You Killed My Father - Television Tropes & Idioms

I want my father back, you son of a bitch.

Inigo Montoya: He was a great swordmaker, my father. When the six-fingered man appeared and requested a special sword, my father took the job. He slaved for a year before it was done.
(Inigo shows the Man in Black the sword)
The Man in Black: I've never seen its equal.
Inigo Montoya: The six-fingered man returned and demanded it, but at one-tenth his promised price. My father refused. Without a word, the six-fingered man slashed him through the heart. I loved my father. So naturally, I challenged his murderer to a duel. I failed. The six-fingered man left me alive, but he gave me these.
(Inigo strokes the scars on his cheeks)
The Man in Black: How old were you?
Inigo Montoya: I was eleven years old. And when I was strong enough, I dedicated my life to the study of fencing, so the next time we meet, I will not fail. I will go up to the six-fingered man and say: "Hello. My Name Is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father. Prepare To Die."
— the story of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride.

When one of the villains kills the parent (usually father) of one of the heroes, it'll be that hero who kills that villain in question, even if this isn't an explicit act of vengeance. Occasionally, it's the mother, but this is rarer, and usually crops up in cases where the father is unaccounted for. Sometimes the villain killed both parents, but the mother will barely get a mention. If even more Wangst is needed then expect a case of Luke I Am Your Father. Mothers more frequently appear in Turn Out Like His Father, because they are afraid if the child tries to get Revenge, he will only die, too; the success rate in preventing this trope is very low.

Often, the villain will taunt the hero about the death of their parent. This assures the hero's victory. Other times, the villain just won't remember. Usually does the same, but funnier.

A form of Its Personal. See also Best Served Cold, and Roaring Rampage Of Revenge.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

In Bleach, Ichigo want to kill Grand Fisher because he killed his mother, Masaki, in front of him. It then subverts this by Ichigo's father Isshin killing Grand Fisher for killing his wife.
- In the Shusuke Amagai arc Shusuke Amagai himself wants to kill Head Captain Yamamoto for killing his father, but later learns that Yamamoto did it to free him from the bakkotou's control.
- Played straight, then subverted, with Ishida Uryu, when he learns that it was Mayuri Kurotsuchi who killed his grandfather without authorization from Seireitei. Then he ends up working with the Karma Houdini in question multiple times, with Uryu having apparently forgotten his entire driving purpose. So Yeah.
Averted by Son Goku from Dragon Ball when he can't bring it over himself to kill Freeza, who not only killed his father, but also almost extinguished his entire race. Played straight, however, with Trunks.
Averted in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, when Kaito forgives Man Behind The Man Sara for killing his parents. She eventually commits suicide by collapsing fortress.
In the Tokyo Mew Mew anime is a mini-arc, just before the climax, where Ryou commands the titular Magical Girls against the Giant Mook that killed his parents. This was nowhere in the manga.
In a unique villainous example, this is Marik of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s motivation for trying to defeat the Nameless Pharaoh. Of course, it turns out that his Super Powered Evil Side, generated by resentment towards his duty to the Pharaoh (specifically, his father carving symbols into his back), was the killer, and the guy who told him it was the Pharaoh was being an annoying Obi-Wan ripoff.
Zeta Gundam features a rather harsh version of this in the case of Camille's mother. Jerid Messa, Affably Evil rival and already not on Camille's good side, is given orders to shoot at a capsule if anyone attempts to retrieve it. Having been led to believe it was a bomb, he destroys the capsule holding Camille's mother, killing her just as Camille had reached the capsule to retrieve it. Jerid is able to feel Camille's sadness as a sickening uneasiness, and when given the opportunity, actually apologizes for having killed his mother. He is still a bit too much of a jerk about it, though, and this death starts a vicious cycle of doom for anyone who gets close to either Jerid or Camille thoughout the series.
Lone Wolf And Cub ends with Yagyuu Retsudou dying at the hands of Daigorou, after killing Ittou.
Samurai Deeper Kyo averts/subverts this with Yuya, who, after a four-year hunt for the murderer of her father figure—her brother Nozomu—discovers that Kyoshiro was the one who killed him. She doesn't take her revenge, but she doesn't forgive him, either.
Gene Starwind from Outlaw Star has a vendetta with Ron McDougall over this act, which receives regular flashbacks throughout the series that drive home its impact, and tells him as much. Ron responds that he can't be expected to remember every murder he has committed, famous hit man that he is.
This is the reason behind Yuri Killian being a Smug Snake and betraying Kalos Eido, whom he blames for the "deed" in Kaleido Star. Ironically, Mr. Killian's death was a genuine accident. Kalos didn't defend himself because he felt guilty anyway.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Realising that tremors caused by the Beastmen-piloted Ganmen led to his parents' deaths enrages Simon into fighting them instead of running away.
A lot of the plot in Vinland Saga is derived from Thorfinn's quest to avenge his father's murder by Askeladd, who is fully aware of Thorfinn's grudge and uses it to his advantage on multiple occassions. It's eventually subverted; Askeladd is killed by Canute and Thorfinn refuses to finish him off.
Sasuke Uchiha of Naruto. His entire clan, including his parents, were killed... by his brother, no less. So Sasuke's training to get strong so he can kill him. Of course, when he finally does, it turns out his brother Itachi wasn't so bad after all, and did it so the ANBU Black Ops wouldn't torture the lot of them to death. That makes Sasuke's target of vengeance switch to the village of Konoha. Whee.
In the original version of Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Aster Phoenix is looking for his father's killer.
Natsuki Kuga from Mai-HiME's beef with the First District is largely due to their apparent involvement in her mother's death.
In Koihime Musou, when Chouhi stops Sousou to say hello, Bachou suddenly tries to kill Sousou on the spot because Sousou had Batou (Bachou's father) killed.
Subverted in the Kirby anime. Knuckle Joe has dedicated years to tracking down the Star Warrior he was told killed his father. He arrives on Pop Star, is tricked by Dedede into going after Kirby, and is about to deliver the killing blow when Meta Knight shows up, claiming to be one Joe is looking for. He reveals he was forced to kill Joe's father, his best friend, when the latter was possessed by Nightmare. Joe is furious and refuses to believe Meta Knight at first, one would assume because he wants someone to direct his anger at.
In Code Geass, Lelouch blames his father, Emperor Charles, for the death of his mother. It's one of his motivations for fighting the Britannian Empire — In the end, Lelouch is at least partially responsible for his death by causing the Collective Unconscious to absorb him... Or something...
In Gundam Wing, soon-to-become pacifist Relena tries to shoot Lady Une, the woman who killed her father (or, at least, the man who cared for her like a father). She fails. The next time the two meet, Lady Une actually offers Relena a gun to take her long-awaited revenge with, and Relena pushes it away, because ending the vicious cycle of bloody retribution was more important to her, in the end.
Subverted in Death Note: while Light plans to kill his father himself, he's ultimately killed by Mello. Light is visibly distraught at his father's death (he's not that good an actor; compare L's death), but he appears to deal with it by losing himself yet further in his dubious cause. He barely mentions Soichiro again, and never figures his death into his conflict with Mello - which, for such a proud guy who takes conflicts and slights so personally, is quite strange. So Yeah.
- In the end, it's Matsuda who ends up 'taking revenge', subverting the Trope even further.
  - Especially when you consider who he takes that revenge on. Death Note annihilates this trope.
- The way Near and Mello relate to Kira also has elements of this, with L as the father figure

