History Main / SkilledbutNaive

* Luffy of ''Manga/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.

* Teana Landstar of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' fame has the YoungGun trait. Her CharacterDevelopment is chiefly about getting over herself and learning to be a team player.

** [[spoiler:The legendary Sage of the Six Paths seems to have been this during his life as well. He was probably the strongest ninja in history (other than [[PhysicalGod his mother]]. Even so, he honestly didn't think people would abuse the powerful techniques he passed down to them, and was surprised that his older son became resentful when he named the younger his successor.]]

* There is an old saying in Spanish-speaking countries: ''Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo''. Roughly: "The Devil is wise not because he's the Devil, but because he's old."

3) Naïve 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 HonourBeforeReason. They are excellent candidates for believing in BlackAndWhiteMorality in a more realistic setting where shades of grey are the norm.)

* In ''Fanfic/GameTheory'', [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Nanoha]] is this. She's amazingly talented with magic, but unaware of her limitations, and her childish outlook sometimes causes her to make mistakes in a fight [[spoiler:and allows Precia to play her like a fiddle.]]

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* The main character of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''.

** [[spoiler: The 1st Hokage is considered to be this by his younger brother, the 2nd. While Hashirama is unquestionably one of the most powerful shinobi to ever live, he had the rather naïve idea that all of the clans (who had spent generations killing each other) would all of a sudden get along after he founded the village. Likewise he distributed the tailed beasts among the ninja villages, hoping that this would balance things out and prevent war. It didn't.]]
** Nagato. As [[spoiler: Pain, he is/was an indomitably powerful ninja, but his ultimate goal was to end all war with the threat of the use of an incredibly powerful weapon. This sentiment has been expressed by many inventors in the past, who believed that the weapon they created would be devastating enough to end war forever (the Gatling gun and dynamite to name two) and without exception they have been sadly mistaken.]]
** Naruto himself is this. He's a powerful ninja but his obnoxious moralizing and belief in the inherent goodness of others, based solely on the fact that they used to be his friend or they once had similar personalities to his own, would be mercilessly crushed if author Masashi Kishimoto weren't a WriterOnBoard.

* Azuma Kazuma of ''YakitateJapan''. He's an excellent baker (and is later to be ''incredibly'' good at math), 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.]]

* Woli from ''HajimeNoIppo'' is absolutely ''made'' of this trope. That's what you get from being a divine boxing genius who got the Indonesian title after ''three fights''. He's a happy-go-lucky monkey boy who makes stupid moves such as talking to his opponent during the match and eating bananas before the match, yet is basically [[GameBreaker the Takamura]] of feather-weight in terms of natural talent and fighting instincts. The only reason he lost against Ippo was due to lack of experience. Even Coach Kamogawa admits that Ippo couldn't win against a Woli with more boxing experience.

* Teana Landstar of ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' fame has the YoungGun trait. Her CharacterDevelopment is chiefly about getting over herself and learning to be a team player.

* Priscilla from ''{{Claymore}}'' fits this with tragic consequences. She hadn't been on the job for long before she was promoted to number two in the organization, and she was truly skilled at what she did. However, her big flaw was that she lacked experience and tended to [[LawfulStupid see everything in black and white]], even when fighting [[AlwaysChaoticEvil yoma.]] Both Teresa, who she was hunting, and Illena, who was really in control of the entire assassination task force (albeit it was technically Priscilla since she outranked her), called Priscilla out on her naïveté, but seeing that Priscilla was also emotionally unstable do to her traumatic past - you can guess [[SuperpowerMeltdown where everything eventually led to.]]

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[[AC:Film]]
* The ISOs from Film/TronLegacy. Femtoseconds after they form, they are able to communicate clearly, and learn damn near anything.
-->'''Flynn''': ''Profoundly naïve, yet unimaginably wise.''

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* 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.

* ''ASongOfIceAndFire''

* ''Literature/ThroneOfTheCrescentMoon'': Raseed is a young dervish with KnightTemplar attitudes towards personal conduct. His mentor, a worldly old sorcerer, is constantly criticizing him for only caring about fighting and knowing nothing about life. He's constantly saying and doing things that cause problems, forcing his friends to rein him in.

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* River Tam from ''Series/{{Firefly}}''.
* Chuck of... ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' starts off this way.
* 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...
* 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 naïve as he seemed.]]

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* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': Liara in the first game. Young by [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe asari]] standards, inexperienced, and will fry your brain or throw you across the room if you piss her off. [[CharacterDevelopment Not anymore in]] ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' as the [[BerserkButton Shadow Broker's attempt to do Shepard harm]] two years before have turned her into a character hellbent on getting revenge.

