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Evil Orphan

 Evil Orphan
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 Evil Orphan
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Evil Orphan
 Evil Orphan
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EvilOrphan
 Evil Orphan
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Sometimes you get lucky, and the Mysterious Waif you adopted becomes a well-adjusted and welcome addition to the family. Other times...not.
For the sake of the story, the young couple will have no idea anything is wrong, but tropers will know right away there's something not right with this newcomer. They're a Creepy Child, who looks like they strolled out of the Uncanny Valley. It's not long before things start going wrong around them. Pets start acting up. Things go missing. There are fires. Injuries. Nocturnal birds of prey show up everywhere.
As if they don't have enough to worry about, the couple's biological child is making up crazy stories about how the orphan is planning to kill them all in their sleep! They will be ignored. Sometimes one or both of the parents figure it out at the very last minute. Sometimes it falls to the children to stop them.
The Evil Orphan is the modern-day incarnation of the Changeling Tale. It uses the tried-and-true horror of Subverted Innocence and the Devil in Plain Sight, as there is little that can compare to the fear and revulsion of discovering that one has been succoring evil incarnate in one's own home.
Expect anything of the Ungrateful Bastard, but be particularly on the lookout for those that play on her youth, like the Wounded Gazelle Gambit. May cause Fridge Horror when the audience wonders just how she became an orphan in the first place. Incorporates any and every trope having to do with with Creepy Children. See also Enfant Terrible.
The polar opposite of the Heartwarming Orphan.
 Evil Orphan
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2023-07-03T17:30:40Z
 Evil Orphan
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2023-07-03T17:30:40Z
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DBTropes
 Evil Orphan / int_22caa0de
type
Evil Orphan
 Evil Orphan / int_22caa0de
comment
Exploited in The Good Son: the evil one is the kid with both parents, but he manipulates the people around to make it look like his innocent, half-orphaned cousin is the bad seed.
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Evil Orphan
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While the audience knows that her orphan status has nothing to do with her sociopathic and sinister nature, other than Being-X, no one else knows anything about the history and origin of Tanya Von Degurechaff from The Saga of Tanya the Evil. As far as anyone in-show is concerned Tayna is just one of an innumerable amount of war orphans in their country. And considering she joined the military at age 9 (and continues base her decision to join on her status as an orphan), there is nothing else for them to go on regarding the source of her sadistically ruthless personality.
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 The Saga of Tanya the Evil
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Evil Orphan
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In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Voldemort's daughter Delphi also qualifies, since she was born shortly before both of her parents (Bellatrix Lestrange was her mother) died.
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 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Theatre)
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Evil Orphan
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While Orochimaru of Naruto didn't defect from Konoha until around 10 years before the start of the story, the Third Hokage noticed there was something unsettling about him after he lost his parents. He largely turned a blind eye to it because of his talent.
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Evil Orphan
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Whole bunch of them in Rule of Rose, though all have their own Freudian Excuse, and you will end up feeling more pity than loathing for them by the end. Wendy tops all the others by making the others kill Jennifer's dog, and then setting a serial killer loose on the orphanage. All because Jennifer didn't love her alone.
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Evil Orphan
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Harry Potter:
Lord Voldemort was raised in a Muggle orphanage, where he spent his free time bullying the other children in a variety of cruel and magical ways. He later became a Self-Made Orphan by tracking down and murdering his muggle father and paternal grandparents (and framing his maternal uncle for the deed).
In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Voldemort's daughter Delphi also qualifies, since she was born shortly before both of her parents (Bellatrix Lestrange was her mother) died.
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Evil Orphan
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During a questline in World of Warcraft Alliance players encounter Hope Saldean, a friendly young lady who was adopted by the Saldean couple four years earlier. While Hope seemingly spends much of the Westfall-storyline feeding the homeless, a shadowy figure is gathering the old members of the Defias Brotherhood. In the end Hope reveals herself to be Vanessa Vancleef, the daughter of Defias leader Edwin Vancleef, who has been secretly plotting against the Kingdom of Stormwind the whole time.
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 Evil Orphan / int_40b98237
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Evil Orphan
 Evil Orphan / int_40b98237
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Played for laughs in Problem Child. He isn't really evil, just misunderstood and tends to Pay Evil unto Evil.
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Evil Orphan
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Supernatural has a young girl in the first season who not only cut the throats of her biological and adoptive families, but made it look like her adoptive father did it. Then she did it to people who owned a painting of her adoptive family.
Considering how ugly that painting was...And that they knew it has a bad reputation of previously deceased owners...Maybe they had it coming.
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Evil Orphan
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Discussed in A Brother's Price. In a case of Deliberate Values Dissonance, adoption is seen as "a hidden evil". When a family commits treason, if it's not believed to be divided then every member down to the youngest is killed to prevent a Cycle of Revenge or You Killed My Father situation. There is treason in the book, and while Ren does not want to kill her five-year-old 'niece' Eldie, her sister ruthlessly reminds her that none of the child's relatives will take them, and if they take the child, Eldie will eventually know why their family was killed and turn on them.
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Evil Orphan
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Alexander on Smallville is an infant clone of Lex Luthor. Tess Mercer hoped that by raising him to be good, she could save him from the Luthor legacy. Unfortunately, Alexander has all of Lex's memories, and is aging very rapidly to boot. As of "Luthor" he's gone AWOL, and is out there, somewhere, plotting revenge on her and Clark. Eventually inverted, since he ended up losing these memories and becoming Superboy.
