People desperately seeking parental approval in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Downplayed in Amazing Fantasy. Peter is not Izuku's father, is openly supportive of him and repeatedly tells him that he doesn't need to meet anyone's approval. Despite this, Izuku constantly looks up to Peter and tries to follow his example to be the best Spider-Man he can be.
- Boldores and Boomsticks: Sabra's mother is the Totem Kommo-o, and it's revealed that Sabra's haughty attitude and fixation on being the strongest stem from trying to live up to her strength. When she appears for the first time, she (albeit unintentionally) downplays her accomplishments while holding herself above Sabra.
- At least discussed in the Pitch Perfect Ghostbusters fic Paranormal Aca-tivity
; Beca doesn't explicitly want her father's approval, but she is shown to be disappointed when he acts as though her current role as a Ghostbuster is just a fad when it's the first thing she's truly felt passionate about and involves Beca and her friends literally starting a brand new field of science. - Reading Rainbowverse: Lightning Dust towards Spitfire. She just wants to show her mom she's Wonderbolt material! Interestingly enough, it's implied that Spitfire disapproves of her action because she thinks that she's not a good enough mother for Lightning, and disowned her after Lightning was seriously injured primarily to break the obsession and keep her safe.
- SAPR: It can sometimes feel like Pyrrha's mom thinks of Sunset as the daughter she never had.
- In Tales of the Dekuverse, Izuku admits that he's desperately longed for his father to be more involved with his life. However, after years without any contact with the man despite all his efforts to reach out, he's ready to give up on any hope of building any kind of connection with him.
- To Hell and Back: Tommy to his father, Malcolm Merlyn; and contrary to what you'd expect, their reconciliation has only made this trait worse. This is a factor in his growing jealousy of his recently-returned best friend Oliver Queen, who Malcolm seems to be fonder of.
- In Abridged on Titan, when Carla blurted out before she died that her adopted child Mikasa was her favorite, Eren ends up with such a raging inferiority complex because of it that he actually hallucinates his mother belittling him and taunting him about how Mikasa is better than him. His motivation for killing the Titans is less about avenging her death and more about proving to Carla and Mikasa once and for all that he is the best.
- The Stalking Zuko Series: Zuko has grown out of this by the time the series starts, but it has influenced his actions in the past, such as his desire to learn how to play the tsungi horn, a relatively difficult instrument, to show he can master something difficult outside of bending.
- Danganronpa 52: Despair From the Heart: Ayano. Shot at Dawn reveals part of why she started studying physics was to try and please her neglectful parents.
- Where Talent Goes to Die:
- Free Time Events reveal that Shiro Kurogane, the Ultimate Shogi Player, comes from a family that competes against each other in shogi and that he outdid his siblings and other relatives in his quest for his parents' approval. Part of the reason why he has such an intense grudge against the protagonist for defeating him was that she inadvertently humiliated him in front of his family, and they haven't forgiven him for that failure.
- Reiko Mitamura, the strict and dutiful girl who volunteers to be The Leader to the students, is revealed to be motivated in part by a desire for her parents' approval. Unfortunately for her, because her parents raise their expectations as she excels to greater heights, she ends up becoming The Perfectionist, simply because she can't bear to let them down.
- In Death Note: The Abridged Series (kpts4tv), Light with his father. Souichiro sees Light as nothing but a disappointment because not only is he gay but he's a White Sheep and he didn't inherit any of the cool Shinigami powers.
- The Warrior's Daughter: Even though she hates her father's crappy attitude and she barely gets along with him, Bulla inwardly yearns for Vegeta's approval, and she is overjoyed when he calls her a true Saiyan warrior.
