People desperately seeking parental approval in Western Animation.
- Amphibia: Above all things, King Andrias wants to impress his father, King Aldrich, and make him proud by continuing the Leviathan bloodline's long-standing tradition of conquering worlds. His failure at protecting the Box causes him to grow ever more desperate, as his father grew even more disappointed and dismissive of him after becoming part of the Core. It's greatly deconstructed, as said attitude is the main reason behind Andrias' more heinous actions, committing atrocity after atrocity in order to prove to his father that he is a worthy heir to the duty of serving the Core, even as said actions only make him further isolated from those around him, which is hinted to be what Andrias really wants deep down, and Andrias is too blinded by his indoctrination to see or recognize all that he's losing in his attempts to gain the respect of someone who isn't worth what he's sacrificing. For its part, the Core is fully aware of this, and intentionally uses his emotional dependence on it to further twist Andrias into a mindlessly loyal servant to it, even while it clearly looks down on him for possessing such 'weak' emotions in the first place. When Andrias burns the portrait of him, Leif, and Barrel together, the preserved consciousness of his father briefly surfaces from the Core to says how he's 'almost' proud of him for the act, still withholding the approval Andrias so desperately craves for his actions. During the finale, when the Core urges him to act in their defense and save them from the three superpowered girls bearing down on its forces, he commands his frobots to fly up to the moon...and aid the girls instead of attacking them. The Core and by extension Aldrich demand to know why Andrias would do such a thing, and Andrias responds by finally standing up to his father and the Core and smashing his crown, ridding himself of this trope for good.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- The primary motivation for all the desperate lengths that Prince Zuko goes to, and the terrible decisions he makes, is to get the approval of the father who burned, scarred, and exiled him under the pretext of a Snipe Hunt. Eventually Zuko is allowed to come home and receives his father's approval, only to discover that it is not as fulfilling as he had expected, precipitating his Heel–Face Turn. Occasionally, he shows traits of this towards his uncle Iroh. After his Heel–Face Turn, he accepts Iroh as a Parental Substitute and becomes this full time.
- Sokka also wants his father to accept and acknowledge him as a warrior. When he does finally meet up with his father, he gets a You Didn't Ask type answer when his dad asks him, "Why do you think I left you in charge of the village?" Furthermore, when Fire Nation forces appear, Sokka's father orders his men to prepare for battle; when Sokka asks what he should do, his father warmly responds to him, "I said 'The rest of you men prepare for battle!'," which is the most thrilling thing Sokka could have heard.
- A similar setup is played for tragedy with Fire Lord Ozai and Princess Azula. She took on the Avatar and his teachers armed with nothing but a knife for the man, while he hid out in his bunker during the eclipse. Even as someone who's aware that the opponents are Technical Pacifists, that's devotion right there and the poor girl's only fourteen years old. When Ozai announces she will replace him as Fire Lord, it's only because he's going to conquer the rest of the world and become the Phoenix King, thus making 'Fire Lord' an impotent title. Her mother Ursa clearly favored Zuko for being a nice person; thus, feeling rejected by both of her parents and her friends, Azula descends into an epic Villainous Breakdown.
- Ozai seems to have learned his parenting skills from his father, Fire Lord Azulon. It is shown in his single appearance that Azulon shows little if any concern for his younger son and clearly favors Iroh, even after the latter gives up conquering Ba Sing Se.
- Eventually, this wound up repeated in The Legend of Korra with Aang's kids. Aang favors Tenzin, being he's the only Airbender among the three and the only way for Aang to continue the legacy. This leaves the other two feeling like they were disappointments to their dad for being "born wrong" — especially Bumi, who wasn't even a Waterbender like Kya. To compensate, Bumi wound up a general and Kya spent many of her years traveling the world (tellingly coming back home only after Aang died). Even Tenzin wound up hurt by this, as he feels the burden of being the carrier for the Airbender culture, and being picked as Aang's successor means he's the one with the monumental task of filling his shoes. That being said, at least Aang genuinely loved all his children in the end, which is more than can be said for the above example. The later comics also make it a point to show that Aang and his other children did have a lot of positive interactions, making it clear his "preference" for Tenzin mostly boiled down to necessity since Tenzin was the only one who could keep Air Nomad culture alive.
