All The Tropes

How Do I Shot Web?: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

How Do I Shot Web? (view source)

Revision as of 12:49, 8 April 2014

464 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (categories and general cleanup)
m (Mass update links)
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:spider_web_2_5.jpg|link=Spinnerette (Webcomic)|frame|[http://www.krakowstudios.com/spinnerette/2010/03/31/03312010/ Learning process]: 1 <br />[http://www.krakowstudios.com/spinnerette/2010/04/02/04022010/ Dignity]: 0 <ref> The web comes from a gland at the base of her spine, but it's a lot funnier to imagine [[Toilet Humor|otherwise.]]</ref> ]]
 
You got a [[New Super Power]] or two? Great! [[Final Fantasy IV|Can you use them?]] While the standard hero seems to [[Possession Implies Mastery|instinctively know]] his or her way around every possible ability he or she can obtain throughout the story, some people have to flail and struggle, with everybody laughing at them. Hey, there's all those [[Required Secondary Powers]] that you have to master that nobody tells you about!
 
Also applies when a character attempts to [[Powers Asas Programs|mimic or steal the abilities]] of a hero (like stealing their [[Empathic Weapon]]) and ultimately fails. When he ''is'' successful, the newly acquired power is too unpredictable or costly in his opinion to use in the long run, since he may lack the time or experience to perfect it. It's doubly humiliating if he's defeated by the hero anyway. This is sometimes [[An Aesop]] that a hero's strength is his character, not his powers.
 
Nonetheless some are too stubborn to give them up, and may become a kind of [[Evil Counterpart]].
Line 10:
One would expect this to be a natural co-trope for a [[Puberty Superpower]], which makes it strange that until recently this was rarely the case -- most teen heroes seemed to know how their powers worked instinctively.
 
The name comes from [[Something Awful|Something Awful's]] randomly renamed and [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made Onon Drugs?|incredibly nonsensical]] "FYAD" subforum, where it originated as a quotable quote from somebody playing the ''[[Half-Life]]'' mod ''Natural Selection'' and trying to figure out the alien faction's special abilities (shooting webs). In his frustration, he posted [[Trope Namer|"how do i]] [[Memetic Mutation|shot web"]] repeatedly. It got quickly transposed to Spidey [[Rule of Funny|because it's funnier when he says it]]. It has since spread wide across the Internet, as such things are [[Memetic Mutation|wont to do]].
 
Often follows up [[Powers in Thethe First Episode]]. Sometimes followed by [[Power Strain Blackout]]. The trope is the inverse of [[Power Overhaul]].
 
