Lamarck Was Right: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Jean-Baptiste Lamarck:''' What I am saying is that basically, the inheritance of acquired traits change a species over time.

 

In [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]], there were well established ways for a character to [[Super-Hero Origin|gain his or her powers]]: being bitten by a [[Applied Phlebotinum|radioactive spider]], doing years of [[Charles Atlas Superpower|Charles Atlas training]], having a [[Die or Fly|near-death experience]], extensive mystic training, getting an [[Green Lantern Ring|artifact of great power]], being [[Crimefighting with Cash|disgustingly wealthy]], and scores of other imaginative [[Backstory|backstories]]. With the advent of the [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] onwards, these [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] heroes had children. Naturally, they inherited their parents' powers and heroic tendencies and many became [[Legacy Character|legacy characters]], through the sometimes magical agency of [[Superpowerful Genetics]].

If the comic or show is rife with [[My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours]], then the superkid will luck out and be ''at least'' as powerful as the strongest parent at the time of conception, and often [[Goo-Goo Godlike|radically more powerful]]. This can get interesting if a family has more than one kid, as each succeeding one gets stronger. This usually also applies to fighting skills; they'll be a prodigy black belt before they can walk. If the parent got their powers from a magical or technological artifact, they'll have ''"internalized"'' and passed on that item's power. To use a real world analogy: if your mom were an IT expert that always carried around a laptop, you'd have a Bluetooth connection in your head and know how to code a Linux kernel from scratch.

 

 

This trope is named for Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a French naturalist whose theories (of which we call Lamarckian evolution) inspired [[Charles Darwin]] and eventually led to modern Darwinian evolution. While very insightful, his theory of "Inheritance of Acquired Traits" incorrectly viewed the cause of evolution as the parents' self-improvements in life being passed on to their offspring. Giraffes had long necks because they kept stretching for higher branches over many generations, for instance. While this idea has become closely linked to Lamarck, it was not original to Lamarck, nor was it central to Lamarck's contribution to evolutionary theory.

 

A.k.a. [[Inheritance of Acquired Traits]]. See also [[Evolutionary Levels]] and [[Superpowerful Genetics]]. Compare [[In the Blood]] for the morality version. [[Generation Xerox]] is this trope [[Up to Eleven]]; the kids inherit more than just their parent's physical traits. [[Sub-Trope]] of [[All Theories Are True]]. [[Muggle Born of Mages]] is the [[Subversion]]. [[Randomly-Gifted]] is an [[Aversion]].

 

* Everyone in the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' world knows: (ahem...) THIS HAIR CURL, THESE MUSCLES, THESE PINK SPARKLES, THIS [[Badass Longcoat|GREATCOAT]], THIS ALCHEMY AND THIS [[Badass Mustache]] HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN THE ARMSTRONG LINE FOR GENERATIONS!!!

* It's never outright stated, but ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' implies that Goten and Trunks can reach Super Saiyan at a young age because their fathers had achieved the level before the boys' birth; compare to Gohan, born before Goku ever became a Super Saiyan, and had to earn it the same way his father and Vegeta did. This was apparently a major source of fan contention, since some viewers took a cue from Vegeta and complained it took away from the mythos of how becoming Super Saiyan was supposed to be incredibly difficult.

* In ''[[Baccano!]]!'', [[Mad Scientist|Huey Laforet]], immortal thanks to the Elixir of Life, sires [[Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter|Chane]] for the [[Guinea Pig Family|purpose of testing this trope]]. Turns out that Lamarck ''Wasn't'' Right.

* In ''[[Shaman Warrior]]'', {{spoiler|the titular shaman warriors are created by an occult [[Super Serum]] naturally their abilities are passed on to their children.}}

** Lately though its looking like Negi takes after his mother a lot more than he does his father: {{spoiler|although he isn't [[Tsundere]] (yet), but they both stress out, overthink things and wants to do everything themselves and not involve others.}}

** ...and then there is {{spoiler|Chao}} who might be playing with this trope (how directly though hasn't been seen yet).

