A character comes from an abusive background, be it physical, mental, emotional, neglectful, or, in all too many cases, sexual. The result is that they are worn down.
And then, just when they are approaching the edge of the Despair Event Horizon, someone steps in for their betterment. Sometimes it's a single individual. Other times it's a larger family unit. Often this will be a Family of Choice. Whatever the case, our waif has escaped misery and despair for a loving, stable family.
This could be the finale, making it overlap with Earn Your Happy Ending. It also could be part of a Dark and Troubled Past, often exposed with a Somber Backstory Revelation. The adoptee might even need to be told about their tragic past, as it might have occurred when they were too little to remember.
In some instances, this could suffer a false start or two, where the adoptive family turns out to be as bad as or worse than the situation being fled, exchanging one type of abuse and manipulation for another. The result can be that our victim is wary and gun-shy when someone genuinely good steps into their life. There's a chance that this good person will be horrified at what their new friend/charge/family member went through, especially if they're a child.
Expect a character who has been rescued in such a fashion to be more than willing to pay it forward in successive storylines.
See also Heal the Cutie and Recruited from the Gutter. Subtrope of Happily Adopted. Supertrope of Befriending the Bullied. This experience with abuse may cause adoptees to worry about their Villainous Lineage and doubt themselves. The most common method of the adopter taking in the abused is I'm Taking Her Home with Me!. See also Interspecies Adoption, for when the adoptee isn't even the same species as the adopter.
Given that abuse is a sensitive subject, No Real Life Examples, Please!.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Mei's parents were crippled by Loan Shark debts, leading them to abuse and later disown her, leaving her believing that her life had no value whatsoever. She would've frozen to death if she wasn't found by Hahari, who offered to adopt her into her family. Mei, however, turned down the offer in favor of the Adopt-a-Servant approach, though the Hanazonos still treat her as though she were family.
- Elfen Lied: Mayu was sexually abused by her stepfather. And when she told her mother, she blamed Mayu for the abuse, claiming her husband showed no interest in her because Mayu was around. Mayu ran away from home, where she ran into Kohta and Yuka. A brief scene is shown where Mayu's mother is seen signing her parental rights over to Yuka.
- Fairy Tail: Lucy as a child suffered from Parental Neglect for several years courtesy of her father Jude after her late mother Layla passed away. This ended up negatively affecting Lucy to the point where she is introduced as a moody Jerk with a Heart of Gold in contrast to the Nice Girl that she used to be when she was a child. All of that Parental Neglect culminated in her running away from home and joining the Fairy Tail guild who welcomed her with open arms as family, with the initial exception of Laxus, and have repeatedly shown being incredibly protective of her, most notably during the Phantom Lord arc. Lucy over the course of the series comes to reciprocate their love towards her and comes to see the Fairy Tail guild as being a much kinder and more loving second family to her than her own father Jude ever was, with guild master Makarov even admitting in the final chapter of the series while drunk that he views Lucy as being like a daughter to him. All of this positivity helps Lucy to heal from her pain over the course of the series leading her to develop back into the Nice Girl she always was deep down.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind: Bruno Bucciarati, especially in the anime, is shown to have taken in his subordinates when they were struggling with life, the trope especially present with Pannacotta Fugo and Narancia Ghirga. Fugo's parents pressured him to academic perfection and getting him into college early, only to toss him out on the street when he lost his temper at a professornote . Narancia was heavily neglected by his father after his mother's death, and when he tried to find hope through a group of friends, their leader set up Narancia as a scapegoat for assaulting a woman. Both of them would find better lives through Buccarati's leadership and care.
- Ironically, Bucciarati didn't have any intention of adopting Narancia at first after providing him food and paying for his eye treatment, instead yelling at the boy to drop such foolish ideas of joining the mafia and go back to school. However, Narancia picked up the obvious Anger Born of Worry, and joined Passione in secret out of gratitude for the first kind man in his life. Bucciarati ends up taking in Narancia as his subordinate after the latter passed.
- During the final battle, Bucciarati offers Trish Una, who is being hunted down by her father, the Boss of Passione, a chance to start a new life in his hometown of Naples. The tragic part is that Trish herself never got to hear this. Bruno, due to his senses detoriating from his dying body, confused the Boss's split personality Doppio for Trish.
