Archnemesis Dad: Difference between revisions

{{quote|"''If you're going to take [[Big Bad|me]] on, [[Lex Luthor|son]], you're going to have to bring your game up to a whole different level.''"|'''Lionel Luthor''', ''[[Smallville]]''}}

 

 

This trope is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: a father or father figure who also happens to be a prime candidate for the title of a character's [[Arch Enemy]]. He could be anywhere on the [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]], but whether he's [[The Big Bad]], [[The Dragon]], or something else entirely, any story featuring him is likely to be emotionally charged at the least. Normally this will be a case of [[It's Personal]], and may well include offers of [[We Can Rule Together]], but not always: particularly cold-hearted fathers may declare [[I Have No Son]] and treat the child in question as just one more problem to be solved.

 

This trope's [[Distaff Counterpart]] is the [[Evil Matriarch]]. The inversion is [[Antagonistic Offspring]]. See [[Evil Uncle]] for when it's not dad but his [[Cain and Abel|brother]] who goes out of his way to ruin your day.

 

* In ''[[Code Geass]]'' this is pretty much Emperor Charles zi Britannia's raison d'etre. He has children by 108 different wives and believes the best way to choose a successor to the throne is to pit them all against each other, encouraging backstabbing and assassination at every turn, [[Social Darwinist|so that the last one standing will be the strongest and most fit to lead.]] [[Prodigal Hero|Prodigal]] prince Lelouch blames the death of his mother and the crippling of his sister on the Emperor's ruthless parenting style, and he launches a worldwide [[La Résistance|rebellion]] against Brittania so he can put an end to this system of sibling rivalry forever. Though, for most of the series, the Emperor doesn't consider Lelouch much of a threat and takes a hands-off approach towards dealing with him.

* The Fourth Kazekage from [[Naruto]]. He [[Sealed Evil in a Can|placed a known dangerous tanuki-demon into his unborn child Gaara]] to create a [[Tyke Bomb]] for his ninja village. He used his own wife as a [[Human Sacrifice]] to complete the act, all (of course) without her consent. When he couldn't train the aforementioned [[Tyke Bomb]] to control his powers well, he [[Offing the Offspring|tries to kill Gaara]].

 

 

** This is also played with in [[Ultimate Spider-Man]], where Osborn's military research (including pieces of Peter's parents' research) leads directly to Peter gaining his powers. And Miles Morales, the new Ultimate Spider-man, got his powers from a stolen spider from Osborn's lab. Osborn keeps unintentionally birthing spidermen.

* A similar situation exists between ''[[Batman]]'' and Ra's Al Ghul. He, too, sees Bruce almost like the son he never had, and he actually plans on making him both his heir and his son-in-law by marrying him to his daughter Talia, something both Bruce and Talia are seriously tempted to do.

** Played straight and then subverted in the ''Black Glove'' story arc, where it is implied that the eponymous villain is actually Bruce's dad Thomas, who was really an evil psychopath. Neither allegation turns out to be true, though the real Black Glove, one [[Complete Monster|Doctor Simon Hurt]], nonetheless claims to be Thomas Wayne to both Bruce and Alfred's face, even though both men obviously knew he wasn't. It is implied that Hurt is actually [[Satan]] himself, though for a moment Batman accuses him of being an actor who used to impersonate his father, which would make this yet another inversion. Hurt denies this and claimed to have killed said actor and ''wore his skin'' to a party. So it's a triple subversion, with Hurt being a guy pretending to be a guy who pretended to be Bruce Waynes dad, ''and'' pretending to be Bruce's Wayne's dad. Phew!

*** ''Return of Bruce Wayne'' suggests that Hurt ''is'' Dr Thomas Wayne. Just not ''[[Identical Grandson|that]]'' Dr Thomas Wayne...

* The android superhero [[Red Tornado]] and his creator T.O. Morrow have this dynamic. Several storylines revolve around Morrow's attempts to destroy/manipulate/reprogram his prodigal son.

* At the end of the war between [[New Gods|New Genesis and Apokolips,]] rulers Highfather and Darkseid exchanged their baby sons as part of the peace treaty. Darkseid's son, Orion, was raised a hero (albeit one with anger issues), who plays this about as straight as possible, sometimes going after Darkseid even against the wishes of his adopted father.