- Family Guy Fanon: The fanfic does an interesting take with Peter's quest to seek love from his father in the original. At first, it becomes Deconstructed, with Peter truly tries to make his Jerkass father (and to a lesser extent, mother) be proud of him. But no matter how hard he tried in "Holy Crap" and "Between Sanity and Madness", it never seems to work. It reaches a boiling point when he Francis and Thelma drop their car with him and Lois inside into a lake and lie to the kids that they were put in eternal vacation to become their parents and steal Peter and Lois' lives. This leads to Peter snapping at them, kicking the two parents out, and becoming colder, and ready to lash out at everyone and everything. It then becomes Reconstructed later on when Francis and Thelma relize how much they hurt Peter and try to end it all by jumping off the Holy Christ Chruch roof. Peter, does saves Francis and Thelma from dying. Making them realize Peter still will love and defend them regardless. The result is that Francis gains a new appreciation for Peter, and apologizes to Peter for everything.
- Fate: Zero Sanity: In the sequel, Fate:Stay Nightmare, Mordred is summoned as Avenger and seeks the approval of her father (Saber) even while she wants to kill her.note
- Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] Abridged: Rin admits that she has absolutely no interest in the Holy Grail or it's associated wish (at most she thinks she might use the cup to drink gingerale), but she still pursues winning the Holy Grail War because it was what her dead father wanted her to do. Even she acknowledges it's a terrible reason for risking her life in the infamously-bloody conflict.
- Boys und Sensha-dō!: Although Miho arguably does not qualify in canon, she is referred to as such by Maho, when Maho is calling Shiho out on disowning Miho.Maho: But what about [Miho's] happiness, mother? She loves you and you cast her out... don't you see how much that has hurt her. She wants to make you proud... why do you think she persisted in sensha-do as a freshman? You have hurt her, mother.
- Necessary to Win: Discussed when Maho realizes that in spite of her efforts to live up to Shiho's expectations so that Miho will not have to inherit the family school, Miho will be disowned if she loses the semifinals. She talks with Teru, who had to deal with her mother's high expectations for her in tankery, and her father's desire that she not do tankery at all, causing Teru to remark that it's almost impossible to live your life trying to please others.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- Gold Poisons characterizes Jin Guangyao as this.Jin Guangyao(internally after he's framed by his father): All I wanted was a scrap of your affection.
- Arms of a Dark Angel:McGonagall: Actually, your description sounds a lot like my father, Severus. He too was a strict perfectionist bastard. He set certain rules when my brothers and I were growing up, and heaven help you if you didn't live up to them. But he was always fair, though I didn't see that until I was older. As a child, I thought I could never please the old battleaxe, though I never quit trying. When I got my Transfiguration Mastery at twenty-five, I was sure he'd find something to criticize about that too, since I hadn't gotten the highest score on the test that I could have, and he'd wanted me to marry and not go into teaching. I was waiting for him to make some kind of comment when he came up to me after the ceremony, for Ian McGonagall never missed an opportunity to tell you what he thought.
Snape: And did he?
McGonagall: He did, but not the way I was expecting. He looked me up and down and then he smiled and said, 'Ye've done me proud, Minnie my lass.' That was all, but God, it meant more to me than all the hugs and congratulations and all from everyone else there. I still remember it to this day. And that was over forty-something years ago. I loved him very much, the damn stubborn old man. - Empire: After getting out of Azkaban, Sirius reconciles with his mother.
- Know Your Rights: Hermione's father fills this role, due chiefly to his disappointment at not having a son instead. Sadly, she never gets to earn his approval as he dies shortly after his first and only appearance in the story.Her father was a hard man to impress. Hermione focused on studying and being the very best in her class. The very best was not good enough, as her father told her that she could always do better. Hermione was determined to gain the satisfaction of her father, gain a word of praise, gain anything.
- The Sun Will Come Up And The Seasons Will Change: At first, Mary wanted nothing more than for her mother to love and accept her as she is, but Dana only cared about making her less autistic at the expense of both their mental health and any relationship they might have had. When Mary realizes the true depth of her mother's hatred for her, she decides she's had enough of hurting herself to receive approval that she'll never get.
