Heinz Hybrid

57 Varieties

In science fiction and fantasy, there are lot of different species. Despite such a thing being unlikely for multiple reasons, more often than not interbreeding occurs. One result of this is Half Human Hybrids, but in other cases things get a little more complicated. For some characters, not being too fussy about species runs in the family with the end result being a sort of multi-species grab bag. (As the definition of species is that group in which interbreeding can produce fertile offspring -- try not to think too hard about it.)

Sometimes the Science Fiction version of But Not Too Foreign, Ambiguously Brown. A common trait of a Mary Sue, and/or a Munchkin, but not in itself a damning marker, as it can frequently be played for comedy or barely mentioned.

Examples of Heinz Hybrid include:

Anime and Manga

• Zelgadis is 1/3rd human, 1/3rd golem, and 1/3rd "blue demon" (whatever that is, often identified as Mazoku), though in his case A Wizard Did It.
  • It's translated "blow demon" in the novels, if that helps any.
    • Also, Word of God states that Blow Demons aren't Mazoku any more than a Black Dragon is one of the Shinzoku.
• Ichigo from Bleach was already a Half-Human Hybrid, as the result of a ghost-human romance. Then he got both hollow and Shinigami powers, which made him into a human/ghost/hollow mix.

Comedy

• From a widely circulated list of music history jokes:

"Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large."

Fan Works

• This piece of Dragon Ball fanart making fun of the various Mary Sue characters that are a bane to DBZ fanfics.
• This is the official explanation in the Mega Crossover fancomic Roommates for supernatural abilities. One extremity is pure human (no magic at all) the other pure Fair Folk ("made of magic", extremely rare) anything between is a Heinz Hybrid (so most of people considered The Fair Folk, the Witch Species and probably even a part of humanity). Every character can try to do the genealogical research himself if he cares what percentage fae he is (they normally don't because the magic family tree makes "1+1=<><" sense at times).

Literature

• JRR Tolkien's Middle-earth has the so-called Half-elven family, which contained several Elf-Human intermarriages, and has also a divine Maia ancestress. Members later got to choose to be counted among the Elves or Humans (which results in (im)mortality and a different fate after death) so as not to give the gods a headache trying to figure it out how to treat them. The two lines of intermarriages resulted in the twins Elrond and Elros, who respectively chose Elfdom and Humanity. Their daughter Arwen and distant descendant Aragorn later rejoined their lines once more.
  • Aragorn's son Eldarion beats them all, he has the blood from all three elven lines, and that of the human lines of the west, as well as Maia blood. And all those bloodlines are via royal families, meaning Eldarion is royalty amongst all elves and elf-friend men, in the entire world.
• Older Than Dirt: Gilgamesh is somehow 1/3 human and 2/3rds god.
  • We know his lineage (goddess mother, human father who became part-divine in life), and it would make him 1/4 human, 3/4 god. It never seems to get translated like that, though.
• There are a number of Xanth characters like this. For example, Esk is half human, one quarter ogre and one quarter nymph. There's also a winged centaur who is a cross between a centaur (human/horse cross) and a hippogryph (which is itself another Heinz Hybrid, being a horse/gryphon cross). And a mer-naga, who is a cross between mermaid (human/fish) and naga (human/snake). Since various magic spells allow reproduction between any race in Xanth, such mixed critters are fairly common.
  • Taken to extremes in one novel when the characters pass through a number of alternate Xanths in search of one particular alternate, basing their assessment re: whether or not they've made it on who Jenny Elf married and the resulting "species" of her daughter. In one universe, she was half-skeleton.
• In Glen Cook's Garrett P.I. novels, hybrids between the various fantasy races have become so common that the ancestry of some of them can be almost impossible to guess. Really complex blends are referred to as "uniques".
• Sonek Pran, recently introduced into the Trek Verse, is one quarter Betazed, one quarter human, one quarter Vulcan, and one quarter Bajoran. He refers to himself on one occasion as a "quadroon", an old term that didn't necessarily have that meaning and was often racially offensive.
  • Coincidentally, or not, an old Brunching Shuttlecocks feature parodied this aspect of "Star Trek" with a character who was a "half-Romulan, quarter-Vulcan, one-eighth-Bajoran office manager, whose cold exterior belies a heart of utter aloofness."
  • One world in the Star Trek Expanded Universe, called Helena, values diversity, to the point where the more different species you have in your ancestry, the more honored you are. If you're all one species, though, you will have to use that other, less attractive dining hall, among other things. (Naturally, and ironically, Tuvok gets to experience that.) They'd be very happy to meet Mr. Pran, if he doesn't turn out at some point to actually be from Helena.
• Played for Squick in "Auguren", a subterranean segment of the Brian Lumley novel Iced On Aran. Possibly a parody or Take That about Lovecraft's miscegenation hang-ups, it describes the systematic crossbreeding of captive human perverts with tick-men and giant parasitic worms, generating increasingly-deformed monstrosities.
• Vurt does it in fives--most of the Five Races can have sex with the others, but there are only five combinations that produce viable offspring. Some of those can interbreed to produce five possible three-way combinations, and those can interbreed to produce five possible four-way combinations. Of course, there's only one five-way combination, but so far one of those has never been born. (This makes no sense from a genetic standpoint, of course, but a): cyborgs apparently pass down their robotic limbs to their children, and b): human plus dog is a viable two-way pairing. They Just Didn't Care, and you needn't either.)
• Eric introduces (and extroduces) the demon god of the Tezuman empire, Quetzovercoatl, the Feathered Boa. Half-man, half-chicken, half-jaguar, half-serpent, half-scorpion and half-mad (a total of three homicidal maniacs).
• Dark Reflections Trilogy has Merle, whose mother is a sphinx, and father a demon/human hybrid. Despise this she looks completely human.