- In Make the Exorcist Fall in Love, Father was a Death Seeker looking to martyr himself to escape the abuse and misery he suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church by the time he turned twelve. Being apprenticed under the exorcist Dante allows Father to experience unconditional kindness for the first time. Dante disabuses Father of his religious dogma and tells him to fall in love so he can appreciate the world that God created. While Father's physical and mental scars have yet to vanish, Dante's intervention gives Father a reason to live and the compassion to help others.
- In The Monstrous Duke's Adopted Daughter, Leslie Sperà do has spent her life being abused by her biological family, and the series begins with them trying to throw her into a fire pit so they can transfer her dark magic over to her big sister Ellie. Because of this, along with finding out some unsettling revelations about children like herself, Leslie reaches out to the fabled Salvator family, who are said to have monster blood in their veins, and asks them to adopt her. They do so, and from then on Leslie's life vastly improves under their care.
- In My Hero Academia, Eri was horribly abused by the villain Overhaul as part of his plan to create bullets embedded with her Quirk factor to depower superheroes and put the yakuza back on the map. By the end of the arc, Eri is taken in by U.A. for her protection and given a loving and safe environment where she's not exploited or ostracized for her powerful but highly dangerous Quirk. She's also supervised by Aizawa so she can practice using her Quirk to heal small animals while he uses his Quirk to turn her powers off if she loses control.
- Most of the cast of the Lyrical Nanoha franchise are Happily Adopted so this comes up a lot. It's most prominently seen with series Deuteragonist Fate Testarossa, who was horrifically abused (both physically and emotionally) by her biological mother before eventually being adopted into the Harlaown family. She even continues the process from the other side as an adult, adopting several children of her own who came from similar backgrounds.
- One Piece: In his heart-wrenching backstory, Chopper was a reindeer born with a blue nose, who the rest of his herd perpetually neglected due to this abnormality. Things got even worse when he ate the Human-Human Fruit which granted him anthropomorphism, and the herd cast him altogether. Then Chopper would try to meet and befriend humans by using the fruit's power to assume a tall and burly humanoid form, but this resulted in him looking like a sasquatch, and the humans shot at him in fear. After all of that hardship, he'd finally be adopted by the kindly Dr. Hiruluk who treated Chopper like a son and taught him the virtues of love and healing (this didn't last). Nowadays, Chopper has a place among the found family that is the Straw Hat Pirates, having people who love and accept him for who he is.
- Throughout the Pokemon anime, Ash occasionally catches a Pokemon that have been previously mistreated by their former trainers.
- Charmander during the Indigo League was left on a rock by his former trainer and left to almost die in the rain.
- Chimchar from Diamond and Pearl was owned by Ash's rival, Paul, who he released during the Tag Battle tournament for failing him to use his power. This wasn't helped by the fact that it was put through intense training to get him to unleash his Blaze ability. Ash later caught it and evolved it into an Infernape which later beat Paul during the Sinnoh League.
- Tepig from Black and White was left tied to a post by his former trainer Shamus and almost starved. When Ash confronted the former trainer, Tepig managed to evolve into a Pignite and defeat his former trainer.
Comic Books
- Several members of the Batman Family were adopted from abusive circumstances.
- Cassandra Cain ran away from her abusive father when she was young and eventually was taken in alternately by Barbara Gordon and Bruce Wayne. How much she is treated as either of their child varies Depending on the Writer, not helped by Cassandra’s own struggle understanding relationships.
- Though Damian Wayne is Bruce’s son, he only started living with his father after growing up with his mother’s Training from Hell.
- Doom Patrol:
- After his parents were killed, Beast Boy lived under his abusive guardian Nicholas Galtry before becoming the adopted son of Elasti-Girl and Mento.
- Dorothy Spinner lived under Abusive Parents (who were retroactively established in John Arcudi's run to not even be her biological parents) before she was taken in by the Doom Patrol, subsequently having the Bandage People George and Marion become her more caring surrogate parents.
