Incest Yay Shipping / Live-Action TV

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Incest Yay Shipping in Live-Action TV.

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• Angel: There are fans who have written mother-son Darla/Connor and father-son Angelus/Connor incest stories. The former despite the fact that Darla died to give birth to Connor.
• Arrow:
  • Right from the pilot, fans already commented that Oliver Queen has more chemistry with every other female character, including his sister Thea, than with his ex-girlfriend Laurel Lance. It doesn't help that by giving her the nickname "Speedy", the writers seem to have destined Thea to be his sidekick, and that despite a slight name change, the character is clearly based on comics character Mia Dearden (their first names sound similar, she was shown having a trophy for archery in her room in the pilot, and her middle name was eventually revealed to be "Dearden") whom comics Oliver has shown romantic interest towards in the past. And then after Thea came back from Corto Maltese, she asked him to move in with her.
  • In hindsight, turns out anyone who shipped Thea Queen with Tommy Merlyn (whom she even almost kissed once onscreen) inadvertently fell into this trope, since Tommy's father Malcolm Merlyn was Thea's biological father, too, via an affair with Moira Queen, a fact only learned after Tommy is dead.
• Bates Motel, a prequel to the film Psycho, has its share of fans who ship Norman and his mother Norma, with the pairing often referred to as "Soulbates" on social media. It's less of a case of fans reading their own fetish into a work and more of a case of the show deliberately playing with it as a source of dramatic tension and teasing it with highly sexualized marketing. In the show, Norman and Norma relate to each other more like a married couple than a parent and child. Despite the fact that Norman is almost an adult, throughout the series the two hold hands, he helps her get dressed, they kiss on the lips, and sleep in the same bed and spoon together. They become intensely jealous whenever the other becomes involved with another romantic interest, manipulate each other's emotions to get their way and generally exhibit an unhealthy, all-consuming codependency.
• The Borgias: The most popular ship is the canonical incest of Lucrezia/Cesare. You also find Rodrigo/Lucrezia and Cesare/Juan shippers exist in abundance.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy, Joyce and Dawn were insanely popular in fanfic and fanart in this respect, so much so that there were whole fansites dedicated to "Daffy" and the first rule of the 'Joyce Summers Fanfic Archive' was "No Incest" because people loved putting them together so much.
• Chuck was originally intended to have an extra character in the main cast, an alternate love interest for the titular hero besides Sarah. After it was decided that the character be cut out due to overcomplicating things, all her important lines were given to Chuck's sister Ellie. The slightly flirty dialogue, coupled with the siblings' chemistry, made this stand out to more than one fan.
• Dexter:
  • Dex naturally gets much shipping with his brother Brian (aka, the Ice Truck Killer), what with all the sexual symbolism the show blends with his murdering.
  • The showrunners tried to keep the Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter marriage quiet for a while specifically to avoid this trope. It didn't work. They clearly changed their minds, though (Hall and Carpenter's later divorce may have played a part) — as in Season 6, Deb starts lusting after Dexter. It helps that Dexter and Debra aren't blood-related, what with Dexter being adopted.
• This is referred to by the Firefly fandom as "CSI" or "Crazy Space Incest", seeing this between River and Simon Tam. This may have something to do with how closely they fulfill the traits of Little Sister Heroine—River is portrayed as endearing, somewhat clingy, and in need of protection fairly often (discounting her own Action Girl status), and they both absolutely adore each other. Summer Glau's has had some less than flattering things to say about the pairing (0:35); Sean Maher seemed to approve, though.
• The Frasier fandom has some Frasier/Niles shipping, otherwise known as "Cranecest".
• Glee:
  • Hummelcest between Burt and Kurt Hummel, a rare example of a father/son incest. Considering that they cannot have a scene without declaring their love for each other, it shouldn't be a surprise.
  • After Blaine got a brother who is even more handsome than he is, we have Andercest. Not at all helped (or immensely helped, for those who like this sort of thing) by the line "We're not just brothers, right?" said while standing with their faces mere inches apart.
