Tropescilloscope: Parental Abandonment

The character's parents aren't shown, or they're dead. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Shell-Shocked Veteran Off with His Head! Protagonist Title Dirty Coward Exactly What It Says on the Tin Leave the Camera Running Made of Iron Military and Warfare Films Arch-Enemy Failed a Spot Check Fake Shemp Demoted to Extra The Cameo No-Sell Rule of Funny Kubrick Stare What Happened to the Mouse? What the Hell, Hero? Pre-Mortem One-Liner Riddle for the Ages Insistent Terminology The Alcoholic Fish out of Water Gorn Toplessness from the Back Fire-Forged Friends Bowdlerise Cruel and Unusual Death Captain Obvious Offscreen Moment of Awesome Revenge timeperiod Authority Equals Asskicking Horror Films May–December Romance Pyrrhic Victory Tagline Anyone Can Die Foregone Conclusion Improvised Weapon And the Adventure Continues Would Hurt a Child Blatant Lies Extremely Short Timespan Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Adaptational Attractiveness Crucified Hero Shot The Cavalry Attempted Rape Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass More Dakka Beauty Is Never Tarnished Time Skip Sir Swears-a-Lot You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Break the Haughty Big Eater Not Quite Dead Historical-Domain Character Retcon Author Avatar Advertised Extra Throwing Your Sword Always Works Yandere It Can Think Evil Brit Adaptation Name Change BFG Dropped a Bridge on Him In the Back Jump Scare You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Take That! From Bad to Worse Mundane Made Awesome Cat Scare Artistic License – Geography Light Is Not Good Stalker with a Crush Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Outrun the Fireball Gainax Ending Evil Is Petty The Mafia Dull Surprise Wounded Gazelle Gambit Five-Man Band Meet Cute Ambiguously Gay Bond One-Liner Rule of Three Cloudcuckoolander Affably Evil Freudian Excuse Becoming the Mask Film Series Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Intrepid Reporter Hooker with a Heart of Gold Fantastic Racism Heroic Sacrifice Black Comedy Romantic Comedy Reckless Gun Usage Bilingual Bonus Department of Redundancy Department Chekhov's Gun I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Real Life Writes the Plot Cool Old Guy Anachronic Order Take a Third Option And Starring Dramatic Irony Fanservice Extra Driven to Suicide Auto Erotica Rule of Cool Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Better to Die than Be Killed Damsel in Distress Anachronism Stew Unspoken Plan Guarantee Mighty Whitey Animated Credits Opening Cassandra Truth Central Theme The Dreaded Martial Arts Movie Real Life Danny Peary Cult Movies List Soundtrack Dissonance Off-into-the-Distance Ending Rule of Symbolism Alliterative Name Call-Back Distracted by the Sexy She Cleans Up Nicely The Vamp Our Vampires Are Different Eagleland Beta Couple The Dog Bites Back Does This Remind You of Anything? Redemption Equals Death Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Meaningful Background Event Historical Hero Upgrade Drowning My Sorrows Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Last-Name Basis Sci-Fi Horror The Quiet One Face–Heel Turn Accidental Misnaming Drives Like Crazy Alas, Poor Villain Cat Fight Meaningful Name Apocalypse How No Ending Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Victoria's Secret Compartment From Nobody to Nightmare Pragmatic Adaptation Jitter Cam Obstructive Bureaucrat Dissonant Serenity For the Evulz Line-of-Sight Name Contrived Coincidence Bad Boss The Stinger Action Survivor Brick Joke Continuity Nod Police are Useless Fantasy Films Spiteful Spit Big Applesauce Shower Scene Spell My Name with an "S" Improbable Aiming Skills Corpsing Final Girl Training Montage Double Entendre Camp Gay Chewing the Scenery The Dragon Mythology Gag Works Set in World War II Thriller Artistic License – Gun Safety Together in Death Big Bad Duumvirate Red Right Hand Non-Indicative Name Laughing Mad Show Within a Show Early-Bird Cameo "The Reason You Suck" Speech Adorkable Brother–Sister Incest Ominous Latin Chanting The Chessmaster My Beloved Smother As the Good Book Says... Moment Killer Those Wacky Nazis Blackmail Neck Lift Eldritch Abomination Stealth Pun Ship Tease Never Found the Body Decoy Protagonist Only Sane Man Sadistic Choice Humiliation Conga Daylight Horror Body Horror Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Heel–Face Turn "Shaggy Dog" Story Bullying a Dragon Fingore Scenery Porn You Have Failed Me Death Glare Bait-and-Switch Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Taking