{{examples}}
Line 26:
** The fifth episode shows just how [[Crazy Prepared]] he is by having him rattle off all the things he's learned via experimentation, such as its maximum effective range of 270 meters. The audio commentary lampshades this when the voice actors (including [[Jun Fukuyama|Lelouch's]]) muse on exactly ''how'' he discovered these things, suggesting (for the range example) that he used cell phones in walkie-talkie fashion.
*** "Can I Geass you now? ... Good."
* Similarly, ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' has a sequence involving Light Yagami learning the rules and limitations of the Death Note before he embarks on his great scheme of moral cleansing. He continues to experiment with its powers and devise loopholes throughout the series.
** 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).
Line 32:
** 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.
* Skuld gets this in ''[[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|Ah My Goddess]]'' when she tries to develop her water powers. It doesn't work out, and she puts herself in danger by trying to accelerate things, this danger being caused by her proclivity for [[Tim Taylor Technology]].
* At one point, Padudu of ''[[Magical Play]]'' (aka ''[[Magical Witchland]]'') saves two other characters from death via [[New Powers Asas the Plot Demands|suddenly being able to fly]]. When asked by Pippin why she hadn't done that in the pilot, when she fell on Pippin and cost her a tournament, Padudu says: "[[Forgot I Could Fly|Oh, that time, I forgot I could fly!]]"
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Ed learns of his ability to transmute without a circle by clasping his hands in frustration then grabbing a basin of water, heating it through alchemy to boiling temperature. Afterward, he has no clue how he managed to do it, and his attempts to reproduce the effect are unsuccessful until he finds himself in another emergency situation.
** That, however, only happens in the first anime. In the manga and the remake, he just [[Possession Implies Mastery|instinctively knows]] that he can do it, what with having seen the Truth and all. This fits in better with how he was able to bond Al's soul to a suit of armor immediately after losing his leg, when alchemists who had devoted years of research to it had far less luck with human transmutation.
Line 53:
** A flashback to [[Rubber Man|Luffy's]] youth showed that it was years before he could even use Gum-Gum Pistol (basically just a stretching-arm punch, which is Luffy's most basic attack in the main storyline) without hitting the ground or it rebound into his own face.
** 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 (Manga)/Funny|made for some hilarious moments]].
* Even though he had it first, Yuuno of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' never was able to properly use [[Empathic Weapon|Raising Heart]], only being able to fight with its crystal-like Standby Mode and [[By the Power of Grayskull|needing to say a really long activation phrase to do even that]]. One must wonder how he felt when the then beginner mage Nanoha was able to easily unlock a full Barrier Jacket, activate [[Swiss Army Weapon|RH's alternate Modes]], and do all of that without the need of the long incantation.
** 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 StrikersStrikerS]]'', 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.
* In an episode of ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam (Anime)|G Gundam]]'', a disgruntled fanboy steals Domon's Gundam believing that he can pilot it better. However, things go awry when he doesn't know how to properly operate the Gundam, requiring Domon to come and save him.
** It isn't "proper operation" so much as "any sort of physical training" -- the suit-up process is shown to be quite painful, even to a trained martial artist like Domon, so the preteen boy nearly broke several bones before Domon hit the abort.
* Likewise for ''[[Gundam]]'', [[Mobile Suit Gundam (Anime)|Amuro]] and [[After War Gundam X (Anime)|Garrod]]'s and first sortie was "Use vulcans and scare off my enemies and tank the machine gun rounds" and then "use sword to fend off enemy mobile suits". It was only after the first battle did they got the knowledge to pilot the suit. For Garrod's first experience firing the [[Wave Motion Gun]], it gives Tifa a [[Heroic BSOD]]. Lucky for them that Amuro has [[Psychic Powers]] and Garrod is a genius at improvisation.
* Judau Ashta of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (Anime)|Gundam ZZ]]'' had even less luck, despite his own considerable [[Psychic Powers]]: his first experience flying a Gundam mainly involved him clumsily crashing into things and defeating his opponent by sheer luck. Likewise Elle, who could only figure out how to move the Gundam's arms her first time, let alone make it walk or fight.
