Basic Trope: A character is missing one or both parents.
- Straight: Bob either has no idea what happened to his parents — or they're dead.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob has no idea where any family whatsoever lives, and is entirely on his own.
- Bob is 3 and his parents are missing.
- Every character is missing one or both their parents.
- Downplayed:
- Only one of Bob's parents is missing.
- Or, both of Bob's parents are still alive and well. They're just absent from home a lot.
- Justified:
- Bob has grown up in a war zone — parents abandoning children and dying would be a common sight there.
- Bob is really a Ridiculously Human Robot and such a personality would need for Bob to remember some parental unit.
- Bob's parents are wanted by the law and didn't want him to get involved.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You
- Inverted:
- Bob's parents are the clingiest people you can imagine - they won't let Bob go anywhere.
- Bob abandons his parents.
- Bob is said to have children but they are nowhere to be found.
- Subverted:
- Bob's parents show up halfway through the story.
- It turns out that Bob is separated from his parents, and he is fully aware of this the entire time. Though they can't see each other, they have been contacting each other a lot.
- Double Subverted: Those were just impostors. Bob's real parents are dead.
- Parodied: Bob, now a grown man, walks around every few seconds going "Mommy! Daddy!" before remembering that he's an adult now.
- Zig Zagged: Bob's parents show up halfway through the story, but those were just impostors. But they do know where Bob's real parents are...
- Averted: Bob's parents are still around.
- Enforced: "There's no way Bob's parents would let him on an adventure like this!" "So we'll rewrite the character a bit. Make him an orphan. Problem solved, and two fewer actors to hire."
- Lampshaded: "Yeah, ever since I was a young boy, I've never known where my parents are."
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz decides to kill Bob's parents in order to dishearten him.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz breaks Bob by talking about his missing parents.
- Defied: The first thing Bob sets out to do is find his parents.
- Discussed: "He kept asking me if I'd seen his parents. What is he, a lost child?"
- Conversed: "Missing parents? Oldest one in the book!"
- Implied: Bob's parents are never seen or mentioned in the course of the show, despite him being young enough to likely have to rely on some guardian.
- Deconstructed: Bob grows up without the love and affection that comes from a parent. This ultimately warps him and defines every relationship he has, as since he can't trust his parents, he has trouble trusting anybody.
- Reconstructed: Bob may have grown up without the love of a parent, but it goes a long way in defining the man he ultimately becomes.
Mom? Dad? Where are you? Maybe I'll find them back at Parental Abandonment.