- Also in The Legend of Korra there is Toph's daughter Lin, who followed her mother's footsteps to become a police officer (later the chief of the police force), hoping to please her mother. It didn't work. Toph wasn't pleased. Much angst ensued as Toph's Never My Fault attitude to her own failures as a mother led to Lin becoming alienated from both Toph herself and from her younger half-sister Suyin. Apparently, Toph ended up regretting this years later when Lin refused to get in touch with either of them.
- Batman: The Animated Series: The episode "Nothing to Fear" establishes that after a former colleague of his father seeing Bruce as nothing more than a playboy, Batman's greatest fear is that he's a disgrace to his family. Alfred assures him that his father would indeed be proud of what he's done.
- Bob's Burgers: Bob had left his Control Freak father after an argument on the latter being impossible to work with and the two barely got along as a result. After many years, Bob apologized not for leaving but for how he acted, and his wording on never feeling appreciated suggests Bob wanted his father to commend him rather than criticize him. His father finally admits he was too hard on Bob and tells him he should feel proud of who he's become.
- The many issues of the eponymous character in Bojack Horseman all stem from the fact his parents were horrible people who were dismissive, neglectful, or even outright hateful and violent towards him (and each other). He wanted nothing more than their sincere love all his life, but absolutely nothing was ever enough; even after he became rich and famous as an adult by being the star of a popular sitcom, his mother Beatrice saw him only as a dumb clown that people laughed at (although we find out later she was secretly proud of him, but refused to admit it to BoJack's face). At his mother's funeral, he finds that he's saddened by her passing even though she never once showed any love to him, but he realizes it's because when Beatrice died, the possibility that she would finally tell him she loved him deep down died with her.
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Commander Nebula is this for XR and XR's predecessor XL. (Both see him as their father because he signed the work orders for their construction).
- Cleveland Jr. is developing shades of this in The Cleveland Show, with his antics embarrassing or annoying Cleveland and the latter either blowing him off, putting him down, or ignoring him. Likewise, Cleveland is this to his own father, Freight Train, who is mean to and bullies him, and, in one episode, we find out why: when his family was on a game show, Cleveland couldn't find the flag under the butter (a pretty obvious spot), which made them lose and Freight Train never forgave him for that.
- Ulrich Stern from Code Lyoko, especially in Season 1, as his dad is mostly interested in his grades. He does get it at the end of one episode... at the apparent cost of his father's life. And then the story promptly presses the Reset Button.
- Codename: Kids Next Door: Father suffers from this in Operation Z E R O as he tries to get Grandfather to rule with him and acknowledge him as a true villain. In fact, his fear-based loyalty to his own father is what caused his Start of Darkness in the first place.
- Danny from Danny Phantom wants this. His parents are ghost hunters, and his alter-ego is the ghost Phantom that they hate and want to 'rip apart molecule by molecule.' He's understandably afraid of this and tries to make them grow to respect his ghost-half.
- Danielle wanted to appeal to her creator, Vlad Plasmius, her "daddy", until learning he was fine with letting her melt to create a perfect clone of Danny for a son. She sided with her genetic donor and renounced Vlad as her father afterward.
- Dan Vs.: Elise tells Dan that growing up, she could never please her parents no matter how hard she tried, even when she received straight A's, full college scholarships, and became captain of every possible sports team. She implies that this pathological desire to be the best is what drove her to become a top secret agent before quickly backtracking when Dan questions it. If her need to make everything in the house absolutely perfect whenever her parents visit because she both anticipates and dreads their inevitable nitpicking is any indication, she hasn't grown out of it.
- Jake Morgendorffer in Daria has a case of this that borders on the pathological. He bends over backward to be a supportive (read: embarrassing) father to Daria and Quinn because his own father, who is presumably dead, encouraged emotional repression. This creates a desperate sense of emotional neediness in Jake that in one episode gives him a heart attack!
- On Darkwing Duck, the character Goose Lee fills this role for Darkwing. He was Darkwing's sensei in the art of quack fu, and he perpetually refers to Darkwing as a disappointment, for his reliance on crime-busting gadgets and machines, his poor judgment around ninja, and his inability to master the all-important quack fu technique, the belly bounce.
- Darkwing's sidekick Launchpad McQuack in the DuckTales (1987) episode "Top Duck". Launchpad thinks that his parents are ashamed of him and wants to show them he's a real McQuack. However, he learns that his parents actually couldn't be prouder of him.
- In Dogstar, all Dino really wants is his father's respect.
