Tangled Family Tree: Difference between revisions

[[File:xfam_1885xfam 1885.jpg|frame|link=http://io9.com/5735116/x+men-family-tree-breaks-down-mutant-mating-habits-with-surprising-clarity/gallery/|Omitted: The time Wanda married a robot and had two children. Or how they were resurrected/reincarnated later. ...Let's leave it at that for your sanity's sake.]]

{{quote|''If you wannabe a Summers''<br />

''You have got to live''<br />

''Through time travel, death, and cloning,''<br />

''But that's the way it is.''|''[[X-Men]]'' filk, to the tune of "Wannabe" by the [[Spice Girls]]}}

Tropes like [[Luke, I Am Your Father]], [[Family Relationship Switcheroo]], [[Separated Atat Birth]], [[Everyone Is Related]], [[My Own Grampa]], [[Cain and Abel Andand Seth]] and the [[Evil Twin]] make for drama, and they're an easy way of shaking up the dynamics of a long-running series. Sometimes a little ''too'' easy. Layer too many of those tropes onto the same group of characters, and what you end up with is a [['''Tangled Family Tree]]'''. This isn't just a [[Dysfunctional Family]], this is a family with members so numerous, relationships so tangled, and circumstances so bizarre that it's impossible to keep track of them without a flow chart.

Tangled Family Trees are commonly seen in comics and soap operas, both of which have long-running continuities focusing on one group of characters through decades of changing hands from writer to writer. It is also a common phenomenon in mythology, folklore, and oral traditions for much the same reasons (with "long running continuities" being measured in centuries, and different "writers", including oral retellings by people who may or may not have been literate). Indeed, tropes like [[Continuity Snarl]] and the [['''Tangled Family Tree]]''' happening in modern works of fiction can help us understand exactly how ancient mythology evolved. Incest, time travel, cloning and genetic engineering, and [[Alternate Universe|Alternate Universes]]s can all contribute to creating a Tangled Family Tree. For obvious reasons, any family with a [['''Tangled Family Tree]]''' is likely to be a [[Big Screwed-Up Family]] as well. Often this is a [[Continuity Snarl]] looking for a place to happen, as sometimes a single geneology can become so complex that even the writers can't keep it straight. This is the kind of family that you ''want'' to in-breed just to consolidate the branches.

* In the [[Fullmetal Alchemist (Animeanime)|2003 anime version]] of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Mangamanga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Ed and Al {{spoiler|"give birth to" their own mother, only it's not their mother anymore, it's Sloth}}. Ed lost his arm and leg to the process, and Al lost his entire body. {{spoiler|Wrath's arm is Ed's so Wrath is in a way Ed. Wrath views Sloth as his mother, but Wrath's real mother was the woman}} who taught Ed and Al alchemy.

* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' has a family ''[[Stable Time Loop|loop]]''- the main character is {{spoiler|the son of his own clone and [[Oedipus Complex|his girlfriend's clone]]. To be exact, his father is the reincarnation of his clone and his mother is the reincarnation of Sakura's clone.}} Explaining the complicatedness further would require a massive wall of text and an intimate understanding of both [[Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga)|Cardcaptor Sakura]] and cross-multiversal genetics.

* The {{spoiler|Kamina family}} in ''[[Rah XephonRahXephon]]''. Explaining it would spoil the show so you've been warned. The short version of it is that {{spoiler|half the cast is related to Ayato in one way or another.}}

** {{spoiler|Maya, Ayato's adoptive mother is actually his aunt. She was married to Watari who is Ayato's father. Ayato's real mother is Quon, Maya's twin sister. Quon lived with Itsuki who claimed to be her sister. He is actually her son and Ayato's twin brother. For further confusion let us take a look at how the Shitow family factors into this. Rikudou was Maya's adoptive father and is the uncle to Haruka and Megumi Shitow, who are sisters. Ayato met Haruka earlier but her name was Mishima before her mother remarried so he didn't know it was her when he met her the second time. This lead to Ixtli the soul of the titular [[Rah XephonRahXephon]] taking her form to try to guide Ayato.}}

* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Nini]]'', {{spoiler|Kinzo and Beatrice I had a daughter, Beatrice II. Kinzo then [[Squick|had another child]] [[Parental Incest|with Beatrice II]]: Yasu/Shannon/Kanon/Beatrice III. Now realize that Yasushkannontrice is a relationship with two or three of Kinzo's grandchildren, and how ''those'' guys are actually connected in the family tree.}} Yep.

* The Summers family of the [[Marvel Universe]] is a massive [[Continuity Snarl]] to itself, and is so convoluted that at this point Scott Summers may in fact be [[My Own Grampa|his own grandfather]]. No fewer than four characters in the main continuity of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' comics can be said to be the child of Scott Summers, only one of whom (Cable) was actually ''born'' during the timeline of the main Marvel Universe, and none of whom are more than [[Comic Book Time|about ten years younger than their parents]] (including [[Cable (Comic Book)|Cable]], who is, due to the massive amount of [[Time Travel]] in his backstory, at least ten years ''older'' than his parents). Add to that Scott's brother Alex, their long-lost father (the [[Space Pirates|space pirate]] Corsair), and the supervillain-ruler-of-a-galactic-empire Third Summers Brother (Vulcan), and the whole thing is just one big mess. Ironically, Scott started out as an orphan with no known family.

** [https://web.archive.org/web/20100212221122/http://members.core.com/~mindset/tree.txt This] is an incomplete version of the actual family tree. Tremble with fear, puny mortals.

