History SecretTestOfCharacter / FanWorks

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7799784/1/Daughter-of-the-Beast Daughter of the Beast]]'' is a ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' one-shot fic that serves as a spin-off to ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5355766/1/Kissed-by-a-Rose Kissed by a Rose]]'', looking at the character of Gwen, Belle's daughter, who was conceived when Gaston raped Belle shortly before she met the Beast. After Gwen realises her true parentage on her thirteenth birthday, while Belle and the now-human Prince assure Gwen that they see her as ''their'' daughter, Gwen privately wonders if she is anything like Gaston, only to be interrupted by an old man asking her for help. After she has led him back down to the great hall as requested, the "old man" reveals that he is another disguise of the Enchantress who cursed the Beast, and explains that this was a means of proving to Gwen that she's nothing like Gaston, as a truly cruel person would never have been able to tame their irritation enough to help a stranger like she just did despite already having a terrible day.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5858832/1/HJG-The-Smartest-Witch-of-Her-Age HJG: The Smartest Witch of Her Age?]]'' it's revealed that every year a student at Hogwarts is given a time-turner to attend all their classes and told to only use it to attend class. The Department of Mysteries is actually keeping an eye on them to see what they do with it; in over 500 years, Hermoine and Percy Weasley are the only ones to ''fail'' the test by keeping their word and only using their time-turner to attend classes.

* In ''Fanfic/AThingOfVikings'', Snotlout and Hiccup (plus Astrid) are having a three-part contest of strength, speed, and wisdom in that order, best two out of three wins, with Astrid fighting on Hiccup's behalf in the first test and Hiccup racing Snotlout for the second. After they win the first two, Snotlout still insists on doing the wisdom test, even after others point out that wisdom is obviously his weakest area where he at least had a chance of breaking even in the other two. The test giver explains that in attempting to do so he has already failed. A wiser man would have known when he was beat and just walked away. Snotlout in his arrogance and stubbornness manages to lose all three tests humiliating himself even further.

[[AC:''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain]]

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/35845084 In for a Penny]]'' starts when Harlan finds Ransom switching his medication and realises Ransom's intention to frame Marta for Harlan's murder. When Ransom expresses his belief that Marta is just as conniving as the Thrombeys, Harlan proposes that he and Ransom collaborate to fake Harlan's death and witness Marta's reaction to see which of them is right about her. When Harlan reveals himself to be alive at the will-reading and only Meg has actually shown concern for Marta rather than turning on her, Ransom acknowledges that Marta is everything Harlan believed her to be, Harlan in turn taking the time to apologise to Marta for using her friendship in such a manner.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12046758/1/Astronomy-Domine Astronomy Domine]]'', while the crew of ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space 9]]'' are trying to determine if the temporally-displaced Dean Winchester (''Series/{{Supernatural}}'') is a psychopathic killer, Doctor Bashir observes that Dean's basically passed one based on his reaction to the news that Castiel could take Dean back to their original era if Castiel burnt out his Grace. Dean's genuine grief and pain at the news that the only way he can go home is if his last friend basically kills himself assures Bashir that he isn't a psychopath or a sociopath, as a psychopath would have had a far more violent reaction and a sociopath would have insisted that Castiel do it anyway.

* ''Fanfic/PartingWords'' Deconstructs this trope by showing the negative consequences of Princess Celestia constantly using this on Twilight Sparkle; resulting in Twilight reaching her RageBreakingPoint as she eventually lashes out at Celestia before [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere quitting her position as Celestias' Apprentice]]. And that Celestias' overuse of this Trope had actually caused Twilight to not only ''lose'' confidence in her own abilities, but that it gave her a bad case of ParanoiaFuel whenever Twilight thinks that Celestia might be doing another test on her at any given moment.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12922651/1/The-Married-Couple The Married Couple]]'' has Rei Ayanami test Asuka to see if she truly loves Shinji. On the day of Shinji and Asuka's wedding day, Rei, posing as Kaji, sends Asuka a letter asking her to find him. Asuka failed the test when she immediately abandoned Shinji to go look for Kaji and proceeded to ignore every one of Shinji's attempts to contact her.

* In ''Fanfic/TheAFRUniverse'' story, ''The Trickster's World'', the main character is sent on a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind where every person he meets has a trial for him. Every trial is revealed to have a separate, secret test by one of the last people met. [[spoiler:The main character, Yaldabaoth, fails every true test of his character. Ren's subconscious was aware of why Yaldabaoth was intruding on his thoughts (to see if he had to be killed in the end) and pulled no punches on him.]]

