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{{trope}}
{{quote|''In short, I'm a bastard. And before you make any smart remarks, I mean the fatherless kind.''
|'''Alistair''', ''[[Dragon Age]]''}}
While the [[Badass]] hero or the [[Anti-Hero]] may get called a bastard, it's not usually meant literally. This trope is for the protagonist for whom "bastard" is just a factual description, not a comment on his personality. He could easily be a very pleasant, well-mannered fellow, but his parents never married.
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Interestingly, if we look back far enough, we find that most of the greatest heroes of ancient Greek myth were illegitimate, making this [[Older Than Feudalism]]. However, this generally only applied if the hero's parents didn't marry because one of them was a god—most often baby-daddy Zeus, who had serious fidelity issues with his goddess wife and was forever running around impregnating mortal women with heroes. It should be also be noted that in ancient Greece, [[Good Is Not Nice|"heroic" did not necessarily mean nice]], so many Greek heroes were bastards [[Bastard Bastard|who were also bastards]].
If a heroic character is a [[Child by Rape]] or a [[Son of a Whore]], he usually fits this trope as well. In some cases, it may be secondary to the other one.
If the '''Heroic Bastard''' is also a heroic ''bastard'', he's an [[Anti-Hero]] or [[Sociopathic Hero]]. And while the heroic bastard may be magnificent, he is not automatically a [[Magnificent Bastard]].
{{noreallife|we don't care, because it doesn't make a difference from a storytelling point of view. (Or any other point of view, either.)}}
{{examples}}
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* Serpico from ''[[Berserk]]'' is the illegitimate son of a powerful merchant born from an affair with a maid. He's also one of the few genuinely good characters in the series, as he cares for his legitimate sister Farnese and protects the weak.
* {{spoiler|Takuto Tsunashi}} from ''[[Star Driver]]''. He was the product of an affair between his mother, {{spoiler|Sora}} and {{spoiler|Tokio Tsunashi, AKA Reiji Miyabi, AKA Head, AKA the [[Big Bad]] of the whole series}}.
* Touma H. Norstein of ''[[Digimon Savers]]''. Like in ''[[Ratatouille]]'', it's never stated outright because this is a kid's show, but the implication is that he's the son of an Austrian aristocrat and a Japanese exchange student who never married. He's a nice guy, if a little cold at first, but he suffered due to his illegitimacy, as his grandmother told him to his face (right after his mother died!) that he was a member of the great Norstein family, yet he wasn't.
* Future Trunks from ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z''. He states clearly to Goku upon their first meeting that Bulma and Vegeta never got married, because the former did not want to.
** Also Present-Day Trunks as well. Though his parents do eventually marry.
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* [[Ordinary High School Student|Kallen]] [[Ill Girl|Stadtfeld]] of ''[[Code Geass]]'' is the [[Ojou|daughter]] of a [[Disappeared Dad|noble]] and his lawfully wed wife. Except that [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|Kallen]] [[Plucky Girl|Kozuki]]'s mother is actually {{spoiler|the house maid and her father's former lover}}, but no one talks about that.
* Josuke, hero of Part 4 of ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'', is the illegitimate son of the now-elderly hero of Part 2.
* Satellizer L. Bridgette from ''[[Freezing]]'', daughter of a nobleman and his mistress.
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** All the Gundam pilots with the definite exception of Quatre and maybe Trowa may be this, as most of them are orphans without birth names and their parentage isn't really explored.
* Banagher Links from ''[[Gundam Unicorn]]'' might also be this. It's never ascertained whether his parents actually got married and he obviously uses his mother's name.
** Confirmed, as the 8-minute preview of episode 5. One member of the Vist Family distinctly refers to him as the illegitimate son of Cardeas Vist.
* One of the protagonists of ''[[Virgin Love]]'' was the son of his father's mistress, and was never officially recognized as his son. His dad stayed completely out of his and his mother's life until he hit university age, when he sent him to school and put him on the [[Nepotism|fast-track in his company]].
