A common subtrope of Parental Abandonment. In a nutshell, someone brings up a potential topic about someone close to them. Another one asks what happened to them, and the former frowns, saying "They're dead."
Cue awkward silence.
This isn't when a main character's parents are dead. Someone has to say some variation of "My Parents Are Dead".
It might not stop certain characters from cracking a [...] [tvtropes.org]