Line #54 Main/BastardAngst


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9	[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/{{Blindsprings}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bastardangst_sug.png]]]]
10
11	->''"Let me give you some advice, bastard. Never forget what you are, the rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor and it can never be used to hurt you."''
12	-->--'''Tyrion Lannister''' to '''Jon Snow''', ''Series/GameOfThrones'', "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS1E1WinterIsComing Winter Is Coming]]"
13
14	Illegitimacy (or bastardy) is the status of a child born outside marriage. Fictional characters born out of wedlock are often portrayed as conflicted about their status, for several reasons:
15
16	* The lack of inheritance and support. Historically, children born out of wedlock receive little to no inheritance (or at least far less than their legitimate siblings). The mother and child may also receive very little support from the father. [[note]] In most modern settings, there is less of a legal emphasis on legitimacy in regard to inheritance and support, although it still sometimes becomes a factor in nationality laws. See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegitimate_child the article]] on Website/TheOtherWiki for more on that. [[/note]]
17	* Societal belief that their extramarital birth [[SinsOfOurFathers affects their character]]. Historically and in fiction with a historical or quasi-historical setting, bastards were often assumed to be of poor character, either by virtue of being "tainted" by a sin of lust or out of jealousy of their legitimate siblings, hence the trope BastardBastard (the increasingly-common subversion to that trope is HeroicBastard).
18	* Because of the above, they are [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer ostracized by the community]] and often treated poorly (especially compared to [[TheUnfavorite the legitimate children]], if they are shown at all). Some of this survives to the present day, as "[[YouBastard bastard]]" is considered an insult to a person's character.
19	* If at least one of the bastard's parents are present in a work, expect a mention of how the extramarital affair resulted in a strain on their marriage. See AffairBlameTheBastard. This is less common in settings where one is expected to have extramarital affairs (e.g. concubinage).
20	** If the illegitimate child's mother is the wife, she may grow resentful of her child due to the resident DoubleStandard -- a man may father illegitimate children [[MyGirlIsNotASlut without much societal consequence]], but a woman is DefiledForever. Sadly, this is TruthInTelevision, as historically women have been subject to violence at the hands of their families for giving birth to bastards in the name of {{honor\|RelatedAbuse}}. See also ChildByRape for a darker way this can play out.
21	** If the illegitimate child was conceived by the husband and [[TheMistress another woman]], the wife may still [[AffairBlameTheBastard resent the child as a product of her husband's infidelity]].
22	** The illegitimate child's relationships with their legitimate siblings, if focused on, often vary; but in settings where this trope is prevalent, the trueborn offspring are expected to be somewhat distanced from them.
23
24	Because of any combination of the above, bastards in fiction often feel the need to prove -- be it to society, [[WellDoneSonGuy their parents]], or themselves -- that the circumstances of their birth have no effect on their ability to become a valuable member of society. Out of a desire to overcome the stigma of illegitimacy, they seek to be recognized and do this by attempting to achieve fame and glory. Depending on how heroic the bastard in question is, this may or may not play into AmbitionIsEvil. This is especially likely if the bastard in question is older than their legitimate siblings.
25
26	If the child's parents are [[RoyalBastard royal or noble]], expect an attempt to usurp the estate. This may be of their own volition or traitorous members of the court [[PuppetKing manipulating them in order to seize power for themselves]]. More idealistic settings with more sympathetic bastards will get them a sizable inheritance at the end, [[EarnYourHappyEnding if not make them]] the UnexpectedSuccessor to the whole shebang. In more modern settings, bastards usually strive for distinction in their field of interest.
27
28	If the child's illegitimacy isn't public knowledge, steps may be taken to ensure that they come off as legitimate.
29
30	The BastardBastard and HeroicBastard may both experience this, as well as the ChildByRape, ChildOfForbiddenLove, and SonOfAWhore. Compare HalfBreedDiscrimination, in which a character faces much of the same prejudice on a societal level, and HalfSiblingAngst, in which a character is anguished due to being a half-sibling.
31
32	Has nothing to do with being a MagnificentBastard, ManipulativeBastard (although a bastard with the right temperament can certainly grow into one), or YouBastard.
33	----
34	!!Examples
35
36	[[foldercontrol]]
37
38	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
39	* Seta Soujirou of ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' is a darker take on this trope -- his entire stepfamily was abusive towards him for his illegitimacy, which caused him to snap and kill them all.
