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Turn Out Like His Father

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Beru: Owen, he can't stay here forever; most of his friends have gone. It means so much to him.
Owen: I'll make it up to him next year; I promise.
Beru: Luke's just not a farmer, Owen. He has too much of his father in him.
Owen: That's what I'm afraid of.
Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope

Widow Alice has gotten herself a nice home, and is raising her son Bob there, happy except for the loss of his father—but it has been years, and she has her son. Except one day, Bob comes running home burbling about someone telling him that his father killed the dragon and demands to know more.

And Widow Alice feels like she's been stabbed to the heart, envisioning her son lying before her, pale and bleeding, like his dying father had.

A character has charge of a child (usually her son) and is desperate to keep this child from imitating another relative (usually his father). This is a fear of history repeating itself for his fate, which may be turning evil and usually ends with being dead. Hereditary Suicide may be one cause.

Making this relative a secret is one technique; though, this usually makes the forbidden relative Forbidden Fruit. Another, as popular, is extracting a promise, which the child will usually try to keep until the pressure gets too high.

Trying to keep the child from evil has a fairly good success rate. Trying to keep him from his father's profession has a considerably poorer one, particularly when the reaction to the father's violent life is to try to make an Actual Pacifist; though the child may turn out less violent, there is usually something he must defend against. When the mother's motive is to keep him from being killed by the precise character who killed the father, this is generally a prequel to You Killed My Father.

Keeping the Ancestral Weapon out of the child's hand is often an element of it, and when he finally gets it, a sign that the struggle is over, and the child will be like his father—Take Up My Sword metaphorically as well as literally.

When the hero wants the child away from him, it's Give Him a Normal Life. When the villain wants to raise the kid to act differently, it's Evil Parents Want Good Kids. When the character hates his "condition" and doesn't want to pass it on, it's What If the Baby Is Like Me.

See also Villainous Lineage, Generation Xerox, Follow in My Footsteps. Contrast Loser Son of Loser Dad, Raise Him Right This Time.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • In 2001, the NSPCC released a PSA called "Kids Learn Fast", which puts this trope on full display.

    Anime/Manga 
  • A Cruel God Reigns's Ian fears this when he begins to fall in love with Jeremy, but cannot always make sense of it, especially when he loses his temper at Jeremy's failed drug and prostitution rehabilitations.
  • In Free!, Rin Matsuoka swims competitively because he wants to live out his father's missed-out dream of being an Olympic swimmer when he quit to raise him, and he died in a typhoon while he was working as a fisherman.
  • Gon of Hunter × Hunter was left in the care of his aunt when his father decided following his dreams as a Hunter were more important than raising Gon. It is constantly pointed out that Gon greatly resembles Ging. The plot kicks off when Gon sets out to become a hunter like Ging, both to meet his father and to find out what about being a hunter is so great that it would cause his father to leave
  • Kaze to Ki no Uta: Arguably, Gilbert and Auguste could both fall under this trope. Gilbert, because Auguste molested, raped, and emotionally abused him as a young child and Auguste because he was raped by his step-brother. Especially true when it is revealed that Luke, I Am Your Father
  • In Part II of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Erina is very worried about her grandson Joseph getting wrapped up in the stone mask business, as that's what killed Jonathan Joestar, her husband and his grandfather (and, as revealed later, it also led to the death of her son George), and men in the Joestar family have a history of dying rather young in general. Unfortunately, the call knew Joseph was vacationing in New York. A bit ironically, Joseph ends up being the only JoJo to die of old age.
    • Later on, in Part V, a big part of why Jotaro Kujo sent Koichi to Italy to investigate Haruno Shibana, who by then went by the name Giorno Giovanna, was that after learning that Giorno is the biological son of Dio Brando, Jotaro feared that if left unchecked, the young man might become another threat just like his father. Luckily for everyone, key factors in Giorno's childhood, namely the unknowing intervention of a gangster with a sense of justice inspired the son of DIO to become a kind-hearted, if quite coldly ruthless member of the Joestar bloodline.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion has its own unique spin on the trope—Gendo sent Shinji away because he was afraid of bringing him to harm. But the psychological harm that Gendo caused by abandoning Shinji and repeatedly pushing him away makes this plan backfire horribly. By the end of the series, the horribly broken Shinji is not very different from his father after all.
    • Both tried to—or did—destroy the world because the woman they loved died. Yui in the case of Gendo, Asuka in the case of Shinji.
  • In One Piece, Marine Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp tries so very hard to make his grandson, Luffy, a Marine like himself. Unfortunately, he fails and Luffy instead becomes a highly-wanted pirate, making him not unlike his own father, who is the leader of a Revolutionary Army and the most wanted man in the world. Ironically, in the Water Seven Arc, Luffy and his crew proclaim war against the World Government, much like his father has. This is ultimately averted, however, in that Garp loves both his son and his grandson and is in fact quite proud of them. He just didn't want Luffy to be a pirate because it meant, as a Marine, he'd have to oppose his own grandson.

