History Main / DenyingTheDeadParentsSins

Bob has always looked up to his father and believes him to be the best man who ever lived but what's this? His father has long been dead and he is suddenly told that everything he knew about the man was a lie. Naturally, Bob denies this at first, but eventually is forced to accept reality. 

[[AC:{{Anime}} & {{Manga}} ]]
* Fritz Verdeman from ''Manga/{{Monster}}''. Fritz was bullied for years as a child when rumors had spread that his father was a spy, and he would violently respond everytime. He seemed to finally be at peace when the court found him innocent, but years after his father's death, Fritz found his journal which contained proof that he really was a spy. [[DeconstructedTrope The feeling of betrayal made it really hard for Fritz to trust people afterwords]]. 

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'': William Turner nearly ''shoots'' Jack for telling him that his father, "Bootstrap Bill" Turner was a pirate but in a variation not even in condemnation as he insists that he was also a good man. It takes a talk with other cursed pirates who knew him, for William to learn the whole story and reconcile both of these facts. But in a further subversion it turns out his father wasn't dead to begin with, as we learn in the next movie.
* Jan and Todd Wolfhouse from ''Film/{{Beerfest}}'' get rather defensive when the German drinking team tells them their grandfather stole a recipe for the greatest beer in the world. It turns out he did steal it, [[spoiler: but he was the rightful heir, and so are they by extension]]. 

** Daenerys is reluctant to hear anything bad about her father, who was popularly known as [[TheCaligula "The Mad King"]], and prefers to believe the negative stories about him were just lies spread by the enemies who usurped the throne from him. 

* PlayedWith in ''Literature/TheRiseOfKyoshi.'' Kyoshi's parents abandoned her at a young age--a sin which she very much ''doesn't'' deny. However, when she tracks down their old [[spoiler:bandit crew]], she meeks Lek, an orphan whom they took in sometime afterwards. Lek immediately denies that his beloved guardians would have abandoned her, and even when forced to accept it, is bitter about Kyoshi's vocal disrespect for them.

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* In ''Series/{{Moesha}},'' the title character is already having a hard time with the reveal that [[FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo her cousin Dorian is actually her half-brother]], conceived while her parents were separated and her father, Frank, had a relationship with another woman. She's further shaken when she learns that it was her now-deceased mother who insisted on the deception.

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' also has Abbas Sofian, convinced that his father was a hero and a martyr. His inability to accept the truth (that he was a coward who committed suicide) leads to [[spoiler: the death of Altaïr's son]].
** Ezio from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' tries to deny his uncle Mario's claims that his father was an assassin. [[SubvertedTrope He gets over it pretty quickly though]]. In his case, however, it's less of "my father wasn't a criminal," and more "what do you mean, there's two AncientConspiracy factions and my supposedly-a-banker father was a part of it," as he never seems to hold a grudge of any sort against his father for not telling him.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', the Champion of Cyrodiil deals with a series of sidequests involving reuniting two long-lost brothers and taking back their home. Afterwords, a thief approaches the Champion and reveals that the father of the two brothers was his partner-in-crime, but their last job together (stealing a sword from the Duchess of Chorrol) was never finished. If the Champion tells the brothers, they refuse to listen without proof. They acknowledge the truth and apologize for their behavior if the Champion retrieves the sword and gives it back to the Duchess. 

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' had a plot arc about Peter's parents [[spoiler: that revealed them as potential traitorous spies for the Soviet Union. Subverted in the fact that they really weren't, and that they were actually spies for America who took the fall to hide a bigger secret.]] 

* In ''Webcomic/ThisIsekaiMaidIsFormingAUnion'' Lord Demeter is in deep denial about what a monster his father was, he hates commoners because his mother was a maid that he believes seduced his father then killed him. Deep down he knows that his father actually raped his mother and the murder was actually revenge, it takes a heart to heart with [[TalkingToHimself a manifestation of himself from an alternative timeline]] to admit this even to himself.

Compare MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal, NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead. Accepting the truth may lead to a BrokenPedestal. Compare SinsOfOurFathers.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' refuses to believe that Snape's hatred of his father (and him by proxy) was justified. Given how unfairly Snape has judged him ever since they met, it is pretty reasonable for him to assume that he has always been this biased towards everyone he didn't like. In the fifth book, he discovers he was a  JerkJock who publicly tormented Snape while they were at school and while he gets disturbed by this little fact, he never gets any proper closure in the matter, including any objective account about whether Snape was usually more provocative or whether it was always his father who sadistically pursued him.

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'': William Turner nearly ''shoots'' Jack for telling him that his father, "Bootstrap Bill" Turner was a pirate but in a variation not even in condemnation as he insists that he was also a good man. It takes a talk with other cursed pirates who knew him, for William to learn the whole story and reconcile both of these facts. But in a further subversion it turns out his father wasn't dead to begin with.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Daenerys is reluctant to hear anything bad about her father, who was popularly known as [[TheCaligula "The Mad King"]], and prefers to believe the negative stories about him were just lies spread by the enemies who usurped the throne from him. 

* Jan and Todd Wolfhouse from ''Film/{{Beerfest}}'' get rather defensive when the German drinking team tell them their grandfather stole a recipe for the greatest beer in the world. It turns out he did steal it, [[spoiler: but he was the rightful heir, and so are they by extension]]. 

