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Just a Kid: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Prince Zuko:''' I've spent years preparing for this encounter... training, meditating... you're just a child!<br />
'''Aang:''' Well, you're just a teenager.|''[[
Common theme running through initial seasons of shows featuring a [[Kid Hero]]. The young hero meets a series of [[Not Now Kid|dismissive]] characters who assume ineptness because (wait for it) -- "You're just a kid." The dismissive characters can be good or bad, but will meet their comeuppance by the end of the episode (or the season, if it's a multi-episode arc).
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Such a character may frequently be on the receiving end of [[Not Now, Kiddo]].
Not to be confused with ''Just a Kid'', the Australian name for ''[[
{{examples}}
== Anime & Manga ==
* Nue of ''[[
* The Girl part of ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]'' means that this is the usual reaction to them, even from people who have heard of their existence. The gunslinger part means that said people die soon after making this mistake.
* Lampshaded by almost all the villains Gohan fights in one-on-one battle in ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. Goku also suffered from this in the ''[[
** Subverted with gleeful enthusiasm in [[Dragonball Z Abridged]] whenever they can get some footage to support it.
{{quote| '''Gohan:''' I'm not going to back down. I might be younger than you, smaller than you, weaker than you, and much less experienced, [[Brick Joke|but I learned more about peach farming than you... ]][[This Is Gonna Suck|I think this was a horrible decision.]]<br />
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* Prevalent in [[Nasuverse]] works. Then again, the one saying it is usually [[Our Vampires Are Different|far]] [[All Myths Are True|beyond]] mere humans.
** ''[[Tsukihime]]'': Nero to Shiki, who proceeds to destroy over a hundred of his beasts.
** ''[[Fate/stay
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh lecture Ed and Al on how their youth means that they should give adults some more responsibility in the story. Of course, Ross is effectively shut down by Maes Hughes, who, [[Genre Savvy]] man that he is, knows who the main characters are.
** In the manga, though, Ed takes it quite well (despite [[Hot-Blooded|his temper]]).
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* 17-year-old turned 7-year-old Shinichi Kudo in ''[[Detective Conan]]'' finds this a serious problem as no-one will take his deductions seriously. Then again, he still makes the best of the situation by constantly exploiting his ability to be underestimated by the culprits.
** He's not immune to the trope in his teenage body either. In a recent chapter, police detective Satou confidently told her partner that the two "high school detectives" would get stuck and come running back to the police. She was immediately struck speechless when they arrived to announce that they had whittled down 50 cars to just three suspects.
* ''[[Saber Rider and
* Saying that cute [[Genki Girl]] [[Ninja]] Misao of ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' is "Just a kid" is a good way to get yourself kicked in the head.
* Both Firo and Luck from ''[[
* The title character from ''[[King of Bandit Jing]]'' is also a victim of this; you'd think by now the bad guys would learn that the infamous "Bandit King" is no more than 16 years old.
** His age is somewhat debatable - in the manga, due to the art style, he looks ''younger'', at least in the [[Art Evolution|beginning]].
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* ''[[Gundam Wing]]''. Noin is bitter at having been defeated by "just a kid". To which Wufei retorts she underestimated him because he was young.
** Of course, he 'just a woman'ed her.
* ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam
* Sagara Sôsuke from ''[[Full Metal Panic]]'' gets this from time to time. Especially noticeable in the arc where he had to cooperate with other soldiers to assassinate Gauron. None of them (except Gray) were willing to listen to his advice or input, because they were so insulted that Mithril would send a "kid" to help. They were proven wrong within an episode, and it ended ''very'' badly for them because of it.
** Plus they were really shocked when they found out that Sôsuke was an Afghan guerrilla when he was eight. Prior to that, he supposedly was a highly trained KGB assassin. Now he's 16 and the only man at Mithril who can use the Lambda Driver.
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** The Thousand Master himself, and a bit of a sore point. When a threat level of Ala Rubra was placed, with Zect and Eishun listed as the most dangerous... then Nagi was mentioned as, "oh, and this kid is pretty good too," complete with his own picture, which is suddenly scowling. Oh, and Zect looks like an eight-year-old while Nagi was fifteen or so.
*** Recent events seem to say that {{spoiler|Zect <s>is</s> was [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|over 2000 years old]].}}
* ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' is notorious for this, as every single one of the main characters' families plays the [[Just a Kid]] card. [[Spell My Name
** [[Digimon Tamers|"Tamers"]] wasn't the only season to have a [[Just a Kid]] situation. Iori/Cody got this treatment from his older teammates, two of whom (T.K./Takeru and Kari/Hikari) conveniently forgot that Iori/Cody is two full years older than they were during their first adventure with the Digimon (at least that's the age gap in the American version. Correct me if that isn't universal).
*** Issuing requested correction: Iori is ''one'' year older than Takeru and Hikari were when their adventures began.
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== Comics ==
* ''[[Spider
** Subverted a lot in ''[[Ultimate Spider
* ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' is built on this trope.
