Widow Jane has gotten herself a nice home, and is raising her son Jack there, happy except for the loss of his father — but it has been years, and she has her son. Except one day, Jack comes running home burbling about someone telling him that his father killed the dragon and demands to know more.
And Widow Jane feels like she's been stabbed to the heart, envisioning her son lying before her, pale and bleeding, like his dying father had.
A character has charge of a child (usually her son) and is desperate to keep this child from imitating another relative (usually his father). This is a fear of history's repeating itself for his fate, which may be turning evil and usually ends with being dead.
Makingthis relativea secret is one technique; which usually makes the forbidden relative Forbidden Fruit. Another, as popular, is extracting a promise, which the child will usually try to keep until the pressure gets too high.
Trying to keep him from evil has a fairly good success rate. Trying to keep him from his father's profession has a considerably poorer one, particularly when the reaction to the father's violent life is to try to make an Actual Pacifist; though the child may turn out less violent, there is usually something he must defend against. When the mother's motive is to keep him from being killed by the precise character who killed the father, generally a prequel to You Killed My Father.
Keeping the Ancestral Weapon out of the child's hand is often an element of it, and when he finally gets it, a sign that the struggle is over, and the child will be like his father — Take Up My Sword metaphorically as well as literally.
When the hero wants the child away from him, it's Give Him A Normal Life. When the villain wants to raise the kid to act differently, it's Evil Parents Want Good Kids. When the character hates his "condition" and doesn't want to pass it on, it's What If The Baby Is Like Me.
See also In the Blood, Generation Xerox, Follow in My Footsteps. Contrast Loser Son of Loser Dad, Raise Him Right This Time.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime/Manga
A Cruel God Reigns's Ian fears this when he begins to fall in love with Jeremy, but cannot always make sense of it, especially when he loses his temper at Jeremy's failed drug and prostitution rehabilitations.
Kaze to Ki no Uta: Arguably, Gilbert and Auguste could both fall under this trope. Gilbert, because Auguste molested, raped, and emotionally abused him as a young child and Auguste because he was raped by his step-brother. Especially true when it is revealed that Luke, I Am Your Father
In Part II of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Erina is very worried about her grandson Joseph getting wrapped up in the stone mask business, as that's what killed her his grandfather (and, as revealed later, her son), and men in the Joestar family have a history of dying rather young in general. Unfortunately, the call knew Joseph was vacationing in New York. A bit ironically, Joseph ends up being the only JoJo to die of old age.
In One Piece, Monkey D. Garp tries so very hard to make his grandson, Luffy, a Marine like himself. However, he fails and Luffy becomes a highly-wanted pirate, much like his own father, whom is the leader of a revolutionary army (plus the most wanted man in the world. Ironically, in the Water Seven Arc, Luffy and his crew proclaimed war against the world government, much like his father did. This is ultimately averted, however, in that Garp loves both his son and his grandson and is in fact quite proud of them. He just didn't want Luffy to be a pirate because it meant, as a Marine, he'd have to oppose his own grandson.
Comic Books
Batman villain The Penguin uses umbrellas because his father died of pneumonia, and his mother feared the same for him.
Also, Batman often voices - in his head via narration, as he would almost never voice such a thing out loud - how proud he is that the various Robins generally didn't end up like him, as his obsessive, miserable life is one he would wish on nobody, least of all his "sons." He particularly voices this in regards to Nightwing, whom he is extremely proud of due to Dick finding his own identity as a hero and a man - no matter how rocky the split was.
Jackie Estacado aka The Darkness is a hitman like his father, but unlike his father, he's not an out of control psycho. This is because the Brotherhood of Darkness arranged for him to be adopted by mafia boss Frankie Franchetti, who, knowing how messed up Jackie's father had been, could be counted on to raise him on the right side of the line between viciously ruthless badassery and self-destructive Ax Craziness.
Wanted reveals that Wesley's mother raised him to be a pacifistic loser because she realized that he had the potential to be like his father was. It doesn't help.
Green Lantern Hal Jordan's father died on the job as a fighter pilot (in front of Hal's eyes). His mother made him swear to never join the Air Force, but he did so anyway.
Fun Home is based around Alison Bechdel, a lesbian, looking back at her childhood with a new perspective after she finds out her dad was gay, and wondering about similarities between the two of them.
Matt Murdock a.k.a. Daredevil was raised not to become a fighter like his Dad because his Dad wanted something better for him. This backfires spectacularly when his secret identity is outed: Matt goes into incredible painful sacrifices to maintain his identity as a lawyer, just because that was his father’s dream for him.
Film
Star Wars is probably the best-known example, and the efforts to keep Luke from being like his father (who, as we all know, wentevil) occupy three separate characters: Owen, Ben Kenobi, and Yoda.
In Return of the Jedi, Luke realizes that he's dangerously close to invoking this trope after he cuts off Vader's cybernetic right hand and looks down at his own cybernetic right hand. This prompts him to deactivate and discard his lightsaber so that he won't be tempted any further.
Back to the Future. Mr. Strickland, an administrator at Marty's school, has already written Marty off as a slacker like his father.
