Legacy Character / Western Animation

• The Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise does this via reincarnation. The responsibilities of learning all the elements, protecting the balance and being a bridge between the Spirit World and the physical world remain, with each successive Avatar treated as a unique being who can access their predecessors as individual Spirit Advisors, or in gestalt in a Super Mode.
  • The events of the second season finale of The Legend of Korra have ended the first Avatar line, but started a new one with Korra as the 'first' Avatar.
• Basil Karlo is introduced as the second Clayface in The Batman. His predecessor is a Canon Foreigner named Ethan Bennett.
• The cartoon series Batman Beyond revolves entirely around this concept.
  • It focuses on Terry taking up the Batman mantle from an aging Bruce Wayne, 50 years after Batman: The Animated Series. There's a Commissioner Gordon, as well, in the form of his daughter and former Batgirl Barbara. It's eventually revealed that Terry is actually Bruce's biological son via covert tinkering with his father's DNA.
  • The series has another example in the Royal Flush Gang. In their first appearance, Bruce explained to Terry the gang's children are trained to take over the mantle once their elders retire or are sent to prison. In their last appearance, Queen complains that King can't live up to the previous one. He even asked Terry if he knows what it's like living under someone's shadow. Terry said he did.
  • The Justice League in the show plays this trope straight. Kai-Ro was Earth's new Green Lantern and John Stewart's successor, while Warhawk was the son of Stewart and Hawkgirl. Micron was also essentially the future equivalent of The Atom.
  • The late Dwayne McDuffie confirmed that the Parasite seen in the JLU episode "Epilogue" is a separate person from Rudy Jones.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold:
  • There is an episode where Alfred wrote a story about a future where a new Batman had to face a new Joker trained by the original to take over the mantle. As the Joker explained, he didn't have too much time left. (The doctor gave him six months, he gave the doctor six seconds.)
  • The series had more than one Blue Beetle appear.
    Blue Beetle (III): Knockoff?! I prefer to think of myself as a reimagined hero for a new generation.
  • As in the comics, Black Canary took her title from her mother.
• Beast Wars and every incarnation of Transformers since then, including several specific character homages.
  • Beast Wars Megatron actually paid homage to this trope, with a tendency to refer to the original as "my namesake". Worth noting is that Megatron is one of the few legacy characters who, rather than being offered the mantle, decided he wanted it and just took it. Also worth noting is the fact that Beast Wars Megatron, thanks to time-travel, eventually became the very Megatron that was written about in the Covenant of Primus, the Transformer equivalent of the bible. Given the likelihood that G1 Megatron based his name from the Covenant, this effectively made Beast Wars Megatron the originator of the very legacy he joined. In effect, this is a Legacy example of ending up as your own grandfather.
  Megatron: Megatrons don't surrender, we conquer!
  • Optimus Primal, similarly, drew parallels to Optimus Prime, though less often. He was stated to be the original Optimus's descendant (as much as that makes sense for a race of machines).
  • The name Prime carries with it a legacy of its own. In most versions of G1, Optimus Prime was preceded by Sentinel Prime and succeeded by Rodimus Prime. Although this works differently in Animated: Magnus is the commanding rank for all Autobots, while Prime is a lower-but-still-pretty-high rank. Thus Sentinel Prime, Optimus Prime, and Rodimus Prime all exists hold the title simultaneously.
  • WFC/Prime's Megatron has now been established as a legacy character, taking his name from The Fallen, who was originally named Megatronus Prime.
  • Cannonball, in what is almost certainly a Shout-Out to the Princess Bride example, is the tenth in a line of Cybertronian pirates using that name.
• In the original Ben 10 series, its revealed that in the future, Ben gives his son Ken a second Omnitrix. To further the legacy, Ken wears the same outfit Ben wore as a kid. Also, an evil example occurs with Devlin, Kevin 11's son, who has his father's powers and pretends to be him in his first attack. This ultimately ends up being an ironic legacy to both his own timezone and the Ben 10: Alien Force timezone, he starts as a villain but joins Ben's team, and the Alien Force Kevin does the same.
• Played with in an episode of Defenders of the Earth when Jedda, daughter of The Phantom, briefly assumes her father's mantle (with a female version of his costume and all) when he's believed to be dead.
• Gargoyles:
  • The Hunters, a family lineage of vigilantes/assassins fanatically determined to kill Demona and, by extension, any other gargoyle along the way. In a scene that was cut, the senior modern Hunter, Jason Canmore, admits that his family has been at this for so long that the exact reason for the vendetta has been long forgotten (Nine hundred and some-odd years previously, Demona maimed the boy who would become the first Hunter when he tried to keep her from stealing scraps of food that his family was planning to throw to the pigs).
