Heroic Lineage

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
I think I've found what it is I don't like about Fable: it's inherently fascist. "Heroism", rather than a quality anyone can exhibit, is reduced to some kind of biological thing unique to a single genetic line of handsome white people.
—Yahtzee on Fable 3, Zero Punctuation

Got a good Ancestral Weapon? Got a cherished family recipe for whoop-ass? There's only one thing to make this heroic picture complete: at least one sword-wielding, name-taking hero in your family tree. Maybe more. No wonder you've got a thing about saving people—it's In the Blood.

Maybe not as shiny as full-on Divine Parentage,[1] but it certainly explains that Orphan's Plot Trinket.

Makes a great surprise if there's a Luke, I Am Your Father moment in store.

In short, a character is a descendant of a famous hero, regardless of if he knows it or not, or how strong the blood is. Compare Tell Me About My Father, where the character loves to think about his dead/absentee parents as heroes, regardless of the truth.

Examples of Heroic Lineage include:

Anime and Manga

  • The Joestars, the Zepelli and, to a lesser extent, the Speedwagons of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
  • In Naruto, not only is the titular character descended from the Yondaime Hokage and the Sage of Six Paths, but is the most recent in a line of mentor-pupil relationships including Kakashi, Jiraiya, and the second through fourth Hokage. To be more exact, he is pretty closely related to the original Sage of Six Paths (as a descendant), Fourth Hokage (as a descendant), the whole of Uzumaki clan (whose Bloodline Limit enhances their stamina and lifespan pretty noticeably, as evident with Kushina and also Naruto), and distantly related to First, Second, and Fifth Hokages (Senju and Uzumaki were originally branch families descendent from Sage of Six Paths). So much for being able to achieve things without having a Bloodline Limit.

Fan Works

  • The Hutchins clan in Undocumented Features seems to be displaying this trope, even though they've only managed two generations so far.

Literature

  • Deltora Quest, all kings and queens of Deltora are descendants of King Adin, a blacksmith who united the Seven Tribes to drive back the Shadow Lord's army. Searching for the King Endon's child was a part of the main quest in the first series. It's Lief, Dain was actually a Grade 3 Ol spy for the Shadow Lord.
  • In Dune, House Atreides claims lineage from King Agamemnon of Argos (or Mycenae, depending on the source), who fought in the Trojan War. This claim originally belongs to the Titan Agamemnon (not his real name) and taken up by his son Vorian Atreides, whose last name is derived from "Atreidae", the collective name for the descendants of King Atreus, Agamemnon's father.
  • So deeply-ingrained is this trope that, for years, legions of Harry Potter fans saturated the Internet with theories that Harry was the descendant of Godric Gryffindor ... this, despite how the series' prevailing Aesop is that people should never be judged by their ancestry or background. And in the end, Harry turns out to be the last descendant of Ignotus Peverell, the youngest brother who, according to legend, defeated Death and won his Invisibility Cloak.
  • Historia Regum Britanniae chronicles what happens to a splinter group of survivors from the Trojan War, which eventually settles in Britain. The name of the hero is Brutus, whose name eventually became the name for the Britons.
  • The Lord of the Rings has the classical example with Aragorn, whose lineage is certifiably heroic going back about 70 generations.
    • Eowyn argues that she's entitled to fight because of this trope.
  • All the Abhorsens are of the same bloodline, so both Sabriel and Lirael of The Old Kingdom are descendants of heroes.
  • In Ragnar Lodbrok and His Sons, the orphan Kraka discovers that she is the daughter of Sigurd the Volsung and Brynhild the Valkyrie.
  • The Saga of the Volsungs traces the history of the eponymous heroic clan over four generations. They are all descendants of one Sigi, who was possibly a son of Odin.
  • Star Wars: Luke Skywalker and a lot of his descendants in the Expanded Universe.
  • In Warrior Cats, almost all of the point of view characters in the main series are the descendents of the living legend Firestar, the first hero of the series.

Live-Action TV

  • Delenn in Babylon 5 is a descendant of Valen. In this case it almost verges on Divine Parentage.
  • Super Sentai has used this more than once:
    • In Gosei Sentai Dairanger, Lin (the present-day Hou-Ouranger) is descended from the Dai tribe, and Ryou (the present-day Ryuranger) is of more direct lineage: He's the son of the original Ryuranger.
    • The present-day Kakurangers from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger are each descended from their respective predecessors, who sealed away the Youkai Army Corps long ago.
    • Samurai Sentai Shinkenger (and Power Rangers Samurai) features samurai whose families have fought the monsters for generations; the Red Ranger from the Shiba clan and the others from the clan's retainers. When a friend of the Red Ranger wishes to join them as the Sixth Ranger, much is made of the fact that he is self-taught and has no such lineage.
    • From the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers special Once and Always, after Trini is murdered by Rita, Trini's daughter Minh takes on the role of the Yellow Ranger.

