Screw Learning, I Have Phlebotinum: Difference between revisions

 

In Hollywood, this is not a problem. If a character is zapped with an Intelligence Ray, they ''will'' [[The Omniscient|suddenly know everything]], despite the fact that they never learned it. This could be [[Justified]] by saying they uploaded someone else's brainwave pattern etc. into their brains, and therefore know everything that person knows, or that they [[Hollywood Evolution|evolved]] into a [[Telepathy|telepath]] and just sucked up some other people's book learnin', but often it's not. Often, they just give the person the [[Applied Phlebotinum]], and that person knows everything. Period. No explanation. Not even a [[Hand Wave]]. No depictions of them actually learning the information. [[A Wizard Did It]]. Usually, this trope goes hand in hand with [[TV Genius]].

 

{{examples}}

== Film ==

** [[Adaptation Displacement|Only in the movie,]] [[E=MC Hammer|and he gets the Pythagorean Theorem wrong anyway.]]

*** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in the film, where the point was that the Wizard's gifts did nothing. The Scarecrow was already intelligent - that's how he was able to come up with the plan to rescue Dorothy. (Similarly, the Tin Man obviously had a heart, since he was crying over Dorothy, and the Lion obviously had courage, since he went through with the plan to save Dorothy.)

** Dodged in the book; after the wizard fills the scarecrow's head with bran and needles, the scarecrow says,

* Possibly, ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]''.

** Explained better in the book; the rats are taught to read (granted with experimental drugs injected for added flavor), and are tested for some time before they finally escape.

** The oven thing was probably accidental. That doesn't explain the swimming backwards thing though. Oddly enough one character ''does'' mention that sharks cannot do that (not just that they don't, but that they cannot), but apparently they [[Bellisario's Maxim|decided not to dwell on it]] and decided to concentrate on surviving instead. Unsuccessfully.

*** Might count as a [[Lampshade Hanging]].

*** Maybe they hoped to sink it so deep that the fences would be entirely underwater?

* In ''[[Species]]: The Awakening'', Miranda can absorb the contents of a closed book by holding it for a few seconds.

* Averted in ''[[Phenomenon]]'': George Malley has increased learning & memorization capacity but cannot answer questions about things he hasn't read about.

 

== Literature ==

* [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''Brainwave''.

* The [[Applied Phlebotinum|mechanical educator]] plays a large role in the classic ''[[Skylark Series|Skylark of Space]]'' series, where it is used to teach the space travellers various languages and cultures. One character gets imprinted with the knowledge of the galaxy's greatest physicist ''and'' its greatest psychologist and as a result masters telepathy. [[Better Than It Sounds]], though only just.

** [[Justified Trope|It is mentioned in one earlier book]] that trolls are not unintelligent by nature. When they move to the lowlands which are much warmer than the mountains they normally live in, their brains don't work as well. It's perfectly possible that Detritus already knew the expanded vocabulary, but was unable to recall it until the [[A Wizard Did It|magical freezer]] cooled his brain, then overclocked it by cooling it far past the point it would normally have been. Later in the book, he receives a clockwork cooling helmet with fans in it that lets him function at more or less the same level as everyone else.

* Justified in [[My Teacher Is an Alien|My Teacher Fried My Brains.]] The narration explains that the intelligence-boosted protagonist can use words like "anthropologist" because he's heard them before, and now has the brainpower to remember what they mean.

 

* It seems to happen with Slayers in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', as all kinds of moves used by Slayers should take years of training.

** Not to forget Xander's sudden military expertise and knowledge, including military passcodes, when he got turned into a soldier for a night in the Season 2 episode 'Halloween'.

*** That one makes a bit of sense, since he's dressed up as someone who probably knew those things so the knowledge was part of the costume.

** The vampires too seem to suddenly have super fighting skills once they get sired. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in Season seven's 'Lessons' by Dawn:

* Justified on ''[[Doctor Who]]'' with Donna, who fuses with a part of the Doctor, and not only got that smart, but had that much knowledge.

