Line #102 Main/InformedAbility


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4
5	->''"Rule number 56 of reality television: If a challenge fits your profession, you're probably not gonna win it."''
6	-->-- '''Peridiam''', "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wofjcC8Pc8I 5 Times Survivor Players Hacked Challenges 6.0]]"
7
8	A subtrope of InformedAttribute: A character's skill and abilities are frequently mentioned by the cast, but are nonexistent in practice.
9
10	Though the motivations for this trope are similar to the motivations for {{Informed Attribute}}s in general, there is much less of an excuse for it. Believably getting it across that, say, someone is compassionate is ''difficult stuff''; it's the mark of a good author to pull that kind of thing off. Skills and abilities are a much simpler deal: Is someone a master locksmith? Have them pick a lock now and then. Are they combat experts? Have them take the fight to their opponents whenever they can and gain the upper hand. Are they supposed to be a smooth talker? Have them talk their way out of a sticky situation once in a while.
11
12	What often deters writers from going through with the above plan is the fact that MostWritersAreWriters. They're writing a character who's supposed to be a musician, but they don't know the particulars of meters or chords. They have a character who is a military expert, but they don't know how long an infantry division can fight until it needs to be resupplied. They have a character who's a genius, but they haven't a clue as to how or what a genius needs to do to solve a complex problem. If the writer attempts to show the ability in action, they take a very real risk of the portrayal falling completely flat. Their tactician will employ HollywoodTactics, their scientist uses HollywoodScience, and their "genius" will simply be the only one with common sense while [[IdiotBall everyone else becomes idiots]]. Faced with such a lack of convincing detail, readers may ''long'' to just imagine the ability.
13
14	On occasion, the ability cannot adequately be portrayed by the medium used for the work. For example, a comic book cannot show how good a character's singing voice is, and a radio show could, at best, merely describe a character's great paintings. Occasionally, the ability cannot be portrayed because of the work's audience, such as a dangerous weapon in a family-friendly show causing SceneryGorn if activated, and thus, it can't be activated onscreen.
15
16	It's much easier for the writer to just stay away from showing that character's expertise at all. After all, how can the portrayal possibly live up to the hype? And since [[RuleOfPerception the audience has to know about this expertise some way or the other]], this inevitably leads to [[ShowDontTell telling the reader about it instead of showing it to them]].
17
18	There ''are'', fortunately, ways around this.
19
20	# The hard way is [[ShownTheirWork doing the necessary research, and lots of it]]. In the above examples, knowing the particulars of a field of science, military tactics and strategies, or the inner workings of genius minds of yesteryear is a good place to start. Then, working the writing around this research would allow the audience to see that this character's ability is at least somewhat applicable to the real world. It may not be applicable to every situation -- it might even require a HandWave or two. But it's at least enough to not break the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief around the ability in question.
21	# The easier way is to have the character act out their expertise without going into technical details. The military leader arrives at the war room, going from briefing to briefing, gives out commands over the radio, and the tide of battle turns. The master composer comes up with the hook for a popular singer's upcoming single, and a week later we hear that it's topping the charts. The genius has a montage of going through books and papers, works many a sleepless night, and ends with a small success in the laboratory that turns into a EurekaMoment. The character can display their skills ''without'' showing their work directly. It's only an Informed Ability if there is no meaningful evidence they have this skill; it's even worse if there's evidence that the character doesn't have this ability at all.
22
23	The audience is more likely to accept an informed ability if the ability itself is not the focus of the story so much as a plot device or source of drama. If, for example, a story of an obsessed genius artist is mainly focused on the family conflict this creates (with, say, a father who wants his son to have a conventional career, or a wife who feels neglected) the audience may not care if the genius's paintings look like third-rate impressionism or surrealism (as they usually do).
24
25	This trope can be PlayedForLaughs — a character might find increasingly bizarre and unlikely reasons to not use their alleged abilities in situations where they would prove useful, or that one time where they actually put it to use may be a NoodleIncident that goes on being mentioned at random, or they may display their skill, but in a manner conspicuously offscreen while the other characters exclaim "Look at them go!". If they finally, at one point, go ahead and prove that they are every bit as capable as their reputation suggests, that's LetsGetDangerous.
26
27	See also FauxActionGirl, a variant where "competent fighter" becomes an Informed Ability, and TheWorfEffect, which often turns it into one. Among the AcceptableBreaksFromReality in VideoGames, where often you'll be playing someone supposedly very competent, but how well they actually perform is up to you, and often they'll go through tutorials teaching them the basics of their supposed area of expertise for the player's sake. Compare CharacterShilling and compare/contrast with CreatorsPet. Also see ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything, where the characters never even ''attempt'' to perform the tasks for which they are supposedly famous. Commonly uses {{Prop}}s to imply the intended effect. The InformedFlaw is the opposite, where someone is supposed to be terrible at something (ie. HollywoodHomely), but isn't. In a video game, this frequently overlaps with GameplayAndStorySegregation (when the story says that someone has amazing abilities, but they show up in neither gameplay nor cutscenes.) SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat is when a character demonstrates a skill the audience has never been told he possesses before.
28
29	[[noreallife]]
30	----
31	!!Example subpages:
32	'''Note:''' If the particulars of a character's skills are intentionally hidden from the audience for dramatic effect, but the skill ''itself'' does come into play, that's [[TakeOurWordForIt another trope]].
