Royally Screwed Up / Anime & Manga

• From the second season of Black Butler, Alois Trancy.
• In Code Geass, the Royal Family of the Holy Empire of Britannia are all pretty messed up for the most part, ranging from Lelouch and Schneizel, to Cornelia, to Clovis, who wipes out a whole section of dilapidated city to cover up his mistakes. And that's not even talking about Emperor Charles, his Evil Matriarch partner Marrianne, who is Not Quite Dead, and his insane brother V.V.. Luckily there's some hope. Euphemia is a generally sweet girl, and so is her younger sister, Nunnally. Crown Prince Odysseus is also pretty decent, though that may be because he doesn't really do much of anything (not to mention being probably the least intelligent of the family). Unfortunately this series likes to kill the kind ones.
• A borderline case in Dragon Ball: although Frieza is the most well-known member of his family, others are shown, and for the most part, they're just as crazy and evil as he is. Fan theories tend to attribute this trope to why they're essentially Lawful Evil.
• Hunter × Hunter brings us the Kakin Royal Family whose members include an Ax-Crazy, lion-faced Blood Knight who won't hesitate to use anything at his disposal to elimanate any potential threat to him and a deranged Mad Artist Serial Killer with a hobby of collecting body parts and killing young women to make his twisted art pieces. And that's not getting into the type of person their father is like!
• In Magi: Labyrinth of Magic we have the Kou Royal Family, integrated by a variety of members of all flavors! Their internal conflicts are so alike to those of a soap opera, a deranged soap opera.
• The Zabi family from Mobile Suit Gundam put the Screwed Up in Big, Screwed-Up Family. Patriarch and Sovereign Degwin is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who seeks to Take Over the World in the name of his ideology. Eldest son Gihren is a psychopathic Social Darwinist who could not care less about ideology and just wants to increase his own power whatever the cost. Second son Dozle is more or less normal, but turns into an Ax-Crazy berserker when turned loose on the battlefield. Daughter Kycilia is a cold-blooded amoral schemer who wants the throne for herself, and doesn't give a damn about human life. The only exceptions seem to be youngest son Garma, the second son Sasro (who was only a Sleazy Politician, killed by ''some'' of his siblings before the story proper) and Dozle's daughter, Mineva, who is raised away from the family, after all of their respective deaths.
• One Piece has the World Nobles, otherwise known as the Tenryuubito (or "Celestial Dragons"), who are a perfect example of the 'Raised Wrong' cultural cause above. Because they are the descendants of the 20 kings who founded the World Government (or rather, 19 of them- Vivi's ancestor refused the invite.) Because of this, they're practically worshipped and considered above even most other royal families. They can do anything they want, from murder to enslaving anyone who catches their eye (slavery is banned otherwise), and they get away with it because they can summon an admiral any time they want. Naturally, they're complete spoiled monsters. This mindset is entirely culturally indoctrinated, and some World Nobles have learned to escape it. Notable examples include Donquixote Homing and his immediate family (Doflamingo being his son), and Myosgard after Otohime saved him.
• The three Vance sisters from Queen's Blade are so messed up that, if it weren't for the fact that their father seems to be a fairly sane, stable sort, one would think the gods were justified in dethroning their family's ancestors as the former rulers of the known world and replacing the hereditary nobility with the eponymous tourney, which seems tailor-made to avoid the negative effects that this can have on the political arena.
  • Firstly, the sisters as a whole are part of an incestuous lesbian Love Triangle, where eldest daughter Claudette has a crush on youngest daughter Elina that goes unrequited (except in the Hide & Seek continuity) because Elina is instead obsessively in love with the middle daughter, Leina. Leina herself is only Ambiguously Gay, but is stable enough that if she is a lesbian, her attraction is to a woman who is not one of her sisters. Also, all three of them have serious mommy issues due to their Missing Mom — Claudette actually gets a double whammy of this, as her mother died before her father married the woman who gave birth to Leina and Elina, and then she died as well.
  • Claudette has serious issues with her family due to the fact that she's an illegitimate daughter and so not allowed to officially inherit the family estates, despite being the most formidable fighter. She does love her sisters, but at the same time she hates them, and she also feels torn between love & loyalty and hate for her father. In Rebellion, with a little magical coaxing from the Swamp Witch, her negative feelings turn her into a full-blown Evil Overlord, thanks in part to Leina giving her the throne of Queen.
