Line #36 Main/AHeroIsBorn


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/ManOfSteel https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/supes.png]]]]
5
6	->''"Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit."''
7	-->-- '''[[Literature/TheFourGospels Matthew 1:18]]''', ''Literature/TheBible''
8
9	What better way to introduce the protagonist of the story than start at their birth? This device is used to have the audience fall in love with the character, because who can't love a baby? A protagonist may be conceived and born in extraordinary or even supernatural circumstances which portend that they will grow up to be a hero. A lot of expectation may be placed on them from birth depending on if their parents are royalty needing an heir or suchlike. On the other hand, they may be born to poor parents or a mother abandoned by her partner, indicating that their early years will be full of hardship.
10
11	Mainly comes in two types.
12	* At birth: Work literally begins from the birth of the protagonist. A TimeSkip or two are permitted.
13	* As infant: Protagonist is shown as an infant at the beginning. Might overlap with DoorstopBaby.
14
15	Compare AMinorKidroduction.
16
17	----
18	!Examples:
19
20	!!At birth:
21
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
25	* ''Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa'': The adaptation of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle of Seasons]]'' opens with Link's birth, showing his Triforce mark from those games as a birthmark.
26	* ''Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles'' begins just a moment before the birth of Oscar in her family's château, with her father anxiously hoping for a boy to carry on the Jarjayes family name as trusted guards of the royal family. He gets his hopes up when he hears a loud cry from the other room that's strong like a boy, and is upset to find that the child is another girl. However, instead of giving up his ambitions, he decides to give her the masculine name Oscar and [[RaisedAsTheOppositeGender raise her as a boy]].
27	* ''Manga/{{Basara}}'' begins with the birth of the main character, Sarasa, and her twin brother Tatara.
28	* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': Although the manga starts InMediasRes with grown-up Guts in the Black Swordsman Arc, it's immediately followed by the Golden Age Arc which shows HowWeGotHere and begins with Guts' inauspicious and vaguely supernatural birth. A group of mercenaries including their leader Gambino and his mistress Sys pass by a grisly tree with perhaps a dozen people hanged by nooses from its branches, and see a newborn baby boy lying motionless beneath his mother's corpse. Sys, who lost her mind three days before from miscarrying her own baby, picks up the child; when Gambino forces her to drop him, the baby that everyone but Sys thought was dead comes to life and begins to wail. Gambino changes his mind and allows Sys to keep the baby, figuring he will probably die soon and console Sys in the meantime, despite one of his men saying it's bad luck to take in a child born from the womb of a hanged woman. The boy is named Guts, and after Sys catches the plague and dies three years later, Gambino blames everything on Guts, saying he should have died instead. What all this means is that Guts was born into the world surrounded by death, but from the very beginning he struggled to live. He is fated to live a life of suffering, but imbued with the ability to survive no matter what.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Comic Books]]
32	* ''{{ComicBook/Laika}}'': The second chapter begins with Kudryavka and her littermates being born. Her owner's landlady is not happy, as she doesn't want more dogs in the house.
33	* Traditionally origin stories for Franchise/WonderWoman begin with her "birth", given its strange nature as a birth from clay or a clay vessel rather than from her mother's womb.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Fan Works]]
37	* ''Webcomic/DragonBallReboot'': The prequel spin-off opens with the birth of Gine on Planet Vegeta, followed by a scene where doctors working for Frieza's empire decide to sort her with the other newborn Saiyans allowed to stay on their homeworld instead of being sent off-planet.
38	* ''Fanfic/{{The End of the World\|FernWithy}}'': Haymitch knows the parents of most District 12 characters born after the Second Quarter Quell and takes note when their kids are born. He has no way of knowing they'll be heroes, though, so the casual way he discusses some of these births can be humorous at times.
39	-->Ruth has her baby at the beginning of May. I don't visit; I haven't really talked to Ruth in years, and I only see Glen on rebellion business. Glen carries the baby around the square one day, though, singing a song. The baby is a girl. They name her after some plant.
40	* ''Fanfic/{{Paradoxus}}'': The [[Recap/ParadoxusCapitulo03 third chapter]]'s opening scene is that of Daphne, Marion, Sky, and Thore in a waiting room while Bloom gives birth to Altalune, one of {{the heroine}}s of the story and Domino's heir presumptive. As it's customary for Domino in this fic, as soon as she's born, the princess' runes are read by one of the realm's elders--they conclude that her path will diverge from that of her mother and that the one who'd inherit the crown hasn't been born yet. The trope is PlayedWith as this is not the actual beginning of the fic, although it's one of the plot-relevant, chronologically earliest events.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
44	* ''WesternAnimation/ArloTheAlligatorBoy'': This is how we first meet Arlo Beauregard at the beginning of the movie, showing him as a newborn and abandoned in the sewers on the night of his birth.
