History Main / TellMeAboutMyFather

* ''Fanfic/SpiderNinja'': While Petra has memories of her Aunt May and Uncle Ben (who [[DeathByAdaptation died when she was four]]), she doesn't remember her birth parents, [[spoiler: the Agents Parker]], who died when she was two. When she meets [[spoiler:Wolverine]], who knew them when they were alive, she asks him to tell her about them. He obliges.

* In the fanfic novelization ''Fanfic/BreathOfTheWild'', Paya takes note of OriginalCharacter Princess Lochlia of Zora visiting Kakariko Village regularly. Impa always asks Paya to leave them be so they can talk alone, but Paya happened to overhear them one time talking about Lochlia's father. [[spoiler:She heard them ask when he, Link, would wake up from his slumber. She'd been visiting the village regularly so that she could learn more about her father that she spent 100 years of her life without.]]

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: The Burning Crusade'', we have Arator the Redeemer, the son of Alleria Windrunner and Turalyon. As an infant, Arator was separated from his parents after they left him on Azeroth to go fight a war on Draenor. Unfortunately, Alleria and Turalyon got trapped on the planet when the Dark Portal blew up. Twenty years later, the Dark Portal has reopened, and Arator has come to Outland (formerly known as Draenor) hoping to reunite with his parents (or more specifically, his father). As Arator never knew his father, he asks several of the veteran members of Alliance Expedition about Turalyon, including Turalyon's second, Danath Trollbane, for information and leads on Turalyon's current location. Several people then gave their opinion on how great a guy Turalyon was, but sadly, he has been MIA for 15 years. Arator is convinced Turalyon is alive, because he has the same vision of his father every time he sleeps, and vows to search for him. [[PutOnABus The story seemed to end for eight years]], but then Blizzard revealed that [[ArcherArchetype Marksmanship Hunters]] would be able to track down Alleria and Turalyon, and in the same expansion Arator himself becomes a more important character.

* ''Literature/{{Siren}}'': [[spoiler:Vanessa finds out that her biological mother was the siren Charlotte Bleu, who is now missing. Charlotte's sister Willa promised Vanessa's dad long ago that she'd someday answer any questions Vanessa had about Charlotte. Vanessa and Willa finally meet when Vanessa is seventeen, and Willa tells Vanessa all about Charlotte and her relationship with Vanessa's father.]]

** Sad to say, the chance never did present itself. Naruto spent the entirety of his childhood trying to survive, though how bad it really was is debated between fans from 'everyone trying to kill him' to 'everyone hates him.' It was pretty much established that Naruto was ''supposed'' to be told everything when [[DangerousSixteenthBirthday he officially turned 16]], else he would be too weak. [[spoiler: Too weak to handle Minato Namikaze aka the Yondaime's enemies, that is. Naruto ''is'' his son, after all.]]

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'': Will Turner realizes that Captain Jack Sparrow knew his father, and asks -- getting a real shock when he learns that Bootstrap Bill was a pirate. Though when Will was prisoner in the ''Black Pearl'', the tales told there about how he realized how treacherous they had been wins Will over.

* ''Film/TopGun'' does this when Viper tells Maverick about his father's last mission after Maverick's confidence is shaken by Goose's death, and how his father saved Viper's life at the cost of his own.

* ''Literature/TheOdyssey'': When Odysseus went to war, he left a wife and newborn son at home. Twenty years later, the war is ten years over, but Odysseus has still not returned. His son Telemachus, now just barely an adult, goes on a road (and sea) trip to find out where the heck he's gone off to. As he interviews Ulysses' old war buddies (in books III and IV) he tries hard to keep it strictly business -- when did you last see Odysseus, and which way was he going? -- but the TellMeAboutMyFather vibe is unmistakable, making this one OlderThanFeudalism.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E13ThePerfectPear The Perfect Pear]]", the Apple siblings, having grown curious about the origin of the feud between the Apple and Pear clans and having learned from that that their parents (who have throughout both this episode and the show in general been very heavily implied to be deceased) were [[StarCrossedLovers a Pear and an Apple]], try to track down ponies who knew them -- a genealogist cousin of theirs, their father's and mother's respective best friends, and the town major who officiated their wedding -- to get their story and learn what kind of people their parents were.