    Comic Books 
  • Batman:
    • Villain The Penguin uses umbrellas because his father died of pneumonia, and his mother feared the same for him.
    • Batman often voices—in his head via narration, as he would almost never voice such a thing out loud—how proud he is that the various Robins generally didn't end up like him, as his obsessive, miserable life is one he would wish on nobody, least of all his "sons." He particularly voices this in regards to Nightwing, whom he is extremely proud of due to Dick finding his own identity as a hero and a man—no matter how rocky the split was.
  • In Bone, Gran'ma Ben shelters her granddaughter Thorn, hoping that the two of them could live an average life as an alternative to ruling the Valley after the rest of the royal family is betrayed and killed.
  • Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil, was raised not to become a fighter like his Dad because his Dad wanted something better for him. This backfires spectacularly when his secret identity is outed: Matt goes into incredible painful sacrifices to maintain his identity as a lawyer, just because that was his father’s dream for him.
  • Jackie Estacado, a.k.a. The Darkness, is a hitman like his father, but unlike his father he's not an out-of-control psycho. This is because the Brotherhood of Darkness arranged for him to be adopted by mafia boss Frankie Franchetti, who, knowing how messed up Jackie's father had been, could be counted on to raise him on the right side of the line between viciously ruthless badassery and self-destructive Ax Craziness.
  • Fun Home is a memoir wherein cartoonist Alison Bechdel, a lesbian, looks back at her childhood with a new perspective after she finds out her dad was a closeted gay man, and wondering about similarities between the two of them.
  • Green Lantern Hal Jordan's father died on the job as a fighter pilot (in front of Hal's eyes). His mother made him swear to never join the Air Force, but he did so anyway.
  • Wanted reveals that Wesley's mother raised him to be a pacifistic loser because she realized that he had the potential to be like his father was. It doesn't help.
  • Wolverine is trying very hard to defy this trope for his Opposite-Sex Clone/daughter, X-23. Unfortunately, events keep conspiring against him, and although Laura herself doesn't want to be a killer, she's also not one to sit back and let others fight in her place.

