Possession Implies Mastery - Television Tropes & Idioms

A reasonably common fan fallacy based on the notion that the possession of a piece of technology, excluding things specifically described as a Black Box, implies that the owner has a full understanding of its workings and mechanisms, the principles on which it operates, and can adapt and use those principles in other matters in a reliable way, and can even undermine them as necessary.

In other words, anyone who owns a car is fully capable of building a car, and ought to be able to build an anti-car weapon.

This makes more sense when dealing with governments, mind you, who are both interested in and good at reverse-engineering; on the other hand, this presupposes that other cultures' governments are similar to the US.

This fallacy is often reinforced by Mr Fixit, who generally can adapt any piece of technology he gets his hands on to do whatever the plot calls for.

Not the case in a Scavenger World, where people forgot how to make most of the stuff After The End. Compare How Do I Shot Web, which is the inverse superpowers version of this trope. Contrast Black Box.

Has nothing to do with Demonic Possession.

Examples:

The Matrix series features mankind using advanced lightning guns, not-so-humongous mecha, and oldy-style (well, compared to the machines) hover-tech. This trope had to be explained during a viewing of the series when this troper's father kept commenting how stupid it was the mechs and ships didn't shoot lightning as well.
- Even as a black box, it would be fairly easy to just mount one of the rifles in place of those useless impossible-to-aim gatling guns...
Averted in Death Note where Light spends a lot of time figuring out every possible limitation/loophole of his Death Note and meticulously tests every possible idea (To the point where even Ryuk learns stuff about the death note) without making any assumptions or shows any previous knowledge.
Star Trek is a frequent offender where this trope is concerned. A trained Starfleet officer can operate any alien machine the first time he sees it. Voyager is particularly guilty here: with no starbases to visit, the crew had to make do with what they could buy or find in the Delta Quadrant, and they seldom had trouble making it work. The Doctor's mobile emitter, "borrowed" from the 29th century, is the classic example of a device they shouldn't have been able to repair, modify, or understand — and it did give them trouble now and then, but not really enough.
- It's so commonplace in Trek that when it was averted by Scotty's encounter with a Macintosh in Star Trek IV, it seemed kind of odd that an engineer capable of getting an abandoned starship working again with just two or three assistants had apparently never heard of a computer mouse.
  - That was Rule Of Funny. And it was, too.
- This Lampshaded in an episode of Star Trek Deep Space Nine where minion of the Dominion notes that, while they otherwise hold the Federation in contempt, Starfleet Engineers are famous as being the undisputed masters of technology adaptation and modification. "Turning rocks into replicators."
- The Borg do this too. The silliest case involved Seven of Nine's Borg nanoprobes accidentally assimilating the Doctor's mobile emitter. This resulted (via cloned crewman) in a "29th-century Borg drone"... based on one piece of technology from that era.
  - Completely justified in that that's what borg nanoprobes do—reverse engineer things down to the subatomic level, and adapt by extrapolation
  - The drone had several unrelated technologies, however. It built the facilities to make the clone using it, for example.
- This trope was reversed in the episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" when Spock managed to show that Mastery Implies Possession. Using 1930s technology and limited funds he managed to create a processor interface out of vacuum tubes that was only slightly larger than a modern PC. This despite the fact that his machine would be unable to even add 2+2.
Wade can understand anything given 10 seconds to scan it with the Kim Possible Kimmunicator.
Similarly, the alien races in the universe of David Brin's Uplift novels use nothing but technology handed down by the older races which raised them to sentience; furthermore the conservative/reactionary cultural bias of this entire eons-old multispecies civilization treats innovation as anathema and tantamount to blasphemy, as it implies that what was good enough for your creators isn't good enough for you.
- On the other hand, this is justified by the fact that they all have access to the Library, and it is also implied that the Library might actually contain everything that it's possible to know, at least without maturing as a species.
