In the Blood: Difference between revisions

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.

 

 

 

 

The inevitable conclusion to all this [[Contemplate Our Navels|navel gazing]] is either the character going "[[Screw Destiny]]!" or a friend [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!|slapping some sense into them]]; if he has been raised in ignorance so that he would not [[Turn Out Like His Father]], it is quite likely to actually work. On the other hand, this can end up being a [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]], in that the angst leads to fear, then hate, then evil, as the character either does a full [[Face Heel Turn]] or becomes [[Necessarily Evil]]. For a comparison, the [[Reluctant Monster]] bypasses this nonsense entirely and is simply "themselves," albeit with a healthy heaping of introspection.

** Not to mention that the blood of the Raven will turn people towards evil and give them dark magical powers if it's somehow absorbed by their body, even if they're ''not'' related to him.

* The goddess Urd of ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' is a near expy of her mother, the demon and ruler of Hell, Hild. Even though she identifies as a goddess and it is her affiliation, people have told her more than once her temperament is closer to demon - or rather, nearly exactly like her mother, which is the same for all intents and purposes. This even though she was only raised by Hild for a few early years, and has been a goddess as long as she can remember. Her power is also in the leagues of her mother.

** Averted in Whitebeard's beliefs, though. {{spoiler|Upon being informed that Ace was the son of Gold Roger(a major rival of Whitebeard), the pirate captain didn't care in the least, saying it was an inconsequential detail. During the war with the World Government, he is stabbed by one of his allies, who's crew had previously been wiped out by Roger and felt betrayed upon finding out that they were going to such lengths to save Ace. Whitebeard simply tells him that Ace himself had done nothing to the guy, and that it was ridiculous to blame Ace for his father's actions.}}

*** Actually in spite of the rather crazy lineage of Luffy's family (The marine's hero, the most wanted man in the world, The future pirate king), one of the major themes of One Piece (confirmed by [[Word of God]]) is that heredity doesn't matter, and [[True Companions|family is who you choose]]. Of the strawhats, only Usopp grew up with a parent related by blood, and she died when he was quite young. Of Sanji, Zoro, Nami, Chopper and Franky, none had significant blood relative parental figures, Robin only met her mother briefly, We don't know about Brook, and Luffy was raised by his grandfather until he was shipped off to stay with his grandfather's friend. Luffy also rather significantly had a {{spoiler|brother unrelated by blood}}.

*** The Nakama theme becomes much more evident in the Fishman/Mermaid heredity. Either species can give birth to an species each other with no qualms as it just means they must have had some ancestor to inherit it from.

* The Uchiha Clan from ''[[Naruto]]'' is the embodiment of this trope with the clan founder, Madara, even saying that {{spoiler|revenge is the destiny of each and every Uchiha}}.

** In fact, {{spoiler|Itachi}} was more or less totally indifferent to revenge. His controlling factor appears to have been a weighted utilitarianism, trying to preserve the greatest possible amount of what he valued, with (excessively) slight adjustments made for innocence. if he cared about revenge, he would have killed Danzou years before the story even started, for putting him in the position to choose between {{spoiler|parricide on the one hand and dishonor and general war on the other}}. He certainly wouldn't have remained a loyal shinobi of Konoha, let alone {{spoiler|implanted a Mangekyou-activated brainwashing chakra crow in Naruto to convince Sasuke to go home and protect the village}} before Sasuke even reached his final level of rogue. He was a very weird Uchiha.

** And now that {{spoiler|Real Madara has appeared in zombie form}}, he seems to be a fairly equal-opportunity asshole, even if he hates some people more than others.

** Hiei, on the other hand, turns out to be the victim of the idea of this in his back story: being male shows he has outcross blood, which among the [[Ice Queen|Ice Maidens]] means (precedents apparently show) that if they keep him around he will grow up to kill everyone. So they throw him over the side of their Floating City, the woman doing the throwing whispering that she expects him to come back and please kill her first. They may or may not have been correct: yes, he is a psychopath from childhood, and actually mellows out the more grown-up he gets, and yes, judging by his facial expressions he was one evil baby, but that could be a combination of [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]] (though come to think of it, it doesn't), the trauma, and the fact that all babies are extremely selfish little creatures and if they were, like Hiei, sapient they probably would be kind of evil. He understood everything. (Of course, the 'source of evil' here is either 'every race except our own' or 'the male sex,' or both, because they don't have males. They clone themselves every hundred years.)

