Luke, *I* am your father...overused?

[arianne]

for the OP, if you do it well and great, it would work. I guess you could distract people from the "cliche" factor. Although, I'd think that it would be interesting if the main char. knows his dad's the bad guy, and he still has this tug that he really really wants to get to bad dad and stuff, but main char knows that he *HAS* to stop the bad guy anyway. but that's just me.
maybe that's even more cliched, I wouldn't know, lol.

I don't know; this idea kind of appeals to me. It would take a bit of work to make it sound belivable and stuff, but other than that, I like it.  Does anyone else think this might be too cliche, though?

My friend just said she didn't get why it is that fictional characters are always so eager to find their parents, despite the fact that they are doing just fine without said parents. "Why go looking for trouble from a total stranger? Just live and let live" is her way of looking at it.


As you can probbaly guess, none of her characters have ever felt the slightest need to look for their parents.

[LizW65]

My friend just said she didn't get why it is that fictional characters are always so eager to find their parents, despite the fact that they are doing just fine without said parents. "Why go looking for trouble from a total stranger? Just live and let live" is her way of looking at it.

This seems to be pretty unusual in fiction, almost an inversion, in fact.  One way this might be handled is to have the character uninterested in building a relationship with his/her biological parents, but seek them out to see if he/she has any inherited medical conditions.  Then the parents turn out to take an unusual interest in the protagonist...

[Starbeam]

I don't know; this idea kind of appeals to me. It would take a bit of work to make it sound belivable and stuff, but other than that, I like it.  Does anyone else think this might be too cliche, though?

My friend just said she didn't get why it is that fictional characters are always so eager to find their parents, despite the fact that they are doing just fine without said parents. "Why go looking for trouble from a total stranger? Just live and let live" is her way of looking at it.


As you can probbaly guess, none of her characters have ever felt the slightest need to look for their parents.

I'd say it's simply human nature.  And could be for any number of reasons, like wanting to know why they were abandoned, what their family medical history is, bad living situation and wanting to know if it could've been better.  Or at least those are some of the things that would occur to me.  Course, it's also something that I'm sure varies from person to person.

[arianne]

This seems to be pretty unusual in fiction, almost an inversion, in fact.  One way this might be handled is to have the character uninterested in building a relationship with his/her biological parents, but seek them out to see if he/she has any inherited medical conditions.  Then the parents turn out to take an unusual interest in the protagonist...

I don't know if a medical condition is a strong enough reason to seek out one's parents, but otherwise this idea seems to fly pretty good Thanks.

[Vash the white]

It may be clitche to have the protagonist and antagonist to be brothers, but it will always be freaking awesome

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

It may be clitche to have the protagonist and antagonist to be brothers, but it will always be freaking awesome

Nah. Anything that can be made awesome can also be made to suck.

[Vash the white]

Nah. Anything that can be made awesome can also be made to suck.

yeah, episode two of star wars is a great example of that

[Lurline]

I don't know if a medical condition is a strong enough reason to seek out one's parents, but otherwise this idea seems to fly pretty good Thanks.

Could work in a fantasy setting, especially if your character was raised by a totally different race that doesn't know how to deal with your medical needs. 

I think that in the Dresden Files Jim is subtly commenting on this in the ways that Harry assumes that being related to someone automatically gives a strong emotional connection with them of a particular and predictable shape; things like Murphy's family do seem to me to make it clear that we are not expected to read Harry's assumptions about the way the world works as how the world in the DF actually works, as it's clearly a different shape of set of relationships that does not work in ways Harry intuitively grasps, by comparison with the Carpenter family dynamic, which he mostly grasps (and somewhat idealises.)

There's also the Raith family dynamic, with the Dad who doesn't care but wants his kids to be loyal so trained them to care.

[arianne]

Would "dad's enemy" be a better cliche than just plain "dad"?

I think the reason so many people use "I am your father/mother/uncle/grandpa/sister" approaches have to do with irony...like, family should love each other, but hey, look! my parents are trying to kill me!

I mean, a story that starts off, "Dad had wanted to kill me for years." is definitely more interesting than one that starts, "The random stranger was trying to kill me; had been for years."

Isn't it?

[Lurline]

Would "dad's enemy" be a better cliche than just plain "dad"?

I think the reason so many people use "I am your father/mother/uncle/grandpa/sister" approaches have to do with irony...like, family should love each other, but hey, look! my parents are trying to kill me!

I mean, a story that starts off, "Dad had wanted to kill me for years." is definitely more interesting than one that starts, "The random stranger was trying to kill me; had been for years."

Isn't it?

Well there's nothing really new out there... just spend a few hours on TV tropes and you realize it's all been done before. It's how you approach it that makes it good a multi-generational quest/war/fued isn't any more or less done I think. I think it works out either way.