Enfant Terrible: Difference between revisions

[[File:stewie3 3523.jpg|link=Family Guy|frame|Awww, how cute. He has homicidal tendencies.]]

 

 

They're adorable children. An angel, one might say, with a cherubic face. One just wants to pick them up and hug them.

 

 

An Enfant Terrible may be supernatural, or simply a child born without a conscience. They may also be an [[Evil Orphan]] - possibly of [[Self-Made Orphan|the self-made variety]].

* ''[[Noir]]'' is a case where the Enfant Terrible gets a bit better, more or less.

* Wen from the ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' episode ''Sympathy for the Devil'' is a killer who stopped aging in his childhood after exposure to [[Green Rocks]].

* On a similar note, Cynthia from ''[[Overman King Gainer]]'' is a perfect example of this. She's an elite soldier working for her foster father, who enjoys killing and likens it to a game - except she knows she's actually committing horrible crimes. However, her father legitimately loves her and is proud of her for her deeds, so she might just be the perfect soldier.

* In her early appearances, Ririn from ''[[Bleach]]'' used the trope for her facade. During one of the fights, despite everything she had brought down on them, both Ichigo and Renji make note of how hard it is to fight brats, and instead opt to attack her two minions.

* As a small and relatively cute child, [[Naruto|Gaara]] reacted to another child's rejection by trying to kill her. Hard to blame him, though, after all the [[Mind Screw]]-ings his family gave him.

* {{spoiler|Desil Galette}} from ''[[Gundam AGE]]'' takes this trope [[Up to Eleven]]. While he's only seven years old, he's done [[Complete Monster|more than his fair share of heinous acts]] (which is to be expected for {{spoiler|an [[Ax Crazy]] high-ranking pilot for the UE.}})

** In the parody ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]'', [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTbCHDh9pb0 the little girl with her teddy bear]

*** The little girl herself is harmless, it's the teddy bear that's evil. Even then, what can a teddy bear really do?

** Noah Kaiba from the Virtual Nightmare [[Filler Arc]] is Seto and Mokuba's adoptive brother. Seriously injured just prior to their adoption, Noah's mind was placed in a virtual environment that preserved his conciousness but at the cost of permanently stunting his emotional growth. Despite being in his late teens or early twenties, he still appears as a child within the virtual world, and acts like one as well.

* Despite not having a humanoid form, ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'''s Tachikomas evoke this at times, speaking with cute, childlike voices and behaving in cute, childlike ways just before cheerfully shredding a whole platoon of infantry with a Gatling gun.

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' has {{spoiler|Pride}}. {{spoiler|Not many kids out there can fill a dark room with working mouths and eyes.}}

** In the [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|2003 anime version]], there was Wrath after being corrupted by Envy and remembering his past, but after a while {{spoiler|his mother Izumi made him a better person}}.

* Ralph from ''[[Glass Fleet]]'' may be adorable and loving most of the time, but he won't hesitate to attack and try to kill you if you get on his bad side.

* {{spoiler|"Gozen"/Hikaru}} from ''[[Shugo Chara]]''.

* ''[[Baccano!]]'' (see trope quote 2) has someone who (probably due to horrible torment and constant fear) turned into one. Though it might be just a overcautious kind of self-preservation.

** Finch (who happens to be the leader of the loosely-knit tricker-treaters) does it again when an old woman gives him an apple for candy, which he sees as unforgivable. If he doesn't get any treats, then the old woman gets "tricked", when Finch and his gang give an apple stuffed with razor blades to a town cop, whose death prompts the woman to get arrested. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5jnV3_HLV4\]

* Hit-Girl from [[Kick-Ass]]. While in her civilian garb she plays off as an innocent little girl, but outside of this, due to [[Training from Hell]] from her father, she is incredibly skilled with any weapon but she favors swords and knives in particular and can slice through an army of thugs in minutes and can shatter a man's leg with a single kick. She does all of this with sadistic glee, and [[Sociopathic Hero|she's one of the good guys.]]

* Recent ''[[X-Force]]'' villain Genocide is a ten-year-old boy. A giant, radioactive skeleton in an intimidating-looking containment suit, but a ten-year-old boy. He's got enough [[I Love Nuclear Power|nuclear firepower]] to blow up an entire town, and he curbstomped ''Wolverine''. Subverted in that he doesn't appear to be a "bad" kid, exactly, he just admires and tries to please really bad people (the followers of Apocalypse, if you must know).

* Numerous characters from [[British Comics|British Humour Comics]] fit this trope, examples include ''Ivy the Terrible'' and ''Bea'' from ''[[The Beano]]'' ''Cuddles and Dimples'' from ''[[The Dandy (comics)|The Dandy]]'' and Sweeny Toddler from ''[[Shiver And Shake]]'', Whoopee! and ''[[Whizzer and Chips]]''.

* Stepping away from the supernatural, there is ''[[The Bad Seed]]'', which was a 1956 theatrical film (in which the Enfant Terrible was named Rhoda) and a TV movie in 1985 (where she was named Rachel).

