Fathers STILL get the rough treatment in media, from being portrayed as too old to understand the modern day, feckless, violent, cold and just plain absent.
And we all see the fatherless behaviour that in reality causes...
So to celebrate a day that often gets overlooked to the female equivalent, what are some of the best representations of fathers you've seen in media?
Anime My daughter left the nest and Returned an S Rank adventurer: Belgrieve or 'the red ogre' is a perfect example of a positive role model I can think of in Anime. He's strict but fair, patient when he needs to be but not a push over, knows when to be emotional and when to think with a clear head. He's such a good role model that even former enemies switch to following his leads and former friends who fell off the right path immediately get back on the path just knowing He's around.
**As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll use my appraisal skill to Rise in the world **: for the time he's on screen, Raven shows he's not just a great warrior and lord but an excellent father, encouraging his son when he can, traching him the right values and when it matters most, just talking to him when he needed it and that attitude extended to all the other members of the cast.
Western Media: I think the diluge of propaganda over the years is making my mind a bit blank on this unfortunately. Had to delve into my brain for this:
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (1990s): James Avery played uncle Philip PERFECTLY, he was the greatest role model of a good Black father figure so no wonder they character assassinated him in the 'remake'
What are you're picks as to save it going to long, I should mention there are quite a few 'regression father stories' in Manhwa too where a father who makes mistakes raising their child (usually daughter) regresses in time to raise them properly, it's a genre to itself at this point.
To see positive white fatherly role models in western media you have to go back to the 90s, if not before. The bumbling but loving idiot dad trope has been around since Home Improvement, at least, and while I could tolerate it back then, I no longer do.
I'm honestly having a hard time thinking of examples that aren't 1960s shows. Family Ties came to mind (the show that put Michael J Fox on the map,) but then I remembered that most of the family was milequost Democrat, it was only Fox's character that was written as rational.
I'll have to think on it, and get back to you.
That I, a 52 year old white man, cannot come up with even one example of a positive white father figure in western media should tell you something about how long and subtle the cultural subversion of the west has been ongoing.
Slight tangent: It’ll never happen, but it seems like the world needs a reboot of Family Ties for modern times. The premise of the show worked because it was made in an era where the left were boomer squares and the right were young and cool. We’re back in the same spot again. Steven and Elyse as normie Current Thing enthusiasts and Alex as an edgy dissident right memelord, trying to reconcile their familial love for each other with their differing belief systems, would be pretty damn good in the right hands.
There's literally no way this would ever happen today because leftists take political differences so seriously now that they consider even depicting a potential right wing person as anything less than evil is morally wrong. If it could be made from a right wing point of view that'd be great and might work, but when do you ever see sitcoms made by right wing people? Maybe Tim Allen can tackle it.
Yep, exactly. wE cAnT nOrMaLiZe FaScIsM
It was also pretty fun too because they made Alex's character both respectable and at the same time amusingly meme-worthy, almost in the same scene.
And it worked, wasn't jarring or cringe because it was just earnest fun, leaving all the drama of politics out of it.
Closest would be Last man standing
I've seen that show a few times. the father was a emasculated beta bitch
The only other example I can think of is Russia's Better Than Us. The show is about robots and humans, but the main character father in it is portrayed like a real man.
The only thing he does wrong is not being able to perform a miracle surgery to save a high-ranking official's kid. For that he gets sent to the shit job and his wife hates him.
He's not a weak pushover, he's responsible and loving to his kids (who come across as real kids not hollywood-abused weirdos), and his wife is seen as a real bitch for blaming him for something that was not his fault and even herself recognizes that she's being unfair and bitchy.
The road by Cormac Mccarthy.
Hank Hill is the standard by which all Dads should Be (Mike) judged. He’s one of the most virtuous characters in pop culture, especially compared to contemporary fathers in western animation.
I guess Ned Stark is a slightly more recent example, of both a good farther and leader. I always found two kind of similar.
Somebody already mentioned Dragon Quest V, that game’s story is incredible and it’s a great example of the importance of family.
Love King of the Hill and I worry about the reboot. King of the Hill definitely gets Texas culture
On a related note I've been wondering about the Beavis and Butthead reboot. I'm trying to get through the 90s and 2011 seasons before I give it a shot.
I found Beavis & Butthead Do the Universe to be decent quality, and that's very new. There's a scene where B&B sit in on a college course about White privilege and they start walking around being assholes and saying "sorry, it's cause we're White lol, we can't help it." I laff'd. If it's still Mike Judge at the helm I'd trust it enough to watch it through.
