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"Mos Eisley spaceport. You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
If you combined the most disgusting slums from every large city in the world and filled them with the worst people, you'd still come up short of the Wretched Hive.
If this city has any "good" authorities, expect them to be extremely overworked, corrupt and otherwise incapable of controlling the sky-rocketing crime everywhere.
It's far more likely that there is no law, or it's ruled with the "peace" of rival gangs, or it's a tyranny of the biggest gangster. It won't be a Dictatorship, though, as that implies evil order; this place is chaos and evil urbanified. The closest thing to a Wretched Hive in Real Life would be Mogadishu, Somalia, where years of civil unrest since the collapse of the Somalian government in 1991 have made this city a lawless hell.
Heroes going there will be hard pressed to resist their heroic side and let the city's evil take its course. Even if they can't fix it, expect heroes to do at least some good... and suffer because of it. Expect to see a Bad Guy Bar in it somewhere. The Good Shepherd may feature (even act as a Good Samaritan) but expect him to very poor and overladen with unfortunates already; the heroes can't take too much because it is obviously desperately needed.
For all of it's wretchedness the actual tone of the city can vary very widely depending on the nature of the story; the city might be depicted as a bleak, soul crushing slice of human misery and depravity or as a rolicking place of thrilling tavern brawls, gambling dens and personal freedom that a man can thrive in if he's quick with his wits and weapons. Compare Tortuga and Gotham to take two recent film examples.
Compare with Vice City, a huge sprawling urban town packed to the limit with crime and prostitutes which is basically the video game version of this trope. Opposite of the Sugar Bowl and Utopia in general.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Roanapur in Black Lagoon.
- Texhnolyze features Lux, possibly the bleakest example of this trope.
- Zaraki region from Bleach. When the Blood Knight comes from there and treats slicing up people and smelling like blood as everyday activities, that's because there's a really bad place. Makes one wonder how Hell would be...
Comics
- Gotham City, mostly since Batman, now. Except the GCPD is full of honest, hard-working people (and Harvey Bullock), and organized crime isn't nearly so big as chaotic, supervillain crime.
- Or at least it is now. Year One and The Long Halloween show that organized crime and police corruption were prevalent, and, after The Mafia was taken down, the "freaks" took over.
- And its neighbor, Bludhaven, where Batman's former sidekick Nightwing set up shop in his solo book (later to be supplanted by the current Robin and Batgirl in their solo books). Of course, that was before it became a Doomed Hometown....
- Sin City
- Bête Noire, the setting of Peter David's Fallen Angel.
- Hub City in The DCU, from The Question comics, was specifically written to be the most corrupt city in the U.S. Less than ten police officers were considered honest and the firefighters went out armed.
- Maranatha, Florida in the titular unfinished web novel Maranatha and the on-going graphic novel series Heathen City, both by Alex Vance.
- Snowtown in Fell.
- New Port City in Bomb Queen, to a parodic degree.
Films
- Pirates Of The Caribbean had Tortuga — and definitely one that fits. A den of buccaneers in Real Life. Port Royal (the peaceful starting locale of the films) wasn't all that much better. When it was wiped out in an earthquake, most folks thought it was the wrath of God.
- Los Angeles as portrayed in Predator 2.
- Mexico City as portrayed in Man On Fire.
- Mos Eisley from Star Wars, the Trope Namer here. The new trilogy has the lower levels of Coruscant like this. And the Expanded Universe has Nar Shaddaa, basically an entire planet of it.
- Old Detroit as portrayed in Robocop.
- Detroit as portrayed in The Crow.
- Escape From New York can qualify as well. Technically, in this film the island of Manhattan is a prison if we observe it from the outside, but if observed from the inside, it's a Wretched Hive.
- 1970s New York City portrayed in Death Wish easily qualifies. I lived there then and the real life city also qualified up till about the mid-90s.
- The Cidate de Deus (City of God) as presented in the 2002 film of the same name — it is a part of the Favelas, and thus a case of Truth In Television. Notably, none of the scenes of the film were shot within the City of God itself, because the location was too dangerous to film in.
- Bartertown in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
- New York as portrayed in Taxi Driver
Literature
- Calcutta, Lord of Nerves. A short story in which the author asks what would happen if you took a real-life wretched hive and added zombies and an animate statue of the destroyer goddess Kali.
- Discworld's Ankh-Morpork in the earlier books; The Shades turn this all the way past eleven up to one-twenty-five, to the point where "a ghastly frieze of tortured silhouettes" is deemed less likely to attract attention than "fresh paint".
- Havelock Vetinari seriously cleaned up the city, though, by legalizing the Thieves Guild and putting them in charge of regulating the muggings. And the Watch became very efficient later under the influence of Captain Carrot and Samuel Vimes. To the point Ankh-Morpork is in the later books a bustling center of economic activity where, to paraphrase Going Postal, "being accosted while going about your lawful business was merely a possibility, rather than a matter of course". You can still get killed at night just by wandering in the wrong places, but the pragmatic Ankh-Morporkians consider this "suicide".