33
34	[[index]]
35	* InformedAbility/AnimeAndManga
36	* InformedAbility/ComicBooks
37	* [[InformedAbility/LiveActionFilms Film — Live-Action]]
38	* InformedAbility/{{Literature}}
39	* InformedAbility/LiveActionTV
40	* InformedAbility/VideoGames
41	* InformedAbility/WesternAnimation
42	[[/index]]
43
44	!!Other examples:
45	[[foldercontrol]]
46
47	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
48	* ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'':
49	** Mike is supposed to be a brilliant best-selling novelist who sold his first book on his first try with no editing needed. Yet the excerpts from that first novel, as featured in the character's [[http://web.archive.org/web/20051016085349/http://www.fborfw.com/char_pgs/michael/index.php?page=letters letters,]] are filled with implausible and maudlin situations, flat and unlikeable characters and insightful lines like "[[CaptainObvious The living buried the dead.]]"
50	** Liz's parents and friends are constantly telling her how successful, smart, funny, and great Anthony is. However, he only got his job through connections (he works as a gas station attendant and later accountant for Gordon Mayes, who is friends with Michael), never says anything witty, and isn't even shown at the astronomy club, his only social outlet. Anthony is also hyped up as honest and loyal to Elizabeth -- a relationship which he kept up while he was with his first wife, Thèrése.
51	* Similarly, Les Moore in ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean'' is supposed to be a brilliant writer. But what little we see of his work is atrocious dialog like:
52	-->'''Lisa:''' Actually, to be more precise, I'm trying to get you to take advantage of me... once the chemo starts, this playground will be closed for repairs.\
53	'''Les:''' Hmmm... who can resist a siren song like that?
54	** There's also an arc where he refuses to read Lisa's diary, which makes you wonder how he compiled enough material to complete a book about her.
55	** Pete Reynolds is canonically the highest-paid writer in the comic book industry, but he's only seen cribbing ideas from other peoples' offhand remarks. And the output of Atomik Komix seems to consist entirely of {{Mockbuster}}s.
56	* ComicStrip/{{Dennis The Menace\|US}}, though a genuine terror in his early days, got hit hard with MenaceDecay over the years and is now hardly ever shown misbehaving, despite still sometimes being regarded as a problem child by his parents and neighbors; in particular, Mr. Wilson's dislike of the curious, friendly little boy who comes to visit him comes off as downright mean-spirited. It got even worse in the Dennis [[Series/DennisTheMenace sitcom]] and [[WesternAnimation/DennisTheMenace cartoon]], where Dennis wasn't actually allowed to do anything bad, and was instead written as an innocent, well-meaning lad who always got into trouble by accident (a better title might have been "Dennis the Unlucky"). [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]] was created specifically because Creator/MattGroening remembered how disappointed he was with the premise, and wanted to create a kid that was a ''genuine'' troublemaker.
57	* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'':
58	** In the strip, [[PlayedForLaughs this is used for comedic effect]]. Calvin's [[HerCodenameWasMarySue imaginary alter ego]] Spaceman Spiff is constantly described as a tremendous pilot, superb marksman, and all-around brilliant space explorer, but pretty much every story about him begins as his ship is crashing and/or he's captured by aliens. His "[[RayGun Death-Ray Blaster]]" also tends to be utterly useless, because in real life it's actually a squirt gun. Spaceman Spiff's piloting is also {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d in one strip: "The intrepid Spaceman Spiff is stranded on a distant planet! ... our hero ruefully acknowledges that this happens fairly frequently."
59	** Same with Stupendous Man; after yet another blunder, Hobbes asks Calvin if Stupendous Man ever won any battles. Calvin replies they are all "[[DoomedMoralVictor moral victories]]."
60	* In ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'', the Iceman is described as being in the top elite of hitmen, having pulled off a dozen killings without even getting a criminal record. No one is ever a match for Tracy, of course, but even ''before'' he encounters Tracy, the first killing that the Iceman is shown committing is a real amateur affair. He not only leaves his disguise behind where the police easily find it, he ''allows himself to be seen committing the crime''.
61	* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'':
62	** Dilbert is supposed to be a brilliant engineer, thus explaining his constant frustration with his idiot-run workplace. While [[CharacterizationMarchesOn early strips did show him as a fairly talented (albeit eccentric) inventor]], this has been gradually phased out as the comic focused entirely on office humor, giving readers little evidence of his over-qualifications. (The trope was, however, averted in the animated series, which routinely showed his mad-scientist level accomplishments.)
63	** Alice is an even stronger example. While Dilbert can lay claim to getting one or two strips per year where he's working on a specific project, Alice has 14 patents and is the highest paid engineer at the workplace -- but all she ever does on-panel is use her Fist of Death on hapless co-workers. (Though perhaps she is killing them for their patents and claiming them as her own. This is ''Dilbert'', after all.)
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Fanfiction]]
67	* Essentially applies to Snotlout in ''Fanfic/TheBlacksmithsApprentice''; while he looks like a good choice for the new heir on paper as he's physically capable where Hiccup was 'a talking fishbone', in practice he's an idiot with an over-inflated ego who has no clue how to do anything beyond beating up people he doesn't like who essentially aims to set himself as a warlord rather than a benevolent chief.
