Parental Substitute/Video Games

• Auron to Tidus in Final Fantasy X's backstory, and to a lesser extent during the game itself.
• Final Fantasy XIII: Lighning is this for Hope. Although it could be seen as a Cool Big Sis relationship, they only act like this after Hope's mother's death, and she spends much of the story being his Resentful Guardian.
• Naked Snake, in Metal Gear Solid 3, answers Eva's question about his relationship with the Boss by saying that she was like his mother.
• Jak and Daxter don't have any parents to speak of (until the third game, at least), and Samos is the one who raised them.
• In Disgaea, the late King Krichevskoy acted as one to the orphan Etna, taking pity and raising her as a daughter.
• Mass Effect 2 features a really bizarre version of this. Shepard recovers a "perfect" krogan that was created via cloning, but is essentially born in front of his/her eyes. While the creation process taught him things, and Grunt is fully grown, he obviously has no role model--krogan or otherwise--except for Shepard. After his loyalty mission, this relationship becomes clearer that Shepard is Grunt's mentor.
  • If you don't play Shepard as a potential love interest, the same sort of dynamic appears with Tali during her loyalty mission, especially that hug. Mixed with Cool Big Sis if Shepard is a woman.
• The Walking Dead:
  • Lee is one for Clementine in season 1. Between seasons, Christa and Omid take up this role. In season 2, Christa (after Omid died), Pete, Kenny and Sarita take up this role at different points.
  • Pete also acted as one for Nick and Luke. Pete is Nick's uncle, and has been one for him for most of his life since Nick's father "wasn't there much" and "a piece of shit when he was".
  • Rebecca acted as a mother-of-sorts for Sarah.
  • In the Michonne mini-series, John Fairbanks is one for Paige, who lives with his family at their mansion in the forest.
  • Javi is this to Gabe and Mari, along with stepmother Kate. Their father went missing, trying to get their grandmother to a hospital when the outbreak began and is revealed to be one of the leaders of the New Frontier while their biological mother is not mentioned.
  • After both of Alvin Junior's parents are dead, the group shares this responsibility, which eventually falls exclusively to Clem.
• Very little "parenting" in the Kingdom Hearts series is done by the unseen biological parents of any of the characters. Master Eraqus serves as a mentor and father figure to Aqua and Terra, who themselves can be seen as older siblings or parental figures in Ven's life (the Japanese version of Birth by Sleep has Scrooge give Ven three tickets and telling him to bring "his parents" along; he gives them to Aqua and Terra). Later on in-universe, Axel's extremely over-protective behavior towards his best friend Roxas is revealed to be the result of Axel basically raising him, once again blurring the line between a big brother and father figure in Roxas's life.
• Happens frequently in any Fire Emblem game.
  • Fire Emblem Jugdral: In the Seisen game Ayra takes her nephew Shannan out of Isaac on request of her older brother Crown Prince Mariccle, before their kingdom gets destroyed in the war. Later, Lady Edain and Oifaye take Shanan in as well as many other children, including Oifaye's younger cousin Seliph and Adean's own children Lana and Lester. Trabant is a darker example, as he killed Altenna's parents before taking her in as his war spoil; at the same time, his retainer Hannibal takes care of a young boy named Corple (or his Expy Sharlow in case Corple's mother Silvia died childless. And there's also Lewyn, who not only is the Team Dad to the whole second generation but specifically is this to Princess Julia.
    • In the Thracia game, Lady Eyvel aka the amnesiac Brigid is this to Leif, Nanna and Mareeta; the first two also have a father figure in Finn, who was a retainer to Leif and Altena's dead parents and is all but stated to be Nanna's birth father. Selphina is said to have become this in the ending, taking care of war orphans; this would get her called "Mother of Thracia" after her death.
  • Fire Emblem Elibe: Douglas is this to the dancer Larum. Lugh and Chad also mention a kindhearted priest who raised them until he died in the hand of Bernese troops and who may or may not have been Lucius. Twenty years earlier, during Blazing Blade, Pent and Louise are parental figures for Pent's apprentice Erk, whose real parents are never mentioned, while his potential Love Interest Priscilla was raised by House Caerleon after her and Raymond's parents committed suicide.
  • Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones: Pontifex Mansel from Rausten raises his niece and heiress L'Arachel after the deaths of her parents.
  • Fire Emblem Tellius: One way to see Sigrun and Tanith's relationship to their leader and ward, Empress Sanaki.
  • Fire Emblem Awakening has Basilio, the Khan of West Ferox, as this to both his champion Lon'qu (mostly implied) and the dancer Olivia (explicitly stated).
  • In Fire Emblem Fates, this is what Queen Mikoto truly is to the Hoshidan Royal Siblings - she's the second wife (and apparently, former mistress) of their Disappeared Dad King Sumeragi, and after his murder she not only ascended to the throne but she raised his orphaned children (their mother, Queen Ikona, had died before all of this). She also qualifies as this towards her ward Azura, the daughter of her late sister Arete.
  • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Prince Dimitri's mother died when he was a baby and his father King Lambert was killed in the infamous Tragedy of Duscur when the boy was a young teen. Due to his VERY strained relationship with his uncle Rufus, his father's best friend Lord Rodrigue did what he could to be this.
    • Before Lambert's murder, he married a lady named Patricia and she also had a part in Dimitri's raising until she also was killed in the same Tragedy of Duscur. Dimitri himself remembers her very fondly. It's later revealed that Patricia was the mother of Edelgard, whom Dimitri has a VERY complex relationship with, and that she collaborated with the culprits of the Tragedy because she was led to believe Lambert was keeping Edelgard away from her, and in reality she never loved Dimitri. However, another talk has Dimitri and a girl that also knew Patricia (Hapi) discussing Patricia (or better said, Anselma)'s motivation and believe that she did care for him after all, but chose her birth daughter over her stepson.
    • Alois is like this to Bernadetta, being the only person she's not absolutely terrified of at first glance and whom she says reminds her of her uncle, the only person in her family who was ever truly kind and warm to her.
  • Fire Emblem: Engage has Queen Lumera, for the Alears. He or she is not HER child but that of her Arch Nemesis, Sombron, and she fought and outclassed Alear in the war against their "father"... but upon realising that Alear was just a terrified teenager fighting for Sombron out of fear of being murdered by him if he or she failed (like it happened to their siblings, save for Veyle), she decided to take them in and finish raising them as well as possible. She even revived him/her when they were caught by Sombron and killed by them.
• In Tales of Symphonia, Lloyd is not short of these. He was adopted by the dwarf Drik and sees Regal as a brother or father figure. Kratos also starts to fit this, until it's revealed that he's not a substitute but instead the real thing.
• This also comes up in Tales of Vesperia, and mainly serves to make The Reveal that Raven is Schwann and has been working for Alexei the whole time even more of a Tear Jerker. Luckily, he gets better.

Karol: Damn it, I really liked you, Raven. I couldn't tell you before, but if my dad were-- Schwann: How unfortunate, "Raven" isn't here.

• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
  • In Justice For All, it's revealed that Mia left Maya in their aunt Morgan's care when she left the village to search for her mother Misty. The sisters were unaware of Morgan's jealousy toward Misty and her children, and are very upset to find out that their beloved aunt would try to frame Maya for murder.
  • In Investigations 2, Verity Gavélle became Shaun Fenn's adoptive mother after the death of his mother/her cousin, Amelie. His father, Di-Jun Wang aka the real president of Zheng Fa, is already dead.
• In Tales of the Abyss Guy acted as both an older brother and a parent to Luke, as he is the one who taught Luke how to walk/talk/etc. after he was found at Choral Castle.
• In Tekken, Baek Doo-san is a mix of Stern Teacher and this to Hwoarang.
  • Earlier on, Michelle Chang found an abandoned infant girl and raised her. The girl would grow up into her daughter and sort-of successor Julia.

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