History Main / InformedAbility

Though the motivations for allowing this are similar to the motivations for allowing {{Informed Attribute}}s in general, there is much less of an excuse for it. Believably getting it across that, say, someone is compassionate is ''difficult stuff''; it's the mark of a good author to pull that kind of thing off. Skills and abilities are a much simpler deal: Is someone a master locksmith? Have them pick a lock now and then. Are they combat experts? Have them take the fight to their opponents whenever they can and gain the upper hand. Are they supposed to be a smooth talker? Have them talk their way out of a sticky situation once in a while.

What often deters writers from going through with the above plan is the fact that MostWritersAreWriters. They're writing a character who's supposed to be a musician, but they don't know the particulars of meters or chords. They have a character who is a military expert, but they don't know how long an infantry division can fight until it needs to be resupplied. They have a character who's a genius, but they haven't a clue as to how or what a genius needs to do to solve a complex problem. If the writer attempts to show the ability in action, they take a very real risk of the portrayal falling completely flat.

On occasion, the ability cannot adequately be portrayed by the medium used for the work. For example, a comic book cannot show how good a character's singing voice is, and a radio show would, at best, be forced to merely describe a character's great paintings. Occasionally, the ability cannot be portrayed because of the work's audience, such as a dangerous weapon in a family-friendly show causing SceneryGorn if activated, and thus, it can't be activated onscreen.

One choice the writer has is to go ahead and show the supposed "ability". But if they don't do the research, this leads to such laughable characters as the scientist who spouts HollywoodScience, the tactician who comes up with [[HollywoodTactics the sort of tactics a five-year-old would think of]] and the "genius" who is only a genius because they're the only one coming up with any plan at all, and everyone else is downright stupid. Lack of convincing detail means the reader does not believe, whether it is fixing an engine or presenting [[FauxlosophicNarration the actual philosophy of a character purported to be wise]], and can make the readers long for the informed ability.

The audience is more likely to accept an informed ability if the ability itself is not the focus of the story so much as a plot device or source of drama. If, for example, a story of an obsessed genius artist is mainly focused on the family conflict this creates (with a father, say, who wants his son to have a conventional career or a wife who feels neglected) the audience may not care if the genius's paintings look like third rate impressionism or surrealism (as they usually do).

** Descriptions of the Fighter class in 3.5e consistently call them a leader class. The archetypes described often include things like kings or generals, fighters seem to be leading whenever an adventuring party is shown, and many [=NPCs=] designed to represent military leaders are fighters. This is in spite of the fact that the fighter is, though competent enough in the field of murdering things, one of the ''worst'' classes for leadership. Most fighters have mental ability scores that range from "the bare minimum to qualify for that one feat" to "DumpStat", so in personality, they're [[DumbMuscle stupid, thoughtless, and repellent]]. They have a very limited list of class skills and few points to use them on, so without special training, they can't do things like negotiate, inspire the troops, recall historical battles, identify threats, notice they're being deceived, or even hear someone sneaking up on them. Finally, they have ''no'' exclusive class abilities that can be used to assist their allies. A single-class fighter trying to be a leader through any metric besides AsskickingLeadsToLeadership would be a complete GeneralFailure. This is partly TheArtifact from earlier editions, where fighters would gain access to troops of henchmen and eventually be promoted to lords with their own castles as they levelled up. When these rules were dropped for being cumbersome, suddenly all the fighter had was their combat skills.
** Zargon the Returner, one of the Elder Evils from the sourcebook of the same name, was apparently so powerful that he easily defeated and even killed gods, and he was only defeated by his successor, Asmodeus, sealing him away. If you take a peek at his stat block, you'll be disappointed. A massive threat to a low or medium level party, but to a high level party, he'd pretty much be a mook. Admittedly, it's heavily implied that as an Elder Evil, Zargon's powers are uniquely effective against gods, but Asmodeus (who isn't a god) had the most recent statblock of one of his ''[[FightingAShadow aspects]]'' be a full eleven levels higher than Zargon. Even with Zargon's CompleteImmortality, any fight between the two would basically be [[CurbStompBattle Asmodeus pounding Zargon into paste]] until he got bored.