40	* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'':
41	** [[spoiler:Krista Lenz, aka Historia Reiss,]] is the illegitimate child of the most powerful nobleman in the series. Because of this, she was sent to away and grew up isolated and lonely, with the few neighbors acting cruelly -- to say nothing of her mother [[ThatThingIsNotMyChild showing nothing but hatred all the way until her traumatic death]]. After all that, she joined the military under a false name in order to get away. Although she's kind and nice, other characters note that her actions seem deliberately suicidal than outright helpful, and point out that she only joined the military looking for a glorious way to die.
42	** [[spoiler: Reiner Braun]] is the product of an illicit SecretRelationship between [[spoiler: an Eldian woman and a Marleyan man]]. He was abandoned as a result, with the mother resentful of her lower status and the child obsessed with reuniting their parents somehow. It's unknown whether being born out of wedlock to a mother that was too afraid to identify the father had any extra negative stigma or not.
43	* ''Manga/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'' has [[UsefulNotes/TheBorgias Cesare Borgia]], ''the'' MagnificentBastard (Machiavelli's ''Literature/ThePrince'' is about him). He's not only illegitimate, his father is a priest. Vice-Chancellor of the Vatican, to be specific, and soon to be [[UsefulNotes/PopeAlexanderVI elected pope]]. Priestly celibacy was not taken seriously in the Renaissance, and Borgia wasn't the only cardinal with children. But Cesare is acutely aware that his illegitimacy means that he'll have to work several times as hard to prove himself, and that some doors will still be closed to him. Cesare's classmate Giovanni de'Medici (yes, those Medici) also has a high church position that was [[{{Nepotism}} purchased by his father]]. Cesare believes that his own situation is hopeless, but he tells Giovanni that he can serve as a backer for another even if he can't stand in the spotlight himself, and that even though Giovanni comes from a family of commoners, he has a better chance at making it because he isn't illegitimate.
44	* Kallen from ''Anime/CodeGeass''. Because her biological father's wife could not bear children, Kallen was adopted into her noble father's household. Her biological mother gets herself hired as a maid and eventually turns to drug use in order to relive happier days. This heavily strains Kallen's relationship with her mother but they make up by the finale.
45	* Tamaki from ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' is the illegitimate son of a Japanese man and a French woman. His EvilMatriarch grandmother brought him to France in exchange for paying for her financial troubles and forbade him from ever having contact with her again. Despite this, his grandmother still treats Tamaki like crap, always reminding him that he's "filthy."
46	* ''Manga/MaidSama'' has the character of Usui, who was conceived during an illicit affair between a married British woman and a Japanese man. As a result, he has a strained relationship with his biological family and avoids bringing them up as much as possible.
47	* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Ace is the bastard son of [[spoiler: Pirate King Gold Roger]], and as such he had a big stigma put on him (although given who his dad is, being legitimate [[SinsOfTheFather wouldn't have made the world view him much better in any case]]). For his whole life, Ace always wondered whether he deserved to be born because of this.
48	* Asahi Saiba, the main antagonist of the final arc of ''Manga/FoodWars'', was conceived by a one-night stand. That coupled with the fact that his mother was [[AbusiveParents an abusive]] [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]] who'd often try to drown him in the kitchen sink has given [[{{Manchild}} him serious issues]] [[IJustWantToBeLoved and craving for a loving family]].
49	* ''Anime/TweenyWitches'': [[spoiler:Lennon]] was conceived in a secret CommonLawMarriage because of the laws against relationships between witches and humans. The stigma of his birth resulted in his living alone [[spoiler:on the Interdimensional Sea]] since childhood, where he developed [[InternalizedCategorism internalized racism]] and a belief that his mother abandoned him out of shame.
50	* ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamTheOrigin'' reveals that Casval and Artesia Som Deikun's mother Astraia and father Zeon never actually married, since Zeon was already married but his wife was infertile. After Zeon died their illegitimacy became a problem because Zeon's legal wife Roselucia locked them out of their inheritance due to resenting Astraia, eventually leading her children to be separated from her. You probably know these two as [[spoiler:Char Aznable]] and [[spoiler:Sayla Mass]] and the wildly different paths their lives took afterwards.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Fan Works]]
54	* ''Fanfic/TheQueenOfHearts'':
55	** Elsa finds out that most likely her parents couldn't conceive and asked another man to help. She has trouble coming to terms with the fact, especially since it makes her an illegitimate heir to Arendelle. [[spoiler:Even after it turns out to be true, her sister Anna refuses to take over as queen.]]
