Inadequate Inheritor: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A successful bigwig, be it in business, politics, magic or even world conquest, is growing old, and in preparation for an eventual retirement/death looks to their children to see who among them can [[Take Up My Sword|take up]] [[Taking Up the Mantle|their mantle]]... and is faced with incompetence, disinterest, or a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] in the making. These are by no means an exhaustive list of possible shortcomings, indeed just about anything that can make a parent ask "[[Why Couldn't You Be Different?]]" is grounds for this trope. Special mention should go to times when the Inadequate Inheritor is not good/heroic enough, [[Evil Parents Want Good Kids|too evil]], or ''[[Minion with an F In Evil|not evil enough.]]''

Cue an [[Impossible Task]], search for a non standard heir from outside the family (who has a statistically abnormal chance to be an orphan/bastard child of the retiree), or otherwise trying to reform their potential heir or forcibly change them one way or another. Results vary: the heir may become worthy, rebel against their "benefactor" (which may be what they [[Batman Gambit|always]] [[Manipulative Bastard|wanted)]] or fail outright and prompt the retiree to switch to plan B, become [[Immortality|immortal.]]

 

 

May be related [[The Wrongful Heir to the Throne]]. If the inadequate inheritor actually gets the position, through guile, lack of other candidates or sheer luck, they may either turn into a surprisingly good leader once actually in that position, or they will become a [[Sketchy Successor]]. Compare [[Game Between Heirs]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', wealthy head of the Ushiromiya family Kinzo is dying. His heir, Krauss has made several bad investments and lost a lot of money. The second oldest, Eva, is intelligent and ambitious, but not very personable and is border line crazy. The third oldest, Rudolf, is just a womanizer. The youngest, Rosa has an illegitimate daughter. So what does he do to remedy the situation? Teach them to be better heirs? [[Kill'Em All|No.]]

* A [[Rumiko Takahashi]] short story focused on a variation of this. Under insistence from her boyfriend Susumu, a woman named Nozomi pretends to be her dead best friend Noriko in order to claim an inheritance from Noriko's long dead grandmother. It helped that the last time Noriko's family saw her was with her mother when she was a little girl. Nozomi winds up receiving help from the grandmother's spirit, on the condition that the first thing she does with the money is provide a proper burial for Noriko (Nozomi was extremely offended that Susumu suggested such a ruse, but conceded because they have massive debts). Eventually, Nozomi learns that her Noriko's mother had nearly been disowned by the family for eloping with a man, and only came back once when Noriko was a child to meet grandmother. It's implied that the grandmother didn't like the family any more than Noriko's mother did, as she made it clear that no one other than Noriko could touch the property registry. It's also implied that the family might have killed the grandmother themselves.

 

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Stardust (novel)|Stardust]]'', the king of Stormhold is highly disappointed his sons haven't all killed each other to reveal an heir before being on his deathbed. He throws the royal topaz (ruby in the film) and tells them whoever fetches it first is the new king.

* In ''[[Hero Series|Heroes Adrift]]'', the main characters are sent to look for a long-lost bastard descendant of the queen as an alternate heir. Both the queen and the heir end up hating this idea once they actually meet.

* This is the reason Samwell Tarly ends up joining the Night's Watch in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. His dad wants a warrior and a lord for a heir, and Sam is soft-hearted boy of some obesity. When, after a long series of miscarriages and daughters, a second male heir is produced, his dad offers him a choice: join the Night's Watch, thereby forsaking all claims to land and heirs, or experience a "tragic hunting accident."

* [[Heralds of Valdemar|King Valdemar's]] fear that one of these might take the throne resulted in the arrival of the Companions, and an immediate edit to the inheritance laws to require that the monarch of Valdemar must also be a Herald.

 

* On ''[[Haven]]'' Police Chief Wournos is trying various was to to get his son Nathan ready to take over for him and be able to deal with the deadly "Troubles" on his own-He aims to make his son tougher because he'll need to be.

* Played with in an early episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]''. Grand Nagus Zek proclaims Quark to be his successor, and promptly dies soon afterward. Quark becomes Nagus and Zek's son makes several attempts on his life so that he can usurp the title. {{spoiler|Turns out Zek's not really dead, and it was all a ruse to test to see if his son was ready to be Nagus. Zek determines that he isn't due to his impulsive attempts to simply kill Quark instead of subtly amassing power and support before getting rid of him. Quark himself was not in on the ruse and was not very happy to find out his life was endangered just to teach Zek's son a lesson.}} The successor ends up being {{spoiler|Rom}}.

* ''[[Justified (TV series)|Justified]]'' has Detroit mafia don Theo Tonin and his son [[Man Child|Sammy]], a spoiled, weak-willed mob prince who hides behind his father's reputation. As Theo's son, Sammy is the logical inheritor of the crime syndicate, but neither Theo nor Quarles has a high opinion of him.

 

* In the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting, Azalin's son Irik was considered an unsuitable successor by his [[Lawful Evil]] father due to actually being a decent guy. Azalin eventually executed his own son for rebelling against him, and with no "suitable" heir, was "forced" to become a [[Our Liches Are Different|lich]].

 

* In ''[[Kim Possible]],'' Señor Senior, Sr. is a classic [[Affably Evil]] Villain whose greatest disappointment is his [[Cloudcuckoolander]] / [[Minion with an F In Evil]] son, Señor Senior, Jr. He is constantly lecturing his son on [[Contractual Genre Blindness|how a 'proper villain' must behave]].

** This doesn't seem to bother Junior all that much, however. If anything, it only annoys him. Also, it's clear that Señor Senior, Sr. loves his son and fully intends to make him his heir, he's just a little frustrated.

* Beezy on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' is nowhere near the level of [[Card-Carrying Villain|evil]] that his father [[Satan|Lucius]] wants him to be, even though he's to be the next ruler of [[A Hell of a Time|Miseryville]]. He'd rather hang out with [[Heterosexual Life Partner|Jimmy]] and his girlfriend, [[Crazy Awesome|Saffi]].

* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode, ''Burns, Baby Burns'', Mr. Burns' son, Larry, is considered to inherit Mr. Burns' fortune, but has a tough time fitting in.

* Quain'tana from ''[[Drowtales]]'' is not necessarily a villain, but has been disappointed by at least three daughters looking to succeed her before settling on Ariel {{spoiler|who is really her granddaughter.}}

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Parental Issues]]

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]

[[Category:Plots]]

[[Category:Will and Inheritance Tropes]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]