History Main / WarWasBeginning

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' opens with a description of the events of the One Year War before the series begins.

[[TropeNamer War Was Beginning]]."''

# 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]].

* ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' starts with Galadriel giving us a history lesson about Sauron.

* Every ''Film/StarWars'' movie.

* One of the more famous examples is the prologue to [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare's]] ''Main/RomeoAndJuliet'':

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' began with an OpeningScroll briefly detailing the Maquis guerrilla war against the Federation and Cardassians, then cut to Chakotay's ship, involved in a running lightfight with a Cardassian destroyer. The whole sequence looks like a ShoutOut to ''Film/ANewHope'', except Chakotay's ship ''escapes''.

->''In A.D. 2101\\
[[TropeNamer War Was Beginning]].''

* The first ''HoratioHornblower'' TV film took place at the Royal Navy anchorage in Spithead, with the midshipmen discussing the ongoing revolution in France. In particular, the fact that King Louis XVI had just been captured.

* One of the more famous examples is the prologue to [[WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare's]] ''Main/RomeoAndJuliet'':

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' began with an OpeningScroll briefly detailing the Maquis guerrilla war against the Federation and Cardassians, then cut to Chakotay's ship, involved in a running lightfight with a Cardassian destroyer. The whole sequence looks like a ShoutOut to ''ANewHope'', except Chakotay's ship ''escapes''.

* ''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.

* Parodied in the Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus "Ypres 1914" sketch. This was used as a ColdOpen in several Monty Python sketches.

* Also, ''DuneII: The Building of a Dynasty''. "Vast armies have arrived. Now, three Houses fight for control of Dune. (sic) Only one House will prevail. Your battle for Dune begins... now-ow-ow-ow-ow..."

* ''YggdraUnion'' and ''YggdraUnison'' both start with the classic text scroll as Gulcasa's attack on Karona is related to the player.

* ''AsurasWrath'' does this for it's opening level.. It is awesome.

# If it's a war "everyone's heard of", the [[AudienceSurrogate audience viewpoint]] character is simply informed that a war is on, averting this trope. Not as common as the others , due to SmallReferencePools: World War II movies filmed ''during the war'' regularly opened with a War Was Beginning recap.

* ''Warhammer: Mark of Chaos'' begins with the rolling map illuminated by small explosions and fires, with the narrator describing the state of affairs in the Empire defending from the Chaos invasion. In a bit of a twist the main war is already over, and the game is about a local war with a splinter force.

* The opening of ''Film/{{Troy}}'' (a particularly [[ViewersAreMorons wordy]] example), and...

* The TropeNamer is a quote from ''ZeroWing''; that is an example as well.

* The opening of ''{{Troy}}'' (a particularly [[ViewersAreMorons wordy]] example), and...

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

** [[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/TheEnglishCivilWar And eventually ended up giving his heir the throne back]], so maybe the middie wasn't speaking literally.[[/note]]