Changeling Fantasy: Difference between revisions

Compare [[Escapist Character]], [[Ascended Fanboy]], [[Rags to Riches]].

 

 

 

[[I Thought It Meant|You may be looking]] for the [[Darker and Edgier]] version known as [[Changeling Tale]], which is the source of the name. [[wikipedia:changeling|A changeling]] is an [[The Fair Folk|elf/troll/gremlin/etc.]] baby that gets swapped for a human baby and ends up being raised by humans (or the baby is merely abducted and [[Wild Child|raised by elves]]). It's very common in [[Fairy Tale Tropes|medieval folklore]]. '''''Examples of fairy abduction should go there, not here.'''''

** Kaito also just happens to be {{spoiler|part of the ancient Panthalassa race}}.

* ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'': [[Little Miss Snarker|Ruri Hoshino]], after having lived the bulk of her life as a lab experiment, discovers her real family - who are the [[Cloudcuckoolander]] royalty of a [[Theme Park]]-based [[Ruritania]]. {{spoiler|She ultimately decides that her biological family is completely irrelevant to her life, and returns to the crew of the Nadesico.}}

 

== Comic Books ==

 

* In ''[[Spy Boy]]'', Alex wishes at the beginning for one to escape his crappy school life until he realize how brutal the espionage world really is.

 

 

* [[Star Wars|Luke Skywalker]].

* In ''[[Wanted]]'', the main character is bored and dissatisfied with his mundane life until he finds out that his father was a bad-ass super assassin and he's inherited his powers.

* ''Who's Your Daddy?'', about a boy who inherits his father's (played by Wayne Newton) porn empire.

* This is the entire point of the new book series ''[[The 39 Clues]]'' in which two children find themselves to be heirs to the most powerful family on earth.

* {{spoiler|Kaye}} from Holly Black's ''[[Modern Tales of Faerie]]'' is a [[Changeling Tale|literal changeling]], swapped as an infant for a human baby. She later meets the child she was switched with, who has aged only a few years in the Seelie Court.

* In ''[[Narnia|The Horse And His Boy]]'', Shasta turns out, in the end, to be a prince. An unusual example in that [[The Reveal]] comes after the climax; he goes through the entire book believing himself to be a commoner. He does overhear at the beginning, though, that the man he thought was his father really found and adopted him, and he briefly fantasizes that he might be anyone, even royalty. Then he has to run away and seems to forget all about it.

** Shasta is also an unusual example in that, although he's happy enough to learn that King Lune and Prince Corin are his father and brother, he's considerably less thrilled to discover that this means he'll have to be king someday. (His brother Corin is delighted to be shoved off the throne. "Princes have all the fun!")

** In ''The Jargoon Pard'', Kethan was [[Switched At Birth]] to ensure his mother [[Heir Club for Men|had a son]]. [[Contrived Coincidence]] ensures he meets his birth parents and the girl they are raised, and he ends up with them. (This combines with [[Happily Adopted]], though -- the girl stays with them, too.)

* In the sixth book of L. J. Smith's ''Nightworld'' series, ''Soulmate'', Hannah learns that she is an olld soul, and emotionally related to Thierry.

* Percy from [[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]] book series.

** Percy and about ninety percent of his friends.

* In the ''[[Tunnels]]'' series, Will learns that he was adopted and that his real parents are inhabitants of the Colony, a secret civilization [[Beneath the Earth]]. Subverted, however, when his biological parents turn out to be just as unpleasant as his adoptive ones.

* The ''[[Temeraire]]'' series has an odd take on this. While the titular dragon ''is'' considered a valued and unique [[Organic Ship|piece of ordinance]] in the British Aerial Corps; when he goes to China he finds out that A) dragons in general are treated as large citizens/subjects with wings rather than talking warbeasts and B) ''he'' is by rights part of the Imperial Household. While he does return to Britain it is with plans for reform on his mind.

* In [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/904 Her Father's Daughter]'', Linda knows her father is her father, but she seriously doubts that her sister is her sister. When she turns eighteen, she learns that her mother [[Died In Childbirth]], and when her father remarried, he and his new wife had agreed to raise their children like actual sisters. (But it couldn't be hidden because it was [[In the Blood]].)

* The story of the ''Ugly Duckling''.