Live-Action TV

• A time travel episode of Star Trek: Enterprise had a dead body (from the future) with Genetic Material from most of the eventual-Federation's species, and the (living) time traveller Daniels said he was Human "more or less" (meaning he's probably 50% human and 50% everything else).
• This is the fate of all of humanity in Doctor Who.

MMORPGs

• Med'an, the son of Garona Halforcen and Medivh from the World of Warcraft comic. His mother is half-orc, half-draenei; his father was human. As those species all originated on different planets, his epithet "child of three worlds" is literally appropriate.

Music

• The song "Misconceptions" by Mercedes Lackey parodies it - "My mother never talks about that orgy..."

Tabletop Games

• Expansions in the card game Munchkin allow players to be "Third Breeds," three races at once.
• One of the races in Dungeons and Dragons is mongrelfolk, which is exactly what it sounds like, descended from slaves of pretty much every human, demihuman, and humanoid race. (Depictions of them in 2nd edition with tentacles or lobster claws have been quietly ignored.) They range from being able to pass for human to incredibly twisted wretches, though most are pretty much decent people regardless of appearance.
  • Thanks to the proliferation of creature templates in 3rd edition, it was possible to start with a half-orc or half-elf character and slap on template after template, including half-dragon, half-fiend, half-celestial, half-elemental, and half-troll, to get an impossibly mixed up character with incredible powers (but only one hit die).

Video Games

• In the Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion pack, Storm of Zehir, non-lawful, non-good humans can chose two heritage feats at level one, allowing them to become part human, part demon and part fey.
  • Then take red dragon disciple prestige class and become half dragon as well.
• In Mortal Kombat, there we have the Sub Zero brothers wherein they are Chinese-American with a descent from cryomancers from Outworld.
• Potentially taken to absurd levels in Agarest Senki. If you pick properly with each generation of characters, the fifth generation's hero (Rex) will be 1/8th Human, 1/16th Syrium, 1/16th Neocolom, 1/8th DarkElf, 1/8th HighElf, and 1/2 Harpuia.

