Give Him a Normal Life: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

But it doesn't take long before there are problems. Having a child may have changed the hero, but it hasn't changed his life any. He still has to go out and save the world, fighting criminals or slaying monsters wherever they may roam. This kind of thing really cuts into spending quality time with the kid he wanted so much a few episodes ago, and can make him question how selfish he might be being.

Well, the hero loves his precious offspring more than anything else in the world, and couldn't bear it if anything happened to the kid, or if the kid had to live with all the stuff the hero has to every day.

 

 

Being just that noble, the hero will then give his child up, to live in blissful normalcy with ordinary parents that will presumably provide the child with a life that doesn't have any supervillains.

If the other parent enforces it, it's [[Turn Out Like His Father]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* Hinako Aikawa, the lead female from ''[[Bitter Virgin]]'', was sexually abused by her stepfather and got pregnant twice. She had a miscarriage and lost her first baby, then when she gave birth to the second one, she preferred to give the baby boy up for adoption, so the kid would have a chance for a normal life.

* It's strongly hinted that [[Bleach|Ryuuken Ishida and his son Uryu]] are distanced because father didn't want son becoming a Quincy and facing the dangers of such a life. It may also be a reason why Ryuuken hardly ever uses his abilities in front of his son.

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Luffy's [[Disappeared Dad]] was unknown to him until [[Luke, I Am Your Father|revealed to him by his grandfather]]. That's probably because his father is {{spoiler|Dragon the Revolutionary, the most dangerous criminal in the world. It's strongly hinted that Dragon left Luffy to give him a semblance of a normal life as he'd no doubt be targeted by the [[The Government|World Government]] if his relation to Dragon had been known. Dragon is even seen in a flashback sharply cutting off a subordinate who guesses about the location of his family.}} When that relation is ultimately revealed, Luffy has already become a world-famous pirate and his father remarks simply that he's not a child anymore.

* In the beginning of the final arc of the ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' anime series, ''Sailor Stars'', Setsuna (Sailor Pluto) takes baby Hotaru (Sailor Saturn) away from her father to live with her, as well as Haruka (Sailor Uranus) and Michiru (Sailor Neptune), who are concerned at the amount of knowledge that Hotaru takes in. Michiru laments that she wanted Hotaru to grow up like a normal girl.

** OTOH, in the manga Professer Tomoe is killed by Sailor Moon and they raise her through the end of the 3rd arc until the end of the 4th, as a more or less normal girl. She gets her powers back at this point.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'': Turns out that this is part of the reason that Negi ended up living with his cousin. As a war hero, his father made enemies that still hold a grudge on him for foiling their plans. {{spoiler|And when your mother gets wrongfully accused for starting a war, then escapes her execution by faking her death, it's probably best for you that you don't hang around her. Or live in [[Magic World|her home world]].}} Just look at [[Doomed Hometown|his hometown]] [[Ancient Conspiracy|when they]] [[The Call Knows Where You Live|found where he lives]]...

** Also what Ala Rubra did with {{spoiler|Asuna, by erasing her memories and taking her to Mahora Academy so she'd live a normal school life, watched over by Headmaster Konoe and Takahata-sensei, who also sorta got to live a normal life after being one of the two kids from Ala Rubra.}}

* Fate of [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] initially opposed her adopted children Erio and Caro joining the [[Space Police|Time-Space Administration Bureau]] despite their abilities (Caro can [[The Beast Master|summon dragons]], and Erio made it to B rank at the age of 10), and notes to herself that she had hoped they would take a more peaceful path in life. Over time, she becomes more at ease about allowing them to serve.

* In [[Code Geass]] [[Nightmare of Nunnally]], Marianne expresses the desire that Lelouch and Nunnally can live as humans. {{spoiler|Of course, this was before she was gunned down, forced to go into her assassin's body, and had her worldview changed to the point where she needed her children's geass, "The Zero," to open Heaven's Door and achieve her [[Assimilation Plot]]}}.

 

== Comic Books ==

* This is most of the reason why Catwoman/Selina Kyle gave up her daughter Helena for adoption.

** Cynical readers believe the writers got rid of Helena upon realizing that a baby would be inconvenient for a [[Chaotic Neutral]] thief, and that Selina would have most likely gotten an abortion in the first place.

* An inversion occurs in ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' where Reed and Sue Richards do not want to give their children up to Child Protective Services. They realize how dangerous their lives are, but they also believe they are the only ones capable of protecting the children. They make a deal with the CPS agent to announce on TV that they had given up the children, but the safehouse location was secret. In less than a few hours, the undisclosed safehouse was destroyed by rockets; the children had never been moved and were allowed to stay with their parents.

