History Main / VillainousParentalInstinct

** Dexter himself is a SerialKiller who, despite his code, admits to having very little feelings for others in general. However, he loves his young son Harrison enough to leave him with Hannah rather than risk his life by taking him to Alaska with him. More significantly, by the time of ''Series/DexterNewBlood'' (over a decade later), when Harrison tracks him down and learns that he's not actually dead, and that he's the Bay Harbour Butcher, [[spoiler:Dexter allows Harrison to kill him rather than defend himself, try to escape, or kill Harrison (which he could've done with some ease) so that Harrison will be free from him.]]

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': Despite [[Characters/MonsterVerseEmmaRussell Emma]]'s [[AbusiveMom emotionally-manipulative parenting]], her surviving child Madison is the only person she truly gives any shits about while pursing her plan – anyone else, including her own friends and even her child's father, can quickly be left for dead as necessary collateral. When Emma finds out that it's ''her'' child and not just the children of every other mother in the world who's in mortal danger of being killed by a Titan, she quickly abandons her [[spoiler:(admittedly gone horribly awry)]] plan entirely so that she can save her kid. [[spoiler:At the movie's end, Emma [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices herself]] partly to buy the Osprey that's carrying Madison time to get to a safe distance, with the novelization explicitly noting that Emma calculated Ghidorah would have certainly killed Madison if Emma hadn't diverted his attention]].

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', while Gul Dukat was initially going to kill his illegitimate teenage daughter Ziyal due to her mixed race, Kira helped convinced him not to and he quickly became very protective of her. Despite this, he's pretty scummy and horribly monstrous in other ways, for instance perving on Kira (and her ''mom'') and having previously killed millions of her species, some by execution and others by working them to death as slaves. His love and affection for Ziyal are his most redeeming qualities and marked the NobleDemon phase of his character arc. [[spoiler:Her death, and the circumstances around it, drive him mad. After he recovers his wits and realizes there is nobody left who cares about his attempts to be Noble, he vows to embrace being a CardCarryingVillain instead]]

* ''Film/FridayThe13th'': Pemula Voorhees was motivated to commit a string of serial murders due to the apparent death of her son Jason. Her son was born deformed and she had to work at Camp Crystal Lake to support them both. Unfortunately, the kids picked on Jason for his deformities, and none of the camp counselors intervened because they were too busy making love. Eventually, Jason nearly drowned at the lake, and when his body wasn't found, Pemula rightfully blamed the counselors for their negligence and killed them to avenge her son and close the camp. Years later, Camp Crystal Lake tries to reopen, so Pemula resumed the killing spree until the [[FinalGirl Alice Hardy]] beheaded her in self-defense. [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Jason]] would continue where his mother left off [[WellDoneSonGuy to do her proud]].

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': By the end of its run, Walt has [[spoiler:let Jane die and shrugged off Brock's death. He's devastated when his son Flynn turns on him, though. While he briefly kidnaps his baby daughter Holly, he returns her to Skyler when she asks for her mother. His last act is ensuring that Gretchen and Elliot set up a fund for Flynn, even though it means going back on his pride, which was his FatalFlaw all along and resulted in him getting into the drug trade.]]