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{{trope}}
[[File:Hybrid_Horror_77.png|link=Rusty and Co
{{quote|''"For years, we've been trying to combine the bloodlines {{[[[Our Vampires Are Different]] vampire}} and [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf]]]. And for years, we've failed. It was useless. Even at the cellular level, our species seemed destined to [[Fur Against Fang|destroy each other]]."''|'''Singe''', ''[[Underworld (
Everyone likes a [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]], which is why making a [[Hybrid Monster]] that combines two fantastic creatures into one, like a cyborg-centaur or a demon-elf, is popular in fiction. However, like most good things, it can be a bit overdone; while cyborg-demons are awesome, a [[Our Werewolves Are Different|were-wolf]] / [[Fish People|fish man]]? Not so much.
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This is especially true when an author wants to conserve as much [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] as possible, believe it or not, readers might have trouble swallowing a half [[Elemental Embodiment|fire elemental]] / half [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]].
In a game setting, this trope is used to avoid the presence of [[Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot]] [[Game Breaker|throwing]] [[Competitive Balance]] [[Game Breaker|right out the window]] when you can, within the rules, get any power listed on [[Five Races|any species]]' charts with limited or no [[Necessary Drawback|Necessary Drawbacks]]. It's essentially a way for the designers or [[Game Master|Game masters]] to avoid someone making an overpowered [[The Red Mage|Red Mage]]. Smart game designers (or ones that have had experience like White Wolf, makers of'' [[
Inside the story, this is usually [[Justified Trope|justified]] (or at least given a half decent [[Hand Wave]]) by having one supernatural/technological/biological "monster" or race be naturally [[The Immune|immune]] (or [[Made of Explodium|violently]] [[Weaksauce Weakness|allergic]]) to being hybridized with another. For example, a character who's been [[Viral Transformation|changed]] into a werewolf can't be [[Mutant|mutated]] with [[The Virus]] since their [[Healing Factor]] protects them further mutation. Robots won't become [[Our Ghosts Are Different|ghosts]] because, y'know, no [[Soul]]<ref>([[Virtual Ghost|Virtual Ghosts]] are doable, though)</ref>. For whatever reason, in some settings characters can only change into one kind of supernatural critter, or only be one ''"at a time".''
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Tokimeki Tonight]]'', protagonist Ranze's father is a vampire and her mother is a werewolf. She's apparently normal, with no traits of either, until she develops retractable fangs and turns into anything she bites with them.
* Normally ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' allows just about any two summoned monsters to be fused together; however there is one interesting case where it's played disturbingly literally in the first tournament. Yugi defeats Kaiba's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon by fusing his Mammoth Graveyard (an undead type) into it... which, because both are incompatible types, was slowly weakening the resulting fusion and would cause its eventual death. After this, [[New Rules
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== Film ==
* The ''[[Underworld (
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== Tabletop RPG ==
* ''[[
** ''[[
*** [[Vampire: The Requiem|Vampires]] are dead humans resurrected to unlife by an as yet unexplained but likely magical force. [[Changeling: The Lost
*** Likewise the reverse is true. Only an ordinary mortal human with a human soul can become a Vampire. Even attempting to feed off a supernatural creature, a necessity for the Embrace, will most likely lead to the Vampire getting torn to pieces, magically fried to a cinder, or worse. Like being more prone to raging and giving into the Beast (Werewolf Blood), Having a bad Acid Trip (Fey Blood, effects may wary) or other effects.
*** Werewolves are spirits of the hunt / of rage / of protection / of death who were forced to take on human forms by way of a curse laid down on their ancestors / god(s). Depends on your interpretation of the "scriptures," really, but the fact is they are physical spirits. They don't die; they ethereally recycle, so to speak. This means they can't be embraced as vampires, nor can they make the bargain to become geists. They are natural occurances, not created beings like the Prometheans. They are not human, so they can't become mages, nor can they be altered by a spirit realm like Arcadia, which their supernatural "biology" is already adjusted too (to say nothing of their psychologies, which may be less resilient). And again, no human desperation equals no vigil.
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*** Prometheans who complete the Pilgrimage can theoretically become vampires or mages. The books advise that you only do this for a ''very good'' reason -- and the [[Rule of Cool]] doesn't qualify. Also, they lose nearly all Promethean abilities upon attaining humanity.
**** This is quite a good way to add on a bittersweet ending, a Promethean becomes a human again? Oh, but wait...he's cursed to live among the undead for the rest of his days. Its the sort of thing that should only really be used for the most grimdark of chronicles.
*** Also theoretically averted in a sense by any supernaturals who could turn into [[Hunter: The Vigil
** The ''[[
*** Only humans have avatars, so only humans can Awaken to become Mages. Becoming undead of any kind gets rid of the avatar, nixing that option. Shapeshifters were born as shapeshifters, even if they resemble humans or animals at birth, so they lack avatars. When they die they can't go to the same afterlife as human dead, so they can't become wraiths, zombies, or [[Kindred of the East]].
*** One exception is a [[Vampire: The Masquerade
*** Several other Changing-Breeds either can't be embraced, or can't stay that way for long afterwards. Kitsune were-foxes explode in fire if embraced as kind of a [[Take That]] to players' obsession with making abominations. [[Ravens and Crows|Corax were-ravens?]] They explode come dawn no matter WHERE they are. [[Dragons Are Dinosaurs|Mokolé were-dinosaurs?]] They go BALLISTIC the second the embrace starts, and their war form? A dragon/dinosaur which may very well breathe fire and/or glow with sunlight. ''Then'' they die. Rokea were-sharks? No vampire has been dumb enough to try it (they also are mostly aquatic, making it hard for vampires to even know they EXIST, much less find and capture one). Bastet werecats can be embraced but immediately start losing their Gnosis stat, which cripples their supernatural abilities.
*** Also averted by the infamous [[Canon Sue|Canon]] [[Villain Sue]] Samuel Haight who was a ghoul-werewolf-true mage. Until he died, became a ghost, and was soulforged into an ashtray.
* Some templates in the 3rd Edition [[Dungeons and Dragons
** Only living things can become undead, so no [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]] (flesh golems are constructs, not undead).
** Constructs cannot breed, and thus cannot be half-dragons or any other inherited type.
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*** This makes possible the [[Game Breaker|Half-black-dragon, half-iron-golem troll]], which is immune to damn near everything, but would require a black dragon (acid-breathing) to breed with a troll (vulnerable only to fire and acid), and the offspring to be converted to a half-golem at great difficulty and expense, probably against its will. Neither the victim nor its parents are likely to be pleased.
** For player characters, the main mitigator is Level Adjustment, a virtual inflation of the character's effective level imposed by most beneficial templates. For example, a half-dragon has an effective level adjustment of +3. A 1st level half-dragon character is thus theoretically as powerful as a 4th level character, and thus not legally playable in a group starting out at any level below 4th (and s/he would start out at only 1st level in one that was). The level adjustments of all templates on a character are additive.
* ''[[
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== Web Comics ==
* The vampires in ''[http://lastblood.keenspot.com/ Last Blood]'' are immune to zombie bites, making them unlikely defenders of the remnants of humanity. Of course, that has to do with {{spoiler|zombies being created from a starved vampire's bite}}.
* ''[[Rusty and Co
** [http://rustyandco.com/comic/critical-missives-16/ He got worse.]
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