History Main / InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers

* [[BlatantLies Can't remember]] [[TheBible the source]], but there's a very disturbing story where a DesignatedHero conducts a terrorist campaign to end the enslavement of his race, and the final act is to [[DeusExMachina call down his god]] to murder all the oppressors' firstborn children. [[BreakTheHaughty That does the trick.]]
** Actually, {{God}} had the idea. Moses was just his walking PSA that [[FridgeLogic Pharaoh never listened to.]]
** [[DesignatedVillain Bizarrely]], a much later scene portrays a king pulling the exact same trick on the protagonists as a MoralEventHorizon. Must be the old OmniscientMoralityLicence.
** Well, in the Moses story, Moses himself was nearly killed when the Pharoah ordered all the male Hebrew babies killed as a way of culling their population, so I think God picked a rather appropriate punishment after Pharoah wouldn't listen to him.
*** Yes, because the murder of millions of children because of the actions of one individual is totally justifiable.
**** Alternate interpretation: Egyptian pharaohs in those days were regarded as deities, or at least as avatars of deities, with absolute power over life and death, and the tenth plague was intended to strike directly at Pharaoh's {{pride}} because of this, to [[BreakTheHaughty show him just who was the real boss]]. Pharaoh had the opportunity [[HumiliationConga (plenty of them)]] to acknowledge that he really wasn't all that supreme compared to the Hebrews' God, and considering that ''his own priests and advisors'' were begging him to just back down from [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu flipping off God]]...unfortunately, it was a dual case of him TemptingFate and being TooDumbToLive.

-->-- '''The 456''', ''{{Torchwood}}''

* The 456 from ''{{Torchwood}}: Children of Earth'' are this on a global scale, with the sickening twist that they require human co-conspirators (and have some very effective means of coercing human cooperation). In the 1960's, they offered humankind a cure for a plague that would have killed millions, in exchange for 12 children. They return in the events of ''Children of Earth'', this time not offering help, but an ultimatum: 10% of all Earth's children, or humanity's extinction. [[spoiler:The most disturbing part of all this? They use the children as living drug dispensers. Not the prescription kind...the ''recreational'' kind. The 456 are space junkies and they're holding the Earth at gunpoint for a ''fix''.]]

[[AC:{{Folklore}}]]

See also EatsBabies.

For a specific variation that involves abduction by fairy beings, see ChangelingTale. See also AlienAbduction.

* At the end of ''No Man's Land'' from {{Batman}}, [[CompleteMonster Joker]] does this. Interestingly, he doesn't harm a single one, but [[spoiler: he does murder Commissioner Gordon's wife, who found him and tried to stop him. Which was probably his goal all along, to make Gordon snap and kill him.]]

* In ''Ghostbusters 2'', Dana's baby is the target of a supernatural kidnapper.

* An episode of ''{{Supernatural}}'' had this with a rather frightening twist; the children were replaced by changelings, exact replicas of the real thing, but they sucked blood from their mothers and killed their fathers. The real children were kept in cages.

* The Penguin in ''BatmanReturns'', after his plan to get elected mayor of Gotham City goes to hell, steals everyone's first-born sons, intending to take them into the sewer and "toss them into a deep dark watery grave" as revenge on the Gothamites. When he captures Max Shreck, who manipulated and betrayed him, he changes this plan slightly -- he intends to make Shreck watch as the kids sink into a deep puddle of his industrial byproducts before then making him join them. Fortunately for the kids, Batman is able to stop this evil plan before it gets too far.

* The Other Mother from ''{{Coraline}}''.

* Rosine from {{Berserk}}, who carried off kids (usually after murdering their parents) to be turned into her creepy little pseudo-Elves in a twisted version of the ChangelingFantasy.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}
* Rosine from {{Berserk}}, who murdered abusive parents and carried off kids to be turned into her creepy little pseudo-Elves in a twisted version of the ChangelingFantasy.

--> ''We want...your children. [[CreepyMonotone We will take your children.]]''
-->-- '''The 456'', ''{{Torchwood}}''

* The idea of [[TheFairFolk fairies]] replacing healthy babies with (often sickly) [[ChangelingTale "changelings"]] (either their own offspring or [[DreamLogic an enchanted piece of wood]] made [[{{Doppelganger}} to look like]] [[CreepyChild a baby]]) comes from traditional folklore; see ChangelingTale for examples.

* ''Discworld/LordsAndLadies'', being based on TheFairFolk legends, references the folklore version of this- elves are known to have a habit of stealing children, and while they aren't seen to do it in the book itself, the mere possibility is [[BerserkButton so infuriating]] to the [[BewareTheNiceOnes usually laid-back]] [[MamaBear Nanny Ogg]] that she actually (if half-jokingly) suggests ColdBloodedTorture. Later, in ''Discworld/TheWeeFreeMen'', their child-stealing ways get actual page time.

* The idea of [[TheFairFolk fairies]] replacing healthy babies with (often sickly) "changelings" (either their own offspring or an enchanted piece of wood made to look like a baby) comes from traditional folklore. Some historians believe that the myth appeared as an explanation for what would now be attributed to physical deformities (cleft palettes, birthmarks, six fingers, blindness, etc), mental retardation (Down syndrome, Williams-Beuren syndrome), or behavioural disorders (ADHD, ADD, Kanner-syndrome autism, etc). Needless to say, this [[OlderThanPrint makes this...]]
** Children with the hereditary genetic [[http://www.answers.com/topic/williams-syndrome Williams-Beuren syndrome]] are sometimes called "fairy children". They are often smaller than average and show typical facial features: upturned snub nose, full lips, wide mouth, small chin, large eyes set wide apart. Children with blue or green eyes may show a starburst pattern in their iris. They are often mentally retarded but empathic, commonly have strong social skills and great verbal and musical talent.
*** They look like dolls, [[http://beehive.thisishull.co.uk/default.asp?WCI=DisplayImage&ImgID=24613 basically]].
** Folklore also lists ways to identify and "get rid" of a changeling: one of them involves taking the child and throwing it into a hearth fire or onto a hot oven... if it is indeed a changeling, the fairy will change into its true form and flee the house, never to be seen again. (Basically a socially acceptable excuse for poor mothers of disabled children to commit infanticide in medieval times.)

For a specific variation that involves abduction by fairy beings, see ChangelingTale.

*** Alternate interpretation: Egyptian pharaohs in those days were regarded as deities, or at least as avatars of deities, with absolute power over life and death, and the tenth plague was intended to strike directly at Pharaoh's {{pride}} because of this, to [[BreakTheHaughty show him just who was the real boss]]. Pharaoh had the opportunity [[HumiliationConga (plenty of them)]] to acknowledge that he really wasn't all that supreme compared to the Hebrews' God, and considering that ''his own priests and advisors'' were begging him to just back down from [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu flipping off God]]...unfortunately, it was a dual case of him TemptingFate and being TooDumbToLive.

* ''{{Discworld}}/LordsAndLadies'', being based on TheFairFolk legends, references the folklore version of this- elves are known to have a habit of stealing children, and while they aren't seen to do it in the book itself, the mere possibility is [[BerserkButton so infuriating]] to the [[BewareTheNiceOnes usually laid-back]] [[MamaBear Nanny Ogg]] that she actually (if half-jokingly) suggests ColdBloodedTorture. Later, in ''{{Discworld}}/TheWeeFreeMen'', their child-stealing ways get actual page time.

*** Yes, because the murder of millions of children because of the actions of one individual is totally justifiable.

*** Yes, because the murder of millions of children because of the actions of one individual is totally justifiable. And people wonder why christians must die.

* A quest in ''WorldOfWarcraft'' has you save children that were stolen by the arrakoa.