- Lankhmar of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series.
- Michael Moorcock's Elric character was once compelled to visit a city called Nadsokor, also known as the "City of Beggars". This city's population consists entirely of those who are physically, mentally, and morally deformed.
- In the Mutant Chronicles novels based on the games, Luna was one big Wretched Hive.
- Dan Brown's Digital Fortress inexplicably depicts Seville, Spain as one of these. Its description was so over the top that Seville's local government actually invited Brown to visit the city
 to prove him wrong. Bizarrely, he claims to have done so before writing the book.
- Sanctuary, the setting of Robert Aspirin's Thieves World series embodies this trope. The series starts with the kingdom it is set in trying to bring order to the city with limited results.
- New Crobuzon from China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and sequels blows most examples here out of the water in terms of sheer ugliness. It's ruled by vicious capitalists who ignore crime against ordinary citizens, but send death squads to deal with dissenters, essentially ensuring that the city stays a brutal lawless mess forever. Of course, the rest of the world doesn't seem to be any nicer....
- Simon R Green created at least two of these: Haven in the Hawk and Fisher series, and the eponymous district of Nightside.
- In Dan Abnett's Gaunts Ghosts novel The Armour of Contempt, the swelter decks. One gambling den there sets out to beat Merrt to death, and when Ludd interrupts, intends to kill him as well. Hark was there to back Ludd up, but as he was in the swelter decks, some soldiers thought they could Revenge their captain on Hark safely; fortunately for Ludd, he dealt with them quickly enough.
- In William King's Warhammer 40000 Space Wolf novel Wolfblade, the underhive that they raid because of the Cult. There are dispossessed people down here, and even a Brother Malburius, ministering and acting as The Medic, but also plentiful horrors.
- The pirate town of Tortage in the Barachan Islands in the Conan The Barbarian novels.
Music
- In the Alestorm song Nancy the Tavern Wench, the titular Nancy's tavern is such a hive.
Newspaper Comics
- Calia, the so-called "Republic of Desperados" that was founded by escapees from Devil's Island, appears in the Modesty Blaise serial "The Jericho Caper".
Tabletop Games
- Everywhere in Shadowrun.
- Aside from the paracritter infested wilderness... and horribly bigoted hick towns... and soul numbing Mega Corp enclaves....
- Well, everywhere as in the sprawls of the megacities. Definitely not the corporate arcologies and AAA security districts for the rich and the elite.
- Those also ARE Wretched Hives. It's just that their villainy is of a different kind.
- Well, even in Shadowrun the middle-class wageslaves and datapushers have to live somewhere, and it's not with their rich and elite masters. They generally end up in very boring, monocultural, well-patrolled and culturally sterile suburban housing projects. Of course, since there are virtually zero adventuring possibilities in such places the PCs hardly ever see them, hence their falling down the memory hole.
- Seattle has a Wretched Hive within a Wretched Hive, in the Barrens.
- Chicago becomes a literal Wretched Hive after a particularly nasty incident with some bug spirits.
- And the Chicago Shattergraves are still a kiss from your mother compared to the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong. Given that the sheer concentration of human despair and viciousness is so thick there that it allowed the Yama Kings to manifest, and rampage over the slums slaking their unholy lusts on the populace in secret. Yes, I said the Yama Kings.
- Many of the Hive Cities of Warhammer 40000 are like this from spire to foundation, but the underhives are almost always qualify. Necromunda is the most prominent example, where the planetary government and military are essentially one sprawling gang that commands the obedience of the next gang below them.
- The Dark Eldar are a race of always chaotic evil space-elves, and their capital Commorgah fit the trope. The city is ruled by warring cabals and only semblance of government is the biggest cabal that's powerful enough to boss the other around. Getting killed by a total stranger in broad daylight (well, technically due to its location in the Webway there is no day and night cycle in Commorgah, only perpetual twilight) in the middle of a street is seen a perfectly normal occurrence. One has to wonder how the Dark Eldar have managed not to kill themselves off yet.
- Might have something to do with the Dark Eldar having a penchant for lots of Squick, and so reproduce faster than they can kill each other off.
- The entirety of the 40k universe itself might be considered this.
- Similarly, the major cities of the Warhammer world are much like their 40k counterparts, sans the plumbing. Of particular note is the city of Mordheim, which became so depraved, corrupt, and horrifying that a god threw a comet at it. Then it became a bunch of warped ruins home to a few depraved, corrupt, and horrifying mutants, as well as the mercenary warbands coming from across the realm to loot it.
