Vicariously Ambitious

"…Nestor is very much aware of the fact that he is part of the lesser branch of House Royce. He wants more for his son. Men of honor will do things for their children that they would never consider doing for themselves."

— Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, A Song of Ice and Fire, A Feast for Crows

Some people just don't, for whatever reason, have the desire to climb the social ladder. They may be perfectly content with their life, maybe they think that the whole thing is too much trouble, or maybe they're aware that that sort of social climbing is impossible for them, for whatever reason.

Sometimes though, those same people who are uninterested or unable to do some social climbing for themselves may have someone else that they're willing to back and help get ahead. In the most altruistic cases, it's because they have a case of Undying Loyalty toward this person, perhaps because that person is one of their True Companions, a blood brother, relative, or a spouse. Less altruistic cases may be looking to turn that other person into an Unwitting Pawn while becoming The Man Behind the Man, or to benefit from some Nepotism after putting them into power, or to be able to say "You Owe Me" sometime later.

This tends to overlap with a whole range of tropes, ranging from The Good Chancellor to The Consigliere, to more morally ambiguous (or worse) ones such as Stage Mom, Psycho Sidekick, Psycho Supporter, and Lady Macbeth. Those darker tropes go double if the person in question doesn't want to be pushed into whatever position that is being planned for them. These actions can also backfire, and anyone hurt by the ambitious party may target the person they're supporting for revenge. Doubly so if it's felt that the person reaping the benefits of the ambition is an Accomplice by Inaction or guilty of Murder by Inaction.

These sorts of supporters may be the difference in a Kingmaker Scenario. May be the result of the supporter being or becoming an Almighty Janitor, if it seems like they shouldn't have the ability to influence things as much as they do. Social Climber is a more general super trope. Mother Makes You King is a specific subtrope where a woman (usually barred from ruling due to Heir Club for Men) arranges for her son to be next in line to become king.

Vicarious Gold Digger is often a case of the trope, unless the person pushing their relative to marry for money does it only to mooch off the money themselves.

Compare Passing the Torch and From Hero to Mentor, particularly if their reason to pass the torch/become a mentor is to keep their glory/standing through their successor/apprentice.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Assassination Classroom: Nagisa's mother, whose life was a series of failures and disappointments, views her only child as her "do-over" who can do all the things she failed at - go to the college she was rejected from, work at the dream-job she couldn't get, etc. She even goes so far as to force her son to grow his hair out like a girl, give him a traditionally feminine name, and force him to wear girls clothes, all so she can pretend he's the daughter she wanted, and thus closer to her fantasy. Any attempts to resist her direction are punished. Violently.
• Astra Lost in Space: Kanata's father shifted his expectations in sports onto him, which he very much didn't want. The boy only returned to sports out of a desire for personal growth, but his father immediately exploited his desires to get the athlete he's always wanted out of him. Once everyone learns what exactly he was born for, his father's constant pressure to go down a similar career path becomes clearer, and way more vile.
• In Attack on Titan, it turns out that Reiner Braun's mother pushed for her own son to enter the "Warrior" program, and later did the same with her niece. In her case, it appears to be for purely selfish reasons- to improve her own standard of living as an Eldian, and possibly to get revenge on Reiner's father.
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners: Gloria works herself to the bone and steals cyberware from corpses as a side hustle to earn enough for David to attend Arasaka Academy. She has big dreams of him rising through the ranks of the mega-corp, making it to the top floor of Arasaka Tower.
• Devil Hunter Yohko: Yohko's great aunt failed to become the 107th Devil Hunter, so she trained her granddaughter to steal the title of 108th Devil Hunter from Yohko.
• Attempted at the start of Drifters by Nobunaga to put Shimazu in power after they were sent to the Orte Empire. Shimazu is too familiar with Nobunaga's history and the things he did which led to his "death", so he declined to go through with his scheme.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, once Roy Mustang announced his intention to rise to the top of his country's military dictatorship and reform it so that horrors like the Ishval War never happen again, his unambitious best friend Maes Hughes immediately volunteers to play the role of the guy working below him who helps him reach the top. In a particularly ironic twist, after Hughes gets killed, he's promoted two ranks to Brigadier General, surpassing Mustang, and Mustang bitterly remarks about this while standing at Hughes' grave.
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The JOJOLands, Jodio talks about his story of becoming "filthy rich" as his own mechanism is a principle that can't be taken away from him in the form of an apex that would form into its own shape once he gets his hands on it.
• Paul von Oberstein from Legend of the Galactic Heroes does not care about getting power for himself, but he will make sure that his boss, Reinhard von Lohengramm, will become a benevolent, enlightened ruler of the Galactic Empire, no matter the cost.
• Mob Psycho 100: Reigen took up mentoring Mob less because it would boost his Phony Psychic business (which he was contemplating quitting out of boredom rather than lack of success before Mob showed up) and more because it's as close as he'd ever get to being an esper himself.
• My Hero Academia: Despite Endeavor's considerable capabilities, he would be unable to surpass All Might, due to his own physical limitations of his Quirk even after All Might got wounded. He resorted to putting his youngest son, Shoto, through Training from Hell to surpass both him and All-Might. Originally, he chose his oldest son, Toya, as his successor because he possessed hotter flames than even himself, but stopped because Toya lacked a resistance to his own flames, causing him to horribly burn himself when overusing his Quirk.
  Endeavor: With my blood pumping through your veins, you will surpass me... you will fulfill my ambitions!!
• Himuro Genma of Ninja Scroll knows that a ninja's life is regarded as even more worthless than that of a peasant's in Feudal Japan, and therefore even with his Complete Immortality he will never be legitimately recognized as an Emperor no matter how much gold he has. Therefore, he settles instead to use the blood-money of Shimoda village acquired by his monsters to buy an army of Ninja so massive and well-armed that any legitimate government, regardless of dynasty, will have no choice but to be figureheads puppeted by his absolute word from the shadows, making him the true ruler of Japan.
• One Piece:
  • Portgas D. Ace fought so that he could make his adopted 'father', Whitebeard, the King of the Pirates. However, Whitebeard had no particular interest in the position himself. It's also suggested that the inverse, Whitebeard maneuvering Ace to become King of the Pirates, was going on. But it's left open as to whether that was true.
  • This is implied to be a major reason for Vinsmoke Judge in regards to why he experimented on all his children and caused so much dysfunction in his family. Judge conquered North Blue in the past, then lost the territory. So he altered his children's Lineage Factors so they would become strong, merciless warriors that would reconquer North Blue and lead Germa 66 to greatness. This led to Reiju becoming severely suicidal as an adult, and Yonji, Ichiji, and Niji literally being unable to understand both positive human emotions and the depravity of their actions. Only Sanji escaped his siblings' fate thanks to his mother, and he suffered for it.
• In Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Hisamichi, the Baron of Ki, is perfectly content with her own position as petty nobility but wants her best friend Tokugawa Yoshimune to become Shogun because she believes Yoshimune would be extremely good at it. She reveals on her deathbed that this belief led her to murder both of Yoshimune's sisters and one of her cousins, who were all higher in the line of succession, without Yoshimune's knowledge.
• In Red River (1995), the Big Bad, Queen Nakia, seeks to kill the other Hittite princes to make her son Juda the king, hoping to use him as a puppet so that her bloodline will rule.

