History Main / InTheBlood

** Understandable as this is a kid's series. Kids don't really understand 'grey' so much as they do 'GOOD' and 'BAD'. However, this is not a good thing to teach kids.

** Not exactly the case, as there's a true genetic component there, he's not purely Man, he's got Elven blood in the mix, which accounts for his superior attributes such was longevity (he was 87 at the start of Fellowship, and lived to 210).

* ''Manga/DragonBallZ'': While Frieza was a monster and Buu was in it ForTheEvulz, Cell was born with no other purpose other than becoming more powerful.

* For an example of someone who doesn't give a second thought to their villainous ancestry, look no further than [[{{Flash}} Bart Allen]] -- better known as Impulse/Kid Flash II. It's common knowledge that he's the grandson of the Silver Age Flash. What ''isn't'' common knowledge [[hottip:* :I ''think'' only about a dozen or so people in-universe know this]] is that he's also descended from Barry's psychotic EvilCounterpart, Professor Zoom. He's long known this fact [[hottip:* :Impulse #25. He's more upset that Meloni didn't spill the truth earlier.]], but doesn't really think about it, let alone talk about it, unless someone explicitly brings it up, and more-or-less laughs off Zoom's accusation of "[[FeudingFamilies bloodline betrayal]]":

** Averted in Whitebeard's beliefs, though. [[spoiler:Upon being informed that Ace was the son of Gold Roger(a major rival of Whitebeard), the pirate captain didn't care in the least, saying it was an inconsequential detail. During the war with the World Government, he is stabbed by one of his allies, who's crew had previously been wiped out by Roger and felt betrayed upon finding out that they were going to such lengths to save Ace. Whitebeard simply tells him that Ace himself had done nothing to the guy, and that it was ridiculous to blame Ace for his father's actions.]]

* Plenty of contestants on cooking-competition shows like ''{{Chopped}}'' seem to have a colloquial belief in this trope, citing parents' or grandparents' culinary skills as evidence they were pre-destined by heredity to be chefs.

* The work of Creator/HPLovecraft. From Shadow Over Innsmouth's [[spoiler:Deep One-blooded]] protagonist to the protagonist of The Rats in the Walls having a predisposition toward [[spoiler:cannibalism and insanity]]; plus The Tomb's family links between the dead and living, it's completely pervasive.

* Imriel in the ''KushielsLegacy'' books is the son of the biggest traitors to his country, and despite him being a good-hearted person (and raised by other goodhearted people), everyone around him suspects that someday he might take after his mother. [[spoiler: Later on, a group of people have a psychic prediction that Imriel's son would take after his mother and destroy their nation, and kill his pregnant wife to make sure this doesn't happen. This editor presumes that evil skipped a generation.]]

* Rock Howard from ''[[FatalFury Mark of the Wolves]]'' seems to suffer from this. He struggles with his "evil side" inherited from Geese Howard, despite being raised almost entirely by Terry.
** The evil influence is not from his father [[spoiler: but from his mother's side of the family.]]

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}' when Caleb finds out that [[spoiler:Nerissa is his mother.]] She tries to convince him of this and he flat-out denies it.

[[folder:Film]]

* [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger's]] [[AxCrazy great paternal linage]] [[BlatantLies helped make him the great man he is today]]. Yup all 100 of his psychotic inmate fathers.

* Tohno Shiki of ''{{Tsukihime}}'' lived [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent most of his life normally]], yet can somehow instinctually remember all the assassination techniques of the Nanaya clan through his blood, which conveniently powers him up whenever something serious happens. Judging by appearance, you might as well call it his SuperpoweredEvilSide. Explained in {{Canon}} by the fact that [[spoiler:the Nanaya were incestuous and grounded in tradition to hold onto their supernatural powers, which are only supposed to last one generation]].
* Being another member of the Demon Hunter's Association, [[KaraNoKyoukai the Ryogi family's daughter]] also received powers from supernatural blood.

