I am sure this has been brought up before but I didn't see a specific thread about both fairytales/children's stories and video games.

The other day my best friend and I had a discussion about Disney and as we all know Disney has done many of the classic fairytales over the years. She and I were talking about the lack of parents in these stories. *Spoilers abound if you haven't seen these films, read the stories or played the games* :D

For example:

Snow White: Mother is dead, father remarries= Evil Stepmother as only parental figure

Cinderella: Mother is dead, father remarries, father dies= Evil Stepmother number 2

The Little Mermaid: Mother MIA, Father can't control daughter

Beauty and the Beast: Mother not mentioned, Father and daughter have good relationship

Sleeping Beauty is one of the few orginal where both parents are living but she is still seperated from them.

On the flip side with video games the same theme is there except with a male being the hero often it seems the father is missing

Examples:

Cloud, FFVII: No mention of a father

Chrono, Chrono Trigger: No mention of a father

Edit: Here are a few more thoughts and examples:

I will say I haven't been playing video games very long and by most people's standards I haven't played that many but when I think about the ones that I have played...KH, FF series, Chrono series, Fire Emblem:PoR; a parent associated tragedy seems to always be there.

As for other stories:
Aladdin: He is alone and Jasmine has only the dad

Hansel and Gretel: Talk about bad parenting skills

Rapunzel: Bad parents part 2. Giving their child away as payment for stealing.

My question is this: What are your thoughts on this theme being almost always prevalent in all of these stories we grow up with or games we play growing up and now? :P

Is it an easy way to give a tragic background to the main character?

Is it an easy way to give an explanation on how these kids get to go off and do all these amazing things?

I think that in games like Chrono Trigger, the father just isn't important enough to put in. Heck, the mother isn't even important, but they had to put her in so that Crono wouldn't be an orphan. In FF7, I like to think that a lack of a father (who probably died in the Wutai war) helps to contribute to Cloud's closeness to his mother, and so basically to the whole 'mother' theme. Maybe it just gives the character more depth (you know, since they've lost a parent and all). But it's probably just because the designers figured that one parent is enough, so why bother putting in another pointless NPC?

As for Disney, it's really handy to have a stepmother. That way, they can be the evil person who always makes life difficult for the heroine. So the mother dies from illness and the father remarries. But I can't figure why the mothers aren't around in The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast. Unimportant to the plot?

Oh for the love..is it possible to fix the title of your own topic? :unsure: I can't believe I wrote A instead of An Ongoing Theme <_< Sorry it is just a pet peeve of mine, I hate makng mistakes like that.

Schala: I agree with you on Chrono, a father wasn't needed or necessary to the plot it is just so common that I thought maybe there was more to it in a general sense. But though that could be said about a lot of stories or games I still find it interesting on how often that background or lack there of is used. You definately could be on to something with the designers. Heck maybe I just think about things like this to much :lol:
Yeah having the mother die is an easy way to show tragedy in the heroine's life, but why is it always a parent, why not a friend or sibling?


*fixes title* ^^

~HD

/nerd mode

In the original strory, Little Mermaid had a mother (she was the one who told her why mermaids can't live outside their waters because they don't have a soul as they die they just turned into sea foam), Aladdin had a mother (Disney also supposedly have a mother character that was scrapped), and Rapunzel was given away because the witch made her parents promise to surrender her, which they did out of carelessness (remember Rumplestilksin?).

It's a common theme of all fictional characters (Frodo Baggins is an orphan, Harry Potter is an orphan, Luke Sywalker grew up without his biological parents, then both his parental figures were killed) to have no parents. It seemed that orphaned main characters is a way for the hero/heroine to move independently without being burdened by their own family. Or it's a hook for the reader/watcher/what have you.

Schala pretty much knocked the nail up there in the videogames department (Remember KH's Riku mentioned about their parents but us players didn't even get to see them?). Too much needless NPCs. I mean, even DoC gave us Vincent's father, but his mother is nowhere to be found. ^^;

I think you mean the grandmother. I don't recall the Andersen version having both parents.

Yep, the only prominent TV character I know who had both parents that played prominent roles is Smallville's Clark Kent.

