History Main / BornWinner

The Born Winner is a badass. Of course they are; they were born that way. Born Winners are badasses because of what they ''are'' rather than what they ''do''. They're Aliens among PunyEarthlings, [[{{Youkai}} demons]] among mortals, {{r|idiculouslyHumanRobots}}obots among meatbags, or a [[MagicAndPowers magic-user]] among {{Muggles}}. TheHero is usually the Born Winner; if there's a group of people besides [[{{Muggles}} "normal" humans]], the main character will be one, or at least [[HalfHumanHybrid partially]]. If others in the setting [[SuperWeight have superpowers]], expect the Born Winner to have won the SuperpowerLottery by comparison. If TheHero is a Born Winner, TheRival usually will be too. Usually, a mundane human will be part of the main character's TrueCompanions and generally be able to hold their own at first, but as the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil kicks in, expect them to be OvershadowedByAwesome or even KilledOffForReal in order to fuel the main character's UnstoppableRage.

The heart of this trope is that a Born Winner is absurdly powerful because they were ''born'' that way, not because of anything they ever ''did''. They have some innate trait that makes them awesome; no one lacking that trait can ever acquire it, and anyone without it is doomed to mediocrity. Done badly, it comes off as a cheap ploy to make the Born Winner seem more awesome by dropping the effectiveness of his companions to somewhere just above that of the RedShirtArmy (and often has a ThisLoserIsYou [[WhatMeasureIsANonSuper side effect]], seeing as viewers would presumably identify more easily with the now-useless BadassNormal than the alien/demon/vampire/whatever Born Winner). When it's done well, it can be a compelling reason for why the main character is the OnlyOne without relying on a blatant BecauseDestinySaysSo.
Heroic Born Winners tend to eventually accept that with their powers or abilities ComesGreatResponsibility. Villainous Born Winners will almost always succumb to DrunkWithPower. SubTrope of SuperiorSuccessor.

The heart of this trope is that a Born Winner is absurdly powerful because they were ''born'' that way, not because of anything they ever ''did''. They have some innate trait that makes them awesome; no one lacking that trait can ever acquire it, and anyone without it is doomed to mediocrity. Done badly, it comes off as a cheap ploy to make the BornWinner seem more awesome by dropping the effectiveness of his companions to somewhere just above that of the RedShirtArmy (and often has a ThisLoserIsYou [[WhatMeasureIsANonSuper side effect]], seeing as viewers would presumably identify more easily with the now-useless BadassNormal than the alien/demon/vampire/whatever Born Winner). When it's done well, it can be a compelling reason for why the main character is the OnlyOne without relying on a blatant BecauseDestinySaysSo.

The Born Winner is a badass. Of course they are; they were born that way. Born Winners are badasses because of what they ''are'' rather than what they ''do''. They're Aliens among PunyEarthlings, [[{{Obake}} demons]] among mortals, {{r|idiculouslyHumanRobots}}obots among meatbags, or a [[MagicAndPowers magic-user]] among {{Muggles}}. TheHero is usually the Born Winner; if there's a group of people besides [[{{Muggles}} "normal" humans]], the main character will be one, or at least [[HalfHumanHybrid partially]]. If others in the setting [[SuperWeight have superpowers]], expect the Born Winner to have won the SuperpowerLottery by comparison. If TheHero is a Born Winner, TheRival usually will be too. Usually, a mundane human will be part of the main character's TrueCompanions and generally be able to hold their own at first, but as the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil kicks in, expect them to be OvershadowedByAwesome or even KilledOffForReal in order to fuel the main character's UnstoppableRage.

* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' -- [[{{Obake}} Demons]] are the only ones who can accomplish anything after the TournamentArc. [[spoiler:Even Yusuke is revealed to have [[HalfHumanHybrid demonic heritage]].]] In the last three arcs, Kuwabara was [[OnlyMostlyDead killed]] to send Yusuke into an UnstoppableRage, [[DamselInDistress taken hostage]], and PutOnABus, respectively.

** Charlotte Linlin, better known as Big Mom, was a freak of nature from the start, and her path towards becoming one of the Yonkou barely involved any training at all; it was simply what happens when someone so freakishly powerful that she can accidentally kill a giant hero at ''five-years-old'' is nudged into the path of piracy. The downsides are clearly visible, however: [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome How do you take care of someone that freakishly strong, and as terrifyingly ravenous as her?]] No one ever knew how to properly take care of such a monstrous little girl, and as an adult she is ''[[TheCaligula messed]] [[PsychopathicManchild up]]''.

