| abstract
| - An Always Male main character -- for obviously biological reasons -- gets an Always Female character pregnant, just before leaving to... do whatever. The original version of this is for this to happen during a war movie. The protagonist has shore leave or something just before shipping out to the war zone, or maybe the war came unexpectedly and he got drafted without warning. He leaves to go off to war leaving behind a pregnant Love Interest. Can be combined with Altar the Speed. Occasionally even the mother didn't know she was pregnant until after the male leaves, but often the lover left behind will not tell the father because she "didn't want to distract him" or "worry him" -- though it's just as common for the father to receive a letter announcing the birth. Usually this letter arrives when the father is in either a prison camp, or in a muddy foxhole while under fire. Something to juxtapose the brutally and ugliness of war with the joy and innocence of a new baby. Expect the father to become stunned and speechless for several minutes, and for his comrades -- even the cynical Deadpan Snarker or Drill Sergeant Nasty of the group -- to become respectful and moved by the news. A joyful makeshift party might follow. If in a prison camp this has a strong possibility of a Pet the Dog moment for the prison guards. Sometimes the Love Interest deliberately wanted to get pregnant (this is Lampshaded, and then averted, in Since You Went Away). This was a Truth in Television, and in many places still is. It represents the desire of a woman to have something of her lover to keep in case the worst happens to him. Of course, there is also some Wish Fulfillment for the man as well, since he gets to leave a mark on the world though he's going off into danger. A child means that part of him will live on if he dies. This war movie trope has then been extended to other settings where the Hero has to leave to go risk his life to save the world- or something else that's dangerous but necessary and suitably heroic. This often captures the emotional aspects of the trope but can lead to Fridge Logic, particularly the further away from the war movie setting you get, as you wonder why the father can't at least show up in between his adventures. It can be handled well, though, given enough justification. Sometimes it's an unimportant minor character that gets pregnant, and it doesn't have any long-term repercussions whatsoever (for the story and the father that is). He probably doesn't even know she got pregnant; because she's just so considerate she decides not to tell him. In that case, his blissful ignorance neatly evades any and all of the inconvenient Moral Dissonance of being a deadbeat dad. There has always been some Values Dissonance with the trope, and it has become increasingly so with the shift in values in the West. That doesn't change the trope from being an expression of strong silent desires held by both men and women. Sometimes the woman's existence is Retconned so that the main character can suddenly have a son, since of course a hero sires a male heir. In this case, see Luke, You Are My Father. Glorified Sperm Donor is another form this can take, and if the father dies it may overlap with Her Heart Will Go On. Examples:
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