* Tobia Arronax of [[Crossbone Gundam]] specifically has a Worker MS license, but this isn't much help in a Combat MS. In his first sorty, he expects to only be an extra turret, and his Batara flounders around a little before righting (it ends with [[GundamMobile FSuit Gundam 91F91|Seaboo-]], er, Kincaid bisecting it). In his second, some time after the first, he's in over his head and has to eject so Kincaid can take over. In his third, he survives largely because Barnes doesn't want to kill him. Then they give him a Pez Batara and he uses a Bit as a ''stepping stone'', at which point his future [[Ace Pilot]] status is all but confirmed.
* The first time [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Shinji Ikari]] tried to pilot an Eva with no training or preparation, he fell on his face. Fortunately, {{spoiler|putting him in danger this way activated the Crazy Protective Alter Ego of his Eva suit, who handily defeated the Angel for him.}}
* Season Three ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' spoiler'd example: {{spoiler|[[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|In the Future]], when Tsuna first uses his [[Kill It Withwith Fire]] X-Burner Attack, he can't find out how to set it off without propelling himself backward into a wall. When he figures out to use his other hand to make a balancing fireball, he THEN has the limitation that he can only fire on level ground, when he gets around THAT, he needs a way to balance out the flames. Luckily, we're spared that Training episode by Spanner.}}
* Karin from ''[[Kamichama Karin]]'' wore the Goddess Ring for YEARS without having a clue that it could allow her to transform into a [[Physical God]]. And even when she finds out, she struggles long and hard before even being able to transform without help, much less be any kind of useful. It probably doesn't help that she's [[This Loser Is You|really, really stupid]].
* In ''[[Harukanaru Toki no Naka Dede|Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou]]'' episode 4, Tenma's attempt to protect Akane from [[Big Bad|Akuram]] results in him activating his Hachiyou powers for the first time, nearly frying Akuram with [[Shock and Awe|lightning]]. Tenma is clearly surprised by this ability, but when he tries to repeat this move on purpose a few minutes later, it doesn't work. In the next episode, he [[Lampshade Hanging|complains]] about the Hachiyou powers being useless due to not working when they are needed.
* [[Naruto]] faced this difficulty with controlling the Kyuubi's chakra throughout the series. After the time skip it's largely a matter of not going berserk while using it, but pre-time skip his major problem is accessing the power to begin with. This led to a month of humiliating "training" in summoning tadpoles, culminating with being thrown into a ravine.
** And just to make it worse, when summoning really counts, he's only able to get a toad the size of his hand. Twice!
Line 73:
* In the original ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' manga, Kouji can't control Mazinger-Z when he first gets it and is forced to have Sayaka run out in the Aphrodite A to stop him and get him under control. The ''[[Mazinkaiser]]'' OVA takes it one step further: Kouji thinks he can control it, but it takes control of him then goes into a berserker rage.
* Unlike virtually every other Precure before her, Tsubomi Hanasaki, alias Cure Blossom, of ''[[Heartcatch Pretty Cure]]'' has to be practically hand-held through most of her powers and abilities early on. Compare this to her teammate Erika Kurumi, alias Cure Marine, who was able to figure out everything on the word "go".
** A similar situation happens in ''[[Smile Pretty Cure (Anime)|Smile Pretty Cure]]'' with Miyuki Hoshizora, alias Cure Happy, though she's quicker mastering her powers than Tsubomi. And once she does, cue the pink heart-shaped [[DragonballDragon Ball|Kamehameha]]. Though, it's starting to seem like the rest of Miyuki's teammates are stuck in this same predicament.
* ''[[Inazuma Eleven]]'' has this: Endou's Seigi no Tekken and God Catch, Tachimukai's Majin the Hand and Mugen the Hand, and Kidou/Fudou's attempt to create Emperor Penguin No.3.
* ''[[Beet the Vandel Buster (Manga)|Beet the Vandel Buster]]'' started off with the five ultimate weapons given to him by his dying heroes. Of course, he still had to learn how to use them, and after several years was only able to use one, the spear, effectively. He eventually learns to fire more than one shot with the gun, and comes closer to mastering the shield with training from its original owner (who was [[Not Quite Dead]]). With foresight he learned to work around the axe's twelve-second materialization time, and over time got better at the sword bit by bit if nowhere near able to master it. In fact, when the series was cut short at twelve volumes, Beet still arguably hadn't totally mastered ''any'' of his weapons!
 