I’ve heard it’s actually good. I remember seeing a part where it mocks the idea of white privilege.
I enjoyed it
Greatly amused that you compared Hank Hill to Ned Stark lol
True test for Hank as a father would be a time we never see in the show, which is Bobby getting ready to graduate high school.
As we see Bobby at 12-13 he's aloof and aimless, doesn't do very well in school, and has career aspirations (stand-up comedy) that very few people can support themselves doing full-time. This is not a recipe for success*, and we never get to see how Hank would help his son navigate that as he gets ready to go off in the world.
*And as I type this out it becomes abundantly clear why Khan does everything he can to keep Bobby away from Connie, and him doing so makes him a better father than the show wants to make him out to be. Yeah he's an ass about it, but it's also true that Connie is gifted in a way that no one else on the show is; and it would be very easy for her to simply "revert to the mean" of her surroundings.
Mike Judge had an awesome show called The Goode Family that only made it one season because it made fun of liberals too pointedly.
Probably in Lord of the Rings. King Theoden comes to mind, as well as Elrond.
Good thread, I enjoy these kinds of discussions.
Game-wise:
Fire Emblem (GBA) - Eliwood's father is a great man who embodies much of what it means to be a good father, no matter what hellish situation he ends up in. I cannot think of a single criticism to level at him.
Dragon Quest V - Just play it and you'll understand. I really don't want to spoil this, but let's just say (imo) its a pretty authentic experience of multiple aspects of fatherhood. One of the only JRPGs where they actually treat the father of the protagonist like a genuine character. One of the most unique experiences I've had in gaming.
Trails in the Sky (trilogy) - Cassius Bright is something else. In terms of "guy who did everything" types for a world, he's up there. A kindhearted war hero who's also a genius at, well, basically everything lol. Very interesting character in the context of the story.
Strangely in anime there aren't that many I've seen that have good father figures. Positive male role models sure (especially big brothers, male protagonists, teachers, grizzled mentors, best friends, and grandfathers/old masters), but fathers... not as much. Usually its something of a redemption story for the ones I've seen (which I still appreciate mind you, but its not the same thing). Oftentimes the fathers are usually dead, absent or evil in a lot of my favorite anime.
I'll just say One Piece as a safe recommendation. It has several great father figures in it. Zeff, Hiriluk, Tom, Whitebeard, etc.
There's other anime/games I could recommend or say but I don't want to blur the lines too much between father/father figure and other positive role models. I feel fatherhood is something unique and I don't want to dilute it.
In terms of western media... idk. TMNT 2003 I guess? But that kinda blurs the line between father and grandfather imo (still great though). Same for ATLA with Uncle Iroh. Usually in western media (at least on the animated front) the best they end up making the father is a "noble fool" type rather than a genuinely great father.
Uncle Iroh was probably the best loved character in ATLA, unironically near Zuko. He was the man that stepped up compared to his vicious brother with Zuko and always tried to give the best advise to anyone who needed it.
...and loved his Jade Tea.
That's because writing actual fathers out of the story gives the male MC enough independence for the story to happen. So you're more likely to find a good one in slice-of-life stuff than shounen. But if you go too far into comedy, they'll usually end up being goofy.
One recently that stood out to me was a basic thing from Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable of all things. Protagonist needs a ride somewhere for dramatic relationship reasons, father's busy with an upcoming work call, kid makes an honest plea, dad pauses for a second, then calls a subordinate and hands the meeting off to him, gives his son a line about understanding not wanting to have regrets, and tells him to go get dressed. The father isn't a prominent character and it's such a basic interaction but it just honest. He sees something is real important to his son, empathizes, prioritizes his family, and does it in a professional manner. Nothing flashy. Just a dad being a good dad.
In games there's Telltale's The Walking Dead. "Season" 1 and 2.
Kenny is a loving father that does everything to protect his family. When he loses them it's absolutely devastating, but he goes on to find a new family where he's a loving husband and creates a safe, happy environment during an apocalypse. When the apocalypse takes that he (depending on your choices) adopts the girl and that's the happy ending.
Or you can side with the woke psycho bitch and her and the girl live a miserable life in a self-imposed concentration camp.