* A late manga story arc of ''[[Ranma ½]]'' introduces the Musk Dynasty, who use magic to bring about this precise effect and are one part [[Villain of the Week]] to one part [[Wacky Wayside Tribe]]. Generations ago, the Musk's ancestors were a group of martial artists who wanted to become the greatest masters of the various "Animal Styles" of Kung Fu. So, they settled in a valley near [[Transformation Ray|Jusenkyô]], crafted two magical items to enable or disable [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock]], and took to capturing animals, cursing them in the Spring of Drowned Girl, locking them in that form, and having kids with them to ensure that the children would gain the traits of their moms' original species and thus be natural masters of the related style. It seems to have worked; Herb, a dragon-blooded, is an incredibly powerful ki user, the tiger-blooded Lime is a [[Mighty Glacier]] and wolf-blooded Mint is a [[Fragile Speedster]]. However, it also seems to have done a number on their mental abilities, which may be why that Herb says they gave up the practice some time ago. While the sheer misogony of their lifestyle may be partially to blame (Musk boys are taken from their mothers once they're weaned and don't have any contact with the opposite sex until it's time for them to marry), Mint and Lime are dimwitted and girl-obsessed, to the point of openly fantasizing about holding hands with girls, touching or seeing breasts, and literally grabbing girls in the middle of the street to try and make these dreams come true. And Herb, though generally smarter, was still dumb enough to take the Locking Ladle with him to Jusenkyô; when he turned a monkey into a girl to be able to see what a woman's body looked like before he got married. [[What an Idiot!|Even though he only intended to have the monkey-girl around for a few moments and just let her run off afterwards]]. Naturally, this gets him a [[Gender Bender]] curse and stuck in female form to boot, forcing him/her to come to Japan to get it fixed.

 

* Alan Scott, the original [[Green Lantern]], had a daughter called Jade, who naturally had all the powers of his ring, and occasionally her mother's plant powers as well. He also has a son who has darkness-related powers, which are explained as Alan having been exposed to "Shadowlands energy" during a fight with a demon.

** Although, after multiple reboots and retcons, Alan Scott's power base ended up magical, so a [[Wizard Did It]].

* A mainstay of the [[Marvel Universe]], where everything from [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'s radioactive spider bite to the [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'s cosmic ray exposure can be inherited. Generally, it's revealed that the various doses of radiation ''did'' change their DNA, so the offspring of [[Freak Lab Accident]] Silver Agers can officially be called Mutants.

** The official Marvel parlance is Mutants for X-gene variations on the human template, and ''mutates'' for those like Spider-Man who've been mutated by some external factor. How the public magically tells the difference is another question altogether.

** Indeed, Barry Allen's grandson's ''half-brother'' also has speed powers, although neither of his parents ever did. Also, as the [[Legacy Character|son of Captain Boomerang]], he's inherited his father's knack for using boomerangs as offensive weapons. {{spoiler|And as of [[Blackest Night]], his father's terrible decision-making skills}}.

*** On the other hand, Owen and Bart's mother, Meloni Thawne, is a descendant of Barry's twin brother, Malcolm Thawne, as was Eobard Thawne, AKA Professor Zoom, which suggests that the Barry Allen bloodline has a genetic predisposition toward speed, rather than a Lamarkian outgrowth from Barry's.

*** Which can further be explained by the fact that Barry Allen might have been the creator of the Speed Force, and so anybody else in his bloodline will have a higher chance of inheriting speed based powers. Of course, Barry's powers themselves are an ontological paradox, as it's been stated in the comics that he went back in time, turned into a bolt of [[Lightning Can Do Anything|energy]], and struck the chemicals which gave him superspeed.

* [[Double Subverted]] with Wildcat II, the son of Wildcat. Wildcat is a [[Badass Normal|superb fighter with no other powers]]. His son isn't so great at it. On the other hand, after the father spent a lifetime of dressing up in a cat suit, the son can turn into a [[Catgirl|Catboy]]. As it turns out, his powers really are inherited - his ''mother'' was a werepanther, so it's just an amusing coincidence that his power connected with his old man's gimmick.