-->--'''Peridiam''', "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wofjcC8Pc8I 5 Times Survivor Players Hacked Challenges 6.0]]"

* ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'': Mariella Traviora is said to be an excellent lawyer and possessing a cunning mind for legal matters. Her only role in the "Battle for Barthis" storyline is to look up a dueling law in a book. The only other time we see her, she meets with her sister Barnet to serve as the latter's defense council, but the trail itself is never shown.

** Descriptions of the Fighter class in 3.5e consistently call them a leader class. The archetypes described often include things like kings or generals, fighters seem to be leading whenever an adventuring party is shown, and many [=NPCs=] designed to represent military leaders are fighters. This is in spite of the fact that the fighter is, though competent enough in the field of murdering things, one of the ''worst'' classes for leadership. Most fighters have mental ability scores that range from "the bare minimum to qualify for that one feat" to "DumpStat", so in personality, they're [[DumbMuscle stupid, thoughtless, and repellent]]. They have a very limited list of class skills and few points to use them on, so without special training, they can't do things like negotiate, inspire the troops, identify threats, notice they're being deceived, or even hear someone sneaking up on them. Finally, they have ''no'' exclusive class abilities that can be used to assist their allies. A single-class fighter trying to be a leader through any metric besides AsskickingLeadsToLeadership would be a complete GeneralFailure. This is partly TheArtifact from earlier editions, where fighters would gain access to troops of henchmen and eventually be promoted to lords with their own castles as they levelled up. When these rules were dropped for being cumbersome, suddenly all the fighter had was their combat skills.

* Happens often in tabletop {{R|olePlayingGame}}PGs due to the fact that every player character is controlled by a player (duh) who might not have the same skills. For example, you can dump a bunch of [[SkillScoresAndPerks skill points]] into Car Repair, but if you don't know anything about it in real life, an NPC might ask your character about engines and they will still go "Uhhhhhh...". For these reason, many game systems allow the GM to ask for a skill or attribute check rather than roleplay out a situation, to allow the character to succeed even when the player has no idea what to do (and often the GM doesn't know what exactly the correct thing to do would be either, so they just say "you succeed"). The GM can also provide hints to players when they start doing things that their characters would know is a bad idea.
** And this goes double for skills a player can't know because they don't exist. How exactly does a fantasy wizard "research" a spell, or a space pilot plan an FTL trip? Dunno, man, just roll the check.

* Happens often in tabletop {{R|olePlayingGame}}PGs, where a character might have a lot of points in charisma, intelligence, or wisdom, but will still be played like a boorish nincompoop because of player incompetence. For these reason, many game systems allow the GM to ask for a skill or attribute check rather than roleplay out a situation to allow the character to succeed even when the player has no idea what to do. The GM can also provide hints to players when they start doing things that their characters would know is a bad idea.
** It need not be due to player incompetence. The GM or player may simply not know about a thing a character does know about. A player character with a special knowledge or skill (computer hacking, piloting, medicine, engineering, complex vehicle repairs, criminal connections, whatever) doesn't need a player to know that. A game often will have the player roll checks to represent highly technical work, only for the GM to announce the result with neither the player nor GM having the slightest clue how to do the thing.
** And this goes double for skills the players ''can't'' possibly know. How does a fantasy wizard "research" a spell, or a starfighter pilot plan an FTL trip, anyway? Dunno, guy, just roll the check.

** Descriptions of the Fighter class in 3.5 consistently acknowledge them as a leader class. The archetypes described often include things like kings or generals, fighters seem to be leading whenever an adventuring party is shown, and many [=NPCs=] designed to represent military leaders are fighters. This is in spite of the fact that the fighter is, though competent enough in the field of murdering things, one of the ''worst'' classes for leading in the entire game. Most fighters have mental ability scores that range from "the bare minimum to qualify for that one feat" to "DumpStat", so in personality, they're [[DumbMuscle stupid, thoughtless, and repellent]]. They have a very limited list of class skills and few points to use them on, so without special training, they can't do things like negotiate, remember historical battles, identify threats, notice they're being deceived, or even hear someone sneaking up on them. Finally, they have ''no'' class abilities that can be used to assist their allies, since all their class abilities are bonus feats relating to helping the fighter in combat--and any feats they take that do help their allies could be taken by someone else. A single-class fighter trying to be a leader through any metric besides AsskickingLeadsToLeadership would be a complete GeneralFailure. This is partly TheArtifact from earlier editions, where fighters would gain access to troops of henchmen and eventually be promoted to lords with their own castles as they levelled up. When these rules were dropped for being cumbersome, suddenly all the fighter had was their combat skills.