Comic Strips

• Defied in Calvin and Hobbes, where Calvin asks his dad if he's projecting his own ambitions.
  Calvin: Dad, are you vicariously living through me in the hope that my accomplishments will validate your mediocre life and in some way compensate for all the opportunities you botched?
  Calvin's Dad: If I were, you can bet I'd be re-evaluating my strategy.
  Calvin: Mom, Dad keeps insulting me.

Fan Works

• Bequeathed from Pale Estates: Varys is doing everything in his power to ensure that Visenya Targaryen, aka Lyarra Martell nee Snow or at least her son ends up on the Iron Throne. Separately from him, Lord Velaryon is doing the same, having realised that Lyarra/Visenya is Rhaegar's daughter by Lyanna.
• Code Geass: The Prepared Rebellion: While plenty ambitious himself, Lelouch has no desire to become the next Britannian Emperor. Instead, he's planning on placing either Nunnally or Euphemia on the throne.
• In Codex Equus, High King Irminsul's entry reveals that this is the reason why he made his infamous decision to purify his then-unborn son in the womb. He was so full of self-loathing over his own failures as a High King that after he had a vision of a powerful divine stag saving Deerkind from an encroaching darkness and leading them to prosperity, he sought to make his then-unborn son "pure" and devoid of all flaws and evil, so his son could succeed where he himself had failed. Of course, it backfired spectacularly, resulting in the birth of Belyolen and his younger twin brother, Temnobog. Golden Scepter strongly suspects this trope to be the case after Belyolen talked about his disagreements with Irminsul over what an ideal ruler should be, so when he asks Belyolen about it, Belyolen is shaken by the possibility that his father only taught him how to rule well so he could experience his son's achievements, though he strongly hopes otherwise.
  "Father always tried to do what is best for us... but there are things that we... came to blows over," Belyolen explained delicately, as if his father and sovereign of mortal Deerkind was somehow still there, listening in. "For example, our leadership. After Temnobog and I discovered our true natures, we realized that keeping a balance of Good and Evil is essential to all things, even ruling a kingdom. Father... well, I think he believes that a perfect ruler should be WITHOUT flaws. And since I am without flaws..." The radiant stag trailed off.
  Golden Scepter frowned, his vast psychic powers revealing to him what Belyolen wanted to say, but couldn't bring himself to. "...Do you think that your father is trying to live through you?" he asked honestly.
  Belyolen's gentle eyes widened with shock, before he turned away from the antediluvian Alicorn god. "I... I hope not. I know Father wants me to be a great ruler. I know he does. I mean, he taught me everything he could. How else do you think the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon survived all those years?" He laughed, but Golden Scepter detected a hint of nervousness. "Father has his... weaknesses, that much is certain. But I don't think he would be so willing... to..."
  Belyolen didn't know how long he had been quiet until he felt a large wing drape his back. It felt gentle and warm... even fatherly.
  "Well, in that case..." Golden Scepter said before he smiled. "You were right to get away from him. Perhaps one day he will open his eyes and truly see the mistakes he made with you and your brother."
  Though Belyolen's mouth smiled in great appreciation, his eyes bore cautious hope. "Being optimistic, Emperor?" The radiant stag joked.
  "Someone has to be."
• Dark Sun Resurgent: The sorcerer Sargon is low-resentful towards other magic lineages for sneering at his weak power or lack of traditions, so when his grandson unexpectedly befriends an extradimensional deity, he's not really opposed since a divine patron would bestow a lot of prestige and skill on little David and his future children.
• I Saw Grayson Kissing Santa Claus: Comedic example. When Dick Grayson was nine, he had his first Christmas at the manor ruined after Bruce told him that Santa didn't exist. Over a decade later, Dick tries to relive the magic of Santa through Damian and is desperate to make sure his younger brother still believes in Santa at ten. Unfortunately for him, Damian is convinced that Santa is a master criminal who is going to kidnap and molest Dick, so telling Damian that Santa still exists backfires. Badly.
• Naito in Megami no Hanabira intends to distribute the Summoning Program to everyone, so that they can bring their own ambitions to life through use of it. As it stands, he doesn't seem to be getting anything out of it: it's more philosophically driven than through any desire of his own to be The Man Behind the Man or be owed favors. He's less than pleased when he meets people (ie. the protagonists) who don't want anything to do with his scheme.
• Narnia and the North: King Tomas of Telmar really wants his newborn daughter to become a Queen. When Narnia asks for his help, he refuses to grant it unless the other country agrees to a betrothal between Princess Marilisa and their infant Prince Edmund, and he confesses he also considers the Tisroc's grandson as a viable suitor, in spite of Calormen's reputation as an evil empire.
• Rivals Series: Yakov is rather infuriated that his student Viktor Nikiforov, a previously uncontested and universally-loved gold medalist has competition and controversy in the form of his rival, Yuuri Katsuki. While Viktor and Yuuri's rivalry generates a lot of publicity, Viktor is no longer loved by everyone as people take sides on who they support, a fact that Yakov does not enjoy, and it colors his perception of Yuuri and his relationship with Viktor. This has disastrous consequences, as it eventually leads to the doping scandal, which emotionally destroys both men to the point that they were both on the verge of retirement. Yakov, realizing the damage he's caused to not just a skilled and respected skater but also to his own student, who he loves like a son, subsequently discards this trait out of guilt after that.

Films — Animation

• Barbie in A Christmas Carol: Marie's ghost admits to Eden that the reason she pushed her niece so hard to become a star singer was because Marie herself was never able to achieve this.
• Lady Tremaine in Cinderella; she's determined to get one of her biological daughters to marry the prince. Even though, as Cinderella's legal guardian, she would probably have still benefited from her marrying the prince, if she'd ever been kind enough for Cinderella to want to repay her.
• Kubo and the Two Strings: The Moon King wants his grandson to become immortal like him, and will go to terrifying extremes to make that happen — he started by ripping out one of Kubo's eyes.

