History Main / TellMeAboutMyFather

* Zuko's father Ozai is a major character in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' and there is only little his son could - or would like to - ask about him. Instead, [[spoiler:after the war is won and Ex-Fire Lord Ozai is imprisoned, Zuko comes to his cell and demands one thing. "Where. Is. My. ''Mother''?"]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': In Volume 4, Taiyang makes it a point to tell Yang of her mother's positive aspects, which hits her ''really'' hard in Volume 5 when she finally meets Raven and discovers that she's a self-absorbed, pretentious SocialDarwinist and DirtyCoward who puts herself and her BanditClan above everyone and everything else. In "Haven's Fate," Yang even mentions this while [[CallingTheOldWomanOut calling Raven out on her cowardice and hypocrisy]].

* Mitsu, the protagonist of ''Manga/SaturnApartments, works with his dad's old workmates. He's always eager to hear anything they have to say about dear departed dad.

* 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.

* In the Lindsay Lohan remake of ''Film/{{The Parent Trap|1998}}'', Hallie (posing as Annie) asks her mother to tell her about "the F-word" - [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant "You know,]] my father."

* In the Lindsay Lohan remake of ''Film/TheParentTrap'', Hallie (posing as Annie) asks her mother to tell her about "the F-word" - [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant "You know,]] my father."

* Subverted in ''OnePiece''. IdiotHero Luffy doesn't initially ask about his father. When his grandfather does supply information on the man's identity and motivations, Luffy's response is "Huh? My dad? What do you mean, my dad...? Wait, I have a dad?" He then turns to his crewmate Nico Robin to ask about him because everybody else is too busy freaking out about his father's identity [[spoiler:being the most wanted and feared revolutionary in the world]].

* In ''Disney/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'', Kovu learns about his adoptive father, Scar, from Simba. Turns out Scar wasn't quite the unsung hero mom told him he had to avenge, but a psychopathic killer.

* Defied in ''Film/PansLabyrinth'': when the about-to-be-executed villain urges his much-abused wife to tell their newborn son about how he'd died well, she bluntly informs him that the boy ''won't even know his name''.

* Averted in ''{{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.

->'''Will Turner''': You knew my father.\\
'''Captain Jack Sparrow''': I knew him. Probably one of the few who knew him as William Turner. Everyone else called him Bootstrap or Bootstrap Bill. Good man. Good pirate. I swear, you look just like him.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993'' sees Athos telling D'Artagnan what he knows about D'Artagnan's father. Athos only knew him by reputation, not personally. But it's through the bits of information Athos says that D'Artagnan learns that his father was [[spoiler:led into a trap by Rochefort when the two of them were still Musketeers, and then murdered]].
* ''Franchise/StarWars Episode IV: Film/ANewHope'' does this, but what's told is FromACertainPointOfView. 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 Padme were actually Force visions that she didn't have the knowledge to recognize as such.
* ''Film/TheRecruit''
--->'''James Clayton''': ''Tell me about my father.''
* ''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.
* In ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', Supes gets the lowdown on Dad from the Fortress of Solitude, via an interactive recording.
* In ''Film/StarTrek2009'', young Kirk doesn't ask about his dad, but Captain Pike tells him anyway.
** But he does ask [[spoiler:Spock Prime]] about [[spoiler:if he knew his dad in Spock Prime's world.]]
* At one point in ''Film/ToKillAMockingbird'', Scout asks Jem about her mother as they're falling asleep.
* In the Lindsay Lohan remake of ''Film/TheParentTrap'', Hallie (posing as Annie) asks her mother to tell her about "the F-word" - [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant "You know,]] my father."

* ''Film/BigFish'' is heavy on this
* ''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.

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', the protagonists find the corpse of a man who was raped repeatedly shortly before his death. His death is likely due to the fact that the kidnappers cut his tongue out. One protagonist asks "What did they intend to tell their daughters?", referring to the trope-name question. The answer "Your father? I raped him and cut his tongue out so he couldn't tell anyone" doesn't sound like something anyone would want to say to her daughter. Except maybe she's trying to make her [[DaddysLittleVillain mommy's little villain.]]
* ''Literature/DragonQueen'': Gender flipped.
* In Creator/JohnRingo and Creator/DavidWeber's ''[[Literature/PrinceRoger March Upcountry]]'', Prince Roger is considered a jerk, a fop, and a possible traitor by the other characters, mostly because he takes after his father who shares all the same qualities. The catch -- he has never met his father and no one has ever told him why. The real reason for his being like this is that he has been sidelined all his life on the grounds that he MIGHT be like his father. Everyone simply assumes he knows his father's history, but no one has ever checked to make sure. Because of this suspicion, he ends up trapped on a DeathWorld. So when he finds out, the result is an entirely justified temper tantrum.
* 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 ''Only In Death'', Dalin Criid, who vaguely remembers Kolea from Vervunhive, asks him about his parents. Kolea assures him that his parents would have been glad that he and his sister were taken under the wing of the two Ghosts who act as their parents, and proud of how he turned out, and that they were died. (He's lying. In fact, he is their father, but he learned that they had lived only after the two Ghosts had raised them for some time. Thinking their lives had been disrupted enough, he did not tell even their adoptive parents the truth.)