* The ''Zenith'' series in ''[[2000 AD]]'' relied on this. The main strand of superhumans in the story were able to pass on their superpowers to their offspring. Their powers originated in a wartime experiment where pregnant women were injected with ergot alkaloids. The resulting children's superpowers were mentally derived, you see, and kicked in when the children hit puberty.

* The character Doomsday was created deliberately through a brutal process of Lamarckian evolution.

** In Spider-Man's case, the bite changed him on a genetic level, so it ''would'' make sense for any children of his to inherit his powers. And to be fair, Spider-Girl's powers aren't an exact copy of Peter's, there's a major difference in how their wall-crawling powers work.

** Kara Killgrave (a.k.a. Purple Girl, Persuasion, Purple Woman), the daughter of the Purple Man, is another case, as she developed the exact same powers as her father, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|right down to his purple skin]]. That's despite the fact that he was hit by a rapidly-escaping nerve gas.

** It's since been suggested Scorpion's father might be [[Incredible Hulk|Bruce Banner]] as an explanation for her green hair. Since this would have been before Banner became the Hulk, this just raises further questions.

* Speaking of Dr. Banner, he's had three children post-Hulk. His daughter Lyra has green skin and some super-strength, but averts the trope because she was created via genetic engineering. His son Skaar is able to become a Hulk himself, while his twin Hiro-Kala appears to have inherited nothing of the Hulk (implying they're likely fraternal twins).

** In the Ultimateverse, Cap's son inherits superpowers. The son, however, appears to be better with them than Cap ever was, mostly because of training from a young age.

* While not really offspring, [[The Joker]] manages to "Jokerize" scores of supervillains in The Last Laugh storyline. He does this via some insane [[Evil Plan]] that infuses everyone with his DNA, turning their skin white, hair green and giving them Joker's sense of humor and making them totally loyal to him. How this works when the Joker's skin and hair color is not due to any sort of genetics but his skin and hair being permanently bleached from (in the usual backstories) falling into a vat of chemicals is not explained.

** For that matter, how does being "totally loyal to him" qualify as one of the traits in Joker's DNA? He's chaos embodied, the polar opposite of loyalty.

* [[Avengers Academy]] character Finesse has the same powers as [[Taskmaster]], who gained them by special serum, and it's implied she might be his daughter. When the two of them meet, she directly asks him about it, only for it to turn out that a drawback of his powers is loss of his non-combat related memories, so he has no damn idea.

 

* In the movie version of ''[[A History of Violence]]'', Viggo Mortensen's character Tom Stall has the titular violent history along with wicked underhanded fighting skills. After his abilities are outed, his previously passive and somewhat defensively-snarky son (who had up to this point been in a healthy and loving environment, in which Tom preached self-control) went off like a claymore mine on a bully, beating him down with surprising savagery. However, it is mostly the surprise that won him the fight; the temper may have been his father's (such things may be inherited), and he showed no real technique, so this is a borderline example.

* Likewise, in ''[[August Rush]]'', the titular character is a musical prodigy whose biological parents were both musicians. Now, musical aptitude can be inherited. Not prodigy-level, but...

** He ''does'' swing every bit as well as the monkeys in the jungle around him...

* In ''[[The Mask of Zorro|The Legend of Zorro]]'', Don Alejandro de la Vega's son, Joaquin, seems to have inherited his father's taste for social justice and swordfighting skills despite the fact that he has no idea his father is actually Zorro.

* ''[[Boondock Saints]]'': The brothers are extremely skilled at using firearms; but no mention is made of them having formal or informal military/firearms training. Their father is just as gun-crazy and vigilante-minded; but spent the entirety of his sons' lives in jail. It is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the second movie, when the ''[[Big Bad]]'' comes right out and states that killing runs in their blood.

** While it is never explicitly stated that the McManus brothers have had any specialized training; the first movie hints strongly that they were given some sort of training at their mother's insistence (this ''is'' explicitly stated regarding their polyglotism), as well as hinting strongly at ties to Irish Republican organizations. The second movie does invoke this trope, but it's a fairly weak example [[Fridge Brilliance|in context]].