68	* [[TheLancer B.C]] from ''Fanfic/EigaSentaiScanranger'' is supposed to be the funny man who holds the team together. However, all of his jokes are awful and a lot of the stuff he pulls (such as attempting a StupidSacrifice where everyone else did a tactical withdrawal and quitting the team when called out for this) make you think they’d be better off if they got rid of him.
69	* In ''Fanfic/TheEndOfEnds'', we're only told of what Copy Cat could do, and outside of his namesake ability to [[{{Shapeshifting}} change into anyone he touches]], we never see them get used.
70	* In ''Fanfic/FrozenTurtles'', the Night Blade are said to be a lethal order of assassins, but the Turtles put them down fairly promptly when Hans hires them to kill Elsa and abduct Anna, although this could be attributed to the Turtles being very good rather than the Night Blade being bad at their work.
71	* ''Fanfic/InThisWorldAndTheNext'': As one reviewer put it, quite a lot of the author’s characterisations and his intentions for the characters do NOT match at all. For instance, [=McGonagall=] turning on Dumbledore and Snape is portrayed as her triumphantly standing up against horrible people, but in actuality, it makes her come off as a Wormtail-sequel figure who would betray her allies at the drop of a hat.
72	* Laura, as in ''FanFic/{{legolas by\|Laura}}'', has apparently "got a power and she can distoy us all the bad guys". She never actually uses this power, even when she's imprisoned, tortured and raped by the orcs, or during the big important final battle, and what the power is supposed to be or do is never actually described.
73	* ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'':
74	** [[TheHero Lightning Dawn]] is trained by the Grand Ruler to be stronger and faster than most other characters (as compensation for his lack of magical ability). Thing is, he gets tuckered out lifting crates and ''vegetable baskets'', and altercations with others show him to be about average physically.
75	** Unicornicopians are repeatedly touted as being a "[[ProudWarriorRace warrior race]]" who spend most of their time exercising and training for battles and hostile situations. When villains show up, they inevitably break into panic just from seeing them. In comparison, most MLP ponies (including non-protagonist civilians) are usually able to stand their ground just fine when a villain appears, unless threatened directly.
76	* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'':
77	** Kin mentions that Olga is a {{necromancer}}, yet the readers never see her raising the dead.
78	** Celestine is said to be a person of great magical strength, and [[LadyOfBlackMagic Olga]] is the only one known InUniverse capable of matching her in combat. Several characters mention that Celestine is capable of impressive offensive magic (Olga suggesting Celestine to bombard the currently infested Rad with holy spells, Soren fearing that Celestine could simply blast him into oblivion without lifting a finger, etc.). However, not a single scene depicting Celestine in battle is ever shown in the story. Furthermore, the remastered version has Celestine's P.O.V. noting that she and Olga fought each other numerous times directly in the past, to the point where the two stopped taking the fields personally due to the destructiveness of their magics. Yet, the readers never see any sort of {{flashback}} about such events.
79	* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fic “[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1908149/1/Institutionalized Institutionalized]]” sees Janeway being sent to an institution after Voyager returns to Earth by a counselor who falsely diagnoses her with a range of psychiatric issues. The staff claim that the institute is one of the best in the Federation, but patients are shown having received no help to deal with various problems; one of the other patients is never given the chance to truly face her husband’s death, and another who was a victim of Wolf 359 has been allowed to believe for years that the Borg are still a threat. This is justified as the counselor using her connections to stay ahead of the system, preventing anyone in authority from questioning her actions without risking being sent to the facility themselves, essentially venting her own issues with Starfleet on the officers sent to her.
80	* A good description of Stella in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13248288/1/Protecting-Hanna Protecting Hanna]]''; while she's a qualified nanny on paper, in practice she has such rigid ideas about caring for children that she ignores their need to actually be ''children'', in favour of 'preparing' them for adulthood even when she's dealing with five-year-olds who just want to have fun and gorge themselves on chocolate cakes and sweets rather than being given food that is [[IfItTastesBadItMustBeGoodForYou nutritionally satisfactory while tasting absolutely horrible]].
81	* One of the few recurring criticisms of ''Fanfic/RitesOfAscension'' is that [[BadassBookworm Twilight Sparkle]], despite having supposedly expanded her magical knowledge even beyond that from canon and in fact pushed the boundaries of magical theory, is only briefly shown as such in-story by her channeling magic through her hooves at the beginning (only possible because she has unknowingly become an alicorn) and developing a new method for producing solidified magic (which is suppressed by Celestia in order not to cause upheaval, thanks to unpleasant past experience). Otherwise she seems to mostly react to others' feats and knowledge, frequently being blindsided by the techniques of both antagonists and supporting characters. Even one of her most awesome feats ([[spoiler:entrapping a volatile portal and preventing worldwide damage]]) is dependent on a shield spell which [[spoiler:Shining Armor]] had shared with her. The author has stated an intent to correct this in later arcs.
82	* ''Fanfic/ShowaAndVampire'': The main character's mother is supposed to be one of the greatest authors who ever lived (she writes erotica). She's incredibly famous for her output and most of the "good" characters are fans of her work, but none of her prose is ever actually shown.