  • Leina is technically the most stable of the sisters, but still suffers from severe inferiority issues that make her feel unfit to be the heir to the Vance family name and induce her to try and literally run away from her responsibilities.
  • Elina, finally, is the most unquestionably screwed up of the sisters. A Spoiled Brat who regards all others as beneath her notice and tortured one of her servants to the point she becomes one of the series' Big Bads just for the hell of it, which she did as a child, she has a complete Lack of Empathy and is also an unabashed incestuous Psycho Lesbian, who in the first anime episode is seen vindictively talking about how she'll make Leina's future husband suffer for having the audacity to marry her beloved sister.
• In Samurai Pizza Cats, Princess Vi is a selfish, spoiled brat who exiles people to Prisoner Island at the drop of a hat, her mother considers firing a rocket launcher at her daughter an appropriate family greeting, and Emperor Fred... to say he's got a few screws loose would imply he's got any screws left.
• An interesting variant: the heir presumptive of the Holy Kingdom of Saillune in Slayers, Prince Phillionel, while somewhat of a Leeroy Jenkins-like lunatic with a passion for physical fights, is probably the sanest and respectable member of the family and a stellar runner of the country; his younger daughter Amelia has most of his traits. The rest of the family is filled with Dirty Cowards who will do anything to move up a spot for the throne, with no concern for others — both of Phil's younger brothers, Christopher and Randionel, and his nephew, Alfred, have attempted to murder him. Alfred in particular contracts one (two in the anime) Mazoku to both take out Phil and take Saillune for himself while letting Christopher (his father) take the blame. In the novels, Christopher himself kills Alfred to prevent any more damage, and nearly commits suicide himself.
  • Among the craziest is Amelia's older sister, Gracia, otherwise known as Naga the Serpent. She runs off after Phil's wife is murdered, which is NOT helped by how she found her mom dead and bloodily killed the assassin. She then spent years traveling alone (and with Lina) in an attempt to obtain treasure, learn about the world (sort of), drink, and gain fame without much effort (which definitely doesn't work in her favor, especially when she's traveling with Lina). While she is willing to help others, she is like Lina insofar as she does it for her own gain. In the novels, she keeps in contact with Phil, but in other media it seems that she hasn't made contact in years, which disconcerts Amelia.
• The Story of Saiunkoku. Where to even begin? The previous emperor of Saiunkoku deliberately pitted his sons against each other, and then exiled his former favorite, the most competent of the lot. Of the remaining five princes, all but the youngest were killed fighting each other in a Succession Crisis that nearly destroyed the country. The Un Favorite youngest son Ryuuki became the heir. Ryuuki was none too keen on this and feigned incompetence and spread rumors about his sexuality to make himself unpopular and get out of producing an heir. Ironically, avoiding the temptations of power and recognizing his own insufficient preparation for the throne made him the Closest Thing We Got to a stable, responsible Emperor. Ryuuki starts to act like a real ruler after his advisors find him a consort capable of acting as a privy councillor. Oh, and that exiled prince? Turns out he's not so exiled after all...
  • And that's not even getting into the seven other families that make up the ruling class of Saimono. To give a sense of how screwed up they are, the Kou family is currently being lead by Kurou, the youngest of three living brothers, because Shouka and Reishin each tossed the clan leadership like a hot potato as soon as it fell to them. Kurou just hasn't got anyone else to palm it off on, so he gets stuck herding crazy assassination-happy cats.
• The Juraian royal family in Tenchi Muyo! in all its size and glory is a full-on Decadent Court, with the constant scheming, and plotting, and framing, and dishonoring, and backstabbing, and whatever else, where even the good guys range from Cloud Cuckoo Landers to Manipulative Bastards, and where one needs to be a One-Man Army simply to survive.
• Vampire Game is all about one princess's dealings with her own extended Royally Screwed-up family, wherein incest is the least screwed-up thing one can encounter, not to mention the Chimeras and of course Royal espionage. Oh, and there's a vampire who wants to kill her, too. This is mostly a comedy.

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