History Main / BarSinister

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' uses a typical pattern for bastards that managed to gain a coat of arms. The father's coat of arms with the colors reversed.
** The bend sinister was also known, but wasn't always used; the reversed color pattern was used nearly always. Not all bastards, even acknowledged bastards, were armigerous at all: Jon Snow, for example, was only entitled to a black shield with no sigil as a member of the Night's Watch. There's no evidence of Ramsay Snow being armigerous before he was legitimized. Walder Rivers, a Frey bastard, however, had both the bend sinister and the reversed colors.
** Daemon Blackfyre, founder of the Blackfyre dynasty of pretenders to the Iron Throne, was a bastard son of King Aegon IV and took a black three-headed dragon on red (the reversed Targaryen sigil, a red three-headed dragon on black) as his family's sigil.
** There was another marker of bastardy in the series: a special surname based on the region of birth. The Northmen used "Snow", the Riverlanders used "Rivers", the Crownlanders used "Waters", etc.

->A [[AStormIsComing thick band of clouds]] ran along the horizon. "A bar sinister," he said to Penny, pointing.
->"What does that mean?" she asked.
->"It means some big bastard is creeping up behind us."

1. In heraldry, a ''bar'' is actually a horizontal line. The term for a diagonal line is ''bend'' (in French heraldry, ''barre''). A small diagonal line that doesn't reach the edges of the shield is a ''baton''.

2. There is no standard heraldic symbol for illegitimacy. The baton or bend sinister was used in this way in some places and times, but in other places and times it was completely innocent, and some other indicator was used -- or, depending on the cultural norms, no indicator at all. For instance, in Scottish heraldry, the arms of a bastard were marked by a border around the shield, usually a pattern of alternating white and some other colour, while the French rules varied from region to region, and the Germans rarely ever bothered differencing arms at all.

3. In English heraldry, there were (and are) very strict rules about how a coat of arms was inherited and even stricter and more complicated rules about how they could be used by members of the family of the person to whom the arms were originally granted. In general, though, an illegitimate child would have ''no right'' to bear or inherit the arms of either of their parents at all, no matter how they differenced it (however, an illegitimate child may apply for a grant of arms -- or, if a minor, the parent may do so for him -- and may request that it be based on the parental arms; but the rest is up to the Heralds' College).

* In the [[AustralianRulesFootball Australian Football League]], Essendon and Richmond have these on their jumpers.

3. In English heraldry, there were (and are) very strict rules about how a coat of arms was inherited and even stricter and more complicated rules about how they could be used by members of the family of the person to whom the arms were originally granted. In general, though, an illegitimate child would have ''no right'' to bear or inherit the arms of either of their parents at all, no matter how they differenced it (however, an illegitimate child may apply for a grant of arms -- or, if a minor, the parent may do so for him -- and may request that it be a based on the parental arms; but the rest is up to the Heralds' College).

* One of the platforms at Euston Station, London, is decorated with the coat of arms of the Earl of Euston. The Earl was the illegitimate son of the king, and the baton sinistre is seen as an important enough part of his coat of arms that when they painted an absract pattern to represent the coat of arms, the baton was the [[http://www.cookylamoo.com/boringlikeadrill/2006/07/euston-bend-sinister.html "main feature"]].

* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' uses a typical pattern for bastards that managed to gain a coat of arms. The father's coat of arms with the colors reversed.
* In RobinHobb's ''Literature/{{Farseer}}'' trilogy, [=FitzChivalry=] is initially given the Farseer arms, of a buck's head, with a red diagonal line to mark his illegitimacy. It's suggested that, while he wouldn't be allowed to wear the royal arms without the line, all he'd have to do was ask and he'd be given his own arms with no such mark, and later this is given to him anyway.
* In RobertAHeinlein's ''TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', the flag of the rebel Lunar colonists (most of whom are ex-cons or descendants of ex-cons, as Earth uses the Moon as a penal colony) proudly features a blood-red bar sinister.

* An icon of a shield with a bend sinister is used to represent bastards in ''CrusaderKings''.

Bestselling historical novelist Creator/WalterScott is the trope creator: his works stuck popular culture with both the idea of the ''barre sinister'' as a sign of illegitimacy and the misspelling of "barre". Although completely bogus in terms of heraldry, the concept lives on in the unit badges of some military organizations, as a pictorial way of GettingCrapPastTheRadar. A baton sinister is used to [[VisualPun imply that members of that unit are, well, bastards]]. Notably, this use can be seen in the unit patch of the US Marine fighter squadron [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMA-214 VMA-214 "Black Sheep"]], whose Second World War exploits formed the basis for a popular TV series, ''[[BlackSheepSquadron Baa Baa Black Sheep]]''.

2. There is no standard heraldic symbol for illegitimacy. The baton or bend sinister was used in this way in some places and times, but in other places and times it was completely innocent, and some other indicator was used -- or, depending on the cultural norms, no indicator at all. For instance, in Scottish heraldry, the arms of a bastard were marked by a border around the shield, usually a pattern of alternating white and some other colour, while the French rules varied from region to region, and the Germans rarely ever bothered differencing arms at all.