* In ''Fanfic/LadyBugOut'', Ladybug visits Chloe in order to explain to her why she won't be allowed to wield the Bee Miraculous anymore. Noticing that she has the Bee's box, Chloe snatches it out of her hand, declaring that she'll ''prove'' her worthiness... only to find that it's empty. Realizing too late that Ladybug only brought it along to test her, and that she just failed, she can only stamp her feet and declare that she didn't really ''want'' to be a superheroine anymore ''anyway''.

* ''Fanfic/CrimsonAndNoire'': In chapter 10, for the bowler hat contest, Marinette uses a real feather for her entry since she couldn't make a synthetic one in time. The feather triggers Adrien's PlotAllergy, and Gabriel decides not to have him model the hat for the upcoming summer fashion show even though Marinette won the contest. Rather than panic, Marinette explains what happened to lead her to use a real feather, and she points out that since the show isn't for a couple of months she can develop a suitable synthetic feather in time. Gabriel replies by saying that was the answer he was expecting and allows Marinette's hat to be used in the show once it is ready since he was impressed by her creativity and professionalism.

* In ''Fanfic/TheNecromancer'', Rumpel/Mr Gold basically passes one when [[spoiler:he meets Gandalf; when Gandalf chooses to greet Gold as a fellow wizard rather than show suspicion of the traits of darkness in his being, Gold reflects that Neal and Henry would be proud of him for having enough goodness in him to be greeted cordially by a being like Gandalf]].

[[SecretTestOfCharacter Secret Tests of Character]] in fan works.

'''Antares:''' ''(annoyed)'' "And you knew that. You were testing me."\\
'''Balgruuf:''' ''(apologetic)'' "Always bait the riverbed for Slaughterfish before going for a wash, as my grandfather would have said. I knew you had steel, young Antares, but I wanted to see how it was molded."

* ''[[Fanfic/MoralityChainAvatarTheLastAirbender Morality Chain]]'': Azula intentionally leads Katara towards a Fire Nation soldier who had nothing to do with her mother's death, in order to see how she handles the situation. Katara bloodbends the man before confirming his identity; as a result, Azula refuses to help her any further, remarking on their [[NotSoDifferentRemark similar temperaments]].

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9823868/1/To-Bind-a-Soul To Bind a Soul]]'' gives one to Angel when Cordelia receives a vision that reveals that the restoration of his soul is the reason that Ryan- the boy from [[Recap/AngelS01E14IveGotYouUnderMySkin "I've Got You Under My Skin"]]- had no soul; the curse could only restore Angel's soul by taking another's soul from them, and the only way to restore Ryan's soul is to remove Angel's. After the necessary ritual is performed, Angel finds himself in some kind of Heaven where Doyle reveals that Angel's willingness to sacrifice himself for Ryan, despite every argument in favour of letting things stand (such as Angel being able to do more good as a Champion than Ryan ever could as a human), has earned him the right to return to Earth with his soul not only intact but with the clause removed.

* ''Fanfic/SecondChances'': [[spoiler:All souls in {{hell}} are given one. If they pass, they earn another chance at life in the third world. If they fail, they stay in hell forever. Thus far, it's confirmed that Misa Amane, Teru Mikami, Emma Wakefield (though she may have had help), Rebecca Remira (Rem), and Light Yagami (Rae) have all passed their tests and moved on to the third world. The only one shown to have failed is Kiyomi Takada]].

* Luso had to go through one so a shopkeeper is satisfied that Luso is mentally and emotionally prepared to be a Fighter before the shopkeeper will sell him the necessary equipment in ''Fanfic/TheTaintedGrimoire''.

** In ''Wisdom and Courage'', [[spoiler:The golden goddess (specifically Nayru) decide to test the princess's wisdom by initially presenting a Sadistic Choice to her: to use the Triforce to restore the lands of Hyrule and Termina, as well as their inhabitants, to the way they were before Veran razed both lands, or to bring Link, whose spirit had been destroyed in the final battle against Veran, back to life. Zelda declares that she cannot choose between them, stating that she loves them both too much and would rather die than to have to pick one. The goddesses approve of her choice and agree to restore both.]]
** It's revealed in chapter 36 of ''Blood and Spirit'' that [[spoiler: much of the plot was one for Link. They had foreseen that Majora would try to corrupt Link, and used it to their advantage to see just how strong Link's Heroic Spirit was. In the final phase, after Link and Zelda are killed, they claim that only one of the two can return to life and stop Veress; when Link [[RefusingParadise unhesitatingly agrees to do so even if he must live without Zelda]], he passes, thus letting them both return to life]].