* 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.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', Harry specifically notes that his father told him so much about his mother that he never felt the need for this. Of course, it turns out that his father didn't know the whole story.
* 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.
* Subverted in Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/SteelBeach'' as Hildy's mother flatly refuses to even identify her father, let alone tell her anything about him. The resulting animosity causes periodic breaks in their relationship, But that doesn't prevent Hildy from resolving to similarly conceal the father's identity from her own child Mario.
* 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/{{Percy Jackson|and the Olympians}} often wondered about his father (before finding out that his father was Posideon) and despite his mother Sally often repeating carefully selected details about him, he never got tired of hearing them.
* In Creator/KenFollet's ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth'' the character Jack asked about the demise of his father Jack Shareburg.
* 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.
* [[Literature/TheInheritanceCycle Eragon]] to Oromis
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Daenaerys Targaryen believed that the stories of her father being an insane tyrant were lies spread by the Usurper Robert and his supporters. When she asks Barristan Selmy to tell her more about Aerys, she is not happy when she realizes that her father really was a monster.
** Jon Snow grew up having no clue of who is his mother because his father Ned never speaks of her for unknown reasons. He later wants to ask him who she was, but too bad that Ned dies before telling him about her.
* Subverted in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'': While Jenna does at a time inquire about her father, she doesn't really care about the issue any further, partially because fathers aren't considered important in the royal dynasty.
* ''Literature/UkiahOregon'' does this twice. RaisedByWolves, the only parents he knows are the women who found him in the Oregon woods and took him home. He's kidnapped and nearly killed by his father's side of the family, and learns that his long-dead father was a rebel from an alien invasion force and he's a HalfHumanHybrid. Later he meets his mother's side of the family, the Cayuse Kicking Deer family. His initial demands for information are rebuffed because he's believed to be an impostor, and no one alive knew his mother, who died centuries ago. He is eventually able to regain some memory of her.
* 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.
* In ''Literature/{{Zeroes}}'', Mob was raised only by her father. She tried asking him about her mother on numerous occasions, but he was never willing to talk to her about it. Scam finally uses his Voice to convince her father to tell her the truth when they believe they're all about to die.
* ''Literature/OldMansWar'' has a variant: [[spoiler: Lieutenant Jane Sagan]] is revealed to be [[DesignerBabies based off of the genes]] of the protagonist's deceased wife. When they end up working together, she makes a point to quiz him about her progenitor whenever they are in private.
* Seen in ''Literature/PaladinOfSouls'' when middle-aged Arhys dy Lutiz asks Dowager Royina Ista (who is about his age) about the DisappearedDad who died when they were both barely out of their teens if that old. This is further complicated by his belief that his father was ''actually'' executed for seducing the young then-consort and the degree to which Ista blames herself for the man's death.[[/folder]]

* 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 let to [[spoiler: Shayera and John learning that they'll eventually be the parents of Rex aka Warhawk, a member of a future Justice Leagu]].)

* In the new ''Film/StarTrek'' movie, young Kirk doesn't ask about his dad, but Captain Pike tells him anyway.

[[/folder]]

* ''{{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.

* 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 how he and his mother met, or more specifically the version where he didn't leave out [[RememberTheNewGuy his crappy former manager]].

* 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 the [[AlternateUniverse Alternate]] BadFuture in ''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.

* ''Stranger Things 2'': Played with. Eleven asks Hopper about her birth mother in a flashback.
* ''{{Supernatural}}'' is sometimes shown doing this is in childhood flashbacks. He was only six months old when his mother, Mary, died and has no memories of her. Older brother Dean was only four and has a few more memories, but because of the violent way she died, neither Dean or family patriarch John like to talk about her.

* In KenFollet's ''ThePillarsOfTheEarth'' the character Jack asked about the demise of his father Jack Shareburg.
* Pretty thoroughly [[AvertedTrope averted]] 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.

* In the Lindsay Lohan remake of ''Film/TheParentTrap'', Hallie (posing as Annie) asks her mother to tell her about "the F-word" - [[IThoughtItMeant "You know,]] my father."

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' has Clark asking The Fortress AI (a recording of Dear Old Dad), 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 Helen Slater, who played Supergirl in the 1984 film ''Film/{{Supergirl}}'').

* {{Supernatural}}'' is sometimes shown doing this is in childhood flashbacks. He was only six months old when his mother, Mary, died and has no memories of her. Older brother Dean was only four and has a few more memories, but because of the violent way she died, neither Dean or family patriarch John like to talk about her.