Basic Trope: A heroic child grows up.
- Straight:
- Alice is ten years old and frequently saves the world. In one episode, she goes forward in time and sees her future self, who is still a hero.
- Bob is seen as a heroic little boy, but then when he grows up, he's become a normal man.
- Carol is an action hero, and one episode reveals that she's been one since she was a kid.
- Exaggerated:
- Downplayed:
- We see Alice, Bob, and/or Carol as teens.
- Alice and Bob are teens and only change (for Bob) and don't change (for Alice) after a few years.
- Carol reveals she used to be a teen hero.
- Alice, Bob, and Carol certainly did good but they were never (or hardly ever) outright heroes.
- Justified: Well, kids grow up.
- Inverted:
- Alice, Bob, and/or Carol were evil as kids.
- We get to see Alice, Bob, and/or Carol as babies.
- Subverted:
- That's not the future Alice, just a woman who looks like an older Alice.
- It turns out that Bob was never a hero as a kid, his adventures were all imaginary.
- Carol is seen trying to do action stuff as a kid but then it reveals that she was unsuccessful.
- Double Subverted:
- When Alice goes back to her normal time, she meets the girl whose future self looks like an older Alice and finds out that this girl is a hero too.
- He did accidentally save someone's life as a kid once, though. He just doesn't know about it.
- We then find out that Carol became a hero for real when she was still a kid.
- Parodied: ???
- Zigzagged:
- It's unknown whether that really is Alice's future self.
- It's too hard to tell whether Bob was actually a hero or if it was all in his mind.
- Different sources claim that Carol started being an action hero at different ages.
- Averted:
- We don't see Alice or Bob as adults.
- Alice and Bob are already adults and we don't see them as kids.
- Carol started being a hero as an adult.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded:
- "I guess I'll never change, eh?"
- "I miss my childhood, I was so much cooler back then."
- "I've had years of experience."
- Invoked:
- Alice deliberately tries to meet her future self.
- Bob drinks an age potion.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice avoids meeting her future self, for fear that something bad will happen.
- Discussed:
- Alice and Bob wonder what their futures will be like.
- Dan wonders how long Carol has been a hero for.
- Conversed: "I wonder what that little action girl from that show will be like when she's older?"
- Deconstructed: Alice is shown to have grown up to be a severely messed up adult as a result of the cumulative trauma.
- Implied:
- The woman is only implied to be Alice's future self.
- We occasionally get hints that Bob did something amazing in his childhood.
- Carol claims to have been an action hero for twenty years, and while her age is unknown, she doesn't look older than 32.
- Played for Drama:
- When Alice meets her future self, it causes a Temporal Paradox.
- Alice turned to the dark side.
- Bob gave up heroism for some dark reason.
- Carol became a hero because her parents died, like Batman.
- Since Children Are Special, Alice finds out that she'll end up permanently losing her powers upon becoming an adult.
- Bob is deeply traumatized by his childhood heroics.
Back to Kid Hero All Grown-Up.
