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Looney Toons (talk | contribs) m (Looney Toons moved page Nice Job Breaking It Herod to Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Adding proper punctuation to page name) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (Link fixes) |
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{{quote|''"Dorian forgot the first rule of killing innocents: one always escapes."''|''[[The Night Angel Trilogy|Night Angels Trilogy]]''}}
The [[Big Bad]] has just learned that a child that can defeat him has or will soon be born. The obvious solution to this problem is to [[Screw Destiny]]. Nip this danger in the bud and kill the Infant Hero before he can become any kind of threat. This is the stage where the problems crop up. Either the [[Big Bad]] has no idea who this child actually ''is'', or other characters also aware of this destiny have taken the initiative to [[Moses in The
Often the only thing to do in cases where they can't identify the child is to attempt to track down the newborn hero, baby-by-baby if necessary. The [[Big Bad]] will investigate or, if impatient, simply kill any child in the proper age range to attempt to secure his safety -- this may result in a [[Childless Dystopia]] if he's thorough enough. Inevitably, [[Infant Immortality|it never works]], and if [[Children Are Innocent|innocent children]] ''are'' killed, the resultant crossing of the [[Moral Event Horizon]] makes clear just how [[Complete Monster|complete a monster]] the villain is - and of course [[Laser
This being a form of [[Villain Ball]], it almost ''never'' occurs to anyone that a wiser thought might be to try to find and raise the child himself. Though you might occasionally see it among the more [[Genre Savvy]] villains, who take the view that the kid might love him too much to finish him or, in the worst case scenario, will be close at hand if he ''does'' [[Heel Face Turn]]. This often doesn't work either, though, and is irrelevant if the prophecy is that the child ''will'' defeat him.
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Also compare [[Offing the Offspring]] for those occasions when the child is the son or daughter of the [[Big Bad]]. See also [[Infant Immortality]], which is, in writing terms, one of the primary reasons this rarely succeeds.
[[Just for Pun|Not to be confused]] with [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]].
{{examples|Examples:}}
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