- The series by the same creators of Airbender, The Dragon Prince also has this as a plot. Soren is the son of the The Dragon Viren. He starts out as a minor villain, bullying the protagonist Callum and generally appearing to be Affably Evil. However, it quickly becomes obvious that Soren's sister Claudia is his father's favorite. That isn't a good thing for her, Viren regards his children as tools. After a confrontation with Viren, Soren realizes just how much his father really doesn't care. This triggers his Heel–Face Turn. He seems to consciously adopt Callum as his new "Well Done, Son" Guy.
- It's subtle, but much of Callum's awkwardness and insecurity comes from him trying to be the ideal "stepson" prince, and thus he has a hard time figuring out how to act around King Harrow. He tells Ezran he calls him the king rather than "Dad" because he doesn't think he would want him to, and frets over not being able to (in Callum's mind) measure up to his expectations. When Callum reads Harrow's letter, he learns that his stepfather did love him unconditionally, thought of him as his son, and saw a lot of himself in Callum.
- Ducktales 2017: Of the Triplets, Dewey is the guy who most visibly seeks some form of parental validation from both Donald and Scrooge. After his mother returns after disappearing for 10 years, he straight up sings how he's going to make his mother proud and earn the love he desperately craves.
- Remy Buxaplenty on The Fairly Oddparents has this trope real bad. His parents are too rich and neglectful, that even when he's stranded on a desert island with them, it takes seconds for one to strike oil, and the other to build a casino. Luckily, his Fairy Godparent, Juandisimo picks up the slack in his own weird way.
- Family Guy parodies this mercilessly, with Peter even hiring a band to play sappy sitcom music when he thinks he's finally earned his father's love. Francis, meanwhile, is deeply offended and hurt that Peter thought he didn't love him. Of course he loves his son! He just doesn't like him, that's all.Peter: [after the band stops playing] Nah, nah, keep playing. I think this is as close as it's gonna get.
- It was played unusual serious through the rest of that episode. Peter even became depressed and apathetic when his father called him a lousy son and father.
- In a later episode, he at least earns his biological father's respect.
- A similar example happens in another episode, but with the daughter Meg instead. She gains Peter's respect at the end of the episode and he reveals to her that he actually does love her, despite his inexplicable abuse. He tells her that when they're alone, he'll be nice to her, but he'll be a jerk to her whenever anyone else is around.
- Peter's son, Chris, was also this in the earlier seasons as well.
- In the Animated Adaptation of Franklin, Bear is sometimes this in trying to get his Mom's attention over his sister.
- Gargoyles
- The only person who ever got under the skin of David Xanatos, and the only one whose criticism of his amorality he seems to take seriously, is his father. His infinite wealth and feared reputation may not get him his father's approval, but his Papa Wolf Determinator attitude when Oberon comes after his own son does.
- Xanatos's wife Fox completely inverts this trope: her father just wants her to show the slightest respect for honor, morality, respect for other people's property rights, and he'd give her his full approval and mega-corporation in an instant. Instead, she tries to bankrupt him so her husband can buy the business because she considers corporate espionage and sabotage more fun.
- Goliath and Angela get a moment of this when he finally acknowledges her as his daughter — not because he hadn't approved of her, but because gargoyles in his clan traditionally didn't keep track of who fathered/mothered which offspring ("...the children of the entire clan") and he doesn't like abandoning or changing 'the gargoyle way'. He later also admits to Elisa that he knows Angela, who was raised by humans, doesn't see it that way, but he had another motivation: he definitely doesn't want Angela seeking the approval of her mother.
- Get Ace: Ned gets so little respect from his mother Hilda to the point where he cries Tears of Joy the one time she says she's proud of him.
- The Ghost And Molly Mcgee has the character Andrea Daveport, who has been shown throughout the series up to this point to be an Alpha Bitch who will absolutely destroy your life for as things as simple as mispronouncing her name (she goes by "Ahndrea"). In the episode "The Don't-Gooder", main character Molly Mcgee is fed up with Andrea hogging the spotlight for charity work (that she buys her way through) when Molly believes she deserves the attention for it, and becomes obsessed with making Andrea look bad. At the last minute, she witnesses Andrea's parents refuse to hug her as they prefer to record it for social media. Molly then comes to the horrific realization that Andrea does what she does because she is desperate for attention from her parents, and she doesn't have particularly good role models for behavior. She quickly shifts gears and sabotages her own plan to make Andrea look good. Thanks to this, while Andrea's parents still say shallow people, Andrea reveals she is a very nice person who is more than willing to help Molly when in trouble and proclaim to be her friend.