* Link in the first ''[[The Legend of Zelda (manga)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' manga is implied to be the {{spoiler|son of Queen Zelda and her lover}}, when she was married.
* Tamaki Suoh of ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' is an example, though you might disagree about how much he fits the heroic stereotype.
* Hinted in regards to {{spoiler|Nanako Misonoo}} from [[Oniisama e...]]. In the manga, it's mentioned that {{spoiler|before marrying Prof. Misonoo, her [[Hot Mom]] was abandoned by a man whom she had been living with for years, and then [[Fridge Horror|you realize that Nanako's biological father is NEVER accounted for]] }}...
** Also, {{spoiler|Rei Asaka aka Hana no Saint Juste, daughter of the Ichinomiya leader and one of the maids. The reason why she doesn't live with the Ichinomiyas is because her half-sister Fukiko, horrified after finding out that her father had a mistress ''and'' an illegitimate daughter, refused to openly see a bastard child like her as a sibling. For worse, it happened ''right after Rei's mother killed herself''.}}
*** And then we find out that {{spoiler|Fukiko, though NOT exactly heroic, [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/oniisama_e/v03/c014/34.html is also a bastard child...] [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/oniisama_e/v03/c015/8.html and the full-blooded sister of Rei], taken away at birth and then adopted by the Ichinomiyas. She doesn't seem to know it, though, and Rei only found out when her mother told her the truth... before her aforementioned suicide.}}
== Comic Books ==
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** Damage, thought to be a bastard, revealed later that his true parents were married (The original Atom and his wife)
** Tom, illegitimate son of Wildcat of the [[JSA]].
** [[Huntress]] {{spoiler|is actually the daughter of Santo Cassamento, not Franco Bertinelli; she's also something of a bastard in the more colloquial sense, sometimes of the [[Magnificent Bastard|magnificent]] variety, as when she manipulates her uncle into murdering her biological father, while setting him up to take the fall for this, and tricks the Question into helping her. And all under the noses of Batman, Robin, Nightwing, and Oracle.}}
** [[The Question|Vic Sage]] makes the assumption that he is a bastard, since he was raised in an orphanage, but he never learned his actual parentage so it was never confirmed. He has made peace with this fact and does not let it wear him down.
{{quote|'''Renee Montoya:''' "You really ''are'' a bastard."
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** Even [[Marvel Comics 2]] has a few. Wolverine's son, Sabreclaw, who was a [[Bastard Bastard|double bastard]] before his Heel Face Turn. His mother's still unknown. And then there's Darkdevil, {{spoiler|son of Spider-Clone Ben Reilly and his imprisoned girlfriend}}.
** [[Blade]]
** Clea, lover and frequent ally of [[Doctor Strange]], she is the daughter of [[Evil Sorceress]], Umar, and unintended result of her mother's [[Honey Trap]] on a noble. Unsurprisingly, Clea hates her mother.
* Wesley in ''[[Wanted (Comic Book)|Wanted]]'' is known to have been a bastard. In the comic book he's a Sociopathic Bastard, whilst in the film, he runs the gamut from Poor Bastard to Anti-Hero Bastard to Magnificent Bastard.
* {{spoiler|Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre II)}} from ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'', who realizes late in the book that {{spoiler|she was the result of a consensual affair with the Comedian, who had previously tried to rape her mother}}.
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* The title character of ''[[Nikolai Dante]]'' is the illegitimate son of Dmitri Romanov.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In ''[[Eye of the Fox]]'' Kira is a rather blatant example as while the methods of his conception is still unknown to the reader, his parents were ''obviously'' never ''together'' in a word, and he just barely stops short of being a [[Bastard Bastard]].▼
==
▲* In [[Eye of the Fox]] Kira is a rather blatant example as while the methods of his conception is still unknown to the reader, his parents were ''obviously'' never ''together'' in a word, and he just barely stops short of being a [[Bastard Bastard]].
