That Thing Is Not My Child: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''[[Batman|Bruce Wayne]]:''' Look, I know [[Superboy|he]]... troubles you. But he's here. You have to get over the [[Cloning Blues|how]] and [[Laser Guided Tykebomb|why]]. Trust me on this... this boy needs his father.<br />

'''[[Superman|Clark Kent]]:''' I'm ''not'' his father!|''[[Young Justice (Animationanimation)|Young Justice]]'', "Schooled"}}

A trope common to [[Science Fiction]] or [[Horror]], in which a victim finds their genes, DNA, soul, or "essence" taken or copied without their permission, resulting in an offspring which is either unnatural or unwanted--orunwanted—or ''both''. This being could be a [[Cloning Blues|Clone]], [[Humanoid Abomination]], or a [[Designer Babies|Designer Baby]] created by a [[Stalker Withwith a Test Tube]]. Sometimes, the villainous party may take what they want from the character's ''real'' offspring instead, twisting it with [[Body Horror]], [[Demonic Possession]] or [[The Corruption]], prompting the parent to now consider it a different entity entirely and deny any kinship. In any case, the clear message is that the parent DOES NOT WANT.

Things can get even [[Squick|Squickier]]ier if the "offspring" is a full-size, adult clone. Many people in real life have identical twins, so most would consider a copy that's close to their age (or even older) a "sibling" rather than a "child"... although that's moot if this trope is played straight, of course.

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.

This trope is often the result when [[The Bad Guy Wins]] in a story with a [[Stalker Withwith a Test Tube]], or after a character catches a [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong]]. A common reaction is ~[[But I Can't Be Pregnant!~]], and sometimes happens in [[Real Life]] with a [[Child Byby Rape]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

* 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.

* ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering]]'''s Innistrad set has a card named Cloistered Youth with the ability of transformation.<ref>It is a double-sided card that can be flipped when certain conditions are met.</ref> When transformed, it becomes Unholy Fiend.

{{quote| ''"I heard her talking in her sleep, pleading, shrieking, snarling. It was not my daughter's voice. That is not my daughter."''}}

** This is a clear [[Shout -Out]] to ''[[The Exorcist (Film)|The Exorcist]]'' (see below). Many cards in Innistrad are based on horror movies.

* Averted with [[Superboy]] in the comics, whom [[Superman]] intially accepts as a buddy, and then as a cousin--butcousin—but never as a ''son''. (Although an in-universe newspaper article written after Superboy came [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]] states that Superman felt Superboy's death was "like losing a son".) Even [[Lex Luthor]], who created the boy and donated the other half of the DNA, considered him a son... [[I Have No Son|at first]].

* Averted with [[Batman]] and Damien Wayne, the [[Legacy Character|fifth Robin]], who may or may not have been the result of a [[Stalker Withwith a Test Tube]].

** In ''[[Ultimate Spider -Man]]'', Peter was even tricked into believing a clone of himself was his ''father''. He was ''not'' pleased when he learned the truth... nor was his "dad", who was a [[Manchurian Agent]] and didn't know about it himself.

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

* In ''[[Inception (Film)|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.}}

** [[Word of God]] has a [https://web.archive.org/web/20121129204039/http://collider.com/inception-christopher-nolan-explains/61972/ strongly implied conclusion] and a definite final answer.

* In the [[B -Movie]] ''[[ItsIt's Alive (Film)|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 (Film)|Batman Returns]]'' to throw baby Oswald over a bridge in its wicker bassinet.

* The mother in ''[[AIA.I.: Artificial Intelligence]]'' reacts this way to the robotic "child" her husband brings home.

* Averted in the [[Vorkosigan Saga]]. In ''Brothers in Arms'', Miles discovers that a Komarran terrorist cell has cloned him as part of a Byzantine plot. Miles immediately declares the clone his brother, informs him of the automatically-determined [[Dead Guy, Junior]] name Vor tradition gives him, and goes out of his way to protect and support him. His mother and father do the same, when they meet him.

* In ''[[The Marvelous Land of Oz (Literature)|The Marvelous Land of Oz]]'', Tip, a boy who's "small and rather delicate in appearance," creates a huge pumpkin-headed scarecrow man named "Jack Pumpkinhead" to frighten a witch, who uses magic to bring it to life. This leads to Tip being very uncomfortable with the creature calling him "Father", although he does consider Jack a good friend. At the end {{spoiler|it turns out that Tip is a girl, Princess Ozma, who's been under a spell since she was younger to protect her identity. After being changed back into Ozma, she's thrilled that Jack Pumpkinhead can no longer refer to her as "father".}}

* In "''[[Doctor Who (TV)|The Doctor's Daughter]]''", the Doctor originally reacts this way to his "daughter", actually an [[Opposite SexGender Clone]].