 
== Comics ==
* The main-line [[Spider -Man]] actually subverts the trope. Many of his powers are hardwired into his reflexes and instincts. As such, acrobatics, fighting, dodging bullets, and balancing are all things he can do automatically. In his introduction, he backfliped twenty feet and stuck to the side of a building mere minutes after being bitten by the radioactive spider, purely because his [[Spider Sense]] sensed a car about to run him over. Even web-slinging needed little practice purely because his reflexes prevented him from screwing up. Spidey's biggest problem tends to be the fact that his opponents are stronger and faster than him and/or have an [[Instant Death Radius]] that requires him to be smart about using his powers.
* The Super-Skrull is a recurring ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' villain who can use all the super-powers of that team, plus has a native alien ability to shapeshift. Nevertheless, he is always defeated, usually by the Four's ability to [[The Power of Friendship|work as a team]].
** It's been explain in canon that one of the reasons he loses to the FF is that some of them have gotten upgraded (either explicitly or via Power Drift) since he was created. For example Sue Storm wasn't the most powerful member of the team when they copied her, so her powers are stronger than the Super Skrull's. The Thing and Johnny Storm also had power ups. Reed has stayed the same, but his real power is his brain and he is indeed smarter than Super Skrull.
Line 105:
* 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".
* In the 1990s [[Marvel Comics]] ''[[Sleepwalker]]'' comic series, Rick and Sleepwalker [[Freaky Friday|end up accidentally switching bodies after an encounter with one of Sleepwalker's enemies]], and Rick has to try and figure out how to use Sleepwalker's abilities, in between being attacked by supervillains and demons from the Mindscape.
* [[Spider-Girl (Comic Book)|Spider-Girl]] didn't exactly have problems learning to use her powers, but she needed training from her [[Spider -Man|father]] and his friend Phil to really be able to master them and become a more experienced fighter.
** Similarly, Phil Urich himself had a number of problems figuring out how to use the Green Goblin's equipment when he moonlighted as a superhero in the short-lived ''[[Green Goblin]]'' series Marvel published in the 1990s.
** 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.
Line 111:
* 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.
* Liz Sherman from ''[[Hellboy (Comic Bookcomics)|Hellboy]]'' can't control her fire powers at a young age, accidentally killing several people, including her parents. She joins the [[BPRD]] because they can teach her how to use her powers, or at the very least have ways to keep her from hurting people again.
* Poor [[Empowered (Comic Book)|Empowered]] gains her powers from an alien supersuit that is the very definition of "enigmatic". She found out the obvious ones ([[Super Strength]], vison enhancement, [[Kamehame Hadoken|hand beams]]), but the other powers were discovered by accident. {{spoiler|For example, her [[Wall Crawl|Wall Crawling]] was activated when she was thrown against a wall and she still hasn't actually "discovered" its flying abilities.}}
** In fairness, it's kind of hard to know instinctively that the super-suit ''enhances libido''. Yeah, exactly.
Line 134:
* 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]].
* In the [[Silver Age]], Superboy stories, Ma and Pa Kent were shown helping Superboy hone his powers. Particularly true with flight. Unlike in Smallville, he figured out the thrust mechanism early on but had trouble with steering. In the [[Modern Age]] New Krypton storyline, Superman was shown to be an elite soldier because of his extensive experience using his powers, leading to him training fellow soldiers in the New Krypton military. Supergirl, by contrast, was able to activate all her powers but struggled with holding back.
* [[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 Asas the Plot Demands|convenient for the plot]].
* In ''[[All Fall Down (Comic Book)|All Fall Down]]'', Sophie suffers from this at first, using several powers by accident until she learns to bring them under control.
 
