Luke, You Are My Father: Difference between revisions

 

This is of course the inverse of [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]. Compare [[Separated at Birth]], [[Luke, I Might Be Your Father]]. May result in [[Sink-or-Swim Fatherhood]]. This is a Reveal Trope, so '''Spoilers''' will be coming your way.

{{examples}}

* ''[[Solty Rei]]'' Roy Revant's daughter Rita Revont {{spoiler|turns out to be Rose Anderson Her hair and eye colour had changed due to exposure to nanomachines from the Blast Fall. Having been adopted by Larry and Andy's father with no memory of who she was, she initially resisted the idea that she was Roy's daughter until later.}}

* ''[[Angel Sanctuary]]''. Angels aren't allowed to have children, so Zaphikel {{spoiler|is tricked into killing his pregnant lover and}} brings his child's fetus to the breeding machine, to make it pass for a legal, artificially made angel. He's too late, the fetus is dead, so he tries to kill himself. Then Adam Kadmon shows up and saves him, but the sight of such a glorious creature leaves him blind. Years later, Adam Kadmon shows again and restores his sight, he takes a glimpse at his then asistant, Raziel, and instantly realizes that he is his son, Adam Kadmon had resurrected him back then and ''he didn't notice because he was blind''. {{spoiler|Then he dies.}}

* The entire premise of ''[[Otaku no Musume-san]]'', where Kouta first learns he has a daughter, Kanau, when she shows up on his doorstep, with a note from her mother reminding him of a certain eventful afternoon about ten years before. Eventually it starts turning out that [[Everyone Is Related|everyone is "related"]], too (mostly through things like adoption, {{spoiler|marriage}}, and friendship), though it's one case that's not much connected to this trope.

* ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' does this three times: Josuke, the protagonist of part 4, is part 2 hero Joseph's long-lost son. Giorno Giovanna, protagonist of part 5, is the son of [[Big Bad|Dio Brando]], and in part 6 we meet Dio's other sons.

* The true [[Big Bad]] of the ''[[X-Men (anime)|X Men]]'' anime is revealed in episode 12 to be {{spoiler|Professor Xavier's crazy [[Reality Warper]] son Takeo. Takeo's mother had told Xavier that his son was dead.}}

* In ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', Cana's motivation for passing the S-class exam is so she can work up the nerve to tell {{spoiler|Gildarts}} that she is his daughter.

 

* Connor Hawke, the second [[Green Arrow]], showed up in the '90s as the son the first Green Arrow, Ollie Queen, never knew he had. [[Retcon]]s have since established that Oliver actually did know, and Connor knew Oliver knew, although [[I Know You Know I Know|Oliver didn't know that Connor knew Oliver knew]]. All clear?

* [[X-Men (Comic Book)|Wolverine]] turned out to have both a gender-swapped clone (Laura Kinney, aka X-23), ''and'' a long-lost son, Daken. The new Scorpion is the daughter of villainess Monica Rappaccini, probably fathered by [[Incredible Hulk|Bruce Banner (aka the Hulk)]].

** Speaking of the Hulk, he also has his son Skaar, who was still in his mother's womb when she died, as well as Lyra, his daughter by Thundra from a divergent future.

*** There's also Skaar's twin, Hiro-Kala. Neither Hulk or Skaar know about him ''yet'', but he's making his way to Earth...

* Wildcat IV in ''[[Justice Society of America]]''.

** The JSA has a bit of a habit of this. Jade and Obsidian pulled this one on Green Lantern (Alan Scott) when they were first introduced back in [[The Eighties]].

* The Trickster in the DC Universe once went to help an ex-girlfriend whose son was in danger. After protecting him from the demonic Neron, he did the arithmetic to realize who the father had to be.

* Darkdevil in ''[[Spider-Girl]]'', who is revealed to the reader - but not the heroine or her family, yet - to be the son of Ben Reilly, Spider-Man's clone.

* Tossed in a blender with [[Luke, I Am Your Father]] (but not really) in ''[[Usagi Yojimbo]]'': {{spoiler|Usagi discovered that his old flame Mariko's son Jotaro is actually ''his'' son, and Mariko's husband (Usagi's ''very'' unfriendly rival) also knows but loves Jotaro anyway. Usagi and Jotaro's sword master guessed almost immediately (they're very much alike), and gives them the opportunity to travel together for several months; after talking with Tomoe about responsibilities and relationships, Usagi decides not to break the bond between Jotaro and his family, while ''Jotaro'' decides not to force Usagi to give up his wanderer lifestyle to take care of him. It turns out Mariko told Jotaro the truth, but left out the part about Usagi knowing too. Upset at his "weakness" and the fact that he doesn't know when or if he'll ever see his "uncle" again, Jotaro calls out "Miyamoto Usagi! You are my father!!" but Usagi is already too far away to hear ("Just a trick of the wind, I must be tying my ears too tight").}} TL;DR: Father A and Son B know the truth, but each doesn't know the other knows the truth (C,D,E, and F know the truth too, but they aren't talking, mainly out of respect).

