History Main / NatureVersusNurture

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': Played with during the ''Saber Wars 2'' event centering around Space Ishtar. The original Space Ishtar was a goddess split into two halves, her "good" and "evil" halves. These were sealed in the form of infant girls, but when Space Tokiomi found them, he decided to leave one sealed and raise the other as his daughter. The one he left sealed is stolen by an evil organization and raised to be their leader. The catch: [[spoiler:Space Tokiomi raised the ''evil'' half as his daughter, while the ''good'' half was stolen by the evil organization. This leads to some interesting characterization, as the "evil" half turns out to be a heroic individual thanks to her upbringing (with her only evil traits being a bit of greed and that she enjoys embarrassing people a little too much), while the good half tries to be an intimidating villain like her organization wants, but [[PokeThePoodle kind of sucks at it]]. Tokiomi decided to raise the evil half because he was curious if evil was inherent to her nature, and figured that if he could curb any evil tendencies, then both halves might be good in the end.]]

* In the Franchise/SherlockHolmes spin-off novel "The Spider's Web" by Philip Purser-Hallard, Holmes and Watson find out that this issue was part of the plan behind the apparent abandonment (really abduction) of the young Ernest Moncrieff (''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingErnest''); [[spoiler:a sergeant with a vendetta against Colonel Moncrieff attempted to abduct the infant Ernest and switch him with the sergeant's own son, intending to reveal the switch later on in life to prove that family history didn't define nobility. However, by the time Holmes has deduced this, the man who may have been the sergeant's son or the "real" Ernest Moncrieff has been killed as part of another conspiracy, and he and Watson conclude that it isn't worth trying to work out if the man currently known as Ernest Moncrieff is the "original" Ernest or the sergeant's son, as nobody would benefit from such a revelation]].

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* ''{{Film/Twins}}'': Discussed. The scientists responsible for Julius and Vincent's creation were firmly on the side of Nature, to the point that they were willing to go through with some extremely unethical experiments to prove their point. Julius, on the other hand, [[CallingTheOldManOut calls the whole idea bullshit]], pointing out that Vincent (the "reject batch") was left to his own devices but still managed to survive and thrive in an environment that would have killed any of them, and could probably, given the opportunity to learn something other than con artistry, theft and cheating, have been the greatest of them all.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueAction'', Mr. Mxyzptlk wonders if Superman and Supergirl would actually turn out the same no matter where on Earth they landed, with him creating a timeline where Clark Kent landed on "Kasnia" (read: [[ComicBook/SupermanRedSon Soviet Union]]) and Linda Lee landed on Hollywood. Eventually they realize that something is wrong, with Superman being the one to trick Mr. Mxyzptlk int saying his name backwards to cancel out all of it.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': Played with during the ''Saber Wars 2'' event centering around Space Ishtar. The original Space Ishtar was a goddess split into two halves, her "good" and "evil" halves. These were sealed in the form of infant girls, but when Space Tokiomi found them, he decided to leave one sealed and raise the other as his daughter. The one he left sealed is stolen by an evil organization and raised to be their leader. The catch: [[spoiler:Space Tokiomi raised the ''evil'' half as his daughter, while the ''good'' half was stolen by the evil organization. This leads to some interesting characterization, as the "evil" half turns out to be a heroic individual thanks to her upbringing (with her only evil traits being a bit of greed and that she enjoys embarrassing people a little too much), while the good half tries to be an intimidating villain like her organization wants, but kind of sucks at it.]]

Everyone knows about some of the fundamental questions to life - [[Series/BabylonFive who are you, what do you want]], [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist where did you come from, and where will you go]]?[[labelnote:*]][[WaxingLyrical Where did you come from]], [[Music/{{Rednex}} Cotton-Eyed Joe?]][[/labelnote]] Those are the "what" questions, but this is the "why". Why did you say that? Why did you do this? Why were you there?

* ''Literature/InCryptid'': A major theme in the books focusing on [[OrcRaisedByElves Sarah]] and her [[BewareTheMindReader species]]. For most of her life, Sarah thought that she and her mother were the only non-sociopathic [[BackstoryInvader Johrlac]]. Then she met [[spoiler:Mark]], who despite still having the GhostMemory that "normal" cuckoos get at their first instar, managed to turn out pretty okay (Sarah's mother had telepathically removed hers, and was herself born without it). They argue about the merits of leaving the Johrlac children with their latent GhostMemory, or removing it like what Angela did with Sarah. [[spoiler:It ends up being a moot point when Sarah deletes all their cultural memory packets to free up space for the HiveMind to use for the FormulaicMagic to get them all home.]]