Films — Live-Action

• Army: It eventually becomes clear that Tomohiko, who was unable to see combat duty in either the First Sino-Japanese War or the Russo-Japanese War due to chronic illness, is pressuring Shintaro to achieve the military glory that he never did.
• A very dark example in Dead Poets Society with Neil Perry, whose father starts off cancelling his assignment to the school annual, and hopes that Neil will graduate from Welton, go to Harvard, and become a doctor, callously disregarding Neil’s feelings and extra-curricular activities that would sidetrack him from this goal in the hopes that Neil would get to experience opportunities his father never had, only for Neil to commit suicide when his dad forcibly withdraws him from Welton and transfers him to a military academy after seeing him acting in A Midsummer Night's Dream at a neighboring school.
• Drop Dead Gorgeous: It's blatantly obvious that Gladys is trying to relive her Glory Days through Becky, including following her to state, something Gladys never got to do despite winning her own pageant (most likely due to being pregnant with Becky). The goth girls in the bathroom even lampshade it at one point. After Becky dies before they can go to the state pageant, Gladys snaps and confesses to all the various crimes (up to and including murder) that she conducted in order to ensure Becky won the pageant in the first place.
• Ghost Dog from Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a Street Samurai who works as an assassin for Mafia lieutenant Louie due to an I Owe You My Life scenario. When the mob turns on both of them after a hit went wrong, Ghost Dog (who after all, is only loyal to Louie) kills off everyone within the Family who would be a threat to Louie, then allows Louie to kill him as well, so that Louie can claim to have avenged his bosses and become boss himself on a clean slate. Ghost Dog doesn't realize, however, that the daughter of the old boss has inherited the Family.
  Ghost Dog: (shot several times by Louie and dying) You're gonna be the boss of your own clan now, right Louie? There's no one else left... ain't that right, Louie?
• The Iron Claw: Fritz missed out on the NWA World Championship title repeatedly, leading him to push this dream onto his sons no matter the cost.
• In No Name on the Bullet, Asa was the one who first wanted his son to be a doctor, although Luke didn't protest and seems to enjoy the work.
• The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement has Mia expecting to become queen of Genovia without any opposition when she discovers that Viscount Mabrey is opposed to her ascension, placing his nephew Nicholas Devereaux in her way to ruling the kingdom.
• Jidaigeki film Shogun's Samurai features a case where one of two brothers will inherit the title of Shogun. Supporters of the older brother fear that the more polished and charming younger brother will be chosen, and poison the Shogun before he can make it official in order to give the older brother a chance.
• According to the interviewees of the documentary Showbiz Kids, a common child actor origin story is a parent who never quite attained the acting heights they had hoped, so they push it onto their children. Among them, Wil Wheaton confesses his mother was a little too eager for him to act, while Milla Jovovich's mother was a Soviet movie star who didn't keep it up after emigrating to the United States.

Literature

• In The Count of Monte Cristo, Héloïse de Villefort commits a series of murders with the intention of ensuring that the wealth of her husband's family will be inherited by her own son and not by the child of her husband's first marriage.
• Dune:
  • Baron Harkonnen knows he has no chance of ever becoming Emperor, but he plots to someday put another Harkonnen, (such as his nephew and chosen successor Feyd-Ruatha) on the throne.
  • Princess Wensicia Corrino plots to put her son Farad'n on the throne, attempting to assassinate Emperor Paul Atreides' children in the belief that Farad'n would be the logical successor as the grandson of the ruler Paul deposed. Farad'n himself sees his mother's methods as distasteful and ham-fisted and banishes her after the attempt fails.
• Isaac Asimov's Franchise: Mr. Muller is chosen for a position that will put him in the limelight, and desperately wants to get out of it. His wife angrily tells him that he'll not only show up but milk the opportunity for every advantage he can, including a better contract with his job.
• In the Harry Potter series, Horace Slughorn positions himself as something of a low-level kingmaker. Being Brilliant, but Lazy, he doesn't care to pursue power himself, but instead builds up a network of promising young people, puts his efforts into helping them succeed, and then cashes in all the favors they owe him, which consists of hedonistic, harmless things like free sports tickets, free sweets, or the chance to write an opinion piece for the newspaper.
