History Main / InadequateInheritor

* In the ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' anime, Gozaburo Kaiba was heavily disappointed in his son Noah because he wasn't dedicated enough to be heir of his company (not to mention the fact that he was ''[[VirtualGhost dead]]''). So instead he adopts an orphan and gives him some TrainingFromHell to make him just such a ruthless manager as he himself is. Not his brightest idea, since this one is competent ''and'' evil enough, and takes over his adopted father's company quite rapidly, [[SelfMadeOrphan driving him to suicide]].
* In UminekoNoNakuKoroNi, wealthy head of the Ushiromiya family Kinzo is dying. His heir, Krauss has made several bad investments and lost a lot of money. The second oldest, Eva, is intelligent and ambitious, but not very personable and is border line crazy. The third oldest, Rudolf, is just a womanizer. The youngest, Rosa has an illegitimate daughter. So what does he do to remedy the situation? Teach them to be better heirs? [[KillEmAll No.]]
* In a flashback in {{Naruto}}, Hiashi states that he's disappointed with Hinata's performance and notes that the clan doesn't need a weak heir, but never goes so far as to openly disinherit her. This, however, is ''before'' Hinata TookALevelInBadass, and the two have not been seen interacting in canon since, so fan works have several interpretations over whether Hinata lost her right to inherit the clan back then, and whether she would be considered worthy to inherit the Hyuga clan when the time came.

* Golgoth, a villain who took over the world in ''Empire'', has been grooming his daughter who is an innocent princess lookalike, to take over after him. He discovers she actually killed his wife because she was ''holding him back'' and did several other very, ''very'' bad things. Following his example. [[spoiler: He snaps her neck. Sadly, of course.]]

* Subverted in {{Watchmen}} with Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt, he was more than capable of inheriting his father's wealth, but instead gives it all away and builds his own financial empire.
* {{Batman}} foe Ra's Al Ghul has stubbornly clung to life for centuries via Lazarus Pits and body snatching from beyond the grave since he doesn't believe any of his children are worthy of taking over his criminal empire. He first crossed paths with Bruce Wayne because he thought he could convince Bruce to become his heir with the temptations of power (his empire) and love (his daughter Talia).

* In [[HeroSeries Heroes Adrift]], the main characters are sent to look for a long-lost bastard descendant of the queen as an alternate heir. Both the queen and the heir end up hating this idea once they actually meet.

* TheShadowOfTheWind hast Don Ricardo, a rich industrial who thinks his son Jorge unfitted to take over his business, [[spoiler: so he seeks out the woman he impregnated fifteen years earlier, trying to groom their son Julián into his heir, glad he was not aborted as Ricardo had ordered the woman. He's not so glad about it later on.]]

* On {{Haven}} Police Chief Wournos is trying various was to to get his son Nathan ready to take over for him and be able to deal with the deadly "Troubles" on his own-He aims to make his son tougher because he'll need to be.

* In the {{Ravenloft}} setting, Azalin's son Irik was considered an unsuitable successor by his LawfulEvil father due to actually being a decent guy. Azalin eventually executed his own son for rebelling against him, and with no "suitable" heir, was "forced" to become a [[OurLichesAreDifferent lich]].

* Shinji in FateStayNight is a [[SmugSnake total loser]] [[BigBadWannabe who thinks he's a genius.]] Except he really does recognize that he sucks and isn't even a magus. [[spoiler:That's why Zouken Matou adopted Sakura into the family. Nobody even bothered to tell Shinji that he was now entirely obsolete until a decade after she arrived.]] The fun part is that the inadequate inheritor and the inheritee? lose ''[[KickTheSonOfABitch big time]]'' to the 'substitute magus.'

* And Shiki in {{Tsukihime}} is disinherited because he is extremely sick after an almost deadly accident, and even after recovering is still too bad as a result. [[spoiler:Also, he is not a real Tohno, only was fooled - and thus fooled the others - in believing to be. The real Tohno SHIKI was killed, and even after [[IGotBetter getting better]] he was too mentally unstable.]]

* Beezy on ''{{Jimmy Two-Shoes}}'' is nowhere near the level of [[CardCarryingVillain evil]] that his father [[{{Satan}} Lucius]] wants him to be, even though he's to be the next ruler of [[AHellOfATime Miseryville]]. He'd rather hang out with [[HeterosexualLifePartner Jimmy]] and his girlfriend, [[CrazyAwesome Saffi]].
* In ''The Simpsons'' episode, ''Burns, Baby Burns'', Mr. Burns' son, Larry, is considered to inherit Mr. Burns' fortune, but has a tough time fitting in.
* In {{Thundercats 2011}}'', almost everyone in [[TheKingdom Thundera]] ''thinks'' young prince Lion-O isn't as worthy an heir to the throne as his adopted brother Tygra, since Tygra is AlwaysSomeoneBetter and Lion-O is viewed as eccentric for believing in the stories of "[[LostTechnology technology]]," and defending the [[FantasticRacism supposed rights]] of other, lower [[PettingZooPeople Animals]]. His refusal to conform to Thundera's [[CulturalPosturing cultural paradigm]] of MightMakesRight and [[SuperiorSpecies species dominance]] doesn't help his case either. [[spoiler:It's only when Thundera is falling that Lion-O is vindicated, and proves his worth.]]

* Bruce Goodkind, the richest man in the WhateleyUniverse and head of the mutant-hating Goodkind family, seems to be having this problem. Oldest son? Came out as a {{Transsexual}} and left the family. Oldest daughter? Left to be a movie starlet a la Paris Hilton. Fifth kid? Probably the best choice as the inheritor, but he turned into a mutant and was kicked out of the family.