the Bullet Hate Sink Awesome, but Impractical Men Are the Expendable Gender Horror Comedy Sports Stories Tap on the Head Nice Guy Mooks Humans Are Bastards Not So Different Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Back from the Dead Big-Bad Ensemble Rewatch Bonus All There in the Script Heroes Want Redheads Grievous Bottley Harm Video Credits Funny Background Event Domestic Abuse Jerk Jock Evil Is Hammy Curse Cut Short Gilligan Cut Fatal Family Photo Tempting Fate Pretty Little Headshots Composite Character Femme Fatale Badass Bookworm Shut Up, Hannibal! The Chick Slashed Throat Plucky Comic Relief Cluster F-Bomb Documentary Scenery Gorn Silent Movie Bolivian Army Ending Red Eyes, Take Warning Wrong Genre Savvy Author Appeal Eye Scream Self-Deprecation Face Death with Dignity Film Noir Index Be Careful What You Wish For Mystery and Detective Films Slasher Movie Combat Pragmatist Even Evil Has Loved Ones Parental Abandonment Here We Go Again! Animal Title Index The Hero Villain Ball Character Development Adaptation Distillation The Stoner Hollywood Law Married to the Job Bland-Name Product Very Loosely Based on a True Story Punny Name Villainous Breakdown Spared by the Adaptation Intergenerational Friendship Not So Stoic Adaptational Villainy Curb-Stomp Battle Say My Name The Great Depression Dark Is Not Evil Dressing as the Enemy Villain with Good Publicity Betty and Veronica Those Two Guys Punctuated! For! Emphasis! The Brute Pretty in Mink Not What It Looks Like Peek-a-Boo Corpse Deliberately Monochrome Mr. Fanservice Took a Level in Badass "Well Done, Son!" Guy Serial Killer Mood Whiplash Trailers Always Spoil Your Head A-Splode "Awesome McCool" Name A Minor Kidroduction Stylistic Suck Genre Throwback The Stoic Antagonist Title Determinator Closed Circle Break the Cutie Playing Gertrude Wham Line N-Word Privileges Bar Brawl Small Name, Big Ego Heterosexual Life-Partners "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Broken Bird Covers Always Lie Left the Background Music On Boom, Headshot! Gender Flip Call-Forward Your Cheating Heart Names to Run Away from Really Fast Random Events Plot 20 Minutes into the Future Mugging the Monster Card-Carrying Villain All Just a Dream Bittersweet Ending Vitriolic Best Buds Historical In-Joke Serious Business Grey and Gray Morality Maybe Ever After The '90s Motor Mouth Storming the Castle The '80s The Lost Lenore What You Are in the Dark Title Drop Blood from the Mouth Fainting Every Car Is a Pinto Neck Snap I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Death by Sex Karma Houdini O.O.C. Is Serious Business Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Love Triangle Ass Shove Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Ambiguous Ending Gold Digger Groin Attack Major Injury Underreaction Credits Gag Black Best Friend Dutch Angle Evil vs. Evil Dramatic Gun Cock Really Gets Around Death by Irony Easily Forgiven Dark Action Girl Despair Event Horizon Broken Pedestal The Smurfette Principle Death Seeker Berserk Button Foreshadowing Once More, with Clarity! Deus ex Machina The '70s Diabolus ex Machina Psycho for Hire Blood Knight Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Bare Your Midriff Epic Movie Pet the Dog The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Creepy Child Insult Backfire Ghost Fiction Obviously Evil You Killed My Father Action Girl The Voiceless Faking the Dead Evil Sounds Deep Green-Eyed Monster Sacrificial Lion Taking You with Me Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy The '60s Interrupted Suicide Romantic False Lead Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Re-Cut Bound and Gagged Fat Bastard folderlabel Word of God Stock Footage Dirty Old Man Manly Tears Worthy Opponent Manic Pixie Dream Girl Red Herring Room Full of Crazy Fun with Acronyms Adaptation Expansion Dumb Blonde Calling the Old Man Out Guns Akimbo Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other The Bad Guy Wins The Film of the Book Sequel Hook Naïve Newcomer Eyepatch of Power Captain Ersatz Artistic License – History A Father to His Men Crapsack World Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping He Knows Too Much Pragmatic Villainy Offscreen Teleportation I Have Your Wife Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Friend to All Children Novelization An Aesop Well-Intentioned Extremist An Axe to Grind Book-Ends I'm a Humanitarian Mistaken for Gay My Greatest Failure Up to Eleven Annoying Younger Sibling Running Gag Cool Old Lady I Need a Freaking Drink Slasher Smile Empathic Environment Christmas