Luke, I Am Your Father/Playing With

Basic Trope: Two characters who were previously thought unrelated are revealed to be parent and child.
 * Straight: Sam turns out to be Bob's father.
 * Exaggerated:
 * Sam turns out to be Bob's father and brings a photo album, family tree and positive DNA test to prove this.
 * After Sam reveals himself to be Bob's father, Alex suddenly reveals himself to be Bob's long lost half-brother, then Carol chimes in, revealing herself to be Bob's cousin who he has never met, Alice reveals herself to be Bob's daughter from the future and so on until pretty much all the mayor characters on the show are revealed to be related to Bob somehow. A Tangled Family Tree ensues.
 * All human beings descend from Sam.
 * Downplayed: The fact that Sam is Bob's father is only a subtle fact no character in the show speaks about.
 * Justified: Bob's mother Kim divorced Sam and got sole custody, vowing never to let Sam meet Bob.
 * Inverted:
 * Luke You Are My Father
 * Bob has always thought that Sam is his father. Turns out Andy is Bob's father.
 * Subverted:
 * Family Relationship Switcheroo
 * Turns out Sam was lying.
 * Hints are dropped to the effect that Sam is the Bob's father: there's a Disappeared Dad nobody wants to talk about, they have the same powers and heck, they even look alike. Then Kim reveals that Joe was actually the father.
 * Double Subverted: Hints are dropped to the effect that Sam is the Bob's father until Kim claims that Joe was actually the father. Joe insists that he's not, and DNA tests prove that Sam is in fact Bob's father.
 * Parodied:
 * Sam proclaims himself to be Bob's father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
 * Sam proclaims himself to have had sex with Bob's mother.
 * Deconstructed: The ramifications of this statement are thoroughly examined as Bob and Kim comes to grips with Sam's appearance. Bob, Sam and Kim sit down and have a long heartfelt chat over their family's history and the decision to divorce. Whether Bob accepts Sam, Kim takes back Sam or Sam truly loves either of them is yet to be seen.
 * Reconstructed: Sam spent years of his life trying to find Bob, knowing what a terrible mother Kim would turn out to be. Bob is relieved to see Sam and accepts him wholeheartedly.
 * Zig Zagged:
 * Kim tells Bob that Sam was his father. Bob sets out on a quest to find Sam, only for Sam to reveal that he never even slept with Kim. But Bob looks an awful lot like Sam... but then Sam has a brother, Joe, who seems awfully interested in Kim. Because there's no DNA testing, we never find out who Bob's father was.
 * Luke I Might Be Your Father
 * Averted:
 * The identity of Bob's father is never discovered.
 * Bob knows for sure who his father is.
 * Enforced: "How about this for a twist: these two characters turn out to be related!"
 * Lampshaded: "Oh yeah? So where the hell's my allowance?!"
 * Invoked: Bob's family is used as an experiment to determine the differences in a family with and without a father, so Jack forces Sam, Bob's father, to leave the country and Kim to never mention it. Cue 18th birthday, where Sam returns and reveals himself
 * Defied: Sam intentionally contacted his child before the series start specifically so that Bob wouldn't grow up not knowing who his father was.
 * Discussed: "I can't wait to see how they explain this."
 * Conversed: "And they thought now would be the best time to reveal this because...?"

Back to the main page, because he's your father.