• In Robert Ludlum's The Icarus Agenda, the protagonist is an American congressman with no higher political ambitions (The sole reason he ran for office in the first place was that he wanted to break the political machine that had been running his district for years, after which he planned to retire) who becomes the unknowing focus of a conspiracy to make him the President of the United States. The conspirators choose him because they believe he would be a better President than anybody the modern political process would put in the job if left to itself, and don't intend to ask for any favors in return (indeed, the plan depends on him never finding out what they've done, because the whole point is that he's an honorable man who would never stand for the tactics they consider necessary). In the end, the congressman breaks both the corrupt backers of the current Vice President and the benevolent conspirators giving him their unwanted support, after which the President mentions that the conspirators were right in their opinion of his suitability for higher office, and offers to make him his running mate in the next election.
• This comes up constantly in A Song of Ice and Fire since the nature of medieval politics means that parents are always trying to position marriages and alliances that will get their children (or further generations) higher up the social ladder rather than attempting to climb it themselves. A few of the many, many, specific examples include:
  • Tywin Lannister planned to have his daughter Cersei marry Prince Rhaegar Targaryen since Cersei was just a young girl. When Rhaegar was killed and the Targaryens were overthrown in Robert's Rebellion, Tywin didn't miss a beat and promptly wedded Cersei off to the newly crowned King Robert Baratheon instead.
  • Littlefinger, The Chessmaster supreme, uses this as part of a Batman Gambit to entrap Nestor Royce. Nestor comes from an ancient and prestigious family, but neither Nestor nor his children are in line to inherit any of the family's holdings, which leaves Nestor and his children in a tenuous position where they could very easily become Impoverished Patricians. Littlefinger offers Nestor and his son a hereditary title that would save them from that fate, but because the order is signed in Littlefinger's name, taking it will force Nestor to be permanently loyal to Littlefinger, because if Littlefinger is removed from power (something a group of lords are about to try to do), the order can and almost certainly will be nullified by whoever winds up in charge afterwards. After Nestor agrees and then leaves, Littlefinger tells Sansa that any attempt to simply bribe Nestor would have enraged Nestor's pride and sense of honor, therefore a little flattery and the prospect of a better life for Nestor's children was necessary. The page quote is a part of those observations.
  • Mace Tyrell married off his daughter Margaery to Renly and later after Renly's death to Joffrey, and after Joffrey's assassination, to Joffrey's brother Tommen in a blatant power grab so that Margaery would be queen and her children kings. Somewhat ironically, most of House Tyrell thinks this was a terrible idea as the Tyrells prefer more of a soft power, Loved by All type of arrangement, and this sort of open attempt at power could blow up in their faces, but they're trying to make the best of it.
  • Arianne Martell did something of a version with Myrcella Baratheon, as she tried to use a legal loophole to negate the Heir Club for Men rule and get Myrcella crowned in place of Myrcella's younger brother.
• The Rebel Leaders in the Trickster's Duet are plotting everything not to put themselves on the throne but Sarai Balitang, since she has the required bloodline for The Prophecy. Notably, they keep Sarai Locked Out of the Loop both for her own safety and her tendency for Loose Lips in the Decadent Court and there's serious question about whether Sarai would be happy about it, or good at it. Fortunately, she elopes out of the country and her more capable younger sister willingly takes her place.
• When the realm of Andor experiences a Succession Crisis during The Wheel of Time, Elayne has a difficult time claiming the throne due to the way her mother mismanaged the realm while being a victim of mind control. Dyelin, by contrast, is the head of the one House that is in good standing with virtually all the other Great Houses, and about the only person who could easily consolidate power and become queen. However, she believes that Elayne should be queen, so Dyelin supports Elayne and becomes the key to Elayne keeping the throne.

