Basic Trope: The Hero is a child.
- Straight: Bob is a 9-year old-boy who finds himself in adventurous situations constantly.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob is barely out of diapers.
- Bob, the strongest Ki Manipulation user in the world and Big Good of the setting is still in his mother’s womb.
- Downplayed:
- Bob is in his pre-teens or a Teen Hero.
- Bob is the Tagalong Kid and the story is told in his POV.
- Justified:
- Bob is a Child Soldier who has been put in heroic situations.
- Bob has super powers, and the intelligence and courage to use them.
- Bob has adopted the body of an adult and acts heroic even if chronologically he is still a child.
- Inverted:
- Bob is a Creepy Child.
- Bob is an elderly hero.
- Enfant Terrible
- Subverted: The hero, Bob, may look like a kid, but he's Really 700 Years Old.
- Double Subverted Which is still incredibly young for his species.
- Parodied: Bob is a super heroic...baby.
- Zig Zagged: Bob starts his adventuring career as a kid, then he grows up- then, he's reverted to a kid.
- Averted: The hero is in his 30s.
- Enforced: "We need a protagonist who can show kids you don't need to be grown up to be a hero, someone they can identify with who can inspire them."
- Lampshaded: "Aren't you a little young to be fighting crime?" "Yes. Yes I am."
- Invoked: Bob has potential to be a hero, but is still in training.
- Exploited: The villain sets up his evil lair inside a strip club, because he knows the hero is too young to get inside.
- Defied:
- Bob is aged up into an adult upon getting his powers.
- Bob isn't allowed to go out on adventures until he is older.
- Bob received his powers as a child, but spent nearly ten years learning to how control and use them. He is now an adult.
- Bob encounters an Anti-Villain who has morals and informs him that he's most likely being manipulated by the being who gave him his powers, and also states that kids should not be picking fights with adults who could easily harm them. The villain also tells Bob about their child who died trying to fight supervillains as a Kid Hero, so they became a supervillain to stop child heroes from fighting more merciless villains and fight those who would manipulate children into putting themselves on the line, even if it meant being the bad guy and playing the exact role their child sought to defeat. Realizing that the villain is right, Bob makes the decision to end his superheroism.
- Discussed: "Bob may only be nine years old, but I would be surprised if people didn't flock him with requests to fix all their adult problems."
- Conversed: "Wait, you're just now noticing Bob's age?" No, I didn't notice! This whole time I thought he was a dwarf or something."
- Implied: A collective of superheroes watches as one of their newest members appears to be in his pre-teens at best.
- Deconstructed:
- Bob is put up against Emperor Evulz, a Complete Monster Knight of Cerebus who Would Hurt a Child. This causes turmoil to Bob and his loved ones, and in one of their encounters Bob becomes severely traumatized. He realizes he may be a hero, but is still just a kid.
- Bob's lack of understanding of the world leads him to make things worse or get used as a pawn by the villains.
- Bob is a Child Soldier with delusions of being something more than just a murderer.
- Due to him being a child and all of his enemies being adults, every battle with them requires Bob to try that much harder against opponents who can simply destroy him easily. By the end, Bob has trouble trusting any adult who isn't his family or friends due to the trauma.
- Due to the trauma of being a Kid Hero, Bob becomes mentally unstable in his adolescence and by adulthood either becomes an Anti-Hero at best or a sociopathic Villain Protagonist at absolute worst.
- Reconstructed: Bob realizes he may be a kid, but he is still a hero. Being a hero, he uses his trauma and loss he suffered as motivation to train and become stronger until he's ready to face Evulz in a rematch.
- Played For Comedy: His friends and family are not aware of Bob's hero status and constantly tease him about he's just a kid that should worry about things like homework and getting chores done. When Evulz tries to goad Bob into fighting him Bob laments that he has to finish his homework first and that they can fight tomorrow morning.
- Played For Drama: His friends and family are aware of Bob's hero status, but they live in fear for Bob's safety. In the event of a Hero Killer villain, it is a pure nightmare for them. Some even break off contact with Bob out of fear.
- Bob misses out on many childhood experiences because he is constantly saving the world. Bob struggles with being a hero, and even considers stopping his time as a hero. He also struggles with not telling others of his secret identity.
- Played For Horror: Bob discovers just how cruel being a hero is, and slowly begins to grow Troubling Unchildlike Behavior.
- Bob's Arch-Enemy escapes prison and someone dies in the process. When Bob catches up to him, he goes too far and kills his enemy by accident. Bob then begins to realize that by killing a villain, that becomes the end of their reign of terror. Bob suddenly begins killing villain after villain, and eventually Bob just begins killing any criminal. Before long, Bob is killing people over minor infractions, and Bob's immaturity makes it hard to reason with him. In the end; Bob is more of a villain than a hero, and people are absolutely terrified of Bob's existence.
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