*** [[Dan Abnett]] and Andy Lanning made fun of how messed up the Summers family tree is in their [[New Mutants]] run, when Dani Moonstar gets her friend to be Nate Grey's therapist and he notices Hope acting weird around his patient. Dani tries to explain to him that Nate is a younger alternate counterpart of her adoptive father from the future, before realizing how ridiculous it sounds. There was also a bit about [[Captain America (comics)|Steve Rogers]] changing his mind and letting the X-Men take care of Nate once he heard he was Summers' relative, implying he doesn't want to even touch anything related to this mess.

** Speaking of Wolverine, how can we forget about his [[Opposite SexGender Clone]] Laura "[[X-23]]" Kinney, and his illegitimate son [[Daken]]?

** [[Young Avengers]]: Wiccan and Speed are the children of Scarlet Witch (Magneto's daughter) and Vision (Ultron's robotic son who due to time travel is also a Young Avenger now) who were magically created from portions of Mephisto (Marvel's Satan, he's got some children on both sides running around too) while [[Runaways (Comic Book)|Runaways]] Victor Mancha is a cyborg created by Ultron making him Vision's brother and Wiccan and Speed's uncle despite being significantly chronologically younger and approximately the same physical age.

** Scott and Magneto's trees are already connected twice. One way (via the Richards family tree) is listed above. The second is that Vulcan Summers' sister-in-law Lilandra was married to Charles Xavier. Parts of Xavier and Magneto's consciousnesses merged to form Onslaught.

** It was revealed that the Elder Goddess Gaia was actually ''the single earth-mother goddess'' (in different guises) in ALL of Earth's pantheons, ''who mated with all the different sky-father gods'', even those who were her own descendants, making virtually all of Earth's gods related to each other through her. This was Lampshaded during the Chaos War (apparently incest is okay when gods do it with each other; this is consistent with the mythological depictions).

* The second [[Ghost Rider (Comic Book)|Ghost Rider]] Danny Ketch [[Dead Little Sister|and his late sister Barbara]] turned out to be [[Separated Atat Birth]] siblings of the first (if you don't count a wild west chracter later renamed Phantom Rider) one Johnny Blaze and the spirit who inhabited Ketch's body Noble Kale is their ancestor by mother.

* Perhaps the only character able to give Summers a run for his money is Knuckles the Echidna in ''[[Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic Bookcomics)|Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog]]''. Due to the fact that Echidna society has, apparently, been fairly intensely inter-married he's related (sometimes closely, sometimes distantly) to god knows how many members of the supporting cast. One of whom is a crazy head in a jar working for Robotnik. And that's not even getting into the fact he has THREE daughters from three alternate time lines, all of whom lead different lives. Or the fact he has a (Sort of) evil twin in Dr Finitevus and a REAL evil twin in the form of Anti Knuckles.

* And [[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]], both in his past (the House of El) and present and several alternate futures: the Superman Dynasty, various clones and half-clones, the [[Goo-Goo Godlike]] Ariella Kent (the child of Alt!Superman and one of the Supergirls-- noSupergirls—no, NOT''not'' the cousin!), an adopted son who is the biochild of General Zod, and dead-then-retconned-out-of-existence/thefamily-then-back-again [[Power Girl]] and the other [[Supergirl]] (the one who ''is'' the cousin). Incidentally, Power Girl and the current Supergirl are essentially the same person, except from different universes. And Power Girl is...ahem...[[Most Common Superpower|bigger]].

* Decades of [[Donald Duck]] and [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Scrooge McDuck]] stories by [[Carl Barks]] and other authors have left them with a respectably tangled family tree, as well. Barks' successor [[Don Rosa]] actually drew the extended (Mc)Duck tree once, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070901021552/http://duckman.pettho.com/tree/american.html as seen here].

* The [[Hawkman]] family tree is almost as bad as the Flashes; no time travel but lots of [[Reincarnation]]. The short version is: Prince Khufu of Egypt and his wife Chay-Ara are continually reincarnated. They become Brian Kent and Lady Penbrook, Nighthawk and Cinnamon etc. etc. etc. until,In the 1940s, they become Carter Hall and Shiera Saunders who were [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] Hawkman and Hawkgirl. They get married and have a son, Hector, who grows up to be the Silver Scarab. Hec marries Lyta Trevor, aka the Fury, daughter of the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] Fury and adopted daughter of Miss America (a [[Retcon]]; [[Pre Crisis]] Lyta was the daughter of the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] [[Wonder Woman]]). Then he dies and ends up in The Dreaming, taking on the [[Legacy Character|legacy]] of Garret "The Sandman" Sanford. He temporarily takes Lyta to live there, but when [[The Sandman|the Lord of that realm]] returns, he's banished to the afterlife and Lyta is sent back to Earth. She then has a son, Daniel, who goes on to become {{spoiler|the new Dream (and is therefore in some sense a sibling to the rest of the Endless.<ref> And therefore a spiritual uncle to Superman, since Despair is ultimately responsible for Superman's birth and therefore a mother in spirit, tying in the House of El tangle above)</ref>.}} Here's where it gets [[Continuity Snarl|really complicated.]] Immediately [[Post-Crisis]], there were 2 separate Hawkmen in continuity. The original [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] version, and the [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] version both surviving [[Crisis Onon Infinite Earths]]. A third new version was created in a book called Hawkworld, with the intent of making a fresh [[Continuity Reboot]] like the [[Batman: Year One]], or Superman Man Of Steel limited series. However, nobody bothered to tell the guy making it that both other versions of Hawkman had already been introduced [[Post-Crisis]]. This [[Continuity Snarl|snarl]] was one of many [[Post-Crisis]] continuity problems DC [[Author's Saving Throw|tried]] [[It Got Worse|(and failed)]] to [[Cosmic Retcon|"fix"]] in [[Zero Hour]], so they came up with the idea of merging all three into one single being, which eventually lead to the creation of the "Hawkgod" as well. Meanwhile, Sheira's cousin Speed has a granddaughter, Kendra, who tries to kill herself at the same time as anyone named "Hawk-" is getting written out by ''Zero Hour'' because of the [[Continuity Snarl]], and Shiera takes her over as a walk-in spirit without realising. She eventually becomes the new Hawkgirl in ''[[Justice Society of America]]''. Hector (remember him?) is also reincarnated in ''JSA'' as the son of Hank "Hawk" Hall (no relation!) and Dawn "Dove" Grainger and becomes the new Doctor Fate, but still thinks of Carter Hall (who was resurrected, rather than reincarnated) as his father. Since Hector's {{spoiler|second death (along with Lyta; they were taken back into the Dreaming)}}, Dawn has turned out to have a sister, Holly, who became the new Hawk, and is technically the second Hector Hall's aunt.

