History Main / GenerationalTrauma

* ''Manga/BoysAbyss'': Protagonist Reiji Kurose's mother, Yuko, hides a rather toxic personality underneath her legitimate suffering. A big part of that personality was formed from the abuse she suffered in her childhood and teenage years, where she was beaten by her father and prostituted by her mother to raise the family out of debt. While she didn't like what was being done to herself, she felt like she couldn't--or rather, shouldn't-- leave because even the notion of leaving was discouraged by her great grandmother, who was implied to have been taught the same thing. That and other events in her life cause her to desire the ones she love to stay in town with her and share in her misery, with her biggest focus being Reiji; she groomed him from a young age to be desensitized to their own toxic circumstances and never think about leaving town, which works up until [[SpannerInTheWorks his favorite idol Nagi Aoe moves in]]. It's telling that when Reiji dreams about talking with his mother, he visualizes her grabbing onto him while the shades of older and older women grab onto her and each other.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'': Alma Madrigal is inadvertently abusive to her familia with her ControlFreak tendencies, making them feel like their worth is tied entirely to how they can use their gifts in service to the community. [[MuggleBornOfMages Mirabel]] gets it the worst, [[FantasticAbleism being seen as a burden by Alma for not having a gift at all]]. The reasoning behind her harsh treatment is that the miracle [[spoiler:was born from the sacrifice of her husband's life, so Alma believes that she must protect it by being selfless with its many benefits.]]

** In the ''Future'' episode "[[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E15MrUniverse Mr. Universe]]", Steven learns that his father is estranged from his own parents, having resented their stifling upbringing and going his own way as a musician. Greg thus raised Steven in a loose manner where his son could do anything he wanted, not having to attend school or visit the doctor or other responsibilities distracting from his Gem heritage. However, Steven resents this discovery as he feels he was robbed of the chance to live a normal life instead of one constantly in peril from Gem threats.

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]
* ''[[TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill Betrayal Legacy]]'': The legacy version of ''Betrayal at the House on the Hill'' is set over 14 playthroughs representing generations of the same family exploring the titular house. It begins with a frantic witch hunt and fight for control of the house, and the "deed" to it passes regularly between the families over the centuries of plot. The characters who die in the house will appear in many of the haunts' later chapters as allies or antagonists, and its implied that the repeated horrors have totally scarred the entire family lines.

* ''Manga/BoysAbyss'': Protagonist Reiji Kurose's mother, Yuko, hides a rather toxic personality underneath her legitimate suffering. A big part of that personality was formed from the abuse she suffered in her childhood and teenage years, where she was beaten by her father and prostituted by her mother to raise the family out of debt. While she didn't like what was being done to herself, she felt like she couldn't--or rather, shouldn't-- leave because even the notion of leaving was discouraged by her great grandmother, who was implied to have been taught the same thing. That and other events in her life cause her to desire the ones she love to stay in town with her and share in her misery, with her biggest focus being Reiji; she groomed him from a young age to be desensitized to their own toxic circumstances and never think about leaving town, which works up until [[SpannerInTheWorks his favorite idol Nagi Aoe moves in]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': Sun Yee is the Lee family's most revered ancestor. A widowed mother in times of war who was granted the Red Panda form by the gods so she could protect her village and daughters. For generations, the Red Panda was seen as a blessing, however, the advent of modern times and migration to Canada turned it into an
"[[BlessedWithSuck inconvenience]]." Metaphorically, it can be seen as containing a warrior's soul inside one's genetic memory even if peaceful times render its destructiveness dangerous. This caused Grandmother Wu to teach her daughters and granddaughter that the Panda must be restrained at all costs. If you couple that with her overly strict and demanding parenting, then you get Ming-- a subservient, perfectionist daughter who feels as if she's not enough and that only family matters. Ming is a loving mother but unwittingly emulates Wu's child-rearing style and causes Mei to inherit her own insecurities. In Ming's case, the "repress the Panda" is even stronger, as her Red Panda form is truly gigantic and accidentally scarred her mother's face out of anger. That and her eventual breaking out with Wu prompt Ming to be an overprotective mother.

* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': Sun Yee is the Lee family's most revered ancestor. A widowed mother in times of war who was granted the Red Panda form by the gods so she could protect her village and daughters. For generations, the Red Panda was seen as a blessing, however, the advent of modern times and migration to Canada turned it into a [[BlessedWithSuck inconvenience]]. Metaphorically, it can be seen as containing a warrior's soul inside one's genetic memory even if peaceful times render its destructiveness dangerous. This caused Grandmother Wu to teach her daughters and granddaughter that the Panda must be restrained at all costs. If you couple that with her overly strict and demanding parenting, then you get Ming-- a subservient, perfectionist daughter who feels as if she's not enough and that only family matters. Ming is a loving mother but unwittingly emulates Wu's child-rearing style and causes Mei to inherit her own insecurities. In Ming's case, the "repress the Panda" is even stronger, as her Red Panda form is truly gigantic and accidentally scarred her mother's face out of anger. That and her eventual breaking out with Wu prompt Ming to be an overprotective mother.

* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': Mei Ling's mother is overprotective of her and unwilling to be challenged on her parenting because of how she scarred her mother during her time with the Panda curse.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Since the apparition of Quirks, the conflicts between the Quirked and the Quirkless have shaken the world to its core. Initially, the small but increasing amount of Quirked people is feared and discriminated against as "freaks of nature". The world's countries enter civil wars that are eventually solved only because Quirked people become the majority. Quirkless people are now [[FantasticAbleism seen as essentially disabled and "less evolved"]]. The impacts of this come in three layers. First and only explored briefly, we have the protagonist --whose plight is that his Quirkless status prevents him from achieving his dream of being a superhero. The early chapters show vicious bullying and seem to hint at systematic discrimination. The second layer comes in what we could call intra-Quirkism --people born with physical mutations are seen as more animalistic. Likewise, people whose Quirks are deemed villainous (e.g., brainwashing) are strongly rejected by society out of a sense of disgust and fear. These two layers crystallize in people worshipping "heroic, flashy" quirks. Case in point, Bakugo's abusive behavior is implied to have been overlooked because his Explosion Quirk is fitting for a hero. The third layer is related to the others even if it looks like their antithesis. At some point, the Japanese government decrees heavy regulations on Quirk usage --they can only be freely used on private property or upon getting licensed as a hero. As Quirks are a fundamental part of a person's identity and natural extensions of themselves, this causes some people to feel stifled and limited. Hence, the creation of the Meta Liberation Army, a terrorist organization aiming to eradicate the regulations, which has the potential of easily sinking Japan into chaos and violence.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'':
** Since the apparition of Quirks, the conflicts between the Quirked and the Quirkless have shaken the world to its core. Initially, the small but increasing amount of Quirked people is feared and discriminated against as "freaks of nature". The world's countries enter civil wars that are eventually solved only because Quirked people become the majority. Quirkless people are now [[FantasticAbleism seen as essentially disabled and "less evolved"]]. The impacts of this come in three layers. First and only explored briefly, we have the protagonist --whose plight is that his Quirkless status prevents him from achieving his dream of being a superhero. The early chapters show vicious bullying and seem to hint at systematic discrimination. The second layer comes in what we could call intra-Quirkism --people born with physical mutations are seen as more animalistic. Likewise, people whose Quirks are deemed villainous (e.g., brainwashing) are strongly rejected by society out of a sense of disgust and fear. These two layers crystallize in people worshipping "heroic, flashy" quirks. Case in point, Bakugo's abusive behavior is implied to have been overlooked because his Explosion Quirk is fitting for a hero. The third layer is related to the others even if it looks like their antithesis. At some point, the Japanese government decrees heavy regulations on Quirk usage --they can only be freely used on private property or upon getting licensed as a hero. As Quirks are a fundamental part of a person's identity and natural extensions of themselves, this causes some people to feel stifled and limited. Hence, the creation of the Meta Liberation Army, a terrorist organization aiming to eradicate the regulations, which has the potential of easily sinking Japan into chaos and violence.
** At the dawn of Quirks, the quarrel between two brothers would later shape much of the "heroes vs. villains" eternal conflict. The older one, All for One, believes that MightMakesRight and so he became the most powerful DiabolicalMastermind of Japan's history, ruling its underworld for about two centuries. His influence is so pervasive because he ruled the country before the government had time to recover. The younger brother strongly disagrees and vainly tries to fight his brother. When he gets a Quirk from All for One, it fuses with his own Quirk, spawning One for All, which would be passed down for nine generations of non-blood related wielders. Each wielder would be hunted down by One for All, living in terror and trying their most to evolve the Quirk. Until the eight, All Might, amassed enough power to become TheParagon and gravely injure One for All. The All for One and One for All Quirks (along with their responsibilities) have been now passed down to respectively, Shigaraki and Midoriya. The former is the grandson of the seventh wielder, who gives her son in adoption right before she had to face All for One. This causes him to grow resentful of heroes and eventually berate his own son, who wanted to become a hero. The kid orphans himself when he's had enough and is then adopted by All for One.