* Kirk's son David, seen in the second and third ''[[Star Trek]]'' movies, was illegitimate. Kirk's cry of "You Klingon bastards! You killed my son!" in the third movie was parodied by Peter David as, "You Klingon sons! You killed my bastard!"
* {{spoiler|Will Scarlet is Robin's
* Played straight in the 1999 [[Sci Fi]] adaptation of ''[[Beowulf]]'': he's the bastard child of his human mother and a demon father. Grendel is the son of the King and another demon. {{spoiler|He kills the latter two monsters.}}
** Also the [[Beowulf (film)|film]] has Grendel the son of the King after an affair with the demon. The third monster, however, {{spoiler|is the result of Beowulf succumbing to the monster-lady's charms.}}
== Folklore and Mythology ==
* Hercules, Perseus, Theseus, Ramma, Sigurd, Apollo, Artemis.
** In fact, the whole of the Heroic Age in [[Classical Mythology]] was basically about a bunch of heroes (which is a Greek word, by the way) who were mostly badass extramarital children of Olympian gods (first of all, Zeus), making them the [[Ur Example]] of Heroic Bastard (both in academic sense and often personality-wise).
* A startlingly large number of the protagonists in classic Arthurian myth are illegitimate, to wit:
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*** In Elizabeth Wein's ''The Winter Prince'', Medraut (the original spelling of "Mordred") is highly intelligent and not evil, but is terribly conflicted about his heritage, particularly when he meets his half-brother Lleu, the legitimate son and heir of Artos (Arthur) that his evil mother Morgause wants him to kill, and finds that he simultaneously loves, hates, and envies the other boy.
*** ''The Book of Mordred'' is entirely about Mordred's time as a knight of the round table.
** Perceval, in the versions where he's Pellinore's son. And that's just the major characters. To this add Sir Tor (one of the knights of the white hart), Guinglain (Gawaine's long-lost son), Yvain the lesser, and Sagramore in many of his Hungarian incarnations, plus at least two other bastard sons of Arthur (Logors and Arthur the less) and anyone that has slipped this troper's mind. As the majority of the fathers in these cases were major knights themselves, the original ballad writers were apparently more concerned with the geneaology than they were the marriage vows.
* Karna in the ''[[Mahabharata]]''.
* Jephthah in the [[The Bible|Biblical]] ''Book of Judges'' was the son of Gilead and a prostitute, and was exiled by his half-brothers for being a bastard. Later in life, they have to beg him to lead them to victory over the Ammonites.
== Literature ==
* FitzChivalry Farseer, hero of [[Robin Hobb]]'s ''Farseer'' and ''Fool'' trilogies, is the bastard son of Prince Chivalry Farseer. "Fitz" is Norman-French for "son," so Fitz's name is simply "son of Chivalry," but since Fitzroy ("son of the king") was the surname given to illegitimate sons of the English kings, it also means, colloquially, "bastard of Chivalry."
* Speaking of Fitzroys, the vampire protagonist of [[Tanya Huff]]'s ''[[Blood Books]]'' novels is one Henry Fitzroy, the bastard son of King Henry VIII. He's also heroic.
* Henry Fitzroy also shows up in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''This Scepter'd Isle''.
* Desmond MaqqRee, known to the press of the Fair World as [[Doc Sidhe]]
* George Martin's ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has bastards of all sorts in a wide variety of
* Daine in [[Tamora Pierce]]'s ''[[Tortall Universe|The Immortals]]'' series is illegitimate, hence her <s>patronymic</s> matronymic is "Sarrasri" from her mother. Turns out that her father
* Touchstone in Garth Nix's ''[[Old Kingdom]]'' series was the bastard son of the Queen and a nobleman, though he ends up taking the throne after a [[Rip Van Winkle]] situation leaves him as the only royal left alive anywhere. In the same series, Lirael of the Clayr, although not technically illegitimate since the Clayr don't typically marry, has to deal with very similar social disapproval because her mother ran off mysteriously (against tradition) and returned pregnant with Lirael, and completely refused to speak of the identity of Lirael's father. The odd circumstances of Lirael's birth, combined with her non-Clayr looks and lack of Clayr gifts, all cause her to be treated by some as an awkward "love child" rather than a "true daughter of the Clayr."