Live-Action TV

• In a second season episode of Barney Miller Barney is offered a job as a small-town Florida Chief of Police. After considering the position he turns it down and suggests Fish for it. A later episode has Barney's subordinates trying to get Barney to accept a promotion he initially declines, in part because as long as Barney is Captain all of their careers are stalled too.
• Criminal Minds featured a woman whose main ambition in life was to get her younger son elected to public office (potentially up to the Presidency, but that wasn't specified). While her intentions seem to be pure (she didn't show signs of being the Man Behind the Man), her means of achieving them were... less than. For starters, she wrote off her older son as a child because an accident left him with facial scarring that was too hard for her to spin positively. She also orchestrated her daughter-in-law's kidnapping to both eliminate what she saw as an unworthy suitor and gain sympathy for her son to boost his popularity. She only agrees to call off the plot when the team threatens to charge her younger son with illegal possession of a handgun, which will torpedo his legal career and all her hard work. Rossi points out that she was a very driven career woman before having children, and all that ambition had to go somewhere.
• The Killer of the Week of "The Rat Race" episode of Elementary was a secretary who killed people in the way of several of her boss's advancement opportunities, moving to another executive when the other one topped out.
• In Empire, Cookie and Lucious are both fighting to position their favored son to take over their record company, infighting that threatens to tear their family apart for power.
• Game of Thrones universe:
  • Game of Thrones: Lord Varys is perfectly content with having reached the rank of Master of Whisperers. However, he'll decide to scheme to replace a monarch with another if he feels the former is not good enough to serve the people of Westeros.
  • House of the Dragon:
    • Ser Otto Hightower, by necessity. Younger brother of the lord of House Hightower, as Hand of the King he has reached the top position a non-Targaryen can achieve during this era in King's Landing, so the only way to keep climbing the social ladder is via his descendants, first making his daughter Alicent Queen Consort and later his grandson Aegon King, so his schemes, ultimately done for the family name, are indirectly for his own benefit, but directly on their behalf. Of course, since Aegon is a wastrel with no interest in or affinity for ruling, Otto expects to be The Man Behind the Man.
    • Lord Corlys Velaryon, who has long resented that his wife Princess Rhaenys Targaryen was passed over in the succession in favor of her younger cousin King Viserys, thus denying Corlys the position of King Consort, is all too happy to wed his son Laenor to Viserys's chosen heir Rhaenyra so that his grandchild will sit on the Iron Throne. Even though Rhaenys cautions him about putting Laenor in danger due to the strong possibility of a Succession Crisis between Rhaenyra and her half-brother Aegon after Viserys's death.
• Gilmore Girls: Lorelai is this, something the show acknowledges but rarely explores fully. She was a teenage mother and single parent, and as a result, did not reach her "full" potential. She's determined that Rory will. Rory's desire to go to Harvard at the start of the series was Lorelai's idea, and Lorelai has a hard time dealing with the fact that Rory might want a different life than what's expected of her. This causes a rift in their relationship in season 4, when Rory goes to Yale (itself a decision Lorelai did not approve of) and buckles under the pressure. However, this trope is hilariously Lampshaded in the pilot, when Rory is accepted at Chilton:
  Lorelai: This is it. She can finally go to Harvard like she's always wanted and get the education that I never got and get to do all the things that I never got to do and then I can resent her for it and we can finally have a normal mother-daughter relationship!
• I, Claudius. Livia spends most of the series trying to get her son Tiberius made Emperor of Rome. She shows no restraint in her tactics and ends up murdering several people to achieve her goal.
• At the end of Malcolm in the Middle, Malcolm finds out that his mother has been deliberately manipulating the course of his life in order to set him up to become President of the United States.
