Luke, I Am Your Father

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If this image spoiled anything, where have you been for the last thirty years?

If this image spoiled anything, where have you been for the last thirty years?

Darth Vader: Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father. Luke Skywalker: He told me enough! He told me you killed him! Darth Vader: No. I am your father. —Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (full quote here)

A specific variety of The Reveal.

A parent-child relationship between two characters who were previously thought unrelated is revealed, usually with generous dollops of melodrama -- blood is, after all, Thicker Than Water. Beloved of soap operas, made famous by the Star Wars films (from which the trope takes its name, though as you can see, it isn't an exact quote). Whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing for whoever is being given the reveal mainly depends on who is giving the reveal in question. Sometimes an ally, a Mentor or a non-romantic Mysterious Protector will turn out to be the parent of the person being given the reveal, but other times, the reveal of who a character's parent is will be cause for serious anguish, such as someone who just gave his or her life for him, someone who could have been a Love Interest, or worst of all, a villain working for the Big Bad or even the Big Bad himself, as in the most infamous Star Wars example.

In cases when villain and hero turn out to be parent and child, count on at least one scene where the hero worries that he or she will eventually end up like the parent.

Sometimes it's a bogus revelation, and at the end of the episode or plotline the Reset Button is pressed to restore the previous relationship -- or lack of one.

Though the trope itself is too fundamental to become Discredited, any use of the actual line nowadays will be met with a groan and a "Not again!" from the audience. Also a popular insane fan theory.

Compare with Mysterious Parent, or Family Relationship Switcheroo where the characters were thought to be related, but are not parent and child. Frequently, it's a father-son relationship revealed this way.

This trope was already being mocked back in 1790 by Jane Austen in Love and Friendship (with four grandfather-grandchildren relationships revealed in under a page).

Compare Long Lost Relative, Luke You Are My Father, Luke I Might Be Your Father, Everyone Is Related. Contrast with I Am Not Your Father.

Spoilers incoming, in case you haven't figured it out yet.

Examples

Anime & Manga

• In Aquarion Evol: Nice Guy and The Hero, Amata Sora, barely even knew his mother, believing her to have abandoned him at a young age due to his levitation powers. Then it turns out that she never abandoned him and is with the Altairians, but also that his father is in fact the LEADER OF THE ALTAIRIANS!!! How's that for Beyond the Impossible?
• In Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 2, it is revealed that Ripple master Lisa Lisa is actually Joseph Joestar's mother.
• In Twentieth Century Boys Friend tells Kenji that he is Kanna's father. Kanna learns this after the first major timeskip.
• The third episode of Death Note: Light's father is the one leading the police effort to catch the mysterious murderer -- actually Light.
• In the Mazinger trilogy it was played straight, subverted and inverted:
  • Mazinger Z: "Kouji, Shiro, I am your mother. Subverted because in reality she was a cyborg, pretending being their real -and very deceased- mother.
  • Great Mazinger: Shiro learnt that Dr. Kenzo Kabuto is, in fact, his not-quite-dead father. Kouji learnt it later due to he not being in Japan in that time.
  • UFO Robo Grendizer: It was inverted and played straight. Maria told Duke she was daughter of the King and Queen of Fleed, not knowing he was their son, and therefore, her brother. The moment they played this trope straight with each other and hugged at each other was definitely a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: Nadia learns that Captain Nemo is actually her long-lost father when he goes down with the damaged Nautilus at the beginning of the "castaway" arc of the series.
• A recent chapter of the One Piece manga reveals that Luffy's grandfather is Vice-Admiral Garp, a legendary Marine, and his father is Dragon, the mysterious revolutionary who saved Luffy at Loguetown.
  • Chapter 550 reveals that Ace's father is Gold Roger. He was aware of this before it was publicly announced to the world, although the audience wasn't, and he's pretty emphatic that he considers Whitebeard his true father.
• In Kaze to Ki no Uta, Auguste reveals to Gilbert that he is his father (not his uncle) to bring him back under his control. It doesn't go as well as he expected...
• Misaki's relationship to Shuuko/Shuu/the Champion in Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer. The anime lets the viewer in on Shuuko's secret long before Misaki knows, but in the manga, we only learn when she does.
• A rather unlikely example in Mahou Sensei Negima, where one of 10-year-old Negi Springfield's 15-year-old students claims to be his descendant. She's from a hundred years in the future -- and can prove it -- so it's not as crazy as it sounds...
  • The Lifemaker is Negi's and Asuna's ancestor. He also calls Evangeline "my daughter", although it was not explained yet. Also in Negi's case, as The Lifemaker has possessed Nagi's body.
• Used in the Monster Rancher anime (Monster Farm in Japan), in which Holly learns that the main bad guy is her father (with the villain using the Darth Vader's dialogue from The Empire Strikes Back). It takes the trope further by having Holly screaming "NOOOOO!" afterwards .
• In Chapter 367 of Naruto, the most prevalent fan theory of the fandom is confirmed: Naruto is indeed the son of the Fourth Hokage. This is the third of three major clarified mysteries that were revealed within a span of less than five chapters. A while earlier this was a lesser one: Asuma Sarutobi is the Third Hokage's son but they had the same name and similar looks, so it was kinda obvious, just not said before then.
  • Aaaaand another for Naruto: his mother Kushina was the previous host for the Kyuubi.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion does this three times. Eva 1 contains the soul of Shinji's mother. Eva 02 contains the soul (well half) of Asuka's mother. Rei is occasionally compared to Shinji's mother (it is implied that she might be a clone of her).
  • And Lilith is the mother of all humanity.
  • All in all, in Eva, "Your Mom" jokes are done at your own peril.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Abriged Series plays with this in an interesting way:

01: Shinji, Gendo never told you what happened to your mother. Shinji: He told me enough... He told me you killed her. 01: No Shinji. I AM YOUR MOTHER. Shinji: Ehhh saw it coming.

• • Kaworu pulls this off in Rebuild 2.0

(Gendo and Fuyutsuki spot Kaworu sitting shirtless in hard vacuum) Fuyutsuki: A human? Impossible... Kaworu: Pleased to meet you, father.

• • • An odd line, considering that Kaworu is likely much older then Gendo Ikari. This version of Kaworu might even be older the actual Universe they're in....
• Tenchi Muyo! is full of these. Piece by piece we learn that Katsuhito is Ayeka's and Sasami's half-brother, which means they're both Tenchi's great aunts; then that Washu is Ryoko's mother; and eventually that the woman we thought was Tenchi's mother is actually his sister and that Washu is also Mihoshi's great great grandmother. Then in the second movie, Daughter of Darkness, Mayuka turns up on the doorstep claiming that Tenchi is her father, which is awkward because they're both in their teens; but Washu does a DNA analysis, and yep, she's right. There's the moment in the first movie when Tenchi tells Achika and Nobuyuki that they're his parents, even though they're all about the same age, but that doesn't really count.
• It's nice to see a good old-fashioned subversion, and Rave Master brings us one: there are two characters named Gale, one the antagonist (and head of the evil organization), one a good guy (who we've never seen before). Angst-tastic as it would be, the hero assumes his father is the former. Nope. It's the latter. They also play it straight with the two Musicas.
• A variation exists in the third season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. After a successful raid on an illegal research facility, Quint adopts a pair of experimental Combat Cyborgs because they looked so much like her and raises them as her own daughters. It's later revealed during a medical examination that the reason why Subaru and Ginga looked like her was because their genetic structures were identical. Somehow, Quint's genetic data had been acquired by the researchers and was used to create the two children.
• In the manga version of Rurouni Kenshin, Enishi, a crazed White Haired Pretty Boy who wants revenge on Kenshin is his brother in law (obviously Kenshin knew when he first met him). The old guy who befriends Kenshin is Kenshin's father in law who accepted that Kenshin killed his daughter accidentally. Naturally, Enishi ends up with the old guy and both remark that they remember seeing each other.
• Subverted in Saint Seiya. Along the series, there had been a lot of hints that Marin was Seiya's long-lost sister Seika. She wasn't, his sister was actually a Waif Prophet, and Marin's brother Touma even appears as an enemy in the Tenkai-hen movie.
  • And played quite straight in the manga where, it was revealed that Mitsumasa Kido was actually the birth father of all the orphans he sent around the world to be trained as Saints.
• Digimon Frontier, with Koji learning he has a twin brother he was Separated At Birth from: Koichi, the Face Heel Turned Sixth Ranger with the Spirits of Darkness. Digimon Savers also has Keenan Crier finding out he is one of the "humons" he despises so much, but it's painfully obvious that he was human from the start.
  • Also from Savers: Initially, it looks like Masaru's Disappeared Dad is Yggdrasil, the "world tree," central computer and god of the Digital World. But BanchouLeomon reveals that he is Masaru's father. Yggdrasil was about to kill Suguru, but BanchouLeomon absorbed his soul. Unfortunately, Yggdrasil (being a god and all...) realized it, and has been using Suguru's body for its own ends.
• Parodied in a later episode of Magical Project S. Romio claims that she's the older sister of Sasami, citing the fact that they share blue hair and the lack of resemblance between Sasami and her parents as the logical reasoning. Just as Sammy was going to run up for a "family reunion", Misa stops her and makes her realize it was a lie, which Romio confirms.
  • Romio's character design is base on Ayeka who actually is Sasami's sister in the Tenchi Continuity.
• 'Sonic X. It is strongly suggested (said outright in the dub) that Dark Oak is Cosmo's father. However, while the characters do learn that the two are of the same species, Cosmo never directly learns of her heritage.
• In Princess Tutu, Rue's father is revealed to be the Raven in the second season. That's not so surprising considering she's the Dark Magical Girl...but it's later revealed that he actually kidnapped her as a child, and she's just a normal human girl after all. It's also later revealed that Drosselmeyer is Fakir's great-great-grandfather, and Fakir inherited his powers.
• The very last volume of the Chrono Crusade manga reveals that Chrono and Aion are twins, and their mother was a human woman turned into Pandaemonium when she was pregnant with them. Also, Satella discovers that her long-lost sister is Fiore.
• In Gravion Zwei, it's eventually revealed that Sandman is Leele's father, as well as the brother of the Zeravire's creator/leader, and that Raven is Eiji's missing sister Ayaka.
• In Rah Xephon... er, this is going to take a while: Ayato's real mother isn't Maya, but Itsuki's adopted sister Quon. Quon is also Maya's twin sister and Itsuki's mother, making Itsuki Ayato's brother. Shirow Watari is their father. Haruka Shitow's uncle, Shougo Rikudoh, was the adoptive father of Maya and Quon. And Haruka? Before her mother remarried, her family name was Mishima - making her the same long lost "object of desire"/childhood sweetheart that Ixtli/Ishtori took her appearance from. Or, for those that don't like to read: everyone is related to everyone ever.
• Altair and Vega in GEAR Fighter Dendoh are brother and sister, both of whom had presumed each other dead for years (wearing those damn masks all the time probably only added to the confusion). Then there's Vega's true identity as Hokuto's mom.
• Glass Fleet had a pair of sibling enemies learn at the same time that they were related. Vetti and Cleo were none-too-pleased to say the least.
• Silver and Giovanni from Pokémon Special. It is hinted that Silver's game counterpart is also related to Giovanni.
  • Confirmed in a sidequest event, from HeartGold and SoulSilver. Silver knows who his dad is though, since he's arguing with him.
• Science Ninja Team Gatchaman has Ken and the leader of Red Impulse. Just seconds before the latter's Heroic Sacrifice, in fact.
• Tragedically done in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Cardeas Vist with his dying breath revealed to protagonist Banagher Links that he was his real father and entrusted him with the Unicorn Gundam.
• Dai no Daibouken has the reveal that Baran, one of the six evil generals, is actually Dai's father. And because that's what evil dads do, he wants Dai to help him rid the world of humanity.
• Legend of Lemnear Manga has some examples well 2: Buan turns out to be lian's father and near the finale Lord Varol turns out to be the real father of Lemnear, who turns out to have wanted Lemnear to defeat him for the greater good after the evil has corrupted him; also near the finale Ragna turns out to be Varol's twin brother, which makes him Lemnear's uncle
• Rihoko from the Witchblade anime, with both parents.
• Halfway throughout Shaman King, Mikihisa, Yoh's father, reveals to Yoh himself and his friends that Hao, the Big Bad, is actually Yoh's twin brother, much to their huge surprise.
• Done twice in Supercar Gattiger: Emperor Black Demon is the grandfather of Joe Kabuki, while Queen Demon is Joe's mother.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, it is revealed that Father is a clone of Ed and Al's dad, and the homunculi are Ed And Al's siblings, as they are Father's "children."
  • A similar thing happened in the 2003 anime version. Envy is revealed near the end to be the Elric siblings' half-brother, being that he was the son of their father and Dante.
• Tiger and Bunny reveals that Yuri Petrov/Lunatic is Mr. Legend's son. This in of itself isn't too startling a revelation until it's combined with a previous revelation of Yuri's history: Yuri's first kill was his own abusive father.

