39,327
edits
Truly Single Parent: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
prefix>Import Bot (Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.TrulySingleParent 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.TrulySingleParent, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 2:
{{quote|''The world gave me no child, so I built one.''|''[[The Megas]]'', "The Message From Dr. Light/Level Select"}}
[[Mad Scientist|Mad Scientists]], being the rampant egotists that they are, tend to [[Cloning Blues|clone]] themselves when they want children. Inevitably the children in question are as [[In the Blood|brilliant as their parent]], though there seems to be only about a 50% chance of their brilliance being [[Lamarck Was Right|of the same sort]]. The clone's childhood, if [[Younger Than They Look|portrayed at all]], is frequently awful as they're forced to live up to their parent's seemingly-[[Why Couldn't You Be Different?|impossible expectations]]. Often, there's some attempt to subject them to the [[Compassionate Critic|same childhood traumas]] as their parent had, in order to further force them on an identical path.
This applies particularly to mad scientists of the [[Evilutionary Biologist|Evilutionary]] variety, and appears to be a primarily literary trope, probably because of the difficulty in finding plausible-looking pairs of actors.
Compare [[Replacement Goldfish]] and [[Homosexual Reproduction]]. Not related to normal single parenthood: normal single parents have one parent (or more, depending on how many you start with) leaving for whatever reason.
{{examples
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
Line 58:
** {{spoiler|Kenneth "Sparky" Valentine}} from John Varley's ''The Golden Globe'' turns out to be an (illegal) clone of his father.
** The Titanides from Varley's ''Gaia'' trilogy, while technically male and female, actually have three sets of genitals making for an absolutely rediculous number of possible reproductive permentations one of which is--you guessed it--solo, in which a female Titanide impregnates herself. Solos tend to be considered a little odd.
* The Ullerans from [[H. Beam Piper]]'s ''Uller Uprising'' are a hermaphroditic race. Self-impregnation is difficult but not impossible though it is generally considered taboo. The chief of the one Ulleran tribe that practices it refers to his offspring as "little me".
* In the [[Backstory]] of [[John C Wright]]'s ''[[The Golden Oecumene (Literature)|The Golden Age]]'', main character Phaethon was "born" when a computer simulation of his father Helion's personality became self-aware. [[My God, What Have I Done?|After causing an]] [[Earthshattering Kaboom]].
* Not a cloning scenario, but in ''The Bad Place'', by [[Dean Koontz]], {{spoiler|hermaphroditic Roselle, who is the product of brother-on-sister rape and fully reproductively functional as both male and female, self-impregnates three times, resulting in two sons (one the villain, the other a co-protagonist) and a pair of twin daughters}}.
* "When It Changed" by Joanna Russ subverts this: in spite of being a [[One
* In [[Stephen Hunt]]'s ''The Rise of the Iron Moon'', Lord Starborn to Starsprite -- whom he then casts out, unnamed; it is Black and Coppertracks who name her.
* [[Robert A. Heinlein]] provides several examples in his works.
** "[[All You Zombies]]" features a character that, through some truly amazing feats of [[Time Travel]], is simultaneously {{spoiler|[[My Own Grampa|his own mother, father, daughter, and son]]}}.
** In ''[[Time Enough for Love]]'', protagonist Lazarus long has this pulled on him by the people involved in his latest rejuvenation, as a way of getting him out of the ennui of [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]. They conspire to bear twin [[Opposite Sex Clone|Opposite Sex Clones]] of him that he adopts and raises as his own children.
* [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Otherland]]'' features a character who attempted this as part of an [[Immortality]] scheme. He commissioned ''two'' clones of himself -- one of each sex -- and had one of them raised in the same manner as his mother, intending for her to "give birth" to his male clone and raise it as he himself was raised, thus providing personal continuity as a form of [[Legacy Character]]. When the program suffers a catastrophe, he gives it up in favor of [[Brain Uploading]].
* This has been mentioned as having happened in the ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' series. There are even laws in place stating that a clone is legally the child of the tissue donor and can legally inherit from them - so long as the cloning was authorized by the donor or the donor's estate. That caveat is to prevent cases where someone clones a rich man, kills the rich man, and then has the clone claim his 'father's' fortune on behalf of his creator.
Line 97:
** There are no caveats in the [[Useful Notes/Islam|Muslim]] account. Islam accepts the Virgin Birth, but [[The Quran (Literature)|The Quran]] also says very pointedly that God was not begotten and does not beget. The Muslim version of the story is that God willed that Mary become pregnant with Jesus without Him or anyone else being the father. No, this doesn't make sense: it's not supposed to. It's a miracle.
** Also subverted to some degree in all versions of the story: although Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived, she was very much married to the carpenter Joseph. It is generally agreed that Joseph adopted Jesus helped raise him as his own.
* Nyx from Greek mythology did this. A lot. Sources disagree on exactly which children were hers alone and which she had with her husband (and [[Brother
Line 114:
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' {{spoiler|Solid and Liquid Snake are the cloned children of Naked Snake (Big Boss).}} But {{spoiler|not a perfect clone. The donor egg was from a Japanese woman and he was brought to term by EVA.}}
** {{spoiler|Solidus is implied to be a perfect clone though}}
* In ''[[Resident Evil]]'', [[Half
* Arceus from [[Pokémon]]. In one event you can see Arceus create an egg for you ([[Mind Screw|using a ritual that apparently involves Google images]]). Said egg becomes a level 1 legendary, which can double as a [[Disc One Nuke]].
* In ''[[Mega Man (Video Game)|Mega Man]]'', somewhat in the original series and especially in [[Fanon]], Mega Man, Roll, and to a lesser extent Proto Man are all treated as Dr. Light's children, despite merely being [[Ridiculously Human Robots]] created by him. (Though this may be partly because he simply has more regard for his creations than the series's [[Big Bad|other major robotics genius]].)
Line 139:
* The various cloned Dannys (and [[Opposite Sex Clone|Dani]]) in [[Danny Phantom]] all refer to Vlad as father, though technically parenthood should be either Danny himself or Jack and Maddie, what with them having Danny's DNA.
* While they're not clones, ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' father, Professor Utonium, could still qualify as a Truly Single Parent by adoption if nothing else. At least if you consider "Made in a lab out of sugar and spice and everything nice, plus Chemical X" to be adoption.
* Dr. Von Reichter from ''[[Cybersix]]'' creates his "son" José with science. Von Reichter doesn't seem to consider José his son so much as José thinks of [["Well Done, Son" Guy|him as a father]].
* Subverted in ''[[Transformers Animated]]''. It is strongly hinted throughout seasons 1 and 2 that Isaac Sumdac is a [[Truly Single Parent]] of Sari. It turns out that he isn't the only parent- he's the {{spoiler|[[Half
* The ''[[Transformers]]'' continuities in general do this a lot with their robot characters, given that they only need a single set of hands (or even no hands, in some cases) to build them.
* Theorized about Hank and Dean from ''[[Venture Brothers]]'', but [[Jossed]] by [[Word of God]]. The boys were born the old-fashioned way some time ago; Rusty is just very secretive about who the mother is. <ref>The prime possible mother is batshit insane and an even WORSE parent than Dr. Venture is. That's saying something.</ref> Also, {{spoiler|Hank and Dean we know actually ''are'' clones of the original natural-born Hank and Dean who were [[Too Dumb to Live]].}}
| |||