- The Crimson Garment: Satsuki is changed into this and believes that becoming "perfect" will put a stop to her mother, Ragyo's, abuse.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
- The Private Diary of Elizabeth Quatermain: Elizabeth has issues of this nature toward her famous father, Allan. Because the series takes place after his death, this never gets fully resolved, although she does make a sort of peace with it in time.
- Mutatis Mutandis: Heavily implied for Rogue toward Mystique. The latter appears to be the one person the former respects and the reason she bothers to try at her new high school. Unfortunately, though she does care, Mystique sees Rogue as ultimately an agent of the Brotherhood of Mutants for her to brainwash and use against the government.
- Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race: Drill Man just wants to make Wily proud of him. This backfires horribly in Episode 8.
- Mega Man Recut: Snake Man is this.
- In The Cosmos, Marinette's mother Sabine is The Perfectionist and expects excellence in all things from her daughter. After she got 99% on a test, she overheard Sabine lamenting to her husband "Why couldn't she have gotten 100%?" She also made clear that Marinette's achievements were never good enough, and anything she accomplishes is just 'as it should be'. Thanks to this, Marinette doesn't recognize how amazing or remarkable anything she's achieved actually is, since Sabine refuses to openly acknowledge them as such.
- While Sabine is aware of how damaging this is, and is trying to repair their relationship, it remains strained due to how much Sabine sincerely struggles to break out of her toxic mentality. Marinette's friends are also less forgiving of Sabine's flaws than her daughter is, glaring her down and making clear that they consider her to be something they have to protect Marinette from.
- What Goes Around Comes Around: Adrien firmly believes that he can earn his parents' love and approval by being an obliging son that does everything they ask of him. This also spurs him to seek leniency and forgiveness for his father after he's exposed as Hawkmoth, clinging to his idealistic belief that he can finally have the happy home life he's been dreaming of afterwards. Emilie makes absolutely clear with her Breaking Speech that this will never, ever happen, as neither of his parents actually give a crap about him, seeing him as nothing more than a means to their own ends.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- A Brief History of Equestria: Colonel Thunderbolt, Commander Hurricane's daughter (one of many). It's implied that she just wanted Daddy to acknowledge her and she felt the best way to do it was to have Equestria become a Stratocracy. Fortunately, Hurricane is able to convince her that she doesn't need to do anything so rash to get his approval.
- The Flash Sentry Chronicles: Trixie's father is a Manehatten Institute for Magical Learning teacher, which has a very high standard for students. Trixie attended for a while but dropped out when she couldn't keep up with the standards due to her average magic, disappointing her father. So she travels Equestria with her show and boasts about herself to get praise from others to make up for her father never giving her any.
- How I Lost My Mother gives Cozy Glow several shades of this in regards to how quickly her mother had abandoned her... And how Princess Celestia didn't even bother to try reconciling with Cozy out of fear of looking bad to her subjects for throwing members of her own family under the proverbial cart, again.
- Jericho: Jericho himself has this is shades. How much of it is actually true is unknown, seeing as he occasionally remarks that his father was cruel because he never forgave Jericho for killing his own mother in childbirth, and sometimes he'll randomly say things like, "Oh God, this is worse than that time I got laid at my high school prom. And I was homeschooled. By my father."
- This is lampshaded by the level-up perk Jericho receives in chapter 12:New Perk: Daddy Issues;—Daddy never hugged you enough. This gives you a Freudian excuse to misbehave. Oh, and you now do +5% bonus damage to mothers, fathers, and expecting fathers. But you also do +10% bonus damage to expecting mothers, because you’re a giant cunt and you sicken me.