Comics

• Eighteen years after their creation, it was revealed that Avengers Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were actually the children of their former leader, long-time X-Men antagonist Magneto. Their feelings over this revelation were mixed, to put it mildly.
  • Polaris, of the X-Men, was revealed early on to be Magneto's daughter, too. But then that was revealed to actually be a plot by the villain Mesmero, who was using a Magneto robot to make that claim. Then later it was again revealed that she is his daughter... then once again not. Currently, she is once again revealed to be Magneto's daughter... ugh.
• A Legion of Super-Heroes mini-series in the '80s started with the premise that R. J. Brande, the team's billionaire sponsor, was dying, and in order to save him, the Legionnaires had to figure out which one of them was secretly his child -- an idea that had never been even hinted at before. It finally turned out to be Durlan shapeshifter Chameleon Boy; Brande was revealed to also be a Durlan who'd contracted a disease that froze him into human form.
• Chris, Superman's adopted son, was found in a rocket similar to his. It was revealed during an invasion that the rocket was sent from the Phantom Zone, and he was the son of Zod and Ursa.
• Mr. Sinister pulls a particularly unpleasant Luke I Am Your Father on Gambit in X-Men: The End when he reveals that Gambit is a clone created from Sinister's original DNA mixed with that of Scott Summers.
  • Gladly, this probably isn't canon, the Summers have a messed up history as it is.
• In Booster Gold One Million it is revealed to the audience -- but not to any of the other characters -- that Booster's mentor Rip Hunter is actually Booster's son.
• The plot of Batman R.I.P. essentially involves multiple Mind Rapes piled on top of each other to see how many it takes to make Batman crack. The biggie? Enigmatic villain Simon Hurt claims that he is actually Thomas Wayne, and that he faked his own death after hiring Joe Chill to kill his faithless whore of a wife. The truth of his story hasn't been determined, but Bruce decides to reject it at the end of the arc.
  • There are strong hints in Batman R.I.P. that Hurt is actually a part of Bruce Wayne's psyche come to flesh. Which would mean that the proper phrase here is, "Luke, I am your subconscious!"
    • But if you paid enough attention to the first few pages of the chapter Midnight in the House of Hurt, Dr. Hurt made arrangements for a false suicide note, doctored documents and phony witnesses for a recent victim that was killed by one of his associates. Apparently, it's not enough for the doctor to ruin and leave you as a empty, broken shell of a man after one of his twisted games in the Black Glove; when you're killed, he makes damn sure you'll be remembered as a chronic junkie, a horrible pedophile or worse. His claims that he's Batman's father and his family's "dark history" is a last attempt to screw Bats over and coerce him to join the Black Glove as his Evil Plan was crashing down like a house of cards.
    • Ultimately, it turns out Hurt is a centuries-old member of the Wayne family, who harbored a serious grudge against Thomas and Martha.
• Preacher: Mom?
• In Umbrella Academy: Dallas #6, it's revealed that 00.01 and 00.05 are biological siblings (they were adopted siblings before this point).
• Rose Walker's grandfather in Sandman is Desire, who impregnated the comatose Unity Kinkaid during Dream's imprisonment.
• A pivotal turning point in the original Spider-Man 2099 run featured Miguel O'Hara (Spider-Man) discovering that the main antagonist of the series and head of the megacorp Alchemax, Tyler Stone, was in fact his father. This derailed the current plotline for quite a few issues as Miguel wrestled with his hatred of the man. The trope was lampshaded near the end of the title's run, when Tyler attempted to shock Miguel into following his orders by dropping the bombshell of his parentage, only to have Miguel, who by this point had come to terms with the fact, casually sip his coffee and then smugly and calmly reveal that he knows.

Tyler Stone: And you will do it... because I'm your father. Miguel O'Hara: (sips coffee) Yeah, I know. Tyler Stone: You... you know? Miguel O'Hara: Yeah. Now get out of my office... dad.

• Tossed in a blender with Luke You Are My Father (but not really) in Usagi Yojimbo: Usagi discovered that his old flame Mariko's son Jotaro is actually his son, and Mariko's husband (Usagi's very unfriendly rival) also knows but loves Jotaro anyway. Usagi and Jotaro's sword master guessed almost immediately (they're very much alike), and gives them the opportunity to travel together for several months; after talking with Tomoe about responsibilities and relationships, Usagi decides not to break the bond between Jotaro and his family, while Jotaro decides not to force Usagi to give up his wanderer lifestyle to take care of him. It turns out Mariko told Jotaro the truth, but left out the part about Usagi knowing too. Upset at his "weakness" and the fact that he doesn't know when or if he'll ever see his "uncle" again, Jotaro calls out "Miyamoto Usagi! You are my father!!" but Usagi is already too far away to hear ("Just a trick of the wind, I must be tying my ears too tight"). TL;DR: Father A and Son B know they're related, but they don't know the other knows the truth (C,D,E, and F know the truth too but they aren't talking, mainly out of respect).
• In Green Lantern Corps #35, Sinestro tells Soranik Natu that she is his daughter. He left her in the care of her foster family to keep her away from the dangers of being associated with him; making this one of the only semi-decent things he's ever done in his life. Since it's Sinestro, he could be lying.
  • The last page of Green Lantern #36 makes it pretty clear that he's telling the truth.
• Watchmen has a particularly twisted example of this. Laurie, the second Silk Spectre, discovers that the recently-deceased Comedian tried to rape her mother, the first Silk Spectre. Then Laurie finds out that after the near-rape, her mother had consensual sex with him anyway, and that the Comedian is in fact her father.
• Parodied brilliantly in FoxTrot. Jason is wearing his Darth Vader helmet to see Episode III, but gets stuck in his helmet. His father helps him get free, commenting that he had that problem with his Vader helmet when he was Jason's age.

Jason: Wait, you're saying that you were a Star Wars fan long before I was? Dad: Search your feelings, you know this to be true. Jason: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

• In Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood, Huntress gets an old photo of her deceased mother, Maria Bertinelli, in flagrante delicto with mob boss (and rival to mob boss Franco Bertinelli, Maria's husband) Santo Cassamento, and demands to know what they were doing in that hotel room together. His answer: "Isn't it obvious? We were conceiving you, Helena Rosa." That doesn't stop Huntress from ultimately killing him.
• Parodied in Mafalda. Remember, the protagonists are all little children.

Susanita: Felipe, did you get me something for Mother's Day? Felipe: Why should I get you something for Mother's Day? Susanita: Well, I don't know how to say this... You have to get me something for Mother's Day because... (cue melodrama) I AM YOUR MOTHER! Susanita: (disheveled and bruised) I don't understand, it works in the soaps!

• The original Gen 13 had more of a "Luke You Are His Father", with Burnout and team mentor Lynch simultaneously learning that the former is the latter's long lost son.
• Lampshaded in Peter David's Supergirl #57:

Buzz: Dominique... I am your father... Oh, I'm certain that didn't sound too "Darth Vader".

• In nine issues, Brightest Day has already had three separate revelations about familial bonds between heroes and villains.
• Hiro-Kala knew that he was the son of The Hulk. He didn't know that Bruce Banner was the Hulk. So when they first met, the following exchange happened:

Hiro-Kala: Who are you? Banner: Your...your father. Hiro-Kala: Hmp. I don't think so. Banner: Yeah, I'm not too happy about it either.

• In the Sonic The Hedgehog comics, Knuckles' girlfriend Julie-Su discovers that she's the half-sister of Dark Legion leaders Kragok and Lien-Da, which also makes her a descendent of Knuckles' ancestor Dimitri (making her and Knuckles very distant cousins). And sometime later, it's revealed that Remington is Kragok's son.
  • In a dark alternate universe, 30 years in the future, Lara-Su was raised to believe her father Knuckles had been killed by Constable Remington. However, after she goes back in time (and travels to the wrong dimension too), her mother Julie-Su finally tells her that, in fact, Knuckles wasn't killed by Remington, but went insane with Chaos Powers and became the dreaded leader of the Dark Legion and by extension tyrant of the entire planet, Enerjak.
• Pre-Flashpoint, Wonder Woman discovered that one of the Hechatonkaires was her "father": the clay that was used to create her came from his imprisoned body.

Fan Works

• A hand-full of Harry Potter fics. A lot of Snape fans enjoy writing stories in which Snape is revealed to be Harry's biological father. Ether Lily cheated or her whole marriage to James was a big, complicated ruse. Harry's reaction varies, but anger at being placed with the Durselys when he had a living father the whole time is common.
• Lampshaded in A Rose and a Thorn 3.

Ashura: I am your father Luke -- I mean, Shadow. Shadow: Shut up with the clichés already! You're not actually my biological father, are you? I saw that movie. I'm not going to do that stupid NOOOOOOOOOO thing.

• • I'm afraid he really is... Well, one of them, anyway.
• Nice Guy foreign transfer student from another planet, dates the female Dark and Troubled Past / The Woobie character? Seems simple until you realise... That they're MUCH closer than intended... Incest Is Relative.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog: Erazor's Revenge, it is reveled (by the author) that the evil Genie of the Lamp, Erazor Djinn is the father of Sharah the Genie of the Ring, the lesser genie.
• In Whispers in the Dark, a popular Percy Jackson and The Olympians fanfiction, Luke pulls a "Taylor I Am Your Father."
• In the Coraline fanfiction Right Beside You, the Beldam managed to capture Wybie and now Coraline and the Cat had to enter in the the Other World to rescue him and there, Coraline learns that Wybie's true father is the Cat, actually named Richard. The Beldam killed his mother and transformed his father in a cat. Although it's based on a Wild Mass Guessing, it works very well.
• In a crossover fanmake/FilmFic of The Great Mouse Detective, Fat Cat of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers reveals to Garfield that the former is his father, much to the latter's dismay. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6167065/4/The_Great_Dog_Detective
• In A Cure for Love V, an Original Character Action Girl that is later revealed to be the Big Bad is also revealed to be Mello's mother. She wasn't there for him growing up because Wammy's House wouldn't let her near her son, deeming her "too broken to fix" and so trained her to be an assassin instead.

Films -- Animation

• Parodied in Toy Story 2 with a Buzz Lightyear action figure and his archnemesis Evil Emperor Zurg reenacting a slightly modified version of the Star Wars reveal.

Zurg: Surrender Buzz Lightyear! I have won! Buzz: I'll never give in! You Killed My Father! Zurg: No Buzz, I am your father! Buzz: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Later on, you see Buzz and Zurg having a father-and-son game of Catch.

Zurg: Go long, Buzzy! Buzz: Oh, you're a great dad!

• In the direct-to-video sequel of Disney's Aladdin, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Aladdin discovers his father is head of the 40 Thieves.
• In the 2007 adaptation of Beowulf by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, the Dragon reveals to Beowulf that he is actually the hero's long-lost son from his deal-with-the-devil dalliance with Grendel's Mother.

Films -- Live Action

• As mentioned above, everybody knows about The Reveal from the second part of the original Star Wars trilogy. The reason that this reveal worked and a lot of the imitators fell flat was that a big part of Luke's story revolved around his Jedi Knight father, whom he sought to emulate as a Jedi himself, which was why Luke let out the Big No in response to the Awful Truth about said father being revealed. It also gives new light to Uncle Owen's reasons for refusing to let Luke accept the Call to Adventure, in particular his "That's what I'm afraid of" response to Aunt Beru's assessment that "he's got too much of his father in him."
  • The lesser reveal in Return of the Jedi, that Leia is Luke's sister.
    • Parodied in Thumbwars: "Luke... I am your MOTHER!"
    • Robot Chicken has Vader reveal that as well... and that the Empire would be defeated by Ewoks! And that as a child, he built C-3PO!

Luke: I'll never join you! You Killed My Father! Darth Vader: No, Luke... I am your father! Luke: That's not true! That's impossible! Darth Vader: And Princess Leia is your sister! Luke: That's not true! That's... (bewildered) improbable! Darth Vader: And the Empire will be defeated... by Ewoks! Luke: (totally lost) That's... very unlikely. Darth Vader: And as a child, I built C-3PO! Luke: Huh? (later, with Vader sipping coffee and Luke smoking a cigarette) Darth Vader: (matter-of-factly) And the Force? Well, that's just microscopic bacteria in your bloodstream called midichlorians! Luke: (getting up, disgusted) Look, if you're not gonna take this seriously, I'm out! (exits)

• • • Also parodied in Darths and Droids, using Anakin's stepfather in the second episode. Naturally, Anakin says a Big No.
  • The line itself, the Trope Namer, is actually a Beam Me Up Scotty.
  • In an interview with CNN, Luke's actor Mark Hamil expressed his disappointment about the role of Boba Fett in this way:

"I mostly was upset with the cavalier attitude towards Boba Fett. He had been built up as this monumental bounty hunter, and he... just flies away. I thought that was going to be a major revelation, off comes the helmet, oh my God, it's my mother! She's a double agent working for the good guys, who knows."

