Familicide, or the killing of one's own family members, especially your spouse, progeny, or parents, has always been viewed poorly in most societies, though in some cases there were exceptions.
For instance, in Ancient Greece and Rome the practice of leaving a newborn child to die of exposure if they were born physically deformed was considered perfectly acceptable. It has also served as a method of gaining greater power via getting rid of competition, or for conserving resources in extreme cases during hard times (if the bodies didn't also end up becoming the resources).
Obviously, this is a sub-trope of Domestic Abuse, and is the most extreme version of it. For other (non-lethal/violent) instances of family tension, see the Dysfunctional Family Index.
Tropes:
- Genocide from the Inside: Killing off your entire society, which would include your family by default.
- Grandfather Paradox: Killing one's ancestor via time travel, which may end up unmaking the murderer in the process (unless they replace their own ancestor in the family tree).
- Honor-Related Abuse: If it turns into honor-killing.
- Inheritance Murder: Murdering family members to obtain their inheritance, or murdering the proprietor of an estate to gain wealth.
- Princeling Rivalry: Killing off competitors to a royal throne.
- Offing the Offspring: Murdering one's own children.
- Pater Familicide: The murder or murder-suicide of an entire immediate family unit, generally by the father, due to an inability to deal with personal failure.
- Self-Made Orphan: Killing both of your parents or your sole living parent.
- Matricide: The killing of one's mother.
- Patricide: The killing of one's father.
- Oedipus Complex: Killing your father and marrying your mother (the gender inverse is called an Electra Complex).
- Sibling Murder: Siblings killing one another.
- Til Murder Do Us Part: The killing of your spouse.
- Black Widow: A woman who is a serial murderer of her husbands.
- The Bluebeard: A man who is a serial murderer of his wives.
