Parents as People in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- All For Luz:
- Camila is a Struggling Single Mother who was pressured to send her daughter to "Reality Check Summer Camp", unaware that it was even worse than she realized — instead of a program meant to teach Luz how to conform to society's expectations of it, it was a front for a Deadly Game. Shigaraki exploits her ignorance to convince Luz that her mother never truly cared about her; not enough to fight for her daughter's sake, anyway... when in reality, Camilla does care for Luz, and she desperately tries to correct her mistakes by standing up for her even as things go increasingly to hell.
- While Alador does love his daughter Amity, he's reluctant to even look at her in the eyes on the best of days, due to being a constant reminder of All For One's experiments on them.
- In Amazing Fantasy, Mary Jane wants nothing more than for May to live a happy, normal life. But after May develops powers and learns that her dad is Spider-Man, she's understandably cross that Mary Jane never told any of this to her. MJ also clamps down on any talk about superheroes, coming across as obstructive and unsupportive to May even though she just wants to keep May safe.
- Battle Fantasia Project: Yuuki Yamaguchi dumped poor Akiko into juvenile hall and basically tried to forget about her. But he was a consummate professional who wanted to live up to his father's reputation, and Akiko would not reveal the reason for all her fights and bruises, which were shredding his family's good name.
- The Potters in The Bloody Ashikabi
never checked once on their eldest child after abandoning him with the Dursleys and outright became estranged from their daughter Ivy when she was sorted in Slytherin. However, they call out Dumbledore for entrusting Harry to a magic-hating couple when his abused past comes to light and when Ivy is almost raped at Hogwarts, James Potter refuses to be placated by Dumbledore's decision to lightly punish the culprits and announces he will go to the Aurors and the Board of Governors. Oh, and if Dumbledore isn't happy with it, James will take his children out of the school and let the old man explain WHY one of Britain's most respected families decided to quit. - A Bolt of Light shows Barry being very critical towards the Queens' parenting, noting they let their children get away with anything without trying to discipline them. She still empathizes with Robert's Heroic Sacrifice, assuring any loving parent would die to save his child's life.
- Child of the Storm has a lot of these.
- Wanda Maximoff, godmother of Harry, and the (secretly) biological mother of Hermione by John Constantine, and she gave both of them up to protect them. It turns out that this was necessary, even though it broke her heart twice over.
- With Hermione, Wanda had her safely adopted by loving parents and cut off all contact for her protection, due to being in a chaotic situation and justly terrified for her daughter. However, her desire for a clean break and to keep the secret far past the point where it's practical (despite a number of warnings from characters who figure it out based on the chaos magic and increasing resemblance) or safe has disastrous consequences when Hermione's mutation, also Omega Class, manifests as the result of an exceptionally traumatic possession, where the monster that body-jacks her nearly kills Hermione and a lot of people around her. Wanda's reaction is essentially My God, What Have I Done? mixed with It's All My Fault. Hermione rather agrees.
- With Harry, it was both better and worse. On the one hand, as Wanda puts it, she knew Hermione would be loved. Harry? Not so much. Plus, she was blocked off from taking him in by Strange, her teacher, on the same grounds - which, while logical, she bitterly resents him for. However, once she can take part in Harry's life, it's made clear that she adores him and is a loving and supportive Parental Substitute - something helped by the fact that Harry's pretty forgiving once he gets an explanation. But at the same time, this leaves Hermione feeling resentful of both the attention he got more or less unasked for and the implicit standard of tolerance he set, especially since he defends Wanda when Hermione really lays into her (Wanda, for her part, believes she deserves every bit of it).
- It turns out to be generational: Wanda was believed to have been killed as a newborn, along with her mother, so her father, Magneto, didn't find her until her chaos magic and mutation went nuts when she was about 12. While he protected her and wanted the best for her, he also handed her off to her teacher and foster father, Doctor Strange, recognising that he couldn't help her and Strange could. Strange was an excellent teacher and clearly loves Wanda dearly, but despite his best efforts, was not at all suited to be a parent. Magneto, meanwhile, descended into total megalomania while she was under Strange's protection and guidance, and was The Dreaded and an absolute lunatic by the time she met him again. Combine that with Strange's routine omniscience and manipulative tendencies, involving the death of a number of people she cared about and the jerking around with her daughter and godson, and it's unsurprising that while Wanda loves both of them deep down, she also bitterly resents them and is understandably sceptical of their actions and motives, which they both understand and regret.
- It's also generational in the Carter-Rogers family - Peggy had to pose as her daughter's older sister to protect her, and then vanished when said daughter, Alison, was 17. Alison, meanwhile, felt the pressure to live up to Peggy and Steve's legacy, and became a rising star at SHIELD as its Deputy Director, and only realised she was neglecting her children after seeing the effects of Howard's Parental Neglect on Tony. She also ended up pushing her daughter, Marie, away when the latter Refused the Call. As she admits, "I was a much better spy than a mother."