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Danaerys is reluctant to hear anything bad about her father, who was popularly known as [[TheCaligula "The Mad King"]], and prefers to believe the negative stories about him were just lies spread by the enemies who usurped the throne from him. 
** Arya Stark is furious when told her father (now dead) is rumored to have loved another woman besides her mother, despite having grown up with a bastard half-brother.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening'' has this in the form of Nathaniel Howe. Justified in that he's been out of the kingdom for a while and he didn't hear of what his father did, but when he returns to Ferelden only to find that his father was killed, his family stripped of their lands (which were given to the Grey Wardens) and titles, and the name Howe essentially being mud these days. He actually breaks into Vigil's Keep to kill your character (as you were the one that killed Howe) and denounces everything you say about his father (including murdering an old friend and almost his entirely family and taking his lands out of petty jealousy, assisting one of the villains of the vanilla game with attempting to take power in the country, and all sorts of other unpleasant things) until you meet his sister, who tells him what a rotten person their father was. Nathaniel is surprised that it's the truth, but eventually comes to the opinion that he deserved his death and that his father wasn't the person he thought he was.
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', late in the Azure Moon route, Dimitri learns that his stepmother, Patricia, [[spoiler:was actually responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur, which resulted in the death of Dimitri's father and Glenn (Felix's older brother and Ingrid's fiance)]], and unsurprisingly, finds this hard to accept. That being said, [[spoiler:it's unclear whether Patricia was actually responsible, or whether an Agarthan impersonated her, just like with her brother, Lord Arundel]].

* Sadly, TruthInTelevision. There have been many cases where criminals settle down and start a family, only to have their past catch up with them. The children's denial is believed to be a mental block to help cope with the new knowledge.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' refuses to believe that Snape's hatred of his father (and him by proxy) was justified. Given how unfairly Snape has judged him ever since they met, it is pretty reasonable for him to assume that he has always been this biased towards everyone he didn't like. In the fifth book, he discovers he was a [ JerkJock who publicly tormented Snape while they were at school and while he gets disturbed by this little fact, he never gets any proper closure in the matter, including any objective account about whether Snape was usually more provocative or whether it was always his father who sadistically pursued him.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has a downplayed example, in that Harry refuses to believe that Snape's hatred of his father (and him by proxy) was justified. In the fifth book, he discovers he was a JerkJock who tormented Snape while they were at school (although he grew out of it eventually and Snape is shown as being in the wrong for not letting go of the grudge). 

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'': William Turner nearly ''shoots'' Jack for telling him that his father, "Bootstrap Bill" Turner was a pirate but in a variation not even in condemnation as he insists that he was also a good man. It takes a talk with other cursed pirates who knew him, for William to learn the whole story and reconcile both of these facts.

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'': William Turner nearly ''shoots'' Jack for telling him that his father, "Bootstrap Bill" Turner was a pirate but in a variation not even in condemnation as he insists that he was a good man.  It takes a talk with other pirates who knew him, for William to learn the whole story and reconcile both of these facts.

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'': William Turner nearly ''shoots'' Jack for telling him that his father, "Bootstrap Bill" Turner was a pirate. 

Compare MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal, NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead. Accepting the truth may lead to a BrokenPedestal. 

** Ezio from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' tries to deny his uncle Mario's claims that his father was an assassin. [[SubvertedTrope He gets over it pretty quickly though]]. 

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'': William Turner nearly ''shoots'' Jack for telling him that his father, "Bootstrap Bill" Turner was a pirate. 

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' also has Abbas Sofian, convinced that his father was a hero and a martyr. His inability to accept the truth (that he was a coward who commited suicide) leads to [[spoiler: the death of Altaïr's son]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', the Champion of Cyrodiil deals with a series of sidequests involving reuniting two long-lost brothers and taking back their home. Afterwords, a thief approaches the Champion and reveals that the father of the two brothers was his partner-in-crime, but their last job together (stealing a sword from the Duchess of Chorrol) was never finished. If the Champion tells the brothers, they refuse to listen without proof. They acknowledge the truth and apoligize for their behavior if the Champion retrieves the sword and gives it back to the Duchess. 

* ''DragonAgeOriginsAwakening'' has this in the form of Nathaniel Howe. Justified in that he's been out of the kingdom for a while and he didn't hear of what his father did, but when he returns to Ferelden only to find that his father was killed, his family stripped of their lands (which were given to the Grey Wardens) and titles, and the name Howe essentially being mud these days. He actually breaks into Vigil's Keep to kill your character (as you were the one that killed Howe) and denounces everything you say about his father (including murdering an old friend and almost his entirely family and taking his lands out of petty jealousy, assisting one of the villains of the vanilla game with attempting to take power in the country, and all sorts of other unpleasant things) until you meet his sister, who tells him what a rotten person their father was. Nathaniel is surprised that it's the truth, but eventually comes to the opinion that he deserved his death and that his father wasn't the person he thought he was.

** Arya Stark is furious when told her father (now dead) is rumored to have loved another woman besides her mother, despite having grown up with his bastard son John Snow.

* Sadly, TruthInTelevision. Several times criminals settle down and start a family, only to have their past catch up with them. The children's denial is believed to be a mental block to help cope with the new knowledge.

Compare MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal. Accepting the truth may lead to a BrokenPedestal. 

!!{{Anime}} & {{Manga}} 

!!{{Film}} 

!!{{Literature}} 

!!VideoGames 

!!WesternAnimation 

!!RealLife 

* Ezio from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' tries to deny his uncle Mario's claims that his father was an assassin. [[SubvertedTrope He gets over it pretty quickly though]]. 

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' also has Abbas Sofian, convinced that his father was a hero and a martyr. His inability to accept the truth (that he was a coward who commited suicide) leads to [[spoiler: the death of Altaïr's son]].