Robo-Family



Although mechanical beings are not 'related' in any true biological sense, the concept of robots being 'family' is nevertheless a common trope in sci-fi. After all, if robots can get married, be ridiculously human, and be loyal friends, it makes perfect sense that robots would develop their own sense of family.

How seriously this term is applied usually depends on how human-like they are, how well characters regard robots, and how light the source material is. Sometimes the robots love each other just as much as any human family. Other times it's just a technical term used by humans.

The main types of family are as follows:


 * Robot series: All of the robots are from the same 'series' which usually share similar designs and are usually all based off an original prototype. This can sometimes even apply to more advanced machines that follow the 'spirit' of the original design or carry on their legacy.


 * Same creator: All of the robots have the same creator, making them a 'father/mother' to all the robots and making them 'siblings'. Sometimes the creator actually treats their creations like children, although some can get a bit carried away. Expect a You're Not My Father/Mother if a robotic 'son/daughter' turns against their creator. This usually overlaps with the above example, since the same creator would make similar robots. A builder treating his creation as his child is a trope dating back at least to Pinocchio.


 * Replacements, clones or copies: When a robot is replaced with a better model, mass produced, or copied by another party, this technically makes the two robots 'brothers' even though they're essentially the same person in terms of design. One of the robots is usually an evil version of the other, especially if they're angry of the existence of their 'sibling'.


 * Robot family: In a series where robots are allowed to live amongst humans, many robots form their own real robot 'family', usually by having robot parents making or adopting their children. Sometimes the siblings will look like they're 'related' but sometimes they can be mismatched.

This trope is the most 'family friendly' kind of relationship that can happen between creators and fellow robots. Other kinds would be their creators being gods, an empty technical term because the robots are barely sentient, or the robot considers itself above such petty 'relations'.

Also compare Robotic Spouse for when a human has a romantic attachment to a robot, which can lead to a robot family when they adopt/make children. All of these types of robot family can include a Robot Kid, often playing the role of "son" or "daughter".

Advertisements

 * One Duracell ad campaign featured the Puttermans, a nuclear family of domestic suburbanites that ran on giant Duracell batteries.

Anime and Manga

 * Astro Boy: The Ur Example, Astro has his sister Uran (and a brother named Cobalt in the manga) as well as his own robotic parents, not to mention his 'sibling' Atlas that was based off his blueprints/made by the same creator.
 * Chii from Chobits has her sister.
 * In Princess Resurrection each of the royal siblings have there own android who are also called siblings: Flandre, Francisca, Francette, Flanders and Franz - and probably several more.
 * Transformers: Robots in Disguise brought us the Autobot Brothers: Prowl, X-Brawn and Sideburn. Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus are also brothers.
 * In Mahou Sensei Negima, Chachamaru considers Chachazero her older sister because both of them were created from Evangeline's magic. She also views all of the robots that her other creators (Chao and Hakase) made as her younger siblings. She also views her three creators as her parents.
 * Machine People in the "Leijiverse" (featured in Galaxy Express 999 and many others) fall into this category; they're all transformed humans, for the most part, but sometimes we see scenes of things like in "Cosmo Warrior Zero" where robot mommies are running away from explosions holding their robot babies.
 * Title robot Signal in Twin Signal considers Pulse to be his brother because they were created by the same man. He also considers the human little boy Nobu to be his little brother because, personality-wise, he was programmed to act that way—but he says he'd think of Nobu that way even if it wasn't in his programming.

Comic Books

 * The DC Universe has Dr. Magnus' Metal Men, who are all people who were accidentally transferred into robotic bodies. Sometimes.
 * In most versions, they're simply a small group of robots all built by the same guy, so they have become True Companions.
 * Ultron, the premier Killer Robot of the Marvel Universe, has created a whole bunch of other robots (The Vision, Jocasta, Alkhema, Antigone) whom he explicitly refers to as a family. Most of them have ended up betraying him. Ultron's family also includes his creator Hank Pym and the various people whose brain patterns he's copied into his creations.
 * PS238 has Dr. Positron and his "siblings". Positron #1 ("balding" head, thin round goggles) — used to be in Union of Justice, along with the rest of them works at PS238. Positron #2 (blond, laboratory goggles) also works at PS238, is somewhat less formal and more chatty. Diana works in K-Square and studies human behavior. They have some sort of integrated wireless communication and "keep in touch" at least within the town.

Film

 * The Twentieth Century Fox movie Robots has this, most notably with a main character who has a mom and dad.
 * In the movie continuity of Transformers there are several nods to the robots having families. Optimus Prime and Megatron are implied to be brothers (whether literal or metaphorical isn't entirely made clear), the 3 Arcee bikes have been referred to as sisters by some sources, Jetfire mentions having a mother and a father (who was apparently "the first wheel"), The Fallen and the Dynasty Of Primes are all brothers and Optimus is a great descendent of one of them. Oh and The Twins, who are... robot twins.

Live Action TV

 * Data and Lore were "brothers" on Star Trek: The Next Generation and both acknowledged their creator Dr. Soong as their father. And later Data made an android of his own named Lal, who was his "daughter."
 * In Red Dwarf,  and they were both created by the same woman.
 * The villains of Chouriki Sentai Ohranger / Power Rangers Zeo are an evil robot royal family.
 * Signalman, a robot space policeman from Gekisou Sentai Carranger, has a wife and son on his home planet. This wasn't carried over to his PR counterpart.

Tabletop Games

 * The Mystara setting for Dungeons & Dragons had the Hephaestons, a race of literal iron giants. They reproduced by a male and a female literally forging a child, and then adding a bit of molten metal from each of their own bodies to grant it life.