- Cards has so much of this that it gets sad and then funny and then sad but ultimately funny again. It culminates with Cards being forced to bludgeon her own mother to death. Because Jericho is all for Black Comedy, this, too, gets made fun of:Companion Quest Perk Added: Born of Barren Womb — What, you didn’t know that murdering your own mother gave you special quasi-supernatural powers? Well, it’s true! (If your name is Cards and you were forced to beat your mother to death, that is.) With this perk, Cards does 15% more damage with blunt weapons. She will never be able to hit someone in the head without ever thinking of her mother now, haha!
- Even Lightning Dust has this, having always worked hard trying to earn the respect of her abusive, alcoholic father."I... I loved my mother, but not my father. For him, I have a begrudging, hateful respect. He told me he didn't want me to be stuck in a dead-end life like he was in, with nothing of value in the world. He told me that the only way to get anywhere in life was to be better than everybody else: better, faster, stronger. Leave others in the dust... the lightning dust... In a way, I should thank him. His constant... efforts to be a father got me to the top, I had my dream so close I could smell it. And in the end, because I listened to my father, I lost everything I ever had—" she looked at me, shaking her head "—and ever wanted. And sometimes we don’t ever get a second chance."
- This is lampshaded by the level-up perk Jericho receives in chapter 12:
- RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: The relationship between the Empress of the Shouma and her daughter could be described as like that of Celestia and Twilight Sparkle... if Celestia were an emotionally abusive monster who never once shows even the slightest smidgen of anything that could be mistaken for love. As "Contest of Champions" goes on, Dao Ming nearly kills herself trying to get mom's approval. Eventually, character development kicks in, and she realises there's no point trying. Her pleasantness starts skyrocketing. It also turns out to be one of the reasons her adopted sister has turned against the Empress - having to watch that kind of thing from the sidelines her whole life has left her deciding the Empress needs to go.
- The one-shot Silhouettes goes into Shikaku's relationship with his father, Shikahiko, a stern and unforgiving man who shows No Sympathy for his struggles in his first Chuunin Exam. This is paralleled by how he relates to his own son and is used to explain why the anime had Shikaku getting drunk rather than following Shikamaru's progress in the exams.
- Team 8: Like in canon, Hinata is this to Hiashi, but his stricter standards and harsher demeanor caused by a vague event make this seem like a futile endeavor. Eventually Deconstructed; Hinata is so desperate to meet the harsh standards set by her father and family that she sees little to no value in anything else she accomplishes. It's only after her teacher points out how self-destructive this mentality is that Hinata starts to consider the possibility that her father could, in fact, be wrong about her.
- Advice and Trust: Subverted. For a long while, Shinji strove to earn his father's approval. Throughout the story, he stops caring thanks to his stronger bonds with Asuka and Rei (and realizing how his father treats the latter). However, Gendo still thinks his son is desperate for his approval and attention and that he can use that desire to manipulate him.
- Children of an Elder God: Shinji agreed to pilot Unit 01, among other reasons, because he did not want his father to think he was a coward.
- Doing It Right This Time:
- Subverted. Shinji sought his father's acknowledgment and approval. After going through the Angel War and the end of the world, returning to the past, and finding out about what kind of life Rei has led, he is sick of it:Shinji: "Well, he can keep his fucking approval."
- Shinji really thought a So Proud of You moment was the only thing he was getting out of piloting Eva:"We get paid?"
Asuka facepalmed externally for good measure. "Yes, Shinji, we get paid. Quite well, in fact. Did you think the only thing you were getting out of this gig was empty promises of basic parental affection?"
"Actually... yeah."
Asuka pondered this information for a long moment. "Well, that explains a lot," she concluded. "C'mon, Shinji, let's go spend your dad's money!"
- Subverted. Shinji sought his father's acknowledgment and approval. After going through the Angel War and the end of the world, returning to the past, and finding out about what kind of life Rei has led, he is sick of it:
- Ghosts of Evangelion:
- Asuka is a demanding mother. Ryuko remembers that Asuka congratulated her when she played in middle school regionals, but she looked bored; however, when she received a prize for her musical accomplishments, her mother practically glowed. Kyoko explains that is the difference between congratulating your children obligatorily when they have done something well and praising their true achievements.Kyoko:"That's it. That's the difference between obligatory praise and true accomplishment. The first was obligation; when a child does something properly we're expected to encourage them, even though they haven't really accomplished a damn thing. But this... this was true pride. I've never seen her happier than she was on that day. Not once.
