Line #46 Main/AntiNepotism


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6	-><''I just... It's really complex, you know? I have to work against the stigma of stealing a starship and getting away with it, then I have to deal with being Tanis's daughter. Half the time I can't tell if I'm being judged by one of those two things, or by my actions.''>
7	-->-- '''Cadet Cary Richards''', ''Literature/{{Aeon 14}}: The Scipio Alliance''
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9	{{Nepotism}} is a longstanding practice whereby [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections people with personal connections to authority figures]] are elevated in position regardless of, and often despite, their actual level of competence. The practice is so well-known, and so commonly hated as a form of corruption, that some ''honest'' authority figures have been known to swing too far the other direction to avoid any possible appearance that they might be unduly favoring their own kin and friends.
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11	While on the one level Anti-Nepotism generally shows the practicer's bonafides as a ReasonableAuthorityFigure and/or HonestCorporateExecutive, it's hard on the people on the receiving end. They may feel their own ambitions are being stifled by their powerful relative, breeding resentment. Or they may become [[WellDoneSonGuy increasingly desperate to please the relative]] and take greater and more dangerous risks. [[TakeAThirdOption Or]] it might just be fodder for grumbling to their friends but not significantly affect their personal relationship to their powerful relative.
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13	A DefiedTrope form of {{Nepotism}}. See also WellDoneSonGuy. Compare LimitedAdvancementOpportunities, where out-of-universe concerns prevent a character from getting deserved promotions. Overlaps with BelatedChildDiscipline if someone who once benefitted from nepotism can't rely on it anymore.
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15	!!Examples:
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17	[[foldercontrol]]
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19	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
20	* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', the aristocratic Captain Byakuya forbade anyone from promoting his sister, Rukia, to the position her strength would normally merit. The reason is that (in Soul Society) Captains and Lieutenants are expected to fight on the front lines, against any enemies too tough or unfamiliar for the rank-and-file to handle, and he didn't want her to get hurt. Rukia's Captain begrudgingly acceded, but it all came to nothing when [[TheChosenOne plot]] [[SpannerInTheWorks events]] got her involved in dangerous stuff anyway. Byakuya seems to have eventually changed his mind, as Rukia becomes a Lieutenant after the TimeSkip, [[spoiler:and is a Captain in the DistantFinale.]]
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23	[[folder:Comic Books]]
24	* ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'': In one story, Coach Clayton is running his gym class and while he encourages the boys to take it easy with the exercises, he pushes his own son Chuck to work much harder, making him perform a higher high jump or catch a faster ball than the others. Archie finally calls him out on this, telling him it isn't fair to treat his son differently for better or worse. Coach Clayton sighs, agrees with Archie, apologizes to Chuck for treating him differently... [[GoneHorriblyRight and then says that from now on, ALL the boys will be pushed just as hard as him!]]
25	* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'': The 20th Cavalry Regiment is headed by a colonel whose son is also in the regiment, and is punished for just about every single thing he says by the colonel to avoid any accusations of nepotism (funnily, the other soldiers still call the son "daddy's boy"). The son finally snaps back at the colonel, who is stunned that his son is finally a man. Of course, old habits are hard to break, and at the end of the story, the son is punished for speaking out of turn (that is, saying "Goodbye, Luke" without asking PermissionToSpeakFreely).
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28	[[folder:Fan Works]]
29	* ''Fanfic/AccidentalSuccessor'':
30	** Since Eraserhead mentored Izuku, Katsuki, Mina and Eijiro, the four of them are banned from entering U.A.'s Recommendation Exams; they have to apply to the Entrance Exams instead.
31	** All of the staff that are involved in organizing the Entrance Exams are forbidden from contacting any of the applicants in the period between the exam and the release of their result. Nedzu has to stress this to Toshinori in order to ensure he doesn't contact Izuku too early.
32	* PlayedForLaughs in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12404080/6/Anyone-Can-Become-A-Hero Anyone Can Become A Hero]]'' when Gyro finds out [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure Johnny Joestar]] didn't vote for him as class president.
33	-->'''Johnny:''' Sorry, but I don't support nepotism.
34	* ''[[Fanfic/TheLamentSeriesChaoticNeutral Chloe's Lament]]'': After Chloe [[RoleSwapAU wishes to swap lives with Marinette]], she struggles to grasp the fact that Marinette ''doesn't'' [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections exploit her connections]] the same way Chloe did when ''she'' was the Mayor's daughter. When Gabriel holds his hat-making contest, Marinette decides not to enter due to her friendship with his son Adrien. Chloe has a complete VillainousBreakdown when she finds out, unable to comprehend the notion of anyone going so far to avoid even the ''appearance'' of exploiting their powerful connections, believing that to be the ''whole point'' of making them in the first place.