45	* Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon examples, in chronological order:
46	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'' begins with assorted wildlife coming to view the just-born Bambi and his mother. Seeing his adorable first steps is particularly endearing.
47	** ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'': 15 of the main characters are shown being born. Of course, the puppies are not so much the heroes of the tale as their parents are.
48	** Simba in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', with definite heroic overtones as all the animals in the kingdom come to see him. The film actually begins a short time after his birth; it opens with his formal presentation to the animals as their future king.
49	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' - Hercules was not only once a baby, he was once a god.
50	** Aladar the Iguanodon in ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinosaur}}'' is taken from his mother's nest as an egg by a Pteranodon and winds up hatching in the presence of a family of lemurs.
51	* ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' begins by showing Nemo and his siblings as eggs.
52	* Littlefoot, in ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime,'' is introduced in a similar way to Bambi. This also helps to develop his attachment to his mother, to make her death all the more tragic.
53	* The Argentinian animated film ''Manuelita'' (or at least, the main story of the film) begins with the main character gradually hatching from her egg as she makes her way from a random nest in a barn to her parents' house, not fully hatching until she reaches her destination.
54	* In [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirlsMovie their movie]], Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls weren't so much born as they were created purely by coincidence. From the get-go, they knew they were different but their sense of heroism would reach full maturation by the movie's third act.
55	* After the opening [[TheOner Oner]], ''WesternAnimation/SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron'' begins with Spirit's mother in labour.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
59	* ''Film/LookWhosTalking'' starts at conception. Actually a few moments ''before'' conception.
60	* James Kirk in the 2009 ''[[Film/StarTrek2009 Star Trek]]'' reboot movie. A deleted scene would also have done this with Spock. The prior version of James Kirk had barely anything about his life pre-captaincy.
61	%%* ''Film/{{Gattaca}}''
62	* ''Film/{{Amelie}}'' actually begins with the ''conception'' of the heroine.
63	%%* ''Film/Twins1988''
64	* ''Film/ManOfSteel'' begins with Franchise/{{Superman}}'s birth on Krypton.
65	* ''Film/TheCrowd'' starts with John Sims being born on July 4th, 1900.
66	* The first proper scene of ''Film/SonRiseAMiracleOfLove'' shows Suzie giving birth to Raun.
67	* ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'' combines this with DoorstopBaby and given the unique twist that a heroine is ''hatched,'' being that she comes from Dinohattan.
68	* ''Film/{{Thunderpants}}'' begins with the protagonist's mother farting him out in birth, since the plot revolves around a boy who always farts.
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Literature]]
72	* Frequently in ''Literature/TheBible''.
73	** Many people are more aware of the story of the birth of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} (being the origin of Christmas) than anything else he did. The story is considered pretty important since Jesus was conceived divinely.
74	** Taken to the extreme in the genealogy sections where you get long, long family history of who was begat by who, leading up to the people who are more familiar.
75	* Myth/ArthurianLegend tends to begin with the retelling of Myth/KingArthur's conception, a rather convoluted event involving adultery, war, and magic, following in the tradition of Celtic heroes having unusual affairs.
76	** By the time of Malory it's even more nuanced, as he has to keep the story of the strange conception, but also needs to make sure that Arthur isn't a bastard. Hard to make that work. The story then goes on to his birth and how Merlin christens him and whisks him away to Sir Ector.
77	** Tennyson has a very different account of Arthur's arrival, having him wash up on shore in a manner similar to Schyld Schefing, on the night Uther dies. It's all part of setting him up to be a truly pure hero.
78	* Literature/{{Beowulf}}:
79	** And, speaking of which, Schyld Schefing. The book begins by recounting his birth and life, even though the story isn't about him.
80	** Averted with Beowulf himself, oddly enough, who enters the story as a grown man from a foreign land; little about his childhood is ever revealed, save that he was weak as a child. This seems a small subversion of the typical hero story when they are born under unusual circumstances and have remarkable childhoods, but the unassuming child has become a recognizable trope in itself.
81	* ''Literature/WhiteFang'' starts a little before the birth of White Fang, actually.