• • • Certainly that would cast Fett's "As You Wish" from The Empire Strikes Back in a completely different light. It would screw up canon so much; the Retcon attempts to make things fit together would be magnificent.
• Parodied in the second Austin Powers movie with Dr. Evil claiming to be Austin's father (in an exaggerated voice akin to Vader's) and then admitting almost immediately that he was just making it up.
  • In a twist, the third movie features the revelation that Austin and Dr. Evil were in fact brothers, separated as infants.
• Parodied in Spaceballs:

Dark Helmet: I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate! Lone Starr: What does that make us? Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing, which is what you are about to become!

• In the movie The Boondock Saints, the hitman known as Il Duce, who previously gave the MacManus brothers the fight of their lives, is revealed to be their long-lost father when he walks in on them delivering the family prayer to their fallen comrade Rocco (whom he had previously been hired to kill) and finishes the prayer himself.
  • And then much ass was kicked.
• Transamerica: when Toby, a teen runaway who had made a living as a hustler and who seems to only show affection sexually, attempts to seduce the Transsexual woman, Bree, who is adopting him, her only recourse is explain him that she was, in fact, his father before transitioning. She'd kept it secret from him because she knew he thought his father was a famous actor and didn't want to disillusion him. The fact that the audience already knows this is a considerable source of Squick in the scene.
• Scanners: Darryl Revok, the villain, reveals that he and Cameron Vale, the hero, are the sons of Dr. Paul Ruth, the Broken Pedestal mentor.
• In the film Wanted, this is used as the twist about 3/4ths of the way through the film. It actually makes sense, because it's the only reasonable explanation for why Cross never seems to be able to hit Wesley despite his improbable superpowered gun skills; turns out he was never trying to kill him in the first place.
• The big reveal in Angel Heart where Harry Angel is revealed to be Johnny Favorite, and therefore the father of Epiphany Proudfoot, who he has been having sex with, and has just murdered during a blackout; in a rather bizarre set of supernatural circumstances.
• Taken to ridiculous extremes in Dirty Work. Mitch and Sam are talking to Sam's father, Pops, who reveals he's also Mitch's father. They don't believe him; so he pulls out a locket:

Mitch: That's you and my Mom!... having sex! Sam: You were unfaithful to my mom! Pops: No I wasn't. Who do you think took the picture? (later) Sam: Hey, Mitch, remember when you had sex with my sister?

• Subverted masterfully in the movie Pirate Radio, through out most of which it is implied that Quinten is Young Carl's father, only for it to be revealed by Young Carl's mother that Bob, the 3-6 am DJ is his father instead. Quaintly enough, Young Carl?s reaction is eerily similar to that of the trope namers.
• The 2002 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo has Robert revealed as the son of Edmond, conceived right before Edmond is framed for treason and shipped off to prison 16 years earlier.
• The Man From Earth: In the end what confirms that John wasn't lying when he claims he doesn't age was Gruber (who appears much older than John) realizing John is his father. The shock ends up giving Gruber a heart attack and he dies shortly after.
• Before dying at the end of The Man in The Iron Mask, D'Artagnan barely has the time to reveal to Philippe (and Louis) that he is their father.
• Near the end of Big Money Rustlas, before dying of a gunshot wound inflicted onto him by Sugar Wolf, the film's villain, Big Baby Chips, reveals to Sugar Wolf that he is actually his father, Grizzly Wolf, prompting Sugar Wolf to rub off his face paint to see if he was telling the truth. He was.
• Inverted in Tron Legacy when Sam Flynn finally finds his lost father on the Grid, it turns out only to be a program written by Dad, though the dialog is almost verbatim.

CLU: I'm not your father, Sam. But I'm very, very happy to see you.

• Candyman Farewell to The Flesh has the main protagonist Annie discover that she is the great-great-granddaughter of the Candyman.
• The Terminator: Kyle Reese is John's father by Time Travel.