 
== Fanfiction ==
* Michikyuu Kanae in ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero (Fanfic)|Kyon Big Damn Hero]]'' never had a chance to learn how to slide properly. {{spoiler|[[Fridge Horror|In hindsight, it's probably better she didn't work out how it works.]]}}
* ''[[Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality (Fanfic)|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 Warhammer 40 K (Fanfic)|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]].
* In ''[[With Strings Attached (Fanfic)|With Strings Attached]]'', all the four struggle with their magic when they first get it, especially Paul, and they undergo a continual learning process throughout the book.
 
 
== Films ==
* Happens literally in the first ''[[Spider-Man (Filmfilm)|Spider-Man]]'' movie.
{{quote| "Go web!!... Fly!... [[Superman|Up, up, and away]] web!... [[Shazam]]!... Go!... Go!... Go web go!..."}}
** In the second movie, he loses the power to shot web.
* In ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]]'', Tony goes through a few iterations of flight testing with repulsor thrusters. His first attempt was just boots (and at 10% capacity) which gave him a faceplant... on the ceiling. Second test he got smart and added flight stabilizers on his hands (and only at 1% and then 2.5%), but still had some trouble before gaining control. His full flight-ready Mark 2 suit also took some time getting used to before he had flight control.
** He doesn't even intentionally create his iconic hand beams; he just accidentally finds out that having his hand stabilizers go off at full power while not in flight fires a blast of energy.
** Ironically subverted by <s>[[The Big Lebowski|His Dudeness]]</s> {{spoiler|Obadiah Stane,}} the film's villain, who is able to match Iron Man blow for blow when he gets his own suit of armor, despite having never been shown to have any training of his own. However, {{spoiler|he relies heavily on a targeting computer; when Iron Man disables that, he quickly proves unable to hit him with missiles from about ten feet away. Nor does Stane know about the dangers of his armor freezing up if he flies too high, a problem Iron Man had already dealt with earlier in the film and that he now exploits when Stane makes the same mistake he did.}}
** Stark didn't have much trouble operating his original "escape" suit either, despite not having much -- or any -- practice with it. Since Stane's suit is just a bigger and beefier copy of Stark's original plans, presumably there was something about the original design that made it fairly idiot-proof. That said, the entirety of the Mk.1 suit's armaments were a flamethrower, a manually-fired missile, fists and a manual start rocket boost. The flamethrower requires next-to-no aiming capacity and the missile ''missed''... thank goodness for [[Splash Damage]]. Meanwhile Stark couldn't stop himself from constantly adding upgrades and modifications that certainly would have made his own suit more complex and fiddly. (Not to mention [[Perpetual Beta]].)
* Even [[Wolverine]] isn't immune, spending the first few hours after he got his adamantium claws in ''[[X-Men (Filmfilm)|X-Men]] Origins'' accidentally cutting things up.
* Basically the main plot of ''[[The Meteor Man]]'', where much of the movie is spent on Jefferson Reed learning to use his new powers, including flight (despite being afraid of heights).
* A similar thing happens to the title character in ''[[Sgt. Kabukiman NYPDN.Y.P.D.]]'': The first time his powers manifest, he accidentally cartwheels into a light pole; later, he tries to become Kabukiman, but [[It Makes Sense in Context|somehow turns into a clown]]; even later, he learns he can fly, but due to not being used to it, he throws up, and it lands on an asshole lawyer below him.
* ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|Batman Begins]]'' shows Bruce Wayne experimenting with the technology that would eventually become part of his iconic identity, learning from his mistakes (bouncing off that fire escape ''had'' to hurt!) and upgrading accordingly.
* [[The Messiah|Luke]] [[Luke Nounverber|Skywalker]] spends much of the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy learning how to use his [[The Force|Jedi powers]], especially during his [[Training From Hell]] with [[Old Master|Yoda]].
* [[X -Men: First Class (Film)|X Men First Class]] shows more of this. Professor X hypothesises that Banshee's sonic scream should enable him to fly, so he encourages him to jump out of a second story window. Three guesses what happens.
* During his first flight as [[The Rocketeer (Filmfilm)|The Rocketeer]], Cliff Secord accidentally turns the rocketpack off as [[Look Ma, No Plane|he's saluting passengers aboard a plane]].
 
