History Main / ParentalSubstitute

Or being dead. [[MindScrew Or both.]]\\

* In''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet'': Ralph is a mix of both a big brother figure and a fatherly figure to Vanellope. They generally have the bond of siblings but there are also several aspects of their relationship, especially with regards to Ralph learning to let Vanellope be independent, that lean more towards a paternal relationship.

* ''WebVideo/OutsideXbox'': In their ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' campaign, Prudence - who was abandoned by her birth parents, and raised by a sinister warlock that she ended up justifiably murdering - has developed this sort of relationship with her warlock patron, who has become universally known as "[[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Daddy Cthulhu]]".

** Weiss Schnee's mother is a neglectful alcoholic and her father is a self-absorbed businessman who is only concerned with maximizing profits and his own image. On the other hand, Klein Sieben is a warm, approachable man who uses his ability to shift personalities to cheer up Weiss when she's feeling low. He provides her with coffee after she's been in a cold room, uses his rude and grumpy personality to make her laugh by mocking Jacques' behaviour, and has a motherly personality that fusses over her well-being. Once Jacques detains Weiss for her insolence in Volume 4, Klein doesn't hesitate to secretly help her escape the family mansion and flee Atlas. Thus, Weiss considers Winter and Klein as the only family she has left.
** In Volume 6, Emerald's unwavering belief that Cinder will look after them, even when Cinder's estranged from Salem, leads to a confrontation with Mercury. Mercury implies that Emerald's blind faith in Cinder comes from a desperate need to have a mother-figure in her life, and he brutally tells her that she's deluded if she thinks Cinder cares about either of them. Emerald refuses to hear it, but Cinder has a sadistic craving for power and has physically hit Emerald for questioning her decisions.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': Over the course of the film, Sulley becomes a father figure to Boo. At one point, while Boo is disguised as a young monster, she gets separated from Mike and Sulley and ends up joining a group of young monster children being supervised by a babysitter. Eventually, Sulley finds her, and because of how relieved he is to see that she's safe, the nanny mistakes Sulley for Boo's father.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': Over the course of the film, Sulley becomes a father figure to Boo. At one point, while Boo is disguised as a young monster, she gets separated from Mike and Sulley and ends up joining a group of young monster children being supervised by a nanny. Eventually, Sulley finds her, and because of how relieved he is to see that she's safe, the nanny mistakes Sulley for Boo's father.

'''Nanny:''' Oh, my. What an affectionate father!

* [[LoveableSexManiac Miu Iruma]] from ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' becomes this completely by accident, courtesy of an amnesiac Monotaro dubbing her his "mommy". Miu plays along with it and acts very tender and loving towards her "son", and this dynamic returns in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaUltimateSummerCamp''.

** ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'': [[spoiler: Phoenix]] becomes the substitute parent to Trucy after the girl's father flees from the courthouse and had effectively vanished from her life. Despite her missing her biological father, Trucy still sees [[spoiler: Phoenix]] as a loving father all the same.

[[caption-width-right:350:For when your actual dad's too busy training. Or being dead. [[MindScrew Or both.]]\\

* Fish, for Eggs in ''WesternAnimation/TheBoxtrolls''. Eggs indirectly calls the boxtroll his father at one point.
* Ronin to Nod in ''WesternAnimation/Epic2013'', in a way.

* Baloo acts as this to Mowgli in ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook'' for the brief time they are together. Prior to him, he was RaisedByWolves, his adoptive father Rama even referring to him as being "like a real son".

* Though Hiccup's father is alive and well in ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'', it's Hiccup's boss Gobber the Belch who, despite being frustrated with the boy's overall clumsiness and uselessness, is nevertheless supportive and protective of the boy. He urges Hiccup to be happy with who he is, pressures Hiccup's father to let the boy train to fight dragons when it's clear that's what he wants to do, and even defends the boy from the bullies. He's harsh and InnocentlyInsensitive with his encouragement, but he genuinely means well.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'', the Parental Substitute relationship between Kale and Korso is made even more complicated by the fact that Korso is TheMole.
* Silver is a mentor and father-figure to Jim in ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet''. Considering how the story goes, it's one of the more turbulent examples, but it all works out in the most satisfying way possible.
* Flora, Fauna and Merryweather are the mother figures to Princess Aurora in ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty''. While Aurora's mother never died, the princess did grow up without her mother close to her, so it fell on the fairies' hand to raise the child well. Aurora calls the three her aunts, though.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet'', Ralph is a mix of both a big brother figure and a fatherly figure to Vanellope. They generally have the bond of siblings but there are also several aspects of their relationship, especially with regards to Ralph learning to let Vanellope be independent, that lean more towards a paternal relationship.

