History Main / WarWasBeginning

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3''

** [[FridgeLogic Rather an ignorant thing for an Englishman to say, given that England had executed its king less than one hundred and fifty years before the French Revolution.]] [[note]][[UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar And eventually ended up giving his heir the throne back]], so maybe the middie wasn't speaking literally.[[/note]]

* ''Franchise/CodeGeass'' establishes the general rise to power of the Britannian Empire (more specifically their invasion of Japan) in the first episode.

* ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'': "With the coming of the UsefulNotes/SecondWorldWar..."
* ''Film/ToBeOrNotToBe'': "Lubinski... Kubinski... Lominski... Rozanski and Poznanski... we're in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. It's August, 1939. Europe is still at peace..."
* ''Film/ThreeHundred'' -- combination of an {{Arcadia}} opening and HowWeGotHere, with a [[DarkIsEvil dark]] Persian {{Herald}} descending on the golden plains of Sparta. Somewhat subverted in that the ''entire movie'' is narrated with ominous [[LargeHam "and so it begins"]] intonation by David Wenham.

* ''{{Film/Serenity}}'' plays with this: there are multiple nested opening sequences, and the first is a narrated description of the interplanetary civil war that Mal [[TheRemnant has still not quite stopped fighting even though his side lost,]] [[WrittenByTheWinners from the perspective of the Alliance.]]

* Every ''Franchise/StarWars'' movie.
** ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' is the most direct about it, as it begins its OpeningCrawl with the phrase: "[[ThisMeansWar War!]]"
** ''Film/ANewHope'':
--->''It is a period of civil war. Rebel starships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against [[ObviouslyEvil the evil]] [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire...]]''
* The opening of ''Film/{{Troy}}'' (a particularly wordy example), and...
* ''Film/LastOfTheMohicans''. Both with drums. Always with the drums!
-->America 1757
-->It is the third year of war between France and England for [[TheEmpire possession of the continent]].
-->Three men, the [[LastOfHisKind last of a vanishing people]], are on the frontier west of the Hudson river...

** ''Film/RobinHood2010'' does it similarly.

* Parodied in the ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' "Ypres 1914" sketch. This was used as a ColdOpen in several Monty Python sketches.
-->In 1914, the balance of power lay in ruins. Europe was plunged into bloody conflict. Nation fought nation. But no nation fought nation morely than the English hip hip hooray! Nice, nice yah boo. Phillips is a German and he have my pen...

* ''Series/FallingSkies'' just pulled off this trope with a little kid in the role of narrator, recounting what he knows of the alien invasion to date while his crayon drawings are displayed.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': "Starcrossed" begins with the following narration from Michael Ryan: "In the year 2050, Earth was invaded by a humanoid race called the Hing. For six years, a hard and reigning war was fought. At its conclusion, we were forced to agree that the Hing retain the control they had already won. It wasn't an easy truce, especially in a city called Archangel."
* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Galadriel makes a summary of the War of Wrath against Morgoth that took place in the First Age of Middle-earth.

* The TropeNamer is a quote from ''VideoGame/ZeroWing''; that is an example as well.
** More {{Narm}}-fully, it features a cold open over StuffBlowingUp, ''then'' the narration starts.

* ''VideoGame/YggdraUnion'' and ''VideoGame/YggdraUnison'' both start with the classic text scroll as Gulcasa's attack on Karona is related to the player.
* The first part from the real time tactical ''VideoGame/{{Myth}}'' game series also begins like this: "In a time long past, the armies of the Dark came again into the lands of men."
* ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' plays out a double-subversion. It ''claims'' "The galaxy is at peace" but you are quickly shown the LivingMacguffin both sides are going to fight over and the damage from the opening salvos.

* ''VideoGame/{{X}}3: Terran Conflict'' explains the roots of the titular SpaceColdWar in its opening cinematic. ''X3: Albion Prelude'' shows us how that cold war turned into a hot war.

* ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'' does this for it's opening level.. It is awesome.
-->'''"The foul, impure beasts that roam the land ~ the Gohma.\\
In order to save civilization from their neverending threat, the demigods who governed the world created an ultimate weapon that would wipe the Gohma of the face of the planet once and for all.\\
Their legions were led by eight elite demigods ~ the Eight Guardian Generals. One of them, General Asura, was in the thick of battle."'''

* Most of the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games start with Creator/RonPerlman narrating about the war. Even though the war is technically over, its lasting impact colors the setting throughout.

* ''Robo Aleste'' begins by describing an AlternateHistory version of the UsefulNotes/SengokuJidai, whose course changed with the introduction of HumongousMecha and airships.

# Use a [[SpinningNewspaper newspaper headline]]. While it obviates the characters from invoking AsYouKnow when it's a war "everyone's heard of",[[note]]not so much when it's a fictional war, allegory or not,[[/note]] the headlines ''themselves'' are usually anachronistic from an in-universe perspective. e.g. "UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo Begins," or worse, "UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne Begins," [[CriticalResearchFailure as if people back then knew it would be the first of two]].[[note]]Some did use the term First World War at the time, not in the sense of predicting a second one, but rather to say that it was the first time the whole world had ever experienced such an all-encompassing conflict.[[/note]]