History Main / TheTrapParents

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* In a GoldenAge ''{{Batman}}'' comic, the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin uncreatively named]] "Bruce Wayne Loses the Guardianship of Dick Grayson", Dick Grayson's uncle and aunt appear to claim custody of him, which a court grants. It turns out to be a con with them willing to waive their custodial rights in exchange for a hefty bribe from Bruce Wayne. Needless to say, Bruce was enraged and it didn't take long for the Batman to get involved.

* In a GoldenAge ''{{Batman}}'' comic, Dick Grayson's uncle and aunt appear to claim custody of Dick, which a court grants. It turns out to be a con with them willing to waive their custodial rights in exchange for a hefty bribe from Bruce Wayne.

* In the ''{{Ultimate Spider-Man}}'' version of TheCloneSaga, [[spoiler:Peter's Dad pops in, totally alive and with an explanation as to where he's been. But it turns out at the end of the story, he's just a slightly altered clone of Peter with memory implants. Unlike most examples, his creator, Dr. Octopus, didn't seem to have any goal in mind to trap Peter or use him in some master plan (or if he did, we didn't see it since all the clones unexpectedly escaped). He appears to have done it just to screw with Peter.]]

* ''StarTrekVoyager'', "Child's Play": Former Borg Kid, Icheb, is returned to his actual birth parents. Then, it turns out they bioengineered him as a genetic superweapon to destroy the Borg and send him to die. Again. Voyager saves him.

* ''{{Annie}}'': After Warbucks offers a reward for information about Annie's family, her real parents show up to claim her, but they're actually just con artists after the reward.

* In ''{{Animorphs}}'', Tobias's "cousin" appears in town hoping to adopt him. Said cousin is actually a morphed [[BigBad Visser Three]], who found a letter written by Tobias's real father ([[spoiler:Elfangor in human morph]]), discovered that Tobias had apparently vanished off the face of the Earth, and made the connection that Tobias may have had connections to the "Andalite bandits". Fortunately, Tobias discovers the facade before the adoption takes place.

* ''XiaolinShowdown'' - Omi, the only member of the team without a family. At the end of the episode, his friends remind him that [[TrueCompanions he does have one]].

Then, one day, he gains some parents -- either his real parents turn up alive, or he meets somebody who would just love to adopt him. The new parents are loving and attentive and everything parents should be -- but they're determined that Bob should have nothing further to do with his {{Nakama}}. All that running around having adventures may have been all right when he had no parents to teach him better, but they're here now. So Bob bids a tearful farewell to his friends, especially those he'd come to think of as parental figures, and off he goes to what everybody is firmly telling themselves will be a happy life.

Then StatusQuoIsGod takes a hand: Once Bob is on his own, it's not long before he discovers that the whole loving parent thing has been an act to get him in their power for some sinister purpose. Then it's up to Bob to escape (or his Nakama, who never quite trusted those two), to rescue him.

* In ''MaximumRide'', Iggy finds his real parents, and they actually ''are'' his real parents -- but they don't care about him except as a cash cow, so he rejoins his nakama anyway.

* The live action version of ''TheTick'' managed to do this with Tick's alleged ''wife'' rather than parents. In that case, The Tick was such an extreme CloudCuckooLander that he somehow didn't know who he even ''was'' (legally speaking, anyway). When a woman showed up out of nowhere with documents to prove he was her amnesiac husband, he went with it, leaving his nakama feeling oddly betrayed. The Tick gets frustrated when the fake wife demands he give up crime fighting and lead a normal life; the documents turned out to be forged and the wife AxCrazy, necessitating a [[StatusQuoIsGod rescue]].

* ''XiaolinShowdown'' - Omi, the only member of the team without a family. At the end of the episode, his friends remind him that [[{{Nakama}} he does have one.]]

Then StatusQuoIsGod takes a hand: Once Bob is on his own, it's not long before he discovers that the whole loving parent thing has been an act to get him in their power for some sinister purpose. Then it's up to Bob to escape (or his Nakama, who never quite trusted those two, to rescue him).