This may or may not actually count; from what can be seen in the movies, Strickland calls just about everybody a slacker for almost any reason (such as having a "Kick me" sign taped to your back).
In Scanners, both the hero and his brother the villain develop a shared disdain for their father, and wish to avoid becoming like him.
In The Waterboy, Mama Boucher has kept Bobby sheltered and at home well into his thirties, because she fears him abandoning her, just like her husband did.
The Heavenly Kid: A greaser is killed when his car goes over a cliff in a game of "Chicken". He comes back to Earth years later to become guardian angel to his nerdy teenage son. Neither of them know that they are father and son. The son starts acting like the greaser and says his catchphrase "I got it covered." This freaks out his mom, who is afraid he's going to die just like his father.
In Making Money, in Mr Bent's Back Story, his mother disapproved of clowning and raised him very soberly, though it appears as much a dislike of clowning in general than a specific desire to keep it from it.
In Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's Sorcery And Cecelia, Cecelia's great-aunt lost her fiancé to his magical studies, and is horrified at the thought of Cecelia learning from the same wizard. (Fortunately, it was a misunderstanding. Though she is not entirely pleased about any form of study, she accepts it.)
Achebe's Things Fall Apart features the character Okonkwo who dedicates his life to proving that he is not his lazy father. It ends up being his fatal flaw.
In the YA book, Banner In The Sky by James Ramsey Ullman, the widow of a famed mountain guide tries to keep her son from following in his his father's footsteps as a guide.
It's underlined by both of them and their fascination with Jedi Master Jorus/Joruus C'baoth. True, the Jorus C'baoth Anakin knew was not yet insane (but he would be soon), while his clone Joruus really was; and Anakin was fourteen while Luke was in his late twenties. But Anakin liked C'baoth's philosophy that the non-Jedi were sheep at best and should be handled without asking, while Luke, despite being on a quest to find surviving Jedi and thus presumably more interested, instantly felt uneasy about these teachings even though he thought they made sense.
Leia's got a little of her father too, though this is usually much more understated, particularly by writers who put her in the damsel-in-distress role. Mostly it manifests through her temper, her very strong will - Luke's determined, but Leia has more passion and staying power - and her sense of self-importance. She's not as arrogant as Anakin, but she's less quiet about her confidence and accomplishment than her brother is, and the impression she leaves on people has much more authority. Luke is an idealist, and a bit of a mystic. Leia takes charge. A politician who knows her heritage once insinuates that it means she'll betray them all. In The Thrawn Trilogy, the Noghri call Luke "Firstson of the Lord Vader". They call Leia the Mal'ary'ush, the heir to Vader's authority and powers, and address her as "Lady Vader". It's pointed out in the Hand Of Thrawn duology that she's worried about putting her need to keep her spouse safe over her duty to the rest of the galaxy and second-guesses some of her decisions as a result.
She was magnificent, her style so different from her brother's. She was hard-edged where he made his demands with a deceptive softness. There was nothing soft in the President's [Leia's] manner. Cole would never had argued with her as he had argued with her brother.
Since much of the material about Luke and Leia outside the movies was created before the prequel trilogy, similarities of their personalities' to their father (other than the really evil version) are presumably coincidental. Not if the works being referred to were written later, of course.
True, though the C'baoth example is valid despite the book with Anakin and the original C'baoth being written second - both are Timothy Zahn novels, so it was a retroactive version of this.
With the direction the Fate of the Jedi book series is going, many fans predict a relationship between Ben Skywalker and Vestara Khai, mirroring the one between Luke and Mara. Vestara asks to be a Jedi, but things are still uncertain before the series' finale. Though Ben is consistently trying to do just what Luke did, and get his father to accept it.
Drina's grandparents in the Drina books by Jean Estoril don't want her to become a ballerina, because her secret famous ballerina mother died because of it.
Averted in Prince Roger series, albeit in a convoluted way. Roger resembles his father, emulating him without knowing. After learning, finally, the consequences of this... well, first time they met he decides to behead him for torturing, raping and mind raping his mother. Would have done it, if not for a timely intervention of Nimashet Despreaux.
In Warrior Cats, Firestar is awkward around Bramblepaw because he looks exactly like his father, Firestar's nemesis Tigerstar. Later on, when Bramblepaw (renamed Brambleclaw) starts receiving training from Tigerstar, he and his halfbrother Hawkfrost are pushed towards being just as ambitious as their father was. While Brambleclaw does manage to stop himself, Hawkfrost cannot, and does end up like Tigerstar.
In the Popol Vuh of the Kiche Maya, the mother and grandmother of Hunter and Jaguar Deer hide their father's ball gear from them, as well as the truth that their father was a ball player. A rat reveals the truth and helps the two to find said ball gear.
In Seanan Mc Guire's October Daye novel Ashes of Honor, despite her mother's frantic efforts to protect her, Chelsea in the end concludes that she is like her father.
Live Action TV
Bobby Singer in Supernatural had a whole series of flashbacks in the episode where he died where it eventually was revealed that he'd never been willing to have kids because he was sure he'd turn out just like his father. Whom he shot. In the same place in the head where Dick Roman tagged Bobby. According to the Reaper, "you have the only genetic case of bullet-to-the-brain I've ever seen."
