History Main / EveryoneIsRelated

* Ever try to make a ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' family tree? If they ain't related, they're dating...or [[IncestIsRelative they're related AND dating]].

** Since they conquered Westeros, the Targaryens have occasionally assimilated themselves by marrying into local houses, despite preferring [[IncestIsRelative endogamous relations]]. In early years, they were especially fond of marrying Velaryons (the mother of Aegon I and his sisters was a Velaryon). Daenerys is at least part-Arryn, Blackwood, Dayne, Martell, and Massey, in addition to Velaryon and Rogare (a Lyseni house). A Targaryen princess in turn married into the Martells, hence why Quentyn falsely thinks that he can tame dragons simply because he has Targaryen blood.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has a major case of this; to make a long story short, ''everyone'' is related to Harry, and if they aren't [[OneDegreeOfSeparation they're related to someone who is]]. ''COTS'' was the first work get [[TangledFamilyTree/ChildOfTheStorm its own Tangled Family Tree page]] for a reason.

* Between the Summers family, the House of Magnus and to a lesser extent the Darkholme family, the Marvel universe can feel like this.

* PlayedForLaughs in the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' AlternateUniverseFic [[https://thejakeformerlyknownasprince.tumblr.com/post/615490345181036544/probably-crack-and-a-result-of-staying-up-way-too "What if Peter and Naomi got married?"]]. At the end, Eva gets together with Loren, meaning that all the Animorphs except Cassie are related through their parents' partnerships.[[note]]Peter is now Jake's uncle by marriage, if Loren and Eva were to get married, they'd be Marco and Tobias' stepmothers respectively, and Ax is already Loren's brother-in-law.[[/note]]

** Since they conquered Westeros, the Targaryens have occasionally assimilated themselves by marrying into local houses, despite preferring [[IncestIsRelative endogamous relations]]. In early years, they were especially fond of marrying Velaryons (the mother of Aegon I and his sisters was a Velaryon). Daenerys is at least part-Arryn, Blackwood, Dayne, and Martell, in addition to Velaryon and Rogare (a Lyseni house). A Targaryen princess in turn married into the Martells, hence why Quentyn falsely thinks that he can tame dragons simply because he has Targaryen blood.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', most of the main characters are aristocrats whose families have been intermarrying for centuries. Robert Baratheon's ArchEnemy was also his second cousin, the Starks have distant cousins in various Vale families, many noble families in the Reach are related via Garth Greenhand, the Freys have marriage/blood ties to practically everyone, etc.

* The Mills sect of the family is largely secluded from the rest of the family being that none of the mills are actually biologically related to the Rumple-Charming Dynasty. Zelena and Regina aren't even full siblings and used to be pretty estranged and Henry is adopted. Even through marriage most of their ties are severed being that King Leopold is dead. This doesn't change their relationship dynamics though.

* The ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series is notorious for this, but the most notable one is ''Genealogy of the Holy War'' where thanks to the "second generation" mechanic, with proper breeding the entire army really ''can'' be composed of various siblings and cousins and cousins' cousins, etc.
** Which can be [[BrotherSisterIncest paired]] [[KissingCousins together]].
* ''VideoGame/OdinSphere''. [[spoiler:Of the main characters, Gwendolyn marries Oswald, Cornelius and Velvet are lovers, and Mercedes has a thing for Ingway. Of course, Velvet and Ingway are twin siblings, and Gwendolyn is their half-sister on their father's side. As if that wasn't enough, it turns out that Cornelius had a long-lost first cousin... Oswald. Who was adopted by a fairy noble who happens to be the first cousin of Mercedes.]] Part of the fun in ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'' is figuring out the ridiculous family trees.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear''. ''METAL GEAR''. It is ''made'' of this trope. It started out reasonable, but as time went on and prequels began introducing [[GenerationXerox various characters's parents]] and so on, it quickly turned into a very matted family tree. In most cases the relationships are [[NotBloodSiblings adoptive]] and the romantic relationships are non-incestuous about seventy percent of the time, so it mostly just leads to a lot of FridgeHorror for {{Shipp|ing}}ers who work out that, say, Big Boss and Ocelot both have the same mother (spiritual for Big Boss, biological for Ocelot), that Solid Snake is technically Raiden's uncle and Gray Fox's brother, that Otacon's mother had been in love with and [[HideYourLesbians implicitly bonked]] Solid Snake's 'grandmother', or that shipping Big Boss/Roy Campbell projects a [[DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest pretty skeevy dimension]] onto the canon pairing of Solid Snake/Meryl.
* To a degree, ''VideoGame/BlazBlue''. Ragna and Jin/[[spoiler:Hakumen]] are brothers, and their little sister Saya is [[spoiler:the Imperator of NOL]]. In their childhood, they were all raised in an orphanage by Celica A. Mercury, the sister of Nine (aka Konoe A. Mercury) of the Six Heroes. Jubei (also of the Six Heroes) is Nine's [[InterspeciesRomance husband]], and together, they gave birth to Kokonoe, which means that, technically speaking, Ragna, Jin, and Saya are Kokonoe's foster cousins. Additionally, Jubei's genetic template was used to create the Kaka clan, from which Taokaka hails. On Jin's side, he was adopted into the Kisaragi family (one of the Duodecim, the twelve noble houses descended from the first twelve humans to master Ars Magus during the Dark War) and shares a brother-sister relationship with his love interest, Tsubaki (of the Yayoi family, another one of the Duodecim). At least three of the Murakumo Units (Nu, Lambda, and [[spoiler:Noel/Mu]]) are clones of Saya. And then there's the Clover family. [[BigScrewedUpFamily The less said about them, the better.]]

