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Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.EvilParentsWantGoodKids 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.EvilParentsWantGoodKids, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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Raising children is one of the most daunting challenges a parent can face. You have to supply material needs like food and shelter, as well as providing a moral education by teaching through example. You can see where this would be problematic when a parent supplies the latter by breaking kneecaps or [[The End of the World As We Know It|threatening global annihilation.]]
Some parents make ends meet through frowned-upon trades like [[Hooker With a Heart of Gold|prostitution]], others turn to crime, some ''master'' crime and become [[The Don]], and there's more than a few [[Super Villain|Super Villains]] who start families... ''[[Surprise Pregnancy|intentionally]].'' The thing is, not every villain turned parent is a sociopath who chastises [[Overlord, Jr.]] for [[Inadequate Inheritor|not being evil enough]]. Quite a few realize the choices they have made and that the life they lead is a fundamentally destructive one and don't want their child to [[Legacy Character|mimic them]] as a [[Generation Xerox|family legacy.]]
What ends up happening is that the dad (and it's usually the dad who's the villain) hides his villainy one way or another. The easiest and hardest is to give the child up for adoption or abandon the mother. Non-deadbeats create a [[Secret Identity]] where they have a mundane, even boring job. If he doesn't bother hiding his nasty day job, he will either whitewash it to not seem villainous (replace "mob hit" with "rat infestation", for example) or say "do what daddy says, not what daddy does" without a trace of shame. If he's possessive and/or overprotective and has the means to, his children may become a [[Lonely Rich Kid]] [[Mafia Princess]] who is trapped in a [[Gilded Cage]].
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Of course, their kid is going to find out the truth and either be [[Calling the Old Man Out|horrified]] at the [[Double Standard]], or naively eager to become their dad's [[Sidekick]]. Sometimes, to dad's dismay, they will prove that villainy is [[In the Blood]] despite his best intentions. The realization (and some heroic coercion over revealing the truth to his kids) may lead to pulling a [[Heel Face Turn]].
Compare [[White Sheep]], [[Turn Out Like His Father]]. Contrast [[
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
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* In the classic ''[[Star Trek the Original Series]]'', "Conscience of the King," the presumed dead mass murderer, Kodos the Executioner, has been hiding as the actor Anton Karidian for years, raising a daughter who he hope would never learn about his sordid past. To his horror at the end of the episode, he learns that not only does she know, but she's become an [[Ax Crazy]] fanatic [[Serial Killer]] determined to eliminate all the witnesses to her father's true identity.
* The Wests from ''[[Outrageous Fortune]]'' try to turn away from their life of crime after the patriarch is arrested and sent to jail for four years. It doesn't go entirely as planned.
* In the episode "Riding the Lightning" of ''[[Criminal Minds (TV)|Criminal Minds]]'', a pair of serial killers on death row had a child. The official story is that the mother killed her baby, but Gideon doubts that. {{spoiler|Turns out he's right, and the mother has been hiding her son all these years to keep him away from his father's influence. He doesn't know who his biological parents are, and eventually the team decides to leave him be and not tell him (which, consequently, means his perfectly innocent mother got executed by the state- her choice, but still a bit of a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moment).}}
* Lionel Luthor in ''[[Smallville (TV)|Smallville]]'' raises [[Lex Luthor|his son]] as a bitter, resentful [[Bastard Understudy]] and grooms him to take over his [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|corrupt corporate empire]]....until he undergoes a [[Heel Face Turn]], at which point he plays this trope straight (albeit, with a few bumps along the road). These mixed messages, along with the fact that he starts treating local do-gooder [[Superman|Clark Kent]] like he should have treated his own son, just makes Lex even ''more'' of a bitter, resentful [[Bastard Understudy]] {{spoiler|and culminates in Lex murdering him.}}
* Tony Soprano of ''[[The Sopranos]]'' is adamanent that his son AJ doesn't go into the life like him, partly because he's simply not cut out for it. Jackie Aprile also felt this way towards his own son, and arranged with Tony to make sure this wouldn't happen before {{spoiler|he himself died in the fourth episode. Tony doesn't succeed and Jackie Jr. ends up dead later on, further strengthening his decision to keep AJ out of it}}.
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