* Several classic horror-movies are filled with them, including the [[Stephen King]] adaptation ''[[Children of the Corn]]'' and its sequels.

* In ''[[The Good Son]]'', the murderous title character is a [[Gender Flip]] version of the aforementioned ''[[Bad Seed]]''.

* ''It's Alive!'' is about a malevolent baby. Within minutes of its own birth, it kills everyone in the room except mom.

** What really mixes up this example is the fact that he {{spoiler|pulls a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save Bryony at the end of the book.}} This has the effect of convincing Bryony that he really was evil in his heart all along [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|(it doesn't make sense in context either)]].

* Tara Webster, Michael's little sister from ''[[Goosebumps]]'' book - ''The Cuckoo Clock of Doom'' - appears to gain a sadistic pleasure from making her brother's life difficult, and displays no redeeming qualities at all. It appears that she's ''always'' been like this, to the point that she would make things difficult for her brother even when she could barely speak. {{spoiler|At the end of the book, it's hard to feel bad about Tara's existence being erased.}}

** Coin wasn't psychotic as much as he was just a naive kid guided by [[Freudian Excuse|bad parenting]]. He ''did'' hesitate from {{spoiler|killing Rincewind}} because he was harmless, and when he later {{spoiler|defies his father}} he begins to realize that killing people isn't right.

* ''And the Ass Saw the Angel'' (a book written by [[Nick Cave]], whose musical career provides the page quote) has the character of Beth. The [[Unreliable Narrator]] can't quite make up his mind whether she's actually a demonic witch or not.

** {{spoiler|Varys' "little birds" don't just steal secrets. They also carry knives.}}

* ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'' combines this with [[Villain Protagonist]] and [[Anti-Villain]] {{spoiler|until his [[Heel Face Turn]]}}.

* Her Thumbleness in ''[[Dragonback|Dragon and Slave]]'' likes to select slaves to paint on or tattoo. They usually succumb to infection afterwards.

* Princess Violet from ''[[The Sword of Truth]]''. A spoiled princess who orders to chop off heads a-la the Red Queen. {{spoiler|A few books later, she is taught to cast curses through magical drawings. Cut to a [[Little Miss Badass]] coming to visit; ''Well... Who's that on the drawing? Oh, that's right, it's me. (draws a few lines) Well, Violet, now it's you. Cut to [[Sound-Only Death]].''}}

** There's also another episode of SVU which revolved around a harassed boy that gunned down members of the school's basketball team, then tried to commit suicide and missed then blamed an alter ego named "Zoltar" for it. He gets better though, as the unit gives him the opportunity to go to a mental hospital to cure his disorder.

** Another episode of SVU looks like it is playing this trope straight (kid comes to school and shoots another kid on the playground) but it is actually subverted (he was shooting at the gangsters behind the fence that have been threatening him).

** Then there were the little bundles of horror that were the killers in "Bad Words" and "Cats in the Cradle." The killer in "Go To Hell" also had an early-teens accomplice who was arguably an even worse person than he was.<ref>He was a pedophile preying on her, but she used that to her advantage by promising to be with him if he killed her family; still, she's young enough that we can still feel for her when {{spoiler|she herself is murdered by [[The Fundamentalist]]}}</ref> Oddly enough, subverted with the killer in "Gentle Gentle," the actual youngest perp seen on the show... who was too young to know what he was doing.

** Let's not forget the role played by- sigh- Justin Bieber as Jason McCann. This may be one of the WORSE ones on this list even though he's sort of a [[Girly Boy]] because instead of sadistic sadism, he cunningly plans, {{spoiler|kills three police officers}}, and does this all by {{spoiler|trying to [[Mad Bomber|bomb the living shit out of them!]]}} It is however worth it in the end when {{spoiler|he gets shot to death by the authorities after shooting one of the officers}}

Ha ha, that's my boy!}}

* "Excitable Boy" by [[Warren Zevon]] describes a young man who is probably just on the verge of growing out of this trope and into a full-grown adult psychopath.

 

== Oral Tradition, Myths, Legends and Folklore ==

** Flandre is really [[Older Than They Look|495+ years old]]. But she pretty much has a child's mentality.

* ''[[Thief]]: Deadly Shadows'' arguably fits the trope with {{spoiler|Gamall}} although since she's actually {{spoiler|using the form of a girl she killed many years previously, Lauryl}} it may be an "in name only" example.

* The [http://www.nextdimension.org/other/doom3/cherub.jpg Cherubs] from ''Doom 3''.

* ''[[Overlord]] II'''s Witch-boy would be this, if he were cute to begin with. At best he's sort of [[Ugly Cute]]... At least to [[Victorious Childhood Friend|Kelda]].

