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Basic Trope: A character's family is killed by someone else, often being the motive of said character.

  • Straight: Bob comes home to discover his whole family is killed. Because of that, he becomes SuperBob out of revenge.
  • Exaggerated: Bob's whole extended family is killed, even relatives he didn't know about.
  • Downplayed: Only a few of Bob's family members are killed.
    • Bob's family is hurt and that leads him to take revenge
  • Justified: Bob's family was The Family That Slays Together. The killer killed them either in self-defense or in revenge for their misdeeds.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted:
    • Bob initally appears to break down over his family being dead, before saying "Who could have done this?! ...me."
    • The family pretends to be dead as a cruel prank.
  • Double Subverted: However, this is because Bob is blaming himself over their deaths by not being there.
  • Parodied: Each time a family member gets a minor injury, such as a small cut or bruise, Bob breaks down and screams that he is going to avenge them.
  • Zig-Zagged: Family members are continuously killed off and brought back Depending on the Writer.
  • Averted: No family members are killed.
  • Enforced: "We need Bob to have a motivation to become SuperBob. Let's have his loving family get killed."
  • Lampshaded: ???
  • Invoked: Bob is a sociopath who doesn't care about his family, and deliberately puts them in a situation where they get killed in order to get sympathy and be seen as having a good reason for being SuperBob.
  • Exploited: Alice wants to have Bob join an organization where Bob can use his strength for good, but he has no reason to do so. Therefore, Alice arranges the deaths of Bob's family to have him want to join the organization to prevent such incidents from happening.
  • Defied: Bob installs various security measures in place to prevent any member of his family from getting murdered.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Implied: When someone asks why Bob is SuperBob, Bob answers "family problems" and doesn't elaborate further.

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