* ''Fanfic/LightningAndWind'': Descendants, who inherited a High Spirit or god's power through legacy. Contrast Saints, whoinstead of having a body similar to the Son of God have received a very small fraction of power from a powerful ancestor.

** On the other side of the spectrum lie people with Heavenly Restrictions, who have a limitation placed on their bodies at birth in exchange for a drastic increase in power.

*** [[MarionetteMaster Kokichi Muta]], the true identity of [[RemoteBody Mechamaru]], was gifted with extraordinarily amounts of cursed energy and an equally vast range in which he can control it, able to control his puppet bodies across the entirety of Japan if need be. [[BlessedWithSuck In exchange]], however, [[AnArmAndALeg he was born without a right arm]], his legs don't work, [[WeakenedByTheLight he absolutely cannot withstand natural light]] and his skin feels like it's constantly being pricked by needles. [[spoiler:[[IJustWantToBeNormal In desperation]], he secretly [[DealWithTheDevil cuts a deal with Mahito]] to [[TheMole provide intel]] in exchange for [[{{Biomanipulation}} having his body transfigured to a normal, working condition]].]]

* The title character of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' is born the only person in the world who can bend all four elements. They also have access to combined knowledge of dozens, if not hundreds, of bending predecessors. The {{Deuteragonist}}, Zuko, is notably ''not'' an example of this, and embraces it fully: his father describes his sister, the fire-bending prodigy, as "born lucky" while Zuko was "lucky to be born."

** Twilight Sparkle of was born with magical potential unparalleled by anypony not named Princess Celestia or Luna. Granted, it takes the Sonic Rainboom to unlock it, but the ball rolls from there, with her becoming Princess Celestia's personal apprentice, the bearer of the Element of Magic, leader of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, savior of Equestria on several occasions, and eventually [[spoiler:an alicorn princess of Equestria]].
** On a lesser scale, Fluttershy, despite being a {{Pegasus}}, has [[FriendToAllLivingThings innate skill when it comes to interacting with animals]], a power that is usually reserved to Earth ponies. Even though her flight skills are shown to be lacking in comparison to other Pegasi, she still gets two racial powers when most ponies only get one.

*** Then there's [[MageKiller Toji Fushiguro]] and [[MultiMeleeMaster Maki Zen'in]], who as a [[CursedWithAwesome mirror]] to Kokichi [[UnSorcerer were born with zero cursed energy]] in exchange for [[LightningBruiser abnormally powerful bodies]]. In Maki's case, however, because she and her sister Mai were born as twins, her Heavenly Restriction was weakened and split in two: while Maki still had a strong body, she had but a smidge of cursed energy, whereas Mai had a little more cursed energy (enough to use her Cursed Technique once a day) and a normal body. [[spoiler:After Mai's death, Maki loses what cursed energy she had and her Heavenly Restriction activates at 100%, [[OneWomanArmy allowing her to become as powerful as Toji in his prime]].]]

*** [[MarionetteMaster Kokichi Muta]], the true identity of [[RemoteBody Mechamaru]], was gifted with extraordinarily amounts of cursed energy and an equally vast range in which he can control it, able to control his puppet bodies across the entirety of Japan if need be. [[BlessedWithSuck In exchange]], however, [[AnArmAndALeg he was born without a right arm]], his legs don't work, [[WeakenedByTheLight he absolutely cannot withstand natural light]] and his skin ffels like it's constantly being pricked by needles. [[spoiler:[[IJustWantToBeNormal In desperation]], he secretly [[DealWithTheDevil cuts a deal with Mahito]] to [[TheMole provide intel]] in exchange for [[{{Biomanipulation}} having his body transfigured to a normal, working condition]].]]

*** Then there's [[MageKiller Toji Fushiguro]] and [[MultiMeleeMaster Maki Zen'in]], who as a [[CursedWithAwesome mirror]] to Kokichi [[UnSorcerer were born with zero cursed energy]] in exchange for [[LightningBruiser abnormally powerful bodies]]. In Maki's case, however, because she and her sister Mai were born as twins, her Heavenly Restriction was weakened and split in two: while Maki still had a strong body, she had but a smidge of cursed energy, whereas Mai had a little more cursed energy (enough to use her Cursed Technique once a day) and a normal body. [[spoiler:After Mai's death, Maki loses what cursed energy she had and her Heavenly Restriction activates at 100%, allowing her to become as powerful as Toji in his prime.]]

