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Dave:I wanted to let you know that I understand now that what you put me through today was a test. Jimmy: Could be. Or, could be I'm just making it all up as I go along. Dave: Which is it? Jimmy: You'll never know.
The character is undertaking a challenge of courage, strength and/or skill for some important prize. However, at a critical moment, the hero is confronted with doing something that is morally unacceptable (or not — this is a fairly common victim of Fridge Logic). Despite being warned about a forfeit if the reprehensible act is not done, the hero reluctantly stands by the decision and accepts that the challenge is lost, expecting no credit for the deed, often not expecting anyone to know.
However, the hero is then told that that refusal is exactly what was needed to triumph. It was actually a test of character, and the hero has passed with flying colors.
Oddly enough, the hero seldom rejects the tester, reward, or whole situation, on the grounds that it was an underhanded trick — and this not only when the other character was a Mentor, Threshold Guardian, or otherwise an authority figure, but among equals. (Such as a Fidelity Test.)
Watch for Exact Words. When a character is told that the prize depends on the "results" or "outcome" rather than the success, it will be phrased in a manner such that no one would, at first glance, take it for anything except success, but the character saying it can point out that he is doing exactly what he said. (If more than one character tried, and one succeeded in the ostensible goal, expect bitterness.)
Sometimes, instead of refusing or doing the act, the hero will Take A Third Option.
Sometimes this is seen in the context of a Training Accident. Often goes hand-in-hand with Writer On Board. A reversal of Threshold Guardians. The House Hiring Heuristic operates on a similar principle.
A subtrope of Sweet And Sour Grapes. Contrast If Youre So Evil Eat This Kitten, which is this trope applied to villainous behavior. Honest Axe, The Kobayashi Maru, and A Chat With Satan are specific types of tests.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
Ballads
- In The Nut-Brown Maid
 , her lover tells her that he's been outlawed and outlines his perilous life ahead; she persists in saying that she will go with him, "For, in my mind, of all mankind/I love but you alone."; finally, he reveals that he made it up and is, in fact, an earl's son.
- In Child Ballad The New-Slain Knight, a man tells a woman of a dead knight; when she complains that her child will be fatherless, he offers to marry her, and she rejects him; he reveals that he is her love.
- In Child Ballad The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington, she tells her love that she is dead to test his love. He declares he will go into exile to avoid the place, and she reveals the truth.
- The English ballad "Sovay" tells of a highway robber who demands, at gunpoint, a man's ring; the man refuses, because it was a gift from his fiancee, and is surprised when the robber just leaves. The next day, the fiancee reveals that she (in disguise) was the robber and would have shot him if he'd handed over the ring.
Comic Books
- Goodness (i.e. the future Granny Goodness) took on the Nazi version of the trope (see Real Life section below), in a DC Universe flashback story detailing her training as a member of Darkseid's elite. In an added twist, she initially kills the officer who orders her to kill the dog, and attempts to justify the decision later by claiming the lethally trained attack dog was a more valuable military resource than the officer.
- One story in Sonic The Comic had Tails meet up with an anthromorphic unicorn who grants him a wish for saving him from the Badniks. True to his nature Tails wish is for Mobius to be free from Robotnik's rule. The Unicorn then takes Tails to a room looking down on Robotnik as he drives along in a parade. Tails is given a gun and told that if he shoots Robotnik Mobius will be free. Being who he is Tails throws the gun down and yells that its wrong. The unicorn tells Tails that he made the right choice, and as long as he follows his good nature, one day, his wish will come true.
- The first appearance of the Legion of Superheroes was the test they gave to Superboy to see if he was fit. He failed all three challenges they put to him, but when he did not make excuses, they explained that their history clearly showed his powers were strong enough, they had actually tested his character by sabotaging the trials.
- On the day of his sixteenth birthday, Tim Drake/Robin III received a message from the future warning him that one of the members of the Batfamily had turned into a Knight Templar and giving him the task to prevent it, driving Tim to isolated paranoia for several weeks. Then it turned out it was all a test orchestrated by Batman, who wanted Tim to be prepared and ready for such an eventuality. Tim was not amused and even quit being Robin, until he came to terms with Batman's actions.
- In one issue of the Star Trek TNG comics, the tyrant Zed puts Picard in a situation where the only way to save his crew is to kill Zed, who's behind a force field and armed. This is partly a test of Picard's courage, which he passes by charging Zed, having correctly guessed that the force field is one-way. Picard now has Zed's gun, but this too is a test, as it isn't charged. Zed wants to prove that Picard is willing to kill and thus no better than he. A debatable point, but Picard isn't fooled — and he uses the "useless" weapon to set up a test of his own.
- During The Making of Baron Fel, Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard gives the Ace Pilot a Forceful Kiss followed by a We Can Rule Together. He adamantly rejects both◊, and she smiles and said that she'd told the Emperor that he was utterly loyal and incorruptible. Whether this was a test, as she claimed, or a bit of Xanatos Speed Chess depends on who you ask.
Commercials
- Yes, there is an example from a commercial. In one of the Miller Lite "More Taste League" ads, a man orders a Miller Lite, but the bartender says they're out. He then orders "just any light", to which the bartender responds with "How about a tall, frosty glass of busted?" and turns out to be the Commissioner of the More Taste League in disguise.
- There is a second one where a groom is flirted with by the bride's sister, and offered a "once before you're married" ride. He leaves the house and goes to his car before the rest of the family comes out to applaud his ethics for leaving the way he was. The coda of the ad reveals that he keeps his condoms in the glove-compartment.
Fairy Tales
- In The Serpent and The Three Sisters, the king has promised that who cures the prince may marry him. He is cured by a woman but refuses because he is already married. The delighted woman reveals that she is his wife.
- In Bearskin, the youngest daughter agrees to redeem her father's promise and marry a filthy, hairy man wearing a bearskin without knowing he will be able to take it off and clean up once his Deal With The Devil is done. Her sisters, who refused him, are so envious they commit suicide.
- In Diamonds and Toads, the younger daughter is willing to give an old woman (a disguised Fairy) a drink from the well; even warned, her older sister is unable to be polite.
