Patchwork Kids: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

When writing [[Kid Fic]], it's of course necessary to come up with an identity for the child. This can be an interesting and fun experience - different traits from the two parents are passed on in unique and sometimes unexpected ways (some genetic traits even skip a generation!), forming a new, wholly original person.

 

Of course, even ''this'' is beyond the grasp of certain fans, and thusly they just begin mashing up traits of the two parents. Now this is where the trope comes into play:

 

 

What about two-toned hair? Sure! Add in a [[Mismatched Eyes|different-colored eye from each parent]]! And why wouldn't [[Alice and Bob]] name their child [[Portmanteau Couple Name|Balice]]?

 

Compare [[Gender Equals Breed]]. Subtrope of [[All Genes Are Codominant]].

 

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' has numerous Sonic/Amy children who are part-blue, part-pink; if children worked this way in [[The Verse]], there must have been SOME extensive pure-breeding program in place to keep most characters a single color!

** Possibly as a parody of this, it's reached a point where [http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/732764/absurdres-aoi_mitsuru-blue_eyes-bucket-camera-comi canon characters are being considered to be Patchwork Kids of other canon characters].

* One particular fic in the [[Marvel|Iron Man/Captain America]] fandom [[Justified Trope|justifies]] this by making the child essentially a clone (or a highly engineered child).

* It's popular in ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' fanfics for the mutants' future offspring to have powers that are a combination of their parents' (for instance, a child of [[Token Minority Couple|Storm and Bishop]] absorbing energy to fuel his weather control). It's worth noting that there is no precedent for this in the comics. Most second-generation mutants either inherit one parent's powers, develop original ones, or none at all.

** Although at least Nocturne's powers - very similar to those of her father Nightcrawler- also extend to an attack called "hex bolts" (named in reference to her mother Scarlet Witch). The physical principle behind it still goes back to Nightcrawler's powers though.

** "Holly Athena Jackson is the daughter of Percy and Annabeth. She has strawberry blonde ringlets and green eyes. In case you can't tell, she looks exactly like Annabeth only with Percy's eyes."

** ...and that's not even getting into all the Percy/Annabeth children with one gray eye and one green eye.

* In ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' fandom, Dory and Marlin often have "patchwork" offspring, i.e. a clownfish with blue stripes instead of black-and-white, or a blue fish with a few orange scales here and there.

* Painfully common in ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fandom. One particularly cliched, [[Mary Sue]]-ish example: "Nami Weasley Potter, daughter of Harry and Ginny, is a very beautiful girl. She has black hair and one brown eye and one green eye. She is a famous supermodel."

** This troper has read more than one [[Slash Fic|Draco/Harry]] M-Preg fic that ends in a blond-haired, green-eyed kid.

** This seems slightly justified in Harry Potter fanfic, because it happened with Harry himself, at least in appearance (he's repeatedly described as looking almost identical to his father, but with his mom's [[Green Eyes]]). But that didn't happen with anyone else. Not even the Weasleys. Arthur and Molly, being redheads, obviously have redhead children, but beyond that don't look like copies. And their children's children seem to be about half and half. (And magical skill seems utterly unrelated to genetics beyond 'Children of people with magic almost always have magic.' Harry didn't inherit his mother's skill in potion making.)

* Quite common in ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' fandom; There's a fic somewhere in the net where Kish and Ichigo have a half-human, half-alien baby. She had green hair with red streaks and amber eyes with brown flecks (Kish has green hair and amber eyes, Ichigo has red hair and brown eyes).

* In ''[[Kim Possible]]'' fan fiction, when the parents are Kim and her rival [[Foe Yay|Shego]], having children with green skin and red hair, black hair with a red streak, plasma powers, or cutting out Kim's genetics altogether and making them [[Generation Xerox|clones of Shego]] is very common.

* ''[[Cori Falls]]'' loves this trope. Jessie and James's kids are not only basically clones of their parents, but the youngest daughter has her mother's love of sweets and the son wants to be an artist like his father. Jessie herself is a mishmash of her mother and father in both looks and personality.

* With ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', fans are very fond of giving [[Official Couple|Simon and Nia's]] child Nia's [[Technicolor Eyes|eyes]]. Fanart tends to make fans cry, since {{spoiler|Simon and Nia never got a chance to have children}}.

* Patchwork kids are starting to pop up in the ''[[Western Aimation/Monster Buster Club|Monster Buster Club]]'' fandom.

** An example would be Anneliese and Jake, Cathy and Danny's children. Jake has brown hair and blue eyes while his sister, Anneliese, has brown hair and [[Mismatched Eyes|one blue eye and one green eye.]] And she has [[Psychic Powers|psychic powers.]]

* In ''[[Naruto]]'' fandom, Naruto's children always have blond hair, Hinata & Nejis's children always have [[Blank White Eyes]] and Sakura's children are mostly [[Played for Laughs|Pink]], especially if they're Sasuke's and the writer doesn't really like him.

** Well seeing as all the females he'd likely be paired with either have [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair|hair colors that don't exist in real life]] or [[Take a Third Option|blond hair themselves,]] it's reasonable to conclude that his kids would have blond hair just by [[Justified Trope|assuming blond would be dominant over blue or pink hair just like it actually is with red.]] The real problem is with multiple kids, because Naruto is a carrier for the gene for red hair, so if we figure that red dominates fantastic hair colors, there should be some red haired kids in there. Now if you paired Naruto with [[Crack Pairing|Ten Ten,]] then it would be wrong. Also, it's canon that Byakugan is a dominant trait.

 

== [[Film]] ==

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** ''[[Rune Factory Oceans]]'', unlike all of its RF predecessors, does the same thing, likely because it was the first game not to utilize portraits.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** Pompey's a half-elf, although his parents aren't seen, he has one elf ear and one human ear. In his case, it's pure [[Rule of Funny]].

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* The title character of ''[[Humf]]'' is a purple furry thing. His parents are a red furry thing and a blue furry thing. Apparently, furry thing genes mix in the same way as paint.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fanfic Tropes]]

[[Category:Patchwork Kids]]