Babies Make Everything Better: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

Needless to say, the practicalities of having a baby are mostly glossed over, and even previously irresponsible parents will be [[Good Parents|instantly willing and able to step up]] and take responsibility for the newborn.

 

 

Needless to say, in real life babies are a huge, life-long responsibilities, and even if they do solve ''some'' problems, they come with plenty of complications of their own. They are not [[Epiphany Therapy|epiphany therapists]] and definitely not magicians. They won't make an abusive relationship any less so (in fact, they just provide a new target for abuse), nor will they end wars or alleviate poverty.

 

Polar opposite of [[Children Are a Waste]].

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Played pretty straight in episode 7 of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' R (episode 53 overall), where the Cardian is sent in to attack babies and one of the mothers takes the brunt of an attack meant for her son. The baby, unfortunately has no one to take care of him, so Mamoru, being the good guy that he is, volunteers. Usagi decides to help and the two of them even hold hands when they dance for joy when the little baby begins to walk and talks for the first time. At the time, Mamoru had amnesia and didn't remember anything about loving Usagi. In fact, he clearly found her kind of strange and unpleasant. This one is slightly more excusable since they were just babysitting, and since they weren't sole caretakers of the little one long enough it didn't have time to stop being fun and become reality.

* In ''[[Black Butler]]'', Madam Red {{spoiler|marries a man who she does not love because her sister married her beloved. However, when she becomes pregnant, she tells us in a inner monologue that she begins to feel she can really love her husband. When she loses the child in a accident and goes crazy because another woman had an abortion, she begins killing all those expecting mothers who wish to be rid of their children.}} At the end of it, she expects Ciel to sympathize with her because in her view any woman that doesn't want a child must be a [[Child-Hater|shallow tart undeserving of any sympathy]].

* Played with in ''[[Fairy Tail]]''. There are no signs of anyone having a kid anytime soon, but in a flashback bonus chapter they show how Natsu came to acquire Happy, which was by finding an egg in the forest that the cat(?) then hatched out of. Moment before Happy's hatching everyone was fighting, but the moment he appeared everyone stopped fighting and cheered up. For this reason, Natsu named the cat 'Happy'.

* Played with as well in the Sword Fiend filler arc of ''[[Bleach]]'', where Hisagi's [[Ax Crazy]] zanpakutou, Kazeshini, has continued to hunt his owner remorselessly even though Muramasa's control over him was excised. He uses guerilla tactics in a very clear effort to kill his owner (rather than wanting to fight him head-on), until he kills one of the Sword Fiends who tries to kill him. Said sword fiend had just killed a father with a newborn baby, who imprints on Kazeshini and quickly becomes his [[Morality Pet]].

 

 

* Played utterly straight in ''[[Elf Quest]]''. Even when the characters ''really'' didn't want a child (as is the case with Dewshine and Tyldak), the baby is still treated as a small miracle. Later on in the comic, Dewshine is seen absolutely beside herself with joy because her lifemate, Scouter, has made another girl pregnant. Several healers, including Leetah and Rain, have made it practically their life's work to increase the tribe's fertility. Leetah's sister Shenshen is one of her village's most respected members because she's a midwife. Lord Voll forces an entire tribe to bend to his will just so he can see the chief's children; later Winnowill, the [[Big Bad]], uses one of the kids both as [[Human Shield]] against the tribe and as motivation for her human pets, who understood elves to be basically sterile. Nonna and Adar, two humans, lead lonely and meaningless lives because they're barren, and are only shown to be truly happy once they've adopted three young orphans. Krim is willing to sacrifice her own life during the war until she finds out she's pregnant. Tyleet adopts a human baby who gets abandoned by his parents. And so on and so forth. The in-story justification for this, at least for the elves, is that elves have long lives and extremely low fertility, so every birth is celebrated no matter how strange the circumstances. As a further touch, almost every elven birth is caused by Recognition, a magical way to ensure that the child is specially gifted as a consequence of that particular genetic union. Of course, none of this stuff explains why the trope is implied to the relatively primitive humans present in the setting.

* An undercurrent in the general Fables storyline. When Snow White and Bigby's seven children are born, it's treated as a miracle amongst the Fables community. As revealed in ''Peter and Max'', {{spoiler|the wicked [[The Pied Piper of Hamelin|Max Piper]] made all Earth-based Fables sterile during his revenge on his brother in the 1920's}}. The only other birth, Beast and Beauty's recent newborn, is celebrated while shrouded in omens (Frau Totenkinder knits a baby outfit with six limbs). Abortion is forbidden, {{spoiler|though Frau Totenkinder owns a chain of abortion clinics to keep her magic powers fully fueled.}}

 

 

** French mentions that there are whole groups of women he likes to call the Frenetic Mothers. Their only goal in life is to bear as many babies as possible. Who the fathers are doesn't really matter. They are the driving force behind human colonization of the galaxy, urging planetary governments to build colony ships whenever population density warrants [[Population Control]].

