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{{trope}}
An [[Always Male]] main
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 [[Surprise Pregnancy|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"
Sometimes the [[Love Interest]] deliberately wanted to get pregnant (this is [[Lampshaded]], and then averted, in ''[[
This war movie trope has then been extended to other settings where the Hero has to leave to go [[Heroic Sacrifice|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 [[Justified Trope|justification]].
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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 [[Retcon
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[One Piece]]''. {{spoiler|Gold Roger got Portugas D. Rogue pregnant with Ace soon before he was captured. Rogue managed to stay pregnant for over a year as to make sure her child would actually be born.}}
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== Film ==
* ''[[Superman Returns]]'' with {{spoiler|Supes and Lois' son}}.
* In that quasi-''[[
* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End'', after the final battle and Will and Elizabeth's wedding, {{spoiler|the pair spend the day together and he gives her his heart before he sails away as captain of the Flying Dutchman. The movie's [[The Stinger|Stinger]] reveals that, ten years later, he returns to find that he has a son}}.
* [[Lampshaded]] and then averted in ''[[
* Captain Kirk has this in ''[[Star Trek II:
* In ''[[Sailor of the King]]'' Captain Richard Saville and Able Seaman Andrew Brown are in for a shock and Lucinda Brown is going to have some explaining to do.
* In the original ''Yours Mine And Ours'' the father ships out to sea only to learn that another child will be added to their family, his son Joseph John.
* [[Pear Harbor]] ends with Rafe holds a dying Danny in his arms, telling him he can't die because he's going to be a father. With his dying words, Danny tells Rafe to raise his child for him. Rafe does raise Danny's son whom they name Danny.
* [[Species]] is about a hot blonde human-looking alien looking trolling L.A. for a human mate to impregnate her. Several unsuitable candidates who never get to close the deal get killed along the way. Eventually she gets spermed by the science geek. She ''feels'' the conception taking place while still straddling the guy, and then [[Death
** ''Species II'' plays this theme in the exact opposite way. A male alien goes around planting his seed in every woman that takes his fancy. They all die moments after being impregnated, by the alien baby that litterally explodes out of their belly, leaving creepy Daddy to take care of them in his creepy barn.
*** The end of ''Species II/''start of ''Species III'' re-reverses the concept yet again, where the main character knocks up the sexy female alien, before dying in the climactic fight. [[Birth-Death Juxtaposition|Though is seems like he kills her after doing her, the final shot of the movie shows her belly expanding to pregnancy-size.]] This is resolved in the sequel when the mother comes back to life and gives birth to a pure-breed alien baby, before being killed herself.
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== Literature ==
* [[James Bond]] is supposed to have had a son by one of his many conquests (In the new books, not the originals).
* [[Defied Trope|Defied]] in ''[[Harry Potter and
* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Time Enough for Love]]'', nearly every single female member of [[The Older Immortal|Lazarus Long]]'s forty-third century family sleeps with him in order to get pregnant prior to his departure on a [[Time Travel]] trip back to early 1900's Kansas City, Missouri. They feel certain that he is going to "get his ass shot off" in that primitive era, and want [[Someone to Remember Him By]].
* Harry Keogh's wife falls pregnant at the end of ''Necroscope'', but he doesn't find out until the sequel (when he's already dead).
* A variation on this happened in ''[[Myst]]: The Book of Atrus'': Atrus' mother [[Death
* Played with in an ''[[Apprentice Adept]]'' book by Piers Anthony. It has been prophesied that Lady Blue will have "a son by two"
* In ''[[The
* A genuine wartime version of this trope occurs in Margery Allingham's [[
* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' Eddard Stark got his new wife Catelyn pregnant before riding off to fight in Robert's rebellion. When he returned she presented him with his son, and was rather less than pleased to discover that he'd [[Heroic Bastard|brought another one home with him.]]
* ''[[
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** On the other hand, they still have contact with those people after they leave, so presumably if she were pregnant a plot point about it would come up. Also, it seems a lot like the day he leaves is right after the day he decides to marry her, and she had been talking about wanting a baby, so it could just be her hoping that she is pregnant.
* In one ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' episode, a reunion of old school heroes visits a training academy and one of the older heroes is casually introduced to his daughter. Of course since the mom was an Amazon, her lack of a father growing up was completely unremarkable and not a source of angst to anyone but him.
* Happens in ''[[
** Also, think of the reason she wanted to marry him in the first place.
** And his leaving allows the mother to marry the man she's really in love with, giving the child a father, as well.
* ''[[
* This also may or may not have happened in ''[[Supernatural]]''. Despite what the mom said her son was ''Dean incarnate''.
* ''[[Baywatch]]'' episodes "''[[Baywatch]]'' Down Under (parts 1 and 2)". One of the lifeguards discovers that an Australian woman he married and later separated from had a son without telling him. She withheld the information because she knew that if she had told him, he would have felt obligated to stay with her.
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== Theater ==
* This is the entire plot of ''[[Mamma Mia!]]''.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Parental Issues]]
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