- Marie, in turn, ended up pushing away her own daughter, Carol Danvers, as she saw where her "scrappy little warrior-maiden" was going and tried to stop it. Not reining in her subtly psychologically abusive husband didn't help. Thankfully, Marie has since reconciled with her mother and does so with her daughter in the sequel, choosing to be supportive of Carol's superheroics (and finally kicking said husband to the curb).
- Plus, Steve understandably takes a while to adjust to the fact that at the mental age of 29, he has a fair number of descendants stemming from a slip in protection with Peggy (which he feels horribly guilty about). Later, he comes around and becomes Carol's 'dad'.
- Odin is depicted as a well-meaning and genuinely loving father and grandfather... just one who's deeply emotionally stunted thanks to an abusive prick of a father, and consequently often bad at expressing it. The fact that he's bound by The Chains of Commanding doesn't help, nor does the fact that he's over 5000 years old - as is noted, the 10 years or so that Harry spent with the Dursleys are equivalent to about a month by his personal standard, and he wanted to keep Harry secret and thus relatively safe. He accepts his blame and apologises, but both his sons still weren't pleased with being forced to keep away from Harry (Thor by a mindwipe to keep him sane, Loki by his father's command), and Harry is explicitly noted to have forgiven, but not forgotten.
- On the upside, it is noted that the characters in question tend to learn from their mistakes; despite Wanda's suspicion of her now Reformed, but Not Tamed father, she admits that he's being a model parent to her much younger half-sister, Lorna Dane (though she did pull Magneto aside first and threaten him along the lines of "you will be a good father to her or else"), and Alison has learned to become an excellent grandmother. Wanda also seeks to make amends with Hermione by reaching out once her daughter is willing to talk, ready to be completely open and honest with her.
- Wanda Maximoff, godmother of Harry, and the (secretly) biological mother of Hermione by John Constantine, and she gave both of them up to protect them. It turns out that this was necessary, even though it broke her heart twice over.
- Date a Mad Scientist and Other Ways to Disappoint Your Children: One of the key plot points of the fic is Membrane struggling with trying to maintain both a hectic professional career and being a single father to his two children.
- Invasion of Falls: Professor Membrane, after the events of the Florpus, has been making more of an effort to be more involved in his kids' lives and sends them to a summer camp in Gravity Falls to get them to socialize more.
- The Moon's Flash Princess has Lux's parents: being wealthy and knowing their daughter is traumatized from the SAO incident, the moment they caught on Lux's attraction for Minako, who is quite unconventional and doesn't hold a steady job they decided to protect her from the supposed Gold Digger, and started trying to set her up into an Arranged Marriage. Word of God is that they have no idea Minako doesn't need any money, and they don't realize Minako either has no idea Lux is in love with her or just pretend due to their age difference (Lux being sixteen and Minako in her twenties).
- In The Silver Raven, Lilith Clawthorne very much loves her son, Nero, and wants only the best for him, but she often struggles to relate to him due to their differing personalities and has a tendency to be overly protective of him.
- In the Mega Crossover Ultimate Re-Imaginings, Tony Stark is portrayed like this, even though Blair thinks he's neglectful and has made it more than clear if it wasn't for her adoptive mother she wouldn't have anything to do with him despite him trying to be a father. He's just not very good at it.
- Blackbird:
- Quentin. For all his neglect and verbal and emotional abuse, he does love Laurel and Sara. Once he realizes that Laurel has actually been missing for the past three years, he throws himself into finding her immediately, even though he is no longer a member of the SCPD. In fact, one of the reasons Sara and Dinah never told Quentin about the deal is because they knew he would've never approved, tried to get Laurel back himself, and gotten them all killed (along with the rest of Starling City). In the present, everyone keeps him Locked Out of the Loop because there is a genuine fear that if he finds out the Awful Truth, the guilt will kill him.
- Moira. She does a lot of shady things, and is hardly a model parent for Thea, having been too caught up in her own grief to be there for her daughter and letting her get away with far too much. However, she loves both of her children more than anything else and everything she does is for their sake. The thought of doing what Dinah did to Laurel is outright unbearable to her.
- To Hell and Back:
- Malcolm Merlyn is a terrorist and a former assassin, but he does love Tommy and Oliver. However, his inability to move on from Rebecca's death and obsession with avenging it via the Undertaking means he makes a poor parent. He neglects Tommy and rarely gives him any positive reinforcement, causing Tommy to become a "Well Done, Son" Guy. As for Oliver, he tries to overcompensate for the amount of time they spend together and favors him due to the guilt of both unwittingly neglecting him all his life and stranding him on Lian Yu after sinking the Gambit. That's not even counting the fact that he's doing this when Oliver has no idea of their blood relation, nor the fact that Malcolm can't tell him due to the Queens threatening to expose the Undertaking otherwise.
