Ambiguous Innocence: Difference between revisions

Ah, Innocence is grand. Likely related to the story of the Garden of Eden is an understanding that rather than always meaning goodness, innocence may also entail the absence of a ''sense'' of right and wrong, making it closer to amorality. This understanding is sometimes applied to the [[Psychopathic Manchild]]. [[Children Are Innocent]] sometimes carries the implications of this, with its being said that people get worse as they get older because they were innocent, not good. This may be invoked as the explanation for how someone who [[Used to Be Aa Sweet Kid]] could still go horribly wrong.

* Sensui from ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho (Manga)|Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' has the same sort of thing going for him, although it's played off a bit differently. A devout Demon-Hunter from childhood, with a moral-code so rigid that watching a group of [[Humans Are Bastards|humans raping, torturing and murdering]] dozens of [[Dark Is Not Evil|innocent-and-helpless demons]] shattered his mind into seven personalities and set all of him off on a genocidal fit of raging misanthropy.

* The episode of ''[[Cowboy Bebop (Anime)|Cowboy Bebop]]'' "Pierrot le Fou" explores this, though not with a child. Instead, the "innocent" in question is the (adult) superhuman assassin named Mad Pierrot, who has the mind of a toddler and, as a result, is incredibly sadistic. He's also deathly afraid of cats, and breaks down crying for his mother after taking a minor wound for a thrown knife, having been protected from higher energy projectiles previously.

* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (Visual Novel)|Umineko no Naku Koro Nini]]'', this is used in some of the witches' personas. Eva-Beatrice gets a touch (although she's closer to a teenager, Eva screaming at her for murdering her husband had a lot of tones of this), but more notable was "pure and sweet" little Maria. So pure and sweet that she's rooting for everyone to [[Unusual Euphemism|go to the Golden Land]], and in one arc, even [[Self-Made Orphan|murders her own mother]] upon deciding that her mother would never do such [[Abusive Parents|awful things]], and so Rosa must be being possessed by the evil witch.

* ''[[Virgin Ripper]]'': Nagi, a kitten who became a humanoid shinigami after he died but has since been traumatized into amnesia still has his soul-reaping claws (sword-blades on his hands a la [[One Piece (Manga)|Capt. Kuro]]). He loves his "mama" and won't hesitate to "make squishy" anyone who hurts her, including a pair of [[Black Lagoon (Manga)|Hansel and Gretal]] [[Expy|expys]].

* Mew in ''[[Pokémon: theThe First Movie (Anime)|Pokémon the First Movie]]''. It's portrayed as playful and [[Moe Moe]] yet it gives a speech about how [[Fantastic Racism|unnatural lifeforms (IE, clones) are inferior to natural ones]] and should all die.

* This trope was [[Viewers are Morons|assumed to be true]] for the audience of the original [[Fairy Tales]], so they provide [[Anvilicious|clear-cut rewards for good deeds]] and [[Can't Get Away Withwith Nuthin'|punishment (often terrible) for bad actions]] as [[An Aesop]] for the difference between right and wrong.

* The villain in the [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] novel ''Whose Body?'' is a sociopath who kills for the fun of it, and has a dream of returning people to the pre-Garden of Eden state by freeing them from guilt (and implicitly making them more like himself). Note, that [[Dorothy L. Sayers|Sayers]] was also a Christian writer.

* [[CSC. LewisS. (Creator)Lewis|CS Lewis]] explores this idea in the planet of Perelandra in the [[Space Trilogy]] which was without original sin. In an aversion, it wasn't depicted as a bad thing. The entire plot of ''Perelandra'' is the hero's efforts to prevent the Adam and Eve figures of the planet from committing their own Original Sin, and his success in doing so is presented as cause for celebration.

* Several [[Terry Pratchett (Creator)|Terry Pratchett]] characters, including [[Psychopathic Manchild|Mr Teatime]] and [[Dumb Muscle|Banjo]] from ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Hogfather|Hogfather]]''. And [[Epileptic Trees|possibly Carrot]].

* The Howlers from ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' were a [[Tyke Bomb]] [[Super Soldier]] example of this. They were created by Crayak the [[Bigger Bad]] of the series for the sole purpose of rendering other species extinct. When Jake morphed one he expected violent rage and killing instinct. What he got instead was a sense of playfulness like a dolphin (note that dolphins are a good example of this in [[Real Life]]). Howlers are just a bunch of fun loving three year olds who believe their acts of genocide are harmless games and that their victims aren't real beyond their role in the game. This causes Jake to recall with shame the moment he laughed as a Howler fell to his death -- ''he had gloated about killing a child''.

* [[Firefly (TV)|River Tam]] has moments where she comes across like this, blended with [[Obliviously Evil]]. She's around seventeen and [[Teen Genius|extremely intelligent]], but behaves like a child most of the time because of the [[Mind Rape|damage to her mind]] both psychological and physical. On top of that, she experiences a lot of [[Hallucinations]], so often her perceptions don't match up with what's really happening in the first place. She does usually have a sense of right and wrong, but she's prone to sudden violence and also sometimes seems oblivious to social conventions.

* When {{spoiler|Reid}} on ''[[Criminal Minds (TV)|Criminal Minds]]'' is kidnapped by a serial killer who only kills people when he has unambiguous proof that they are "sinners," Garcia says something hopeful about the idea that the killer might not hurt him, since he's "completely innocent." Morgan quite correctly points out that when you're dealing with real people, there's no such thing. Turns out he's right.

* Morrigan from ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'', for a given value of "innocent". She [[Raised Byby Wolves|knows little of the outside world]], having lived all her life in the Kocari Wilds with occasional visits to civilization. Her cynicism and social Darwinism is largely the result of her upbringing by Flemeth.

* One particularly weird example is Rance, from the [[Rance (Franchise)|Rance]] series of h-games. As harem heroes go, Rance is about as amoral as they come; his number one goal in life is to have sex with every woman on earth and he doesn't particularly care whether said sex is consensual or not (He prefers consensual, but he still has a loose definition of it). This leads to him being the h-game poster child of the [[Black Comedy Rape]] tropes, yet in a conversation in [[Sengoku Rance (Video Game)|Sengoku Rance]] a priestess dismisses the possibility of using him as a ritual sacrifice due to the lack of evil in his heart. Apparently Rance legitimately ''does not realize that rape is wrong'', though this may be averted somewhat; he's clearly freaked out later in the game when a sympathetic character even ''he'' thought was off-limits was raped "[[Rape Asas Drama|for real]]" by the villains. It's possible that his double-standard comes from [[Genre Savvy|some manner of awareness]] of his ability to invoke [[Victim Falls For Rapist]] / [[Black Comedy Rape]] and the villains' lack thereof.

* The eponymous character of ''[[Axe Cop (Webcomic)|Axe Cop]]'' is described by the comic's artist as "borderline psycho." ''Axe Cop'' is also written by a six year old. Draw your own conclusion.