• Heroes:
  • Maya and Alejandro Herrera are twins who seem to be a little too close to each other; even their powers require a physical connection. You didn't need to ask the fans twice. Not helping is how Maya is depicted as being pretty protective of Alejandro, with one flashback showing her expressing jealousy and distrust for his wife before catching said wife cheating on him.
  • Peter and Nathan Petrelli are brothers who are extremely close, despite an age difference of at least 13 years. There is a reason they're the most popular slash pairing in the show. Not helping is how friendly Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia are in real life.
  • Peter and Claire's first meeting could've easily been seen as a sweet little Meet Cute mixed with a Rescue Romance set-up, and even after their blood relation was revealed, they still seem to be closer than one would expect of an uncle and niece. Really, the Abandon Shipping for this pairing was pretty minuscule even after that little revelation. The chemistry between the actors didn't help, especially since Milo Ventimiglia and Hayden Panettiere briefly dated in real life.
  • Claire also gets a little shipping once reunited with her biological father Nathan, not helped by the scene of them sharing a hotel room and getting drunk together in a way that could've gone a certain direction.
• When Home and Away revealed that sisters Charlie and Ruby Buckton were actually mother and daughter, one website brilliantly proclaimed that it made shipping them feel even more wrong. They even seem to have acquired their own couple portmanteau, even if it is mostly used in a familial context.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia:
  • Twins Dennis and Dee Reynolds, due to the large amount of Incest Subtext between them (which included playing lovers in Charlie's "The Nightman Cometh" play, posing as a married couple more than once, Dennis believing he drunkenly impregnated Dee at a Halloween party, and then there's what goes on in "The Gang Broke Dee"). Fans have noted that Dennis, for all his putting down of Dee's appearance and dreams, also has the most Pet the Dog moments towards her; Dee herself doesn't vocally reciprocate it, but she is shown to still care for him. Considering how screwed up all of the main characters are, it wouldn't be surprising if this one actually became canon at some point; their actors themselves have stated Dennis and Dee have a very deeply dysfunctional and codependent relationship that makes them, in a way, perfect for each other.
  • Frank and Charlie are also disturbingly close to each other and engage in a lot of strange and intimate acts together. The only thing stopping them from definitively falling into this trope is the fact that we don't know for sure whether Frank is Charlie's father.
• Quite common in Kamen Rider series. Especially Kamen Rider Kiva and its many bathing scenes. However, "Kivacest" typically refers not to Wataru and Otoya, despite their epic Time Travel-enabled bath scene (with back scrubbing!), but to Wataru and Taiga, who turns out to be his brother.
• Kirby Buckets and "Bucketcest", which is what you get when you pair the title character with sister Dawn.
• Lab Rats: Shipping the Davenport siblings with each other is highly popular, especially Bree and Chase. Fanfic writers tend to portray them as not actually being biologically related.
• The Life with Derek has the step-siblings Derek and Casey (called "Dasey" by the fans). Their antagonistic Sibling Rivalry frequently comes across more like Belligerent Sexual Tension, which in turn causes their Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other moments to come across like they're a pair of Flirty Stepsiblings who are in deep denial of their attraction towards one another. "Dasey" is by far the Fan-Preferred Couple for the series' fandom, and even years after the series has ended, both Michael Seater and Ashley Leggat are still huge Derek/Casey shippers. Hilariously enough, Seater and Leggat even acted out a Dasey fanfiction for a podcast back in the day.
  • It's worth noting that by most reports, Leggat and Seater actually dated during the first season's production before deciding they were Better as Friends (with them now having a more Platonic Life-Partners/Amicable Exes-style relationship), so a lot of the tension between Derek and Casey was not entirely a case of the writers fumbling things.
• Don/Charlie or "Eppescest" is a notable ship in NUMB3RS fandom, especially in its earlier seasons when there was a greater emphasis on the two reconnecting as adults.
• Once Upon a Time:
  • One of the most popular (if not the most popular) ships in the fandom is that of Emma Swan and Regina Mills (aka the Evil Queen), who, while not related by blood, are related by marriage (Regina is the stepmother of Emma's mother, Snow White). This fact is often ignored by their shippers, and those who don't will justify it by saying that since they aren't blood relations, it's okay. Some write it in as a joke in their fanfic, but still ultimately brush past it and get to the romance.