- Slade honestly loves all his kids, but being a Mirakuru-infused top agent means he can't really be a part of their lives. Grant has no idea he exists, he was forced to abandon Joe to save him from Amanda Waller (causing Joe to be obsessed with killing her in revenge), and his unwilling separation from his adoptive Lian Yu kids landed them in the laps of the League of Assassins. Even after he reunited with the latter, he's busy with constant missions and rarely has any time to spend with them.
- Astra loves Kara but is also a racist general who is obsessed with completing Myriad and implementing it on Earth to make up for failing to save Krypton. She is also in love with and married to Non, who hates Kara. Understandably, Kara is not keen on continuing their loving aunt/niece-maternal relationship when she finds out what Astra has been up to, even though she still loves Astra deep down.
- The Stalking Zuko Series has Hakoda. Having been separated from his children, Katara and Sokka, for most of the series, he's trying to make up for lost time, which often involves fairly embarrassing attempts to be a "cool dad." More seriously, though, he doesn't fully understand how much Sokka and Katara have changed in his absence (particularly how Katara can no longer simply accept the Southern Water Tribe's patriarchal traditions) and takes his children keeping secrets from him poorly.
- one day at a time (Nyame):
- Jason warns Damian of this when he finally meets Bruce. Later commentary on Original Bruce's parenting made it clear that while he loved his children, he was not a good parent. His emotional constipation, and more importantly, his refusal to grow past it led to him neglecting and even abusing his children on both the emotional and physical level. It's implied that his children eventually grew sick of it and cut him out of their lives until he finally got his act together. When Jason confronts him over this during his Near-Death Experience, Bruce has enough self-awareness to fully admit that he was a terrible father and apologize to his son for everything he put him through.Jason: Expect greatness when you meet him, but never perfection. He might be a great man, but he is still just that — a man.
- He also tells Damian the same thing about Talia. According to Jason, while Damian shouldn't disregard everything Talia has taught him, he should take into account that his mother was trying to reconcile her love for Ra's and her love for Bruce (two figures with diametrically opposing ideologies) when teaching him. Indeed, while Talia did her best with Damian considering the circumstances, in the end, she is even more damaged than he is and ultimately can't be the mother he needs right now. That is why she elects to leave at the end of the story; without Ra's, she has no idea who she is anymore, and that is something she needs to figure out on her own.
- David Cain is a nuanced case. While there is no question he was horrifically abusive to Cass, he also provided her more emotional support than any of her siblings' biological and even adoptive parents ever did. He did genuinely love her, but he was also Vicariously Ambitious and thus projected his desire to have the perfect assassin as a partner through her, convincing himself that having her 'fulfill' her destiny is what was best for her. In the end, however, his love for her won out, and he gave his life to save hers and finally allow her the chance to live her own life.
- Crystal Brown loves her daughter, but she's also a Triple Shifter and a recovering drug addict, so she doesn't have a lot of time for Stephanie. This is one of the reasons why Stephanie bonds so easily with the Waynes.
- Even Jason himself fell into this. While by all accounts he was a model father and adored by his children, the trauma over losing so much of his family made his overprotective instinct go into overdrive, sometimes to said children's detriment. Flashbacks show that his daughter Helena was deeply annoyed by this to the point of causing at least one argument between them, and it nearly caused him to alienate both his sister Cass and his son Terry.
- Jason warns Damian of this when he finally meets Bruce. Later commentary on Original Bruce's parenting made it clear that while he loved his children, he was not a good parent. His emotional constipation, and more importantly, his refusal to grow past it led to him neglecting and even abusing his children on both the emotional and physical level. It's implied that his children eventually grew sick of it and cut him out of their lives until he finally got his act together. When Jason confronts him over this during his Near-Death Experience, Bruce has enough self-awareness to fully admit that he was a terrible father and apologize to his son for everything he put him through.
- "Starting Over" places emphasis on Bill Adama's difficult relationship with his sons after the Fall of the Colonies. With Lee having run away from home in his teens, his father and Zak are relieved when Lee is found alive on another ship in the Fleet, and all three agree to a fresh start, but there are various problems in their relationship, ranging from Lee feeling that he is only 'valued' by his father because of his flying skill or Zak feeling left out as he never flew in a viper himself (he's still in the fleet but he's a more standard officer). Matters come to a head shortly before the settlement on New Caprica, as Adama assure Zak that he respects how Zak's skills lie in areas outside of his own expertise and assures Lee that even if he wasn't sure he was ready for fatherhood when Caroline became pregnant (to the extent that they only married because of the pregnancy) Adama has never regretted being Lee's father even if he finds it difficult to talk to him at times.
