Basic Trope Description: A heroic character's birth or the character as an infant is shown in the beginning.
- Straight:
- In the beginning of The Story we see how Bob is born to a prostitute in the gutter.
- In the beginning of Fantasy Novel, Princess Alice is just born and shown to The Good Kingdom as the newborn heiress.
- Exaggerated: The young king marries the princess of a neighboring country. They consummate their marriage the following night in great detail. Then we see Alice's conception occuring inside the queen's body, and the whole pregnancy before Alice's birth.
- Downplayed: Princess Alice is first seen as a toddler, playing with her nurse.
- Justified: Every living being must hatch or be born at some point.
- Inverted:
- We see Bob die of old age in his country villa in the beginning, and the story of his life is narrated in a How We Got Here manner.
- We see Queen Alice being buried and mourned by everyone in a Meaningful Funeral.
- The story start with the birth of Emperor Evulz
- Subverted:
- Bob's mother goes into labour, but Bob is stillborn.
- Alice is born with great hopes for her future, but becomes a villainess.
- Double Subverted:
- Only to fight himself back to life for only the first time, and welcoming the world with a first scream.
- Alice pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
- Enforced: "I want to show really everything of my hero's life, so let's start at the very beginning."
- Averted: Alice and Bob are first seen as an adult.
- Zig-Zagged: The queen goes into labour, but it turns out to be fake. The next day, the labour is real, Alice is born and goes back into her mother. Then she really gets out, but seems dead at first glance. Nevertheless, she fights herself back to life and cries.
- Parodied: Bob flies out of his mother in flash speed, promptly beats some surrounding thugs mugging an innocent bystander down and comes back crowned with a golden laurel.
- Lampshaded: "Born in the gutter, to a homeless prostitute who died in childbirth? Well, kid, from now on it can only improve. Doesn't mean you cannot be a hero.
- Discussed: "Here she is. Our little crown princess." "She will for sure become a wise queen."
- Conversed: "And again we see the heroes as babies first."