83	* Most of the characters' stated abilities in ''Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook'' fall under this trope simply because there's no way to show them in the medium. The reader has to assume that they really are as good as the story implies at art, dance, singing, and being a mime. The only aversions are [[Franchise/DragonAge Varric]] and {{original character}}s Rory and Jim, who are all writers and whose stories appear in the series.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Film — Animation]]
87	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'': We're told that Fergus, the clan lords, and their heirs are great warriors who won great battles against Vikings. What we see of their combat abilities mostly consists of mosh pit antics and getting flung around by bears. Maybe they're rusty.
88	* In the Miramax cut of ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'', when Princess [=YumYum=] attempts to convince her father, King Nod, that she is the best candidate for venturing into the desert, she argues that she is, apparently, "smarter than any man in this city and faster than your clumsy henchman." But there has been no evidence of these claims up to this point; all she has done in the film is sing, as displayed in the IWantSong "More Than This" (along with her impressive ability to sway back and forth and spin a lot) and the DistantDuet "Am I Feeling Love?" This inconsistency is most likely due to the particularly lazy rehashing of the script.
89	* The ahem "[[TheMockbuster film]]" ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatoing}}'' spends the first five minutes telling us how great the main character's food is, over and over. Whenever we see it, it looks like brown sludge. His actual technique seems to be to "steal the freshest ingredients" (but only once a week, and he just leaves them on the table without preserving them in any way) and stir them together in a pot. Then again, they ''are'' rats.
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Music]]
93	* Music/TenaciousD's "Tribute" parodies this trope, claiming that Tenacious D themselves successfully played "the greatest song in the world" when the devil demanded it, but they can't prove it because they forgot what it sounds like.
94	* Music/TheLonelyIsland song "Sax Man", with guest artist Creator/JackBlack boasting of Sax Man as a legendary virtuoso who's been rocking out since he was ''three weeks old''. When Jack prompts Sax Man to play, however, all we hear are blowing noises and a bit of discordant tooting.
95	-->''[[PrecisionFStrike FUCKIN']] PLAY SOMETHING SAX MAN!''
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
99	* In Literature/TheBible, King Solomon was said to have been divinely granted the gift of immense wisdom in a dream. The text gives just [[JudgmentOfSolomon one specific demonstration]] of this wisdom. He also allegedly wrote three deeply philosophical books of the Bible. However, the aforementioned books allegedly contain loanwords from other languages, which according to many historians weren't known to the Israelites until centuries later. The Queen of Sheba also found his wisdom appealing enough to make a very lucrative business deal with him, but the text doesn't recount what exactly he told her. Moreover, in his old age he turned his back on God and imported some idols to worship (despite having personally conversed with God more than once), this being one of the gravest sins in the eyes of the ancient Hebrews and a sure way to lose divine favor. Oddly, in [[Literature/BookOfEcclesiastes Ecclesiastes]] Solomon actually laments the futility of wisdom (and of [[HeroicBSOD everything else]]).
100	* [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]] often has gods that the writer of the particular piece don't like fall into the informed abilities category, most frequently Ares, who despite obligatory religious praise of his bravery and cunning often gets to play the fool and coward in stories written or conveyed through Athens, which had its own war god patron to shill.
101	** Theseus, hero-king of Athens, often got remarked on for being a GeniusBruiser: bruiser, sure (killing the minotaur with your bare hands takes some gumption), genius, eh. He went through a couple of PuzzleBoss-ish encounters during the Six Labors, but most of the time, the challenge in said encounters amounted to "figure out the person you are talking to is a murderer, then kill them." And the largest intellectual challenge in his most famous myth (how to get out of the minotaur's labyrinth) was solved by (depending on version) Daedalus or Ariadne. That'd be one thing, except Theseus's smart moments are far outnumbered by his unfathomably stupid moments, including being easily tricked into using a favor from the gods to murder his own son, venturing into the underworld to help kidnap Persephone and then being surprised it didn't work out for him, ditching the love of his life on an island (reasons vary, but in some versions he just landed there and ''forgot about her''), and being such a miseryguts about the above that he forgot to swap the sails on his ship, signalling to his father Aegeus that he was dead and resulting in Aegeus being DrivenToSuicide.
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
105	* Often happens when the commentators have to shill a CreatorsPet, and moreso when they're simply trying get a new act "over". Jobbers and journeymen are made to seem like extremely talented athletes all the time -- a good example of a JustifiedTrope in this instance. It's pretty much the announcers' ''job'' to do this.
106	* Similarly, wrestlers are often verbally boosted even if they're higher up the rankings. Wrestling/TripleH is a wrestler who was rather good, but not exactly a technical mastermind (he kicked and punched a lot, and stuck to only some basic submissions or wear-down holds). And the extent of his planning was usually "lure opponent down to ringside, then hit with a sledgehammer". The announcers played him up as not only the best technical wrestler alive, but the "Cerebral Assassin", noted for his brilliant planning. Of course, considering he's gotten 14 world titles off of it, maybe you credit his superior intellect to finding a BoringButPractical strategy and sticking with it, as opposed to riskier AwesomeButImpractical moves.
107	** Similarly, although maybe a little more methodical is Wrestling/RandyOrton, who although would be a little unnerving to actually have to deal with, his "psychological torture" of his opponents usually extends as far as extending submissions, moving slowly, hitting them, and giving a few evil-looking stares. Has an evil air, but not exactly a super villain.