    Fan Works 
  • It is implied that Yellow's aloof demeanor in Anywhere But Here was something she got from her mother Whitney, but whereas Whitney appears to be apathetic by nature, Yellow had a harder time balancing her work life and trying to spend time with Pink.
  • Subverted in The Bridge and its spin-off The Bridge: Humanity's Stand, where some of humanity and the GDF worry that Godzilla Junior, although a force for good and benefactor of humanity, will eventually become more like his highly destructive father. Junior, himself, worries this may happen and is conscious he is in some ways like his predecessor.
  • Just an Unorthodox Thief: Fujiko worries her daughter Riko will grow up to inherit the Lupin family's love of thievery, and wants her to have a normal childhood unlike either of her parents did. She does join the new Lupin gang in the finale.
  • The Child of Love: Inverted during a Dream Sequence where a frightened and despaired Shinji cries out that he will turn out like his father because they are just too alike, and his mother reassures him that he will not be like Gendo when he grows up.
  • The Second Try: Shinji was frightened of becoming a father, among other reasons, because he was afraid of him turning out to be like his father and hurting his child like Gendo had hurt him.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Back to the Future. Mr. Strickland, an administrator at Marty's school, has already written Marty off as a slacker like his father.
  • The Heavenly Kid: A greaser is killed when his car goes over a cliff in a game of "Chicken". He comes back to Earth years later to become guardian angel to his nerdy teenage son. Neither of them know that they are father and son. The son starts acting like the greaser and says his catchphrase "I got it covered." This freaks out his mom, who is afraid he's going to die just like his father.
  • Hulk. A large part of General Ross's issues with Bruce Banner dating his daughter; it's not just his tendency to turn into a giant green rage monster, but the fact that his father was a Mad Scientist who murdered his wife.
    Betty: Why is he such a threat to you?
    Ross: Because I know what he comes from. He is his father's son, every last molecule of him.
    Betty: He says he doesn't know his father.
    Ross: But he's working in the same, exact goddamn field his father did. So either he's lying, or it's something worse... and he's....
    Betty: What? Predestined to follow in his father's footsteps?
    Ross: I was going to say damned.
  • Matty from One-Trick Pony wants to be a songwriter and musician, like his absentee father. His mother desperately wishes he'd pick a better role model.
  • In Scanners, both the hero and his brother the villain develop a shared disdain for their father and wish to avoid becoming like him.
  • Star Wars is probably the best-known example, and the efforts to keep Luke from being like his father (who, as we all know, went evil) occupy three separate characters: Owennote , Ben Kenobi, and Yoda. In Return of the Jedi, Luke realizes that he's dangerously close to invoking this trope after he cuts off Vader's cybernetic right hand and looks down at his own cybernetic right hand. This prompts him to deactivate and discard his lightsaber so that he won't be tempted any further.
    • Sadly Vader's legacy has poisoned the mind of his grandson Ben Solo a.k.a. Kylo Ren. And he wants to follow in his grandpappy's footsteps in the worst way possible.
  • Top Gun: Maverick: Rooster holds a grudge against Maverick for blocking his application to the Naval Academy, delaying his career by several years. It turns out Maverick did it at the request of Rooster's mother, who wanted to prevent her son from becoming a pilot and dying like his father did.
  • In The Waterboy, Mama Boucher has kept Bobby sheltered and at home well into his thirties because she fears him abandoning her just like her husband did.