Season 1 was written with a lot of care to have natural reactions to your choices, with each dialog having 6-12 different versions depending on choices and is actually a good story. Season 2 was written by woke-tards and is objectively terrible, but like in other media where they write the hero characters as villains and vice versa here they accidentally make siding with the family man the good endings.
I love these games as a personality test. If you didn't side with Kenny the whole time then you have leftist tendencies and need to reevaluate life.
Eliwood himself is a great father in FE6, as is Hector.
Honestly most of FE6 is a lot of great fathers that FE7 shows you them in detail.
Eh... I don't really agree with that. Eliwood's behavior in FE6 was disappointing, and Hector dies before anything happens in the story. Their characters in FE7 were great, but FE6? Nah. I dont recall any great (or even particularly good) fathers in FE6 except Bartre.
Their screentime was minimal, but they what little there was showed they hadn't changed much from FE7 so you can assume most of which still applies.
Except Bartre who absolutely did become a king in between the two.
Eh... Hector I'll give you (even if it was anticlimactic and early as hell), but Eliwood, no. Keep in mind what his father went through in FE7 and compare it to him in FE6. It just feels... lame.
Hector was killed by the strongest guy in the world and his surprise ambush dragon army, where Eliwood couldn't do anything against bandits (nor show up for his best friend and the country as a whole) because of... a bad cold?
Even if you can argue that its somehow some super debilitating illness (which is hard to swallow if Eliwood can still move at all, and is also a lame storytelling device in general), its still not comparable to the literal torture his father endured and still fought with all his heart for his family and those he cares about. It makes Eliwood come across as a badly written character.
In retrospect, my memory of FE6 is pretty poor as I didn't enjoy it very much (opinion, its the worst GBA title by a mile), so I'll default to your better knowledge of it.
Fire Emblem Heroes has been filling in the blanks somewhat. Seeing that musclehead class-change to a mage to trick-or-treat with his daughter (i.e. Hector: Dressed-Up Duo) is tooth-rottingly precious.
For all its flaws, FEH is good about throwing in one "non-viral" choice with most of their wierd alt-banners that does show someone there has played the games before PoR a few times.
My parents divorced when I was young and my mom would leave me with a friend's mom until the two of us walked to school. Before we did we'd watch Transformers in the morning. Optimus Prime was a father figure to me as I was growing up. Always caring for those under his responsibility, always doing the right thing.
In anime especially I feel there's some great ones: I shed some manly tears in Dr Stone because of the father in there, Byakuya. Not to take too much away from it(honestly, go watch it) but that he helped his son through time hundreds of years later kinda got to me. Even before doing everything in his power to have his son further his knowledge. Probably one of my favorites.
And Gunther from Ascendance of a Bookworm is another that comes to my mind. He's a soldier protecting the gate of the city, he loves his children dearly. He'd fight tooth and nail to protect his family and actually did multiple times. That one also has a lot of spoilers I don't want to get into(especially cuz the major bulk of it is still in the LN and the next season is not out yet).
Byakuya is an excellent pick, guy had so much faith in his adopted son that he spent his life gathering resources that he KNEW he'd need in the future.
The word "representation" is loaded. It was turned into an intersectional buzzword so I would avoid using that word. To use that word in that sense is already accepting intersectional logic, it's cunning.
We really need to take back language control from the left...
Secondary to just killing them. They can't co-opt terms if they're in the ground.
Nothing new, it's the bolchevik playbook. He who controls language controls thoughts.The fact that conservatives completely failed to push back against wokeness says that they have no control over culture anymore.
Vander (Arcane). After attempting a failed uprising against an oppressive government, this man adopts two girls who were orphaned by the conflict. Throughout the first half of the show, Vander is a grounding voice of reason for the the girls and could have steered them to a bright future if they didn't fuck up and get him killed (?).
Gohan (Dragonball Z). The only Saiyan in the show who properly raises his kid and aspires to be a good role model.
Richard Castle (Castle). While his primary role is the suave writer turned detective, Castle also has a daughter that he takes very good care of. throughout the show he encouraged her while protecting her from the idiocies of being a teen.
Gandalf (LotR). This one is a bit of a stretch, but Gandalf's relationship with Frodo comes off as fatherly to me. When frodo dispairs or is in trouble, he not only comforts him but gives him advice that prepares him for the trials ahead.
Urokodaki (Demon Slayer). This one is another stretch, but Urokodaki shows up when the already fatherless MC Tanjiro had his family killed and sister cursed. Urokodaki teaches Tanjiro the brutal truths of his situation and rigorously prepares him for the future, but he also provides a safe home and a bed for the orphans.