108	* Wrestling/HulkHogan had commentators often talking about how exceptional he was despite most of his technical performances being average at best. Ironically, Hogan actually was a decent technical wrestler and often showed this off in his early days, but as he became more prominent, he toned this down a fair bit. This left audiences and critics a bit confused as to why Hogan was getting so much shilling for his prowess when he seemed to rely solely on brute strength and mic skills.
109	* Many times, although not always, whenever WrestlingDoesntPay come into play, this happens. Most recently, it's fairly obvious that Wrestling/{{Fandango}} and his partner Wrestling/SummerRae simply cannot dance.
110	* Was sadly the issue with Wrestling/{{Chavo Guerrero\|Jr}}. Known within the wrestling community for being extremely talented. Unfortunately, many Wrestling/{{WWE}} fans never saw Chavo's true potential as a wrestler. Because he was often made the ButtMonkey of many matches, resulting in them ending because of some outside interference or Chavo, himself, being a Heel, never pressing to win many of his matches, resulting in him holding back most of the time in the ring.
111	* Wrestling/MichaelCole seemed to throw out the phrase "Architect of Wrestling/TheShield" in every match regarding Wrestling/SethRollins, implying he was the one giving orders and blueprinting the assaults. From what we saw, Wrestling/DeanAmbrose was the one planning backstage, and Wrestling/RomanReigns gave orders during the assaults, making this mostly hype from Cole. This title normally refers to the bit of trivia that the Shield was apparently Rollins' idea, having contacted Ambrose and Reigns about it. This would be fine if not for the fact that this was never alluded to at all until Cole started saying it about a year after the Shield formed.
112	* Being a Wrestling/{{WWE}} performer with a combative skill set that isn't specifically wrestling can lead to this. For instance, being a Golden Gloves winning boxer in the cases of Wrestling/BaronCorbin and Wrestling/HeathSlater. The commentators frequently mention this real accomplishment, but neither wrestler does a whole lot of ''boxing'' in the ring.
113	* The War Games match was supposed to be Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen's "specialty match". It was their house and leading into the Pay Per Views where it would feature, the commentator would all talk about how dangerous it was to face the Horsemen in this match. Career Record: 1-15.
114	** Similarly to this, Wrestling/JeffHardy often had the ladder match hyped up as his specialty, since he had several memorable ones both with his brother Wrestling/{{Matt\|Hardy}} and on his own. However, he lost the majority of them, including both times he was in Money in the Bank
115	* During the late 2000's Wrestling/{{Kane}} was always referred to as someone who "can beat anyone in any given night" but he was losing matches to newcomers and was struggling against people he would at one point destroy.
116	* Wrestling/DeanAmbrose during his feud with AJ Styles and later James Ellsworth was said to be dangerous and could seriously hurt anyone who wronged him, in matches his moveset was rather soft and he never truly got revenge against either of the two.
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Radio]]
120	* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Miss Brooks is said to be a wonderful English teacher. But given that an episode that was actually showed Miss Brooks teaching high school would be rather dull, one has to take it on trust. The few times she is shown tutoring English, it's played for laughs i.e. "English Test" sees her give a crash course to DumbJock Stretch Snodgrass.
121	* In ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry'' Mr. Lamb is often described by the narrator as "an eager young executive". In the show proper he is just as lazy as every other civil servant of the Ministry.
122	* PlayedForLaughs in the NordicNoir parody ''Angstrom''; Mina is supposed to be a [[Literature/MillenniumSeries Lisbeth Salander]] style hacker, but she just runs basic internet searches on her phone, and is utterly amazed to be told that anyone can edit Wikipedia.
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
126	* This situation arises often in tabletop {{R\|olePlayingGame}}PGs, due to the fact that every player character is controlled by a player (duh) who might not have the same skills. For example, you can dump a bunch of [[SkillScoresAndPerks skill points]] into Car Repair, but if you don't know anything about it in real life, an NPC might ask your character about engines and they will still go "Uhhhhhh...".[[note]]This goes double for skills a player can't know because they don't exist. How exactly does a fantasy wizard "research" a spell, or a space pilot plan an FTL trip?[[/note]] For this reason, most game systems allow the GM to ask for a skill or attribute check rather than roleplaying out a situation, to allow the character to succeed even when the player has no idea what to do (and often the GM doesn't know what exactly the correct thing to do would be either, so they just say "you succeed" or "you fail"). The GM can also provide hints to players when they start doing things that their characters would know is a bad idea. More cynically, one may note that a character might have high scores in "Charisma" or "Diplomacy" while being played by a crass or tactless player; again, the GM can allow the character to achieve things of which the player is clearly incapable.
127	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
128	** Descriptions of the Fighter class in 3.5e consistently call them a leader class. The archetypes described often include things like kings or generals, fighters seem to be leading whenever an adventuring party is drawn, and many military leader [=NPCs=] are fighters. This is in spite of the fact that the fighter is, though competent enough in the field of murdering things, one of the ''worst'' classes for leadership. Most fighters have mental ability scores that range from "the bare minimum to qualify for that one feat" to "DumpStat", so in personality, they're unremarkable or [[DumbMuscle stupid, thoughtless, and repellent]]. They have a very limited list of class skills and few points to use them on, so without special training, they can't do things like negotiate, inspire the troops, recall historical battles, identify threats, notice they're being deceived, or even hear someone sneaking up on them. Finally, they have ''no'' exclusive class abilities that can be used to assist their allies. A single-class fighter trying to be a leader through any metric besides AsskickingLeadsToLeadership would be a complete GeneralFailure. This is partly TheArtifact from earlier editions, where as fighters levelled up, they were expected to build their own castles, become Barons of a certain land, and then receive extra-loyal followers as well as tax money. When these rules were dropped for being cumbersome, suddenly all the fighter had was their combat skills.