* In ''[[All Fall Down]]'', we have IQ to his son, IQ Squared.

 

* Bruce Banner's father, David, in the 2003 ''[[Hulk (film)|Hulk]]''. After performing dangerous tests on himself, some of it was passed on genetically when Bruce was conceived. He attempted to murder Bruce but failed, striking down his wife in the process. Thirty years later, following his release from prison, he tracks down Bruce and attempts to rebuild their relationship while {{spoiler|secretly plotting to drain Bruce's powers and alter-ego in order to rebuild his own decaying cellular structure and gain his revenge on the military}}. A very, very bad dude, though not without his sympathetic moments.

* Dreverhaven in the Dutch movie ''Character'' has such an antagonistic relationship with his son that said son is the prime suspect when Dreverhaven is murdered.

 

 

* In ''I Am A Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President'', Oliver Watson describes his father as his "archnemesis (a.k.a. Daddy)".

* One could hardly be a worse father than Georges Leon, the quasi-immortal gambler of [[Tim Powers]]' ''Last Call.'' He schemes to live on by [[Grand Theft Me|stealing other people's bodies]], including that of his son and the book's hero, Scott Crane. {{spoiler|Scott's older brother Richard has already fallen prey to Georges.}}

* Ulcis of ''[[The Deepgate Codex]]'' tried to hang his daughter Rebecca {{spoiler|aka Carnival}} shortly after she was born, then gave her to his henchmen to be raped and tortured. Years later, when she and several others descend into the Abyss, he takes a perverse delight in tormenting her with the memory of what happened, trying to break her all over again.

* [[The Millennium Trilogy]] has {{spoiler|[[Diabolical Mastermind|Alexander Zalachenko]] (aka "Zala") and his daughter, [[Dark Action Girl|Lisbeth Salander]]. How deep does it go? Lisbeth, as a 12-year-old, tried to burn Zala alive in his car with a homemade Molotov cocktail, and ''she's the good guy''.}}

 

 

* John Locke's father on ''[[Lost]]'' abandoned him until well into his adult life, at which point he {{spoiler|stole his kidney}}, {{spoiler|re-abandoned him}}, {{spoiler|used him as a courier}}, {{spoiler|abandoned him again}}, and {{spoiler|pushed him out of an 8-story window}}.

** {{spoiler|And even then, Locke was too much of a wuss to actually kill him when he had the chance}}.

* C.G.B. Spender of [[The X-Files]] to both of his sons. He shoots one of them and attempts to foil the other's plans at every turn (and steal his brain, at one point). Not exactly Father of the Year.

* In [[El Internado]], Iván's father is the bad guy the main characters know the best, because he is the one who delivers the threats {{spoiler|and the medicines}}.

 

* [[Satan Is Good|Satan]] and [[God Is Evil|God]] are sometimes portrayed this way.

** ''Cronos's'' father Uranus (the sky) wasn't much better. He feared and hated all of his children so much that he forced them back into Gaia (the earth). Naturally, being forced to keep ''all'' of her full grown children inside her at once pissed Gaia off so much that she helped her son Cronos, the youngest and boldest Titan, get revenge on dear ol' dad. She forged a sickle which Cronos used to ''castrate his own father'' when Uranus was in the mood for some earth lovin'.

*** In some versions of myth he did not trapped and "was not in the mood" but rather hadn't stopped it in the first place.

*** This is despite the fact that the closest relative of his was either Zeus' great-nephew or his second cousin (Achilles' mother was Thetis the sea nymph, whose father was either Poseidon, Zeus' brother, or Oceanus, Zeus' uncle). Although most of the heroes did have some percentage of divine blood, it was really no more than just about any prominent person would have.

**** Zeus's son Sarpedon dies fighting for the Trojans, but he seems to be genuinely upset. And Aeneas, the one surviving Trojan, is Zeus's grandson in some versions of the myth. Of course, [[It Got Worse|seeing what happens to Aeneas afterwards...]]