- A daughter example with Helen and her dad in The Goode Family. Charlie frequently ridicules his daughter's liberal belief and insults her in any given opportunity. Helen is so desperate for his approval that she even let an ugly animal he adopts stay with her.
- There are several PJ-centered episodes of Goof Troop that have this as a major part of the conflict. Over the course of the series, he has felt neglected and like a complete idiot when his father Pete favored his best friend, struggled with keeping the family business afloat and felt inadequate at doing so, been actively used as an unwitting spy when Pete pretended to have a change of heart and let him be on his team, worked himself much harder than he already was (which is saying a lot) when he thought a new baby was going to get all the attention and felt like a complete and utter failure for not being able to live up to Pete's unrealistic (and hypocritical) expectations. He is shown to be hurt in the first movie when Pete offers to give him a high-five and takes it back and in the sequel when Pete becomes impatient for him to move out. Pete deliberately exploits this the majority of the time.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.
- Jeff's one and only motivation, adding to this, he's a really nice guy but, unfortunately, Billy is terrified of spiders.
- Poor Grim! He pretended to become a country rock star just to please his father, only to discover later that his father would have preferred having the Grim Reaper for a son (and now will not believe Grim to be the Reaper).
- The short-lived edutainment show Histeria! suggested this as a motivation for Alexander the Great in one sketch where the conqueror was receiving therapy from Sigmund Freud. This, after suggesting mother issues, pushed Alexander's Berserk Button.Philip of Macedon: Pretty good, Al. Not great; pretty good.
- Invader Zim: Zim's feelings toward the Almighty Tallest. He'll do anything to gain their favor or attention.
- Dib similarly wants to prove himself to his father, celebrated scientist Professor Membrane, and show him that the paranormal is real, despite his dad's objections. Whereas in the series this was one of several reasons for wanting to expose Zim, in the revival movie Enter the Florpus it's implied to be his entire motivation. And in what's arguably the most touching scene in the series' history, during the climax, Membrane warmly tells Dib that he doesn't need to prove himself, as he's always proud of him.
- On Jimmy Two-Shoes, Lucius and Beezy's relationship has shades of this. Beezy wants his father to accept him for who he is, but Lucius most certainly does not. There is the occasional So Proud of You moment, but this show being what it is, it doesn't last long.
- Kenny the Shark: Kenny spends most of the Father's Day episode trying to get Kat's father to like him, since he himself never knew his parents. Not only does Peter normally want little to do with his daughter's pet shark, most of Kenny's attempts to win him over don't end well.
- On King of the Hill, this is the basis for a good half of Hank Hill's personality. In one episode, Hank has a hallucination involving his deepest desires while in a steam room and the entirety of the vision is his father happily saying he's proud of him (with a firm handshake to boot).
- This shows up quite a bit. One wonders if Mike Judge might have an issue on this front. Hank is a bit of one of these for Bobby, as Bobby is all too aware that he's artsy, comedic, lazy, and generally not the kind of son his father wanted. Peggy's mother absolutely refuses to identify any good her daughter ever does, even when Peggy goes so far as to save her mother's ranch from foreclosure. Also, Kahn wanted a boy, so he named his daughter Kahn Jr. (everyone calls her Connie). Almost nothing she does is good enough for him, except when he needs to brag about how much better he and his family are than his hillbilly neighbors.
- Hank's dad did admit at one point that Hank was the better father... in his own way."After all, you made Bobby! All I made was you."
- However, Hank is fiercely protective of Bobby despite his difficulties in expressing his affection for his son.
- The final episode has Bobby discovering a gift for grilling, something of which Hank can finally approve. An earlier episode also had Bobby taking home economics, with Hank at about the halfway point of the episode coming to enjoy what Bobby was able to create with those skills. However, that episode had Peggy as the disapproving parent, due to being jealous that Bobby was a better homemaker than she could ever be.
- Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart: Mao Mao's Glory Hound attitude and need for approval from everyone originated from how his family, namely his father, treats him condescendingly at best and outright neglecting him at worst. In "Small", an outburst to how he's treated and saving his father from a monster is what finally gets some of his respect.