* In the world of ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'', it is a fact that the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerers are simply born that way, gifted with immense Cursed Energy and an Innate Technique that puts them well above even the most experienced and well-trained sorcerers with less. No sorcerer is a better example than Satoru Gojo, a sorcerer born with two of his clan's treasured techniques: the Six Eyes, which allows him to [[StatOVision see the nature of Cursed Energy]] as well as [[ReducedManaCost keep the amount of Cursed Energy he burns close to zero]], and the Limitless, which allows him to [[SpaceMaster manipulate space]] and make him effectively invincible to any technique that does not negate a Cursed Technique. These powers individually would make a sorcerer strong, but together, Gojo is ''unstoppable''. Even if an enemy were to bypass these techniques, Gojo has an immense amount of Cursed Energy to attack and defend himself with, a [[DomainHolder Domain Expansion]] that is pretty much an InstantWinCondition, a HealingFactor, and the skill and experience to make up for any of his possible weaknesses. Gojo is so unfathomably powerful that when he was born, Cursed Spirits ''rose in power'' to compensate--and even then, not a single Cursed Spirit or Sorcerer, today or in the Golden Age of Jujutsu Sorcery, can stand up to Gojo's sheer power. Even besides combat ability, Gojo is a gifted genius, the leader of his clan, and can get away with doing whatever he wants due to his power and influence.

* ''Literature/{{Replica}}'': the DesignerBabies are ultimately meant to breed so they become a master race and take over the world.

* In the world of ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'', it is a fact that the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerers are simply born that way, gifted with immense Cursed Energy and an Innate Technique that puts them well above even the most experienced and well-trained sorcerers with less. No sorcerer is a better example than Satoru Gojo, a sorcerer born with two of his clan's treasured techniques: the Six Eyes, which allows him to [[StatOVision see the nature of Cursed Energy]] as well as [[ReducedManaCost keep the amount of Cursed Energy he burns close to zero]], and the Limitless, which allows him to [[SpaceMaster manipulate space]] and make him effectively invincible to any technique that does not negate a Cursed Technique. These powers individually would make a sorcerer strong, but together, Gojo is ''unstoppable''. Even if an enemy were to bypass these techniques, Gojo has an immense amount of Cursed Energy to attack and defend himself with, a [[DomainHolder Domain Expansion]] that is pretty much an InstantWinCondition, a HealingFactor, and the skill and experience to make up for any of his possible weaknesses. Gojo is so unfathomably powerful that when he was born, Cursed Spirits ''rose in power'' to compensate--and even then, not a single Cursed Spirit or Sorcere, today or in the Golden Age of Jujutsu Sorcery, can stand up to Gojo's sheer power. Even besides combat ability, Gojo is a gifted genius, the leader of his clan, and can get away with doing whatever he wants due to his power and influence.

** Touma was born with [[AntiMagic Imagine]] [[PowerNullifier Breaker]], but it's hard to call him a born "winner" when one of the side effects of Imagine Breaker is [[BornUnlucky uncontrollably destroying his good luck]], leading to a life filled with "[[CatchPhrase such misfortune]]".

** Until Goku unlocked his Super Saiyan transformation, Frieza was by far the most powerful mortal in the universe, and fans spent years speculating about how and why Frieza came to be so strong. Was there an entire race of beings as strong as Frieza? Did he do some sort of special training? Eventually the answer was revealed, and [[spoiler: neither is correct. Frieza didn't get his power from training, nor is his power normal for his species. He's simply a mutant that was born with an abnormally high power level. The monster that the heroes fought on Namek had literally never trained a day in his life, and when he finally ''did'' buckle down to train after being brought back to life, in ''four months'' he achieved a level of power comparable to what took Goku years to reach.]]

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' Ash Ketchum is involved with many prophetic legends. The fourth season song is called "Born To Be a Winner", which is much of a remix of the Season 1 theme. Surprisingly, this is averted when it comes to Leagues -- [[spoiler:it took him 22 seasons to win one.]]

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'':

* Examined in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD''. The born winner is [[TheRival Vali Lucifer]] -- as a direct descendant of his namesake, he's already an incredibly power Devil, plus he was born with [[ManaDrain Divine Dividing]], which make it even easier for him to grossly overpower his enemies. All this is seen through the eyes of series protagonist Issei, a [[{{Foil}} bog-standard human]] [[FirstEpisodeResurrection (read: mediocre Devil)]] who, despite possessing [[AmplifierArtifact Boosted Gear]], has to [[TrainingFromHell work his ass off]] to even keep up with any of his enemies.

%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'' -- Vampires. And Crusniks even more so.