  • Season four's Frozen (2013) arc had the characters depicted straight out of the movie, so naturally sisters Elsa and Anna remained a popular pairing among movie fans and attracted new ones.
• Orphan Black: Ubiquitous in the fandom, given the large number of characters in the show who are clone-sisters or clone-brothers, many of whom only became aware of one anothers' existence as adults, so no worries about the Westermarck Effect. (The series also has a canon emotionally, if not genetically, incestuous relationship between Susan and Ira.)
• Revolution has a small, but devoted sector of Charlie/Miles shippers. They are niece and uncle, and possibly father and daughter considering Miles affair with Rachel, but share a lot of tropes usually reserved for romantic interests. A case of Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading have also happened since they have a lot of Belligerent Sexual Tension that turns into UST later. They also have their fair share of heartwarming moments.
• Riverdale:
  • The Blossom twins, Jason and Cheryl, get this from fans. It doesn't help that one of the writers is behind Afterlife with Archie, which had them in a relationship. It's even speculated by characters in-series that Cheryl liked her brother a bit too much, but he didn't like her back, so she shot him. The series jossed that theory but fans still ship them nevertheless.
  • Shipping Jughead with his father is a fairly prominent ship in the fandom.
• More than a few people have mistaken Zelda and Hilda from Sabrina the Teenage Witch for a couple. The issue comes mostly from mistaking Sabrina calling them "aunts" as referring to one of them being her bio-aunt and the other her lover.
• In the fandom for the American adapatation of Shameless, Gallaghercest is rather popular. Fiona/Lip is probably the most popular ship, helped by how they are, in-universe, the parental figures of their four younger siblings, being that their mother has been gone for some time and they eventually kick their deadbeat father out of the house. Although each has a respective love interest, Fiona quickly loses interest in hers and she tends to be heavily disapproving of Lip's love interests in what could easily be interpreted as jealousy.
• Sharp Objects: It is very popular in the fandom to ship Camille and Amma despite them being sisters. The fact that Amma acts very possessively towards Camille and even calls Camille her soulmate at one point certainly doesn't help.
• Skins
  • There’s a lot of subtext between Tony and Effy Stonem, and it's made "Stonemcest" a surprisingly popular ship in the fandom.
  • Emily and Katie Fitch... or, at least, one-sided from Katie to Emily.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Jon Snow is shipped with both Daenerys Targaryen and Sansa Stark, both of whom he is related to. Sansa is Jon's cousin, but she was raised as his half-sister and Daenerys is Jon's aunt, but nobody — including Jon — is aware of this as nobody currently alive in the series knows of Jon's Secret Legacy, with the exception of Jon's half-brother Bran (who is Jon's cousin by blood) and Jon's best friend Sam as of the Season 7 finale. In Westeros, both matches are socially plausible: cousin marriages are considered fair game in Westeros, and the Targaryens have long since had a free pass for Royal Inbreeding (they even provide the page image), with Daenerys' own parents and grandparents all being brother and sister. Even on the Stark family tree, there've been at least two uncle-niece marriages. In Season 7, Jon and Daenerys develop a romantic relationship and by the finale, do it — blissfully unaware of their connection.
    • Shipping Sansa Stark and Theon Greyjoy also gained some popularity after Theon rescued Sansa from Ramsay Bolton at the end of Season 6, which would fall into Not Blood Siblings since Theon was raised alongside Sansa as the ward of her father Ned.
  • House of the Dragon:
    • Unsurprising, given that Targaryens have an exemption from the laws against incest in-universe. At the heart of this story is uncle/niece Official Couple Daemon and Rhaenyra. Some book fans who already knew this began shipping them before the show even premiered. The early episodes depict them as being close and affectionate, with a few Ship Tease moments, so by the time the fourth episode rolled around and their overt interest in each other was confirmed, people were already shipping them.
    • Alicent/Rhaenyra technically qualifies, since Alicent is Rhaenyra's stepmother (although most shippers wish she weren't, not just to promote their ship but because this marriage also ruined their friendship and their lives).