* In her own way, Johanna is this for the protagonist of ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'' after the deaths of their parents. She cooks for him and pushes him to succeed. And according to Tamara, Johanna’s influence does more to make him into a better person than her own does.
* In ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}'', Amy has been the title character's primary mother figure since the death of her biological mother.
* Several cases take place in the ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' series:
** In ''Justice For All'', it's revealed that Phoenix's mentor Mia Fey left her little sister Maya in their aunt Morgan's care when she left the village to [[spoiler:search for her and Maya's mother Misty]]. The sisters were unaware of [[spoiler:Morgan's jealousy toward Misty and her daughters]], and were ''very'' upset to find out that [[spoiler:[[BrokenPedestal their beloved aunt would try to frame Maya for murder]], so [[StageMom her own]] ChildProdigy daughter Pearl would be the heir.]]
** In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'' Bikini is this for Iris.
** [[spoiler: Phoenix]] becomes the substitute parent to Trucy in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' after the girl's father flees from the courthouse and had effectively vanished from her life. Despite her missing her biological father, Trucy still sees [[spoiler: Phoenix]] as a loving father all the same.
** In ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations 2]]'', [[spoiler:Hakari Mikagami]] becomes [[spoiler:Shimon Aizawa's adoptive mother]] after the death of his mother, Ami. His father, [[spoiler:the ''real'' president of Zheng Fa]], [[DisappearedDad is already dead.]]

Compare and closely related to PromotionToParent (when it's a sibling), HonoraryUncle, {{Nephewism}}, and AdoptivePeerParent (for non-relatives), LikeASonToMe, TeamMom, and TeamDad.

* Ronin to Nod in ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'', in a way.

* In ''Pinball/WHODunnit'', Trixie sees her father's business partner, Tony, as a substitute dad after her real father disappears in an auto accident.

* In ''Literature/TheDancingWaterTheSingingAppleAndTheSpeakingBird'', the princes and princess are raised by a deer, which oddly enough does not produce RaisedByWolves. Then again, kind-hearted fairies provided her, so perhaps it was magic.

** The philandering Zeus fathered a number of sons, none of which he actually helped raise. Some of them were lucky enough to find substitute father figures who took care of them: Heracles was raised by Amphitryon, his mother's mortal husband, while Perseus was raised by the fisherman Dictys, who took his mother Danae in when she was abandoned by her own father, and Dionysus was raised by his maternal aunt Ino and her husband Athamas, who Zeus gave to them to take care of so his jealous wife Hera wouldn't find out about his affair.

* In Myth/NorseMythology, Odin sometimes comes off as this to Loki in some stories (most likely the reason behind Loki becoming his adopted son in the Creator/MarvelComics [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor version]]). While Odin often threatened him and allowed others to punish Loki for his mischief, the two shared a blood pact which made Odin always treat him as an extension of himself, basically making Loki his child. Kinda sad that he then had to bind him to a boulder as punishment for making some mean comments/killing Baldr, driving Loki insane and turning him against the Aesir, leading to Ragnarok.

* In ''[[Pinball/WHODunnit WHO dunnit]]'', Trixie sees her father's business partner, Tony, as a substitute dad after her real father disappears in an auto accident.

Compare and closely related to PromotionToParent (when it's a sibling), {{Nephewism}}, and AdoptivePeerParent (for non-relatives), LikeASonToMe, TeamMom, and TeamDad.

** George Washington is this for the protagonist, which causes no small amount of taunts from Hamilton's enemies. (It should be noted that, historically, Washington was also a father figure to Lafayette and John Laurens.) Hamilton actually resents Washington's paternal feelings since he's got a lot of DaddyIssues, and it causes a major rift in "Meet Me Inside.". Although it is played a lot more straight in the later part of the play where the last time we see Washington alive is during the "the Reynolds Papers" number where Washington get the paper thrust into his face, and he answer with a silent look of pure disgust at Hamilton who until then stoicly stood perfectly still while people threw his letter at his face finally turned away in shame. And just before getting shot he glimpsed "the other Side" and he saw his dead Son, his dead Mother and Washington waiting on the Other Side—Washington taking the place of the actual father that he never knew.

[[caption-width-right:350:For when your actual dad's too busy training. Or being dead. [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Or both.]]\\

** Nani tries to be this for Lilo after [[PromotedToParent their parents' deaths]]. It's hard for both of them.

Compare and closely related to PromotionToParent (when it's a sibling) and AdoptivePeerParent (for non-relatives), LikeASonToMe, TeamMom, and TeamDad.

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** George Washington is this for the protagonist, which causes no small amount of taunts from Hamilton's enemies. (It should be noted that, historically, Washington was also a father figure to Lafayette and John Laurens.) Hamilton actually resents Washington's paternal feelings since he's got a lot of DaddyIssues, and it causes a major rift in "Meet Me Inside.". Although it is played a lot more straight in the later part of the play where the last time we see Washington alive is during the "the Reynolds Papers" number where Washington get the paper thrust into his face, and he answer with a silent look of pure shame at Hamilton who until then stoicly stood perfectly still while people threw his letter at his face finally turned away in shame. And just before getting shot he glimpsed "the other Side" and he saw his dead Son, his dead Mother and Washington waiting on the Other Side—Washington taking the place of the actual father that he never knew.