** Oh, and it turns out {{spoiler|''Reed'' fired the rockets}}.

** This is also kind of the reason Usagi {{spoiler|doesn't tell Jotaro he's his father, since he doesn't want to disturb Jotaro's relationship with his father, who's also [[The Rival]] of Usagi.}}

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Wanted]]'', this is the reason that Wesley's father left the family when Wes was a week old. He was trying to save the kid from growing up to be a [[Crazy Awesome]] assassin. Unfortunately for him, Wesley later [[Jumped At the Call]].

 

== Literature ==

* Subversion: Parent ''figure'' Dumbledore leaves infant [[Harry Potter|Harry]] to the Muggle world so that he has a chance of growing up relatively normal and level-headed. {{spoiler|We later learn another part of the reason Dumbledore had Harry live with the Dursleys was so that he could be protected until his 17th birthday from Voldemort by the charm Lily had unintentionally put on him when she died protecting him. The only way this charm could work was if he called the place when Petunia (Lily's only living blood relative) lived home. This is also the reason that Harry is not allowed to spend entire summer breaks with the Weasleys and must go home each summer.}} It's a miracle it works, as the foster parents he had could have made him a new Voldemort. He does acknowledge his error at the end of Book 5, though.

* [[Dresden Files|The other wizard Harry]] gives up his daughter so that she can have a normal life - or a life at all - in ''Changes''.

* In the book Ruby Red, Gwen's mother lies about her birth date so that no-one will suspect that she inherited the family time-traveling gene; she hopes that Gwen won't inherit it after all and can live as a normal kid. For sixteen years, Gwen's cousin Charlotte (who has the same birthday) is believed to be the heir of the gene, and she was groomed to survive in the past. [[Puberty Superpower|But then Gwen starts time-traveling.]]

 

* In the third and final season of ''[[Roswell]]'', Max gives his son, Zan, up for adoption to protect the boy from the life of secrecy and persecution Max has had to live with for the entire series.

* This pretty much sums up why Papa Bartowski left his children on ''[[Chuck]]'' - another rare case of this trope happening when the children in question weren't infants.

* Occurs in an unusual way on [[Lost]]: {{spoiler|Claire disappears into the jungle on her way to the beach camp, leaving baby Aaron behind; Kate then takes Aaron with her to the real world and poses as his mother, presumably justifying this to herself by the fact that she's giving Aaron a normal life off the island}}.

* In the second ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]'' movie, the heroes work with a police investigator who's trying to live up to the image of his father, a great cop who was killed in the line of duty. At the end of the movie, as a "thank you" for his help, the team takes him back to 1986 so he can see his father at least once. At one point the father's partner asks if he wants his son to become a cop too, to which he responds, "No, I don't want him having to do this for a living."

 

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Fallout 3]]'' has the main character's Father, a scientist who wants you to stay in the Vault, while he goes out and about in the Capital Wasteland.

** It backfires. Horribly.

*** {{spoiler|It's James' fault. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice way to give me a normal life, Dad.]] Asshole.}}

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', Miranda Lawson is the genetically-engineered offpring of a powerful business tycoon who wanted her to be his "heir." To do this, he was ''extremely'' obsessively controlling of her life, to the point that when she decided that she wanted to live her ''own'' life, the resulting argument turned into a running gun battle. As a result, when Miranda learned of her {{spoiler|genetic twin sister}}, she swore to herself that {{spoiler|her twin sister would live a normal life without their father controlling her}}. Completing this mission forms the basis of Miranda's personal mission in the game.

* John Marston in [[Red Dead Redemption]] wanted his family to have a normal life, particularly his son Jack who wanted to be like his Father. Thus, he {{spoiler|gives himself up to be shot to death by Edgar Ross and his army, giving Edgar no more reason to go after his family}}. However, this would only backfire and make Jack follow in his father's footsteps.

 

== Web Comics ==

* In [[WTF Comics]], {{spoiler|Straha left his daughter, Katis, with her mother so she would never have to deal with being an Ironscale. Katis did,however, eventually display Ironscale abilities when her father (who she had previously believed to be her uncle) was wounded}}.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Happens in [[Futurama]]. For a few seasons, Leela, who grew up in an orphanage with no knowledge of her origins, always believed herself to be an alien. It turns out that her parents {{spoiler|are really mutants. On the Futurama Earth, mutants are forced to live in the sewers. When Leela was born, her parents realized that she was the least mutated mutant ever born. They left her on the doorstep of an orphanage with a note written in an alien-language, with the reasoning that she could have a normal life if her origins were unknown}}.

 

{{reflist}}