History AFatherToHisMen / AnimeAndManga

** Fate [[GenerationXerox takes after Lindy]] in this regard during ''[=StrikerS=]]'', where the two soldiers serving under her are her adoptive children.

** Lindy applies during the first two seasons, especially in the second season. This makes sense when you consider the fact that the people serving under her include her son (who is also her XO), her soon to be adopted daughter, said son's eventual wife, said ''daughter's'' eventual wife, said daughter's familiar, [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Yuuno]].

* Villainous example: MadScientist Jail Scaglietti from ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers''. Despite being the BigBad and showing quite the thing for destruction, he regards the Number Cyborgs as his masterpieces and shows quite the care for them. [[spoiler: Even to the HeelFaceTurn-ed ones.]]

* Riki of {{Ginga Nagareboshi Gin}} is a straight example of this trope. When Gin calls him "father", Riki (having amnesia) mistakes this as being figurative and says "All dogs among us are like own sons to me". He is also shown to care very deeply about his comrades, and even forbid [[spoiler:Ben]] from coming to the final battle due to the latter [[spoiler:having become a (literal) father, as well as having lost his eyesight]].
* Harara of ApocalypseZero is an unusual ''villainous'' version of this trope, being wholeheartedly grateful to the monsters who serve him and concerned for their well-being. Yes, even though most of his servants are perverse, murderous mutant horrors. They, in turn, respect and idolize him.

* ''[[LightNovel/YoujoSenki The Saga of Tanya the Evil]]'' has the eponymous [[VillainProtagonist Tanya Degurechaff]]. Despite the fact that she's technically around '''[[ChildSoldier ten years old]]'''[[note]] Not counting her past life[[/note]] and even though it is for her own self-serving ends, she looks after the men in her battalion much like a mother would her children: praising them when they do well, disciplining them when they step out of line, and doing everything she can to keep them out of trouble, or failing that, getting them out of trouble.

* Riki of {{Ginga Nagareboshi Gin}} is a straight example of this trope. When Gin calls him "father", Riki (having amnesia) mistakes this as being figurative and says "All dogs among us are like own sons to me". He is also shown to care very deeply about his comrades, and even forbid [[spoiler:Ben]] from coming to the final battle due to the latter [[spoiler:having become father as well as having lost his sight]].

** The pirate Whitebeard is like this to his men. He explicitly refers to his crewmen as his sons, and they in turn call him "Oyaji" (which can mean father). Whitebeard is well-known to go to ''any'' length to avenge the death of any of his crew. When one of Whitebeard's crewmen is tricked into turning on him, Whitebeard's response is to call the man a fool, provide a CooldownHug, and tell his "foolish son" he still loves him.

** A ''very'' warped version of this is none other than the villainous Arlong. His only good quality is that he's as [[BandOfBrothers attached to his men]] as Luffy is to his own; because of that, he takes at least four different levels of UnstoppableRage, each for his three defeated EliteMooks and one when Luffy uses a fallen Mook as a shield to his bite attack.

*** The Punk Hazard character [[spoiler:Vice-Admiral Vergo]] puts up a front of this, but doesn't really care for his subordinates at all.
*** Conversely, Vice-Admiral Smoker, even if he doesn't show it, cares for his subordinates deeply. [[spoiler:[[ItsPersonal Which is why he went after Vergo for harming said subordinates,]] and went so far as to perform an EnemyMine with Trafalgar Law to take him out.]]
** "Big Mom" Charlotte Linlin's men call her mama [[spoiler: but she '''averts''' the hell out of this trope by randomly eating one of her henchmen for no reason.]]
** Donquixote Doflamingo, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and, pre-TimeSkip, the one about whom the least was known; one of his earliest appearances was giving a ruthless YouHaveFailedMe treatment to a subordinate who made the mistake of pressing Luffy's BerserkButton. But post-Time Skip, when more of his backstory is revealed (including the fact that he's TheDon of a worldwide [[TheMafia Mafia]]), he seems to fit this trope to a T, and it's shown that all of his closest subordinates care for him enough to die for him. [[spoiler: Too bad the feeling isn't mutual. While Doflamingo cares about his top Officers more than his mooks, that won't stop him from ordering them to die for him. While he's clearly regretful about ordering Officers to die, it's equally clear that this is because he's losing a powerful minion, not because he's losing someone he loves. And if an officer betrays him, than they'll get no mercy. (Baby-5, the unstable NinjaMaid, seems to be an exception, due to her [[ExtremeDoormat personality]]. As Law says, Doflamingo's care for someone only goes as far as how useful they are to his ambitions.]]

* ''Manga/DragonBall'': King Piccolo is the ''only'' villain in the entire series to give a damn about his underlings, going as far as to avenge them if they fell in battle. Helps that they are actually his kids.

* The pirate Whitebeard is like this to his men in ''Manga/OnePiece.'' He explicitly refers to his crewmen as his sons, and they in turn call him "Oyaji" (which can mean father). Whitebeard is well-known to go to ''any'' length to avenge the death of any of his crew. When one of Whitebeard's crewmen is tricked into turning on him, Whitebeard's response is to call the man a fool, provide a CooldownHug, and tell his "foolish son" he still loves him.

* Riki of {{Ginga Nagareboshi Gin}} is a straight example of this trope. When Gin calls him "father", Riki [[spoiler:(having amnesia)]] mistakes this as being figurative and says "All dogs among us are like own sons to me". He is also shown to care very deeply about his comrades, and even forbid [[spoiler:Ben]] from coming to the final battle due to the latter [[spoiler:having become father as well as having lost his sight]].

