History Main / IncompletelyTrained

* In ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'', the title character is this because he ''started'' late: all other fighters have started martial arts training as children, while Kenichi entered his school's Karate Club, and later joined Ryozanpaku, only in high school, thus he has to constantly play catch up. Thankfully [[BunnyEarsLawyer the Masters at Ryozanpaku are as competent as they're insane]], and in the final battle he actually surpasses any other Disciple-class fighter by [[spoiler:achieving ''Ki no Shōaku'', a ''Master''-level skill]].

* Morgan and Duncan from the ''Literature/{{Deryni}}'' novels have the ability to heal. Unfortunately there are no trained Healers in Gwynedd to teach them, and the Camberian Council refuses to allow them full training anyway since they're "half-breeds".

* While he didn't quite completely drop out, Harry Dresden of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' had his mentorship cut short by his mentor turning out to be evil. This has left him UnskilledButStrong (especially compared to other wizards) and not too popular with some of the other wizards (after resorting to BlackMagic to protect himself from said mentor).

* In ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'', Richard inherits wizard powers from Zed but must train to be able to use them. However, training takes too long for various reasons and his world is about to be destroyed. He quits, giving up his wizard powers. There's also the fact that the place where he's undergoing his training is of the YearOutsideHourInside variety, making it not a very good learning environment for someone trying to save the world.

** Happens with relative frequency among Sith, which the power boost granted by the Dark Side mitigates somewhat. Because of the ChronicBackstabbingDisorder encouraged by [[ReligionOfEvil the Sith religion]], they have the most dysfunctional student/teacher relationships in all of fiction with the two constantly plotting against each other. The RuleOfTwo was established to keep groups of incompletely-trained students ganging up on their masters and poisoning others with their inexperience, but even after they still arrogantly try to off them before their training is even complete. As a direct result of this, Sith masters [[{{Sabotutor}} often keep some of what they know hidden as a trump card]] which screws over future generations if they end up getting killed anyway. As shown by Anakin and Dooku, [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels experienced fallen Jedi]] end up being the best Sith anyway since they have all the "[[TheCorruption benefits]]" of the Dark Side without the schizophrenic training program [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin setting them up to fail]].

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'', where both TheHero and The {{Villain|s}} suffer from different versions of this trope. Tai-Lung is one of the greatest martial artists ever trained, but has no emotional discipline. He's a brute and remains in a [[TheBerserker blind rage]] throughout the whole fight, but his superior skill lets him keep Po on his toes. On the other hand, Po is a novice fighter who has to motivate himself with thoughts of food, but has enough [[{{Kevlard}} body fat]] to tank most of Tai-Lung's attacks, is clever enough to [[ImprovFu use his surroundings in creative ways]], and has the emotional stability to stay calm during the fight as Tai Lung is consumed with rage.

* Master Arngeir of the Greybeards invokes this in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim''. He'd much prefer to train the [[TheChosenOne Dragonborn]] properly in The Way of the Voice, but the dragons are causing trouble ''now'', so he compromises; Instead of teaching the Dragonborn every Word of Power the Greybeards know, he teaches him/her the bare minimum to reach the next stage of training, and any other Words the Dragonborn wishes to learn, Arngeir simply points it out on the map and says what amounts to "go fetch". The thinking here is that the challenges you face in the course of finding a Word should prove [[TaughtByExperience sufficient practical training]], while having to actually go out and ''earn'' the Words of Power will provide the discipline the Way of the Voice demands. The one exception is the Unrelenting Force Shout; He figures since you learned the first Word on your own, there's no harm in giving you the other two Words as rewards for completing tasks.

-->"I must apologize for [[ButtMonkey Wimp Lo.]] He is an Idiot. [[{{Sabotutor}} We purposely trained him wrong]], as a joke."

