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Gene Hunting: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
The protagonist has been happily living with his or her family until one day, out of the blue, they learn that the people who raised them are not in fact their biological 'rents, either by adoption or by infidelity. There begins the gene hunt, to find their genetic parents. Expect lots of [[Freudian Excuse|Freudian Excuses]], [[You're Not My Father]] and "are my adoptive parents my ''real'' parents" [[Wangst]]. Often the result of [[Parental Abandonment]] or [[Raised by Wolves]].
There are a few different ways this can play out: firstly, they [[Changeling Fantasy|find their genetic parents and discover happiness]] (this only works if the old parents are distant or [[Abusive Parents|abusive]]). Secondly, they can find their genetic parents, only to find they are more distant or jerky than their adoptive ones (expect lots of Prodigal Son-style making up at the end). Thirdly, they can ''locate'' their biological parents, only to realize that they'd rather not confront them and risk disrupting everyone's lives. Finally, they can fail altogether to find their parents (a real [[Downer Ending]] will have the character give up ''just before'' they would have found their parents).
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* The title character in Astrid Lindgren's ''Mio my Mio''.
* The driving plot of the movie ''[[Twins]]'' has the main character leaving his island to search for his family, finding a brother, maybe a father, and finally a mother in the process.
* ''[[Secrets And Lies]]'' is all about somebody looking for her birth mother, though she knew she was adopted all along, the death of her adoptive mother triggers the search.
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{{quote|[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Keith: You think that charm of yours is learned behaviour? That's genetics, baby!]]}}
** Also done with Trina Echolls. The degree to how well that ended is up for debate.
* Chuck does this in season 2 of ''[[Pushing Daisies]]''. Inverted with Emerson Codd, who tries to publish a book to lead his lost daughter to him.
* "[[Doctor Who|Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?]]" Of course. It's not quite clear why this little boy is looking for his mummy, but the ''gene'' hunting does save humanity from [[The Virus|zombification]].
** Given the onscreen explanation of why the little boy was zombified by the nanogenes, it seems pretty clear that he was looking for his Mummy because that is what the little boy was doing when he was hit by the bomb.
* ''[[Family Ties]]'': In one episode Alex's friend Skippy goes through this, and is hurt when he goes to meet his birth mother and discovers she doesn't ''want'' to have a relationship. Alex finally says, essentially, "Look, the people who changed your diapers and have raised you all this time? Those ''are'' your real parents," and Skippy decides he's right.
* One episode of ''[[Dharma and Greg]]'' has an old friend of Dharma visit and spend a lot of time with Larry. It turns out that the friend has determined Larry ''may'' be her biological father, and though she doesn't want to bring this up and disrupt his life she wants to bond with him just in case. Dharma eventually discovers proof that Larry couldn't be the father, but chooses not to reveal it when the friend says Larry was her favorite out of all the potential candidates.
* The [[Korean Drama]] ''[[Winter Sonata]]'': Joon Sang is a high schooler checking school records for who his father might be.
* On ''[[True Blood]]'' Sam was adopted and then abandoned when his adoptive family found out that {{spoiler|he was a shapeshifter}}. When he finds his biological parents and his younger brother Tommy, they turn out to be trailer trash who support themselves by {{spoiler|having Tommy shapeshift into a dog and fight in illegal dogfights}}. When his parents abuse his hospitality he throws them out and wants nothing to do with them. He tries to build a relationship with Tommy but the kid is so messed up things quickly take a dark turn.
* On ''[[Boy Meets World]]'', Shawn gets a letter from his [[Missing Mom]] in which she reveals that she is not his real mother. He proceeds to try to track his real mother, and is unsucessful in doing so. His dead father later appears to him in a vision and says that his biological mom was a stripper who took off after giving birth to him, though it's unclear if this vision was real or all in Shawn's head.
* In an early episode of ''[[Highlander the Series]]'', orphaned Richie Ryan does this, to no success--the man claiming to be his father is a con man, and the woman he'd always believed to be his birth mother turned out to have been fostering him. This turns out to be foreshadowing, as Richie is later revealed to be an Immortal, all of whom are foundlings.
* ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' has a girl come into Luke's diner saying that she's doing a DNA test for her sicence fair to find out who her father is.
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== Theatre ==
* ''[[Mamma Mia!]]'': Sophie, who has lived fatherless her whole life, finds an old journal of her mother's detailing three lovers she had around the time of Sophie's conception. So she invites the three men over, and instantly develops a rapport with one of them. Which one is her father? {{spoiler|No one ever knows.}}
** [[Word of God|The creators have stated that]] {{spoiler|Bill is the father.}}
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* Zigzagged in season 2 of ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]''.
** Would have been inverted, since Neone's biological parents were interested in knowing what happened to her first.
*** But the inversion is subverted in that they were originally fully content to leave Neone to her ignorance to protect her from Intimidator Irendus.
*** However, they decided to make peace with their past and meet her anyway; since Friar Rubberion had confirmed Neone was Neotondo and Jante's daughter through a paternity test and wanted them to face their fears.
*** ''Then'', Neone double subvert-inverts the subverted inversion by actively seeking to meet with them only to end the tabloid buzz, and not because she's terribly interested in being a part of a royal family. [[Mind Screw|Does your head hurt yet]]?
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* Fran was adopted by a Chinese couple in ''[[American Dad]]''. After Stan gets annoyed by their lack of assimilation, insistence on tradition, and refusal to treat him as "the man of the house" in his own home (they were pretty obnoxious and rude to him), he goes on a search for her ''real'' parents who turn out to be a pair of [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]] (they gave up their baby rather than downgrade to Coach seats on a flight).
* ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' once parodied this in the episode where Heifer found out he was adopted. To clarify, Heifer is a steer who was literally raised by wolves. Ultimately, Heifer has a dream where {{spoiler|his father informs him that he was abandoned at birth for being too much of a sissy. And that his mother's a car seat somewhere.}}
* ''[[
** {{spoiler|He is a frog with a very long nose, not a fish.}}
** {{spoiler|They weren't even their ''biological'' parents. They [[Door Step Baby|were found outside their cave as babies and they took them in]]. Cat and dog are annoyed that they still don't know where they came from, but they knew who [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|cared for them when they were young and that was good enough for them]].}}
* Moses in the movie ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'' is shocked to find out he's not ''really'' a prince, but a Jew.
** He knew full well where he came from in [[The Bible]]. He murdered an Egyptian out of ethnic/nationalistic pride due to not wanting to see his own attacked by an Egyptian wrongly. ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'' merely tidies the story up for young viewers, by making that whole murder thing an accident. The idea that he didn't know who he was actually comes from the film ''[[The Ten Commandments]]''.
* Po's arc in ''[[Kung Fu Panda]] 2'' is driven in part by this, especially since he has faint memories of his original parents abandoning him. But he eventually comes to terms with both the fact that {{spoiler|they loved him so much they died for him, and that his adoptive father loves him no less.}} Cue [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] marathon.
* Leela's personal plot in early ''[[Futurama]]'' episodes is this, though played with. As she belives she's an alien, she's looking for her entire race, not just her parents, and she doesn't have adoptive parents, she was raised in the orphanarim from childhood. She belives she finds the only other cyclops, but he turns out to be a shape shifting alien who only wants her to take care of one of his castles. She eventually discovers that she's not an alien, but a sewer mutant who looks mostly normal. Her parents left her on the orphanarium's doorstep because they wanted her to have a normal life and watched over her from the shadows her entire life. She vists them often in later episodes and tries to go back and have a life with them after being returned to a teen, but returns to normal.
* Featured in the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2
{{reflist}}
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