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* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': It's left ambiguous if Goliad turned evil because she was made from the D.N.A. of WellIntentionedExtremist Princess Bubblegum, or because of Finn and Jake's rather poorly though out lessons while teaching her how to be a ruler. The show seems to go with nature [[AmbiguouslyEvil (which doesn't look good for PB)]] because Stormo, a similar creature made from [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Finn's]] D.N.A., refused to be tempted by Goliad's [[WeCanRuleTogether offer of ruling together]] and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed itself]] to trap the both of them in a SealedEvilInADuel.

* One of the major plot points in the ''Fanfic/AftermathOfTheGames'' universe is that Twilight ends up in charge of raising a filly version of Starlight Glimmer because [[spoiler: unlike her canon counterpart, Starlight [[RedemptionRejection refused to surrender and atone for her actions]] during "The Cutie Re-Mark", so Twilight [[ShootTheDog was left with no choice]] but to [[{{Retgone}} wipe her out of existence]] by convincing the nine-year-old Starlight to run away from her OrphanageOfFear and become her apprentice]]. Twilight and everybody in the know about the filly's origins agrees that part of the reason why the original Starlight became a major psychopath was because spending her entire foal hood in an abusive orphanage prevented her from learning how to connect properly with other ponies, so they take extra care to raise her in a loving enviroment and build her a large support network of ponies that she's able to trust so she gets on the right path. However, because mental illnesses are a mix of both genetics and upbringing, [[RealityEnsues Starlight demonstrates early warning signs of her older self's fanatical behavior]] during ''Integration'', and Twilight fears the possibility that nothing she can do will make a difference.

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** A prominent theme in the [[Recap/OnePieceWholeCakeIslandArc Whole Cake Island]] arc. Both [[spoiler:Sanji]] and [[spoiler:Big Mom]] were shown to have some very troubling pasts, yet the people they are today was the result of different circumstances. [[spoiler:Sanji]] was bullied horrifically as a kid by his father and brothers and locked away to rot. But thanks to the actions of his mother, his sister Reiju, and later [[spoiler:Zeff]], he became a kind hearted person who became strong enough to be one of the toughest pirates around and defend those he cares about. In contrast, [[spoiler:Big Mom]] was abandoned by her parents due to her abnormal strength, the inital person who did raise here was nothing more than a BitchInSheepsClothing using her for her own ends and the person after her seeing her as a meal ticket, with both encouraging her destructive behavior and turning [[spoiler:Big Mom]] into a literal monster. What's more, these are traits [[spoiler:Big Mom]] showcases to her own family who would sooner stab each other in the back then help one another unless [[spoiler:Big Mom]] commands it. [[spoiler:Pudding]] is more or less the middle ground with this, like [[spoiler:Sanji]], she was bullied as a kid and Big Mom didn't do anything to deter it, so she became evil as a result. However when actually shown true kindness, this causes a breakdown because ''no one'' showed real compassion to her before. Leaving her in a state of confusion at a critical moment.

** A prominent theme in the [[Recap/OnePieceWholeCakeIslandArc Whole Cake Island]] arc. Both [[spoiler:Sanji]] and [[spoiler:Big Mom]] were shown to have some very troubling pasts, yet the people they are today was the result of different circumstances. [[spoiler:Sanji]] was bullied horrifically as a kid by his father and brothers and locked away to rot. But thanks to the actions of his mother, Reiju and later [[spoiler:Zeff]], he became a kind hearted person who became strong enough to be one of the toughest pirates around and defend those he cares about. In contrast, [[spoiler:Big Mom]] was abandoned by her parents due to her abnormal strength, the inital person who did raise here was nothing more than a BitchInSheepsClothing using her for her own ends and the person after her seeing her as a meal ticket, with both encouraging her destructive behavior and turning [[spoiler:Big Mom]] into a literal monster. What's more, these are traits [[spoiler:Big Mom]] showcases to her own family who would sooner stab each other in the back then help one another unless [[spoiler:Big Mom]] commands it. [[spoiler:Pudding]] is more or less the middle ground with this, like [[spoiler:Sanji]], she was bullied as a kid and Big Mom didn't do anything to deter it, so she became evil as a result. However when actually shown true kindness, this causes a breakdown because ''no one'' showed real compassion to her before. Leaving her in a state of confusion at a critical moment.

Everyone knows about some of the fundamental questions to life - [[Series/BabylonFive who are you, what do you want]], [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist where did you come from, and where will you go]]?[[labelnote:*]][[WaxingLyrical Where did you come from, Cotton-Eyed Joe?]][[/labelnote]] Those are the "what" questions, but this is the "why". Why did you say that? Why did you do this? Why were you there?