 
Line 171:
** Subverted in the case of swordplay -- which is, let's face it, the first thing to master when trying to use any magic sword's [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|first and foremost super power]]. Getting magic swords that can cut anything is great -- for knights and swordmasters. For anyone else, it's a health risk. Richard's a woodsman, the most experience he'd have with blades would be limited to a machette and a skinning knife. He'd have to learn swordplay like any other, right? {{spoiler|No. [[Sword of Plot Advancement|The Sword of Truth]] [[Instant Expert|can share the collective combat experience of all previous users with the Seeker]]; Richard of course learns this ''while'', and promptly uses it during, a fight with 30 -- that's ''thirty'' -- Baka Ban Mana blademasters -- they're guys who spend most of their lives training swordplay, each day, ''all'' day, dawn till dusk. [[Story-Breaker Power|Right]].}} He actually lampshades it right before that fight, thinking that against one man he ''is'' virtually unstoppable - but only because the sword cannot be parried, and so he can count on getting one strike through.
** There is a villainous case in book 4, where [[Big Bad|Jagang]] takes over the mind of a wizard. He ''can'' use simple telekinesis and throw fireballs, but never uses more advanced powers like [[Deflector Shields]] or tranfiguration.
* ''[[Matilda (Literaturenovel)|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 each of the ''[[Incarnations of Immortality]]'' books, the protagonists have to get the hang of being the Incarnations of Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil, Good, and Night, respectively.
Line 188:
 
