
Hohenheim's failure to make an "honest woman" out of Trisha Elric is in the manga and in Brotherhood because he's a living, immortal Philosopher's stone, and probably doesn't actually exist in any official records, and he was trying to keep his sons from being associated with him to keep them away from Father, who would want to use them in his plot.


If the writer is feeling generous, the vanished parent could be a local power figure or at least wealthy. Perhaps his parents never married because one of them vanished mysteriously this can lead to a juicy revelation later in the story when it is discovered that Mom or Dad is someone very important to the plot. In fact, modern authors have found that making their hero a bastard can have some valuable dramatic benefits. But most bastards manage to rise above these expectations. Then again, fatherless children have a documented tendency to violence, suicide, lack of self-control, and poverty - so, statistically speaking, there's something to the stereotype, though how much of this is due to the social stigma is left as an exercise to the reader. Especially since the fathers didn't have to care for them (and often wouldn't) and the mothers may have used the kid to let out their frustration about "those goddamn men". Since a child born out of wedlock would be the target of all kinds of discrimination and would not be allowed to participate in some central parts of society (like church services), they often had to become ruthless, cunning rogues just to have a chance of surviving. (Or because Mom or Dad had him when one of the two already gave a ring to another person).īack in the day, this could be a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. In modern times, however, with the rise of more liberal and humane attitudes - as well as the rapid increase in unwed motherhood as a societal phenomenon - it has become less acceptable to assume that a person will have a tendency toward evil behavior just because Dad never gave Mom a ring.

Until fairly recently in fiction, a child born out of wedlock was often expected to have a treacherous or villainous nature just due to the fact of his illegitimate birth, which of course is how the term "bastard" came to mean someone who was.well, a bastard. He could easily be a very pleasant, well-mannered fellow, but his parents never married.

This trope is for the protagonist for whom "bastard" is just a factual description, not a comment on his personality. While the Badass hero or the Anti-Hero may get called a bastard, it's not usually meant literally.