Comics

Spider Man's parents are dead in an unimportant way, but he was raised by Uncle Ben and Aunt May. When Uncle Ben was killed, Peter wanted to get even, but when he realizes that the murderer was the same thug he let go earlier, he gives up on revenge because he realizes it was his own fault. In fact, the third movie is largely about his need to let go of his vengeful feelings.
- Actually, Peter's Parents were killed by The Red Skull (they were secret agents). Not sure if Peter has ever confronted Skull about it though.
  - Peter defeats him in hand to hand combat, but doesn't kill him
  - The Skull is later killed...by the real Red Skull. The one who killed Peter's parents was actually a Communist imposter. Naturally, the real (WWII Nazi) deal wouldn't let him away with that.
  - The book series The Sinister Six introduces us to despicable Smug Snake The Gentleman, an international criminal who discovered that the Parker's were spies while he and the fake Skull (who he did'nt like- though he knew the real Skull and got on with him) were doing business. He was the one who passed this info. onto the Skull. Peter only learns about this because The Gentleman decides decades later to go after him too as a form on Disproportionate Retribution against his dead parents, alongside another evil scheme, and as the title suggests gathers his own Sinister Six to that end.
Batman lost both his parents to a random mugger by the name of Joe Chill. Although this is the major cause for Bruce's decision to become a superhero, he's able to focus on the big picture. Naturally, Batman never kills Chill.
- Although in at least one version he deliberately drives him to suicide.
  - That scene could be interpreted that way. It could also be seen a delusion Bruce was having because his heart stopped, what he experienced in the Throgal ritual, or what it was that he really wanted to do to Chill, but didn't do. Or any mixture of the above, I don't know, it's not really clear.
A variation occurs in Elf Quest, where Cutter's parents are among several elves killed by a monster. Since his father was chief of the Wolfriders Cutter inherits the title, and the first thing he does to prove himself worthy of it is to devise a strategy to kill the monster. However, whatever desire for revenge is mixed with the necessity to stopping the menace who threatens all life in the Holt.
The big reason why Wedge Antilles hates Loka Hask is because Wedge's parents sacrificed themselves to save the refueling station after Hask took off without unhooking, letting his thrusters ignite the fuel, in order to stall the police. Hask makes it worse by rejoining The Empire and telling Wedge◊ that he did him a favor and gave him what all boys secretly want - to be rid of their parents! If only he'd had someone to do that for him - but no, he had to do it himself!
X Men's Apocalypse, of all people. After being abandoned as an infant due to his obvious mutations, En Sabah Nur was rescued and adopted by Baal, the leader of a tribe of nomad raiders named the Sandstormers. Then one day the forces of Rama Tut aka Kang the Conqueror attacked the Sandstormers. Baal and En Sabah Nur survived the initial attack by hiding in a cave that collapsed. Baal eventually starved to death, but not before telling En Sabah Nur of Rama Tut's arrival and subsequent conquest of the land, and that he believed Nur was destined to stop him. Nur's desire to avenge his foster father, one of the only people who ever really cared for him and vice versa, was the main reason Nur rejected Rama Tut's We Can Rule Together offer (Especially ironic, since Rama Tut's aka Kang's goal for traveling to Ancient Egypt in the first place was to recruit the future Apocalypse). That and Nur wanted to rule the world by himself.
In Nikolai Dante, some time after Dante kills Sir Richard Hawksmoore, his daughter, Elizabeth, joins the royalist faction for the chance to avenge him. She is appointed commander of the O Rder of the Dragon by Konstantin Romanov, and on her first mission, attacks a refugee convoy commanded by Elena Kurakin - whose father she killed. And yes, there is taunting involved.