* Hare pulls this in ''[[Anime/HareGuu Hare+Guu]]'' with his mother, Weda. He asks her about his father. [[spoiler:She tells him pretty blankly that it's Dr. Clive, the doctor who's just come to work in the village. Since Dr. Clive is a ChivalrousPervert without the chivalry, Hare is ''not'' pleased.]]

* ''Anime/PanzerWorldGalient'': [[TheHero Jordy]] constantly asks [[ParentalSubstitute Asbeth]] about his mother. One of his first lines in the series consists of him asking: "What my mother was like?". Inverting the trope, he is not seen asking about his father, but his surrogate grandfather decides de motu propio to tell him that [[spoiler:he is son of the late King of Arst.]]
* Averted in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', which is especially glaring [[FridgeLogic when you would think]] that a boy who has grown up orphaned and isolated his whole life would ask anybody and everyone he could about his parents if a chance presented itself. Worse yet is that [[AdultsAreUseless the adults who know]] who Naruto's parents are ''never'' sit him down and tell him about them either.
** Sad to say, the chance never did present itself. Naruto spent the entirety of his childhood trying to survive, though how bad it really was is debated between fans from 'everyone trying to kill him' to 'everyone hates him.' It was pretty much established that Naruto was ''supposed'' to be told everything when [[DangerousSixteenthBirthday he officially turned 16]], else he would be too weak. [[spoiler: Too weak to handle Minato Namikaze aka the Yondaime's enemies, that is. Naruto ''is'' his son, after all.]]
** Considering how Naruto was a kid, it's probably for the best they didn't tell him. It would have gone straight to his head.
** He finally does ask a ''little'' when he meets [[spoiler: his mother Kushina]] while on a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind. Not nearly as much as he ''should'' have, but he had other, more pressing concerns at the time.
** Explained in the anime during a flashback in ''Shippuden'' episode 257: Naruto apparently asked Hiruzen about his parents many times, but Hiruzen refused to tell him anything. Eventually, he must have decided that it wasn't worth asking.
* Renton was shocked and anxious when he found out at episode 38 that Eureka knew his father Adrock Thurston all along in ''Anime/EurekaSeven'', and urged Eureka to tell him about his dad. This sudden outburst made Eureka confused and uncomfortable, so she ran away. Eventually, she did come back to Renton and shared her experience with Adrock after learning from Stoner that Renton is eager to learn about his dad very much.
* Subverted in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing''. [[spoiler: Right before Relena's adoptive father kicks the bucket, he manages to briefly tell that she's adopted and that her dead parents were the monarchs of the Sank Kingdom, but dies before giving her the details. She later cuts off her adoptive mother when she's gonna tell her how she came into the care of the Darlians, begging her in tears to not stop being her mom.]]
* In the [[AlternateUniverse Alternate]] BadFuture in ''Manga/DragonBallZ'', Trunks asks Gohan and his mother Bulma about his father, Vegeta. As Trunks is a fairly nice kid growing up in a hellish nightmare world, both of them try to spare his feelings by giving him a rather whitewashed version of the the man who, at one point, was trying to kill everyone on Earth -- Gohan just refers to him as "intense" (which was [[BloodKnight true enough]]) and Bulma tries to play him off as a sort of JerkWithAHeartOfGold, although she does say he's probably in hell. Since he travels back in time, Trunks does eventually get to meet his father, and is rather horrified by Vegeta's callousness (although that doesn't stop him from [[WellDoneSonGuy wanting his dad's approval anyway]]), thinking he'd been lied to. After Vegeta does eventually have a PapaWolf moment with his son, Trunks happily reports back to his mother that she'd been right all along, while Bulma thinks to herself she hadn't really expected Vegeta to go that far.
* In ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'', Koushirou asks his parents this when [[spoiler:they tell him that he's adopted, although he already knew about it.]] Apparently, [[YouRemindMeOfX his dad was a genius too.]]
* In ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' [[spoiler: the main character Tomoya's sick wife Nagisa dies giving birth to his daughter Ushio and he ends up leaving her to be raised by her grandparents, who make a point of not telling Ushio about her mother. When he decides to take care of Ushio again, one of the first things he does is tell her about her dead mother. This leads to a heart breaking scene where Tomoya breaks down in tears part way through talking about Nagisa, crying over her death for the first time in years.]]
* In ''Manga/NatsumesBookOfFriends'' Natsume tries to ask one of his relatives about his grandmother Reiko after learning that she had strong spiritual energy like himself and could see spirits and youkai. Unfortunately the kindest thing most people have to say about her is that she was weird and he is well aware that Reiko was as much an outcast as himself due to her abilities.