82	* ''Literature/TristramShandy'' by Laurence Sterne begins with the hero's ''conception''. And his troubled birth sets up much of the humor that follows. It's kind of a parody of this trope, considering the rest of the book(s).
83	* In the ''[[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt Drizzt Do'Urden]]'' series, one of the prequel books starts off with Drizzt's birth, and the consternation surrounding it. His mother nearly sacrificed him to Loth.
84	* ''Literature/TarzanOfTheApes'' starts with the adventures of his parents and is already well into its third chapter before Alice Clayton saves her husband's life, kills a bull ape, becomes insane, and bears Tarzan in less than a day.
85	* The ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}'' novels were conceptualized as the fictional biography of the protagonist from birth to death. The first book begins on the day of his birth and follows the events surrounding his infancy. Instead of going on with a TimeSkip, the first book ends before our protagonist is even old enough to speak.
86	%%* [[UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} The Buddha]].
87	* ''Literature/{{Firebringer}}'' opens with the birth of Rannoch... [[spoiler: And the death of his father. The book also ends with the opposite, with [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Rannoch, now old and on his last legs, being called by Herne to join the herd of the afterlife.]]]]
88	** ''Literature/{{The Sight}}'' follows the above formula with Larka. Justified in that the book is set in the same universe as ''Firebringer'' and are both written by the same author.
89	* ''Literature/ChildOfTheWolves'' starts with Seppala giving birth to Granite and his siblings.
90	* Halfway through the first chapter of ''Literature/TheWolvesOfParis'', the protagonist's birth and puppyhood are explained.
91	* Frequently used in the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book series, particularly in the larger sub-series of Super Editions which typically start from the protagonist's days as a young kit. Most main series start from when the protagonist is an apprentice (essentially a t(w)eenager in this world), however.
92	* ''Literature/TheGoldenHamsterSaga'': ''I, Freddy'' begins with Freddy's birth in a pet store.
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
96	* A slightly strange example: Although the [[Franchise/IndianaJones movies]] already introduced us to him as an adult, the ReCut home video release of ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles''[='=] first episode has the opening scene of baby Indy being handed to his parents shortly after his birth; complete with voice-over narration from a teenage-ish Indy.
97	* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy2019'''s background is that a BizarreBabyBoom resulted in several non-pregnant women around the world spontaneously giving birth to superpowered children. Seasons one and three open with the births of two of the protagonists (Viktor in Russia and Ben in South Korea respectively) before segueing into how Reginald Hargreeves adopted a group of them and trained them into superheroes.
98	[[/folder]]
99
100	[[folder:Theatre]]
101	* ''Theatre/{{Allegro}}'' begins with the birth of a son to Joseph and Marjorie Taylor, with the whole town celebrating the news:
102	-->''"His hair is fuzzy, his eyes are blue,\
103	His eyes may change--they often do.\
104	He weighs eight pounds and an ounce or two--\
105	Joseph Taylor, Junior!"''
106	* In the first song in ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', "No One Mourns The Wicked", Galinda explains Elphaba's backstory, starting with her birth, which is played out.
107	[[/folder]]
108
109	[[folder:Video Games]]
110	* The protagonist of ''VideoGame/Fallout3''. The game starts out with the player seeing the protagonist's father through their baby eyes and later moves one to their early childhood.
111	* The first memory in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' is of Ezio's birth. The sequence is fittingly titled "Birth of an Assassin."
112	* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'' begins with the main character's birth. [[spoiler:He eventually becomes the father of twins, one of whom is the actual Legendary Hero.]]
113	* The Platform/{{Famicom}} RPG ''Tao'' provides opening exposition while an embryo - presumably the protagonist's - gestates in the background.
114	%%* ''Traverse: Starlight & Prairie''.
115	* ''VideoGame/DreamfallChapters'' opens with a [[BirthDeathJuxtaposition juxtaposition]] of [[spoiler:April's]] VikingFuneral and the birth of the game's new PlayerCharacter[[note]]technically, she is just one of the three playable characters, but the other two are old guard from the [[VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney previous game]][[/note]], Saga, who is later revealed to be her {{Reincarnation}}.
116	* ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker3'': The opening cutscene says, which presumably refers to the fairy girl who will be raised:
117	--> The fairy was born with the splendor of the morning dew.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Western Animation]]
121	* ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar'' starts with young versions of Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico rescuing a runaway egg, which hatches to reveal Private.
122	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTalesOfTheJedi'' begins with the birth of Ahsoka Tano.
