I Thought Everyone Could Do That: Difference between revisions

 

Generally, characters like this are either a [[Cloudcuckoolander]], [[Captain Oblivious]], a [[Fish Out of Water]], or very young and inexperienced. Depending on the feat, this can also be an [[Achievements in Ignorance|Achievement in Ignorance]]. [[Truth in Television]] - you can only experience your own mind, so it makes sense to assume that other's minds work the same way unless proven otherwise.

 

* Aisia from ''[[Da Capo]] Second Season'' starts off believing that the ability to use magic is so common that the school Asakura attends must be an academy for teaching magic. Obviously she is wrong.

* Goku of ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' thought that every boy has a tail. Amusingly, when he tells Bulma, she gets upset that she still doesn't know about the male anatomy at her age.

'''Scar:''' ...what do you mean? }}

 

* In his honeymoon edition, [[Spider-Man]] [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the idea that he created his web fluid and thought any idiot could do the same, but Fireheart's scientists made one that breaks easily.

* Aquaman in the JLA Year One series expresses this. He doesn't think of his abilities as powers because everyone can do it where he comes from. Likewise, Martian Manhunter thinks of his abilities more as "skills" or "gifts of will" rather than powers.

 

== Fan Works ==

* Tristan of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'' thinks that if you get angry, you turn into [[The Incredible Hulk]]. When told the truth, he says he thought everyone could do it.

 

== Literature ==

** It's mentioned that Susan thought nothing of her ability to <s> walk through walls</s> make herself unnoticeable, and assumed for the longest time that ''everyone'' could do that. Even in her second appearance (by which time she knows her origin), she finds stopping time to be so easy that she wonders why ordinary people can't do it. This is partially justified, in that many of Susan's (and Death's) "supernatural" abilities really ''are'' much more straightforward than the way regular humans approach reality. For instance, it’s not that she can see things that aren’t real, it’s that everyone else can ''not'' see things that are.

** Tiffany Aching knows that being able to step out of your body and look at it from the outside isn't an ordinary thing for a human to do, but she's not sure if it's an ordinary thing for a ''witch'' to do. (It isn't.)

* Justified for Ax of ''[[Animorphs]]'' in that he's not human, but he's rather surprised when he learns that humans cannot tell time accurately or judge direction (North-East-South-West) innately. (Of course, with only a little training, ''they can''.)

* Fitz's daughter Nettle in the ''Tawny Man'' trilogy is a DreamWeaver, but doesn't realize that this is anything special. She doesn't understand why other people have nightmares, because why would anyone want to stay in a dream they didn't like?

* Happens all the time in the setting of [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''[[Alvin Maker]]'' [[Alternate History]]. The narrator rambles in the fourth book:

{{quote|Like a lot of folks, he has a knack and doesn't even know it because that's the way knacks work: it just feels as natural as can be to the person who's got it, as easy as breathing, so you don't think ''that'' could possibly be your unusual power because heck, that's ''easy''. You don't know it's a knack till other people around you get all astonished about it or upset or excited or whatever feelings your knacks seems to provoke in folks. Then you go, "Boy howdy, other's folks can't ''do'' this! I got me a knack!" and from then on there's no putting up with you till you finally settle down and get back to normal life and stop bragging about how you can do this fool thing that you used to never be excited about back when you still had sense.}}

* [[Warrior Cats]]: Dovewing says this word for word when she finds out her super hearing is a special power.

 

* Parker of ''[[Leverage]]'' makes a quick and accurate sketch of a hit man who's been following their mark around.

{{quote|'''Hardison:''' Wow, I didn't know you could do that.

* ''[[Alphas]]'': Marcus Ayers' ability gives him enough [[Awesomeness By Analysis]] to create [[Disaster Dominoes]] on purpose and he's convinced that everyone else can do the same thing, thus believing that [[There Are No Coincidences]], which drives his paranoia.

* In one episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'', a man with telekenetic powers explains that when he was young he had to stop using his powers because he finally realized around the time he was 8 that he was the only person who could do the things that he could.

 

== Video Games ==

* In the ''[[Xenosaga]]'' series, Albedo is shocked to learn that other people can't regenerate, including his brothers. This occurs after a very disturbing scene in which a child Albedo blows his own head off in front of his brothers with an energy blast, or a gun in the Japanese version. For great [[Mood Whiplash]], he was only trying to be funny.

 

== Web Comics ==

** Hey, it's not her fault she doesn't know what humans can do! [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0530.html Humans don't ''have'' an entry in the Monster Manual anymore]!

* In ''[[Digger]]'', Shadowchild is [http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=54 surprised] to learn that not everyone can transform into large, demonic-looking monsters at will.

* For a while in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', Aylee keeps forgetting that earth creatures need things like sleep and oxygen to survive, and don't have quite her [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/031118 ability to heal].

* In ''[[Girls in Space]]'', [[Alien Among Us|Zoe]] doesn't mention to her employment councilor that she's an [[Omniglot]], because she thought everyone on Earth spoke all Earth languages.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[SCP Foundation]]'': [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1454 SCP-1454] is a set of four identical men who have a shared memory. They see nothing unusual about this; as far as they know, it's perfectly normal for a human being to have memories of working over 200 hours per week and having several wives at once.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]