Turned Up to Eleven in an episode of Criminal Minds, where the father is a Serial Killer and rapist. His wife found out and made sure he wouldn't hurt anyone ever again... Unfortunately, the son eventually discovers his parentage by himself and is fascinated by it, becoming his father's Jack The Rip Off. In an interesting twist, the father's original victim escaped and also had his child. He also finds out, but keeps it to himself out of respect for his mother and does not appear to display any homicidal tendencies.
Music
"Coward of the County" — where Tommy's father (who's dying in prison) is the one telling him not to be like his old man.
Promise me son not to do the things I've done
Walk away from trouble if you can.
And then subverted at the end, when Tommy beats the crap out of three men who assaulted his girlfriend.
Now please don't think I'm weak,
I couldn't turn the other cheek
And papa I sure hope you understand
Sometimes you have to fight when you're a man
Cat Stevens has this in "Father and Son".
I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy.
This is the twist of "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin. In the first verses, the father is too busy for his son (who still loves him and swears "I'm gonna be like you, dad!" In the last verse, the son is too busy for his aged father, and the father observes that the son did turn out like him.
The Flemish/Dutch singer Stef Bos had the song "Papa" ("Dad") which is about a man remeniscing how much he looks and acts like his father.
Drake has mentioned similarities between he and his father several times in his music. Although in his song "Look What You've Done" he mentioned that his mother, who divorced from his father when he was five, sometimes makes negative comparisons between Drake and his father when she's upset with him.
"And you tell me I’m just like my father — my one button, you push it"
Videogames
Gorion in Baldur's Gate must have had this worry, though it's never quite stated outright. Being the Lawful Good foster father of the protagonist, whose real father was Bhaal, a God of Evil, he can't have wanted them to follow in his footsteps in any sense, even though the prophecies made it likely they'd either do that or just die.
Played with in Knights of the Old Republic, where the Jedi Council is trying to stop Revan from going down the same path he took last time around. It isn't the character's father, but the scene is played in the exact same manner down to the Council's reluctance to tell the player about Revan.
Dante in Dantes Inferno was raised almost entirely by his father since his mother committed suicide to escape his father's cruelty and, in his backstory before his Heel Realization when the freaking Grim Reaper told him his sins were not forgiven and that he was damned, it shows. When he confronts his monstrously deformed father in Hell Dante admits that, rather than being a better man than his father, he has turned out to be far too much like him.
Something along the lines of this probably happened with Percival Tachyon in Ratchet & Clank, though it substitutes "father" for "entire race". Of course, it didn't succeed.
In Fire Emblem Jugdral, Alvis has twin children, Julius and Julia. One of which has full Lopotuso Blood and the other has full Narga blood. Guess which one Julius gets? Come on...guess! So guess who Manfroy tries to remove to keep from emulating their other ancestor. That's right...Julia.
Averted by Soren and (possibly) Ike in Fire Emblem Tellius. Soren and Ashnard both believed that Tellius was a Crapsack World, but Soren's loyalty to Ike made him more of a Knight in Sour Armor than an Omnicidal Maniac. And while Ike and Gawain were both exceptional swordsmen, it is implied that Gawain taught the Black Knight to be a Jerkass.
Positive examples of this trope show up in Kings Quest. Alexander and Rosella turn out to be just as capable as their father when it comes to adventuring. Alexander is a case of playing it straight, or even an exaggeration, as Mannanan went as far as to call Alex a different name and raise him in a faraway land. (Justified because Mannanan was a wicked wizard and the last thing he needed was a pissed-off Graham showing up) Rosella is an inversion - with her brother gone, she was raised to follow in Graham's footsteps, though she's a bit too much like her father for Valanice's comfort sometimes.
The Tekken series has this in spades with the Mishima clan.
In Red Dead Redemption, after John Marston is killed by Ross, his son Jack becomes a wandering outlaw seeking revenge; exactly the opposite of the idealistic young man he was before his father died and precisely what John hoped he wouldn't become.
Final Fantasy X: Wakka and Lulu tried to convince Yuna to not become a Summoner like her father, because she would die whether she defeated Sin or not. Auron plays this straight with Tidus and Yuna; he doesn't want them to become their fathers - he wants them to surpass them and break the cycle.
Web Originals
The third film in The Laser Collection series features a police detective, Randall, growing metal limbs upon discovering that his father is Dr. Octogonapus.
Real Life
Let's face it, every divorced woman raising a son — and every divorced man raising a daughter — probably feels like this every once in a while.
Ada Lovelace was taught mathematics to suppress the "fanciful poetic instinct" of her father, Lord Byron. It didn't quite work. She still had enough imagination to come up with what was likely the first computer programming language (for Babbage's mechanical computer).
Averted and then played straight with the early Christian theologian Origen. His father was martyred, and the teenage Origen wanted to follow him to glorious death, but his clever mother hid all his clothing. When Origen eventually died, it was late in life from broken health after a long period of imprisonment and torture.
