In the Blood: Difference between revisions

[[File:DarthLuke.jpg|link=Dark Empire|frame| He's got [[Turn Out Like His Father|too much of his fathe]][[Freud Was Right|r]] in him.]]

 

''Black cloud hangin' overhead

''Fill the heart that pumps bad blood

 

Genealogy and Ancestry are really popular tropes in fiction. It makes a great [[Secret Legacy]], a source of [[Cain and Abel|fraternal conflict]], adds drama with an unexpected [[Luke, I Am Your Father|family reunion]], and can set up a host of different conflicts and relationships. Just like in real life, a person's ancestry can determine their genes and, to a lesser extent, their personality and even their talents; but in fiction this extends to [[Lamarck Was Right|skills]], [[Superpowerful Genetics|superpowers]], and even moral alignment.

 

Sub-trope of [[Not So Different]]. See [[Freudian Excuse]] for when the Nurture position applies. Compare [[Lamarck Was Right]] for children inheriting non-moral traits that shouldn't even be genetic. A big issue for anyone with a [[Mad Scientist]] [[Truly Single Parent]]. Creates numerous problems if the blood it is in is [[Royal Blood]]. The more light-hearted version is [[It Runs in The Family]]. Compare [[Raised by Orcs]], where someone raised by evil people/[[Exclusively Evil|races]] [[Heel Face Turn|turns out good]] due to not actually being related to them and [[Heroic Lineage]] from their true parents. Compare [[Loser Son of Loser Dad]], where everyone else thinks this will be the case. Contrast [[Sibling Yin-Yang]], when the same blood give very different results.

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', Lelouch vi Britannia has become a rebel trying to overthrow his tyrannical father, [[Large and In Charge|Emperor Charles]]. However, his methods rely heavily on manipulation and [[The Plan|devious plans]] ... just like his old man's own actions. {{spoiler|Also, Charles himself seems to mirror his trope in regards to his twin brother, cult leader V.V. And let's not forget that Marianne purposely hid herself from Lelouch and make Nunnally suffer just so they can use Lelouch to draw C.C. out for the [[Assimilation Plot]] and create the perfect world where their kids would "live in happiness". Receiving, scheming blood from both his parents definitely helps.}}

** Schneizel, too, shows a great deal of manipulation in his behaviour.

* Zig-zagged to hell and back in a short story in ''Melo Melo Melonpan'' with [[Darkskinned Blonde|Mi]][[Easy Amnesia|ra]] being [[Happily Adopted]] by a woman and her son, [[Not Blood Related|having a secret affair with adopted mom,]] living a good life until being (re)captured by his [[Evil Matriarch|biological]] [[Royally Screwed-Up|mother,]] [[Complete Monster|who used to have him as her personal sex slave until he ran away then does the same with said adoptive family]] [[Laser-Guided Karma|until the adoptive brother kills both her and her mother/Mira's grandmother]] [[Snipe Hunt|then goes to find his mother,]] leaving Mira to raise his inbred daughter and aunt as his Morality Pets [[Hope Spot|to rule the kingdom justly...]] [[Downer Ending|only to learn said Jerkass behavior runs in the]] ''female'' [[Downer Ending|side of the family,]] [[Royally Screwed-Up|doing the exact same things to him until he commits suicide,]] [[God Save Us From the Queen|leaving the kingdom in the hands of two pregnant, inbred Royal Brats. Damn.]]

 

* Orion, son of Darkseid. Orion's a good guy, but he inherited Darkseid's inherent rage and bloodlust, and requires a Mother Box to keep his temper in check.

** In the DC Elseworld ''[[Kingdom Come]]'', Orion has deposed Darkseid and taken over Apokolips. Apparently he tried to institute a democracy and positive change, but the people just elected him dictator and didn't participate in changing anything, so he's ruling hell and says that "all men eventually become their fathers." He seems resigned to being Darkseid. Only without the universe-conquering ambitions, so that's something.

** Harry's son Normie, however, turns out to be an [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]], and gets better ''real'' quick.

** One story suggested Norman's father wasn't a terribly nice man; he may not have worn a funny costume, but he had the same obsession with "a strong heir" that Norm inflicted on Harry.

