History Main / IAmNotMyFather

* In ''Series/BetterCallSaul'', Jimmy saw his easy mark father get driven into bankruptcy by scam artists, and decided to become a hustler himself rather than get taken advantage of. His brother Chuck makes a show of respecting their parents far more than Jimmy did, but he's clearly also driven to avoid becoming like them, as he spent his whole career being paid big money to help rich people get around the law rather than trying to help regular people like their dad did.

* In ''Series/BetterCallSaul'', Jimmy saw his easy mark father get driven into bankruptcy by scam artists, and decided to become a hustler himself rather than get taken advantage of. His brother Chuck makes a show of respecting their parents far more than Jimmy did, but he's clearly also driven to avoid becoming like them, as he spent his whole career helping rich people get around the law rather than helping regular people like their dad tried to do.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender:'' Zuko's HeelFaceTurn happens when he stops being a WellDoneSonGuy and becomes one of these instead. Taking his [[CoolOldGuy Uncle Iroh]] as his [[ParentalSubstitute alternate]] [[TheCaretaker father figure]] didn't hurt either.

Compare ArchnemesisDad, in which the parent-child relationship is outright antagonistic. Contrast TurnOutLikeHisFather, where the parent doesn't want the child to imitate someone in the family, and PursuingParentalPerils. See also LikeFatherUnlikeSon, where the child really isn't like the parent, and isn't necessarily trying to be that way.

* ''Manga/SoulEater'' :

* Todoroki of ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' rejects any and all comparisons to his abusive father Endeavor. As such, he would refuse to use his flame powers to differentiate himself from his father: it wasn't until Midoriya called him out on his holding himself back that he finally started to use his pyrokinesis.

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* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Daenerys says this word-for-word in 'The House of Black and White'. Dany seems genuinely disturbed as Ser Barristan describes the atrocities of the Mad King. This trope is a key element in Tyrion throwing his support behind her. She also stuns Jon Snow when she openly declares that her father was an evil man. {{Subverted}} come Season 8 Episode 5 when she abruptly loses her mind and burns King's Landing out of a desire for revenge; however, proving that in the end she took after dear old dad after all when pushed too far.

* William de Worde in ''Discworld/TheTruth'' really does not want to be like his arrogant, opinionated, aristocratic, bigoted father. He gets kind of halfway... he conscientiously takes the opposite of his father's bigoted politics, but pursues it in an arrogant, opinionated, and aristocratic way.

* Todoroki of ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' rejects any and all comparisons to his abusive father Endeavor.

* In ''Literature/TheMagicians'', Alice's parents are trapped in a state of DesperatelyLookingForAPurpose in life following the death of their son Charlie, wasting their magical talents on pointless hobbies and hating each other, neglecting their only surviving child in the process. As such, Alice lives in terror of falling into the same joyless, purpose-deprived existence as her parents after graduating from [[WizardingSchool Brakebills]], and makes Quentin promise her that they won't be reduced to this state. Unfortunately, [[Manchild Quentin]] disappoints her, [[spoiler: and Alice is forced to [[DeadlyUpgrade end up like her brother]] in order to save the day.]]

* Komaru Naegi in ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'' embodies this trope throughout the game, with many people, especially the BigBad, comparing her to [[VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}} her older brother Makoto]] and his status as HopeBringer. Not that she wants that sort of title; she's fine with just being a regular girl. [[spoiler: Monaca's plan actually involves making her into a carbon copy of her brother, bringing hope to Towa City only to throw it back into chaos, starting a war that'll re-invigorate [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the Tragedy]]. The ultimate failure in her plan are that she overestimates Komaru, who ''doesn't'' want to emulate her brother.]]

