History Main / InbredAndEvil

* In the Arthurian-inspired ''Franchise/StarWars'' fanfic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/10939812 i've come to burn your kingdom down]]'', Kylo Ren--antagonist of the sequel trilogy--is the son of twins Leia and Luke.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'': The New 52 version of Diana is the most violent and least focused on saving lives version of Diana in main continuity, casually and gleefully killing criminals she could have easily subdued. This version also changes Hippolyta from Diana's TrulySingleParent, instead having had Diana in an affair with Zeus, who is Hippolyta's paternal grandfather, though this is not addressed in the book since incest is quite common in their family (Hippolyta is Ares' daughter).

* The 1973 movie ''Film/DeathLine'' (US title: ''Raw Meat'') features a cannibal clan hiding in the London subway system, the result of a 19th-century dig accident trapping a bunch of male and female workers in the tunnel system. By the time of the events in the film, there are only two exceedingly sickly, barely-human descendants remaining. In a twist, though, the one most centrally-featured in the film is portrayed as [[TragicMonster more to be pitied than reviled]], though still very dangerous.

** Jaime and Cersei Lannister have a long-term {{twincest}}uous relationship going on, and they have three kids together. (Also, their parents were [[KissingCousins cousins]].) We ''know'' dwarfism is a genetic disorder that's present in their family -- their brother Tyrion is a dwarf -- but all three of their kids are of normal height. However, the eldest, Joffrey, is a blatant case of TheCaligula. Alternatively, this could be viewed as a SubvertedTrope, as Cersei's other two children, Tommen and Myrcella, are total sweethearts with nothing wrong with them, thus implying it's not a pattern: Joffrey's just a {{jerkass}}.

* ''WebOriginal/SCPFoundation'': [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3288 SCP-3288]] is the (literally) monstrous bloodline of Leopold I, who used eldritch magic to make his descendants highly resilient to incestual genetic defects. The defects still propagated and now said descendants are insane, cannibalistic, narcissistic mutants.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', the [[AbsoluteXenophobe Highbreed]], an alien species [[ANaziByAnyOtherName so obsessed with genetic purity that they seek to exterminate all other races due to their "inferior" gene pool]], are stated to all be inbred and sterile. Azmuth knows that their CulturalPosturing is an ironic veneer and pities them.

Alternately, inbreeding may provide a convenient justification for the employment of certain tropes. Need to explain how the isolated CannibalClan keeps recruiting, and why its members are deformed, disabled, or mentally handicapped? Want a reason for why TheCaligula is so RoyallyScrewedUp? Blame a recessive genetic disorder or hereditary mental illness and claim that the issues were exaggerated by generations of inbreeding! This allows for the usage of tropes such as MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency and EvilCripple while obfuscating the ableism of said tropes because apparently it's ok to vilify people's genetic disorders as long as their disorder was caused by incest rather than random chance.

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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/HotFuzz'' has Lurch, a [[MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency mentally deficient]] thug who serves as the villain's muscle and whose grandfather was also his father.
* While this was absent from the original ''[[Film/TheTexasChainSawMassacre1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre]]'' and [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre2 its sequel]], later installments in [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre the franchise]] declared that Leatherface's oldest brother was also his father and that most of cannibalistic Sawyer clan were products of VillainousIncest.

* The villains in ''Film/EvilBreedTheLegendOfSamhain'' are an incestuous CannibalClan descended from Sawney Beane who are so inbred that they barely even look human anymore.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Jaime and Cersei Lannister have a long-term {{twincest}}uous relationship going on, and they have three kids together. (Also, their parents were [[KissingCousins cousins]].) We ''know'' dwarfism is a genetic disorder that's present in their family -- their brother Tyrion is a dwarf -- but all three of their kids are of normal height. However, the eldest, Joffrey, is a blatant case of TheCaligula. Alternatively, this could be viewed as a SubvertedTrope, as Cersei's other two children, Tommen and Myrcella, are total sweethearts with nothing wrong with them, thus implying it's not a pattern: Joffrey's just a {{jerkass}}.
** In-universe, the Targaryen habit of marrying their sisters is often viewed as having exacerbated the hereditary madness that crops up again and again in the family, producing a series of warped aristocrats including Maegor I the Cruel, Aegon IV the Unworthy, Aerion Brightflame, Aerys the Mad, and Viserys the Beggar King within the main family line, and equally, if not even more depraved characters like Daemon Blackfyre and Maelys the Monstrous in the {{bastard|Bastard}} Blackfyre branch of the family. However there were decent Targaryens, such as Jaehaerys I, who married his sister and none of their children were outright evil, or Daeron II, the son of the cruel Aegon IV and their sister-wife.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', Dumbledore says he partially attributes the mania of the Gaunt family to frequent marriage between cousins in an effort to keep the bloodline pure.