* {{spoiler|Wendy}} in ''[[Rule of Rose]]'' isn't pure evil, but {{spoiler|she is the sweetest of the orphans capable of charming a delirious serial killer into dog-like obedience. She is also completely in love with the protagonist Jennifer, and the feeling is mutual, at least up to a point. Unfortunately "sharing" is a concept she has no use for.}}

* In ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'', we have Lurkers, though they actually qualify more as [[Fetus Terrible]]. In ''[[Dead Space 2]]'', we have those, plus Crawlers (instead of fetuses, these are babies old enough to crawl...and they have [[Action Bomb|an exploding sac]] on them) and The Pack (Bratty zombie kids...they don't have body-part weapons like most other necromorphs do, but they are fast and ''always'' [[The Swarm|attack in groups]])

 

== Web Comics ==

** BM might have been one of them but we don't know if he was cute (we can guess he was not though)

* Millie from ''[[Ozy and Millie]]''.

* Slippery Weasel of ''[[Frog Raccoon Strawberry]]'' is an incredibly evil wizard who is still in diapers.

 

** A more accurate example of this trope is 12-year-old [[Wise Beyond Their Years|prodigy]] Brandon Cuthbert, who, before the game, sliced up various woodland creatures for experiments. This carries over to when he {{spoiler|dissects the former featherweight boxing champion of the world with a box cutter after suffocating him to unconsciousness with an X-box controller.}} He seems to show some remorse for his actions right before {{spoiler|his death at the hands of Sera Wingfield}} though.

* Vendetta from ''[[Making Fiends]]'' isn't particularly cute, nor is she a [[Devil in Plain Sight]], but BOY is she sociopathic.

** She's smarter than you.

* ''[[Open Blue]]'' features [[Proud Merchant Race|Remillia]], which deploys [[Tyke Bomb]] special forces known as Angels. They begin active duty at the age of 13, and the younger ones tend to use their age to fool targets of their assassinations. [[Senseless Violins]] are just one of their many weapons.

* The webcomic / video series ''[[Contemplating Reiko]]'' stars the daughter of Satan and her three older sisters.

* Many/most of the kids from ''[http://skary.net/ Childrin R Skary]'' fit this.

 

== Western Animation ==

** Most of the younger characters, now and again. Let us not forget Professor Chaos! Bringer of destruction and Doom!

{{quote|Butters: "Society cast me out, and so I vowed to make them all pay! And pay they did! Nobody knows that beneath this sweet eight-year-old little boy lies the most evil, the most destructive supervillain of all time!"}}

** She is in fact, the ''[[Trope Pantheons/Evil|Goddess]]'' [[Trope Pantheons/Evil|of Enfantes Terrible]].

* All of the main cast in ''[[Lil' Bush]]''. Then again, they're [[Strawman Political]] [[Spinoff Babies]] based on [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|real politicians]].

* Charles aka Brainchild from ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'', a ludicrously intelligent kid (he mastered quantum physics before he could walk, among other things) whose desire to become a [[Card-Carrying Villain]] is met with benign acceptance by his hippie family.

* Heloise in ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. She's a small girl who works in Misery Inc. as [[Mad Scientist|top inventor]] to create dangerous products for misery and she loves to destroy stuff. She is also [[Ax Crazy|easily angered]] and hates nearly everyone but the [[Morality Pet|titular character]].

* Ren Hoek of ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'' was portrayed as one of these in the Adult Party Cartoon episode "Ren Seeks Help". As a child, he was playing innocent to his parents, but without supervision he is shown commiting acts of vandalism such as setting fire to buildings and torturing and killing animals. He gets away with it, until one of his victims (a frog) tells his parents about what he's been doing. After some lecturing on the horrible things he's done, they tell him the only thing he can do for the frog is put it out of it's misery - rather than do this, he chooses to let the frog go and suffer more, leading to its eventual suicide.

* Foop on ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]'' is basically a magical G-Rated version of [[Family Guy|Stewie]].

* An episode of ''[[Nightmare Ned]]'' had a [[Incredible Shrinking Man|a doll-sized]] Ned being tormented by a pair of twins.

* Sarah from ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'', Ed's little sister. She enjoys beating up the whole main trio, [[Jerkass|especially Eddy]], who are all older than her and boys, for goodness' sake. Normally, she wears a facade that makes her looks sweet and nice, but she very often uses the argument of "telling mom" (and others, which include her attempting to suffocate herself) to manipulate Ed.

* Cousin Eddy from [[Jimmy Neutron]] fits this trope to a T, not to mention is only one years old.

* Porky Pig's toddler charge in the [[WW 2]]-era cartoon ''Brother Brat.'' The kid's mom (a welder at Lockheed who leaves the kid for Porky to babysit) gives Porky a manual on child care. At the end of the cartoon mom shows Porky how to use the manual correctly.

* {{spoiler|Hansel and Gretel in ''Hoodwinked! Too!'' take this trope up to eleven, and are suitable for being [[Complete Monster]]s}}.

 

== Real Life ==

[[Category:Characters]]

[[Category:Depressing Tropes]]

[[Category:More Than Meets the Eye]]

[[Category:Subverted Innocence Tropes]]