- In The Girl and the Dead Man, all three girls are offered the choice between a whole bannock and their mother's curse, or half and their mother's blessing; the older two opt for the curse, and the youngest for the blessing, and only the last succeeds.
- In Jesper Who Herded Hares, Jesper's older brothers lie about the pearls they are carrying and find they are transformed into what they claimed them to be; Jesper tells the truth and is given a magic whistle.
- In The Three Little Birds, two brothers tell a fishing woman that she won't catch fish where she is, and end up failing their quests; then, their sister tells her "May God help you with your fishing," and receives a magic wand and advice.
Fanfic
- A drabble for Tin Man starts with the Mystic Man giving Wyatt Cain a promotion to full Tin Man status (the Tin Men are an Ozian law enforcement organization). The confused Cain questions the Mystic Man's decision after all, he let a petty thief get away in order to tend to a sick old beggar in the streets. The Mystic Man simply explains that prioritizing compassion over strict interpretation of the law IS the mark of a Tin Man, and the whole thing was a test.
Film
- In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a purported competitor offering to buy secrets from the children who took the factory tour, was actually a secret test to find Wonka's successor — the person who wouldn't reveal the secrets in the fact of temptation.
- Of course, in the original novel Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, the tour itself was the secret test of character.
- In the movie the tour was also a Secret Test Of Character, which all of the children failed, including Charlie (he drank Fizzy Lifting Drinks after being told not to).
- It's possible that the fake offers to buy the Everlasting Gobstoppers had their practical side as well. If the child decided to sell the candy, it would go back to Mr. Wonka instead of one of his competitors. Unless, of course, the child or their parents got the idea of auctioning it off to the highest bidder instead...
- In Pan's Labyrinth, the final part of a trial needed for Ophelia to get to her magical kingdom is a drop of blood from an innocent (her newborn brother). Ophelia steadfastly refuses, which itself completes the test. This is Writer On Board to some degree, as this one bears quite a bit of influence from the ideas Guillermo del Toro learned at his high school, the Instituto de Ciencias.
- In the opening scene of In The Line Of Fire, the undercover Clint Eastwood is told to shoot another agent, who is actually his new partner. He does it and it turns out the gun is empty. Later the partner says he's figured out that Eastwood could tell the gun was empty from its weight. Eastwood replies that there still could have been a bullet in the chamber; that's how far he's willing to go. Though that might be just Eastwood's sense of humor.
- Men In Black: The sequence of tests given to the various MIB candidates requires the subject to think creatively and counter their own intuitions. One test puts them in a room with a group of chairs (presumably bolted to the floor) and one table (which is not). They are then each given a written exam and a single pencil with which to answer it, and they spend a while trying to figure out how to even successfully write on the flimsy paper. Jay passes the real test by dragging the table over to his chair.
- In Fight Club, Project Mayhem selects for stubbornness: new applicants who come to Tyler's house are yelled at for being too fat, too old, too young or too blonde and told to go away. If they refuse to leave for three days, ignoring the abuse and with no food, shelter or encouragement, they're allowed in. (The narrator has been known to bend the rules on the 'encouragement' part, though.)
- In SAW III, Jigsaw seems to set up one of his usual traps, involving Lynn Denlon keeping him alive in order for Jeff Reinhold to finish his Unsecret Test of Character. However, Jigsaw was actually testing his apprentice Amanda throughout the film about her will to keep someone alive. Amanda was blind enough to kill Lynn even after her 'test' was over, thus failing and earning her own death at the hands of Lynn's husband Jeff. Nice going Amanda.
- Used hilariously in I Spy, where the civilian partner Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy) is "kidnapped" and is taken somewhere, where they attempt to get information from him by threatening to cut off his you-know-what.He panics and gives all the info he can rmember on his partner, then the illusion is dropped and he is complimented on giving vague info and acting well.
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan begins with a simulated crew training exercise. The crew receives a distress signal from the Kobayashi Maru, which is trapped in the Klingon Neutral Zone. When they go in to rescue the Maru, the distress signal turns out to be a trap and the crew is quickly overwhelmed by Klingon K't'inga-class battlecruisers. When Mr. Saavik complains that there was no way to win the simulation, Admiral Kirk replies, "A no-win scenario is something every starship captain might have to face."
- The movie goes on to subvert the Aesop later when it's revealed that Kirk, the only Starfleet officer ever to beat the Kobayashi Maru test, did so by cheating. It's then doubly subverted when Kirk is forced to face Spock's death.
- In the 2009 film, we see that Kirk was brought up on disciplinary charges for "cheating". Presumably Kirk was going to argue that a Starfleet Captain should be willing to do whatever it takes to protect the safety of his ship and crew... but the hearing is interrupted by the attack on Vulcan.
- The backstory of the Disney version of Beauty And The Beast involves a rare failure of a Secret Test of Character: the prince was turned into a beast as punishment for refusing to shelter an old beggar woman (actually a beautiful sorceress in disguise) on a cold night.
- In The Golden Child, Chandler Jarrell (Eddie Murphy) is The Chosen One, fated to rescue the titular child, but he's a Jerk Ass and skeptic, and must be taught to accept the supernatural world. This is accomplished by the "Old Man", a Trickster Mentor who puts him through quite a few secret tests of character — the first being to see how he responded to a street vendor trying to cheat him. Needless to say, Jarrell fails quite a few times at the start.
- In The Usual Suspects, Agent Kujan tells Verbal that the best way to catch a criminal is to arrest five guys for the crime and put them in a cell overnight. The next morning, whoever is asleep is your man. An innocent man will stay up all night worrying, while a guilty one will realize he's been caught and relax. This is actually relevant in the scene with the Suspects in a cell together after their lineup. The one who is lying down turns out to be the one who committed the hijacking.
Literature
- Older Than Dirt: The Bible is full of these.
- Somewhat utilized in Fearless when Loki kidnaps Sam Moon to see what Gaia will do in order to save him In this case, however, the criteria for her having passed the test is to prove that she will do bad things rather than that she will not.