 

 

* [[Tekken|Every generation of the Mishima clan starting with Heihachi has this issue]]. Jinpachi was a nice enough guy, but Heihachi hated him anyways, so I guess you could count him too if you wanted. In fact, pretty much the entire main plot of the [[Tekken]] series exists because the Mishimas all hate and fight their fathers [[He Who Fights Monsters|until they turn corrupt themselves]].

* In ''[[Psychonauts]]'', the final boss of Raz and {{spoiler|Coach Oleander}}'s minds are their grotesque antagonistic fathers. In Raz's case, {{spoiler|[[Just for Pun|it's all in his head]] -- his dad shows up and [[Papa Wolf|helps him defeat the monster]]}}.

* Jecht from ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' is an [[Abusive Dad|abusive]], [[The Alcoholic|alcoholic]] [[Jerk Jock]] of a dad. The nemesis relationship between himself and his son Tidus was heightened by the fact that both played the same sport, and Jecht went for the [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] method of teaching and was too vain to admit his son might ever be anywhere near as good as him. Later, {{spoiler|he was transformed into the [[Eldritch Abomination]] that terrorizes the entire world. Surprisingly, the trope is somewhat subverted, because Jecht becomes increasingly sympathetic as the game goes on, especially as Tidus comes to realizes that some of his [[Freudian Excuse|Freudian]] [[Oedipus Complex|Issues]] are his own problems and not his father's fault}}.

* This happens to Tiltyu and Lex in ''[[Fire Emblem Jugdral|Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War]]'', since their fathers Leptor and Langobalt are members of a conspiracy led by {{spoiler|Alvis. Or better said, by Manfloy from the Lopto Sect}}.

* For a series built on parent / creator issues, it's surprising that ''[[Mass Effect]]'' doesn't have more examples.

** Urdnot Wrex's father, Jarrod, though Wrex killed him long before the game started.

** Miranda Lawson's father is obsessed with creating the perfect legacy through [[Designer Babies]]. We don't now how many he's gone through, but Miranda wasn't the first one he made, just the first he "kept" - and he was already working on a replacement for her when she was in her teens. She escaped, taking her clone baby sister Oriana with her. Miranda's efforts to keep Oriana out of her father's reach make up the bulk of her character arc.

 

* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] on [[Gaia Online]]; {{spoiler|Labtech X}} is an Archnemesis ''Son'' ([[Cloning Blues|sort of]]).

* In [[Less Than Three Comics|LessThanThreeComics]]' Brat Pack, Firestorm's father abused him through his entire life, but the rest of the world only knows him as Napalm, one of America's greatest superheroes.

 

 

 

 

* [[Star Wars|Darth Vader]] is an archetypical example toward both Luke and Leia, though he does, eventually, [[Redemption Equals Death|get better]].

 

 

* {{spoiler|Andrew Ryan}} from ''[[BioShock]]'', but it comes as a surprise to him too and he stops trying to kill you when he finds out.

* [[I Wanna Be the Guy|The Guy]].

* [[Xenogears]] has a few of these.

** {{spoiler|Miang, revealed to be the mother of}} ''{{spoiler|all humanity}},'' {{spoiler|is also the story's [[Big Bad]]. And as a [[Body Surf|BodySurfer]] who can awaken in any human woman, one of Miang's incarnations was Fei's own mother Karen. Fei and Karen were not technically adversaries, but Miang's consciousness was in control most of the time. Karen resurfaced in the end to be a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save young Fei's life. Miang simply surfed to another new body somewhere else in the world}}.

* In [[Jade Empire]], {{spoiler|not only is Master Li your character's father figure, it's also possible to find out that he's Dawn Star's father. In a subversion, absolutely nothing changes with his reactions to Dawn Star}}.

** {{spoiler|Ashnard}} was this for {{spoiler|Soren}} in ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]''. He never does find out, though.

 

 

 

 

* In ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'', {{spoiler|Numbuh One Nigel Uno}} is quite understandably freaked out when he realizes that [[Big Bad]] Grandfather is ''his'' grandfather. This also makes [[Arch Enemy|Father]] his [[Evil Uncle|uncle]]. Inverted with his father who was once the legendary KND operative Agent Zero.

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': Zuko and Ozai. And during the eclipse, when Zuko renounces trying to be the son Ozai wants, Ozai reveals that he projected to kill him when he was not even in his teens.

 

{{reflist}}