* Stragen, a thief in David Eddings' ''[[The Elenium|Elenium and Tamuli]]'' series, is the bastard son of a noble. He is initially a bit sensitive about it, but gets over it.
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* In ''[[The Belgariad]]'', Mandorallen is insulted as "the bastard of Vo Mandor"...due to "some temporary irregularity about my birth which still raises questions about my legitimacy." Since he is a fearsome fighter, however, the only people who mention this are relatives (local traditions disapprove of shedding the blood of kinsfolk), idiots, and people a safe distance away.
** In the sequel, king Urgit of Chtol Murgos is revealed to be one, as Silk's late father found the Murgo nobility's custom of sequestering their women nothing but an inviting challenge. The result is actually a benefit to Urgit (and by extension, his kingdom) as he's spared from the [[Royally Screwed-Up|hereditary insanity plaguing the royal bloodline]] (as well as giving him enough cunnning to win the deadly succession war). It also saves him from Mallorean Emperor Zakath having him horribly killed as part of his (Zakath's) methodical revenge extermination of the Urga bloodline. After some king-coaching from Garion, Urgit goes on to be a fairly decent king.
* The titular hero in Bernard Cornwell's ''[[Sharpe]]'' series is the son of a prostitute and an unknown man.
* Alain from ''Crown of Stars'' is (supposedly) the son of a servant and either a merchant, a count, an elven shade (don't ask), his grandfather or some completely unknown man. This is a major plot point in the series - until he stops caring about it.
** Oh, and Liath? She's the daughter of a priest and a ''fire elemental''.
** Not to mention that in order to become king or queen, you have to sire or birth a bastard to prove your fertility. Sanglant is the bastard son of the current king and an elven woman from that "ceremony." He gets treated even worse than the average bastard thanks to his mother's blood.
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* Philp Kent, the title character of John Jakes' novel, ''The Bastard''.
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Gaunt's Ghosts|Gaunts Ghosts]] novel ''Ghostmaker'', Dorden had, as a new fledged doctor, saved a [[Death by Childbirth|woman in labor]] and her baby. This is revealed by Corbec, who was the baby; being illegimate, his mother did not have the same name, which is why he hadn't realized.
* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Warhammer
* In [[Christopher Moore]]'s novel ''Fool'', an [[Affectionate Parody]] of ''[[King Lear]]'', {{spoiler|the protagonist Pocket, the titular character, discovers he's the illegitimate son of Lear's brother. The news is not very well received as he learns this in a vision that also reveals that his conception was the result of Lear [[Moral Event Horizon|forcing]] his brother to rape Pocket's mother after the brother idly mentions he finds her attractive, all just to prove the point that, as king, he had the right to. The other noble bastard in the story, Edmund of Gloucester, is decidedly not heroic.}}
* Alan Campbell's ''[[Deepgate Codex]]'' books have {{spoiler|Carnival, born from the rape of her mortal mother by [[Complete Monster|Ulcis]]. ([[God Is Evil]] much?) [[It Got Worse]] from there}}.
* Stephen Maturin of [[Aubrey-Maturin|O'Brian's ''Master and Commander'' fame]] was the son of an Irish officer and a Spanish woman. At several points throughout the series, Maturin empathizes with other (literal) bastards, including Aubrey's illegitimate bi-racial son Sam.
* ''[[Les Misérables (novel)|Les Misérables]]'' has Fantine, who has no family at all - she was named by a stranger who found her wandering barefoot in the streets as a child. She who bears a daughter out of wedlock, and names her <s> Euphrasie</s> Cosette, who is eventually adopted by [[The Messiah|Jean Valjean]].
