History Main / WarWasBeginning

[[TropeNamer War Was Beginning]].

-> In A.D. 2101 ({{beat}})
-> [[TropeNamer War Was Beginning]].
--> --'''ZeroWing'''

--> In A.D. 2101 ({{beat}})
--> [[TropeNamer War Was Beginning]].

* ''TheAdventuresOfRobinHood'': "In the year of Our Lord 1191, when Richard the Lion-Heart set forth to drive the infidels from the Holy Land..."

* ''{{Casablanca}}'': With the coming of the Second World War..."

* ''MadMax'': "For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all."]]

* ''[[{{Ptitlevz6ksp9w}} Howl's Moving Castle]]'' may be an example. There is no narration explicitly telling us that war is coming, but soon after the opening of the film we see a big parade of troops, tanks, and flying machines moving through the city to cheering crowds, and we overhear conversations on the street about rising tensions with a neighbouring kingdom over a missing prince.

* ''{{{Casablanca}}'': With the coming of the Second World War..."

* "[[{{Casablanca}} With the coming of the Second World War...]]"
* "[[ToBeOrNotToBe Lubinski... Kubinski... Lominski... Rozanski and Poznanski...]] we're in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. It's August, 1939. Europe is still at peace..."

* [[{{MadMax}} "For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all."]]

* Every ''StarWars'' movie, although ''Revenge Of The Sith'' is the most direct about it, as it begins its OpeningCrawl with the phrase: "War!"

* The pilot of ''{{Firefly}}'' opening with the Battle of Serenity Valley.

* The opening of ''{{Troy}}'', and...

* Every ''StarWars'' movie, although ''Revenge Of The Sith'' is the most direct about it, as it begins its opening crawl with the phrase: "War!"

* Every ''StarWars'' movie.

#If it's a war "everyone's heard of", the audience viewpoint character is simply informed that a war is on, averting this trope.
* Except perhaps with a [[SpinningNewspaper newspaper headline]] (anachronistically) titled "WorldWarTwo Begins".

* The first part from the real time tactical {{Myth}} game series also begins like this: "In a time long past, the armies of the Dark came again into the lands of men."

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'''s TitleSequence has a Katara voiceover briefly describing the Fire Nation's war and the Avatar's failure to stop it. The first episode goes into greater detail on her people in particular. The first few episodes involve giving [[TheChosenOne Aang]] a history lesson on the world war he [[HumanPopsicle slept through]].
[[/folder]]

* The first game from the {{Myth}} series also begins like this: "In a time long past, the armies of the Dark came again into the lands of men."

* The first game from the ''Myth'' series also begins like this: "In a time long past, the armies of the Dark came again into the lands of men."

* ''MasterAndCommander''.

This is a useful way to introduce the future protagonists to the audience [[DucksInARow one after the other]].

** Usually, with an [[BondOpeningSequence Opening Action Sequence]].

--> War Was Beginning.

* The very first thing ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' shows us (after the great intro, of course) is: "In the year 2015 AD". Cue pacific landscapes full of military hardware. Cue giant monster.