* In the premiere episode of ''{{Thundercats2011}}'', almost everyone in Thundera ''thinks'' Lion-O isn't as worthy an heir to the throne as his adopted brother Tigra since Lion-O still believes in the stories of LostTechnology and ancient spirits of evil. His refusal to believe that MightMakesRight doesn't help his case either since ''nearly everyone else on Thundera'' believes it. Sadly it is only when Thundera has already fallen that Lion-O proves he is worthy to be king.

* In ''The Simpsons'' episode, ''Burns, Baby Burns'', Mr. Burns' son, Larry, is considered to inherit Mr. Burns' fortune, but has a tough time fitting in.

** Of course, when he so much as disappears for a few days they immediately descend into declaring open war on eachother, so it's probably a justified view.

* Bruce Goodkind, the richest man in the WhateleyUniverse and head of the mutant-hating Goodkind family, seems to be having this problem. Oldest son? Came out as a {{Transsexual}} and left the family. Oldest daughter? Left to be a movie starlet a la Paris Hilton. Fifth kid? Probably the best choice as the inheritor, but he turned into a mutant and was kicked out of the family.

* Subverted in ''{{Inception}}'', where the protagonists try to convince the heir of a energy monopoly to dissolve the company he has inherited by [[spoiler: implanting the idea that his father's true wish was for his son to build himself an even better company from the ground up rather than just take over the one handed to him.]]

* Played with in an early episode of ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Grand Nagus Zek proclaims Quark to be his successor, and promptly dies soon afterward. Quark becomes Nagus and Zek's son makes several attempts on his life so that he can usurp the title. [[spoiler: Turns out Zek's not really dead, and it was all a ruse to test to see if his son was ready to be Nagus. Zek determines that he isn't due to his impulsive attempts to simply kill Quark instead of subtly amassing power and support before getting rid of him. Quark himself was not in on the ruse and was not very happy to find out his life was endangered just to teach Zek's son a lesson.]]

* Inverted by [[LEtatCestMoi Louis XIV]] and his eventual successor Louis XV. On his deathbed, Louis XIV told his young great-grandson that he would be a great king, and warned him to avoid making war as much as possible, describing it as the "ruin of the people". Unfortunately, Louis XV ignored his great-grandfather's advice and proved to be a woefully inept king, before passing the throne to the even more incompetent Louis XVI, who proceeded to run France into the ground and lose his head in the FrenchRevolution.

A successful bigwig, be it in business, politics, magic or even world conquest, is growing old, and in preparation for an eventual retirement/death looks to their children to see who among them can take up their mantle... and is faced with incompetence, disinterest, or a CorruptCorporateExecutive in the making. These are by no means an exhaustive list of possible shortcomings, indeed just about anything that can make a parent ask "[[WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent Why Couldn't You Be Different?]]" is grounds for this trope. Special mention should go to times when the Inadequate Inheritor is not good/heroic enough, too evil, or ''[[MinionWithAnFInEvil not evil enough.]]''

* Inverted by [[FrenchMonarchy Louis XIV]] and his eventual successor Louis XV. On his deathbed, Louis XIV told his young great-grandson that he would be a great king, and warned him to avoid making war as much as possible, describing it as the "ruin of the people". Unfortunately, Louis XV ignored his great-grandfather's advice and proved to be a woefully inept king, before passing the throne to the even more incompetent Louis XVI, who proceeded to run France into the ground and lose his head in the FrenchRevolution.

** In the Japanese version, Gozaburo adopts Kaiba to be the new heir because Noah, having lived for an extended time in a virtual world, has lost touch with his own humanity, and is no longer fit to run the company.

* Shinji in FateStayNight is a [[SmugSnake total loser]] [[EvilFrogWantsToBeAnOx who thinks he's a genius.]] Except he really does recognize that he sucks and isn't even a magus. [[spoiler:That's why Zouken Matou adopted Sakura into the family. Nobody even bothered to tell Shinji that he was now entirely obsolete until a decade after she arrived.]] The fun part is that the inadequate inheritor and the inheritee? lose ''[[KickTheSonOfABitch big time]]'' to the 'substitute magus.'

* [[AustinPowers Dr. Evil and his son Scott]]. Dr. Evil is rather disappointed that his son doesn't want to follow in his footsteps, though Scott was heading in that direction in the second movie and becomes a near copy of his father in the third.[[spoiler: The irony is that by that point [[strike:Dr. Evil]] "Dougie" had [[HeelFaceTurn reformed]]]].

* Bruce Goodkind, the richest man in the WhateleyUniverse and head of the mutant-hating Goodkind family, seems to be having this problem. Oldest son? Became a {{Transsexual}} and left the family. Oldest daughter? Left to be a movie starlet a la Paris Hilton. Fifth kid? Probably the best choice as the inheritor, but he turned into a mutant and was kicked out of the family.

* Subverted in ''{{Inception}}'', where the protagonists try to convince the heir of a energy monopoly to dissolve the company he has inherited by [[spoiler: implanting the idea that his fathers true wish was for his son to build himself an even better company from the ground up rather than just take over the one handed to him.]]

Cue an ImpossibleTask, search for a non standard heir from outside the family (who has a statistically abnormal chance to be an orphan/bastard child of the retiree), or otherwise trying to reform their potential heir or forcibly change them one way or another. Results vary: the heir may become worthy, rebel against their "benefactor" (which may be what they [[BatmanGambit always]] [[ManipulativeBastard wanted)]] or fail outright and prompt the reitree to switch to plan B, become [[{{Immortality}} immortal.]]

* In TheDCU, Darkseid is known to take a dim view of any of his lieutenants actually being able to control his empire after he dies... especially his son Kalibek.

* ''[[H2G2/AndAnotherThing]]'' introduces Constant Mown, the free-spirited, paperwork-hating, protocol-neglecting son of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz.