Sandbox / Paedo Hunt Wick Check

Here a wick check will be performed on Pædo Hunt.

Why?: Concerns were raised about Pædo Hunt's description being unclear about its meaning and the trope being misused in multiple ways. Trope Talk discussion on the matter.

Wicks checked: 50/50

Potholes will be bolded.

Wicks total:

• Current definition of a villain who is a pedophile: 32% (16/50)
• General paranoia/hysteria towards pedophilia: 10% (5/50)
• Literally hunting actual pedophiles: 10% (5/50)
• Characters wrongfully accused of being pedophiles: 6% (3/50)
• Characters who are pedophiles but not villains: 6% (3/50)
• Potholes for any kind of mention of pedophilia: 10% (5/50)
• IRL troping: 6% (3/50)
• ZCEs or unclear context: 22% (11/50)

That's:

• 32% Current definition
• 68% Misuse

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Current definition: A villain who is a pedophile (16/50)

1. Characters.ShinMegamiTenseiIV: Horrifyingly, if the guy wasn't bad enough, one of the children implies as much.
   Pig-tailed girl: When I grow up, I'm going to marry Mr. Tayama! Mr. Tayama says that age doesn't matter when there's love!
2. Literature.Discworld: The Kingslayer: "Old Stoneface" Vimes, ancestor of the current Vimes, chopped the King's head after he was sentenced to death by a tribunal for his horrific crimes. He was the only one with the balls to do it. He was later executed, his body getting the Osiris treatment. His bad reputation was so powerful, his descendants many generations later are still being bugged about it.
3. Characters.JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders: While Anne's age is never given, she's clearly far too young for an adult orangutan to be openly lusting after her... and what he was actually planning to do to her is perhaps best left unsaid.
4. Literature.Drassil: Unnaon Delta's harem of young boys he feeds on is... suspicious, to say the list, and causes Duran to have no mercy on him whatsoever.
5. Fanfic.NightDragons: Ramsay entertains taking the underage Lyanna Mormont as a second bride as a means of taunting Jon.
6. Characters.FullMetalPanicAmalgam: Gauron's been after Sousuke ever since the latter was twelve years old. And the things he wants to do to the boy are very, very creepy.
7. Characters.NewVegasBounties: A giant, pedophile bounty hunter who runs the Richter & Associates firm. His (attempted) assassination of Randall sets up the final act of Bounties I.
8. Recap.GameOfThronesS5E9TheDanceOfDragons: Meryn Trant's awfulness is highlighted by his scene in the brothel, where he continually turns away young women, saying "too old" until eventually he settles on one who seems to be in her teens, and even then he barely seems satisfied.
9. Characters.TheMagicians2016: Dirty Old Man: A pedophile who raped Martin Chatwin and abused the other siblings.
10. Characters.MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphansGjallarhorn: Episode 43 reveals that Iznario is a pederast who adopted McGillis to make him a Sex Slave. He's one of the main villains of season 1 and noted as a Hate Sink.
11. Literature.TheDiceMan: Asshole Victim: The Dice eventually command Luke to commit murder near the end of the book, however the target is the thoroughly loathsome Frank Osterflood (mentioned above): a paedophile, Serial Killer and Straw Misogynist to boot.
12. Moral Event Horizon: Sexual contact with a minor is treated as one of the vilest actions anyone can take, as it combines Would Hurt a Child and Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil.
13. Honey Trap: This is part of O'Ren's backstory in Kill Bill. Noticeably, it happened when she was eleven... because O-Ren used herself as an HT since the killer of her parents was not just a Yakuza lord but a pedophile. Before he could bone her, O-ren stabs him to death with his own katana, bitterly telling him to look at her face and realize her identity before he dies. She then pulls the sword out of the Dirty Old Man's stomach (and gets smeared with his blood), takes his gun, kills two of his bodyguards, and escapes.
14. Characters.Demonbane: Not even small children are safe from his disgusting lusts. It is talking about a villain but I'm unsure if this should be counted as ZCE.
15. Depraved Kids' Show Host: He smokes like a chimney, lashes out at techies, and above all, he absolutely hates kids. That, or he likes them a bit too much.
16. Would Hurt a Child: Compare Pædo Hunt, another child abuse trope where female perpetrators are similarly unheard of.

General paranoia/hysteria towards pedophilia (5/50)

1. ValuesDissonance.CalvinAndHobbes: In some strips, Calvin sits with Hobbes in the car while his parents run errands. Watterson himself said this wasn't an issue when he was growing up. By the 21st century, the general public had become much more aware of how dangerous and potentially fatal it is to leave a six-year-old alone in the car, especially during the summer when a locked car can heat up to lethal temperatures ridiculously fast (plus fear of them getting kidnapped by child predators, however unlikely, since the 80s when these were published).
2. UsefulNotes.TheNineties: School busing had become very unwieldy in some parts of the country, with very few kids going to their local school unless they had no other choice. So how did kids get to school? More often than not, your parents drove you. Unlike in The '50s, there was no stigma against it — that was just how you got there. Since this was the era of "Stranger Danger", it would only be under the rarest circumstances that a kid would walk to school — usually, only if you could see the school from your front yard, and maybe not even then. If you couldn't walk, and your parents couldn't drive you, only then did you take the bus. If you didn't have parents or a bus as an option (a possibility, if your school had enough students within walking distance that it didn't run buses), you walked in a group.
3. Film.HardCandy: Exploitation Film: Accused of being an exploitation film that is exploiting the Pædo Hunt Hysteria.
4. ValuesDissonance.WesternAnimation: Speaking of old cartoons coming off as having pedophilic undertones due to paranoia over children being abducted and/or molested, the public service announcements from the 1985 version of G.I. Joe (the ones that Fensler Films redubbed) have become hard to look at through the Nostalgia Filter these days because all people (or rather, YouTube commentators) keep asking about is, "How do these GI Joes know where the children are all the time?", "Where are the kids' parents in all of this?", "Why is this GI Joe standing outside a bathroom window/running through the house without knocking/etc," and, in a specific example, "What is Deep Six doing underwater spying on little boys in a lake?" The original PSAs are on the G.I. Joe animated movie DVD as a special feature. Watch them and judge for yourself.
5. Association Fallacy: Australia has proposed banning porn that stars small-breasted women because since children have no breasts and pedophiles like children, anyone who likes small-breasted women must be a pedophile. Thankfully nothing seems to have come of it. I THINK the intended usage here is paranoia/hysteria?

Literally hunting actual pedophiles (5/50)

1. WMG.M3gan: WMG: After being disgraced and fired, a desperate Gemma will get a job making Sexbots for an adult toy company. She'll be forced into making M3GAN-like sexbots for the company. M3GAN will take over its body and will have plenty of Asshole Victim pedophiles to slaughter.
2. Characters.SilentHillDownpour: Murphy arranging to murder his son's killer, his former neighbor Patrick Napier.
3. DarthWiki.LittleWitchVicky: In Vicky Versus Pedophiles, Vicky uses her young looks to take down a few local pedophiles.
4. Podcast.TheOnceAndFutureNerd: After witnessing a corrupt cop attempt to molest a young girl, Jen is told there is nothing they can do about it at the moment, despite her pleas. This, along with her own memories of being molested by a coach, sends Jen into Tranquil Fury. Next thing anyone knows, she's up and stabbed the scumbag dead.

Character wrongfully accused of being a pedophile (3/50)

1. Fridge.HelluvaBoss: Moxxie's fear of theme park mascots is played for laughs, but with him immediately jumping to the accusation of one being a pervert, it begs the question of if there's a...deeper reason he'd be so afraid of them. Also, the fact that he turns out to be right about Loo Loo is fridge horror in and of itself. Used to mean Mistaken for Pedophile
2. Theatre.Parade 1998: Depraved Bisexual: Leo is accused of this, as well as pedophilia, during "Real Big News" as Britt Craig's smear campaign on him begins. Jim Conley also mentions it in his testimony during "That's What He Said." The protagonist is victim of a smear campaign against him which includes accusations of pedophilia.
3. Series.WaitingForGod: Babysitter from Hell: Diana to Tom's grandchildren after they have him nearly arrested for "offering them sweeties". They spend an absolutely lovely day together...literally, since Diana starts off by handcuffing them together. Later subverted when they handcuff her to the car door handle. Main character (Tom) wrongfully accused of being a pedophile.

Character is a pedophile but not a villain (3/50)

1. Film.GetReadyToBeBoyzvoiced: During an interview, a news reporter reveals that M*Pete's girlfriend Stine, who is supposedly 16 (the age of consent in Norway), is actually only 12, having lied about her age. The singer does not take this well at all. The character in question (M*Pete) is the movie's protagonist, not a villain. Might count as "pedophilia mention" example.
2. WebVideo.OprahMakesCartoons: Baumann has a 14 year old girlfriend, information Ben uses to get him arrested in "Shadow Dancing." Main character, not a villain.
3. Characters.PokemonFriendlocke: Gives Derek his phone number immediately following the battle, which makes him more than a little uncomfortable. The character is labelled as a Joke Character and doesn't seem to be a villain.

