[bombcar]

Once you realize the "dead parent trick" you see it everywhere (with variations of single parent, etc).

It makes things like Bluey stand out - wow, a show that is entertaining and fun where you don't have to kill one or more parents to make it work!

[paradox460]

My mother used to call it the "Disney story," due to it's utter prevalence in their media. Be it death or divorce, seems like you cant throw a rock at the Disney catalog without hitting it

[littlecorner]

Many of the fairy tales have it too. Maybe its something deeper common to humanity

[virgil_disgr4ce]

This is interesting; I always assumed that the Grimm's tales and all kinds of folklore throughout cultures and history were responding to anxieties about, say, super-high rates of infant death.

It would be, in a way, hilarious if it was all just lazy writing the entire time.