Basic Trope: A villain's actions result in a hero's existence.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz kills a family in a rampage. The surviving child, Bob, is spurred into heroism by this tragedy and grows up to fight Evulz.
- Exaggerated: A huge army of people Evulz hurt fights against him.
- Downplayed: Bob was already fighting Evulz, but Evulz made Bob more vehement by killing his family.
- Justified:
- As soon as Bob learned the event that caused his parents' death was no accident, he vowed opposition to the party responsible for it, and learning that it was Evulz gives him a target.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Herod
- Inverted: Bob accidentally kills Evulz's family as collateral damage, driving Evulz to villainy.
- Subverted: This is set up as Bob's backstory, but it turns out he was already a hero.
- Evulz did not kill Bob's Family, but rather Alice's-Bob's family was merely Forced to Watch.
- Double Subverted: But he didn't go after Evulz until his family died.
- Bob, understandably disgusted by what he witness, deiced to get vengeance on Evulz in Alice's stead.
- Parodied: Bob became a hero to get back five dollars that Evulz owed him.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob's backstory and motivations shift around randomly.
- Bob and Evulz were both major figures in the setting's Mass Super-Empowering Event, and in an odd way can be considered eachother's creators.
- Averted: Evulz's actions did not make Bob a hero.
- Enforced: The producers want to make Bob's fight against Evulz more emotionally resonant.
- Lampshaded: "I need to stop killing family. Too many kids grow up wanting to kill me."
- Invoked: A Treacherous Advisor suggests Evulz kills Bob's family in the hopes that Bob grows up to kill Evulz, allowing the advisor to take over the empire.
- Evulz is very bored, perhaps a little insane and very patient. He seeks out a child with great potential with the deliberate idea to kill his parents in front of them and maybe have a decent fight a few decades down the line.
- Evilz is deep down suicidal and knows he is evil, so he consciously or subconsciously chooses someone to spare after traumatizing them with the intention of having that person kill him down the line.
- Exploited: A heroic organization recruits at orphanages, knowing it will find people who want to fight Evulz there.
- It was not Evulz that killed Bob's parents, but no-one would believe he wouldn't do it- allowing Men-Tor to use this Motivational Lie to get Bob invested in killing his rival.
- Defied: Evulz avoids acts of unnecessary violence that could inspire vengeance.
- Bob refuses to fight Evulz in any physical manner, believing success to be the best revenge.
- Discussed: Bob: "I hope I don't find out that maniac I'm fighting turned out to have killed my family."
- Conversed: "Was Evulz holding the Villain Ball all those years ago?"
- Implied: Bob's backstory is unknown, but Evulz suggests that Bob's quest to stop him is Evulz's own fault.
- Deconstructed: Bob's motivation is rather flimsy. Evulz offers to resurrect Bob's family, and this is all it takes to stop Bob's quest.
- Reconstructed: Bob refuses to accept this as compensation and continues to fight against Evulz.
- Bob accepts the compensation, takes his family somewhere safe and resumes his fight against Evilz, outright calling him a sucker for thinking that would work.
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