*** Jury is out on Yukina. She may or may not share Hiei's father's blood, and [[Beware the Nice Ones|has been known to express genocidal sentiments]] toward her own kind. Hiei told her that if she wanted them dead she [[Values Dissonance|should do it herself]], not rely on some imaginary brother who might be dead. Since ''he'd'' decided it was crueler to let them live, and all. She considered that movingly positive advice and smiled adorably. She did not so far as we know ever go home and kill anyone.

** He then died of an [[Expy]] of radiation poisoning. The reader is generally equal parts sad and relieved.

* This is part of the reason why it was feared ''[[Soul Eater]]'''s Black Star would end up on the 'path of a Kishin'; his father ended up destroying himself and his clan. A comparison between father and son is made by Sid, who raised Black Star and played a part in killing the rest of the Star Clan.

** This is very likely to become a problem for {{spoiler|Death the Kid, thanks in part to Shinigami being a [[Truly Single Parent]]. Kid has his father's example in his favour, but the experience and habits of his 'family' does not bode well, as he discovered in the Salvage arc.}}

* In ''[[Eureka Seven]]'', the Thurston family (especially the males) are all well-respected and loved people. Axel Thurston was respected by the military for his design and contributions for the [[LF Os]], Adrock Thurston was remembered by the people for his [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save the world, and Renton Thurston was also known by all for saving the world and became a hero (his name is displayed on the moon for all to see, as well as a street named after him in the ending).

* In the ''[[Detective Conan]]'' ''The Phantom of Baker Street'' [[Non-Serial Movie]], it begins with a social commentary about Japan's hereditary culture but this trope comes around with the revelation that {{spoiler|the bad guy is a descendant of [[Jack the Ripper]] and he feared the bad reputation it would cause if the public got word of it. At one point his panic overruled his common sense, leading him to murder.}} Basically it could be about how concentrating on erasing mistakes of one's ancestors can make you repeat them.

* 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.]]

** Even though she was supposed to have purged that after the very first story where it came up, apparently it's so cool and [[Evil Is Sexy]] [[Stripperiffic]] she just can't shake it. Made even worse by outside parties like her father (who can still cause problems even when dead), a cult that worships her father, and her own half-siblings who try to enforce this trope.

* This is a legitimate worry for the ''[[Runaways]]'' at first, before they decide to [[Screw Destiny]] and stick it to their parents. {{spoiler|Most of them, anyway.}}

* Used in ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' and ''[[Spider-Girl]]'', with the "Osborn Legacy" ending up twisting three generations of Osborns. There's no evidence that any of them were evil before Norman, and even if his formula affected his genes, Harry was already a teen at that point.

** 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.

*** [http://www.spideykicksbutt.com/GreenwithEvil/goblinmysteries.html This link] explains the whole story of Norman Osborn, and how he became [[Complete Monster|the monster we all know and fear.]] And it proves just how evil Norman Osborn's father really was.

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

{{quote|'''Professor Zoom''': Your mother may be a Thawne, but your father was an Allen. Your blood is polluted.

'''Bart''': Look on the bright side, Professor Plum. We're only half related! }}

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

* ''[[A History of Violence]]'' uses this when Tom's son, upon discovering his father {{spoiler|was a brutal hitman}}, abandons his earlier pacifist stance and brutally beats up a bully (who he'd previously handled with wit), having [[Lamarck Was Right|"inherited"]] his father's [[Took a Level In Badass|violent fighting style]].

* 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 ''[[Doom]]'' movie uses [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke]] this way. The [[Precursors]] of humanity living on Mars developed a new chromosome that wiped out disease and made them super human... or super evil (You can [[Gotterdammerung|guess what wiped them out)]]. Apparently the chromosome reacted to the something in the "unmapped 10% of the human genome" that unlocked a person's latent "evil" and mutated them into a monster; the best these gentically evil people can hope for is a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] before they fully mutate. So [[Rousseau Was Right|Rousseau was wrong]], technically people ''are'' genetically evil, and all it takes is a little help from [[The Virus]] to bring it out.