Used as a pothole for general mentions of pedophilia (5/50)

1. YMMV.Medabots: Ho Yay: Fans tend to ship Hikaru and Ikki... and often do not remember that Ikki is a ten year old kid and that Hikaru is in college.
2. WarpThatAesop.Twilight: Necrophilia is awesome. So is bestiality. And pedophilia.
3. Funny.ExcelSaga: Welcome to Episode 26, Going Too Far. Not so much an exercise in crossing the line, but shooting the line in the knee, tossing it in a shallow grave, raping its mother and not paying the alimony. Refuge in Audacity up to eleven. Let us count the ways: Using recent gas-killings as a gag. More cussing than an N.W.A. album. Rampant pedophilia. (...)
4. Recap.ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphiaS07E03FrankReynoldsLittleBeauties: Eagleland: Charlie tries to invoke a Type 1 by portraying child beauty pageants as a proud American tradition, but the episode veers into Type 2 by showing how crass and tasteless they often are, as well as magnets for child molesters. Notably, during the scene when Walter is arrested and exposed as a diddler, "America the Beautiful" is playing in the background.
5. Pantheon.SpeechAToM: Once had problems getting an erection during a performance. Butters suggested he needed to have sex to get rid of it, leading him to rescuing a prostitute. It's been advised to him not to pursue that because he's like 10, though he will probably protect prostitutes in the pantheon if they get in trouble given his general friendliness.

Used as a pothole to discuss a real life person being a pedophile (3/50)

1. Trivia.AOSP100MicrosoftSamReadsFunnyWindowsErrors: Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Since April 2019, a composer for soundtracks of his friends' works, had a scandal involving pedophile interactions with several users. This led to Ace desperately trying to replace him as a composer to avoid anymore trouble.
2. Film.RushHour: Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: For obvious reasons, Roman Polański's role in part three as a French officer was kept pretty quiet.
3. YMMV.RalphBreaksTheInternet: Harsher in Hindsight: Colleen Ballinger’s cameo as the person who gets her internet connection disconnected thanks to Ralph becomes harder to watch thanks to her recent pedophillia allegations.

ZCE and Unclear use (11/50)

1. Characters.WithPearlAndRubyGlowingHolidaySpecials: Again implied. He's pretty beat up inside the palace and it's noted that he's not sitting down. Unclear context.
2. Recap.TheSilverscaleArenaS1E1December2020: Jared Fogle makes a cameo, VASTLY unnerving Ed with his dialogue.
3. ComicBook.TheFilth: Greg is targeted by one after he tries to buck the system. Unclear context.
4. Trivia.DunstonChecksIn: Star-Derailing Role: This was another failed attempt for Jason Alexander to jump from the small screen and Seinfeld to the big screen, coming a few years after Roger Ebert hated North, which had an infamous "Loosen His Pants!" line.
5. Characters.DeathBattleSeasonTwoPart1: Boomstick interprets his "Friend to all children" status as something more sinister... until Wiz clarifies otherwise. Unsure on how to classify this.
6. Characters.OneyPlays: He ends up spin attacking several police men and Chris Hansen after being accused of this. Character wrongly accused of being a pedophile... Maybe? Unclear context.
7. Fanfic.ACompleteTurnabout: It's later implied that the possible reason she got together with Dylan Sengage is that she could pin the murder on him ...until it's revealed he's genuinely her Morality Pet and the last person she wanted to be branded as a suspect. Lacks context, just used to denote that a character is a pedophile.
8. YMMV.OurCartoonPresident: Crosses the Line Twice: Trump and Bill Clinton putting their political differences aside to mourn their late friend, convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Pedophilia mention pothole maybe? IRL person being a pedophile pothole? Epstein isn't a character in the show and he's only mentioned to have died, so he doesn't count as a villain.
9. Fridge.BoJackHorseman: In "Still Broken", Sarah Lynn mentions being homeschooled by her "photographer" mother's boyfriend. Later on, she recognizes the taste of bear fur because her stepfather was a bear. Um...
10. Fridge.BigMouth: Why is the show so deliberately ugly? Two reasons: one, puberty makes you feel ugly, so it wouldn't make sense for pubescent children to look anything other than gangly and awkward. Two, it dissuades any assumptions that it's an excuse to draw naked pubescent children, because who would find these kids attractive? Pedophilia mention pothole or people being wrongly accused of pedophilia? Unsure.
11. YMMV.ThirteenAssassins: Values Dissonance: Japan doesn't have a problem with non-sexual nudity or children being naked. There's a long shot of a naked little boy, about 6, peeing in a ditch. This is a funny gag to Japanese Cinema (a similar joke would be picking your nose in the West) but it can be jarring to foreign audiences to whom "naked children" means "Pedo Hunt". Paranoia/hysteria? Unsure about the intended meaning here.