How Do I Shot Web?: Difference between revisions

** The Yotsuba executives (or rather, just {{spoiler|Higuchi}}) also learn some of its rules this way, for instance, giving someone a death condition that is physically impossible will result in that person simply dying of a heart attack.

* In ''[[Gate Keepers]]'', Ukiya Shun is blessed by the Gate of Wind. It took him several episodes just to even know how to properly summon the power again (which he did in the first episode by accident), and an episode testing a new technique (which he later perfects).

** Tsukune himself had a bit of trouble until he got some well-earned [[Training From Hell|training]] with Inner-Moka and Touhou Fuhai.

* Sort of happens to the protagonist of ''[[Prétear]]'', [[Magical Girl|Himeno Awayuki]] -- more of "How Do I Shot Wind". It is implied that she ''should'' know instinctively how her [[Elemental Powers|powers]] work, but the first time she is forced to fight a monster, she panics and can't figure out what to do. However, this wasn't enough to make her give up, and she actually demands to receive some training in order to learn to use her powers properly.

* In ''[[Zatch Bell]]'', almost every time Zatch and Kiyomaro learn a new spell, Kiyomaro still struggles to understand that the spells are powered by emotion and will. However when they learn their third spell, which magnetizes their opponent, Kiyomaro tries several unsuccessful attempts to test this spell (which he didn't know the effects of at the time), and eventually tried singing the incantation, very badly.

** Eventually Averted when Kiyomaro {{spoiler|dies and obtains Answer Talker,}} allowing him to know literally everything. And then used again when it turns out {{spoiler|he doesn't even know how to control it yet, needing help from Dufaux just to get it to work.}}

* Nami with the Clima-Tact in her fight with Miss Doublefinger in ''[[One Piece]]''. Unfortunately for her, half of the functions on the device are party tricks (and they're listed first in the instruction manual), and the other half are abilities that are useful, but only if used correctly, and Usopp may not have known how good they can be (he suggests playing boomerang catch with the Cyclone Tempo). Despite this, once she manages to find the right functions to use, she manages to win once she identifies the good moves and learns how to use them. Nami's experience with the Perfect Clima-Tact is also like this to some extent.

** This applies even more to the [[Green Rocks|Devil Fruits]]. The average person who has absolutely no idea what their fruit even ''does'' unless they've either read a restricted access catalogue or been outright told. Even then, you'd have no idea how to activate it until you experiment. Brook's power only activated ''after he died'', meaning he could've started off simply knowing he couldn't swim. {{spoiler|Whitebeard's recently revealed}} power to {{spoiler|make earthquakes}} involves punching the air as if it were a glass window. [[Guide Dang It|Can you honestly say you'd figure that one out without being told?]]

** After Kaku ate a Devil's Fruit, he had trouble changing into the specific form he wanted and, since he hadn't been able to explore his new capabilities, just made new attacks up as he went along. Even so, he was a formidable opponent and adapted to his new powers much faster than the average DF user.

*** Still, having a full-grown giraffe fall through the ceiling [[One Piece/Funny|made for some hilarious moments]].

** According to the [[All There in the Manual|novel version and the official page]], [[Empathic Weapon|Raising Heart fine-tuned herself]] for Nanoha. Guess given the choice of being a tool for a Bombardment Mage or a Force Field Mage, AIs go for the path that lets it [[Stuff Blowing Up|blow stuff up]].

** In Sound Stage 3 of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS]]'', Teana, having had the fourth and final stage of her device limiter removed, has a new long-range mode for Cross Mirage, but decides to work on the skills she has since there won't be enough time to master it before the final battle.

** Xavin, another Skrull with similar abilities, can barely use more than one power at a time.

*** In the ''Secret Invasion'' tie-in, it was shown that while Xavin can only use one power at a time, he became better at using them individually than his teacher could.

* In ''[[Justice League of America|JLA]]: Year One'', everyone's powers (And their related ''[[Nightmare Fuel|body parts]]'') are stolen by a villain. He seems to instantly know how to work each individual power, but the villain primarily relies on Green Lantern's ring, the flashiest and most "powerful" of the abilities. By overlooking the benefits of each different power [[This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman|Aquaman is able to overpower and kick his ass.]]