Bestselling historical novelist WalterScott is the trope creator: his works stuck popular culture with both the idea of the ''barre sinister'' as a sign of illegitimacy and the misspelling of "barre". Although completely bogus in terms of heraldry, the concept lives on in the unit badges of some military organizations, as a pictorial way of GettingCrapPastTheRadar. A baton sinister is used to [[VisualPun imply that members of that unit are, well, bastards]]. Notably, this use can be seen in the unit patch of the US Marine fighter squadron [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMA-214 VMA-214 "Black Sheep"]], whose Second World War exploits formed the basis for a popular TV series, ''[[BlackSheepSquadron Baa Baa Black Sheep]]''.

Not to be confused with {{Bad Guy Bar}}.

* Dr. Simon Bar Sinister is the main antagonist in the ''{{WesternAnimation/Underdog}}'' cartoon show. The name [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar could be translated as]] "Simon, the Bastard".

* Dr. Simon Bar Sinister is the main antagonist in the ''{{Underdog}}'' cartoon show. The name [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar could be translated as]] "Simon, the Bastard".

Bestselling historical novelist WalterScott is the trope creator: his works stuck popular culture with both the idea of the ''barre sinister'' as a sign of illegitimacy and the misspelling of "barre". Although completely bogus in terms of heraldry, the concept lives on in the unit badges of some military organizations, as a pictorial way of GettingCrapPastTheRadar. A baton sinister is used to [[VisualPun imply that members of that unit are, well, bastards]]. Notably, this use can be seen in the unit patch of the US Marine fighter squadron [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMA-214 VMA-214 "Black Sheep"]], whose Second World War exploits formed the basis for a popular TV series, ''Baa Baa Black Sheep''.

Bestselling historical novelist WalterScott is the trope creator: his works stuck popular culture with both the idea of the ''barre sinister'' as a sign of illegitimacy and the misspelling of "barre". Although completely bogus in terms of heraldry, the concept lives on in the unit badges of some military organizations, as a pictorial way of GettingCrapPastTheRadar. A baton sinister is used to [[StealthPun imply that members of that unit are, well, bastards]]. Notably, this use can be seen in the unit patch of the US Marine fighter squadron [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMA-214 VMA-214 "Black Sheep"]], whose Second World War exploits formed the basis for a popular TV series, ''Baa Baa Black Sheep''.

In reality, there are three things wrongs with this:

* In RobinHobb's ''[[RealmOfTheElderlings Farseer Trilogy]]'', [=FitzChivalry=] is initially given the Farseer arms, of a buck's head, with a red diagonal line to mark his illegitimacy. It's suggested that, while he wouldn't be allowed to wear the royal arms without the line, all he'd have to do was ask and he'd be given his own arms with no such mark, and later this is given to him anyway.

----
<<|DidNotDoTheResearch|>>

2. There is no standard heraldic symbol for illegitimacy. The baton or bend sinister was used in this way in some places and times, but in other places and times it was completely innocent, and some other indicator was used - or, depending on the cultural norms, no indicator at all. For instance, in Scottish heraldry, the arms of a bastard were marked by a border around the shield, usually a pattern of alternating white and some other colour, while the French rules varied from region to region, and the Germans rarely ever bothered differencing arms at all.

3. In English heraldry, there were (and are) very strict rules about how a coat of arms was inherited and even stricter and more complicated rules about how they could be used by members of the family of the person to whom the arms were originally granted. In general, though, an illegitimate child would have ''no right'' to bear or inherit the arms of either of their parents at all, no matter how they differenced it. (However, an illegitimate child may apply for a grant of arms--or, if a minor, the parent may do so for him--and may request that it be a based on the parental arms; but the rest is up to the Heralds' College.)

Bestselling historical novelist WalterScott is the trope creator: his works stuck popular culture with both the idea of the ''barre sinister'' as a sign of illegitimacy and the misspelling of "barre". Although completely bogus in terms of heraldry, the concept lives on in the unit badges of some military organizations, as a pictorial way of GettingCrapPastTheRadar. A baton sinister is used to [[StealthPun imply that members of that unit are, well, bastards.]] Notably, this use can be seen in the unit patch of the US Marine fighter squadron [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMA-214 VMA-214 "Black Sheep,"]] whose Second World War exploits formed the basis for a popular TV series, ''Baa Baa Black Sheep.''

The '''Bar Sinister''' is the single most famous element of Hollywood Heraldry, a diagonal line on a coat of arms that indicates illegitimacy. "Sinister" just means that the line starts at the top left, but the connotations of the word may have something to do with the trope's persistence. (To avoid embarrassment, it's important to remember that "left" in heraldry means [[YourOtherLeft the shield-bearer's left]], which is "right" from the point of view of the person looking at the coat of arms.)

* ASongOfIceAndFire uses a typical pattern for bastards that managed to gain a coat of arms. The father's coat of arms with the colors reversed.

* An icon of a shield with a bend sinister is used to represent bastards in ''CrusaderKings''.
* One of the platforms at Euston Station, London, is decorated with the coat of arms of the Earl of Euston. The Earl was the illegitimate son of the king, and the baton sinistre is seen as an important enough part of his coat of arms that when they painted an absract pattern to represent the coat of arms, the baton was the [[http://www.cookylamoo.com/boringlikeadrill/2006/07/euston-bend-sinister.html "main feature"]]

** Justified in that Westeros is a fantasy setting, and the rules of heraldry don't have to be 100% convergent with those of medieval Europe.

3. In English heraldry, there were (and are) very strict rules about how a coat of arms was inherited and even stricter and more complicated rules about how they could be used by members of the family of the person to whom the arms were originally granted. In general, though, an illegitimate child would have ''no right'' to bear or inherit the arms of either of their parents at all, no matter how they differenced it.