* In ''[[Green Lantern]] Corps'' #35, it's revealed that {{spoiler|Korugarian Green Lantern Soranik Natu}} is [[Sinestro]]'s daughter.

* in "The Long Cold Dark", [[The Punisher|Frank Castle]] discovers that {{spoiler|Kathryn O'Brien gave birth to his daughter before she died}}. {{spoiler|His recurring foe Barracuda kidnapped her to get to him}}. Needless to say, [[Papa Wolf|Frank was pissed]].

* In ''[[Batman]]'', Damian Wayne, son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al-Ghul, was raised in the League of Shadows since birth with his father never knowing about him until years later.

** He made his grand entrance by beating the shit out of Tim Drake, the current Robin, in the apparent belief this would make him Robin. (Jason Todd expressed his return to life by beating up Tim. Tim is kind of the [[Butt Monkey]] of the batfamily, which is saying something since Jason got killed and Barbara crippled.)

** {{spoiler|Wanda and Billy, in Children's Crusade, because Wanda has lost all her memories.}}

 

* When Asa in ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon]]'' first starts to wonder about [[Enigmatic Minion]] Mekuramast's true motives, her initial conclusion is that he's her [[Disappeared Dad]], and she confronts him about this. As this theory is purely born of Asa's [[Wrong Genre Savvy]] and, more to the point, makes no sense, it's quickly refuted, and he spends the rest of the story thinking she's a nutcase.

* Day 1 of ''[[One Hundred Days]]'' has Warp Darkmatter telling unmarried and ''virginal'' Buzz Lightyear and Mira Nova that they're his parents, and he has proof to boot. Turns out, he's right!

 

* ''Un Indien dans la Ville'', and its English-language remake, ''[[Jungle 2 Jungle]]''

* As [[Indiana Jones]] and Marion Ravenwood are sinking into sand in ''[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'', {{spoiler|she reveals Mutt Williams is his son. [[Hilarity Ensues]].}} It's ''also'' [[Luke, I Am Your Father]] at the same time.

* ''Oldboy'' features a particularly cruel example: the main character is the victim of an elaborate revenge/imprisonment plot, the final result of which leads him to discover that {{spoiler|the young woman he just had sex with is his long-lost daughter.}}

* A rather unnerving example serves as [[The Reveal]] in the slasher film ''Cherry Falls''. The [[Serial Killer]] targeting virgins {{spoiler|Marliston}} is strongly implied to be {{spoiler|the son of Sheriff Brent conceived through rape 25 years ago, making him the protagonist Jody's older half brother}}.

** [[Averted Trope|"I'm not your father, Sam... but I'm very, very happy to see you."]]

* {{spoiler|Cornelius "Lewis" Robinson}} to Wilbur from ''[[Meet the Robinsons]]''.

* The main plot of ''[[Matchstick Men]]'' revolves around this. {{spoiler|It's actually a con, though.}}

 

* Dirk Pitt ended up with twins after it emerged that his girlfriend hadn't actually died. He becomes a good father really quickly.

* In a ''[[Star Trek]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novel, the character Xyon is introduced at the beginning of the story and helps save the day. At the end, he punches out [[The Captain]] Mackenzie Calhoun before informing him his full name is Xyon of Calhoun. Nice first impression.

* [[William Butler Yeats]] wrote a poem in which Cuchulainn's son leaves home with a vow (apparently designed to give him extra chances to get into fights) not to give his name but at the sword-point, that is, after being beaten, and only against someone who's sworn the same. He runs into Cuchulainn in short order, and as Cuchulainn has been under the same oath since childhood they have an epic fight. Cuchulainn gives him a chance to withdraw and live, and says his head looks like 'a woman's head that I loved once.' Then he gets into his berserk mode and mortally wounds him, and demands his name before he dies. And he's Cuchulainn son of Cuchulainn. He is stricken. The people he was partying with earlier predict that once he's done mourning he'll kill everybody to work off his feelings, so they get the druids to enchant him so he gets in a fight with the ocean instead.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'': Given the spoilers for ''Changes'', {{spoiler|Harry Dresden himself}} is going to get a good dose of this.

