History Main / SkilledbutNaive

* Dr. Bashir from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is this trope in the first few seasons -- he's a brilliant physician but fresh out of medical school (where he graduated second in his class), and thinks of his posting to DS9 as an adventure in "frontier medicine" (something that doesn't please Major Kira, who's native to the region, ''at all''). Actor Alexander Siddig deliberately played him as very, very annoying. He grows up as the series goes, though, and in later seasons [[spoiler: it's revealed that he's been hiding [[BioAugmentation a big secret]] all his life]], and so has probably never been quite as naive as he seemed.]]

* Dr. Bashir from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is this trope in the first few seasons -- he's a brilliant physician but fresh out of medical school (where he graduated second in his class), and thinks of his posting to DS9 as an adventure in "frontier medicine" (something that doesn't please Major Kira, who's native to the region, ''at all''). Actor Alexander Siddig deliberately played him as very, very annoying. He grows up as the series goes, though, and in later seasons [[spoiler: it's revealed that he's been hiding [[BioAugmentation a big secret all his life]], and so has probably never been quite as naive as he seemed.]]

* [[CuteClumsyGirl Merrill]] of DragonAgeII is a young Dalish elf who happens to be a brilliant mage and excellent historian. Aside from a mage Hawke, she's the single most powerful member of the party. Unfortunately, she's had next to no life experience and, as a result, she's a gullible, distracted ditz with almost ''no'' common sense. If it weren't for the fact that half of the party looks out for her, she'd probably never have survived her first year in Kirkwall.

[[AC: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC: FanWorks]]

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]

[[AC: WebComics]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'' episode "The Lepidopterists", 21 and 24 are accompanied by Henchman #1, a totally by-the-book henchman who [[GenreBlindness clearly never had been on a single mission.]] While 21 and 24 infiltrate JJ's museum with carefree abandon (due to their SurprisinglyEliteCannonFodder status), Henchman 1 continually runs into problems and is eventually hunted down by Brock Samson. Throughout their mission, 21 and 24 attribute Henchman 1's difficulties to him being a noobie and not actually knowing what he's doing.

[[AC: RealLife]]

** Robb Stark is an incredibly skilled battle commander despite being only 16 and never going to war before. He won every battle and showed exceptional cunning in his strategies. [[spoiler: But his inability to fully grasp the bitterness and potential for treachery in the likes of Walder Frey and Roose Bolton, utter naiveté about Greyjoy and Iron Island family dynamics, and his insistence of HonorBeforeReason regarding Jeyne Westerling led to him losing the war and his life.]]

This character's talents may serve him well in a professional context, but he still find himselv running into trouble by doing things the superior experience of his less talented predecessors would tell him to avoid. This is often exacerbated by arrogance and {{Pride}} from the rookie who finds himself outperforming people who have made kicking ass their career. Sometimes he will occasionally have a sense of responsibility to use his new abilities to the fullest (not having the patience and foresight more experienced characters have in knowing you can't help anyone if you are dead, of course).

You get a young character who is, frankly, pretty awesome at what they do. They out-perform the grizzled veterans at everything they put their minds to, be that bringing down the MonsterOfTheWeek, commanding the RedshirtArmy into battle or solving the murder. A few years older and they'd be a total {{Badass}}.

Just one problem: [[NaiveNewcomer Their complete lack of real world experience.]]

These characters talents may serve them well in a professional context, but they still find themselves running into trouble by doing things the superior experience of their less talented predecessors would tell them to avoid. This is often exacerbated by arrogance from the rookie who finds himself outperforming people who have made kicking ass their career, and {{Pride}}, as well as occasionally a sense of responsibility to use their new abilities to the fullest, not having the patience and foresight more experienced characters have in knowing you can't help anyone if you are dead.

Many, many heroes start off this way. Due to TheHero often starting off as the least experienced member of the FiveManBand, giving him room to grow as a character, but also tending to ultimately be the most powerful member of his team, main characters in general have a nasty habit of going beyond their experience levels and relying on raw talent and bravado, which frequently gets the rest of the group into trouble as well. In particularly tragic circumstances, such impetuousity can get a character or his allies killed, with all the emotional torque and lessons about the fragility of youth and the dangers of overestimating your talents such an event provides. Its a frequent source of the MentorOccupationalHazard.

{{Kid Hero}}es, such as {{Young Gun}}s, KidSamurai and {{Cute Bruiser}}s can find themselves falling into this. Add HotBlooded into the mix and you're asking for impetuousity combined with incompetence. In a military setting, this can be one of the defining traits of EnsignNewbie.