Film

The Princess Bride gives us a truly iconic example: "Hello. My Name Is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father. Prepare To Die." Not the Trope Namer, but an iconic enough example to warrant the picture and the quote.
Famously subverted in Star Wars with Darth Vader's reveal: "No. I am your father." And now that's a cliche.
- Played straight in the the prequel trilogy, Anakin Skywalker goes into a berserk murderous rage over the death of his mother Shmi on Tatooine and slaughters a whole village of Sandpeople who had abducted and tortured her. The incident paves the road to Anakin's eventual fall from grace as a Jedi and his transformation into the evil Darth Vader.
  - In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, it also led to the Tusken Raiders (aka Sand People) considering the site of that village haunted and leaving captives there as a sacrifice. If anyone knows the trope for that, please link it.
- Also in the prequels, Mace Windu kills Jango Fett in front of his son Boba Fett. Lucas avoids this trope in that case, and Boba never seeks revenge.
  - Never seeks revenge? Maybe not against Windu personally, but he became one of the most feared Jedi hunters during the Dark Times. Of course, Windu was already dead by then.
  - He did seek revenge, and they eventually fought, but Boba wasn't able to kill Windu (obviously).
- Oddly enough, Luke cared much more about a father he never knew than the two people that raised him. When Luke found his home destroyed and his aunt and uncle dead he grimaced for a moment, then went back to Obi-Wan and never mentioned them again. Though blowing up the Death Star might have been enough to avenge them.
A similar thing happens in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. "I shall not rest until my father's avenged!" (He has no such motivation in the legends.) "Recognize this? It belonged to your father. Appropriate, don't you think, that I use it to send you to meet him?" So, so dead.
Such a handy, well-worn device that this trope gets inserted into things where it doesn't belong. In the 1993 version of The Three Musketeers, d'Artagnan is all "DON'T TALK ABOUT MY DEAD FATHER THAT WAY! AAARGH I KILL YOU!" Of course, he ultimately discovers that the main villain murdered said dad, retrieves his father's sword from the villain, and then dispatches him. In the book, his father isn't even dead.
- Yeah, was wondering for a second there, because this troper has a rather distinct memory of his dad giving him explicit advice on how to be a Man: "Go ahead and break the law, as doing so takes great courage."
- This troper loves d'Artagnan's reaction to this development: "You killed my father?" Thank you for figuring that out, Captain Obvious.
"Knox thinks Charlie killed his father."
Conan The Barbarian has the title character out for revenge for... well, let's just let him say it, shall we?
Conan: You killed my mother... you killed my father, YOU KILLED MY PEOPLE! You took my father's sword!
- Thulsa Doom as well.
"You broke into my house, stole my property, murdered my servants, and my PETS! And that is what grieves me the most! You killed my snake."
In Mystery Men, Eddie Izzard, The Dragon to Big Bad Geoffrey Rush, killed Janeane Garofalo's father. Various villains are killed by various heroes, but she gets him. (More accurately, it's her dad who really gets him. From beyond the grave, as a skull in a bowling ball. It's complicated.)
- If you really want to be accurate, the person in the bowling ball does kill him - but at the time, it's Janeane in there, not her father. She and her father briefly switch places, so that she can avenge him, and it only comes up just before Janeane does the deed. It's still complicated, but in a different way.
The film version of Hellboy has Prof. Bruttenholm killed by Kroenen, causing HB to utter the magnificent line:
Hellboy: You killed my father. Your ass is mine!
Uttered by Johnny Blaze to Mephisto in the film version of Ghost Rider.
Escape 2000 (best known for being featured on MST 3 K) has the hero's parents killed by Mooks working for the Big Bad. His quest for vengeance leads him to a certain uproarious gang leader.
In the Dystopian "Biffverse" timeline of Back To The Future Part II, Biff Tannen murders George McFly, presumably to widow Lorainne and get revenge for the humiliation in high school. He tells Marty this, but Marty doesn't take revenge directly, instead he repairs the timeline so Biff will be a loser (and George McFly still alive) again.
Averted in 28 Days Later. Hannah's recently Infected (as in, within seconds of contact) father is shot to death in front of her by a group of rescuing soldiers. She's naturally horrified and grieving, but not vengeful. When she thinks that Jim is uh, biting her would-be foster mom, though, she tries to bash his skull in.
- This is after Hannah has popped enough downers to 'not care' about Christopher Eccleston's rape brigade.
Featured in the Hamlet section of Last Action Hero.
Claudius, you killed my father. Big mistake.
Basically the whole plot of the movie Nevada Smith, where the eponymous character systematically tries to find and kill the men who murdered his parents.
Tweaked in Daredevil, where it was actually Bullseye who killed Elektra's father, but she thought it was Daredevil. Therefore, she went on an angry rampage against Daredevil, which didn't end well when she figured out who he really was...
- Played straight, however, with Daredevil himself and the Kingpin.
- And then the same thing happened again, except Kingpin convinced Echo that Daredevil killed her father, when it was actually Kingpin himself. Upon discovering that Daredevil was too young to have killed her father - mostly because she discovered he was also the guy she was dating - she went for the Ironic Punishment and gave Kingpin a severe injury in the eyes, blinding him.
Subverted in the 1972 Charles Bronson film The Mechanic. Arthur Bishop (Bronson) is a Career Killer for The Mafia who kills one of its important lieutenants by inducing a heart attack. That man's son, Steve, ends up being trained by Bishop as his protege. At the end of the movie the sociopathic Steve poisons Bishop, who as he dies asks if this is revenge for his father. Steve replies casually: "Oh, you killed him? I thought he just died."
Subverted for in the Prince Caspian Narnia movie. Caspian, when he learns Miraz is responsible for killing his father, hunts him down for a dramatic interrogation scene—in the middle of a battle, no less. And later on is given the chance to kill him by Peter for this exact reason. Naturally, he decides to be noble.
True Grit, a 1969 western, is about a 14-year old girl seeking revenge for her father. She gets to face the murderer and shoot him, though he survives, and the business is finished by her companions who are much more badass.
In the Street Fighter movie, Chun Li's motivation is that M. Bison, naturally, killed her father. On a Tuesday.
In Batman Forever, Robin's entire family was murdered by Two-Face, which prompts the young sidekick into a life of crime-fighting. A major plot is his need to overcome personal revenge, though.
In the '09 Star Trek movie both Kirk and Spock lose a parent to villain Nero. Oddly, for Spock Its Personal but Kirk actually offers him mercy before blasting him into oblivion.
- Kirk's father was killed the day Kirk was born; Spock's mother and entire race were murdered the day before this confrontation.
In Sam Raimi's western The Quick and the Dead, this is the heroine's primary motivation for entering the pistol-duelling competition organized by the villain. Somewhat subverted in that The Lady is the one who shot her father, though this was because the villain gave her 8-year-old self The Sadistic Choice between letting her father hang to death or trying to cut the rope with a pistol. She missed.
Happens in Kung Pow with the Chosen One and Betty.
Chosen One: You killed my family. And I don't like that kind of thing.
In Saw VI, its main character William, an executive at an insurance company, was responsible for enforcing a corrupt policy and denied a man's application causing him his death. At the end of his game, William meets the wife and son of said man who had held an everlasting grudge on William for what he did and they get the choice whether to let him live or die. The mother cant bring herself to pulling the death lever. The son on the other hand...

