Would Hurt a Child: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

In fiction and in the media in general, both heroes and villains agree on one thing: they [[Wouldn't Hurt a Child]].

But sometimes, some people just don't agree with that. Or just don't care. And, they ''do'' hurt children, sometimes even kill them, in defiance of the rule of [[Infant Immortality]]. Indeed, the fact of harming a completely harmless and defenseless human being that is a child usually comes off as the [[Moral Event Horizon|ultimate act of villainy]] and it takes a [[Complete Monster|very specially evil]] character to do this.

 

 

In Western works, this trope is rare and almost always done off-panel when played straight (read: when the violence towards the child isn't being [[Big Damn Heroes|stopped in the nick of time]] and causes actual damage). In Japanese fiction, child brutality is more common.

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Elfen Lied]]'', Bandou has no qualms about hitting and maiming little girls. Lucy herself murders a bunch. Some were [[Kids Are Cruel|horrible bastards]]. Others weren't.

* In ''[[Saint Seiya]]'', the Twelve Zodiac Temples Arc. Pegasus Seiya and Dragon Shiryu arrive to Cancer's Temple, and confront Cancer Gold Saint Deathkmask. The walls of said temple are covered by grim human faces, which are promptly explained to be the faces of the people Deathmask has killed in his battles. Seiya and Shiryu are horrorized when they realize that among those faces there are children faces. When they demand an explanation from Deathmask as to why he'd kill children, he simply states that he doesn't know how that happened, that they must have been killed along with his enemies without him realizing. Then, he calls those murders "valious but unimportant sacrifices".

* ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' has 9-year-old Maria Ushiromiya regularly killed off alongside the rest of the cast. While the first four times were relatively nice ({{spoiler|explosion, explosion}}, strangulation, poison), the fifth time was a gaping neck wound, and the sixth was brutal decapitation. She keeps coming back to life due to a [[Groundhog Day Loop]].

** Maria's mother, Rosa, also physically beats her.

** Another straighter example, especially notable for featuring an adult woman, is when Rina attempts to strangle Rena after beating her up.

** Shion also brutally beats up Satoko for being too clingy to Satoshi, until Rika and Rena pull a [[Go Through Me]], and then she gets [[Punched Across the Room]] by a ''very'' pissed off Satoshi. While Satoko ''was'' extremely dependent on Satoshi, it's still no excuse for Shion almost killing a little girl in the middle of a Yandere tantrum.

* ''[[Black Butler]]'': The villains of the [[Circus of Fear]] arc. This is especially yurk because the actual folks are pretty nice, but they ''know'' what their 'father' is doing with the kids they kidnap for him.

* In ''[[Naruto]]'', Nagato kills every person associated with Hanzo, including Hanzo's children and the children of Hanzo's loyalists, after Nagato wrestles control of Amegakure from Hanzo. Nagato, however, seemed indifferent to their deaths, as they were his precaution to quell any possible rebellion over his leadership in the future.

** {{spoiler|Tobi}} took a baby {{spoiler|Naruto}} hostage, nearly spearing him with a kunai and ''blowing him up'' in the process.

** There's also the Marines, who following the death of Gold Roger, searched islands he may have frequented and killed any babies born within nine months of his execution. {{spoiler|His lover Portgas D. Rouge [[Genre Savvy|knew they would do this]], and held Roger's child in her womb for 15 months [[Plucky Girl|through sheer]] [[Mama Bear|willpower]].}}

** {{spoiler|The Gorgon Sisters}} were sold into slavery and then tortured into borderline insanity by {{spoiler|the World Nobles}} when the eldest, {{spoiler|Boa Hancock}} was twelve years old.

** {{spoiler|Caesar Clown has no problem experimenting on little kids or getting them addicted to drugs so they won't run away.}}

* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Maria]] from [[Witchblade (anime)|Witchblade]] has no problem with killing her teammates or the science institute trainees, due mostly to [[Ax Crazy|her own messed up childhood]] and not being much older herself. (They begin training at 12) She even attempts to kill [[Morality Pet|Rihoko]] out of jealousy for receiving more of her (biological) mother's love even though they'd never met. (Her mother treated Maria completely as an experiment her whole life instead)

** Other manga are keen to this too. For example in ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure]]'' {{spoiler|Mitsumi}} is blackmailed into doing this to a 9 - 11 year old Hareta - forcing her powerful Pokemon to give both the kid and his Pokemon a [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]. Other members of Team Galactic also don't mind beating on him.