129	** Zargon the Returner, one of the Elder Evils from the sourcebook of the same name, was apparently so powerful that he easily defeated and even killed gods, and he was only defeated by his successor, Asmodeus, sealing him away. If you take a peek at his stat block, you'll be disappointed. A massive threat to a low or medium level party, but to a high level party, he'd pretty much be a mook. It's heavily implied that as an Elder Evil, Zargon's powers are uniquely effective against gods, but Asmodeus (who isn't a god) had the most recent statblock of one of his ''[[FightingAShadow aspects]]'' be a full eleven levels higher than Zargon. Even with Zargon's CompleteImmortality, any fight between the two would basically be [[CurbStompBattle Asmodeus pounding Zargon into paste]] until he got bored.
130	** From the same book, it's claimed that the Hulks of Zoretha have enough strength to threaten an entire campaign setting. Like Zargon, they're undoubtedly quite powerful (five CR 16 creatures), but a very long way from being able to threaten the world themselves. The other Elder Evils had either [[MookMaker some kind of way to make an army]] or [[FightingAShadow the creature you fought being an aspect]], but the Hulks lack either. Their main weapon is the HatePlague effect they create upon being fully awakened, which is mainly geared towards getting everyone else to kill themselves off so they can populate the resulting empty world. Even low-power campaign settings like ''Eberron'' contain characters and monsters that could probably fight the Hulks solo -- hell, one of the cultists trying to awaken them is 18th-level.
131	* It is interesting to read the original AD&D ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' adventures and compare them with how the characters act in the novels. Raistlin, the epitome of the sickly SquishyWizard, is given a Constitution of 10 - perfectly average. He is also described as one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived, and engages in battles of wits with gods and near god-like beings... with his Intelligence of 17, which is quite high, but not nearly super-genius (at least, compared to the Intelligence scores frequently seen in the game; it's a point shy of the maximum for a first-level character). According to the ruleset at the time, he couldn't even cast the highest level of spells.
132	* The 3rd Edition ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Campaign Setting'' is absolutely insane in this regard. Since it was made very early in that editions's life cycle, the designers plainly had no idea how to make characters competently. Many were inexpertly converted from their ''AD&D'' stats, and it really shows. The most famous examples would probably be Drizzt (CR 18 and supposedly the greatest swordsman of his generation, would probably get killed by a frost giant of half his level) and Elminister (CR 39 and supposedly nearly a god, he's got a whole load of EmptyLevels that put him on par with a wizard ten behind). They're far from the worst offenders, though; check out Harper leader Storm Silverhand's [[MasterOfNone unmanageable mess of a build]] and Scyllua Darkhope, High Captain of Zhentil Keep, frequently out-damaged by her own mount.
133	* Some ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' modules by their very nature cause [[HunterOfMonsters Rudolph Van Richten]] to fall under this trope, considering a good number of the Quests involves the man getting tricked by any number of evil entities far more often than the 'Land's Premier Expert on Undead and Other Evil Horrors' really should be. It takes a skilled GM to not turn Van Richten into an unintentional MilesGloriosus. Later justified in that he is [[spoiler:under a Vistani curse which keeps him alive as everyone he loves dies]] for most of his life. He disappears shortly after [[spoiler:the curse is broken.]]
134	* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
135	** Most of the lore you'll run into makes [[SuperSoldier the Space Marines]] out to be the biggest badasses in the history of ever; but in-game, in terms of stats and abilities, they're pretty much ''the'' baseline army. This is due to both GameplayAndStorySegregation and Power Creep; Space Marines, while nowhere near as overpowered as the fluff make them out to be, are indeed better than the average rank-and-file troops of every other army. This is evident if you compare Warhammer 40k with its parent game Warhammer Fantasy; the baseline toughness is 3 while the best rank and file armor is usually 5+. This is in contrast to the Chaos Warriors, who are literally Space Marines in all but name (and gun) and considered one of the elite troops. However, due to the vast majority of the players playing Space Marines, as well as the subsequent numerous spinoff armies, they became the baseline.
136	** There is a tongue-in-cheek army list Games Workshop created that did have the Marines as powerful as they are in fluff. In a full-size game they could field 6-10 guys depending on equipment, and they are called "Movie Marines" because in-universe this is how they are depicted in propaganda videos.
137	* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' tended to have this as a major issue when it came to characters who were supposed to be spectacular leaders. Kathrine Steiner-Davion was an obvious example: described as phenomenally charismatic and a shrewd manipulator, most of the time we actually see things from her perspective she's petulantly whining about her brother and her father and how she deserves everything better than they do, and her "manipulations" are laughably hamfisted and should have been remarkably obvious to anyone who was remotely alert. Likewise, her brother Victor Steiner-Davion was described as "the greatest military leader in the Inner Sphere [in the last 300 years]." He's never actually shown coordinating large troop movements or directing battles, he mostly just goes out and fights a bit in his custom Daishi Omnimech and gives fairly basic orders to whomever's in his close vicinity.
