Basic Trope: Neither of a character's parents is seen, even when they logically should be and they're not dead or missing.
- Straight: Alice is ten years old. She's said to live with her parents, but the parents are never seen.
- Exaggerated: They're not even mentioned.
- Downplayed:
- They're mentioned a lot, their hobbies and personalities are mentioned enough so that the viewers have a good idea what they're like, and their names are said to be Bob and Claire, but they're never seen.
- Alice's parents are only seen briefly (or as a cameo) in one episode.
- Alice's parents are only seen in flashbacks.
- Though the audience never sees either of them, Alice's mother can occasionally be heard calling her daughter offscreen.
- Alice is an adult, and her parents are never shown.
- Justified: Alice is only seen in places where her parents wouldn't be (e.g., in school).
- Inverted: Bob and Claire are regular characters who are said to have a ten-year-old daughter named Alice, but Alice is never seen.
- Subverted:
- Alice's parents show up.
- Alice's parents are revealed to be dead.
- Alice's parents are revealed to be missing.
- Alice's parents were named characters on the show all along, it was just never mentioned that they were Alice's parents.
- Double Subverted:
- Those weren't really Alice's parents.
- They were only thought to be dead or they came Back from the Dead (and not as zombies), but when they come back, they're never seen since.
- They're never seen, even when they get found.
- Parodied: Whenever adults see Alice on the street, they ask, "Where are your parents?", to which Alice replies something different every time, from "I don't know" to "They'll call me when they know."
- Zig-Zagged: Sometimes, Alice's parents are seen, sometimes not, and sometimes only one of them is seen.
- Averted: Alice's parents are seen, or, if not, it's explained why.
- Enforced: The show ran out of money to hire actors to play Bob and Claire.
- Lampshaded:
- "Mom? Dad? Why don't you come out?!"
- Alice's friend Danielle is revealed to have assumed that Alice is an orphan due to never seeing either of her parents.
- Invoked: Alice has Medium Awareness, and, for whatever reason, doesn't want her parents to meet the viewers.
- Exploited: A local Child Hater tells a social worker that Alice is regularly running around unsupervised, whether due to Parental Neglect or death. Without Bob and Claire coming out of hiding to prove them wrong, Alice is put in an institution.
- Defied: Alice says "Mom! Dad! Come out and meet the viewers!"
- Discussed: "Where are your parents, Alice?"
- Conversed: "How come we never see Alice's parents?"
- Implied: Alice is the only kid whose parents aren't seen.
- Deconstructed: Due to Alice's parents not being present when they should, Alice ends up in danger.
- Reconstructed: Her babysitter was keeping an eye on her.
- Played for Laughs: Alice gives hilariously implausible explanations for why nobody else sees her parents.
- Played for Drama: It turns out that Alice actually has abusive and/or neglectful parents, and this is why she doesn't want to talk about them.
Back to Invisible Parents.