** Since the apparition of Quirks, the conflicts between the Quirked and the Quirkless have shaken the world to its core. Initially, the small but increasing amount of Quirked people is feared and discriminated against as "freaks of nature". The world's countries enter civil wars that are eventually solved only because Quirked people become the majority. Quirkless people are now [[FantasticAbleism seen as essentially disabled and "less evolved"]]. The impacts of this come in three layers. First and only explored briefly, we have the protagonist --whose plight is that his Quirkless status prevents him from achieving his dream of being a superhero. The early chapters show vicious bullying and seem to hint at systematic discrimination. The second layer comes in what we could call intra-Quirkism --people born with physical mutations are seen as more animalistic. Likewise, people whose Quirks are deemed villainous (e.g., brainwashing) are strongly rejected by society out of a sense of disgust and fear. These two layers crystallize in people worshipping "heroic, flashy" quirks. Case in point, Bakugo's abusive behavior is implied to have been overlooked because his Explosion Quirk is fitting for a hero. The third layer is related to the others even if it looks like their antithesis. At some point, the Japanese government decrees heavy regulations on Quirk usage --they can only be freely used on private property or upon getting licensed as a hero. As Quirks are a fundamental part of a person's identity and natural extensions of themselves, this causes some people to feel stifled and limited. Hence, the creation of the Meta Liberation Front, a terrorist organization aiming to eradicate the regulations, which has the potential of easily sinking Japan into chaos and violence.

One of the reasons why the concept of legacy is such a big deal in fiction is that one's actions can and often do impact our descendants' lives. We call it Generational Trauma when these consequences are negative. Make no mistake, however, it doesn't need to involve psychological trauma. Anyone has four things to their name: patrimony, reputation, beliefs, and lifestyle. Either of them going haywire has the potential of wreaking havoc generations down.

Yes, being an overly restrictive parent might cause the children to be so hands-off that they neglect the grandchildren. Who, without a guide, might end in bad company. However, there are many more possibilities for generational conflict. Vainly spending all of the family's money, for example, will leave them all poor, therefore limiting the following generations' financial security. Going to a war that is ultimately lost will mark that soldier's offspring as traitors to the new system. They may even be politically persecuted.

Following down that line we get nasty stuff like systematic discrimination. The law might say otherwise but the descendants of slaves (and marginalized groups in general) find themselves in way worse standing than those whose ancestors were from the privileged class. Both because they can't access the same educational/job opportunities and because there linger the initial rationalizations of why it was okay to own slaves.

This, in turn, fosters resentment and causes the whole situation to feedback on itself. Therefore creating historical trauma, the social variant of this trope. When it's so pervasive that it becomes an ingrained dynamic in society. In academic circles, this is called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgenerational_trauma Transgenerational Trauma]].

Contrast FreudianExcuse and BigScrewedUpFamily. Those tropes focus on the presence of issues, with the former specifically concerning how they explain a character's current behavior. On the other hand, generational trauma examines the origin and transmission of issues. How the root cause came to be, how it relates to its negative impacts, and how it becomes the breeding ground for more trauma.

