Adults Are Useless: Difference between revisions

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** It didn't help that at least some of the adults, namely the teacher in charge of the school's alien catching group, and the principal, were deliberately useless as part of some sort of conspiracy. The rest of the adults were just useless. Yuri's mother is especially bad; Yuri comes home from an alien assault that is [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|awfully reminiscent of a rape]], and her mother just tells her to cheer up and do her job.

* In ''[[FLCL (Anime)|FLCL]]'' most of the adults are literally more immature than the children in the story.

* Teachers in ''[[Iris Zero]]'' manga mostly [[Someone Elses Problem|don’t concern themselves with their students’ problems.]] They claim it’s impossible for [[Muggle|normal adult]] to comprehend things connected with [[Evil Eye|Irises.]] It goes as far as ignoring an [[Power Nullifier|event]] that leaves the student body in fear and Toru being heavily bullied due to his [[Un Sorcerer|lack of power.]]

* Teachers in ''[[Iris Zero]]'' manga mostly [[Someone Elses Problem|don’t concern themselves with their students’ problems.]] They claim it’s impossible for [[Muggle|normal adult]] to comprehend things connected with [[Evil Eye|Irises.]] It goes as far as ignoring an [[Power Nullifier|event]] that leaves the student body in fear and Toru being heavily bullied due to his [[Un-Sorcerer|lack of power.]]

* Haruka's mother in ''[[Psychic Detective Yakumo]]'' does not put up any fight, protest, plea, when her daughter wants to walk into a potentially dangerous situation to rescue Yakumo.

* [[Loveless]], oh so much so. Pretty much every adult is either abusive, inneffective, or emotionally fucked up enough to not be able to help, whether that's with Ritsuka being abused by his mother or all those 12 year old kids running around on their own getting into spell battles.

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* Lampshaded and then averted in ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon (Fanfic)|Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon]]''. Dawn''/''{{spoiler|Ogata Kirei''/''Cure Dawn}} notes that she's supposed to leave fighting evil to the thirteen-year-old title characters {{spoiler|because she's without her powers}}, but doesn't seem to be very happy about it. Near the end of the series, she becomes an active combatant.

* Stephen Ratliff's [[Marissa Picard (Fanfic)|Marissa Star Trek universe]] is notorious for this. In order for Marissa's "kids crew" to be great, every adult they come up against has to be a bumbling imbecile. In one episode, the Maquis even invented a drug that knocked out everyone over the age of 15.

* In ''[[Kyon Big Damn Hero (Fanfic)|Kyon Big Damn Hero]]'', Kyon's parents are like this. Other adults are, fortunately, far more useful.

* In ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero (Fanfic)|Kyon Big Damn Hero]]'', Kyon's parents are like this. Other adults are, fortunately, far more useful.

* A major topic of discussion in ''[[Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality]]'', with Harry frequently telling others how adults who do not treat him as an equal are obstacles to be dodged or manipulated (including those very adults).

* The adults in ''[[Oh God Not Again (Fanfic)|Oh God Not Again]]'' are more useless than usual, but mainly because, unlike [[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry]], they don't have knowledge [[Peggy Sue|from the future]], so you can hardly blame them for being behind. Harry does sometimes get them involved on purpose when they can help, such as going straight to Dumbledore when Hagrid gets Norbert.

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== Live Action TV ==

* In ''[[~~Three Two One~~ Contact|3-2-1-Contact]]'''s "The Bloodhound Gang" segments, the adults who are the targets of con artists are typically complete idiots to the point where one easy mark has ''his own child'' have control of his own finances.

* In ''[[3-2-1 Contact|3-2-1-Contact]]'''s "The Bloodhound Gang" segments, the adults who are the targets of con artists are typically complete idiots to the point where one easy mark has ''his own child'' have control of his own finances.

* The Australian kids' show ''[[Mirror Mirror]]'' managed an odd variant, where, aside from the Old Man, who was managing what has to be one of the most epic [[Gambit Roulette|Gambit Roulettes]] ever, all the adults were at least plausibly incompetent (if not outright evil), mainly because only a few of them had any idea of exactly what the hell was going on.

** For the record: The adults in Louisa's family had no idea, and their tutor was in the pay of their rather nasty neighbour, who was hiding the son of Tsar Nicholas II, in a ploy to sell him back to Russia. As for Jo, her father gets clued in, but can't use the mirror. The worst offender would have been Dr Coigley, who was unknowingly working for the Old Man.

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* Pretty much any RPG where the main characters are almost always under 20, often around 14-18. Normally there is one or two older characters to act as a sage or adviser.

** Taken to absolutely ridiculous extremes in the ''[[Pokémon (Franchise)|Pokémon]]'' games, where criminal gangs do everything from stealing/mutilating/killing [[Pokémon (Franchise)|Pokémon]] to attempted [[Apocalypse How]], and the only person who ever does anything worth mentioning about it is the ten- to fifteen-year-old [[Player Character]].

* Every single ''Zelda'' game portrays Link as either a pre-teen child, or a mid-late teenager. An entire kingdom of guards, warriors, military, wizards, and sages, and it takes a kid (albeit one with a very special destiny) to save the day. Multiple times. And most times there's at least one NPC who dismisses him as a stupid kid who doesn't understand. The [[The Legend of Zelda (Video Game)|original game]] averts the trope only because there are a grand total of five characters ''in'' the game; ''[[The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' is possibly the only one to date where he's been treated with appropriate levels of respect by a larger cast.

* Every single ''Zelda'' game portrays Link as either a pre-teen child, or a mid-late teenager. An entire kingdom of guards, warriors, military, wizards, and sages, and it takes a kid (albeit one with a very special destiny) to save the day. Multiple times. And most times there's at least one NPC who dismisses him as a stupid kid who doesn't understand. The [[The Legend of Zelda (Video Game)|original game]] averts the trope only because there are a grand total of five characters ''in'' the game; ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' is possibly the only one to date where he's been treated with appropriate levels of respect by a larger cast.

** Slightly averted in that several games, Link (occasionally with Zelda's or others' help) is actually a contributor to or cause of {{spoiler|releasing Ganon back into the world by taking the Master Sword}}. He always fixes it by the end, so it's not quite the aversion it could be.

** Zelda gets in on the action too, her standout example being ''[[The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]''. While her plan [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|isn't exactly golden]], at least she knew an obvious [[Big Bad]] when she saw him.

** Zelda gets in on the action too, her standout example being ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]''. While her plan [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|isn't exactly golden]], at least she knew an obvious [[Big Bad]] when she saw him.

** This was at least justified in ''[[The Legend of Zelda the Minish Cap (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda the Minish Cap]]'', in which the Picori/Minish would only willingly appear to a child.

* A major theme in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'': Adults start wars that get out of hand or [[Sealed Evil in A Can|lock the super-dictator in a box]] and throw their hands in the air when she inevitably gets out, and it's all left to the super-capable [[Child Soldiers|SeeDs]] to clean up the mess.

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[[Category:This Index Is Useless]]

[[Category:Adults Are Useless]]

[[Category:Trope]]