A subtrope of Parental Abandonment: The father of a character or characters is missing or absent. Perhaps he's dead, or maybe he was murdered.

Katara and Sokka started out with a Missing Mom, followed by their father Hakoda becoming a Disappeared Dad when he left to fight the Fire Nation.

The 15:17 to Paris: All three of the main trio are raised by their single mothers, with their fathers never showing up in the film.

A child's Disappeared Dad or Missing Mom has, after many years, returned. The child is ecstatic, but everyone else is leery of the parent's arrival.

A page for describing PlayingWith: Disappeared Dad. Basic Trope: A character's father is missing or absent, sometimes without mention.

You never carried me up a hill! You never picked me up from school, you didn't read me bedtime stories, you didn't carry me on your shoulders, you didn't bounce ...

A subtrope of Parental Abandonment: The father of a character or characters is missing or absent. Perhaps he's died. Perhaps he's left and there's bitterness ...

Richard Croft died/disappeared during an expedition in Cambodia searching for Lara's Missing Mom. Underworld reveals the details of what happened; Lara's mother ...

Magister Negi Magi is to follow in the footsteps of his legendary father Nagi, known as the Thousand Master. Nagi disappeared ten years prior to the series ...

To put it simply, a main character's Disappeared Dad or occasionally Missing Mom or occasionally even both is absent because they are off fighting in a war.