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Taught By Experience: Difference between revisions
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The human mind is an interesting thing. When we put our hand on a hot burner or put a penny in a lightsocket, what's left of us tends to not want to do that anymore. We learn from our mistakes.
Characters in a story usually begin their journey with little actual experience in the [[Real Life|real world]]. Somewhere along the way, they figure out how to manage. There is usually something either said or implied that being in a constant life or death situation has forced them to find some way to survive. By default, they usually become damn good at it.
When the time for action has come, the time for preparation has passed. Sometimes your [[Training From Hell]] is not enough. Other times you have no training whatsoever. This is often how someone [[Took a Level In Badass]]. Some are so good at this that they are [[Awesome By Analysis]] and become an [[Instant Expert]]. Maybe, somewhere along the line, they learned [[I Know Mortal Kombat|Mortal Kombat.]]
This is a staple of [[MacGyvering]], the devices they make work because they ''have'' to. The [[Crazy Prepared]] person is either this way because of past experience, or because they want to avoid the bruises associated with it. And this is implied with a person who has [[Seen It All]] -- they have experienced it personally.
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** Don't forget Jack Rakan, who's pretty much invincible because he's fought for so long that there are only a handful of people who could pose a threat to him.
** After Negi's and {{spoiler|Rakan's}} match, some of the fans started quarreling about who was better. A fight broke out. Onlookers started betting on the outcome. {{spoiler|The draw had the highest stake.}}
* Parodied in ''[[Ranma ½|[[Ranma
** On a funny note, it didn't teach Genma anything, as he tried to "cure" Ranma's phobia by throwing him in the bin ''again'' (this time with sardines).
* Guts of ''[[Berserk]]'' has spent his entire life fighting from childhood on. While his training as a mercenary from childhood made him quite the badass against any human he met, the skills that he acquired in [[Demon Slaying]] were born out of pure experience, desperation and survival instinct, his first experience being with Zodd, then with Wyald after Griffith's rescue, and then with {{spoiler|a whole mess of monsters from hell out to eat him alive during the Eclipse}}.
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Cast Away]]'' is a great demonstration of this. A pudgy Tom Hanks struggled for a while figuring out how to hunt for food, gather water, and build a fire. After a large [[Time Skip]], you see him slimmed down and very efficient at all of those, in addition to making his own rope.
* ''Platoon'' has Charlie Sheen's character develop from a shell shocked recruit fresh from basic training into a capable soldier...unfortunately.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Luke Skywalker's advancement in [[The Force]] can be attributed to this. Without the classic training of the monk-like Jedi, he learned by improvisation and [[Artificial Limbs|sometimes hard lessons.]]
* ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'' had Stark forgo the thorough safety inspection on his Mark II suit because he wanted to use this trope. The lessons he learned from were used as a [[Chekhov's Gun]] later on.
** Whereas {{spoiler|Stane can't hit the broad side of a barn once his targeting computers are... "disabled". }}
{{quote|'''Stark:''' {{spoiler|"[[Are These Wires Important?|Oooh, this looks important!]]" ''(rrriip)''}}}}
*** To say nothing of {{spoiler|the "icing problem"}}.
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Stane:''' "Icing problem?" ''(suit goes ka-put)''}}
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* The movie ''[[Apollo 13]]'', while the ill-fated crew was stuck in space, they needed to temporarily move from the command module to the lunar module--and the carbon dioxide filters in the two modules were incompatible. Mission Control took a handful of its best people, stuck them in a room, and gave them all the spare parts the crew had available:
{{quote|'''Technician''': [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}C2YZnTL596Q We gotta find a way to make this [filter 1] fit into the hole for this [filter 2] using nothing but that.]}}
** And a [[An Aesop|lesson was learned]] about [[Boring but Practical|making everything compatible with each other]].
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* Every [[RPG]] ''ever''. Full stop. In some point-buy systems you can get smarter by kicking ass.
** And conversely in some you can learn how to be kick-assier by reading books.
* The ''Quest For Glory'' series both subverts and plays this one straight. In the first game, you get to define the abilities your character starts with, and each class has specific skills that can or cannot be used. The only way to increase skill in something is to use that skill (which makes sense: you get better at climbing by climbing stuff, better at swordplay by swinging your sword and so on). The subversion comes later in the series, starting with the third game, where the Thief character can be taught the acrobatics skill and immediately becomes proficient in it within seconds (though not necessarily ''good'' at it, that takes practice). In the fourth game, Fighter and Paladin characters can read a book and instantly learn how to climb. Mages subvert this from the first game: finding a magic scroll and reading it ''instantly'' imparts the spell to the mage, although it is at a low skill level. At least half of every game in the series (there are five) is spent just practicing your skills.
** The skill level system itself is very vague. Having 10 points in Weapon Use means you can use your weapon, but you'll miss a lot, whereas having 100 points ([[Level Cap|in the first game,]] at least) means you'll rarely miss...but you'll ''still'' miss occasionally. Generally speaking, it's possible to complete the game with low skill levels (depending on the skill and the character, of course), but certainly not recommended. Getting that [[Last Lousy Point]] in a particular game can also be a frustrating experience, since skills level up slower as they reach the [[Level Cap]]. [[Quest for Glory]] 5 completely subverts the skill system, however: as long as you're the right class, you can do anything in which you have skill. The numerical values mean very little.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': The entire show covers a little under one year, yet Aang learned three other bending practices, Sokka became a <s> skilled</s> passable swordsman, Zuko increases his firebending and Katara has become a virtual waterbending goddess. Sozin's comet gives them added incentive. On another note, this is the reason Toph learned metalbending - because she ''really'' wanted to get out of a metal box.)
* The ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' movie ''[[The Movie|Mask of the Phantasm]]'' had Bruce perform his first night as a vigilante in black clothes and a ski mask, yelling out police commands. He had all the training and gadgetry, but didn't really understand Batman's foundation of fear and intimidation. This is what leads him to being <s> one of the</s> ''the'' staple of [[Crazy Prepared]]. This aspect of the movie was a homage to Batman: Year One, which used essentially the same thing.
** ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' sees Bruce's then-protege Terry go through a long process to learn how to properly be Batman. Early on he is dependent on [[Clothes Make the Superman|his batsuit]] to survive; later episodes sees him learning from the constant hazards to the point that he's perfectly capable without it.
* Subverted by Ed in ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' with his inability to grasp the concept of a fridge light despite a whole night of experiments:
** Ed: ''Hello light...Hello light...Hello light...''
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