* Riki of {{Ginga Nagareboshi Gin}} is a straight example of this trope. When Gin calls him "father", Riki (having amnesia) mistakes this as being figurative and says "All dogs among us are like own sons to me". He is also shown to care very deeply about his comrades, and even forbid Ben from coming to the final battle due to the latter having become father as well as having lost his sight.

* ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'': Princess Kushana is quite close to her Third Army and always has a little trouble coping with casualties.

** Easily her equal in this trope is [[ColonelBadass Roy Mustang]]. He endangers an entire operation to rescue two of his most loyal subordinates from certain death, even though he's the one who ordered the operation and if his activity is known, [[SlaveToPR explaining it will be difficult and probably ruin the "ruthless careerist" persona]] [[JerkassFacade he employs as cover]]. (For this, his personal aide - one of the two he rescued - calls him an idiot. [[NoBadassToHisValet But she's allowed.]]) There's a reason his old unit from the war [[spoiler:comes back to help in the finale]] - as one of them says in a flashback, he went out of his way to protect them from harm, and they credit him with being the reason they all survived. He also recruited the Elric brothers prior to the start of the anime/manga - and because they are literally children, with a MissingMom and DisappearedDad, they are in some ways like his sons.

** Don't forget Brigadier General Hughes. He's like a doting father-figure (or brother, depending) to the entire military, particularly Roy, Ed and Al, as well as a [[SickeninglySweethearts (somewhat nauseatingly) devoted]] father to his daughter, Elysia. [[spoiler: Rest in peace, Maes Hughes.]] The [[spoiler:MeaningfulFuneral]] proves just how much everyone really loves him.
*** Though, mind, the only actual subordinates of his we see are Brosh, Ross, and Schezka, who find him terrifying, and a couple of people who think he's kind of annoying. So he was very hands-off about the nurturing thing.
*** If he was nice ''all'' the time, he wouldn't have been able to join the army in the first place. Sometimes being assertive is part of his job.

* To become a Hokage in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', one must care deeply for everyone in the village. [[BadassGrandpa Hiruzen Sarutobi]] loved everyone in his village so much, he gladly died for them. This is what makes [[spoiler:the Uchiha Massacre even more devastating for him personally. He basically had to [[OffingTheOffSpring off]] the entire clan to save the village.]] When he saw what Orochimaru did to his men, sacrificing them to raise the previous Hokages, he [[ManlyTears cried]] and berated his old student, rightly claiming that Orochimaru didn't learn anything.

* Momonga in ''LightNovel/Overlord'' treats his NPC subordinates like this. Especially notable in that he doesn't even ''need'' to, as they're programmed to have UndyingLoyalty to him and just speaking with him is enough to make their day, [[BenevolentBoss but he still goes out of his way to compliment and reward them for their efforts.]]

* ''[[LightNovel/YoujoSenki The Saga of Tanya the Evil]]'' has the eponymous [[VillainProtagonist Tanya Degurechaff]]. Even though it is for her own self-serving ends, she looks after the men in her battalion much like a mother would her children: praising them when they do well, disciplining them when they step out of line, and doing everything she can to keep them out of trouble, or failing that, getting them out of trouble.

** Easily her equal in this trope is [[ColonelBadass Roy Mustang]]. He once endangered an entire operation to rescue two of his most loyal subordinates from certain death, even though he's the one who ordered the operation and if his activity is known, [[SlaveToPR explaining it will be difficult and probably ruin the "ruthless careerist" persona]] [[JerkassFacade he employs as cover]]. (For this, his personal aide - one of the two he rescued - calls him an idiot. [[NoBadassToHisValet But she's allowed.]]) There's a reason his old unit from the war [[spoiler:comes back to help in the finale]] - as one of them says in a flashback, he went out of his way to protect them from harm, and they credit him with being the reason they all survived.

*** If he was nice ''all'' the time, he wouldn't have been able to join the army in the first place. And sometimes being assertive is part of his job.

** However he [[{{Irony}} utterly fails]] to [[ParentalAbandonment raise his own son]], apparently, if we are to believe ''Hathaway's Flash''. Being a career military man left him separated from his actual family for most of his life. (Though being based on the substantially altered novelization of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack CCA]]'', ''Hathaway's Flash'' is semi-canonical at best.)

* Harara of ApocalypseZero is an unusual ''villainous'' version of this trope, being wholeheartedly grateful to the monsters who serve him and concerned for their well-being. Yes, even though most of his servants are perverse, murderous mutant horrors.

* Villainous example: MadScientist Jail Scaglietti from ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha''. Despite being the BigBad and showing quite the thing for destruction, he regards the Number Cyborgs as his masterpieces and shows quite the care for them. [[spoiler: Even to the HeelFaceTurn-ed ones.]]

* Although she can be harsh, Sister Kate of ''ChronoCrusade'' genuinely cares for all of the exorcists under her command and often treats them as her children. In fact, she's generally portrayed as being harsh towards [[HotBlooded Rosette]] because she ''does'' care for her and is concerned for her.

* Villainous example: MadScientist Jail Scaglietti from ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha''. Despite being the BigBad and showing quite the thing for destruction, he regards the Number Cyborgs as his masterpieces and shows quite the care or them. [[spoiler: Even to the HeelFaceTurn-ed ones.]]