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

 

** Thankfully, he gets to keep his elaborate web of fake memories, so as not to go [[Ax Crazy]].

** Subverted by the fact that it's evident from the beginning that Odo is from another species (its more the revelation of what place his species occupy in the Dominion that comes as the shock) and by the fact that Odo's adoptive culture is friendlier then his home culture.

** The more regular explanation for the name "Changeling" is the Founders' ability to impersonate humanoids and use this for infiltration - that's what the [[Changeling Tale|Changelings did in legends]] (pretended to be human and corrupted others).

** In Volume 4 they have Sylar's [[Changeling Fantasy]] actually turn out to be ''true'', in that he really was adopted, and his biological father turns out to have been a powerful supervillain...but it's subverted as Sylar finds him a "big disappointment" due to all the [[Villain Decay]] his dad had undergone, courtesy of cancer, apparent poverty, and sheer boredom with life. Its implied as well that he never really did much with his abilities anyway other than kill people for their power {{spoiler|and Sylars mom}}, and was just a self-centered [[Jerkass]] who doesn't give a crap about his son and never did. {{spoiler|When he finds out Sylar has a [[Healing Factor]] and is effectively immortal, he tries to kill him for it and get a new lease on life. Except Sylar overpowers him without much effort.}}

 

== Myth And Legend ==

== Video Games ==

 

** Inverted in a cruel way with Angelo and Marcello, though...

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has Thrall, who eventually became the Warchief of the Horde and was the son of a shaman.

* In the comic strip ''[[Zits]]'', Jeremy's parents eventually revealed that they had been raising him in a dull middle-class existence when they were really {{spoiler|dull middle class people}}.

* In ''Suburban Glamour'', the teenage protagonist learns that [[Changeling Tale|she's a literal changeling]], and is the daughter of Fae royalty. She's initially elated to have the chance to get out of her dull, miserable life in a small middle-of-nowhere English village, but soon comes to realize that her Fae family are controlling and distant, and that [[What the Hell, Hero?|they did abandon her for seventeen years without any explanation]] and as such have no right to barge into her life and start making demands of her. She decides to remain with her human parents, who at least love and respect her even if they don't always understand her.

 

== Fan Fiction ==

 

 

== Film ==

 

* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in the Belgian film ''Toto Le Héros'', where this is a children's fantasies returning again to him on his senile dementia against his rich neighbor.

* In [[David Lynch]]'s ''[[The Elephant Man]]'', the title character occasionally expresses a wish to find his real mother, on the hope that she could "love me as I am." What makes this so tragic is the subtle implication (which is historically true, by the way) that she clearly abandoned him for being ... [[The Grotesque|well, you know]].

* There's a scene in [[Twins]] where Vincent mocks the idea of his origins.

== Literature ==

 

** ''Tales of Innsmouth'' is a collection of stories by various authors, one of which raises the point that said fish-people will be Very Vengeful about their city being torpedoed thanks to his running to the authorities- the protagonist finds the perfectly preserved flayed skin of the original character. He is still alive as a skinless fish-man though.

* For an unusual (and very Byzantine) subversion, see Caroline Cooney's teen novel [[Janie|The Face on the Milk Carton]] and its sequels.

** It's implied that Quasi was traded for {{spoiler|Esmeralda when she was just a baby and he was about 4}} and was then taken by the church. His parents were such nice people, don't you think?

* Brutally subverted in the short story "Dragon's-Eyes," by Margaret Ronald.

* Harshly deconstructed in ''[[The Merchant Princes Series]]'' by [[Charles Stross]]. All the elements are there: Miriam Beckstein discovers she is the daughter of a powerful noble family with seemingly-magical powers from a medieval kingdom in another world, where she is engaged to marry a prince. But her family turns out to be an amoral organized-crime family that uses their magical powers for drug smuggling; the other world is by modern standards a squalid hellhole, where women have no rights; the prince is mentally retarded, and she is expected to marry him with no argument for the political advantage of her family, regardless of whether she wants to.