* ''Anime/HeroMask'': LivingMacGuffin Tina is introduced to Anna Winehouse, a scientist she learns worked with her parents. She spends much of their time together learning about the mother she never knew and her father was reluctant to speak of.

* Jesse Custer of ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' by chance meets an old Marine Corps buddy of his late father, who had been shot dead in front of Jesse when he was a young child. This meeting serves for two non-consecutive breaks from the main storyline as the army friend tells Jesse about their time in Vietnam. John Custer is revealed as a tough but fundamentally decent and loyal man, much like his son.

* ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}''

* In an interesting inversion, ComicBook/{{Daken}}, the son of ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, asks his father about his mother. Due to the fact they're in a mental plane of existence, Logan decides to show him rather than just tell him. It's a sweet moment until Daken can't touch her and demands more, which Logan can't give.
* ''ComicBook/XMen'': In an issue, ComicBook/{{Cable}} asks ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} (his father) to tell him about his mother, Madelyne Pryor (presumably the woman she was before she became [[OmnicidalManiac The Goblin Queen]]). This scene is given an odd dissonance, given that thanks to time travel Cable is old enough to be Cyclops' father.

* ''In The Shadows of their Fathers'', an arc of the ''[[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Star Wars Rebellion]]'' comic, Luke Skywalker gets his first inkling that his dad wasn't as heroic as he'd been thinking ever since finding out that Anakin had been a Jedi. It happened in the most dramatic way possible, of course, when he went to help out the people of Jabiim, whom Anakin had left to die back in the Clone Wars. They found out who he was, they wanted to kill him, cooler heads prevailed and he was taunted and beaten up until a more sympathetic Jabiim started protecting him. Just the ''idea'' that Anakin was actually terrible practically breaks Luke, who pleads [[http://images.plurk.com/86f3f3cf9a763ef796975a1465e95115.jpg "Did my father really behead Jabiimi children?"]] before absolutely throwing himself into the cause of helping them however he can, [[IAmNotMyFather trying to make it up to them]]. At the end of the series this attitude gets a soft reset, with Leia assuring Luke that his father had still been good and helped so many people even if he'd failed the Jabiimi, and Luke swears that if anything this just made him love Anakin more.

* In ''[[http://percyjacksonfanfiction.wikia.com/wiki/Whispers_in_the_Dark Whispers in the Dark,]]'' Taylor was told all her life that her father drowned when she was a baby and that's why she doesn't remember him. But when [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou she actually meets him]], she's pretty pissed to find out that he's [[spoiler:the one and only [[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Luke Castellan]], who betrayed the gods to join Kronos]].
* In the ''My Little Pony'' Fanfic ''Fanfic/TheSonOfTheEmperor'' Charles doesn't really know much about his father [[spoiler: Napoleon]], so when he meets someone who does he quickly starts asking about him.
* In the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' novel, Papa Smurf tells Empath about his mother in the revelation that [[spoiler:Empath is Papa Smurf's only biological son]].
* Ultimately defied in ''Fanfic/BetterOffNotKnowing'': Yes, viewpoint character Hakini ''asked'' about "the people who'd brought her into the world" [[spoiler:(heavily implied to be [[ArcVillain Zaheer]] [[UnholyMatrimony and]] [[TheBrute P'Li]])]] ''once'', but it turns out that [[LockedOutOfTheLoop said information was deliberately withheld]] from her [[HappilyAdopted adoptive]] [[GoodParents parents]].
* In the fanfic novelization ''Fanfic/BreathOfTheWild'', Paya takes note of OriginalCharacter Princess Lochlia of Zora visiting Kakariko Village regularly. Impa always asks Paya to leave them be so they can talk alone, but Paya happened to overhear them one time talking about Lochlia's father. [[spoiler: She heard them ask when he, Link, would wake up from his slumber. She'd been visiting the village regularly so that she could learn more about her father that she spent 100 years of her life without.]]
* In chapters 6 and 14 ''Fanfic/OneMoreTimeOneMoreChance'', Ryuuko, abandoned as a baby, asks Satsuki something akin to this. This leads into some UnpleasantParentReveal, as Satsuki tells her about how Ragyo was in life (that Ragyo was, as she put it, "a monster"), however, this also leads to the opposite when she tells Ryuuko about Soichiro (that he was kind and loving). Ryuuko takes it rather well.

