Informed Ability: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'':

** In the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' anime, Fubuki is said to be one of the top duelists of the school, and is even lauded as the best duelist they have left after Kaiser graduates. His duels as Nightshroud involved either [[Boring Invincible Hero|Judai]] or [[Villain Sue|Hell Kaiser Ryo]], and the one duel he has as his true self ends in a loss. In the manga, he averts this and more than lives up to his reputation.

** Yuma of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh ZEXAL]]''. We're told by characters he's gotten better, but in practice he still can't do anything without Astral '''telling''' him what to do, and often forgets the effects of ''his own cards''.

** In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! R]]'', Cedar Mill is supposedly the best of the Card Professors; one can only assume this is true, as almost nothing is seen of his duel with Yugi, minus one panel showing Slifer blowing him to hell almost effortlessly. In fact, even his name and the theme of his deck ("High-Tech Marionette Deck") is revealed [[All There in the Manual|via a sketch in the collected manga]].

* ''[[Bleach]]'':

** Hanzou, leader of the Village Hidden in the Rain, also suffers from this. The audience is told of his almost unstoppable power and skills but we never actually see him in combat. This is then mixed with [[The Worf Effect]] when {{spoiler|Hanzou's assassination is used to hype up Pain's own power, emphasized even more by the fact that Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru all lost to Hanzou during the war. Both of these tropes are eventually averted for Pain when he proceeds to kill Jiraiya and blow up Konoha proving that the rumors of his abilities are no exaggeration.}}

** ''Naruto himself'' became a victim of this trope throughout the first half of Shippuden. Practically every mention of him was accompanied by a comment over how strong he is and how much he has improved, yet the only improvement he ever really showed was a bigger rasengan, and the constant need to get bailed out of any dangerous situation by his teammates. Thankfully, [[Took a Level in Badass|he got better as the series went on]].

** Sasuke has actually flirted with this trope from time to time, While he's without a doubt [[The Ace|very skilled]], when you actually take a closer look at his Win/Lose ratio Sasuke doesn't put up the best performances. A good majority of Sasuke's victories have been a result of [[Worf Had the Flu]]; {{spoiler|Naruto specifically held back at the end during their battle at the Valley of the End, he ambushed Orochimaru when he was on a sick bed, Itachi was nearly blind, and Danzo specifically held back to deal with Madara.}}

** Hayate Gekko, the Chunin Examiner was heavily implied to be pretty tough judging by the fact that he's got the job he does. However, he gets offed while listening in on two villains, one of which, the Sand Ninja Jonin was his killer.

*** Also, in regard to the {{spoiler|[[Soul Jar]]}}, they are a branch of magic so obscure (and deliberately kept so; among the few magic books that even mention them, they don't go beyond mentioning the name) that he had to go to great lengths to even find out what they are. He probably saw the protections he placed around them as secondary, since odds were small anyone even knew they ''existed''. Dumbledore himself had to go to great lengths to even confirm his theory that Voldemort had created them.

**** Unless Voldemort believed that Dumbledore had never bothered to speak to Professor Slughorn—who he originally got the knowledge of Horcrux creation from in the first place—at any time in the past fifty years<ref>Which would be an entirely absurd assumption given that Slughorn was a co-worker of Dumbledore's for decades.</ref> he had no reason for assuming that his opponents were ignorant of the existence of horcruxes. Sure, that knowledge wasn't in ''general'' circulation, but Voldemort's problem ain't what the general public might know, its what Dumbledore might know.

*** However, Dumbledore then proves an adroit enough politician and lawyer that even ''after'' being kicked out of office he can still entirely derail Harry's railroaded underage magic trial, in fifteen minutes flat, with one surprise witness and no prepared script. In light of that performance the mind boggles at what he could have done from the bench... if he'd ever exerted himself.

* In ''[[Maximum Ride]]'', Fang is supposed to be silent and expressionless. He's described as a "brick wall" multiple times. However, he is no less talkative than the other characters, and expresses emotion normally most of the time. In the few cases he doesn't, the narrator doesn't fail to point it out.

* Violet on ''[[Saved by the Bell]]'' is a really amazing singer, so much so that the Glee Club ''[[Rule of Funny|never mentioned before or since]]'' manages to finish in third in a singing contest by having her sing solo. But the audience can hear that her amazing singing amounts to being able to carry a tune.

** Violet was chosen because they went through all the girls and Violet was the only decent singer so she was chosen as the soloist.

* In ''[[Angel]]'' with the character of Drogyn. A mystical, thousand-year-old immortal warrior who Angel says could kill Spike. He proceeds to never do anything but get his ass handed to him over and over, and then die. This is probably because because he was created last minute as a replacement for Giles when Anthony Stewart Head couldn't make it for filming. The only time he got into anything resembling a fight on-screen was with [[The Juggernaut|Hamilton]]. He did get badly wounded in an off-screen battle with a mook, but that mook did apparently outclass Spike.

