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Unwinnable Training Simulation: Difference between revisions
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'''Kirk:''' A no-win situation is a possibility every commander may face. [...] [[Arc Words|How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life]], wouldn't you say?
'''Saavik:''' (stiffly) As I indicated, Admiral, that thought had not occured to me.
'''Kirk:''' Well, now you have something new to think about. Carry on.
|Informal debriefing from the former [[Trope Namer]] exam, "Kobayashi Maru", in ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]''}}
Our hero is executing an impossible mission. It's full of action and adventure, and he gets to show off how heroic he is, but at the last minute, something unexpected goes badly -- [[Diabolus Ex Machina|often ridiculously so]]. The killer robot swoops down to off [[The Hero]] and...
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A type of [[False Crucible]]. See also [[Endless Game]] and [[Secret Test of Character]]. If the simulation becomes legitimately dangerous, that's a [[Holodeck Malfunction]]. If the simulation was legitimately dangerous all along, it's [[Deadly Training Area]]. If the situation is not a simulation, but instead a real life situation where the character is set up to fail, it may be [[A Lesson in Defeat]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Dragonball Z]]'': In the Vegeta saga, Kami used a simulation to introduce Kuririn, Yamucha, Tenshinhan, Chaozu and Yajirobe to the capabilities of Saiyans.
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* ''[[Code Geass]]'' doesn't use it, but in one interview the show's director offered a Unwinnable Training Simulation situation to illustrate the differences between the two male leads. As the story goes, there's a car wreck and two men are injured, one worse than the other; there's also a hospital some distance away. Lelouch, an "end justifies the means" type, would consider the factors, then take the man with less severe injuries to the hospital; that man lives, and Lelouch consoles himself over the other's death with the knowledge that at least he saved one person. Suzaku, a "means justifies the ends" type, would do his best to get both of them to the hospital, but they'd both die along the way; at first he'd curse his own weakness, but then he'd assuage himself by saying that he did the right thing.
* In ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' the titular ship has landed on the surface above an underground refugee camp and Captain Yurika Misumaru attempts to save everyone underground, but the ship is crippled and she must face the choice of taking off and retreating (thus causing the ground to collapse and kill everyone below) or the ship itself getting blown up; only it's ''not'' a training simulation. Lest the series end early, she chooses to retreat.
* ''[[Crest of the Stars|Banner of the Stars]]'' opens with a fierce battle which results in the [[Main Character|main characters]]' ship being destroyed. It turns out it was a mock engagement.
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* Try to count how many times the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] did this in their Danger Room. Between the comics and cartoons, Wolverine has had his butt kicked by simulated robots in order to learn an important lesson at least once per [[Story Arc]].
{{quote|"Bang! You're dead."}}
* This appears in one of the flashback sequences of ''[[Ex Machina]]'', with Bradbury and Kremlin acting as well-equipped robbers to test out Mitchell's equipment and reflexes.
* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]] [[Star Trek Elite Force|Elite Force]]'' had a comic which begins with this. The scenario was that the Voyager is attacked by a Borg Cube (complete with exterior shot) and Hazard Team is sent to plant explosives around the cube to distract them long enough for the Voyager to escape. During the attack, Munro falls into a assimilation chamber, where he finds an assimilated Foster and not wanting to [[Shoot the Dog]], fails. Tuvok even points this scenario out and [[Continuity Nod|notes its similarity to the test the trope is named for]]. This was called back when {{spoiler|Foster did get assimilated and Tuvok calls Munro out for not shooting him.}}
* Played with in ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)|Preacher]]''. Herr Starr must take unarmed combat lessons with an instructor infamous for badly injuring students on the first day. Starr “beats” him by shooting him in both knees. Perhaps not a straight example though as while it supposed to be an unwinnable situation it was never officially sanctioned.
== Fan Fiction ==
* Many [[Fan Fiction]] writers have written their take on how they would win the ''Kobayashi Maru'' scenario, but very few have felt as within the realm of the possible as [http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=71&forum=DCForumID24&omm=15&viewmode= "The Final Simulation
** Science officer Saavik (the [[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|Robin]] [[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home|Curtis]] incarnation), helmsman John Harriman (before his stint as captain of the ''Enterprise-B'' in ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'') and engineer Peter Preston (''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'') come from the classic ''[[Star Trek|Trek]]'' movies.
** Orion navigator Gaila comes from the [[Star Trek (film)|2009 ''Trek'' movie reboot]], as does the inspiration for their transporter officer - {{spoiler|Valentina Andre'evna Chekova, the imagined daughter of the new movie's Pavel Chekov}}.