* The very essence of ''[[https://www.wattpad.com/story/197976919-cabin-fever-promises-to-keep Cabin Fever: Promises To Keep.]]'' A few years after Marcy accidentally got pregnant from the careless [[OneNightStandPregnancy one-night-stand she had with Paul]] during [[Film/CabinFever the deadly outbreak]], her daughter starts asking questions about her father, [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy who tragically died from the disease]].
* ''Fanfic/EdenObsessmuch'': Averted with Hermione's son. He has his suspicions but doesn't ever ask his mother [[spoiler:whether or not his father is Lucius Malfoy, the man who murder her parents and raped her]].

* ''Fanfic/DeadGarden'': Played straight with Sakura in concern of her mother, who died during the Kyuubi attack. Inverted with Naruto - when he's calling out his mother Kushina for not telling him how or why she's responsible for "killing" Sakura's mother, he furiously prepares to storm out after declaring how she never even told him about Minato; this prompts her to finally tell her son that his father was the Fourth Hokage.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', this is downplayed and GenderFlipped. Mei doesn't know much about Ming's panda form because she won't talk about it so her father tells her about it.

* Through much of ''Film/MadameRosa'': Through much of the movie, Momo pesters the titular Rosa about info relating to his parents. Rosa is reluctant because the news isn't pleasant (his mother was prostitute and his father was her pimp and murderer).

* Creator/RobinMcKinley:
** In ''Literature/TheHeroAndTheCrown'', Aerin asks her nursemaid about her dead, [[PeopleOfHairColor foreign]] mother very early in the book. Even though by this time she's heard just about everything the woman ever knew about the queen, every so often she comes out with another word or so, and besides, Aerin likes to hear it again. Of course, it's important later, and comes up a lot in various contexts, since taking after her outlander mother is one of the defining facts of the main character's life.
** Similarly, Beauty in ''Literature/RoseDaughter'' tries to find out, with the help of one of her maids, what scent her mother wore, as it's the strongest memory she has of her. The maid is able to find out that the scent was of [[SomethingAboutARose roses]], and this and Beauty's mother's origins are inevitably plot-relevant.

* ''Literature/{{Siren}}'': [[spoiler:Vanessa finds out that her biological mother was the siren Charlotte Bleu, who is now missing. Charlotte's sister Willa promised Vanessa's dad long ago that she'd someday answer any questions Vanessa had about Charlotte. Vanessa and Willa finally meet when Vanessa is seventeen, and Willa tells Vanessa all about Charlotte and her relationship with Vanessa's father.]]

* Claire does this on ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' after her powers start to manifest.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' has Clark asking The Fortress AI (a recording of his father), ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}, Raya, and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} about his parents, but mainly Jor-El. He also gets to interact with a simulation of his mom Lara (played by Creator/HelenSlater, who played Supergirl in ''Film/Supergirl1984'').