* One ''[[CSI]]'' episode had murders taking place at a comedy club, whose native-son star attracted huge crowds even though he was a [[Jerkass]]. The few moments of him actually performing were... disappointing.

* ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'': George is described several times as a genius and claims to have an IQ in the 150s. We never see him exhibit any high level of intelligence or knowledge. The smartest thing we see him do is teach basic English to ESL students. He mentions his ability to speak a number of languages, but never does so on camera. He admits to not knowing any Hebrew and can't remember all six words of the ''Shema'' prayer.

* All the ADA's who came after Alex Cabot on [[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]] had to endure a bit of time in the [[Replacement Scrappy]] box because of how popular she was with fans, but Kim Greylek's contribution to the show was pretty much nothing but Informed Ability, to the point that she ''introduced herself'' as "The Crusader" and although we never saw it, she was also a highly aggressive and competent lawyer from big important D.C. and taking cases in little ol' Manhattan to further her political aspirations (that we're told she has). Fans of the show didn't tolerate her very well, and she didn't even last a whole season.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

** They were ''finally'' shown doing plumbing in ''[[Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]''. Granted, {{spoiler|they were forced to do it as part of a [[Plan]] by Cackletta to unlock the Beanstar from its cage}}

** The basis of the original ''[[Mario Bros.]].'' game indicates that they were engaged in plumbing when the monsters are shown coming out of the pipes that they have to get rid of.

** He also supposedly can talk, but you would never [[Silent Protagonist|guess that from playing the games]].

** He apparently picked up some mechanical knowledge at least, picking up any weapon and figuring out the controls quickly, even alien ones like the overwatch pulse rifle, successfully subverting [[Unusable Enemy Equipment]].

** Last but certainly not least. In the Twilight Highland quests, you witness an epic display of his monumental incompetence from the get-go: In his usual impatience, he orders his goblin engineers to build a fleet of zeppelins to protect his supply carriers from the Black Dragonflight with little time or resource to actually complete them. When the ships are deployed, they can't even stay in flight, and one of them actually crashes. And then Garrosh spots an Alliance navy fleet and immediately orders his attacking ship to make a beeline for them, which would leave all the remaining supply and transport ship completely undefended, a Goblin Captain even questions who'd be stupid enough to do this, but gets punched by one of Garrosh's loyalists for protesting - who remarks that a "Winner" would do so. The Horde fleet attacks and defeats the alliance, however this leaves the carriers completely helpless, as expected the Twilight Dragonflight shows up shortly after and takes out just about every single carrier. Leaving Garrosh, the player, and a few survivors to be washed on shore after.

*** Even better, when you talk to one of the other survivors, apparently Garrosh, in an attempt to save face, claims ''[[Blatant Lies|the alliance attacked them unprovoked.]]''

** The 7th Legion, basically Stormwind's ultimate, elite soldiers. When fighting them, Undercity basically says that they're in serious trouble, that every major battle the Alliance has ever fought has had the 7th Legion behind the scenes secretly winning it for them, they even wiped out two Forsaken camps full of elites. When you fight them, the majority of them are level 13 and 14 non-elites, and their "terrifying" leader, Pietro Zaren is a level 15 non-elite who is only slightly harder to kill than the rest of them. While the 7th Legion was in Northrend, and ''were'' tough there, none of their stronger soldiers are present in Gilneas at all. They're also [[Too Dumb to Live]], as they wiped out two entire Forsaken outposts, except for the leader of one of them. Considering the type of work they were doing, leaving a witness who could tell what happened basically negates your work—as the witness tells the player what happened and sends the player to wipe them ''all'' out.

** We're informed, in the tie-in novel ''[[The Shattering Prelude to Cataclysm]]'', that Aggra is an exemplary shaman in her own right. As far as she's actually written, however? She's Thrall's [[Shallow Love Interest]] {{spoiler|and [[Babies Ever After|eventual]] [[Birth-Death Juxtaposition|babymama]]}}, but little else.

** This also occurs in "Holidays of Future Passed", where Maggie [https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/File:The_Simpsons_32.JPG has become famous as lead singer of her own band], but in this particular episode, she cannot talk due to bizarre complications of her pregnancy (her vocal cord has become attached to the umbilical cord, and talking could injure the baby) and as a result, has no lines in the story.

* ''[[Winx Club]]'', 4Kids dub: In one of the S1 episodes, Musa talks to two background students Ortensia and Priscilla about having to work together to save Alfea, letting drop that Ortensia has the best counterspell skills and that no one can fly as fast as Priscilla. Which would be nice for the final battle, except that, well, they're ''background'' characters. (In the original version, she's only discusses how everyone has a part, without any abilities being mentioned.)

* ''[[South Park]]'':

** One or two episodes have kids mention Stan's mom having [[Hot Mom|large breasts]]. The way she's animated, she actually looks ''completely'' flat-chested most of the time.