Line #29 Main/EvilDetectingBaby


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11	[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/FantasticFour1998 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doctordoombaby_2.png]]]]
12	[[caption-width-right:350:Even a blind baby isn't fooled by ComicBook/DoctorDoom's civilian disguise.]]
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14	Even though, as far as we know, babies are generally not considered as smart as children or adults, in fiction there is one thing that they can often infallibly sense: pure evil. If a baby is in the room when something bad happens, it will almost always start crying, even though there's no way it can know what's going on. As another often-used example, when the baby is picked up by a villain, it will automatically start crying regardless of whether the villain has done something to it or even looks scary. Makes a ''little'' more sense in cases where the villain in question is known to [[EatsBabies eat babies]], though not much, given that the baby isn't terribly likely to be aware of that.
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16	A sister trope to EvilDetectingDog, and a sub-trope of ChildrenAreInnocent and ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter. If an infant detects ''as'' evil, they may be an EnfantTerrible.
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19	!!Examples:
20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23	* An interesting variant occurs in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02''--Ken Ichijouji, fresh from his HeelFaceTurn after his tenure as an EvilOverlord in the Digital World, stumbles into the Village of Beginnings where baby Digimon are born and discovers that there's a chance his Digimon partner Wormmon might be able to come back from his HeroicSacrifice due to Digimon's inherent BornAgainImmortality. However, he ends up meeting with some baby Digimon who, due to having been killed by him in the past, are ''not'' pleased to see him...only rather than cry at his presence, they angrily shout at him and try to beat him up. Digimon ''are'' born with the power of fluent, coherent speech after all. Fortunately, he discovers Wormmon's egg, which then hatches with all his memories intact and forgives him pretty much instantly.
24	* A subtle example in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003''; Rose's baby smiles and giggles in the presence of [[NiceGuy the Elric brothers]], but he cries in the presence of [[DeadpanSnarker Lyra]], who for all intents and purposes isn't a threat to either mother or child. [[spoiler:But at that point, poor Lyra was actually DeadAllAlong and the series' BigBad, Dante, had hijacked her body. She planned to do the same to Rose later, but fortunately didn't succeed]].
25	* In ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics'', Princess Elise's baby son in "The Six Swans" starts crying whenever the HotWitch approaches him. Considering she would later [[spoiler: throw him into the forest and make it look like his mother ate him, with only his turned-into-swans uncles' intervention saving him and then his about-to-be-unfairly-executed mother]], one can hardly blame the poor kid.
26	* In ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', Woble, the infant 14th Prince of Kakin, will cry if someone with ill intent is nearby. Woble will also giggle and stretch her arms out at people who genuinely want to protect her. (Any direct heir to the throne in Kakin is a "Prince," even if female.) This has proven handy multiple times for both Woble and Queen Oito, as Woble and the other princes have been caught in a succession war, the crying helping to determine assassins and other such threats and the giggling to figure out who is truly loyal to Woble and Oito. As such, despite her having been targeted by several of her older brothers and sisters, the two [[ActionSurvivor have managed to survive unscathed]].
27	* In ''Anime/SailorMoon'', during the Doom Tree arc, Usagi is helping Mamoru look after a baby boy named Manami. Manami is able to tell that "Natsumi" (En) does not mean well, and as a result, En ends up receiving a TinkleInTheEye. In some dubs, the baby's train of thoughts is heard and he clearly thinks "I don't like you!" when he's about to piss on her.
28	* ''Anime/TokyoGodfathers'': Baby Kiyoko won't stop crying when Sachiko is holding her [[spoiler:because Sachiko isn't her mother, but rather her kidnapper]].
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30
31	[[folder:Comic Books]]
32	* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': In ''ComicBook/FantasticFour1968'' #67, Doctor Doom walks the streets of New York in civilian clothes (with a less ornate mask replacing his usual one). He passes a baby boy, who begins screaming and crying uncontrollably. Doom apologises to the boy's mother for frightening the child; the mother replies that the baby is blind.
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35	[[folder:Fairy Tales]]
36	* In ''[[http://www.rickwalton.com/folktale/junior41.htm The Witch in the Stone Boat]]'', when the witch takes the queen's place, the queen's baby begins to cry and cannot be comforted by the witch.
37	* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/stories/birch.html The Wonderful Birch]]'', when the WickedStepmother replaces the true bride with her own daughter, the baby begins to cry because he misses his mother's care.