56	** Hans' older brothers ostracized him for being a bastard raised as a prince. However, Hans himself is oblivious to the fact that he's [[spoiler:the half-brother of Anna and Elsa through their mother]].
57	* In ''Fanfic/ANewWorldOnHerShoulders'', Ciel's half-brother, Otto Moore, has some very deep-rooted issues due to him being a bastard since his birth caused his mother to be abandoned by his father and become destitute. Being reminded of it almost causes him to cry due to how unpleasant the memories are.
58	* In ''Fanfic/WhereTalentGoesOnVacation'', [[spoiler:Chiyuri Nagato]] turns out to be the illegitimate daughter of the son of Talent High School's chairman, and it's revealed that she got in as part of a deal that the administration made with her mother to keep her father's identity secret. [[spoiler:Chiyuri]] also suffered from bullying due to rumors about her parentage, and ended up having to transfer schools in elementary school after retaliating against one of her tormentors. As a result, [[spoiler:Chiyuri]] [[FriendlessBackground had no friends in her childhood]] and tried to play the "good girl" in order to get by.
59	* Played with in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/26832964/chapters/74808510#workskin wasting beats of this heart of mine]]'', where [[VideoGame/{{Hades}} Zagreus]] reincarnates as a mortal and is adopted by Philomenus the farmer. Zagreus isn't a bastard, but resembles his foster siblings just enough to be mistaken for one [[spoiler:because they share a grandmother in the goddess Demeter]], and had to endure the shame of his neighbors his whole life.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Comic Books]]
63	* ''ComicBook/{{Sleepless}}'': Lady Poppy is the daughter of King Verato of Harbeny and the court's fortune teller Amena of Mribesh. Despite her ''technically'' illegitimate status, Poppy is widely beloved by the people of Harbeny. She even has a close relationship with Verato's wife Queen Leotta (whose own children with Verato all died before reaching adulthood, and who is very good friends with Amena). Though Verato granted Poppy lands and a title to ensure that she would be provided for if anything ever happened to him, he never legitimized her into the royal family or line of succession. This leaves Poppy in a tenuous political position after his passing. Queen Leotta offers to appoint Poppy to her retinue at the Dowager's palace, but King Surno (Verato's brother and successor to the throne) refuses to let Poppy leave the court even in the face of an attempt of her life. He cites that any action that could be read as a dismissal of Poppy could anger Verato's loyalists, and failure to demonstrate that he can protect his niece would reflect poorly on his nascent rule.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder: Film - Live-Action]]
67	* ''Film/{{Swallow}}'': Hunter is neglected and abandoned by her mother due to being a ChildByRape that her mother, due to her religious beliefs, couldn't abort.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Literature]]
71	* Shows up in Creator/WilkieCollins's novels:
72	** The titular "dead secret" and [[TheReveal reveal]] of ''The Dead Secret'' is that protagonist Rosamund is actually an illegitimate child passed off as an heiress. This causes much internal and external conflict, as her husband refuses to accept her inheritance.
73	** In ''Literature/TheWomanInWhite'', Glyde is revealed to be illegitimate. He knew about this and went to great lengths to conceal it in order to preserve his title and estate.
74	* ''Literature/{{Outlander}}'': William Ransom has been raised as the Ninth Earl of Ellesmere. All his life he's been told that his mother died in childbirth and his father died of despair on the same day. He was then taken in by his aunt and her husband, who acted as his mother and father. William is devastated when he meets Jamie Fraser, his spitting image, and realizes that Mac, the Scottish groomsman who'd worked at his family estate when William was a child, is actually his biological father. This was a time when Scottish were firmly second-class citizens in the British empire and being a bastard was a death knell for societal standing.
