Child by Rape: Difference between revisions

A subtrope of [[Rape as Backstory]] reliant on the [[Inverse Fertility Law]]. Namely, a character is conceived through rape. When done well, it gives the [[Big Bad]] a pretty decent [[Freudian Excuse]] or [[The Hero]] a nice motivation. When done poorly, it often results in [[Wangst]]. Common in [[Fanfic]], particularly among [[Mary Sue]] characters.

 

 

In fiction, children conceived by rape are sometimes considered to be "tainted", especially in [[Horror]] movies where they usually grow up to be either deformed [[Bastard Bastard]] killers or straight up monsters.

* [[Vampire Hunter D]] is the result of a cruel game Dracula played with a mortal woman: he would rape her, impregnate her, and kill the resulting child, promising she could keep the next one. After multiple cycles of this, Dracula kept that promise, and D was born.

* In [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime version]] of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', {{spoiler|Ed and Al's friend Rosé is raped by military officers, becomes pregnant, and has a baby. And then Dante got to her...}}

* In [[Elfen Lied]], the ultimate plan of the [[Big Bad]] Chief Kakuzawa is unveiled when he introduces Lucy to {{spoiler|her own half-brother, a Male Diclonius, Primary like herself, the result of his rape of Lucy's mother, taken captive after Lucy herself was. He wishes them to mate. Lucy's reaction is not at all surprising.}}

* Heavily implied to be {{spoiler|Illsaide's}} origin in ''[[Vampire Game]]'', unless the Lord of the Sea's daughter developed some serious [[Stockholm Syndrome]] in Jened's dungeon.

 

 

* Main character was conceived by this way in ''The Beast Within''.

* The hero in ''Grave Of The Vampire'' is an example.

* In ''The Prey'', {{spoiler|the final girl is captured by the killer and the film ends with her giving birth to his child}}.

* The title character of the ''Rika'' series is half-American, half-Japanese; her mother was raped by soldiers on leave from the Korean War.

* Tillu from [[Megan Lindholm]]'s ''The Reindeer People'' was captured and abused by four men, after which she gave birth to Kerlew.

* Fern from ''[[The Stone Dance of the Chameleon]]''.

* ''Need'' by Carrie Jones has a character outright using this phrase, though whether it's "really" rape is a matter of a brief debate. The woman consented...[[Scarpia Ultimatum|because she was under heavy threats to herself and her family]]. And then the disaster that this was supposed to avoid ''happened anyway''. The child is {{spoiler|Zara herself.}}

* At least some of the half-human half-Fae characters in [[The Dresden Files]] are the children of rape. One of them was the product of a human woman raped by a ''troll''. In one short story, we're introduced to a Grendelkin, who can only reproduce this way, with the offspring [[Chest Burster|clawing its way out of the poor "mother"]].

== Live-Action Television ==

* ''[[Little House on the Prairie (TV series)|Little House On the Prairie]]'': The 1981 episode "Sylvia," where Albert's girlfriend (the 14-year-old title character) is impregnated by a masked rapist. (This is contrary to the vicious gossip Mrs. Olesen spreads about the girl, claiming that Albert had gotten her pregnant.) Later, as Caroline is counseling Albert on his declaration of love for Sylvia, she asks him what she might be thinking about becoming a mother and what she'll think about the child she is now forced to bear. The episode ends tragically, with Sylvia losing the baby in her final confrontation with the rapist; she suffers a critical injury after falling from a rickety ladder while trying to escape, causing her to miscarry, and she dies shortly afterward.

** A more villainous example is {{spoiler|Darius Parker, whose mother (Fin's ex wife) was [[Parental Incest|raped by her father]].}} While {{spoiler|he}} may not have known at the time, the fact that this is the reason {{spoiler|[[The Unfavorite|why his mother hated him so much that it's implied that she threatened him]]}} [[Freudian Excuse|could explain]] [[Sympathetic Murderer|what]] {{spoiler|[[Fate Worse Than Death|he]]}} [[Offing the Offspring|became]].

** Also, a good few cases deal with children by rape.

* Three examples from ''[[Eastenders]]'': the character of Donna Ludlow, who turned out to be the daughter of Kathy Beale conceived when Kathy was raped at the age of 14; Little Mo Mitchell, who was raped in the Queen Vic, fell pregnant and decided to keep the child; and Zoe Slater is the result of Kat being raped by her uncle as a teenager.