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	!!As infant:
126
127	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
128	* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' begins with the details of what happened to him as an infant.
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Comic Books]]
132	* The standard origin story for Franchise/{{Superman}} shows him as a baby when he is sent to Earth in a spaceship.
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Fan Works]]
136	* ''Fanfic/SolInvictus'' began with Luffy as a newborn baby.
137	* ''Fanfic/PsychedelicEpiphanySeries'': ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/321475/yearly-epiphany Yearly Epiphany]]'' is Epiphany's story, and it starts with Year 0, when they're an infant.
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
141	* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame\|Disney}}'' - Yes, Quasimodo was a baby. Even as a baby he was ugly enough that Frollo had to be talked out of throwing him down a well.
142	[[/folder]]
143
144	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
145	* ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095806/ The Outside Chance of Maximillian Glick]]'' opens up at the title character's [[UsefulNotes/JewishLifeEvents bris]].
146	* Years before the version of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' everyone remembers, there was [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016544/ a silent adaptation]] of ''The Wizard of Oz'' that, [[InNameOnly among many, MANY other changes]], established Dorothy Gale's arrival in Kansas as a DoorstopBaby delivered by a mysterious, supernatural figure.
147	* ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', as above.
148	* ''Film/TheVikings'': Eric appears as a baby at the beginning (after the Vikings RapePillageAndBurn in Northumbria, he's a ChildByRape) when he's given the jewel stone of the hilt of the Requiter sword to identify him some time before his mother Queen Enid dies. He grows up to be the closest thing the film has to a hero.
149	[[/folder]]
150
151	[[folder:Literature]]
152	* Literature/HarryPotter, in full DoorstopBaby mode.
153	* ''Literature/OksaPollock'': The prologue of the first books shows how Oksa's father sees his new-born daughter the first time.
154	* ''Literature/OldKingdom'': ''Sabriel'' begins with the title character nearly dying just after her birth and her mother's DeathByChildbirth, so her father has to enter the First Precinct of [[AfterlifeAntechamber Death]] to rescue her from both Death and [[BigBad Kerrigor]].
155	* In ''The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain'', a collection of short stories which form a prequel to ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'', Dallben is a DoorstopBaby for Orddu, Orwen, and Orgoch. He would later raise his own foundling, Taran, though the circumstances of Taran's babyhood are not revealed until the final chapter of the final book.
156	[[/folder]]
157
158	[[folder:Theatre]]
159	* ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'' begins with Cesare as an infant, an illegitimate child, being observed as the proof of [[UsefulNotes/PopeAlexanderVI his father's]] "sin". When it shifts forward to the time of the main story, 1491 when Cesare is 16, the musical style shifts with it.
160	* ''Theatre/CrossRoad'' shows protagonist Niccolo Paganini as a baby in an early scene. He was a sickly child, and the song that his mother sang to him then becomes an important part of the rest of his life. Interestingly, this comes [[AnachronicOrder after a scene that takes place later]], where we saw an adult Paganini who has made his DealWithTheDevil, met a Bonaparte princess to be his patron and lover, and mastered his CapeSwish.
161	[[/folder]]
162
163	[[folder:Video Games]]
164	* Mario and Luigi for the entire game of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland''.
165	* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', one of the first cutscenes shows Master Xehanort leaving a dying Ventus on the paupu fruit tree in the Destiny Islands. Ven's heart is badly damaged after [[spoiler: having his darkness ripped from him to create Vanitas]], and is only saved by the heart of an infant Sora... who was just born offscreen. That's right: Sora has been helping those in need right from his own birth.
166	[[/folder]]
167
168	[[folder:Webcomics]]
169	%%* ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'': [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?id=63 here]].
170	* The second story arc in ''Webcomic/{{Fatebound}}'' begins with the birth of Hadral "under a mourning moon" before jumping ahead to his mid/late teens.
171	[[/folder]]
172
173	[[folder:Western Animation]]
174	* The WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon ''What's Up, Doc?'' involves Bugs narrating his life story to a reporter, starting with a flashback to the day he was born and he realized he was a rabbit.
175	[[/folder]]
176
177	!!Please sort if you know which type these examples are:
178
179	* ''Film/TheCuriousCaseOfBenjaminButton'' This one has elements of both types because in the movie, it shows Benjamin's birth and then him being delivered as a doorstop baby to Queenie. In the original story, it only has his birth as he is raised by his actual parents. It's kind of a weird inversion anyway since in his "infancy" he's an adult.

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