Basic Trope: Something is treated as acceptable because it's part of someone's nature.
- Straight: Serial Killer Drake tries to justify committing murder by claiming it's in his nature to do so.
- Exaggerated: The greatest atrocities in history are brushed off as inevitable, because it was just in the perpetrators' natures to do so.
- Downplayed: Drake believes inherent traits make certain behaviours more likely, but not inevitable.
- Justified:
- Drake is Death, and as such, is more of a force of nature than a moral agent.
- There really is no free will in the setting.
- Drake is a member of an Always Chaotic Evil species and can only act this way.
- Alternately, Drake is part of a group that isn't exclusively evil but is viewed as such, and has a serious case of Internalized Categorism.
- Drake simply refuses to admit anything is his fault.
- Drake grew up being victim blamed for something outside of his control, which made him question the concept of personal responsibility.
- Inverted: Any act that defies inherent nature is considered good, including acts of cruelty if you have a natural urge to be kind.
- Subverted: Drake nearly gives in to his murderous nature, but manages to restrain himself.
- Double Subverted: He goes and kills someone later on, rationalising that he could only hold back his urges for so long.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Drake doesn't blame his nature, and makes a different excuse (or none at all).
- Enforced: The work is a philosophical text exploring fate versus free will.
- Invoked:
- Drake's mentor drums a fatalistic attitude into him.
- Drake's Abusive Parents mold him to be the perfect assassin by convincing him he can't be anything else.
- Defied:
- Drake decides innate homicidal tendencies are no excuse to go through with the act, and gets psychological help.
- "Don't give me that. It's my nature to want to beat a scumbag like you to within an inch of your life, but I'm holding back, which is more than can be said for you."
- Lampshaded: "You wouldn't blame a hurricane, or a lion, or a disease. Why blame someone genetically driven to kill?"
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz recruits Drake as a soldier, because of the latter's conviction that he wouldn't be able to refuse even if he wanted to.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: When Drake tries to defend his actions this way, Judge Alice throws this excuse right back at him, responding that she can't help having murderers locked up.
- Reconstructed: Even when he goes to jail, Drake is secretly validated that Alice appears to agree with him instead of arguing against his stance. This drives him to ignore all rehabilitation attempts.
Back to Appeal to Inherent Nature, because you know you can't resist...