- Towards the end of the second Runaways series, the team ended up in New York City in 1907, where they intervened in a fire that would have killed an entire factory full of child laborers. Upon finding out that one of the children they saved, Klara, had an abusive home life, Karolina and Molly decided to make a special project of rescuing her, eventually convincing the others to take Klara with them when they returned to the present.
Fan Works
- It's a common plot in The Addams Family fan fiction to have an abused character (Harry Potter
, Matilda Wormwood, etc.) be found and adopted by Gomez and Morticia, who usually do something very unpleasant to the abusers. After all, they gladly feast on those who would subdue them.
- The Blood of the Covenant: After learning that the Fire Nation baby he's just met was rejected by his family and nearly killed by several Earth Kingdom families, Bato (despite his hatred for the Fire Nation) takes the toddler in as his son. He names him Kallik, and Kallik has a fairly happy childhood in the South Pole with his parents, Uncle Hakoda, Aunt Kya, and his cousins. When Kallik learns later in the fic that he's the long-lost Prince Zuko and how messed up the Fire Nation royal family is, he's clearly all the more grateful to his family and to the Earth Kingdom mercenaries who got him out of the Fire Nation.
- A Diamond Under Pressure: It's revealed that Raquel has an abusive father named Percival who tries to force him to be more conventionally masculine. When Raquel finally stands up to him, Percival disowns him and then kicks him out of the house. Raquel goes to Sharuru's house and tells Sharuru and her mother Leverett about his dilemma. Feeling terrible for him, Leverett decides to adopt him. He's all too happy to call her his new adopted mother.
- The Dragon and the Butterfly: Hiccup eventually reveals to Mirabel and the Madrigals just how bad his life on Berk was, and they are horrified when they learn that Stoick disowned Hiccup and almost killed Toothless. Alma officially gives Hiccup permission to stay in the Encanto for as long as he wants (aka, forever). After he and Mirabel become an official couple, Hiccup is basically adopted into the family. As is Toothless, as Antonio quickly becomes the dragon's best human friend (after Hiccup).
- Ebott's Wake: The Dreemurrs didn't immediately realize it either time, but both Chara and (later) Frisk had run away from Abusive Parents, and they gave each of them a second chance at a good home. As Chara once put it, Asgore showed them more kindness in the first week they knew him than Jordan ever showed them in their entire life. Frisk's parents at least cared for them for a while, but that was long gone by the time they ran away. Chara and Frisk both became Extremely Protective of the Dreemurrs as a result to the point of trying to remove themselves from the equation when they think it'll help them.
- Harry Tano: Ahsoka, after accidentally sent to Earth, saves the four-year-old Harry Potter from the Dursley house and becomes his adopted mother.
- If Wishes Were Ponies: Harry Potter, after being almost beaten to death by his cousin's gang, finds a portal to Equestria by complete accident. He's found by the CMC, who take him to the hospital. There, he admits that the Dursleys beat, isolated, and starved him. Twilight Sparkle, a day after meeting him, offers to become his new guardian. Two years later, she legally adopts him. She's a better parent to Harry than the Dursleys ever were, and he makes it clear whenever he can that he loves his mother.
- Inter Nos: Natsuki, orphaned last princess of the Ortygians, is taken in by a noble family of the Otomeians at the age of 12. The eldest son, mistaking her Elective Mute tendencies for weakness, tries to force himself on her. She killed him in self-defense. She was then taken in by King Kruger, who made sure she wanted for nothing, eventually making her the Captain of the elite Lupine Division, but by ensuring she earned it rather than nepotism. Her lover, Shizuru, learns all of this from the old Otomeian soldier who found Natsuki buried under the corpses of her family.
- Meeting A Loud: In this AU fic, Lincoln was not born into the Loud family. His birth parents and twin sister were killed in a car crash, and he was left with a foster family... who abused him so badly that he ran away. Thankfully, he finds a much safer environment with a new foster family: the Louds.
- More than My Friend: The series mainly focuses on Mac (whose home life is way worse than in canon) being legally adopted by Frankie and coming to live at Fosters with Bloo and the Imaginary Friends. It's also shown that Wilt was this for Frankie when she was orphaned as a toddler, helping her to work through her trauma and serving as her imaginary friend as she grew up. Herriman even broke his own rules and allowed Frankie to officially adopt Wilt as her Friend so that no one could take Wilt away from her.