Literature

An important plot point in the first of Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40000: Gaunt's Ghosts novels. Gaunt's father was killed by the cowardice of Aldo Dercius. Years later, Gaunt gets his revenge... but even more years later, Dercius' dishonoured son Colonel Flense shows up and attempts - and obviously fails - to get his own back.
Taizu in C.J. Cherryh's The Paladin seeks revenge on Lord Gitu for the slaughter of her family, her village, and her Lord. His actual death is an anticlimax; the hard part was getting there, not the quick work she makes of him.
Harry Potter is the guy who gets Voldemort. Voldemort killed both of Harry's parents, who, astoundingly enough, are equally important. The books also have a "You killed my brother And my son!" variation in the form of the person who ends up killing Bellatrix.
- Technically Bellatrix didn't kill Fred. Rookwood did. And he was brought down by Flitwick. Bellatrix had just taken a shot at Ginny, which missed, which lead to Molly's Mama Bear Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
Mordaunt, the villain (well, one of them) of Twenty Years After, apparently does everything he does just so he can avenge his mother, Milady.
In the Improfanfic Dark Heart High, Craig Maimsworth kills (well, lobotomizes) the Cosmic Horror that killed his father, in what is his definitive Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
Legacy Of The Force has the rare "dead mother, living-but-badly-injured father" variant, with Ben Skywalker very nearly succeeding in killing his cousin (stabbed millimeters from his heart!) while trying to avenge Mara's death. Of course, his father, being the Jedi he is (this is Luke Skywalker we're talking about, people!), despite suffering after a nasty brawl with Jacen himself, and scared that Ben's Unstoppable Rage would lead into a Start Of Darkness, forces him away before he can finish the job.
- In Wraith Squadron, Kell Tainer hates and fears Wes Janson because Kell's father was a pilot in the Rebellion who chickened out on a covert mission, tried to flee and in so doing reveal that Rebels were there, and was shot by Wes.
At least part of the reason Richard goes on his quest in Wizard's First Rule is to get revenge for the death of his father, George Cypher. Then it turns out George was his adopted father. Who was killed by his real father (and the Big Bad), Darken Rahl, who Richard kills in the climax.
In CS Lewis's Prince Caspian, when Peter proposes that he challenge Miraz to single combat, Caspian wants to do it, because Miraz killed his father. Peter overrules him: Miraz would not take him seriously.
- Amusingly, for the movie adaption, Ben Barnes, the actor of Caspian, practised his accent by watching The Princess Bride. He was highly amused when the line 'you killed my father' came up as part of his script.
In Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain novel For the Emperor, Cain tells some kroot that kroot kills his parents. Being kroot, their response is that no doubt they died bravely. (And Inquisitor Vail observes in a note that nothing is known about Cain's parents, his own statements about them are implausible and contradictory — and that he's a pathological liar.)
Partially subverted in Mór Jókai's historical novel, Zoltán Kárpáthy. The Big Bad hires an assassin duelist to challenge and kill the titular character and his mentor. He kills the mentor, but looses his arm to a challenger, who took on him in order to protect Zoltán. Needless to say, the poor kid was pretty dissappointed.
Sansar in Wolf of the Plains hires the Tartars to kill Temujin's father. Temujin kills Sansar in a manner most ingenious, then unites the Mongols against the Tartars to massacre the lot of them. After all that, he becomes Genghis Khan.
Garion, The Hero of David Eddings' The Belgariad, gets some nice karmic vengeance on Asharak, the Grolim sorcerer who killed his parents when he was only an infant. Asharak burned them alive; Garion burns him alive in his first overt act as a sorcerer. In a possible subversion, he immediately regrets it.