** 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.

** Also played with in a figurative sense when {{spoiler|Rotti is trying to get Shilo to kill her father. She claims she's not a murderer to which Rotti responds, "But you share your dad's genetics. What if he passed this to you?" Making reference to his murderous occupation.}}

* In ''[[The Bad Seed]]'', [[Enfante Terrible|Rhoda]] is the granddaughter of a serial killer and has genetically inherited the inability to feel guilt.

** They address this trope directly at one point, with Crowley pointing out that Lucifer was originally an ''angel'', so the idea that Adam is destined to become evil due to demonic genetics is absurd. Incidentally, in this story demons and angels even have identical wings; falling from grace just changes what team you're playing for.

* All over the place in The Kite Runner, as: Hassan's son is said to be very much like him, which plays this straight. {{spoiler|Seemingly subverted with Amir and Baba, as Amir believes Baba hates him for not being the image of a man as he was, but played straight and [[Lampshade Hanging|noted]] by Amir when his hatred of him may have stemmed his guilt from how Baba was Hassan's actual father with an affair with Hassan's mother, and they both had past shames. Averted with Hassan, as he is a much more kindly person than his biological father, and said to be near-impossible to anger as opposed to Baba, which is much like Hassan's perceived father.}}

** Understandable as this is a kid's series. Kids don't really understand 'grey' so much as they do 'GOOD' and 'BAD'. However, this is not a good thing to teach kids.

* The entire plot of [[Wilkie Collins]]' 19th-century thriller ''Armadale'' revolves around this trope; a young man who has (for unrelated reasons) adopted a pseudonym meets another young man who shares his birth name of Allan Armadale. They become fast friends, until the first young man discovers that his father had murdered the father of the other Allan Armadale. He spends much of the rest of the novel haunted by his father's conviction that the sons are destined to repeat the fathers' fatal feud.

* In ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]'', Benedetto is supposed to be a bad guy because of the evil inclinations of his father Vilefort. Adding to the [[Unfortunate Implications]] is that like [[Oliver Twist]] (and likely many other orphans in 19th century novels), he is naturally educated and well-spoken, despite receiving little schooling, simply because his father is an aristocrat.

* In [[King Arthur|Arthurian literature]], Mordred, the [[Brother-Sister Incest|born-by-incest]], [[Fallen Hero|sometimes-tragic]] nephew-son of [[The Messiah|the King]], is a villain BECAUSE his parents consummated in sin. This is often the reason for the fall of Camelot as well. And Despite that in the original Welsh legends had Medrawd as a hero and unrelated enemy of Arthur's, with Arthur as the [[Knight Templar|villain]], and the incest originated in the Vulgate Lancelot-Grail Cycle.

* ''[[The Dark Elf Trilogy]]'': Drizzt Do'Urden seems to get a break from the drow characteristic of being [[Exclusively Evil]] because his father is an exception, too. Of course, this also affected his upbringing, but there's a sense a "biological" excuse is seen as necessary.

** Interestingly, some other drow are implied to have had the ''potential'' to be good, but to have lost it due to the lives they've lived. Drizzt's sister turned evil due to their mother's influence, and Jarlaxle (who isn't even from Drizzt's family!) demonstrates what Drizzt observes as an odd sort of sanity for a drow, despite being a ruthless mercenary. Given Mooshi's comment that the children of evil species often demonstrate "not-so-subtle differences" from good races, a mutation is looking more and more probable, albeit a mutation that's struck more than one family line. Of course, he's also son of Yvonnel, and she lived to the respectable age of 2043 not by doing things [[For the Evulz]] when it's bad for business - the House Baenre got its status because she was the one who said "stop this foolishness" when Menzoberranzan began descent into open infighting the first time. Of her other children, we know Gromph, who also lived to his age not on the reputation of his family, and Quenthel, who can compete in creative cruelty with the best of 'em, but in ''[[War of the Spider Queen]]'' managed to throw off [[Stupid Evil]] mind control because such ''un''-[[Pragmatic Villainy]] as going [[Ax Crazy]] was against her nature.