- Aizawa and Present Mic adopting abused members of class 1-A is very common in My Hero Academia fic. Hitoshi is the most common by far and is often portrayed as a foster kid with crappy parents who muzzle him for his quirk. Todoroki and Bakugo sometimes also end up in the mix between Todoroki’s canon family issues and Bakugo’s explosive mom lending herself well to portrayals as an abuser. Even Midoriya’s not immune to these plots even though his mom is loving in canon.
- New Stars: CT-5599, or Maxx, was a clone soldier of the Republic who was viewed as little more than a slave by many and had no power over his destiny (as his training had brainwashed him into believing that doing anything other than be a soldier was an act of desertion). Once he ends up on the Orville, though, the crew makes it clear that he alone is allowed to choose what he does with his life. In the end, he chooses to officially join the crew of the Orville and fight for a cause he chooses. The Orville crew welcomes him with open arms.
- On Trial: Madeline, a sweet older woman who works as a cook and server at a prison, often becomes a friend and confidante for prisoners who she feels need someone to trust (as Lady Caine is kind to Madeline because she was the only person to treat her like a human). She becomes this for Cassandra as well, as she can see that the poor girl's been through a lot even before she got to Corona's worst prison. It's only because of her being a decent human that Cassandra gets out of her Trauma Conga Line alive.
- Papa Bear: When Gabriel is put under investigation for his emotional abuse of Adrien, the Dupain-Chengs become a surrogate family for him (although Tom's jokes about him being their future son-in-law can make things a bit awkward since the two teens are only dating).
- Property Of: After being captured and taken to Cybertron to be sold as a pet, Miles goes through a Trauma Conga Line when he's sold to an abusive Decepticon who eventually throws him out (literally). Miles spends several days avoiding capture while doing his best to get food and water. He's eventually caught by Prowl, who (after realizing that Miles is more traumatized than crazy/dangerous), decides to keep him. Miles eventually realizes that Prowl won't hurt him, and appreciates what the mech did for him.
- A Fandom-Specific Plot for Spider-Man fics is Peter being adopted by another superhero (or super team) after going through a Trauma Conga Line. Batman is usually the adopter, with Tony Stark and/or the Justice League being close seconds. These fics became especially common on Archive of Our Own after the release of Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
- With Pearl and Ruby Glowing has several cases of this, with most of the abusive families being sexually abusive to the person who ends up being adopted, but there have been other types of abuse showcased as well. If someone did end up adopted, expect them to make mention of it during their story.
- You will always have a part of me nobody else is ever gonna see: Discussed between Jotaro and Giorno regarding 3-years-old Giorno while the two are stuck in their past selves from 1988. Unsettled by the evidence that Giorno is suffering from Parental Neglect by his mother, Jotaro suggests letting the information slip to Polnareff, Giorno's future subordinate, so that the latter can rescue the toddler from his horrid home life and give him a better life. While Giorno does consider the option, especially as they already seen the benefits of time travel with Narancia and Kakyoin alive in the new timeline, he declines as while his childhood was horrible, it was what lead him to become the Don of Passione and reform it into a force of good.
Films — Animated
- Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Towards the climax of the film, this is what happens to Spazzatura the monkey, after the death of his abusive owner Count Volpe. Spazzatura makes a Heel–Face Turn and moves in with Gepetto, Pinocchio, and the Cricket, and ends up having a happy life with his new family until he eventually dies of old age.
- Kung Fu Panda 2: Mr. Ping did this when took in the little baby panda who showed up with his vegetable delivery. Unbeknownst to him (until the next film), Po's village had just been destroyed by Lord Shen's soldiers. During the raid, Po's father stayed behind to fight off the invaders so his wife could escape with Po. Po's mother hid him in the vegetable crates that had been delivered to Mr. Ping's restaurant. Then, so her son wouldn't be discovered, allowed herself to be killed by the soldiers.