For all its faults, Super shows a few times that Vegeta is doing his absolute best to raise his kids despite his own personality faults.
Vegeta is admirable for making an effort to be a good father, among other things. He tries. But he is just not father material.
Most of us aren't father material, but we still ended up as one. I doubt most men in history were father material going into it.
But the weight of that responsibility is what makes us become better. Drives us to be stronger, more able, and willing to fight society itself. He is a piece of shit, but he still panics when they cry and takes them out to play while never outright spoiling them by offering affection freely.
Compared to Gohan who took having a kid to mean "its someone else's problem now!" while he got weaker and weaker while threats kept coming that he just left to his aging father to protect him. He literally has to get dragged into the last movie by someone fake kidnapping his daughter, and he gets dabbed on by random Androids homegrown on Earth even then.
He is a loving, caring man no doubt. But Priority 1 of Fatherhood is being able to protect them, which he shows over and over he won't do.
I'd say Piccolo was the best dad, as the one who raised Gohan for most of his formative years (while Goku was busy being dead) and later extended to Pan as "grandpa".
First one that comes to mind is the movie A Quiet Place with John Krasinski and his real wife Emily Blunt. John's character leads his family through the impossibly difficult times of alien occupation. He's a leader and brave.
Second one is Joel from The Last of Us. He falls apart after the death of his daughter and becomes a criminal, but when Ellie comes into his life his character develops into trying to become a dad again. He's not perfect but he tried to protect Ellie and be there emotionally for her. And by the end Joel does exactly what we would all want to do to help our daughter.
Both those are dads put into extreme situations. I can't think of a regular dad like me just working and serving his family.
Edit: Adding the character Sealy Booth in the tv show Bones. After several seasons the main characters marry and have a child. Booth is portrayed as a devoted, strong, just father.
I'm playing Horizon Zero Dawn right now, and despite all the woke, Rost is a strong father figure, although I'm still playing so don't know his backstory, but I think they only make him better.
Starship Troopers 1997, Lt Jean Razak.
Nier (Gestalt)
I'm mildly upset that twink brother Nier is considered the canon Nier.
Hercules, as played by Kevin Sorbo.
Regardless of how his character's entire family was murdered by Hera in the first episode of the series, his character almost consistently represents a fantastic male role model. And there were frequent points in the series where they'd give a solid glimpse into what kind of father and husband his character was.
Another solid example would maybe be Jack O'Neill from Stargate. Guilt ridden over his son's death, and eventually managing to start the healing process, the writers made a point of emphasizing just how protective he was of children in a variety of different situations.
(Richard Dean Anderson himself is a good example too, choosing to leave his career behind so he could devote his time to his daughter.)
Jim Gordon as portrayed in Gotham was a solid male role model and father figure. One of Bruce's many mentors after the death of his parents, confidant, protector, and friend.
And Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond is another good example as a solid father figure to Terry, after Terry had lost his own father.
It would have been a fine mentorship story on its own without Amanda Waller injecting Warren McGuiness with a "vaccine" that mutated his testes to produce Bruce's children.
I completely ignore that retcon. It's unnecessary and cheapens their relationship, like most retcons.
Same here, which is why I deliberately left any of that out.
Bioshock 2 is probably the peak from the "dads with daughters" era of gaming in the early '10s for me.
Because the game doesn't let you just take the "anything goes to protect her" angle for free. It reminds you that they aren't just taking the lesson you tell them, they are also watching what you do and taking huge inspiration from that. If you aren't ready for the scene where she turns around and murders an innocent little girl in her bed because she "studied how you treated others" its a real gut punch moment of realizing how evil you were. Which is a lot after the game has them whisper in fear of you lines that sound right out of a fucking Domestic Violence scene.
But if you weren't "Pure Evil" the entire game, it even offers you an ending where you can reject her emulating you at the very end and tell her to be better. Which after her edgy supervillain speech on the way up is a really redeeming moment of breaking a teenager out of a bad path, like they often fall on.
Its a massivley underrated game that improves on nearly everything from the first, sans the big twist, but got absolutely buried by critics because it exchanges the capitalism/objectivism mockery for burying collectivism/therapy. They wouldn't admit it, but the fact that it shits all over the Left and even the way they brainwash people is a huge reason why it got treated as "weak, forgettable B team sequel."