* N of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Pokémon Black and White]]'' is very good at his job (as an extremist semi-cult puppet leader) because he is a VERY naïve person. It's even mentioned in-game.

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* Yuri of ExterminatusNow is a prodigy with her dual beam swords, able to cut in half a speeding vehicle with a single slash. Unfortunately, she's not very good at listening to orders having been raised as a demon hunter to... you know, slay demons. So she's not so great at dealing with the more subtle approach the inquisitors have to adopt. (Not that they're exactly great at it.)
** Not to mention that in the incident mentioned above she got chewed out immediately afterwards for destroying the very evidence that they were trying to secure by stopping the vehicle.
* In MoonCrest24 Drake's got the skills, Derek's got the naïveté.

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[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Aang the Avatar is like this in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. He's so naïve 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. ''None of that'' gets in the way of him learning '''everything''' - '''''FAST.'''''

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' 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 and tell him exactly how he's going to die (at Brock's hands.)
* Rook Blonko in ''Ben10Omniverse''. A highly-skilled Plumber, he is often mystified by Earth customs.

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* 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.
** Particularly jarring with some technical occupations, for example software engineering. There are people who can explain to you in detail the theory on data structures and such, but will have a hard time writing a simple function to solve a simple problem.
* This is sometimes the case with Military Officers. Take a newly minted Officer from West Point. He's attended Airborne School, Air Assault School, Ranger School, and had 4 years of Officer training, but when he's put in charge of a platoon of combat-proven soldiers, he will be a bit naïve. The Navy, Air Force, and Marines are no exception.
** Just about every military novel, ''ever'', will mention how a green Lt. (or equivalent) needs to be paired with an experienced NCO in order to not screw up.
* There is an old saying in spanish speaking countries: ''Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo''. Roughly: "The Devil is wise not because he's the Devil, but because he's old".

* ''Manga/PrinceOfTennis'': Kabaji Munehiro is one of the most formidable players due to his PowerCopying abilities coupled his physical power. However, he often lacks experience with the techniques he copies from opponents, which allow both [[UnskilledButStrong Kawamura]] and Tezuka to exploit this.

* ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'': Emilia Justina/Emi Yusa is very powerful and charismatic, but is genuinely shocked to discover that the Church of Ente Isla, which she had been fighting for her entire life, is [[CorruptChurch corrupt]]; her friends, Albert and Emeralda, are not too surprised to discover this themselves. Furthermore, she is unaware that Suzuno is another Ente Isla native, something that Maou and his group [[EverybodyKnewAlready knew from the minute she saw them]], until Suzuno explicitly told her so.

* Sensei from ''Manga/Barakamon''. While a genius in calligraphy, lacks social skills and gets easily flustered when interacting with others, accidentally saying that his piece for a contest was a test piece and forcing him to come up with a new one at the last minute. Similarly, he constantly acts childish, gets outsmarted by 6 year olds in social interactions and has no idea about romance. Still he helps his students win calligraphy contests and always places high in them.

You get a young character who is, frankly, pretty awesome at what he does. This person out-performs the grizzled veterans at near everything, whether it's bringing down the MonsterOfTheWeek, commanding the RedshirtArmy into battle, or solving the murder. A few years older and he will be a total {{Badass}}.

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

* Aang the Avatar is like this in the first half of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. He's so naïve 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. ''None of that'' gets in the way of him learning '''everything''' - '''''FAST.'''''

* ''Literature/ThroneOfTheCrescentMoon'': Raseed is a young dervish with KnightTemplar attitudes towards personal conduct. His mentor, a worldly old sorcerer, is constantly criticizing him for only caring about fighting and knowing nothing about life. He's constantly saying and doing things that cause problems, forcing his friends to reign him in.

** In Shippuden he is but at the start of the story he didn't even have the skilled part until he mastered the [[MesACrowd Kage Bunshin Jutsu]].

** Nagato. As [[spoiler: Pain, he is/was an indomitably powerful ninja, but his ultimate goal was to end all war with the threat of the use of an incredibly powerful weapon. This sentiment has been expressed by many inventors in the past, who believed that the weapon they created would be devastating enough to end war forever (the gatling gun and dynamite to name two) and without exception they have been sadly mistaken.]]

** Particularly jarring with some technical occupations, for example software engineering. There are people who can tell explain to you in detail the theory on data structures and such, but will have a hard time writing a simple function to solve a simple problem.

This character's talents may serve him well in a professional context, but he still finds himself 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).

This character's talents may serve him well in a professional context, but he still find himself 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).

This trope is very closely related to IdiotHero, to the point where the two tropes look identical at first glance. There is a subtle difference however. While IdiotHero refers to a character who is genuinely intellectually challenged but whose other strengths (Heroism, personality and morality) make him a hero, 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. It's a subtle difference, but an important one. However, an IdiotHero can also be SkilledButNaive if his 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 his naivete.