- A number of places in the Coalition States in Rifts, but most notably the Chi-Town 'Burbs. One city, Cuidad Juarez, is literally stated to be "The Mos Eisley Cantina scene, spread out over an entire city".
- Exalted's city of Nexus fits this description to a tee.
- Many cities in the KULT RPG.
- Dungeons & Dragons' Planescape setting has a region of Sigil, the main city, that is actually called "The Hive". It's basically one big lawless slum where criminals, anarchists, death-worshipers, and demons fight for control. Even Sigil's normally formidable Harmonium guard are too afraid to even patrol there.
- The videogame Planescape: Torment actually starts with the player waking up in The Hive.
- In Temple of Elemental Evil, Nulb is basically this. It does however have a small number of decent if not good-aligned characters living there. Of course, the player's actions can either destroy it or make it prosper.
- The World of Greyhawk has a few cities like this, most notably the city of Dorakaa in the demon-ruled Empire of Iuz, the city of Molag in the Horned Society, the drow city of Erelhei-Cinlu, and the entirety of the Pomarj region.
- Skullport in Forgotten Realms. Multiclassed as a thriving center of smuggling (including slave trade) and therefore has properties of Bazaar Of The Bizarre, such as "mercantile truce". That is, sworn enemies don't attack each other noticeably more often than complete strangers.
- Zhentil Keep, and indeed many of the cities of the Moonsea area, are other notable examples.
- Ragadorn, main city of the Wildlands in the Lone Wolf series.
- Titan, the official setting for the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series, has a couple of these. The most notorious are Port Blacksand, well-known as the City of Thieves, and Khare, called the Cityport of Traps. One is a ramshackle collection of pirates, thieves and murderers who'd slit their mothers' throats for a few copper pieces (if mommy didn't get them first, of course), and the other is a debauched collection of cultists and slavers of every conceivable race, who only manage to live together without killing each other because their city is the only thing resembling civilization in a wild, hellish wasteland.
- Junkyard, built next to the remain of Salt Lake City, from the Deadlands: Hell on Earth setting.
Video Games
- Pickam in Dragon Quest VIII.
- New Reno in Fallout 2: an entire city dedicated to prostitution, pornography, gambling and bloodsports, run by a variety of constantly-feuding gangs, with no authority whatsoever in appearance. Paradise Falls in Fallout 3 is a town run by slavers. Characters can even improve their Karma by murdering everyone in town (except the slaves).
- The Undernet in Mega Man Battle Network.
- Nar Shaddaa in Knights Of The Old Republic II, a sprawling metropolis controlled by the Star Wars equivalent of the Mafia.
- Any city in the Grand Theft Auto series approaches this, though they may simply be Vice Cities.
- Rogueport in Paper Mario 2 is a parody of this.
- Zozo in Final Fantasy VI is more of a dungeon than a city, since you run into random encounters in its streets and it has an end-boss.
- Midgar in Final Fantasy VII approaches this. The slums at least.
- Everywhere in the Rogue Isles is the titular City of Villains. Not that Paragon City, the actual "City Of Heroes", is much better.
- Fable 2 has the town of Bloodstone, a sort of Evil Counterpart to the town of Bowerstone: while Evil characters are treated with fear and suspicion in Bowerstone, in Bloodstone they are treated with respect.
- Kras City, in Jak X. Pretty much the only genuinely good people we meet apart from Rayn even though that's an act seem to come from Haven, Spargus, or the distant past. Of course, the Jak games (since they went Darker And Edgier) are dedicated to the idea of "a few good people in a Crapsack World", so it's not too surprising.
Web Comics
Web Original
- Survival Of The Fittest has this with Denton, New Jersey. Even if the police force wasn't corrupt, they're too incompetent to really do anything short of running in guns-blazing or sending in a SWAT team, to the point where they no longer care if the gangs go about their business or kill each other as long as the police themselves get their take and are left alone. The more righteous of them also tend to crack down on the gangs if they hurt too many innocents in their disputes. Criminal gangs are everywhere in the city, which is practically run by the most powerful of them instead of by the Mayor himself. Like any other gangs, the Denton gangs have divided the city up between themselves, and they maintain a tense peace between them, as the bloodshed brought by a gang war is bad for business. Even then, though, shootouts and gang brawls are common (sometimes school children can't get to the bus on time because bullets are flying past the doorway, and they'd get shot if they tried to go outside), while anyone who sticks their nose in the wrong place turns up dead. This is considered highly unusual in SOTF's world, though, and no other city that has been seen is quite as bad as Denton.
- The Image Board That Must Not Be Named.
Western Animation
Real Life
- The actual line comes from the description of Port Royal during the colonial period. The port was widely seen as an open haven for pirates and smugglers, turning the economy into one based around boozing, whoring, stealing, and an assortment of activities centered around catering to men who could spend all of their pay in a few days.
- 4Chan.
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