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.]]

 

 

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.

* [[Batgirl 2009|Stephanie Brown]] and, to a lesser extent, [[Batgirl (2000 comic book)|Cassandra Cain]] sometimes get this treatment from Batman because of their parents being supervillains. [[Depending on the Writer|It depends on the writer]]. While Cassandra occasionally struggled with this thinking early on due [[Dark and Troubled Past|to some issues she had]], Stephanie never has, likely because the impetus for her superheroics was to spoil her father's criminal ambitions.

 

* ''[[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.

* [[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.}}

* 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."

 

* Just try to find a second- or third-generation wrestler whose gimmick ''doesn't'' center around wrestling being In the Blood, face or heel. Probably the best example is [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]'s [[Randy Orton]], a third-generation wrestler who believes that his lineage automatically makes him the greatest wrestler ever (never mind that dad, grandpa, and uncle Barry were all midcarders at best...). Orton went on to found a [[Power Stable]] called Legacy, where the biggest entrance requirement was that you must be at least a second-generation wrestler. Their motto? "Born better."

** 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.

his father]]

 

* Used extensively in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. 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.

* 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.

* From ''[[Yandere Simulator]]''; Ayano's mother was herself a yandere. That is, in fact, how Ayano's parents met. (As in, her mother ''kidnapped'' her father and forced him to love her.) And supposedly her grandmother was just as bad. It's even hinted that her family line [[Our Demons Are Different|is not 100% human.]]

 

* 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.

* This is the whole plot behind [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105201719/http://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.

* The sons of Luk River from [https://web.archive.org/web/20110831010535/http://subcultura.es/webcomic/elis/1 Irregular Elis]. They formed a [[Badass Family]] of [[Superhero]]es with a lot of hereditary powers.

** 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 ''[[Nip and Tuck]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20120508140359/http://www.rhjunior.com/NT/00502.html a paternally caused explosion inspires this observation].

 

* 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.

* In the ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' episode "Le Purrfect Crime", the heroes are menaced by [[Big Bad|Fat Cat's]] lookalike cousin Maltese de Sade. Learning that he's Fat Cat's cousin is all the information Monterey Jack needs to know the guy is rotten, an assumption that is quickly confirmed.

 

* Psychological research shows that a lot of our personality traits are partly inherited from our relatives. For example, a child born from parents with deficient levels of Monoamine oxidase A (a neurotransmitter that helps to control aggression and impulsiveness) is likely to be more aggressive than a child with normal levels of the "warrior gene". However environmental factors are just as likely to inhibit those chances they will be exhibited in behavior if the child was born in a supportive household rather than a abusive one, the latter which makes the likelihood of them exhibiting aggression 10 times more likely.

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

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Evolution Tropes]]

[[Category:Family Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:Dysfunctional Family Tropes]]

[[Category:Like Father, Like Son]]