    Literature 
  • In some versions of Arthurian Legend, Percival (son of King Pellinore, known for his pursuit of the Questing Beast) was raised in the forest by his mother to keep him from hearing of knights. His first glimpse of a Knight in Shining Armor makes him long to be one.
  • In the YA book, Banner In The Sky by James Ramsey Ullman, the widow of a famed mountain guide tries to keep her son from following in his father's footsteps as a guide.
  • Discworld:
    • Unseen Academicals. Trev promised his mother not to play football, like his father did.
    • Making Money. In Mr Bent's Back Story, his father was one of the greatest clowns in history, but his mother—apparently in reaction to the circus moving on, taking his father with it—developed a disapproval of clowning and raised him very soberly,
    • Raising Steam has Dick Simnel, whose dad Ned died in a cloud of superheated vapor trying to build a steam engine. His mother begged him not to play with steam, but he's determined to conquer where his father failed, through his knowing of the sine and the cosine, and the sliding rule.
  • Fire & Blood: Rogar Baratheon oversteps his duty as Hand of the King, alienating his wife, because he fears Jaehaerys will turn out like his father, Aenys, whose ineffectual leadership led to the violence of Maegor the Cruel's reign. It turns out Jaehaerys is much more politically adept than his father, and manages to avoid those troubles.
  • The Dursleys do not want Harry Potter to turn out magical like his mother. So, they don't tell him about her or his father, and do their best to keep him from Hogwarts. This notably isn't because his parents were evil or even because the Dursleys care about him; they just don't like magic and hate the idea of there being a wizard in their "normal" family.
  • In Jane of Lantern Hill by L. M. Montgomery, Jane's grandmother disapproves of her chin because it comes from her Disappeared Dad, and Jane herself wishes it away.
  • In Seanan McGuire's October Daye novel Ashes of Honor, despite her mother's frantic efforts to protect her, Chelsea in the end concludes that she is like her father.
  • In Överenskommelser by Simona Ahrnstedt, it rather is "turn out like her grandmother". Beatrice reminds her uncle Wilhelm too much of his mother, who had left her family to study abroad. His treatment of his niece goes downhill from there.
  • In the Popol Vuh of the Kiche Maya, the mother and grandmother of Hunter and Jaguar Deer hide their father's ball gear from them, as well as the truth that their father was a ball player. A rat reveals the truth and helps the two to find said ball gear.
  • Averted in Prince Roger series, albeit in a convoluted way. Roger resembles his unknown-to-him father, whom everyone else knows is a condemned and unrepentant traitor, which makes him The Unfavourite. He responds by becoming a Royal Brat because it ticks his mother off, not knowing it makes him resemble his father even more, and makes his mother think he is emulating his father on purpose. After Roger learns what was really going on... well, the first time he meets his father he decides to behead him for torturing, raping, and mind-raping his mother—would have done it, if not for a timely intervention of Nimashet Despreaux.
  • Shadow of the Conqueror:
    • When they hear his cover story, Ahrek and Lyrah become intensely interested to find out how much Daylen resembles Dayless—so that they can stop him if he goes the same way.
    • Blackheart, who takes Dayless's traits and turns them to piracy instead of politics. After finding out who he was, Daylen becomes intensely worried that the rest of his children are also like him.
  • In Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's Sorcery and Cecelia, Cecelia's great-aunt lost her fiancé to his magical studies, and is horrified at the thought of Cecelia learning from the same wizard. (Fortunately, it was a misunderstanding. Though she is not entirely pleased about any form of study, she accepts it.)
  • The Star Wars Expanded Universe expands on the similarities between Luke and his father at his age.
    • In Dark Empire, Palpatine, Back from the Dead via Cloning Gambit, corrupted Luke, dressed him in Vaderesque clothes, gave him the same kind of mechno-hand, and lost him to the Light Side when Leia came to save him. Luke is a pilot, a very good one, but not quite as reckless nor as skilled as Anakin. He is fairly resourceful with machinery, doing things like opening up his artificial hand to use its battery for something and rewiring some power packs to make them explode, but he doesn't have anything like Anakin's ridiculous skill with machines.
    • It's underlined by both of them and their fascination with Jedi Master Jorus/Joruus C'baoth. True, the Jorus C'baoth Anakin knew was not yet insane (but he would be soon), whereas his clone Joruus really was, and Anakin was fourteen whereas Luke was in his late twenties. Still, Anakin liked C'baoth's philosophy that the non-Jedi were sheep at best and should be handled without asking, whereas Luke, despite being on a quest to find surviving Jedi and thus presumably more interested, instantly felt uneasy about these teachings even though he thought they made sense.
    • Leia's got a little of her father, too, though this is usually much more understated, particularly by writers who put her in the damsel-in-distress role. Mostly it manifests through her temper, her very strong will—Luke's determined, but Leia has more passion and staying power—and her sense of self-importance. She's not as arrogant as Anakin, but she's less quiet about her confidence and accomplishment than her brother is, and the impression she leaves on people has much more authority. Luke is an idealist, and a bit of a mystic. Leia takes charge. A politician who knows her heritage once insinuates that it means she'll betray them all. In The Thrawn Trilogy, the Noghri call Luke "Firstson of the Lord Vader". They call Leia the Mal'ary'ush, the heir to Vader's authority and powers, and address her as "Lady Vader." It's pointed out in the Hand of Thrawn duology that she's worried about putting her need to keep her spouse safe over her duty to the rest of the galaxy and second-guesses some of her decisions as a result.
