This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
From YKTTW Working Title: Infanticide Backfire
Sgamer82 — By popular demand, I'm using Nice Job Breaking It, Herod as the title. If a rename is deemed necessary however, I offer Infanticide Backfire. Also, if the Sword Of Truth example did also occur in the books, could someone please move it to Literature. I haven't read the books so for now I'm leaving it under Live Action TV.
Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: I agree that this is the proper title for this trope....
Uriel-238: A catchy reference to one of the classic incidents of this trope, perhaps something like May Babies Mismanagement would be ideal.
savage: Can someone please explain to me how this is different at -all- from Genocide Backfire? They seem like exactly the same trope to me. I mean. Exactly.
- Sgamer82: This trope is specific to incidents where a villain is attempting to locate a hero while said hero is still in their infancy. Nothing more or less. Yes, it does frequently overlap with Genocide Backfire, which is why I call it a subtrope and have Infanticide Backfire as an alternative name. However, genocide doesn't necessarily need to be part of the equation. Or even any killing for that matter (outside of the target infant, naturally). On the flip side, Genocide Backfire doesn't necessarily have to involve targeting a child. It's all about trying to eliminate an entire people because one person is predicted to be the Big Bad's downfall. Yes, this one person frequently is still a child, which is why they aren't stopping the Big Bad then, but the person doesn't have to be.
- To use an example, Greek hero Oedipus would count in this trope because his father feared the prophecies that the boy would eventually kill him and tried to kill Oedipus because of it. However, the king did not target any other infants outside of Oedipus himself, so this isn't a case of Genocide Backfire. On the other side, I offer the Dragon Ball example of Freeza destroying planet Vegeta. He did this with the intention of removing the general threat of a Saiyan becoming powerful enough to kill him. Despite the evading of this fate by baby Goku, this is not a Nice Job Breaking It, Herod moment because Freeza wasn't targeting Goku specifically. He wanted all the Saiyans gone. Then we have situations like the "May Baby Mishandling" or the "Massacre of the Innocent", which could be considered cases of both tropes at once.
The forum rename discussion has been mostly dead for a few weeks, I'm taking down the rename notice on the main page and leaving the one in the discussion untill someone tries to push the issue again. ~ Elle
The Nifty: I'd just like to mention how much I love that title.
Nyperold: Removed Pharaoh / Exodus thing. He was going for a population control approach, not just a prophesied Hero.