One of the early complaints in Worldof Warcraft's The Burning Crusade expansion were the Draenei, derisively termed 'space goats' for supposedly adding an intrusive sci-fi theme. Technically though, their technology was provided by vaguely demigodlike beings and they traveled thru a dimension; they were never a space-faring race, explaining their low-tech compromises in Azeroth.
The Imperium of Man in Warhammer 40000 are pretty much the same. More than a fair proportion of their military equipment relies on technology long since lost. Tech-Priests pray to the machines to convince them to fix themselves, while doing rituals they believe appease the machine spirit rather than realizing they're the ones fixing it.
- On the other hand, this universe has a Clap Your Hands If You Believe bent and appeasing the machine spirits has a track record of keeping individual machines in service for milennia...
The Fithp in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's 1985 novel Footfall are a young alien species who came across a cache of technological knowledge left by another, older species and built their entire civilization around it. However, they never developed any kind of science and have a cultural tunnel-vision centered around the technologies in the cache; not only are they unable to analyze or extrapolate base principles from the ancient knowledge, but they cannot imagine or cope with a technology not laid out in detail for them in the cache.
The title character in The Greatest American Hero received an Applied Phlebotinum powered Super Hero suit at the start of the series, lost the instructions, and spent most of the series amusingly floundering about trying to figure out how to use it correctly.
The same thing happened to Fenton "Gizmoduck" Crackshell in Duck Tales.
A little known UK movie called Morons from Outer Space plays with this trope, as the aliens who crashland on Earth are assumed to be a higher order of intelligence. In point of fact, they are the interstellar equivalent of ignorant tourists who rented a camper and ended up running off the road in the wrong town.
- Similarly, the heroes of the film Spaced Invaders are the most incompetent members of their race.
This sort of thing happens to Invader Zim all the time. Remember the Megadoomer?
Conspicious by its absence in Macross (or at least the first third of Robotech), where barely understood higher technology acts like it. Multiple plot points involve the protagonists being forced to use a foolhardy technique or maneuver and having it blow up in their faces. The Cool Ship first takes off using alien antigravity generators, which proceed to tear through the hull and float off into the sky. The second attempt is done with ordinary engines. This actually works somewhat in their favor since their enemies are kept continually off guard with each stunt, unable to decide if their completely unpredictable enemies are pathetic amateurs or half-crazed tactical geniuses.
- On the other hand, the Zentraedi could operate all their technology - but when something broke (such as the big screen in Breetai's command deck), all they could do was clean up the mess and make do without because they were kept deliberately ignorant of how to create or repair technology.
The Yuuzhan Vong in the Star Wars Expanded Universe consider it heresy to even consider attempting to devise new biotechnology. Their race has possessed and used for their entire recorded history a cache of biotech they claim was given to them by the gods. New designs have secretly been introduced by their Supreme Overlord, who claimed the designs came from (fictional) parts of that cache only he can access.
Lampshaded in Gargoyles: Lexington builds a motorcycle. Brooklyn asks why this is such an arduous task for him, given that he has ridden one before, and Lexington responds, "You've ridden a horse before; could you build one from spare parts?"
Ben 10 avoids this nicely. It's obvious that Ben has only the vaguest inklings of what the Omnitrix is capable of.
- The Plumbers, however, managed to reverse engineer a lot of alien tech successfully. We're never shown how long it takes but they certainly were good at it.
Stargate SG-1 tends to play with this trope fairly successfully on occasion. In one episode it's revealed that the SGC computers can't even interpret many of the Stargate's feedback signals, and others are disregarded on a routine basis in order to establish a connection. This is suggested to be a major contributing factor to the various mishaps of one type or another that have occurred when using the gate. Another episode introduces the Air Force's protptype hybrid fighter craft, combining standard Earth technology with that of Go'auld Gliders - which promptly goes wrong due to incomplete understanding of the alien technology incorporated in the design.
