History Main / RandomlyGifted

* Downplayed in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''. The Mist exists to prevent [[{{Muggle}} mortals]] from [[TheMasquerade seeing mythological creatures and effects]], but it is noted that some mortals (most notably Sally Jackson, Rachel Dare, and May Castellan) are immune to it without any divine help or heritage. According to Annabeth, no one knows why.

** In ''ComicBook/XMen'', {{mutants}} are born randomly among the population, though active mutants are almost always guaranteed to have mutant children regardless of if their partner is a human. In a notable exception, Graydon Creed is the son of Sabretooth and Mystique, who are both mutants.... and he's completely human and poster-boy for hating mutants. Luna, the daughter of the mutant Quicksilver and the Inhuman Crystal, was another exception -- until her father exposed her to incredibly high amounts of Terrigen Mist (a very dangerous thing to do since the Mists tend to do bad things to anyone who isn't a pure Inhuman, and they're outright lethal to mutants) to activate her latent powers.

** There also seems to be some benders who randomly possess bending abilities considerably different from anyone else. However, there are also cases where they just discovered abilities potentially any bender could do but hadn't before. As far as we can tell, Combustion Man's exploding fire bolts that he shoots out of his forehead are the former [[spoiler:although the existence of P'li in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', who has the same powers and the same tattoo, may indicate it's teachable]], Bloodbending and Metalbending are the latter, and it's uncertain which applies to [[spoiler:Yakone bloodbending without a full moon]] in ''Legend of Korr''. [[spoiler:His children can also do this, but it's unknown if that's because it's genetic or because of his training. Or it could be that the inventor of Bloodbending was simply WeakButSkilled, and more powerful Waterbenders (Yakone and his sons being demonstrably ''very'' powerful) don't need the full moon's assistance for it]].

These characters may develop their powers immediately at birth, in their childhood, [[PubertySuperpower in their adolescence]], or later in life, and there may or may not be means of detecting these powers before/after birth. The children of Randomly Gifted characters face an interesting situation; in some settings the randomness is such that these children are no more likely to develop abilities and may become a MuggleBornOfMages, while in others [[LamarckWasRight they have a much higher odds of getting powers.]]

Society at large may be completely fine with this, see it as an honor to have a family member with special gifts, or consider it blasphemous and dangerous. Though these characters are not necessarily a new race or MageSpecies they will usually be called some form of DifferentlyPoweredIndividual; sadly it can devolve into FantasticRacism or MugglePower and lead to [[FantasticSlurs calling these powered characters]] witches, {{mutants}}, or demons.

* Just who becomes a Doll or Contractor in ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' appears to be random. Just what powers and [[PowerAtAPrice Remuneration]] they receive, however, are less so, as Hell's Gate seems to have a sense of irony or thematic appropriateness in it's selection of Remuneration (Hate smoking? Guess what you have to do every time you use your powers!) or power type ({{Sonic Scream}}, naturally, goes to the former opera singer).

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury:'' In the prologue, four-year-old Ericht Samaya is discovered to have perfect compatibility with GUND-Arms technology, an experimental form of BrainComputerInterface that normally places an extreme, sometimes fatal strain on the body of its pilot. She doesn't even seem to notice anything different when the system activates (something which a pilot in a later episode likens to feeling a hand reach into his brain). She is the only character in the show with such compatibility, and by its end the reasons for it are never revealed. [[spoiler:Even her clone Suletta Mercury only inherited ''most'' of her immunity -- she can endure higher settings for longer than anyone else, and it's still an agonizing experience -- meaning it can't be fully explained by genetics.]]
* In ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'', most of the [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividuals NEXT]]s seem to have gotten their powers despite having {{Muggle}} parents. That said, there seems to be some heredity involved: we know of two [=NEXT=]s who had kids, and in each case, the child eventually developed powers too (albeit ones completely different than their parents'). We also see three sisters who are all [=NEXT=]s with similar, though not identical, powers.
* In ''Manga/TouhouSuzunaanForbiddenScrollery'', of the ''{{Videogame/Touhou}}'' series, a young bookseller tells the main franchise characters that she just suddenly gained {{Omniglot}} powers one day. The two just nod and say yeah, that happens.