** It's been suggested in ''[[The Brave and Thethe Bold]]'' that Brian Kent (the Silent Knight and one of Hawkman's previous incarnations) may be the ancestor of Jonathan Kent...

* The [[Batman (Comic Book)|Bat-Family]] is a (relatively) mild version of this. To sum up, Bruce Wayne has four adopted children: his adopted sons being Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake (the first three Robins) and his adopted daughter being Cassandra Cain (the third [[Batgirl]]). Cassandra's biological parents are David Cain and Lady Shiva, two of the most infamous assassins in the world and former teachers of Bruce. Bruce also has a biological son in the form of Damian Wayne (the fifth Robin), whose mother is Talia al Ghul, daughter of one of Batman's greatest enemies, Ra's al Ghul; in the [[DCAU]] (and possibly in the mainstream universe) Bruce will also have two other biological sons in the form of {{spoiler|1=Terry ([[Batman Beyond]]) and Matt McGinnis }} via genetic manipulation and use of a surrogate father. Additionally, the Wayne and al Ghul family trees are even more tangled in the [[Kingdom Come]] [[Alternate Continuity|timeline]] where Damian's alternate universe counterpart, Ibn Al Xu'ffasch, is romantically involved with Nightfire, who is none other than the daughter of Dick Grayson and Starfire. One can only imagine the sort of [[Freak-Out]] Dick had when he found out the man his daughter was seeing (and doing other things with) is effectively his brother and her uncle.

== FanfictionFan Works ==

* The [[Harry Potter]] example below is implied in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120427144433/http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3024797/1/That_Malfoy_Family thisThat Malfoy Family]'', a [[Ho Yay|Harry/Lucius Mpreg fanfic]], in which Harry thinks it's very crazy that he's carrying Draco's sibling when they're the same age.

{{quote| '''Harry:''' This will be the weirdest family.<br />

* A series of short ''[[Vampire Knight]]'' fanfics (''Irit’s Daughter, Gertrude’s Closet, Jocasta at the Crossroads'', and ''Vashti’s Feast'') written by Ms Izzy takes the already messed up Kuran family, and tangles it further. The fact that Yuuki’s parents are canonly brother and sister seems tame compared to Ms. Izzy’s version. While the family itself is pretty small, it is impressively tangled, with their unnamed mother being the product of another brother and sister pair, and upon her mother’s death took it upon herself the continue the family line with her own father, giving birth to Rido and Haruka with him. It is further implied that she had conceived Juri with her brother/son Rido, rather than her father/husband. Not bad for a series that’s under 2300 words.

* The ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' [[Troll Fic]] ''[[Light and Dark - The Adventures of Dark Yagami]]'' is an impressive continuity snarl that features Dark Yagami, Light Yagami's [[Copy Cat Sue|Copy Cat]] [[Marty Stu]] [[Long Lost Sibling]] who is shagging [[Parental Incest|Light's mom (who is also his mom)]]. But it gets more twisted {{spoiler|he apparently went back in time and fathered himself and later became Light's dad.}}

* In the world of the [[Mega Crossover]] [[Fanfic|fan]][[Web Comic|comic]] ''[[Roommates 2007 (Webcomic)|Roommates]]'' and its [[Spin-Off]] ''[[Girls Next Door (Webcomic)|Girls Next Door]]'' every [[Witch Species|magical]] [[The Fair Folk|being]] from every [[Fanon]] is related. This is as chaotic and [[Mind Screw|weird]] as you might guess and some even have [[Time Master|time magic]] to boot. Someone theorized in the comment section once that the magic family tree must be the unholy bastard child of an elaborate Celtic knot and the [[Timey-Wimey Ball]].

** The other [[Spin-Off]] ''[[Down the Street (Webcomic)|Down the Street]]'' seems to do this with [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires]].

* In ''[[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons (Fanfic)|Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]]'', Ronan has this problem with his harem, which consists of Sakura, Mandy, Taliana and Atni at various points. The first problem is that Mandy is his and Taliana's daughter. The second is that Taliana is Ronan's mother. The third and most perplexing problem is that Taliana is also a clone of Sakura; while it was easy enough to make sense of the first two, that revelation makes Ronan's family tree impossible without time travel, and impossible to draw in a traditional format.

* In the ''[[Transformers (Filmfilm)|Transformers]]'' movie, Sam's [http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/c/c7/Witwickytree.jpg family tree] apparently suggests two generations of inbreeding. It's more likely however that Sam just did a very poor job on his school assignment.