** Furthermore, the Valentine seen in ''Overture'' turns out to be the first of several Valentines, who begin showing up in the ''Xrd'' installments. Though they technically have a [[OneBadMother "mother"]] in the Universal Will ([[spoiler:a robot-like "informational organism" that has taken on human form under the guise of a woman named Ariels]]), they are assumed to also be clones of Aria, as both Elphelt and Jack-O' greatly resemble her, with the latter [[GeneticMemory sharing some of Aria's memories]] much like the original. [[labelnote:Spoilers!]]This turns out to be deliberate in [=Jack-O''s=] case, as she's actually a creation of That Man, meant to serve as [[SoulJar a backup vessel for the half of Aria's soul]] he managed to salvage in the aftermath of the "Variable X" incident, the event in 2074 when Justice came into contact with--and was corrupted by--the Universal Will, leading to [[NukeEm the eventual destruction of Japan]].[[/labelnote]] The genetic link between the Valentines and Aria/Justice's family tree is briefly called to attention late in the ''-REVELATOR-'' story when [[spoiler:the heroes attempt to rescue Elphelt from Ariels]]; Elphelt asks if [[spoiler:Jack-O' is her mother]] and Jack-O' replies that it's complicated.

* The Disney crossover oneshot ''Fanfic/{{Fairytales}}'' has almost all Disney princesses being related to one another. For example, Snow White is Aurora's grandmother and Aurora is an ancestor of Cinderella.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has a major case of this; to make a long story short, ''everyone'' is related to Harry, and if they aren't they're related to someone who is. COTS was the first work get its own [[TangledFamilyTree/ChildOfTheStorm Tangled Family Tree page]] for a reason.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* In ''TabletopGame/KitsuneOfFoxesAndFools'' the kitsune have genealogies as complex as you'd expect to see in classical pantheons. Playable characters include Ako-chan and two of her daughters, Sharmarali and April, and grandkits Akira and Cori. And the threesome of Saski, Sareiko, and Hayako and their progeny Kenji, Seiki, Ai & Midori.

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'':
** Most of the main characters are Mishimas. Jin is Kazuya's son, who is Hehachi's son who is Jinpachi's son. And Jin's mother Jun turns out to be Asuka's aunt (her brother is Asuka's father).
** Lee is Kazuya's adopted brother and, in ''T6'', we learn that [[spoiler:Lars is Heihachi's illegitimate half-Swedish, half-Japanese son]].

* In ''VideoGame/HauntingGround'' [[spoiler:Riccardo is Fiona's uncle, and Lorenzo is Fiona's grandparent.]]

* Infinity series
** In ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}'' [[spoiler:Hokuto and Sara are Tsugumi and Takeshi's children. You is the mother of her clone. You and Coco's father worked together in Lemu and are the reason both are there. And may have designed Sora and are therefore her 'father' in a sense. Sara and You went to the same high school.]] But [[spoiler:Kaburaki]] is just some [[spoiler:guy.]] [[spoiler:Unless, [[{{fanon}} as some believe]], he and the older You had a relationship of some sort going.]]

* ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' really liked this trope. [[spoiler:Apollo is the half-brother of Trucy [[IHaveManyNames Enigmar/Gramarye/Wright]], who was adopted by Phoenix Wright. Their mother Thalassa was married to Zak, who was accused of killing her father Magnifi Gramarye. This accounts for pretty much all the main characters besides Kristoph and Klavier... who are brothers]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' most of the main characters are Mishimas. Jin is Kazuya's son, who is Hehachi's son who is Jinpachi's son. And Jin's mother Jun turns out to be Asuka's aunt (her brother is Asuka's father).

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' springs to mind almost immediately. Three quarters of the way through the game it turns out that many of the characters lived in the same orphanage as children and then forgot about it; one of the side effects of the AppliedPhlebotinum the game's magic system revolves around happens to be memory loss. And Edea, who appears to be the BigBad but is in fact just the BigBad's mind-controlled [[TheDragon Dragon]] happens to have ''run'' said orphanage, and is the wife of the headmaster of Balamb Garden, the military school most of the main cast attends in the present day... which was established (by Edea) to ''fight'' Sorceresses like Edea.

* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', almost every character important to the plot ends up being related to [[spoiler:Travis Touchdown. He reveals before the Rank 4 fight that his parents are dead. The real Rank 1 holder, Dark Star, claims to be his actual father, and certainly knows enough to rekindle Travis's memories of watching his parents get killed. However, Jeane, who kills Dark Star before the match takes place, points out that he saw his parents die, so Dark Star can't be his father. Jeane should know too, as she was dating Travis just to get close enough to Travis's parents to kill them. She only wanted to do this because she's Travis's half sister (Yes, {{Squick}}), and wanted revenge on Travis's father for abandoning her family and causing her mother's death. Travis's rival, Henry, is also his twin brother, making Sylvia, Travis's love interest, his sister-in-law, and her daughter, Jeane, his niece]]. [[MindScrew Don't]] [[Creator/Suda51 think]] [[GainaxEnding about it]] [[RuleOfFunny too hard]].

* ''VisualNovel/TwelveRiven'': [[spoiler:Boss is Narumi's adoptive father, Myuu and Mei are twin sister and brother, Narumi is their older sister, Maina is a physical manifestation of part of Narumi's consciousness, is dating Ohtemachi, who once dated Narumi. Chisato and Omega are Psi-Clones created from Myuu and Mei's DNA, Yuyu is the daughter of a friend of the Maina family, Renmaru is Myuu's childhood friend (boyfriend by the end of the game)... yeah, practically every character is related in some way.]]

* Though ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' films use this trope to a lesser extent, forming important plot points, fans have taken this to the extreme due to the films featuring one pride split in two. It's not hard to find a fanfiction where [[KissingCousins Nala and Simba are cousins]], [[InTheBlood Nuka is Scar's son]], or [[TangledFamilyTree Zira is Sarabi's second half-cousin once-removed]]:

* Basically every present-day character in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', although you can somewhat include many of the Servants as well. Where to begin. Shirou is schoolmates with Rin, Sakura, and Shinji. Shinji's younger sister is Sakura, [[spoiler:whose real older sister is Rin]]. [[spoiler:Shirou's adoptive father Kiritsugu is Illyasviel's biological father]]. Kirei was Rin's father's apprentice, [[spoiler:and Caren is his estranged daughter]]. [[spoiler:Rin's, Shinji's and Illya's ancestors were all partners who started the Holy Grail War together]]. Shirou's only friends at school are Issei and Shinji, who both happen to be the school's cool kids (as a side note, Issei has an old rivalry with Rin and Shinji has a crush on her), while Shinji [[spoiler:is Rider's temporary Master]] and Issei lives with and is soul brothers with [[spoiler:Kuzuki, Caster's Master]]. Shirou's Servant, Saber, [[spoiler:was Kiritsugu's Servant previously]], during which time [[spoiler:she met and was proposed to by Gilgamesh]], [[spoiler:who was originally Rin's father's Servant]]. Shirou was formerly in the Archery club with Shinji, Sakura, and Ayako, and Ayako happens to be Rin's old, close friend. Taiga is simultaneously Shirou's neighbor, childhood friend, guardian, homeroom teacher, and former club adviser, and her grandfather is an old acquaintance of Kiritsugu who lets Shirou do his bike maintenance. And I shouldn't even need to mention [[spoiler:[[FutureBadass Archer]] [[FutureMeScaresMe actually]] '''[[MyFutureSelfAndMe is]]''' [[IHatePastMe Shirou]]]], should I? And that's just the characters important enough to get face time and ignoring the relations to characters in [[Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} Nasu's]] [[VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} other]] [[LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai works]].