- In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Lords & Ladies, an arrogant young witch challenges Granny Weatherwax to a contest in staring at the sun. When Nanny Ogg's grandson runs into the magic circle controlling their power and cries out, Granny looks away from the sun to help him, and Nanny declares that this is a test of witchcraft, not power, and a true witch would drop a silly contest to help a child. Afterwards, it's revealed that Nanny waved a bag of sweets to lure Pewsey, knowing he wouldn't really be hurt. Subverted, in that this wasn't meant to be how the test worked, but you can't argue with public acclaim (and indeed, the original challenge was meant to discredit Granny Weatherwax).
- Granny Weatherwax is a fan of these, as you'd expect from a Discworld witch that honestly believes everything is a test. These range from being as simple and obvious as asking what you'd take out of your house during a fire — another witch answering that she'd rescue her cat that could escape itself to appear kindly — to a complex Xanatos Gambit to see whether a witch was worth her training by getting a rival placed above her.
- In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, there is a race to rescue hostages at the bottom of a lake with one hostage per contestant. Harry sacrifices his place in the lead to make sure every hostage gets rescued, even rescuing an extra one personally. The judges, while it wasn't what they were looking for (and while the hostages weren't actually in any danger), gave him points for "moral fiber".
- The famous Solomon "splitting the baby" story from The Bible, making this Older Than Feudalism.
- Robert A Heinlein's Space Cadet. Matt Dodson has to pass a series of tests to get into the Space Patrol. One of them requires him to stand over a milk bottle and drop beans into the bottle with his eyes closed. He ends up with only one bean in his bottle and sadly turns it in. Matt asks the examiner what would keep people from cheating by peeking. The examiner says "Nothing at all." Then the book says about Matt: "It did not occur to him that he might not know what was being tested."
- Another one of the entrance tests could only be passed by refusing to take it at all. The (long and complicated) instructions were deliberately written so as to be impossible to actually follow, but you had to be paying very close attention to notice.
- Heinlein likes this one. In Farmer In The Sky, the protagonist is kept waiting and otherwise disrespected to see his reaction. Some of his other stories also have people act annoying to see if the person being tested can keep their temper. In Space Jockey, spaceship pilots are monitored to make sure they are psychologically stable. The rocket pilot is annoyed by a "stupid tourist" who observes him.
- Subverted in Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers. Harriet Vane was convinced to go against her principles of no sex before marriage (in the 1920s) to have a relationship with a man who said that marriage was against his principles (why his principles were more important than hers, despite the fact that she bore all the costs and he had all the advantages was not made clear). When he did offer to marry her, saying that the sex before marriage was a test of her devotion, she immediately dumped him for making her betray her principles and treating marriage as 'a bad conduct prize'.
- This happened to Sayers in Real Life as well. Small wonder that she killed off the Expy of the guy that did it to her in the above novel.
- In Robert Anton Wilson's Schrodinger's Cat novels, a story circulates about Vlad the Impaler. Vlad invited to dinner two monks who had been traveling through Vlad's principality of Wallachia. Vlad habitually punished the lightest crime with impalement. He asked the monks what his reputation really was among the people. One monk replied with what he thought Vlad wanted to hear, that the people saw him as a firm but just prince; the other replied with the truth, that the people thought Vlad was a sadistic tyrant. Vlad then ordered one of the monks impaled, but the story does not say which one. This is presented as a test of the listener's character: Libertarians or persons generally suspicious of authority assume Vlad must have executed the truth-teller, authoritarians or persons who tend to have faith in authorities assume he must have executed the liar. What Wilson never mentions is that the story is in fact an inversion of reality; Vlad actually did have a very good reputation among the common people, who appreciated that his ferocity came down hardest on the predatory nobles.
- In Paulo Coelho's, The Alchemist, the boy seeking his treasure is confronted by a man on a white horse, the Alchemist. The Alchemist threatens him and asks him why he read the omens of the flight of the birds, and places the tip of his sword towards the boy's head. When the boy answers truthfully, the Alchemist removes the sword point from his head and says "I had to test your courage."
- In The Canterbury Tales, "The Clerk's Tale" is the retelling of a Secret Test Of Character that a man puts his wife through, including claiming to have killed both of their children. The clerk himself lampshades this by pointing out it's a very bad Aesop.
- In The Mysterious Benedict Society, kids are told to bring one, only one, Number Two pencil to take the big test, or automatically fail. Outside the test building is a girl begging for help because she dropped her pencil down a sewer grate. Several kids pass the test of character in creative ways, including a girl who reaches into her Bag Of Holding for assorted items that enable her to fish the pencil out of the grate, and the protagonist, who breaks his pencil and gives the girl half.
- There is a story where the final road test to get a driver's license takes place in an elaborate simulation. During the test, no matter how well the student drives, even if he makes no mistakes, something will go wrong and he will kill his family. If he passes the test in terms of skill, he's offered his license after exiting the simulation. Accepting the license bars him from driving forever. The problems with this should be fairly obvious.
- In Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, a rebellion occured in Cao Cao's capital city of Xu Chang, coupled with much burning. When it was over, Cao gathered all the officials in the city. Those who left their homes to put out the fires were told to stand under a red flag; those who stayed in their homes were told to stand under a white flag. This was a trap: Cao assumed that all of the people who left their homes were really assisting the rebellion and would use the idea of "putting out fires" as an excuse. About two thirds of the officials (or more than three hundred total) placed themselves under the red flag, and all were executed. Those under the white flag were rewarded.
- In Graham Mc Neill's Warhammer 40000 Ultramarines novel The Killing Ground, Uriel and Pasanius's third ordeal is to fight Leodegarius, and they are defeated — Pasanius unconscious, and Uriel unable to rise. Uriel tells him to Get It Over With. Whereupon Leodegarius tells him that the ordeal is to lose, because the only way they could have defeated him was the use of warp-based powers. Failure proves they are untainted.
- Ultramarines seem to like this a lot, in one comic, a group of recruits have a race across the rocky mountain range barefoot, the two that came in last pass because they helped each other finsh the race. Space Marines are suppost to work together as brothers.