- On the other hand, it completely contradicts the many episodes in which they show a gate can be used simply by rotating the ring manually and all you need is a power source.
  - On the gripping hand, what many consider a standard home phone is a wireless touch-tone device with things like Caller ID. At the same time, I can still plug a rotary phone into the wall and make it work, even if it ends up ignoring a lot of the features the system is capable of, and even some of the data sent over the wire.
Shirou of Fate/stay night develops the ability to construct imitations of legendary swords out of seemingly nothing. This also somehow reconstructs the original users' skills at using said weapons, so possession in this case really does imply mastery, or at least proficiency.
- It's actually used as a plot point in UBW that Gilgamesh and Shirou, as mere "owners" rather than "wielders" of their weapons, generally suck in comparison to other servants in direct combat because they don't have the mastery gained by focusing in one weapon. Shirou actually points this out, and wins ~~because Unlimited Blade Works provides him with the same number of weapons, but are usable much faster than Gilgamesh pulls stuff out of his arsenal~~ because he has can replicate them and use their overload function to destroy Gilgamesh's originals. He spends most of the battle barely able to fake them in time to counter Gilgamesh's shots.
This is the power of the Gandalfr Familiar, the position held by Saito, in Zero No Tsukaima. If it's made for battle, he can use it. This is demonstrated when a shiny display sword given to him by Kirche completely fails in battle.
Subverted mercilessly in Marvel Comics' GLX-mas Special #1, where the second Grasshopper is taking his first jumps in a brand-new super-suit. After foiling a villain, Grasshopper is approached with a dinner invitation by his unwitting sister. After denying her advances, he makes a heroic exit by engaging the suit's "Maximum Jump" ability, which propels him into space, killing him instantly. Sidenote: to this day, there have been three Grasshoppers in Marvel continuity, and not one have them have survived more than a single issue. The most recent one debuted and was killed in all of three panels.
Completely avoided in the Marvel comic series Runaways. The operator of their vehicle, Chase Stein, spends much of the time trying to figure out what it can do. In addition, it's occasionally alluded to that Nico, the resident witch, doesn't understand all of what the Staff of One is capable of.
Parodied in the RPG Paranoia, where players are often ordered to test out new experimental equipment in the field, and report back on the results. Unfortunately, because the equipment is always well above their security clearance level, they cannot be told how it works, or even how to operate it. Hilarity Ensues.
Dante of Devil May Cry likes this trope. Whenever he acquires a new weapon, he instantly has intimate knowledge of how it works, no matter its complexity or peculiarity. Usually this knowledge of demonic weaponry is displayed by an over-the-top cutscene, which was taken to a new extreme in the fourth game where Dante demonstrates masterful use of Pandora, a demonic briefcase that can transform into a multitude of weapons including: a huge rocket launcher, a huger rocket launcher, a laser cannon (not shown in the cutscene) a large 3-bladed shuriken, a gatling gun, and a flying missile platform capable of a Macross Missile Massacre. Within the first minute and a half of acquiring the weapon.
- Pandora is stated as being capable of transforming into 666 separate forms, yet Dante only uses a handful, in or out of cutscenes, thus it's first use could just simply be the demonic weapon version of hitting all the buttons and seeing what works...
- Its worth noting that most of Dante's weapons are incarnated forms of demons he has just defeated, thus his 'skill' with them could be more to do with them being subjugated to his will, and being aware of what it is he wants them to do.
The Posleen of John Ringo's ''Legacy of the Aldenata''. All of their tech was ripped and copied from the long dead and negligent Aldenata (in a sort of angry Cargo Cult fashion) and they only vaugely understand how it works, but they can, and do, produce more.
- The limited A Is and the 'Net' that controls their society is copied into the new systems, and when long unused alarms go off people don't understand what Incoming Artillery Strike means.
  - After a bit of evolution in action, the survivors start to learn.
After playing through Shadow Of The Colossus, one gets the idea that while Wander can shoot a bow well and ride his horse like a pro, he swings a sword like he has no idea what he's doing with it. Makes sense, since he's supposed to have stolen the sword. Maybe.
