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Unwinnable Training Simulation: Difference between revisions
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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
== Anime and Manga ==
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* 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 (TV)|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)]]. 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.
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== Film ==
* The former [[Trope Namer]] was the "Kobayashi Maru" training scenario seen in ''[[Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan (Film)|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'', which is a test of how the OCS cadet responds to a [[Heads I Win, Tails You Lose]] situation. The cadet, in command of a starship, receives a distress call from a freighter (the ''Kobayashi Maru''), which has broken down in the no-fly zone between Klingon and [[The Federation|Federation]] territory, and whose crew will soon die unless action is taken. The politically correct choice is to abandon them to their law-breaking fates; if the cadet chooses to aid, s/he is pre-emptively attacked by angry Klingons. The aspect of the test which some [[Trope]] users do not carry over is that the cadet ''must'' be defeated by those ships, so [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]] and will happily break the laws of physics, probability or reality to ensure a [[Humiliation Conga]]-worthy win.
** 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 (Franchise)|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.
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* The episode "Failsafe" of ''[[Young Justice (Animation)|Young Justice]]'' is one of these that had [[Gone Horribly Wrong]]. No matter what, winning was completely impossible. no matter what they did, the situation would continue to get worse and worse until they failed. That said, the simulation ended up having to [[Ass Pull]] a second alien mothership to win, so they did pretty well. As for the [[Gone Horribly Wrong]] part? It wasn't supposed to be ''really'' dangerous but Miss Martian's subconscious hijacked the simulation and made it so.
* The direct-to-video/pilot episode three-parter "The Adventure Begins" of [[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]] has this. At Star Command's training deck, Commander Nebula calls Buzz up to watch one of the rookies, Mira, with the intention of making her Buzz's new partner. Mira beats Buzz's level, Level 9, and goes on to Level 10, which is comprised of three huge and presumably impenetrable robots. {{spoiler|Where any normal Ranger, even Buzz (since we never hear that he beat it), would have been blasted to Game Over, Mira succeeds by using her ghosting abilities.}}
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' has Princess Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. The test to get in involves hatching a dragon egg, which [[Word of God]] said was unwinnable. When Twilight Sparkle took the test, {{spoiler|her magical abilities were exponentially multiplied as a result of Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom, which allowed her to pass the test.}}
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