Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|"''[[Robot Buddy|Alpha]], [[Sealed Evil in
So the [[Big Bad]] has been unleashed, or the [[La Résistance|rebellion]] needs more help over-throwing the [[The Empire|evil empire]]. Who do you get to help? A crack team of trained mercenaries? How about some expert martial artists? Maybe the existing peace-keeping forces such as the police or military?
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This trope usually occurs in media aimed at kids and pre-teens, as that's the sort of audience who looks up to high schoolers as the pinnacle of human achievement, or at the very least are more relatable than some "crusty old" 30-somethings. Ironically, many such shows, if live-action, will invoke [[Dawson Casting]] and those "teenagers" won't really be teenagers anyway. Go fig. If we're talking about an anime or comic, it may very well be a result of [[Author Appeal]].
Many stories sometimes have a token teenager, or may even have a whole sub-cast of children, but this trope is for when most or all of the main cast are teens (or younger). So [[Creator's Pet|Wesley Crusher]] from ''[[Star Trek:
Similar to [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] and [[Child Soldiers]]. Tangentially related [[Adults Are Useless]]. See also [[Summon Everyman Hero]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'': At least, it seems this way at first.
* ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' seemed to pick 5 random girls who were just in the wrong place and wrong time. They just happened to have DNA that was compatible with the chosen animals.
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** Like wise with even younger children in ''[[Bokurano]]''.
* ''[[Getter Robo]]'', at least in the original continuity.
* ''[[Prétear]]''. Granted, it's justified in the case of the Leafe
* ''[[Ronin Warriors]]'': It was so bad that in the first episode they almost lost due to what was basically a pissing contest, and they spent the rest of the season paying for it.
* The [[Nekketsu Saikyo Gosaurer|Eldo]][[Zettai Muteki Raijin
* ''[[Robot Taekwon V]]'' combines this with a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]], and the [[Big Bad]] is defeated by a teenage boy, his [[Action Girlfriend]] and his friends.
* ''[[
* [[
* [[
* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'': Kyubey, Witches are on the loose, recruit teen girls with wishes!. {{spoiler|[[Powered
* The ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' franchise does this virtually all the time. ''[[Yes!
* Sort of done all throughout [[Digimon]], though they're more of the tween-age in most of the shows - all apart from ''[[Digimon Savers]]'', which stars a [[Hot-Blooded]] [[Delinquent|street punk]] that's recruited by a secretive government organisation when he forms a partnership with and Agumon.
* Borderline in [[The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer]]; played straight for all the teenage characters - Yuuhi, Amamiya, Mikazuki, Tarou, and Hanako, but the age of all the Beast Knights ranges from primary schoolers to the 40-year-old detective Nagumo.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'': Though in this case, the X-Men ''did'' receive combat training prior to their first mission. It bears mentioning that the team's youngest member was only 13. Justified in that mutant powers manifest at puberty, and Xavier started a school for "gifted youngsters" to train them in their potentially uncontrollable and deadly mutations. But he also [[Professor X Likes Watching Teenagers Sweat|liked watching them sweat.]]
** In ''[[
* While not a team, it should be noted that every single [[The DCU|Robin]] (and all four Batgirls) ever has been a youngster.
* Played straight, and extreme, in the Marvel comic ''[[Power Pack]]'', which chronicles four pre-teen siblings who received their superpowers and world-saving mission from a dying alien. This was actually a subversion of the more typical adult, [[Serious Business]] superheroes of the time, and much of the humor since has come from contrasting them with heroes like [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/b/b0/Wolverine_and_Power_Pack_Vol_1_1.gif Wolverine]{{Dead link}}. Similar to the ''[[
* Kyle Rayner, who was for a decade or so the only [[Green Lantern]], started out this way. Ganthet needed to give the last ring and power battery to somebody, and Kyle was standing there, so Ganthet literally said, "You'll do," and gave them to him.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[
** Initially explained that said alien didn't have much choice, since he was about to die and the kids happened to be there, but {{spoiler|it is later revealed that a [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] [[Energy Being]] (read: stand in for [[God]]) hand-picked more than half of the kids for [[Luke, I Am Your Father|various]] [[Reset Button|reasons]]; since it is involved in an absurdly complex universe-spanning game with an evil [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]], the earth's defenders being teenagers might have been a restriction as part of one of the in-game deals}}.
** ''The Andalite Chronicles'' has another explanation: experience had taught him that human children were capable of much more than one might think.
