Possession Implies Mastery: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A reasonably common fallacy based on the notion that the possession of a piece of technology, excluding things specifically described as a [[Black Box]], implies that the owner has a full understanding of its workings and mechanisms, the principles on which it operates, and can adapt and use those principles in other matters in a reliable way, and can even undermine them as necessary.

* [[Averted Trope|Conspicuous by its absence]] in ''[[Macross]]'', where barely understood higher technology acts like it. Multiple plot points involve the protagonists being forced to use a foolhardy technique or maneuver and having it blow up in their faces. {{spoiler|The [[Cool Ship]] first takes off using alien antigravity generators, which proceed to tear through the hull and float off into the sky. The second attempt is done with ordinary engines. On the other hand, the crew then pulled off an extreme low altitude space fold jump to outmaneuver the Zentrandi, leaving them astonished that their enemy could something they thought impossible. Simply, the inexperienced and desperate Macross crew did not know that themselves and succeeded by pure luck.}} This actually works somewhat in their favor since their enemies are kept continually off guard with each stunt, unable to decide if their completely unpredictable enemies are pathetic amateurs or half-crazed tactical geniuses.<br /><br />On the other hand, the Zentraedi could operate all their technology -- but when something broke (such as the big screen in Breetai's command deck), all they could do was clean up the mess and make do without because they were kept deliberately ignorant of how to create or repair technology.

** This lack of understanding actually kicked off the plot. The crew of the Macross found out too late that the original owners of their ship had rigged it to fire its [[Wave Motion Gun|main cannon]] on the first Zentrandi ship that came in range, thus throwing humanity into a war with the aliens. {{spoiler|more to the point, the low altitude space fold jump mentioned above ended up bringing an ''entire island'' (with over 5000 civilians) along for the ride, out to around the orbit of Pluto (they had intended to jump behind the moon). Better yet, the fold space generator (that they had used to make the jump) literally vanished into thin air during the jump.}}

** It helps that {{spoiler|Shirou}}, when recreating his weapons, copies the history of how they were made and ''how they were wielded'', giving him a level

* Haru Glory's Ten Commandments sword in ''[[Rave Master]]''. It has ten forms, and Haru seems to know exactly what every form does the moment he needs it, such as bringing out {{spoiler|Runesave}} to save {{spoiler|Elie without having to kill her}}. This is however justified since the Rave of Knowledge explicitly provides this insight.

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', this is quite the opposite for pretty much anyone with spirit abilities. Especially captains, no matter how much of a genius they're stated to be. Which explains just why characters like Ichigo and Toushiro can keep getting pretty much curb-stomped, despite their power levels and genius. They have it -- doesn't mean they have mastered it yet. Kubo seems to take great pleasure in avoiding this trope.

* Played totally straight with the character Adept from ''[[Strikeforce Morituri]]'', whose superpower was the ability to analyze and understand anything she touched. Since their primary opponents were a race of alien [[Planet Looters]] with scavenged technology, this was ''very'' useful.

* Averted for most of the [[Blue Beetle]] legacy. The first one, Dan Garett, got powers from it by saying a magic word (ultimately revealed to be misusing it, and the magic likely damaged its true function). Then Ted Kord came into possession of the scarab but never got it to work, instead borrowing its motif for his costume and gadgets. It was only the third owner, Jaime Reyes, who had it work as intended - but he still hasn't mastered it; the scarab activated because ''it'' chose to, and he still argues with it over what to do at times.

** This being the Ultimate Universe, things aren't quite that simple though. {{spoiler|His initial warning is true, he ''doesn't'' have super strength; this was later proved to be a side effect of a [[Super Serum]] called [[Shout-Out|Banshee]] that amplifies mutant powers. Without it, Colossus would have just been a metal man, too heavy (it's implied) to even breathe for any extended period of time. In true comic book form, they [[Retcon|retconned]] this by saying this was why he was working for the Russian mob in the first place, they paid (or were a meants of payment for) the drug. By the end of that arc, however, it seems that the super strength is now a permanent side effect, effectively keeping [[Status Quo Is God]].}}

*** Which brings up the [[Fridge Logic]] of {{spoiler|how Colossus still had his strength after weeks of captivity. But then, that will happen with a story about a drug made out of Wolverine.}}

* A little known UK movie called ''Morons from Outer Space'' plays with this trope, as the aliens who crash-land on Earth are assumed to be a higher order of intelligence. In point of fact, they are the interstellar equivalent of ignorant tourists who rented a camper and ended up running off the road in the wrong town.

