History Main / AllGenesAreCodominant

* ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' sidesteps the issue of genetics with its "[[LoveIsInTheAir love springs]]," which cause the drinker to fall in love with whoever they see next, and also allow for the birth of offspring even from pairings that should create none. In extreme cases, a shapeshifter is born, but usually the child is just half-and-half. (Among other things, this is where centaurs came from--explorers led their mares to drink . . .)

* QTLs (Quantitative trait loci) can seem to be this, but is actually a subversion. The offspring will be in between the parents in a certain trait, but this trait is controlled by many Mendelian genes that gives a "codominant" result when combined.

* AllGenesAreCodominant: The hybrid gets a half deal on ''all'' traits in a kinda-sorta-but-not-really incomplete dominance way. They have half of everything - from physical appearance, to strengths, to weaknesses. This is probably an attempt at a more realistic aversion of the MarySue route above; but if one of the races has a severe imbalance of power compared with the other, it can have a similar effect overall.

* Super Bowl 2014 Commercial: the Doberhuahua

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/DragonHalf'': The daughter of a dragon and a human was a CuteMonsterGirl with horns, wings, and fire breath. As well as ''inhuman'' physical strength and agility.
* Manga/InuYasha was the son of a human princess and a Dog Demon Lord, and besides claws and strength he also inherited dog ears and white hair, but he is significantly weaker than his whole demon half brother and does not possess the ability to transform into a giant dog. Then there are the times he turns completely human (during the new moon) which just makes things complicated...
** There are also times where he turns full demon. He doesn't turn into a dog, but his facial markings change, and he goes berserk.

[[folder:Comics]]
* Kryptonian Human Hybrids Follow this trope perfectly in any alt universe or future story that shows Franchise/{{Superman}} with children. Superman's children with Lois have his powers and weaknesses at half strength. Their children (when they breed with humans) are 1/4th strength and so on. In one Elseworlds, Superman's ancestor landed during the American Revolution, crushing it and creating his own British empire. The story is set in the present where Kal-El's genetics are so watered down, that he has no powers at all and his father was only marginally superhuman.

[[folder:FanWorks]]
* In FanFic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse, a foal will very occasionally be born who is a perfect balance of two of the tribes, and thus possesses attributes of both. An example would be Alula, who is a pegacorn (half Pegasus, half unicorn, has both horn and wings. Frequently mistaken for an alicorn).

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons does this with many races and monsters. 3rd and 3.5's Half-Orcs and Half-Elves were both fairly infamous for being weaker than either parent race in terms of stats and racial abilities. In 4E, they abandoned the idea of half-elves being "halfway to an elf," so to speak, and expanded on the idea that they were inherently versatile ([[AcceptableBreaksFromReality which makes a lot less sense, but works a lot better]]).
** [[ShownTheirWork An example of]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vigor Hybrid Vigor]]
** Similarly, DarkSun has Half-Dwarves called Muls who are midway in height and ability betwen both parent races. In keeping with the GrimDark setting, it's established that mothers rarely survive a Mul pregnancy, and most Muls wind up as slaves.
* This is also the classic method of half-human stats in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}''.
** Averted in the 3rd Edition of the game, where they stated that with magic being new to the Sixth World, the meta-races were still in a state of flux, such that the product of two different meta-races mating would result in offspring that was one or the other, not a mix of both. On the same token, it was still possible (though rare) for two parents of the same meta-race to produce offspring of a different meta-race.

* In ''ArsMagica'', characters with the "Faerie Blood" or "Magical Blood" virtues gain some useful minor powers with no real downside other than looking a bit different.

* ''{{Drowtales}}'' specifically attempts to avert this by saying that the MixedAncestry offspring of a Drowolath and a Drowussu are very rare and that each one is a unique blend of the parents. Most half breeds have a skin tone that is some mixture of the two and varying heights and hair colors, with some taking more after one parent than the other.

* Tedd from ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'': Father is Caucasian and has natural [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair blue hair]]. Nanase, Tedd's cousin on his mother's side, is a redhead of Asian descent and it's often extrapolated that Tedd's mother is too. Result: Tedd has purple hair and his eyes are slightly slanted (less than Nanase's).
** Nanase's recent magic-burnout turned her hair black so it could be that having magics screws around with your hair-color.

* Webcomic/AntiHeroes has Aldran and Eldhin's [[spoiler:[[GoodWingsEvilWings wing color]]]].

* Defied ([[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]]) in ''WebVideo/FriendshipIsWitchcraft'':
-->'''Fluttershy:''' [[spoiler:Dragon-ness]] is recessive.

* {{Subverted}} in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' with the Martians: there are two races, White and Green, but mixed-race child [[spoiler:like M'gann]] are either one or the other.

* ''DragonHalf'': The daughter of a dragon and a human was a CuteMonsterGirl with horns, wings, and fire breath. As well as ''inhuman'' physical strength and agility.

This approach may fail in the realism department -- it is somewhat improbable that ''none'' of the obvious physical traits will have a Mendelian inheritance pattern. This approach can also be an attempt at simplifying, as working out exactly which fantastic traits are dominant in your world, which traits are recessive, and which are codominant while still keeping the character's CompetitiveBalance in mind could distract you from figuring out more important plot points and [[ViewersAreMorons leave viewers who don't understand genetics scratching their heads]].

