Basic Trope: A Hero is killed and someone else must take his place.
- Straight: Jack dies saving his little sister Jill from murderers and Jill feels she must avenge him somehow.
- Exaggerated: Jill takes up his word, his way of speaking, his mannerisms, starts wearing the same clothes, listen to the same music, and insists she be called Jack.
- Downplayed: Jack is only wounded, not killed, but because of his wounds he can't continue his career as a hero, so he asks Jill to take his place.
- Justified: Jack is part of a line of heroes and Jill is the next one in line. Hence, Jill was always meant to take Jack's place after he died.
- Inverted: Jack dies. Jill must therefore join the line of villains that killed him.
- Subverted:
- Jack is killed by murderers. Jill feels no obligation to avenge him.
- Jack dies, Jill takes up sword, then Jack comes Back from the Dead and takes the sword back.
- Jack dies, but since Jill never trained in swordplay, she merely keeps Jack's sword as a memento instead of wielding it.
- Double Subverted:
- (First one down)...Until Jack's murderers come after her. Then it's a matter of survival, and Jack's sword just happens to be the best method of self-defense she's got.
- (Second one down)...That is, until she's trained for a while. After training, she goes out to avenge him.
- (Third one down)...At least, until her daughter Jackie becomes good enough with swords that she can take up her uncle's blade instead.
- Parodied:
- Every hero in the line got their job by watching the previous one get killed.
- Jack falls over in McDonalds. Jill robs him of his sword and sets on for vengeance against the Monster Clown.
- Zig Zagged:
- Jack is killed by murderers, but Jill feels no obligation to avenge him...until she's trained. But she was going to train anyway - his death wasn't a motivating factor in her desire for training.
- Jill swears to avenge Jack, but not by adopting his weapon or his combat style — that was what got him killed, because his murderers shot him from a distance where his sword was useless. Instead, Jill resolves to become a skilled gunslinger herself so that she can fight Jack's killers on even ground.
- Averted: Jack dies in an accident, and no one can be blamed. She mourns and lives on normally.
- Enforced: "I've run out of ideas for Jack-centric episodes. Let's kill him off and allow a newer hero to take over."
- Lampshaded: "No! Jack is dead! Now Jill must take up his sword."
- Invoked: Jack is a Decoy Protagonist whose role as a protector to Jill hinders her as much as helps her. He knows that the only way for her to reach her full potential is for him to die.
- Exploited: The Big Bad wants Jill to be the wielder of Jack's sword for whatever reason, so he conspires to have Jack killed to force Jill to take it up.
- Defied: Jill develops a serious phobia towards combat and Jack's sword in particular. She can barely touch it without receiving horrible flashbacks and understandably wants nothing to do with it.
- Discussed: "Hey, Jill, sorry about your brother. He was one of our best. Any chance you'd be willing to fight with us in his stead?"
- Conversed: "Welp, Jack just died. I wonder if Jill is going to be the new hero now?"
- Deconstructed: Jill feels obligated to avenge Jack but has no training to back her up or natural skill with which to fight. She gets slaughtered as soon as she starts fighting.
- Reconstructed: After getting her ass kicked enough times, she starts training and becomes badass enough to handle things on her own.
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