• M*A*S*H. It can be argued that this was Margaret's intentions for whenever Frank was in command of the 4077th; in fact, during Frank's brief tenure as commanding officer after Henry's discharge and prior to Potter's installment, Margaret is the one taking care of all the paperwork, and Frank even comments, "Gee, Margaret, ever since I became commanding officer, you never let me do anything!"
• Oz features this trope getting defied. In a later season, some of the prisoners, unhappy with the way that Burr Redding is running the Homeboys, try to encourage Poet to take over again the gang again. Poet knows that he was a bad leader however, and doesn't feel comfortable with being in a leadership position, so when members of the gang come to him urging him to take over he refuses, essentially saying "Been there, done that, and the shoe doesn't fit."
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Deconstructed in "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" when it's revealed that when Dr. Julian Bashir was a child, he was subjected to genetic enhancement, which is explicitly prohibited in the Federation, by his parents after he was diagnosed with a learning disorder. An as adult, Julian harbors deep resentment towards his parents for never accepting him as he was, and leaving him wondering whether he deserved any of his accomplishments. When the truth (mistakenly) comes out, it threatens to put an end to his Starfleet career.
  Richard Bashir: All those gifts, all those accomplishments, and you still want to behave like a spoiled child. Well you'd better grow up right now or you're going to lose everything!
  Julian Bashir: (bitterly) You mean you're going to lose everything. You're going to lose your only real accomplishment in this life. Me. You said before, I'm your legacy, your proud gift to the world. Well, father, your gift is about to be revealed as a fraud, just like you.
• Versailles has the Chevalier de Lorraine, who makes his disdain for King Louis XIV no secret. Being a minor noble, he stands no chance at inheriting the throne himself, nor does he want to. But he's more than eager and willing to do everything he can to put his lover, the king's younger brother Philippe, on the throne.
• The Wire: Cedric Daniels' backstory reveals that his wife Marla was this to him for many years, and at one point she even says that it was his ambition and burning need to make something of himself that she first fell in love with. However, he got burned out on trying to make it to the top of the corrupt and dysfunctional Baltimore Police Department, and the events of the first season put him on a road to caring more about doing what's right than what will get him promoted. Marla and Cedric's relationship doesn't survive that, and she later runs for office herself to try to fulfill some of her own ambitions.
• Young Sheldon: In "A Live Chicken, a Fried Chicken and Holy Matrimony", Pastor Jeff hires Mary to plan his wedding. While it's merely a gateway to a physical relationship with his girlfriend to him, it is pretty clear Mary wants to construct the glamorous wedding she missed out on due to hers to George being a Shotgun Wedding.

Multiple Media

• Horace Slughorn from the Harry Potter franchise pushes his students to success and networks for them, largely so that he can get perks and freebies when they're powerful figures in society.

Mythology

• In the Ramayana, Kaikeyi, second wife of the king, schemes to have Rama, the king's eldest son, exiled and her own son Bharata crowned in his place. Bharata will have none of it and places Rama's sandals on the throne to await the legitimate king's return.

Puppet Shows

• Fraggle Rock: A Compressed Vice example occurs in "Wembley and the Great Race". Since she's sprained her tail, Red is training Wembley to take her place for the Rockbeetle Race, where the participants roll mossballs (giant balls of moss) with their noses, jump up, and shout, "Rockbeetle!" all the way to the finish line. When Wembley wins the race and Gobo claims that Wembley got lucky, Red tells him, against Wembley's wishes, that she and Wembley challenge him to a Front 'N' Back Race. Wembley wants to drop out of the race to keep his friendship with Gobo safe, but Red won't let him; she literally pushes him to the starting line. As far as she's concerned, if she can't race against Gobo herself because of her sprained tail, training Wembley to beat Gobo is the next best thing. She does have a Jerkass Realization, though, when Wembley tells her and Gobo off for putting him in the middle of their competition.