35	* Subverted for laughs in ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin'' when Jiraya tells Naruto that, while he may be qualified to become a Chunin, he can't actually promote him due to the fact that it may be taken as nepotism (since he's the Fifth Hokage and Naruto is his adopted son) and Naruto will just have to wait until he retires. After ANBU gets a chance to take a picture of Naruto's shocked expression, he admits that it was a joke and gives him his promotion.
36	* In ''Fanfic/WilhuffTarkinHeroOfTheRebellion'', the narration mentions that Admiral Motti, commander in chief of the Imperial Navy and an in-law to Grand Moff Tarkin, got his post for valor in battle, and the only help he ever had by Tarkin, command of a gunship during the Clone Wars, was because they were short on officers for a battle and ''a trusted captain had vouched for him''.
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39	[[folder:Film-Live Action]]
40	* In ''Film/KnivesOut'', Harlan Thrombey (a SelfMadeMan and best-seller author) decides to leave absolutely nothing of his massive inheritance to his family and instead leaves it all to his nurse. While he believed, very deep in his heart, that it was him giving them one final bit of ToughLove and telling them to make their own fortunes, the truth of the matter is that calling them "layabouts" is being kind [[spoiler:and an understatement, considering that one of said crappy children was the orchestrator of Harlan's murder and kills the maid later on in the film [[HeKnowsTooMuch when she figures out who did it]] [[BlackmailBackfire and tries to profit from it]]]].
41	* ''Film/McLintock'': George Washington [=McLintock=] at one point tells his daughter Becky that he intends to will most of his estate to be made into a park, leaving a small spread for her. Not much, but it's more than her parents started out with.
42	-->''"Some folks are gonna say I'm doin' all this so I can sit up in the hereafter and look down on a park named after me, or that I was disappointed in you, didn't want you to get all that money. But the real reason, Becky, is because I love you, and I want you and some young man to have what I had, because all the gold in the United States Treasury and all the harp music in heaven can't equal what happens between a man and a woman with all that growin' together. I can't explain it any better than that.''"
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45	[[folder:Literature]]
46	* ''Literature/{{Aeon 14}}'': After their daughters Cary and Saanvi steal a ship to "get in on the fun" of the Battle of New Canaan in ''Orion Rising'' [[spoiler:and are both nearly killed {{ramming\|AlwaysWorks}} an enemy carrier]], Tanis and Joe Richards (respectively the then-governor and main protagonist, and the Commandant of the Intrepid Space Force Academy) promise to put the two of them through the wringer as cadets. In ''The Scipio Alliance'' Cary spends a couple pages complaining to their friend Jill and ArtificialIntelligence half-sister Faleena about the treatment.
47	* ''Literature/EveryBreathYouTake'': Virginia Wakeling shut down her nephew Tom's attempts to get a position at [[FamilyBusiness Wakeling Development]] simply because they were family, feeling he wasn't capable or responsible enough to work there. [[spoiler:She had also planned to change her will to leave the majority of her money to charity rather than her children and nephew, to prevent them from becoming lazy and entitled; Virginia was especially concerned about her son, who only put in the bare minimum of effort at Wakeling Development and was clearly content to coast by on his inheritance for the rest of his life]].
48	* ''Literature/TheHandsOfTheEmperor'': Cliopher Mdang, head of the imperial bureaucracy is absolutely incorruptible and would never favor his family or home province. He sometimes over-does it: he is especially stern when dealing with his nephew Gaudy who is also in the civil service and initially ignores a problem that his family tells him about in his home-province until it nearly boils over – after all, if he learnt it through his family and not through any official channels and other provinces don’t have that possibility.
49	* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': An actual, noted-in-universe character flaw for Michelle 'Mike' Henke, who stands very close to the royal succession[[note]]she's the Queen of Manticore's first cousin[[/note]]. She is noted ''in her personnel jacket'' as psychologically unable to accept accelerated promotion for her actions because she'll perceive it as nepotism. After the title character -- who also happens to be her best friend -- more or less reads her the riot act about this, she pretty much gets over it and subsequently shoots from Captain to Rear Admiral in less than two years.
