Basic Trope: Parents killing their own children.
- Straight: Alice and Bob murder their son, Carl.
- Exaggerated:
- Downplayed:
- Alice and Bob look the other way when favored son Ethan murders Carl.
- Alice shakes baby Carl to make him stop crying, and she accidentally kills him. She doesn't miss him, and Bob isn't particularly upset either.
- Alice and Bob not only disown Carl but also threaten to kill him if he returns.
- Alice and Bob severely injure Carl, or attack him with the intention of killing him, but he ends up surviving.
- Justified:
- Carl was evil.
- Alice and Bob are evil.
- Alice and Bob are Abusive Parents who believe that Murder Is the Best Solution.
- Alice and Bob wanted a girl. When they got one, Carl became "unnecessary."
- Alice, Bob, and their children belong to a species that is naturally hostile to itself. Alice and Bob don't even normally live together; they only come together to mate every so often. If they meet any other time, they fight, possibly to the death. If Bob or Alice find Carl, they will kill him or at least try to.
- Alice and Bob live in a society where the firstborn get the majority of the inheritance. Alice and Bob don't want Carl screwing up the family fortune, so they kill him.
- Carl was suffering from a painful and incurable disease. It was a Mercy Kill.
- Carl has done something to put the family in shame. Alice and Bob killing him was what they believe is honor-related.
- Alice and Bob were tired of putting up with his bratty, entitled, rebellious, careless, and unruly behavior. This was Offing the Annoyance.
- Alice and Bob's religion requires all firstborn sons to be sacrificed to their god.
- Alice comes from a tribe of Amazons or Lady Land which historically distrusts males and so all (excess) male children are killed as a potential threat to society.
- Inverted:
- Carl murders Alice and Bob.
- Bob saves Carl from a murderer.
- Carl dies of cancer, and White Mage Alice resurrects him from the dead.
- Subverted:
- Alice and Bob kill Carl, but then Bob tells one of his co-workers that it was an Accidental Murder.
- Alice and Bob attempt to murder Carl, but they fail.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob was lying.
- He tries again later on and succeeds.
- Parodied: Carl is an immortal child. His parents try to kill him, but they fail repeatedly because he keeps on resurrecting without explanation.
- Zig-Zagged: Carl dies suddenly. Since Alice and Bob clearly disliked him, the police and neighbors immediately assume they killed him. An autopsy reveals, however, that Carl naturally died due to disease, not abuse. Further investigation divulges that, howbeit, Alice and Bob deliberately exposed Carl to the illness in the first place, and, when he got deadly sick, refused to take him to a physician, because they wanted Carl to die.
- Averted: Alice and Bob don't murder Carl.
- Enforced: "We need to write Carl off, but how do you write off a child character?" "We could send him to live with his aunt, but we want a more dramatic option. Let's have his Abusive Parents get tired of his misbehavior and murder him."
- Lampshaded: "Did you and Alice really murder Carl? Surely he wasn't that misbehaved!"
- Invoked: Carl wants to die, so he abuses his parents until they snap and murder him.
- Exploited: Alice and Bob are employed as a hitman and a hitwoman due to their experience.
- Defied:
- Alice and Bob hate Carl, but know that they would never get away with murder, so they give him up for adoption instead.
- "You are our son, and we would never kill you, no matter what you've done."
- Discussed: "Carl is such a nuisance. Maybe we should murder him." "I don't think that's a good idea. We'll get caught for certain, and then it's the slammer for us."
- Conversed: "This is one weird show. Why didn't Carl's parents get arrested after they murdered him? Are we to believe that they didn't get caught?"
- Implied: Alice and Bob are Abusive Parents, and Carl vanishes without an explanation.
- Deconstructed:
- Carl's friends suffer from the loss, while Alice and Bob are arrested.
- Alice and Bob kill Carl and then learns that Carl is their son. They have a Freak Out due to their guilt.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice is acquitted, Bob escapes from prison, and Carl's friends forget about him before long.
- They soon learn Carl was a nuisance and start celebrating his death by killing all their children.
- Played for Laughs: Everyone celebrates Carl's death, because he was a rotten son, a bully to other children, and a terror to Alice and Bob's guests.
- Played for Drama:
- Diane is Forced to Watch Carl's murder. This gives her lifelong emotional trauma.
- Alice and Bob have a nasty argument with their son, Carl. As Carl yells at the both of them, telling them that he wished they were dead, Bob angrily pushes Carl to the ground. Carl responds by attacking him. Alice tries to restrain Carl, only for Carl to attack her and choke her. Trying to save Alice from being choked to death, Bob takes out his gun and shoots his son, killing him in the process. Along with Alice, he is driven in tears after killing his own child, and hugs Carl's head, proving that despite how Carl acted, they still loved him.
- Played for Horror: Bob straps Carl to a device that slowly removes all of his bones and makes Diane watch as Carl screams in pain as his bones get removed from his body.
Back to Offing the Offspring