Fraternity of the Stone by David Morrell. The protagonist is the orphaned son of diplomats, killed by a bomb in Japan. Realising he's obsessed with revenge, a friend of his parents recruits him for a Heroes R Us group tasked with assassinating terrorists. After a Contract On The Hitman plot, the protagonist finally discovers his 'friend' is behind events, and confronts him with what he's always suspected — that his friend planted the bomb in order to discredit those protesting against US bases in Japan. The friend denies it, but the protagonist decides he's lying and kills him anyway.
Brutally deconstructed in A Song Of Ice And Fire with Oberyn Martell's epic duel with Gregor Clegane. Clegane had raped and murdered Martell's beloved older sister after killing her infant son in front of her. Martell constantly repeats this during their duel, possibly as a Shout Out to the famous Trope Namer, and manages to spear and weaken Clegane, even delivering the final blow to his opponent's chest while shouting his sister's name. Then Clegane manages to grab Martell and unrepentantly admits to killing her before crushing Martell's head and killing him. Martell still got his revenge in the end, thanks to his poisoned spear.

Live Action TV

Stargate SG-1 had a weird version of this with Cronos, the man who executed Teal'c's father in a You Have Failed Me moment and exiled Teal'c and his mother. Teal'c finally get his chance for revenge in the episode "Double Jeopardy" where he fights his father's murderer in one-on-one combat only to end up losing. He would have been killed if his robotic clone hadn't shot Cronus in the back.
Clone Teal'c: For our father.
Another weird version appears in Star Trek The Next Generation, where Data does eventually get his "father"'s killer...who happens to be his "brother", Lore.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer, of course, has one of these. Season seven, Robin Wood discovers Spike is the vampire who killed his mother. ~~Viewers~~Fans (casual viewers wouldn't have followed the multi-season arc needed to know this) could guess it as it was known Spike murdered two Slayers previous to Buffy, and that one of them was a black woman who was active roundabout the time Robin would have been a child.
In Supernatural, the Winchesters fight against Azazel seems to be more about dead family members than the whole trying-to-take-over-and-or-end-the-world thing. John starts his whole mad quest thing when Azazel sets fire to his house and ceiling-kills his wife. The boys go with the whole you-killed-my-mother thing, and Sam adds on his girlfriend for good measure. In "In My Time of Dying", Dad gets added onto the list. Dean finally gets revenge when he shoots the Demon with the Colt.
Deliberately subverted in Due South, when Fraser refrains from killing his father's killer in favor of due process, both in the pilot and in the episode "Bird in the Hand" - the latter despite the strenuous prompting of Fraser Sr.'s ghost.
- Of course he does. He's Just That Virtuous, isn't he?
In Heroes, immortal Knight Templar Adam Monroe makes perhaps the biggest mistake of his immortal life when he kills Kaito Nakamura, father of normally happy-go-lucky Hiro Nakamura. When Hiro finally catches up to Adam, he buries Adam alive in the same cemetery where his father was buried as a result of Adam's actions. Do NOT piss off Hiro.
- Mohinder's father being murdered by Sylar is one of the driving forces for this character, in season one at least. Hilariously mocked by actor Sendhil Ramamurthy in an episode commentary, when they talk about how some characters tend to have "standard lines" that they say a lot. When asked what his own character's standard line is, he replies (paraphrased) : "Who killed my father? My father's dead! Someone murdered my father! And variations thereof."
- Sylar killed Elle’s father, she proceeds to kill him repeatedly when Arthur locks them together in a cell.
At the end of season 2 of Veronica Mars, Veronica is nearly driven to murderous rage when she thinks season 2's Big Bad killed her father. Thankfully, he hadn't, and another character stops the Big Bad from being killed in what would not strictly be self-defense.
- Of course, many fans would've given her a pass since it turned out that he did rape her.
Lost: Cooper caused the deaths of Sawyer's parents (indirectly; he drove Sawyer's father to murder-suicide,) so Sawyer gets to kill Cooper.
Subverted in the Bones Season One finale, The Woman in Limbo. Brennan accuses a hitman from the strong-arm crew her parents used to belong to of killing her father, but as it turns out, her father is still alive.