* The heroes of the film ''[[Spaced Invaders]]'' are the most incompetent members of their race.

{{quote| '''Iron Man''': [[Are These Wires Important|THIS looks important! * R-r-rip!* ]]}}

* In ''[[Pathfinder]]'', the hero grew up with a Viking sword, but his only practice with it appears to be occasionally swinging it around, alone, in forest clearings. When the Vikings show up again, he proves to be a skilled swordfighter.

 

== Fan Works ==

 

 

== Literature ==

* The Yuuzhan Vong in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] consider it heresy to even consider attempting to devise new biotechnology. Their race has possessed and used for their entire recorded history a cache of biotech they claim was given to them by the gods. New designs have secretly been introduced by their Supreme Overlord, who claimed the designs came from (fictional) parts of that cache only he can access.

* This trope is lampshaded in the ''Corellian Trilogy'', where people who live on Centerpoint Station deny having perfect knowledge of how the station works.

** The limited AIs and the 'Net' that controls their society is copied into the new systems, and when long unused alarms go off people don't understand what ''Incoming Artillery Strike'' means.

* Played with by [[Douglas Adams]]' ''[[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy|Mostly Harmless]]''. Arthur Dent's only practical skill is making sandwiches, so when he crashes on a primitive alien world he can't offer any of humankind's knowledge and inventions ("He couldn't even make a toaster"). But the alien villagers still venerate him as 'The Sandwich Maker' since they hadn't thought of the idea.

* Subverted in ''[[Stephen King|The Tommyknockers]]''. The titular entities have no clue HOW their stuff works, but somehow managed to figure out how to make it.

* Inverted in ''[[Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows]]'', where it becomes a key plot point that merely wielding a certain wand is not enough to be its "true" master. However, there is no requisite knowledge the wielder might lack, just the requisite action of "defeating" the old master.

* Averted in ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'', where Nathaniel gains possession of an extremely powerful magical artifact and tries to use it against his enemy. Bartimaeus notes that there's no chance of him being able to master it on his first try, but stops when he succeeds in generating a massive surge of magical energy. Then he loses control and the backlash knocks him unconscious.

** In the final book demons possessing people run into this problem, having very little idea how to actually work their new bodies. At one point the immensely powerful demon Nouda is seen being helped to his feet by a lesser demon who's had a body longer, after he fell over and started twitching.

* The Gateway books involve a lot of this. The Titular station contains many ships, each with an FTL drive and a navigation system that works by pushing a few buttons. Unfortunately, nobody quite knows how the ships work or how to navigate them. Humans explore the galaxy with them by pushing the buttons in different combination and seeing where the ships goes. Hope you brought enough supplies to survive the trip there and back(not that you know how long the trip is going to be). Some ships just don't come back.

* [[Dilbert|Scott Adams]] discusses this in relation to [[UF Os]] in his book, ''The Dilbert Future''. He points out that "just because you see a person driving a car, that doesn't mean that they invented the automobile," so we can't assume that an alien piloting an advanced spaceship is a genius. He goes on to speculate that the aliens that [[Alien Abduction|abduct people]] are actually [[The Greys]]' equivalent of rednecks, and that [[Anal Probing]] is their equivalent of cow tipping.

{{quote| You see, I'm one of those birds who drive a lot but don't know the first thing about the works. The policy I pursue is to get aboard, prod the self-starter, and leave the rest to Nature. If anything goes wrong, I scream for an A.A. scout.}}

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

* The title character in ''[[The Greatest American Hero]]'' received an [[Applied Phlebotinum]] powered [[Superhero]] suit at the start of the series, lost the instructions, and spent most of the series amusingly floundering about trying to figure out how to use it correctly.

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' tends to play with this trope fairly successfully on occasion. In one episode it's revealed that the SGC computers can't even interpret many of the Stargate's feedback signals, and others are disregarded on a routine basis in order to establish a connection. This is suggested to be a major contributing factor to the various mishaps of one type or another that have occurred when using the gate. Another episode introduces the Air Force's prototype hybrid fighter craft, combining standard Earth technology with that of Go'auld Gliders - which promptly goes wrong due to incomplete understanding of the alien technology incorporated in the design.

* In ''[[Power Rangers]]'', this is pretty much the standard. Hand five people giant robots, watch them pilot them effortlessly, including the part where they merge into one giant robot, although many series with robotic zords have the combination process mostly automated and those with living zords simply ask them to do it for them (basically).