- In The Day After You Saved the Multiverse, Jerome and Naomi Kent truly care for their son and want what's best for him, but they do not know how to handle the fact that he has mysteriously gained Superboy-like powers which he intends to use, even at the expense of his safety. They do not want him to get hurt, but he refuses to stop helping people, and they are afraid that he will cut their relationship if they push him too much or the wrong way.
- In Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation, Klar Kent clearly cares and does his best, but his failure to discipline Adam properly when his son brutalized a crook and reach him out afterwards leads to Adam becoming more twisted.
- This is a key part in the Beauty and the Beast fic Kissed by a Rose, which opens with Belle having been raped and impregnated by Gaston before she came to the castle. When the Beast learns of the circumstances of her pregnancy, he asks Lumiere what Belle's options would be if she had reported Gaston's rape, as Belle assumed that she would be forced to marry Gaston. Lumiere observes that the Beast's father would likely have had Belle marry Gaston if the case had been brought to him, albeit because the king wouldn't have had the time to examine the matter in greater depth amid his other responsibilities. Lumiere justifies the king’s likely decision by observing that some women have made false accusations to get rid of past lovers, although Lumiere and the Beast are certain that Belle isn't the kind of person who would do that.
- Light of the Moon: Quirin is a strict father who tries to keep his son from the world and restricts practically everything he has access to (other than alchemy, which he more or less encourages as it keeps his son's rock powers under control). But this comes from fears that the world around them will hate/fear Varian for his abilities, or that someone will try to kidnap him and exploit said powers. These fears are justified, as Gothel kidnaps eight-year-old Varian when she learns he has the powers of the Moonstone.
- Amanda's parents are a very negative case of this in Never Had a Friend Like Me. They clearly never wanted a child, and continue to maintain a lifestyle as young professionals, with their daughter tacked on as an afterthought and only given the necessities of life out of a sense of obligation.
- Us and Them: Much of the side stories deal with Aeris and Sephiroth, and pretty much anyone else who has kids, learning how to and how not to deal with them, such as Seph using Sleep and Silence materia to crowd control his kids, Aeris using a garden hose to break up fights, since she's not strong enough to do it herself, and Shera kicking Cid every time he swears in front of their daughter, which she quickly has to stop because said daughter starts kicking Cid herself.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Although Ren Serizawa isn't a villain here like he was in MonsterVerse canon, what references we get still show his father the late Dr. Ishirō Serizawa was this. Serizawa genuinely loved and respected his son and wished him well in whatever choices he made, but besides being a bit of a When You Coming Home, Dad? guy, Serizawa couldn't help feeling closer to Vivienne Graham because they saw eye-to-eye more on Serizawa's passion for Godzilla and the Titans, and Ren couldn't help noticing this.
- A major recurring theme of the Alexandra Quick series. None of the parents in the story have been shown to be outright Abusive Parents yet, but they all have significant flaws. The only parental figure that is close to ideal is Thalia King.
- Orion and Walburga Black from The Black Sheep Dog Series. Sirius sees them as manipulative, power-hungry, and bigoted tyrants and wants to have nothing to do with them. However, the series puts a painstaking effort to show that for all their flaws, both parents do love their wayward eldest son and want him back in the family; it's just that Walburga's naturally astringent personality and Orion's closed-offness, in addition to their clashing ideas of what's good and bad, leads to communication problems that, more often than not, leads to hostile interactions.
- In The Dark Trio, Lily and James are presented as well-meaning parents who ultimately make a lot of bad decisions. They agreed to let Harry be raised by the Dursleys (who were actually willing to take him in, and only got their canon treatment because they were cursed by an escaped Death Eater out for revenge) due to Dumbledore's unfortunate advice to protect Harry from his brother's fame. When they reunite with Harry several years later, they really do want to reconcile with him, but Harry has a few reasons not to trust them.
- The Potters in Princess of the Blacks truly want to reconcile with their daughter Jenny after learning they were wrong and she wasn't a squib. Unfortunately for them, Jen wants nothing to do with them at all and they can't seem to realize that. James in particular reacts poorly to anyone telling him Jen doesn't want to reconcile, even if it's Jen herself saying so.
- Eve's time raising Seth in Women of Eden was much harder than it was with Cain and Abel because she was dealing with one son murdering the other and both of her lovers being banished to Hell, leading to Seth feeling inadequate as a son because his parents wouldn't stop comparing him to them. When she meets him in Hell (in disguise as "Roo"), she vows to be there for him as a friend to make up for it.