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder:Theatre]]
141	* In ''Theatre/SundayInTheParkWithGeorge'', Act II George is supposed to be an innovative artist (or "inventor-sculptor" as he thinks of himself), but all the audience sees of his artwork is a stage prop that breaks down when he tries to activate it. [[JustifiedTrope Justified,]] because Act II George has become too wrapped up in the promotional side of the art business; an influential critic warns him that his work has become stale and repetitive, and he himself fears that he has lost touch with his creativity.
142	* In the musical ''Theatre/InTheHeights'', the main character Nina is supposed to be the smartest, brightest, and overall "best" in her community. As far as the audience can tell, the only thing she ever accomplished was getting into Stanford, where she lost her scholarship due to poor academic performance. This is actually the point of Nina's character arc; she feels ashamed about the dissonance between the neighborhood's (and her own) image of her, and the reality that she cracked under the pressure and dropped out.
143	* In ''Theatre/LoveNeverDies'', the Phantom manages to figure out that Gustav is his son within minutes of listening to his piano performance, declaring that [[LamarckWasRight Gustav has inherited his skill with music]]. The thing is, in many performances (including the one filmed), this is shown by having Gustav play Chopsticks, which is a simple piece usually taught to absolute beginners. Even considering that Gustav is ten, this is hardly the mark of a born virtuoso.
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	[[folder:Web Animation]]
147	* PlayedForLaughs with ''WebAnimation/DrTran''. The audience is constantly told about how he's a badass secret agent who has a [=PhD=] in kicking your ass and once killed his mother with a broken lawn chair. In reality, he's just a very confused Vietnamese boy who's constantly harassed by the narrator.
148	* A minor RunningGag on ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' is that Coach Z likes to brag about having "fairly good teeth", even though he has NoMouth.
149	[[/folder]]
150
151	[[folder:Webcomics]]
152	* ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'': Mariella Traviora is said to be an excellent lawyer and possessing a cunning mind for legal matters. Her only role in the "Battle for Barthis" storyline is to look up a dueling law in a book. The only other time we see her, she meets with her sister Barnet to serve as the latter's defense council, but the trial itself is never shown.
153	* ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' has the Hermoinne, who are supposed to be a legitimate threat to fae. In reality, as of this writing, they've only ever managed to kill one faceless mook on-panel (one war-dragon was also killed off-panel), and that was during a battle wherein they outnumbered the drow 100 to 1. Said battle [[CurbStompBattle ended with the Hermoinne general dead and their army routed.]]
154	* The elder Dr. Narbon's mad science skills in ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}''. Another character brings this up eventually.
155	-->'''Dave:''' She used your death ray, the conspiracy's teleporter... doesn't she invent anything of her own?\
156	'''Dr. Narbon's clone:''' She made me.\
157	'''Dave:''' ... Okay, she's a one-trick pony.
158	* ''Webcomic/LeastICouldDo'' features Rayne, supposedly a master at picking up chicks. Yet virtually every strip featuring him hitting on a girl shows his asinine pick-up lines, childish behavior, and utter shoot-downs from the girls. 95% of the time, his hook-ups are only shown AFTER they've already happened. Sure, Rayne's supposed to be good-looking, but it's more than a little obvious the writer doesn't really know how a master pick-up artist works.
159	** There's also his job, in which it's repeatedly stated he isn't fired for constantly leaving early or acting offensive because he's a business genius. However, most times he's at work, we get generic lines about meetings or when shown in detail, his decisions are actually quite naive and would be disastrous in the real world, such as giving away free eBooks in the hopes people will use them to subscribe to a digital newspaper.
160	* Misho, a Solar TabletopGame/{{Exalt\|ed}} from ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' supposedly has high awareness. The only way you'd know this is by the other characters reminding him he's [[LampshadeHanging supposed to have high awareness]] when [[FailedASpotCheck he misses important (and sometimes obvious) details]].
161	* In ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'', Chris has given descriptions to each of the female characters' personalities, ranging from "smart and quick-wit" to "generic high-school girl personality." Of course, we never actually see any of this, since every female character is either interchangeable or useless.
162	* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', the Kids share a skill with their Guardian, but not as well: John is always bested in prank wars by Dad, Rose falls short of Mom's insane passive-aggression, and Dave is just not as cool, fast, or ironic as Bro. They still try to build up these abilities as part of their core personalities.
163	** Subverted when the Kids meet; Rose acknowledges that she "cannot hope to defeat [John] in a prank-off. He is simply the best there is." Rose also acknowledges how amazingly cool Dave is when he shows off his audio gear and some of his mixes.
164	* Gemel from ''Webcomic/TonyTH'' is supposed to be very powerful, but always gets [[CurbStompBattle Curb-Stomped]] whenever he appears. This is actually justified though, for two reasons: A) while Gemel has a lot of power, [[GlassCannon he really can't take a hit]], and B) he always fights alone against groups of good guys. The end result is that the heroes spend the entire battle blindsiding him whenever he tries to make an attack, making it less of a battle and more of a game of tennis with Gemel as the ball. During the few times he fights one-on-one or as part of a group, he actually lives up to his reputation.