Literature

• Inverted in the Prydain Chronicles, where Taran goes on a search for his parents. He encounters a crippled shepherd who reveals that he is Taran's father but after a few months of living with Taran, the guy has a fatal accident and reveals that he was lying, that his son died years ago and that he told Taran this because he was so lonely.
  • Inverted again at the end of the series, when it's revealed that the identity of Taran's parents will never be known.
• Terry Pratchett does a great job of Lampshade Hanging on this one in the Discworld novel Maskerade. In an early scene, Nanny Ogg explains the plot of the opera La Triviata to Granny Weatherwax thusly: "Well, there's a lot of humorous dressin' up, etcetera, someone will probably turn out to be someone's long-lost father or somethin'..." Near the end of the book, it is revealed that the star singer in the production of Il Trucadore really is the long-lost father of a young man in the audience. When Agnes (the junior witch) complains "This sort of thing does not happen!" the more Genre Savvy Nanny replies, "Happens all the time in opera."
  • A more interesting variation happens in Thief of Time. First, Susan has to tell Lobsang Ludd that he and Jeremy Clockson are the twin sons of the Anthropomorphic Personification of Time. Later, she admits she was lying, sort of: Lobsang and Jeremy aren't twins, they're the same individual, bifurcated at birth by the complexities of Time going through labor. For that matter, Susan's discovery that there are other children of Anthropomorphic Personifications, and natural-born, not adopted, almost qualifies but fails the "met before" requirement.
  • Subverted in Witches Abroad, where Mrs. Gogol never does more than hint to Ella that she's her mother.
• This happens not once, but twice, and to the same character, in Ann Radcliffe's 1796 Gothic novel, The Italian. In the first instance, the evil monk Schedoni is about to murder the virginal heroine in her sleep when he happens to glimpse her locket -- her ownership of which reveals that she is (gasp!) his long-lost daughter!... Only, turns out she isn't. Still, it was a pretty good reveal, wasn't it? She actually turns out to be the long-lost child of a nun who was nice to her earlier in the book, and to whom she'd previously felt a "mysterious connection."
  • Even though it turns out that Schedoni isn't Elena's father, he does turn out to be the brother of her long-deceased father whom he closely resembles, making him her uncle. Thus, this is perhaps an example of Everyone Is Related.
• The Inheritance Cycle: Murtagh reveals that the evil Dragon Rider Morzan was Eragon's father, making Eragon and Murtagh brothers. This is subverted in the third book, when it turns out that Morzan is not Eragon's father, and it was actually Brom, who fell in love with Selena, Morzan's consort (also known as the Black Hand), thus making Murtagh and Eragon only half-brothers. There is also a scene where Arya is revealed to be the daughter of the elf queen Islanzadi, but this may or may not qualify since both Arya and Islanzadi knew about it even if the reader did not.
• In The Wild Hunt Trilogy, Judith's father is revealed to be her husband's friend, seduced at age 14 by her mother to appease her Complete Monster husband's demand for an heir.
• His Dark Materials: Lyra's father is Lord Asriel, the man she thought was her uncle, while her mother is Mrs. Coulter, the first book's major villain. Though this could be seen as a rather knowing use of the trope, given that the reveal occurs unusually early in the story. In the film adaptation, on the other hand, it appears in the typical place as a third act plot twist.
• In Robert A. Heinlein's short story All You Zombies, the main character is revealed to be his own father. And mother. And responsible for getting them together. And taking away his baby self away and putting her in an orphanage...
• In Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule, the first book of the Sword of Truth series, it is revealed that Richard is actually the son of Darken Rahl, the antagonist. Yes, his name is Darken. And he's the father of the protagonist, who has a magic sword, and is taught by an old man. This editor would have blanked it out with spoiler tags, but frankly it's not that important. And it's not even the father revealing it to his son, but his son's maternal grandfather. So.
  • This then happens several more times with different characters.
  • The TV series loosely based on the books also follows the trope but replaces Luke I Am Your Father with Luke I Am Your Brother, and this time, Zedd is not the one who reveals the truth. The substitution is likely because the actor playing Rahl is much younger than the character in the novel, making Richard only about 10-15 years Rahl's junior in the show.
  • This is actually one of Goodkind's better instances of Playing With a Trope. It starts with Darken Rahl accusing Zedd of being Richard's father. Zedd responds, in short, "Actually, I'm his grandfather. Remember how you raped my daughter? You're his father." Richard is not present for this scene, and doesn't find out himself about either of these relations until the next book.
• Charles Dickens had a thing for lost parents.
  • In Great Expectations, Magwitch, Pip's benefactor, turns out to be Estella's father
  • In Bleak House, Lady Dedlock and Captain Hawdon ("Nemo") are Esther Summerson's mother and father.
  • In Nicholas Nickleby, Ralph Nickleby turns out to have been Smike's father, but he only finds out after Smike's death. The revelation drives him to suicide.
  • In Oliver Twist, Mr. Brownlow is an old friend of Oliver's Disappeared Dad, Edwin Leeford, and he actually adopts Oliver as his son in the end. What else? The Smug Snake Monks is Oliver's half-brother (real name: Edward Leeford) and Rose Mayley is Oliver's aunt (his deceased mother Agnes was Rose's older sister). (The musical Oliver simplifies matters enormously by making Mr. Brownlow Oliver's grandfather and leaving Monks and the Mayleys out entirely.)
  • The best Dickensian example of this trope is in Barnaby Rudge, in which the mysterious robber, murderer and general villain that has haunted the book turns out to be Barnaby's father. He even reveals this using the phrase "I am your father". If only he'd said "Barnaby, I am your father" it would be perfect. Being simple-minded, Barnaby doesn't react with the same horror as Luke.
• Done intelligently in Rafael Sabatini's romantic historical adventure Scaramouche: André-Louis Moreau spends most of the book as the nemesis of the abhorrent Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr, who dun DUN DUN, unsurprisingly turns out to be his father--but Andre-Louis has never particularly cared for anyone except his Parental Substitute; and the fact is resolved within a couple chapters.
  • The 1952 movie had the Marquis turn out to be his older brother.
• In Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy, Lirael finds out the identity of her real father at the end of book two: it's the former Abhorsen, Terciel, making Lirael Sabriel's younger sister, and Sameth's aunt. This accounts for much of Lirael's Wangst -- that is, morbid tendencies, et alia. Fortunately, she had already prevented her nephew becoming attracted to her by saying that she was thirty years older than him.
• Neil Gaiman's American Gods: Shadow's father is Mr. Wednesday, the man who hires him after he is released from prison. Mr. Wenesday is also the Norse god Odin.
  • Shadow's real name also happens to be Baldur.
• Son Of A Witch: While the title implies it pretty strongly, it's left very much in doubt whether Liir is Elphaba's son until the very last line, when Liir's own newborn daughter is revealed to be green like Grandma. Apparently the complexion is genetic, but only expressed in females.
• In Meredith Ann Pierce's Firebringer trilogy, Jan, the lead character and prince of the unicorns (all the main characters in the trilogy are unicorns), discovers in the third book that his father Korr mated with another mare before he pledged himself with Jan's mother- which is something of a problem, as the other mare's child is Jan's own mate and the mother of his children, and unicorn custom absolutely forbids incest. Lucky thing then that it turns out the mysterious, renegade stallion Calydor, who Jan felt oddly connected to upon meeting for the first time, was actually Jan's mother's first love- and Jan's biological father.
  • Another Meredith Ann Pierce example: the white witch Oriencor is actually the daughter of Ravenna the Ancient. Her excuse for becoming the Big Bad was that she felt cheated of her inheritance since Ravenna promised, falsely, that she could one day return to Oceanus with the Ancients; Oriencor's schemes to take over the world are really just Part One of her attempts to get there on her own. The heroine of the trilogy, Aeriel, also has one: raised an orphaned slave in the land of Terrain, she later discovers she's the heir to the suzerainty of Pirs. Made squicky by her uncle, who killed her father and attempted to force her mother to marry him, and tries to seduce Aeriel.
  • And another: Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood. Hannah is the "daughter" of the Queen, having grown from the branch the Wizard stole. Pierce really likes this trope.
• In the Animorphs supplemental novel The Andalite Chronicles, we find out that Elfangor, the Andalite prince that gave the kids the power to morph, is actually Tobias' father, from some fancy time manipulation care of the Ellimist.
  • To be fair, you also find the same thing out in "The Pretender".
• In The Night Angel Trilogy, the Godking does this to both the protagonist and someone else. In the protagonist's case, the Godking is just screwing with his mind. In the latter case, she kills him anyway.
• In The Last Book in The Universe, Spaz finds out from Ryter in the final moments of his life that Billy Bizmo is his father and Lotti Getts is his mother.
• In Christopher Moore's Fool, titular character and king's fool Pocket learns that his father was King Lear's brother, since Lear made him rape Pocket's mother. Uh-huh. (This means he's been screwing and lusting after his first cousins.)
• Done twice in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy. In Dmitak's case it's moments before he kills his mother and gets killed himself.
• Inverted (and partly subverted) in Robin Hobb's Tawny Man Trilogy where the main character is forced to interact with his children, who doesn't know who their real father is.
• In the first book of Richelle Mead's Dark Swan series (Storm Born), it is revealed, fairly early on, that Storm King is Eugenie's father. On a slightly different note, it is also revealed, much later on - close to the very end of the book, in fact - that Jasmine is her half-sister.
• In the third book of the Maximum Ride series, Max is horrified to learn that the Director and leader of Itex is her mother. Later, Jeb informs her that this is a lie and he is her real father and Dr. Martinez is her real mother. She takes this revelation much better, though is just as shocked.
• In the Brother Cadfael novel The Leper of St. Giles by Ellis Peters, the titular leper turns out to be the unwilling bride's long-lost grandfather, whom everyone thought had died in the Crusade. Subverted in that, while he admits the truth when Cadfael confronts him about it, his leprosy has disfigured him so badly that he refuses to reveal himself to anyone else, not wishing to be a burden or to spoil tales of his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Cadfael himself also turns out to be the father of Olivier, a young man from the Holy Land who makes his first appearance in "The Virgin in the Ice."
• In All the King's Men, Judge Irwin was revealed to be Jack Burden's father at the precise moment it was also revealed that he had shot himself.
• Near the end of Hannah Tinti's The Good Thief, Ren discovers that he is the son of Mc Ginty's sister and Benjamin Nab. That last is a big maybe, however.
• In Villains By Necessity, it turns out near the end (hinted at earlier subtly main antagonist Mizzamir is Sam's father, and wiped his mother's mind after raping her, proving Light Is Not Good, indirectly helping to put Sam into his life of being a cold-blooded hired killer.
• Played with in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn. Main character Vin knows from the beginning of the story that her father is an important nobleman (she inherited her powers from him), but doesn't know his identity. He turns out to be Tevidian, High Prelan (priest) of the Corrupt Church and right-hand-man to the Lord Ruler. Surely this leads to a dramatic moment where the rebel Vin confronts and defeats her badass Dragon father? Wrong- when we meet Tevidian, he turns out to be a coward who toadies to the Inquisitors (the real Dragons) and gets killed offhand for essentially annoying them without ever getting a chance to speak with his daughter. But honestly, nobody was really that torn up about it.
• Parodied in the Night Angel trilogy, in which the Godking claims to be Kylar's father, then admits he was joking in the very next sentence.
• The Lost Symbol: The main antagonist throughout the book is revealed to be the son of one of the main protagonists.
• In Ben Bova's Venus, the protagonist, Van, is really Fuchs' son, not Humphres'.
• Done once or twice in Evil Genius: Cadel knows his adoptive parents aren't his real parents, and he's told by his psychologist, Thaddeus, early in the story that his "real" father is Phineas Darkkon, and his mother is dead. Later in the novel, however, Thaddeus mentions how lucky it is that Cadel looks like his mother rather than his father, which confuses Cadel. It's revealed that Thaddeus is actually Cadel's father, which nearly gives him a Heroic BSOD.
• In Shocker, the main villain reveals himself to be the protagonist's father before he is executed in the electric chair and is turned into a Psycho Electro.
• In Flora's Dare, Flora learns that Hotspur really is her father, but her biological mother is the notorious Butcher Brakespeare.
• In The Warlord Chronicles, Derfel gets an unusually subtle version of this from Aelle, who instead of telling him straight out instead criticises him for not visiting his mother and leaves him to work it out for himself. Later, Aelle declares Derfel to be the best of all his sons. Just before Derfel kills him.
• Used straight in Memory Sorrowand Thorn, with the revelation that Camaris is Josua's father, rather than King Prester John, and rolled into the Aesop that lies told and retold are what shape civilizations. This also retroactively explains the Cain and Abel relationship between Josua and Elias, even before their falling out over the death of Elias' wife.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Gudule is Esmeralda/Agnes' mother. If you know about Victor Hugo's love for One Degree of Separation, you saw it coming.
• In Alan Garner's The Owl Service, Gwyn has just found proof that Huw, the mad gardener, killed his mother's lover Bertram and accuses Huw of killing his father. Huw then reveals that he is Gwyn's father.
• In Warriors, the former Thunderclan leader Bluestar is revealed to be the mother of three Riverclan cats, Mistyfoot, Stonefur, and Mosskit. The kitten died though.
  • Yellowfang also reveals to Brokentail that she is his real mother, after she fed him the deathberries that would kill him.
• The Dresden Files: Seriously, don't mess with Harry Dresden. If he doesn't fuego the crap out of you, his vampire half-brother Thomas will. If you're really lucky, Grandpa Ebenezer will drop a Soviet satellite on your ass.
• In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero in Hell, Miranda learns that her mother was not who she thought she was. (Her half-siblings let it slip, not realizing she doesn't know.) She's Caliban's half-sister! And while Shakespeare fictionalized some events in The Tempest, the Attempted Rape in the Backstory is not one of them.
• Played with for Mareth, the young Druid-in-training in First King of Shannara, has revealed to her during the course of the journey that the innate, nearly out-of-control magic she possesses was inherited from her father--a Skull Bearer. She has the appropriate reaction, and almost succumbs to a Heroic BSOD until Kinson Ravenlock snaps her out of it. In the end, however, it is never revealed if this was actually the truth, or part of a trap by the Genre Savvy Warlock Lord to ensnare her powerful magic through her longing for her Disappeared Dad.
• In The Mysterious Benedict Society, Kate's Disappeared Dad is revealed to be Milligan.
• Its played straight in On the Jellicoe Road with Taylor, who finds out who her dad is the boy in the picture and her aunt is Hannah. This is played with for Jessa; Taylor (a third party) finds out her father is the Hermit late in the story but its unclear if Jessa connects her dad to the Hermit.
• Inverted in Dune, as it is actually Alia Altreides who reveals her relationship to Harkonnen, her grandfather, just after she poisoned him, and it is actually Harkonnen who is shocked at the lineage.
• In Stephen Hunt's The Rise of the Iron Moon, Black is astounded to recognize his own features in his daughter; he had seen her mother fall, with a head wound, in a fight.
• An example from Harald: Though the individual characters know the relationship from the beginning, King James is lead to believe that Harald will join him against Carala, and he gets this sort of surprise when Harald reveals that he's her father.
• In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry learns that Sirius Black is his Godfather. Predictably, Harry breaks down upon this discovery, not just because one of the most wanted criminals was his godfather, but that he was also his parents' friend and had betrayed them to Lord Voldemort, with Harry deeply considering killing Sirius Black to avenge them. It's also subverted in the sense that, although Sirius is still his godfather, he was not responsible for the betrayal of Lily and James Potter at all, and in fact was framed by the real person responsible, who was ironically the same person who was believed to have attempted to avenge Harry's parents and died for it by Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, who also faked his own death.
• In the Alcatraz Series, Alcatraz Smedry learns that The person he thought was his emotionally abusive social services case worker was really his mother and one of the evil librarian cultists that rule the world.
• Boneshaker: Dr. Minnericht is said to be the (supposedly) dead Mad Scientist father of one of the main characters. He's lying.
• Mrs Lestrange (no, not that one) is Lettice Protheroe's mother in Murder At the Vicarage.
• Pol discovers that Ianthe is his mother and not Sioned as he believed in Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince. The readers know this before he does.
• At the end of Magyk, Boy 412 is revealed to be Septimus Heap.
• At the end of Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East trilogy, the demon prince Orcus realizes that Ardneh is his father in a sense (not the biological sense, since neither being is biological), and that, in killing Ardneh, he has also destroyed himself.
• In Michael Flynn's Up Jim River, Donovan is in denial, and the harper doesn't want to talk about once she realizes. When Donovan puts it together, the conversation that ensues has both this, and Luke You Are My Father.

Live Action TV

• Star Trek Deep Space Nine: It was hinted at throughout their character arcs, but nevertheless was a huge surprise when it was revealed that Enabran Tain and Elim Garak were father and son. However, Tain and Garak both knew it all along. The reveal was mainly for the audience who had not known it. The drama of the reveal is based on the fact Tain's on his deathbed wants Garak to avenge his death. Garak wants, for once in his life and before it's too late, for them to have a moment as father and son instead of a superior and inferior officer or a mentor and his protégé.
• Carnivale Where to begin? The mysterious Henry Scudder is Ben's father. Lucius Belyakov (AKA Management) is the father of both Justin and Iris. And, Justin is Sofie's father, having raped her mother.
• Lost: Claire and Jack are half-siblings. And it seems their father (or his ghost, or SOMETHING like it) is close to the mysterious Jacob.
  • In season 5, Pierre Chang, the guy from the orientation tapes, turns out to be Miles's father. "The third day we were here, I was in line at the cafeteria and my mother got in line behind me. That was my first clue."
• Parodied in the Stargate SG-1 episode "200": the rest of the SG team momentarily trick Mitchell into believing that O'Neill is his father by means of Time Travel.
  • Then again, all the numbers work out, those are some good arguments they give, and they never tell him they were joking. Who knows?
    • Well since Mitchell is Acting for Two with his grandfather, it doesn't seem likely.
    • Most folks have two grandfathers. Unless they're Fry.
    • It's made clear that the aforementioned grandfather is his paternal grandfather, therefore O'Neill can't be his father. Plus, O'Neill knew fully well during his time-travel experience that he shouldn't meddle with the past, so he's not going to do something like that. He knows how much it could screw up the timeline.
• Sanctuary: While the audience learns in episode 1 that John Druitt (AKA Jack the Ripper) is Ashley's father, she doesn't get the news until later in the season when he kidnaps her.
• The second-season finale of The Pretender: Miss Parker learns that she has a twin brother she was never told about because he supposedly died at birth -- and not only is he still alive, he's one of the recurring characters! (All four of the series' season finales feature a "He's the brother you never knew you had" reveal for one of the lead characters -- counting the clone in the third season finale as a brother -- but this is the only one where the brother is an already-established character.)
• The X-Files: Hints had been dropped throughout the series that Bill Mulder was not Mulder's father, but that his father was C.G.B. Spender. It was left up in the air until season seven's "The Sixth Extinction: Amor Fati", we find out that he is Mulder's father, but Mulder does not find out until much later.
• The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog: Maeve, the Big Bad, reveals she is The Chosen One Rohan's mother. There is no indication at what point she learned this; Maeve seemed as shocked as anyone when Lugad told her Rohan told him they were brothers. The line is almost identical to the movie's with the names changed appropriately.
• Power Rangers has been fond of this one and uses it regularly since it was so successful the first time around:
  • In Power Rangers In Space, we are treated to the tasty reveal that Big Bad Astronema is The Captain Andros's sister Karone after brainwashing.
  • Two years later in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, we are treated to the revelation that then-evil Sixth Ranger Ryan is Mission Control Captain Mitchell's long-lost son (And, thereby, Pink Ranger Dana's brother).
  • In Power Rangers Ninja Storm, we find out that Big Bad Lothor is Sensei Watanabe's twin brother, and Sixth Ranger Cam's uncle. This was fortunate for Lothor's nieces by marriage, as they would have been destroyed if Cam hadn't decided to save them--because "they're family."
  • In Power Rangers Dino Thunder, we have the revelation that Sixth Ranger Trent is the adopted son of Big Bad Mesogog's human counterpart Anton Mercer.
  • But the all-time leader is Power Rangers Mystic Force, where we learn in short succession that the evil Wolf Knight Koragg is the mind-controlled form of Leanbow, husband to The Obi Wan Udonna. Udonna then discovers that Red Ranger Nick is actually her long-lost son Bowen. Meanwhile, we discover that comic relief character Leelee is secretly the daughter of Necrolai, queen of the vampires.
    • It would have helped if they hadn't been playing what sounds like a fantasy-sounding version of the theme from the Star Wars prequels throughout the season. Unlike Luke, however, Nick actually does take up the mantle of the Master's apprentice as the new Knight Wolf, for a short time.
  • Following In Space's example, RPM reveals that Dark Action Robot Girl Tenaya 7 is actally Dillon's missing sister, which surprises... absolutely no one.
• Parodied on The Brak Show episode "All That I Desire You", itself a complete send-up of soap operas; Dad is revealed to be living a double life as billionaire oil baron Drake Gainway, and is father to Zorak, Clarence, and his secret third wife Cynthia - in addition to Brak and the Gainway children.
  • And just for extra craziness, when The Brak Show was "hosting" Adult Swim's New Year's Night, it was revealed that Thunderclese's father was none other than Frylock from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a completely different show.
• In series 7 of Red Dwarf it is revealed that Lister's father is himself, and his mother is Kochanski, his long-lost love.
• Catherine Willows on CSI, when she finds out that Sam Braun is her father.
• In the series Heroes, Claire is revealed to be the daughter of Nathan Petrelli.
  • The earlier reveal, when HRG/Noah comes home and we find out that he is Claire's father. (He adopted her, but she considers her adopted parents her "real" parents)
    • And in the Season 3 premiere, Gabriel Gray/Sylar is another Petrelli Brother.
      • Not so much...
      • There's also rumours of yet another Petrelli on the way. I'd guess Adam, but I don't know.
        • Adam's impossible as he's been around for hundreds of years and looks nothing like the Petrellis. Matt Parkman on the other hand... though his dad, Maury, has already been a character, but we don't know if he's not a HALF brother...
      • On the subject of the "new Petrelli", hilariously it ended up as a literal "I am your father" moment, both when Peter and Nathan learned their father, Arthur, was still alive and when Sylar got to meet him for the first time.
    • Funnily enough, there is no new Petrelli. They lied to Sylar. He killed Arthur for it, and he's working on Angela to get the location of his real parents.
  • Also as of season 3, Claire is revealed to also be related to Level 5 escapee Flint, who is brother to Meredith, Claire's biological mother. Though it's as yet unknown to Claire, it will most likely comprise a bit of a surprise at least.
    • Seriously, is there anyone on that show who isn't related?
      • I've heard rumors about Ando.
• Strongly hinted in the Law and Order Criminal Intent episode "End Game."
  • And confirmed in "Frame".
• In Remington Steele, Steele finds out in the last episode that Daniel Chalmers, his mentor and fellow con-man, is actually his long-lost father.
• Subverted in an episode of Las Vegas where Mike finds evidence that the Montecito's new owner, AJ Cooper, is Piper's father. Piper confronts Cooper and he vehemently denies it. It turns out that Cooper knew her father from when they served in the Marines together and promised that he would keep an eye on her.
• Also subverted in Life On Mars, where DCI Morgan takes Sam to a graveyard. He shows Sam two graves which have the name Williams on them, telling him that these are his parents, he is not Sam Tyler, but Sam Williams, working for him undercover. Sam shrugs this off and is about to leave when he spots three graves behind him, one of which says 'Here lies Sam Tyler', the other two with his parents names, Vic and Ruth Tyler. He's a little upset by this..
• In US version of "Life On Mars", the trope is inverted: in the finale, Sam Tyler confronts his father, and tells him that he is his son.
• In the series Night Court it is revealed after several seasons that Harry's mentally unbalanced step-father "Buddy" is actually his biological father.
• Parodied by the Melty Man (an Anthropomorphic Personification of male impotence, complete with black glove and Darth Vader voice) in Coupling.