* In an episode of ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'', Riker kills the still-in-development clone of himself produced by the colony that reproduced by cloning (their initial population was too small to provide adequate genetic diversity). Riker cites some "diminished my uniqueness" excuse, (and the fact this was done without his permission). Later, a tranporter-accident clone fares better, being recognized as much as Riker as the one on Enterprise. The two act... [[Subverted Trope|like brothers.]]

* ''[[Stargate SG -1]]'': Vala Mal Doran eventually develops this attitude towards Adria, the [[Dark Messiah|Orici]] offspring implanted in her by the [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|Ori]].

* Played with in ''[[Tin Man (TV series)|Tin Man]]'' where the [[The High Queen|Queen]] tells [[Big Bad|Azkedellia]] that she is "not my daughter." At the time, you think it;s just because of Az's bad behavior. {{spoiler|She's ''really'' addressing the Evil Witch that has possessed Azkedellia}}.

* Done in the stage adaptation of ''[[Wicked (Theatretheatre)|Wicked]]''. Elphaba's father undisguisedly loathes her with a passion and dotes on her younger sister Nessa merely because Elphaba is green. The moment she's born he screams [[ThisPunctuated! IsFor! SpartaEmphasis!|"TAKE! IT! AWAY!"]] at the nurse before angrily storming off.

* In ''Batboy: The Musical'', {{spoiler|a woman has [[Child Byby 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.}}

** To be fair, Big Boss claimed to always respect Solid Snake as a man and a soldier, and it's pretty obvious, given that Big Boss took the trouble to train Snake and teach him CQC, that Big Boss played his role as a father for at least part of Snake's life. Trying to kill Solid Snake just seems to be a pre-requisite for being part of the Snake family, the only family member who didn't try to kill Snake was EVA (his mother).

* Averted in ''[[Parasite Eve]] 2'', when Aya Brea finds out that an evil cult has cloned her in order to create a new 'Parasite Eve' with the ability to control NMC's... despite having standing orders to destroy the girl, and despite said girl going [[One -Winged Angel]] on her, she stubbornly refuses to hurt her, and eventually adopts the young clone as her younger sister.

* Played with in ''[[Tales of the Abyss (Video Game)|Tales of the Abyss]]'', with "replicas" (clones) in general.

* Horrifically averted with ''[[Dead Space 2 (Video Game)|Dead Space 2]]'', where a woman calls lovingly to her [[Body Horror|necromorph]] baby... only to get her entrails splattered against the wall when it goes kaboom.

* This is Kitana's reaction towards her 'sister' Mileena's insistence of 'being a family' in her Story Mode chapter in ''[[Mortal Kombat 9 (Video Game)|Mortal Kombat 9]]''.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VI]]'', this happens in {{spoiler|Gau}}'s backstory. {{spoiler|Gau's mother [[Death Byby Childbirth|died in childbirth]], and his father snapped, declaring Gau a monster and dumping him on the Veldt. Despite his father's paranoid rantings, Gau is, for the record, a completely ordinary human beyond being [[Raised Byby Wolves|Raised By Monsters]].}}

* In ''[[World of Warcraft (Video Game)|World of Warcraft]]'', this is Alexstrazsa's response after finding out Deathwing has corrupted a large number of young red dragons (and is using them to attack her and the players):

{{quote| '''Alexstrazsa:''' They are...my clutch no longer. Bring them down.}}

* This is [[Superman]]'s reaction to [[Superboy]] in ''[[Young Justice (Animationanimation)|Young Justice]].''

** Though he's at least nicer than most examples of this trope--sotrope—so far he has never blamed Superboy or considered him a "thing," but he also clearly doesn't want to consider him his child (see page quote). He's also rationalized this as a way to avoid giving Superboy [[Cloning Blues]], claiming that it would be better if [[Batman]] or someone took on a mentoring role instead.

* In ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'', Xanatos created a clone of Goliath, who reacted in disgust, calling him a "thing" and an "abomination". Elisa immediately pointed out that "[[Sdrawkcab Name|Thailog]]" could be considered his son, and Goliath reluctantly agrees they should help free him from Sevarius. Unfortunately, Thailog had already learned [[Xanatos Gambit|a few tricks]] from his [[The Chessmaster|other]] [[Morally -Ambiguous Doctorate|daddies]]...

** Which actually makes this an [[Inverted Trope|inversion]]--it—it really only takes Goliath about a minute or two to accept Thailog as a son, but Thailog refuses to accept Goliath as a ''parent,'' claiming he's too weak for him to admire. He rejects Xanatos and Sevarius too, but that's more because his own ambitions oppose theirs.

[[Category:Son of Trope, Daughter of Index]]