Web Comics

• Parodied with Ranger from Eight Bit Theater. After this strip it was established that he's 1/2 Elf, 1/4 Lefeinish Human, and 1/4 half-orc.
  • Which means he's only 1/8 orc. The final eighth is unknown.
    • Considering that half-orcs are usually half human, half orc hybrids, maybe he's... 3/8 human?
    • Except that the last eighth is probably not Lefeinish. Oh, genealogy.
  • According to Red Mages calculations, he has seventeen grandfathers, two of whom haven't been born yet.
    • Key Phrase: Red Mage.
• Grace in El Goonish Shive has a mixture of human, alien, other alien and squirrel DNA. She's a voluntary shapeshifter, and an in-universe character who knows this sort of thing has mentioned that a human could impregnate her the old-fashioned way (unless she's in her human/squirrel hybrid form).
  • Then there are her siblings who, like Grace, were born from the same set of alien eggs that allow the DNA of any number of any species to be combined to create a viable creature (meaning the number of combinations is practically infinite). Beings born from these eggs are called seyunolu (chimera) who can shapeshift into any of their parent's forms as well as undergo Partial Transformation. However, with the exception of Vlad/Vladia, Grace's brothers contain no actual alien DNA (the shapeshifting ability is due to the eggs). Guineas is 50/50 Human/Guinea-pig; Hedge is 75/25 Human/Hedgehog; and Vlad/Vladia contains DNA from several bats, owls, hawks and even a leopard in addition to human and alien but who cannot shapeshift without risking her life.
• Also happens in Dominic Deegan. In this case it's confined to one area and is apparently caused by eating the food, so it might be that the people don't actually start out that way.
• Double Subverted in Divided Sky. While Interspecies Romance is quite common, the child's species is either that of the mother or the father. Usually. Otherwise, the person will embody this trope.
• Ogrek the Undisciplined in Yamara is one-quarter orc, one-quarter pixie, one-eighth human, one-eighth ogre, one-eighth elf, and one-eighth... something.
• Josh's character in the webcomic Chainmail Bikini is half-human, half-Dark Elf, and half-Orc. He justifies it by saying that Orcs and Dark Elves are okay with polygamy.
• Dabbler of Grrl Power is two parts mythical shapeshifters and one part unknown alien race. She also apparently has a bionic arm somewhere.
• Keti of Footloose is half human, a quarter werewolf and a quarter nymph.
• Elf Blood has Carlita Delacroix, who is a half-French half-Cuban half-Human half-Spirit Incarnum.
• Celeste in Last Res0rt try to breed with as many different species as possible. Veled for example is part Anyr, part human, part Vidian and part Zillan.
• In The Kenny Chronicles Tarnekis are genetically engineered human-animal hybrids for whom species appear to be mostly cosmetic. The titular character is about 75% fox (both red and fennec) and 25% cat, while his girlfriend (later wife) is half-lemming half-baboon, needless to say in the sequel series their daughter is a bit complicated.
• Antimony from Gunnerkrigg Court is a human/fire elemental hybrid, which is lampshaded by Coyote.

Coyote: What an interesting first union that must have been...

Web Original

• Coach Callahan, from Tales of MU, is a Dwelgrorc (Quarter each Dwarf, Elf, Ogre, and Orc). The Dwarf and Elf Quarters are from different parents, of course. Ceridwyn "Puddy" Banks-La Belle claims to have Dwarf, Giant, Dragon, Sidhe, and Nymph blood.
• Legion in Tasakeru is a hybrid of all eight sentient species.
• Rampant in the Furry Fandom due to Special Snowflake Syndrome.

Western Animation

• Parodied with Charlie the dog in a Looney Tunes short, where he tries to convince Porky to adopt him. He says he's "Fifty percent Collie, Fifty percent setter (Irish Setter!) Fifty Percent Boxer, Fifty percent Doberman Pincher, Fifty percent pointer—there it is! There it is! There it is!--But, mostly, I'm all Labrador Retriever!" When Porky demands proof, Charlie's response is, "Just get me a Labrador, and I'll retrieve it!"
  • This joke was lifted from (or lifted by, not sure which came first) another short featuring various breeds of dogs, with Charlie having that conversation with the narrator. Also the immortal bit, "This is a Doberman Pinscher. *pan to dopey looking soldier* This, is Doberman. *pan back* And what does a Doberman Pinscher do? *The dog gets up, puts on a mischievous face, and goes off-screen to live up to its name.*
• Ben 10 Alien Force implies that this is not only possible, not only good, but actually necessary for the species of the universe to remain fertile. The Highbreeds refused to have children with any species but their own, and eventually ran into a genetic bottleneck that doomed them to infertile extinction despite having thousands or even millions of members. The solution, obviously, was to splice them with the DNA of every species known, mixing up their genes enough to resolve the sterility. Geneticists, biologists, and anyone with more than a cursory high school education, you may begin weeping now.