- Molly of Denali: Tooey's dad, Kenji, is a musher, and the family owns multiple sled dogs. In "Puppy Palooza," one of the dogs, Cali, gives birth to puppies. Tooey wants to prove himself to his dad by picking a new lead dog from among the puppies. However, unlike most examples of this trope, Kenji is not harsh and does not already disapprove of his son. He's actually incredibly benevolent. Tooey's desperation to prove himself is born out of his desire to follow in his father's footsteps.
- Monkie Kid: Red Son wants nothing more than to earn the respect and admiration of his father, the Demon Bull King. Problem is that his father, being a demon, is bent more on revenge and conquest than any familial kinship. It takes Red Son reluctantly working with MK and his friends to save him from the Spider Queen before DBK finally, albeit reluctantly, refers to him as son, something that puts a smile on Red Son's face.
- Twilight Sparkle of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is this not toward her parents, but her mentor Princess Celestia. She values being a good student and the idea of not being able to send a letter about what she's learned about friendship in time during "Lesson Zero" is enough to give her mental breakdown. She doesn't seem to understand that Celestia's approval isn't as conditional as she thinks it is. She also show signs of this towards her brother Shining Armor during the two-parter episode, "A Canterlot Wedding".
- To a lesser degree, Sweetie Belle is this toward her older sister, Rarity.
- Scootaloo is revealed to be this to her idol, Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash hugs her and makes it feel all better.
- Tirek, in the comics, resented his father king Vorak for this reason. In the show proper, Discord mentions Vorak by name, and wonders aloud if Tirek will ever get enough power to show him.
- In OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, Lord Boxman deliberately encourages this feeling in his robot children to make them more loyal, telling them that they can only get his love and approval if they’re good villains. This backfires horribly on him in the season one finale, when Darrell comes to the conclusion that the only way he’ll get Boxman’s approval is by being more evil than him...
- The Owl House:
- Luz is this not towards her mother, who she loves very much mind you, but towards her Parental Substitute on the Boiling Isles Eda, she'd do all sorts of crazy things to earn her approval and affection. And Eda lets her know she has it.
- On the villains' side, the Golden Guard very much has this for his uncle and father-figure Emperor Belos. His desperate need for Belos's approval is why he fumbles the first few hands offered to him to get out of villainy, being ready to turn on anyone if it'll please his uncle.
- In Phineas and Ferb, Norm the robot feels this way towards Doofenshmirtz, who created him. He wants to be acknowledged as his son, but Doof simply thinks of him as a servant.
- Which is nothing compared to Doof's feelings about his own Abusive Parents."So, what am I gonna do with the Least-Likely-Inator, you ask? Make my daughter obey me, make my father love me? No, and double-no! Well, maybe later."
- To a minor degree, Django Brown wants to be an artist like his father but feels his drawings can't be compared to his dad's work (who makes giant sculptures). His father didn't get to see the giant version of his drawing, but he does like the normal sized version.
- Which is nothing compared to Doof's feelings about his own Abusive Parents.
- The Proud Family:
- For all their bickering and passing jabs at each other, Oscar Proud's issues with his mother is that she always seemed to prefer his older brother Bobby, despite him having no job or family of his own. Deep down, he just wants his mother to be proud of him. Fortunately, in her best moments, she admits that she does love Oscar even if she doesn't always like being around him.
- In the reboot, Suga Mama's father Pa Towne was a Straw Misogynist who looked down on her just for being a girl and would dismiss her attempts at trying to impress him with her rodeo skills. She has a very notable look of jealousy when he starts showering Oscar with the parental affection she never got from him.
- One episode of Rick and Morty in which Rick meets an Old Flame Unity (a Hive Mind who has taken over a planet) hints that Rick has issues on this front. One of the fantasies he has Unity enact for him is to fill an entire stadium full of men who even vaguely resemble his father to cheer him on as he has sex with Unity."Go son Go! Go son Go!"
- Morty starts out the series seeking Rick's approval, as he frequently feels useless, surmises he's only there to balance out Rick's genius with his stupidity, and is ticked off when he discovers that's partially true. It is shown on a few occasions that Rick does have respect and genuine love for his grandson (though he admittedly sees familial love as a weakness and hates that he cares as much as he does), and by the third season, Morty has stopped actively seeking validation from Rick.
- Jerry, though he'd never admit it, wants to prove himself to his father-in-law Rick, who has nothing but mockery and irritation towards the man who "somehow" married and slept his daughter. Jerry does bond with a Alternate Universe Rick, who's stupid and himself mocked by all other Ricks, but actually respects and cares for Jerry and they at one point share a tearful hug.
