History Main / HardyBoysInvestigation

[[ScoobyDoo http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scooby-doo.jpg]]
[[caption-width:400:Admit it, only 20% of them have solved any mysteries.]]

You're watching your favorite adventure series. A group of plucky kids snoop around the place, get into exciting situations, and even get into danger and need to be rescued. And in the end, a cop arrests the criminal the kids were trying to catch. The kids didn't even help the police at all.

Suddenly it dawns on you. The main characters aren't that useful! They did all the cool stuff and got into all the danger, yet someone else ultimately stopped the bad guy and saved the day. What the heck? Why even bother with these "heroes" and their adventures?

Because you've just watched a HardyBoysInvestigation. 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 stop the villain or solve the problem, because, well, that's not their job, nor do they have the actual skills to do it.

Although the HardyBoys have the trope named after them, they almost always avert the trope as they always end up solving the case while the police are almost completely useless, often arresting the wrong person, even arresting Joe Hardy for murder in two books.

This is a way to get kid characters (or average, non-professional adult characters) into an exciting adventure while providing the realism of showing the real police or other professionals doing their jobs and saving the day.

See also LittleHeroBigWar, 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.
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!!Examples:

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''{{The 13th 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.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In the ''LeftBehind'' 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 TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
* In ''TheHobbit'', Bilbo and the Dwarves never actually end up killing the dragon. A minor side-character does that while they're sleeping. Most of the excitement of the book was the actual journey of getting to the mountain. Once they were there, other people handled things for the most part. Although it was Bilbo who figured out ''how'' to kill the dragon.
* In the original, 1920s ''HardyBoys'' stories, Frank and Joe's "investigation" often ended up with them hiding in a corner or tied up by the villains until their father and the police force arrived to save the day. This was eventually changed in the later books to make them more useful.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''TheVentureBrothers'', who were based on the ''HardyBoys'' and ''JonnyQuest'' both, really did nothing in the show during the first season, but are the main characters none the less. This changed in later seasons.
* In the original 1960s series, ''JonnyQuest'' basically just hung around while his dad and Race dealt with all the dangerous stuff. Ocassionally, he, Hadji and Bandit would need rescuing, and would even take down a mook or two, but otherwise did little but comment on the action.
** This was realized when ''TheRealAdventuresOfJonnyQuest'' 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.
* [[ScoobyDoo The Scooby Gang]], pictured above, are an odd case, as they actually ''do'' manage to solve mysteries...or rather, Velma does, with a little help from Freddy and occasionally Daphne. Our main heroes, Scooby and Shaggy, on the other hand, mostly just have exciting chase scenes and eat lots, while Daphne is kidnapped by the villain ("Danger-prone Daphne", indeed) and Freddy makes traps that invariably fail but somehow manage to accidentally capture the villain any way. In the end, it's Velma who figures out who the villain is and explains the mystery to the others.
** This is subverted hilariously in the movies, in which the cast also realize their shortcomings - Daphne takes down a good number of bad guys after taking martial arts classes and Shaggy and Scooby spend the entire second movie performing investigations on their own to prove their worth (of course, the success of said investigations is pretty limited...)
** The third Live action film averts this, every member of the gang provides something useful, but not at the same degree as the earlier two films (which is correct, as this film is a prequel). Freddy comes up with the plan, Daphne provides the wheels and disguises, Velma provides science and history, Shaggy drives and provides a list of suspects (and the motive), and Scooby actually catches the villain.
** 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.
** it should be mentioned that in "A Clue For Scooby Doo" and "Never Ape an Ape Man", Scooby and Shaggy do have a major role in solving the case.
* ''CaptainPlanet'' is sort of like this. The Planeteers are the real main characters, with Captain Planet himself usually only getting about two minutes of screen time per episode. He ''is,'' however, the DeusExMachina that solves all the major problems, while the heroes are mostly there to just [[AllYourPowersCombined summon him]] and learn the {{Aesop}} ([[GreenAesop green]] or otherwise) ''du jure,'' after having gotten into a lot of danger and adventurous situations, of course.
* The children in ''TheAmazingChanAndTheChanClan'' try their hardest, but it's always their dad who ends up solving the mystery in the end.

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<<|ActionAdventureTropes|>>
<<|HeroTropes|>>

* ''TheVentureBrothers'', who were based on the ''HardyBoys'' and ''JonnyQuest'' both, really do nothing in the show, but are the main characters none the less.
** The format of the series has changed somewhat since the first season, and that description is no longer entirely accurate. In fact, they rarely get into those kinds of adventures anymore.

** The second 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.

* In the ''HardyBoys'' book series, the Hardy brothers themselves investigated crimes and got into danger, but their dad (a retired detective working as a private investigator) and other adults (often Bayport Police Chief Ezra Collig) actually caught the crook and solved the case.
** Their dad got kidnapped in almost every single one of the original books, and in the HardyBoys Casefile "Beyond The Law", Ezra Collig had to be saved by the Hardys when he was accused of bribery and attempted murder. Almost every single book in the series averts this trope, as Frank and Joe always end up solving the case and in more then a few books, if Frank and Joe were not investigating the case, the police would have arrested the wrong person, or the criminal would have gotten away and the case would remain unsolved.
* In the ''LeftBehind'' 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.
** Of course, these books '''ARE''' basically a travelog for TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
* In ''TheHobbit'', Bilbo and the Dwarves never actually end up killing the dragon. A minor side-character does that while they're sleeping. Most of the excitement of the book was the actual journey of getting to the mountain. Once they were there, other people handled things for the most part.
** It was Bilbo who figured out ''how'' to kill the dragon, though.

* In the ''LeftBehind'' books, the main characters basically sit around and try to survive the tribulation, but do nothing that actually affects the events of the story in any way.

** Their dad got kidnapped in almost every single one of the original books, and in the HardyBoys Casefile "Beyond The Law",Ezra Collig had to be saved by the Hardys when he was accused of bribery and attempted murder.Almost every single book in the series averts this trope, as Frank and Joe always end up solving the case and in more then a few books, if Frank and Joe were not investigating the case, the police would have arrested the wrong person, or the criminal would have gotten away and the case would remain unsolved.

Although the HardyBoys have the trope named after them, they almost always advert the trope as they always end up solving the case while the police are almost completely useless, often arresting the wrong person, even arresting Joe Hardy for murder in two books.

** Their dad got kidnapped in almost every single one of the original books, and in the HardyBoys Casefile "Beyond The Law",Ezra Collig had to be saved by the Hardys when he was accused of bribery and attempted murder.Almost every single book in the series adverts this trope, as Frank and Joe always end up solving the case and in more then a few books, if Frank and Joe were not investigating the case, the police would have arrested the wrong person, or the criminal would have gotten away and the case would remain unsolved.