Achievements in Ignorance: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"All you need in this world is ignorance and confidence, and then your success is assured."''|'''[[Mark Twain]]'''}}

It does happen in [[Real Life]], usually with things like math or physics equations, occasionally with feats of daring that the accidental daredevil hasn't been told are life-threatening. On the more mundane side of things are people learning or successfully trying things their more learned peers were taught couldn't be done.

 

 

Related to [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]], in which this can quite literally be the case. Related to [[How Did You Know? I Didn't.]] when the situation is not limited to physics, just a highly improbable lucky guess. Also see [[Too Dumb to Fool]], which can sometimes be the source of this. Occasionally a [[Snipe Hunt]] may end this way.

** {{spoiler|After they succeed, he reveals the odds of success were ''0%.''}}

** Team Gurren's motto is "''Kick reason to the curb'' and go [[Beyond the Impossible]]"

** Monkey D. Luffy lives on this trope. Quite possibly the best example of this is when he dived right into the [[Big Bad]] [[A God Am I|God]] [[Psycho Electro|Eneru's]] ultimate attack: Raigou, [[Person of Mass Destruction|which Eneru was going to use to annihilate the whole of Skypeia]]. [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|Because Eneru forged a massive golden orb onto his arm]], and Luffy was throwing his punches around him, the golden orb discharged the electrical currents and destabilized the ultimate attack, saving all of Skypeia. [[Word of God]] claims Luffy had no idea exactly what he was doing.

** A talking starfish that the Straw Hats meet named Pappug learned to speak human tongue because when he was a kid he believed himself to be a human. By the time he realized he was not, he had already learned to speak. Even ''Luffy'' questions how exactly that works.

** In one episode, an enemy's attacks fail to hurt Don Patch. Don Patch's only explanation for this is "because I'm stupid."

** In another episode, an enemy removes 90% of the titular character's (already somewhat limited) intelligence, which just allows him to do even more things that don't make sense, such as his hair turning into miniature versions of himself that beat up said enemy.

 

 

* In the movie version of ''Being There'', this is a possible explanation for {{spoiler|the final shot in which Chance walks on water}}.

* Done between Mike Teevee and Willie Wonka in ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]''.

* In ''Pippi On The Run'', the final ''[[Pippi Longstocking]]'' movie with Inger Nilsson as the eponymous character, this trope becomes a [[Running Gag]]; Over the course of the movie, Pippi does several completely impossible things, and then afterwards claims that the reason why she could do them was because she forgot they were impossible. The entire thing is [[Subverted]] at the very end of the movie, when Pippi rides a broomstick around Tommy and Annika's house, and when Annika once again claims that this is impossible, Pippi cheerfully yells back that it's not impossible to ''her.''

* This is the plot of ''[[Pay It Forward]]'' as described by the mother:

** Cohen and his Silver Horde slaughter the Agatean ninjas because nobody told them that Ninjas were invincible. Of course[[Conservation of Ninjitsu|there were a lot of ninjas]].

* This is played seriously in ''[[The Belgariad]]'' when Garion tries to {{spoiler|resurrect the dead colt}} and succeeds, something Belgarath (the first and most powerful human sorcerer) can't do. In this case, it's primarily used to show just how much sorcery depends on the sorcerer believing a feat is possible. In particular the adolescent Garion sees things as simpler than they actually are, which lets him do things that his learned elders think are too complex to be done. Belgarath notes at one point that this is also puts Garion at risk, as this sometimes results in Garion attempting things that more experienced sorcerers would know are too dangerous to try. This is also [[Foreshadowing]], as {{spoiler|Errand, a complete innocent, convinces the gods to bring Durnik back to life in the last book largely by not comprehending he's dead...[[Physical God|largely]].}}

*** Her husband King Anheg later admits that he could never have done this because he ''is'' expected to know better.

** Also, in ''Polgara the Sorceress'', Polgara comments on Belgarath's ability to continue at any given task unrelentingly, and supposes he may be able to "store up sleep" during his long periods of rest, something she knows/believes to be impossible. Just afterwards, she decides it might be interesting to test the capacity of a human to do what seems impossible - when one doesn't know it - by convincing [[Knight in Shining Armor|Mandorallen]] to pick himself up by the scruff of his neck.

* In ''Riddle of the Seven Realms'' by [[Lyndon Hardy]], the protagonists fly suspended beneath a balloon made out of lead. Astron, a demon to whom the human world's physics is new and fascinating, had simply improvised a substitute when the conveyance's original balloon was punctured by arrows, unaware that a "lead balloon" was considered preposterous by humans.

* In German, an achievement made in ignorance of the inherent dangers is frequently called a "Ritt über den Bodensee" (a ride across Lake Constance). This is based on a folk legend that was turned into a ballad by Gustav Schwab, ''Der Reiter und der Bodensee'' (The Rider and Lake Constance): In a cold winter, a rider loses his way in a snowstorm and without realizing it rides across the frozen-over Lake Constance. This is something a sane person would normally not attempt because due to the size of the lake (Germany's largest) and the Rhine running through it you could not be sure that it would be safe for a rider and horse to cross all the way. It does not end well though -- when he is told that he has arrived in a village on the other shore, [[Go Mad From the Revelation|the shock of realization of the danger he unwittingly had gone through kills him]].