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39
40	[[folder:Fan Works]]
41	* In the Fanfic/{{Dangerverse}}'s first story, ''Living with Danger'', Remus Lupin thinks this was averted because Harry liked Sirius Black and avoided Peter Pettigrew, when (he thinks) Sirius became a traitor and Peter died fighting him. When he gets told the truth (that the traitor was actually Peter) he realizes that Harry was indeed detecting evil.
42	* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27626497/chapters/67626911 A Different Professor]]'', Sirius and Remus are reminiscing about Harry as a baby, and happen to mention that Harry never wanted Peter to hold him, always insisting on being set down or given to someone else. Narcissa asks why they and Harry's parents didn't find that significant, saying that baby Draco had a similar reaction to Bellatrix and her husband.
43	* ''Fanfic/ExtremelyNice'': Charisse was immediately suspicious of Chloe as soon as she met her (and right she was).
44	* In the ''Manga/SoulEater'' fic [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10794683/1/The-Hand-That-Rocks-The-Cradle The Hand That Rocks The Cradle]], Stein and Marie's baby son [[spoiler: cries harder when he sees Medusa, and even after she's gotten him to quiet down via IronicNurseryTune, he's still visibly afraid of her. Medusa even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the fact that she hasn't done anything to hurt him yet. (Key word: ''yet.'')]]
45	* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/33014941 Broken Dreams]]'', Diggle at one point muses that Sara has had a hard time sleeping ever since Andy moved in with them. He thinks that Andy's presence is just throwing off her routine, but its actually this.
46	* Toddler variant in ''Fanfic/IfIHadTheStrength'', Lan Jingyi becomes uneasy near the Gentian House and wants to come back to the nursery in spite of not liking it there. Wei Wuxian later comments on kids being naturally sensitive to negative energy, and discovers there is a ghost trapped in the Gentian House. Said ghost actually isn't evil, but she's certainly not ''safe''.
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49	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
50	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'', a baby starts crying when it sees one of Megamind's Brain-Bots. Later in the movie, the same baby appears and starts crying when [[spoiler:Megamind's Bernard disguise fails and his real self is seen kissing Roxanne.]] During the climax, [[spoiler:after Megamind has seemingly defeated Titan, the same baby appears to start crying, only to stop and look confused like everyone else, {{lampshad\|eHanging}}ing Megamind's HeelFaceTurn.]]
51	* In ''WesternAnimation/RugratsInParis'', the babies are quick to realize that Coco Labouche is trouble. When Dil meets Coco, he whacks her with his rattle.
52	-->'''Lil:''' She's not a very nice lady. She's too "pointy."
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54
55	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
56	* In ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject'', as a woman holding a baby tells the filmmakers about the legend of the Blair Witch, her baby repeatedly tries to put its hand over her mouth to get her to stop talking. Making this extra creepy is the fact that it wasn't scripted -- the child does this of his own volition.
57	* {{Inverted\|Trope}} in ''Film/{{Maleficent}}''. As a baby, Aurora is never afraid of Maleficent and always smiles whenever she is around, even when Maleficent deliberately tries to scare her. In the context of this trope, this is a {{Foreshadowing}} that Maleficent still has good in her.
58	* In ''Film/SkyHigh2005'', the [[spoiler:parents/superheroes]]-turned-infants begin to cry when being loaded into an "evil bus". [[spoiler:Will's father]] especially when being spoken to by [[spoiler: Royal Pain]].
59	* When a TV news reporter updates on the situation of the soldiers in ''Film/Transformers2007'', William Lennox's infant daughter becomes fussy right after the report.
60	* [[TheChosenOne Elora Danan]] from ''Film/{{Willow}}'' is unusually canny for an infant; tellingly, the man she selects to be her guardian, while a shorter-than-average beginner sorcerer, is also a good hearted family man who knows how to take care of her. On the flipside, being in Queen Bavmorda's presence causes her some noticeable distress, to the point where she's too scared to even cry.
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62
63	[[folder:Literature]]
64	* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Revival}}'', Jamie's infant niece takes to him instantly the first time he meets her. When he returns to his brother's house after dealing with [[EldritchAbomination Mother]], she takes one look at him and starts screaming and thrashing to stay as far away from him as possible. Jamie takes this as evidence that he's been tainted, and distances himself from his family so they won't be marked as well.
65	* The infant Robert Lockhart in ''The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox'' freaks out at the sight of his uncle James. [[spoiler:James is actually his biological father; he raped Esme Lennox, who was thrown into a BedlamHouse, and the baby was taken from her and adopted by Esme's sister and James's cousin]].
66	* The third ''Literature/WaysideSchool'' book does an interesting variant: the baby doesn't so much ''detect'' evil as instantly ''cure'' it, as the purely innocent thoughts in its head are too much for the telepathic ChildHater Miss Nogard to bear.