'''Note: When listing examples, please remember to focus on how issues originate and get transmitted.'''

* ''Art/MarriageALaMode'': The {{paintings}} criticize the then tendency of the upper class to marry out of financial interest and not out of love, and house this negatively impacts everyone involved. The Earl of Squanderfield has been unwise with his family fortune, so he betroths his son to the daughter of a rich, corrupt merchant. It's implied that the son looks down on his fiancée, which combined with the hedonistic lifestyle he learned from his father --hence, the bankruptcy-- leads to him having contracted an ETS and frequenting brothels. Likewise, the merchant's daughter shares her father's lack of scruples. Seeing the sorry state her husband is in, she decides to engage in a more sexually-rewarding extramarital affair with an AmoralAttorney. Consequently, both spouses neglect their daughter, leaving her to be raised by their servants. In the end, it all ends in tragedy, as their mutual unfaithfulness causes them to orphan the little girl.

* ''Fanfic/{{Paradoxus}}'': Sky's parents have a loveless marriage, in which Samara was forced to marry Erendor because he was Eraklyon's soon-to-be king and Erendor only ever saw her as a prize and a way to strengthen the crown's ties with her aristocrat family. This kind of thinking --that people are only valuable depending on their nobility rank-- is so ingrained in Erakli culture and the royal family that Samara and Erendor don't really care about Sky. They raise him believing that he's only worthy of love and attention when he's fulfilling his royal duties and ignoring his own wishes. Then Sky meets Bloom, who cares about him for being him and not a crown prince. He rebels against his parents and latches onto her to the point that his self-worth is dependent on Bloom. When Bloom dies, he falls into a deep depression and dissociates from the world, only going on autopilot and severely neglecting his daughters. They are literally sent into war zones to train and he doesn't bat an eye. Altalune, his eldest daughter and the crown princess, finally [[CallingTheOldManOut explodes]] when their first conversation in years is about how she has to marry the heir of this Erakli nobleman. She and her little sister Trisha spent their teenage years yearning for the affectionate father they once knew but now they have stopped loving Sky. Even then, both of them believe themselves superior to others because they are royalty.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'': Miguel aspires to be a musician but is strictly forbidden to by Abuela Elena who hates music with a passion. The reason is that her mother, Mamá Coco, and grandmother, Mamá Imelda, were abandoned by the latter's husband when he became a musician, went on tour, and never came back. This started the family tradition of avoiding anything music related. When Miguel is transported to the Land of the Dead, he frantically tries to find his idol Ernesto de la Cruz --who he also believes to be his great-grandfather-- and get a blessing to become a musician.

* ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'': The battle of Koom Valley is a recurring NoodleIncident throughout the series to explain why dwarfs hate trolls and vice versa. It's occasionally described as being so chaotic that both sides ambushed themselves. Every fight between the two species since then uses "Remember Koom Valley" as a rallying cry. It's finally resolved in ''{{Literature/Thud}}'' when it turns out [[spoiler:it was meant to be a peace conference]], but the fog that fell made everyone twitchy, and no one knows who attacked first until there was a cave-in that trapped the fighters underground. [[spoiler:There, both sides managed to FlingALightIntoTheFuture to explain what had really happened]]. The cultural implications are so staggering that [[spoiler:a dwarf grag]] attempts to destroy the recording despite [[spoiler:the destruction of recorded knowledge being anathema to dwarfs]].