- In Lords of the Bow, Chen Yi once paid a boatman to offer Quishan safe passage away from Baotou, shortly after Quishan became a slave to Chen Yi to pay off a debt. Quishan refused out of honour - good thing too, as he would have had his throat slit if he said yes.
- In Philip K Dick's short story "The Exit Door Leads In", the protagonist turns out to be in a Secret Test Of Character. The title would give this away, but Dick cleverly includes a Title Drop early on that appears to explain it.
- A Doctor Who Expanded Universe novel features the Real Life Kill The Dog example outlined below; a young solider seconded to UNIT from the Marines was forced to do this by her previous commanding officer to be allowed to join the regiment. She admits that she initially felt proud of herself for having the 'character' to belong to the regiment after she did it, but cried herself to sleep later that night. It's used to provide a counterpoint to The Brigadier, a much more humane and honourable soldier, who condemns the test and her previous commanding officer as a bastard.
- In Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novel Summer Knight, the Gatekeeper urges Dresden to give up because the task is far too large for him; the Council would never send a single wizard to do it. When he refuses, the Gatekeeper promises him his vote. And says had he walked away, the Gatekeeper would have killed on the spot, since it would be the same effect as voting against him.
- In the Hand Of Thrawn duology, Talon Karrde has a green new crewmember stationed on deck when he comes out of hyperspace next to his ally Booster Terrick's ship, Errant Venture. The Errant Venture is a captured Star Destroyer revamped into, basically, a luxury liner, but there's no way to tell just by looking at it that it's not part of a trap. After she realizes that no one's preparing for combat and that this really isn't a trap, she gets angry at her boss, telling him that she does not like to be made into a human joke. Karrde indirectly tells her that this is a way of testing how she reacts to sudden shocks, and she passed - she froze for a moment, her fur puffed out, but she recovered quickly. Karrde's new bodyguard observes after she's gone that he probably does this a lot, and this crewmember left something that the others probably didn't - claw marks.
- In Lord Of The Clans, Thrall finally meets the surviving members of the Frostwolf clan. They treat him badly, refuse to train him as a shaman and assign him menial and degrading tasks. When he eventually objects loudly, they explain that true orcs refuse to be slaves and accept him as their heir.
- One of these is used on Aviendha in the Wheel of Time series. She thinks she is almost ready to take the test to become a Wise One, but her trainers assign her more and more degrading punishments (well, degrading to an Aiel) for some offense she doesn't even know she committed. She's very reluctant to ask what she did wrong, and when she finally breaks down and asks, it turns out that was the test - a Wise One needs to be able to stand up for herself and deal with other people being unreasonable.
- In Mickey Zucker Reichert's Renshai books, Ra-khir has to pass two of these during his examination for knighthood. First he concedes defeat in a duel, pointing out that he'd been struck a 'killing' blow that his opponent had apparently missed. His testers confirm that this was the right thing to do, as acting honourably is more important than winning. Then, just before he is about to pass the examination, a messenger rushes in and tells him that his estranged mother is threatening to kill herself if he doesn't go to her immediately. Leaving means that he will fail the exam (which lasts for two days nonstop), but he doesn't hesitate to go. The messenger then explains that it was all part of the test, and he is now a knight.
- In C.S. Goto's Blood Ravens trilogy, Sturnn tells Gabriel that his Imperial Guard forces killed Ultramarines; Gabriel asks why and deduces (after he learns that they were disguised Alpha Legion) that Sturnn told him to find out whether he would just attack or ask questions.
Live Action TV
- The News Radio scene between Dave and Mr. James, quoted at the top of the page.
- On Big Brother Australia, one weekly task involved pretending to be police. They had to run the assault course twice. They were told that they would pass the test if the time of their second run was greater than that for their first. When they were quicker the second time around, they failed. They were then informed of the original instructions, they had to go slower on their second run. Being observant is a necessary trait for police officers.
- Both Worf and Picard challenge Ensign Sito to Secret Tests of Character in the Star Trek The Next Generation episode "Lower Decks."
- The episode "A Matter of Honor" puts Commander Riker (as part of a fancy "Officer Exchange Program") on a Klingon vessel. Long story short, because of "space barnacles" (They used fancier terms), the Klingon vessel thinks the Enterprise is out to destroy them, with the Klingon captain demanding that Riker tell them anything that could be used to help destroy the Enterprise. Riker refuses, citing his oath to Starfleet, as well as his oath the Captain Picard. The Klingon captain (after several seconds of bristling anger), points out that, if Riker had said anything, he would be too cowardly to serve on the vessel, and thus promptly killed.
- In the Star Trek The Original Series episode "Arena", Kirk passed a Secret Test Of Character by refusing to kill his Gorn adversary. This happens all the time in Star Trek: "The Corbomite Maneuver" "Specter of Gun," and "The Empath," to name a few.
- Wesley wrings his hands over a certain portion of the Academy entrance exam where he'll have to face his worst fear. Right before the exam is supposed to start, he hears an explosion coming from another room; he's only able to save one occupant. Of course, the test was to see if he could make such decisions.
- Troi takes a similar bridge officer's test, in which the only way to save the ship is to send Geordi to his death. She mistakes it for a test of technical knowledge at first, then realizes it's to see if she can make the best decisions for the good of the ship.
- A Voyager episode had Chakotay giving Tuvok a phaser and asking him to shoot the captain. It turned out to not work. Possibly a subversion: Tuvok deduced that it was a character test before pressing the fire button, since you don't give someone of questionable loyalty a live weapon.
- The Kobayashi Maru. Presents would-be Starfleet captains with a no-win situation, just to see how they handle themselves in such a circumstance. Apparently cheating and reprogramming the test is a viable answer.
- An episode of Saved By The Bell: The College Years featured Zack & company in an ethics class, in which the first session involved the professor stating that only half of the class would pass. After being a hardass all semester and playing up the difficult final, the professor releases the real final as a Secret Test Of Character by dropping copies of what look like answer keys. Between Zack's discovery of a fake "key" and The Reveal, Hilarity Ensues.