      She was magnificent, her style so different from her brother's. She was hard-edged where he made his demands with a deceptive softness. There was nothing soft in the President's [Leia's] manner. Cole would never had argued with her as he had argued with her brother.
    • With the direction the Fate of the Jedi book series is going, many fans predict a relationship between Ben Skywalker and Vestara Khai, mirroring the one between Luke and Mara. Vestara asks to be a Jedi, but things are still uncertain before the series's finale. Though, Ben is consistently trying to do just what Luke did, and get his father to accept it.
  • Drina's grandparents in the Drina books by Jean Estoril don't want her to become a ballerina, because her secret famous ballerina mother died because of it.
  • Achebe's Things Fall Apart features the character Okonkwo, who dedicates his life to proving that he is not his lazy father. It ends up being his fatal flaw.
  • Gender-Inverted in Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 books. When Canadian bomber Arthur MacGregor dies after losing at Grenade Hot Potato with George Custer, his wife Maude tries in vain to keep their younger daughter Mary from taking up his deadly work.
  • In Warrior Cats, Firestar is awkward around Bramblepaw because he looks exactly like his father, Firestar's nemesis Tigerstar. Later on, when Bramblepaw (renamed Brambleclaw) starts receiving training from Tigerstar, he and his half-brother Hawkfrost are pushed towards being just as ambitious as their father was. Though Brambleclaw does manage to stop himself, Hawkfrost cannot, and does end up like Tigerstar.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Ryan in The Boys (2019) is the Child by Rape of the Big Bad Homelander and Billy Butcher's wife Becca. Everyone involved wanted to prevent him from being a megalomaniac like his father (with Butcher intending to use him as a weapon against him), and attempted to keep his parentage a secret until Homelander himself showed up with the intent of giving him a happy childhood... and turning him into a Super Supremacist like himself.
  • In an episode of Criminal Minds, the father is a Serial Killer and rapist. His wife found out and made sure he wouldn't hurt anyone ever again... Unfortunately, the son eventually discovers his parentage by himself and is fascinated by it, becoming his father's Jack The Rip Off. In an interesting twist, the father's original victim escaped and also had his child. He also finds out, but keeps it to himself out of respect for his mother and does not appear to display any homicidal tendencies.
  • Game of Thrones: Daenerys Targaryen faces the stigma of being "The Mad King's Daughter", with both friends and allies worried that she will turn out to be another Aerys II. About the only thing she and her father have in common is using fire as a weapon. And then she decides to torch King's Landing in revenge for all Cersei has done to her and her own allies shutting her out, fulfilling her father's last order before his own death.
  • JAG: This is Annie Pendry's biggest fear concerning her son Josh, after his father is killed in a plane crash in "Pilot Error." She points out that Harm became a fighter pilot after his own father went missing in Vietnam, further reinforcing her concern.
  • In Legend of the Seeker, Richard accidentally time travels to a Bad Future. The flashbacks reveal that, after Richard's apparent death in his own time, Darken Rahl forced Kahlan to become his consort. She agreed, having found out from a witch that Richard is in the future and hoping that being Rahl's consort will allow her to survive long enough to provide Richard the necessary information in order to go back and change things. She ends up getting pregnant with a son and begs Rahl to allow her to kill him in accordance with Confessor custom, as male Confessors always turn out to be abusers of their abilities. Rahl refuses, excited at having a male heir, figuring that he ought to be able to mold a Confessor/sorcerer to his own ends. However, Nicholas Rahl turns out to be exactly like Rahl himself, killing his parents (just like Darken killed his father Panis) and becoming an even worse tyrant than his father, using his Confessor powers to force his people to adore him and attack anyone who doesn't. Fortunately, Richard is able to go back to the moment he left and stop it from happening.
  • In Merlin, one of the titular hero's main tasks is to try and ensure that Prince Arthur doesn't grow up into a ruthless, tyrannical bigot like his father Uther. While he does succeed in curbing some of Arthur's more prominent Royal Brat tendencies, most of his attempts to show Arthur that magic can be a force for good end up spectacularly backfiring and making Arthur distrust magic more, even if he doesn't go around persecuting sorcerers as brutally as Uther did.
  • OuterBanks, JJ and John B say this to each other about their respective fathers when John B gets caught up in the treasure hunt that is getting more and more dangerous, and JJ when he starts stealing from drug dealers and getting in deep with the law.
  • On Schitt's Creek, Johnny and David Rose, played by real-life father and son Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy, initially seem to have little in common beyond their resemblance. Eventually, however, David starts his own small business bearing the Rose name and turns out to share his father's work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit.
  • Bobby Singer in Supernatural has a whole series of flashbacks in the episode where he dies where it eventually is revealed that he was never willing to have kids because he was sure he'd turn out just like his father. Whom he shot. In the same place in the head where Dick Roman tagged Bobby. According to the Reaper, "you have the only genetic case of bullet-to-the-brain I've ever seen."
  • War of the Worlds (2019): Chloe laments that her son's like his father, seeing a lot of similarity between them. It's also a darker example than most, since his father conceived him by raping Chloe. She's clearly afraid of Sacha becoming like him (especially since he already left his father to die).

