All The Tropes

Suddenly Always Knew That: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Suddenly Always Knew That (view source)

Revision as of 03:54, 8 April 2014

116 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (Mass update links)
m (Mass update links)
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|"Yes, the enlightened [[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation|Captain Picard]] -- who loves playing flutes, drinking tea and reading Shakespeare -- also loves [[Star Trek Nemesis|redneck off-roading]]."|'''[[Red Letter Media|Mr. Plinkett]]'''}}
 
How did a character suddenly acquire a needed skill?
Line 6:
By an unrelated previous life experience he never knew would prove so useful, sometimes a [[Retcon]]. In other words, the character always had the skill, but [[You Didn't Ask]].
 
A character who is an actor is a sharpshooter because he had to learn it for a role. A writer is an expert on medieval history because she had to research it [[It's for Aa Book|for a book]].
 
Common with older, gray-haired characters. You never think that your mother or grandmother could've had a life before you were born.
 
Combine this with [[Character Development]] to get [[Taught By Experience]] and [[Took a Level In Badass]]. See also [[I Know Mortal Kombat]], [[Taught Byby Television]] and [[Instant Expert]]. Compare [[New Powers Asas the Plot Demands]], where not even the character knew that he had the new skill all along.
 
See also [[Deus Ex Machina]], a similar and often related concept. The polar opposite of this trope is [[Informed Ability]]. [[I Minored in Tropology]] is a [[Sub-Trope]].
 
This trope used to be called "I Know Kung Fu" (a reference to a scene from ''[[The Matrix (Film)|The Matrix]]'' which [[This Index Is Not an Example|actually exemplifies]] [[Instant Expert]]); that name now redirects to [[I Know Karate]].
 
{{examples}}
Line 20:
== Anime and Manga ==
 
* In ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'', L and Light both somehow have pretty good hand-to-hand combat skills. L's skill is somewhat [[Retcon|Retconned]] in Another Note, a novel that takes place before the story. Light we just assume has every skill necessary at the moment. He tends to have that. Oh! Watari's also a sharpshooter.
* <s>Wilford Brimley</s> Dr. Reichwein of ''[[Monster (Animemanga)|Monster]]'' used to work with the border police, but the two punks trying to beat him up in an alley didn't know that.
** Averted with Nina, who was shown practicing Aikido before it came in handy.
 
Line 32:
* In the film ''[[Three Amigos]]'', Ned Nederlander reveals that he actually ''is'' a real quickdraw artist when challenged by a German former fan. The German assumed that Ned used trick photography, but Ned insists that it's all him. Subverted by Ned later when he reveals that he learned to fly the German's ''exact'' make and model of bi-plane for a film, but his stuntman actually did the flying. He still manages to fake it long enough to escape.
* ''[[The Other Guys]]'' uses this trope frequently.
* ''[[Twenty Twelve|2012]]'' loves to use this trope. For instance, Gordon Silverman is a plastic surgeon who is also an amateur pilot. He is used to help fly a plane when the group needed a pilot. Of course, a day's worth of flight lessons in a two-seater Cessna doesn't qualify you to fly the diversity of aircraft he pilots in the film. Hell, it barely qualifies you to fly a two-seater Cessna.
 