* Defied ([[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]]) in ''FriendshipIsWitchcraft'':

* Subverted in [[WorldOfWarcraft Warcraft]], as a Half-Draenei Half-Orc will show that Draenei genes are almost all recessive save for the eyes.

* Averted in ''DragonBallZ'', where the human/saiyan hybrids end up being [[HybridPower at least potentially more powerful]] than full-blooded Saiyans while inheriting their weakness (a tendency to go all weremonkey during a full moon).

* Kryptonian Human Hybrids Follow this trope perfectly in any alt universe or future story that shows {{Superman}} with children. Superman's children with Lois have his powers and weaknesses at half strength. Their children (when they breed with humans) are 1/4th strength and so on. In one Elseworlds, Superman's ancestor landed during the American Revolution, crushing it and creating his own British empire. The story is set in the present where Kal-El's genetics are so watered down, that he has no powers at all and his father was only marginally superhuman.

* Averted big time by the ''ComicBook/RomSpaceknight'' villain Hybrid. Half human and half shape-shifting alien Dire Wraith, his true form is an absolutely hideous gloppy mess that doesn't look much like either, and he possesses psychic powers to rival [[XMen Charles Xavier]] (note that while many Wraiths practice sorcery, they're not noted for being natural psychics). It might be possible to ignore his horrible appearance if he wasn't also sadistically evil.

* Averted big time by the RomSpaceknight villain Hybrid. Half human and half shape-shifting alien Dire Wraith, his true form is an absolutely hideous gloppy mess that doesn't look much like either, and he possesses psychic powers to rival [[XMen Charles Xavier]] (note that while many Wraiths practice sorcery, they're not noted for being natural psychics). It might be possible to ignore his horrible appearance if he wasn't also sadistically evil.

* One allele is dominant, and the other is recessive, so [[CaptainObvious the offspring will display the trait that the dominant gene codes for]]. For example in eyes, the "b" allele codes for blue colour, and "B" for brown. A person with blue eyes will have two copies of the recessive gene, making them bb. However, as B is dominant, you would have brown eyes if you were either Bb (heterozygous) or BB (homozygous). From this, heterozygous people can be 'carriers' of traits without displaying them, which may appear in their children if the other parent either is homozygous for the recessive trait (bb) or is also heterozygous for it.[[note]]Technically, this isn't exactly true. But we use it in biology class, and the only obvious alternative is wet versus dry earwax.[[/note]]

* AllGenesAreCodominant: The hybrid gets a half deal on ''all'' traits in a kinda-sorta-but-not-really incomplete dominance way. They have half of everything - from physical appearance, to strengths, to weaknesses. This is probably an attempt at a more realistic aversion of the MarySue route above; but if one of the races has a severe imbalance of power compared to the other, it can have a similar effect overall.

*** Ligers are an example of getting all of the strengths, because they are larger (often as large as both parents put together) and stronger than either parent and the largest big cat on Earth. Tigons are generally about the same size as their parent species, and less likely to survive birth, but they are not, by any means, small.
*** Except Ligers have their own special weakness...they are so large, that they often have problems with their joints.

* This is why ''{{Candi}}'' has pink hair.

* In ''Literature/VampireAcademy'', the vampiric Moroi are physically frail (which is compensated for by their elemental magic and healing factors), so they interbreed with humans in order to create dhampirs- which have the strength of full humans and a slight healing factor- to [[SquishyWizard protect themselves]] from the Strigoi. Dhampirs cannot procreate with humans, and do not have to drink blood like either vampiric races.

** Played straight with Tora Ziyal in ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', half-Bajoran and half-Cardassian; she has a reduced, softened version of the Cardassian forehead ridges (and lacks their rigid shoulder shape) combined with Bajoran nose ridges, and her skin tone is also halfway between grey Cardassian and humanlike Bajoran.

Super Bowl 2014 Commercial: the Doberhuahua

* Usually averted in ''ChakonaSpace'', offspring between Chakats and "older model" taurs (wolftaurs and foxtaurs mostly) are always Chakats, usually with their other parent's coat color. Chakat matings with the newer Skunktaurs and Stellar Foxtaurs take after the mother, though Chakats sired by Skunktaurs inherit their father's PsychicPowers. Otherwise hybrids tend to fall under one of three cases:

* Similarly, DarkSun had Half-Dwarves called Muls who were midway in height and ability betwen both parent races. In keeping with the GrimDark setting, it's established that mothers rarely survive a Mul pregnancy, and most Muls wind up as slaves.

* Averted big time by the RomSpaceknight villain Hybrid. Half human and half shape-shifting alien Dire Wraith, his true form is an absolutely hideous gloppy mess that doesn't look much like either, and he possesses psychic powers to rival [[XMen Charles Xavier]] (note that while many Wraiths practice sorcery, they're not noted for being natural psychics). It might be possible to ignore his hideous appearance if he wasn't also sadistically evil.

** For lions with stripes, there are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger Ligers]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiglon Tiglons]].
*** Ligers are an example of getting all of the strengths, because they are larger (often as large as both parents put together) and stronger than either parent and the largest big cat on Earth. Tiglons are generally about the same size as their parent species, and less likely to survive birth, but they are not, by any means, small.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Doyle didn't even know about his father's demonic lineage until he turned twenty — presumably because of the spikes ejecting from his face. He prefers to pass as human, something pure-blood Bracken demons can't do.