* In the Middle English [[Chivalric Romance]] ''Sir Gowther,'' the title character is the son of a devil (the same devil who begot Merlin). He kills several nursemaids by suckling them to death, then grows up as a naturally horrible person who eventually goes so far as to lead a gang rape of a convent full of nuns whom he then locks up and sets on fire. However, when someone actually tells him that he is the son of the devil, he repents immediately, goes to the Pope for penance, and eventually becomes more or less a saint.

* Merlin himself is alternately an example and an aversion of this trope. In some medieval texts, he inherits his incubus-father's powers ''and'' his evil or amoral nature; in others, he inherents the powers but not the evil, and he receives some powers from God as well.

* [[Sherlock Holmes]] speculates that the reason Colonel Moran from "The Adventure of the Empty House" started out as a fine, upstanding soldier of the Empire and then suddenly joined the Moriarty gang might be because "the individual represents in his development the whole procession of his ancestors, and that such a sudden turn to good or evil stands for some strong influence which came into the line of his pedigree. The person becomes, as it were, the epitome of the history of his own family." Watson calls this "rather fanciful".

** In another case, Holmes deduced that a nice-seeming man was a closet [[Complete Monster]] because his young son was cruel to animals. While this isn't an implausible deduction, Holmes attributed the boy's misbehavior to this trope rather than to the trauma of abuse at his father's hands.

* Averted with the ''[[The Sword of Truth]]''. {{spoiler|Richard}} Rahl spends several books explaining that he's nothing like Darken Rahl. It turns out that way back when, the Rahls were some of the champions of order and good, but were corrupted by several thousand years of uncontested rule. {{spoiler|Richard}} takes after the parents who raised him, not his genetic ancestors. However, there are Rahl traits - like arrogance, determination, cleverness, and absolute ruthlessness, that the character in question develops over time.

* An issue in the [[Wheel of Time]] - one of the protagonists was adopted, but was assured that he is considered the son of the one who raised him. His genetic family does still take him in, but that probably also has something to do with him being {{spoiler|the Dragon Reborn}}.

 

== Live Action TV ==

** 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.

** Also, Olivia went through a very complicated situation where it seemed her fears her coming true... {{spoiler|and not through ''her'', but through her half-brother Simon, who was accused of raping a handicapped woman who later killed herself. He was framed by the victim's sister, though.}}

* ''Supernatural'''s Sam Winchester develops psychic powers slightly before the start of the show, which eventually turn out to come from their family's demonic nemesis having ''fed'' Sam his own demonic blood in the cradle. Fear about destiny and inevitability increase as more and more of the other children so marked go 'darkside,' or in one case kill their psychotic brother who had, and their father's final words to Dean are that if he can't save Sam, he may have to kill him. Sam resists the original 'destiny' associated with this status by not killing during the demon's little [[Battle Royale]], but the other survivor opens the gate to Hell anyway.

** Later, after he developed his powers further by drinking more [[Psycho Serum|demon blood]] to exorcise demons so he could prevent the Apocalypse and became addicted, it turned out that he'd been being prepped for years to open a different door {{spoiler|, the one to Lucifer's cage}}.

** Destiny also grabbed the Winchesters by the veins in that they are apparently descended on both sides from a line of archangel vessels, and were ''born'' to house Lucifer and Michael for their final apocalyptic battle on earth. Lucifer says, "It had to be you, Sam. It always had to be you." Presumably,the Campbell line was Lucifer's vessels and the Winchester was Michael's, and the reason they had to bring the two together in John and Mary was that the final vessels needed to be brothers. Lucifer's lack of interest in Adam and Michael's in Mary might point this way, but it's not conclusive. The idea of destiny is thrown about a lot here, but given how hard Heaven and Hell both had to work to make it happen, Destiny may just mean 'the plan.' See also, [[The Call Knows Where You Live]].