* In ''[[The Bad Seed]]'', Christine Penmark has always had this thought in the back of her mind that she was adopted, though unlike most examples of this trope, the idea fills her with horror. Her parents profusely deny this, and her friends assure her that this is a common childhood fantasy and no more. {{spoiler|Unfortunately for her, it turns out that she was right, and her biological mother was a psychopathic serial killer... who may have passed on her murderous nature to Christine's daughter.}}

* In ''Evil Genius'', by Catherine Jinks, Cadel Piggott (who knows he's adopted) learns that his father is Dr. Phineas Darkkon, who is, well, an [[Evil Genius]]. Subversion occurs when {{spoiler|Cadel learns that his adoptive parents are actually in the employ of Darkkon, and deliberately cold so that Cadel would bond with his real father when they meet}}. Subverted some more when {{spoiler|Thaddeus Roth, Cadel's therapist and Darkkon's right hand man, claims that HE is Cadel's real father}}.

* The [[Roger Zelazny]] novel ''Changeling'' has its plot built on this trope. No, it is not the [[Trope Namer]] (see [[Changeling Tale]]). It's a subversion because Pol (né Daniel) acknowledges that the family that raised him was nothing but supportive, and openly admits that his real father was a terrible man when he went off the deep end, especially after learning more in ''Madwand''.

* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in Sharon Creech's ''The Wanderer'': Sophie constantly thinks of her adopted family as her bioloical one, util she is finally forced to admit that she is adopted and that the sea (which she likes) killed her biological parents.

 

 

* Direct [[Inverted Trope|inversion]] in ''Rêveillerie'': Emelind is a [[Changeling Tale|literal changeling]], but she considers the universe where she was raised to be her true home.

 

== Video Games ==

** He ''can'', however, {{spoiler|Be [[Take a Third Option|persuaded to marry Anora, his half-brother's wife, as a political marriage, that way people supporting Anora ''and'' him for the Throne would be glad.]]}} Course, good luck persuading him to do that unless you [[Guide Dang It|said the right options to him]] when you met his sister.

** Potentially a dangling plot thread when you consider that {{spoiler|the father of Morrigan's baby can either be a male grey warden, meaning anyone from a city elf to a teyrn's son, Teyrn Loghain, or Alistair, who may potentially be ''king'' of Ferelden.}}

** Squall also became pretty much important on his own steam by that time, being a commander of the [[Magitek]] special combat force which is the only thing capable of saving the world.

* {{spoiler|Elisha}} of ''[[Gloria Union]]''. {{spoiler|Her real parents are Gariored and Enryetta, both of whom have great political and physical power. How exactly Zazarland came to raise her is unexplained.}}

 

* The protagonist wishing for this is what drives the entire plot of ''[[Coraline]]''.

** Well... more just an [[The Evil Prince|evil older brother.]] In the comics, we see a vision of Elyon's birth parents, who seem to have been good people before dying.

* ''[[Rugrats]]'', "Princess Angelica": Angelica convinces herself she's really a princess, and when the "Home Office King" comes to fix her mother's fax machine, stows away in his truck.

* ''The Adventures Of [[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' had Tails adopted by a loving fox family who later turned out to be robots created by Dr. Robotnik to capture him. Sonic, of course, is completely unaware of the ruse, and spends most of the episode debating whether or not letting Tails go was the right thing to do.

* ''[[Futurama]]'': Leela, who only has one eye, believes she's an orphaned or abandoned alien, and dreams of meeting her species; later in the series, she discovers that her parents are mutants. Since mutants are [[Fantastic Racism|second-class citizens relegated to the sewers]], her parents figured their relatively normal-looking daughter would live a better life if everyone believed she was an alien.

* Happens to Bloom, the protagonist of ''[[Winx Club]]:'' First she learns [[Changeling Tale|that she's a fairy]], and then is revealed that her parents aren't her real parents, and that she's a princess of another world. It's partially averted, since Mike and Vanessa (Bloom's foster parents) are very loving, caring and supportive.

* [[The Replacements]]: While Dick Daring and Agent K are not related to Todd and Riley by blood, they're a hell of a lot better than the orphanage they were living in before.

* [[Metalocalypse|Skwisgaar Skwigelf]] convinces himself he's a god (or half-god; being very into Viking mythology to the point of swearing on the names of Odin, it may not make much difference) because he doesn't know who his mortal father is, and because his mother's neglect and promiscuity was what drove him into the snow, only to discover and subsequently learn to play the guitar he found in a cave. This may or may not be true; there's a theory [[Epileptic Trees|amongst the fans]] that Dimneld Selftcark, Toki's guitar teacher, was Skwisgaar's biological father.

 

{{reflist}}