#44: Blood is Everything

881 57 16
                                    

  One of the biggest things that prevents someone from killing the villain is family.  Whenever the hero and villain are related in some way, the evil member of the family gets automatic immunity.  It doesn't matter how many bad things they did, so long as they are family.  As the Warrior series has mentioned many times over, this cliche can best be defined in the famous words "Blood is Everything."  However, the villain still needs to be punished, even if they are family.  It is a harsh idea to write about, but justice needs to be served in some way.  You don't need to kill the villain to do this though.  You can just sever ties with them, such as was the case in the manga three part series, Ravenpaw's Path.  Right in the final pages of the series, Barely, one of the main characters, lets his evil brothers live for their crimes and takes them in.  However, after seeing what harm they are doing to his home, the bullying they are giving his best friend Ravenpaw, and remembering the fact they barely killed his sister, Barely kicks them out.  He does so with one of my favorite lines in all of media, which is "Blood isn't everything.  Loyalty is everything."  I'm really surprised more scenes like this don't exist, as they not only break the cliche but are really great plot wise.

A Hundred Cliches That Really Need To DieWhere stories live. Discover now