** Played with by "100", where it becomes "Tell Your Son About His Father": [[spoiler: in her last moments, Haley pleads with Hotch to tell their son Jack about how he used to be; how he wasn't so serious, how he and Haley fell in love, how he used to make her laugh.]]
* Happens at the end of a season 5 ''Series/LasVegas'' episode when Piper Nielsen aks AJ Cooper about her dead father, who was his best friend when they were soldiers but died in a military conflict. He had promised to take care of the recently born Piper from a distance as a LastRequest to him, but circumstances led Piper to suspect Cooper was in fact her father but had simply [[ParentalAbandonment abandoned her]] for the past twenty-five years.
* Gender-inverted in ''Series/GameOfThrones'' Jon Snow grew up motherless, not even knowing her name. Ned Stark told him before parting ways that the next time they'll see each other he'll tell him about his mother. [[spoiler: As the end of Season 6 turns out Jon should have rather asked about ''his father'' indeed, as Ned isn't his biological father, but [[FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo rather his uncle]].]]
* The SeriesFinale of ''Series/{{Rome}}'' comes within a hair's breadth of being named after this trope: "De Patre Vostro" (About Your Father...).
** There's also a scene a couple of episodes earlier in which Caesarion asks Lucius Vorenus to tell him about his father. Vorenus, of course, is one of the few people who knows that Caesarion's father ''isn't'' [[UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar Caesar]]. [[spoiler: It's Titus Pullo.]] As he goes along describing Caesarion's father, [[spoiler:the description starts to shift from that of Caesar to that of Pullo. He has to hastily correct himself when Caesarion question's whether Caesar was actually a gambler and a womaniser.]]
* {{Gender Flip}}ped in several season 4 episodes of ''Series/ChinaBeach'' as Karen inquires about her mother among the group of [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar veterans]] who knew her. She also eventually meets her father in the process. He's a jerk. No wonder she wasn't looking for him.
* In ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'' [[spoiler:Astronema]]/Karone asks Andros 'what were mom and dad like?', so beginning the first honest and open conversation between the reunited siblings. Andros tells her they were 'the best parents any kid could hope for'.
* ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'': Richard asks his sister to tell him in "Bloodline," but unfortunately she knows nothing because their mother refused to discuss it-not even whether they have the same one. [[spoiler: His father is later revealed to be Panis Rahl]]. It's then {{inverted}} and {{gender flip}}ped in the same episode when [[spoiler: he laments he never got the chance to talk to his mother, and it ends with Zedd]] saying, "Then let me tell you about her."
* In ''Series/KamenRiderHibiki'', the main character Asumu is a teenage boy living with a single mother. When his rival is constantly talking about surpassing his father, Asumu begins wondering what his own father is like. His mother is acting very distant about is, but gives him his father's address. Asumu indirectly gets to know his father by the testimony of other people. The episode ends with him asking his mother if its okay to like him, after which his mother encourages him to do so.

* Given a slight extra spin in ''Series/TheCityHunter''. Yoon Sung asks his mother this, and she responds, very carefully, with a description of her [[PosthumousCharacter deceased husband, Mu-Yeol.]] [[spoiler: Who, it turns out, is not Yoon Sung's father.]]

* The character Sophie, in ''Theatre/MammaMia'', doesn't ask her mother about her father, but finds her mother's diary describing three possible fathers, leading to the entire plotline.

* Gender inverted in ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert''. Amanda is desperate to know more about her mother, but the protagonist hasn’t given her much to go on. She’s very surprised that the stupendously wealthy Cecilia is her aunt, and her father’s secrecy about Lainie allows Cecilia to twist the narrative about his relationship with her, making him look like a bad guy.
* Used in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'''s "Heaven's Feel" scenario after Shirou learns [[spoiler:that his foster father fought as a Master in the fourth Grail War. While Saber is reluctant to talk about him, Kotomine is only too pleased to]].
** Played with: Shirou knew plenty about Kiritsugu in the first place, it was just [[spoiler: the bit about being a Master in the last Grail War]] that he wanted more info on.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: The Burning Crusade'', we have Arator the Redeemer, the son of Alleria Windrunner and Turalyon. As an infant, Arator was separated from his parents after they left him on Azeroth to go fight a war on Draenor. Unfortunately, Alleria and Turalyon got trapped on the planet when the Dark Portal blew up. Twenty years later, the Dark Portal has reopened, and Arator has come to Outland (formerly known as Draenor) hoping to reunite with his parents (or more specifically, his father). As Arator never knew his father, he asks several of the veteran members of Alliance Expedition about Turalyon, including Turalyon's second, Danath Trollbane, for information and leads on Turalyon's current location. Several people then gave their opinion on how great a guy Turalyon was, but sadly, he has been MIA for 15 years. Arator is convinced Turalyon is alive, because he has the same vision of his father every time he sleeps, and vows to search for him. [[PutOnABus The story seemed to end for eight years]], but then Blizzard revealed that [[ArcherArchetype Marksmanship Hunters]] would be able to track down Alleria and Turalyon, and in the same expansion Arator himself becomes a more important character.