Related to this, I'd include Dishonored (the first one). Especially due to how the game framed the story and events in such a way that at least to me, I couldn't stomach coming home to my character's daughter if I'd been murdering people left and right. A rather unique and heartfelt way to motivate me towards going for the non-lethal approach.
Another game character and fatherly figure I'd mention would be Miller from the Metro games.
Its usually a great example of soul vs soulless.
Because when you can tell they are trying to manipulate you with cheap tricks like that, its insulting and takes you right out of it. Last of Us 2 making you play with the dog or shouting random names is a good example of it being overt.
But when it works, it really does make the game's "choices" work a lot better than the pure mechanical version it otherwise would be.
Even if you ignore the overarching, big-brained, "collectivism bad" theme, BioShock 2 had a surprisingly personal tale of getting your daughter back from her abusive cunt of a mother, where Sophia Lamb treats Eleanor like an accessory than a person. I'm sure that's a far more relatable tale for many a divorced father than Infinite's "muh greater good" ending, or even BioShock 1's "free will is a lie".
All of the little 1 to 1 stories in Bioshock 2 are more personal, way more so than most else in the series.
Sinclair is setup to be an obvious Judas who would betray you just like Fontaine. But while he is a slimy business man, he isn't a monster and fights to the end to resist being forced into one. The black mammy is lost in her blind bigotry and idolization that she is literally shook by seeing the fact that her "enemies" can think.
Bioshock 1 has this grand story about the literal top of the top Elites and their machinations, and its amazing at times, but none of us will ever be a Frank Fontaine or Andrew Ryan. But a lot of us could be just a simp being abused by a monster (Gilbert Alexander) or a broken father trying to do his best in an awful world (Alpha).
Carl in Family Matters definitely counts if we're looking at the 90's. Imagine having a black christian head of household today... who's a cop no less.
As a reincarnated aristocrat has actually a ton of great male role models of a wide variety of personalities and motivations. I'm not a huge fan of the series but I do appreciate their character work, including the more limited female characters.
For western media I agree you have to go back quite awhile, and I always appreciated Uncle Phil.
Went through my movie collection and found 3 from this century:
And of those 3 only The Patriot is about a father raising sons (there's a son in Interstellar but the movie is primarily about McConaughey's relationship with his daughter).
Honorable mentions:
Agreed on every character you mention.
Reminds me, that I'd want to give a special mention to Daniel Graystone and possibly Joseph Adama from Caprica.
Not always the perfect fathers, but they tried their best under some extraordinarily difficult and fucked up circumstances.
For me it would be Ward Cleaver (Leave it to Beaver), Jim Anderson (Father Knows Best), Cliff Huxtable (Cosby Show), Uncle Phil (Fresh Prince), and Andy Griffith. I guess you could add in the dads from Growing Pains and Family Ties
Carl Winslow was pretty good too, he's pretty strict with his kids
Oh yea. And he did a great job with the “nice guy cop” role in movies
I just watched Arcadian with Nicolas Cage. Not sure if a role model or anything but he is a father of 2 boys and he is fatherly.
I was shocked that a movie made in 2024 has a white religious father of boys as the good guy. Even more shocking, the boys aren't mix race or gay. In clown world normality is shocking.
The movie Frequency had a really uplifting portrayal of a father.
Sylvester Stallone's character in Over the Top was a great father as well.
I think that Andy Griffith and Optimus Prime are two fantastic father figures and role models.
Me and my dad watched 2012 with John Cusack who plays a really cool dad!
A bit on the sillier side, but Jingle All The Way. Schwarzenegger starts off as a terrible father; prioritizing work over family, failing to keep his promises, and being generally unreliable. But after failing to go to his son's karate belt graduation and, more importantly, seeing how disappointed but unsurprised his son is by his failure, he tries to make it up to him by getting him a Turbo Man action figure. Lampooning holiday toy shortages of the 90s, it's harder to get than he thought, but he's become determined not to let his son down again and by the end of the movie learns what really matters.
It's an oldie and obviously just for small kids, but the father in Babar was a good role model.
You almost had me until you had to talk about blacks and a 90s nigga show.
You must be pretty young to call it a "90s nigga show", anyone who actually grew up in the 90s watching it knows it wasn't that at all. It was a universal show unlike all the black shows they make now, the race of the family was mostly irrelevant. When it did touch on race, it was in positive uplifting ways like showing the reality of black fathers abandoning their kids while demonstrating what a real man can and should do to address such situations.
We wuz princes.