- In Walt Disney's 1977 animated classic Pete's Dragon, a young boy named Pete and his pet dragon Elliott continually evade his abusive foster family until he befriends and is eventually adopted by Nora and her father who work at a lighthouse.
- The Willoughbys: The very start of the movie makes it clear that the Willoughby parents want nothing to do with their kids, depriving them of food, yelling a them for making the slightest noise, throwing them in the coal bin if they misbehave, and even gleefully kicking them out of the house when Jane tries to take in a Doorstop Baby. It's only after the kids meet Nanny (and Commander Melanoff, who took in Baby Ruth) that they learn how parents should actually treat kids, as their nanny has their backs throughout the film. At the end, when the Willoughby parents literally leave their children to die on a mountain top, Nanny, Commander Melanhoff, and Ruth come to their rescue. Nanny and the Commander then legally adopt the Willoughby children and Ruth, with the end credits showing the seven of them living as an unusual but happy family.
Films — Live-Action
- Beetlejuice: Lydia Deetz is shown to be a sad, lonely girl who doesn't see eye-to-eye with her stepmother and whose father (despite trying to be supportive) tends to get too absorbed in his work or hobbies to really spend time with her. She's also the only one at first who can see the Maitlands, and she becomes the first human friend they've had since their deaths. They become second parents for her, as they actually listen to her and help her more than her real parents do. The ending shows the Maitlands and Deetzes peacefully living together, with the Maitlands celebrating with Lydia after she got an A on her math test.
- Matilda ends with the titular girl asking to be adopted by Miss Honey rather than taken along with her parents who are moving away to avoid the cops. It's very abrupt, but thankfully Matilda kept adoption papers on hand just in case. It ends up being the happiest ending possible for her, Miss Honey, and her jerkass neglectful parents.
- Silent Fall: Dr. Jake Rainer, at the end of the film, has apparently adopted the autistic Tim Warden, who was being sexually abused by his late father. Tim's biological father and mother were killed by his older sister, who had suffered the same abuse at her father's hands, and snapped when she caught her father abusing her little brother.
- X-Men doesn't shy away from the fact that mutants are feared, distrusted, even outright hated by a majority of the world's population, even the mutant children. So, when mutant kids first reveal their powers (either as young children like Iceman or teenagers like Rogue), they typically end up living on the streets after either running away from or being rejected by their families. Professor X takes in any mutant who needs help, and turned his mansion into a school/home for the many mutant children he's taken in. Several of them were so grateful for his kindness that they stayed on to become teachers at the school (namely Cyclops, Jean, and Storm).
Literature
- Anne of Green Gables: Since being orphaned at a few months old, Anne has had two foster families and lived in an orphanage. With her first guardians, the Thomases, the husband drank and had unpredictable tempers that Anne witnessed, while in the second family, the Hammonds, Anne was basically a child servant looking after their other eight children, often not eating much. The Cuthberts, though they originally wanted a boy, decide to keep Anne in part to prevent her from getting put through more abuse with another family. This is emphasized more in the Darker and Edgier TV adaptation Anne with an E, where Anne is more visibly traumatized by her upbringing.
- Detective Lane Mysteries: In the second book, Arthur's nephew Matt gets adopted by his uncle after losing his mother due to cancer and being kicked out by his father for cerebral palsy. In the next book, Lane's niece, Christine, joins her uncle's family and gets adopted after running away from a cult that her mother is a part of.
- Subverted in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. After it's revealed that Sirius Black was Good All Along, it looks for a hot second like he will be able to adopt Harry, thus saving him from his abusive home life with the Dursleys. However, Pettigrew's escape ensures that Sirius' name is not cleared, resulting in Harry having to go back to the Dursleys like normal.
- InCryptid: James was raised in a small town by his homophobic and emotionally neglectful father. When Antimony broke the curse keeping him trapped there and offered to adopt him as a brother, he jumped at the chance and never looked back.
- A Little Life: Jude is adopted by Harold at the age of thirty after a childhood full of horrific physical and sexual abuse.
