The Meddling Kids Are Useless: Difference between revisions

Because this is a story where the main attraction, if not the very point, is to watch ordinary people get into all sorts of excitement and danger. Yet they can't ultimately thwart the villain or solve the problem, because, well, that's not their job, nor do they have the actual skills to do it.

See also [[Little Hero, Big War]], which is kind of this on a much larger scale, and with the hero having a larger chance of being the one who actually defeats the villain.

* In ''[[The 13 th13th Warrior]]'', main character Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan is a useful extra swordsman but doesn't actually do anything to resolve the plot, with the single exception of figuring out how the group can escape from the Wendol cave. Of course, since the story is really about Bulliwye/Beowulf, this is understandable.

* ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Guards Guards|Guards! Guards!]]'' has the Watch figure out who the Supreme Grand Master is, but it is implied that [[The Chessmaster|Vetinari]] was already aware of what was going on, and the Watch are ultimately useless in getting rid of the Dragon - {{spoiler|Errol ends up defeating it by creating a sonic boom, which was part of his mating dance to the female dragon}}.

** Of course, {{spoiler|Errol}} was in a position to do so because {{spoiler|the Watch had adopted him and let him eat assorted random stuff for a good chunk of the book.}} In other words, the Meddling Kids weren't ''useless''... it just turned out the useful thing they did was [[Subverted Trope|something else than the snooping and the getting into exciting situations]].

* In the ''[[Left Behind]]'' books, the main characters, calling themselves the Tribulation Force, basically sit around and try to survive the tribulation, but do nothing that actually affects the events of the story in any way. The books could basically be described as a travelog for [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]].

* Despite having the most screen-time in ''[[Good Omens (Literature)|Good Omens]]'', {{spoiler|[[Noble Demon]] Crowley and the pragmatic angel Aziraphale}}, have no effect on the main events of the story, though not for a lack of trying. Arguably though, having {{spoiler|Armageddon be averted by humans only, without angelic or diabolical help}} was the whole point.

* Generally averted in the ''[[A to Z Mysteries (Literature)|A to Z Mysteries]]'' series, but played straight in the book ''The Canary Caper''. This story revolves around a series of pet kidnappings ultimately solved by the police. Even when the three main kids discover a pattern in the kidnappings, Officer Fallon says they already made the connection. The kids hide outside the thief's next victim, but the police show up before they can even catch the petnapper.

* Invoked and justified in a few episodes of ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]''. Certain event, especially those based on [[Real Life]] history, require the Doctor and his companions to be this trope while otherwise solving the problems connected to what the show calls "fixed points in time" (the event must take place with a rigid set of circumstances defining the end result or reality will collaspe). A good example is the Tenth Doctor episode "The Fires of Pompeii", where the Doctor and his companion discover alien beings called the Pyroviles are using Mount Vesuvius to stay alive, and to prevent the danger they pose humanity, Vesusvius must erupt as history dictates, leaving the protagonists unable to stop the historical event. They are, however, allowed to save at least one family of people from the event, since history doesn't have anything that would contradict their survival.

** This was realized when ''[[Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (Animation)|The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest]]'' was made, resulting in the younger cast members being much more capable of fighting and getting out of trouble, not to mention being aged up a bit.

** The third episode of the original series is a perfect example of this trope. The police would have caught the criminal even if Mystery Inc. had not ended up in the castle.

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