** Apparently, it's part of some Rangers' power sets: Billy, the first Blue Ranger, remarked "I actually know how to drive this thing!" [[Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue]] - the first series to be ''entirely'' divorced from what went before, even moreso than Lost Galaxy - turned away from this (as well as everything else about the previously half-magical ranger tech) and have the heads-up display in the helmets instruct the heroes on any new gadgetry.

* The Imperium of Man in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' are pretty much the same. More than a fair proportion of their military equipment relies on technology long since lost. Tech-Priests pray to the machines to convince them to fix themselves, while doing rituals they believe appease the machine spirit rather than realizing they're the ones fixing it.

** The Orks would seem like a straight play of the trope, as the "Mechboyz" know tech on a genetic level, including captured enemy hardware. Looking deeper, all Ork tech runs on the psychic gestalt generated by Ork belief in the fact that the tech will work, to the point where a human opening up an Ork gun may find simply a load of junk parts in a shoddy casing.

** This is rather misleading though, as very often well-known decks do win tournaments, and the fact that an exact composition does or doesn't win doesn't even necessarily mean it was the correct build of the deck - having a slightly off deck can be more than compensated for by being a better player.

* Parodied in ''[[Paranoia]]'', where players are often ordered to test out new experimental equipment in the field, and report back on the results. Unfortunately, because the equipment is always well above their security clearance level, they cannot be told how it works, or even how to operate it. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* In every game in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' series, once he finds an item Link is automatically able to use it almost perfectly (depending on how good the player is, of course). Subverted in the case of items like the sword and shield, which some of the games give a tutorial for and thus does have Link train to learn to use them.

** In ''[[Twilight Princess]]'', it's justified that Link knows swordplay and horse riding from before the start of the game.

* While previously this trope was averted in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' with everyone's weapon skill starting out at one, in patch 4.0.1 weapons skills and training were done away with - now your character automatically fits this trope, so long as they can equip the weapon. This was because weapon skill added nothing whatsoever to the game, and simply resulted in higher level people who acquired a new type of weapon having to spend a lot of time hacking away pathetically at equally pathetic creatures while grinding their weapon skill up through 400-odd skill points before they could fight real enemies again (death knights, starting at level 55 and initially untrained in several of their common weapons, were particularly troubled by this).

* ''[[Call of Duty]] 2'' plays with this trope. On one hand, your character doesn't seem to have any trouble using captured German weapons, but that's no surprise given the point-and-click nature of most guns. On the other hand, Private Macgregor's attempts at driving a captured German armored car was...[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLqbk7WWdOw well, see for yourself starting around 4:15.]

* Particularly egregious in [[Nazi Zombies]], where everyone instantly knows how to use the new Wonder Weapon introduced in each map to electrocute zombies, shrink them, turn them back into humans, suck them into a miniature black hole, etc. Especially in the Call Of The Dead map, where the player characters are ''actors''.

* The protagonist in ''[[Jade Empire]]'' picks up a wide array of techniques and can perform them effectively with little or no training at all - the Spirit Thief technique is demonstrated ''once'', the transformation powers are gained by defeating the same monster, and several weapon styles become available after you've gained the weapon. You can effortlessly swing ''two'' massive axes without a second of prior training, and can service, load, wield and fire a blunderbuss imported from an analogue of Britain. And then there's the flying crafts that you've had no experience with either...

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* Wade can understand anything given 10 seconds to scan it with the ''[[Kim Possible]]'' Kimmunicator.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Gargoyles]]'': Lexington builds a motorcycle. Brooklyn asks why this is such an arduous task for him, given that he has ridden one before, and Lexington responds, "You've ridden a horse before; could you build one from spare parts?"

* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', Admiral Zhao deduces that Zuko is the Blue Spirit, a thief who uses dual swords, after seeing that Zuko had two swords hanging in his quarters. Zuko does protest that they're just decorations, and he has no idea how to use them, but of course he's lying.

** Handwaved, in that Coop was the one who did the heavy modifications. Doing that without blowing it up is a miracle, however...

** Handwaved by a later episode where it is revealed Megas' computer core can calculate a lot of tactical data and all of the fancy stuff it does are interpretation of what Coop wants it to do. When it breaks [[Hilarity Ensues]]...

* Averted in Ben10. The series repeatedly shows that Ben only has the vaguest idea of what the [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum|Omnitrix]] is capable of.

* [[Futurama]] has "Bender, owner of disguise".