* In ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'', the Lensherr/Eisenhart/Maximoff/Da—Oh, hell, ''[[Magneto]]'s'' family seems to have a lot of issues with this. The man himself tends to go mad fairly regularly, [[Scarlet Witch]] was responsible for ''Avengers Disassembled'' and ''House of M,'' Polaris also seems to spend half her time as an evil lunatic, and [[Quicksilver]] (getting off more lightly than the others) went kind of crazy after getting his powers back following the decimation.

** ''Still'' not the first time Quicksilver's gone crazy.

** [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|Apparently]] he is also, through his mother, the ''first male descendant of King Arthur since Mordred.'' Morgan Le Fay is backing him as King of England. Certain members of the English nobility heard about this before he did, were less than pleased, and lured him out on a giant hunt so they could stab him [[In the Back]]. They were then killed by giants.

** Please note that this story is set around the turn of the 21st century; Hellboy was born on earth in 1945.

 

* ''[[Star Wars]]'' plays with this, Luke's [[The Final Temptation|Final Temptation]] to join [[The Dark Side]] hinges on him being his father's son and heir to his evil. Luckily, he inherited a few traits from his mom too.

** It was also implied, in ''[[A New Hope]]'', as being [[Muggle Foster Parents|his aunt and uncle's]] reason for [[Locked Out of the Loop|never]] [[Tell Me About My Father|discussing]] [[Disappeared Dad|his]] [[Parental Abandonment|father]] [[Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You|with]] [[Luke, I Am Your Father|him]]... or at the very least telling [[Blatant Lies]]. (Spice freighter navigator my ass!) They feared that Luke would [[Foregone Conclusion|become a Jedi]], [[Call Forward|like his father before him]], and go [[Secret Legacy|gallivanting across the galaxy]] to [[Turn Out Like His Father|turn evil]] That, or just get killed - it's never stated just how much Obi-Wan told them about Anakin. The two always told Luke he'd died offworld.

** ''[[Dark Empire]]'' has him turn to [[The Dark Side]] when the Emperor returns, in an attempt to bring him down [[The Mole|from within]]. It doesn't exactly work. The parallels with Anakin are made blindingly obvious, though the comic came long before the prequel trilogy. Luke guides a ship far too large and damaged to land into a survivable landing on Coruscant. He constantly ruminates on his father's legacy, wondering why he had turned - ultimately it's the threat to his family that gets him to claim "My father's destiny is my own." The Emperor proceeds to replace his mechanical right hand with a different prosthetic, a "better" one speculated by some fans to be of a model Vader used, and dresses Luke in outfits clearly inspired by his fathers', as can be seen in the page image. Ultimately it's the love of his sister, and his refusal to hurt her or allow her to be killed, that brings Luke back.

** In the [[Expanded Universe]], his GRANDSON turns for this reason, more or less.

* Used for comedic effect in ''Children of the Revolution'', a black comedy about the illegitimate son of Joseph Stalin, who ends up starting a totalitarian communist revolution in Australia without ever being informed of who his real father was—even going so far as to grow the "Stalin mustache."

* In ''[[Young Frankenstein]]'', the titular Dr. "Fronkensteen" tries to avoid following in the <s>footsteps</s> '''vootshtaps''' of his famous relative. He can't, if only because the servants won't let him.

* The forever brutish Tannen bloodline in the ''[[Back to The Future]]'' movies. The line goes back to "Mad Dog" Tannen, a murderous [[Wild West]] outlaw who kills Doc Brown in one timeline. In 1955, Biff Tannen is a bully who tries to rape Marty's mother. In various timelines, he matures into an abusive boss, a crime lord, and a bitter old man. Biff's grandson is a monstrous thug.

* Jack Sparrow tells Will Turner in the first ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' movie that "Piracy is in your blood," since his father was also the pirate "Bootstrap Bill" Turner. Later on it turns out to be an important plot point, and Will embraces his pirate heritage. Of course, no mention is made of whether Bootstrap Bill's father was a pirate. One pirate parent is apparently enough to turn his heirs into pirates as well.

** Not exactly the case, as there's a true genetic component there, he's not purely Man, he's got Elven blood in the mix, which accounts for his superior attributes such was longevity (he was 87 at the start of Fellowship, and lived to 210).

* From the 1999 movie ''[[Wing Commander (film)|Wing Commander]]'', Pilgrims.

* [[Nightmare On Elm Street|Freddy Krueger's]] [[Ax Crazy|great paternal linage]] [[Blatant Lies|helped make him the great man he is today]]. Yup all 1000 of his psychotic inmate fathers.