%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample* After ''Comicbook/{{Infinity}}'', this became true of ComicBook/TheInhumans.
* The ''ComicBook/XMen'' and mutants are born randomly among the population, though active mutants are almost always guaranteed to have mutant children regardless of if their partner is a human.
** In a notable exception, Graydon Creed is the son of Sabretooth and Mystique, who are both mutants.... and he's completely human and poster-boy for hating mutants.
** Luna, the daughter of the mutant Quicksilver and the Inhuman Crystal, was another exception. Until her father exposed her to incredibly high amounts of Terrigen Mist (a very dangerous thing to do since the Mists tend to do bad things to anyone who isn't a pure Inhuman, and they're outright lethal to mutants) to activate her latent powers.
** A look in the Marvel verse's backstory reveals that ''all'' humans have the potential to develop superpowers thanks to the Celestials' experiments on their ancestors. The only reason most never do in their lifetimes is because they never encounter the specific circumstances needed to activate their powers. For some people (such as [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Bruce Banner]]), gamma radiation activates their superpower, whereas most people would simply die horribly (either on the spot or years later from cancer depending on the degree of exposure). And there's no way to know in advance if your powers would be activated this way.

[[folder:Film — Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', no explanation is given for [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Elsa]]'s [[AnIcePerson ice powers]], though WordOfGod says that she was born 1000 years after "[[WhenThePlanetsAlign Saturn is in such-and-such alignment]]." No word on why she of all the children in the world was the one to get the magic (SignificantBirthDate aside), though nobody else in the movie has any powers to speak of. This is later subverted in ''WesternAnimation/FrozenII'', which explains her powers [[spoiler:are a gift from nature spirits due her mother's compassion and the loving relationship between her parents, whose different nations were at war. Their relationship inspired the spirits to give them two daughters, one with magic and one without, who would act as a bridge between magic and humanity.]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* This is true in ''Franchise/StarWars'': Force-sensitive children can be born to {{Muggle}} parents. The reverse is also true, though it seems to have at least some hereditary component. Theron Shan, the protagonist of one ''[[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic The Old Republic]]'' book, is one such case, being a muggle despite being the son of the Jedi Grandmaster herself and a descendant of Revan.

* Magic runs at random in Igor Dravin's ''Alien / Xenos'' (''Чужак'') series, which can take a turn for the worse should an unsuspecting child in an overly religious area suddenly demonstrate necromantic abilities.
* In ''Literature/TheBrokenEarthTrilogy'' orogenes can often be born from families with no history of orogeny, though their own children are more likely to inherit their powers.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Many practitioners inherit their gifts, but some of them gain them this way. [[spoiler:Harry tells Michael that Molly is this so that he doesn't have to reveal that Charity was a practitioner — it's not his secret to tell.]]

* ''Iar Elterrus'':
** The Gifts, including magic, are mostly random among all species in the Aarn universe.
** Magic is a random trait in the Nine Swords multiverse. This is little-known and a mage looking for gifted individuals has to be told to scan his city's slaves.
* Magic occurs at random for humans in Valentin Ivashchenko's settings, although the benevolent kingdom / empire tends to accumulate mages in the nobility. In ''Warrior and Mage'', the crown prince being a mage is noted as exceptional.

* Belonging to the Others is random in Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' universe. Children of Others are almost always [[MuggleBornOfMages regular humans]]. Ensuring the birth of a Light Other from a carefully chosen couple of Light Others is a generations-long plot run by the Night Watch. The only exceptions are vampires and werewolves, who can turn regular humans into vampires and werewolves, respectively. However, vampires and werewolves are considered to be the lowest of Others (the Light ones despise them for preying on humans, while the Dark ones treat them as CannonFodder).
* Vadim Panov's ''Literature/SecretCity'': this trope distinguishes humans from other species. Humans can be born as regular mages or [[TechnicalPacifist Healers]], and the number of mages is increasing because of the millennia-long exposure to the Secret City's magic.
* The fundamental unpredictability of magic being an important theme of the series, this holds true for ''Literature/{{Shannara}}''. People can seemingly get the gift out of nowhere for an inborn magical power of some kind (for instance, fortune-telling). Some magic is hereditary like the Wishsong, but even that will skip generations sometimes before emerging a hundred years down the bloodline.