* In David Weber and Steven White's ''Starfire'' series, the war with the Bugs results in this happening when the newest members of the Grand Alliance, just getting introduced to the more advanced tech now available to them, innocently ask why the man-portable kinetic weapons that fire projectiles at 10% light speed, carried by infantry and ground vehicles for a century and half, haven't been adapted to allow for bombardment from orbit, giving the equivalent of tactical nuclear strikes without the radiation and fallout. Alliance military researchers promptly smack themselves on the forehead and begin producing the weapon system from off-the-shelf equipment.

* {{spoiler|Foxface}}'s death in ''[[The Hunger Games (novel)|The Hunger Games]]'' occurs thanks to this. {{spoiler|Foxface}} was one of the more clever tributes. Surviving mostly by stealing food from the other tributes, comeuppance came by stealing berries that had been picked for the main characters to eat. The problem is that the person who picked the berries had no idea they were poisonous and {{spoiler|Foxface}} didn't think twice about stealing food that opponents had planned to eat themselves. Kantiss notes after the fact that a deliberate trap would have never worked.

** There is one instance where an ork manages to steal a spaceship and go for a joyride around the system, despite the fact ''the ship had no fuel''. It worked simply because he didn't realize that he was running on empty.

** The Orks have incredibly powerful telekinetic powers, they are just too dumb to realize it.

* ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]'': The premise is implied to be this. Since the Inspired put the "mad" in "[[Mad Scientist]]", they have a tendency to veer into [[Insane Troll Logic]]. They're still able to make inventions using that logic, however, often achieving impossible feats.

** Indeed, one of the defining conflicts of the game is between "normal" Geniuses (who know it isn't possible and do it anyway) and Unmada- Geniuses who truly believe science works according to their paradigm. Around an Unmada, it does...

 

== Video Games ==

** Used in the [[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty|previous game]] in the series too: If Snake [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcXTw9d2P2g calls up Otacon and complains about seasickness], Otacon will suggest he take [http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Pentazemin pentazemin](a fictional form of [[wikipedia:Benzodiazepine|benzodiazepine]] he normally uses to reduce hand tremors while sniping). He does, and his seasickness goes away. A surprised Otacon reveals he suggested the pentazemin as a placebo effect and there was no way it should have worked.

* In ''[[Portal 2]]'', it's revealed that the man behind Aperture Science, Cave Johnson, was not only insane with mercury poisoning, but didn't know anything about how science actually works. It's because he didn't know the limitations of technology that his corporation created physics-breaking inventions like the Portal Gun. Considering the invention of portals was for "possible shower curtain applications", and the he said they were going to "throw science at the wall and see what sticks", this is actually quite likely. [[Fridge Brilliance|Most of the gameplay involves this exactly: finding which walls you can stick portals on!]]

 

 

 

== Webcomics ==

** Red Mage frequently tries to invoke this trope, with various degrees of success. His approach is probably best summed up with "I know that and you know that, but ''I'' don't know that".

** Vilbert (who claims to be a vampire, but is also a LARPer and probably just making it up) explains that he able to survive in the sunlight because he feels it would be an uninteresting death.

* In the web series ''Homestar Runner'', this may explain the title character's use of the "telekinetic powers/invisible arms" that the fans are still debating over. Homestar may not realize that he should be unable to manipulate objects or coat sleeves or {{spoiler|stay airborne between two shackles in Trogdor's Dungeon in ''8-Bit is Enough''.}} However, suggesting the same of Marzipan might be pushing it.

** Quite a few characters have these telekinetic powers/invisible arms. It could be that the characters grew up with it, and so don't think it's unusual (or impossible).

{{quote|''When asked to explain this in simpler terms, he elaborated that I was "so retarded that it crossed the line into the supernatural"''}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* Anyway, in ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'', Meatwad develops some rather astonishing abilities (telekinesis, teleportation, etc...) when he is told he has a new brain and loses them when he finds it is his toy rubber brain with cosmetic alterations.

* ''[[Megas XLR]]'': Coop lives by this trope; he even lampshades it in "S-Force SOS"

{{quote|Zerak: "[[This Cannot Be!|Impossible!]] No can escape the force of the Infinity Zone!"<br />

** An early Daffy Duck cartoon had Daffy riding an invisible bicycle, with the remark "I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible!"

*** Another one had Wile E. and Road Runner run off the cliff. Wile E. looks down and holds up a sign that says roughly "This defies the law of gravity." Road Runner, who is ''still'' floating, holds up a sign that says "I never studied law."

** There was a ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' episode which explained the phenomena. Elmer, teaching the young toons, said that as long as the toon didn't look down it wouldn't fall.

*** Which in itself is a shout out to an earlier Disney work where Walt himself explained this as the Plausible Impossible effect.

* In one episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'', Peter goes temporarily blind, he walks into the Drunken Clam bar during a fire and rescues the trapped bartender. When asked, his reply is priceless.

{{quote|'''Peter''': That freaking place was on fire?!}}

** This is likely a [[Shout-Out]] to the numerous times Bugs Bunny and Road Runner claimed, in response to doing some gravity-defying action, that they never studied law.

*** There is a variation with Elmer and Bugs as children, where Elmer says they didn't study ''gravity'' yet. Bugs slipped him a book...