* Alright, ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima''. The whole thing deserves spoilers: [[spoiler:Negi and Asuna are related by blood, and Negi's dad's group has ties to Asuna, Konoka, Evangeline, Takamichi, and the Headmaster. Konoka's bodyguard/love interest Setsuna is the sempai of now-villainous Tsukuyomi. Chao is a time traveling descendent of Negi's, and helped create Chachamaru with Hakase. Zazie's EvilTwin sister is an underling of one of the BigBad's allies[[note]]said ally is also blood-related to Negi, Asuna and the rest[[/note]], Yuuna's mom was revealed to be a mage, and Misora was in on magic to begin with, as was Mana.]]

* Life and Love: Pokemon Journeys invokes this.

In some stories, it's not enough for TheHero and {{villain|s}} to be {{Long Lost Sibling}}s separated at birth. It's not enough for the protagonist to find out that the villain they have chased down with intense hatred is [[LukeIAmYourFather also the one who sired them]], and thus they are linked by fate. Every main character is secretly related, and everyone they have even incidental contact with is a far removed cousin or uncle. If nothing else, TheDragon is secretly TheLancer's adoptive parent, and the WhiteMagicianGirl went to the same monastery as the [[EvilSorcerer dread summoner]] [[OmnicidalManiac who now threatens all of existence]]. For one reason or another, everyone of even marginal importance to the story secretly has some kind of connection to each other, to be revealed only at the moment of greatest dramatic impact ([[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants possibly because the writers hadn't thought of it until just now]]). In particularly [[ExaggeratedTrope silly cases]], you can gauge a character's rising importance in the story by the fact that they are suddenly revealed to have been related to someone else in the plot all along.

** Hazel is Nico’s sister and Frank turns out to be a descendant of Poseidon, so Percy and Tyson adopt him as their brother.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman's recurring cast can start to feel this way, partially due to the inheriently inbred nature of the Greek Gods, partially because new writers can't help but try to tie new characters to older characters, and partially because every writer seems to want to use different, often conflicting, bits of the original myths and occassionally confirm that Hippolyta still has her original mythological parentage (making her Ares' daughter), or hint that Wonder Woman is ComicBook/{{Hercules}} or Ares' daughter. Other examples are how later writers had ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie Sandsmark learn that Zeus is her father, or how Donna started out as an orphan adopted by Hippolyta before subsequent attempts to rewrite her connection to the family caused an infamous [[ContinuitySnarl/DonnaTroy Continuity Snarl]].

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman's recurring cast can start to feel this way, partially due to the inheriently inbred nature of the Greek Gods, partially because new writers can't help but try to tie new characters to older characters, and partially because every writer seems to want to use different, often conflicting, bits of the original myths and occassionally hint that Hippolyta still has her original mythological parentage (making her Ares' daughter), or that Wonder Woman is Zeus or Ares' daughter. Other examples are how later writers had ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie Sandsmark learn that Zeus is her father, or how Donna started out as an orphan adopted by Hippolyta before subsequent attempts to rewrite her connection to the family caused an infamous [[ContinuitySnarl/DonnaTroy Continuity Snarl]].

* Though ''Disney/TheLionKing'' films use this trope to a lesser extent, forming important plot points, fans have taken this to the extreme due to the films featuring one pride split in two. It's not hard to find a fanfiction where [[KissingCousins Nala and Simba are cousins]], [[InTheBlood Nuka is Scar's son]], or [[TangledFamilyTree Zira is Sarabi's second half-cousin once-removed]]:

** The Spanish Habsburg line itself was this in spades, given their penchant for [[KissingCousins cousins marrying each other]] and uncles marrying neices, occasionally interbreeding with the Austrian Habsburgs. This finally culminated in Carlos II, last of the line. There had been so much inbreeding in the family over generations that his parents (already blood uncle and niece) produced a child that was more genetically homozygous than that of a child born of two siblings.