Video Games

 * Mega Man: The next most famous example, Mega Man/Rockman, Roll, and Proto Man/Blues are all considered siblings, as it wasn't obvious from the Theme Naming. Doctor Light is usually consider to be a father to all of them.
 * Also, it was widely speculated that Dr. Light built the three in a sense that he actually wanted to have his own chidren.
 * Heck, the Robot Masters of 1, 9, and Powered Up can count as well.
 * Mega Man X also counts, both being a creation of Light as well as being carrying on Mega Man's 'legacy'.
 * Iris and Colonel are considered brother and sister because they were supposed to be the same reploid, but were split into two. Also Techno and Midi, who shared the same CPU.
 * If we're going by the same creator-type of family like Dr. Light, don't leave Dr. Wily out of it either. His family, however, is just as rebellious as he is. Take a look at Bass, for starters.
 * The Four Guardians in Mega Man Zero are regarded as siblings by some portions of the fandom for convenience, due to their common origin and purpose.
 * In Mega Man X Command Mission, Professor Gaudile is a recluse scientist who built the Force Metal Generator and Cinnamon, to whom he is an Overprotective Dad, sheltering Cinnamon for most of her early life.
 * In Chrono Trigger, Robo and his fellow R-series robots are never actually called "brothers", but they do share a bond - or at least they used to.
 * In Persona 3, Aigis and are said to be sisters...
 * Also, all of the anti-shadow weapons that were built with Aigis are referred to as her sisters.
 * In Xenosaga, MOMO's relationship with the 100-Series Realians who preceded her is also akin to sisterhood.
 * The various members of the E-100 series in Sonic Adventure are considered siblings. This becomes weird at the end of E-102's story, when.
 * This can be done in The Sims of all places, particularly Sims2. Servo units are fully functional characters, just with an unusual look and weird wants/needs. They also inherit all their creator's talents. After making one Servo, the Servo can create others, easily filling a house. Since Servos are essentially immortal they will usually outlast their creators by a long shot. It's entirely possible to have a single servo and it's descendants max out the game (learning all skills et all) for you.
 * The Sims 3 also has this. Any Simbot that is built will regard the person who built them as their parent. If the person who built the Simbot has any biological children, then the Simbot will regard as half-siblings. Simbots can also built their own Simbot children.
 * In Tales of Hearts, Chlorseraph and Clinoseraph, who have similar designs and were created for the same purpose, are referred to as brothers.
 * The W-Numbers of Super Robot Wars Original Generation have varying degrees of "family" relationships. As (supposedly) the only one of the group to develop real human emotions, W17 starts to see her fellow androids as something like siblings, but only after defecting to the opposite side. As such, she's the first that their creator starts to see as a "daughter". But the closest sibling relationship between two W-Numbers is in the Gaiden Game Endless Frontier, with W07 and
 * The plot of the K.O.L.M. series has yet to be fully explained, but the robotic protagonist regards his Voice with an Internet Connection as his "mother," and at one point says that the robots that're trying to kill him are his "brothers."
 * The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable series has the Eltrian Gears, a.k.a,.
 * According to Dungeons and Dragons Online, warforged often consider others from the same factory to be family of sorts.
 * According to Dungeons and Dragons Online, warforged often consider others from the same factory to be family of sorts.

Webcomics

 * The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob”-- Molly built a robot named Roofus who calls her "Mom."
 * Never Mind the Gap: Robots have family units, and raise children. Humans and robots can marry, as well as have robot children.

Web Original

 * The WALL-E forum role play actually has a detailed analysis of what constitutes a robot family, detailed here.

Western Animation

 * My Life as a Teenage Robot: Jenny has several "sisters" who are actually failed prototypes created by her inventor who have since been shut down and locked up in the basement.
 * Original Transformers Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are considered brothers. Also, Optimus Prime and Elita One (who are apparently romantically involved) consider Alpha Trion their father, as he rebuilt them from their previous civilian forms into their current states when they were damaged.
 * Popular fanon states that Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp are brothers, due to their being identical but for coloration.
 * Rattrap from Beast Wars made a throwaway reference to his "Great Aunt Arcee".
 * Transformers Animated had Jetfire and Jetstorm refer to each other as brothers. Unlike the likes of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, an explanation is provided: they came from a single spark that split into two at 'birth'.
 * Transformers in general has plenty of these. Of course, being Mechanical Lifeforms as opposed to just simple robots helps. However, the Transformer life cycle is addressed on occasion, and as those tidbits add up, the Protoforms/Sparks/Matrix/Lifegiving MacGuffin stuff makes it extremely unlikely that the words "When two robots who love each other very, very much..." are involved, so how you get relatives is still a good question. See here for more info.
 * One episode of Robotboy involved Robotboy finding out he had a prototype older brother ("Protoboy") that had to be shut down by Moshimo (their creator) after he was turned evil by Kamikazi and went insane. The episode revolves around the ever-naive Robotboy finding the deactivated Protoboy in Kamikazi's Rejects closet and turning him back on. The results aren't pretty.
 * Similarly, a different episode involved Moshimo making a companion ("Robotgirl") for Robotboy. So Robotboy, Robotgirl and Protoboy are all siblings, technically.
 * Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot uses the "same creator" version, in that Rusty and the woman who built him have a mother/son relationship. When she explains to an older scientist that she based Rusty off his research, Rusty starts calling him "Grandpa".
 * In Young Justice, T. O. Morrow considers his four element-controlling robots (Red Tornado, Red Inferno, Red Torpedo, and Red Volcano) to be his children, and they refer to him as "father", even though Tornado is no longer remotely loyal to him and . They also refer to each other as siblings.
 * Skyquake and his Palette Swap twin, Dreadwing, from Transformers Prime, are the closest to what can be considered robot relatives. Brothers in this case, as they share a split spark.