Music

The Decemberists' Mariner's Revenge Song has lyrics that are all about why the person being sung to is responsible for the death of the singer's mother, and how he is now going to finally take his revenge.
Inverted in They Might Be Giants' spoken-word piece "Lesson 16" (a parody of those language-learning tapes), in which John Linnell reveals that he killed your father in order to get with your mother.
I wrung his neck. Like a duckling.

Mythology

In the original Greek myth, Elektra and her brother Orestes avenged the death of their father, Agamemnon, by killing his murderer, Clytemnestra. And she's their mother, who killed him for killing the other kid, Iphigenia. Now that is a Big Screwed Up Family.
- Well, actually Iphigenia didn't, technically, die. Her mom just thought she was dead.
In Egyptian Mythology, Horus wanted Set taken down for murdering Osiris.
- It was an accident!
  - Tearing him into thirteen pieces was an accident?
  - Note that Osiris actually died because Set sealed him into a sarcophogus and dumped it into the Nile. Set didn't tear his dead body apart until after Isis eventually retreaved it. Definately no accident.

Theatre

Hamlet — and, therefore, The Lion King.

Video Games

In Starfox 64, Fox decides to go one-on-one with Andross because he killed his father. Or did he?
- In the Starfox comic in Nintendo Power, a big part of the comic's backstory involves Andross and the Love Triangle that he had with Fox's father over Fox's mother. It turned out that Andross killed the mother with a car bomb that was meant for the father, and sabotaged the father's ship so that it would be lost in the Black Hole. Andross (or rather one of his clones) reveals this to Fara Phoenix, The Chick of the Star Fox team, after mistaking her for Fox's long-dead mother (this came about due to Fara getting into one of Fox's mother's outfits, resulting in Fox remarking that she could be his mother's twin sister). Fox hears Andross's reveal as well and goes well beyond furious and into Unstoppable Rage mode. Sporting a pair of Glowing Eyes Of Doom, no less!
- This piece of fanart is a brilliant parody of this section of the trope.
In Street Fighter II Chun-Li wants to kill M. Bison because he killed her father. The adaptations also usually have this and even in the versions with terrible Adaptation Decay such as the Live Action movie and the cartoon series, Bison will say something badass about how trivial this is to him. Indeed, in the cartoon, Bison killed Cammy's parents and his own father.
Chun-Li: Monster! You killed my —
M. Bison: Yes, yes, I killed your father. What is it with you women anyway? I killed my father too, and you don't hear me whining about it.
- Bison's line about this in the live action movie is the only unambiguously good thing in that film. It doesn't matter if you think that the movie sucks or if you think that it's So Bad Its Good, everyone thinks the One Liner was awesome.
  Bison: To you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.
- Also, Sagat killed Dan's father Go in a fight, presumably unintentionally, long before his turn to the Dark Side, and Dan swore revenge. Unfortunately, the master he found to train him, the same as Ryu and Ken's, refused to teach him if vengeance was his only motivation, leaving him half trained. When they finally met, Sagat, seeing how screwed up vengeance made him, lets him win anyway.
In Baldur's Gate you have to avenge the death of your foster-father, Gorion. Along the way, you find out that your real father is Bhaal, the now-dead god of murder, and that your foster-father's killer is one of your divine half-brothers. Exactly who kills him depends kind of which of your party members puts down the killing blow, but your party kills him so it counts.
Fire Emblem loves applying this to the lords. As early as the fourth game (Genealogy of the Holy War), you had Celice avenging his father by fighting Alvis (Sigurd himself sought to avenge his father) AND Leaf avenging his father Cuan by fighting Trabant, but it was in the ninth game Path of Radiance where Ike's fight with the Black Knight for killing his father was a significant part of the story. No one seeks vengeance for their mothers (if they're mentioned at all), although in Ike's case it's rather justified.
- Joshua from The Sacred Stones does to avenge his mother, though you only see him doing so in Eirika's path. We never know what REALLY happened to Ismaire in Ephraim's path (or if Joshua is actually a prince, at all)
- And Tinny from Genealogy of the Holy War. Seriously, if your Genki Mother (Tiltyu) becomes completely broken and dies of sorrow, all thanks to one Evil Matriarch standing right in front of you, who'd not want to? Apparently, if you do pit Arthur (Tinny's brother) with Hilda in the last scenario, he'd think the same.
- Radiant Dawn has a rare villain-to-hero accusation if you make Ike fight Pelleas. Pelleas confronts Ike with "You killed my father" (Ashnard, Po R's Big Bad) and Ike just says Ashnard was a crazy dude that had to be put down.
In Persona 3, Ken Amada's motivation for joining the party turns out to be getting vengeance on his mother's killer. The 'killer' turns out to be a former member of SEES, who did it by accident, has regretted it ever since, and is fully aware of Ken's motives — in fact, he rejoins you just to give Ken a shot at dealing with him. The trope is subverted; Takaya kills him in front of Ken's eyes.
This is the motivation behind Christian and Crystal Devroe's hunt for Major Kreissack in One Must Fall: 2097. Come the final confrontation — in giant robots before a live audience, of course — Christian quotes Íñigo Montoya verbatim. Kreissack responds with an introduction to the bigger-and-deadlier robot their father was working on...
Mother 3: In the first chapter, Claus tries to avenge the death of his mother, Hinawa. This is subverted at the end of the chapter, where it turns out that Claus was killed as well. He gets worse.