== Live Action TV ==
* Peter Petrelli in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', both in season one (where he learned how to control his empathic powers from Claude) and in season two (where he got amnesia and forgot both which powers he had ''and'' how to use them). This seems to be one of the recurring problems which always almost brings about an apocalypse of some sort. There is also serial killer Sylar, who can use powers ''better'' than the person he stole from due to his [[Awesomeness By Analysis|supernatural ability to analyse how things work]], including brains.
** Hell, in the beginning of Season One Peter ''didn't even know what his power was'', having spent his life around <s> exactly one person</s> {{spoiler|<s>precisely two people</s> <s>three people</s> five people}} with a power he could copy.
** {{spoiler|Arthur Petrelli}} doesn't seem to have this problem. {{spoiler|He has a pretty good handle on how to use the powers he stole from Peter despite not having seen him use them.}}
Line 195:
* This is the entire premise of the show ''[[The Greatest American Hero]]''.
** It's worth noting that Ralph ''finally'' got a replacement super-suit instruction manual in one episode. {{spoiler|He loses it when, experimenting with shrinking powers, he gets startled by an ant and returns to normal size... leaving the manual microscopic.}}
* Happens frequently to the witches in ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]''.
* Used in ''[[Smallville]]'' a number of times as Clark's [[Puberty Superpower|emerging powers]] make themselves known, most notably with his heat vision and x-ray vision. Clark spends all the way up to ''Season 10'' unable to figure out how to fly, while Kara and other Kryptonians can do it in a few minutes.
* In ''[[Kamen Rider Dragon Knight]]'', Kit's first attempt to transform into Dragon Knight includes multiple inflections of his [[By the Power of Greyskull|transformation phrase]] ("'Kamen Rider!' 'Kamen... RIDER'? 'Kamenrider'?"), similar to the ''Spider-Man'' film.
Line 202:
** [[Kamen Rider Kuuga]] has to learn how to use the abilities of each form, usually with help from his friends.
** [[Kamen Rider Faiz]] was not meant to have the armor but is one of few who can use it. There are a lot of features Takumi doesn't know about until he stumbles onto them. In one episode, Delta summons a rocket bike. Takumi summons the one he never knew he had by entering the same code. {{spoiler|It gets destroyed in the same episode as he's not as good with it as his opponent is with his own. Of course, he still has a [[Cool Bike]].}}
** ''[[Kamen Rider Fourze (TV)|Kamen Rider Fourze]]'' litterally struggles to transform and use his switch-weapons in the first episode. Yuki has to explain the transformation sequence to him, and Kengo communicates with Fourze mid-fight through his radar's built-in communicator in order to explain what gadget does what. Without all that help, Gentaro would've been flying around randomly and firing missiles everywhere without even touching the very first [[Monster of the Week]] once.
* There was a scene in the first episode of ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'' where the Rangers try to figure out how to activate their morphers. And then when they actually go out to face the bad guys, they struggle for a minute to remember the [[By the Power of Greyskull]] phrase.
* In a relatively unremarkable [[Freaky Friday Flip|body switch]] episode of ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'', Rygel (the tiny frog-like [[The Napoleon|Napoleon]]) is occupying John Crichton's body when he finds himself needing to urinate. John leads him through the steps, but when it comes to zipping up... well, it didn't go well.
** Let's not forget that John was in Aeryn's body while giving the instructions, for added hilarity.
* British superhero drama ''[[Misfits]]'' really goes to town with this trope. Of the five protagonists, only Simon (whose power is [[Invisibility]]) can exert any kind of deliberate control over his power, while the others remain baffled and exasperated by their ungovernable abilities. Both Kelly, who hates being [[Telepathy|telepathic]] and wishes she could just turn it off, and Alisha, whose [[Blessed Withwith Suck|"power"]] of pheromone manipulation -- which causes anyone who touches her skin to experience such violent surges of lust that they will generally attempt to rape her -- can do nothing to mitigate or restrain the effects of their powers. Curtis finds his power of time manipulation to be infuriatingly sporadic, and then there's Nathan, {{spoiler|whose power of Healing (and effective Immortality), works so incredibly slowly that it's possible for him to die, and only come back to life several days later -- to find himself buried alive, naturally.}} It is, however, a little early in the Series to deem them all ''truly'' [[Power Incontinence|power incontinent]].
* The Objects from ''[[The Lost Room]]'' have shades of this, when someone even knows what they do or how to activate them. This is doubly true for the abilities of Object combinations, which don't always have anything to do with combining the abilities of the individual Objects.
* The pilot of ''[[The Invisible Man (TV series)|The Invisible Man]]'' involved Darian being implanted with a gland that can turn him invisible, after which he has to be taught how to activate it, and then he experiments with it and learns to do things the scientists who developed the gland didn't even think were possible.
* The members of [[No Ordinary Family]] have to spend quite some time learning the strengths and limitations of their new abilities. It occasionally goes poorly.
 
Line 219:
== Video Games ==
* The [[Pokémon]] Ditto has only one power-- Being able to copy those that belong to its opponent. (It's also immune to being paralyzed, but that's beside the point.) However, Ditto cannot copy the opponent's HP and all the moves it copies come with only 5 PP, showing its inability to master techniques on the spot.
* Rumia of ''[[Touhou (Video Game)|Touhou]]'' can generate a field of darkness to protect herself from light, which hurts her, but she [[Required Secondary Powers|can't see through]] her ''own'' field of darkness; she can often be seen bumping into trees midflight. Apparently, ZUN thought it would be funny to make a character's powerful-sounding ability (control of darkness) actually be useless.
** Keine can hide and "eat" history, as well as create entirely new history in her hakutaku form, which would make her one of the most powerful characters in a setting already overflowing with [[Story-Breaker Power|Story Breaker Powers]] if she had any idea how to use it. The only time she even attempted, hiding the Human Village during the [[Title Drop|Imperishable Night]], the player characters found it easily anyway.
* The backstory to the NESTS saga character Nameless in ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' reveals that he had a number of problems controlling his pyrokinetic abilities. Most of his time after testing was spent in the infirmary recovering from severe burns, and on his first real assignment he killed somebody just by tapping them on the shoulder.
* Shirou of ''[[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight]]'' not only doesn't know how to shot web, he doesn't even know it's web he's supposed to be shotting!! Ahem. At first, he thinks he's supposed to be using strengthening magic, which he sucks at. Eventually, he figures out that he is much better at projection (magic that involves creating temporary replicas of real objects) and, although it's immensely taxing, picks up on that and becomes very good at it. {{spoiler|During Unlimited Blade Works [[Future Badass|Archer]] reveals to Shirou that it's not projection he's good at, it's visualizing the exact nature of an object and creating it from his mind alone, which Archer eventually developed into a [[Fisher King|Reality Marble]] that turns him into a pure [[Badass]]. At the end of that route, this allows Shirou to tap directly into his full potential. In Heaven's Feel, Shirou gains a more instinctual knowledge of his true powers through a [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]] and being coached by Ilya, but the aforementioned technique causes brain damage and eventually kills him because that's the [[It Got Worse]] route. (Though he [[Unexplained Recovery|recovers somehow]] in the True End.)}} Oh, and in all cases Shirou still has a hard time projecting things accurately, which means they break easily.
** This also happens with {{spoiler|Sakura}}, who never received proper training as a magus and because of this has trouble controlling her magic. She ''does'' wind up being able to use it by instinct... {{spoiler|when she goes crazy and gets access to Angra Mainyu's gamebreaking powers}}. [[Oh Crap]], indeed.
* Much of ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' focuses on Terra's inability to control her powers as a {{spoiler|half-Esper}}.
Line 238:
 