- Stoick in Persephone truly did love his son and is stunned when Hiccup tells him he thinks he was only Loving a Shadow when he thought Hiccup was excelling in dragon-training. Valka's relationship with her son is only slightly better. Astrid's parents agreed to Stoick's decision to sacrifice her out of desperation and pressure from (almost) the entire village to do so, though they regret the decision even before it becomes apparent that it didn't work. Relationships are strained, to say the least.
- Little Jolyne Goes To Morioh: Discussed in regards to Jotaro. While he evidently cares for her (and is quite overprotective to boot), his frequent hunts against dangerous Stand users mean leaving Jolyne behind. Between that and his stoic attitude, Jolyne worries he actually hates her. Josuke assures her that her father loves her more than anything in the world, affirmed when Jotaro comes to pick her up and apologizes for coming back late.
- In Natural Selection, Isshin Matoi/Soichiro Kiryuin shows in his POV chapter that he does deeply love his children, but he was at a crossroads where he had to choose between them and prioritizing his work with Nudist Beach, where he chose the latter. He's shown to constantly hate himself for this decision due to being forced to see what became of his children because of it. In spite of his predicament, he still does everything he can to save Ryuko and Satsuki.
- The Outside has Ragyo and, to a lesser extent, Satsuki (who's an older sister). Ragyo really cares about her daughters but, due to Satsuki's poor health, she coddled her a bit too much to the point of being doting and overprotective, leaving after a fight with her husband, which, after her husband's death, left her daughters to fend for themselves while she was unaware (until much later). In the latter case, while Satsuki genuinely cares for Ryuuko, it's made clear that she has a slew of issues that hasn't left her able to care for herself properly, let alone her sister.
- Some of the conflict in Secret Sunshine is implied to be related to this on Satsuki's end. From what can be said, she does care about her daughter, Kiko, but, if her telling her sister, "I know but I'm not ready for any of this." is a clue, she wasn't ready for motherhood and, so, didn't want to deal with the responsibilities, foisting them onto Ryuuko.
- Ryuuko has some shades of this, too, as, like Satsuki, she wasn't ready to raise a child and, while she loves her niece and can't picture life without her, she still has her own issues (among other things) to contend with and is pretty overwhelmed, especially when it comes to taking care of Kiko and herself.
- In Weekend at Hisao's, Shizune's father and Hisao's parents are seen in this light. Shizune is frustrated with her father's persistent attempts to get her to speak (in the fic, it's indicated that she can speak but sounds terrible), but sees that he wants her to succeed and appreciates that he doesn't treat her any differently from her non-disabled brother. Hisao says he didn't like his parents' frequent absences from his life due to working but realizes that they worked so hard so that he could grow up in a nice house that they never had in their childhoods, and were willing to sell that house if it was necessary to cure his condition.
- Spoiler Alert features Kim and Ron’s Kid from the Future, Max, coming back in time while chasing Monkey Fist after the villain uses the Tempus Simia. Having grown up seeing his parents as skilled superheroes and authority figures, Max is somewhat bemused to see their younger selves, such as how Ron basically flails around in combat when Max is used to his father as a skilled martial artist, or how Kim isn't particularly interested in video games yet.
- born of hell('s kitchen):
- Foggy furiously rants about Sister Maggie letting her freshly orphaned, freshly-handicapped son sink into self-destruction and poor anger management without even trying to support the boy, which leads Matt to slightly cool down regarding his mother. Nonetheless, Sister Maggie is aware she failed as a parent, concedes Matt has a right to be angry, and genuinely wants to build a good relationship with him and be a good grandmother to Matt's son.
- May Parker loved her adopted nephew with all her heart, but she was unprepared to deal with a superpowered preteen, and her advice to keep it secret or else heavily contributed to Peter's anxiety and fragile self-esteem.
- Matt and Jess themselves are desperately aware they're messed up and terrified of messing up the tiny human being they created together. This awareness leads them to ask for help and advice regarding their issues, so they can work on them and become the parents Peter deserves.
- I Hope You Have Unlimited Text Messaging:
- Tony was already fully aware of his parents' faults, but learning that their Parental Neglect wasn't because they didn't love him but because they were trying to protect him (HYDRA was performing multiple assassination attempts on Howard; after the third one — which killed Ana Jarvis — the Starks sent Tony off to boarding school for his own safety, without telling him why) complicates his already-screwed up issues with them, which he has to work through during therapy.