This trope is very closely related to IdiotHero, to the point where the two tropes look identical at first glance. There's a subtle difference however. While IdiotHero refers to a character who is genuinely intellectually challenged but whose other strengths (Heroism, personality and morality) make them heroes, characters of this trope may be very intelligent, possibly even geniuses... but they don't have enough experience, both in life and in their chosen fields, to make the best of that talent. Its a subtle difference, but an important one. Though an IdiotHero can easily also be SkilledButNaive if their usual line of work tends to rely more on instinct and moral certainty than on abstract intelligence, and naturally the lack of intelligence will tend to exacerbate their naivete.

If and when they do evolve, they are rather malleable. A bad shock may send them into themselves, creating a ZenSurvivor or KnightInSourArmour, a character who feels cynically about issues but still can't stop the bold idealistic tendencies from showing through when the chips are down. Or constant steady success may create a full-on {{Badass}} or [[TheMessiah messiah.]] They can easily become a FutureBadass in cases of SacrificialLion or an earlier DownerEnding where this character survives.

* The main character of ''{{Naruto}}''

* In the ''WesternAnimation/VentureBros'' episode "The Lepidopterists", 21 and 24 are accompanied by Henchman #1, a totally by-the-book henchman who [[GenreBlindness clearly never had been on a single mission.]] While 21 and 24 infiltrate JJ's museum with carefree abandon (due to their SurprisinglyEliteCannonFodder status), Henchman 1 continually runs into problems and is eventually hunted down by Brock Samson. Throughout their mission, 21 and 24 attribute Henchman 1's difficulties to him being a noobie and not actually knowing what he's doing.

* Mizuki from ''Manga/KamisamaKiss'' knows quite a bit of magic and is far tougher and stronger than any ordinary human. However, he has lived a very sheltered life and suddenly dropped into modern day Tokyo it really shows.

{{Kid Hero}}es, such as {{Young Gun}}s, KidSamurai and {{Cute Bruiser}}s can find themselves falling into this. Add HotBlooded into the mix and you're asking for impetuousity combined with incompetence.

* Aang the Avatar is like this in the first half of ''AvatarTheLastAirbender''. He's so naive and kinda ditzy that characters easily forget that he's already a master-level airbender when the show begins. The fact he's a 12 year old kid doesn't help, either.
** Korra from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' is similar: skilled in three of the four elements, but due to her sheltered upbringing, she's socially inept when she goes to Republic City and discovers the [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized enemies]] [[ChessMaster that]] call it home.
* In the ''VentureBros'' episode "The Lepidopterists", 21 and 24 are accompanied by Henchman #1, a totally by-the-book henchman who [[GenreBlindness clearly never had been on a single mission.]] While 21 and 24 infiltrate JJ's museum with carefree abandon (due to their SurprisinglyEliteCannonFodder status), Henchman 1 continually runs into problems and is eventually hunted down by Brock Samson. Throughout their mission, 21 and 24 attribute Henchman 1's difficulties to him being a noobie and not actually knowing what he's doing.

* Ichigo of ''{{Bleach}}'' is one of the most powerful {{Shinigami}} in existence and quickly reaches the level of the GameBreaker captains, but he lacks the years of experience the aeons old Soul Society members have under their belt. Even the Seireitei's KidHero has four to five decades of fighting and training experience, though of all the captains, he is also given to rash moves. This lack of experience and [[HonourBeforeReason naivete]] shows in Ichigo letting himself get manipulated by the BigBad during the Hueco Mundo arc as well as in his brute-force fighting style, and is a textbook example of the trope in action where you have an overpowered, multi-class character with no idea of how to use his power most effectively. (His strategy amounts to "Hit it until it falls down.") That said, this is also Ichigo's strength along with many heroes of this type: his actions are so reckless, and yet he is so overwhelmingly powerful, that he catches enemies completely off-guard, even when they are expecting him. Ichigo's lack of experience also makes his performance inconsistent; he can be the world's biggest badass if he's in the right mood and barely able to match the much weaker lieutenants if he's on bad form.

* Haqua du Lot Herminium of ''TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'' was a brilliant student, whose hard work and talent were so undeniable that she broke through the glass ceiling and became the first student from a lower-class family to ever be awarded the [[SinisterScythe Scythe of Testament]], signifying her place at the top of her class. Once put in the field, however, she causes trouble by losing patience with her human partner's GradualGrinder approach, due to her need to prove herself. Then, when [[TheRemnant Vintage]] rears its head, she proves to be woefully naive when it comes to reading people, requiring the help of her more worldly acquaintances on numerous occasions.

