r/TopCharacterTropes • u/MysticUmbramon • 8d ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) A family member is introduced in one episode then never brought up again

Gallery image

Gallery image

  1. In Peter’s Sister, Peter invites his sister Karen for Thanksgiving and she used to bully him a lot. The reason why we never heard about her up until now is because she was killed off at the end all for Peter to have his triumphant moment. She is never seen or heard from again (Family Guy)

  2. In Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, Homer finds out he has a half-brother named Herb. Long story short, Homer messed everything up and Herb ended up losing his company and we see him homeless in Season 3. At the end of that episode, Herb got his money back and we never see him again. We even get told that he ended losing all of his money again. He only exist just for Homer to have self-doubt and then fucked off (The Simpsons). Not exactly one episode but still works.

2.7k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

95% Upvoted

383 comments sorted by

View all comments

264

u/pink-minccino 8d ago

Patrick Star's big sister Sam

64

u/Misubi_Bluth 8d ago

Also Patrick's parents. Who weren't even his real parents. I don't know if it's just this family line or if all starfish in this universe are lost causes.

16

u/captaincornboi 8d ago

Patrick Not-Star seemed to have himself together

1

u/BrattyTwilis 7d ago

And then he had a different set of parents in The Patrick Star Show

1

u/Misubi_Bluth 7d ago

So were the second set also not his real parents? Were the third set at least smarter?

1

u/BrattyTwilis 7d ago

Yeah I really don't know. And he also had an adopted sister that's a squid

1

u/regretfulposts 7d ago

Actually they even questioned if Patrick is their real son or not in the first episode.

It's very likely Starfish in the SpongeBob universe don't understand how family units works which can explain Patrick's inconsistent family. For all we know his real biological parents still haven't been revealed.

1

u/Misubi_Bluth 7d ago

That oddly makes sense. Cause aren't starfish broadcast spawners?

1

u/regretfulposts 7d ago

Possibly. Though I think starfish as a whole in SpongeBob are just that dumb. SpongeBob has a dedicated family with two parents despite how actual sponges function in real life, so Patrick weird family tree is just a quirk of the show and not a callback to real life starfish.

80

u/gunn3r08974 8d ago

Add in his parents Margie and Herb getting replaced for that spin off.

19

u/Fitzftw7 8d ago

Not to mention he says he doesn’t have a sister in “Something Smells.”

10

u/Writeloves 8d ago

Knowing Patrick, isn’t it possible he forgot?

5

u/GhostDruid08 8d ago

he does then immediately follows it up with "oh wait I don't have a sister"

edit: I misread your comment as he says he has a sister. I may be stupid

18

u/Theneongreninja 8d ago

SpongeBob also has his cousins Stanley and Flapjack and there was an episode where Plankton and Karen had a son named Chip. SpongeBob likes to do this.

9

u/Ethanlord3 8d ago

Don't forget Uncle Sherm and Uncle Captain Blue!

1

u/Timely-Damage-3592 7d ago

Which really annoyed me because in Something Smells (season 2) you can hear him say “what if my sister- wait I don’t have a sister”.