- Stargate SG-1 episode "Thor's Chariot". The Asgard use a holographic series of puzzles, including a test of character, to determine if the Cimmerians were advanced enough to meet them. Also from SG-1, the 'foothold situation' in "Proving Ground," and 'the radiation attack' on the stargate that tests Lt Elliott's ability to not leave a man behind.
- One George Lopez episode has the manager forcing George to fire one of the two teams he's in charge of. One of them has his mom on it, but he fires that team anyway since the other team has been working better. Turns out the manager was merely testing if he'd fire his mom.
- In the first episode of Who Wants To Be A Superhero, the prospective superheroes are challenged to change to their secret identity without being seen and then race to the finish line. However, right before the finish there's a little girl, crying that she's lost and can't find her mommy; the true test is to see who would stop and help the little girl. (Only four of the ten contestants actually did.)
- The third episode pulls the same trick again, by asking the contestants to each choose a contestant that they would eliminate, and then explain why. In truth, this was a test of self-sacrifice; the correct response to the question was for each contestant to nominate him- or herself to be eliminated. Four of the six remaining prospective heroes passed this test.
- The second season had a scenario where the heroes are stopped by an adoring fan who wants a picture while they are supposed to be on a mission. The lesson was "humility".
- It's basically Who Wants To Be A Superhero's most common way of eliminating contestants.
- In the third season of 24, Jack Bauer, infiltrating a terrorist ring, was given a gun and, not knowing that the gun was empty, told to shoot his partner, whom the terrorist had captured. He did. The fourth season had the same test repeated, with Dina Araz told to shoot Jack. She tried to shoot the lead terrorist instead.
- An episode of Will and Grace had Will take a job at a very prestigious law firm. The senior partner then ordered Will to defeat Grace in arbitration. Will obeys, but then immediately quits the job, saying that he can't work for a firm that would require him to betray his friend. The partner then pays Grace the money she was owed and gives Will a promotion, saying that he has all the coldhearted bastards that he needs.
- In the Taxi episode "The Wedding of Latka and Simka", the lovers undergo an old-world ceremony as per their religion. It climaxes with a question-and-answer test. The final question asks Latka: if a charging boar were going to attack Simka and a baby, and he could only save one, who would he choose? He chooses Simka, but is informed it was the wrong answer; thus, they cannot wed. Simka announces she will marry Latka even if they must defy their religion, and the reverend reveals that they have passed the real test - she's proven how much they truly love each other by putting that above all, and thus are worthy of marriage.
- An episode of Perfect Strangers had a similar situation, where Balki puts his cousin Larry and his fiancee through a series of ludicrous trials as a "Mepeot Marriage Test" to test if they are romantically compatible. Once the two have gone through this torture, Balki announces that the tests show they are completely incompatible, and their marriage is doomed to failure, to which they say Screw Destiny, they're getting married anyway and they'll make it work. Balki's response? "Congratulations. You passed the Mepeot Marriage Test with flying colors."
- An episode of Sabrina The Teenage Witch featured Sabrina and her twin Katrina, who are informed that one of any given pair of twin witches is good and one is evil. After it is determined which is which, the good twin must push the evil one into an active volcano - one of the few ways to destroy a witch, according to the episode. After various tests, Katrina is chosen as the good twin, and when they get to the volcano, she pushes Sabrina in without a second thought. Oops, turns out that was the final test, and Katrina just failed. (Fortunately for Sabrina, she managed to grab the rocky ledge on the way down.) And it turns out they were lying about the whole 'lava being fatal to witches thing' too.
- The magician Derren Brown once did a TV special where at the end of the episode, a volunteer would load one bullet into a revolver and Derren would predict which slot was used, firing five (hopefully empty shots) at his head and the bullet into the wall. The episode up to this point consisted of multiple secret tests of character to narrow the volunteers down to someone with the right mentality such that he was confident of pulling this off. For example, when the group was invited into an auditorium, the whole front row was dismissed for being too eager, later on they were split into groups of three and asked to vote one person out - that person went through to the next round.
- In Babylon Five, we have the case when Lyta accepted Ambassador G'Kar's invitation to help the Narns get a hand on the telepath gene years after he had asked (and after which he had done a full Heel Face Turn). G'Karr answered that he had to add another request to her list: That she and her fellow telepaths would be willing to spy on the other ambassadors. She refuses, starts to move away and G'Karr stops her and inform her that that was his last test. Had she answered yes, he could never trust her.
- G'Kar has been on a receiving end of such a test himself. In one scene, Garibaldi found out that G'Kar was smuggling weapons for the Narn Resistance through the station. So he confronts G'Kar. G'Kar, knowing that Garibaldi would never confront someone without proof, decides to save time by admitting it outright. Garibaldi rewards his honesty by providing an alternate way to smuggle weapons without involving Babylon 5 in it.
- During a second-season episode of The Mighty Boosh, Rudi gives his long-time partner Spider tickets to Rio de Janeiro and backstage passes to a Carlos Santana concert. When Spider refuses, and rips up the tickets, Rudi reveals that it was just a test. Parodied in a season one episode, where the tests involve not taking a flute and not sucking Rudi's balls when he asks (because "a lesser man would gladly suck my balls.")
- In Heroes, Hiro and Ando are searching for Usutu, an African who can see the future. The problem, obviously, is that Usutu knew they were coming and all. After Getting hit over the head with a shovel (twice), which you can read about in the Crowning Moment of Funny page, he finally decides that Usutu would be unable to handle two guys at once, at which time Usutu lets them get him, because Hiro decided to use his head instead of relying on his powers.
- In the reality TV series, Rebel Billionaire, the first episode featured the contestants moving from their hotels to Richard Branson's home, with Richard Branson himself posing as the limo driver. Several of the contestants helped Branson load their luggage, and were very polite to him. Others, well... weren't. When Branson revealed himself, the polite people had a good laugh. The ones that weren't had the expected reaction. Branson picked the two contestants who were (in his opinion) the worst of the lot, and they were removed from the show. Two contestants down, and it was only fifteen minutes into the first episode.