165	* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'': Tom, a boy from Moperville North high school, is touted by an ex-girlfriend as a highly skilled ManipulativeBastard who has set his sights on Susan. While his initial interaction with Susan bears this out, when she unknowingly throws him a curve ball (telling him she has no interest in dating, period) he fumbles badly and his attempts to regain his footing only tip Susan off to what he's doing.
166	-->'''Tom''': I am a ''FANTASTIC'' liar!\
167	'''Susan''': Not when a mark doesn't stick to the script, you're not.
168	* Ace from ''Webcomic/CommanderKitty'' is touted as the greatest spacer in the galaxy, but despite being a main character, he does very little to live up to his reputation. This includes [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2010/05/02/did-that-just-happen/ repeatedly]] [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2010/06/27/improv-anywhere/ failing]] [[FailedASpotCheck to notice the weird things going on around him,]] [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2011/07/12/well-theres-yer-problem/ sulking when someone turns out to be more competent them him,]] [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2011/09/11/you-know-youre-being-ignored-when/ taking credit for Mittens accidentally solving the problem,]] [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2013/03/17/they-found-another-one/ and even getting his ship hit by a torpedo shortly after he takes the wheel]].
169	* ''Webcomic/KarinDou4koma'': The fact that Mifi has VirginPower as shaman of her now-lost tribe gets repeated mentions as the reason why [[LovableSexManiac Elza]] [[SleepsWithEveryoneButYou Sleeps With Everyone But Her]], but there are no explanations or even indications that she's actually ever ''used'' it.
170	* The nerdy Ruby of ''Webcomic/StickyDillyBuns'' has a BBA, giving her apparently much better academic qualifications than the rest of the cast. Admittedly, book-smarts aren't everything when it comes to intelligence, but still, to begin with she shows no clear signs of being more intellectual or focused than anyone else. However, over time, once she has adapted to her unfamiliar situation, she does begin to display flashes of sense and mental agility.
171	* Lily in ''Webcomic/LeftoverSoup'' is supposedly a successful small business owner, but the only evidence presented is that she sucks at [[http://leftoversoup.com/archive.php?num=131 face-to-face]] customer service.
172	* ''Webcomic/MyMammaIsInBurnedIsOut'': The soyjak who proposes "My Mamma" can supposedly lift 1000kg, and while he is certainly muscular, his ability to do so isn't shown anywhere in the comic.
173	[[/folder]]
174
175	[[folder:Web Original]]
176	* ''Literature/TalesOfMU'':
177	** Amaranth seems to border on having {{Informed Flaw}}s. WordOfGod is that if the author had wanted to write a SelfInsertFic, it would have been Amaranth without the flaws. The problem is that while Amaranth's perspective on some matters is clearly skewed, her actual effect on the storyline is always extremely positive. Even her informed flaws are that she's not ''quite'' perfect. She's not ''quite'' as genius-level smart as she thinks she is, she's not ''quite'' perfectly adjusted, and she's not ''quite'' as sensitive and empathetic as someone perfect would be. Saying Amaranth has flaws is like saying that an M&M is less chocolatey than a Hershey's Kiss.
178	** Also, Amaranth's intelligence is something of an InformedAttribute in the first place. She collects books, but "can read" isn't all that uncommon an intellectual ability in the setting, despite the feudal aspects literacy is in excess of 80%. She's almost never the source of any knowledge outside of her goddess's demesne (basically, sex and nothing else), and even regarding sex she's sometimes blatantly ill-informed. And her advice almost always causes problems or makes them worse (at one point, she advises a rape victim to submit to the rapist, for instance) so the BlueAndOrangeMorality of her race seems to ruin any chance of her supposed insight being particularly useful, either.
179	* In ''WebVideo/Lonelygirl15'', the main characters have a strange tendency to panic whenever they see [[TheDragon Lucy]] show up. As a sunglasses-wearing Order operative, there ''is'' reason to consider her dangerous by default, but she is treated as if she were the single deadliest person that could be thrown at them. She gets nastily proactive toward the end of the series, but before that point, her greatest known feat was physically restraining a smallish teenage girl. The behind-the-scenes [=InsideLG15=] videos do include non-canon clips of Lucy shooting Danielbeast in the crotch and shooting P. Monkey in the head.
180	* In ''Podcast/TrialsAndTrebuchets'', Professor Elrich Raethran is supposedly an amazing songwriter and lyricist, even having won an award for his work, but when we actually see him write a song, it's absolutely terrible, and [[spoiler:only manages to sound good after Mira helps him with it]].
181	* ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'':
182	** Adonis Zorba is played up as a awesome fighter, excelling in multiple fighting disciplines, however in his brief fight with plain-old boxer Bobby Jacks (admittedly a hulking ScaryBlackMan) Adonis came very close to getting his ass kicked. Notable also is that previously (in a pregame tournament) Bobby was defeated with relative ease by an opponent with far less 'fighting ability' than Adonis is touted to have.
183	** Dan Brent, of ''V3'', is a decent example of this, as his every attempt to score kills fell horribly flat.
184	* ''WebVideo/StupidMarioBrothers'': Both Mario and the Darkness describe Link as the strongest of the heroes, but he loses every major fight he gets into, is captured offscreen in season 1, and [[spoiler:dies twice. For real, the second time]].
185	[[/folder]]

Context Main / InformedAbility