* ''Series/RussianDoll'': Nadia is a troubled woman with self-destructive tendencies who ends up in a GroundhogDayLoop after dying on her 36th birthday. In the process of getting out of the loop, she's forced the confront the impact that her mother's mental illness and suicide had on her life. In the first season, it's hinted that all these issues ultimately stem from her grandparents' trauma and paranoia after [[GenocideSurvivor surviving the Holocaust]]. This is elaborated on further in the second season when Nadia is able to time travel by taking over her mother's and grandmother's bodies. She desperately tries to alter to past to change her family's fate, [[spoiler: only to realize that her actions created a StableTimeLoop]].
* ''Series/UnderTheBannerOfHeaven'': The series is based on the notorious Lafferty murders of TheEighties in which a pair of fanatical Mormons murdered the wife and daughter of their estranged brother. It aims to examine how the two killers were shaped by their abusive religious family and how the entire Latter-Day Saints movement has never really gotten over the death of its first prophet, Joseph Smith. The causes of that are the turbulent power struggle that followed and the 1890 capitulation to the US government, which made Mormons subject to the laws of the United States, even when those laws conflicted with their religious beliefs. They officially ended the practices of plural marriage and blood atonement within the main church, causing the schism that produced most of the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints sects. It's also relevant to the Lafferty case, as Ron and Dan Lafferty kill their sister-in-law Brenda as "blood atonement" after she "fornicated" by helping their wives leave them after she found out that Ron and Dan were planning to take children as other wives. Note that "fornication" --one of the sins for which blood atonement is prescribed-- is obviously misused in this case.

-->-- ''Literature/IfThisBookExistsYoureInTheWrongUniverse''

->''The Devil is real, but he doesn't turn up in a red suit with hooves. You have to imagine him as like a disease that you get — you pass it on and you don't even know it. Educated people don't call it the devil; they call it "trauma". It rewires your brain and tries to spread itself down to the next generation and the one after that, the pain rolling down through time... But if you want to fight him, the way you do it is by making sure you don't pass on the trauma. That's how you kill the devil. The only way.''
-->--from '''Literature/IfThisBookExistsYoureInTheWrongUniverse'''

This, in turn, fosters resentment and causes the whole situation to feedback on itself. Therefore creating historical trauma, the social variant of this trope. When it's so pervasive that it becomes an ingrained dynamic in society. In academic circles, this is called Transgenerational Trauma.

This, in turn, fosters resentment and causes the whole situation to feedback on itself. Therefore creating historical trauma, the social variant of this trope. When it's so pervasive that it becomes an ingrained dynamic in society.

Generational trauma is a SisterTrope of TroubleFromThePast. The difference is that this one explores a different perspective. The children of slaves are the ones who get generational trauma. If they decide to get retribution, then it's the children of the slavers who get trouble from the past. Likewise, it's very similar to SinsOfTheFather but different in that it applies regardless of whether the ancestor was the one to slight or the one who was slighted.

*** The ideas (and assassination) of Zeon Zum Deikun likewise haunt the Universal Century for decades. Zeon developed the ideas of Ere-ism (i.e. Earth is sacred as the origin of mankind, and mankind ought to leave it to recover and take to the stars) and Side-ism (i.e. the space colonies have the right to be independent of the Earth Federation rather than be second class citizens), and also put forth the theory of Newtypes (i.e. by expanding into space, humanity would evolve into a "new type" of mankind). His ideas continue to be utilised by various factions as justification for all sorts of atrocities, such as [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam the Titans accusing anyone sympathetic to his ideas as rebels to be killed on sight]], to numerous Spacenoid organisations invoking his name, to his own son [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Casval Rem Deikun]] (aka [[RedBaron Red Comet]] Char Aznable) attempting to drop the asteroid Axis on Earth to cause a nuclear winter and force humanity to leave Earth for good. Even as late as [[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam UC0149]], almost 70 years after Zeon's death, the Zanscare Empire adopt part of his ideals during their own brutal grab for power.

*** Most famously the effects of the devastating One Year War reverberate throughout the decades. Part of this is due to the sheer loss of life (5.8 billion people lost their lives, over half the entire population of the entire Earth Sphere), part of this is due to the horrific destruction unleashed (many of the destroyed colonies and Sides are simply left as haunted ruins, with little interest and attempts at rebuilding and recolonising them), and partly due to the LensmanArmsRace begun by the creation of the titular Gundam as well as the development of Psyco (Psychic Communication) technology. There are still stubborn Zeon remnants from the One Year War active as late as [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn 0094]], almost 20 years after the war ended. Worse, many of these remnants have raised families and their children have inherited their hatred of the Earth Federation, despite not even being born when the War took place.