* In ''[[Ginga Densetsu Weed]]'', Thunder and Lector, the Doberman Pinscher assassins for Hougen, threaten to kill Teru if his father didn't kill Kyoshiro. It was also kinda personal, since Kyoshiro was the one who tore off Teru's father's ear.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Carnage from [[Spider-Man]] no qualms about who he kills, children included. During his rampages, child corpses are often among the dead, and in his youth he torched an orphanage.

* Sabretooth from ''[[X-Men]]'' is known to attack, murder, and sometimes even eat children. In one issue, [[Deadpool]] is in a cabin with him and he opens a closet to find a little girl tied up. When he asks about this, Sabretooth replies that he's saving her for later.

 

* Reconstructed in ''[[The Incredibles]]''. Helen has to explain to Dash and Violet that yes, real villains would hurt a child. And they do. Then again, the kids can fight back...

** The other PG Pixar Film, ''[[Up]]'', has the villain send dogs to attack the kid there, and before he died, almost shot the kid as well. Pixar seems to tell people that villains WILL harm and kill children if they have the option.

* ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'': Ratigan is strongly claimed to have done this with drowning widows and orphans ''and'' trying to come up with something worse than that! Confirmed close to the end when he kicked Olivia off a large gear in Big Ben and she almost got crushed between two huge gears! Good thing Basil saved her before that happened!

* ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'': Judge Claude Frollo, in the first few minutes of the film, kills a woman on-screen and on the front steps of the Notre Dame cathedral, because she was a Gypsy carrying what he thought was a bundle of stolen goods. When he found out that it wasn't that, but a baby that had some deformities, he declared "A monster!" and decided to throw the baby down a well! If the Arch-deacon hadn't intervened, Frollo ''would'' have done it!

 

== [[Film]] - Live Action ==

* The movie ''Eyewitness'' (or ''[[Market-Based Title|Sudden Terror]]'' in the US) is about a young boy (Mark "[[Oliver Twist]]" Lester) who witnesses an assassination, and the assassins will kill ''anyone'' in their path to get him - including our hero's friend Ann-Marie, a little girl around his age.

* In ''[[The Raid]]'', one of the SWAT troopers shoots a young lookout in an attempt to stop him blowing their cover. Unfortunately, it fails.

 

* Both Darken Rahl and Emperor Jangang in ''[[The Sword of Truth]]''.

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', you can pretty much assume that any villian will do this:

* [[Darren Shan]] [[The Demonata|just]] ''[[City Trilogy|loves]]'' this trope.

* Many of the villains of the ''[[Redwall]]'' series are like this, the most notable being Slagar the Cruel, who kidnaps children and sells them into slavery, not hesitating to abuse and torment them along the way, often just [[For the Evulz]]. And of course there's the guy that he's selling them to, Malkariss, who keeps hundreds of children as slaves in his underground kingdom, ruthlessly abusing and overworking them for the rest of their lives. Vilaya the Sable Quean also does a similar thing when she is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to kidnap the Redwallers' children as ransom for the Abbey. She takes it a step further when she mercilessly kills one of them with her poisoned knife and threatens to do the same to the rest of them if they don't behave. Then there's Razzid Wearet, who makes it a point that he enjoys ''eating'' children. Cluny the Scourge also makes a passing thought about eating some young rabbits that he sees. And minor villain Warpclaw threatens to and almost kills a baby shrew. Mokkan also gives a viable threat about killing a baby mouse. One of Tsarmina's captains suggests torturing a pair of young hedgehogs for information. Ferahgo the Assassin sentences two infant badgers to death by freezing winter conditions. And Swartt Sixclaw- You know what, let's just say that any and every villain in this series would hurt and/or kill and/or eat a child.

 

* ''[[Little House on the Prairie (TV series)|Little House On the Prairie]]'': Several episodes about child abuse. Although the actual assault was rarely seen, they were seen in a flashback in at least one episode (where Charles is helping reform a budding juvenile delinquent, and the boy—upon being given a present—snaps when he sees a shirt, identical in style to one that he was viciously assaulted in by his own father). In another episode, where Charles and Caroline are debating whether to adopt orphans James and Cassandra Cooper (whose biological parents were killed in a wagon accident), the orphans' temporary foster father whips James (off-camera) after being unfairly accused of stealing; his screams were heard as Cassandra was forced to watch.

* ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'': Humorously troped in "Bobby's Hero," where in a dream sequence, Jesse James shoots and kills Bobby's siblings (along with his parents and Alice) during a train robbery ... all to make the point that the famed outlaw was nothing more than a "mean, dirty killer."

** In season 3 {{spoiler|Robert Quarles }} carjacks a mother and her two sons. He uses the two boys as hostages to get Raylan to give up his guns and then drive them all to Noble's Holler. It is clear that once he gets what he is looking for, he will kill Raylan and the children.

 

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=944acfctdik Formula 86 by Razakel.] Allso Razakel's stage persona.

* In [[Monster Magnet]]'s "See You In Hell", the protagonist reveals himself to be driven towards killing himself and his significant other, by the voice of the infant they killed and dumped in a landfill.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUmJDVRDRTQ&feature=feedu WHIP YO KIDS featuring Nice Peter by Yourfavoritemartian.] I'll punch a baby in the face just for cryin' on a plane.

 

== Mythology and Religion ==

* Many [[Greek Mythology|Greek myths]] punish a parent by slaughtering their children.

* [[Krampus]] also meets this because he has only punish naughty children, while [[Santa Claus| his boss, St. Nick]] [[Wouldn't Hurt a Child| does the opposite]] as he often [[Earn Your Fun| rewards those who have did good deeds.]] To be fair, Krampus is just doing HIS JOB.

 

* Mike MacDonald, when he and his wife were trying to conceive a child, noted in his act he was going to do his best not to hit his kids, ever—unless, you know, they were coming at him with a knife or something.

{{quote|''I don't wanna be one of those liberal parents who gets stabbed to death by their kid while saying, "Son, I'm sensing hostility OH GOD!"''}}

{{quote|'''''That's''' therapy for you: mowin' the lawn while cryin'.''}}

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Ditto [[Postal]], at least until you pop in some unofficial mods for either series.

* An entire side mission of ''[[Drakengard]]'' features [[Anti-Hero]] Caim slaughtering child-soldiers with about as much gusto as he slaughters everything else, i.e. [[Blood Knight|a lot]]. The children run away and scream for their mothers as you cut them down, while Leonard and Red [[You Bastard|calls you a monster for it]]. And then there's that [[Eats Babies|child-eating]] Elf cannibal he travels around with, not to mention that Leonard was originally a ''pedophile'' in the Japanese version... Yeah, ''Drakengard'' doesn't like children a whole lot.

* The plot behind ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' centers around a serial killer that targets boys from the ages of 8-13. {{spoiler|It makes replaying the Suicide Baby chapter much worse once you know who the killer is...}}

* [[Kingdom Hearts|Sora]], a teenager, has no problems with fighting [[The Nightmare Before Christmas|Lock, Shock, and Barrel]].

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** Then V {{spoiler|[[Disproportionate Retribution|kills the dragon's whole family (roughly a quarter of the black dragon race), which includes]] ''eggs''}}, to ensure there won't be anyone to claim blood revenge for killing the dragon.

*** Rich brings up a good point about dragon wyrmlings having stats and therefore indicting many PCs for slaughtering dragon children despite them being clearly sentient. The mother dragon's whole beef was with V killing her son.

* In ''[[Strays]]'', after the [[Stalker with a Crush]] killed the mother, he [[Never My Fault|blames the child]] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20110829043140/http://www.straysonline.com/comic/164.htm goes to hurt.]

* In ''[[Impure Blood]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20130609070555/http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/Issue3/ib053.html Roan was only a child when] [[Made a Slave|captured]] for the [[Gladiator Games]].

* [[Knight Templar|Kore]] in ''[[Goblins]]'' murders a child in the first scene he appears in. The child in question is an orphan who's been [[Raised by Orcs]], and to Kore's twisted perception of good and evil, anyone who potentially has sympathy for the '[[Fantastic Racism|monstrous races]]' is guilty of evil through their passiveness.

* In ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', [http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0299.html one Angelo's Kid lights a school on fire and thinks of the fleeing children, "Mmm, unarmored targets. That's pretty tempting."]

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Tirac's thread to Scorpan in [[My Little Pony]] is "A head will roll. {{spoiler|His!" Meaning ''Spike''.}}

* In ''Thundercats2011'', Mumm-Ra and his army considers all surviving cats a threat, including kittens [[Wily Kat]] and [[Wily Kit]]. The task force consisting of Slithe, Kaynar, Sauro, and Kask is especially nasty in this regard.

 

{{reflist}}