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== [[Live
* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': the [[Trope Namer]]. In the pilot, mentor Zordon asked for "five overbearing and over-emotional humans" in the area, and helper robot Alpha said, complete with facepalm, "Oh no, not that! Not... teenagers!" to which Zordon responded, "that's correct Alpha," to which Alpha sighs, "I was afraid of that." Only one of the group didn't have any martial arts training and they were fairly decent shots on the very rare occasion when they actually used their blasters. The reasoning behind this, stated in the first episode was that as teenagers they would be the generation to inherit the planet, and thusly should be the ones who protect that inheritance.
** The ''[[Power Rangers]]'' series continues this (though usually to a lesser extent; most of the later seasons had the characters be past high school), stopping occasionally for mentors that actively seek out professionals- from nonmilitary professions. When we do get something that's technically military, at most one of them has any concept of military tactics, procedure, or discipline. And in several years, the ''leader'' was most likely to be a straight example: someone with no experience given the role for no discernible reason. In fact, ''[[Power Rangers]]'' is the [[Trope Namer|Namer]] for ''that'' trope: [[Rookie Red Ranger]].
** ''[[Kousoku Sentai Turboranger]]'' from ''[[Super Sentai]]'' is probably the [[Trope Codifier]], it's the first Sentai team to consist of just teenagers, but they've yet to be referred as 'Teenagers With Attitude' (this was before ''[[Power Rangers]]'' was even conceived in its current form).
* ''[[
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Many ''[[
* Ditto ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[Splatoon]]'', the 14-year-old Inkling is helping Cap'n Cuttlefish because nobody else listens to his warnings about the Octarian threat. {{spoiler|Or so it seems; Callie and Marie are helping too.}}
* In ''[[
▲* In ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' Susan and Nanase got their magic potential [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-05-24 unlocked this way], when two immortals recruited them to fight a dangerous vampire-like being called an Aberration they'd had a run in with. This encounter led to Susan getting some [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-05-31 psychological scars] due to being forced to {{spoiler|kill someone who used to be human}} at the age of 15. [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-07-14 It later turns out] the Immortals in question had no need to do so as they could have called on several other sources, the fact that they asked teens to do so was a source of great disgust to Jerry, a separate Immortal.
== [[Web Original]] ==
▲== Web Original ==
* ''[[Sailor Nothing]]'' also [[Deconstruction|deals with the absurdity]] of choosing teenaged girls to save the world. Who would come up with such a ridiculous idea? A villain who actually wants the good guys to lose?
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Captain Planet and
* [[Double Subversion]] with the ''[[Storm Hawks]]'', as when they tried to register the first time, they were turned down for being too young (with the exception of Stork). Eventually, they are recognized by the Sky Council as Sky Knights.
** Also [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] as many secondary characters comment on their ages for about the first dozen episodes.
** At one point several other kids tried to join the team as well, but were ultimately encouraged to return to their homes for awhile.
* Played straight in the new ''[[Hot Wheels Battle Force 5]]'' animated series. When one of the six teens rather sensibly ask their holographic [[Obi Wan]] why they alone were chosen to save the world, she replies that each one brings "something different" to the team. Which one brings ''driving experience'' to a battle for the fate of the world that involves high-speed racing is never said.<ref>Though they ''do'' all have such skills. Given that Vert Wheeler suggested the recruitment of the rest of the initial team, he presumably explained this to the Obi-Wan offscreen.</ref>
* The [[Animesque]] ''[[Totally Spies!]]''. Think [[X Meets Y|Power Rangers meets Buffy]].
* Explained as the reason why the Mother Planetoid adopted the ''[[Brats of the Lost Nebula]]'' and gave them the equipment they needed to battle the Shock forces, as the Planetoid's creator believed that only teenagers and their chaotic nature could outmaneuver the Shock's forces.
* While most of the cast is, surprisingly, grown up in ''[[Generator Rex]]'' the title character and protagonist, Rex is 15, and working as the top agent for a [[NGO Superpower]]. Completely [[Justified]] thanks to his [[Superpower Lottery|High]] [[Person of Mass Destruction|Level]] [[Superpowers]], the most important of which is [[De-Power|Permanent]] [[Power Nullifier|Power Nullification]] in a world overrun by superpowered, often mindless mutants.
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[[Category:Youngsters]]
[[Category:Beginning Tropes]]
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