Basic Trope: A descendant is punished for a previous generation's actions.
- Straight: Alice hunts down and kills Charlie for being related to Bob, the man who killed her brother Dracone.
- Exaggerated: Alice not only hunts down and kills Charlie, but her vengeance extends to all his children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren.
- Downplayed:
- Alice blacklists Charlie from any of her gatherings for being the son of the man who wronged her.
- There is no revenge - Charlie's own bad habits end up killing him early, and his beloved son Bob has to grow up without a father because of his mistakes.
- Justified:
- Bob was a criminal who had done numerous, terrible things toward not just Dracone and Alice, but to everyone they loved in the past. From where she sits, Charlie is no different from that man, innocent or otherwise.
- Charlie knowingly benefited from his father's crimes. Even if he did nothing himself, his not renouncing what he gained from Dracone's death is something Alice takes as an endorsement of Bob's actions.
- Alice is a staunch believer in an eye for an eye. Since Bob killed one of her own family, his son Charlie is fair game.
- Bob has lived a full life, having evaded punishment for all his misdeeds, but the same can't be said for Charlie, so how better than to get to Bob than to target his own flesh and blood?
- Inverted:
- Alice hunts down and kills Charlie's father, Bob, for allowing him to commit violent acts against others unpunished.
- Alice awards Charlie a medal of bravery for all the heroic deeds his father had done in the past.
- Subverted:
- While it looks like Alice has finally found Charlie, she just waves hello to him, and decides to have a conversation with him, telling him of the crimes his father had committed. Afterward, they part ways hoping to never see each other again.
- Alice wasn't targeting Charlie, she merely mistook him for Bob. note
- Double Subverted: However, just as Charlie walks away a good number of steps, Alice turns around and lunges at him with a sharp blade, stabbing and wounding him, leaving him to bleed to death.
- Parodied:
- Alice ties Charlie to a chair and throws pies at him for Bob having done the same thing to her brother Dracone in the past.
- Alice wants revenge on herself for what her own father did.
- Alice makes absolutely no attempt to hunt down and hurt Bob, while she shows a monomaniacal drive to hurt Charlie. The fact that hurting Charlie has a theoretical possibility of hurting Bob emotionally seems almost tacked on and when Bob actually points out that he is standing right there and she could, you know, just hit him, Alice seems unable to understand the fact.
- Zig-Zagged: While Alice will hunt down and kill Charlie, she won't go after his sister Eva due to having no role in her family's crimes.
- Averted: Alice doesn't go after Charlie, nor does she have any plans to kill him.
- Enforced: The writer wants to make a point that some people will hold a grudge that can and will extend to the children, and even grandchildren, of someone who had wronged a character in the past.
- Lampshaded:Charlie: So, you're telling me the whole reason Alice wants me dead is because of what my father did?
- Invoked: Bob burns down Alice's home and kills her family that was inside, leaving one of his family photos behind deliberately before committing suicide.
- Exploited: Because Charlie fears his life for what his father did, Alice decides to scam him out of his money by lying about having a top-notch security measure that will prevent any vengeful former victims of his father (or anyone else for that matter) from entering his home.
- Defied:Alice: You think because of what your father did, I'm going to kill you? I have no intention of ever doing such, Charlie.
- Discussed:Charlie: Alice, you're the one trying to kill me? What on earth have I done to you to deserve any of this?Alice: Darling, I'd be delighted to tell you why. You see, your father has done quite some terrible things throughout his life. Murder, rape, kidnapping to name a few. He managed to get away with it each time, escaping any and all repercussions and living quite cozily. Unfortunately for you, you happen to be in possession of a few belongings of his victims, and one of those happens to belong to someone close to me. Sad to say, because of your father's acts, your life will be cut drastically short. I do hope you at the very least have savored these last few minutes to the very miserable end.
- Conversed: "I can understand grudges being held for a long time, but Charlie did absolutely nothing to deserve what Alice did to him! It was all his father."
- Implied: Eva and the sheriff discover Charlie's body.Eva: Who would do this? Charlie never hurt a fly!Sheriff [Noticing a clue]: I don't think it's what he did.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice and Bob's families devolve into a Cycle of Revenge resulting in the deaths of many innocent people.
- News eventually gets out to Bob that somebody had killed Charlie, and he goes off on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, killing everyone in his path, not realizing it was Alice who killed his own flesh and blood. Because of how powerful he is, it takes an army to take him down and/or end his life. When Alice hears about this, she immediately feels remorse for taking out Charlie when she should've went after Bob in the first place and being indirectly responsible for so many innocent lives being murdered.
- Because Charlie has become ostracized for being associated with Bob, he is filled with shame and sorrow. He seeks out Alice to earn her forgiveness by doing whatever he can, paying as much as he can afford, to make up for all of Bob's crimes, even if he will die trying.
- Alice remorselessly killing Charlie is treated as the former's Moral Event Horizon and solidifies her transformation into She Who Fights Monsters.
- Reconstructed: After a long and bloody feud, only Alice's family remains, while whatever is left of Bob's family is either dead, or in hiding.
- After Charlie dies during his atonement, Alice forgives him, because she considers Charlie's death as his own payment for Bob's crimes, therefore ending the grudge. Whether Charlie had intended his own death as his sacrifice for his sins or not, his payment was already satisfactory.
- Played for Drama: Alice keeps Charlie in captivity for so long, he goes mad trying to guess what she'll do to him...
- Played for Horror: ...and when she shows him, it's anything but pretty.
- Played for Laughs:
- Alice doesn't kill Charlie; she just makes Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon threats.
- The great sin Bob committed and Alice is swearing emnity on Charlie about is that forty years ago Bob took the last can of Coca Cola from the vending machine while Alice's dad was checking if he had enough pocket change. And while Bob was not amused about the fact that it was New Coke, Alice's dad loved New Coke.
Thanks to the Sins of Our Fathers, we're stuck on this Playing With page.