* The Jack Ketchum novels ''Off Season'' and ''Offspring'' have an inbred cannibal family stalking and killing people that they think are trespassing on "their territory".
* Phil Rickman's ''The Wine of Angels'' features a reclusive farming family whose sons are expected to lose their virginity to their mother before going out to rape and murder innocent victims.
* In Mercedes Lackey's ''Literature/ElementalMasters'' book ''Blood Red'', the werewolf sorcerer Bertalan Kaczor is found living with his enormous, savage family, which he refers to as his "sons and wives". He doesn't refer to his "sons and daughters" because said daughters (and granddaughters!) ''are'' his wives. With the exception of Kaczor himself, the whole family is visibly deformed even by werewolf standards, which the main characters explain as the normal effects of inbreeding exacerbated by the magic they use to transform.
* ''Literature/DollangangerSeries'': Corrine eloped with her uncle Christopher[[note]]What they did not know was that they were also half-siblings[[/note]] and they had four children. They were very nervous before their first child was born, but after having four kids and none of them having any physical or mental disabilities, Corrine is convinced that this lack of LaserGuidedKarma means that the PowersThatBe have no issue with what they did. Corrine's mother Olivia is convinced that the kids are inherently wicked and sinful, and abuses them in a self-fulfilling prophecy to prove she was right. As a series, the books definitely come down on the side of ''incest kids are not inherently wicked… although they might indeed be more inclined to be incestuous themselves.''

* In Creator/GregoryFrost's short story "Ellende", the titular TownWithADarkSecret appears abandoned at first. When the narrator Jessie finally sees the townsfolk (in the midst of a ritual for a ReligionOfEvil), she guesses from their appearance that the whole town has been a closed gene pool for decades if not centuries. [[spoiler:The ending implies that the town has been in a PocketDimension since at least the 1920s.]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Beacon", the inhabitants of the small town of Mellweather are all descended from a prominent citizen named Seth Janes who lived in the 18th Century. They believe that his spirit guides the Beacon, a lighthouse that seemingly chooses a HumanSacrifice every year, and that they must keep their bloodlines strong in order to serve him. After Dr. Dennis Barrows saves the intended victim, a little girl named Katie, he is killed by the townspeople in order to placate Seth.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', Sibbi and Ingun Black-Briar could easily be seen as this. Family matriarch Maven refers to them as her children--and so does her oldest son Hemming. This was probably a RelationshipWritingFumble, though, and not intended. Probably.

* Wilhelm Ehrenburg from ''VisualNovel/DiesIrae'' was born as a result of his father raping his sister which lead to him being born albino. Due to his albinism he ended up despising the light and started idolizing vampires, a fantasy he eventually would lead to try and fulfill starting with murdering his parents and going from there.

** Also as in the novels, the Targaryen family has a proud history of marrying cousin to cousin, uncle to niece, and brother to sister, producing the likes of Aerys the Mad and his equally unhinged son Viserys the Beggar King and also [[spoiler: Daenerys the Mad Queen]].

** ''FanFic/WishCarefully'': Similarly to the above story, in ''Wish Carefully'', the Light Supporters withdraw from England after Voldemort's death, leaving the Death Eaters with what they always wanted: a magical society consisting only of Purebloods. Which will fail within another few generations as the already extensive inbreeding becomes even worse and begin producing very few children with magic.

In the real world, the issue with inbreeding is that it increases the risk of a recessive genetic disorder popping up. In fiction, it seems that one of [[InTheBlood the most common recessive genetic disorders is evil]].