* Hilariously subverted in [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4958189/7/A-Father-s-Love A Father's Love]]. Contrary to fanfic reader expectations, Naruto's team is NOT given the "bell test" since they already know about it in advance. And since Kakashi [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow knows that they know]], he trolls them by changing the test conditions at the last minute.
* Played darkly in ''[[Fanfic/GlassMarionetteNaruto Glass Marionette]]'': Kankuro's special, secret assignment during the Chuunin Exams is to [[spoiler:frame Gaara as TheScapegoat in case the planned Konoha Crush goes wrong, manipulating the Leaf-nin into taking out Gaara or else killing his brother himself]]. Kankuro immediately decides he won't do it, unaware that [[spoiler:his father anticipated this, ordering ''another'' puppeteer to spy on and murder Kankuro if he fails to complete his mission]].

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9920512/1/Reaching-for-a-Dream Reaching for a Dream]]'', Naruto has promised he'll earn Xanna's (aka Kyuubi) love and marry her one day. She repeatedly explains that as she'll only marry someone as strong as her, he's better off loving a mortal woman instead of potentially killing himself trying to accomplish a likely impossible goal. When Naruto actually does start falling for a mortal woman (Tsunami), he breaks things off with the woman and keeps to his promise to marry Xanna. Xanna approves of his decision but also warns him that was his LastSecondChance; now he must either fulfill his promise or die trying.

-->"It was you! You sent that letter to me, not Kaji! You sent me on a wild goose chase! You ruined my wedding!" Asuka snapped.\\
"And it took you six months to figure that out?" Rei asked in an almost condescending tone. "It was a test. And you failed."

* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' fic "[[http://www.ralst.com/MinisterofLies1.HTM Minister of Lies]]" sees Sisko, Odo and Dax learn that the current Bajoran First Minister, Shakaar Edon, was a Cardassian collaborator responsible for raping and murdering Bajoran women during the Occupation. Since Odo has recently revealed his own romantic feelings to Kira Nerys before she departed on a mission to the Gamma Quadrant, and she stated her intentions to make a choice between Shakaar and Odo once she returns, Odo asks that Sisko and Dax give him time to learn Kira's choice before they reveal Shakaar's past to her, as otherwise he would always wonder if she would have chosen him over Shakaar without that knowledge. [[spoiler:Kira affirms that she chose Odo before she learns the truth about Shakaar]].

* In ''{{Fanfic/Everqueen}}'', before giving Isha more freedom, the Emperor deliberately tries to anger her as much as possible, to test her self-control.

[[AC:''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'']]

* ''Fanfic/PartingWords'' Deconstructs this trope by showing the negative consequences of Princess Celestia constantly using this on Twilight Sparkle; resulting in her reaching a RageBreakingPoint as she lashes out at Celestia before [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere quitting her position as Celestias' Apprentice]]. And that Celestias' overuse of it caused Twilight to not only lose confidence in her own abilities, but that it gave her a bad case of ParanoiaFuel whenever she thinks that Celestia might be doing another test on Twilight Sparkle at any given moment.

* In "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14109055/1/The-Boys-Real-Justice The Boys: Real Justice]]", when characters from Franchise/TheDCU make contact with the reality of ''Series/TheBoys2019'', at one point the Justice League test Blue Hawk by having Martian Manhunter stage an apparent carjacking and claim when Blue Hawk arrives that the vehicle belongs to him and he simply locked himself out. Blue Hawk hears the full explanation, accepts the argument, and helps the Manhunter gain access to the car when he's posing as a white man, but attacks before the disguised Manhunter has even finished speaking when the Martian is in the form of a black man, prompting the League to take him into custody and force Vought to drop him from the Seven.