* In the Ultimate Universe version of the Clone Saga, [[spoiler: Peter's Dad pops in, totally alive and with an explanation as to where he's been. But it turns out at the end of the story, he's just a slightly altered clone of Peter with memory implants. Unlike most examples, his creator, Dr. Octopus, didn't seem to have any goal in mind to trap Peter or use him in some master plan (or if he did, we didn't see it since all the clones unexpectedly escaped). He appears to have done it just to screw with Peter.]]

* ''StarTrekVoyager'', "Child's Play": Former Borg Kid, Icheb, is returned to his birth parents. Then, it turns out they only want him as a genetic superweapon to destroy the Borg and send him to die. Voyager saves him.

* Something of a subversion in Ben10AlienForce: Ben has had real parents since the first series, but they were the kind of hippie parents who treated their son as an equal to the point of ''insisting'' Ben call them by their given names rather than "Mom" and "Dad." When they discover he's secretly an alien superhero, they realize they've been too soft on him and ground him for, among other things, keeping secrets from them. After a few thwarted instances of trying to aid his comrades from his bedroom, they are eventually convinced that he has too many responsibilities to keep him grounded.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* A memorable though imperfect post-series GundamWing fanfiction did this fairly believably to Heero, having him genotyped without his consent by the Preventers and discovered to be the kidnapped son of a nice Japanese/Italian American family, and Sally Po is apparently the ringleader in making him go live with them until he reaches legal majority. Heero is reasonably enough not too chuffed about being made to attend school and be subject to restrictions designed for normal teenagers, especially since his identity as a Gundam pilot is classified.
** The mom is over the moon about getting her little boy back, and holds onto this feeling fairly well even when he turns out to be a PTST-ridden misanthrope who refuses to answer to his birth name. The dad is less pleased, especially as the story progresses and it becomes clear that this son is ten times the man he is and completely outside his control or understanding. The viewpoint character is a sister somewhere between eleven and fifteen who's mostly upset that her room's been taken and her family upset by this ''guy'', who doesn't even ''care.''
** The most successful moment in the story is probably when one of Heero and Dad's recurrent debates about pacifism versus reasonable force (though the guy who made his debut cackling madly as he destroyed enemy mobile suits may not be a good front man for the latter) escalating until Dad hauls off and slaps Heero in frustration. He's promptly horrified with himself, and Heero's response is a measured, "For a pacifist..." But the reason it works so well is:
---> You could tell he saw it coming, and he opened himself up to it. Raised his chin a little. He almost looked relieved. Grounding and arguments and school and taking his laptop away, none of that made any sense to him. But this did.
---> [[TearJerker After that it wasn't so much about Heero being a jerk anymore.]]
** Link, anyone?
** Heero has some PetTheDog moments and while his family struggles with seeing him as a CompleteMonster when they find out his past and hence how many hundreds of people he's killed, the basically-decent guy we saw emerge does come through by the end, and Dad defends him against some terrorists out for revenge on the Gundam pilot with Heero's own rhetoric.
*** Heero has rhetoric?
*** Amusingly, the family are firm followers of the original Heero Yuy's philosophy, and the father states this with the same attitude you might hear from someone saying, "this is a Christian household" in the middle America of today.
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---> After that it wasn't so much about Heero being a jerk anymore.

* A memorable though imperfect GundamWing fanfiction did this fairly believably to Heero, having him genotyped without his consent and discovered to be the kidnapped son of a nice Japanese/Italian American family, and Sally Po is apparently the ringleader in making him go live with them until he reaches legal majority. Heero is reasonably enough not too chuffed about being made to attend school and be subject to restrictions designed for normal teenagers, especially since his identity as a Gundam pilot is classified.

* ''AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'': Tails is adopted by a loving fox family who later turn out to be robots created by Dr. Robotnik to capture him.

* In ''JustShootMe'', a couple claims to be Nina's real parents. Maya later learns that they are con artists and warns Nina through the elevator intercom. Nina doesn't believe it until she sees then attempting an ElevatorEscape.