One of the reasons why the concept of legacy is such a big deal in fiction is that one's actions can and often do impact our descendants' lives. We call it Generational Trauma when these consequences are negative.

Make no mistake, however, it doesn't need to involve psychological trauma. Anyone has four things to their name: patrimony, reputation, beliefs, and lifestyle. Either of them going haywire has the potential of wreaking havoc generations down. Yes, being an overly restrictive parent might cause the children to be so hands-off that they neglect the grandchildren. Who, without a guide, might end in bad company.

However, there are many more possibilities for generational conflict. Vainly spending all of the family's money, for example, will leave them all poor, therefore limiting the following generations' financial security. Going to a war that is ultimately lost will mark that soldier's offspring as traitors to the new system. They may even be politically persecuted.

[[AC:Anime & Manga]]

** Since the apparition of Quirks, the conflicts between the Quirked and the Quirkless have shaken the world to its core. Initially, the small but increasing amount of Quirked people are feared and discriminated against as "freaks of nature". The world's countries enter civil wars that are eventually solved only because Quirked people become the majority. Quirkless people are now seen as essentially disabled and "less evolved". The impacts of this come in three layers. First and only explored briefly, we have the protagonist --whose plight is that his Quirkless status prevents him from achieving his dream of being a superhero. The early chapters show vicious bullying and seem to hint at systematic discrimination. The second layer comes in what we could call intra-Quirkism --people born with physical mutations are seen as more animalistic. Likewise, people whose Quirks are deemed villainous (e.g., brainwashing) are strongly rejected by society out of a sense of disgust and fear. These two layers crystallize in people worshipping "heroic, flashy" quirks. Case in point, Bakugo's abusive behavior is implied to have been overlooked because his Explosion Quirk is fitting for a hero. The third layer is related to the others even if it looks like their antithesis. At some point, the Japanese government decrees heavy regulations on Quirk usage --they can only be freely used on private property or upon getting licensed as a hero. As Quirks are a fundamental part of a person's identity and natural extensions of themselves, this causes some people to feel stifled and limited. Hence, the creation of the Meta Liberation Front; a terrorist organization aiming to eradicate the regulations, which has the potential of easily sinking Japan into chaos and violence.

[[AC:Art]]

[[AC:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'': It's, on the surface, about the memories of Holocaust survivor Vladek Spiegelman and his late wife Anja, but it also delves into what it was like for his son, author Art Spiegelman, to grow up as the son of two Holocaust survivors, and the mental health issues it caused in him, especially as he had to grow up in the shadow of an older brother who was killed by a relative. At one point, Vladek finds an old underground comic that Art published, "Prisoner of the Hell Planet", in which he vents his resentment and bitterness at his mother for committing suicide three months after Art left a mental hospital, forcing him to deal with his father's grief and paranoia at a time when he was very poorly equipped to do so.

[[AC:Fan Works]]

[[AC:Films -- Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'': Alma Madrigal is inadvertently abusive to her familia, making them feel like their worth is tied entirely to how they can use their gifts in service to the community. Mirabel gets it the worst, being seen as a burden by Alma for not having a gift at all. The reasoning behind her harsh treatment is that the miracle [[spoiler:was born from the sacrifice of her husband's life, so Alma believes that she must protect it by being selfless with its many benefits.]]

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'': The battle of Koom Valley is a recurring NoodleIncident throughout the series to explain why dwarfs hate trolls and vice versa. It's occasionally described as being so chaotic that both sides ambushed themselves. Every fight between the two species since then uses "Remember Koom Valley" as a rallying cry. It's finally resolved in ''{{Literature/Thud}}'', when it turns out [[spoiler:it was meant to be a peace conference]], but the fog that fell made everyone twitchy, and no one knows who attacked first until there was a cave-in that trapped the fighters underground. [[spoiler:There, both sides managed to FlingALightIntoTheFuture to explain what had really happened]]. The cultural implications are so staggering that [[spoiler:a dwarf grag]] attempts to destroy the recording despite [[spoiler:the destruction of recorded knowledge being anathema to dwarfs]].