* ''[[Chouseishin Gransazer]]'' has a lot of hand-wringing [[Wangst]] near the end when it is revealed that {{spoiler|some of the heroes, and possibly all humans, are descended from the Bosquito, an evil race of [[Our Vampires Are Different|monsters that feed on the life force of others]]. But in the end it turns out that they aren't related to the Bosquito at all; it was just evil propaganda. A rather nasty [[Warped Aesop]].}}

** {{spoiler|Also conveniently ignores the fact that humans ''are'' descended from creatures that feed on the "life force" of others, and still do. It's called "eating meat"...}}

* A more realistic version of this was done in ''[[Smallville]]'', where Chloe is afraid she'll end up like her mother. But it's not evil, it's insanity, which often is genetic. Lex on the other hand, has evil genes, although the nurture side isn't helping either.

** Clark himself believed this of "Luthor blood", until the episode "Luthor" where he discovers that his alternate self, raised by Lionel Luthor, was monstrous as an actual Luthor even without the blood relation. This realisation allows him to accept that Tess Mercer, the biological daughter of Lionel Luther, can be trusted to be a subversion of the trope.

* Towards the end of the epic miniseries ''Centennial'', the evil Wendell clan comes along. Perhaps we can blame them for how the quality of the series really started to deteriorate around that point.

* The Avatara in [[Carnivale]] get their powers and Dark or Light natures genetically. Siblings of the Avatara, called Vectori, are said to have minor abilities of their own and tend toward insanity.

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

** 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.

* Used extensively in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]''. The God-Emperor of Man created the twenty Primarchs, and when each wound up being raised on an alien planet by whoever happened to stumble across them, each become an immensely skilled warrior, and most of them ruled a planet or ten. The modern-day Space Marines are all genetically modified with gene-seed based on one of the Primarchs, and all exhibit behavior similar to that Primarch - the Blood Angels and their descendants, for example, all tend to be pious, noble, and prone to turning into [literally] bloodthirsty kamikaze maniacs intent on ripping the enemy limb from limb and drinking their blood.

** 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 descendants of extra-planar creatures in [[Dungeons and Dragons]] tend towards the alignments of their forebears. Thus, half-celestials and half-fiends are almost guaranteed to be good and evil. ''Their'' descendants, aasimar/deva and tieflings, are also predisposed (though not guaranteed) to maintain their ancestors' alignment.

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

* Being another member of the Demon Hunter's Association, [[Kara no Kyoukai:|the Ryogi family's daughter]] also received powers from supernatural blood.

* Agent 47 from the ''[[Hitman]]'' series is a genetically engineered assassin, created from the DNA of 5 of the world's most dangerous criminal masterminds. Except he's a cold-blooded assassin, not a power-hungry megalomaniac, so the analogy doesn't seem to quite work out.

* The Overlord's son in ''Overlord2'' has the same tendency towards magic and creepiness as his father even before the minions show up.

* It probably has as much to do with nurture (or lack thereof) as nature, but {{spoiler|Dahlia Hawthorne}} is at least as great a petty, murderous [[Complete Monster]] as {{spoiler|her mother Morgan Fey}} in ''[[Ace Attorney]]: Trials and Tribulations''. Fortunately it seems to have passed over {{spoiler|Pearl and Iris}}.

* [[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}}.

* This is the whole plot behind [http://www.sire.smackjeeves.com Sire.] Each character is descended from a literary character. Anna and Susan are descended from {{spoiler|Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,}} Emile is descended from {{spoiler|Javert from ''Les Miserables,''}} and more are soon to follow.

* In ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0772.html Ian argues that Elan has to be like his tyrancial father]. In fact, he takes after his [[Chaotic Good]] mother.

** 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].

* ''[[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.

** They didn't manage to get Sun Tzu's DNA (who was targeted specifically to give Serpentor wisdom and prudence), so they replaced it with Sergeant Slaughter's, whose strategic abilities can be summed up as punching people in the face while insulting them. [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarity]] [[General Failure|(and failure)]] [[Hilarity Ensues|Ensues]].

** However, this is averted with the rest of the family. Ozai and Iroh are [[Sibling Yin-Yang]], as are Zuko and Azula. If {{spoiler|good comes from Zuko's mother}}, how do you explain Iroh being the nicest of the family?

*** Iroh's good side is suggested, by Fanon at least, to have something to do with his trip to the spirit realm after Lu-Ten's death.

*** 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]].