Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Difference between revisions

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 -- thissafety—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-Guided Karma|karmically]] [[Karmic Death|seals their fate]]. Worse yet, this act often directly ''[[Genocide Backfire|backfires]]'', giving the hunted newborn [[The Unchosen One|a reason beyond mere prophecy]] to go after the [[Big Bad]] after he's grown up enough to take him on; see [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]].

* An interesting variant in ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' -- the—the antagonists actively seek out and imprison [[Person of Mass Destruction|diclonii]] as they're born. Their primary approach is to visit hospitals daily and inspect the nurseries, looking for horns. If one is found, they then make every effort to persuade the unlucky parents into giving up the infant, and if that fails, they take it by force [[Paranoia Fuel|with the assistance of hospital security]]. {{spoiler|Then they go on to enslave and torture the children and, down the line, are surprised when they turn out twisted and angry.}}

* In "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/english/fishring.html The Fish and the Ring]", "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/russian/russianwondertales/vasiliiunlucky.html Vasilii the Unlucky]", "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/29devilgoldhairs.html The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs]", "[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/260.htm The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate]", and many other fairy tales, a man who discovers finds his child [[Self Fulfilling Prophecies|doomed]] to marry a poor child starts by trying to kill the infant. When he learns that the child has grown up, he tries to kill them with [[Impossible Task|Impossible Tasks]]s, before and after the wedding; in the end, he fails.

**** Zeus was perhaps right to fear, but could've been more [[Genre Savvy]] by now, since it runs in the family. Before Cronus, his father Uranus feared an overthrow, and had children capable of doing it sent to Tartarus. Unfortunately, they were all their mother's favorites, and Gaia sent Cronus to take revenge -- Uranusrevenge—Uranus's castration was [[Mama Bear|probably]] [[Woman Scorned|her]] [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|idea]].

** Yet another time when Zeus was enough of a [[Magnificent Bastard]] to actually be successful in pulling off this maneuver was the case of Typhon. Gaia had supported Cronus in his uprising against his father Uranus, and then Cronus had proceeded to treat his own sons and daughters just as badly -- sobadly—so that Zeus had had to rebel against Cronus the same way. To Gaia, it seemed as if this was just another turn in the cycle of revenge and patricide, so she decided to give birth to a creature who was supposed to defeat Zeus in just the same way as Zeus had done for Cronus and Cronus had done for Uranus. This was the dragon Typhon, and it appeared to be a brutal creature with no redeeming qualities, much like the giants and cyclopes of Uranus's day. But Zeus was able to win his battle against Typhon, thus allowing himself to break the cycle of one tyrant replacing another -- foranother—for in this case, Typhon would surely have been worse than the god it replaced, not better.

** This is touched off by an earlier [[Nice Job Breaking It, Herod]] when Torak sent assassins to eliminate the Rivan royal family. Polgara's charges are the descendants of the one son who inevitably escaped the slaughter.

* "Heroics For Beginners" mentions a villain who succeeded to the throne of a kingdom by slaughtering the rightful ruler, his wife, their children, and so on. The catch was he couldn't get all of the children -- evenchildren—even though he'd been wise enough to schedule an assault on ''every potential heir and his or her family''. Amazingly, the villain was [[Genre Savvy]] enough to '''not''' attempt to [[Nice Job Breaking It, Herod|break it]]; not because he didn't want the successors dead, but because if he did kill everyone in the necessary age groups -- teenagersgroups—teenagers and under -- heunder—he'd cripple the country's economy down the road. Instead, he went [[Properly Paranoid|psychotically paranoid and ended up locking himself in a nigh-inaccessible room.]]

* The [[Additional Evil Overlord List Cellblock B]] has some advice to [[Big Bad|Big Bads]]s on how to deal with such prophecies.

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' -- After—After Avatar Roku died, Sozin knew the next one would be an Airbender, so he had them wiped out... and ''still'' failed to kill the right one.