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''Franchise/FateSeries'': Zoken is the centuries-old, patriarch of the Matou family. Throughout his life, his ideals become corrupted until he only cares about power. Unfortunately for him, the Matous' magic has been slowly dying out for decades. If you combine this with that in magus culture the strength and lineage of one's magical crests are everything, then you get an unforgiving, immoral grandfather who disdains and abuses his offspring --his son Byakuya and his grandson Shinji for having been born with crests too weak to be trained as magi. Byakuya tries to be a supportive, loving father, however, Zoken's insults are overwhelming enough that Shinji grows a bitter, arrogant, sexual abuser. To add salt in the wound, Zoken adopts the daughter of another family, Sakura, in the hopes of passing down the family magic to her. In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Shinji shows no compunctions to venting out his frustrations on Sakura and letting his Servant drain people's souls. The Matous who have indeed strong crests aren't treated any better. Zoken disowns his other son, Kariya, after the latter rejects his family's traditions out of repulsion. Even then, Shinji and Kariya are similar in that they are possessive and abusive toward their LoveInterests. As ''Literature/FateZero'' shows, Kariya only accepts the magic to save his crush's daughter Sakura from being adopted by Zoken. Both of them are subjected to what amounts to rape by magical worms and become living hives for the wretched things in exchange for a powerful magic boost.

[[AC:Western Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ShrekTheThird'': It's {{implied}} to be a common custom among new ogre parents to try and toughen up their children from an early age so they can survive -- this is later expanded in the musical. Shrek tells Arthur that his father attempted to eat him as a child. As a consequence, Shrek is terrified to pass the tradition on to his children, but he eventually learns how to be a good father with the help of Fiona.

** ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'':
** The wars that left Earth devastated and prompted the development of the various space colonies left their legacy in the form of the Gundam Fight: instead of full-fledged wars that would wind up destroying the very planet they want to rule, the Space Colonies instead send representatives to fight in a tournament with the victor's colony becoming ruler of Earth until the next Gundam Fight. However, Master Asia's FaceHeelTurn is triggered by his realisation that the Gundam Fight is generally just as destructive as a full war since the Gundam Fighters representing their colonies are cutting edge with all sorts of powerful weapons and techniques, meaning any fights can wind up devastating the surrounding area. Likewise, Gundam Fighters are generally feared and hated by inhabitants of Earth who get caught up in their Fights.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Since the apparition of Quirks, the conflicts between the Quirked and the Quirkless have shaken the world to its core. Initially, the small but increasing amount of Quirked people are feared and discriminated against as "freaks of nature". The world's countries enter civil wars that are eventually solved only because Quirked people become the majority. Quirkless people are now seen as essentially disabled and "less evolved". The impacts of this come in three layers. First and only explored briefly, we have the protagonist --whose plight is that his Quirkless status prevents him from achieving his dream of being a superhero. The early chapters show vicious bullying and seem to hint at systematic discrimination. The second layer comes in what we could call intra-Quirkism --people born with physical mutations are seen as more animalistic. Likewise, people whose Quirks are deemed villainous (e.g., brainwashing) are strongly rejected by society out of a sense of disgust and fear. These two layers crystallize in people worshipping "heroic, flashy" quirks. Case in point, Bakugo's abusive behavior is implied to have been overlooked because his Explosion Quirk is fitting for a hero. The third layer is related to the others even if it looks like their antithesis. At some point, the Japanese government decrees heavy regulations on Quirk usage --they can only be freely used on private property or upon getting licensed as a hero. As Quirks are a fundamental part of a person's identity and natural extensions of themselves, this causes some people to feel stifled and limited. Hence, the creation of the Meta Liberation Front; a terrorist organization aiming to eradicate the regulations, which has the potential of easily sinking Japan into chaos and violence.

'''Indexes''': BlameTropes, CynicismTropes, DramaTropes, FamilyTropes, GenerationalTropes, ParentalIssues, {{Plots}}, WeAreNotAloneIndex.