75	* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has several bastard-born children, but the ones who exhibit this trope the most are:
76	** HeroicBastard [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireJonSnow Jon Snow]], the acknowledged illegitimate son of Lord Eddard Stark. Jon grew up feeling like somewhat of an outsider among his family, though he is loved by his father, trueborn siblings,[[note]]Though Sansa, the child closest to Catelyn, is more distant toward Jon because of his illegitimacy[[/note]] and uncle, and Jon loves them. Jon struggles with his illegitimacy due to societal prejudice against bastard-born children, limited options for his future, and because he is resented by his father's wife [[WickedStepmother Catelyn]], who dislikes Jon for being Eddard's illegitimate son who Eddard brought home to raise alongside his and Catelyn's trueborn children, Jon's half-siblings.[[note]]Catelyn fears Eddard loves Jon's MissingMom more than her due to Eddard's protectiveness of Jon and resents that Jon inherited the Stark look instead of her sons with Eddard, who inherited her Tully features. She also fears that any children Jon may have one day might contest the succession for Winterfell of her grandchildren.[[/note]] Jon yearns to know who his [[MissingMom mother]] is but his father refuses to talk about her for mysterious, unknown reasons. Partly because of angst over his illegitimacy, desire to prove his worth, and to follow his dream of becoming a First Ranger like his uncle, Jon joins the Night's Watch for the sake of honour. Nonetheless, Jon has had a far better upbringing than most in Westeros, not to mention many other noble-blooded illegitimate children (Gendry, Falia Flowers, Mya Stone): his father openly acknowledges and raises Jon himself in his castle alongside his trueborn offspring and gives Jon a highborn education and castle training alongside Jon's trueborn brother, Robb, with whom Jon is very close. Part of Jon's character arc is recognizing his privileged upbringing. Notably, Jon turns down Stannis Baratheon's offer of legitimization and the chance to inherit Winterfell out of loyalty to his father's gods and because Winterfell belongs to his sister Sansa.
77	** BastardBastard Ramsay Snow, the unacknowledged illegitimate son of Roose Bolton. Unlike Jon Snow, Ramsay is poorly treated by his father and receives nothing from him. Ramsay goes to great lengths to prove to his father that he's just as horrible as the rest of their family and deserving of the family name, including torturing, mutilating, and brainwashing a family rival. It's implied he murdered his legitimate brother to become his father's only heir.
78	** Downplayed with Mya Stone, the unacknowledged illegitimate daughter of King Robert Baratheon. Mya is a good-natured, kind girl who knows her father is King Robert Baratheon. Though she angsts about her illegitimate birth making her unable to marry the minor lord she fell in love with, Mya is otherwise content with her life. Though Robert did not officially acknowledge Mya, he appears to have affection for her, having expressed an interest in bringing her to court, and visiting her daily before he became king.
79	* In ''Literature/WarAndPeace'', Pierre Bezukhov is the bastard of one of the wealthiest, most powerful counts of Russia, who, upon his death, [[spoiler:legitimizes him]]. He was educated in Paris and came back with very liberal ideas that make him a big outsider in the Russian aristocratic circles.
80	* Pierre Tartue/Lumen in the ''Literature/ArciaChronicles'' comes from a bastard-born bloodline of the Lumens -- one of the two clans vying for the throne of Arcia from book three onwards. He does a lot of very unsavory things to cover up his illegitimacy both before and after he usurps the throne, and hates being reminded that he is still a bastard.
81	* The plot of ''Literature/{{Emma}}'' revolves around the titular character trying to find her friend Harriet a suitable husband even though she’s a bastard. Harriet’s father is obviously wealthy because he’s paying for to go to a boarding school with her own private room but that still puts her below other rich girls. Emma is very progressive in this regard for something that was written in the early 19th century but despite her best intentions, she causes a lot of trouble in doing so.
82	* A downplayed version in ''Literature/ACivilCampaign'' is when Count Rene Vorbretten is threatened with a succession suit because an ancestor was a bastard, thus clicking complicated tangles in local laws. An added public relations difficulty was that the father was a soldier in an invading army.
83	* Stragen from ''Literature/TheElenium'' is hypersensitive about his illegitimate birth.
84	* Demigods from ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'' are illegitimate children by default, and there's generally a lot of resentment towards the gods for being inattentive parents who only turn to them when they need something accomplished (this is in fact what turns some demigods against them in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''). The fact that gods like Hera tend to have strained relationships with their spouse's offspring don't help matters.
85	* Mariam of ''Literature/AThousandSplendidSuns'' is pawned off to a rich man by her father after her mother is DrivenToSuicide. Both she and her mother are on the receiving end of stigmatization by the local community (TruthInTelevision in fact, since Afghan society considers it quite scandalous).