* In "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14109055/1/The-Boys-Real-Justice The Boys: Real Justice]]", when characters from Franchise/TheDCU make contact with the reality of ''Series/TheBoys2019'', at one point the Justice League test Blue Hawk by having Martian Manhunter stage an apparent carjacking and claim when Blue Hawk arrives that the vehicle belongs to him and he simply locked himself out. Blue Hawk hears the full explanation, accepts the argument and helps the Manhunter gain access to the car when he's posing as a white man, but attacks before the disguised Manhunter has even finished speaking when the Martian is in the form of a black man, prompting the League to take him into custody and force Vought to drop him from the Seven.

* The ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''[=/=]''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' crossover ''Fanfic/RWBYZero'': Salem kidnaps Weiss Schnee, her brother Whitley, and her father Jacques. Eventually, Salem takes them to a pit full of Angra Mainyu's corrupting black mud, and tells them if one of them jumps in, the other two will go free. [[spoiler:Whitley shoves Weiss in, and fails the test. The whole point was to prove to Weiss that humanity doesn't deserve to be saved, which is why Salem didn't just throw her in herself. Weiss, incredibly angry at being betrayed by her own family, embraces the darkness and emerges from the pit, corrupted but stronger and now a willing servant of Salem. Whitley is quickly killed.]]

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9823868/1/To-Bind-a-Soul To Bind a Soul]]'' gives one to Angel when Cordelia receives a vision that reveals that the restoration of his soul is the reason that Ryan- the boy from [[Recap/AngelS01E14IveGotYouUnderMySkin "I've Got You Under My Skin"]]- had no soul; the curse could only restore Angel's soul by taking another's soul from them, and the only way to restore Ryan's soul is to remove Angel's. After the necessary ritual is performed, Angel finds himself in some kind of Heaven where Doyle reveals that Angel's willingness to sacrifice himself for Ryan, despite every argument in favour of letting things stand (such as Angel being able to do more good as a Champion than Ryan ever could as a human), has earned him the right to return to Earth with his soul not only intact, but with the clause removed.

** A more regular test occurs in chapter 57, when [[spoiler:Tonks appears to be trying to seduce Ron and he tries to leave the room; in reality Tonks and Lupin just wanted to confirm Ron's psychological condition after he was wounded by Greyback]].

* In ''Fanfic/AThingOfVikings'', Snotlout and Hiccup (plus Astrid) are having a three-part contest of strength, speed, and wisdom in that order, best two out three wins, with Astrid fighting on Hiccup's behalf in the first test and Hiccup racing Snotlout for the second. After they win the first two, Snotlout still insists on doing the wisdom test, even after others point out that wisdom is obviously his weakest area where he at least had a chance of breaking even in the other two. The test giver explains that in attempting to do so he has already failed. A wiser man would have known when he was beat and just walked away. Snotlout in his arrogance and stubbornness manages to lose all three tests humiliating himself even further.

* ''Fanfic/CrimsonAndNoire'': In chapter 10, for the bowler hat contest, Marinette uses a real feather for her entry since she couldn't make a synthetic one in time. The feather triggers Adrien's Plot Allergy, and Gabriel decides not to have him model the hat for the upcoming summer fashion show even though Marinette won the contest. Rather than panic, Marinette explains what happened to lead her to use a real feather, and she points out that since the show isn't for a couple of months she can develop a suitable synthetic feather in time. Gabriel replies by saying that was the answer he was expecting and allows Marinette's hat to be used in the show once it is ready since he was impressed by her creativity and professionalism.

* ''Fanfic/FailureToExplode'': When conducting their entrance exams, U.A. does not inform any of the applicants that they can earn Rescue Points by protecting others. This is done to ensure that nobody is actually ''aiming'' to accrue them, so that they can get a far better sense of everyone's characters. This trips up Bakugou; while he earns plenty of points for defeating robots, he doesn't manage to earn a ''single'' Rescue Point, not even accidentally.

** Deconstructed with [[SinkOrSwimMentor Kakashi]]: when Team Seven passes by a suspiciously out of place puddle in Wave Country, he does nothing to point it out, quietly taking note of which of his students notice it. Sakura is disgusted by the fact he's using the situation as a 'teachable moment' rather than warning his genin, recklessly endangering their lives in the process.