* In Brandon Sanderson's ''[[Mistborn]]'', Vin identifies her long-lost father, since her brother had pointed him out to her. The father didn't know she existed until she pointed him out to his boss.

* ''[[Kafka on the Shore]]'', a novel by [[Haruki Murakami]]. The relationship is not spelled out but rather strongly implied, in the manner of: "Are you my mother?", "Why, you have to ask?"

* In [[Michael Crichton]]'s novel ''Next'', one random story involves a man working I can't remember where. A young woman with a baby walks up to him and claims to be his daughter. Naturally, he doesn't believe her. She then reveals that she went through a long and arduous process to find out who donated sperm to her mother, despite the fact that it was supposed to be anonymous, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|spending years just to discover her dad.]] [[Mood Whiplash|And then berates him for donating "defective DNA."]]

* Fred Vargas' Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg has a one year-old son with Camille, but also a twenty-seven year-old son, Armel, whose existence he ignored until Armel, at the time believed to be the Zerquetscher, told him while threatening him with a gun in ''An Uncertain Place''.

* In [[Michael Flynn]]'s ''[[Spiral Arm|Up Jim River]]'', Donovan is in denial, and the harper doesn't want to talk about once she realizes. When Donovan puts it together, the conversation that ensues has both this, and [[Luke, I Am Your Father]].

 

* {{spoiler|Alex}} in ''[[Lost]]''. Oh, come on, we all knew the moment the name came up.

* In ''[[Star Trek]],'' both Kirk and Picard had plots where they discovered their sons. Picard's son wasn't, Kirk's was (and Kirk knew about him, but the audience sure didn't).

** Worf also got two (sort of), the first in which he had no idea his one night stand with the half-Klingon ambassador had any results and then she showed up with their son, and the second in DS9 when said son shows up to serve the Klingon Defense Forces on Worf's ship with no warning.

* Subversion, maybe: In a ''[[Supernatural]]'' episode, Dean goes to revisit the site of a 9-years-ago one-night stand and discovers that the woman has an 8-year-old son with remarkably Dean-like mannerisms. She swears the kid isn't his, and claims that DNA evidence proves it, although it is not actually presented to him. The creator later confirmed that the kid wasn't Dean's son.

** A variation in Season 4, where a guy a few years younger than Sam and Dean shows up claiming to be John Winchester's son. {{spoiler|He actually was John's son, but it doesn't matter, since he was dead the whole episode anyway.}}

*** {{spoiler|Angels}} sure fixed that. [[World Half Empty|Don't look like that]], [[It Got Worse]]. {{spoiler|The guy got resurrected only to either force Dean into saying yes to Michael or to do it himself. He shows up as Michael's meat suit in the last episode. He, Michael, Lucifer and Sam fall into the pit. Sam's body gets out, but his soul is stuck behind with the rest of them, and when Dean asks ''Death'' to retrieve the brothers, he's given a choice of saving Adam or Sam's soul. Since Dean doesn't really have any leverage to begin with, he picks Sam.}}

** [[Rule of Three|And then again in Season 7]] in which it's played straight. {{spoiler|Dean fathers an Amazon, who is [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] and sent to kill him in order to fulfill a coming-of-age ritual. At the end of the episode they get into a stand-off and Sam kills her to protect Dean.}}

** This is likely based on [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s famous [[Stable Time Loop]] story ''—[[All You Zombies]]—'', about a time traveling {{spoiler|hermaphrodite}} who ends up being {{spoiler|his own father, mother, child, lover and the guy who convinced him to take up time travel in the first place.}} Time travel can be like that.

* On ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'', there is a situation which could be (but isn't) the source of this trope name. A girl shows up in Luke's diner saying she is doing a science fair project in genetics to find out who her father is by testing the three guys her mother dated around the time she was conceived. It turns out Luke is her father. This is used to derail the upcoming wedding. Lorelai's father semi-lampshades this when discussing insurance with them and warning about tricksters and grifters, saying "It's just that the ''timing'' is a little suspicious..."

*** And then by the end of series, both were {{spoiler|[[Put on a Bus]] and never heard from again}}.

* On ''[[Vampire Diaries]]'' Elena discovers {{spoiler|Uncle John is her father}} and uses this knowledge in a confrontation to force him to let her go.

* ''[[Home and Away]]'' added an extra twist: John Palmer has a daughter named Shandi, but the Shandi he met was an imposter. Eventually, the real Shandi had to show up.

** Then Rose crosses over into a parallel universe where Pete's alive but never fathered a child with Jackie, and we go through it all ''again'', this time with Pete having to come to terms with the fact that he has a daughter in a parallel universe with the same name as his ''dog''.