50	* In the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', Miles Vorkosigan is an agent of Imperial Security with a public persona as a low-ranking military officer assigned to courier duties. When people ask why he has such a low rank when his father is the Emperor's most trusted advisor, he tells them that it's ''because'' his father is the Emperor's most trusted advisor and also a rigidly honorable man who bends over backwards to avoid the appearance of favoritism. Though at the same time, Miles frequently claims to be the beneficiary of nepotism to explain how he got his cover-position in Imperial Security.
51	** Miles also has to deal with this problem from the other end in 'Diplomatic Immunity', as the merchant fleet he needs to get out of impound is mostly owned by the empress' family. He can't be seen to be showing special favoritism to them, lest it reflect badly on the emperor, but the Emperor also wants to keep his in-laws happy.
52	* In the ''Literature/XWingSeries'', Jesmin Ackbar has been the victim of this trope for most of her career. Most of her commanding officers have given her boring, out of the way desk positions instead of letting her actually fight like she wants to, because no one wants to be the one who got Admiral Ackbar's niece killed. She ends up signing on with the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits ragtag bunch of washouts and last-chances]] that is Wraith Squadron because she sees it as her last opportunity to actually fly in combat. [[spoiler:She ends up being the squadron's first combat casualty.]]
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55	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
56	* ''Series/BarRescue:'' Rita Cappovici, owner of Club Platinum, swore to make this an EnforcedTrope toward her hospitality-trained daughter. In the end, when it went from being marked a "gentleman's club" to a "gentlemen's club," she agreed to having her on board.
57	* In the ''Series/BeautyAndTheBeast1987'' episode "Promises of Someday", Devin Wells, who grew up in the tunnels with Vincent, was the UnFavorite of Father, who filled the paternal role for almost all the tunnel children. It turns out Devin was his biological son, and he'd been trying to avoid showing favoritism towards him but overshot the mark considerably.
58	* In later seasons of ''Series/BlueBloods'', Jamie Reagan starts to feel increasingly that his father, Police Commissioner Frank Reagan, is making life difficult for him in an attempt to avoid the appearance of nepotism, noting that most of his academy classmates have already made detective while he's still a (increasingly decorated) beat cop. He eventually decides to embrace that role and become a squad sergeant rather than go detective.
59	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In the revival series, Kate Stewart cut her name down from Lethbridge-Stewart rather than risk getting special treatment just because her father happened to be TheBrigadier. Given that she's the head of UNIT for most of the time we know her, it's not clear how well it worked, but even if it didn't, [[NervesOfSteel it's not like she's unfit for the position]], so ultimately it doesn't really matter.
60	* ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'': In one episode, Ernie complains to George about not naming him "Employee of the Week", and George reminds him that he can't because it will make everyone think it's because he's his best friend.
61	* ''Series/{{Mahabharata}}'': In BR Chopra’s television adaptation of the original epic, Ashwathama is upset that his father Dronacharya, the royal combat instructor, is devoting a lot of attention to the prince Arjun instead of his own son. Dronacharya tells him that in their house, as his son, Ashwathama has Dronacharya’s undivided attention, but at the school, the best pupil must receive all the special attention. Ashwathama demands a chance to prove his skill at archery, which leads to Dronacharya setting up the famous “spot the toy bird in the tree” test. Which everyone except Arjun fails.
62	* ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'': [[TheMentor Sensei Watanabe]] intially forbids his son, Cameron, from being a Power Ranger despite Cam’s clear desire to be more than just tech support for the team. This is because Cam’s late mother didn’t want her son getting involved in activities that would put his life at risk. Halfway through the series however, the GodzillaThreshold is breached and Sensei Watanbe is forced to make Cameron the SixthRanger.
63	* ''Series/{{Psych}}'': Season 5 opens with the titular detective agency in dire financial straits. At the end of the previous season, Henry Spencer, Shawn's father, was hired by the Santa Barbara Police Department to be a liaison to various consultants they might hire (including any potential 'psychic detectives') and because Henry is a complete hardass, he's refused to hire Psych on a case for several months.
64	* ''Series/{{Station 19}}'': Andy is more than qualified to be a fire lieutenant and has had exactly the same training and background as Jack, who was promoted to the role months prior. In the first episode, she is pushed to question why she hasn't got the promotion herself and the Chief, who is her father, explains that he was deliberately holding her back for several reasons, one being that he doesn't know if he has a bias with her or which way it would sway.