* In [[The Devils Rejects (Film)|The Devil's Rejects]], how the members of the Firefly [[The Clan|clan]] are related to one another is complicated and never fully explained. Otis and Baby refer to each other as brother and sister throughout the movie; Captain Spaulding is Baby's father but doesn't appear to be related to Otis; Mama Firefly is presumably the mother of Baby, Otis (in [[House of 1000 Corpses]] they say she adopted him into the family) as well as Tiny, the deformed giant, and Rufus (from the beginning of the movie). Then we meet a black pimp named Charlie who Captain Spaulding says is his brother (presumably his half-brother).

* The very first novel, ''[[The Tale of Genji (Literature)|The Tale of Genji]]'', already features this very heavily.

* * Nanny Ogg of the [[Discworld]] novels is said to be matriarch of a family tree that makes a mangrove swamp look straightforward.

** The Nobbs family is said to have a similar condition. It's described as being less of a tree, and more of a briar patch. Add this to the sheer number of artifacts the family has "acquired" over the years and, as Sam Vimes once pointed out, you could probably prove that Nobby is the Dowager Duchess of Quirm.

*** In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Feet of Clay (novel)|Feet of Clay]]'', Nobby is actually revealed to be the Earl of Ankh. Of course, the source of this information is an obsessive-compulsive vampire whose hobby involves editing the Morporkian royal line for desirable genetic traits, and had thus obviously never met Nobby Nobbs.

** Also, Pteppic's family in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Pyramids|Pyramids]]''. Because they are royal, and the "divine blood" must never be watered down, they already had quite an interesting incestuous family to begin with; Pteppic's marriage prospects are his aunt or his sister. Add this to the fact that anything spoken by a ruling royal is automatically law and treated as such unless repealed, AND''and'' combined with the fact that the empire is seven thousand years old, this makes for a VERY''very'' interesting set of circumstances. Also, Pteppic's grandmother declared herself to be a man in order to keep the throne, so at this point, Pteppic may in fact be his own father, aunt, grandmother, AND''and'' sister, or something to that effect.

* The Ancient and Most Noble house of Black from ''[[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]''. Their [http://www.harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Image:Black_Family_Tree.png family tree] is so big and large that you'd be lucky to find a character that ISN'T'isn't'' related in some way to the Blacks.

* Looking at the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], try working through [[X Wing Series|Soontir Fel's]] family tree. The Fel family is pretty large even before it gets to him, and then it practically explodes; he marries the sister of Wedge Antilles, trying the Antilles family in, and has a ''lot'' of children with her. Presumably several of the ones who don't get killed off end up married. One of his sons ends up in a relationship with Jaina Solo, daughter of Leia and Han, tying in the Skywalker and Solo lines. It's implied by the [[Star Wars Legacy|Legacy]] comics that his son and Jaina got married. Soontir Fel's great-grandson is [[The Emperor]]. Oh, and in the [[Hand of Thrawn]] duology we found that Fel had clones. [[Send in Thethe Clones|A lot of clones]]. Many of them in sleeper cells, with families of their own. [[Cloning Blues|For some reason]], they almost never show up on family tree charts.

** Add to that the insanity of the Skywalker family. Virgin birth gives rise to Anakin, his son marries a woman who's been trapped in ice since the early Jedi era, his daughter marries Han Solo... Who just so happened to be the last in line of the house of Solo, a dynasty of Kings who used to rule Corellia before it became a democracy. And so on. Then we get to Cade Skywalker. Cade's father was Kol Skywalker. His mother, really got around. She lived a double life as Nyna Calixte, an Imperial Grand Moff, and Morrigan Corde, an Imperial Spy. As Nyna, she'd sleep with anyone who would advance her career, (Moff Rulf Yage, Moff Morlish Veed) as Morrigan, she'd sleep with whoever she thought would help her mission (This includes Cade's father, and Cade's best friend Jariah Syn, whom he considers a surrogate brother), and at least one of her past relationships (Moff Rulf Yage) gave Cade a half sister, Gunn Yage, who Cade almost slept with as well. Cade must've inhereted his mother's sluttiness, as he's slept with a Sith, an Imperial Knight, Princess Fel, Delliah Blue (whom he shares with Jariah Syn in a creepy little 3-way relationship), countless Twi'lek, Human, and Zeltron one night stands in sleazy bars.

* The family tree of Ciri in Andrzej Sapkowski's [[The Witcher]] cycle is a major plot point, as her ancestry is intricately tied to [[The Prophecy]] predicting [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]], and it gets discussed ''a lot'' at a certain point in the story, but... Well, just abandon any hope to get it without pen, paper and nice two-page wide flowchart, because with the number of mages, elves, [[Kissing Cousins]], [[Brother-Sister Incest]] and whatever else (though, thank you, without [[Time Travel]] {{spoiler|at least until Ciri herself saw to it}}) it is as convoluted as it gets.

* Margit Sandemo's ''Sagaen om Isfolket'' has this. The 47 book long story begins in 1581, and ends sometime in the 1960's, and it follows a family/clan. The family branches all over Scandinavia, and [https://web.archive.org/web/20120507110859/http://home.c2i.net/ehaehre/katta/sagaen_om_isfolket_slektstre.htm the family tree] rivals that of the European royal houses. Just about everyone can trace themselves back to the founders of the modern Isfolk in several ways, and the older, pre 1581, Isfolk were even worse with their inbreeding, though not willingly all the time. For more convolution throw in {{spoiler|Lucifer, Lilith and Typhon}} as ancestors to some of the modern ones.

* ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'' plays this for laughs by combining it with [[My Own Grampa]]. While the family tree of Zaphod Beeblebrox (who calls himself "the First") isn't fully revealed in detail, his father is Zaphod Beeblebrox the Second, his grandfather is Zaphod Beeblebrox the Third, and his great-grandfather is Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth. In addition, Zaphod the Fourth says Zaphod the First is actually Zaphod the Nothingth. (Confused yet?) According to Zaphod the First/Nothingth, this was all caused by "[[Noodle Incident|an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine.]]"

* Due to their obsession with blood purity and the resulting intermarriages and incest, <small>ALL</small> Masters in ''[[The Stone Dance of the Chameleon]]'' are somehow related, although tracing the exact kinships can be a nightmare. The author's website helpfully provides some (complicated) [https://web.archive.org/web/20130122233609/http://www.ricardopinto.com/work/stone_dance/topics/personae/family_trees/index.php family trees.] (Beware of a spoiler in the House of Masks.)

** The McQueens from ''[[Holly OaksHollyoaks]]'' is an [[egregrious]] example despite only appearing on-screen for three years (with [[Retcon|Retcons]]s of course saying they've lived there for over a decade and some members to have actually been McQueens but with different surnames), even having multiracial members {{spoiler|and a vengeful son}}.

* ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' has some issues with this as well. Considering that the show [[Our Vampires Are Different|treats siring like family]], you have Angel's sire Darla, ''her'' sire The Master, Drusilla, who Angel sired, and Spike, who Drusilla sired. Then Darla was brought back to life as a human when Angel killed her. Then Drusilla sired Darla again, making her-as Dru puts it-both Darla's grandaughter and mother. By extension, this makes Darla Angel's mother and grandaughter and Spike her brother and Great-Grandchild. Then Angel and Darla screw like bunnies, defy the laws of the natural universe and conceive Connor, Angel's son, who by the whole siring thing is also Angel's brother and great-grandson. Then Connor sleeps with Cordy (who Angel is in love with) and conceives Jasmine, Angel's completely evil grandaughter/niece/great-great-grandaughter. And this isn't taking into account that Angel probably sired even more vampires than Dru and Spike, including Penn from Somnabulist and, possibly, James and Elizabeth from Heartthrob. So, theoretically, any on-screen vampire younger than Angel is theoretically "related" to him. Plus, there's the fact that in [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy Season 7]] Spike sired a whole bunch of vamps under the First's control, who may have sired others. Angel also sired at least two other vamps in his past, who may have turned others as well.

* ''[[Big Love]]'': Thanks to the multiple marriages and multiple wives in the polygamist compound of Juniper Creek--"Prophet" Roman Grant alone has 31 children and 187 grandchildren-- figuringgrandchildren—figuring out who's related to whom can be an impossibly ardous task. As expressed by (one of) Roman's wife('s), Adaleen: "I'm my own grandmother."

* On ''[[One Tree Hill]]'' Karen had a baby, Lucas, with Dan Scott who had another son, Nathan, with his wife Deb six months later. Years later Karen ends up getting pregnant by Dan's brother Keith. Her daughter, Lily, is technically both Lucas's half-sister and his cousin.

* Lister from [[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]], who ''gave birth'' to twins via impregnation with ''his'' parallel universe female self,<ref>You read that right</ref>, and is also [[My Own Grampa|his own father]] by an alternate universe Kochanski. Which means his children have only 50% genetic material they should have.

* On ''[[American Horror Story]]'' Constance has four kids (three of whom we meet). Her son Tate ends up {{spoiler|impregnating Vivien, who also gets pregnant by her husband Ben on the same day, meaning her twins have different fathers. Meanwhile, Tate falls in love with Vivien and Ben's daughter Violet. And all of this crazy happens before we bring up the fact that Tate is also a ''freaking ghost!''}}.

* [[Married... Withwith Children]]: "In Wanker County, nobody's really outside the family."

* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130708120018/http://www.subliminalmessages.com/settlement_71a.htm I'm My Own Grandpa]"

* "None but the Lonely Heart" -- A—A [[Spike Jones (Music)|Spike Jones]] Soaperetta

** Family trees became especially convoluted due to Zeus' recurring habit of sleeping with descendants of his -- forhis—for instance, he fathered the little-known god Zagreus with Persephone, his daughter by his sister Demeter, and Herakles with Alcmene, the granddaughter of his son Perseus. To add extra complications, there were several instances of mortal women having children by both their divine lover and mortal husband, often as fraternal twins (in at least one case one mother was simultaneously pregnant by Hermes and Apollo in this way). The most well known example is Leda, whose children were Castor and Clytaimnestra (fathered by her husband Tyndareus) and Polydeuces and Helen (fathered by Zeus).

* In the modern religion of Wicca, even limiting the pantheon to only two deities does not stop the [[Tangled Family Tree]] from cropping up. According to the generally-accepted "Wheel of the Year" symbology, the God is his own father, by the Goddess, who is also his ''sister.'' If you want to keep yourself up for the next few nights, try working out all the relationships that imples--orimples—or worse, try to figure out where the God would get his heavenly genes from!

** ''[[Arthur, King of Time and Space]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] how confusing this gets [http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/0806.htm here].

* ''[[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]]''. Some people have literally spent decades trying to wrap their heads around THAT mess.