86	* ''Literature/TheLongWalk'': [[spoiler:Stebbins]] is actually the bastard son of the Major himself, one of several unacknowledged ones as he notes. He wants his prize for winning the Long Walk to merely be his acceptance into his father's home.
87	* ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'': Eragon is briefly distraught to learn that his mother and father weren't married. Orimis, whose culture doesn't really have marriage per se, tells him that he's sure they considered themselves the ''equivalent'' of married at least. Eragon is cheered up by this and lets it go.
88	* Theo Smith from ''Literature/AnUnkindnessOfGhosts'' is the product of a probably non-consensual affair between Sovereign Sedvar and a black woman. The resulting scandal forced Sedvar's resignation, causing him to deeply resent Theo.
89	* The ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' reveals that General Hux was an illegitimate child of his father and some lowly kitchen woman. This apparently caused him a lot of grief, as many of the First Order Officers, such as Admiral Brooks, look down on him because of this fact.
90	* The Clans of ''Literature/WarriorCats'' don't really have marriages, because, well, they're cats, but this trope does tend to apply to those whose births weren't supposed to happen according to their laws, such as the products of inter-Clan relationships or liasons with non-Clan cats, or the offspring of medicine cats, who are supposed to be celibate. Such cats are often unacknowledged by one (or both) parents, referred to by slurs such as "half-Clan" and punished, on rare occasions even killed, for their parents' indiscretion.
91	* In ''Literature/GrandmasterOfDemonicCultivationMoDaoZuShi'', the ''entire cultivational world'' knows that Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao is the bastard son of [[CorruptPolitician sect leader Jin Guangshan]] and [[SonOfAWhore high-ranking brothel worker Meng Shi]], and he frequently suffers public mockery by the gentry (and later brutal abuse from his father's actual wife) for it. And it turns out that he's far from the only bastard the notorious philanderer sired, as Mo Xuanyu and [[spoiler: Qin Su]] are brought into the story later, with yet more unknown children implied.
92	* ''Literature/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' has multiple examples of this, with one that even [[PlayingWithATrope plays with it]]. Keith Claes and Anne Sherry, Catarina's adoptive brother and maid, respectively, were born from noblemen sleeping with a prostitute and a mistress, respectively, and Keith got a double-dose of this because his adoptive father was MistakenForCheating by his wife and she went AffairBlameTheBastard. The first set of relatives Keith stayed with was even worse since the light novels note that Keith wasn't allowed to call his parents "Mother" or "Father," and Keith had to use respectful language on his siblings, who bullied him. Maria Campbell [[PlayingWithATrope plays with it]] because she actually isn't a bastard, but the fact she's a commoner that had won the SuperpowerLottery by getting [[LightEmUp light magic]] when such thing is usually only found in nobility, caused her mother to get MistakenForCheating. All three of them went through hell in life because of it, getting [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer ostracized as lesser beings]]. It's not until Catarina came into their lives that they were able to start moving away from this angst and gain happier lives.
93	* ''Literature/{{Dragonvarld}}'': It's not that heavy, but Marcus has some anxiety over this. Though he was raised as a prince by his father, whose queen accepted him as her son, people still whispered how he'd been born out of wedlock to another woman. He also knows people believe bastards are prone to evil, and don't trust him as a result, along with him having a mental illness as a child.
94	* ''Literature/TheBookOfEve'': Beatrice is known as the ''bastarda'' of the wealthy Stelleri family. She was TheUnFavourite compared to her half-brother and was pushed into a convent as a child following her disfigurement. She grew up to be a [[BastardBastard bitter, sullen person]], though this bitterness is only partially related to her bastard status.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
98	* Antagonist Zoey Tanyag from ''Series/AbotKamayNaPangarap'' is not protagonist RJ Tanyag's daughter - but rather, an illegitimate child, with Analyn Santos being his true child. Zoey loathes Analyn and her mother Lyneth because she feels [[TheUnFavourite unfavored]] because RJ pays more attention to Analyn than Zoey prior to the revelation that Zoey is not RJ's child.
99	* ''Series/AllMyChildren'''s Edmund Grey practically has a nervous breakdown upon learning that he's the illegitimate son of his mother's employer, as the guy was a grade-A jerk. Ironically, the man he thought was his father wasn't much better, being horrifically abusive to him and his mother, possibly because he suspected Edmund wasn't his son.