** Averted earlier on in 'Planet of the Spiders'. When a mentally challenged character received an upgrade in intelligence (to average, not to becoming a genius), he found himself able to read better. However he realised he still didn't know a lot of the words (like quotient) and actually got a dictionary out to look them up.

* Completely averted in ''[[Kyle XY]]''. Despite being incredibly intelligent, Kyle knows absolutely nothing to begin with. Pretty soon, though, he remedies this by reading an entire encyclopedia.

* The premise of [[Wicked Science]].

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

** In one story arc, he enlarges his brain to make his homework easier and becomes to intelligent that, within moments, he metally calculates the purpose of the cosmos and all reality into a single, simple answer. However, he was inable to figure out why girls are so weird.

* [[Parodied Trope|Parodied]] in ''[[Dilbert]]''. Wally dreams of approaching the Pointy-Haired Boss and mocking his "Work smarter, not harder" advice ("I didn't realize I could become smarter just by wanting to!"). He then increases his brain size by straining his muscles and says, "Wow! Suddenly I can speak Latin!"

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** If these increases are temporary, however, you don't actually get any new skills. (Except for in ''Pathfinder'', a [[Spiritual Successor]] to 3.5).

** If you've taken another rank in Knowledge, though, then you actually have learned more than you knew before. Which makes sense if the character gains a level at the end of an adventure, and presumably has some downtime to learn something new. When it happens in the middle of a [[Dungeon Crawl]], then it's this trope played straight.

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Space Colony]]'', a staff member can be placed in a training pod to level up their skills. It costs credits, but is faster than having them study in the library, especially if they have a low intelligence stat.

 

* ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' had a storyline involving an Intelligence Ray, which was also used to ''give sentience to a tree''.

* ''[[PvP]]'' has both played this trope straight and somewhat subverted it: an arc had [[The Ditz|Skull]] gain super intelligence after a [[Lightning Can Do Anything|freak electrical accident]] which apparently also caused him to gain great knowledge of science, medicine and engineering (to the extent that literally seconds after the accident, he started listing the physical reasons for his survival). He later decides to go back to what he was before but builds a machine should the need to become intelligent again arises. When later his cat Scratch gains super intelligence, it is handled a smidgen more realistically: yes, he can suddenly talk, but he's shown several times to be ''actually studying'' scientific textbooks and he still has a lot to learn about humans, which has caused trouble for him (notably the time he turned the Ottobot into a human looking robot suit then tried to take over the Mayor's office...[[Reality Ensues|and got unceremoniously thrown in jail]]).

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' subverts this. Where sparks who erupt into their potential but were never given formal education being rather pathetic and doing things like baking crazy pies that calm someone when thrown in their face through deliciousness and texture or train wasps to attack (not effectively).

 

== Western Animation ==

** There's another episode where Jimmy invents gum that transfers the entire contents of a book into the chewer's brain.

** It's also shown in several instances ("The Power Within," "Ariel," "Supertroopers") that the S5 implants only crank the Rangers' ''existing'' abilities [[Up to Eleven]].

* Similarly avoided in ''[[Static Shock]]''. When Richie gains [[Super Intelligence]], he doesn't really gain any knowledge that he didn't already have; his [[Gadgeteer Genius]] tendencies had been present since the beginning of the series, they just get taken [[Up to Eleven]], suggesting that the powers really just drastically improved and sped up his problem solving abilities.

** Strangely, this is probably the all-round smartest action on this page as a result of this trope.

* Notably averted in ''[[Mighty Max]]''. Dr. Zygote, after inventing a machine that [[Evolutionary Levels|manipulates evolution]], uses it on himself to become a [[My Brain Is Big|huge-brained]] "man of tomorrow". Once he's done this... He's harmless: he has acquired new powers, but he doesn't know how to use them. Sure enough, a dozen episodes later Zygote is back and has made some practice with his powers.

* An episode of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' had Beezy get affected by a machine that [[Mad Scientist|Heloise]] intended to use on herself.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]

[[Category:Screw This Index, I Have Tropes]]