* In ''Fanfic/TheLastPrayer'', Ino has blackmail on Sakura that could potentially ruin her chances at a relationship with Sasuke, which Ino uses to humiliate and torment Sakura. Near the end of the blackmail, Ino reveals the whole thing was a test which Sakura failed profoundly. At any time, Sakura could have given up and accepted that her chances with Sasuke might be ruined, but she insisted on continuing even when Ino demanded she have sex with Naruto. Despite her claims, all Sakura proved was that she was unhealthily obsessed with Sasuke, though Sakura doesn't believe it herself until a conversation with Sasuke sees him threatening to murder her parents and Sakura realizes she was actually considering letting him.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9920512/1/Reaching-for-a-Dream Reaching for a Dream]]'', Naruto has promised he'll earn Xanna's (aka Kyuubi) love and marry her one day. She repeatedly explains that as she'll only marry someone as strong as her, he's better off loving a mortal woman instead of potentially killing himself trying to accomplish a likely impossible goal. When Naruto actually does start falling for a mortal woman (Tsunami), he breaks things off with the woman and keep to his promise to marry Xanna. Xanna approves of his decision but also warns him that was his LastSecondChance; now he must either fulfill his promise or die trying.

-->"It was you! You sent that letter to me, not Kaji! You sent me on a wild goose-chase! You ruined my wedding!" Asuka snapped.\\

* Daniel Jackson faces this in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3012734/1/What-You-Already-Know-Pt-7-Resolutions-Gen-Ver What You Already Know Pt 7: Resolutions]]'' (part 7 of the ''Fanfic/WhatYouAlreadyKnow'' fanfic series). The people of Earth are negotiating with an alien world inhabited by humans for the right to set up a colony on the alien world. Daniel, who is representing Earth in the negotiations, is called to a private meeting with a woman who is one of the alien world's leaders. The woman comes on to Daniel, implying that if he doesn't sleep with her, she'll convince the other leaders of her world to refuse to let Earth have its colony on their planet. Daniel refuses to sleep with the woman despite that, refusing to sacrifice his morals just to get Earth a colony. [[spoiler: Later on, it's revealed that the leaders of the alien world wanted to know that they were negotiating with a honourable man, so set the whole thing up as a test of Daniel's character. Since he passed, they agree to let Earth build a colony on their world]].

* A ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' fanfic called the ''Fifth Light'' has Q watching helplessly as Picard is tortured by the Cardassians. The Q Continuum are fed up with his fraternizing with the humans and henceforth set up Picard to be captured and tortured as seen in the episode "Chains of Command", since Picard is Q's favorite human. Q is not allowed to rescue Picard or else he will get in trouble, but he does provide moral support to Picard, and gives him peaceful visions to alleviate the pain of his brutal torture. Eventually the Q Continuum confronts Q about his assistance towards Picard, and they tell him in no uncertain terms that they will banish him permanently if he does anything more to help Picard... and this time he won't get to "go on exciting adventures with your favorite Captain, should he survive. We'll find a nice isolated planet for you to rot on." Ultimately [[spoiler:Q muses over how special Picard is to him and decides that a universe without Picard wouldn't be worth living in anyway, and so he decides to help Picard one last time. Q arrives to see Picard suffering at the climatic conclusion of Chains of Command, where he defiantly refuses to admit there is a 5th light, and so manifests himself as the 5th light so Picard won't be tortured anymore. Picard notices the 5th light but he hesitates to admit its existence, and Q is internally begging Picard to call out that there are 5 lights. Then the Enterprise arrives to rescue Picard, leaving Q to realize his assistance was unnecessary and he stops showing the 5th light, leaving Picard to defiantly utter out his famous "there are four lights." Q is then confronted by the Continuum and Q defiantly says that he is welcome to whatever fate they have in store for him, and he regrets nothing and that he would do it again... only to be told by his fellow Q that he passed their test. Apparently Q's family wasn't truly convinced that he had been reformed, or that he truly cared about others, but by showing that he was willing to sacrifice himself for Picard they accept that he has been redeemed.]]

* "[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/35845084 In for a Penny]]" starts when Harlan finds Ransom switching his medication and realises Ransom's intention to frame Marta for Harlan's murder. When Ransom expresses his belief that Marta is just as conniving as the Thrombeys, Harlan proposes that he and Ransom collaborate to fake Harlan's death and witness Marta's reaction to see which of them is right about her. When Harlan reveals himself to be alive at the will-reading and only Meg has actually shown concern for Marta rather than turning on her, Ransom acknowledges that Marta is everything Harlan believed her to be, Harlan in turn taking the time to apologise to Marta for using her friendship in such a manner.

* ''FanFic/GreenTeaRescue'':