* Vitaliy Zykov:
** ''Way Home'': this trope is in effect for the human factions in the setting, including the protagonists kidnapped from earth -- Oleg becomes an Earth mage, while Yaroslav [[YinYangBomb combines multiple theoretically mutually exclusive magic systems]].
** ''Conclave of Immortals'': the Transition event randomly affected humans. The common powers are shapeshifting and dreamwalking. The rarer taming power seems to combine aspects of both. Other human factions within the survivors gain cleric-like powers, but this may be a case of magical LostTechnology or resurfacing religions, as some [[ReligionIsMagic weird cults gain power]] after the Transition.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': Why Sonic has SuperSpeed has never been given an explanation. This applies to some other characters' abilities such as Tails's and Cream's ability to fly, [[VideoGame/SonicRush Blaze's]] pyrokinesis and Silver's telekinesis. The most notable aversion of this trope are Shadow whose chaos powers are explicitly stated to be a result of genetic manipulation by his creator.
* Psionics in ''{{VideoGame/XCOM}}''. Soldiers have a random [[PsychicPowers psi-strength]] going from 1 to 100, that cannot be improved by any way. A soldier with 100 Psi Strength can MindControl anything after being tested in the PSI labs and given a psi amp.
** And coming back in ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', psionics. A soldier has a random chance of getting the gift of [[PsychicPowers psionic powers]] depending on his/her will, though it needs to be unlocked in the PSI lab.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' has TheSparkOfGenius. It can be inherited, but it is implied to be inconsistent: children of dynastic Sparks are carefully vetted by their parents to ensure that they inherit abilities equal to or greater than their own(with the implication that they'll be disowned or dis''sected'' should they fail to impress), but it's not unknown for Sparks to be born to normal parents. These unlucky bastards have to overcome numerous obstacles to reproduce(insufficient education to make use of their talents, insufficient talent to make use of, insufficient luck to not be killed by their first inventions, insufficient solitude to not be killed by angry mobs), so simple selection pressure tends to enforce rarity.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In ''Fanfic/FarceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', a few characters have superpowers for no explicable reason. Most notably, Sun Qian has apparently both {{Flashy|Teleportation}} and {{Stealthy|Teleportation}}, and Xu Chu has EyeBeams and a [[GagPenis prehensile penis]]. No one thinks anything of this.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** People are born with the ability to bend pretty much at random, although bending ability does sometimes follow family lines. One notable instance of the curious nature of Bending is an episode with otherwise identical twins: one of whom can bend and the other cannot. Spirituality has something to do with it as well: as the most spiritual nation, the Air Nomads were 100% Airbenders, according to WordOfGod and later made canon by ''Literature/TheRiseOfKyoshi '' . That said, ''which element'' a bender has is passed down genetically (from ancestors [[SuperEmpowering empowered]] with a specific element by the Lion Turtles) and until ''Korra'' was heavily sorted by ElementalNation.
** There also seems to be some benders who randomly possess bending abilities considerably different from anyone else. However, there are also cases where they just discovered abilities potentially any bender could do but hadn't before. As far as we can tell, Combustion Man's exploding fire bolts that he shot out of his forehead were the former [[spoiler:although the existence of P'li in ''Legend of Korra'', who has the same powers and the same tattoo, may indicate it's teachable]], Bloodbending and Metalbending are the latter, and it's uncertain which applies to [[spoiler:Yakone bloodbending without a full moon]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. [[spoiler:His children can also do this, but it's unknown if that's because it's genetic or because of his training. Or it could be that the inventor of Bloodbending was simply WeakButSkilled, and more powerful Waterbenders (Yakone and his sons being demonstrably ''very'' powerful) don't need the full moon's assistance for it.]]