Theater

• Volumnia in Shakespeare's Coriolanus lives through her eponymous War God son and pressures him to strive for political power he does not really want — with disastrous results as he’s a much better warrior than a politician and he can’t hide his contempt for the plebes.
• In Death of a Salesman, Willy recognizes at some level that he's washed up, so he puts all of his hopes and dreams into his sons, especially Biff, achieving great success. Unfortunately for Willy, his sons are just as washed up as he is.
• Macbeth: Lady Macbeth is much more eager than her husband for him to kill Duncan and become king.

Video Games

• Armello: Skeeve, an Intrepid Merchant that your hero can potentially recruit as one of their allies, remarks on his character card that he wants you to remember everything he's done for you once you ascend to the throne.
• Crusader Kings:
  • Thanks to the focus on dynastic Generational Sagas, have this as a gameplay consideration. An important part of the game involves setting up long-term plans that your current character may not live to see completed, but that may benefit their heirs when the player takes them over in turn. This can include things like killing your character's wife to make her claims pass on to your children so you can press them. If you're caught doing this, your children will obviously hate you for killing their mother, but they have no chance to turn down her ancestral titles when you go to war for them.
  • Considering that a good way to inherit various other nations in the game also revolves around marriages, you may end up marrying a daughter to an heir that's so low on the succession totem pole that no one will mind your own family being the dominant party in the marriage...which you can then use to ensure your house takes control of the kingdom after possibly assassinating every other heir.
• Fenrich from Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten will do anything to restore his master Valvatorez's power and position as The Tyrant, frequently slipping blood (which Val has promised not to drink, causing his powers to drop) into his meals. Unfortunately for him, Val is perfectly content with the lowly job of a Prinny Instructor.
• Dyztopia: Post-Human RPG: President Zazz wants to revive humanity to create a human supremacist state, but he also wants to step down from his position and hand it off to another human.
• Inverted in Honkai: Star Rail with Luka. He met a Delicate and Sickly girl from his hometown of Moltammerville named Margie who was a big fan of his and wanted to be just like him. But she was dying from her illness and eventually succumbed when her father gave Luka her notebook filled with her hopes and dreams. The three trials he put himself through for "training" are actually attempts to fulfill her dreams through him: helping people in the Underworld, making life better for the people living there, and defeating Svarog to reopen the path to the Overworld. His hammy and childish post-victory slogans are recited verbatim from her notes.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel: Despite his arrogant attitude, his desire to throw away his weaknesses, and his status as crown prince, Cedric Reise Arnor wants Osborne to take charge of Erebonia and is fine with being number two.
• In Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, Alina's art got increasingly morbid after her beloved grandparents and dog died when she was 8 years old. Instead of noticing that their daughter perhaps was grieving but didn't know how to handle that feeling, her parents capitalized on her new muse and paraded her genius.
• In Mario Tennis: Power Tour, once Mason sees how great the player is, he begins referring to Ace or Clay as the "tennis phenom", perhaps to live vicariously his dreams through them.
• In No Straight Roads, this is heavily implied to be the case for Child Prodigy Yinu's overbearing Stage Mom. As Yinu begins voicing her concerns over how much the fight is escalating, her mother shouts that Mayday and Zuke are making a fool out of her and pushes Yinu to keep the concert going. Considering she's the one who takes all the damage during the fight rather than Yinu, she seems to view the two of them as equally involved in the performance.
• In Persona 5, Hifumi Togo, the Star Confidant, is a talented young shogi player who comments that her mother, Mitsuyo, rejoices over each one of Hifumi's victories as if it were her own. Unfortunately, Mitsuyo only sees Hifumi's shogi career as a stepping stone to establish her as a gravure idol, something Hifumi has no interest in, and Hifumi realizes that her mother is using her to achieve what she couldn't. Even worse, once you confront Mitsuyo's Shadow in Mementos, Mitsuyo admits that she used blackmail and other methods to get many of Hifumi's opponents to throw their matches, something that ruins Hifumi's reputation when it becomes public.
• In Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, Dane Vogel (the villain of Saints Row 2) has been preparing himself for when the Saints end up in Hell to help them take over, having decided that he's better off as a kingmaker than a king.
• Suikoden IV: Vincent Vingerhut is already the richest man on Razril island, and uses his wealth to force Commander Glen to promote his son Snowe to positions in the Knights of Gaien that he in no way deserves, all because he wants even more power and influence.
• Anti-Hero Yuri Lowell of Tales of Vesperia does the dirty work for his Heterosexual Life-Partner Flynn Scifo and gives him credit for his own good deeds, all in an attempt to encourage Flynn to change the corrupt government from within. At least one person views him as a Psycho Sidekick because of it; meanwhile, Flynn'd rather have Yuri take credit for the good he has done (like rescuing the princess and ultimately saving the world) and gets frustrated enough with Yuri to start a Duel Boss fight to settle things.