  • Also hinted at in "Future Tense", where we see a vision of a possible Bad Future where an adult Alexander Xanatos has taken up the mantle of Fox from his mother (complete with the iconic eye tattoo) and devoted himself to bringing down his father, along with the rest of a resistance movement led by Brooklyn. Although that vision of the future turned out to be All Just a Dream, that episode took place slightly before Alex Xanatos was actually born in canon, implying that there might have been at least a grain of truth in it.
• Kim Possible both inverted and played straight this trope, both times incidentally, with the Cowardly Sidekick Ron Stoppable.
  • The first time was when he took the place of Timothy North as the Fearless Ferret. Sound familiar? Turns out though, that the Fearless Ferret was merely a television series.
  • The second example was the Toshimoru, the original Monkey Master and the founder of Monkey Kung Fu, even though Kung Fu originated in China, not Japan. Throughout the series, Ron's enemy Monkey Fist was out to take up the mantle of the Monkey Master. In the end though, Ron was the one to take up Toshimoru's sword (both figuratively and literally).
• The Life and Times of Juniper Lee: The heroine is of the Te Xuan Ze bloodline, protectors of the barrier between humanity and mystical creatures. She is the latest to hold the title, succeeding her grandmother.
• Miraculous Ladybug:
  • The New York special revealed that the Batman and Robin expies Knightowl and Sparrow have actually had the mantle taken by many people over the years, dating back to at least The Wild West, with each Sparrow becoming the new Knightowl upon their predecessor's retirement and recruiting a Sparrow of their own.
  • Concerning Ladybug and Chat Noir themselves, as well as the other Miraculous holders, we see their predecessors in Gabriel's copy of the Book of the Miraculous. The Ladybug shown in the book, from thousands of years before the present day, seems to be named Piáo Chóng, though in many fan works she is often referred to affectionately as Jiejie (big sister in Chinese).
• NASCAR Racers: Two characters use the codename "Wild Card" in the series. Lyle uses it in the first season and Eve Kildere in the second one. During his time using the codename, Lyle drives a car given to him by Eve.
• Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja: Every four years, a freshman is selected to be the Ninja until graduation, after which he receives Laser-Guided Amnesia, the Ninja mask and Ninjanomicon is given to someone else, and the cycle starts anew.
• In the Christmastime exclusive series Santas Apprentice, Santa Claus adopts an Australian orphan named Nicholas and trains him to be the next Santa Claus. It's assumed that was the case for that Santa, and the one before him, and so on.
• In the SheZow episode "Family Tree", SheZow's Glamazon Power Ring has been passed down from mother to daughter or aunt to niece, since Prehistory, until Guy was the first nephew to wear the ring (although to be fair he unwittingly wore it because he doubted that Aunt Agnes was SheZow).
• The Simpsons:
  • "Duffman can never die... Only the actors who play him! Oh yeah!" Later episodes even show that there are multiple Duffmen at the same time:
    Duffman: THREE Duffmen are working the game tonight!
    Duffman #2: Don't tell the children! It's... disillusioning!
  • Krusty's pet chimp Mr Teeny has occasionally been stated to be the latest in a series of Mr Teenies:
    Krusty: We're gonna drop him out of a blimp tomorrow. [Mr Teeny looks concerned] Oh, don't worry. Nothing's gonna happen to you, Mr Teeny #7.
• In The Smurfs (1981), Papa Smurf turns out to be a legacy character, as the Smurf who became known as Grandpa Smurf originally went under the name of Papa Smurf.
• An episode of South Park explained that every time Kenny dies a new, identical McCormick is born bearing his name. At the time of that episode it had happened 52 times so far. It's never explained how the new Kennys age so fast. This was probably intended as a gag initially, but the subplot of the Coon vs Coon and Friends story-arc strangely confirms Kenny's immortality powers into canon, instant aging and all. His parents handwave it by saying "We should've never gone to that stupid cult meeting." It is established though that each of the babies are literal reincarnations of the original Kenny (complete with his memories), rather than simply being siblings with the same name.
• Star Wars Rebels introduced the informant known as Fulcrum. However, "Fulcrum" is a name passed down from informant to informant in the service of the Rebel Alliance. There have been three known Fulcrums so far; Ahsoka Tano, Agent Kallus, and Cassian Andor. What "informant" means varies between agents; Ashoka was passing information from Rebel command to independent cells, while Kallus was a spy inside the Empire.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), the Shredder is turned into this.
