Moses in the Bulrushes: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* Arika in ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' appears to be the infant princess set adrift to escape invaders in the very first scenes of the series. Then again, so does ''Nina'', and the official story was that it was ''Mashiro''. The series plays with the ambiguity for a while before [[The Reveal]] (heated fan debates and inevitable [[Epileptic Trees]] continued all the way until episode 23 aired).

** As it turns out {{spoiler|that ''was'' Arika as an infant in the first scene -- but she wasn't actually the princess but instead the daughter of the King's retainer being set adrift. The actual princess was Nina, who was snuck out in a different fashion off screen. Mashiro -- who actually ends up as the Princess -- was a fake set up by the authorities to provide continuity of the royal line}}.

* Superman is not the only [[DC Comics]] hero to invoke this trope. [[Aquaman]], at least in some versions of his origins, was cast away from Atlantis at birth and raised by a lighthouse keeper who named him Arthur Curry.

* Nightcrawler of the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] was thrown over a waterfall by his mother, later he is rescued and adopted.

 

== Fairy Tales ==

* In ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20140704200150/http://surlalunefairytales.com/authors/crane/dancingwater.html The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird]'' and ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20140703172148/http://surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/96threelittlebirds.html The Three Little Birds]'', the king's [[Wonder Child|children]] are abandoned and grow up in ignorance of their birth, until a magic bird informs the king and children of the truth.

 

== Film ==

* The Penguin in ''[[Batman Returns]]'' (1992) is a villainous version of this trope; the Penguin even plans to kill the firstborn of every family in Gotham as revenge for his upbringing.

* Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' movies, although the trope is slightly distorted in their cases. For one, they are directly given to the Larses and Bail Organa.

* In teaser for the Western spoof ''[[Evil Roy Slade]]'', the titular character was the last survivor of an Indian attack. The Indians looked at him, then walked away. Then wolves found him, sniffed him for a bit, and ran away yelping. As the credits roll, we see Roy as a very angry toddler stalking out of the desert, toward the camera.

* In ''[[The Night of the Hunter]]'', Missus Hooper finds the two Harper children washed up on shore in a little boat amid the bullrushes. Although they're both a bit older than baby Moses, they're still compared to the Biblical event.

== Literature ==

* The villainous Benedetto ("blessing") from ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]'' is a definite subversion of this trope. He is the product of an adulterous affair and left for dead by his [[Parental Abandonment|parents]]. He is raised by criminals, and is much worse than his adoptive family. If they manage to impart any values to him, it is an utter hatred of his birth father.

* A version occurs in ''[[The Deed of Paksenarrion]]'' by [[Elizabeth Moon]]: In ''Oath of Gold'', the third book of the trilogy, Paks takes up the task of locating the rightful king of Lyonya, a man with elven blood and specific birthright powers that make him the only one the [[Our Elves Are Different|elves]] will accept as ruler. He was stolen by evil forces as a child, and, it turns out, enslaved for some years and forced to endure some terrible things that the book doesn't go into great detail on. A visitor contrived to give him a chance to escape, and he found his way to some distant relatives who didn't realize who he was, but raised him well. He went on to make his own life, and it isn't until Paks figures out who he is that his true purpose and powers are revealed - but it turns out that half a dozen people ''actually knew where he was'', but feared to bring the truth to light, because 1) his time in the hands of the evil ones could have damaged him beyond help (specifically, making him an unstable ruler or making him unable to wield the powers needed to perform his duties as king), and 2) until shortly before the story begins, his sister was alive and showed great promise as a ruler.

* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'':

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', {{spoiler|this is the generally accepted story for Aegon VI Targaryen suddenly popping up in the Free Cities...if it really is him.}}

 

* ''[[Smallville]]'' uses this same sort of variant as ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z'' to distinguish itself from the standard ''[[Superman]]'' back story. Superman deciphers a message from his father and it ends with an instruction to "rule [Earth] with wisdom".

* Part of the mythology in the fourth season of ''[[Sliders]]''. {{spoiler|Quinn was the infant son of the greatest living physicist on a parallel Earth, who placed his children with his childless alternate selves to shelter them from a war on his homeworld.}}

* For much of the series, Leela in ''[[Futurama]]'' is believed (by herself, the rest of the main cast, and the viewers) to be an alien abandoned on Earth. It is later discovered, however, that {{spoiler|she was born to a pair of mutants living in the sewers of New New York. As mutants are rejected by society and forbidden to leave the sewers, they placed her on the doorstep of an orphanage with a note written in an alien language, so that people would think she was an alien rather than a mutant.}}

** {{spoiler|In a heartwarming twist, her parents did watch over her for her entire life as they best could and as soon as Leela discovers them she tries as hard as she can to have a close, normal parental relationship with them (while still living above ground where mutants are banned).}}

* ''[[Kung Fu Panda 2]]'' reveals Po to be this, finally explaining how a panda can have a goose as a father.

* While it's pretty clear that Tygra from the [[ThunderCats (2011 series)|2011 ''ThunderCats'' reboot]] is adopted (considering how he's a Tiger in a royal family of Lions), it was never brought up in the show itself until the episode "Native Son". {{spoiler|His father Javan sent him away in a hot air balloon when he was unable to sacrifice him to the Ancient Spirits in order to save their clan from a deadly disease. The balloon eventually found its way to the city of Thundera, where he was raised by King Claudus and his queen and would later gain an adoptive brother, Lion-O.}}