Basic Trope: A character is murdered by someone who wants to claim their inheritance.
- Straight: Max, an unemployed gambler knee-deep in debt, murders his wealthy Uncle Kevin in order to claim his share of inheritance.
- Exaggerated: Max murders Kevin and all of his other heirs and devisees/legatees (including the Hired Help as Family) so that he'd be the sole beneficiary to his uncle's great wealth.
- Downplayed: Kevin died of a heart attack. He could have lived if Max, who was nearby when the attack happened, had called an ambulance, but Max deliberately left the house to ensure that his Uncle doesn't survive.
- Justified: Max has only a few months left to pay his debts and would lose all of his wealth (and maybe even his life) if he doesn't pay in time. Killing his wealthy uncle for his inheritance is the only way he knows to get enough money in short order.
- Inverted: Max murders Kevin out of anger after being disinherited from his uncle's will.
- Subverted: Max does receive money from Kevin, but he doesn't care about wealth, and is only seeking revenge on his Evil Uncle for harrassing his mother and driving her to suicide because she rejected his advances after her husband's demise (which is implied to also have been caused by Kevin).
- Double Subverted: Or so he tells the police to make himself seem more like a Sympathetic Murderer. Max's parents actually died of natural causes, and he really just want to get rich.
- Parodied: Max repeatedly attempts to murder his uncle (including shooting him at point-blank with a loaded gun), all the while shouting how his uncle's wealth would soon be his. All of his attempts fail due to a series of Contrived Coincidences or plain bad luck (for Max, anyway), and his uncle remains oblivious to what his nephew is up to.
- Zigzagged: Kevin's death was arranged by ten of his relatives and servants, each of whom had different motives for killing him. Three were driven by money, four wanted revenge, two were dragged into the plot by their lovers, while the mastermind wanted to silence Kevin for discovering a secret that the criminal wants hidden at all cost.
- Averted: Kevin's murder is not financially motivated.
- Enforced: The writers want to show An Aesop about how greed and desperation could drive a seemingly decent character to commit heinous acts.
- Lampshaded: "Max, you bastard! How could you kill your own uncle for money?!"
- Invoked: Max's fiance convinces him to murder his uncle so that she could enjoy their newfound wealth without having to do the dirty work herself.
- Exploited:
- Max's crime is exposed by Amateur Sleuth Sandy, who is also his cousin. After Max is arrested, Sandy demands to be given Max's share of inheritance as payment for her work.
- Knowing Max wants Kevin dead, Bob offers to act as a hitman.
- Defied: Max murders Kevin for his money and is quickly arrested and convicted, thus he never sees a penny of said money.
- Discussed:Alice: "Have you heard? The founder of Trope Inc., Kevin Aleister have been murdered."
Bob: "Yeah, I heard the killer is his own nephew. Apparently, the nephew is in debt and needs to earn some quick cash." - Conversed: "Aww, Max seemed such a promising character. Too bad they turned him into a greedy, murderous psychopath in this episode."
- Deconstructed:
- Max manages to get away with the crime and pay off his debt, but the guilt of murdering an innocent man to pay for the consequences of his own irresponsibility eats away at his conscience, driving him to depression and/or insanity.
- Max's crime is discovered and arrested. Due to his motives, he is branded as a greedy scumbag by the media and everyone turns against him during the trial. He gets sentenced with a life imprisonment, and none of his family or friends are willing to visit him. He ends up committing suicide and dying alone in prison, while his Loan Shark creditors who drove him to the murder get away scot-free.
Back to Inheritance Murder.
