Would Hurt a Child/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character, almost always a villain, has no moral compunctions about hurting or killing children.

  • Straight: Wanda, an amoral hitwoman, doesn't care if her target is a child and has already killed some.
  • Exaggerated: Wanda doesn't kill anyone BUT babies and young children.
  • Justified: The child she is sent killing is an Enfant Terrible.
  • Inverted: Wouldn't Hurt a Child
  • Subverted: Wanda is in a shootout, and shoots a child. But she fires with a tranq gun to prevent them being shot by someone else.
  • Double Subverted: The tranq gun is poisoned.
    • The dose turns out to be too much for a child, and he dies. Or he dies because he's allergic to the drug.
  • Parodied: Wanda, about to make her escape, breaks into a child's bedroom and draws on his face with permanent marker.
  • Deconstructed: Wanda kills children without batting a lash... until she finds out she's pregnant...
  • Reconstructed:... but she remains true to her nature and abuses her child, if she doesn't kill it outright.
  • Zig Zagged: Depending on her own whim or the amount of her contract, Wanda carries out child execution or doesn't.
  • Averted: Infant Immortality
    • Wanda is about to shoot someone, realizes it's a child, and stays her hand.
  • Enforced: "We want Wanda to be taken seriously as a villainess. There's no other way to do that than have her kill children intentionally."
  • Lampshaded: "Wanda, you wouldn't shoot a child, would you?" "Why not?"
  • Invoked: "Killing is killing, death is death. Man, woman, child... What difference is there once the body is cold?"
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: "No thanks. I don't do children, no matter the bounty you offer. It's my sole principle."
  • Discussed: "Don't you feel any remorse whatsoever? He was just a kid..." "Why should I? I'm just doing what I'm paid for."
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: Wanda's daughter comes home from school in a bad mood because her classmates bullied her. The next day, she's the only one left in class, and clearly annoyed.
  • Played For Drama: ???

What, you thought I made exceptions for children? Go to Would Hurt a Child and see if I do.