100	* Protagonist Se-ri from ''Series/CrashLandingOnYou'' is her father’s bastard but she has two half-brothers from his marriage. A lot of family drama stems from this. Her stepmother resents her for overshadowing her sons and her brothers resent her for their dad respecting her business acumen. It’s only exacerbated when her dad picks her to run the family chaebol over the two of them (even though she’s much more competent and level-headed than the two of them).
101	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Like his counterpart in [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire the books]], Jon Snow angsts over the liminal status of being an illegitimate son of a high lord (raised better than other commoners, but never truly accepted) and how he doesn't knowing anything about his mother. It's then [[TheReveal revealed]] that [[spoiler:he's not actually a bastard. His assumed father Ned Stark is actually his ''uncle'' and he's the trueborn son of the former Targaryen heir to the throne]].
102	* ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': Rhaenyra's illegitimate sons [[ChocolateBaby don't look anything like their legal father Laenor Velaryon]] and everything like [[BodyguardCrush their mother's sworn shield]] Harwin Strong. As a result, the boys are dogged by rumors about their parentage from childhood, including from rivalrous relatives. By the end of the first season, this has affected the elder two in different ways: Jacaerys feels like he has to overcompensate and be the perfect princeling; Lucerys feels like an inadequate heir.
103	* ''Series/JoyofLife'': Subverted with the main character, Fan Xian, who couldn't care less about being an illegitimate child, but played somewhat straight with his betrothed, Lin Wan'er, who is only too aware about how her status has affected her family and how she was raised (i.e. in isolation).
104	* Don Draper of ''Series/MadMen'' experienced this, being the bastard son of a whore. When his biological father died his stepmother made life miserable for him, spurring him to take over a dead man's identity and become the ManipulativeBastard he is in the show.
105	* ''Series/MyCountryTheNewAge'': Seon-ho wants to become an officer so people will stop seeing him as just a concubine's son.
106	* ''Series/ThePower2023'': Roxy is not happy at all to be sidelined as a result of being her dad's love child, which is shown especially after he doesn't even mention her when listing his children while making a speech. She blames his wife, her half-siblings' mom, for this.
107	* ''Series/{{Reign}}'': Sebastian, the king's bastard, is usually caring and supportive of his legitimate siblings. But when he becomes attracted to Mary, Francis's betrothed, who plots to make him king for other reasons, he seizes the opportunity. Later, in an attempt to prove himself beyond his familial connections, he seeks to defeat the Darkness ravaging the countryside. In a moment of introspection in the series finale, he admits that he fell into this trope, telling Kenna that he continuously needed to feel like he was "enough."
108	[[/folder]]
109
110	[[folder:Tabletop Game]]
111	* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' novella ''Scars'' main character Danica is the illegitimate daughter of a grey fox noble. One day she got in a fight with one of her half-brothers and accidentally scratched him, her father reacted by having her declawed (normally done to serious criminals and slaves) and threw her out on the street, where she was found and raised by a BountyHunter. [[spoiler: Dani's father turns out to have been the recently deceased High King Fidelio d'Rinaldi, and she recognizes the mad "impostor" she was hired to capture as the real Prince Fedrizzio by the scars she gave him when they were kits.]]
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Theatre]]
115	* ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'' has [[UsefulNotes/TheBorgias Cesare Borgia]], not just illegitimate, but the son of [[UsefulNotes/PopeAlexanderVI a priest]]. He has a lot, but he knows that there are doors that not even all the {{Nepotism}} in the world can open for him. He spells out to his classmate Giovanni de'Medici (yes, those Medici) that his being from a family of commoners is nothing compared to Cesare's illegitimacy. He agrees to help Giovanni make a name for himself, but wishes that he could stand more in the spotlight for himself.
116	* ''Theatre/MarieAntoinetteMusical'': One more thing that's made Margrid's life [[DarkAndTroubledPast hard]] as the [[spoiler:illegitimate daughter of the Emperor of Austria]]. She spells it out to Fersen in the 2018 Toho, Korean, and Hungarian productions.
117	* Comes up often in the works of Creator/WilliamShakespeare.
118	** The BigBad of ''Theatre/KingLear'' is Edmund, whose first soliloquy expounds his frustration over his father's preferential treatment of legitimate son Edgar, and his own inability to inherit the land that he feels ought to be his. So he sets out on a plot of [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder murder]], [[ManipulativeBastard manipulation]], [[SleepingTheirWayToTheTop seduction]], and [[{{Realpolitik}} political machination]] that ultimately sees ten cast members dead, including himself and the entire line of British succession.
