Basic Trope: A character kills someone and then raises their victim's child.
- Straight: Alice adopts Bob after killing his parents.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice adopts Bob after killing every single adult in his family.
- Alice is a serial killer who adopts each of her victims' children.
- Downplayed: Alice had a chance to save Bob's parents but chose not to. She then adopts him.
- Justified:
- Alice is deeply traumatized from growing up in an Orphanage of Fear and can't bring herself to put someone else through the same thing.
- Alice killed Bob's parents to save him from their abuse.
- Alice had accidentally killed Bob's parents, and out of guilt, she takes Bob under her wing.
- Bob's parents were already dying and couldn't wait to leave this earth fast enough. Alice speeds up the process, and takes Bob under her wing.
- Inverted: Alice adopts Bob after he kills her son.
- Subverted:
- Alice kills Bob's parents and then drops him off at an orphanage.
- Alice hugs Bob after killing his parents. But then she stabs him in the back.
- Bob suspects his adopted mother Alice of killing his biological parents, but it turns out she didn't.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice returns to the orphanage using a false name so she can adopt Bob without being traced to his parents' murder.
- ...Killing the scorpion that was crawling on him.
- Parodied: Alice mentions to her friend Carol that she wants to adopt a child. When Carol asks if she's spoken to any adoption agencies yet, Alice casually says that she found a nice couple who she plans to kill so she can take their kid.
- Zig Zagged: Alice adopts Bob after killing his parents, but she constantly leaves and re-enters his life.
- Averted:
- Alice doesn't kill Bob's parents.
- Alice doesn't adopt Bob after killing his parents.
- Enforced: Alice is meant to be a sympathetic Anti-Hero, so the executives insist that her victims have a child for her to adopt to soften the blow of her decision to kill them.
- Lampshaded: "How can you see her as family when she took your real parents away from you?"
- Implied: Bob looks through Alice's belongings and finds a newspaper clipping about the unsolved murder of a couple who look suspiciously similar to him.
- Invoked:
- Alice kills Bob's parents so she can kidnap and raise him.
- Bob's father is of ailing health and spends his waking hours in utter agony. He asks Alice to put him out of his misery, and also take his child Bob with her.
- Exploited: Bob's Evil Uncle Charlie chooses to not intervene when Alice kills Bob's parents and adopts him. With everyone else out of the way, Charlie gets the family fortune all to himself.
- Defied: Alice refuses to kill Bob's parents when she finds out they have a child because then she'd feel responsible for taking care of him.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Alice is arrested for murdering Bob's parents, leaving him with no family at all.
- Reconstructed: Bob keeps in contact with Alice while she's in prison.
- Played For Laughs: Bob sees Alice kill his parents and immediately assumes that she's his new parent now. He acts like a Spoiled Brat toward her and expects her to go along with it, no matter how much Alice protests.
- Played For Drama: Alice fears that Bob won't love her anymore if he learns that she killed his biological parents. And she's right to be worried, because as soon as Bob learns the truth he tries to get revenge.
Back to Kill the Parent, Raise the Child