* Apropos in the ''[[Sir Apropos of Nothing]]'' series was the son of a prostitute who was gang-raped by a bunch of knights {{spoiler|and the King's jester}}.
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* ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' has so many of these that they're in every series. Examples include: Mistyfoot and Stonefur, who are {{spoiler|half Thunderclan half Riverclan, with their mother faked as a Riverclan queen.}} {{spoiler|Lionblaze, Jayfeather and [[Your Mileage May Vary|Hollyleaf]]}} also count, with them also being half-clan, and their mother {{spoiler|a medicine cat}}. They believe that another relation of theirs is their mother, and the truth does not come out until much later.
** They're ''cats'' for crying out loud! All non-human animals are bastards!
* Mariam from ''[[A Thousand Splendid Suns]]'' is a [[Tragic Hero|tragic example]], since she had the bad luck to be one in a society that considers this utterly scandalous.
* Andre-Louis in ''[[Scaramouche]]'' was born from an affair.
* Tzigone, one of the central protagonists of ''[[Counselors and Kings]]'' is the bastard daughter of the renegade wizardess Keturah {{spoiler|and King Zalathorm of Halruaa}}. She's very determined to keep this from coming out, however, since Halruaa's laws regarding marriage and procreation are draconian and a wizard's bastard is executed out of hand if both parents can't be named. {{spoiler|In the end, Zalathorm acknowledges Tzigone as his daughter and marries Keturah, giving Tzigone a proper family for the first time in her life- and also making her Princess of Halruaa, much to her consternation}}.
* The title character of ''[[Candide]]'' is one of the nicest guys in the story. He also happens to be illegitimate (his mother refused to marry his father because "he could produce no more than seventy-one quarterings in his arms"). Despite how little legitimacy matters to the events of the book, Cunegonde's brother refuses to allow her to marry so far below her. He never lets up on this tiring belief, even after Candide bought him out of slavery.
* Emily Roland from ''[[Temeraire]]'' is and it's more common than not for women in the Air Corp to have children out of wedlock. The point that keeps coming up in the story is that no, she's not ''Laurence's'' bastard.
* Ellis Peters seems fond of bastards; many of them crop up in her [[Cadfael]] books and most of them are heroic. The one that stands out most is Olivier, {{spoiler|Cadfael's son}}.
* Lanen in [[Tales of Kolmar]] finds out early that the man her mother married before [[Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You|running away]] wasn't her father after all. Her initial reaction is relief, since it explains the rather cool relationship that had existed between them, and largely it doesn't seem to matter, but in a low moment later she does bring up her bastard heritage.
* All four of the main characters of [[David Drake]]'s [[The Lord of the Isles]] series are this, although in the case of Garric and Sharina it's downplayed if not actively covered up, to avoid problems about Garric's claim to the throne. Garric's mother was having an affair with his father while married to Sharina's father ... and Garric's dad was and is married to Sharina's mom. (There was no love ''within'' either marriage.) Cashel and Ilna's father was a peasant—and their mother is a queen of [[The Fair Folk]], who is unlikely to have wed the fellow.
* [[Destroyermen|Dennis Silva]] points out, on one occasion, that this ''doesn't'' apply to him:
{{quote|"I'm the son o' Stanley an' Willa Silva, who was actually married when I was born but passed on soon after, God rest 'em..."}}
== Live-Action TV ==
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* The term "hero" is debatable, but Francis Wilkerson from ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' was born during the wedding ceremony between Hal and Lois.
* In a DVD extra to accompany the series, Hal, in [[Being Human (UK)]] tells Leo that he was raised in a brothel by six prostitutes, but that he never knew which of them was his mother. Ironically, he's often called Lord Hal by the other vampires, because he's one of the 'old ones'.
* On ''[[ALF (TV series)|ALF]]'', the protagonist was a weird inversion. He was ''not'' born out of wedlock, but on Melmak, they seem to regard this the same way as Earthlings regard those who are. Learning this - and that his parents never told him - nearly causes him to cross a [[Despair Event Horizon]].