- And maybe better after the ending during the credits
Done with a twist in Super Robot Wars 3 and Original Generation: The heroes are confronted by Lune Zoldark, daughter of Bian Zoldark, who was the Big Bad of the Divine Wars. After defeating her, she immediately lets go of the grudge, as she understood the circumstances, and only attacked in the first place out of familial duty.
In Tales Of Phantasia the murder of Cless's parents serves as his entire motivation for wanting to destroy the Big Bad and, unknown to Cless and his companions, Well Intentioned Extremist Dhaos. After the end of the first battle with Dhaos in the past, Dhaos escapes to the future of Cless's time period. Once Dhaos escapes, in what this troper thought was a great moment, Cless screams in rage that someday he'll make Dhaos pay for murdering his mother and father.
- Well, technically, Mars was responsible for Cless' parents' death — and Dhaos beats Cless to the punch there.
Subverted by Tales Of Symphonia where, after we learn that Quirky Miniboss Squad member Kvar was directly responsible for the death of Lloyd's mother by mutating her into a monster and forcing his father to kill her, he is instead stabbed to death by Kratos. Double subverted once we learn that Kratos is Lloyd's father, and thus had a higher rating on the hierarchy of 'giving this villain his Karmic Death' — and no, Lloyd isn't very big on killing him once he finds out.
Metroid, and the unending battle between bounty hunter Samus Aran and Ridley, leader of the Space Pirates who killed not only her own parents, but everyone else on the space colony where she was born.
Subverted in Metal Gear Solid. Liquid really hated his father, so he blames Solid Snake for "stealing [his] revenge!"
- Played straight with Naomi Hunter and Fortune in MGS and MGS2 respectively. The former implanted the Fox-Die virus Solid Snake for killing her adoptive brother Frank Jaeger (unaware that Frank Jaeger was the one who murdered her real parents in the first place), while the latter chases after Solid Snake believing that she killed her father, Commander Dolph.
In the Fatal Fury series, the Bogards, Terry and Andy, are out to defeat Geese Howard for killing their adoptive father Terry. Ironically, after Terry kills Geese in Real Bout (Geese falls out a window and refuses to take Terry's hand), he raises Geese's orphaned son Rock, apparently to keep him from going through the same process.
In No More Heroes, Shinobu, the Rank 8 boss, seems relatively unemotional right up until Travis turns on his beam katana. When she sees that, she accuses him of having killed her father and goes ballistic. He didn't. He never even met Master Jacobs, though he did watch his training video until it broke.
- At the end of the game, Travis learns his sister Jeane killed his parents. If what she said is true, though, the elder Touchdown really deserved it.
- In the sequel, the Big Bad's main motivation is that you killed his father and two brothers as part of an unimportant side mission in the first game.
Averted in Silent Hill 3. Heather desperately wants to kill her father's murderer, but said murderer dies before Heather gets the chance to exact her revenge.
- As the player, you can give Heather her revenge, but doing so plays into Claudia's plan and allows the dark god gestating in Heather to overwhelm her for the Bad Ending.
In Dark Cloud 2, Gaspard kills King Raybrandt at the end of the opening scene of the game, right before Monica Raybrandt's eyes.
In Samurai Shodown Edge of Destiny, Galford D. Weiler personally hunts down Draco, this time around not just because the latter's evil, and the former is a champion of justice. But also because the latter killed the former's father.
In Fallout 3, you can choose to Kill Autumn for killing your father or let him live.
- May be a slight subversion in that Autumn doesn't kill your father- your father kills himself in order to keep Autumn/the Enclave from taking control of Project Purity. Regardless, he's still, more or less the man responsible for your father's death.
  - Which the man himself points out, should you choose to call him on it:
  Player Character: You killed my father, you son of a bitch!
  Autumn: Technically, your father killed himself. His loyalties lay with the wrong people, and he paid the price.
Mega Man ZX pulls this one in Vent's story - in it, Purprill points out that he was just another Maverick until he helped lead the attack on Area H ten years ago, and was remodeled into a Pseudoroid for his work. Need I remind you just WHO happened to be there at the time?
Vent: Your story about ten years ago eased my conscience. Now there's nothing stopping me from taking you out!
In Baten Kaitos, Kalas seeks to kill Giacomo for this reason.
Inverted in Skies Of Arcadia Legends: Bonus Boss Piastol repeatedly attempts to duel Vyse to the death because she has identified him as part of a pirate band who invaded her father's ship, killed him and her little sister and set the ship on fire. Vyse's seeming inability to remember this only aggravate her further. In reality, her father was killed by his second-in-command Ramirez (The Dragon to the current Big Bad) who also sat fire to the ship, her sister survived the ordeal, and Vyse was part of a Blue Rogue crew who just happened to be passing by and tried to rescue survivors off the ship — Vyse doesn't remember the event because he was almost killed by an unknown assailant who threw a knife at his face, scarring him for life, just as he was getting aboard (Piastol was trying to fend off the 'invaders').
In The Godfather game, your killing of Don Emilio Barzini is partly on orders and partly because he ordered your father's death. It even gets a Lampshade hung on it when you finally catch up during the baptism assassinations, with Barzini saying that he knew it would be you.
Looking for his father's killer is Siegfried's motivation in the first Soul Blade game. Subverted - it was Siegfried himself.

