History PlayingWith / HeroicBastard

** Years of being [[DecadentCourt the nobility's]] [[ButtMonkey collective]] [[TheWoobie scapegoat]] thanks to being an easy target taught the hero some empathy.

** While was born while his parents were engaged.

** Years of being [[DeadlyDecadentCourt the nobility's]] [[ButtMonkey collective]] [[TheWoobie scapegoat]] thanks to being an easy target taught the hero some empathy.

%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???
%%* '''Played For Drama''': ???

* '''Straight:''' An illegitimate child is the hero of the work.

** The hero's society practices formalized concubinage and the hero is son of one. He is counted a bastard in succession laws but not from the social point of view.

** The hero grows up in a society with lax views towards bastards.

** The bastard is being given the standard hero treatment at the beginning, but then undergoes a FaceHeelTurn.
** The hero doesn't know who his father is. He believes his mother was never married. Then he finds out she was.
** The hero is actually adopted: his real parents ''were'' married.

** The hero doesn't know who his father is. He believes his mother was never married. Then he finds out she was. Then it turns out his mother's husband was not his father.

* '''Zig Zagged:''' The hero thought he was a bastard. Then it turned out his parents were actually married. But it wasn't a real marriage, since one of them was married to somebody else at the time. Later we find out his real parents were different people altogether, but he still grew up being treated like crap because of his supposed bastardy.
* '''Averted:'''
** The hero's parents were married.
** The hero was adopted.

** "The hero should be illegitimate so we can show how modern and tolerant we are!"
** "We want the identity of the hero's father to be [[LukeIAmYourFather a big plot twist]]. It'd be easier to explain by stating the hero's parents didn't marry."

* '''Reconstructed:''' The hero's lack of identity and security shapes his character and leads to his questing, restless spirit, because he wants to know who he is and what he can do.

* '''Exploited''': The king's concubines, knowing that their kids are likely to be the ones having to save the world, have armsmasters and other practical-skills teachers on retainer.

* '''Exploited''': ???

* '''Enforced:''' "The hero should be illegitimate so we can show how modern and tolerant we are!"

** It's questionable if he's a bastard or not, and his [[AntiHero heroism is also questionable.]]

* '''Inverted:''' [[BastardBastard The villain is the illegitimate one.]]

** "We want the identity of the hero's father to be [[LukeIAmYourFather a big plot twist.]] It'd be easier to explain by stating the hero's parents didn't marry."

Back to HeroicBastard

* '''Downplayed''': It's questionable if he's a bastard or not, and his [[AntiHero heroism is also questionable.]]
** The heroes society practices formalized concubinage and the hero is son of one. He is counted a bastard in succession laws but not from the social point of view.

* '''Downplayed''': It's questionable if he's a bastard, and his [[AntiHero heroism is also questionable.]]

* '''Downplayed''': It's questionable if he's a bastard, and his [[AntiHero heroism is also questionable]]

* '''Downplayed''': ???

* '''Deconstructed:''' The story examines the disadvantaged position of bastards in medieval society and the psychological repercussions of fatherlessness and discrimination.
* '''Reconstructed:''' The hero's lack of identity and security shapes his character and leads to his questing, restless spirit, because he wants to know who he is and what he can do.

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* '''Justified:''' The bastards lead much more exciting lives than the overprotected princes and princesses, so it makes sense for the story to focus on one.

* '''Subverted:''' The bastard is being given the standard hero treatment at the beginning, but then undergoes a FaceHeelTurn.

* '''Double Subverted:''' ... But it turns out he only did that to infiltrate the enemies' base and get a shot at the BigBad.

* '''Averted:''' The hero's parents were married.

* '''Conversed:''' "The heroes in these fantasy novels always turn out to be the illegitimate sons of kings."

** Years of being society's [[ButtMonkey collective]] [[TheWoobie scapegoat]] taught the hero some empathy.

* '''Inverted:''' The villain is the illegitimate one.