Patrick: You killed my erection! Melty Man: No Patrick, I am your erection!

• Mocked in the third series of Doctor Who when dealing with The Master, Martha asks if he is the Doctor's long-lost brother. To which the Doctor responds, "you've been watching too much television."
  • Though, it was originally going to be played straight, and when the Doctor was going to let the Master die, the dialogue was originally going to reveal them to actually be brothers! This line was cut before filming, though, leaving the canonocity of it heavily debated. The Master is still killed off though, due to his refusal to regenerate and live out the rest of eternity as the Doctor's prisoner after being shot by his wife.
  • Played straight in A Good Man Goes to War, where River Song is revealed to be Melody Pond, Amy and Rory's daughter.
• Masterfully inverted, gender-swapped, and played without melodrama in The Tenth Kingdom, when via the magic mirror Virginia and her father learn that the Evil Queen is her missing mother Christine. Not only is this trope combined with that of the Mysterious Parent (though here there is no revelation about the child), but despite the constant references throughout the miniseries, the scene of The Reveal genuinely took this editor by surprise when he first saw it -- and it did for every other person he's ever shown the film to. It's that subtle, but so obvious on a second viewing... rather like The Sixth Sense. What makes it particularly unique is that, rather than the villain making the revelation, it comes from a third party (in this case a magical object), and it is the hero who must then convince their erstwhile parent of the truth, rather than the reverse. The tragedy ensues when Virginia breaks through to her real mother after the poison comb has loosed her from the Swamp Witch's spell, she remembers who she is and declares her love...and dies in her daughter's arms.
• Parodied on The Daily Show. Stephen Colbert is asked to report on the cancellation of daytime drama Another World. He goes off on a wild melodramatic tangent, reveals that Colbert is not his real name and accuses Jon Stewart of abandoning his "bastard elevator baby". Subverted within the parody because when Stephen finally calls him "Daddy", Jon spoils it by pointing out that they're the same age.
• Caleb and Sheriff Buck of American Gothic. Unique in that it is revealed in the pilot of the series, and that while Caleb reacts in disgust and anger at the notion, he never has a Heroic BSOD or otherwise freaks out over the revelation. In fact the more time passes, the less issue he seems to take with it, even welcoming and embracing the relationship by the end of the series. This could be due to being orphaned and having no one else to turn to except an increasingly unstable doctor and a Cool Big Sis cool cousin who is also being drawn into Buck's orbit, but all things considered, probably not.
• Subverted in Veronica Mars. Paternity tests confirm that Keith Mars is Veronica's father.
  • And then played straight with Logan's adopted sister in an interesting way that somehow managed to avoid the usual cliché of the trope.
• Done in very a surprising "How the hell did I not see that coming?" way on Dexter when The Ice Truck Killer is revealed to be Dexter's brother.
• This happens on Green Wing, where Guy discovers that Joanna is his mother, making him and Martin brothers. Unfortunately, he only finds this out after they have sex, leading to a complete meltdown on Guy's part.
• In Sharpe's Justice, the rabble-rouser Matt Truman is Sharpe's half-brother.
• In Jonathan Creek, an actress attempts to covertly help the son that she secretly gave up for adoption many years ago by having him cast in the movie she is currently starring in, only to learn that he has developed a bit of an obsession with her, unaware that she is his mother. He's embittered when she rejects him in this sense, understandably a bit Squicked out; unfortunately, she confesses this to her ex-husband who, holding his own grudge, manipulate the son into murdering her.
• Averted in Without a Trace: Agent Malone is captured and tortured by conwoman who thinks he's an enemy out to get her and her partner who is, naturally, her son. I can't recall all the facts, but in the end the conwoman dies and asks Malone not to tell her son the truth (it probably would've been squicky for him anyway).
• Parodied innummerable times on Whose Line Is It Anyway.
• All My Children loves this trope. Examples: Daisy Cortlandt and Myra Murdock (Nina's "dead" mother and long-lost grandmother), Palmer Cortlandt (Ross Chandler's long-lost father), and Jackson Montgomery (Greenlee Smythe's real father). In the most recent example, the show waved a magic Retcon to make Erica Kane's aborted child appear as Josh Madden, supposedly the son of evil Dr. Madden.
• Taken to absurdity in A Bit of Fry and Laurie, when they parody Australian soaps:

Fry: The truth is, mate, I was confused and slightly bewildered. I'd just discovered that Durnick isn't my real father. Laurie: He isn't? Then who is? Fry: I am. Laurie: Then that must mean that you must be-- Fry: Exactly. Devlin's half-sister's wife's doctor's cousin's niece. Laurie: Well then, who the hell am I?

• Parodied on Krod Mandoon and The Flaming Sword of Fire. Krod confronts Chancellor Dungalor, who stalls for time by revealing that he's Krod's brother. Well, his brother-in-law, as Dungalor was married to Krod's sister. Ex-brother-in-law, actually, as they're not even married anymore.
• Played straight in Reaper with The Devil revealed to be Sam's father at the end on season one.
• Parodied in an episode of The Mighty Boosh, "Journey to the Centre of the Punk": Howlin' Jimmy Jefferson, the Spirit of Jazz, claims to be Howard's father, then uncle, then second cousin twice-removed on his sister's side, in an attempt to keep Howard from killing him. Only the last one works.
• Played straight in Jekyll, with an extra twist at the end of the final episode.
• On Arrested Development, Oscar is really Buster's father, GOB is Steve Holt's father, and Lindsay is adopted.
• Played straight in Glee. It turns out that Shelby Corcoran is Rachel's biological mother.
• In the Only Fools and Horses 1987 Christmas special "The Frog's Legacy", Del and Albert hinted that Freddie the Frog, a gentleman safecracker had an affair with Del and Rodney's mum Joannie before Rodney was born. This rumor was confirmed to be true in the 2003 Christmas special "Sleepless in Peckham", when Rodney looks at a old photograph of the 1960 Jolly Boys' Outing and finds out that Freddie bears an uncanny resemblence to him.
  • The Prequel trilogy Rock And Chips tells the story of Joannie's affair with Freddie in the early 1960's.
• In season 3 of Chuck, where Casey yells "I'm your father!" when Alex starts to run away after he has "kidnapped" her.
• The very last words said on Kyle XY: Big Bad Cassidy to Kyle: "I'm your brother."
• One infamous Eastenders moment (2001) is Zoe Slater telling her "sister" Kat: "You can't tell me what to do, you ain't my mother," and getting in response, "YES I AM!"
• In 3x05 of Merlin, it is revealed that Morgana is actually Uther's biological daughter, making her Arthur's half-sister. One wouldn't be surprised because this follows the Arthurian legends, but since Morgana was first introduced as the King's Ward and the daughter of Goloris, one wouldn't be given the impression of anything otherwise.
• In a 3rd Rock From the Sun two-parter, the Big Giant Head reveals that he is Dick's father. Tommy later likens this to Luke Skywalker finding out about Darth Vader, but Dick brushes him off, saying this is real life.
• Philip gets this twice. First, he discovers that his name is Raito Sonozaki, meaning that he's related to the Sonozaki family that runs the organization they've been fighting. Wakana is his sister and Ryubee is his father. Then later he and his newfound siblings find out that the mysterious Shroud is their mother.
  • Which leads to a really bizarre scene in a late season episode where Ryubee gathers them all together for a nice family dinner, despite the fact that Saeko turned traitor on him, Shroud ran away and began being The Chessmaster to attempt to topple him, and he's going to effectively kill Philip in order to cause the Gaia Impact. Needless to say, it's a tense meal.
• In the first episode of what is considered possibly the worst TV series made, My Mother the Car, his mother has to admit to David Crabtree that while she's a car, she really is his mother, come back as a 1928 Porter. So, he's sitting in the car and she talks to him. At one point, (3:34 in the video referenced in this example), she says, "David, I am your mother."
• Lawman: In "The Joker", outlaw Barney Tremain claims to be Johnny McKay's real father. It is left unresolved whether he was telling the truth or not.
• Bones has this in one episode, where Bones discovers that the priest who has been helping them on a case is actually her long-lost father, who is also the murderer they are hunting for.

Mythology

• The Tragedy of Sohrab and Rostam from Persian myths (based somewhat on real events). Rostam's son is raised without meeting his father for years. The young Sohrab decides to become a hero and gathers up a force. Rostam is the Persian equivalent of Hercules and is meanwhile ordered to subdue the marauding enemies. In the final battle, the father and son engage each other in battle, as no one else is a match for either of them. Although Rostam notices similarities between himself and his enemy, it is not until it is too late when he discovers that he has killed his own son.
• The Irish mythological hero Cuchulainn accidentally kills his son, thinking he is an intruder, only to find out that his son is the victim when it's too late.
• Older Than Feudalism: Oedipus, in Oedipus the King, finding out that the woman he married is his biological mother, and that guy he killed years ago was his biological father. Oh, and then he had to tell his daughters "I am your brother." Ouch.

Professional Wrestling

• The 2005 feud between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio included an angle where Rey's real-life son Dominick was revealed to be the (kayfabe) biological son of Guerrero.

Guerrero: I'M YOUR PAPI!