* A rare example of learning about one's ''mother'', from her ''son'' no less - Patrokles, protagonist of ''VideoGame/SoulCaliburV'', desired to learn about his mother, Sophitia, from his NonActionGuy father Rothion.

* In ''VideoGame/ArcTheLadTwilightOfTheSpirits'', the main human character, Kharg, has asked repeatedly about his father, Windalf, to his mother, Nafia. The reason she doesn't tell him is because his father is a Drakyr, one of the many Deimos races of the game, which would make Kharg himself a human-Deimos hybrid. He only finds out after [[spoiler: her death]], albeit refusing to believe it until he [[spoiler: grows Drakyr wings in front of the people of Yewbell]].
* This is the crux of Aloy's whole journey in ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn''. She was made an [[{{Unperson}} outcast]] by the Nora ''at birth'' due to the strange circumstances under which she was born and what is thought to be her mother, which prompts Aloy to set out on a quest to find out who or what her mother precisely was. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Aloy is a clone of Elizabet Sobek, the genius scientist from the old world responsible for preserving life after it was all but wiped out by a RobotWar, and she was "birthed" by the AI Sobek made to recreate life to avert another impending apocalypse. Which means Aloy effectively has two mothers]].
* In ''VisualNovel/MarcoAndTheGalaxyDragon'', the titular Marco travels to Earth to learn more about her mother, whom she barely remembers due to being [[MadeASlave kidnapped and sold into slavery]] at a young age. [[spoiler:She eventually learns that her mother is Mitsuko, the kind lady she met during her first day on the planet.]]

* Gender-inverted in ''VisualNovel/{{Nightshade}}'' where Enju learns that Hanzo was childhood friends with her deceased mother, she starts asking questions what her mother was like since her mother died when she was very young.

* Charon [=McKay=] in ''Webcomic/ShadowGirls'' is very uncomfortable when her daughter Rebecka finally gets around to asking because she doesn't know and that can only serve to remind Becca of her reputation as the bastard daughter of the town slut.

* ''Webcomic/TheDreamlandChronicles'': [[http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/chapter-06/page-392/ Nastajia learns her parents visited the mermaid king on their quest.]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Endstone}}'', [[http://endstone.net/comic/issue-1-page-19-2/ People accuse Cole of being like her father. She doesn't understand why]].

* In ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', Mr. Donlan [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=1022 regales the fascinated Antimony with such stories while they wait.]]
* Chel in ''Webcomic/BecauseImDepressed''. Ada died shortly after Chel was born, so everything Chel knows about her mother is secondhand. [[TheLostLenore Diego still doesn't like to talk about it,]] but Ben and Eve have been more willing to answer Chel's inquiries.
* Sparrow in ''Webcomic/ButImACatPerson'', although in her case it's more an incident of Tell Me About My [[AllLesbiansWantKids Sperm Donor]].
* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Durkon's mother didn't want to talk about his father. He resorted to an HonoraryUncle, who may have shaded the truth considerably.

* This is inverted in ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', where the supervillain Tattletale threatens to tell the superhero Panacea about her father-specifically, about the horrible crimes that he committed that got him imprisoned in a maximum security facility for the rest of his natural life-in order to get away from a bank robbery gone wrong.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited''. [[spoiler:Shayera]] sits down beside Batman and asks him to "Tell me about my [[spoiler:son.]]" (TimeTravel was involved and it led to [[spoiler:Shayera and John learning that they'll eventually be the parents of Rex, aka Warhawk, a member of a future Justice League]].)
* GenderFlipped on ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse,'' where [[KidHero Steven]] often talks to his father and [[ParentalSubstitute maternal substitutes]] about his MissingMom, [[PosthumousCharacter Rose Quartz]], who [[OnlyMostlyDead gave up her physical form]] [[DeathByChildbirth when he was born]]. A later episode has Greg tell Steven the story of [[HowDadMetMom how he and his mother met]], or more specifically the version where he didn't leave out [[RememberTheNewGuy his crappy former manager]].
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E13ThePerfectPear The Perfect Pear]]", the Apple siblings, having grown curious about the origin of the feud between the Apple and Pear clans and having learned from that that their parents (who have throughout both this episode and the show in general been very heavily implied to be deceased) were [[StarCrossedLovers a Pear and an Apple]], try to track down ponies who knew them -- a genealogist cousin of theirs, their father's and mother's respective best friends, and the town major who officiated their wedding -- to get their story and learn what kind of people their parents were.