Visual Novels

• In Ace Attorney, Morgan Fey knew that she could never take the position as the master of the Fey family due to her own lack of spiritual power. So she gave birth to a third daughter after Dahlia and Iris, this time a little girl named Pearl, who was born with immense spiritual power. This would put her in the running to become the next master, but the top candidate is her cousin Maya, since she's the daughter of the old master, and she too has great spiritual power. So Morgan decides to knock Maya out of the running whatever way she can, whether it be framing her for murder, which would lead to her execution if found guilty or enacting a plot to have her murdered. In Dahlia's words, Morgan never actually cared about what Pearl wanted, only that, through Pearl's hypothetical rise to power (whether she wanted it or not) her branch of the Fey family would become the most powerful.
• In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, nearly all the School Mode endings have Makoto agreeing to spend the rest of his days helping the student in question achieve their dream. When Celeste asks for a reason that he thinks he can do it in the best response to her Trigger Happy Heart event, he simply says helping her "would be a lot of fun".

Web Animation

• Etra chan saw it!: Yuzuriha failed to make the troupe and forced her daughter Karin into it and forbade her from participating in sports. She saw the others, especially Tsutsuji in the troupe as a threat to Karin being the best to the point where she burned Tsutsuji's dress. Fortunately, Yuzuriha apologized for burning the dress, and listened to Karin's feelings. Karin was allowed to join her school's football team.

Web Comics

• Supposedly the case with Cabbage in Cucumber Quest. Cabbage was unable to become the Legendary Hero because someone else defeated the Nightmare Knight. So he pushed his son Cucumber into it when the Dream Oracle showed up, snidely dismissing Cucumber's protests that he wants to go to magic school, not become the Legendary Hero.

Western Animation

• Inside Job: Rand torpedoed any chance for Reagan to have had a normal childhood, including erasing his daughter's memories of her only friend in fourth grade, just so he could use her success to maintain control over Cognito Inc.
• The Legend of Korra: Upon discovering his sons were waterbenders and therefore could learn bloodbending, Yakone trained and conditioned them to become his instruments of revenge on the Avatar and Republic City by taking his place.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity all turn their involvement with their little sisters' carts in the Applewood Derby into a way to either relive or fix their childhood experience with the Derby.
• Recess: Vince becomes Spinelli's self-appointed coach for a beauty pageant the Ashley's roped her into mostly because he's her friend and wants to help her get back at them, but also because it's just like any other competition that he really wants to win.
• Steven Universe:
  • Barb pushes her daughter Sadie into doing a performance in "Sadie's Song", and seems to have done the same thing before with Sadie's other activities in the past, ruining her daughter's interests in the process.
  • Rose Quartz zigzags this. As revealed in "Lion 4: Alternate Ending", she had no actual destiny or plan in mind for Steven, she just wanted her child to live their life to the fullest. However, Rose was Born as an Adult into a Hive Caste System; choosing one’s own life was something she wanted, and thought Humans Are Special for being able to do so. The weight of Rose's actions and Steven having to deal with the fallout left him understandably bitter and resentful, and he once wondered if Rose only had him to run away from her own mistakes.
• Rusty in The Venture Bros. frequently does this with Dean, buying him clothes similar to his own and trying to get him into a top superscientist college. Ironically, his laser focus on the superscientist angle causes him to miss that his other son, Hank, actually does show signs of being a competent adventurer, while Dean genuinely wants a normal life.
• Wander over Yonder's Commander Peepers has the strategic skill to be a Galactic Conqueror, but not the intimidation factor (he's a particularly short specimen of his species of Adorable Evil Minions) and therefore chooses to be The Dragon. Unfortunately for him, his motivation and vision don't always reach his boss Lord Hater, who has the power and charisma necessary to achieve Peepers' dreams but whose constant Skewed Priorities and easily-distracted personality pose a constant challenge.

Real Life

• In some of Louis Armstrong's biographies, his second wife Lil is portrayed that way. First, Louis was content playing second cornet for King Oliver's band, but Lil was convinced that King Oliver was holding Louis back, so she pushed him into seeking a bigger job elsewhere. The bigger job turned out to be Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. Louis was happy there, too, but Lil thought Louis wasn't getting enough exposure, so she negotiated a contract with OKeh Records for Louis to cut a series of records as the leader of his own band. This resulted in Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven bands, whose recordings were some of the most important in jazz history.

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