119	** Don Jon, the [[DecoyAntagonist apparent villain]] of ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'', is the illegitimate half-brother of Don Pedro, prince of Aragon. He has just lost a rebellion against his brother when the story begins and spends five acts angsting about it while his lackeys do the evil stuff for him.
120	** The arguable protagonist of ''Theatre/KingJohn'', the "Bastard Faulconbridge," encounters this briefly, when it is discovered in Act I that he is not truly his father's son. But he chooses to embrace his birthright as the [[ReallyRoyaltyReveal illegitimate son of King Richard the Lionheart]] and uses it to better himself and his station in life.
121	** Even [[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} Hamlet]] may be an example of this. If the speed with which Hamlet's mother Gertrude and his EvilUncle Claudius marry after the death of Hamlet's father is any indication, we can assume they have been having an affair for years. Combine this with the fact that Hamlet's father seems to have been [[AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder away at war]] for much of his reign, and Hamlet's angst about being "too much in the ''son''" takes on a new twist.
122	* Alexander Hamilton's illegitimate birth did nothing to help his family's situation in the Caribbean, and the narration of ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' always makes sure to bring it up to emphasize the opposition Alexander faced on his rise to the top.
123	* The reason for Elphaba's terrible home life in ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'': her father favors her younger siblings because he's pretty sure she isn't his daughter.
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Video Games]]
127	* Sandor from ''[[Videogame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic Might and Magic: Heroes VI]]'' is the eldest-but-illegitimate son of Duke Slava of the Griffin Duchy, and is overlooked to become the next duke in favour of his younger brother Anton. He decides to leave the politics of the Duchies behind him and find a new life as a BarbarianHero among the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orc tribes]] of the Pao Islands.
128	* Alistair from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' is conflicted about his status as the bastard son of the deceased King Maric of Ferelden, since it was made clear to him from the start that he was, at best, the HiddenBackupPrince to his legitimate half-brother Cailan, and his foster-mother Isolde eventually pressured her husband and Alistair's foster-father Eamon to send him away to the Templars because of rumors that he was actually Eamon's. And when he meets his half-sister Goldanna by his mother as an adult she makes no secret of her resentment towards him since their mother suffered DeathByChildbirth after Alistair was born and Goldanna was paid off and effectively forced out of where she'd been living in Redcliffe castle. The tie-in novels [[AllThereInTheManual also reveal]] [[spoiler:that story is actually a lie, and Alistair's real mother is an [[FantasticRacism elven]] Grey Warden named Fiona, with Goldanna's removal from the castle being part of the coverup of Alistair's real maternity]].
129	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'':
130	** Jusis Albarea was, and is, severely emotionally neglected, possibly even ''abused'' by his father Helmut because he's an illegitimate child conceived with a commoner. This led to a cold demeanor resulting from him trying to prove himself as a noble, which he overcomes as a member of Class VII.
131	** In ''Cold Steel III'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:Jusis' "older brother" Rufus isn't Helmut's son at all but his ''nephew'', and he knew it all along. Because Helmut's brother and legal wife were both nobles, and the affair coming to light would have created a terrible scandal, he had to put up with being paraded around as Helmut's son knowing full well he wasn't, and ''then'' he had to watch Uncle Helmut treat his ''real'' son like crap for being half commoner. The result is a resentment of the nobility, major DaddyIssues, and a severe identity crisis that caused him to crave power, leading to his [[BastardBastard descent into villainy]].]]
132	* [[WellDoneSonGuy Lucien Moreau]] from the ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' Laurentia arc sent his illegitimate son Jacques away to [[WalkingTheEarth Walk the Earth]] in hopes that the experience would turn him into TheAce like his father. Instead, this trope wore Jacques down and made him a jaded and power-hungry mercenary ruthless enough to return after his father's death, rebrand himself as a HiddenBackupPrince, and push Lucien's legitimate children aside to inherit Lucien's legacy himself.
133	* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': This trope is a major component to why [[spoiler:Goro Akechi is the way he is. After spending years being passed around through abusive foster homes and being spurned, he obtained the power to [[EldritchLocation traverse the Metaverse]], and he spends over two years nursing his Persona-summoning powers in order to cause the downfall of his father, [[BigBad Masayoshi Shido.]] In his daily life, he is extremely particular about his physical appearance and lifestyle, and he opted to become something of an idol among detectives in order to [[LonelyAtTheTop alleviate the loneliness he feels]], all to cast aside any doubt that he was an unwanted bastard.]]