== Theater ==
* In keeping with [[The Zeroth Law of Trope Examples]]: "The Bastard", Philip Faulconbridge, in ''[[King John]]'' is a sort of [[Identical Grandson|avatar]] of his father, [[Richard the Lion Heart]]. Richard's old enemy Leopold of Austria is conflated by Shakespeare with the Viscount of Limoges, and appears wearing Richard's own personal lion-skin (!), which Faulconbrige takes back after slaying him.
* {{spoiler|Elphaba}} in ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'', {{spoiler|thanks to her mother's indiscretion with the Wizard. Possibly yet another reason why her father doesn't like her--he's probably sure she isn't his.}}
* [[Richard Wagner|Wagner's]] Siegfried.
* Jack Dunois, the Bastard of Orléans, in [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s ''Saint Joan''.
== Video Games ==
* [[Dead or Alive/Characters|Ayane]] of the game ''[[Dead or Alive]]'' is the product of Kasumi's mother being raped.
* Thomas from ''[[Suikoden III]]'' is one of the nicest characters in the game and also is a bastard.
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{{quote|''"So you're not just a bastard, but a royal bastard!"''}}
** [[Neutral Good|Leliana]] was also born out of wedlock, something that apparently made life very difficult for her mother in Orlais. {{spoiler|While Leliana did lead the very morally ambiguous life of a spy for many years of her life, she has completely reformed by the the time the player reaches her.}} Not only one of the more heroic characters, but also one of the only idealists.
** Mage NPC Feynriel from ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', provided you help him realize his potential.
* Also an Earthborn [[Mass Effect|Shepard]], if you play him/her as a paragon.
* [[The Elder Scrolls|Martin Septim]] in ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion]].'' Not only he is the bastard son of the Emperor and the real hero of the story; he was a bastard on PURPOSE. ([[The Emperor]] of Tamriel was really [[Genre Savvy]].)
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* Jin Kazama from the ''[[Tekken]]'' series, who is the son of Jun Kazama and Kazuya Mishima. His heroism however has since turned to villainy as of ''Tekken 6''.
** {{spoiler|Jin's [[Face Heel Turn]] is later revealed to be part of a gambit to erase himself and [[Eldritch Abomination|Azazel]] of this world. Which would probably qualify him as a [[Tragic Hero]] Heroic Bastard.}}
** Also {{spoiler|Lars Alexandersson}}, who is the ending result of one of {{spoiler|Heihachi's}} trips to Scandinavia. So far, he fits this trope well.
* Kazuhira/McDonnel Benedict Miller, one of the main protagonists in ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'', was heavily implied to have been conceived due to his mom having to work as a prostitute in post-war Japan to survive.
** Also Meryl Silverburgh, as she was conceived from an affair between her mother and her uncle Roy Campbell.
* Supplemental ''[[Halo]]'' material reveals that Lieutenant Commander Miranda Keyes is the product of an affair between the then Lieutenant [[The Captain|Jacob Keyes]] and [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|Dr. Catherine Halsey]].
== Web Comics ==
* Janine from [[Murphy's Law (webcomic)|Murphy's Law]] claims to have been born five months premature.
* Secret from ''[[Keychain of Creation]].''
* Alex from ''[[The Dreamer]]''.
== Web Originals ==
* Carmilla (Sara Waite), one of the students at [[Super-Hero School|Whateley Academy]] in the [[Whateley Universe]], is the child of a powerful lust demon (Gothmog, a child of Shub-Niggurath) and a human woman (actually, a Deep One pre-transformation). You'll never guess, but it was a one-night stand. Of a sort. Despite this background, and having to suck the life out of things in order to live, she's one of the [[Black and Gray Morality|good guys.]]
** Bishop Curisor, aka Arturo, aka {{spoiler|that guy that nailed Jesus to the cross}}. It's even on his business card.
== Western Animation ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:The Big Valley]]▼
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]
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