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World of No Grandparents: Difference between revisions
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* [[The DCU]] is particularly bad about this, considering the sheer number of heroes who can include "orphaned at an early age" as part of their origin.
** Bruce Wayne, orphaned at age 8. Despite being the heir of one of the oldest and most prominent families in Gotham (and possibly America), he is raised by his ''butler''.
*** ''Possibly'' justified by the fact that Alfred was more or less considered family. But still, the complete lack of a mention of other relatives does feel odd.
**** In Golden and Silver Age comics, Bruce ''was'' raised by a relative, his uncle Philip Wayne; Alfred only raised him in modern comics.
**** [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Shortpacked]]'' (see above quote).
**** Some other Waynes have appeared over the years including, believe it or not, BRUCE's OLDER BROTHER! Where has he been all these years? In a coma, apparently. The ghost hero Deadman actually took over his body for a while. He doesn't seem to exist [[Post-Crisis]], however.
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*** A real uncle did turn up and successfully sue for custody fairly early in the comics' run--that is, in the forties. Of course, he was actually hoping to get Bruce to pay him a million dollars to get Dick back, and wound up trying to murder Batman and getting sent to jail. Unlike supervillains, he never appeared again, nor did his wife.
*** This troper has always preferred to believe Dick has relatives through his mother who, when they eventually found out she'd died in an accident halfway across the country and little Dickie-boy had been adopted by a millionaire, resolved to keep quiet so the law didn't turn around and deprive the kid of such a fantastic opportunity.
**** He does have an uncle in the [[Recursive Adaptation|comic]] based on ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]''. The problem is that he's paralyzed due to the "accident" that killed Dick's parents, aunt, and cousin, and can't take care of him. Dick mentions in the same flashback that both of his grandfathers died before he was born.
**** On ''[[The Adventures of Superman (radio)|The Adventures of Superman]]'', Bruce is taking care of Robin on Robin's father's request. Moreover, it's revealed that Robin has an estranged grandfather.
**** For a time in the [[Pre Crisis]] days, Dick had his Aunt Harriet Cooper. She was later used in the TV show.
*** Jason Todd's father died, and again Bruce Wayne takes in some random orphan he'd never met before. (Oh well, if [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha|Fate]] can get away with it...)
*** When Tim Drake's father died... well, you can see the pattern here. Since the Drakes were apparently almost as well known a family as the Waynes, this adds an extra notch of "Huh?" to the whole thing.
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** [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Peter Parker's]] parents died in a plane crash, and he's raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, without much mention of any other family. (Though oddly, in the comic his aunt and uncle ''look'' more like his grandparents, the [[Fridge Logic]] of which has become more obvious to people in recent years.)
*** Peter's father was born when Ben was already an adult, so one can assume Peter's paternal grandparents would be too old. But no explination for Peter's mother's side.
**** Some versions say that [[Double In-Law Marriage|Aunt May and Mary Parker were sisters too]], thus offering the same explanation. However, this is not true in all continuities.
** Since many [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] origin stories revolve around parents abandoning their mutant children, its assumed that the no one else in the kid's family would want a fish-boy/spiked/avalanche-making teenager...
** In the ''[[Daredevil]]'' movie, Matt Murdock's father dies, and he's immediately bundled off to an orphanage. No mention of his father's or mother's parents. (The comic doesn't have them either, but Matt is over eighteen at the time, so it's a less obvious omission.)
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* [[Harry Potter]] was born when his parents were 20 and shortly afterwards was left with only one surviving family member. Apparently all four of his grandparents had died. This is especially odd when you consider that James' parents were wizards, and wizards live longer than [[Muggles]] but still seem to generally have kids in their 20s and 30s. Not only should Harry's grandparents still be alive, so should his ''great-grandparents''.
** There is the Mirror of Erised scene in Book 1, but who knows if that's his real family or just what he imagines his family would have been like? Note that there's no mention at all of Petunia or Dudley being in the reflection.
** [[Word of God]] was that Harry's grandparents all died of natural causes, and that James' parents specifically were quite old when they had him. About a hundred or so? [[J. K. Rowling]]'s aversion to math is well-known.
*** Harry's grandparents all get (very) brief mention, as Sirius mentions James' parents taking him in when he ran away, and we get about a sentence mention of Lily's parents reaction to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. So they are there, but blink and you'll miss them.
** Neville Longbottom is the only character known to have a living grandparent. Then again, wizards do live pretty dangerous lifestyles and there has been a very destructive war in the recent past.
*** Not quite. {{spoiler|Teddy Lupin}}'s maternal grandmother raised him after {{spoiler|Remus and Tonks}} were killed in Battle of Hogwarts. Since there is no mention in the epilogue of {{spoiler|Arthur or Molly}} dying, we can probably assume that most of the Next Gen kids have at least two living grandparents.
*** It's also implied that Draco's paternal grandfather had recently died in Half-Blood Prince, meaning he was probably still alive during the first few books, though we never see him to get any confirmation of that.
* In ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', the Baudelaire orphans are raised by absurdly distant relatives (on the order of "fourth cousin three times removed") and later by people who aren't relatives at all, as if their grandparents or other relatively close relatives are simply not present. (Though in the book, Mr. Poe says that the children will be raised by whoever is most "convenient", and Count Olaf is simply the only "relative" of the children in the city, while in the movie, he explains that the children will stay with their "closest living relative", which he takes [[Literal
** As the series progresses it becomes apparent that all the guardians (or at least the first few) were {{spoiler|part of [[Ancient Conspiracy|VFD]], and it's implied that the orphans' parents specifically intended for the children to stay with members of the group. Unfortunately, they didn't count on the schism.}}
* Especially bad in ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'', where fairies live for ''hundreds of years'' (usually over 1000) and Holly Short is stated in the first book to be somewhere in her eighties. So not only should her grandparents be alive, but her great-grandparents, her great-great-grandparents, and possibly her ''great-great-great-grandparents''.
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'': Gosalyn's grandfather was murdered shortly after her parents died, getting her sent to an orphanage until the [[Diabolical Mastermind]] who ordered the hit on said grandfather came looking for her. Hence how she ended up adopted by [[The Hero]].
* All the parents of the cast of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' are present and accounted for, but only one grandparent has ever shown in the series: Sam's [[Cool Old Lady|grandma]]. Danny did mention his "Grandpa Fenton" in one episode.
* Averted in ''[[The Land Before Time]]''. After Littlefoot's mother dies, his grandparents raise him from that point onwards. Although there is no mention of his paternal grandparents, or the grandparents of any of his friends.
** Littlefoot's father is shown to be part of a migratory herd of Longnecks (Apatosaur/Brontosaur) so it's not impossible that the rest of his father's family is also constantly on the move.
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