History WouldHurtAChild / LiveActionTV

* Natalie Rice of ''Series/BurnNotice'' held children hostage so their father would act as her fall guy. When held at gunpoint by Fiona, she blended into a passing crowd of children so she would back off. As an extra incentive, Natalie warned she would kill one at the first sign of trouble.

** Spike kills the Annointed One in [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E3SchoolHard his very first episode]], although the kid ''was'' a vampire, so evil, undead, and possibly [[OlderThanTheyLook a lot older than he looked]]. Spike later tells Dawn a story about his violent slaughter of a whole family, culminating in his finding their little girl hiding in a coal cellar... whom he says he [[BlatantLies rescued and got adopted into a nice family who didn't lock her in coal cellars]], as soon as [[ObliviousToLove Buffy]] walks in.

** After Oberyn's death, Ellaria Sand conspires with the Sand Snakes to murder [[spoiler: Cersei's innocent daughter Myrcella,]] (who is currently in Dorne for an ArrangedMarriage) out of spite. She eventually succeeds, secretly poisoning her before [[spoiler: Jaime takes her on his ship and heads back to King's Landing.]] If that didn't make her despicable enough, [[spoiler: she then sends two of the Snakes to assassinate Trystane, ''her own nephew.'' [[EvilIsPetty Because she saw him as a challenger for the right to rule House Martell.]]]]

** After Oberyn's death, Ellaria Sand conspires with the Sand Snakes to murder [[spoiler: Cersei's innocent daughter Myrcella,]] (who is currently in Dorne for an ArrangedMarriage) out of spite. She eventually succeeds, secretly poisoning her before [[spoiler: Jamie takes her on his ship and heads back to King's Landing.]] If that didn't make her despicable enough, [[spoiler: she then sends two of the Snakes to assassinate Trystane, ''her own nephew.'' [[EvilIsPetty Because she saw him as a challenger for the right to rule House Martell.]]]]

** The paramilitary group who kidnap Alex and interrogate him. They ''do'' subject him to some pretty unpleasant things, but are far from happy about it and have actually decided to call the whole thing off when Alex escapes anyway. [[spoiler: It's a SecretTestOfCharacter planned by Blunt.]]

** A lot of the Droids in the show namely the Battle and Assassin are programed to kill anyone when required, regardless of age. A tragic FlashBack to the Clone Wars shows a Super Battle Droid about to blast the cowering and terrified protagonist [[spoiler: Din Djarin]] as a boy, before he was saved by the Mandalorians. Particularly [[MoodWhiplash jarring]] portrayal given the Battle Droids weren't remotely [[DarkerAndEdgier that threatening]] in previous ''Star Wars'' media. This instance instilled Mando with a intense dislike of droids and seeing IG-11 (before he was reprogramed) and Q9-0 raise a blaster to The Child triggers his PapaWolf instincts.

** In Season 5 [[spoiler:Evelyn Martin and her 8-year-old daughter]] are killed offscreen.

** In season 5 [[spoiler:Evelyn Martin and her 8-year-old daughter]] are killed offscreen.

** Clarke even does this to her own daughter. In the season 5 finale, Madi tries to run off and lead an army into battle, having recently risen to commander. Clarke forces a shock collar around Madi's neck and repeatedly shocks her to keep her from running off.

** After discovering that Clarke has killed his wife and daughter, Russell kidnaps Madi, Clarke's 12-year old daughter, intending to kill her while making sure Clarke hears everything.

* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'': [[TheWoobie Fan favorite]] Richard Harrow has a very sweet connection with Margaret's two young children [[spoiler:and in season three, Jimmy's son Tommy]]...but he doesn't hesitate to offer to kill the entire D'Alessio family, [[WouldHitAGirl including the mother and sisters]], and does in fact shoot the youngest brother in the face. He's only 14 and is crying as he frantically attempts to load his own gun, before raising his hands, trying to surrender. Whoops.

** In season 2, some street drug dealers draw 11-year-old Tomas Cantillo into their gang, having him kill Jesse's friend Combo as a rite of initiation. He's later killed by said dealers, either on their own accord or on the orders of Gus Fring, upon being told that they can't use child assassins.

** In the Season Two finale, [[spoiler:Lila kidnaps Cody and Astor - both young children - and locks them and Dexter in her loft before setting it on fire. Thankfully, they escape.]]
** In the fourth season, [[spoiler:it is shown that the Trinity Killer]] has no qualms about kidnapping ten-year-old boys, holding them prisoner, drugging them and then killing them by [[spoiler: BuriedAlive BURYING THEM IN WET CEMENT. WHICH THEN SETS]]. This is also why he went uncaught for so long. The killer's name, MO, all of it, was an accidental misnomer because nobody ever knew about the FOURTH victims in each set representing himself.

