The “found family” trope has captured the hearts of audiences for decades. From The Legend of Vox Machina to Parks and Recreation to New Girl to all things Star Wars, the trope has compelled audiences for many reasons.

For one, its relatability allows fans to personally identify with the friendship-turned-family-member relationships that occur on the screen. Two, it centers the story on the characters and their relationships with one another. If one enjoys character-driven storytelling, this falls under the same canter. Finally, the found family method of storytelling exemplifies deep, riveting aspects of family that go beyond the confines of just a shared legal or biological identity.

Sci-fi and fantasy shows such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, Warehouse 13, and Stranger Things display a found family in its rawest form. Each character chose their family willingly, freely, and without obligation for no reason other than love. In the exposition for each show, the story explains how the characters came to know each other. The introductions and relationships start small-usually with a group of only two to four people-and slowly grow as the story progresses.

By the resolution, Team Avatar, the workers of Warehouse 13, and the rag-tag group in season five of Stranger Things all strike up a group identity closer to family rather than one of close friends that found one another by happenstance. While the groups may not contain the traditional roles of a nuclear family, the family is there nonetheless.

Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Found Family Storytelling

     Nickelodeon

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the infamous group began with Sokka and Katara, a brother and sister from the Southern Water Tribe. They frequently mention their late mother, war-hero father, and the shared culture and history of the mighty southern Waterbenders. As their group grew, each character took on a familial role when it was needed for other party members.

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Zuko and Katara swapped older sibling wisdom; Katara took on a maternal role when others desperately needed one; Sokka brought older-brother levity and humor, etc. While these familial ties offer fun storylines and interpersonal relationships, they also offer deep, dynamic individual character development.

What does Zuko have to do to fully earn everyone’s trust after his antagonistic role in season one? Why does the willingness to trust Zuko vary so much in the group? Because he was born as the Avatar and without a traditional family, how does Aang even define family? How does losing a mother (as Zuko, Sokka, and Katara did) impact one’s ability to forge a maternal relationship? Can their found-family ties cross the boundaries between each nation?

Fundamental questions like this, ones about a character and their place within a family, accomplish the goal of the trope. The “found family” method of storytelling calls for audiences to identify, explore, and even challenge their understandings of family and personal connection. Overall, the group of heroes in Avatar: The Last Airbender demonstrates how complicated, hilarious, heartbreaking, and compelling families can be.

Warehouse 13’s Agents Become a (Dysfunctional) Family

     Syfy

Warehouse 13 begins with two Secret Service agents, both with wildly different personalities. At the show’s beginning, both agents are hesitant, guarded, and sometimes begrudging toward each other. By the conclusion of the series, the agents of Warehouse 13 constructed a tight-knit family, one that is centered on their shared roles and history within the elusive warehouse. Artie takes on an older, crotchety, paternal role. Pete shoulders the classic “older brother” demeanor. Steve bears the empathic, withdrawn younger brother persona. Myka embodies the older, wiser sister. Claudia encompasses the younger, overeager sister. The role that each character donned alludes to the profound storylines that accompanied them.

For instance, in the first few seasons of Warehouse 13, Artie Nielsen unofficially adopts Claudia Donovan, a girl involved in an artifact acquisition-gone-wrong years before. He felt a personal responsibility for her safety and well-being and later inducted her into the Warehouse. After striking up a unique rapport with Claudia, they followed a father-daughter (or, as she would phrase it, grandfather-granddaughter) model throughout the series.

This muddied the lines of each conflict between the characters, making the arguments, betrayals, and heartfelt moments that much more gripping. Was Artie protective of Claudia because she was a talented agent or because he was scared of losing his pseudo-daughter? Is Claudia more willing to voice her dissent to Artie because she views him as a close family member instead of her supervisor? Does Claudia seek vengeance on those who harm Artie because of her admiration of him or because the wrongdoers harmed her father?

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While it doesn’t follow the mother-father-son-daughter organization of a traditional family, Claudia’s familial relationships became the glue for the group. Each character had some semblance of dysfunction or absence in their family (Pete, with the premature death of his father, Myka, with the estranged, complicated relationship with her parents, and Claudia, with the premature death of her parents and a fractured relationship with her brother, Joshua). Because of this, Warehouse 13 differs from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Stranger Things.

The characters’ dysfunctional or already-existent familial relationships provided a deep contrast to the ones created within the show. Between the heartwarming presence of a character adopting a parent or sibling after losing one or finding one that they never truly had, Warehouse 13 epitomizes the “found family” trope.

Stranger Things Blurs the Line Between Biological and Found Family

     Netflix

In Stranger Things, the complex web of relationships fuels the development of a found family. Nancy and Mike Wheeler are siblings, Jonathan and Will Byers are brothers, Jonathan and Nancy are dating, Chief Hopper is the adopted father of El/Jane, Steve Harrington is the pseudo-adopted parent of all the younger children within the group, etc. Unlike Warehouse 13, Stranger Things did not compare the found family to already-existent familial relationships; it simply included them.

The separation between biological families blurred as they eventually grew into a vast, hulking family tree. By including a variety of relationship dynamics within the group, Stranger Things created its own interpretation of “found families.” The multi-generational mixture of existing familial relationships, romantic relationships, and deep seeded friendships brought this beloved trope to the series.

Each “found family” will return to the big screen soon. Season five of Stranger Things has an estimated summer 2024 release date, a reboot is in the early stages of development for Warehouse 13, and Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender series will debut sometime in 2023.