SubTrope of InTheBlood and HollywoodGenetics. See RedRightHand, EvilCripple, MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency, and TheCaligula for what the trope might be used to explain away. Often overlaps with VillainousIncest (on the part of the parents) as well as BastardBastard and ChildByRape. A staple of the HillbillyHorrors genre, this trope can be nevertheless be found on both ends of the villainous socioeconomic spectrum, overlapping with AristocratsAreEvil and RoyalInbreeding as often as it does with rural {{Bandit Clan}}s and {{Cannibal Clan}}s.

Alternately, inbreeding may provide a convenient justification for the employment of certain tropes. Need to explain how the isolated CannibalClan keeps recruiting, and why its members are deformed, disabled, or mentally handicapped? Want a reason for why TheCaligula is so RoyallyScrewedUp? Blame a recessive genetic disorder or hereditary mental illness and claim that the issues were exaggerated by generations of inbreeding! This allows for the usage of tropes such as MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency and EvilCripple while obfuscating the ableism of said tropes, because apparently it's ok to vilify people's genetic disorders as long as their disorder was caused by incest rather than random chance.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'': The New 52 version of Diana is the most violent and least focused on saving lives version of Diana in main continuity, casually and glefully killing criminals she could have easily subdued. This version also changes Hippolyta from Diana's TrulySingleParent, instead having had Diana in an affair with Zeus, who is Hippolyta's paternal grandfather, though this is not addressed in the book since incest is quite common in their family (Hippolyta is Ares' daughter).

** ''FanFic/TwoHouseholds'': This is how the aristocratic Pureblood families have been reproducing for centuries, creating an increasingly shallow gene pool for themselves out of their racism and classism, with many of the bloodlines going extinct due to their inability to produce healthy offspring. This is also the group that most of the Death Eaters originate from. Even the ones who arent Death Eaters tend to be huge assholes.
** ''FanFic/WishCarefully'': Similarly to the above story, in ''Wish Carefully'', the Light Supporters withdraw from England after Voldemorts death, leaving the Death Eaters with what they always wanted: a magical society consisting only of Purebloods. Which will fail within another few generations as the already extensive inbreeding becomes even worse and begin producing very few children with magic.

* While this was absent from the original ''[[Film/TheTexasChainSawMassacre1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre]]'' and [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre2 its sequel]], later installments in [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre the franchise]] declared that Leatherface's oldest brother was also his father, and that most of cannibalistic Sawyer clan were products of VillainousIncest.
* The 1973 movie ''Film/DeathLine'' (US title: ''Raw Meat'') features a cannibal clan hiding in the London subway system, the result of an 19th-century dig accident trapping a bunch of male and female workers in the tunnel system. By the time of the events in the film, there are only two exceedingly sickly, barely-human descendants remaining. In a twist, though, the one most centrally-featured in the film is portrayed as [[TragicMonster more to be pitied than reviled]], though still very dangerous.
* ''Film/{{Excalibur}}'' makes Mordred the son of Arthur and his half-sister Morgana (rather than his half-sister Morgause) and even more insane than he usually is. In the end he not only destroys Camelot, but murders his mother in a fit of rage before going down to a MutualKill with his father.

* The villains in ''Film/EvilBreedTheLegendOfSamhain'' are an incestuous CannibalClan descended from Sawney Beane who are so inbred that they barely even look human any more.

** Jaime and Cersei Lannister have a long-term {{twincest}}uous relationship going on, and they have three kids together. (Also, their parents were [[KissingCousins cousins]].) We ''know'' dwarfism is a genetic disorder that's present in their family--their brother Tyrion is a dwarf--but all three of their kids are of normal height. However, the eldest, Joffrey, is a blatant case of TheCaligula. Alternatively, this could be viewed as a SubvertedTrope, as Cersei's other two children, Tommen and Myrcella, are total sweethearts with nothing wrong with them, thus implying it's not a pattern: Joffrey's just a {{jerkass}}.