  • Chronologically speaking, the first being that was ever known as the Shredder was a Tengu that terrorized Japan centuries ago. It was later defeated by a group of ninjamasters know as the Ninja Tribunal. But before the Tengu was killed, he made a deal with one of the ninjamasters, a man named Oroku Saki, merging with him. Oroku Saki would become known as the Tengu Shredder. He would later appear as the Big Bad of season 5.
  • Years later, a rogue Utrom named Ch'rell learned of the stories of the Tengu Shredder and decided to take up his identity and create a clan of ninjas. He is by far the most promiment Shredder of the series, as he's the one who murdered Hamato Yoshi and is usually regarded as their number one enemy.
  • In season 4, Karai would later adopt the mantle of the Shredder after Ch'rell was exiled to an ice asteroid, leading the Foot Clan in order to avenge him.
  • In season 7, a digital copy of Ch'rell gets accidentally activated, becoming the new leader of the Foot Clan and being known as the Cyber Shredder.
• The title of "Trollhunter" from Trollhunters is given to all who are chosen by the Amulet of Daylight, as well as bearing the responsibilities that come with it. The protagonist, Jim, is the first non-troll to get the job. Another character, Draal, is the son of the previous Trollhunter, and is naturally ticked off that some human teenager got the job instead of him.
• On The Venture Bros., there are heroic examples in the super science mantle of the Ventures as well as Captain Sunshine, whose predecessor now acts as his butler, though still possessing superpowers of his own. On the villainous side, the Phantomos family line with the heir being the Phantom Limb as well as the Guild of Calamitous Intent passing down the Sovereign title.
  Phantom Limb: Who died and made you the giant floating head of everything?
  Sovereign: That would be my predecessor, Force Majeure.
• Ubiquitous in Young Justice (2010):
  • The episode "Downtime" shows Kid Flash at a birthday party for Jay Garrick, the original Flash. Wally's uncle, Barry Allen, is his mentor and the present Flash. In the tie-in comics, Wally explains that Jay was active in the 1940s and '50s as The Flash, while Barry picked up the mantle after duplicating the original Freak Lab Accident that gave Jay his powers—and Wally, in turn, used Barry's notes to replicate the "accident" for a third time. Bart Allen, Barry's grandson, was born with super speed, and his cousin, Wally, officially hands over the Kid Flash mantle to him and then dies the next episode.
  • In season 2, Impulse uses a similar term when talking about how he and Tim Drake are both part of a heroic legacy.
  • Speaking of Tim, his legacy is as the third Robin. He's always visibly pleased by the first Robin's approval and is shown lingering at the memorial to the second.
  • Jaime Reyes also mentions that he is the newest Blue Beetle, with his predecessor Ted Kord having been killed by the Light. "Intervention" explains his legacy in more detail: the scarab originally arrived on Earth thousands of years ago, was magically put "off-mode," and presumably used by the ancient Bialyans. The first modern Blue Beetle was the archaeologist who discovered it, Dan Garrett, in 1939. When Dan died, he bequeathed the scarab to Ted Kord, who realized that it was alien technology, not just an ancient artifact, and locked it up, using his own inventions to fight crime in Dan's memory. When Jaime found the scarab after Ted's death, the League and the Team initially believed it to be another invention of his.
  • Mal Duncan takes over the Guardian identity, with Word of God confirming he's the third Guardian.
  • Other legacy characters in the show include Black Canary, Green Lantern, Icicle, Jr. and Doctor Fate. Characters who aren't explicitly using the name of their predecessor but still following in their legacy include Zatanna, Miss Martian, Wonder Girl, and Superboy.
  • Tigress is a strange example, in that she originated as a fake villainous identity Artemis created that was heavily based on the villainous identities of her mother, Huntress, and her sister, Cheshire, plus moves, weapons, and even drugs taken from her father, Sportsmaster. Tigress has the same acrobatic, Multi-Melee Master ninja girl skill set as Cheshire, with a similar dark-warm color scheme and costume as Huntress. Huntress, Cheshire, and Tigress all have a cat motif, and Cheshire teases Artemis by saying Tigress reminds her of herself. Played straight when Artemis decides to adopt Tigress as her full-time identity, following the death of her boyfriend. In the comics, Tigress (originally called Huntress, until she lost the title to Helena Wayne/was retconned) is a straight legacy character, passed down to Artemis by her mother and grandmother.
  • Between the second and third seasons, Kaldur'ahm (Aqualad) inherits the title of Aquaman after King Orin retires from heroism.