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 HonourBeforeReason. They are excellent candidates for believing in BlackAndWhiteMorality in a more realistic setting where shades of grey are the norm.)

** [[spoiler: The 1st Hokage is considered to be this by his younger brother, the 2nd. While Hashirama is unquestionably one of the most powerful shinobi to ever live, he had the rather naive idea that all of the clans (who had spent generations killing each other) would all of a sudden get along after he founded the village. Likewise he distributed the tailed beasts among the ninja villages, hoping that this would balance things out and prevent war. It didn't.]]

* Tamaki of ''Manga/BambooBlade''. Absolute prodigy at swordplay, hopelessly naive in other situations.
* Negi Springfield from ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', a highly talented mage who at 10 years old has the sort of power and skill that most don't get even after decades of study and training...but he's still a ten year old and he thinks like one. As a result, a good chunk of his training involves getting the naivete beaten out of him.
* In the beginning Goku from ''Manga/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 (for example, he's fooled when Raditz tells an obvious lie, and is shocked that he would lie)... 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.

* Haqua du Lot Herminium of ''Manga/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.
* Pick a ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' protagonist. [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Amuro]], [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Kamille]], [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Kira]], [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Shinn]], even the supposedly cynical [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Setsuna]] all start out pretty naive. Then they get caught up in the war and, in one way or another, all break.
* Priscilla from ''{{Claymore}}'' fits this with tragic consequences. She hadn't been on the job for long before she was promoted to number two in the organization, and she was truly skilled at what she did. However, her big flaw was that she lacked experience and tended to [[LawfulStupid see everything in black and white]], even when fighting [[AlwaysChaoticEvil yoma.]] Both Teresa, who she was hunting, and Illena, who was really in control of the entire assassination task force (albeit it was technically Priscilla since she outranked her), called Priscilla out on her naivety, but seeing that Priscilla was also emotionally unstable do to her traumatic past - you can guess [[SuperpowerMeltdown where everything eventually led to.]]

* In ''Fanfic/TheUniversiad'', Celestia was this back in the Black Queen War. Her younger self, while still stupendously powerful, naively held out for a cure to the Plague where far more experienced and hardened Forumers had established the impossibility of doing so. Reactions varied widely from admiration of her tenacity to derision.

** Robb Stark is an incredibly skilled battle commander despite being only 16 and never going to war before. He wins every battle he commands in and shows 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.]]
* Shannon Foraker of the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series is this. She is a phenomenally competent Tactical Officer, earning the nickname "Tac Witch" because of her nearly magic ability to work out problems. She is so focused on her work, however, that she pretty much ignores everything else. Unfortunately, during the 7th and 8th books, several events yank her into the real world and cause her to become much more introverted... and possibly dangerous to herself and those around her. One of her superior officers notes her loss of naivety with regret, as it was one of the things that made her so likable - if occasionally exasperating.

* Spencer Reid from ''Series/CriminalMinds'' 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.

* 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.]]

* ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'': anyone with the Real World Naivete trait, ''especially'' artificial intelligences (which come with RWN by default).

** 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. (The Broker told Fist to kill her [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness when she turned over the data]], but Fist had gone over to work for Saren, and thus wanted to kill her [[HeKnowsTooMuch before Saren could be implicated]]).

* N of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Pokémon Black and White]]'' is very good at his job (as an extremist semi-cult puppet leader) because he is a VERY naive person. It's even mentioned in-game.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' is shown to have been very naive when he started out as a Maverick Hunter, especially in the ''X1'' remake ''Maverick Hunter X'' and its OVA prequel The Day of "Sigma", though he's also stated to have limitless potential.

* In MoonCrest24 Drake's got the skills, Derek's got the naivety.
* Grace from ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' has a bit of this. She's becoming a bit less naive, but not much.

* Aang the Avatar is like this in the first half of ''WesternAnimation/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. ''None of that'' gets in the way of him learning '''everything''' - '''''FAST.'''''

* This is sometimes the case with Military Officers. Take a newly minted Officer from West Point. He's attended Airborne School, Air Assault School, Ranger School, and had 4 years of Officer training, but when he's put in charge of a platoon of combat-proven soldiers, he will be a bit naive. The Navy, Air Force, and Marines are no exception.

* Aang the Avatar is like this in the first half of ''WesternAnimation/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.

* This is sometimes the case with Military Officers. Take a newly minted Officer from West Point. He's attened Airborne School, Air Assault School, Ranger School, and had 4 years of Officer training, but when he's put in charge of a platoon of combat-proven soldiers, he will be a bit naive. The Navy, Air Force, and Marines are no exception.

If 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.