- Summer, similarly to Morty, started out looking up to her grandpa and wanted his approval, and so repeatedly got jealous of Morty when Rick chooses him over her when going out on adventures. Rick does backhandedly admit that he does care about her on one occasion (using a math equation to show that they're both equally irritating to him), and enjoys having "grandkids time" with them, with Summer eventually no longer caring about being left out of most adventures.
- Beth spent most of her life obsessing with being a Daddy's Girl for Rick despite that he was absent for it. Even when he gets their family in danger, she almost always takes his side. Come "The ABC's of Beth", she's begun to stop acting this way, realizing her father isn't the great guy she insist he is. Then come "Rickmurai Jack" and "Solaricks", where we find out he wasn't her real father to begin with.
- Deconstructed in "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion". Since Rick is so difficult to please, actually getting his praise comes off as an accomplishment (while Jerry admits he is so easy to please that nobody cares about making him happy) but, as Morty points out, as nice as it is to gain his acknowledgment it's not indicative of your character or capabilities. Rick is a petty and capricious jackass whose interests are so bizarre and random that it's a coin toss if anything that anyone does will impress him or not. Even if you do manage to get any praise, it doesn't mean he actually holds you in any sort of regard and he'll drop anything the second something more interesting comes along. He'll gladly turn right around and denigrate whatever he's praising the moment it's more convenient or entertaining for him to do so, showing that as difficult as it is to gain any sort of approval from Rick, there's still little value in it because he truly doesn't value the people or things he's giving compliments to. It's especially unhealthy because Rick's interests usually lend themselves to amoral and dangerous behavior, so chasing after his respect is likely to make you a worse person with nothing to show for it in the end.
- One of the points on which Glimmer and Catra are similar in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is that both of them want to prove themselves to their mothers — or, in Catra's case, adoptive mother. The key difference is that Glimmer's mother, Queen Angella, clearly and genuinely loves her daughter and eventually learns to stop being so overprotective, coming to accept Glimmer for who she is. Meanwhile, Catra's mother, Shadow Weaver, is an Abusive Parent to the core who mercilessly exploits Catra's need for validation whenever it suits her.
- In The Simpsons, it's been often implied through flashbacks and certain episodes that Homer very much had a relationship like this with his father Abe, which would explain why Homer has such a numb and uncaring sentiment towards his dad now during Abe's old age. This was particularly looked at in the episode "Grandpa vs. Sexual Inadequacy". More recent seasons would show that despite his disrespect for Homer, Bart has a pretty bad case of this developing himself, with Abe confessing in "A Father's Watch" that he had a similar relationship with his own father and that The Chain of Harm stretches back quite a few generations. Ironically, Abe gives Bart the approval Homer desperately wants, while at least one future timeline shows Homer likewise giving preferential treatment to Bart's two sons.
- Harry of The Spectacular Spider-Man is The Unfavorite (even though he's an only child) and is constantly trying to prove himself to his dad. That explains why he steals the Globulin Green performance-enhancing drug, and consequently develops a Superpowered Evil Side, the Green Goblin — he wants his father to be proud of him. It doesn't work.
- Norman did eventually say that he was proud of Harry. But it may have been a hollow victory for Harry since it happened just after Norman was unmasked as the true Green Goblin. As it turned out, Harry's own father had personally dressed him up as a psychotic supervillain while he was passed out, even twisting Harry's ankle to maintain the illusion.
- Star Trek: The Animated Series. In the episode "Yesteryear" Spock wants to prove to his father Sarek that he is a true Vulcan by undergoing the Kahs-wan ordeal.
- Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The only thing that genuinely worries her, is disappointing her master, Anakin. Well, was, until the Season 3 finale.
- Head dog catcher Lenard McLeish in the 2010 version of Pound Puppies. His mother Agatha is extremely rich and lives in a mansion. Lenard... is not as successful. Whenever she visits, McLeish pines for some sort of affection from her, only to be denied every time.
- One of those rare mother-son combos appears in Steven Universe and is not remotely played for laughs except in a few instances of Black Comedy, due to being posthumous. Steven's mother, the saintly and flawless Gem revolutionary leader Rose Quartz, is not strictly speaking "dead" and still exists in some ways in Steven himself; Steven understandably feels enormous pressure to live up to her legacy, complicated immensely when he begins to discover that his legendary mother had more than a few skeletons in her closet and did things that Steven can't wrap his head around or justify. Him failing to follow in her footsteps leads to him fearing that whatever aspect of her that survived judges him for not being like her. He eventually comes to terms with it, realizing she didn't want him to be like her or anyone else, to be his own person and make his own decisions what to do with his life.