* In one episode of ''[[Fresh Prince of Bel Air]]'', a young man appears at the Banks' doorstep and introduces himself as Geoffrey's son. Apparently Geoffrey's ex-wife had given birth to him after their divorce and didn't bother to inform Geoffrey.

* In the mini-series ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'', a [[Gender Flip|gender-flipped]] version occurs. {{spoiler|Virginia has to tell the Evil Queen that she is her daughter. The Queen has no memory of her daughter but slowly begins to remember bits and pieces of the past. Including that she [[Offing the Offspring|once tried to drown Virginia in a bathtub]] before she found the portal to the Nine Kingdoms.}}

* What kicks off ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]'' is that Emma makes a wish to stop being alone. Seconds after had she blown out her candle, she gets a knock on the door and one trouble-making little boy going "Hi Mom!"

 

 

* Cuchulain and Connla, in the Ulster cycle of Irish myth.

* Similar is the story of Sohrab and Rustum. Rustum, the Persian Hercules, has fathered a son but received the news that it was a daughter (so that he would not drag the son off on dangerous adventures). As a young man, Sohrab goes off looking for his father, and ends up fighting against him in a champion-versus-champion confrontation between two warring armies. Sohrab gives out that he is looking for Rustum, but Rustum conceals his identity as he feels it beneath him to be acknowledged fighting a lesser man one-on-one; and also because he thinks Sohrab is only glory-seeking, and will make peace and go away boasting of having met Rustum as an equal. Only after Sohrab is fatally wounded does he learn Rustum's identity and offer his father proof of his ancestry, eventually convincing him. Written up by Victorian poet Matthew Arnold based on the Persian original, see http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/pva356.html.

* Various interpretations of ''[[Beowulf]]'' hint at Grendel being Hroðgar's son and also though never outright stated in the text... Beowulf is the Dragon's father. Explicitly interpreted in the [[Beowulf (film)|2007 animated film]]. {{spoiler|Grendel's mother is [[Squick|the seductress]]. Being played by Angeline Jolie, though, [[Your Mileage May Vary|YMMV]]}}.

 

 

* Throughout ''[[Jade Empire]]'', it's slowly revealed that Dawn Star is Master Li's daughter. When you confront him with this, his response is approximately, "So what?"

* In ''[[Lost Odyssey]]'', the pair of [[Tagalong Kid]]s that Kaim and company befriend bring the party home to meet their ill mother... who immediately recognizes {{spoiler|Kaim as her long-lost father}}, making the kids {{spoiler|his grandchildren}}.

{{quote|""When I was {{spoiler|under the control of that evil blade}}...I met {{spoiler|my father}} in a dream. I was still little when I was separated from {{spoiler|my father}}, but I still remember {{spoiler|him}}. {{spoiler|He}} was strong, kind, and gentle... {{spoiler|Galzus}}... You're my {{spoiler|father}}!"}}

* At the end of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'', {{spoiler|Jack aka Raiden}} gets his happy ending when he learns that {{spoiler|Rose didn't suffer a miscarriage, and that Rose and Campbell's marriage was a sham to protect his son from the Patriots. Even better, his son John isn't afraid of Jack's cyborg body and thinks that his father is awesome.}}

* Roger Jr., Roger's son [[Kid From the Future|from the future]] in ''[[Space Quest]] IV''.

 

 

** Well, he did show up in one [[Flash Back]] over 600 episodes before that, [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0050.html here], although he wasn't named then and hasn't been seen since. Still, the "reveal" came as no surprise to someone with a good memory.

* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]:'' Jean is a bit [[Insistent Terminology|insistent]] that all of the peanut butter monsters generated by her project are, in a sense, her children. Nonetheless, she seems freaked out every time she encounters one for the first time.

 

 

* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' - when Goliath and crew arrive in Avalon, he discovers that the eggs that they managed to save from the clan massacre were brought there, hatched, and were all full-grown gargoyles; one of whom is his (and Demona's) daughter, Angela. The comic later points out that Gabriel, Angela's friend on Avalon, is the son of the two Gargoyles that became Coldstone and Coldfire.

** Although this leads to awkward situations for Goliath and Angela. Gargoyles raise their children in a community with no child being the son or daughter of one specific parent. Angela, being raised primarily by humans, [[Values Dissonance|worries a lot about her parentage]] in comparison.

** Later on, Krusty's long-lost daughter shows up.

* Dermot from ''[[The Venture Brothers]]''. {{spoiler|[[Double Subversion]]: He believes himself to be the long lost son of Brock Samson. Turns out... he's actually ''Rusty's'' kid.}}.