** Korra from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' is similar: skilled in three of the four elements, but new to Republic City and the enemies that call it home.

*** Itachi Uchiha claims that his younger brother is one of these [[spoiler: (Hence the manipulations of Orochimaru, Madara/Tobi and to some extent Itachi himself.)]]
* Sakura had some of these tendencies as well; despite having excellent chakra control, and potential for genjutsu, she had even less fighting experience than Naruto, and tended to be useless in fights for a good chunk of Part I.

* In the beginning Goku from ''DragonBall'' lacks even the most normal skills, such as personal hygiene, maths, social skills and the like... he gets better along the story but remains naive enough to fall for the oldest and dumbest tricks in the book... he's also a powerhouse of brute strength, agility and endurance AND he's a genius in all things related to martial arts. Clearly SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining.

* In the ''VentureBros'' episode "The Lepidopterists", 21 and 24 are accompanied by Henchman #1, a totally by-the-book henchman who [[GenreUnsavvy clearly never had been on a single mission.]] While 21 and 24 infiltrate JJ's museum with carefree abandon (due to their SurprisinglyEliteCannonFodder status), Henchman 1 continually runs into problems and is eventually hunted down by Brock Samson. Throughout their mission, 21 and 24 attribute Henchman 1's difficulties to him being a noobie and not actually knowing what he's doing.

You get a young character who is, frankly, pretty awesome at what they do. They out-perform the grizzled veterans at everything they put their minds to, be that bringing down the MonsterOfTheWeek, commanding the RedshirtArmy into battle or solving the murder. A few years older and they'd be a total {{Badass}}.

Just one problem: [[NaiveNewcomer Their complete lack of real world experience.]]

These characters talents may serve them well in a professional context, but they still find themselves running into trouble by doing things the superior experience of their less talented predecessors would tell them to avoid. This is often exacerbated by arrogance from the rookie who finds himself outperforming people who have made kicking ass their career, and {{Pride}}, as well as occasionally a sense of responsibility to use their new abilities to the fullest, not having the patience and foresight more experienced characters have in knowing you can't help anyone if you are dead.

Many, many heroes start off this way. Due to TheHero often starting off as the least experienced member of the FiveManBand, giving him room to grow as a character, but also tending to ultimately be the most powerful member of his team, main characters in general have a nasty habit of going beyond their experience levels and relying on raw talent and bravado, which frequently gets the rest of the group into trouble as well. In particularly tragic circumstances, such impetuousity can get a character or his allies killed, with all the emotional torque and lessons about the fragility of youth and the dangers of overestimating your talents such an event provides. Its a frequent source of the {{Mentor Occupational Hazard}}.

{{Kid Hero}}es, such as {{Young Gun}}s, {{Kid Samurai}} and {{Cute Bruiser}}s can find themselves falling into this. Add HotBlooded into the mix and you're asking for impetuousity combined with incompetence.

This trope is very closely related to IdiotHero, to the point where the two tropes look identical at first glance. There's a subtle difference however. While IdiotHero refers to a character who is genuinely intellectually challenged but whose other strengths (Heroism, personality and morality) make them heroes, characters of this trope may be very intelligent, possibly even geniuses... but they don't have enough experience, both in life and in their chosen fields, to make the best of that talent. Its a subtle difference, but an important one. Though an IdiotHero can easily also be SkilledButNaive if their usual line of work tends to rely more on instinct and moral certainty than on abstract intelligence, and naturally the lack of intelligence will tend to exacerbate their naivete.

Note that to fit this trope characters have to be:

1) Just as powerful or more powerful than more experienced characters

OR

2) Noticeably remarkable in their skills for their experience level

AND

3) Naive when it comes to comprehending the world around them, subtle meanings of things, and the like. (These characters are likely to be {{Wide Eyed Idealist}}s and believe in {{Honour Before Reason}}. They are excellent candidates for believing in BlackAndWhiteMorality in a more realistic setting where shades of grey are the norm.)

4) While being excellent technical fighters and academically very capable at what they do, they are vulnerable to tactical oversights that only a more experienced character could possibly pick up on.