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67	[[folder:Video Games]]
68	* In Act 3 of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', Aveline, who is the Captain of the Kirkwall Guard by then, is accused of "coddling" her husband Donnic, also a guard, by allegedly assigning his unit to the safest patrol routes. To disprove these allegations, she asks [[PlayerCharacter Hawke]], the Champion of Kirkwall by that point, to accompany her on a nighttime patrol inspection, so they can interview the guards personally and later vouch for her fairness and strict adherence to the law.
69	* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': Tural is a nation ruled by the Dawnservant, Gulool Ja Ja. Though Gulool plans to abdicate the Dawnthrone due to his age, he won't simply name one of his children as his successor. Instead, he is hosting a competition among those who wish to rule; whomever finds the fabled CityOfGold will become the next Dawnservant.
70	* ''Videogame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'': In the setting of Fódlan, the noble classes are born with "crests", which the Church of Seiros teaches are blessings from the goddess Sothis that grant powerful magical abilities. Those born without crests are considered beneath those who are born with them. [[spoiler:Edelgard, the heir to the Adrestian Empire, was captured as a child and underwent torturous experiments to give her ''two'' crests, at the cost of a [[CastFromLifespan drastically-reduced lifespan]]. Her traumatic experience thus motivates her to start a war against the Church of Seiros, which is revealed to be a false religion and the crests were in fact ''not'' "blessings" but power stolen from an ancient race called the Children of the Goddess by the ancestors of Fodlan's ruling class. Edelgard's ultimate goal is to destroy the Crest system and abolish a system where birth determines one's class, instead creating a nation of "pure merit".]]
71	* ''VideoGame/NobodySavesTheWorld'': The Thieves' Guild leader only promotes the guild members who prove themselves worthy. However, this rule, among other things, causes his niece (also a member) to become more distant, [[spoiler: eventually undertaking a dangerous heist of her own in the Guild's final quest.]]
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74	[[folder:Western Animation]]
75	* Ensign Beckett Mariner in ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' is the daughter of the captain, something both she and the captain keep secret in the first season, and is given no special treatment and is sent to the brig regularly. In "Moist Vessel", Captain Freeman does give Mariner an undeserved promotion, but only in the hope that she'll find being a lieutenant so boring she'll transfer off the ship (after giving her PunishmentDetail didn't work). After the truth is exposed, they briefly experiment with Freeman cutting Mariner some slack, but decide this simply isn't their relationship.
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78	[[folder:Real Life]]
79	* Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter has said that Creator/TimBurton always made her and Creator/JohnnyDepp be above-and-beyond in their auditions, to make sure that they definitely earned the part, so they could all feel comfortable refuting that they got the parts because of their relationship and friendship. Obviously, [[ProductionPosse they still got]] [[ThoseTwoActors all the parts]].
80	* Creator/NicolasCage, who was born Nicolas Coppola, deliberately changed his name legally because he didn't want to appear that he was exploiting his relation to his uncle Creator/FrancisFordCoppola in order to get a part in one film he was directing.
81	* Creator/EmilioEstevez, the son of Creator/MartinSheen (born Ramón Estévez), similarly uses his real last name rather than one based on his father's stage name, to avoid the appearance of riding his father's coattails. (The same applies to Martin Sheen's brother, Joe Estévez.) Awkwardly, Emilio's brother Creator/CharlieSheen (born Carlos Estévez) doesn't seem to share his principles.
82	* Creator/OliverReed refused to appear in any works connected to his uncle Carol Reed, a well established director, until he was a respected actor in his own right, whereupon he appeared in his uncle's production of ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}''.
83	* J. Bruce Ismay joined the White Star Line as an apprentice while his father was still running the company. However, Thomas Ismay insisted that his son receive no special treatment, and even admonished him in public if he did something another employee wouldn't do.
84	* While studying at the China Drama Academy, Creator/JackieChan was "adopted" (with the consent of his parents) by his teacher Master Yu. Instead of preferential treatment, instead Chan was considered responsible for all the other students' behavior and would be punished twice as hard if any of them broke the rules.
85	* Creator/BrianHolden and Creator/MeredithStepien had been dating for a long time by the time they were both part of ''Theatre/TwistedTheUntoldStoryOfARoyalVizier'', and had both been actors in the Creator/TeamStarkid troupe for ages. However, ''Twisted'' was both the first time that Holden directed a show on his own, and that Stepien had a leading role. In behind-the-scenes material, Holden admits he was harder on Stepien than he was on anyone else so he wouldn't come off as playing favorites.
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Context Main / AntiNepotism