Theater

• The Marriage of Figaro has an instance of this that's similar to the one from The Italian above: Marcellina is about to force Figaro to marry her in lieu of paying off a debt, when a casual comment he drops about a birthmark reveals that she's his mother. They embrace and make up, leading instantly to a classic Not What It Looks Like scenario...
  • Something similar happens in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, as the Centurion was intending to marry Hero's love interest. Turns out in the ending that not only was the blind man that Pseudolus attempted to distract by having him run across the hills of Rome seven times was his father, but the Centurion and the love interest were actually siblings (they were kidnapped and separated while they were very young, and it was presumably at a time that they simply had no way of remembering due to not knowing this until after he told them). This was more than enough to allow the Centurion to allow Hero to marry the love interest.
• Happens with the Baker and the Mysterious Man in Into the Woods.
• Wicked has the Wizard realize that he's Elphaba's father. Elphaba herself never learns the connection -- probably all for the better.
• Urinetown milks the revelation that Penny Pennywise is Hope Cladwell's mother for all that it's worth.
• In Molière's L Avare (1668) Anselme, the man who Harpagon wants his daughter to marry, ends up being the father of her lover Valère as well as Mariane, the love interest of both Harpagon and his son.
• In the opera Lucrezia Borgia, the title character turns out to be the mother of the protagonist, the young noble Gennaro, by a previous relationship.

Radio

• Spoofed in Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music when, after a series-long Running Gag about Mitch's rivalry with fellow musical satirist Richard Stillgoe, the final episode features him as a special guest, and a showdown between the two performers.

Stillgoe: Punt and Dennis never told you what happened to your father. Benn: You're not my father! Stillgoe: No, of course I'm not. Whatever gave you that idea?

Stand-up Comedy

• Comedian Gad Elmaleh parodied this in his stand-up show. His mother, he said, used to tell him that "your father is no Rothschild", i.e. "he's no millionaire, we can't waste money." He then says that he later met Rothschild, only to scream at him: "I know! You're not my father!"
• There's an old joke about a boy who figures out that he can get adults to give him stuff simply by saying a sly "I know the truth..." and leaving it at that, allowing their minds to jump to "What could he know?" and pay him off without confirming what it is he "knows". Then he tries this on the milkman, who, rather than paying him off, drops down in tears of joy and exclaims "SON!" as he hugs him.

Video Games

• Super Mario Sunshine: Bowser Jr. claims early on that Princess Peach is his mother. This is inverted after you defeat Bowser, when he tells Bowser Jr. that Peach is, rather, not his mother, and further subverted when Jr. in turn reveals that he knew she wasn't his mother.
• After the first Art of Fighting, Yuri Sakazaki revealed to her brother Ryo and his friend Robert Garcia that, the game's final boss, Mr. Karate, was Takauma Sakazaki, Ryo and Yuri's father. Good thing too, Ryo was about to kill him for thinking he was the Big Bad. That honor belonged to Geese Howard who blackmailed Takuma by arranging for Yuri's kidnapping, so he could work for him.
  • Used again in King of Fighters where K's long lost sister is presumably Whip.
• Throughout the adventure game Bad Mojo, there are hints that Eddie, the landlord of main character Roger Samms, is actually Roger's estranged father. In the game's best ending, if you manage to save both Roger and Eddie from the gas explosion that takes out Eddie's bar at the end of the game, this turns out to be the case.
• We find out near the end of Tales of Symphonia that Kratos is Lloyd's father. It's hinted at.
  • And in the sequel, Marta is the daughter of Brute, leader of the Vanguard, an organization that's out to KILL her
• In Tales of Eternia, it's more of a "Luke, I am your mother": Meredy's mother, Shizel.
  • Does this count? The characters in question both knew. Only the other characters and the audience didn't.
• In Tales of Destiny, Leon reveals that he's Rutee's brother and that Hugo's both of their father.
• In Chrono Cross, it's revealed (in a huge chunk of exposition that arrives immediately before the unexpected final boss) that Lynx, the cat-man who was the recurring villain for the first part of the game, and who you (kinda, sorta, it's complicated) killed two dungeons ago, was actually Serge's father Wazuki all brainwashed and polymorphed. Also, Kid turns out to be Schala's daughter-clone-time duplicate, which adds an extra layer of weirdness to the final boss since Schala's one half of it. And if his backstory hadn't been dropped, masked magician Guile would have been revealed as Magus, Schala's brother and therefore Kid's... something.
• Exaggerated in LEGO Star Wars 2 when Darth Vader, Played for Laughs, pulls out a family photo of Padme and Anakin getting married.
• Parodied twice in Kingdom of Loathing: the Big Bad tells the player she is your mother (quoting, almost word for word, the rest of the exchange from The Empire Strikes Back, right to the Big No)... then insults you for believing her. After you beat her, the Council that sent you to defeat her says "Say, did you know she was your mother?... nah, just kidding" as part of their congratulations message.
  • More than twice, actually. When you kill enough soldiers for both sides in the war in the Mysterious Island quest, you get a choice adventure that lets you choose which boss of which side you get to fight, and the message you get has this. It's even lampshaded that it's been done to death!
• In the first Fantasy Zone, the commander of the invading forces turns out to be Opa-Opa's father.
• The Final Fantasy series uses this often:
  • In Final Fantasy VIII, this trope is taken to an extreme, when discovered that ALL the PC's except Rinoa and Edea grew together at the same orphanage. The only reason why Edea is excluded was because she ran said orphanage. On top of that, numerous hints are dropped later on that the other star of the game, Laguna, is Squall's father.
  • In Final Fantasy IV, Big Bad Golbez turns out to be Cecil's Brainwashed brother, who is being controlled by The Man Behind the Man from the moon.
  • In Final Fantasy IX, The Dragon Kuja is a "brother" of sorts of the main character Zidane -- they were both artificially created by the same man.
  • Fairly early in Final Fantasy X, Auron reveals to Tidus that Sin is really his father, Jecht, without any explanation for how the human Jecht became a giant Space Whale beyond "you know it to be true." The explanations don't come until much, much later. Why he expects him to believe this...
  • In Final Fantasy VI, it's implied that Shadow is the father of Relm. What's particularly amazing is that it's actually fairly subtle.
  • In Final Fantasy VII, it is revealed near the end of the game that Professor Hojo is the father of Sephiroth and injected him with Jenova Cells while he was still in the womb, though Sephiroth never discovers this. One could only wonder what his reaction would be, considering his low opinion of the man.
  • Also, in Final Fantasy II, the Dark Knight in charge of much of Palamecia's military operations turns out to be Leon, the adoptive brother of Firion and Maria.
• Tragically inverted in Jak III, where a fatally wounded Damas makes a final request for Jak to find his missing son. Jak realizes that Damas' son is his younger self, whom he sent back into the past in the previous game.
• Metal Gear Solid did it quite embarrassingly straight -- at least to start with. After that it ran with it, taking it to its logical, truly disturbing conclusion.
  • Big Boss is Snake's father -- Clone.
  • Liquid is Snake's brother -- Twin.
  • Solidus is not only Snake's brother, he's also Raiden's "father" -- Foster.
  • While not part of the reveal, The Boss is Big Boss's "mother".
  • Gene, Big Bad of Portable Ops, is Big Boss's "Brother", raised as a successor to The Boss
  • Ocelot is the son of The Boss and The Sorrow (confirmed by the Database)
    • Actually was hinted at in-game, call up EVA sometime before you fight the Pain, she talks about how Ocelot's the son of some legendary soldier who was birthed in the middle of a battlefield.
  • Colonel Campbell is Meryl's father.
  • Grey Fox is also the "brother"/father figure of Naomi. He killed her parents and raised her. One could also say he's a further continuation of the twisted familial relationships. He's practically Gene's "Son". And after Gene's death, he becomes Big Boss's protege to boot!
  • Major Zero started Les Infantes Terible to replace Big Boss. Para-medic did the actual cloning, and EVA are Solid and Liquid's surrogate mother.
    • Solidus isn't part of the same batch as Solid and Liquid, so presumably they don't have the same surrogate mother.
    • Wooh, that's a lot to sum up. Hideo Kojima and his crew sure like having everyone related with only a very few characters blood related.
      • You know things were getting out of control when Kojima confirmed that The End's pet parrot was the grandparent to Emma Emmerich's pet parrot.
• In the infamous ending of Monkey Island 2, LeChuck is revealed to be Guybrush's brother. Fans are divided over whether this ending is to be considered canonical, or a dream sequence.
• A particularly egregious use of this trope in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. We learn that Micaiah is the sister of Empress Sanaki and Soren is the son of Almedha and Ashnard. Yes, the Big Bad of the first game. These just seemed to come out of nowhere.
  • Given the requirements necessary to unlock the ending that reveals this (an A support with Soren and Ike in Path of Radiance, uploading that info to Radiant Dawn via save files, and getting an A support with Soren again, then beating the game twice to unlock the ending where Pelleas doesn't die), all of which fleshes out the background of these various characters, it makes a distinct sort of sense.
    • And Soren's resemblance to Kurthnaga and Rajaion, even in Path of Radiance.
  • Furthermore, Micaiah's reveal is addressed as early as the end of Part 3, where Sanaki notices that Micaiah has the abilities that Sanaki herself does not, which are supposedly inherited through the Apostle line.
    • • Since Micaiah was a Mary Sue, we should have all seen this kind of thing coming.
  • Other FE examples: Yuria is Celice's half-sister, Nergal is the father of Ninian and Nils, and Joshua is Ismaire's son.
• In Super Robot Wars Alpha and Super Robot Wars Original Generation Levi Tolah, one of the invading aliens is actually Aya Kobayashi's Brainwashed and Crazy sister, Mai Kobayashi.
  • Since that wasn't crazy enough, in Super Robot Wars Original Generation 2 it's revealed that neither are related because their "father" Dr. Kenzo Kobayashi Brainwashed them into thinking they were his daughters when they were unrelated; their real past and identity are never revealed.
• I Wanna Be the Guy pulls this out of nowhere with the final boss, "The Guy" that you want to kill for his title being a huge version of the player character. Just to make sure you got it he says, "Yes, I did have sex with your mother." before the final phase of the battle.

"Check your inventory screen, Kid. You know it to be true."