* Subverted in the current origin story of the Hal Jordan [[Green Lantern]], ''[[Emerald Dawn]]''. In this story, Jordan stumbles about with his newly bestowed power ring, barely defeats a powerful villain and realizes that he is out of his depth with the weapon. To solve that problem, Jordan asks the ring if there is another member of the Green Lantern Corps he can talk to for help. The ring whisks him away to meet Tomar-Re, who recommends that Jordan come to GLC headquarters on the planet Oa for the optional training program. Jordan, naturally, takes that advice.

*** It could easily be argued that this trope is the basis for the X-Men as a whole, as the series has ''always'' revolved around a group of mutants who are ''being trained in the use of their own powers'' at what is quite literally a school that exists for precisely that purpose.

** Inverted with Rogue, who can use her powers quite well, but doesn't know how to turn them off (It's been pretty much spelled out that she ''could'' control them, except that [[The Woobie|some serious psychological trauma]] concerning both her power's first use and the effects of continued use were serving as a block.)

** Never explained was why Alchemy thought he could learn more about biochemistry in a university than with X-Factor, given that one of their members is the Marvel Universe's most brilliant biochemist.

** Being smart doesn't necessarily make you any good at teaching. Also, super-teams are notoriously busy. You know. With fighting.

** The new Spiderman Miles Morales currently does not shoot web, but would really like too. He's asked Spiderwoman but she didn't answer him.

* Parodied in a ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' strip where Calvin is standing around trying to get his butt to light up like a firefly, and attributes his lack of success to "not even knowing what muscle to flex".

** Later, in ''[[Runaways]]'', he knew how to fly the ship the mysterious benefactor gave Phil's group because it was based on the Goblin equipment.

* In an issue of ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'', the villain Absorbing Man absorbs the android Vision's ability to become intangible. He promptly falls through the pier he's standing on and into the water, due to a lack of control.

* [[Spider-Man]]'s ally and generally lovable loser the Fabulous Frog-Man. Stealing the fully automated frog-suit of his father, the villainous Leapfrog, Eugene Patilio wholeheartedly attempts to make a difference while being utterly clueless about how the suit works. This proves to be his greatest strength, however, as [[The Fool|his frequent misfired jumps tend to knock out waves of bad guys]] and make him look like a real hero who knows what he's doing. Pretty much the only person who knows that Eugene is a bumbler in person is Spidey himself.

* Way back in the origins of the [[New Mutants]], Cannonball was only able to shoot himself straight ahead, and stopped mainly by running into things. It took a while for him to control his flight, much less realize he could steer himself and get any good at it. Luckily for him, he's physically invulnerable while "blasting" (and {{spoiler|possibly immortal, depending on which retcon they're on at the moment}}), so he could always walk away from a crash.

** This was also the case with ''[[Nova]]'' to some extent, in the early issues of his first series; he could fly at supersonic speeds, but sometimes couldn't turn or stop in time to keep from crashing into things, particularly during a fight. Writer/creator Marv Wolfman also mentioned more than once (through other characters) that Nova had powers that he was completely unaware of; later series would eventually reveal these.

* The second [[Blue Beetle]], Ted Kord, inherited the magical {{spoiler|(or, as it much later transpires, alien tech)}} scarab that powered his predecessor's superhuman abilities - but couldn't figure out how to make it work for him. He never did - which didn't stop him from having a long heroic career as the Beetle under his own steam.

** The *third* Beetle (Jaime Reyes), incidentally, gets along with the scarab like a house on fire. It just didn't take to Ted.

*** It's implied by the scarab that the reason it didn't work for him is because he hung around [[Foe Yay|Booster]] [[Booster Gold|Gold]] too much, supposedly because of being exposed to too much of his 'mulitverse energy'

* One of the deaths investigated [[Powers]] turns out to be an accident caused by someone losing control of his newly-acquired flight power. Walker finds him [[Driven to Suicide|too late]].

* [[Captain Atom]] is an interesting example. He didn't realize he had any powers at all at first; as far as he knew he just had a [[Chrome Champion|peculiar deformity]]. He realized he could fly only when he had to jump out of a rocket he had been stashed on, and then only discovered his [[Flying Brick|nigh-invulnerability]] when Dr. Megala had Babylon shoot him. He discovered some of his other powers while experimenting and training with Megala, and discovered others as time went on. What's particularly interesting about this case is that there may be [[Physical God|no actual limit to his powers]], but he only gradually discovers this. Of course, many writers [[Power Creep, Power Seep|remember or forget the extent of Cap's powers]] as is [[New Powers as the Plot Demands|convenient for the plot]].