** The GospelsTwo of the Gospels (Matthew and1:1-16; Luke each3:23-38) give a genealogy for Joseph (who is only theJesus's adoptive father ofJoseph. Jesus,Both and no genetic relation at all) reaching back throughreach King David -via however,different routes: Matthew claims the descent was through David's son Solomon, while Luke traces it through another son of David, Nathan. Matthew only traces the descent back 42 generations to Abraham, but Luke goes all the way back to Adam - who, in some translations, is listed as the son of God, which would make him the (half-?)brother of Jesus.*

** Adam is technically Christ's ancestor, and depending on your religion, his son, since Christ, being the Son of God, is also God in his own right, again, depending upon which religion you follow. So Adam could be Christ's great x10000(times a few dozen) grandfather and his son and half-brother all at once. But that's a bit of a stretch on the norm...

* ''[[The Archers]]'' has a bit of this going on. The website provides some [https://web.archive.org/web/20111016183237/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/the-archers/whos-who/family-tree family trees].

* The Scarlet Dynasty from ''[[Exalted]]''. Thirteen Houses, each descended from a particular child of the 700-year-old [[The High Queen|Empress]], all of whom are mostly marrying with each other in all shades of [[Kissing Cousins]]. And since they live to be 300 and are physically in the prime of their lives until a few years before their deaths, there's a lot of [[May-DecemberMay–December Romance|200-year-olds marrying young 20-year-olds]], making for kinship relations more convoluted than almost anywhere else.

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' features [[Cloning Blues|clone]] [[Evil Twin|sons]] of [[Luke, I Am Your Father|Big Boss]] [[Separated Atat Birth]], [[Grand Theft Me|one of whom dies and possesses the arm of another man who had it transplanted onto him after his death]], and it turns out {{spoiler|Eva was Snake's surrogate mother all along}} A small family tree, but it gets honorable mention because of how insane it actually is.

* ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' has this, and is only exacerbated by ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]'':

*** And at least one ending suggests that Frog{{spoiler|/Glenn}} may be her ancestor as well.

* ''[[The Sims|The Sims 2]]'' premade neighborhood Strangetown comes with a rather complex family tree. A dead Sim, Glarn Curious, was originally married to Glabe Curious (another theory is that she is his sister). He was abducted by aliens and [[Mister Seahorse|impregnated]] by Pollination Technician 9. After giving birth to twins, Glarn left Glabe and married Kitty Hogleg. They had four kids, and the oldest (Jenny) ended up marrying and having children with Pollination Technician 9 when he crash landed on Earth...

** [[It Got Worse|It gets worse]] with the sequels. In ''The Sims 2'' for PSP, Jenny and the Curious brothers get a new cousin out of nowhere named Sinjin Balani and Pascal Curious gave birth to his alien child, Tycho. In ''The Sims 3: Ambitions'', the family tree is expanded again with Notzo Curious and Zo Curious' parents being revealed. [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/sims/images/6/60/PollyFamTree.png Here is the family tree for those interested]{{Dead link}}.

** Thanks to Story Progression, it can even happen randomly to players. The mechanic will pair up any sims Young Adult or older as long as they're not directly related. Since the game is only able to keep track of so many relationship taboos, which often leads to [[Kissing Cousins|second cousin marriages]] and the like. Sims can also marry their ex-aunts and uncles (since the game only counts them as related if they're married to a relative) and become their cousins' step-parent. Their new child will be the cousin/stepchild's half-sibling/nephew/niece. To further convolute things, the cousin/stepchild can go on to marry the step-parent/cousins nephew or niece. To complete the circle of fuckery, their child can marry and have kids with the ghost of one of their ancestors. Does your head hurt yet?

*** To clarify, aside of Roxas (Sora's Nobody), there's {{spoiler|Xion from ''Days'', a Replica of Roxas made from Sora's memories created by Xemnas to use as a fail-safe in case Sora and Roxas proved to be useless to Organization XIII's goals; in essence, she's an [[Opposite SexGender Clone]] of Sora/Roxas.}} ''Birth by Sleep'' gives us Ventus, who not only looks like Roxas ([[Prequel|or rather]], Roxas resembles him), but {{spoiler|whose heart dwells inside of Sora's due to certain circumstances taking place at the end of the game. Additionally, Vanitas, his [[Enemy Without]], shares Sora's face due to the heart of a newborn Sora offering to connect his heart to Ven's after the forcible creation of Vanitas (thanks to Master Xehanort) left Ven temporarily comatose.}}

** ''[[Kingdom Hearts 3D (Video Game)|3D]]'' has taken this trope and ran with it to ''extreme'' levels of litigiousness. {{spoiler|Master Xehanort, [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]], is gathering together a new Organization XIII. Who are among its ranks? ''Thirteen Xehanorts brought together across various timelines.'' A younger incarnation Master Xehanort (known better to players as the [[Bonus Boss|Unknown/Mysterious Figure]] from ''BBS'' and co-existing alongside his older self) was tasked by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness (who was able to time travel due to his lack of a body) of gathering thirteen incarnations of Xehanort. Aside of Master Xehanort, Young Xehanort, Xemnas, and Ansem, Braig and Isa (the original personas of Xigbar and Saïx) are revealed to be Xehanorts as well, having been infused with a part of Master Xehanort's heart and gradually turning ''into'' Xehanort (slowly adopting features of his such as golden eyes and pointed ears). Additionally, the plan was to turn ''Sora'' into the final member of this group (luckily, it was thwarted by a [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment from Lea, Axel's original identity), and the original plan for the first Organization XIII was to use the Nobodies as vessels for Xehanort's heart.}}

=== Visual Novels ===

* ''[[Princess Waltz (Visual Novel)|Princess Waltz]]''. It's hard to get into too much detail without major spoilers, but let's give it a shot. A man and a woman got married, and had a son. The woman's sister had two daughters. When the second generation grew up, the elder of the daughters married the son (her cousin), and had a son. However, the younger sister seduced him as well, and had a daughter. When the third generation grew up, {{spoiler|they became the protagonist of the game and his primary love interest}}. Interestingly, [[Elephant in Thethe Living Room|no one ever mentions this]].