Movies Index Amoral Attorney Fanservice Daddy's Girl Villain Protagonist Drugs Are Bad Informed Ability Hidden Depths Villain Song Dirty Cop The Musical It's Personal No Antagonist The Load Put on a Bus Parental Incest Redshirt Army Dramedy Not So Above It All Plot Hole No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Only in It for the Money Poor Communication Kills World of Ham Facial Horror Translation Convention Beard of Evil Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Shirtless Scene Sealed Evil in a Can Noodle Incident Bavarian Fire Drill Roaring Rampage of Revenge Rape as Drama One Steve Limit Affectionate Parody Bloody Hilarious Imagine Spot Disproportionate Retribution Chiaroscuro Pimped-Out Dress Corrupt Corporate Executive Unwitting Instigator of Doom Country Matters Would Hit a Girl Ripped from the Headlines Dying Moment of Awesome Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Broken Aesop Jerkass Has a Point The Starscream Knife Nut Chekhov's Skill Television Movie Index Age Lift One-Man Army Nothing Is Scarier Eureka Moment Bi the Way Nice Hat Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Jerkass Bottomless Magazines Comically Missing the Point Karmic Death Idiot Ball Expy Red Oni, Blue Oni Air-Vent Passageway The Power of Love And I Must Scream Manipulative Bastard Adapted Out Race Against the Clock Armor-Piercing Question Morality Pet Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Parental Substitute Frame-Up Cain and Abel The Ditz Stepford Smiler Famous Last Words Spiritual Successor Mind Screw Establishing Character Moment Rousing Speech French Films Ungrateful Bastard Instant Death Bullet Reality Ensues Dual Wielding A God Am I Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Mama Bear Pay Evil unto Evil Accidental Murder Aside Glance Sole Survivor Hoist by His Own Petard Half the Man He Used to Be Hong Kong Films Happily Married Deadpan Snarker Ascended Extra Took a Level in Jerkass As You Know Italian Films Rich Bitch Deliberate Values Dissonance Scary Black Man Sequel Escalation Vacation Films Spanner in the Works Deconstruction Hair-Trigger Temper Reasonable Authority Figure Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Greater-Scope Villain Sassy Black Woman Important Haircut Shown Their Work Creative Closing Credits Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Cool Car Almost Kiss Good Is Not Nice Kill 'em All Make It Look Like an Accident The Casanova Refuge in Audacity '80s Hair The Lancer Never Trust a Trailer Hypocritical Humor Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Everyone Has Standards Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Cool Guns Badass Longcoat Lighter and Softer Wicked Cultured Artistic License – Military Overprotective Dad Have a Gay Old Time Woman in White Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Suspiciously Specific Denial Adaptational Heroism Killed Mid-Sentence Dies Wide Open Earn Your Happy Ending Lock and Load Montage The Oner Conspicuous CG Suspiciously Similar Substitute Malevolent Masked Men The Sociopath Totally Radical Expository Hairstyle Change Posthumous Character Bald of Evil Woman Scorned Early Installment Weirdness Get Out! After the End Did Not Get the Girl Insane Troll Logic Evil Plan Freeze-Frame Bonus Leitmotif Agony of the Feet Arc Words Hollywood Darkness In Medias Res The Reveal Sexy Discretion Shot Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Older Than They Look The Ace Film Noir Mexican Standoff Precision F-Strike Alpha Bitch German Films Brainless Beauty War Is Hell Coming-of-Age Story Shout-Out Stuff Blowing Up Oh, Crap! Eiffel Tower Effect Catapult Nightmare Based on a True Story Animal Motifs Market-Based Title Star-Crossed Lovers All Men Are Perverts Camera Abuse Unusual Euphemism The Big Guy Lampshade Hanging Beware the Nice Ones Abhorrent Admirer Science Fiction Films Hope Spot Breaking the Fourth Wall Leaning on the Fourth Wall Adult Fear Irony Fatal Flaw Punch-Clock Villain Heroic BSoD Action Prologue Evil-Detecting Dog I Did What I Had to Do Big Fancy House Honor Before Reason Artistic License – Law Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Demonic Possession Creator Cameo Action Genre Getting Crap Past the Radar Gory Discretion Shot Faux Affably Evil Extreme Doormat Match Cut Fiery Redhead Smug Snake Product Placement Adaptational Badass Death of a Child True Companions Disguised in Drag Monumental Damage All for Nothing Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Mr. Exposition Badass Grandpa Zombie Stories Loads and Loads of Characters Chase