• No More Heroes tell the story of Travis Touchdown who became the best assassin in the US by a fictive association and that one of the responsible is in fact the wife of his brother that he didn't knew the existence before and that the number one assasin is in fact his half-sister who want to take a revenge on his father because he ran away from her mother.
  • It's actually much more complicated than that. The character that's supposedly number one, Dark Star, claims to be Travis's father, but his half-sister Jeane shows up, kills Dark Star, and reminds him that his father is dead. After all, she's the one that killed him and Travis's mother. On top of this, Henry is not just his brother, but his long-lost twin, and a clip after the credits shows Henry's wife and Travis's main love interest, Sylvia, looking at a painting of the two battling with a young girl who she calls Jeane. Yep, just like Travis's half-sister. And his cat.
• The Darkshine Knight from Seiken Densetsu 3 has a backstory that is way too similar to Darth Vader's to be a coincidence. He was once a heroic knight who fought against the Dragon Emperor, only to lose and be converted into his Dragon. Oh, and he's Duran's father.
• God of War: Zeus is revealed to be Kratos' father in a bonus cutscene in the first game and at the end of the second game.
• Viewtiful Joe does this quite blatantly when Captain Blue reveals himself to be Silvia's father, to the point of downright quoting Darth Vader. The entire game is one big homage to movies, so it fits.
  • They did it again in the sequel where the Big Bad was Jet Black, Joe's father and yet again the DS game double trouble where the Big Bad was Joe's mother.
• Implied by Portal 2, which confirms that Chell is the possibly adopted daughter of an Aperture Science employee, maybe even Caroline, the CEO's secretary/lover who was Turned Into G La DOS. A Bilingual Bonus supports this, with the lyrics of the turrets song translating to something along the lines of "Goodbye, my sweet child. Stay away from science."
• In Mother 3, the Masked Man turns out to be Lucas' twin brother, Claus, who had been kidnapped and brainwashed by Big Bad Porky.
• There are no coincidences in the Fire Emblem games. From the Sealed Sword/Blazing Blade saga, Nino turns out to be Canas's niece, Dart is Rebecca's long-lost brother Dan, Raven is actually Priscilla's brother Raymond. Then, in Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn, Sephiran is really Lehran, the patriarch of the Begnion line of apostles/empresses and a heron laguz, which means that Begnion has been following Branded around all this time. However, Empress Sanaki cannot hear the voice of the goddess because the apostle power is only passed down to the firstborn female of each generation, and unbeknownst to her, she had an older sister. We later find out that this is Micaiah. Also, Mad King Ashnard's mount is really the Goldoan prince Rajaion, and his mistress, Almedha, is Rajaion's sister. Ena, Rajaion's fiancee, went to Daein to try to save him in Path of Radiance, but her grandfather, Nasir, was serving as a mole in the Crimean party. Oh, and Prince Pelleas isn't actually Almedha and Ashnard's son--he's not a Branded at all. But it turns out that the long-lost prince of Daein is Soren. Did we mention that Calill and Largo's adopted daughter is also a Branded? This is the most convoluted series ever.
  • There is also the Fire Emblem Gaiden game, in which Alm has to fight this one warlord who refuses to attack him. When you kill the warlord, he says with his dying breath "Alm, I am your father!" Alm is a little upset by this. However, The Obi Wan tells him to not bother wasting tears on the guy, because "He was a madman who would have killed you as an infant had you not been taken away fast enough!"
• The Disgaea series. Nippon Ichi loves playing with this, and making them major plot points...
  • It happens at least three times in the first game:
    • Mid-Boss is the reincarnated form of Laharl's father. This is hinted at in game, somewhat more strongly in the anime adaption of the game (even though it lacks the "Seraph Lamington was behind everything" subplot, and confirmed by the World of Disgaea artbook.
    • The Big Sis Prinny is Laharl's mother, paying off the sin of suicide (that she did to save Laharl's life). The game does everything to tell you, short of actually telling you, and the anime preserves this plot point.
    • Jennifer was raised by General Carter. He makes a lousy father, though.
  • As if they didn't beat this trope into the ground with the first game, they brought it back in the second game to beat it under the ground.
    • Adell was given to Mom and Dad to raise by his real parents, Shura (the Masked Man) and Serion (the Masked Woman). Again, the game does everything to tell you, short of actually telling you.
    • Although the game makes clear that Rozalin, as Zenon's reincarnation, cannot be the daughter of the fake Zenon, and out right states that she was kidnapped. The game hints that Rozalin was born into the Snow Clan, and the fake Zenon's attack on them was to secure her. The second point is, once again, confirmed by the World of Disgaea artbook.
  • With the third game, they don't bother even trying to take it seriously anymore...
    • In one scene, Laharl claims to be Mao's father. It doesn't work, mostly because Flonne and Etna can't decide who would be his mother.
    • And in Rasbperyl mode, Master Big Star and Salvatore claim to be the Vato Brothers' parents, while two Prinnies claim to be the parents of Gold Knuckle. All of this, needless to say, is both impossible and absolutely ridiculous.
• Wild Arms 4 repeatedly drops the fact that main character Jude has no father, then has the party meet a mysterious vagrant with the same hair colour as Jude, only a little darker. Jude immediately feels strangely connected to this unknown man. Slightly subverted when it is hinted that this is not Jude's real father (he died), but rather a collection of nanomachines that mimicked him.
• The ending of Stubbs the Zombie reveals that Stubbs and Big Bad Andrew Monday are father and son respectively, with Maggie Monday having slept with the then living Edward Stubbleton before he was gunned down by her father (this also explains why Stubbs instantaneously falls in love with her). Needless to say, Andrew is disgusted to learn this.
• At the end of Baldurs Gate (the first), we learn that the man who killed Gorion is Charname's brother.
  • More literal example is the fact that the voice in your head belongs to Bhaal, God of Murder and your daddy. You'll have a LOT more of these revelations as the series goes on.
  • For one more example, Imoen is one of the Bhaalspawn, and thus your half-sister.
• In Jay's Journey, Jay's father is Max, the team ditz, who was rendered as such when a magical spell misfired. Jay is less than pleased.
• In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Hama is revealed to be Ivan's sister.
  • In the same game, one could also say that the Doom Dragon being a fusion of Felix and Jenna's parents and Isaac's father could count for this trope as well.
  • And in Dark Dawn, it's heavily, heavily, "Camelot-does-not-do-subtlety" heavily implied that Alex is Amiti's father. And then just in case it wasn't heavily implied enough they take a few bricks and beat it into you, without ever actually saying it. By the very endgame, even Amiti himself is starting to catch on.
• Parodied in Grabbed By the Ghoulies, in which Baron Von Ghoul tells Cooper he can join him, and they can rule the mansion as father and son. After Cooper's reply, the Baron realizes he's gave the wrong speech.
• Near the end of Infinite Undiscovery Iskan Du Bal reveals to Capell that Sigmund is his father. This was heavily implied by Svala explaining that after the newly born Capell was exiled from Casandra for being born an Unblessed, Sigmund, then-King of Casandra, had his Lunaglyph removed, thus reverting back to an infant.
• Semi spoofed in Legend of Dragoon. Two of the characters are related (it's not hard to guess which two by Disc 2. It's even lampshaded by the older party "There may be a secret connection between us!". Apparently seems to be a spoof in honor of the Final Fantasy VIII father/son thing.
  • Then it goes on to have an actual example. Emperor Diaz is Dart's father and Rose's former lover, Zieg. Then it's subverted -- it's actually Melbu Frahma in Zieg's body.
• In F.E.A.R., the Point Man is Alma's first son.
• Rival Schools: United by Fate reveals that The Hero Batsu is the son of (literal) Big Bad Raizo. In a surprising twist, Batsu also learns that his classmate Kyosuke and the real Big Bad Hyo are twin brothers and Batsu's cousins (their father Mugen is the older brother of Raizo).
• Parodied in Giants: Citizen Kabuto in Delphi's arc.
• Borderline example in Shadow the Hedgehog: The titular character was created from the blood of the Big Bad.
• In Overlord II, the mysterious woman who foresees your inevitable downfall and secretly observes your progress is later revealed to be Rose, the previous Mistress and your mother. This is hinted at first with Gnarl noting how familiar she looks and revealed with this exchange:

Gnarl: Look, it's our old friend. Rose: Oh, do shut up, Gnarl. Gnarl: What! How did you know-- hang on, I recognize that voice now! Rose! Former Mistress Rose! Or Mrs. Marius now, I should say. Don't trust her. She's a devious, manipulative, abandoner... Oh and she's your mother!

• Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney takes this trope Up to Eleven when it's revealed to the audience (but not to the protagonist) that Trucy is his half-sister, the guy who got killed in the first case was her father, and their mother is Lamiroir, the blind, amnisiac foreign singer from the third case. Whew....
  • Oh, the third game was pretty good at this too: Evil serial killer Dahlia Hawthorne was coincidentally the cousin of Mia Fey, the lawyer who got her a death sentence, as well as the daughter of the culprit of 2-2. Dahlia Hawthorne is thus also the cousin of Maya Fey and the older sister of Pearl Fey. And so is Dahlia twin sister, Iris. The victim of the last case eventually turns out to have been Maya's long lost mother, who is also Pearl's (and Dahlia's and Iris's) aunt, Mystic Misty Fey, the master of Kurain. So there's no part of the Fey family that's not messed up.
  • The madness that occurred in the 4th game sunk ship over ship over GODDAMN ship, and it is unlikely they will ever be salvaged.
    • You underestimate the fandom.
• Indestructo2Tank's Adventure Mode. After Dirk Danger defeats General Betton, Betton tells Dirk that he's Dirk's father.
• In the Troperiffic fantasy game parody Darkened Skye, when Skye finally meets her long-lost mother, she finds her to be extremely bitter towards Skye's father and distrustful of men in general. The reason for this attitude is revealed in the game's penultimate battle, where Skye's father is revealed to be The Dragon to the Big Bad. With 3 heads to boot.
• In Baten Kaitos, you find out at one point that Giacomo is Georg's son. However, since you find out even later that Kalas is an Artificial Human and therefore has no biological parents, this doesn't mean what you think it means.
• A popular Team Fortress 2 theory is the idea that the Spy is the Scout's father. In "Meet the Spy," the BLU Spy reveals that the RED Spy has been sleeping with the BLU Scout's mother. A drawing of the Scout's mother is engraved on the barrel of the Spy's unlockable handgun, the Ambassador. And one achievement for the Spy, "Who's Your Daddy," involves headshotting three Scouts with the Ambassador, the gun on which his mother is engraved.
  • Another popular idea is assuming the Pyro is female and the Scout's mother, explaining why the Pyro and Spy are archenemies (she hates him for whatever reason) and is in the thick of battle to watch over her son. A related theory is that the unseen Announcer is the Scout's mother, or that the Pyro and Announcer are somehow the same person.
    • We contacted the Pyro about this, and we recieved this response: "Mwafah hah har rarara."
    • This gets even more confusing given that the BLU Scout depicted in "Meet the Spy" is the RED Spy in disguise!
• In Luminous Arc 2, Master Mattias is Roland's father. He asked Steven to looked after his young son many years ago before going on his Necessary Evil path. Partly played with in that Master Mattias didn't even know until Steven told him.
• In Xenogears, it's revealed that Grahf is actually Fei's father Khan, as well as Wiseman, a mysterious masked man who has shown up to give Fei advice on several occasions. To further complicate matters, the true essence of Grahf is actually a previous incarnation of Fei, named Lacan, who learned to transfer his mind from one body to another, essentially becoming immortal.
  • Party character and android, Emeralda was created by another previous incarnation of Fei, a scientist named Kim. Essentially making Fei Emeralda's father.
  • Even better; Fei's mother turns out to be Miang, due to her being The Virus.
• Parodied in Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time. After you beat the game, Lord Vorselon will show up and claim "Rachet, I was... your father's accountant!"
• Blaz Blue: Calamity Trigger: Jin is Ragna's brother, not just some phycho using Japanese Sibling Terminology. Nu, and therefore Noel are clones of their Missing Little Sister, Saya.
  • Blaz Blue: Continuum Shift: Lambda is another clone of Saya. The Imperator of the Novus Orvus Librarium is Saya herself.
• In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow we find out Arikado is really Alucard, which means Alucard is protecting his fathers reincarnated soul.
• Double Switch: Lyle the Handyman is Eddie's father, and Elizabeth, the apartment manager, is Eddie's mother. All three of them know this, but the player and the other characters did not know about that.
• In Bayonetta, Father Balder reveals that he is the titular character's father towards the end of the game.
• In Secret of Mana, the hero character's mother is the Mana Tree and his father is the ghost you meet at the beginning of the game who tells you to take the Mana Sword.
• Inverted in the main campaign of Battle for Wesnoth: The Reveal is that prince Konrad isn't actually related to the King at all.

Web Animation

• In the third Lazer Collection video, we find out that the detective hero is the son of Doctor Octagonapus.
• In Proxicide's MK vs. SF 3, it is revealed at the very end that Akuma and Ryu are father and son.
  • This deviates from Street Fighter canon a bit -- in canon, Gouki is Gouken's younger brother and Ryu's adoptive uncle.
• The Most In The Graveyard toon on Homestar Runner reveals that Coach Z's aunt is Bubs's uncle, which makes them sixth fourth second fifth cousins thrice removed, according to Bubs.
• Broken Saints: More like I Am Her Father. Big Bad Lear Dunham tells the other heroes that he is Shandala's biological father in his Just Between You and Me.

Web Comics

• Parodied in this Penny Arcade strip.
• Girl Genius: At the end of the first major arc, Agatha escapes from Baron Wulfenbach with the newfound knowledge that she is the daughter of famous adventurer Bill Heterodyne.
  • In the next arc, she finds out that her mother Lucrezia was almost certainly the infamous menace known as the Other... shortly before getting a copy of said progenitor's persona uploaded into her mind.
  • Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, the Baron's son, may also be the son of a woman from the lost city of Skifander. This may or may not be related to reports that a princess of Skifander is in Baron Wulfenbach's domains and according to the Baron wants Gil dead.
    • He's also maybe Von Pinn's son. Which says some scary things about his genes.
      • Von Pinn is definitely a construct, and there's no other indication that constructs can breed with humans.
      • Could this be a Shout Out to the legendary parentage of Gil's heroic namesake?
• Earthsong : Willow learns that Earthsong is her eve
• Ozy and Millie: Millie eventually learns that the dread pirate Locke is her father, even though Merlin Sickness makes him look like he's about her age.
• A variation in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, when Bob first tells Molly that he considers her to be his daughter, even though they are not related.
  • Still later, Jean reveals that because Molly shares some of her DNA, Jean is her mommy, "just a little bit."
• Revolver Ocelot tells this to Psycho Mantis at one point in The Last Days of Foxhound. Mantis, having killed his father at the age of eight, states that he isn't. Ocelot concedes the point since the only reason he said it was to rip up in Mantis' old wounds.
• In Drow Tales, Jer'Kol tells Ariel he is her father, but it turns out he is really an assassin sent to kill her!
• Questionable Content references it in this strip.
• In Looking for Group, when Richard is in the demonic court on the Plane of Suck, he is asked why he travels with Cale. He responds with a mumbled "He's my mother." This gets a "What?" reaction from everyone in the room, including Richard. Probably just a joke, though. But they said that about the rabbit, too, so...
• Subverted in the Dan and Mabs Furry Adventures side-comic Abel's Story, in which Abel grows up believing Cid Rewanz is his father, when in fact Cid was killed and replaced with the Incubus Aniz years before Abel was born.
• Darths and Droids: Twice, and neither time is the one you'd expect (yet). "Anakin, I am your stepfather." And later: "No! Wait! Anakin, Ah am your f--. In the latter case, however, he may have been about to say "friend."
• Order of the Stick parodies the Empire Strikes Back scene in a recent strip, but as a whole this is not an example of this trope. Because Elan's father was introduced one strip before the reveal, it's a case of Luke You Are My Father.
  • Well, he did show up in one Flashback over 600 episodes before that, here, although he wasn't named then and hasn't been seen since. Still, the "reveal" came as no surprise to someone with a good memory.
• The Mulberry story "Mul/Kerry/Bush" included a scene where George W Bush tried to escape Mulberry's experiment by claiming he was her father. Since Mulberry has Invisible Parents, she nearly believed him, until Tiff pointed out that her last name isn't "Bush."
• A variation in The Whiteboard: Jinx friend, unnamed at the time, turned out to have been Howie's stepdaughter. Both of them knew, but it was certainly unexpected for the readers.
• In Gastrophobia, Philia reveals that she is Phobia's daughter from the future.
• In Scandinavia and The World, colonies and independent micro-nations are portrayed as the children of the countries that "own" them.