- Asuka is also proud when her daughter stands up to her after an argument:Asuka: You little brat. Not even your father talks to me that way.
Ryuko: Tch. He calls you out on your bullshit all the time. Misato does, too. I'm not an idiot, mom; I see what's going on around me. How the hell would I have the nerve to speak up otherwise?
Asuka: (laughing and hugging her) You stupid little brat! I'm glad to see you take after your father in ways other than musical talent!
Ryuko: Cut it out, mom! Jeez, you're embarrassing me!
Asuka: I'm proud of you, little girl. I truly am.
- Asuka is a demanding mother. Ryuko remembers that Asuka congratulated her when she played in middle school regionals, but she looked bored; however, when she received a prize for her musical accomplishments, her mother practically glowed. Kyoko explains that is the difference between congratulating your children obligatorily when they have done something well and praising their true achievements.
- Higher Learning: Shinji had sought his father's approval when he was a kid but he stopped caring about it throughout the story. However, in the final scene he is told that his father is proud of him.
- Nobody Dies: Asuka is the extreme gender-inverted version of this trope, to the point where Kyoko is an outright Abusive Parent, but it also remains a facet of Shinji's relationship with his father; Gendo might be a lot less messed up with Yui still at his side, but he isn't prone to overt displays of emotion and it's not always obvious that yes, he does love his son. They spend a fair chunk of the story working through this.
- Once More With Feeling (Crazy-88): Subverted. Shinji used to crave for his father's attention and praise. Now he thinks that he was an idiot for desiring Gendo's approval.
- Dear Old Dad has both Ryuji and Akechi of the Phantom Thieves were this to their father. Yes, father, not fathers: both of them have Masayoshi Shido as their father. As the one who had him in his life the most before he left, Ryuji tells Akechi that trying to get his acknowledgement and respect will not happen. The rest of Shido's children do not have this trope apply to them at any point in time, however, at all.
- A Brief History of Histories has Usagi desperate to earn her father's love, convinced that the reason he's so distant is that she's simply not 'good enough' to be his daughter.
- Heroes: Kirk deduces that Spock's reason for wanting the (illusionary) Surak's approval was that he could never get it from his father.
- Total Drama Legacy: Nero. All he wants is approval from his mother Scarlett, who is dismissive and neglectful towards him. In fact, Nero's Heel–Face Turn ends up making their relationship worse.
- Shatterheart: Syaoran is constantly seeking Kurogane's approval because Kurogane is the first person that actually acknowledged him as a separate person from his clone and the first in the group to stop shunning him. Syaoran overcomes his Hikikomori-ness and actually tries to talk to Fai and Sakura because he wanted Kurogane to be proud of him. Syaoran even lampshades it when he forces himself to stay through a hostile dinner with the rest of the group.Syaoran: This can't be healthy. There's no way I'm this desperate for approval.
- Tales from the Fleet: Spur is the daughter of the Pint of Bitter's captain. Not only does this put serious pressure on her from everyone else, but she barely sees him and he's not even allowed to praise her for a job well done.Spur: Captain can't play favorites.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Forever: Several characters suffer because of this. The most blatant is Natasha, Zane Truesdale's daughter who is introduced in the final arc; her father has been very stoic toward her despite her desire to win his approval, and this combined with her older brother's blatant hatred for her because he blames her for their mother's Death by Childbirth has turned her into an extreme case of Shrinking Violet, leading to a full-blown Heroic BSoD after said brother defeats her in the arc's tournament. Alexis calls Zane out on it, and fortunately he makes an effort to do better.