- Steve suffers from this too. After he woke up from the ice, he learned (via dossier, of all things) that he had a 78-year-old half-sister through his father. The same father who he thought had died during World War I. After some reflection, and remembering things such as his parents arguing and his father hitting his mother, Steve realizes that his mother actually lied to everyone about that after his parents divorced, and Steve, being so young, just accepted that as truth and never thought back on it. While he isn't happy with the situation, he ultimately can't blame his mother for doing what she did considering the time period, and it doesn't diminish his high opinion of her in the least.
- If I Could Start Again: Odin loves both his sons, but how he raised them caused a number of problems. He openly praised Thor in ways that led to him gaining his infamous ego that would've caused the second coming of Hela had Thor not learned humility on Earth, while he inadvertently left Loki starved for the acknowledgement of his father. He understands the mistakes he made and seeks to do better.
- Howard Stark in the Second Chances Series admits that he was a terrible father but it was largely due to a combination of his poor people skills and the demands of running a multimillion-dollar business. Even times he deliberately avoided Tony was because he knew things would devolve into a fight and was trying to avoid that. When they reconcile, Tony realizes that his relationship with his father was so terrible because they're exactly alike.
- Joe Danvers from A Prize for Three Empires unquestionably loves and cares for his daughter Carol Danvers, but he is an old-fashioned man who can't understand why Carol would want to become a career soldier instead of a housewife. To his credit, he's at least trying.Joe Danvers: Does that suit have to be that small?
Carol Danvers: All the fashion these days, Dad. I hope you understand.
Joe: I’m not sure. But I guess we’ll have to live with it.
- The Feralnette AU shows Sabine and Tom struggling to adjust to their daughter's dramatic shift in demeanor as she Stopped Caring about everything relating to her social life and hobbies. Both are all too painfully aware that they've lost their daughter's trust with their past failures, and attempt to balance slowly rebuilding that bond with their parental duties:Sabine: Honey, we're supposed to be scolding Marinette!
Tom: For having friends?
Sabine: For sneaking her friends into her room!
Tom: But... she hasn't gone out to visit any friends for so long... I would rather she has friends that sneak in than no friends at all.
Sabine: I understand. And it is important that Marinette have her fun with her friends. But sneaking them in, not informing us? If she had just told us, trusted us-
Tom: But she doesn't. She doesn't trust us, Sabine. And I can't find it in myself to punish her for being hesitant when we betrayed her trust. I know that look on your face, you feel the same way. - Miraculous: The Phoenix Rises has Marvin, the only aversion of Adults Are Useless in the entire fanfic. Along with being Morgan's reluctant caretaker during her exile, he's also the adoptive father of Moof, a girl with enough emotional baggage to fill a cargo ship who he just barely rescued from the worst character in the story.
- In A Small but Stubborn Fire, Sabine increasingly tries to figure out what happened to Marinette, who is having nightmares and panic attacks, having given her daughter a lot of free reign over her life, now starts to dig into Marinette’s business when Sabine feels like her daughter isn’t opening up to her over her believe that Marinette is possibly being assaulted. When more issues arise, and she feels that Marinette's behavior is becoming worse, she is forced to ground her daughter. As she grows even more desperate Sabine comes close to violating Marinette's privacy by reading her diary but stops herself. She is so ashamed of herself when soon after Marinette tells her how much she loves her and trusts her that Sabine has to go to her room to cry.
Monster Girl Quest
- The Tyrant and the Hero: Alice VII genuinely wants to be a good parent to her children, but isn't sure how. She takes a stern and distant approach with them as a result.
- A major reoccuring theme in AfO's Guide To A Peaceful Retirement:
- Hisashi, formerly known as All For One, was in no way a good person in his past, but is trying to be better in order to be the parent Izuku needs. His villainous tendencies can still get the better of him sometimes.
- Aizawa loves and is very supportive of his young adopted son, Hitoshi, but he's so protective of Hitoshi's wellbeing that he slips into openly blaming Izuku for being a Crime Magnet, arguing that Izuku is a danger for Hitoshi to be around. This goes so far that he at one point tries to seperate the two children by not only actively discouraging his son from being Izuku's friend, but encouraging his son to exclude Izuku from their shared friend group's activities. This despite the fact that Izuku is the one who noticed Hitoshi needed help while living with his abusive foster family and the reason Aizawa could adopt Hitoshi in the first place. Aizawa's partner, Hizashi, eventually talks him out of this position, but only after it had caused the first significant fight between father and son.
- The Bakugos prove themselves to actually be quite good at parenting a young Katsuki when they're properly focused. However, they were so overcome with grief at Inko's terminal illness that it caused them to be neglectful of some of their duties as parents, such as noticing warning signs in Katsuki's behavior or explaining to him what was going on in Izuku's family. When his confusion defaulted to anger and he began to take it out on Izuku, neither of them noticed until Hisashi withdrew Izuku from his and Katsuki's shared preschool for Izuku's own protection and cut all of the Bakugos out of Izuku's life entirely. When they do realize what has happened, however, they do their best to explain to Katsuki why his behavior towards Izuku was wrong and hold themselves responsible for failing both children.