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69	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
70	* Subverted in "Silent Witness", an episode of ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents''. The baby cries whenever the man who killed her babysitter comes nearby. His guilty feelings make him suspect that the baby will actually get him caught, and it seems like he's deciding whether to do away with the child too. (He doesn't.) At the end we learn that the baby cries whenever ''any'' unknown man comes nearby.
71	* When Spike is rescuing the baby boy that the Fell Brethren want to make a holy sacrifice in the last episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}'', the Brethren surround him and order him to put the baby back in the bassinet. He looks at the baby, who shakes his head.
72	* Baby Wyatt of ''Series/{{Charmed\|1998}}'' tended to put up a blue forcefield if something evil came too close.
73	* Averted in ''Series/GameOfThrones''. A baby boy giggles happily when [[spoiler:the Night's King, the leader of the White Walkers]] picks him up [[spoiler:and turns him into a new White Walker.]]
74	* In the ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'' episode which shows the Teddy/Spencer break-up, the baby, Charlie, bites Spencer. This is before Teddy discovers he's [[spoiler:two-timing her with Skyler]]. Teddy also dreams that a giant Charlie is attacking Spencer.
75	* In ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', while Lois is pregnant with her fifth child, he starts kicking inside her stomach harder than usual. Lois wonders if something's upsetting him... and then she looks up and sees her racist, manipulative, and all around evil mother Ida at the window.
76	* ''Series/MastersOfHorror'': In the episode "Dreams in the Witch-House", the main guy agrees to babysit his female neighbor's baby while she goes to a job interview. When she suddenly returns to apparently seduce him, it's clear that it's really the witch in disguise because the baby starts loudly crying.
77	* ''Series/StrangersFromHell'' has an evil-detecting toddler rather than a baby. The young daughter of one of [[SerialKiller Moon-jo]]'s patients says he scares her because he looks evil.
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80	[[folder:Video Games]]
81	* ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' offers a rare example of this trope not only being [[JustifiedTrope justified]], but also [[ExploitedTrope explicitly taken full advantage of]] in-universe in the form of [[PoweredByAForsakenChild Bridge Babies]]: unborn infants removed from the wombs of braindead mothers and placed inside portable {{Uterine Replicator}}s, which are used as living warning systems for BRIDGES personnel traveling across the FallenStatesOfAmerica due to their ability to sense the [[InvisibleMonsters Beached Things]] prowling the continent. Main character Sam Bridges carries one throughout the game, and must rely on it to avoid being caught by the [=BTs=] during his deliveries.
82	* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'', Baby Luigi starts crying in the presence of [[spoiler:the [[MacGuffin Cobalt Star's spirit]]]]. None of the other members of the party can tell why, but this is one of the hints that [[spoiler:the Elder Shroob Princess is [[SealedEvilInACan sealed inside it]]]].
83	* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel III'', near the final moments as [[spoiler:The Great Twilight is unleashed upon the world]], a baby starts crying when it feels the waves of darkness passing through.
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86	[[folder:Webcomics]]
87	* ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'': Introduced in January 2021, Leona and Carl's infant daughter Savanna is a lion/rhinoceros with a retractable horn that comes out when she's threatened. Soon after birth, she witnessed Angelique (Kevin's villainous ex-wife) [[https://kevinandkell.com/2021/kk0115.html appearing on television]]... and the horn immediately came out. Leona comments on it:
88	-->'''Leona''': "Perceptive judge of character, isn't she?"
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90
91	[[folder:Western Animation]]
92	* Season 6, Episode Nine of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', "Free Hat", features a serial baby murderer. When he is released from prison (to great fanfare, as the public seem to believe he is innocent), he asks if he may hold a baby. The baby offered to him does everything in its power to crawl away from him.
93	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In the season 2 episode [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E08TheFutureOfTheForce "The Future of the Force"]], the Inquisitors attempt to abduct two Force-sensitive babies, both of whom start crying when they feel the Inquisitors approaching.
94	* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'': While Elmyra is more ObliviouslyEvil, Drooley Davey from the "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS1E34TheWideWorldOfElmyra The Wide World of Elmyra]]" episode segment of the same name is scared by her presence, seeing her as a BabysitterFromHell. While Elmyra does mean well, she is too young and stupid to be a proper babysitter, and at one point, tries to feed him extremely hot milk. Not helping Davey's case is that [[AdultsAreUseless his parents pass off his fear of Elmyra as excitement to see her]], and that they ask Elmyra to babysit him again the next night.
95	[[/folder]]

Context Main / EvilDetectingBaby