Er, yeah. Grandmother. Sorry about that. >.> <.<

But Clark also lost his real parents tragically... so he may not be that unique.

I've noticed that before too. After thinking about it for a minute, perhaps part of why it's so common is the fact that when someone is living happily in a complete family, they are less likely to choose to leave to have adventures. For example, before my parents were divorced and such, I wouldn't have been so likely to consider/actually leaving my family to another state at age 17. Although your strength can come from your family and encourage you to do incredible things, more often it's people who are needing that escape and rebelious attitude that comes from having tragedy and loss occur that don't feel that anything is holding them back.

I do strongly agree with what you all have already said here, and think that it probably is what goes through the heads of those making the characters, but perhaps there is some part that could realistically give reason more stories, whether game, movie, book, whater, have those similarities. So besides being an easy way for a younger person to have an adventure without parents getting in the way, it could be why the character would even choose to. I think most happy people choose to stay where they're happy. I'm not saying there aren't acceptions, I certainly think there are, but perhaps there is more thought into it than convience. At least I hope so. :sweat:

I think in the case of folktales, from which fairytales derive, it's a matter of necessity. Because folktales weren't written out with a structured plot in mind, unlike novels or short stories, but were passed on orally for the most part--I think people added things as they went along when they felt it was needed. It's not that the parents were removed on purpose, but that it never occurred to the storytellers to even include them because they had no bearing on the story. We don't hear anything about Red Riding Hood's parents because they're unnecessary to the story.

For structured stories, including plots for video games, I see that as being part of the process: no point suddenly throwing in references to the family if they don't fit the situation. It's up to the player to construct a background in that case.

But I also agree with Taco that an orphaned character is more likely to pick up and... do something elsewhere. "Orphaned", to be specific, because I see it as being different from characters whose parents were mentioned but not shown (like Sora and Riku). In Sora and Riku's cases, it's most likely to save costs on modelling the character, rendering etc. But with characters who are made orphaned on purpose, I think it helps add to their personal tragedy and drama--it elicits that sympathy from the player that helps them relate to the character, if only in guessing just how terrible it must be to lose one's parent(s).

As for why a family member and not a friend who dies? Possibly due to how much closer one would expect the player to be (a player of teenage age) with their parents than with their friends (despite, you know, all the arguments, the grounding, the sneaking out...). Also, it could be a way to "force" the character to be independant, giving off the impression that they have to start taking care of themselves because they have no parental figure to turn to. It's different from losing a friend, who is your peer and doesn't function on the same level of support that a parent does.

Very good posts everyone, thanks for your thoughts. I just want to say a quick thank you to HD for fixing the An in the topic heading :huggle:

So with all these explanations including the designers not wanting to have to spend time and money showing people that aren't part of the plot and the idea of tragedy being a commen link my other thought is why is it always young kids or teenagers that are the hero or heroine, thus normally the parents are missing by some tragic circumstance?

Is it to attract the crowd that would *cough* normally :rolleyes: be interested in either seeing these movies or playing these games. It is to give kids someone they can relate to?

I dunno. There's something final and boring for being a parent figure in the story (Lulu and Wakka from X-2 comes to mind). After they got domesticated, there's really nothing else to tell.

Remember, most fairy tales ended itself when hero and heroine got married and "lived happily ever after". We never did find out what happened to them after that.

I remembered there were rumors of Kenji (Kenshin and Kaoru's son in RK) running his own series. I've always believed that unless the creator would want Kenji to live under the shadow of his already popular dad, Kenshin must die.

So I wasn't surprised at all that Kenshin and Kaoru were killed off in the OVA.

Anyways, I digress.

Losing their parents also builds up the character histories. Some of them lost their folks in a tragic manner which sends them fighting in war (like Shinn in SEED Destiny), some never knew that their parents were involved in conspiracy for a greater good (Fayt in Star Ocean) that got themselves killed. And sometimes there were characters who never lost their parent figures, they just never had a strong bond to begin with, treating each other as perfect strangers (Shinji from Evangelion).

Carry on,, just yin-chan using her Modly Powahhs to perform Modly Dutiezzz here, nothing to see. ^_^