Defied:
- Cheryl’s parents were con artists who lied to her about their schemes and even their backgrounds. As a mother, Cheryl resolves not to be like her parents and tell Alice everything, even the truth about her grandparents.
- No secrets are ever revealed about the characters’ absent parents, if they had any. Period.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Alice cannot handle the truth about the secrets that Cheryl hid from her that she starts to wonder what else did her mother hide from her, straining their once close relationship.
- Played For Drama: When Alice learns that her father Bob is a murderer, she starts to think that she’ll turn out like him. More over, she starts to doubt everything Cheryl says.
- Played For Laughs: Alice is told that her grandmother’s keychain which she inherited was actually bought at SeaWorld. Drama Queen Alice then proceeds to literally tear out her hair, drop to her knees, curse the gods, and doubt everything about her life, even her own name.
Go back to Deceptive Legacy.
