Before any commandment and before any punishment, humanity's first word from God is a blessing. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 1:28) tells us Adam and his wife were blessed and commanded: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth with sons and daughters, and prevail over it, in its possessions."
The Targumist chooses words carefully. "Fill the earth with sons and daughters" — not simply "descendants." Every child counts. Both sons and daughters are named as the fulfillment of the blessing. And the dominion granted is not ownership but stewardship: over fish, fowl, and every creeping animal.
This is the Torah's first statement about the human relationship to the world. We are partners with creation, tasked with its continuation — and with each other, tasked with continuing the human line. Fertility here is never framed as a duty alone. It is a blessing first.