== Films -- Animation ==
* ''[[The Movie|The]] [[
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[The Neverending Story (
* In ''[[X
{{quote| '''Xavier''': They're just kids.<br />
'''[[Magneto|Erik]]''': No. They ''were'' kids. }}
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== Myths & Religion ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: Jeremiah, from ''[[
* In the ''[[
== Video Games ==
* In the NES version of ''[[
* In ''[[Dissidia]] 012 Duodecim Final Fantasy'', [[Final Fantasy XII
* Mission Vao in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' is constantly wary of this trope. She's just fourteen and sounds like a typical teenager, except for the part that when she demands to be taken seriously, she has good reason. You can avert actually treating her like this, though.
* ''[[Castlevania]]: Portrait of Ruin'': Charlotte Aulin. Everyone treats her like a kid... even her partner.
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*** Amusingly averted after Link regains his normal Hylian boy form. Children aren't allowed outside the city walls, it's too dangerous, but since Link has a sword the guards will let him do whatever he wants, despite the fact that he's ten and barely comes up to the guards' waist. The best part about that is that the guard ''apologies for treating him like a child''.
** In Link's Awakening, a pair of boys playing catch will give you tips on what to do in the game, followed by "I don't know what that means, I'm just a kid".
* ''[[
** Which is kind of a silly case, when you think about it. Mega Man might look and act like a child at some points, but he's actually ''older'' than every other robot in the franchise save Proto Man.
*** [[My Life
** If playing as X in ''[[
** Also from the metaseries is [[Hot Mom|Hope Stelar]] of ''[[
** In ''[[
* NES ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' (For NES): Ryu Hayabusa mistakes MIB agent Irene Lew as "Just a girl. Get out of here." He is promptly shot and captured.
* Used frequently in the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games. Every evil "team" has at least one member that says some variation of this, despite the fact that physical age has no effect on battles. Even Team Rocket continues to do this in the second generation games, which is surprising, considering that it was a kid who caused them to disband three years before.
* ''[[
* Happens in the ''[[
* Laharl of ''[[
* In ''[[Final Fantasy X 2
** At one point, Yuna actually calls him out directly on this. She wants to communicate with the cactuars in the Cactuar Nation, but Benzo, the Al Bhed kid who understands their speech, isn't around. She asks Shinra if he can communicate with them and Shinra gives his standard excuse, to which Yuna responds that Benzo is also just a kid. Shinra seems ''very'' put out by this.
* ''[[Earthbound]]''
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* A [[Running Gag]] in the fourth case of ''[[Ace Attorney]] Investigations'' was that everyone was dissing the young Miles Edgeworth and Franziska Von Karma as just kids, even though Edgeworth was already a prosecutor.
** Starts off even earlier than that in ''Apollo Justice'' where almost everyone in the cast brushes off Apollo and Trucy as kids trying to play as grown ups, which is weird for Apollo since he IS a Defense Attorney and is almost the same age Phoenix Wright was (24) when he first started and no one called Phoenix a kid then.
* In ''[[Star Fox (
* In the non-canon ''Yu-Gi-Oh GX! Tag Force 1'', [[Big Bad|Kagemaru]] say this to the player during their second duel (after going from being stuck in a machine to being youthful, a glowing aura, and eight-pack abs) when he's losing.
* Paige tries treating the others as kids in ''[[TCTRPG|The Colour Tuesday,]]'' at which point Alex points out that she's the same age as the rest of them.
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{{quote| '''1-Up:''' Hey, Stinkoman! Everybody says you're the guy, but I want to be the guy too!<br />
'''Stinkoman:''' No way! You're just a kid! Maybe when you're '''older'''! }}
** And then flipped around in ''[[
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'''Aang:''' I'm just one kid. ''(buries his head in his arms)'' }}
*** Played straight by Aang in that he later goes on to use his Avatar powers (with a little help) to {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|destroy the entire fleet]]}}. "Just one kid" indeed.
* ''[[
* ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'': Spoofed when Flash laments the rest of the League's reluctance to take him seriously... while playing Rock'em Sock'em Robots. It's also played straight in the season finale when Flash answers [[Fan Nickname|Luthorac's/Brainthor's]] taunt of "Are you going to fight me, ''boy?''" by [[Let's Get Dangerous|deciding to get dangerous for once.]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Epically.]]
* [[Danny Phantom]] gets this a few times; twice from Vlad, once from Clockwork, although the latter is justified since he was trying to explain (in short) the nature of time to someone who's probably barely passing pre-algebra.
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'''Phineas:''' [[Blunt Yes|Yes]], [[Running Gag|yes I am.]] }}
** Parodied when Candace once asks the boys (renowned for making bizarre inventions) why they couldn't just create some way of fixing their rocket ship without necessitating a space walk. The boys simply stare at her for a moment before Ferb comments, "Candace, we ''are'' just kids."
* Throughout the ''[[
* This trope is a more or less constant worry for Ma-Ti of ''[[Captain Planet and
** Which was [[Played for Laughs]] in [[That Guy With
{{quote| "I'm only fourteen!"}}
* ''[[The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan]]'': "You're not old enough, Scooter."
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** The same could be said about kids playing the most brutal Fighting Games in arcades.
* Several notable bands who are known as extremely talented have had teen members, Primus among them.
* There were those that thought that about Charles XII. [[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At
* All of Europe thought that about Maria Theresa. [[You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry|They proved mistaken]].
* No matter how old your are or how much experience or education you acquire you will always be a child in your parent's eyes.
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