Dr. Cortex: Mother?!
Dr. Robotnik: Whaaat? She's my mama!
Dr. Cortex: Oh, did I forget to mention, Robotnik? I'm your twin brother!
Dr. Robotnik: Whaaat? She's my mama!
Dr. Cortex: Oh, did I forget to mention, Robotnik? I'm your twin brother!
A common way to establish a strong connection between two works in a Crossover is to establish two or more characters from the source works as being related. The primary hitch with this is explaining why these relatives haven't interacted with each other before; as such, some means of establishing distance is also common — a lost child, an estranged sibling, a distant cousin...
The trope isn't necessarily about individuals and can be applied to larger groups, up to and including entire species. For instance, a way to explain the presence of humans in some distant system or galaxy is to have them as a Lost Colony of Earth — which can be a lot more plausible than two identical species arising by pure chance. This also serves as a way of more closely integrating two or more settings into each other.
A Sub-Trope to Related in the Adaptation and Obvious Crossover Method. Compare Crossover Couple and Historical Character's Fictional Relative.
Examples:
Examples on subpages
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Anime & Manga
- Skull Man: The ending of the 2007 anime reveals that the main character is actually the father of the title character from Cyborg 009.
- Eishun Konoe from Negima! Magister Negi Magi is revealed to be a cousin of Tsuruko and Makoto from Love Hina. While a lot of other characters could be considered expies from other Ken Akamatsu works, this one really solidified the Akamatsuverse.
- How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? one of teachers at main character's school is Yakusha Kure, mother of Karua Kure from Kengan Ashura. Russian transfer student Gina Boyd is a niece of another Kengan character, Ivan Karaev.
Comic Books
- In the 2000 AD strip Portals and Black Goo: The Night Shift about a delivery driver to the Monster Mash, one of his regulars is an immortal, but somewhat down-on-his-luck, sorcerer called Magister Dain, who frequently mentions his more successful brother, who has a castle. The final chapter reveals that this is Cursitor Doom, from the strip of the same name in Smash!
- Adventure Time x Regular Show: The Ooo version of Death and the Regular Show's one are revealed to be cousins, squabbling ones at that, who do their jobs in their respective dimensions.
- All-Star Squadron established that Starman (a Golden Age DC character) and Phantom Lady (a Golden Age Quality character that was later acquired by DC) were cousins.
- Archie Comics produced a series from the late '60s to the early '80s titled That Wilkin Boy. Although the series took place in Midvale, the main character, Bingo Wilkin, was eventually found to be a cousin of Jughead Jones from the regular Archie Comics set in Riverdale.
- Dark Wolverine: Daken's evil ex-boyfriend turns out to have been an Honorary Uncle of Chase Stein of the Runaways, giving Daken an excuse to recruit the Runaways in order to help take him down.
- GoBots: IDW Publishing's miniseries ends with strong implications that the GoBots are actually precursors to the Transformers, one example being that it is hinted that Road Ranger and Bug Bite are the respective fathers of the Autobots Optimus Prime and Bumblebee.
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, being a Massive Multiplayer Crossover comic, frequently reveals characters from the various works it adapts to be relatives. Especially if they happen to share the same surname:
- In the prequel story "Alan and the Sundered Veil'', it is revealed that Randolph Carter is a great-nephew of John Carter.
- Both being spies, Tara King from The Avengers (1960s) is now the sister of Jason King.
- Captain Universe's alter-ego, Jim Logan is now a brother to Jet-Ace Logan. Short-lived superhero and Captain Space, Defender of Earth! from British comic strips respectively.
- Dean Moriarty from On the Road by Jack Kerouac is a descendant of James Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories.
- In the spin off Nemo: Heart of Ice, Hugo Hercules mentions fathering a child in a town called Cactusville, and is later seen eating a pie made from an entire cow, with horns and tail sticking out. All of which implies he's the father of The Dandy's Desperate Dan.
- Shazam!: The Secret of the Freeman Brothers" in World's Finest #280 reveals that Quality Comics character Kid Eternity lives on Earth-S with the Fawcett characters and has the real name Kit Freeman; he's Freddy Freeman/Captain Marvel Jr's long-lost brother. This was probably undone by the Crisis, or at least glossed over in Eternity's Vertigo Comics book.
