History Main / AbandonedWarChild

* LightNovel/VioletEvergarden has this as her backstory, having been discovered in the middle of a war zone as a young girl by a group of soldiers fighting in an analogue to the first World War, and when they tried to rape her she tore them apart. The soldiers' commanding officer had her turned into a ChildSoldier to take advantage of her superhuman combat abilities; and by the time she was fourteen she was desensitized to violence, almost-completely emotionless, and saw herself as a living weapon -- with the bulk of the series being about her breaking free of that conditioning after the war's end.

* Sentarou from ''Manga/KidsOnTheSlope'' is the son of an American World War II soldier who {{disappeared|Dad}} after the war. This explains his light brown hair (which curls when worn long in flashbacks). As a child he received a lot of racism for being mixed.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E4TheReginaMonologues The Regina Monologues]]", the Simpsons visit England, with Grandpa Abe Simpson going to try and find a woman he had a one-night stand with the evening before [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII D-Day]]. In the epilogue they find each other, and it turns out Homer has a half-sister named Abbie. Abe panics and runs for the plane.

** Similarly, after the Vietnam War, [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/vietnam/ American soldiers left behind children]]. The children's lives were even more complicated by the fact that they are half white (or black) and obviously "foreign". Many of them were ostracized in their communities, although they are now using DNA testing to locate long-lost relatives in the US.
* People from countries in the Middle East sometimes refer to green-eyed individuals as having "Crusader eyes", due to a belief that they're descended from children fathered by Europeans during the Crusades (the typical Middle-Easterner is statistically much more likely to have brown eyes).

* In the 2003 anime of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', partway through th series [[spoiler:Rosé Thomas]] is raped by soldiers who [[RapePillageAndBurn attacked her village]] and was left [[TeenPregnancy pregnant]] as a result. The incident left her mute and [[BreakTheCutie traumatized]] for months, though by the final episode she is shown talking and recovering. She's depicted as much livelier during her brief appearance in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'', which takes place three years after the final episode.

* In the 2003 anime of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', Rosé Thomas was raped by soldiers who [[RapePillageAndBurn attacked her village]] and was left [[TeenPregnancy pregnant]] as a result. The incident left her mute and [[BreakTheCutie traumatized]] for months, though by the final episode she is shown talking and recovering. She's depicted as much livelier during her brief appearance in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'', which takes place three years after the final episode.

* In the 2003 anime of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', Rosé Thomas was gang-raped by soldiers who [[RapePillageAndBurn attacked her village]] and was left [[TeenPregnancy pregnant]] as a result. The incident left her mute and [[BreakTheCutie traumatized]] for months, though by the final episode she is shown talking and recovering. She's depicted as much livelier during her brief appearance in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'', which takes place three years after the final episode.

* ''Series/TheATeam'' episode "The Sound of Thunder" has the Team hired by a man who learned he has a child from the Vietnam War (these sure seem a common subtrope in American media).

* The 1977 film ''Green Eyes'' is about a man who was a soldier in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar who decides to go look for the toddler son he had with a prostitute he fell in love with in Vietnam. All he knows is that his son looks a lot like him and has green eyes. [[spoiler:The "green eyes" were likely due to an illness, especially since both parents have brown eyes. The child died several years ago as an infant. However the man ends up befriending and then adopting an older boy who is an orphan]].

Related tropes include MenAreTough and WomenAreDelicate, as the character's father was a soldier and their mother is typically portrayed as a poor abandoned maiden. If the protagonist of a story, this character is likely a HeroicBastard; if a villain or a {{jerkass}}, they're likely a BastardBastard.

* In the anime of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', Rosé Thomas was gang-raped by soldiers who [[RapePillageAndBurn attacked her village]] and was left [[TeenPregnancy pregnant]] as a result. The incident left her mute and [[BreakTheCutie traumatized]] for months, though by the final episode she is shown talking and recovering. She's depicted as much livelier during her brief appearance in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'', which takes place three years after the final episode.

* The 1977 film ''Green Eyes'' is about a man who was a soldier in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar who decides to go look for the toddler son he had with a prostitute he fell in love with in Vietnam. All he knows is that his son looks a lot like him and has green eyes. [[spoiler:The "green eyes" were likely due to an illness, especially since both parents have brown eyes. The child died several years ago as an infant, however the man ends up befriending and then adopting an older boy who is an orphan]].