* The *ahem* "[[TheMockbuster film]]" ''Animation/{{Ratatoing}}'' spends the first five minutes telling us how great the main character's food is, over and over. Whenever we see it, it looks like brown sludge. His actual technique seems to be to "steal the freshest ingredients" (but only once a week, and he just leaves them on the table without preserving them in any way) and stir them together in a pot. Then again, they ''are'' rats.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Susan's magical powers, which are seen exactly once and then aren't visible for many arcs. Then Susan explains that Nanase's powers are of a different order than hers ("Awakened" vs. "Dreaming") without going into detail--until ''much'' later, when Susan explained her magical abilities [[SubvertedTrope with a big]] {{flashback}}. [[spoiler:And she is properly "Awakened."]]
** Tom, a boy from Moperville North high school, is touted by an ex-girlfriend as a highly skilled ManipulativeBastard who has set his sights on Susan. While his initial interaction with Susan bears this out, when she unknowingly throws him a curve ball (telling him she has no interest in dating, period) he fumbles badly and his attempts to regain his footing only tip Susan off to what he's doing.

* In ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'', [[TheHero Lightning Dawn]] is trained by the Grand Ruler to be stronger and faster than most other characters (as compensation for his lack of magical ability). Thing is, he gets tuckered out lifting crates and ''vegetable baskets'', and altercations with others show him to be about average physically.

->"Rule number 56 of reality television: If a challenge fits your profession, you're probably not gonna win it."

** Descriptions of the Fighter class in 3.5 consistently acknowledge them as a leader class. The archetypes described often include things like kings or generals, fighters seem to be leading whenever an adventuring party is shown, and many [=NPCs=] designed to represent military leaders are fighters. This is in spite of the fact that the fighter is, though competent enough in the field of murdering things, one of the ''worst'' classes for leading in the entire game. Most fighters have mental ability scores that range from "the bare minimum to qualify for that one feat" to "DumpStat", so in personality, they're [[DumbMuscle stupid, thoughtless, and repellent]]. They have a very limited list of class skills and few points to use them on, so without special training, they can't do things like negotiate, remember historical battles, identify threats, notice they're being deceived, or even hear someone sneaking up on them. Finally, they have ''no'' class abilities that can be used to assist their allies, since all their class abilities are bonus feats relating to helping the fighter in combat--and any feats they take that do help their allies could be taken by someone else. A single-class fighter trying to be a leader through any metric besides AsskickingEqualsAuthority would be a complete GeneralFailure. This is partly TheArtifact from earlier editions, where fighters would gain access to troops of henchmen and eventually be promoted to lords with their own castles as they levelled up. When these rules were dropped for being cumbersome, suddenly all the fighter had was their combat skills.

** Kin mentions that Olga is a {{necromancer}}, yet the readers never see her using this ability.

* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'': Celestine is said to be a person of great magical strength, and [[LadyOfBlackMagic Olga]] is the only one known InUniverse capable of matching her in combat. Several characters mention that Celestine is capable of impressive offensive magic (Olga suggesting Celestine to bombard the currently infested Rad with holy spells, Soren fearing that Celestine could simply blast him into oblivion without lifting a finger, etc.). However, not a single scene depicting Celestine in battle is ever shown in the story. Furthermore, the remastered version has Celestine's P.O.V. noting that she and Olga fought each other numerous times directly in the past, to the point where the two stopped taking the fields personally due to the destructiveness of their magics. Yet, the readers never see any sort of {{flashback}} about such events.