* It probably has as much to do with nurture (or lack thereof) as nature, but [[spoiler: Dahlia Hawthorne]] is at least as petty and murderous as [[spoiler: her mother Morgan Fey]] in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney: Trials and Tribulations''. Fortunately it seems to have passed over [[spoiler: Pearl and Iris]].
** And in ''Investigations'' it's all over the place. Both [[spoiler: Ernest Amano and his son Lance are no strangers to crime]] and for Kay Faraday [[spoiler: it's [[GentlemanThief noble thievery]] that runs in the blood. Granted it's also a TakeUpMySword situation, but Faraday was dead before Kay even found out he was the Yatagarasu.]]
* Rock Howard from ''[[FatalFury Mark of the Wolves]]'' seems to suffer from this. He struggles with his "evil side" inherited from Geese Howard, despite being raised almost entirely by Terry.
** The evil influence is not from his father [[spoiler: but from his mother's side of the family.]]
* Very subtle in ''FireEmblem: Radiant Dawn,'' but present nonetheless: One of the most amoral members of the Greil Mercenaries turned out to be [[spoiler: the son of the BigBad from the previous game.]] Possibly averted in that despite being amoral, he is also fiercely loyal ([[HoYay ahem]]) to Ike, and for lack of a conscience of his own, he often follows Ike's.
** In Fire Emblem Blazing Sword we have minor villain Erik, son of the corrupt Marquess Darin. In the next game in the continuity Erik has grown up to be exact same tyrannical ruler his father was, and repeats his predecessors mistakes [[HistoryRepeats step by step]] even going so far as to kidnap a little girl(for different reasons but still). This is bothersome as Darin wasn't truly evil until he met Ephidel and Erik seemed repentant after being defeated by Eliwood and Hector.
* It's regularly noted in ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' that Battler has more than a few similarities to his grandfather, Kinzo. Considering that Kinzo is certifiably batshit insane in every sense of the word, [[BigScrewedUpFamily as well as the fact that crazy]] [[ItRunsInTheFamily seems to run in the family in general]], we can assume that this is not a good thing.

* ''Disney/TheLionKing II: Simba's Pride'' used this with Nuka, the only son of Scar. He is evil, [[BeautyEqualsGoodness very]] [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute ugly]], and receives a DisneyVillainDeath. Ironic, as the film was supposed to be subverting InTheBlood. The film was supposed to have Scar's son as a protagonist, but that wasn't possible because it would've made its Romeo and Juliet [[KissingCousins cousins]]. Though Nuka is a lot more sympathetic than Scar, since he just wants his mother to be proud of him. A last crazed attempt to earn her pride even gets him killed.

* Manga/DragonBall Z: While Frieza was a monster and Buu was in it ForTheEvulz, Cell was born with no other purpose other than becoming more powerful.

Sometimes even TheMessiah and the most valiant KnightInShiningArmor are at risk of going insane, or over to TheDarkSide, if a parent or grandparent was a VillainByDefault or member of an [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Evil Race]]. This inevitably leads said character into a {{Wangst}}y [[HeroicBSOD existential crisis]] that [[CompressedVice comes completely out of left field,]] since they rarely ever struggled against villainous impulses before this revelation.

* [[Webcomic/CiemWebcomicSeries Candi Levens']] ancestry includes [[HornyDevils Honeybee Samuel and Dwayne Lloyd]]. Sure enough, she and her sisters are completely obsessed with sex. Especially bad for Candi, because she's a DoomMagnet who therefore CantHaveSexEver. At least, not with {{Muggles}}. She's initially in denial of this fact; it doesn't end well for [[spoiler: Denny]].

* This is a legitimate worry for the ''{{Runaways}}'' at first, before they decide to ScrewDestiny and stick it to their parents. [[spoiler: Most of them, anyway.]]

--> '''Titus''': "And when I say crazy, I don't mean, '[[CampGay My mom is ''insane!'']]' I mean, '[[DeadpanSnarker We the people find the defendant]]....'

* ChristopherTitus has made a career of 50% DysfunctionJunction and 50% this trope. His father had an extremely promiscuous and addictive personality and his mother was crazy.

* ChristopherTitus has made a career 50% of DysfunctionJunction and this trope. His father had an extremely promiscuous and addictive personality and his mother was crazy.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]

* In ''PrincessTutu'', Fakir [[spoiler: is a descendant of Drosselmeyer. It follows that he has the same story-spinning powers as Drosselmeyer, and this ends up being crucial to the plot.]]