* In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E14HeartOfStone Heart of Stone]]" from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Nog petitions Commander Sisko to join Starfleet. Sisko can't understand why he wants to do it and decides to deny his application as a means of forcing him to admit the truth about why he wants to attend. Finally, Nog spits it out - " Because I don't want to end up like my father. ... ... My father is a mechanical genius. He could've been Chief Engineer of a starship if he'd had the opportunity. But he went into business, like a good Ferengi. The only thing is, he's not a good Ferengi, not when it comes to acquiring profit. So now all he has to live for is the slim chance that someday, somehow, he might be able to take over my uncle's bar. Well, I'm not going to make the same mistake. I want to do something with my life. Something worthwhile." Heartwarmingly, as the series continues, it's Nog's father, Rom, who lives up to his son's example, joining the engineering team on Deep Space Nine and making something of himself.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Death]]wing's son Wrathion meets with the player in Mists of Pandaria and declares that he is completely opposed to his late father's [[OmnicidalManiac beliefs]].
---> Wrathion: Please understand, I mean to pay off my father's debts. I will stop at NOTHING to defend this world.

* Komaru Naegi in ''VideoGame/AbsoluteDespairGirls'' embodies this trope throughout the game, with many people, especially the BigBad, comparing her to [[VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}} her older brother Makoto]] and his status as HopeBringer. Not that she wants that sort of title; she's fine with just being a regular girl. [[spoiler: Monaca's plan actually involves making her into a carbon copy of her brother, bringing hope to Towa City only to throw it back into chaos, starting a war that'll re-invigorate [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the Tragedy]]. The ultimate failure in her plan are that she overestimates Komaru, who ''doesn't'' want to emulate her brother.]]

* Komaru Naegi in ''VideoGame/AbsoluteDespairGirls'' embodies this trope throughout the game, with many people, especially the BigBad, comparing her to [[VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}} her older brother Makoto]] and his status as TheHopeBringer. Not that she wants that sort of title; she's fine with just being a regular girl. [[spoiler: Monaca's plan actually involves making her into a carbon copy of her brother, then using her to throw Towa City back into chaos, starting a war that'll re-invigorate [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the Tragedy]]. The ultimate failure in her plan are that she overestimates Komaru, who ''doesn't'' want to emulate her brother.]]

* A variation in the ''Series/WhiteCollar'' episode, "What Happens in Burma". Neal reveals that his father was a dirty cop, and says that criminal behavior runs in his blood. Peter insists that it's not true and encourages Neal to be his own man. So in this case it's more like "You are not your father."
** The [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments heartwarming]] part comes when you realize that this is ''after'' Neal has served time as a convicted bond forger, and that Peter was the one who caught him, ''twice!'' Even after all that, Peter still believes in him and still wants Neal to realize that his choices are his own, and that it's still not too late to get his act together.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Daenerys says this word-for-word in 'The House of Black and White'. Dany seems genuinely disturbed as Ser Barristan describes the atrocities of the Mad King. This trope is a key element in Tyrion throwing his support behind her. She also stuns Jon Snow when she openly declares that her father was an evil man. Subverted come Season 8 Episode 5 when she abruptly loses her mind and burns King's Landing.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Daenerys says this word-for-word in 'The House of Black and White'. Dany seems genuinely disturbed as Ser Barristan describes the atrocities of the Mad King. This trope is a key element in Tyrion throwing his support behind her. She also stuns Jon Snow when she openly declares that her father was an evil man.

* Arthur is trying to be this trope in ''Series/{{Merlin}}''. Sometimes he manages it, sometimes he doesn't. In one season 5 episode, where a group of villagers are expecting him to kill a magic user, he actually says it. "I'm not my father".

* In Music/EltonJohn's ''Theatre/{{Aida}}'', Radames and his father, [[BigBad Zoser]], sing a duet about how Radames refuses to follow in his father's footsteps.

** The eponymous character wants to move away from his mother's legacy, since he can't live up to that legacy when everyone expects him to. Later on, when Steven learns about Rose's more questionable decisions, such as [[spoiler:shattering Pink Diamond and secretly imprisoning Bismuth]], he starts to question with whether or not he ''wants'' to be like her.

** At the end of "The Good Lars", Sadie briefly wishes she could force Lars to be happy. She's then pretty disgusted in herself for how much she "sound like [[MyBelovedSmother my mother]].", decides to back off on trying to fix Lars' life.