- And in the end the 2 finalists were 2 of the people who failed the test
- In the
Grand Finale Series Fauxnale of Scrubs, the Janitor claims that when he first meet J.D. he knew he accidentally dropped the penny that got caught in the door, and he hasn't been tormenting him for eight years because he was mad about the actual penny but because it was a test of character that J.D. failed. Of course, this is the Janitor, so he's probably just lying out his ass again.
- There was a recent show that had actors play out certain situations in public without the people around them knowing and with hidden cameras recording the scene. The situations involved things like a man drugging his date's drink while she was in the restroom, and a woman asking to cut into the grocery line and being the 5000th customer at the store, and they were performed to see how people not in on it would react. There were also variations done, like the date in the first scenario wearing skanky clothes and a modest dress in different 'performances'. Most people were not very amused when they found out that the scenes were hoaxes; the show was mainly created to show peoples' reactions to these kinds of situations.
- "What Would You Do", I believe it was called.
- In The West Wing, the treatment that Will Bailey was subject to when he started working with the President's senior staff seemed to be a mixture of this trope (in order to determine whether he was of suitable stuff to work in the West Wing) and hazing, to the extent that it was frequently difficult to see where one ended and the other began. In one example, he was tricked into attending a meeting alone with the President to see whether he would 'tell the truth to power' and was considered to have failed in that he ended up stammering nervously for a few moments and then excusing himself in embarrassment. Will, who was under the assumption that his current post was pretty much a glorified temp job at the time and that he'd mistakenly been ushered unprepared and alone into the Oval Office with the President, responded to this particular example with understandable resentment at being tricked and humiliated, and to the rest with a mixture of firm resolve and paranoia (since he never knew when he was being tested and when he was being pranked).
- One first season episode of Merlin (The Labryinth of Gedref) has Arthur required to pass some tests to remove a curse on Camelot. The last test is that he is told he and Merlin have to drink two cups, one of which is poison. He passes by pouring one cup into the other and drinking both, thus sacrificing himself. See Wallbangers/LiveActionTV.
- The Daily Show had a quiz to help the viewer determine whether he or she was a Real American (or a Fake American, as defined by Nancy Pfotenhauer and Sarah Palin). The final result: "If you answered any of these questions, that means you're watching the Daily Show, so you're clearly not a Real American."
- The reality show True Beauty runs on this trope: it's a reality show that made its contestants think it's a Next Top Model rip-off, but it judged their "inner beauty".
- This seems to be Robbie Ray's default method of parenting in Hannah Montana. He routinely gives his kids enough rope to either prove themselves, or hang themselves. In the former case he's proud, in the latter he's usually ready with either an embarrasing punishment (like announcing to all of Miley's friends who think she can drive that he's dropping her off because she failed her driving test), a heartfelt speech containing the word 'bud', or a new, and suspiciously plot-relevant song.
- On Xena Warrior Princess, an arrogant new female warlord wants to replace Xena as Ares' favored human, so he lets the two of them fight it out in a special isolated dimension, adding that either of them can just call his name at any time if they need his help. Eventually the other warlord does so, and Ares appears only to reveal that by being the first who had to call for help, she's lost. "I said you could. I didn't say you should."
- On The IT Crowd, Douglas uses this as an excuse to pretend that his painfully obvious and feeble attempts at trying to seduce Jen after making her his assistant, which she has rejected at every turn, are one of these to prove that she really does want her job and doesn't just want to sleep her way up the ladder. Relieved, Jen takes the opportunity to explain — at length — that Douglas really isn't her type. Douglas isn't pleased.
Mythology
- Used in the Arabian Nights miniseries, where the test is (supposed to be) shooting an apple off someone's head while blindfolded. The hero refuses to endanger the person and is told by the challenger that he had passed an essential test of character and won the challenge.
- At the end of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Yudhisthira arrives at the gates of heaven, accompanied by a dog. He is told that he can enter, but the dog must be left behind. During the journey to said gates, all of Yudhisthira's siblings had perished, presumably for being not worthy to enter heaven, except the dog. After all that they'd been through together, Yudhisthira refuses to abandon the dog, and turns away from heaven, then the fact that it was a Secret Test Of Character is revealed. This trope also appears in a number of other myths worldwide, making it Older Than Dirt.
- The same happens in the Twilight Zone episode "The Hunt", with the added qualification that the real way to Heaven is just a bit down the road; the dog-fearing gates actually lead to Hell.
- In a variation on the story, Yudhisthira rejects paradise and chooses the underworld; with the Secret Test Of Character being the realization that both paradise and the underworld are illusions, and rejection of that illusion is the final step toward nirvana.
- The Swedish folk tale Which Is Which? has a King discover his long-lost son, who with another boy survived a ship wreck and was raised by a fisherman. The wisemen debate how to discover the true prince, and give both boys fine robes and send them off to enjoy the city for a week. One boy gets his robe muddy, soaked, burnt, and torn while helping people; the other boy locks himself in his room for the week. Back in court, the wisemen declare that the one boy obviously thought of nothing but himself and his fine clothes, while the other boy thought of other people and would make the better king. The king accepts the better boy with the words "My son, my son!" This may seem like Values Dissonance (royal blood is automatically noble?), but then again, the Q&A section asks whether he found the true Prince, or merely selected the one who would make the better King.
- Lost princes and princesses raised by other people being identified as lost royalty by their looks or manners, even if they went missing right after birth, isn't a wholly unknown concept in folk and fairy tales. Many of which can probably be traced back to times when people would have readily agreed that yes, royal blood should automatically make you noble (in both senses of the word, Real Life evidence to the contrary notwithstanding). See, again, Values Dissonance.
- Portrayed in the Arabian Nights miniseries (and hence, probably, the source material), the Sultan swaps places with an unwitting beggar who, once he gets over the shock of his new identity, takes earnestly to ruling all of Araby. When the true Sultan is accidentally slain, his advisers perpetuate the ruse indefinitely, favoring the newer and more responsible regent.