 
== Literature ==
* [[Sherlock Holmes]] suddenly reveals himself to be a master of "baritsu", which enables the ultimate [[Author's Saving Throw]].
* In [[Jack Vance (Creator)|Jack Vance]]'s ''[[Lyonesse (Literature)|Lyonesse]]'' trilogy, Aillas never comes across as someone particularly interested or skilled in swordsmanship. In ''The Green Pearl'', however, he encounters an infamous bandit leader from a very martial culture who considers himself virtually peerless with a blade in hand. Out of nowhere, Aillas hands him a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] without breaking a sweat. A few chapters later, a bystander comments that he's a "demon with a sword."
* [[Mk Venner]], from [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[GauntsGaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel, really does know kung fu. Before joining the Imperial Guard he trained with a group of secretive 'woodland warriors' and also speaks fluent Old Gothic. Of course, you don't learn this until it saves the whole squad in ''His Last Command''.
* In ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' Dagny flies an airplane when she goes searching for John Galt. It is never mentioned why or how she knows how to fly.
* ''[[The Longing of Shiina Ryo]]'': When Shin-tsu has to {{spoiler|defend himself from Kouma}}.
Line 49:
* In [[Castle]] there there are several instances. At least [[Once Per Episode]] Castle brings up some random piece of knowledge that his research or various hobbies have taught him. He can also speak Mandarin, which he attributed to a [[Firefly|TV show he used to love]].
** Beckett can also slip into a Russian accent which she attributed to a semester she spent abroad.
* In ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' in "That Seventies Episode", Phoebe suddenly reveals the ability to pick locks. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by Prue, who rhetorically asks, "Why am I not surprised that you know how to do this?"
* Catherine, typically the classiest and snootiest character on ''[[News Radio]]'', nonetheless knows a little three card monte from a summer spent hustling with an uncle.
** Dave Nelson also has a surprising amount of skill in both knife throwing and tap dancing.
Line 67:
{{quote| '''Chandler''': I'll just play left-handed.<br />
'''Ross''': You mean you're ''not'' left-handed? }}
* Sandra Bennet of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' can make fake IDs, a skill she used to sneak into Def Leppard concerts when she was younger.
* In the ''[[Bones]]'' episode "The Woman In The Sand," the normally clipped and clinical Brennan unexpectedly busts out a scarily convincing alternate persona to fool some lowlifes, complete with Jersey-girl accent. When Booth later asks her "what got into you," she says, "It’s from when I used to watch old movies with my dad. He really liked Clara Bow."
{{quote| "Clara Bow was a silent film star, Bones."<br />
"Yeah, but I guess that's how I always imagined she sounded." }}
** Possible [[Genius Bonus]]; Clara Bow was a Brooklyn native and had a notoriously thick accent.
* In ''[[The A-Team (TV)|The A-Team]]'' episode "The Maltese Cow," Face and Murdock find a message written on a mirror in Chinese. [[Crazy Awesome|Murdock]] proceeds to read it out loud, and when Face gives him a weird look, he explains:
{{quote| '''Murdock:''' One afternoon, I got a gonzo headache, and before it was over, I could read and write Chinese. And that was a bad afternoon, let me tell you.}}
* ''[[Trick]]'''s Ueda Jiro, virgin physicist professor, took a correspondence course in karate that somehow turned him into a kung-fu machine.
* In ''[[Taxi (TV)|Taxi]]'', Jim Ignatowski is brought to a fancy party by Elaine who is hoping to impress someone but needs a date to attend the party. Jim proceeds to humiliate Elaine by acting like the '60s burn-out that he is, only to save the situation by sitting down at the piano and playing brilliantly. The other guests assume that Jim was just having a bit of fun, and so Elaine succeeds in her goal. Jim's befuddled reaction to his own playing: "I must have taken.. music lessons..."
* In the [[Made for TV Movie]]/[[Pilot Move]] ''Tag Team'' two pro wrestlers are drummed out of the business for refusing to take a dive and become cops. At the police academy one (played by [[Jesse Ventura]]) shows remarkable marksmanship. "Where did you learn that?" "[[Actor Allusion|Navy SEALs]]."
* In ''[[Flash Forward 2009]]'', Nicole has a plot-useful knowledge of Japanese because she was a military brat.
Line 81:
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* It's not uncommon for characters using kung fu in ''[[Feng Shui (Tabletop Game)|Feng Shui]]'' to claim that a particular ability their player bought with XP was something they knew how to do all along. As the book explains, "Action heroes pull this one all the time."
* A "cinematic" Advantage proposed by S. John Ross for ''[[GURPS]]'' is Up To The Challenge, which says that, within limits, a cinematic character can Suddenly Have Always Had Skills, as long as he spends the [[Experience Points|Character Points]] for them later.
 
 
== Video Games ==
* The computer game [[Planescape: Torment]] gives us The Nameless One, an amnesiac immortal (or is it immortal amnesiac?) who, rather than learning skills from people that he meets, instead remembers whatever skill it was that he forgot, {{spoiler|that, occasionally, he taught the teacher ages ago}}. It goes a step further by having you relearn skills by {{spoiler|re-attaching severed body parts that you had already grown back, which involves [[Body Horror|re-severing them.]]}} And one of them is [[Eye Scream|your eye]].
* Gordon Freeman: the 27-year-old theoretical physicist who just happens to be a crack shot with all types of human and alien firearms, in addition to being able to expertly wield a crowbar as a weapon.
* George of the [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Nini]]'' reveals he knows a multitude of martial arts while fighting Gaap in the fourth story arc. Granted, it was known as early as the start of the first arc that his mother Eva was a skilled martial artist, and that she taught George many, many things to become the talented and successful man he is. But because it wasn't known that martial arts was one of those "many things" until later, it still counts.
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater]]'' introduced CQC fighting techniques to the series. They were brought back for ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots]]'', but in ''3'' you were playing as Big Boss while in ''4'' you were playing as Solid Snake. So, it was retconned that Solid Snake always knew CQC because Big Boss taught it to him. In one Codec, Otacon asks why Snake never used them before, and he says something about how using Big Boss's moves didn't "feel right" but now he's apparently okay with it, or something.
 
 
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/881523"