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== Film ==
* The former [[Trope Namer]] was the "Kobayashi Maru" training scenario seen in ''[[Star Trek II: The
** Responses to the scenario are varied, with several characters improvising solutions but losing anyway (Scotty, for instance, used a physics trick that worked on paper but not in the real world; the computer's response was to spawn more ships than the entire Klingon fleet ''had''). Only [[The Kirk|James T. Kirk]] ever defeated it, and that was by [[Take a Third Option|reprogramming the simulation beforehand]] so that the Klingons would be respectful of the reputation he intended to have. Computer cheats? [[The Kirk|Kirk]] cheats back. (According to semi-canonical novels by [[William Shatner|Shatner]] himself, the test later becomes used to encourage this sort of outside-the-box thinking.)
*** Other ''[[Star Trek]]'' novels give [[The Kirk|Kirk]] the [[Freudian Excuse]] that his traumatic memories of the executions on Tarsus IV (from "Conscience of the King") led him to not believe in the No-Win Scenario.
*** In [[Star Trek (film)|the reboot]], [[The Kirk|Kirk]] reprograms the simulation so that the Klingons have no shields. He then photon-torpedoes the ships and "wins". Also worth noting is that here ''[[The Spock|Spock]]'' designs the test every year to be unbeatable, with the point of the no-win situation being to know what it's like to face certain death, while [[The Kirk|Kirk]] (like in the aforementioned novels) explicitly believes there is no such thing as a no-win situation.
*** As [[The Kirk|Kirk]] himself says in the 2009 reboot, "It depends on how you define 'winning', doesn't it?"
** The novels had Sulu go the diplomatic route, the most
*** Two characters ''deliberately'' blew it up, [[Star Trek: New Frontier|one]] rationalizing that either it was screwed to hell anyway, or that it was actually working with the enemy to lure him into a trap. The other was completely apathetic to the plight of the Maru's crew, and simply exploited the ship's volatile cargo to win the fight with the Klingons.
*** Scotty in the [[Expanded Universe]] is mentioned to have beaten it by constantly improvising new and ingenious engineering solutions, forcing the computer to respond by amping up the stakes, leading Scotty to perform yet another off-the-cuff fix and so forth. This kept Scotty and the Computer at a stalemate for ''hours'' until it was shut down by the Examiners who determined that the only way that the Computer could ''potentially'' beat Scotty would be if he spent ''[[Determinator|several days]]'' of outwitting it before collapsing out of sheer exhaustion.
*** [[The Spock|Spock]] comments in ''[[Star Trek II: The
*** One of the novels has [[The Kirk|Kirk's]] nephew {{spoiler|save the ship by [[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrificing himself]], challenging the enemy commander (Romulan rather than Klingon in this version) to single combat and having the ''Enterprise'' beam off the ''Kobayashi Maru'' crew and run away while he fights to the death. The admiral in command assumes he must have cheated like his uncle, but [[The Spock|Spock]] explains that it all would've worked. It's just that Peter Kirk knew far more about Romulan culture (including a challenge that - if properly given - is punishable by death to refuse, even if issued by a non-Romulan) than a cadet normally would.}}
*** A recent ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' novel depicts the origin of the Kobayashi Maru scenario, which is ''not'' a simulation. {{spoiler|In addition to being outnumbered, Captain Archer discovers that the enemy ships have a device that can take remote control of his ship's systems. He ends up having to flee and allow the ''Kobayashi Maru'' to be destroyed.}}
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** In [[Real Life]], initially, the only rule the simulation supervisors had was that they couldn't throw a Kobayashi Maru situation at the astronauts and [[Mission Control]]; the logic was that a no-win scenario would simply demoralize the team to no good purpose. There had to be at least one solution; however, there was no rule stating that the solution had to be obvious or logical or even remotely fair, just that there had to be a point where the controllers and astronauts could be shown: "This is where you screwed up; now learn from it." In the aftermath of Apollo 13, they realized that if they'd been thrown that particular scenario (total loss of oxygen and power in the command/service module), it would have been rejected as [[Unwinnable]]; from Apollo 14 forwards, the new rule for simulation disaster scenarios was: "anything goes".
*** They did, however, go through a variation of the "lunar lifeboat" procedure in at least one training scenario, where there was a pressure drop (but not a loss of power) in the command module, which helped when things went to pot on the actual flight.
* The Agent training scenario in ''[[The Matrix]]''. ("Were you listening to me, Neo, or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?") Even Neo is fooled into thinking it was the real thing. The scenario is designed to always end with the trainee's death, because a human ''cannot'' beat an Agent. The only recourse when faced with one is to attempt escape, and even that is iffy at best.
* The virtual reality wargaming scenes in ''[[Avalon (film)|Avalon]]''.
* The beginning of ''[[The Avengers (1998 film)|The Avengers
* Used at the very beginning of ''[[Mindhunters]]''.
* ''[[Sherlock Holmes]] A Game of Shadows''. Sherlock is capable of deducing what an opponent would do in response to his own actions, simulating entire fistfights in his head before committing to them. When he concludes the final fight is unwinnable, {{spoiler|he just jumps off the balcony taking his opponent with him}}.
