This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Evil Genes and Good Genes: From YKTTW
Danel: What does the Metal Gear Solid reference have to do with this trope? I mean, the whole evil hand thing is really stupid, but I can't see that it has anything to do with this trope at all.
Lale: Not having actually read the comics, I feel I should ask before adding. Don't the Runaways fit this trope?
Earnest: I've only read bits of it, but it's a legitimate worry for the kids at first, then they decide to Screw Destiny and stick it to their parents.
Kilyle: Is this trope primarily (or even exclusively) for the hereditary predisposition to evil? It seems to mention other types of illogical pass-downs but draws a strong focus toward good vs. evil.
ETA: Okay, moved this example (from The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm) to Lamarck Was Right. Moving on:
Justified examples:
- A child who is abused may grow up to be an abuser. That's nurture, not nature. Has nothing to do with being the child of a rapist or whatever. It's also not inevitable: some grow up to seek out abuse, some lead fairly normal lives, and others grow up to catch the abusers (going into the field of criminal justice or social services).
- Dave Pelzer worried about this, having undergone such severe trauma for so many years (as documented in his autobiography, A Child Called It). However, he appears to have survived his abuse with his psyche intact, and is, as of the last book in the trilogy, a kind and loving father.
- This may be outdated, but I've been told by multiple fictional sources that certain mental diseases, such as schitzophrenia, are passed along genetically. Ergo, if you had insane parents, and you're not yourself insane, you still stand a decent chance of having insane kids. Moreso if the kid you already have is also insane.
- This was a major character point in the novel Dear Enemy, where the doctor's wife and daughter were both insane, and the doctor had made a thorough study of mental illnesses as a method of coping with his loss.
- On Criminal Minds, Spencer Reid's mother has crippling schitzophrenia (completely unable to live a normal life), and Spencer has expressed worries that he, too, might someday show signs of the disease.
Earnest: Lamarck Was Right covers skills passed down genetically, so the The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm example probably ought to go there. On the mental illness angle, I think it's toss up as to lump or split, (leaning toward split myself). It's essentially the same worry, but with a different effect. Hmm... I suppose if the mental illness lead the parent to evil, it can stay, but if it's predominantly the illness itself that worries the character, it would merit a new trope.
Kilyle: Does Xander from Buffy fit here? 'Cuz he walks out on Anya on their wedding day because he fears becoming the ass his father is. (I honestly think that if he was having serious second thoughts, he was right to walk, although he should have done it earlier, and I'm annoyed that the other characters ragged on him for it.) Anyway, that's a form of "becoming evil via heredity" even if it's not evil evil per se. Does it fit on this page?
Arutema: Removed the bit about Ocelot faking possession, because according to the Database he really was possessed during MGS 2.
Kamino Neko: I've edited the Superboy example in the comics list, so as to remove discussion on the main page, but maintain the information imparted in the natter.
Shiruvi: "Sasuke's oh-so-nice mother Mikoto even interacted with him was to tell him to go do his homework, forbidding him to play with his little brother." Surely that's what any mother would do. If my son blew off homework to play with his sibling I'd do the same.