* In ''[[Pandorum]]'', the colonists were injected with mutagens designed to make them undergo "accelerated evolution". Unfortunately it caused those who woke up first (or maybe their descendants) to become albino cannibals.

 

== Literature ==

* [[Discworld]]

* The passing of skills along family lines is explained within the religious underpinnings of Nancy Farmer's ''The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm'': The spirits of your ancestors actually hung around the family, and if they took a liking to a kid, they'd pass down their own skills. Hence, if little Jimmy winds up with unbelievable skills at piloting a fighter plane, it's not so much because he's genetically related to great-great-grand-uncle George (the ace fighter pilot), but because George's spirit stuck around after death, and kinda melded with Jimmy to grant him George's original powers.

** Justified somewhat considering Harry had ridden a practice broom at a young age, and technically only inherited good flying skills and reflexes, which can be from genes. (Though the reflexes he claims come from dodging his bully cousin Dudley.)

* In the ''[[Shannara]]'' book series, the Ohmsford family begins to have innate magic starting with the children of Wil Ohmsford. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in-story: Wil's use of the magical elfstones was problematic, as [[Half-Human Hybrid|he wasn't "elf" enough]], and permanently left a trace of magic within him.

* In the novel ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', the man-ape Moon-Watcher being made intelligent by the monolith is described thus: "The very atoms of his simple brain were being twisted into new patterns. If he survived, those patterns would become eternal, for his genes would pass them on to future generations." If the monolith wanted the patterns passed on, it should have been doing the twisting a bit lower down...

* Oddly abused in Brandon Sanderson's ''Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians'' YA novels, where superhuman powers, called "Talents," seem to come from having the last name "Smedry". Al's mother {{spoiler|acquires the ability to "lose things" by marrying Mr. Smedry, and an escape is engineered at one point by Alcatraz performing a marriage between a Smedry and a good librarian. This passes his ability to [[Dance Fight|Dance Badly]]}}.

* The novelization of [[Star Wars|''A New Hope'']] averts this. Ben comments that like his father, Luke is an excellent pilot, then goes on to say that "[p]iloting skill isn't hereditary, but many of the aptitudes that produce a good small-ship pilot are." It's also established that Luke's spent a lot of time practicing high-speed low-altitude high-precision flying.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* The commercials for ''[[Birds of Prey]]'' made a great deal out of the idea that the daughter of [[Batman]] and Catwoman would have inherited her father's drive to fight crime and her mother's drive to commit it. She also inherited cat-like abilities from her mother (who was a metahuman in the television show, despite her comic book [[Badass Normal]] characterization).

* Used oddly in ''[[Psych]]'' where Gus insists that he can handle spicy (Indian) food because he's 1/4 Jamaican. His grandparent or parent may have cooked spicy Jamaican foods a lot, but it's not mentioned.

* In ''[[Angel]]'', [[The Scrappy|Connor]] manages to inherit all the advantages of his vampire parents without actually being a vampire. How this works is never explained, but then, how two [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires]] had a baby in the first place is never explained either.

* On ''[[The Mentalist]]'', an internal affairs officer tells [[Lawful Good]] [[Fair Cop]] Rigsby it's not his fault if he's prone to crime, since his father was a biker, and evidence suggests criminality could run in the family. He is [[Berserk Button|not happy]]. Also subverted in that everybody on the team is seen to be very different from their parents (who include the aforementioned biker, an abusive drunk, and a particularly nasty conman).

 

== Music Videos ==

* 2D of [[Gorillaz]] got his trademark blue hair when [[Art Major Biology|a head injury changed something in his brain chemistry, causing all his hair to fall out and grow back blue]]. In the old Kong Studios interactive website, there was an email on 2D's computer from a lawyer telling him he couldn't deny that his many illegitimate children were his because "the spiky blue hair is a dead giveaway".

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* According to ''Draconomicon'', dragons can pass on some of what they learn to their offspring. It's a [[Hand Wave|handy]] way of ensuring they're [[Exclusively Evil]].

