Bastard Bastard/Playing With

Basic Trope: The illegitimate son of an aristocrat is evil with ambition, resentment and perversion.

• Straight: Bob's parents aren't married, which makes him an evil jerk.
• Exaggerated: Bob's parents aren't married, so he destroys the world.
• Justified: Bob lives in Medieval England, where they treat illegitimate children like crap. This makes him bitter and angry, and he takes out his pain on the world around him.
• Inverted: Bob is much nicer than his legitimate half-brother, The Prince.
• Subverted: Bob is a Heroic Bastard, who seeks to overthrow the evil man who sired him.
• Double Subverted: ...but he abandons the path of good for the sake of his father's approval!
• Parodied: The Bastard Bastard is a Harmless Villain.
• Deconstructed: The Bastard Bastard is a Hero with Bad Publicity.
• Reconstructed: ...who ultimately turns to evil in frustration and despair, because his will was weaker than his inherited character flaws.
• Zig Zagged: ??
• Averted:
  • Bob's parents are married.
  • Or Bob lives in a society with no concept of bastardy.
• Enforced: ??
• Lampshaded: ??
• Invoked: Maria has an affair with the king, hoping that his illegitimate son, Bob, will be his downfall.
• Exploited: Bob's adoptive parent fosters his resentment toward his father the king.
• Defied: ...But Bob refuses to be controlled by his past, and lives a normal life.
• Discussed: Two characters wonder whether newborn bastard Bob will be a problem later on.
• Conversed: Alice and Bob see a play about a Bastard Bastard, and critique it.
• Played For Laughs: ??
• Played For Drama: Bob--and the rest of his Big Screwed-Up Family--feel the bonds of family warring with political ambition. These powerful, conflicting emotions tear them all apart.
• Plotted A Good Waste: Bob is a poor bastard with every reason to hate the world, but he just puts up with it.

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