- Les Misérables: Feeling guilty that his actions indirectly led to the death of Fantine, Valjean visits the Thenardiers, the innkeepers who had been caring for Fantine's daughter Cosette, to take the little girl off their hands. He finds that, unlike what they were telling Fantine, they were abusing Cosette and treating her as a servant. Under the care of the adoring Valjean, Cosette grows into a sweet and lovely young woman, and even marries a rich and handsome young man.
- Oliver Twist: Oliver is orphaned at a young age, and sent to live in a workhouse where he is overworked and underfed, along with all the other boys there. When he loses a lottery to ask for more food, he is expelled from the workhouse and ends up in the company of Fagin, a professional thief. But on his first outing as a pickpocket, Oliver is instead taken in by his intended victim, Mr. Brownlow, then the Maylie family after Fagin reenters his life and forces him to attempt another robbery, before ultimately ending up in the care of Mr. Brownlow again, after a series of circumstances reveals that Oliver is actually from a well-to-do family and was sent to the orphanage by his evil half-brother to keep Oliver from his rightful share of the inheritance. In fact, Mrs. Maylie is his maternal aunt.
- Many of Roald Dahl's children's books used this trope:
- In The BFG, Sophie admits to the Big Friendly Giant that the orphanage she lived in wasn't very good, with the head of the orphanage giving the girls awful punishments for the slightest mistake. The giant instantly decides to take her in as his own.
- In James and the Giant Peach, James spends four years being starved, bullied, beaten, and mistreated by his aunts Spiker and Sponge. Said aunts are hated by all of the creatures that live in their garden, namely the bugs that James goes on his journey with. The Bugs all immediately accept James as a member of their group, and at different times all serve as parental figures for him (although the Centipede acts more like an older brother).
- Matilda: Matilda is raised by two neglectful parents who heavily believe in anti-intellectualism and insult her for not being more like them. Matilda's father Harry tears up a library book she borrowed because he thinks it's a waste of time. They even leave her home alone to play bingo or to go to work when she's just a kid. When Matilda starts to go to school, she strikes up a bond with her teacher Miss Honey, who actually admires her intelligence and accepts her for who she is. At the end of the book, Matilda asks if Miss Honey can adopt her, and her parents just hand her over without batting an eye.
Live-Action TV
- All My Children's Tad Martin was adopted by Joe and Ruth Martin after his abusive father Ray Gardner abandoned him in a city park.
- Bones:
- Seeley Booth and his younger brother Jared were taken in by their grandfather Hank due to their mother's abandonment and their father's physical abuse and alcoholism. While Seeley long believed his father had abandoned him, Hank later reveals he told his own son to leave the boys once he discovered the abuse.
- Lance Sweets is revealed to be this in "Mayhem on a Cross" when Brennan sees the whip scars on his back. He was put in an abusive foster family as a young child but was adopted at age 6 by a kind older couple, who passed away just before he started working with Booth and Brennan.
- Subverted with Degrassi: The Next Generation. While he wasn't formally adopted, Craig went to go live with his stepfather Joey (from the original series) after revealing that his own father was abusive and he himself was suicidal.
- In Diagnosis: Murder episode "Gangland", Amanda Bentley, through her work at Community General Hospital, realizes that a child patient there, Deon, is being abused by his foster family (for example, in this episode he has a broken arm, which we find out in a subsequent episode was the punishment for losing a lunch box). She adopts him at the end of the episode, the beta plot of the episode being about the process she goes through to do this.
- Good Times: Penny (famously played by a young Janet Jackson) was a little girl living with an abusive single mother when she was adopted by Willona. Her mother did such things as burn her with a hot iron as a form of punishment.
- In A Korean Odyssey, a Monster of the Week targets abused children in a tragically misguided attempt to give them better lives. When the heroes find out she just killed a little girl with an abusive father, they hurry to protect the girl's surviving brother. Jin Seon-mi's Locked Out of the Loop, Butt-Monkey assistant, Lee Han-ju, rises to the non-supernatural side of the occasion by physically rescuing the boy and adopting him.
- This is the premise of The O.C., Ryan Atwood lives with a verbally abusive mother and her physically abusive boyfriend before he gets kicked out and adopted by the Cohen family.
