In the Blood/Playing With

Basic Trope: The idea that evil gets inherited from generation to generation just like many personality traits.
 * Straight: Vladimir is an unflinchingly ruthless zealot, clearly having modelled himself after his father.
 * Exaggerated: Vladimir's father was a mass murderer and Vladimir is a genocidal maniac.
 * Downplayed: Vladimir's father was a juvenile deliquent, so Vladimir sees nothing wrong with vandalism and being an egomaniacal jerk.
 * Justified: He has inherited a certain mental disposition that influences him for worse.
 * Vladimir's family line has lived in harsh conditions and thus what others would find High Octane Nightmare Fuel Vladimir naturally thinks of as unremarkable.
 * Vladimir has been raised according to a rigid value system and punished whenever he's deviated from it.
 * Inverted: Vladimir is as virtuous as his family line is reputed to be.
 * Subverted: Vladimir has dozens of vile people in his family line and is a decent fellow regardless.
 * Double Subverted: ...until he gets fed up and decides that following in their footsteps isn't so bad a thing after all.
 * Parodied: ???
 * Deconstructed: Loser Son of Loser Dad
 * Reconstructed: Vladimir has actually chosen to become a vile, ruthless, evil bastard deep down long before any discrimination relating to his family line or parents comes up. Any unfair treatment that he faces is just one more excuse for going on with his ways.
 * Zig Zagged: Vladimir finds out his father was an evil bastard and he doubts whether he really deserves to call himself a hero. He gets consoled that he isn't like his father, having chosen to be unlike him. He faces suspicion from other people - although some of them do so because of his fragile self-belief. Vladimir then finds out most of his family line includes callous, ruthless, immoral people. Vladimir takes into account he has grown up in extremely different circumstances. Then he certifies that he shares many personality and temperamental traits that have been commonly observed to appear in his family. His friend points out he is also very different from them in many respects. Too bad Vladimir's mental stability has started to slide down towards the abyss and his sinister edge is raising its head, growing ever more prominent...
 * Averted: People in a story's setting turn out good, evil or somewhere between regardless of what kind of people their family lines include.
 * Enforced: ???
 * Lampshaded: "My father was extremely ruthless in his approach to things and guess what?! I don't mind doing the same!"
 * Invoked: Emperor Evulz befriends Vladimir, sows seeds of distrst toward his friends, orchestrates situations that turn his virtues against him and starts telling him stories about how his family members are great examples of his cherished values(getting things done, persistence, resilience etc.).
 * Exploited: Vladimir uses his father's fearsome legacy to get his way even though he himself wouldn't hurt a fly.
 * Defied: Vladimir knows right off the bat what horrid people his family line is full of - and actively goes out of his way to diminish, if not erase, the effects of their reign, generally going to extra lengths to be an honorable, virtuous person.
 * Discussed: "Bah! Just like his father...."
 * Conversed: "This must be one of those instances where a villain is evil because of paternal or familial inspiration."
 * Plotted A Good Waste: ???
 * Played For Laughs: ???
 * Played For Drama: ???

Back to using your gift of birth passed down to you.