* In ''[[All Fall Down]]'', Sophie suffers from this at first, using several powers by accident until she learns to bring them under control.

* ''[[Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality]]'': Harry spends several chapters conducting scientific experiments to figure out how Hogwarts works. In fact, he concocts a big series of experiments to have Hermione perform... {{spoiler|And then quickly has to scrap the lot once the first one shows his fundamental assumption was completely wrong.}}

* When, in ''[[Shinji and Warhammer40K|Shinji and Warhammer 40 K]]'', Shinji develops ungodly powerful psychic abilties {{spoiler|to thwart Sahaquiel}} it not only completely destroys his ability to pilot Principio Eternus but makes him highly dangerous to everyone and everything. He then spends a chapter or (in a story where the chapters are long enough to be entire seperate stories themselves) being taught to limit them to a more manageable level by some monks. As proof that [[Tropes Are Tools]], this arc is often criticised for being a classic [[Wacky Wayside Tribe]].

 

 

* ''[[Matilda (novel)|Matilda]]'' spends a substantial amount of time trying to figure out the ins and outs of her <s>telekinesis</s> "push-stuff-around-with-her-eyes" power.

* The better part of a chapter of ''[[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy|Life The Universe and Everything]]'' is devoted to Arthur Dent learning to fly. ''By accident.'' To put it simply, he was falling, and got so distracted that he ''missed the ground.''

* In ''[[Mistborn]]'', it turns out that phenomenal cosmic power does not include the ability to think its effects through. An [[Evil Counterpart]] is also present and capable of countering it with opposite-but-equal force, so ''all'' attempts at figuring out the power either fizz out or 'splode. {{spoiler|Rub out the perpetual clouds of smoke, see the sun for the first time -- no block. The sun looks a lot bigger than it is supposed to. The day face of the planet catches fire. Spin the planet to save that face -- no block. Try to stop the tsunamis that result -- block. Also, gloating.}}

* Not knowing how to properly control magic in the ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'' will likely kill you from either a rebound of magical energy or, more likely, draining your life force away before you can cancel the spell.

** It's also been said repeatedly in-universe that truly mastering the art of magic takes decades of practice and diligence. For the first book and a half, Eragon's progress follows this trend, as he slowly progresses from struggling to lift a rock with his mind to effortlessly casting fire based spells. Of course, then he undergoes a crash course in magic with the elves and then becomes half elf during the Blood-Oath Ceremony, completely eliminating the need for a slow progression.

** Diana and Caine spent a while practicing their powers before coming down to Perdido Beach. It was said in the first book they'd had their powers for a couple months.

** Next, he's on trial for his life again for attacking and killing a group of people who were trying to kill him. He had no idea there were rules of chivalry that prevented him from fighting two opponents at once. {{spoiler|he was found to be innocent because he had waded into the river to sneak up on his opponents, which meant that his actions were ordained by the goddess. Otherwise, he would have been eaten by the same killer fish.}}

* In ''[[Nightside|Just Another Judgement Day]]'', there's a humorous scene at the Adventurer's Club when a wannabe supervillain with no clue how his (stolen) magic rings work accidentally teleports himself into the midst of a huge crowd of Nightside heroes, rather than into the neighboring club he'd intended to rob.

* Much of ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' focuses on Terra's inability to control her powers as a {{spoiler|half-Esper}}.

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. After his defeat at Nibelheim, Sephiroth is inactive for 7 years, trapped in Mako until he returns with Jenova's powers. There's some debate on whether that comes down to Sephorith learning how to control Jenova or ''the other way around'', but [[Word of God]] has said that Jenova was not in control. Although that Word of God was released 10 years after the original game.

* In ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'', although he's a crack shot with his bow, Wander doesn't know much about how to use his sword except that it shines when he is getting near a colossus and "point stabby end at colossus; stab."

{{quote|"...Please, a moment. My body is not... cooperating."}}

* The constant bane of [[MMORPG]] veterans is newbies who get levelled up too fast thanks to [[Min-Maxing]] friends, and end up being very high level with absolutely no idea how to use any of their equipment or abilities, or the basic features of the game. ''[[City of Heroes]]'' players in particular justify it to themselves with this trope.