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 Smallville
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Evil Orphan
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Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. His Freudian Excuse is relatively strong, but at any rate, he ends up a usurping beast of pure spite, and his intentions are just that.
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 Wuthering Heights
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Evil Orphan
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Rosemary from Ashitano Nadja didn't start as this, but she got in the role very quickly after a major Freak Out caused by seeing that her old friend Nadja was the one living her formerly innocent dream.
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 Ashita no Nadja
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Evil Orphan
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The novel Hogfather features Mr. Teatime, who was taken in by the Assassin's Guild after both his parents died suddenly when he was very young. In the words of guildmaster Lord Downey, "In hindsight, perhaps we should have looked into that a bit more."
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Evil Orphan
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The whole point of Orphan. Although, in a subversion, it turns out that "Esther" isn't even a child, but an adult woman with a growth disorder.
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Evil Orphan
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The Great Brain: Franky Pennyworth starts out as this after he's adopted by the Fitzgerald family. He's downright mean to the point of homicidal to JD and his parents, only showing kindness to their housekeeper. As it turns out, the trauma of losing his parents when their house burned down caused Franky to block out the event and come to the conclusion that the Fitzgeralds replaced his family (since the housekeeper had no analogue to the Pennyworths, she was immune to this). JD forces a breakthrough when, tired of Franky's shenanigans and his parents' indulgence thereof, administers a spanking to Franky, breaking him through his mental block and forcing him to confront the memory of the tragedy.
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Evil Orphan
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ALiCE (2014): Subverted, Michael was much happier when he lived at Woodrow Children's Asylum; being adopted by Joseph and Mary and the abuse he suffered at their hands was his Start of Darkness.
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Evil Orphan
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Dio Brando of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure gets adopted into the loving Joestar family upon the death of his abusive father. Far from being grateful, though, he proceeds to make his adoptive brother Jonathan's life hell, all while looking perfectly innocent to his adoptive father George. After Jonathan beats him up after Dio pushes him too far, though, Dio calms down and becomes perfectly pleasant for seven years... but it's all an act, as he hatches a plot to poison his adoptive father.
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Evil Orphan
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The antagonist of Thor and The Avengers, Loki, had this trope forced on him, seeing as he was lied to his entire life about his parentage. He doesn't become evil until he finds out he is adopted.
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In Mission Critical, you find The Mole's secret diary, where he explains his reasons for betraying The Alliance to the UN. His parents were scientists. He and his brother were visiting them at work one day, and a batch of nanites programmed to clean up oil spills was accidentally let loose, and his parents (or rather, all oils in their bodies) were eaten from inside out right in front of them. From that moment, he decided that the UN was right in limiting technological development.
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Mukuro from Reborn! (2004) is adopted by another family but soon uses the man taking care of him to kill off the entire family.
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Evil Orphan
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Little House on the Prairie: Nancy Olesen, given her extreme behavior issues and destructiveness. Although it is possible, even probable that Nancy has some very dark secrets in her past, the main reasons given for her extreme destructive, mean behavior center on her being moved from orphanage to orphanage due to her behavior problems (resulting in an unstable life) and the death of her mother while giving birth to her (a condition that today is known as pre-eclampsia). Indeed, in her first episode, Nancy – who deep down likely knows why her mother is not part of her life – claims she was abandoned by her dear, sweet mother.
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CSI has the very Creepy and Insufferable Genius Hannah, whose parents have died (the details are never explained) by her second appearance. In her first appearance she gets her brother off a murder charge (albeit an accidental one). In her second she frames him and Drives Him To Suicide to keep him dependent on her. She also Breaking Speeches Sara, possibly contributing to her decision to go on a vacation to the rainforest.
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Evil Orphan
 Evil Orphan / int_d217e378
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Clive in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, who lost his parents in a time machine explosion 10 years ago, and schemed to take vengeance on the people responsible with the money he inherited from his adoptive mother.
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Evil Orphan
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Family Guy spoofs this with Stewie's pet turtle.
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Evil Orphan
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The Omen (1976). The boy, Damien, is an orphan substituted for the couple's stillborn child, who died shortly after birth.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Evil Orphan
processingCategory2
Adopt an Index
 Evil Orphan
processingCategory2
Characters as Device
 Evil Orphan
processingCategory2
Horror Tropes
 Evil Orphan
processingCategory2
Subverted Innocence
 Evil Orphan
processingCategory2
Villains
 Evil Orphan
processingCategory2
Youngsters
 Fear (1996) / int_9ed576e1
type
Evil Orphan
 Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers / int_9ed576e1
type
Evil Orphan
 Mikey / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 Star Wars: Revelations / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 A Brother's Price / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 ALiCE / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 Darth Bane / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 MagicForBeginners
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Evil Orphan
 The Last King of Osten Ard / int_9ed576e1
type
Evil Orphan
 The Night of Wishes / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 Wuthering Heights / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 AdditionalEvilOverlordListCellblockA
seeAlso
Evil Orphan
 MagicForBeginners
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Evil Orphan
 The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer (Manga) / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 Mindhunter / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 The Sakabashira Game (Video Game) / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 Sweet Home (Webcomic) / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 Sweet Home (2017) (Webcomic) / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan
 Iron Man: Armored Adventures / int_9ed576e1
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Evil Orphan