* In Literature/TheBible, King Solomon was said to have been divinely granted the gift of immense wisdom in a dream. The text gives just [[JudgmentOfSolomon one specific demonstration]] of this wisdom. He also allegedly wrote three deeply philosophical books of the Bible. However, the aforementioned books allegedly contain loanwords from other languages, which according to many historians weren't known to the Israelites until centuries later. The Queen of Sheba also found his wisdom appealing enough to make a very lucrative business deal with him, but the text doesn't recount what exactly he told her. Moreover, in his old age he turned his back on God and imported some idols to worship (despite having personally conversed with God more than once), this being one of the gravest sins in the eyes of the ancient Hebrews and a sure way to lose divine favor. Oddly, in Ecclesiastes Solomon actually laments the futility of wisdom (and of [[HeroicBSOD everything else]]).

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Some official descriptions of Yang call her a "party girl", yet we never see Yang display any attributes of it. The closest was in the "Yellow" trailer and even that was a deliberate facade by Yang to get Junior's guard down.

* ''Fanfic/InnerDemons'': In the follow-up stories and sequels, the reader is told that Vale is exactly the same as Rarity in almost every aspect save her cutie mark. Rarity is a DramaQueen tailor who usually struggles between her greed and her desire to stand with her friends, and ultimately cares for the ponies around her. Vale is a stone-cold serious warrior-goddess who WouldHurtAChild, refuses to go against her "mission", and seems to think [[MurderIsTheBestSolution murder is the only solution]] to every damn problem she faces, regardless of whether it makes a situation worse or not.

->''"In case you haven't noticed, John is even worse at psychiatry than Trilby is at stealing. Spoiler alert: There is not a single instance in the entire series of a protagonist actually demonstrating a skill we're supposed to believe they have."''
-->-- '''[[http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3297636&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=9#post376395180 Quovak]]''' from Website/SomethingAwful, on the ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos''

See also FauxActionGirl, a variant where "competent fighter" becomes an Informed Ability, and TheWorfEffect, which often turns it into one. A NecessaryWeasel in VideoGames, where often you'll be playing someone supposedly very competent, but how well they actually perform is up to you, and often they'll go through tutorials teaching them the basics of their supposed area of expertise for the player's sake. Compare CharacterShilling and compare/contrast with CreatorsPet. Also see ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything, where the characters never even ''attempt'' to perform the tasks for which they are supposedly famous. Commonly uses {{Prop}}s to imply the intended effect. The InformedFlaw is the opposite, where someone is supposed to be terrible at something (ie. HollywoodHomely), but isn't. In a video game, this frequently overlaps with GameplayAndStorySegregation (when the story says that someone has amazing abilities, but they show up in neither gameplay nor cutscenes.) SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat is when a character demonstrates a skill the audience has never been told he possesses before.

** Mike is supposed to be a brilliant best-selling novelist who sold his first book on his first try with no editing needed. Yet the excerpts from his first novel, as featured in the character's [[http://web.archive.org/web/20051016085349/http://www.fborfw.com/char_pgs/michael/index.php?page=letters letters,]] are filled with implausible and maudlin situations, flat and unlikeable characters and insightful lines like "[[CaptainObvious The living buried the dead.]]"
** Liz's parents and friends are constantly telling her how successful, smart, funny, and great Anthony is. However, he only got his job through connections (he works as a gas station attendant and later accountant for Gordon Mayes, who is friends with Michael), never says anything witty, and isn't even shown at the astronomy club, his only social outlet. Anthony also is hyped up as honest and loyal to Elizabeth. Which he kept up during his relationship with his first wife, Thèrése.

** Dilbert is supposed to be a brilliant engineer, thus explaining his constant frustration with his idiot-run workplace. While [[CharacterizationMarchesOn early strips did show him as a fairly talented (albeit eccentric) inventor]], this has been gradually phased out as the comic focused entirely on office humor, giving readers little evidence of his over-qualifications. Averted greatly in the animated series, which routinely showed his mad-scientist level accomplishments.
** Alice is an even stronger example. While Dilbert can lay claim to getting one or two strips per year where he's working on a specific project, Alice has 14 patents and is the highest paid engineer at the workplace - but all she ever does on-panel is use her Fist of Death on hapless co-workers.
** Perhaps she is killing them for their patents and claiming them as her own. This is ''Dilbert'', after all.