Scene Psychological Thriller No OSHA Compliance Costume Porn Police Brutality Made of Explodium The Mole Depraved Bisexual Anti-Villain Setting Update B-Movie One-Word Title Overly Long Gag The Place Dogged Nice Guy It Will Never Catch On Flipping the Bird Not Using the "Z" Word Bring My Brown Pants Darker and Edgier Sinister Minister Children Are Innocent Vomit Indiscretion Shot Superhero Reality Is Unrealistic Whole Plot Reference Henpecked Husband Dwindling Party There Is No Kill Like Overkill As Long as It Sounds Foreign Unreliable Narrator Same Language Dub Paper-Thin Disguise Implacable Man Scare Chord Russian Films Sanity Slippage Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Knight Templar Big "NO!" Crazy Jealous Guy Gone Horribly Right Skewed Priorities Asshole Victim Obfuscating Stupidity Race Lift Meaningful Echo Adults Are Useless Aluminum Christmas Trees Guile Hero Tranquil Fury Cool Shades Hell Is That Noise Silence Is Golden Exact Words Kick the Son of a Bitch A Date with Rosie Palms Unresolved Sexual Tension Disney Death Recycled IN SPACE! Missing Mom The End... Or Is It? Australian Movies Unusually Uninteresting Sight Soft Glass Artistic License – Physics Black Dude Dies First Narrator Mad Scientist All There in the Manual Vampire Fiction The Smart Guy Artistic License – Biology Downer Ending Amusing Injuries Not Even Bothering with the Accent Car Fu Those Two Bad Guys Psychopathic Manchild Rated M for Manly Kick the Dog Brutal Honesty Biopic Needs Wiki Magic Love Too Dumb to Live Cowboy Cop Undying Loyalty Destination Defenestration The Un-Reveal Rasputinian Death Casting Gag Award-Bait Song Flashback Bunny-Ears Lawyer She's Got Legs Super Strength Visual Pun La Résistance Madness Mantra Big Brother Instinct The Bully Politically Incorrect Villain Bloodier and Gorier Framing Device Smoking Is Cool Gratuitous English Defrosting Ice Queen Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Badass Boast Double-Meaning Title Butt-Monkey Hero of Another Story Anti-Hero Babies Ever After Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Let's Get Dangerous! Token Minority Due to the Dead Hypocrite Slap-Slap-Kiss Shipper on Deck Black and Gray Morality Badass Normal Ms. Fanservice Even Evil Has Standards Loophole Abuse Naked People Are Funny Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Developing Doomed Characters Actor Allusion Evil Laugh Only Known by Their Nickname My God, What Have I Done? Parental Neglect Arranged Marriage Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Crazy-Prepared Improbable Weapon User The X of Y Logo Joke No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Heel Realization Vomit Discretion Shot Handicapped Badass No Celebrities Were Harmed British Films Index of Film Westerns Red Shirt Hero Antagonist For Want of a Nail The '50s Canadian Movies Kids Are Cruel Properly Paranoid Dark and Troubled Past Large Ham Retired Badass Four-Temperament Ensemble Evil Counterpart This Is Gonna Suck Catch-Phrase He Who Fights Monsters Historical Villain Upgrade Papa Wolf Actually Pretty Funny Mercy Kill Music Stories Shoot the Shaggy Dog Jerk with a Heart of Gold Darkest Hour Manchild The Ghost Belligerent Sexual Tension Big Damn Heroes Truth in Television Public Domain Feature Films Laser-Guided Karma Abusive Parents Fan Disservice The Faceless Male Frontal Nudity Didn't Think This Through Disappeared Dad Stealth Hi/Bye Anguished Declaration of Love Epic Fail Ambiguous Disorder Wham Shot Cold-Blooded Torture Only One Name Twist Ending Our Zombies Are Different Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking All Girls Want Bad Boys A.I. Is a Crapshoot Ironic Echo Big Bad Canon Foreigner Enemy Mine Kill It with Fire Immune to Bullets The Remake Never My Fault Deal with the Devil Fourth Date Marriage Retirony An Arm and a Leg Bond Villain Stupidity It's All About Me Japanese Films The Hero Dies In Name Only Does Not Like Shoes Suddenly SHOUTING! Reality Has No Subtitles The Atoner Drill Sergeant Nasty Fate Worse than Death Black Comedy Rape Wretched Hive NO INDOOR VOICE Man on Fire Only a Flesh Wound MacGuffin Death by Adaptation Homage Funny Foreigner The Alleged Car As Himself Celebrity Paradox Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Defiant to the End Dark Reprise Determinator aka: The Determinator Genre Savvy Bad "Bad Acting" Genre Shift Badass in a Nice Suit Batman Gambit How We Got Here Bloodless Carnage Chekhov's Gunman Disney Villain Death Love at First Sight Foil Bury Your Gays No Name Given Ax-Crazy Male Gaze Straight Gay Adaptation Dye-Job Villain Opening Scene