* This is the crux of Aloy's whole journey in ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn''. She was made an [[{{Unperson}} outcast]] by the Nora ''at birth'' due to the strange circumstances under which she was born and what is thought to be her mother, which prompts Aloy to set out on a quest to find out who or what her mother precisely was. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Aloy is a clone of Elizabet Sobek, the genius scientist from the old world responsible for preserving life after it was all but wiped out by a RobotWar, and she was "birthed" by the AI Sobek made to recreate life to avert another impending apocalypse. Which means [[HasTwoMommies Aloy effectively has two mothers]].]]

* ''Fanfic/BrokenBow'': Apollo's children become very interested in Armani Dove after learning he was raised by the Sun god himself. Armani feels pretty wretched about his desire to escape his uncle's guardianship when he realizes those kids would give ''anything'' to spend one single day with their dad.

* Gastro in ''Webcomic/{{Gastrophobia}}''. Usually, his mother evades the question by telling him a story about Zeus descending from Olympus in the form of a handsome animal, but eventually admits that she herself doesn't know. [[spoiler: Turns out she really does know, and it's Lord Nightsorrow.]]

** ''Film/ANewHope'' does this, but what's told is only MetaphoricallyTrue. It's also implied that Luke has asked his aunt and uncle about Anakin, but that they refuse to discuss him.

* When [[Creator/DCComics DC]]'s Damage discovered he was the son of the [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica Justice Society's]] Atom, two members of the Society, with him, talked about finding the others, and every surviving member came with Damage to his parents' grave.
** Further, in the same universe, when Kate Spencer (Manhunter) wanted to learn more about her past, she visited her grandmother, Sandra Knight (Phantom Lady), who proceeds to tell the tale of her supposed grandfather and real grandfather.
* ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'''s daughter Ellie is curious about her mom. She first wonders why she was adopted, and Wade says he'll have thought of a better way to explain when she's older. She asks if he knew her mom and he says he didn't really know her. He sadly says he wanted to, but didn't get the chance. Ellie asks if her mother died, prompting Wade to turn away from her sadly.

* When Skaar, the son of the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Incredible Hulk]], first met the Hulk's [[TrueCompanions Warbound]], he asked them this same question. [[spoiler:Subverted in that he later clarified he meant "Tell me how I can kill him."]]

* In an issue of ''[[ComicBook/XMen Uncanny X-Men]]'', ComicBook/{{Cable}} invokes this trope by name when he asks ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} (his father) to tell him about his mother, Madelyne Pryor (presumably the woman she was before she became [[OmnicidalManiac The Goblin Queen]]). This scene is given an odd dissonance, given that thanks to time travel Cable is old enough to be Cyclops' father.

* At the end of ''The Forgotten Darkness'' of ''Fanfic/TheFlashSentryChronicles'', [[spoiler:Springer the Jakhowl discovers he is the son of Sharp Paw and Clear Paw, and asks Princess Luna and Ruby Scarlet, the only two ponies who knew his parents personally, if they can tell him more about them someday. They both happily agree to]].

* Downplayed in ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin''. Jiraiya and Tsuande freely tell Naruto all about his parents, but a talk with Karin does get him asking about his Uzumaki clan heritage.

%%* ''Film/TheRecruit''

** ''Film/ANewHope'' does this, but what's told is only MetaphoricallyTrue. It's also implied that Luke has asked his [[MuggleFosterParents aunt and uncle]] about [[DisappearedDad Anakin]], but that they [[LockedOutOfTheLoop refuse]] [[SecretLegacy to]] [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou discuss]] [[LukeIAmYourFather him]].
** Also, though it took two and a half films, Luke develops some curiosity about his mother as well, and asks Leia to tell him about her. Which was turned into a retcon when the prequels came out — DeathByChildbirth took their mother, so the only mother Leia knew was her adoptive mother, Queen Breha Organa. However, Leia was well aware that she was adopted, [[HappilyAdopted she just didn't care]], so the leading fan theory is that Leia's "memories" of Padmé were actually Force visions that she didn't have the knowledge to recognize as such.
* In ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', Supes gets the lowdown on Dad from the Fortress of Solitude, via an interactive recording.

