The fathers of the Protagonists

[Greninjaman]

Where are the dads? Other than Brendan/May, None of the protags don't have a dad shown in the game. Why? Like, this is odd.

 

[Leaf_Ranger]

Where are the dads? Other than Brendan/May, None of the protags don't have a dad shown in the game. Why? Like, this is odd.

They all went looking for Tropius' bananas. Either that or it's part of woke culture even before it was trendy just to show how women can survive and raise kids without being dependent of any man.
Seriously, I think it's easier storywise to just have a motherly figure than having to create a father that also has to have a story.

PS: Silver was a character that could have more development and reappear in order to know the man he became due to his relation with Giovanni and also seeing how Giovanni and TR keep being ressurected and yet nothing happened so that's a clear example of how GF handles this and how they haven't evolved since 1996.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

By this point I won’t be surprised if we find out all the protags were fathered by one same travelling casanova.

(Brendan/May aside... or not)

 

[Greninjaman]

Of course, there is also the possibility that some died.

 

[Nicolas721]

Real life reason: They want to give the players a sense of familiarity by giving all PCs the same background as Red's.

In-universe reason: Single parenting and divorce is very common.

 

[Greninjaman]

That's just sad.

 

[Esserise]

Pretty sure it's just rooted in the archaic idea of husbands being the ones who go to work and earn money while wives stay home and tend to the house. Even in the Hoenn games where we actually do interact with our paternal figure, he's still clearly the one with a job while the mother character is home all the time. I really wish they'd have found a different way of going about this by now, but alas.

(To be fair, Diamond & Pearl through X & Y all at least gave the moms some minor backstory - Johanna was once a Super Contest star, the BW mom was a Trainer when she was younger, the B2W2 mom was a Pokémon Center nurse (and actually met the mom from BW way back when), and Grace is a famous Rhyhorn racer. I don't know why they stopped with these kinds of details; they were nice.)

 

[Greninjaman]

(To be fair, Diamond & Pearl through X & Y all at least gave the moms some minor backstory - Johanna was once a Super Contest star, the BW mom was a Trainer when she was younger, the B2W2 mom was a Pokémon Center nurse (and actually met the mom from BW way back when), and Grace is a famous Rhyhorn racer. I don't know why they stopped with these kinds of details; they were nice.)

They must felt it was not needed? After all, when was the last time you interacted with the mother?

 

[Silktree]

They're a bunch of drunks who resent their own kids for wanting fame.

After all, when was the last time you interacted with the mother?

I always call my mom to say hi.

 

[Greninjaman]

I always call my mom to say hi.

The in-game mom right?

 

[Silktree]

The in-game mom right?

There's a difference?

 

[prog rocker]

Pretty sure it's just rooted in the archaic idea of husbands being the ones who go to work and earn money while wives stay home and tend to the house. Even in the Hoenn games where we actually do interact with our paternal figure, he's still clearly the one with a job while the mother character is home all the time. I really wish they'd have found a different way of going about this by now, but alas.

Now that I think about it, this also happens in the Mother series and the movie Ponyo. It's even more deppressing when both Itoi and Miyazaki based that on their experience with their kids, with Ponyo even being an apology of sorts by Miyazaki for not being there for his kid.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

With the introduction of character customisation, it allows them to have a fixed design for the mother, because people can imagine that the protagonist looks like their deadbeat dad.

Also, prog rocker, you reminded me of TheJWittz's video comparing EarthBound to Pokémon.