* In keeping with Gothic fiction, powerful curses in the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting can be passed down from one generation to the next, deserved or not. This may say more about the Dark Powers' [[Jerkass]] tendencies than about Lamarckism, however.

* The Archeans, human-analogs from the ''Talislanta'' game, are descended from [[Beast Folk]] who'd used magic to eliminate their more animalistic traits. Justified in that, well, it's magic.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Infinity Blade]]'' is this trope distilled into a video game. In it, the hero must defeat the evil God King, but will inevitably fail. No worries though, as his offspring inherits all XP and equipment from him, allowing the player to become stronger with each new generation.

* In ''[[The Sims]] 3'', parents can pass on their traits to their children. Also, since all hair/eye/skin colors are now equally dominant (opposed to following the basic Punnett model of dominant and recessive that was in its predecessor), you could easily have a child with Dad's blue skin and Mom's pink hair with orange highlights.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Twins Elan and Nale in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' inherit multiple traits from their estranged parents. Elan adopts his Mother's [[Chaotic Good]] alignment and his father's [[Genre Savvy|love of the dramatic]], while Nale adopts his Father's [[Lawful Evil]] tendencies and his mother's [[Complexity Addiction|love of unnecessarily complex plans]].

{{quote|'''Vaarsuvius''': ''[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0723.html Heredity is a cruel mistress.]''}}

 

== Web Original ==

* The ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' is an "unlimited source" setting, where superpowers can be gained through pretty much any possible way that can be imagined. Nevertheless, and regardless of what real-world genetic science says, its pretty much guaranteed that the child of two superhumans will have either the same powers as one of their parents, or a mix between the two. (Children with only one superhuman parent tend to have a 50/50 chance of getting either the same powers as their parents, or else no powers at all.) Of course, people who get their powers from technology don't count.

* Something like this is going on in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]''. Getting mutant powers is really really rare. But superheroes and supervillains seem to have insanely high odds of having kids with powers too. What, does using your powers a ton make them pop up in your kids?

* Thoroughly deconstructed in [http://shifti.org/wiki/Lamarckism_Troubles Lamarckism Troubles].

* Grandchildren of people who had lived through famine were less likely to catch diabetes. Mice exposed to enriched learning environments had offspring with improved memory This apparent Lamarckian inheritance is the [http://www.cracked.com/article_19161_the-6-creepiest-things-hiding-in-your-dna_p2.html third creepiest thing hiding in your DNA] according to ''[[Cracked.com|Cracked]]''. This article also mentions endogenous retroviruses (see Real Life below).

 

== Western Animation ==

 

== Real Life ==

** Further, the organelles provide an energy source which was not previously available, so it [[Rule of Funny|could be argued]] that they cells were given superpowers by something that they ate, which was then passed on to their descendants.

* Bacteria can pass down traits acquired through horizontal gene transfer. When two bacteria swap genes or "mate", the exchange is permanent and the altered genome carries on to all offspring.

* Briefly thought to have occured with second-generation phocomelia, a congenital deformity primarily seen in infants whose mothers used thalidomide during pregnancy. Although the damage inflicted on these unborn children was environmental in origin, a small number of phocomeliacs subsequently grew up, married one another, and (rarely) produced phocomeliac children. Further investigation subverted this trope, revealing that children who'd been deformed by thalidomide had ''already'' been genetically predisposed to suffer such developmental flaws in response to chemical contaminants, and their second-generation children inherited a double dose of that susceptibility, making them subject to phocomelia even in the absence of thalidomide.

* To a certain extent, this is true anyway, though less based upon what your parents did, and more what they ''[[I Did What I Had to Do|needed to do]] to survive.'' For example, native-born Koreans [[wikipedia:Body odor|don't sweat the same way]], because not sweating is a way to survive in cold climates. Likewise tanning skin is likely an adaptation to very sunny climates. The process, however, is reversible over time if the need suddenly no longer exists.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Parent Trope]]

[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]

[[Category:Badass]]