134	[[/folder]]
135
136	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
137	* In ''VisualNovel/ShiningSongStarnova'', Nemu Akimoto is the illegitimate child of the heir of Amaterasu Television. While her father’s wife Haruna adopted her into the Akimoto family following her birth mother’s death, Nemu is convinced that Haruna resents her for being a constant reminder of her husband’s infidelity and only adopted her to avoid a scandal regarding her parentage. The fact that Haruna [[FantasyForbiddingFather won’t let Nemu follow in her mother’s footsteps by becoming an]] IdolSinger adds further strain to their relationship.
138	* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'':
139	** Sayo Yasuda gets hit with a double dose of this, as Sayo is both illegitimate and a [[spoiler:ChildByRape, conceived when Kinzo Ushiromiya [[ParentalIncest forced himself on his own daughter]] Beatrice II]]. To say Sayo takes it [[HeroicBSOD badly]] upon finding this out is a vast understatement.
140	** Maria Ushiromiya has a lesser version of this since comments made by her mother Rosa indicate that Maria's birth was, at best, an accident, and her biological father already had a family of his own and has refused to be part of Maria's life. Maria took her mother's statements that she "has no father" literally and concocted a narrative that she was like Jesus and the result of a MysticalPregnancy rather acknowledge the truth, and part of the reason Maria and Rosa's relationship is so troubled is that Maria thinks her mother wishes she was never born.
141	[[/folder]]
142
143	[[folder:Webcomics]]
144	* Tamaura, who is conspicuously [[RedHeadedStepchild the only redhead in her dark-haired family]] from ''{{Webcomic/Blindsprings}}'' was secreted away [[LockedAwayInAMonastery in a cloister]] before being brought to court by her mother, the Empress of Aberwelle, to take over the position of High Priestess from her legitimate sister Aliana, who [[BigBrotherBully absolutely]] [[TheResenter hated]] losing her position. [[http://www.blindsprings.com/comic/blindsprings-page-two-hundred-and-forty-four Tammy had to put up with]] mutterings of "bastards at Court" behind her back and [[http://www.blindsprings.com/comic/blindsprings-page-two-hundred-and-forty-five an enormous amount of scrutiny]] at or before the age of ''12''.
145	* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': The reason Sette never met any of Nary's other children is because he paid to have all of his bastards killed, and she was his only child with his wife to survive birth.
146	[[/folder]]
147
148	[[folder:Real Life]]
149	* Brothers Edwin Booth, John Wilkes Booth, and Junius Brutus Booth Jr. were the result of an extramarital affair actor Junius Brutus Booth had. This spurred them to make names for themselves, becoming rival actors. Edwin became a noted Unionist, while John, well, grew up to assassinate Lincoln. In spite of his loyalties, Edwin had difficulty living this down, along with the rest of their family. Junius Jr. never achieved their fame. Edwin, ironically, had rescued Robert Lincoln from accidentally falling in front of a train fairly shortly before the assassination (though he didn't know who it was at the time).
150	* [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfHanover William IV]]'s inability to have surviving legitimate children with his wife, Adelaide, is part of the reason why UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria became, well, Queen Victoria. He had ten children by his mistress, Dorothea Jordan, and provided for all of them; however, because they weren't legitimate, they weren't seen as royal. The majority of them were largely dissatisfied with their situations as a result; they weren't acknowledged by their grandfather, and rarely given any notice by other members of the royal family, because of their parentage.[[note]]Victoria was an exception, as she treated these cousins with kindness and gave some of them positions in her households. Queen Adelaide was also a GoodStepmother to them.[[/note]] In particular, William's eldest son George frequently quarreled with him publicly about the matter. George's bastard angst eventually led to a complete estrangement and he ultimately shot himself without ever reconciling with his father.
151	* Rapidly entering DiscreditedTrope territory in western countries, particularly EU and US where by TheNewTens nearly half of all births are to unmarried women and thus being a "bastard" in the traditional sense is no longer unusual, when it was rare only a generation or two ago. ValuesDissonance applies, given many non-western countries still frown upon unmarried couples so much as looking at each other funny.

Context Main / BastardAngst