Web Original

• In "AVGN vs NC", the Nostalgia Critic tries pulling this on the Nerd. It fails.

NC: Wait! Wait! Would you let your brother die? AVGN: Brother? You're my brother? NC: Uh, yes! I am your brother! AVGN: Well then, surely you know the name of our mother. NC: Well of course I know the name of our mother! Eliza... be... (Nerd points Super Scope at Critic) Oh, blame a guy for trying!

• In the Legion of Net Heroes title Dvandom Force, .Sig Lad is revealed to have been the son of Mr. Thingy and the !Visible Woman of the Net.tastic Nine, who was dosed with an unstable form of the Super-Molder Serum, and who managed to escape the Retcon Limbo where the rest of the Nine had been sent through the Dvandom Dial.... No, seriously.
• Parodied, once again, in College Saga. The Final Boss Diculous (wearing a Darth Vader helmet with voice-changing filter) tries to pull this on the hero, only to have two of the party members inform him that "* We* are your parents!". Perhaps the reason the hero doesn't fall for it is that he was already revealed to be the son of Willie Wonka. The final twist is Diculous is their daughter.
• Seen in the Whateley Universe with Carmilla (Sara Waite). Not only does her father turn out to be the very demon a bunch of occultist wannabes are trying to sacrifice her to, but the first time she faces down the infamous archvillain known as the Necromancer she finds out that he in turn is her uncle!!
• Inverted in Battle for Milkquarious. Near the end, it is revealed that the villain is White Gold's son.
• Sockb4by - Doug Jones, to Ronnie Cordova.
• In Red vs Blue Season 6, Washington's line that "there's no such thing as ghosts, Church. You're the last AI. You're the Alpha."
• Rule 72. Darth Vader is Everyones father. NO EXCEPTIONS!
• The Gungan Council has Darth Apparatus doing this to both Ryori Holloway and Delilah Nepenthe.

Western Animation

• Kids Next Door: Number 1 learns in The Movie that the Big Bad Father is his uncle. Inverted in the same movie with the Delightful Children, who it's revealed aren't actually Father's children but former KND operatives whom he kidnapped and Brainwashed.
  • Also, kind of inverted in that Numbuh Zero, who we haven't seen before, is Nigel's dad, who we have.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: In "The Avatar and the Firelord", it is revealed that Avatar Roku, Aang's spiritual predecessor, was the great-grandfather of Prince Zuko on his mother's side, making Aang Zuko's great-grandfather in spirit, if not in body. Did we mention that Mark Hamill voices Zuko's father? Cue run-in-the-family memes.
• Such a moment happens in WITCH when Caleb finds out that Nerissa is his mother.
• Winx Club has Roxy finding out that Queen of the Earth Fairies, Morgana is her mother.
• He-Man and The Masters of The Universe: in the original series episode "Teela's Quest", the titular Hot Amazon finds out that she's the daughter of the Sorceress. Her mommy gave her Easy Amnesia, though, since Teela was NOT supposed to find out. This would've been true in the 2002 remake, but without the amnesia, had the show continued. Oh, we would've also learned that Fisto was Teela's biological father. For some reason, a couple of episodes seemed to hint that it was Duncan a.k.a. Man-At-Arms (who happens to be Fisto's brother and Teela's adoptive father) instead.
  • Some time after the end of the original animated series, the minicomic The Search for Keldor dropped hints that Skeletor is really King Randor's long-lost brother Keldor, making him Adam/He-Man's uncle. In the 2002 remake, Skeletor was originally named Keldor, but there is no indication that he is related to Randor.
    • While never stated in the show, the writers have since revealed that Keldor was intended to be Randor's half-brother. Same father, different mothers.
• Justice League Unlimited pulls this off twice, using Batman Beyond both times. In the episode "The Once and Future Thing", it's revealed that Warhawk, assumed to be the Legacy Character of Hawkman, is (or will be) in fact the son of Hawkgirl and Green Lantern John Stewart. "Epilogue", the Fully Absorbed Finale of Batman Beyond, reveals that Bruce Wayne was Terry McGinnis' genetic father. Warren McGinnis' reproductive DNA had been overwritten with Bruce's as part of Amanda Waller's Batman Beyond project.
  • Hades also tries to do this with Wonder Woman, with a twist that he had to resort to a technicality when WW pointed out her origin story doesn't allow her to have a father (she was sculpted of clay and made flesh by the breath of her mother, Hippolyte, instead of born; Hades claimed he was there during the sculpting, but not the life-granting).
• Code Lyoko: It is revealed just before the Season 2 finale that Franz Hopper, creator of Lyoko, is actually Aelita's father. This also reveals that she is human, and not an A.I. as everyone originally thought.
• Parodied in Teen Titans. In the first episode of the fourth season, Control Freak enters a Star Wars-esque TV show, kicks the Darth Vader lookalike and approached the Luke lookalike with saying, "I am Count Rol Freakow, the twelfth-level space samurai that trained Baran Rang. And... I am your father!". Followed by the typical "NOOOOOOO!!!!"
  • Also played with when Starfire and Killer Moth each try to convince Silkie/Larva M319 to choose between them. Killer Moth's attempt: "Larva M319, I am your father. Join me and we can... go on a picnic or something." Silkie already knew this.
• Parodied in Dexters Laboratory:

Dad: Dexter, I'd like to have a little word with you. Dexter: Oh, and what would that be? Dad: (coming out of the shadows) Dexter, I am your father! Dexter: NOOOOO! That Cannot Be True!... Oh, No wait, that's right. And Also: Dad: Join me, Dexter. Join the muffin side! Dexter's dad was making a big deal over not being allowed to get Mom's muffins.

• Parodied in The Venture Brothers, quoted above.
• Evil Emperor Zurg pulled this during a climactic fight scene with the title character in an episode of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Quite possibly to give a Shout Out to the Toy Story 2 movie (Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is a Show Within a Show that got turned into a show. It gets a little headscratch-ey, but the above mention is canon because of this show, which is the derivative work and... yeah, just yeah.) On the other hand, Zurg was implied to have been fooling around, as he then strikes a stunned Buzz and states "made ya look!".
• In X-Men Evolution (and also in the comics) Nightcrawler is lured out to a construction site with a mysterious note that promises that "everything will be explained". A hooded figure comes out of the shadows (actually, since it is early evening, there aren't many shadows to speak of, so they obviously added this in for dramatic effect) and, after making Nightcrawler squirm in confusion and anticipation for about thirty seconds, throws her hood off to reveal Mystique, Magneto's Evil Chancellor of sorts and says, "Kurt, I'm your mother." For bonus points, she does it a second time with Rogue (who was adopted, but still), though since it was in the middle of Rogue having a mental breakdown from all her absorbed personalities fighting in her head, it wasn't nearly as dramatic.
  • The original 90s cartoon also did this with Nightcrawler and Mystique, but with the added twist that Big Bad leader of the Friends of Humanity Grayden Creed, Jr. (who was already exposed in an earlier episode as being Sabertooth's son) was Mystique's son and Nightcrawler's half-brother(Just like in the comics).
    • X-Men scribe Chris Claremont originally intended Mystique to be Nightcrawler's father -- she's apparently a really good shapeshifter -- but Executive Meddling derailed those plans.
    • Thank God.
• Parodied in The Fairly Odd Parents in a "copyright-infringing dream sequence":

Timmy: Hey! You cut off my hand! I've only got two of those! Darth Vader-like: Don't worry, you get a new one. A really cool robot one! Timmy: How do you know all this? Darth Vader-like: Because, Timmy, I am your father. (removes mask to reveal himself as Cosmo) Cosmo: Your godfather!

• • Later lampshaded in that 3-part movie whose name I can't remember, but it was the one with the Terminator parody and such.

Turbo Thunder: Timmy, I am- Timmy: Whoa whoa wait, you're not going to say you're my father and then cut off my hand, are you? TT: No, I'm going to train you. ...Well, it was said something to that effect, that's all I remember.

• • • A brilliant continutynod to the quote starting the Fairy Odd Parents section here.
• Parodied in Freakazoid, in the episode "The Wrath of Guitierrez". During the climax of the episode, Guitierrez is knocked off a platform and hangs dangling over an abyss, and cries for Freakazoid to pull him up.

Guitierrez: Freakazoid, help me! Would you let your father fall? Freakazoid: My father? You're my father?! Guitierrez: (glances confused at camera) O-oh yes. I am your father! Freakazoid: (goes to help him, stops) W-who was my mother? Guitierrez: Uhh... Faye Dunaway? Freakazoid: (crosses arms) No she's not... Guitierrez: Kaye Ballard? Freakazoid: Kaye--nooo. Guitierrez: Would you believe Sandy Duncan?

• Moral Orel: The episode "Dumb" shows that Nurse Bendy is Joe's mother.
• Happens in the Futurama DVD movie Bender's Game, the parties being Farnsworth and Igner, the stupidest of Mom's three sons.
  • And an...odd version later: Hermes was the one that approved Bender in the production line (Even though he shouldn't have been), making him, in a bizzare sense, Bender's father.
  • This

Leela: They killed my parents (Leela is with two cloaked figures when Fry appears) Fry: Close (pulls down the hoods) Leela:They...are my parents

• Parodied in Teamo Supremo when Skate Lad corners the CheapSkate.

CheapSkate: You can't turn me in, Skate Lad. Skate Lad: Give me one good reason. CheapSkate: Well, um, because, uh... Skate Lad, I am your father. Skate Lad: Huh?! No you're not; my dad works down at the sporting goods store. I look just like him, loser!

• The final episode of The Replacements reveals that Conrad Fleem is Todd and Riley's uncle.
• Parodied in Phineas and Ferb, in the episode "The Chronicles of Meap". The pair mistake an alien villain (named Mitch) is the eponymous Meap's father, due to miscommunication. Later, after having discovered this, Mitch quite explicitly tells Meap "Just so we're clear on this, I am not your father!"
• In Chaotic, the card game revealed something more of a "I am also your founder" with Kiru, the greatest Overworld hero (even got a beautiful city named after him)and the ancestor to Chaor, currently one of the Overworld's greatest enemies.
• From South Park episode 201: Eric Cartman, Scott Tenorman's father is also YOUR father!
• Played with in Galaxy Rangers: Wheiner attempts to blackmail Walsh by threatening to reveal that Shane is Walsh's biological son. Shane never discovers this fact.
• Parodied in Johnny Bravo.

Darth Vader knock-off: I did not destroy your second cousin. I am your second cousin! Johnny: Nooooooooooooooo!!!

• A variation was used in the Pale Kids episode of Recess. Lawson hated the Pale Kids because of something that happened to Tiny Sedwick, a kid who had to go to the Pale Kids because he broke his foot while playing Pickle. When telling the leader upfront, the Pale Kids laughed, with Lawson reacting with confusion as to what they think is so funny about his reason, before the leader tells Lawson that he is Tiny Sedwick (or at least was).

Real Life

• Recent evidence has backed claims that a Frenchman, Jean-Marie Loret, was the product of an affair between Adolf Hitler, who was a German soldier in World War I, and his mother when she was 16 in 1917.
• The great Hawaiian king Kamehameha's biological father may well have been his rival, Kahekili.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger's son with the cleaning lady. He didn't know Schwarzenegger was his dad until the press got hold of the story.
• There are uncertain claims that O.J Simpson may be Khloe Kardashian's fahter.