 

* ''[[Scrubs]]'' has both used and subverted this; a Christmas episode sees an unplanned pregnancy and labor restore the cast's faith in life (and in Turk's case, God), Dr. Cox and Jordan bond (albeit rather cynically) over the birth of a friend's child, and formerly child-indifferent Elliot becomes a cooing puddle of mush - but in another episode, J.D. wonders who the hell managed to romanticize childbirth. Later episodes address the fact that Carla, a responsible woman who really wanted to be a mum, still had to deal with postpartum depression.

** One story arc involved J.D. getting Sacred Heart's urologist Dr. Kim Briggs pregnant, after having only dated for a very short time (the pregnancy was also caused by non-penetrative sex). Kim accepts a job in Washington, tells J.D. she miscarried, and the two end the relationship. It's later revealed that she lied. Kim and J.D. reunite for a while, but ultimately they end the relationship, remaining friends for the sake of their son Sam.

* ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]''. 'Nuff said.

* Averted on ''[[The Wire]]''. Kima's girlfriend wants a baby, and Kima reluctantly goes along with it. The baby ends up making their relationship significantly worse, and they eventually break up because of it.

* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' usually inverts this: Manny and Liberty's pregnancies made everything worse. Especially Liberty's. Mia doesn't have any problem having a daughter, though, to the point of [[Mary Sue]] territory. (Although, to be fair, both Mia and Spike from teh original Degrassi High series have pretty supportive families). And Emma thought she was pregnant, but [[Alternate Character Interpretation]] has it that she faked the pregnancy so Sean would stay with her.

* Deconstructed in an episode of ''[[Flashpoint (TV series)|Flashpoint]]'', where a couple trying to get pregnant only increased their frustrations on each other, leading the husband to sleep with another woman {{spoiler|though he realized his mistake and remained loyal to his wife}}. And his adultery led to {{spoiler|the woman he slept with to become pregnant.}} Once his already suspicious wife found out, things only [[It Got Worse|got worse.]]

* Averted in ''[[Breaking Bad]]''. Skylar is pregnant when Walt is diagnosed with cancer, and his drug operation is motivated by the hope of providing a future for his family. When his child is born, Skylar wants to separate as she has noticed Walt's behavior and figured out what he has been doing.

** On the other hand, ''[[Breaking Bad]]'' has never missed an opportunity to give a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]], so the aversion of this trope is coupled with {{spoiler|Skyler and Walt's eventual rapprochement by way of her becoming his money launderer. So...babies won't make everything better, but joining each other in a life of crime will.}}

* Played straight in ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode ''The Postmodern Prometheus'', even though the babies are...monstrous...

* Subverted in ''[[Six Feet Under]]'': Nate and Lisa's relationship is at least as rocky after having a baby as before, and Nate actually breaks up with Brenda after getting her all knocked up.

* Done in [[The Secret Life of the American Teenager]], which is a little jarring seeing as how the purpose of the show was to show that teenage pregnancy is BAD.

* The ''[[Maury]]'' show uses the inversion of this trope pretty frequently. There will be episodes where a bunch of teenage girls act like they can become a great mother and how they have what it takes to raise a baby. Cue a reality check when the girls are sent somewhere to raise a baby for a few days and come to the realization on how hard babies make everything in life.

 

== Music ==

* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]:'' Jean expresses her mixed feelings about suddenly being Molly's mother [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20071117.html here.]

* Scathingly parodied with the "Woman With The [[Informed Attribute|Beautiful]] Baby" in ''[[Girly]]''. All she does is talk nonstop about her (hideous) baby and how all women should have their own. Josh later takes the concept [[Up to Eleven]] with the Baby <s> Sidekick</s> Dickweed, who [[Doppleganger Attack|creates millions of]] [[Fetus Terrible|evil babies]] [[Refuge in Audacity|to use as projectiles]] [[Nausea Fuel|from the skin all over her body]]. (Including her mouth, arms and...er, ''lower down''.

 

 

** This trope was also averted in a portion of an episode that [[Retcon|depicted how Homer lost his hair]]: whenever Marge announced that she was pregnant, Homer would rip out a handful of hair from his scalp and run upstairs screaming.

* [[Eldritch Abomination|Horribly, horribly]] averted in ''[[Invader Zim]]''. [[Nightmare Fuel|PLAGUE OF BABIES.]]

* Completely averted in ''[[American Dad]].'' Stan and Francine meet a young, wild couple who just want to have fun partying and doing extreme activities, stating that they don't want kids for years. When Stan and Francine can't keep up with their lifestyle, they mess with their birth control, which causes the wife to become pregnant. This ends with the couple divorcing and breaking things off with Stan and Francine.

 

== Other ==

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Youngsters]]

[[Category:Babies Babies Everywhere]]

[[Category:Double Standard]]

[[Category:Everything's Better with Indexes]]