    Music 
  • "Coward of the County"—where Tommy's father (who's dying in prison) is the one telling him not to be like his old man.
    Promise me, Son, not to do the things I've done
    Walk away from trouble if you can.
    • And then subverted at the end, when Tommy beats the crap out of three men who assaulted his girlfriend.
    Now please don't think I'm weak,
    I couldn't turn the other cheek
    And, Papa, I sure hope you understand
    Sometimes you have to fight when you're a man
  • Cat Stevens has this in "Father and Son".
    I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy.
  • This is the twist of "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin. In the first verses, the father is too busy for his son, who still loves him and swears "I'm gonna be like you, dad!" In the last verse, the son is too busy for his aged father, and the father observes that the son did turn out like him.
  • The Flemish/Dutch singer Stef Bos had the song "Papa" ("Dad") which is about a man reminiscing how much he looks and acts like his father.
  • Drake has mentioned similarities between himself and his father several times in his music. Although, in his song "Look What You've Done" he mentions that his mother, who got divorced from his father when he was five, sometimes makes negative comparisons between Drake and his father when she's upset with him.
    "And you tell me I'm just like my father—my one button, you push it"
  • Pulp's "A Little Soul" is about a deadbeat father offering his abandoned son the one useful piece of advice he can give him:
    Everybody's telling me you look like me, but please don't turn into me,
    You look like me, but you're not like me, I hope.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Chris Jericho's second feud with CM Punk revolved around Jericho trying to make Punk into an alcoholic after discover CM Punk's father was one and coming to the conclusion Punk's Straight Edge lifestyle was the result of him trying to avoid the same fate.