** Meanwhile, [[WouldntHurtAChild his ruthless alternate-universe counterpart, Walternate, absolutely refuses to experiment on children]] (though he apparently has few qualms about potentially lethal adult trials). At least until the end of season three. Then he does try to kill a child...specifically, [[spoiler: his own grandson.]] This leads to much debate in both universes about [[GrayAndGreyMorality which Walter is the greater evil.]]

** Tywin Lannister is infamous for this, as discussed by Lady Stark who was dead worried about Sansa and Arya because the Targaryen children were butchered in their sleep by Gregor Clegane on the orders of Tywin during the Lannister army's sack of Kings Landing. The children of House Reyne weren't spared either, as Cersei ''boasts'' to Margaery. During the present-day campaign in the Riverlands, it's reported that Gregor and his contingent slaughtered every peasant they could find, including the rape and murder of children.

** Drogon burns and half-consumes a young girl, prompting Dany to tearfully lock up her dragons for Meereen's protection. This is somewhat [[SubvertedTrope subverted though -]] being a dragon, Drogon has no distinction between right and wrong. In the end, [[ButForMeItWasTuesday it was just another day of hunting for him.]]

%%* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': SerialKiller Charlie Lynch in the 4th season.
* ''Series/{{Justified}}'': In season 3 [[spoiler: Robert Quarles ]] carjacks a mother and her two sons. He uses the two boys as hostages to get Raylan to give up his guns and then drive them all to Noble's Holler. It is clear that once he gets what he is looking for, he will kill Raylan and the children.

* ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'': Long before Basco was even a draft sketch, Bandora the Witch from was ''all about'' tormenting children, being your classic "evil kid-hating witch." We find out in the final episodes that it's because she lost her son. The series is for the most part LighterAndSofter, so nothing excessively brutal happens to them, but whenever she can endanger an elementary schooler with one of her plans it's always a bonus - [[EvilIsPetty sometimes, making kids cry for its own sake is the whole plan]]. Naturally, this carries over to Rita in ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', though not to quite the same degree.

** [[spoiler: Bogac and Doruk]] at the end of season 2. The former [[spoiler: brutally dispatches Halime’s kid brother Yigit]], while the latter [[spoiler: runs away with an infant-age Gunduz and comes very close to ''stabbing him'', prompting Hayme Ana to fire an arrow at Doruk before he can get away with it]].
** Titus in season 1 is revealed to be like this after [[spoiler: slashing a pre-teen Dundar across the waist, leaving him unconscious for almost the entire rest of the season]].

** Yet another season 4 instance involves [[spoiler: Almila/Alangoya]], who plans on butchering all three of Ertugrul’s sons and [[spoiler: attempts to ''strangle'' baby Osman, only to be interrupted by Sugay Hatun entering the marquee]].
** The Mongols in general have a tendency to exterminate children and babies as they would with adults, which is especially horrifying during the massacre at the beginning of season 2.

** Neville - sort of. Danny technically is not a child anymore, but most characters treat him as such, because of his age, and probably also because he has demonstrated impulsiveness and rudeness and other negative traits common to teenage boys. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg And his]] [[IllBoy asthma.]]

* ''Series/{{Scandal}}'': [[spoiler: Becky, Huck's girlfriend, actually kills a family, including 3 kids. She did this because Huck tried to take her down, and she knew he cared about them so she did this to spite him]].
* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': Moriarty takes a child hostage and straps him to a bomb - one with a very short time-to-explosion - to taunt the title character in "The Great Game".

** In another episode Sam was steeling himself to kill a little girl possessed by Lilith. At the last minute Dean, temporarily given demon sight because of his impending damnation, tells him that Lilith isn't in the girl anymore.

** Geriatric antagonist Gerard Argent is a master of this trope with teenagers: he violently drowns the (admittedly not innocent) [[spoiler: Matt ]], kidnaps Erica and Boyd and holds them in prolonged electrical torture, kidnaps and beats the absolute snot out of Stiles, stabs Scott in the gut, and tries to murder [[spoiler: his own granddaughter, Allison]]. It's a little disturbing to watch.

** Notably, one man tries to rape Carl in the season 4 finale while another threatens to break baby Judith's neck in the season 5 premiere.
** A surprising non-villain example happened in the season 6 midseason premiere when [[spoiler:Michonne kills Ron, after he almost shoots Rick, blaming him for his family dying. But as he dies, he gets one shot off that hits Carl in the eye. Carl survives.]]

* In Season 8, Renee Walker threatens to hurt and/or kill a baby as she becomes more and more like Jack Bauer. She's already tortured a man to near death for retribution by this point, but her actions here sicken even her.

* ''Series/WarOfTheWorlds2019'': The aliens' killer robots target children and adults equally. [[spoiler: A little French girl who Sophie finds is killed after being discovered hiding.]]

* ''Series/AFrenchVillage'': In the first episode, a German fighter plane shoots at a group of French school children on a field trip with their teachers, killing and wounding several. However, they may have been mistaken for soldiers and this was all accidental, it's never made clear.