* Through much of ''Film/MadameRosa'', Momo pesters the titular Rosa about info relating to his parents. Rosa is reluctant because the news isn't pleasant (his mother was prostitute and his father was her pimp and murderer).

* In ''Literature/AmericanGods'', we briefly witness this being a point of contention between young Shadow and his mother (who didn't know/remember the father), which Shadow witnesses again [[spoiler:while he is walking on the way to his judgment in the afterlife]]. A few pages later, we see why mother didn't divulge.
* In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', the young protagonist Garion asks his Aunt Pol about his mother. A few years later he asks Mister Wolf to tell him about his parents.

* Pretty thoroughly {{averted|Trope}} in ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern''. Lord Jaxom's mother died in childbirth, and his father died in a duel minutes later. Jaxom grows up knowing that his father was a cruel, power-mad tyrant.

** Harry asked the Dursleys about his parents growing up, but they never told him anything except "They died in a car crash and don't ask questions." After learning the truth from Hagrid (they were wizards who were murdered by Voldemort), he never directly asked but got good reports from his teachers and elders. The only dissenting voice was his [[SadistTeacher cruel bullying]] teacher Snape who he had little reason to believe. Then, in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', Harry experienced one of Snape's memories and saw for himself that James Potter was kind of a jerk when he was fifteen. This led to him directly questioning Sirius and Lupin, who assured him that James [[FormerTeenRebel deflated his head]] once he grew up.
** Harry's mother, Lily, was established as the reason he survived Voldemort early on, but isn't always mentioned alongside James. It's slowly revealed that Harry has at least as much in common with her as with James, and that's without getting into [[spoiler: Snape's motivation.]]
* In Philip Pullman's ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', Lyra is initially thrilled to learn that [[spoiler:Lord Asriel]] is her father. Later events ([[spoiler:he sacrifices her best friend in order to open an interdimensional portal]]) lead her to change her tune completely, but she still clings to the inner core of motivation that made him an absolute badass in his world.
%%* [[Literature/TheInheritanceCycle Eragon]] to Oromis

** In Creator/DanAbnett's Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''First & Only'', in many flashbacks, Gaunt is trying to learn how his father died, which is classified. [[spoiler:He is finally told by a Chaos-tainted witch.]]

** In Creator/DanAbnett's Literature/{{Eisenhorn}} novel ''Hereticus'', after the death of the man who killed her father, Medea realizes that her desire for {{Revenge}} was really displaced desire to have known her father, and asks Eisenhorn to tell her about her father.

* ''Fanfic/BreathOfTheWild'' adapts most of the content of its namesake game, including Link and Mipha's relationship. It's made overt in this fanfic, and [[spoiler: they have a daughter because of it, named Lochlia. However, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome reality ensues]] as they realize that Link will die long before Lochlia grows to maturity. Mipha was aware of this, and kept a journal specifically about Link that Lochlia could read to learn about him. Paya confirms that she also repeatedly visited Kakariko Village to learn from Impa about Link, and also knew that Link would one day wake up from the Slumber of Restoration.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' [[spoiler: the main character Tomoya's IllGirl wife Nagisa dies giving birth to his daughter Ushio and he ends up leaving her to be raised by her grandparents, who make a point of not telling Ushio about her mother. When he decides to take care of Ushio again, one of the first things he does is tell her about her dead mother. This leads to a heart breaking scene where Tomoya breaks down in tears part way through talking about Nagisa, crying over her death for the first time in years.]]

* In an interesting inversion, ComicBook/{{Daken}}, the son of {{Wolverine}}, asks his father about his mother. Due to the fact they're in a mental plane of existence, Logan decides to show him rather than just tell him. It's a sweet moment until Daken can't touch her and demands more, which Logan can't give.