Hard Work Hardly Works: Difference between revisions

*** When Takeda begins his own [[Training From Hell]] under the underground boxing master, his abilities surge massively in a very short amount of time, putting him very nearly in Kenichi/Yomi tier within a much shorter time than Kenichi himself needed. He even began to unravel and utilize Kenichi's recently-learned perfect defense within a single sparring match. So apparently when a person who is already exceptionally talented (as Kenichi's masters have all noticed) starts that sort of training, the results are dramatic and much faster. So it's subverted in that for the prodigies, hard work ''really'' works.

** Played straight at first with Berserker, a boy who has never had any training, but is so naturally talented that he has never lost a single fight. Then Tanimoto manages to defeat him, and afterward states that this entire trope is a lie:

** Also subverted in the fact that there are prodigies among Yomi's ranks... and Kenichi's masters point out that being a prodigy doesn't mean anything without training yourself to back it up and that they can't simply rely on their innate talents. So, arguably, the entire STORY is a subversion of this trope in that you need to work hard to keep up in the world of martial arts.

* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' is an extreme version. The title character literally did not train ''at all'', instead skipping right to fighting monsters for an hour or two after school each day. Within a week she's stronger than someone else around her age who had been training ''his entire life'', and by the end of the first season (at most a couple months) she's become A (elite) rank. When there are more seasons, much [[Rank Inflation]] ensues though there's at least a considerable [[Time Skip]] between the second and third seasons.

* Prue in ''[[Charmed]]'' suddenly gains super awesome fighting abilities with her telekinesis, better than Phoebe's who had been studying martial arts for years. Sure Prue was a cheerleader in high school but she worked in a museum and an auction house in her adult years. Though this averted with regards to the sisters' powers as they are shown developing slowly over the course of the series. Though Prue's develop faster than her sisters' do.

* [[Averted]] and [[Lampshaded]] with Jeff Winger on ''[[Community]]''. Despite thinking it applies to him, Jeff can not simply win a debate or create pottery just because he thinks he is special. He actually has to end up working hard to succeed.

 

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog]]'' makes fun of superheroes who don't need to work for their powers during the scene in the laundromat when [[Smug Super]] Captain Hammer is confronting Dr. Horrible in his street persona.

* Chaka from the [[Whateley Universe]] is a Ki prodigy, able to pull off crazy stunts with a few seconds of planning. She can do things her teacher studied for years to learn, and nothing is a problem to her. There's a scene in Aquerna's story where she feels depressed and useless because her powers suck compared to nearly anyone's, and she can't do anything remotely resembling what Chaka does. The subsequent conversation with their sensei implies that he suffers from similar feelings because he worked for years to do what he does, while Chaka gets it naturally.