== Webcomics ==
* After the titular character of ''[[Spinnerette (Webcomic)|Spinnerette]]'' acquires spider powers from a gene-splicing ray, she gets to ''literally'' figure out how to shot web. Like [[Spider-Man (Filmfilm)|movie-verse Spidey]], she eventually learns how to do it; ''unlike'' movie-verse Spidey, though, it doesn't come from her wrists....
** She should have asked the [[The Venture Brothers|Brown Widow]] for some tips.
** In real life, a spider's webbing comes out of the rear of the abdomen, so this is also [[Truth in Television]].
Line 244:
{{quote| '''Sahira:''' ''(laughing)'' Yeah, I guess it'd make sense for the web to come out of your ass!<br />
'''Heather/Spinnerette:''' It does not come out of my ''ass''! [[Insistent Terminology|It comes out of a gland at the base of my spine!]] }}
* The full capabilities of the Monster in the Darkness from ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'' have never been revealed. The in-comic reason is speculated to be that he's too... childlike to know his full potential.
** Xykon implies once or twice that he actually knows the exact limitations and capabilities of the Monster in the Darkness, even if the Monster doesn't; he's repeatedly stated that the Monster is his trump card, and he has no intentions of bringing it out until its planned debut, or until things go completely out the window, whichever comes first.
* Even though she gained her alternate form some time ago, Mye from [http://www.drunkduck.com/Charby_the_Vampirate/ Charby the Vampirate] doesn't know most of the forms abilities. While she did suddenly learn she could teleport during a fight, and apparently has much greater strength, she still hasn't gotten around to learning to fly and mentions the fact to herself every time she gets stuck in a situation where flight would get her to safety.
* In ''[[Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki]]'', the main character Yuuki is selected to be the next Valkyrie, and is flung into several fights with no idea how to use her new powers. She's forced to more or less play it by ear early on. That's not the least of her problems, though...
* In ''[[FreakangelsFreak Angels]]'', [[Cloudcuckoolander]] Arkady's apparent hobby is figuring out just ''what'' she and the other titular psychics can do with their powers. She's recently perfected teleportation. {{spoiler|1=It's implied that all the FreakAngels doing this together is what caused [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]].}}
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Gwynn has never really mastered her magical ability, partly because, more often than not, she bungles the spells badly and [[Hilarity Ensues]], partly because the source of her powers is the [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|Book of]] [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|E-Ville]].
* Agatha goes through a period of this early in ''[[Girl Genius]]'', but for "sparks," this is normal. In fact, she would have finished going through the Shot Web phase years ago if she hadn't been {{spoiler|handicapped by her uncle's locket for her own protection}}.
Line 267:
== Western Animation ==
* Princess from ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' acquires powers like the heroines' several times over the course of the series, by various means. She fails to beat them every time, but never learns a lesson about it.
* 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.
* In the second season finale of ''[[WITCH (Animationanimation)|WITCH]]'', Cedric falls victim to this trope after {{spoiler|devouring the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] of seasons one and two, consequently gaining their powers, as well as}} gaining the powers of all five heroines. Despite having by far the most raw power of any villain in the series, he is unable to utilize his new skills to anywhere near their full potential. This, combined with [[Deadly Upgrade|new transformations for all five heroines]], led to Cedric's defeat in a little more than five minutes.
** [[Powers in Thethe 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 (Animation)|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 (Animation)|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''.
** Same applies to Ben's [[Evil Counterpart]] Kevin 11, who instead of utilizing the full array of his Omnitrix powers (i.e. phasing, super-intelligence, super-speed, machine control) pretty much prefers to just either smash stuff or blast stuff. In ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]'' Ben has to point out to him that he can phase through objects. He does get more creative in his power usage after realizing he's got so many different abilities, though.
* In ''[[Project Gee Ke 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.
{{quote| '''Danny:''' ''(creates shield)'' Awesome! How'd I do that?}}
Line 282:
*** 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.]]
* One episode of ''[[The Batman (Animation)|The Batman]]'' centered around The Penguin obtaining The Green Lantern's power ring, and his efforts to figure out exactly how it worked. When he obtained The ring himself, The Batman also had to learn how to use its powers.
** 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.
* In ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'', [[Evil Twin|Negaduck]] manages to gain the powers of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Fearsome Four]] and basically goes [[One-Winged Angel]]. Fortunately for our hero, Negaduck has trouble dealing with conflicting powersets ([[Shock and Awe|electricity]] and [[Making a Splash|water]]) and the insanity he got from Quackerjack.
** 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."
* One episode of ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' had Raven and Starfire [[Freaky Friday Flip|body switched]] and having to figure out how to use each others' powers.
** 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...
* The pilot of ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' is caused by Blue Beetle not knowing how his suit works and unintentionally creates a worm hole to the other side of the Milky Way.
* Behind-the-scenes info for [[Made of Explodium|Combustion Man]] from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' state that he got his mechanical arm and foot after blowing them off while learning his ability to shoot explosions out of his forehead when he was younger.
** The entire storyline of the series is fundamentally about [[The Hero|Aang]] mastering [[Making a Splash|Water]], [[Dishing Out Dirt|Earth]], and [[Playing Withwith Fire|Fire]] bending to become a "fully-realized Avatar." [[The Lancer|Katara]] also goes from not being able to consciously control a few liters of water to being a waterbending master.
* In the animated series of ''[[Legion of Super -Heroes (TV series)|Legion of Super Heroes]]'', Clark Kent is still figuring out how to use his powers in the first episode.
* ''[[Young Justice (Animationanimation)|Young Justice]]'': Superboy, being a clone of [[Superman]], has some of the older hero's powers, but does not know how to use them. This sets up tension between the two as Superboy wants to learn from Superman and sees him as a father while Superman is (understandably) disturbed by Superboy's ''existence'' and wants nothing to do with him.
** In season 2, [[Blue Beetle]] Jaime Reyes has powerful suit of [[Adaptive Armor]] capable of creating just about anything he can imagine and even has [[Universal Translator]] capabilities. Too bad he has no idea how to use any of the Scarab's powers at first, and the Scarab's [[Artificial Intelligence]] hurts more than it helps since it always suggests the most violent and destructive approach to solving any problem. In "Salvage" the Scarab doesn't inform Jaime that it can communicate with the monster that's kicking his and Superboy's behinds until Jaime rhetorically asks if it can do so because the Scarab sees peaceful communication as a sign of weakness.
* In [[Iron Man: Armored Adventures (Animation)|Iron Man Armored Adventures]] Tony's first controlled flight in his Iron Man armor has him ding a few buildings but manages to pull it together. [[War Machine (Comic Book)|Rhodey's]] first foray goes so badly he creates a crater in the ground when he crashes and swears never to get in an armor again; that same episode [[The Fool|Happy Hogan]] finds the armor and manages to get the hang of it so fast that Tony can't stop gushing about how good he is with it.
* Averted in an episode of ''[[Justice League]] Unlimited'', "The Great Brain Robbery." After inadvertently swapping minds with the Flash, [[Lex Luthor]] seems to fare pretty well in his new body, and the other League members have a hell of a time trying to stop him.
* When Scott Lang from ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Animation)|The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'' first tries to use Hank Pym's [[Ant-Man]] gear for a bank robbery, he finds out by chance that the helmet allows communication with insects. Also, when he tries to use Pym Discs to make the stacks of money pocket sized, he accidentally makes them shrink smaller than microscopic size instead.
 
 
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/895001"