** ''Literature/{{Whispers}}'': "Bruno Frye" is the [[SingleMindedTwins collective]] name for a pair of [[CreepyTwins murderous twins]] whose father was also their grandfather. Left completely unbalanced by a lifetime of being sexually abused by her father and his sudden death during the pregnancy, Katherine Frye raised her twin boys to think of themselves as one person, and to see sexuality as a product of the Devil. The two become {{Serial Killer}}s who hunt down and murder women they believe to be reincarnations of their now-deceased mother, since they believe their genitals to be abnormal, so think they can only have sex with each other or with the one woman who knows their secret--Mom.
** ''Literature/TheBadPlace'': Candy Pollard's grandfather was an incestuous rapist who impregnated his younger sister (an event that apparently did considerable harm to her mental health). His mother was the hermaphroditic child of that union, who went onto repeatedly impregnate ''[[ScrewYourself herself]]'', producing four children, all with PsychicPowers. While youngest son Frank is emotionally damaged but moral, and twins Violent and Verbina are feral and amoral but not necessarily malicious, Candy is a genetically damaged, physically deformed monster, born with two sets of testicles and no external genetalia, who uses his [[VillainTeleportation teleporting]] and [[MindOverMatter telekinetic]] abilities to become a serial murderer of the women he desperately wants to, but physically cannot have, sex with.

** In "The Lurking Fear" the monsters terrorizing a small town turn out to be the inbred descendants of a once prominent family, who retreated underground and began marrying their own once their reputation got too ugly.

** In the episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS01E15TheBenders "The Benders"]], a clan of hill folk are kidnapping people and [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunting them for sport]]. It is heavily implied that that the younger members are products of incest and likely also engaging in incest with the only female member of the clan.

** Ogres are modeled on the HillbillyHorrors and CannibalClan tropes, and as such, are not only willing to inbreed, but actively prefer it, marrying as close to the family line as possible, with parent-on-child, sibling-on-sibling and other combinations being a feature of ogre life and resulting in ever more deformed offspring. Their half-human relatives, the degenerate Ogrekin, are just as prone to inbreeding, and entire forests are haunted by families of Ogrekin with minds as twisted as their family trees.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': Sigvald the Magnificent, the Champion of Slaanesh, was born of a particularly depraved chieftain who ended up bedding his own sister. Sigvald continued in his father's footsteps until he tried to overthrow him, his excesses bringing him to the attention of Slaanesh, and now merrily rapes, tortures and burns his way through the world at the head of his army.

[[folder:Fan Fic]]

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:{{Mythology}}]]

* ''{{TabletopGame/Warhammer}}'': Sigvald the Magnificent, the Champion of Slaanesh, was born of a particularly depraved chieftain who ended up bedding his own sister. Sigvald continued in his father's footsteps until he tried to overthrow him, his excesses bringing him to the attention of Slaanesh, and now merrily rapes, tortures and burns his way through the world at the head of his army.

The reasons for this trope are varied. Taboos against incest are strong and have only gotten stronger with time. Just as [[BastardBastard illegitimate children]] and [[ChildByRape children of rape]] have historically been shamed for their irregular parentage, so too are children of incest. This shaming may be compounded by the fact that--outside of RoyalInbreeding or cases of SurpriseIncest--children of inbreeding are likely to be illegitimate and/or the products of rape too, worsening the negative connotations associated with them.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre1974 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/texaschainsawmassacre_0.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The locals seem friendly. They want to have us for dinner...]]

-->'''Mordred:''' "Come father, let us embrace at last!"

** Jaime and Cersei Lannister have a long-term {{twincest}}uous relationship going on, and they have three kids together. (Also, their parents were [[KissingCousins cousins]].) We ''know'' dwarfism is a genetic disorder that's present in their family--their brother Tyrion is a dwarf--but all three of their kids are of normal height. However, the eldest, Joffrey, is a blatant case of TheCaligula. Alternatively, this could be viewed as a SubvertedTrope, as Cersei's other two children--Tommen and Myrcella--are total sweethearts with nothing wrong with them, thus implying it's not a pattern: Joffrey's just a {{jerkass}}.