- Turns out, Steven gets it from his mom. All Pink Diamond really wanted was the approval of the other Diamonds, who were often distant at best and abusive at worst. She acted like a Royal Brat so they'd at least pay attention to her, and only wanted a colony because she felt that the others would respect her as a real Diamond if she had at least one. She eventually decides that it wasn't worth it, the others never cared about her, and cuts her ties by faking assassination to live as Rose Quartz. Which ends up having horrible consequences, because the others really did care about her even if they didn't know how to show it, and their grief caused them to nuke the entire Crystal Gem army with the Corruption Blast, creating the gem monsters that the few survivors hunt to the present day.
- In Superman: The Animated Series, Kalibak's primary reason for antagonizing Big Blue was to please his father, Darkseid.
- Shoot, the first episode he appeared in was called "Father's Day".
- Varian, the teenage alchemist and inventor of Tangled: The Series, wants desperately to gain his father's approval. Heck, his first solo is even called "Let Me Make You Proud"."Cause I long for that look of surprise when you see your son rising at last. The pride in your eyes when you see your son rising at last!"
- Oddly enough, Starscream (yes, that one) has been suggested to have a certain level of this mixed into his usual treacherous shenanigans in Transformers: Prime. The character's as pathologically treacherous as ever, perhaps even more so because he doesn't suck at it quite as much as his previous incarnations, but there is the odd implication that he waffles on if being in command or just being acknowledged by anybody as worthy of respect is more important to him.Agent Fowler: He can't seem to decide if he wants Megatron's job or his approval.
- The Venture Bros.:
- Jonas Venture Sr. is the quintessential scientist everyone admired and he's even more impossible to please because he's dead. Dr. Rusty Venture can never be as smart, powerful or well-liked as he believes his father was, and his super-science business mostly consists of repackaging his father's old projects and cheating off his father's old notes. All of Dr. Venture's insecurities, shortcomings, and bad habits come (or so Dr. Killinger says) from one childhood incident in which he saw the size of his father's penis.
- Somewhat repeated with the boys. Although the fact they are mostly dense doesn't help. Hank has this towards Brock mostly, but both of them often show the desire to be praised by their cold, uncaring, jerkass dad.
- Episodes in the third season revealed that Jonas Sr. was a complete jerkass. An episode in season four reveals that the dads or caretakers of boy adventurers seem to be terrible in one way or another. However, by the end, Rusty decides that for all his faults, he's better off than others who shared his fate.
- Xiaolin Showdown: Clay has spent most of his life trying to impress his less than easily impressed father, who put Clay under so much pressure and decided to remove him from Xiaolin Temple after deciding it wasn't worth it. Despite hating it, Clay goes along because he wants nothing more than to earn his father's pride by doing exactly as he says. However, what finally impresses his father and allows him to return to the Temple is, when during a Xiaolin Showdown, Clay has finally had enough and tells his father to let him do things his way.
- Young Justice (2010):
- Surprisingly, Superboy is this to Superman, his genetic parent. Superboy desperately craves some sort of attention and affection from Superman, who initially feels awkward and uncomfortable with the circumstances of Superboy's existence and believes that his clone would do better looking to others for a parental role, until Superboy saves his life and the Justice League in the season one finale and the two reconcile, later settling into a sibling-type relationship rather than a parent-son one.
- Subverted with Robin. While he does want Batman's acknowledgment, he does not want to be the Batman since he isn't able to pull off a Good Is Not Nice mindset in "Failsafe".
- Batman himself averts this trope because he makes it clear to the Justice League in "Agendas" that he doesn't want Robin to be like him and took Robin in as a partner because he wanted to give Robin a chance to avenge the death of his parents. It's especially sad because as stated above, Robin feels that Batman wants him to take up his mantle.Wonder Woman: So he could turn out like you?
Batman: So that he wouldn't.
- Batman himself averts this trope because he makes it clear to the Justice League in "Agendas" that he doesn't want Robin to be like him and took Robin in as a partner because he wanted to give Robin a chance to avenge the death of his parents. It's especially sad because as stated above, Robin feels that Batman wants him to take up his mantle.