- In X-Factor (1991) #71, Val Cooper mentions her brother is an FBI agent who was investigating the murder of a girl found wrapped in plastic. She stops short of actually saying his first name is Dale, though.
Films — Animation
- Shrek: The world of Shrek brings together a number of established fairy tale characters into one world, leading to a few of these:
- Fiona's father is revealed to be The Frog Prince at the end of Shrek 2, while Prince Charming is the son of the Fairy Godmother.
- In Shrek the Third, Fiona's cousin is Arthur Pendragon, and next in line for the throne of Far Far Away after Fiona and Shrek.
- Shrek: The Musical reveals that Farquaad's father was Grumpy from Snow White And The Seven Dwarves, which actually explains a lot.
Films — Live Action
- Double V Vega, a never-produced Quentin Tarantino film, would have revealed that Vic Vega/Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs and Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction are brothers.
- Django Freeman and his wife Broomhilda "Hildi" von Shaft from Django Unchained are implied to be ancestors of Detective John Shaft.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe: In Captain America: The First Avenger, we are introduced to Private Jim Morita, a member of Cap's special unit in WWII, the Howling Commandoes. Years later, in Spiderman Homecoming, we meet Peter Parker's high school principal, also named Morita. Both are played by Kenneth Choi. The two Moritas are grandfather and grandson, confirmed by the presence of a framed photo of the older Morita in the younger one's office.
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: Spock claims an ancestor of his once maintained "if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" suggesting he's a descendent of either Sherlock Holmes or his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit:
- In one scene, Roger mentions having an "Uncle Thumper".
- The unmade prequel, of which a script exists, featured a storyline of Roger searching for his long-lost parents. At the end, he finally meets his mother, who then introduces him to the father: Bugs Bunny!
"Ain't I a stinker?"
Literature
- Ghost Roads is set in the same universe as InCryptid, and Rose Marshall is an Honorary Aunt of the Price siblings. She appears in their books a few times, but the Price family are only mentioned in hers.
- Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: Magnus Chase is first cousin to Annabeth Chase from The Camp Half-Blood Series on their mortal parents' side, both of which are works of Rick Riordan. The two interact a number of times across their respective series.
- Wold Newton Family by Philip José Farmer (and its online continuation by other hands
): Most of the major Victorian and pulp heroes are descended from a small group of people, who were affected by a meteor in the 18th century. The central relationship is that Tarzan and Doc Savage are cousins, grandsons of the Duke of Holdernesse from the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Priory School". (Holdernesse is said to be Watson's name for the title Edgar Rice Burroughs called Greystoke, while Doc's father Clark Savage Sr is the illegitimate son that Watson called James Wilder; Farmer calls him James Clarke Wildman.)
Live-Action TV
- Alice (1976): a crossover episode with The Dukes of Hazzard revealed Jolene and Boss Hogg were cousins.
- Friends: Phoebe is the twin sister of Ursula from Mad About You. Both are played by Lisa Kudrow.
- Full House: DJ's friend Julie turns out to be the cousin of Steve Urkel from Family Matters. However, this was the only time Julie appeared on the show, so she wasn't an established character to begin with and was only there to set up the crossover.
- The Green Hornet: In both the TV and radio versions, Britt Reid was confirmed as being the grandnephew of John Reid, the Lone Ranger.
- 9-1-1: Lone Star: In the episode "Hold The Line", a crossover with parent series 9-1-1, Mateo asks the LA crew if they know his cousin Marvin, a minor character from 9-1-1's second season. This doubles as a reference to the fact that Mateo and Marvin are played by the same actor.
- Once Upon a Time brings together multiple characters from classic Western fairytales and Disney animated films note and also liberally applies Composite Character, with an infamously twisted family tree of relationships:
- With the Season 2 reveal that Rumplestiltskin's son is Henry's father, Rumplestiltskin is "in-laws" note with Snow White and Prince Charming, Henry's biological grandparents, and the Evil Queen, Snow White's stepmother and Henry's adoptive mother. Once Belle from Beauty and the Beast marries Rumple (who is the same person as the Beast, as well as the Crocodile from Peter Pan) and Snow White's daughter marries Captain Hook, the web of in-laws gets... extensive.
