History Main / TheGift

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'': There are more than a few echoes of this in how Master Shifu treats [[WellDoneSonGuy Tai Lung]] -- and true to form, seeing only the snow leopard's incredible natural talent for kung fu (he was after all the only one to master all one thousand scrolls) the guy proudly pumps him up to be the Dragon Warrior, all without seeing the darkness that was growing in his son's heart. Though Tai Lung turned evil, he luckily didn't indulge in a great deal of {{Wangst}}. You can guarantee, though, that if he didn't die in the final battle, shows up in a sequel, and does a HeelFaceTurn, he will become either an IneffectualLoner (which he may well have been before his StartOfDarkness) or thanks to DefeatMeansFriendship, an AloofBigBrother to Po.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': [[MagnificentBastard Azula]] and [[CuteBruiser Toph]] are both among the most naturally gifted/talented characters in the series. Azula was born as a child prodigy. Toph meanwhile was born blind, so she relied on her other senses and would encounter the earth badgermoles (large subterranean '''blind''' creatures a mix of badger and mole and where humanity picked up earthbending from.) The former is DaddysLittleVillain and the latter is a loner who requires an entire season to soften up to her TrueCompanions. [[TeamMom Katara]] is a subversion; she taught herself waterbending and became a master soon after finding a master to formally train her. [[TheChosenOne Aang]] is an ''inversion''. His gift means it's his job to save the world. [[TheExile Zuko]] is played with. He doesn't possess the gift, but that's ''precisely'' what makes him special since it made him [[TheDeterminator who]] he is.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Twilight Sparkle is a unicorn whose unique magical talent ''is'' magic. Princess Celestia -- a thousand-year-old ''[[PhysicalGod Physical Goddess]]'' -- says that Twilight has the greatest magical potential she has ever seen in a unicorn. In the pilot Twilight does come off as slightly arrogant and dismisses the future members of her TrueCompanions as silly fillies who are getting in the way of her efforts to stop Nightmare Moon. Much of the series is devoted to Twilight coming out of her sheltered bookworm lifestyle. A few episodes also deconstruct this trope by showing that Twilight can't always control her vast magical power.
** About half of the Manes have some form of The Gift. Aside from Twilight, Rainbow Dash is such a [[AcePilot skilled flyer]] that she smashed records left and right when she attended a training camp, and Fluttershy is so good with animals that she can actually [[SpeaksFluentAnimal talk to them.]] While the other Manes are skilled at their chosen professions, they aren't on a plateau like those three.
** Rarity's thing is being a clothing designer; even the pony equivalent of Michael Jackson comes all the way to Ponyville to have Rarity custom-make her outfits. Applejack is a farmer, and her green thumb is to the degree that that she can hold a seed with a clod of dirt around it in her hooves and make it grow. Pinkie Pie is FunPersonified to the degree that she lives by cartoon physics, as well as being Ponyville's premier event planner. While not as glamorous as Twilight's magic, they're all the best around at what they do.

If the character is a good guy, expect them to be TheParagon that everyone looks up to. If the character's talent is intelligence they may be an InsufferableGenius since no one is near The Gift's level. However, if they let it go to their head, they may turn into an [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]], SocialDarwinist, or SmugSuper. If they can't handle the pressure, expect them to become the BrokenAce, or if looked up to by someone, the BrokenPedestal.

** The Gorgon, from ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'', is a ridiculously advanced case. He could read and write by his first birthday. By four, he was one of Japan's most acclaimed artists. He composed his first opera at age six. At twelve, he wrote a mathematical equation that proved the existence of {{God}}. He became a ridiculously skilled martial artist in adulthood, as well. He's also one of the most bugfuck insane guys out there and is fanatically devoted to the evil Hand. Oh, and he can also ''[[TakenForGranite turn people to stone]] [[DeadlyGaze by looking at them]]''. His actions so frequently cause "WHAT?! NOBODY IS THAT [good/fast/strong/silent]!" reactions that "Wrong. The Gorgon ''is'' that [whichever previous adjective]" is practically his {{Catchphrase}}. After Wolverine barely defeated and killed him by reflecting his own stone gaze back at him, the Gorgon was [[BackFromTheDead resurrected]] by the Hand ''[[CameBackStrong even more powerful than before]]''.

These characters are born with The Gift that just makes every character in the same field look ''bad'' by comparison. They were born with something special: this character could have an [[PowerCopying instinctual grasp]] of the techniques that take other characters years to master, maybe he or she is a natural LightningBruiser with little to no training at all. A character with The Gift need not be physically gifted. If the story revolves around science or school, expect a person with the Gift to be [[SuperIntelligence impossibly smart]], to the point that his/her peers are struggling to make sense of the person's ''doodles''. You think you're good? Well this guy is just innately ''[[AlwaysSomeoneBetter better]]''. Many times TheMentor of these characters will near worship The Gifted because of this talent, falling over themselves to teach these characters. The teacher may favor this character at the expense of other students. The character may even be TheAce if they're just ''that'' much more talented than everyone else.

* Similarly, hailing from the other side of the Earth, we had Creator/BruceLee who was, according to his peers, pound-for-pound the strongest and fastest, not to mention best, martial artist in the world, standing at a level most humans are unable to achieve even with a lifetime of training.

* French FashionDesigner and taste maker UsefulNotes/YvesSaintLaurent first showed his talent for fashion at 4-years-old, when he critiqued his aunt's style. He started sketching shortly after that, and by the time he was a teenager he was attending design school in Paris. He soon won a prestigious design contest and when he showed his sketches to a magazine editor, the editor noticed his sketches resembled Christian Dior's upcoming collection without the teen ever having seen it. At 19, Saint Laurent dropped out of school to work for Dior and not long after designed the Dior dress that is seen in the photograph Dovima with Elephants. When Dior died three years later, Saint Laurent was made Creative Director of the world's most important fashion house at age 21. He founded his own house at 24, which defined the style of the 1960s and 1970s.

* ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'': [[spoiler:Yasuri Nanami, the main character's DelicateAndSickly older sister]]. Let's count the ways: first, she's so naturally strong and talented that her father, the head of the most deadly swordsmanship school of the era, had literally no idea how he could possibly teach her. [[spoiler:This, and not her frail body or gender, is the only reason she isn't the head of Kyotouryuu.]] Her body absolutely refuses to let her die, [[spoiler:even though she herself would like nothing better]]. She can completely read the moveset and secrets of any martial art by seeing someone take a stance in it; and moreover instantly learns any technique by seeing it once, and masters it by seeing it twice (or performing it herself once) -- even if that technique involves restructuring her own body on the fly. And finally, the ultimate goal of this utterly broken PowerCopying is to [[spoiler:take her further away from using her own strength and skill so that Shichika can finally kill her, because otherwise he'd have no chance.]]

** Oddly enough, the boxer Balrog is likely the best example of the villains in raw talent. While the rest of the villains use exoteric powers or highly refined skills, Balrog relies highly on his prodigious talent and simply fights as a means to an end to fuel his encompassing greed. When he was a legitimate boxer, he used to train enough to win champion fights and squander the winnings in his vices and repeated until he was kicked out. Ryu notes that if he really committed that he wouldn't have a chance against him.

** There are also some characters who are genuinely gifted with superior talents (primarily Erina and Akira), but their talents are presented as more of a leg-up than a GameBreaker. Both of them are truly formidable, but only due to the fact that they have an extremely high work ethic and long training that lets them use their innate abilities to the fullest.