* Implied in "Runs in the Family" by Music/AmandaPalmer, which is about how your genes can effect your mental and physical health:

* Kazuhira Miller from the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series was fathered by an American occupation soldier who had sex with a Japanese prostitute following the end of World War II. After he was sent back to the States, she was forced to raise Kaz alone, though while they were together he treated her like a wife and left her enough money to create her own store before leaving.

* In 1922 silent film ''The Toll Of The Sea'', a Chinese woman named Lotus Blossom fell in love with an American soldier and married him. They had a son together but he left on a voyage before learning of the child. Her peers find her ignorant for believing he will come back and take her to America, and cite others who have fallen for the same trap. When her husband does return, he comes back with news that he married his [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood sweetheart]]. [[spoiler:Lotus Blossom decides to give their toddler-aged son to them by telling the boy that she was really taking care of him for his real parents. She then [[DrivenToSuicide kills herself]] by jumping into the ocean]].

-->''And they guess it has something to do with her grandmother's grandfather's grandmother's''

-->-- '''Mars''', "The Eye of the Storm" by Creator/KelleyEskridge

* In the anime of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', Rosé Thomas was gang-raped by soldiers who [[RapePillageAndBurn attacked her village]] and was left [[TeenPregnancy pregnant]] as a result. The incident left her mute and [[BreakTheCutie traumatized]] for months, though by the final episode she is shown talking and recovering.

* The 1977 film ''Film/GreenEyes'' is about a man who was a soldier in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar who decides to go look for the toddler son he had with a prostitute he fell in love with in Vietnam. All he knows is that his son looks a lot like him and has green eyes. [[spoiler:The "green eyes" were likely due to an illness, especially since both parents have brown eyes. The child died several years ago as an infant, however the man ends up befriending and then adopting an older boy who is an orphan]].
* In 1922 silent film ''Film/TheTollOfTheSea'', a Chinese woman named Lotus Blossom fell in love with an American soldier and married him. They had a son together but he left on a voyage before learning of the child. Her peers find her ignorant for believing he will come back and take her to America, and cite others who have fallen for the same trap. When her husband does return, he comes back with news that he married his [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood sweetheart]]. [[spoiler:Lotus Blossom decides to give their toddler-aged son to them by telling the boy that she was really taking care of him for his real parents. She then [[DrivenToSuicide kills herself]] by jumping into the ocean]].

* WebVideo/RedLetterMedia: Mister Plinkett implies he fathered one of these during the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar in his review of ''Film/StarWarsTheForceAwakens''.

* The plot of ''Film/{{Savior}}'' revolves largely around Vera, a Serb woman captured, raped, and impregnated during [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars The Bosnian War]]. She is released as part of a prisoner exchange mere hours before giving birth, and the results of [[YouCantGoHomeAgain trying to go home again]] aren't pretty for either her or her daughter.

* In ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'', the previous Watcher, Maerwald, was fathered by a Glanfathan marauder who raped an Aedyr settler woman. The father was killed by militia afterwards, and Maerwald's mother told him his father was [[MetaphoricallyTrue a soldier who had died before he was born]] (not knowing that Maerwald was his own father's {{reincarnation}}, which eventually drove him insane).

* In the anime of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', Rose was gang-raped by soldiers who [[RapePillageAndBurn attacked her village]] and was left [[TeenPregnancy pregnant]] as a result. The incident left her mute and [[BreakTheCutie traumatized]] for months, though by the final episode she is shown talking and recovering.

Often the women left behind and their children face derision and ostracism, often in the form of SlutShaming the mother for having a child out of wedlock, whether the child was conceived consensually or not. The child so subjected may be a victim of HalfBreedDiscrimination.

* {{Inverted}} in the ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' ChristmasEpisode "Newborn King", where Gibbs' team is protecting a female Marine who was impregnated by an Afghan tribal prince she fell in love with on a deployment. Since the father was later killed by the Taliban, this makes her child potentially the heir to the tribe, which sends mercenaries to kidnap the mother.

Tropers/StarSword taking over due to interest and OP inactivity.
!!RollingUpdates

-->And then there's my father. I'm told that young ladies
-->Can point to their fathers with maidenly pride.
-->Mine was a regiment, here for one hour,
-->I can't even tell you which side.