Charming: It's a good thing we don't have Thanksgiving in our land because that dinner would suck.
- The Evil Queen's mother would go on to become Wonderland's Queen of Hearts, and was also the Miller's Daughter from the Rumplestiltskin fairytale. The Wicked Witch of the West is later revealed to be the half-sister of the Evil Queen via the Queen of Hearts.
- Peter Pan is Rumplestiltskin's father (though he didn't really become Pan until after Rumple was born).
- The Snow Queen from the original Hans Christian Anderson fairytale is not only Elsa and Anna's aunt, but was once Emma's foster mother. Particularly amusing since Emma's birth mother is named Snow.
- After the Season 7 Time Skip, Henry has married and had a daughter with an alternate version of Cinderella, making Snow White and the Evil Queen this Cinderella's in-laws.
- Also in Season 7, an alternate version of Rapunzel is revealed to be the Evil Stepmother to Henry's wife Cinderella, and an alternate Alice is revealed to be the daughter of the alternate Captain Hook, and of Mother Gothel.
- Season 7's version of Gretel is the sister of Jack (of Beanstalk fame), who is really Hansel.
- With the Season 2 reveal that Rumplestiltskin's son is Henry's father, Rumplestiltskin is "in-laws" note with Snow White and Prince Charming, Henry's biological grandparents, and the Evil Queen, Snow White's stepmother and Henry's adoptive mother. Once Belle from Beauty and the Beast marries Rumple (who is the same person as the Beast, as well as the Crocodile from Peter Pan) and Snow White's daughter marries Captain Hook, the web of in-laws gets... extensive.
- On the spinoff Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, the Red Queen (who for once is not composited with the Queen of Hearts by an adaptation) is indicated to be a stepsister of some version of Cinderella. And Alice is married to a version of the Genie from Aladdin.
- Psych: The writers planned to have a crossover with Leverage with the reveal that Shawn and Henry were related to Elliott. (All three have the last name Spencer.) But then it was established that Leverage existed as a show in the Psych universe and those plans were abandoned.
- Sesame Street: A 1991 five-part crossover special with the Israeli version of Sesame Street reveals that Oscar the Grouch and his Israeli counterpart Moishe Oofnik are cousins.
Professional Wrestling
- When The Muppets appeared on WWE Raw SuperShow, it was revealed that Sheamus (often mocked for his Beaker-like hairdo) was related to Beaker in an unspecified way when they got into a conversation and Sheamus said he'd be unable to make the family reunion, but asked Beaker to tell Aunt Teresa "Hello".
Podcasts
- Episode seven of Less is Morgue features a cameo by Shaz from Bloody Urban, apparently an Australian cousin of cohost Riley.
Video Games
- Alice in the Mirrors of Albion, a game set in a Fairy Tale Free-for-All, turns the Little Red Riding Hood (named Letitia Redd) into the Mad Hatter's niece.
- Dark Parables, being a Massive Multiplayer Crossover of fairy tales, does this to many of the classic characters. For example, it's revealed that Princess Briar Rose is the sister-in-law of The Frog Prince, who later married Cinderella, whose Fairy Godmother was the mother of Pinocchio.
- Fate/Grand Order:
- Though they lived centuries apart in their original lives, Arjuna and Minamoto no Raikou are half siblings. Arjuna's father is the Hindu God Indra and Raikou's father is the Shinto God Gozu TennÅ, but in the Nasuverse, the two gods are one and the same.
- It is revealed that Morgan Le Fay and the Lady of the Lake are split personalities of each other. This means the Lady of the Lake's adopted son, Lancelot, is the adopted sibling of Morgan's children Agravain, Gawain, Gaharis, Gareth, and Mordred.