- All Might, Gran Torino, and Sir Nighteye rescued Tenko Shimura off the street. They provide him with unconditional love and support, but their flaws still hurt him from time to time, such as when their own personal baggage causes them to treat Izuku like a villain for his Quirk after years of Tenko struggling to overcome seeing himself like a villain for his own Quirk. All Might and Nighteye eventually have a Jerkass Realization, but despite how much he and Tenko love each other, Gran Torino never backs down.
- Discussed with Inko; Hisashi describes her as so inhumanly perfect that Rei wants to interrogate Mitsuki, since he's clearly an unreliable source.
- Build Yourself Up (Don't Let Them Break You Down): While Inko deeply loves her son, she didn't support his dreams of becoming a Pro Hero despite his Quirklessness... because U.A. required all its applicants to the Hero Course to have Quirks. She spent years working with Nezu to help overturn this; however, since she'd never informed Izuku about that blockade or what she was doing, he was left believing she didn't believe in him at all, especially since she didn't protect him from the bullying and discrimination he was facing at Aldera. She eventually apologizes to him for this and vows to be more active and openly advocating for him.
- In Heroes Never Die, Inko admits to Jirou that she was this during Izuku's childhood. When Izuku's "Groundhog Day" Loop Quirk first manifested and he told his mother what it did, she refused to believe him, dragging him from Quirk specialist to specialist and telling him that he shouldn’t make up horrible stories, all the while thinking that she was the reason his Quirk was that way. Even after she eventually accepted the truth and tried to support him, there was no real way for her to help him and by that point Izuku had already decided to hide his thoughts and feelings so as to not worry her, leading him to become a Stepford Smiler.
- I am [REDACTED]: Hisashi's absence from his family's lives is described as this. He truly does love his wife and son but stays and works in America so they can live comfortably. Reconnecting with Hisashi was one of the reasons why Izuku elected to study in America instead of going to UA.
- In Origin of a Non-Hero, Izuku and Ochaco unintentionally neglect their son as they focus upon their work as Pro Heroes. However, Shikinori sympathizes with their stance, worrying that his desire to have a better relationship with them is Secretly Selfish. The fact that Izuku honestly regrets how he's hurt his family makes it even harder for Shiki to reconcile his complicated feelings on the matter.
- Such a Doting Father focuses on the struggles of a reimagined Enji and Rei Todoroki to be both parents and pro heroes at the same time.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- The Twilight Child depicts Twilight Sparkle, of all people, as this. While she does care about her daughter, she also frequently fails to understand her interests and desires are different from Twilight's, causing the two to become increasingly distant as time goes on, eventually resulting in a very nasty argument between them. It doesn't help that Discord has caused some Laser-Guided Amnesia behind the scenes.
- Blackkat's Reverse:
- Hiruzen acknowledges that he was a terrible guardian for Naruto, as he barely had any time for his own family, much less him, and did very little to address the way he was mistreated and isolated.
- Rasa also knows that he's been a horrible excuse for a parent, but still loves Gaara enough to fear for his safety after Kurama takes him away from Suna.
- Hisen seems to be in outright denial about how much his village has abused his granddaughter, wanting to believe better of their community.
- Kurama didn't exactly set out to become a Parental Substitute to all of the younger jinchuuriki, and can find them all quite annoying, but still tries to care for and guide them as best he can.
- Hinata has this opinion of her father in I Am NOT Going Through Puberty Again!. He may have never shown her much affection and been incredibly strict, but he was genuinely trying to do what he felt was best for her. Being a mother herself, she has a much better understanding of him now than she did when she was a child.
- A Leaf of the Tree: Takeo's parents are naturally afraid whenever their son heads off on a mission, worrying that this will be the one where he doesn't come home. At one point, his mother asks him if it's possible for him to leave the shinobi lifestyle behind, but reluctantly accepts it when he declares that even if he could, he wouldn't.
- The Moon Cries in Reverse: Shikaku's main problem in Lunar Lamentations is that he was Locked Out of the Loop regarding how Shikamaru and his teammates were being treated by Anko. For six months, he was completely unaware that she had introduced the genin to T&I with Ibiki and Hiruzen's approval; when he finally finds out, he's kept in the dark about what, precisely, that entailed, as they make it out to have been much more reasonable than it actually was. Once he learns that the trio were effectively held hostage inside T&I and forced to torture prisoners, as well as subjected to other Training from Hell, he's completely horrified... and ashamed that he allowed Anko and her co-conspirators' paranoia to infect him, however briefly.
