Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Difference between revisions

** It actually works twice. The {{spoiler|massacre of the pandas}} lets Po end up in the right place and the right time to become the Dragon Warrior and receive the training he will need for his eventual fight with Shen (well, he was training to fight Tai Lung, but still). Also, Po remembering {{spoiler|his mother's sacrifice during the massacre and coming to terms with it}} allows him to master the [[Chekhov's Skill]] that allows him to overcome Shen's weapons.

* ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'' shows this scenario through an Egyptian-heiroglyphic animation dream sequence, followed by a final confrontation between the Prince Moses and Seti I, his adoptive father: "Sometimes," Seti says, with a look of utter horror on his face at the memory (or is it fear of divine judgment?), "sacrifices must be made...."

 

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* ''[[The Omen|Omen III The Final Conflict]]''. Damien Thorn (the son of Satan A.K.A. [[The Antichrist]]) tries to kill all babies born during a certain time period in an attempt to prevent the Second Coming of Jesus.

* ''[[The Terminator]]'' movies are all pretty much Skynet's attempts at doing this. Further, in the first film, the Terminator hunts down everyone it can find named Sarah Connor. True to trope, all these attempts at taking his life do is better prepare John Connor for his fate.

* [[Bizarre Alien Biology]] example: The Pak protectors, from the [[Known Space]] novels of [[Larry Niven]], are compelled to destroy even infant Pak that aren't related to them because they don't "smell right", thus eliminating their own offspring's competitors. The fact that their inter-bloodline feuds tend to leave their planets devastated and every combatant's bloodline extinct, qualifies their ''entire species'' for this trope.

** Also a [[You Fail Biology Forever|complete failure of biology]], as any Pak that successfully exterminated all rival genetic lines would then watch its own bloodline expire from inbreeding depletion.

* In ''[[The Graveyard Book]]'', the Jacks of all trades hear a prophecy that some toddler is going to be their doom. They send in an assassin, who kills his whole family but fails to get the baby. You can guess where this is going.

* In ''[[Curse of the Wolfgirl]]'', it is revealed that [[Retired Monster]] Malveria pulled this one out of the playbook back before the "retired" part. Since then, she's become part of the heroes' group of [[True Companions]], and when the obligatory survivor turns up, it is as the [[Big Bad]] of the book.

* Subverted quite nicely in the short story "Another End of the Empire" by Tim Pratt, which you can read here: http://www.strangehorizons.com/2009/20090622/empire-f.shtml

* In ''[[Gwenhwyfar]]'' by [[Mercedes Lackey]], which is based on Arthurian Legend, the protagonist hears of how Arthur, under the advice of the Merlin, killed all newborn babies in the kingdom (it's even implied that this is the reason why {{spoiler|Gwen's mother dies while giving birth to her baby brother, who also dies}}). Toward the end of the book, [[Big Bad|Medraut]] reveals that {{spoiler|Arthur was trying to kill his illegitimate (and incestuous) son, but Morganna and Anna Morgause foresaw it and worked a spell that caused Medraut to be born a few months early, saving him from Arthur's wrath}}.

* In ''The Idhún's Memories'', a trilogy by the Spanish writer Laura Gallego, in the world Idhún, Ashran the Necromancer uses an astral conjunction to wipe out all dragons and unicorns after hearing one of each will destroy him. Eventually, one baby dragon and unicorn are rescued and sent to the Earth through magic, which will end up killing him.

* Subverted in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. The maegi Mirri Maz Duur {{spoiler|magically kills Daenarys Stormborn's unborn son in utero, both for revenge against the father and because the unborn child is prophesied to be the Stallion That Mounts the World, an unstoppable city-smashing warlord. While it doesn't exactly turn out well for Mirri in the end, she DOES successfully prevent the boy from being born and fulfilling whatever his Super Special Destiny was supposed to be.}}

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** Things don't work ''quite'' as he wants them to....

* An episode of ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' used this plot.

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[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

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