- Roseanne: When Roseanne found out Darlene's boyfriend (later husband) David was living with an abusive mother, she promptly adopted him. David's brother Mark, who was dating Darlene's sister Becky, also came to view the Connors as his "real" parents.
- That '70s Show: In the first season, Hyde is shown to be living in squalor with his parents having abandoned him. After Red and Kitty Forman see the conditions he was living in with his parents gone, they take him away and set him up in a room in the basement.
- The Wire: In season 4, Bunny Colvin is introduced to Namond Brice, the son of incarcerated gang enforcer Wee-Bay and very emotionally abusive mother De'Londa. As it slowly becomes apparent that Namond does not have his father's amplitude for the street life, while his mother expects him to be the breadwinner by dealing drugs, he ends up relying on Colvin for help, and at the end of the season, with his father's blessing, Colvin and his wife adopt Naymond, who is later shown to thrive and grow into a talented public speaker. The same season also sees Carver trying to adopt Randy Wagstaff, whose home was just firebombed leaving him homeless and with his foster mother in a coma, but Carver's lack of resources gets in the way and Randy ends up in a dangerous group home. Similarly, Pryzbylewski helps out with the severely neglected Duquan, taking his laundry and packing extra lunch to give him, but is limited in how much he can help, and the last he sees of him is when he comes to him to very obviously scam him for money, which Prez does give him but tells him he doesn't expect to see him again.
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: This is alluded in Holtz' personal journal at the Flores household. He found Nakamura covered in bruises before he adopted her and would later find out the injuries were entirely from a terrible orphanage. Before long, she became a popular bartender in the hometown of Margarita.
- Dragalia Lost: Before the events of the game begin, the relationship that Euden and Zethia had with their siblings was... not healthy. The Alberian Royal Family is filled to the brim with Big Brother (and one Sister) Bullies who constantly pushed Euden and Zethia around in their childhoods. Even when most of them were old enough to start living their own lives, they still continued to push around Euden and Zethia while they were still living with their father. However, the game starts with them going on a mission for Euden to form a pact with Midgardsormr. Once they're done, though, circumstances prevent them from returning home, and Zethia ends up getting kidnapped. It's not all bad because, on his way to form the pact, Euden found some new friends, where they all move into Midgardsormr's castle, the Halidom, where they quickly become a happy Family of Choice that only grows larger as the game progresses. Even Zethia found her own found family while she was kidnapped because it turns out that Morsayati sent Zethia to the past, where she ended up getting taken in by Meenee and Ilia, alongside Mordecai. When Zethia finally gets rescued by Euden, she happily reunites with her brother and his newfound family.
- Fire Emblem Engage: It turns out that Queen Lumera isn't Alear's biological mother after all, and that their real biological parent is actually Sombron. When Alear was with Sombron, he controlled his children with force, killing them if they showed any signs of disobedience. However, one day, after Alear loses a battle against their future self, Lumera finds them lying unconscious. She takes them in, and Alear comes to accept her as their mother. Lumera's guidance is what inspires Alear to rebel against Sombron, turning them into the legendary hero as told in ancient scripture.
- Genshin Impact: Arlecchino has personally rescued children from Human Traffickers and exploitative foster parents, with at least two of them, Lyney and Lynette, going on to become part of the House of Hearth. While they did not become completely carefree as a result, Lynette's story confirms that their adoption has given them the safe environment that they wanted, and she is quite content where they currently are.
(Arlecchino's) voice was cruel ice, and yet it had a spellbinding, comforting power also. Lynette lifted her eyes, and there she saw the person she would in later days call "Father." "Father" kneaded Lynette's ears. That touch was not gentle. Indeed, they were as cold as the moon's light. And like that light, it illuminated a corner of the darkness. "When a cat's ears are folded backward, that often indicates fear or vigilance, and if they stand up and point forward, that usually indicates a good mood." Whenever Lyney tells new members of Hotel Bouffes d'ete about the habits of ordinary cats, he will often steal a glance at his younger sister nearby. Lynette's ears are straight, they face the front, and they occasionally flutter outward. It has been a long time since she last folded them back.
