Family Relationship Switcheroo: Difference between revisions

Many secrets are kept both in [[Real Life]] and fictionland. One very popular trope is orphans, especially ones which turn out not to be orphans; the most famous example of this is the [[Luke, I Am Your Father]] situation wherein a thought-to-be unrelated character (often a villain, usually the [[Big Bad]] or [[The Dragon]]) turns out to be [[The Hero]]'s parent. But sometimes these parents are hidden closer to home, sometimes, for some reason or other they pose as a different relative -- auntrelative—aunt, uncle, etc. and play a part in bringing up the child.

See also: [[Luke, I Am Your Father]], [[Luke, You Are My Father]], and [[Stigmatic Pregnancy Euphemism]]. Compare [[Cain and Abel Andand Seth]].

* In ''[[Air Gear (Manga)|Air Gear]]'' {{spoiler|Akito is Kaito's son, not his brother.}}

* In ''[[CookiesCookie's Fortune]]'', Emma ([[Liv Tyler]]) finds out her mother is not Cora ([[Julianne Moore]]), but her "aunt" Camille (Glenn Close).

* The ''[[Codex Alera]]'' has {{spoiler|Tavi's "aunt", Isana,}} who hides their real relationship from everyone (including her son). She had a damn good reason to do so, though, given that {{spoiler|the boy's father is the presently deceased heir to the realm, meaning that [[Secret Legacy|he's now the sole legitimate heir to the throne]]. Since Septimus was assassinated, she felt that the only way to protect Octavian was via obscurity; as part of this she suppressed his growth to make it appear that he was born too late to be Septimus' offspring. Unfortunately, this accidentally suppressed his [[Person of Mass Destruction]]-level [[Elemental Powers]] as well, leaving him as [[The Call Put Me Onon Hold|the only person in the country with absolutely no powers]].}}

* In the [[Maeve Binchy]] book ''Evening Class'', a character is stunned to realize that her older sister is actually her mother. Ironically, she is told this by someone who was completely unaware of the secret--shesecret—she merely saw the two together and assumed. When the girl confronts her "sister" and asks her point blank if she's her mother, the woman's silence is of course, her answer. Between the Irish/Catholic setting of Binchy's books and the time period the book is set during, this trope is unsurprising.

* Inverted in the ''Wildflowers'' series by [[VCV. C. Andrews]]. {{spoiler|Cat is raised as her sister Geraldine's daughter. She is initially led to believe that she is Geraldine's biological daughter, then her adoptive daughter. It turns out neither is true - Geraldine's mother gave birth to Cat, and they are half-sisters.}}

* Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf of the ''[[Warrior Cats (Literature)|Warrior Cats]]'' series are raised as Squirrelfight's and Brambleclaw's kits. However, {{spoiler|Leafpool, the sister of Squirrelflight and Jayfeather's mentor}} is their real mother. When this is [[The Reveal|revealed]] to the three, Hollyleaf doesn't take it well.

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' two-parter "[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S1 E9S27/E09 The Empty Child|The Empty Child]]"/"[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S1 S27/E10 The Doctor Dances|The Doctor Dances]]" is the former [[Trope Namer]]. It involved a young woman who was haunted by a little boy zombified-by-{{spoiler|nanotech}}, who {{spoiler|turned out to be her son. He was only healed of his zombification after Nancy admitted to him that she was his mother, and the nanogenes recognized the literal 'mother genes' and heal him and everyone else based on their new knowledge.}} Prior to this he'd been walking around spreading [[The Virus]] and calling out "Are You My Mummy?" (and being [[Creepy Child|pretty damned creepy]] while doing so), hence the (former) trope name.

{{quote| '''Zoe Slater:''' You can't tell me what to do, [[You're Not My Father|you ain't my muvver!]]<br />

* Happened in an episode of ''[[Millennium (TV series)|Millennium]]''.

* Oddly enough, [[Played for Laughs]] - sort of - in ''[[30 Rock (TV)|Thirty Rock]]'''s Valentine's Day episode, as the capstone to the worst first date ever.

* On ''[[Veronica Mars]]'', Jackie's 'younger brother' is revealed to be her son--ason—a fact he is not aware of, as he calls his grandmother 'mom'.

* Original ''[[Law and& Order (TV)|Law and Order]]'' had it in the episode "Merger" in 1999, where {{spoiler|the teenaged murder victim was the daughter of the wealthy family's older child, and not a sister}}

* In ''[[Neighbours]]'', Lyn Scully discovered that her Aunt Valda was actually her mother, who had gotten pregnant with her at a young age and been forced by her family to give baby Lyn to her older, married sister.

* ''[[Godivas (TV)|GodivasGodiva's]]'': A secondary character named Chantal shows up to stay with Simone, her estranged older sister. Turns out Simone is actually her mother. (Coincidentally, Simone "deflowers" a young busboy named TJ in a much earlier episode -- theepisode—the same TJ that Chantal now starts dating.)

* On ''[[One Life to Live]]'', Destiny Evans was raised by her paternal grandparents, but believed they were her parents. She later learned that her real father was her "older brother" Greg, who accidentally killed her mother Charlene, the girlfriend of his brother Shaun, and then gave Destiny to his parents to raise.

* In ''[[Drow TalesDrowtales]]'', it turns out that {{spoiler|Ariel}} is not really {{spoiler|Quain'tana's}} daughter, but is actually {{spoiler|Mel'arnach's}}, who she's been raised to think of as a sister. And just to further complicate matters, {{spoiler|Ariel's father is Zhor, a dark elf who was transformed into a frickin' ''giant spider''}}.

* ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'': {{spoiler|Dave's brother is actually his ectobiological father. Jade's grandfather is actually her ectobiological father. Inverted with John: his [[Posthumous Character|long-dead grandmother]] is his ectobiological mother and his father is actually his half-brother.}}

* In ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130719023505/http://www.drunkduck.com/Dragon_City/ Dragon City]'', {{spoiler|Beatrix's case is a little different. She and her "older sister" Erin traveled back in time to when Beatrix's egg was laid. It was at this point that Erin lays Beatrix's egg, though she ends up getting raised by their mother of that time period (who mistook it for one of her own eggs).}}

* One episode of ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' has Bart (pretending to be older) date a fourteen-year-old girl who turns out to be pregnant. After being assured he ''can't'' be the father ("Wow, you ''are'' only ten") [[Honorable Marriage Proposal|he agrees to marry her anyway]] to hide the truth. When the girl's parents find out the mother announces that ''she's'' pregnant too, and the family ([[Stepford Smiler|with sort of creepy cheerfulness]]) agree to pretend the mom has twins.

* [[Jack Nicholson]]'s "older sister" was really his mother while the woman who was allegedly his mom was actually his grandmother. His real mother did it because she had sex with a man [both were unmarried] who ended up leaving her and she didn't want anyone to know that she was an unwed mother (both Nicholson's grandmother and mom died before he found out this family secret). In a height of coincidence, he learned this just as ''[[Chinatown]]'' -- in—in which he starred -- wasstarred—was about to open in theaters. According to Mr Nicholson himself, "She never realized the irony of calling me a son of a bitch."

* [[wikipedia:Kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard|Jaycee Lee Dugard's]] two daughters,(ages 15 and 11) by her rapist and kidnapper Phillip Garrido believed their whole lives that Jaycee was their older sister and that Garrido's wife was their mother. They had to find out the horrible truth after the police finally caught and arrested Garrido.