* {{spoiler|[[Halfbreed|Scorpius]]}} from ''[[Farscape]]''.

* A woman in the [[X Files]] episode ''Aubrey'' was raped by a serial killer, bore his child and put it up for adoption. Her grandchild ended up {{spoiler|continuing her grandfather's work; to the letter.}}

* In the ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' episode "Birthright", the team suspect a serial's killer's son is carrying on his legacy...only to discover there's also a second son, whose mother was raped by the killer. This avoided the second part of this trope in that the child by rape while not a stellar human being (he's a bit of a bum) isn't evil because he's known for most of his life that his father was a bad man and loved his mother for caring for him despite it. The child by marriage however...

* On ''[[All My Children]]'', Erica's daughter Kendall Hart was conceived when one of her Dad's Hollywood friends, a has-been actor with a taste for young girls, rapes Erica on her fourteenth birthday. Erica's rejection of Kendall when she finds her (in stalker-ish ways) unleashes a hailstorm of vengeance even Erica's less-than-friends sympathize with her about. Kendall is stuck on her revenge-spree, believing her rapist father's tale of a doomed romance, until she finds him trying to rape Bianca, her younger half-sister. This storyline is especially notable as the main rise-to-stardom role for a very young [[Sarah Michelle Gellar]].

* Chad Harris on ''[[Passions]]''. Originally he knew his parents were from the town Harmony and eventually came to believe he was the son of wealthy white businessman Julian Crane and his black lounge singer-turned doctor Eve after he fathered a child with Eve's daughter Whitney. Later he turned out to have not committed incest with Whitney and that he was actually the son of Eve's deranged adopted sister Liz who was raped by Julian's father Alistair. Then we find out he really did have gay incest with Vincent, who turns out to be the actual son of Julian and Eve (thus Chad's half-nephew/cousin and Whitney's half brother. Vincent is also a cross-dressing intersex serial killer (no seriously this is all true) who has violently raped or tricked various of his relatives into sex including his uncle Chad, his sister Fancy and the topper is he becomes pregnant with his father Julian's baby. Yeah.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** After half-orcs were left out of the original PHB for 4E because of the [[Unfortunate Implications]] of this origin, this trope was averted in the PHB 2, which re-introduced the half-orcs to the game and presented a number of non-rape origins for half-orcs in line with the primal power source introduced in the book.

** Some half-elves get born this way as well, particularly in settings where humans and elves have gone to war against each other or are otherwise on hostile terms.

** In ''[[GURPS]] Fantasy Folk'', it's noted that when it comes to half-orcs, "Contrary to human propaganda, the unfortunate mother is as likely to be Orcish as human."

* The [[Warcraft Expanded Universe]] implies that some half-orcs in this universe were conceived this way as well, and that the rapist could be of either gender/race.

 

* ''[[F.E.A.R.]] 2'', as {{spoiler|Alma}} becomes pregnant by {{spoiler|raping Backet while he's strapped into a machine.}} And then there's {{spoiler|Alma's other sons}}, as she was impregnated while in a medically-induced coma, only waking up when she was in labor.

* Garona Halforcen was [[retcon]]ned into this (along with being a half-orc-half-draenei) in the ''[[Warcraft]]'' universe. There was always some implication of this with her being half-orc in the first place, as mentioned higher up on the page, but it was only made explicit later.

* Possibly Sephiroth from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''; it's implied that {{spoiler|Hojo raped Lucrecia}}.

* In ''[[Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors]]'', {{spoiler|Lotus has twin daughters by rape.}} Finding this out serves to make {{spoiler|the haughty Lotus}} a lot more sympathetic, but more importantly, it also serves to explain why {{spoiler|Lotus is involved in this Nonary Game. Her daughters were a part of the last one.}}

 

== Webcomics ==

* In ''[[Mob Ties]]'', {{spoiler|Mika conceived while in a coma after being raped by [[Big Bad]] Bengal. Her father tries to keep it a secret due to the fact that any reminder of the incident sends her into a horrible shock.}}

* {{spoiler|Alexi's son}} in ''[[Parallel Dementia]].'' For once, though the mother actually cares for her child and doesn't harbor any bad feelings towards the child.

 

== Western Animation ==

* {{spoiler|Dermott Fictel}} of ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' is a child by statutory rape. The sex was consensual, {{spoiler|but his mother(Who he believes is his sister) was only 15}}