- HoloFunk 5.0: hololive idols Amane Kanata and Tokoyami Towa are revealed in sidestories and background details to be the first cousin and younger sister of Friday Night Funkin' protagonists Boyfriend and Girlfriend respectively. The sudden association is justified by both of the latter characters being rewritten into the street-smart Japanese angel and devil Kenji Tensei and Hana Kurayami, who publicly operate with false identities to hide themselves from Girlfriend/Hana's parents.
Web Animation
- Pooh's Adventures is notorious for often hand-waving every human character as being a cousin of Christopher Robin, or every bear character being a cousin of Pooh.
- Spy & Pyro is a Team Fortress 2 animation where the BLU Spy and RED Pyro are hit by Cupid's arrow and have a baby named Spyro.
- In NPCarlsson's YouTube Poops, Dr. Neo Cortex and Dr. Ivo Robotnik are twin brothers.
- To Belong:
- Anya from Anastasia, Jim from Treasure Planet, and Sinbad from Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas are siblings.
- John Rolfe and Pocahontas of Pocahontas are siblings with Charming from Cinderella. Pocahontas is the older half-sibling through their father.
Webcomics
- Grim Tales from Down Below: Jack Skellington and Grim are brothers.
- The Hero of Three Faces
- Hermione Granger says she has an aunt who's a vicar, and has no idea about the Wizarding World. The final panel reveals this to be the Rev Geraldine Granger.
- In another strip, the Doctor claims that in fiction planes where M*A*S*H and Supernatural both happened, Sam and Dean are related to Major Charles Winchester, but the Same Surname Means Related is a coincidence, since the relationship is through their mother.
- Sleepless Domain: NYPD officer Reed Bahia from Kiwi Blitz makes a brief cameo in Chapter 13, in which he is shown to be the magical girl Rue's father.
Web Original
- SCP Foundation: In SCP-4566, John Carter and Randolph Carter were part of the Marshall, Carter and Dark Family Business before SCP-4566 sucked them into their respective books. Their uncle Rupert bought the rights to both series shortly after.
Web Videos
- Barney Bunch: McDonald's mascot Ronald McDonald's brother is an illustration of a clown of unknown origin given the Fan Nickname "Dick the Clown".
- Code Ment: Lelouch is cousins with Death the Kid, which also makes Lord Death his uncle as well on his father's side, meaning that the Britannian royal family is related as well. He also happens to be Alucard's nephew too. Alucard is mentioned to be from Lelouch's mother's side of the family, making Marianne related to him.
- Critical Role: Downplayed. Campaign 3's Orym of the Air Ashari is a bodyguard for the Campaign 1 character Keyleth, and the husband to the late son of Derrig from the "Dalen's Closet" one-shot. As a bonus, both Derrig and Orym are played by Liam O'Brien.
- Golden Blond and Jet Black: Mavis from Hotel Transylvania and Rapunzel of Tangled are the daughters of Pitch and Sandy, respectively, from Rise of the Guardians.
- Real-Time Fandub: In the Sonic Riders dub, Jet claims that Falco Lombardi is his cousin.
Western Animation
- The Care Bears: Adventure in Wonderland: The White Rabbit, whom Alice followed down the rabbit hole, turns out to be the uncle of Care Bear Cousin Swift Heart Rabbit. This is how the Care Bears are alerted to the situation in Wonderland.
- Paradise PD: In a crossover episode with Brickleberry, Chief Randall Crawford from the former series is revealed to be the cousin of Woody Johnson from the latter.
- Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?: Alfred Pennyworth is Daphne Blake's Honorary Uncle in the Batman crossover episode, "What a Night, For a Dark Knight!"
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): In the episode "Trans-Dimensional Turtles", the turtles meet characters from the 1987 show, and it's revealed that 1987 Krang is the cousin of Kraang Sub-Prime.
- Tiny Toon Adventures: Despite fans' beliefs to the contrary, only Gogo Dodo and the original Dodo from the classic short "Porky In WackyLand" are officially related as per Word of God.
- The Transformers: Earth Defense Command operative Marisa Fairborne, a close ally of the Autobots, is revealed to be the daughter of G.I. Joe operative Flint, who "appears" in the series via a Quintesson-created duplicate. The writers have confirmed that fellow Joe operative Lady Jaye is her biological mother.