* The ''[[X-Men: Evolution|X-Men Evolution]]'' animated series used this a lot in the first season introduction stories, most notably for for Kitty Pryde and Rogue, but it virtually disappeared after that.

** That's because they were being trained specifically to control their powers, and other characters (Cyclops, Jean, Nightcrawler) had been using their power for years but still had trouble getting it right from time to time.

** [[Powers in the First Episode|In the very first episode]] the new Guardians have a powers practice that is the ''definition'' of how [[How Do I Shot Web?]]. None of their [[Elemental Powers]] are under control yet, flying is... iffy, even for the naturally inclined [[Blow You Away|Hay Lin]] and when the girls try to {{spoiler|save Caleb from Cedric}} Will attempts to do an [[All Your Powers Combined]] attack and hits everything ''but'' {{spoiler|Cedric}}. They do pull it together in the second episode and are seen practicing some more in later episodes.

{{quote|'''Will''': (''after their first practice'') ...I think we've destroyed enough of Heatherfield for today.}}

* A recurring problem for Ben in ''[[Ben 10]]'', especially prevalent when he gains a new alien form and has no idea what it does. The first time he turned into Cannonbolt, not only could he not figure out how rolling up into an armored ball was useful in combat, but he kept losing his balance and falling over backwards when he tried to stand. Reaches its ultimate conclusion in [[Ben 10: Alien Force|Ben 10 Alien Force]] with Alien X, which is seemingly [[God Mode Sue|omnipotent]], but since Ben only gets to be one of its three personalities and the other two are constantly at odds with each other (the ''only'' thing they agree on is that they want Ben to provide tiebreaking votes for all their thousands of years worth of disagreements before they get to what ''he'' wants to do), it's nearly impossible to get it to do ''anything''.

* In ''[[Project G.e.e.K.e.R.]]'', the eponymous character Geeker has almost limitless power as a [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|genetically engineered]] cyborg. However, Becky stole Geeker before he could receive the programming which would allow him to control those powers (and allow the antagonist to control ''him''). Thus, Geeker generally discovers his powers by accident, and has difficulty controlling them.

* Danny in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' constantly gets new ghost powers with some conjunctions to [[Puberty Superpower]] every so often and as per usual, half of them are often hard to control. Duplication is a frequent issue for him and his Ghostly Wail started off as a [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]], among others. He eventually got most of it mastered by the end.

*** Amusingly, Yumi-in-Odd can't quite get the hang of the Overboard either, and ends up sitting on it like a go-kart. Of course, [[Fridge Logic|we're not supposed to ask why they didn't just switch vehicles.]]

*** [[Fridge Logic|Then again, they vehicles may be "bound" to their avatars, like in an MMORPG.]]

** Which he did almost immediately, just the ring started running out of power shorty after he got it. There's a [[media:green-lantern-batman.jpg|reason for that.]]

* In "The N Men", an episode of ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron]]'', this kids almost destroy the entire town before they learn to control their newly acquired superpowers.

** Come to think of it, Darkwing ('Arachnoduck', [[Spider-Man]]-style stuff), Launchpad (''Heavy Mental'', psychic powers), and Gosalyn (''Slime OK, You're OK'', ooze-based abilities) don't fare any better when they get superpowers.

** Also multiple instances of people randomly getting suited in the Gizmoduck outfit by accidentally saying the command code "Blathering Blatherskates."

** Starfire and Raven's learning experiences, interestingly, are about attitude rather than the powers themselves. They both have powers tied to their emotions, but while Starfire's only work when her emotions are allowed to flow free, Raven has to keep her emotions under strict control lest her powers go off unexpectedly and wreak havoc.

** Terra had trouble controlling her powers, as well. It became a serious issue...

* Learning to use a gun is often very much like this. Sure, there's the obvious parts such as pointing the barrel at what you want to kill and pulling the trigger. However, mastering a gun, especially a complex modern assault rifle, is difficult. You have to learn about sighting, trigger pull technique, the fire control group, loading, dropping magazines, changing magazines, aiming, disassembly, reassembly, and cleaning.

** Likewise for most things - firing a bow, drawing a picture, etc.

* Inverted with building a PC, the standards of interconnects (everything is designed to fit one way) and mounting (everything is designed to mount one way) make building a PC no harder than assembling that Lego castle. The hard part though, is troubleshooting when something goes wrong.