Played with by Douglas Adams Mostly Harmless. Arthur Dent's only practical skill is making sandwiches, so when he crashes on a primitive alien world he can't offer any of humankind's knowledge and inventions ("He couldn't even make a toaster"). But the alien villagers still venerate him as 'The Sandwich Maker' since they hadn't thought of the idea.
This is an unfortunate fact of life for Yu-Gi-Oh card game players; duelists looking for a quick and cheap (figuratively, though definitely not literally) victory will "netdeck", or go online and copy a tournament-winning deck card-for-card. The theory is that playing a tourney-winning card will give them the ability to win more, and assuming they'll be able to pull off all of the best combos and strategies associated with that deck as the original player has. This should not work in reality, but somehow it does.
- Within the (relatively) simple ruleset of a card game, the idea of being able to reverse engineer the winning strategy for using the deck just from looking at its parts makes a bit more sense. When we're talking about spaceships, or even motorcycles... not so much.
- In Magic The Gathering, due to the ever-changing meta-game, don't expect to win a large tournament with a netdeck. By the time you master it, really good players will have analyzed the famous "winning deck", found how to beat it, and played the cards that stop it on its track. If you made the same analyze, you may have modified your deck accordingly in order to reduce its vulnerability to those decks. If you just netdecked in hope of a cheap win and thought your opponents will behave exactly as your friends at the local FNM... You're facing troubles.
Played totally straight with one of the characters from the comic book Strikeforce Morituri, whose superpower was the ability to analyze and understand anything she touched. Since their primary opponents were a race of alien Planet Looters with scavenged technology, this was very useful.
In Avatar The Last Airbender, Admiral Zhao deduces that Zuko is the Blue Spirit, a thief who uses dual swords, after seeing that Zuko had two swords hanging in his quarters. Zuko does protest that they're just decorations, and he has no idea how to use them, but of course he's lying.
It's a plot point in Mass Effect: the peoples of the galaxy have access to Mass Relay technology, and are able to use it quite effectively, but have no real understanding of it, which is just what the Reapers want. By guiding the development of sapient species, the Reapers are more easily able to wipe them all out every few millenia.
Sylar's base power (which he shares with his father) inherently grants him this effect; as soon as he aquires a new abilily, he instantly understands how to use it perfectly. Everyone else on the show suffers How Do I Shot Web at first (Peter suffers it constantly).
- For that matter, at least for this editor, it seemed implied that he was able to understand not just powers and machines (the clocks he finds comfort in) but most everything else too. Be it plots and schemes or people. He just never really had an interest in anything but powers (and with the amount of power he has, never really needed too) to avoid some of the mistakes he made.
Haru Glory's Ten Commandments sword in Rave Master. It has ten forms, and Haru seems to know exactly what every form does the moment he needs it, such as bringing out Runesave to save Elie without having to kill her. This is however justified since the Rave of Knowledge explicitly provides this insight.
Significantly averted in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Unit 01 keeps going out of control, to the great surprise of Ritsuko, who insists that it's impossible. NERV built the Evas by copying the Angels that they possess, which they apparently don't fully understand.
In Power Rangers, this is pretty much the standard. Hand five people giant robots, watch them pilot them effortlessly, including the part where they merge into one giant robot.
In Final Fantasy VI, Sabin (a martial artist that spent the better half of 10 years living secluded in a wooded valley,), Cyan (a technophobe samurai,) and Shadow (a ninja who lives off the land and presumably doesn't hang around machines much) all manage to master the use of Magitek Armor within minutes of finding some, when it took members of the Empire that owns them months, if not years to do the same.
In Megas XLR, when Coop first gets the Megas, he somehow successfully attaches a car in place of its missing head/cockpit. He then pilots it skillfully, with no understanding of how it works, or what any of its features actually do.

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