That Thing Is Not My Child: Difference between revisions

This can become the progeny's source of angst or their [[Freudian Excuse]] for turning evil. For this trope to be in effect, it has to be clear that the "child" is considered a new creation outside of the "parent's" control (i.e., rape, cloning, or some sort of freak accident). If the parent willfully mated, cloned themselves, or did [[For Science!|brutal experiments]] on their own child, only to disown them later, that is a different matter.

 

 

Do not confuse with [[I Have No Son]], in which the parent disowns a disappointing child.

 

{{examples}}

* This seems to be much how Guts reacts in ''[[Berserk]]'', after {{spoiler|Casca miscarries and gives birth to a hideously deformed child after the events of the Eclipse where she was raped by Femto}}. Unlike most examples on the list, it actually ''is'' his child, but merely corrupted by events outside of his control.

* In a particularly [[Tear Jerker|heartbreaking]] example, ''[[Fruits Basket]]'' features [[Stepford Smiler|Momiji]]'s mother reacting this way (using the almost exact quote) upon discovering that her child [[Involuntary Shapeshifting|turns into a rabbit when she holds him]] because he's under the zodiac curse. Momiji's father had {{spoiler|her memory of her son cleared}} to aid her failing health brought on by the emotional stress of all this.

* This is how some parents react to the silver-eyed children in the ''[[Village of the Damned]]'' movie and its remake.

* In ''[[Inception]]'', {{spoiler|Mal and Cobb both react this way when they're faced with children they believe to be fake, while they may or may not be dreaming. The jury's still out on which interpretation, if either, was correct.}}

* In the [[B-Movie]] ''[[It's Alive|Its Alive]]'', this is a major plot point for the father of a killer mutant baby.

* This may have been the motive for the Cobblepot family from ''[[Batman Returns]]'' to throw baby Oswald over a bridge in its wicker bassinet.

 

== [[Theater]] ==

** To be fair{{spoiler|he isn't Elphaba's real father anyway.}}

* In ''Batboy: The Musical'', {{spoiler|a woman has [[Child by Rape|twins by different rapists]] from the night of a [[Freak Lab Accident]] with pheromones. She loves one baby, because the father isn't so bad ([[Moral Event Horizon|yet]]); the other is a [[Half-Human Hybrid]], prompting her to shout, "Kill it!" But her attitude changes when she meets him again years later.}}