Web Comics

In Order Of The Stick, Eugene Greenhilt (Roy's father) swore a blood oath of revenge on Xykon for killing his mentor (Eugene's own father was alive or had died of natural causes at that point, but in either case the two were estranged). However, it's utterly subverted as Eugene eventually ditches that ambition and dies of natural causes.
- Let's not forget that Roy's own motivation to take out Xykon is the Blood Oath passed down from his father.
- Belkar is confronted here by Yokyok, the son of a kobold he murdered earlier in the story. Actually a parody of the trope since, while Belkar is on the protagonists' side, he is Chaotic Evil, while Yokyok is Lawful Good but was recruited by the villains specifically because he's Belkar's opposite. Finally, it's subverted in that Belkar wins.
  - The whole scene is a (very funny) reference to The Princess Bride.
In Flintlocke Vs. The Horde, Rok'Tar swears revenge against Flintlocke for this very reason, oblivious of the fact that his father is an NPC who regenerates after a few minutes.
A variation in this strip of Schlock Mercenary:
Gasht'g'd'g'tang: I'm Gasht'g'd'g'tang. Your gate-copy killed my son. Prepare to die.
This Eight Bit Theater strip reveals that this trope is the reason Sarda antagonizes the Light Warriors and Black Mage in specific - he is apparently the Future Badass version of Onion Kid.
In the webcomic Elven Lacryment it's the mother who is killed.

Web Original

"You MURDERER! You killed my brother!...I mean computer!"

Western Animation

Played completely straight in Batman Beyond. Corrupt Corporate Executive Derek Powers arranged to have Terry McGinnis's father killed, so Terry becomes the next Batman, and not only gets the guy who actually did the job, but ends up nearly getting Powers killed, causing him to become his archenemy Blight. When Terry later finds out that Blight is Powers, he confronts him again in the season finale:
Blight: Who are you?!
Batman: ...You really want to know?
Blight: Yes!
Batman: You killed my father.
[Slight pause]
Blight: Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?!
Batman: Too bad. It's all you get.
Parodied in the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft". After giving Stan the Sword of a Thousand truths in World Of Warcraft, Stan's father's character is killed by the episode's Player Killer antagonist. Stan confronts him dramatically with "You killed my father."
During the mostly Narmful Street Fighter cartoon, one particularly awesome moment pops up near the end, with Chun Li attacking M. Bison because he killed her father. M. Bison coolly dodges all of the attacks, and strikes back with:
M. Bison: Yes, yes. I killed your father. What is it with you women anyway? (eyes begin glowing) I killed my father too and you don't hear me whining about it!!!!
In the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, the leader of the Purple Dragon gang, Hun, killed Casey Jones' father when Casey was a kid; unsurprisingly Casey is packing a grudge against Hun and everyone wearing the Purple Dragon colors. Averted insofar as Casey refuses a couple opportunities to kill Hun, however.
Towards the end of the third season of Avatar The Last Airbender, Katara tracks down her mother's killer, intending to kill him until she discovers he is literally Not Worth Killing. Although nothing close to Inigo Montoya's speech is used, "My name is Katara of the Southern water Tribe. You killed my mother. Prepare to die!" still eventually became a meme.

Real Life

In the days of The Wild West The Gunslinger John Wesley Hardin was famed for his bloodthirstiness and had killed two dozen or so men. Even so he ended up being released from prison because his term was up and was free to wander about doing mischief(yeah, that's The Government for you). The brother of one of the men he had killed slipped up to him and shot him in the back. This Vigilante Man was given a pardon from the governor because the governor thought, with a lack of lawfulness but not completely without logic, that John Wesley Hardin "needed killin".