[[AC: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* Ichigo of ''{{Bleach}}'' is one of the most powerful {{Shinigami}} in existence and quickly reaches the level of the {{Game Breaker}} captains, but he lacks the years of experience the aeons old Soul Society members have under their belt. Even the Seireitei's KidHero has four to five decades of fighting and training experience, though of all the captains, he is also given to rash moves. This lack of experience and [[HonourBeforeReason naivete]] shows in Ichigo letting himself get manipulated by the BigBad during the Hueco Mundo arc as well as in his brute-force fighting style, and is a textbook example of the trope in action where you have an overpowered, multi-class character with no idea of how to use his power most effectively. (His strategy amounts to "Hit it until it falls down.") That said, this is also Ichigo's strength along with many heroes of this type: his actions are so reckless, and yet he is so overwhelmingly powerful, that he catches enemies completely off-guard, even when they are expecting him. Ichigo's lack of experience also makes his performance inconsistent; he can be the world's biggest badass if he's in the right mood and barely able to match the much weaker lieutenants if he's on bad form.
* Azuma Kazuma of ''[[YakitateJapan Yakitate! Japan]]''. He's an excellent baker, but has little experience due to growing up in a remote rural area. He didn't even know what nan bread was, [[ItsBeenDone "inventing" it himself without realizing it had already been invented.]]
* Tamaki of ''BambooBlade''. Absolute prodigy at swordplay, hopelessly naive in other situations.

* In the beginning Goku from ''DragonBall'' lacks even the most normal skills, such as personal hygiene, maths, social skills and the like... he gets better along the story but remains naive enough to fall for the oldest and dumbest tricks in the book... he's also a powerhouse of brute strength, agility and endurance AND he's a genius in all things related to martial arts. Clearly {{Sacrificed Basic Skill For Awesome Training}}.
* Luffy of ''OnePiece'': a strong and determined character who is made of rubber... who also goes "WOOOOOOOW" at every little thing along with Chopper, and who lacks common sense in many(most) occasions... like Goku above he also gets better, sorta, as the story progresses.

* Dr. Tenma in ''{{Anime/Monster}}''. He's a surgical prodigy and an excellent doctor in general, but he's completely oblivious about Dr. Heinemann's political games, and that costs him the life of a patient he could have saved. After that, he gets better and evolves into TheMessiah.

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]
* In ''[[{{Dragaera}} Five Hundred Years After]]'' by Steven Brust, Mario is hired to assassinate the Emperor because he fits this trope. [[spoiler:He's being set up to fail; [[SpringtimeForHitler he doesn't]].]] In all the other books where he appears or is mentioned, it's enough later that he's become an OldMaster.
* Corporal Carrot Ironfoundersson in his first two appearances in ''{{Discworld}}''. He adapts very quickly.
* ''ASongOfIceAndFire''

* Matteo Ta'anari of ''Literature/SomeoneElsesWar'' is clever and tenacious, but completely unprepared for military life. Which, as a newly conscripted [[ChildSoldier child soldier]], may not be in his favor. On the other hand, it's what motivates him to organize a [[LaResistance grand escape]].

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* Spencer Reid from ''Series/{{Criminal Minds}}'' fits this trope. His extraordinary intelligence makes him a valuable asset to the team but it is frequently mentioned that he is naive and maladjusted.
* River Tam from ''Series/{{Firefly}}''.

* Data from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' is, in his words, "designed to surpass humans both mentally and physically". He can perform complex calculations in his mind in mere milliseconds. But when it comes to interacting with people...

[[AC: VideoGames]]

* Princess Tana from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones]]'' starts like this. She ''is'' a PluckyGirl with quite the talent to ride pegasi and use a BladeOnAStick, but she's also very sheltered by her brother and has just finished her official training. This leads her to catch a huge DistressBall in Ephraim's route, but with some training, she can become quite the powerhouse.

* This can happen in educational tracks that go from high school to university to post-graduate degree without including practical applications of theory driven work.

** Tali is also an example: While not as naive as Liara, she ''did'' go to the Shadow Broker for protection, which everyone knows is a bad idea. This almost gets her killed twice over.

* Spencer Reid from ''{{Criminal Minds}}'' fits this trope. His extraordinary intelligence makes him a valuable asset to the team but it is frequently mentioned that he is naive and maladjusted.
* River Tam from ''{{Firefly}}''.

* Data from ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' is, in his words, "designed to surpass humans both mentally and physically". He can perform complex calculations in his mind in mere milliseconds. But when it comes to interacting with people...