 

* The work of [[H.P. Lovecraft]]. From Shadow Over Innsmouth's {{spoiler|Deep One-blooded}} protagonist to the protagonist of The Rats in the Walls having a predisposition toward {{spoiler|cannibalism and insanity}}; this is not to mention The Tomb's family links between the dead and living, it's completely pervasive.

** Also check out the late Arthur Jermyn. {{spoiler|His family is interbred with an ape.}}

* Inverted in Mark Billingham's novel "Bloodline", in which the descendants of a notorious serial killer's victims are being killed off one by one, then later played straight when it is revealed that {{spoiler|the illegitimate son of the original killer is committing the murders, after discovering his father's identity.}}

* In [[The Belgariad]], Urgit, King of the Murgos, believes he will go insane like his father Taur Urgas did because the Urgas dynasty is plagued by hereditary insanity. {{spoiler|His father, however, was not Taur Urgas but a Drasnian diplomat, making Urgit more a Drasnian than a Murgo.}}

* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: Played straight and averted in ''[[The Bible]]''. All humans end up inheriting original sin and death from their ancestors Adam and Eve. Averted with Abraham and David, where [[God]] makes a covenant with them to set up a nation and monarchy, respectively, with their descendants hoping that they will be as faithful as their ancestors. Save for a few notable exceptions, he turns out to be dead wrong.

* In ''[[After The Golden Age]]'' {{spoiler|supervillainy seems to be hereditary, since, though Mayor Paulson never met his father (Dr. Simon Sito, a.k.a. [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Destructor]]) or knew of their relationship, he still ends up emulating many of his megalomaniacal tendencies. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] since Simon Sito became evil after some radiation messed up the wiring in his brain, and the condition appears to extend to the genetic level.}}

* Invoked in the ''[[BattleTech]]'' novel ''Star Lord''. The eponymous character, a distant descendant of Stephan Amaris (the man whose actions brought down the Star League and incidentally proved him to be a [[Complete Monster]]), decides upon discovering his legacy that it must therefore be his destiny to step into his ancestor's footsteps, topple the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere, and take over himself. He's unambiguously crazy, but wholeheartedly embraces his belief and proves charismatic enough to attract a number of down-on-their-luck followers to stir up trouble for him.

 

* ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'': A recurring fear for [[Action Girl|Olivia]] [[Broken Bird|Benson]] is that deep inside her is a violent, sadistic criminal spawned by her rapist father. John Munch has also voiced concern at least once that he may end up committing suicide like his father. There was also an episode where a man who was violently molested by his father worries about becoming just like him and his felon brother—and does so.

** Note that Munch's fear isn't entirely unreasonable: his uncle Andrew (played by Jerry Lewis in an episode) had mental problems, and that sort of thing, which can result in suicide, can be heritable. Goren on ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'' has the same concerns due to a family history of schizophrenia.

* Langston in ''[[CSI]]'' assures {{spoiler|the adopted step-son of [[Serial Killer]] Paul Milander that In The Blood doesn't exist (especially since they aren't blood relatives and Milander never acted like a serial killer to his family) and that there is no record of a serial killer's children becoming killers themselves in [[Real Life]]. Meanwhile, Langston himself is worried that ''he'' might have inherited a violent streak from his father.}}

* In the ''[[Bones]]'' Season One finale, ''The Woman in Limbo'', upon learning that {{spoiler|his parents were bank robbers who were part of a strong-arm crew}}, Russ Brennan, a felon on parole, says "Guess a criminal nature runs in the family."

* Inverted humorously on ''[[Top Gear]]'', in an episode featuring the presenters' mothers. While some personality influences are obviously present, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond's mothers are slow, careful drivers, and James May's is remarkably aggressive and fast.

* ''Justified'' does not state this trope but is highly influenced by it. Raylan shares a lot of character traits with his father Arlo and does not want to be an angry, violent manipulative bastard like him. The show likes to show how much alike the two of them are even though one of them is a good guy and the other a bad guy.

*** The new KARR even shares [[Peter Cullen|The voice of his namesake from the origional]].

 

* Jeff Buckley was raised as Scotty Moorhead by his mother and stepfather. He hardly knew his father Tim Buckley, only having met him once when he was eight. When Tim died in 1975, Jeff found out who he really was and decided to go by his real name. Not only do Jeff and Tim look similar, they both played folk music (to some degree) and died young. Although their music isn't really similar, Jeff's success has been enough to make Tim Buckley much more popular than he was when he was alive.