- Rumple is very much aware of how much he screwed up with his firstborn son Baelfire, and discovering he fathered another son in Dark Dynasty makes him fear he will repeat the same mistakes with Harry. Belle assures him he can be a good father, and even if he's really far from perfection, Rumple really does try.
- In Marie D. Suesse and the Mystery New Pirate Age!, Mar's parents have a troubled marriage at the start, before the Suesse family falls into the One Piece world. Her father, Garreth, often spends time at work to avoid having to come home, and Mar, at one point, believes that he has no serious desire to rescue her mother. Mar's mother, Blake, is strict with her, putting expectations on her that are difficult for her to meet. And yet, when Mar is separated from both of them after falling into the One Piece world, she can't help but miss them, in spite of their flaws.
- The Persona 5 fanfic A Year To Fill An Empty Home follows Akira Kurusu a.k.a. Joker's parents and how they cope with a year separated from their son. They're unquestionably Good Parents and they love their son unconditionally with all their heart, but their initial passiveness causes issues throughout their character arcs and ends up straining their relationship with Akira. Specifically, because they were too passive to question the details of the non-contact order, they labored under the mistaken impression that trying to contact Akira would violate his parole and send him to jail, so they remained out of contact with him for the entire year, which led Akira to believe that they abandoned him.
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines:
- In contrast to their portrayal in canon, Tommy AKA the Kangaskhan Kid's parents (known as Mr. and Mrs. Marshall) are not perfect, but clearly care for their son's wellbeing and try their best. In fact, the incident that led to Tommy getting stuck in the Safari Zone was not because of neglect, but all a result of Mr. Marshall's attempts to make Tommy happy.
- Ash's grandfather and namesake, Ashton Ketchum, was this to Delia. He loved her but had some difficulties interacting with people that did impact their relationship. The most notable example of this was Ash himself: Ashton never met Ash (having died before he was born), but he did want Delia to avert the Good Girls Avoid Abortion trope specifically because he didn't want her life utterly upturned by being a single mother. Delia implies that despite this, he would have liked Ash if they had met.
- Apple and Smoke: Peter Roche and his wife, Anya's previous adopted parents, initially adopted the girl to provide a sibling for their son in regards to their difficulties having children, and treated her as their own child. However, while Anya loved her family and was especially close to Peter, Anya's Telepathy which let her pick up when anyone was lying unnerved her mother and brother. The situation only got worse after the organization that experimented on Anya try to kill them with arson at their apartment. Even though Anya warned them and got them out in time, the stress of the incident and moving caused her mother and brother see her as a freak. Despite Peter's effort to calm them down and defend Anya, it became clear that the situation was becoming too dire for all of them, leading him to drop Anya off at the orphanage that Loid would find her. A year later and after some needed therapy, the Roches have come to regret how they handled the situation, and while they aren't ready to try adoption again, Peter is quite relived to learn that Anya has found a happier home with Loid and Yor Forger.
- In A Pink Planet, Pink Diamond possesses fears that she would make a poor mother to Steven. She questions why he would want her around when Greg, Pearl, and her various other servants would be able to see to his needs much better than she ever could. Greg assures her that being there would be enough and that she would be better at it than Yellow, Blue, and White were to her.
- SAO: Mother's Reconciliation: Kyouko truly does love her children and tries to act in what she believes are their best interests, but her methods, which include trying to constantly control their lives and ensure they constantly study, get good grades, and marry a suitor of her choosing, do nothing but make them resent her. Shouzou even calls Kyouko out on it in chapter 15, stating her actions have done more harm than good and if it makes Asuna hate them for it, then it's not worth it.
- TRON: Endgame Scenario: Alan and Lora were this to Jet. Lora was stuck in Washington DC, trying to rebuild the Shiva laser while Alan was trying to put out all the fires Flynn left behind at Encom, run the Flynn Lives project, try to keep Sam in line, arrange the boys' futures, and so forth - which left little time and energy for Jet. As a result, Jet rebelled hard against his father's wishes until the F-Con incident.
- In X-Men 1970, Cyclops is angry with Professor Xavier's manipulations, but he still thinks his surrogate father tried to do his best, and all told, he was a pretty decent father."For five years, and more," he said, "I was father to all of you."
"And you did a good job," Scott continued. "I can't say you were perfect, but no dad is. And I needed that. I'm the only orphan here, Prof." - In X-Men: The Early Years, Jean Grey's folks are devoted parents who truly love their daughter, but their way to deal with the issues stemming from Jean's mutation is initially to try and keep the status quo with her powers being kept in check, then foist her on Xavier so they don't have to think about it - though Elaine, at least, is implied to practically recognise that they can't help her, and Xavier can, meaning that she takes the hard decision to send Jean away.
