Single Line of Descent/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: There is only one true descendant of a hero, villain or chosen one, despite how bloodlines branch off easily.

  • Straight: 250 years ago, Albert's legendary ancestor Miran saved the world. Now the ancient threat of Marduk is returning thanks to Emperor Evulz, and Albert is The Chosen One who inherited Miran's bloodline and is destined to become The Hero!
  • Exaggerated: Miran saved the world thousands of years ago, yet Albert is apparently the only one who "qualifies" as his descendant.
  • Justified: Emperor Evulz has been really busy wiping out all other possible descendants of Miran, because he needed to harvest their blood for part of the ritual to resurrect and summon Marduk.
    • Marduk's unsealing was contingent on there being more than one descendant of Miran born in the same generation. Miran's descendants were all very careful about only having one child, until Albert and his identical twin Bob were born.
  • Inverted: Miran's descendants end up developing into their own subspecies of humanity with golden eyes and the ability to hurt demons with a touch so long as they stay good.
    • Albert is The Chosen One because he is the last person who is not a descendant of Marduk.
  • Subverted: When the Marduk brags that only a descendant of Miran can stop him, Albert points out that Miran's grandson Jonas became the leader of a country where their rulers are encouraged to maintain massive harems. Half the province qualifies.
  • Double Subverted: However, Albert is still the only one who qualifies as The Chosen One, as all the other lines apparently aren't pure enough or something.
    • Alternatively, only the first-born son inherits being the Chosen One. And nobody told Albert that until Marduk came back. All those relatives he was counting on? Marduk can pretty much mow them down like grass.
  • Parodied: The Chosen one is not chosen by bloodline, but is chosen by the person who can destroy Dr. Evulz. (obviously he's the chosen one if he did it!)
    • Alternatively, the Chosen One is, indeed, part of a big family--- but it's a Big Screwed-Up Family and all his aunts, uncles and cousins have been disowned, divorced or given up for adoption and are thus not considered "officially" descendants.
  • Deconstructed: Only a single family is recognized as Miran's bloodline: a noble family, who have spent generations building up that propaganda-tastic image, silencing any "lesser folk" who "falsely" laid claim to that lofty heritage. Their young son, Albert, isn't aware of this, and simply assumes that there was always a Single Line of Descent and they are it. Eventually, his cynical ally Chance points out the flaws in this line of thinking, Albert pries into their history, and has a minor breakdown upon learning the Awful Truth.
  • Reconstructed: The powers Albert inherits as a descendant of Miran are shared equally between all descendants of a qualifying age. If his family hadn't done what they had to do, there could have been thousands of descendants running around, all of them with barely any more power than they had before.
  • Zig Zagged: One noble family has staked their claim to Miran's bloodline through generations of culling any others who could also claim that heritage. Albert is not one of them. At first, he assumes that the nobles are lying about their lineage, and is enraged that they would sully Miran's name so, to the point that he wants to wipe them all out. However, he eventually learns they aren't lying, which means that they're distantly related to each other through their common ancestor.
  • Averted: Being descended from Miran means nothing, a quarter of the population can be traced back to him. He was really popular with the ladies after he saved the world.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: ???
  • Invoked: Before his defeat, Marduk curses Miran's bloodline so that he will only have one kid, his kid will only have one kid of his own, and so on.
  • Defied: See Averted.
  • Discussed: "Hey, Bob? You ever wonder if there are any other descendants of Miran out there?" "Sometimes. But if there were, wouldn't they have gotten powers, too?"
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: Albert is told that he's The Chosen One and directly descended from Miran... while surrounded by his siblings, cousins, second cousins, distant cousins and so on at a family reunion.
  • Played For Drama: Albert learns of his destiny at the family reunion, sparking immediate resentment in most of his extended family as they wonder why he got chosen over them. Made all the worse by Albert not being too sure he wants this sort of destiny, what with the whole having to fight a horrific, ancient foe with a generations-long grudge against his family and all...

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