* One memorable villain from ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' was Seth Angus Billy Cletus Bubba Jamie Clement Cowie, a hillbilly given ComboPlatterPowers by world governments specifically to take down the Authority (and nearly succeeded, receiving a harem of children as a reward). His birth came about around nine months after his mother was stuck in a cabin with her seven brothers, and after his defeat was transformed into seven chickens and returned to his uncles. Yes, it’s a Creator/GarthEnnis story.
** Though notably not the case in Ennis’s Comicbook/{{Preacher}}, where Jesse’s hillbilly childhood friend is (aside from planning to marry his sister and born with only one eye) a pretty normal, nice kid.

* ''Film/WrongTurn'' heavily implies this with The Mountain Men, a clan of inbred [[CannibalClan cannibal]] [[HillbillyHorror hillbillies]] lurking in the hills. The first film touches only lightly on the inbreeding itself, showing them as grotesquely deformed, and showing articles about inbreeding briefly in the PhotoMontage over the opening credits. The sequels get into this more centrally, exploring the exact family dynamics the killers have.

* ''Film/WrongTurn'' features The Mountain Men, a clan of inbred cannibal hillbillies who have become mutant freaks courtesy of isolation and inbreeding.

* ''Film/WrongTurn'' heavily implies this with its CannibalClan lurking in the [[HillbillyHorrors hills]]. The first film touches only lightly on the inbreeding itself, showing the killers as grotesquely deformed, and showing articles about inbreeding briefly in the PhotoMontage over the opening credits. The sequels get into this more centrally, exploring the exact family dynamics the killers have.

* The 1973 movie ''Film/DeathLine'' (US title: ''Raw Meat'') features a cannibal clan hiding in the London subway system, the result of an 19th-century dig accident trapping a bunch of male and female workers in the tunnel system. By the time of the events in the film, there are only two exceedingly sickly, barely-human descendants remaining.

* The Jack Ketchum novels Off Season and Offspring have an inbred cannibal family stalking and killing people that they think are trespassing on "their territory".

** As in the novels, Jaime and Cersei Lannister are in an incestuous relationship, and as in the novels their oldest son Joffrey is TheCaligula, this time with a side of sexual sadism atop his random acts of cruelty, murder, and domestic violence.

** Ogres are modeled on the HillbillyHorrors and CannibalClan stereotypes, and as such, are not only willing to inbreed, but actively prefer it, marrying as close to the family line as possible, with parent-on-child, sibling-on-sibling and other combinations being a feature of Ogre life and resulting in ever more deformed offspring. Their half-human relatives, the degenerate Ogrekin are just as prone to inbreeding, and entire forests are haunted by families of Ogrekin with minds as twisted as their family trees.
** The Ogre penchant for inbreeding is inherited from their parent race, the Hill Giants, who while not as fond of it as the Ogres, are still willing to breed within the family, producing some young in the process who look only barely like the standard Hill Giant. Marsh Giants, descended from Hill Giants who fled into the swamps and were reduced to reproducing with boggards, demons, and their own kin, are if anything, even more warped than the Ogres and Ogrekin, with bloodlines sullied by incest, interspecies rape, and demonic taints.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', Sibbi and Ingun Black-Briar could easily be seen as this. Family matriarch Maven refers to them as her children--and so does her oldest son Hemming.

* The 1973 movie ''Death Line'' (US title: ''Raw Meat'') features a cannibal clan hiding in the London subway system, the result of an 19th-century dig accident trapping a bunch of male and female workers in the tunnel system. By the time of the events in the film, there are only two exceedingly sickly, barely-human descendants remaining.

* Wilhelm Ehrenburg from ''VisualNovel/DiesIrae'' was born as a result of his father raping his sister which lead to him being born albino. Due to his albinism he ended up despising the light and started idolizing vampires, a fantasy he eventually would lead to try and fulfill.

** While mythology was not a big part of the classic stories (with the few "gods" being more tied to other planets than mythology) Mars/Ares is the child of siblings and has always been a villain. Starting in ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'' where the mythological characters became more important and tied to their mythological roots not only is Ares a villain all of the other Olympians ([[TokenGoodTeammate besides]] [[OnlySaneMan Hestia]]) have a rather wide cruel streak and they're all results of incest on some level. Zeus and Hera are quite villainous and their parents were brother and sister.