This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Looney Toons: A thought — does this trope contribute to Buffy The Vampire Slayer's "one girl in every generation" bit, or is that something different?
Firvulag: I don't think so. The Slayers weren't a family line, just a series of girls. This trope has more to do with families and lines of decent than just inheriting a title or power.
Gus: It does seems that there is a trope related to the notion of there being only one possible recipient of a given power/responsibility. The Buffy example, of course (series' end notwithstanding); the Crow from the films always picks a new — and only — deader to back up... I'm sure there are others. // Later. Huh. I'm kinda digging on the idea of a superpower that moves from person to person via some whimsy... <starts outlining>
Ununnilium: Hm, yeah. I've seen that a bunch of times.
Robert: It comes under Only One hero allowed, using the phlebotium to give a justification.
Looney Toons: A good example of the trope that Gus is trying to quantify would be the original comic book version of The Mask. But don't forget The Power Pack, though, where there were four powers that shifted around among the four siblings every dozen issues or so....
Robert: Subsequent discussion transferred to Super Hero Origin Discussion
J Random User: Technically, Adams never says anything about only descendant of Khan. Just that he was one.
Nerdorama: someone went to a lot of trouble to avoid saying the name in the Jesus examples. Wouldn't a spoiler tag have been easier? For that matter, being the Last Scion of Jesus is practically its own trope.
Tanto: Spoiler tag abuse is one of the most insidious problems on this wiki. We want to avoid using them whenever possible.
Big T: Not when it comes to Jesus. See The Bible. We intentionally spoiler it because it is funny. Anyone who reads those examples knows exactly who we are talking about, so the only reason to avoid it is to be funny. So I really don't get it. It sounds like you have a personal vendetta against all spoilers, which isn't the case for the rest of the wiki. (And, no, Jesus does not qualify as a short word anyone can fill in.) Also, I removed the following because it is impossible to simultaneously avert (not even bring up) a trope and justify it (which requires bringing up the trope). I'd try to fix it myself, but I don't know the work in question:
- Revelations, however, which features [Jesus'] bloodline yet again, both averts and justifies the trope: there are approximately twelve members left (nobody is quite sure of the exact number), and only that few because the potency of the heritage fades if there are two consecutive generations without "true faith". Given what a rare commodity this seems to be in that world, it's amazing there are that many.
Kuciwalker: Speaking of spoiler tags, I nuked the ones around the Oblivion example. Seriously, you find that stuff out in the first tenth of the game or so. Some of it you found out in the intro sequence.
Vultur: There can be some justification for this, technically. Mitochondrial DNA is passed on only through an unbroken female line, and Y-chromosomal DNA only through an unbroken male line. (Even so, this can get to be large numbers: 1 in 200 Europeans are direct male-line descendants of Genghis Khan.)
Muninn: Removed the following bit, because there was an entire extended family, it just so happens that they were recently killed off. Since there haven't been any new descendents since that time, it can't exactly be counted as a single line of descent.