    • Full-blooded siblings Aemond/Helaena started getting some attention after Aemond defended her to their brother Aegon, even suggesting that he wished Helaena had been betrothed to him rather than to Aegon. The fact that it's Aemond who watches Helaena and Jace dancing like a hawk rather than her husband Aegon added fuel to the shipping fire.
    • The aforementioned aunt/nephew pairing of Helaena and Jacaerys has also picked up a few supporters after their dancing scene, where Jace asked Helanea to dance after it became clear Aegon wasn't very nice to her. It helps that Rhaenyra did previously propose an engagement between the two, which could've potentially healed the divide between the Blacks and the Greens if only Alicent had accepted it. It's generally agreed upon that Nice Guy Jace would've been a much better husband to Helaena than Aegon because of her special neurodivergent needs.
• Shipping Kara with her adopted sister Alex is one of the most popular Supergirl (2015) ships. Like a lot of other examples, it helps that they share a lot of intimate moments and have a lot more chemistry with each other than their love interests. And it helps that Alex is gay.
• Supernatural:
  • The Wincest shippers see this between brothers Sam and Dean Winchester, in part due to how much sheer chemistry their actors have, and the existing Incest Subtext in canon. During the early seasons, it was unquestionably the most popular pairing in the fandom.^note For the first few seasons, slash-ship options were pretty much limited to incest or RPF, and het-shipping would require characters who were either dead, not mentioned beyond one episode, or generally reviled by the fanbase. Although it lost its status as Fan-Preferred Couple to Dean/Castiel, it's still the second most popular ship by a significant margin and the most popular ship for Sam. In-Universe, however, Sam and Dean react to Incest Yay Shipping with the expected amount of Squick.
    Dean: They know we're brothers, right?
    Sam: Doesn't seem to matter.
    [Six seasons later]
    Dean: You know they're brothers, right?
    Marie: Well duh. But... subtext.
  • Since all of the angels are canonically siblings, shipping any of them together falls under this. It's sometimes called "angelcest" or "wingcest" within the fandom. The most popular of these pairings is probably Michael/Lucifer, because it mirrors the Winchester pairing, and occasionally overlaps with Wincest when Sam serves as Lucifer's vessel, and Dean for Michael.
  • Some people ship Castiel/Claire Novak. He may not technically be her father, but he uses her father's body and looks just like him.
• "Thundercest", the shipping of Phoebe and Max by fans of The Thundermans. It has gotten so bad that Kira Kosarin, Phoebe's actress, has spoken out against it.
• Thanks to the onscreen chemistry between the actors portraying them, Tru and Harrison Davies of Tru Calling have developed a small but dedicated shipper following.
• There's a huge and passionate faction of Klaus/Rebekah shippers in The Vampire Diaries and later The Originals fandoms. Joseph Morgan and Claire Holt's chemistry and dialogs straight out of dark romance novel? Check. Eye sex and tension? Check. Jealousy, obsessiveness, highs and lows? Check. Makes Klebekah the royal couple of the show and one of the most popular ships.
• The Waltons, a much-loved Depression-era drama from the 1970s, contains several examples, mostly because it features seven siblings of similar ages. John-Boy and Mary Ellen, the eldest siblings, were infamous in the early seasons for being a little too close. John-Boy tells Mary Ellen that her breasts will grow, gives her flowers because he wanted to be her "first," and frequently dances with and consoles her. Basically, there's plenty of sexual tension to go around. Jason and Erin, younger siblings, also seemed very fond of each other, though this was most likely because of actor chemistry.
• Deliberately invoked in-story by Richard III in the BBC/Starz series The White Queen, as per his explanation to his wife Queen Anne that he is not actually having an affair with his niece Elizabeth, but that he just wants everyone to think he is, since she is betrothed to his political rival Henry Tudor, and that by cuckolding Henry, he will cost him political support. After Anne's death, he and Elizabeth actually do the nasty, though.
• Justin and Alex in Wizards of Waverly Place are the Fan-Preferred Couple, to the point where the pairing used to have a separate Incest Yay page back when this wiki still had a Fetish Fuel section until it was sent here.