- One Chinese folktale tells of an Emperor who had no children, and wanted to pass on the throne to someone worthy. So he sent every child in the kingdom a seed to grow, and after one year he would judge the flowers they produced and pick his heir. One little peasant boy received his seed and cared for it extensively, getting it the best soil and sunlight, but no matter what he did it didn't grow. Finally, at the end of the year he went to the palace with his empty pot and was sure he would lose, since the flowers the other children had were all magnificent and beautiful while he had nothing. However, when the Emperor came to his pot and the boy tried to explain that he had tried to do the best for his seed but it still had not grown, the Emperor stopped and declared him to be the winner. Turns out, all the seeds he had given to the children were cooked and would never grow, but only this little boy had the courage and honesty to not replace it with a live seed and admit that he may have done something wrong. The Aesop, of course, is that honesty is required in a leader, even if the consequences may be humiliation or loss of face. The tale was adapted into the children's book The Empty Pot by Demi.
- The Arthurian myth of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a spoof of this, as The Hero doesn't pass the test but is told it's unreasonable to expect anyone in Real Life to be noble enough to choose doing the right thing over saving his own life anyway.
- An alternate reading could suggest that the hero almost, but not quite, passes the test. The Aesop was that virtue and right came before courtesy and manners.
- For those not familiar: while waiting for the day when he must let the Green Knight strike at his neck, Gawain stays at a castle where the lady gives him gifts, on the condition that he give the Green Knight the same gifts when he returns. He does so, except for the last gift, a garter that she says will make him invincible. When the time comes, the Green Knight deliberately stops short twice (for the first two gifts Gawain did indeed return) then gives him a small nick for the last one. Gawain's deep contrition at this failure, by accepting the gift, is indeed treated with some humor.
- There's a second story about Gawain that features this trope: Ragnell, a hideous hag of a woman, comes to court and demands a favor of Arthur, who agrees. The favor turns out to be marriage to Sir Gawain, who rather reluctantly goes along with Arthur's wishes. After the wedding, Gawain and Ragnell return to their chambers. Suddenly, Ragnell the hag transforms into her true form, that of a beautiful maiden. She gives Gawain a choice: either she can be beautiful during the day and hideous at night, or vice-versa. He returns the choice to her; this was the correct answer all along, and since it proves his chivalry and respect for her, she can remain in her beautiful form all the itme.
- An illustrated riddle book told of two people suspected for a crime each being given a stick and told that they were magical sticks that would grow longer overnight when in the possession of a criminal. The riddle question was: why was the person with the shorter stick arrested for the crime the next morning? The answer: The sticks were not magical, but the guilty person, not knowing this, had cut off part of his stick, while the innocent one didn't bother tampering with his own because he knew he had nothing to fear.
- A similar story tells of a farmer whose chickens are being stolen, and he knows one of his two hired hands is guilty, so he confronts them and says he'll give them a foolproof test; a black chicken in a box who's a natural lie detector (it will crow loudly when the thief touches it). Reach in there and touch the chicken, the farmer says, and I'll know who's the thief. The first man reachs into the box, then withdraws his hands without a mark on them. The second reaches in, and his hands come out stained black. The chicken doesn't crow either time. But the bird was actually white, with soot sprinkled on it; and the farmer knows the first man is the thief, because only a guilty man would be afraid to test his honesty.
- And yet ANOTHER variant, from EC comics, at least three short stories (and perhaps even in a book in an Elder Scrolls game), there's an unsolved locked room murder, with only three people who possibly could have done it, but there's no evidence to convict anyone, and they all go free. Some time later, the deceased's father holds a memorial dinner and invites the three. After dinner, he plops a glass of liquid down and proclaims that he's figured out the murderer's identity, and poisoned his food. The glass contains the antidote. One of the three gulps it down...and collapses, gasping and twitching. The father had no idea who the killer was; the "antidote" was the poison. Most versions of this story have an Outer Limits Twist where the man who drank the poison wasn't the killer, he just panicked...and sees one of the other two smirking at him as he dies. The Elder Scrolls story is a subversion—it's a test given by a noble to find The Mole, but pretty much everyone at the table is guilty—including the narrator. The victim just panicked before the others.
Tabletop Games
- The Guardians of the Veil (a sort of wizard intelligence agency) in White Wolf's Mage: The Awakening have a series of moral tests for prospective members. They are told to do a series of more and more morally questionable actions. In the final test they are asked to do something completely reprehensible. If they obey, they are refused membership and monitored from then on as a potential risk. If they refuse, they are granted membership. The Guardians don't want mindless drones; they want strong-willed individuals who will do what is right.
- The Star Trek: The Next Generation Tabletop RPG. According to the Starfleet Academy supplement, applicants to and cadets at the Academy are almost constantly being given Secret Tests of Character to determine if they belong in Starfleet. In Real Life, even reasonable people in that situation would either:
- (a) start worrying that everything that happened was such a test.
- (b) stop trusting anything they were told by Starfleet personnel unless they could verify it.
- (c) get so annoyed at being regularly lied to by people they're supposed to trust that they quit, or
- (d) decide that a life-threatening situation was "just another test" and not take it seriously, causing people to get killed.
- Dungeon Masters playing Dungeons and Dragons are notorious for doing this to their players playing Paladins, who lose their powers and have to undergo an arduous atonement if they act outside of their code.
Theater
- In Macbeth, Malcolm claims he might be a worse king than Macbeth, because he is so full of lust and greed. Macduff reacts with consternation, but then Malcolm tells him it's all a lie and in fact he's the most virtuous Boy Scout in Scotland. It's not completely clear, but it is possible Malcolm is testing Macduff to make sure his first allegiance is to the benefit of Scotland.
- Malcolm suspects that Macduff may be an agent of Macbeth trying to lure him back to Scotland and into a trap. If that were the case, he would expect Macduff to respond along the lines of "It doesn't matter how bad you are; come back anyway." Instead, Macduff exclaims, "Alas, poor Scotland!" signaling to Malcolm that Macduff's goal is to save his country, not simply to bring back Malcolm.