    Theatre 
  • The central theme of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts is that history repeats, reflected in the title. The deceased Mr. Alving was beloved by the community, but most of it was thanks to his wife, whom he cheated on multiple times. After his death, mrs. Alving wants to donate all her inheritance to charity to make sure her son doesn't inherit anything from dear old dad. It seems to be futile, however, as said son has inherited his father's attitude, and something else as well.
  • In Street Scene, just before the police take Mr. Maurrant away, he tells his daughter Rose to take good care of her younger brother for this reason:
    "Keep your eye on Willie, Rose. Don't let Willie grow up to be a murderer, like his Pop."
  • In Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, Amanda Wingfield futilely attempts to persuade her son Tom not to abandon his family by becoming a sailor and travelling the world, just like his father before him, which he inevitably does by the conclusion.

    Video Games 
  • Gorion in Baldur's Gate must have had this worry, though it's never quite stated outright. Being the Lawful Good foster father of the protagonist, whose real father was Bhaal, a God of Evil, he can't have wanted them to follow in his footsteps in any sense, even though the prophecies made it likely they'd either do that or just die.
  • Dante in Dante's Inferno was raised almost entirely by his father due to his mother committing suicide to escape his father's cruelty and, in his backstory before his Heel Realization when the freaking Grim Reaper told him his sins were not forgiven and that he was damned, it shows. When he confronts his monstrously deformed father in Hell Dante admits that, rather than being a better man than his father, he has turned out to be far too much like him.
  • Final Fantasy X: Wakka and Lulu tried to convince Yuna to not become a Summoner like her father, because she would die whether she defeated Sin or not. Auron plays this straight with Tidus and Yuna; he doesn't want them to become their fathers—he wants them to surpass them and break the cycle.
  • In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Arvis has twin children, Julius and Julia. One of them has full Loptous blood (from both parents) and the other has full Naga blood (from their mother, Deirdre). So guess who Manfroy tries to remove to keep from emulating their other ancestor. That's right... Julia.
  • God of War (2018): Has an unusual example in that it's the father himself who has this attitude: Kratos has long since come to regret his Villain Protagonist actions in the previous games, and is trying to raise his son Atreus to not repeat the mistakes that put him on that path; unfortunately, Kratos' unwillingness to tell his son any of this (brought on by guilt and self-loathing) causes major dissonance with Atreus, who believes that the reason his father is so distant is because Atreus isn't enough like Kratos, when it's actually because Kratos sees too much of himself in his son: namely his anger issues and Pride.
  • Positive examples of this trope show up in King's Quest. Alexander and Rosella turn out to be just as capable as their father when it comes to adventuring. Alexander is a case of playing it straight, or even an exaggeration, as Mannanan went as far as to call Alex a different name and raise him in a faraway land. (Justified because Mannanan was a wicked wizard and the last thing he needed was a pissed-off Graham showing up) Rosella is an inversion—with her brother gone, she was raised to follow in Graham's footsteps, though she's a bit too much like her father for Valanice's comfort sometimes.
  • Played with in Knights of the Old Republic, where the Jedi Council is trying to stop Revan from going down the same path he took last time around. It isn't the character's father, but the scene is played in the exact same manner down to the Council's reluctance to tell the player about Revan.
  • Something along the lines of this probably happened with Percival Tachyon in Ratchet & Clank, though it substitutes "father" for "entire race". Of course, it didn't succeed.
  • Mass Effect:
    • The attempt to defy this trope is a big part of Miranda Lawson's character. When she realizes how close her desire to implant a control chip into Shepard's brain brought her to becoming like her father, she's horrified and ashamed, and practically begs Shepard for forgiveness.
    • But it also plays this trope straight with Thane Krios. When he discovers that his son, Kolyat, who he hasn't seen for ten years on account of his work as an assassin, is following in his footsteps, Thane is horrified, and works with Shepard to track him down and talk some sense into Kolyat.
  • In Red Dead Redemption, after John Marston is killed by Ross, his son Jack becomes a wandering outlaw seeking revenge; exactly the opposite of the idealistic young man he was before his father died and precisely what John hoped he wouldn't become.
  • Defying this trope ultimately becomes Jake Muller's motivation towards the end of Resident Evil 6, when he finds out just how batshit insane his Omnicidal Maniac father Albert Wesker was.
  • Road 96: John is very hesitant to tell Alex about his birth parents. He worries knowing they built the bomb which the Brigade used in the Collapse of '86 would radicalize Alex. His worries are well-founded as without intervention by the player, Robert will successfully radicalize Alex, convincing him to build a bomb before getting killed during the riots at the Wall.
  • The Tekken series has this in spades with the Mishima clan.
  • Welkin from the first Valkyria Chronicles is given control of a whole squad early on largely because he inherited his father's strategic genius.

    Visual Novels 
  • In the epilogue true ending of The Devil on G-String, Protagonist Kyousuke ends up branded as a criminal for the murder of his brother Kyouhei and sentenced to imprisonment just like his biological father did. The heroine Haru also ends up having a role similar to her mother Mishima's by becoming a world-renowned violinist AND giving birth to her daughter who ALSO has musical talent.

    Web Animation 
  • The third film in The Lazer Collection series features a police detective, Randall, growing metal limbs upon discovering that his father is Dr. Octogonapus.

    Western Animation 
  • In Season 3 of Castlevania (2017), after a particularly traumatic series of events for him, Alucard impales the corpses of Taka and Sumi on stakes outside of his castle as a deterrant to any would-be visitors, even commenting that it worked well enough for his father Dracula.
  • Played with in Goof Troop and A Goofy Movie, where Max himself is afraid of turning into an awkward klutz like his father. In the latter, he even has a nightmare where he transforms into his father and scares off the girl he has a crush on.
  • Young Justice (2010):
    • "Agendas" has the Justice League deciding whether to let Shazam remain a member after they find out he's really a 10-year-old. Batman defends him, and Diana calls Batman out for training Robin at the age of nine:
    Batman: Robin needed to help bring the men who murdered his parents to justice.
    Wonder Woman: So he could turn out like you?
    Batman: So that he wouldn't.
    • In "I Know Why the Caged Cat Sings," Jade reveals that one of the reasons she doesn't want to be involved in the upbringing of her daughter is because she fears Lian turning out like her. Adding to this, she admits that she feels she is too much like her father, the mercenary Sportsmaster, who put both his daughters through hell, training them to fight and being abusive in general.

    Real Life 
  • Ada Lovelace was taught mathematics to suppress the "fanciful poetic instinct" of her father, Lord Byron. It didn't quite work. She still had enough imagination to come up with what was likely the first computer programming language (for Babbage's mechanical computer).
  • Defied with the early Christian theologian Origen. His father was martyred, and the teenage Origen wanted to follow him to glorious death, but his clever mother hid all his clothing. When Origen eventually died, it was late in life from broken health after a long period of imprisonment and torture.


Alternative Title(s): Turn Out Like Her Mother

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