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* In the novel ''Reach'' by Edward Gibson the Wayfarer 2 astronauts are approaching their destination when one looks out the window to find they're about to collide with...his house! It turns out they're in the simulator, and the people running it were trying to demonstrate the importance of staying focused even when something unexpected happens.
* Mentioned in one of the ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'' books. In one of her LEP exams, Holly defeated a simulation that pitted her against insurmountable numbers by [[Take a Third Option|blasting the projector]]. The computer recorded defeat of all enemies, so she passed.
* ''[[Ender's Game]]'': Pretty much all of the games in the school when Ender is given his own team are designed to be unwinnable. {{spoiler|Of course, he wins them all.}}
** Also inverted at the end, when {{spoiler|Ender discovers all the "simulations" were actual space battles. The deception was crucial because the final "simulation" was unwinninable by any conventional means. Ender, thinking that it was all just a game and that he nothing to lose, destroys the enemy homeworld by sacrificing his own fleet in a kamikaze attack. When he finds out that he ordered ''actual'' soldiers to their deaths - as well as utterly destroying an entire alien race - Ender feels incredibly guilty.}}
** The battle school also has a fantasy game that all the children play (used to monitor their psychological development and stability). Within this game is a section called "The Giant's Drink". A giant offers the [[Player Character]] a choice of two drinks, claiming one is poison and the other leads to Fairyland. Of course, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|no matter what the player chooses]], they die [[The Many Deaths of You|a gruesome death]]. {{spoiler|Ender ultimately confounds this, forcing the game to invent entirely new sections that had never existed before and generally freaking out the [[Powers That Be]].}}
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*** "Threshold" starts off with Tom Paris trying to break the Warp 10 limit in a shuttle. As he reaches Warp 9.95 the nacelles are ripped off and the shuttle explodes. Paris appears sitting on the holodeck floor and B'Elanna Torres says "You're dead." How they were able to program a simulation for what would happen at Warp 10 without any data one what happens when you approach Warp 10 is unclear, but that's the least of the problems the infamous episode has.
** Mackenzie Calhoun found an interesting way to get through the Kobayashi Maru in ''[[Expanded Universe|Stone And Anvil]]'': {{spoiler|he gives the orders to destroy the ship himself.}}
** There is also a Super Nintendo videogame based on Starfleet command training. One of the missions the player must complete is the actual Kobayashi Maru scenario, and it
*** It's worth noting that while you can't save the Kobayashi Maru, you can prevent its destruction indefinitely if you're good enough. Unfortunately as the enemy infinitely respawns there's very little point.
** Proving that Starfleet isn't blind to all those "How I Flunked The ''Kobayashi Maru'' Test" stories circulating among cadets, Wesley Crusher on TNG was subjected to a different kind of simulated no-win scenario during his Academy training. A faked "accident" left two technicians trapped in a room that would soon flood with radiation, and Wesley was given time to save only one of them. Unable to talk the more terrified man into moving, he helped the injured one to safety and reluctantly left the other behind. Unlike the traditional test this was just for entrance into the academy, and designed to make him face what they had determined was his greatest fear (being in the situation Picard had faced when unable to save Wesley's father on an away mission).
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== Video Games ==
* Arguably the most famous cutscene from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]] [[Crisis Core]]'' involves a [[Melee a Trois]] between Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth. Everybody was just plain fighting when Genesis entered [[Let's Get Dangerous]] mode and Sephiroth started ''slicing off the Sister Ray'' in retaliation (they were fighting on top of it). During the climax, Angeal's sword broke off blocking Genesis's attack, the piece cuts Genesis' shoulder, and the "sky" came off as bright color pieces. It was all just a training simulator.
** Not to mention how the game itself begins with one of these, with Zack and Angeal on a simulated mission to the Sector 1 train station ([[Continuity Nod|which was not entirely unlike that of the original game...]]). At least it explains [[Violation of Common Sense|why Zack was acting so casual with a dozen soldiers firing machine guns at him...]] At the end of the mission he engages Sephiroth who viciously and effortlessly defeats him, only for Angeal to end the simulation as Sephiroth holds his sword business-edge over Zack's face.
* ''[[James Bond]]'' likes this trope. The first mission in ''[[GoldenEye: Rogue Agent]]'' is one of these. Afterward, the titular agent is fired from MI6 for allowing Bond to be "killed" during the simulated mission at Fort Knox.
** Which is entirely silly for so many reasons, including the fact that the death wasn't really caused by him (IIRC, Bond is hanging on to a ledge and falls) and getting fired caused the agent to turn evil.
*** Specifically, the helicopter was shot down and crashed through the roof of Fort Knox. Bond was barely hanging from the hanging chopper, and Goldeneye was too far to reach out to him. He had no choice but to let the craft fall on Bond.
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