This might be explained by "the parent problem" : if a story has a child protagonist that has to solve difficult problems, how can the story set it up so the pa

This might be explained by "the parent problem" : if a story has a child protagonist that has to solve difficult problems, how can the story set it up so the parents aren't stepping in and solving the problems for their kid? A common answer is, kill the parents! See http://pcwrede.com/the-parent-problem/ http://pcwrede.com/the-parent-problem/ for a nice discussion of variations and alternatives.