- According to one interpretation, Macbeth himself may have been subject to such a test. The witches' prophecy told him that he would first become Thane of Cawdor, and then king hereafter. However they didn't tell him how or when he would become king. They did not convince him to plot with Lady Macbeth to murder king Duncan, they did not place daggers into his hands, and they did not force him to commit the deed and cover it up. He did all that on his own, out of his own free will. If the prophecy had been truly inevitable, Macbeth could just as easily have sat back and rested on his laurels until it happened on its own. Needless to say, he failed the test of character. Big time.
- One interpretation is that he actually did expect to be named Prince of Cumberland (Duncan's heir): that's why he acts so shocked when Duncan actually names his son, Malcolm. (In Real Life, the throne of Scotland was not hereditary: the king was expected to pick a successor from the senior noblemen of the kingdom. As a victorious general, Macbeth would have expected to be in the running. Being passed over for the king's young son must have been a huge shock.)
Video Games
Webcomics
- Subverted in College Roomies From Hell. When it's clear that Dave won't become Vernon's assassin, Vernon tries and fails to convince him of the morality of killing "evil" people in cold blood. This is a test to make sure Dave is Not Worth Killing; Dave, however, sees through it, gives the "right" answers...and incinerates Vernon the minute he gets loose.
- Xykon pulls the villainous version of this on Redcloak in the Order Of The Stick: Start of Darkness prequel book. Allowing him to kill his own brother as a secret test of loyalty.
- Misfile, Ash's father has Rumisiel re-roof his house and dig a new leach field for the septic tank as a test of how long it would take Rumi to blow it off. Subverted in that if Cassiel had not distracted him by claiming a threat to Ash's life then Rumi would have completed those tasks. A possible more meta example is that Rumisiel's handling of the misfile itself may be a secret test by his superiors in heaven, but this remains a fan theory pending Word Of God either way.
- A college-age Wonderella fails her entrance exam to Bob Jones University this way in The Non Adventures Of Wonderella. The test was multiple choice, with an automatic failure to anyone who darkened the perfectly pure, white ovals. ("Racial purity must never be compromised!")
- In Dominic Deegan, the titular seer's cruise vacation turned out to be one of these. Rilian tested Dominic and Luna through their interactions with the different people they met with, and if Dominic had failed any of the tests, Rilian was prepared to kill him on the spot rather than risking Dominic going through a psychotic Mindbreak.
- In No Rest For the Wicked, November meets an old beggar woman. She gives her some of her food the first time she asks, and then the second, but the third, she gets angry. As a consequence, the old woman both gives her the information about The Quest and curses her.
- Baron Wulfenbach of Girl Genius enjoys using these on his son, the first one we see involving an analysis of an apparently important but ultimately non-working invention of his to see if Gil was sure enough of his own skills as a Spark to point out that his overlord father made a mistake. He gives these often enough that Gil tends to asks his father with an annoyed tone if an unexpected occurrence was actually one of his little tests for him.
- Ki of General Protection Fault contacts Nick, whom she has a crush on, under the alias Pookel and starts a brief cyber-relationship with him, setting up a date at the movie theater with his online alias and claiming to have been stood up by her date when she meets him. She eventually gets together with him in real life without telling him about Pookel, and contacts him as Pookel to see if he's loyal to her, and he tells Pookel that they should be Just Friends, showing that he is. He later finds out that she is Pookel, and is initially angry that she did not tell him, but forgives her.
- City Of Reality, as a standard part of the entrance exam for anyone seeking to immigrate into Reality, presents applicants with scenarios that test their willingness to help others; failing these is an automatic disqualification. The trick is that they don't know they're being tested until told the results.
Western Animation
- Parodied in an episode of Family Guy, in which Peter refuses to take an ordinary looking college exam, only to learn that refusing to take the test was the test.
- In Disney's Aladdin, the Cave Of Wonders acts as a combined Test of Character and Death Trap for those who are unworthy. The irony being that Aladdin himself was indeed trustworthy, while his monkey wasn't. But who trusts a monkey anyway? The Beatles. Everybody else has something to hide.
- Partial example in Avatar The Last Airbender. While not an intended test, Piandao accepts Sokka because he's the first student to come to him who admitted that he was not worthy, and thus proved that he was open enough to learn. He later rewards him with a White Lotus Pai Sho piece for admitting that he lied and was not a Fire Nation Colonist (which Piandao had figured out long ago, due to Aang's presence and Sokka's name). It's stated on the DVD Commentary that pretty much everything Piandao did was some kind of test.
- Parodied in an episode of American Dad, where Stan's boss Bullock claims that all his Jerkass behavior was just a test to see if Stan could stand up to him. In truth, Bullock really was just a huge Jerkass and came up with the whole test thing at the last minute to keep Stan from killing him.
- In an episode of The Land Before Time Littlefoot is tested on his ability to one day become the leader of a herd. One test involves retrieving a red leaf from a small island in the middle of a lava pit. After much deliberating, Littlefoot finally concedes that he can't find any safe way across. He is then informed that that was the test and that the point of leading a herd is to put their safety first.
- In the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, the turtles, who have been kidnapped along four other people, are subjected to one of these by their kidnappers, the Ninja Tribunal. The Tribunal states that the kidnappees must fight each other to the death, and that only those who survive would become the Tribunal's students. The kidnappees refuse, attacking the Tribunal instead and therefore passing the test.
- The South Park episode "Pinewood Derby"'s spoiler - click to reveal
ending reveals that the whole plot of the episode was just one big test of character to decide whether Earth gets let into the Galactic Federation after having discovered warp travel when Randy enhanced Stan's Pinewood Derby car with a supermagnet from the Large Hadron Collider. Earth fails and is barred from the rest of the universe. As Randy says at the end of the episode "Well that sucks!"
- Professor Wizgiz in Winx Club pulled one of these on all the students by telling there there would be a pop quiz the next day, and letting them all find envelopes which appeared to contain the answers. In reality, the envelopes contained dust puffs, which let him easily see who was honest enough not to open them.
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