* ''[[Futurama]]'' brings us Fry's family tree, [http://theinfosphere.org/Fry_family_tree seen here]. Both he and his father are [[My Own Grampa|their own grandpas]].

* [[Ciem Webcomic Series|Candi Levens]] has a slightly tangled tree herself. Her great-great-grandfather is Honeybee Samuel, a [[Scary Black Man]] who terrorized the south, raped dozens of women, and was murdered with bees in a cabin in Colorado. He goes on to become a [[Negative Space Wedgie|Marlquaan-protected]] ghost haunting that same cabin, and becomes a servant of the long-dead Meshaluta who is carrying out a vendetta from the grave against the Rintel family. Meanwhile, the Flippos inherit a portion of Samuel's insatiable sexual appetite because Candi's grandfather Dwayne Lloyd [[Generation Xerox|is decended from Samuel]]. Candi is [[Ambiguously Brown|Indo-Persian Mulatto]] because of her great-grandparents Sadasheeva Cherpara from India and Alexis Hood from Indiana. While her mother Shalia is the result of [[Rape Asas Backstory|Dwaye raping Marissa]] and that isn't all too weird, the story gets more complicated. Stan is conceived the bastard of Steve McNolan and Alison Ligash; and when Steve gets sent to jail for domestic abuse, Alison runs off and marries Tobey Flippo out of revenge, becoming Stan's surnamesake. THEN, Phaelites extort Alison into a pact and experiment on Stan and merge him partially with DNA from a donor ''centipede'', hence causing Candi to consider that centipede to be one of her grandmothers. Stan marries Shalia and the Flippos go on as normal, but Candi has a half-brother named Darius Philippine because Stan was also half-cloned and the clone placed inside an egg donated by Insila Murtillo. So Stan has a son that's only a year younger than himself! Also, because Reily was all grown up and married to Ashlee, and they had Kirby ''before'' Shalia conceived her triplets, that means that Candi has a ''nephew'' who is older than she is!

* Ellen Dunkel from ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' is either an [[Opposite SexGender Clone]] of Elliot or a magical curse given human form, depending on how you think about it. This leads to [http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/4568/youmightbearedneck.png confusion] as to who can be considered her parents.

** Grace is a hybrid clone (with 4 sources of DNA), and considers the other hybrid clones from the same lab her siblings. Her "grandfather" replaced some of the DNA she was supposed to be cloned from with that of his dead daughter--Gracedaughter—Grace's "mother" (and namesake).

* Several characters (specifically, {{spoiler|''most of the human characters introduced''}}) in ''[[Homestuck]]'' belong to a ridiculously [[Mind Screw|mind-screwy]] family tree, thanks to a combination of cloning, [[Stable Time Loop|Stable Time Loops]]s, and more than one [[Temporal Paradox]], all of which in turn contribute one of the most convoluted cases of [[My Own Grampa]] ''ever''.

{{quote| '''AG:''' ::::/}}

** Not that she has any reason to talk, since the trolls are technically ''all'' part of one [[Tangled Family Tree]] as a natural result of their [[Bizarre Alien Biology]]. Not to mention that the troll players ''also'' fall under [[My Own Grampa]].

* Though it is (so far) without time travel, he Val'Sarghress family tree in ''[[Drow TalesDrowtales]]'' is quickly becoming this with recent revelations about {{spoiler|Kalki Nidraa'chal}}, who turns out to be {{spoiler|the child of Snadhya'rune Vel'Sharen and Mel'arnach Val'Sarghress ([[Family Relationship Switcheroo|who is Ariel's real mother]]) who are [[Homosexual Reproduction|both women]], and technically makes Kalki Ariel's half-sister}}. And that doesn't even touch on the fact that {{spoiler|Ariel's father is a dark-elf turned ''giant spider''}} or how {{spoiler|Diva'ratrika}} is technically Ariel's {{spoiler|step-grandmother}}. Spoilerific chart [http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9600/sharensarghressfamilytr.png here] for those daring.

* The majority of the cast in ''[[ThaliasThalia's Musings]]''. It's the Greek Pantheon.

* Creative (ab)use of the relationship settings on [[Face BookFacebook]] can result in these.

* The family tree of the Julio-Claudian dynasty of the early Roman Empire is just about the closest thing to a real life [[Tangled Family Tree]] as you're going to find, as many very confused first-time viewers of [[The BBC]] miniseries ''[[I Claudius|I, Claudius]]'' have discovered. [[wikipedia:Julio-Claudian family tree|Here's]] a rendering of that family tree. (Some people have discovered that having a copy of the Julio-Claudian family tree at one's side greatly helps a viewer grasp who's who and what's what while watching ''[[I Claudius|I, Claudius]]''. Others avoid looking at the family tree at all, as it contains spoilers.)

** All that that is before you consider that these people were often all rulers in different nations. Just because he's your brother and your cousin doesn't mean that you can't go to war with him, right? Which makes the [[Thirty Years' War]] (aka, the bloodiest European war pre-WWI) the second-biggest family feud of all time.