** Mike is supposed to be a brilliant best-selling novelist who sold his first book on his first try with no editing needed. Yet the excerpts from his first novel, as featured in the character's [[http://web.archive.org/web/20051016085349/http://www.fborfw.com/char_pgs/michael/index.php?page=letters letters,]] are filled with implausible and maudlin situations, and insightful lines like "[[CaptainObvious The living buried the dead.]]"
** Liz's parents and friends are constantly telling her how successful, smart, funny, and great Anthony is. However, he only got his job through connections, never says anything witty, and isn't even shown at the astronomy club, his only social outlet.

* The {{nerd}}y Ruby of ''Webcomic/StickyDillyBuns'' has a BBA, giving her apparently much better academic qualifications than the rest of the cast. Admittedly, book-smarts aren't everything when it comes to intelligence, but still, to begin with she shows no clear signs of being more intellectual or focused than anyone else. However, over time, once she has adapted to her unfamiliar situation, she does begin to display flashes of sense and mental agility.

See also FauxActionGirl, a variant where "competent fighter" becomes an Informed Ability, and TheWorfEffect, which often turns it into one. A NecessaryWeasel in VideoGames, where often you'll be playing someone supposedly very competent, but how well they actually perform is up to you, and often they'll go through tutorials teaching them the basics of their supposed area of expertise for the player's sake. Compare CharacterShilling and compare/contrast with CreatorsPet. Also see ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything, where the characters never even ''attempt'' to perform the tasks for which they are supposedly famous. The InformedFlaw is the opposite, where someone is supposed to be terrible at something (ie. HollywoodHomely), but isn't. In a video game, this frequently overlaps with GameplayAndStorySegregation (when the story says that someone has amazing abilities, but they show up in neither gameplay nor cutscenes.) SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat is when a character demonstrates a skill the audience has never been told he possesses before.

* ''Fanfic/ShowaAndVampire'': The main character's mother is supposed to be one of the greatest authors who ever lived (she writes erotica). She's incredibly famous for her output and most of the "good" characters are fans of her work, but none of her prose is ever actually shown.
* ''Fanfic/InThisWorldAndTheNext'': As one reviewer put it, quite a lot of the author’s characterisations and his intentions for the characters do NOT match at all. For instance, [=McGonagall=] turning on Dumbledore and Snape is portrayed as her triumphantly standing up against horrible people, but in actuality, it makes her come off as a Wormtail-sequel figure who would betray her allies at the drop of a hat.
* [[TheLancer B.C]] from ''Fanfic/EigaSentaiScanranger'' is supposed to be the funny man who holds the team together. However, all of his jokes are awful and a lot of the stuff he pulls (such as attempting a StupidSacrifice where everyone else did a tactical withdrawal and quitting the team when called out for this) make you think they’d be better off if they got rid of him.

* Laura, as in ''FanFic/{{legolas by|Laura}}'', has apparently "got a power and she can distoy us all the bad guys". She never actually uses this power, even when she's imprisoned, tortured and raped by the orcs, or during the big important final battle, and what the power is supposed to be or do is never actually described.

* In ''Fanfic/FrozenTurtles'', the Night Blade are said to be a lethal order of assassins, but the Turtles put them down fairly promptly when Hans hires them to kill Elsa and abduct Anna, although this could be attributed to the Turtles being very good rather than the Night Blade being bad at their work.
* Essentially applies to Snotlout in ''Fanfic/TheBlacksmithsApprentice''; while he looks like a good choice for the new heir on paper as he's physically capable where Hiccup was 'a talking fishbone', in practice he's an idiot with an over-inflated ego who has no clue how to do anything beyond beating up people he doesn't like who essentially aims to set himself as a warlord rather than a benevolent chief.
* A good description of Stella in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13248288/1/Protecting-Hanna Protecting Hanna]]''; while she's a qualified nanny on paper, in practice she has such rigid ideas about caring for children that she ignores their need to actually be ''children'', in favour of 'preparing' them for adulthood even when she's dealing with five-year-olds who just want to have fun and gorge themselves on chocolate cakes and sweets rather than being given food that is [[IfItTastesBadItMustBeGoodForYou nutritionally satisfactory while tasting absolutely horrible]].