* This is the whole point of [[Amanda Palmer]]'s song "Runs In The Family."

 

** The Rock's first gimmick in the-then WWF was of Rocky Maivia, the name being a combination of his father, Rocky Johnson's name and his grandfather Peter Maivia's surname. Initially he was pushed as a face but people hated him. After he joined the Nation Of Domination and later became The Rock, he became one of the most popular wrestlers of all time, so popular that he was able to retire from wrestling and has had a successful movie career. His ancestry has paled in comparison to his success.

** Though not directly descended from a professional wrestler, Rey Misterio started off as Rey Misterio Jr. He is a second-generation wrestler as his uncle (Rey Misterio Sr.) was a successful luchador. This is rarely brought up other than mentioning that Rey is a Mexican icon.

his father]]

 

** The Tyranid genestealers use this trope as their means of infiltrating other races. They implant their victims with Tyranid genetic material which subverts the genes of the victims. The victim's children are born as hybrids and become genestealer cultists by default.

** The Space Marines, however, are subjected to extreme hypnosis and mild brainwashing at the same time as they receive the gene-seed. This is mostly to make sure all their implants work, but the result is that they end up more like their Primarchs than when they started—and they were selected in the first place due to their similarity.

** Half-orcs, no matter how civilized their upbringing, favor the barbarian class (especially in 3rd Edition), apparently inheriting the Orc's wild nature.

** The offspring of a [[Always Lawful Good|Generally]] [[Chaotic Good]] Nymph and a [[Exclusively Evil|Always]] [[Lawful Evil]] Devil is a [[Neutral Evil]], misshapen, goat legged midget called a Forlarren. They typically befriend the party with tales of their tragic past but the evil inherited from their [[Turn Out Like His Father|Devil father]]([[The Women Are Safe with Us|Its all but stated that]] [[Child of Rape|they're a result of rape]]) causes them to murder a member of the party.

* At least one branch of the Liao family ruling the Capellan Confederation in the ''[[BattleTech]]'' universe is all but canonically predisposed towards eventually going megalomaniacally, bat**** insane. This may or may not have started with Maximilian Liao, definitely affected his daughter Romano and ''her'' daughter Kali, and even her son Sun-Tzu, who is otherwise a [[Magnificent Bastard]], has had cause to worry about his own sanity. (Interestingly, Maximilian's other daughter Candace and her descendants ''aren't'' similarly afflicted, definitely suggesting an actual genetic component that she simply didn't inherit.)

 

* One of the dramatic tension elements in ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace]]'' is the hereditary insanity suffered by every single member of the Brewster family, and the protagonist's fear that he will eventually succumb to the same madness. {{spoiler|Fortunately, it turns out in the end that he was adopted.}}

* [[Cyrano De Bergerac]]: Even When Cyrano reacts with shock at Roxane's intention to remain with them during the battle, and she responds, ''"Monsieur de Bergerac, I am your cousin."'' lampshades this in a positive context, [[Broken Ace|Cyrano]] and [[Daydream Believer|Roxane's]] [[Beauty Equals Goodness|obsessions]] and [[Master of Delusion|denial]] [[Love Martyr|of reality]] fit them better with the sinister implications of this trope.

 

* In the game [[Dracula]], the main character must find her father, a doctor at a sanitarium who has [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|gained some kind of supernatural power, causing him to go batshit insane]] and slaughter apparently everyone in the hospital and reality warp the living shit out of it. It is eventually revealed that [[The Reveal|he is a decendant of Dracula, and has lost his mind thereby.]]

** If the sequel ''D2'' in any indication, though, she took it pretty well.

* In the backstory of ''[[Nox]]'', the world of Nox's Legendary Hero wipes out every member of the [[Exclusively Evil]] Necromancers, but spares the last Necromancer, a mere baby, sending her off to be raised by the primative but morally neutral Trolls without any knowledge of her true heritage. She, of course, grows up to be the game's [[Big Bad]], and inherits not only her ancestors' total evil, but also their raging Goth-ness. (Although the Wizard ending implies she was possessed by the evil spirits of all her evil ancestors, and without being indwelt by them she's actually a pretty decent lady).

* Likewise, in the ''[[Divine Divinity]] series'', the Hero spares [[The Antichrist]] because he's just a little baby, and tries to raise him as his own son and a champion of truth and justice. This ''does not'' work out, at all (although the failure was at least in part caused by external factors, namely the [[Religion of Evil]] sending an agent to tempt him to the Dark Side).