** The [[wikipedia:File:Carlos segundo80.png|family tree]] of [[wikipedia:Charles II of Spain|Charles II of Spain]] is also incredibly tangled. In case you don't want to work it out, that means a grand total of ''eight'' separate genomes introduced over the course of seven generations and at least three cases of men marrying their nieces. Not only that, but Joanna of Castile, a.k.a. "Crazy Jane", is most of his great^5 and 6 grandmothers, when it'd be normal to have 16 and 32, respectively. Hence him being a literal deformed moron, hence him being unable to produce children (who would want to touch ''that''?), hence the [[Succession Crisis]], hence the War of the Spanish Succession, or the ''third''-biggest family feud of all time.<br />Louis XIV of France and Leopold I of Austria both had claims to the Spainish throne through Charles II's grandfather, by way of their mothers and their wives. Problem was, one had a mother who was the other's mother's older sister, the other had a wife who was the other's wife's older sister, and nobody could figure out which trumped which. When the third candidate (six year old [[wikipedia:Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, Prince of Asturias|Joseph Ferdinand/José Fernando of Bavaria]]) died, the French king moved to have his grandson crowned, and the Austrian emperor moved to have his son crowned. The rest of Europe was terrified of either power gaining control of the Spanish empire, and moved to stop them both. Hence, The War Of Spainish Succession.

*** The Habsburgs being the family that controled Austria and Spain. Charles II (remember him?) was the last Hapsburg of the Spainish Branch.

* [[Older Than Dirt]]: Any given [[Ancient Egypt|Ancient Egyptian]]ian dynasty, whose [[Royal Blood]] was traditionally "preserved" via so much incest that it gave Pharoah Tutankhamun a club foot and a cleft palate, and was probably the reason he had no surviving offspring.

** The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt (founded by Ptolemy, which means "Warrior" who was one of Alexander the Great's Generals.) is so knotted and twisted that it almost defies description. [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20060701120643/http://www.geocities.com/christopherjbennett/ This website makes a brave effort.] [[wikipedia:Ptolemy VIII|Ptolemy VIII Tryphon]] and his wife (and double-niece) [[wikipedia:Cleopatra III|Cleopatra III]] produced five children: [[wikipedia:Cleopatra IV of Egypt|Cleopatra IV]], [[wikipedia:Ptolemy IX|Ptolemy IX]], [[wikipedia:Cleopatra V Tryphaena|Tryphaena]], [[wikipedia:Cleopatra Selene I|Cleopatra Selene]], and [[wikipedia:Ptolemy X Alexander I|Ptolemy X Alexander I]]. Ptolemy IX secretly married his sister Cleopatra IV, but their mother forced them to divorce (they'd already produced two sons, [[wikipedia:Ptolemy XII Auletes|Ptolemy XII Auletes]] and [[wikipedia:Ptolemy of Cyprus|Ptolemy of Cyprus]]). Cleopatra IV then married their cousin [[wikipedia:Antiochus IX Cyzicenus|Antiochos IX of Syria]], and had another son with him, [[wikipedia:Antiochus X Eusebes|Antiochos X]]. She was then murdered on the orders of her sister Tryphaena (who was in turn executed by Antiochos IX). Her brother/ex-husband Ptolemy IX meanwhile married his other sister, Cleopatra Selene, by whom he had a daughter, [[wikipedia:Berenice III of Egypt|Berenike III]]. He was expelled by Egypt by their brother, Ptolemy X Alexander I, who then married Cleopatra Selene himself (they had a son named [[wikipedia:Ptolemy XI Alexander II|Ptolemy XI Alexander II]]). After they divorced, Cleopatra Selene married three successive kings of Syria, becoming history's only known quintuple queen: [[wikipedia:Antiochus VIII Grypus|Antiochos VIII]] (widower of her sister Tryphaena), [[wikipedia:Antiochus IX Cyzicenus|Antiochos IX]] (widower of her other sister, Cleopatra IV) and finally [[wikipedia:Antiochus X Eusebes|Antiochos X]], her own nephew, by whom she had two sons. Ptolemy X Alexander I married his niece/stepdaughter, Berenike III, and had a daughter by her, [[wikipedia:Cleopatra V of Egypt|Cleopatra V]]. After his death, Berenike married her half-brother/cousin/stepson, Ptolemy XI Alexander II, who had her murdered and was subsequently murdered himself. [[wikipedia:Ptolemy XII Auletes|Ptolemy XII Auletes]], the son of Ptolemy IX and Cleopatra IV, became king and married his niece, Cleopatra V, by whom he was father of the famous [[wikipedia:Cleopatra VII|Cleopatra VII]] (she of Caesar and Mark Antony fame). This tangled web is not at all helped by the fact that all the principal players shared only about four names and have to be distinguished by Roman numeral.

* Both Queen Victoria of Britain, and Christian IX of Denmark had a lot of children that were married off to the royalty of Europe according to custom. During [[World War OneI]], every monarch in Europe, even the rulers of minor nations like Romania, and Greece, were the grandchild of Vicky on one side, and Chris on the other, making them both maternal and paternal cousins. (Victor Emmanuel III of Italy being probably the only exception.) Both the Russian Tsar, and the German Kaiser, spoke English as their first language, and the Swiss press at the time called it "the cousins' war". Surreal.

** [[wikipedia:File:Tsar Nicholas II %26& King George V.JPG|Here]] is a photo of British King George V, and his double cousin Tsar Nicholas II of Russia both wearing German military uniforms together in Berlin before the war. Good luck figuring out which is which. They look enough alike to be twins and have the same taste in facial hair.