Radio

Tabletop Games

  • In Legend of the Five Rings, famous ancestors can be bought as merits at character creation. Each of them gives some merits (and sometimes drawbacks) depending of what he was famous for.
  • This trope is made into an actual game mechanic in the Star Wars Saga Edition tabletop game with the Legacy Destiny, where your normal Destiny[2] is replaced with a family line that grants you a special ability (usually, getting a Critical Success more-or-less when you really need one).
  • From Forgotten Realms Drizzt Do'Urden is known as a powerful warrior and sworn enemy of his own people, both traits he inherited from his father, mentor, and inspiration, the drow weapons-master Zaknafein Do'Urden.

Video Games

  • In Assassin's Creed, Desmond Miles is a bartender reliving the genetic memories of his ancestor Altaïr. He later learns to be an Assassin from another of his ancestors, Ezio Auditore.
  • The Belmont clan from Castlevania, always out to hunt the night.
  • The first Dragon Quest I game had you play as the descendant of the legendary hero Loto. The second had you play as the descendants of the first game's hero. The third had you play as Loto, who was himself the descendant of another hero. Somewhat subverted in the fifth, where the legendary hero is actually a descendant of the main character, who marries a descendant of the last legendary hero.
  • In Fable it is implied that all heroes are descended from the first Archon.
  • Lords from Fire Emblem as a whole universally qualify. The fourth game makes this an actual game mechanic: characters who are descendants of one of the Twelve Crusaders or the Dark God Loputousu receive boosts to their growth rates, weapon levels, and can even use their respective ancestor's Ancestral Weapon in certain conditions.
    • Marth from the first game is actually a subversion. While called Anri's decedent, Anri died childless and Marth is actually descended from Anri's brother.
  • Ico is the descendant of Wander, protagonist of Shadow of the Colossus. Though Wander's fame is debatable, and the one sign of the lineage (the horns) is more of a curse than a blessing for Ico.
  • A Mysterious Informant with this news kicks off the plot of Last Scenario. Actually a rare subversion. She was lying. This leads to a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming and Tear Jerker when the supposed ancestor himself is executed, and with his last words acknowledges the heroes as the true "descendants" of his heroic spirit.
  • The hero you can name yourself in Lufia and The Fortress of Doom is the descendant of Maxim, the hero who originally sealed the four Big Bads. This tradition is continued in The Legend Returns with Wain, who is also descended from Maxim.
  • Susano from Ōkami is a descendant of the legendary hero Nagi. His resentment and later acceptance of his ancestor has a major impact on the plot of the first half of the game.
  • Touhou: Rarely mentioned, but all the humans of Gensokyo (that didn't stumble from The Outside, anyway) are descendants of brave people who defeated the youkai to settle there.
  • Link and Zelda from the The Legend of Zelda series are actually recurring characters who appear throughout the series:

Visual Novels

  • Luka in Monster Girl Quest is the son of Marcellus, a former hero who defeated the previous Monster Lord Alice XV (albeit she let him win). Both of them are distantly descended from the legendary Heinrich Hein, who defeated the tyrannical Monster Lord Alice VIII.
  • Shiki Tohno in Tsukihime is a last descendant of the Nanaya household, a lineage of pure-blooded humans (read: "weakest species in the setting"), who trained their bodies and honed their skills enough to fight most supernatural threats, be it Demons, vampires, or what have you.

Web Comics

  • According to his father Cabbage, Cucumber of Cucumber Quest is of a heroic lineage. When Cucumber tries to point out that Cabbage is not a hero, his father says that "it skips a generation here and there."
  • Nearly every single one of the trolls in Homestuck has a famous, badass Ancestor.

Web Original

  • Jaune Arc of RWBY is the son of a huntsman and huntress, and the grandson of a hero of the Great War fought nearly a century before the start of the series (whose weapon he wields). In the first three volumes he feels tremendous self-imposed pressure to live up to this legacy despite being completely untrained.

Western Animation

  • The Emmy-winning episode of Samurai Jack "Birth of Evil", shows that Jack's dad was no slouch himself, heroically defeating Aku on the day his son was born.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: In the movie, it's revealed that Nigel's dad was the legendary operative Numbuh Zero. Also, in the Series Finale, it's revealed that his mom was also in the organization.

Real Life

  • There are descendants of Jon Sobieski in America. One is a movie star: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leelee_Sobieski.
  • Lots of families claim this in real life. Some claims are rather dubious but that's part of the fun.
  • In parts of the world knowing someone's cousin is the answer to the important questions of, "Who will pay me if you default on a deal" and "Who will beat me up if I pick on you." Having a Heroic Lineage counts as having a credit report.
  • You. You have ancestors that trekked on great journeys, made the wilderness bloom, toiled for their bread, defended it against all comers, raised children, built civilizations, made and used tools, created things of beauty, pondered the meaning of the universe, and made your existence possible.
  1. ↑ Then again, many heroes did have Divine Parentage back in the day, so this could be a two-for-one special.
  2. ↑ Something like Destruction, Creation, Redemption, Prevention, Sacrifice, etc
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