 

* Ada Lovelace from ''[[The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage]]'' inherited a poetical disposition from her father, Lord Byron. Ada's mother taught her mathematics to hold back this pernicious influence.

* In ''[[Misfile]]'' the main reason Cassiel is treated as being dangerous and untrustworthy is because her uncle is [[Satan|Lucifer]]. One wonders how much of her [[Jerkass]] nature is precisely because of this treatment, certainly both Vashiel and Rumisiel bring up her family tree at every opportunity.

** [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070219 Various] other [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110314 characters] speculate about ''which'' lot of relatives she's going to take after.

'''{{spoiler|Castle Heterodyne}}''': yesss... ''most'' likely, in/in/in''deed''. }}

* Invoked, then subverted in [[Everyday Heroes]] by Jane Mighty; originally from a family of villains, she follows her best friend and joins an [[Anti-Villain]] team [[Just Like Robin Hood|who find stolen items and steal them back for their rightful owners]]. She quit villainy after her friend is killed {{spoiler|by her [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|backstabbing boss]].}}

* Cited by name, then later [[Justified]] in ''[[Narbonic]]'': Helen notes that she didn't always want to be a mad scientist, but then notes the trope name. Justified later in that {{spoiler|[[Cloning Blues|Helen is a clone of her mother]] -- so it wasn't just in the blood, but likely during the whole child-making process}}.

* [[Ciem Webcomic Series|Candi Levens']] ancestry includes [[Horny Devils|Honeybee Samuel and Dwayne Lloyd]]. Sure enough, she and her sisters are completely obsessed with sex. Especially bad for Candi, because she's a [[Doom Magnet]] who therefore [[Can't Have Sex Ever]]. At least, not with [[Muggles]]. She's initially in denial of this fact; it doesn't end well for {{spoiler|Denny}}.

** Elan inherited his mother's alignment and his father's love for the dramatic. [[Evil Twin|Nale]] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0725.html inherited his father's alignment and his mother's love for excessively complex plans].

* In ''[[Thistil Mistil Kistil]]'', [http://tmkcomic.depleti.com/comic/ch03-pg16/ Loki's reaction] to Coal's [[Berserk Button]] is to observe that his father was [[The Berserker]].

 

* In the [[Whateley Universe]] Whateley Academy has an official 'club' known commonly as The Bad Seeds. Admission? One or both of your parents must be a supervillain. Some kids take to this like ducks to water, some resist, some don't know what the heck to do, some are pretty clueless even for teenagers. Nacht has a supervillain mother who is constantly trying to get Nacht to use her powers to help mommy commit crimes; Nacht doesn't mind the crime part, but she really doesn't want to spend time with her mother. Jobe is a ruthless, amoral genius bio-devisor who even looks like his supervillain dad; his dad hates that junior doesn't have a flair for mechanical devises instead. Carmilla has Deep Ones in her mother's ancestry, and is the grandchild of [[Cosmic Horror]] Shub-Niggurath on her father's side; she's taking the [[Screw Destiny]] approach right now. And so on...

 

* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'': Robin actually told Raven he admired her [[Screw Destiny]] response to the [[You Can't Fight Fate|prophecy]] she would help her demon father destroy the world.

* ''[[G.I. Joe]]'''s Serpentor, made with the DNA of Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Attila the Hun, Philip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, Hannibal, Genghis Khan, and Grigori Rasputin to be the world's most evil and effective military leader. So naturally, his plans fail.

*** Supported further by a flashback to Iroh writing a letter to Zuko and Azula, in which he gleefully jokes about burning Ba Sing Se to the ground. He even laughs heartily after he writes it down. Not exactly in line with the gentle [[The Dumbledore|wise old man who only kicks a ton of ass if he absolutely needs to]].

* ''[[The Lion King]] II: Simba's Pride'' used this with Nuka, the only son of Scar. He is evil, [[Beauty Equals Goodness|very]] [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|ugly]], and receives a [[Disney Villain Death]]. Ironic, as the film was supposed to be subverting In the Blood. The film was supposed to have Scar's son as a protagonist, but that wasn't possible because it would've made its Romeo and Juliet [[Kissing Cousins|cousins]].

 

* This is a common subject of debate concerning "dangerous" dog breeds such as pitbulls.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Family Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:Dysfunctional Family Tropes]]