- Persona 5: Futaba and her mother, Wakaba, had a very loving relationship when Wakaba was still alive. When Wakaba allegedly stumbled into the path of a speeding car, the death was labeled a suicide when "investigators" read a note claiming it was from Wakaba blaming Futaba. This caused the rest of her relatives to hellishly turn on Futaba, abusing her without hesitation, until Sojiro stepped in and took her into his custody, but Futaba was still severely traumatized from the incident and would truly recover when she met the Phantom Thieves and fully learned she was not the one responsible for her mother's death.
Web Comics
- Batman: Wayne Family Adventures: Several two-parters explore how many of the members of the Bat family had abusive or rough childhoods, and are now part of a loving (occasionally dysfunctional) family because Batman took them in.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: Downplayed; Anne Boonchuy's parents are very loving and she spends most of the series desperately trying to get back to them. However, her friendship with Sasha was toxic, as Anne was a pushover who did whatever Sasha wanted (sometimes even taking the blame for things that weren't her fault), and Sasha never stopped her. If anything, she encouraged her behavior, even convincing her to steal the Calamity box. It's only after Anne forms a genuine, healthy friendship with Sprig that she learns just how bad her friendship with Sasha was, and finally stands up to her in the season one finale (having to do it again in the season two finale).
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Zuko's biological father (the show's Big Bad, Fire Lord Ozai) is an awful parent, and his sister is a backstabbing sadist who'll sell him out the second it suits her. He eventually realizes that he has a much better father figure in his Uncle Iroh and that his Family of Choice with Team Avatar is healthier than his biological one ever was.
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Before he receives the Fire Ring, Wheeler has spent quite some time on the streets to avoid his abusive father. However, upon joining the team, he gains a Family of Choice — the other Planeteers (besides Linka) become his surrogate siblings, while Gaia and Captain Planet serve as Parental Substitutes for all of them. Even though there's ultimately a reconciliation episode between Wheeler and his father, the man never appears again, and one can easily assume that Wheeler will always be closer to his teammates, Gaia, Captain Planet, and his mom than to his dad.
- Infinity Train: Book 3 completely subverts this trope, as Grace and Simon want to bring Hazel into the Apex and get her away from her "null" friend Tuba, believing that they can take better care of her than Tuba. However, Tuba has acted as Hazel's mother for as long as she can remember and has done an amazing job of raising her and protecting her from the dangers of the Train. When Simon kills Tuba and he and Grace take charge of Hazel, she's visibly less cheerful than before, and it becomes clear that neither Grace nor Simon is as capable of looking out for her as they thought. Hazel ultimately decides to go with her (sort-of) biological mother Amelia rather than stay with Grace and Simon.
- The Owl House:
- Eda Clawthorne arguably did this for Luz Noceda, as she was willing to take the human in as her apprentice. While Luz's home life was fine (as she and her mother were fairly close, even if they didn't see eye-to-eye), she was ostracized in school and considered weird by many of the other kids and parents. Staying on the Boiling Isles allowed her to finally be herself without the fear of criticism (plus the fact that Eda encourages Luz's weirdness).
- Camila Noceda ends up taking in Vee, a basilisk fugitive from the Boiling Isles fleeing the cruel experiments of the Emperor's Coven. After the Boiling Isles are taken over by the Collector, she also gives shelter to Luz's friends, including Amity and Hunter who both have abusive home lives.
- It's heavily implied by the time of the epilogue that Hunter is taken in by Darius.
- Tangled: The Series: The start of season three reveals that Cassandra was the biological daughter of Mother Gothel...and that Gothel didn't treat her biological daughter any better than she treated her kidnapped daughter. When Gothel cruelly abandons Cassandra in favor of keeping Rapunzel for herself, four-year-old Cassandra is clearly shocked and heartbroken. Seeing this, the Captain of the Guard promised her he'd keep her safe, and took her in as his daughter.
- On a happier note, the series' epilogue revealed that Lance legally adopted Catalina and Angry (two orphaned girls seen throughout the series) and moved into their treehouse. The last shot of Lance in the series is him happily serving the girls eggs, bacon and pancakes. Rapunzel states that the girls were so happy that they didn't even care when they learned their new last name was Schnitz.