** [[VideoGame/StreetFighterIII Sean]] is a somewhat more serious example, being Ken's disciple and only a year into his training. It kinda shows, especially in ''Third Strike'', where he's at least pretty close to JokeCharacter territory. He's got most of the basics down, but his overall moveset is visibly clumsy next to his master. For instance, compare Sean's [[https://i.imgur.com/CPkrnMw.gif reworked Dragon Smash]] to the [[https://i.imgur.com/1xeR8vT.gif Shoryuken]] that it's meant to be imitating. [[labelnote:*]]However, it should be noted that, in ''New Generation'' and ''Second Impact'', the Dragon Smash was actually a Shoryuken [[MeteorMove followed-up by a downward punch]], likely meant to showcase the improvised nature of Sean's martial arts (as he mixes in his family's style Brazilian jiu-jitsu and [[IKnowMaddenKombat his own street basketball skills]] with what Ken's taught him). The original animation would serve as a possible victory pose in ''Third Strike''.[[/labelnote]] Sean's also the sole practitioner of [[{{Shotoclone}} the art]] to date who lacks a Hadoken or similar projectile as a special move, only being able to throw one out during his Hadou Burst Super Art.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'' had a grandparent training him as the series went.

** Aang may be a master airbender, but he struggles to master the other three elements, and even at the end of the series it's noted he still could use some work in Earth- and Firebending. Also, he has little to no control over [[SuperMode the Avatar State]], and while he does train with a guru to help him master it he leaves before the final step is complete to go save his friends from Azula.
** Katara is a ''talented'' Waterbender, but until she finds a master to teach her in the first season finale, she's only capable of basic bending. She gets to graduate as a master after Season 1. Though, even then her bending still had much room to improve as her bending evolves around Season 2. She is demonstrated as peaking at around the first episode of Season 3 where she uses her waterbending in a more tactical and grandiose fashion, such as summoning a wave to provide space, making a huge cloud of steam for cover, and freezing a huge hole in the hull to prevent a ship from sinking. By the time she masquerades as the Painted Lady, she's become so powerful that people confuse her for a spirit. This is not even taking into account the skill she learns from a certain old lady under the full moon.

** Sokka has ''no'' bending, and while he's skilled in using his club and boomerang, he says he feels useless compared to his bending friends. When he does eventually get training from a true Master of swordplay, its very much an abridged course. He learns the fundamentals and principles, then sent out to hone his technique and instincts through practice.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' had Ron Stoppable not completing his training due to lack of self-confidence and a phobia (the style was Monkey Kung fu, and Ron has a fear of monkeys). This kept him at the BumblingSidekick level until the SeriesFinale, at which point Ron got it and stepped up ''monkey style''.

** Zaheer is a enthusiastic scholar of airbending lore and a badass warrior, but he only manages to pick up a extremely limited amount of formal training in airbending (even using moves that are forbidden by Air Nomad teachings). As a result, though he's extremely innovative and powerful, his one fight against a master Airbender has him painfully outclassed due to the lack of finesse in his style, and Zaheer only wins because it was three on one.
** Apparently Lin and Suyin "never really got the hang of metalbending". Lin regularly uses her metalbending to emulate Spider-Man and catch criminals, while Suyin runs an entire ''city'' of Metalbenders and is the one who taught the art to Korra. Of course, this is just according to their mother Toph, [[StrongerWithAge who is now so good at earthbending she no longer needs to use her hands to fight]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee'': Juniper Lee was in training with her grandmother. She had only recently become TheChosenOne so the series went through her on-the-job training.

** Rincewind had to drop out of the Unseen University because one of the Eight Spells of Creation lodged itself in his head and made it impossible to learn any others. An odd example, since he isn't that powerful and doesn't have any real goals beyond finding a nice warm barn to stay in for the night; he's just really good at [[DirtyCoward running away]].

** Zig-zagged in ''Manga/DragonBall''. The whole point of [[spoiler:the Turtle Hermit participating in the World Martial Arts Tournament]] was to teach his students that even if he can't teach them anything else, for a martial artist, training is never completed. He tells them to always keep improving themselves as martial artists.

** On TheEmpire's side there were the [[HeroKiller Inquisitors]], who were personally trained in TheDarkSide by Vader himself in the early days of the Empire... i.e. [[TheBlindLeadingTheBlind when he was a novice in its usage itself]] and his inability to [[BloodKnight temper his bloodlust]] got him almost killed. Additionally, because of the RuleOfTwo he couldn't fully train them as Sith, and for these reasons the vast majority of them were expendable {{mooks}} who were only good for killing Padawans and lesser Knights. [[spoiler:This is demonstrated when the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother can overpower both Kanan and Ezra, but [[CurbStompBattle Ahsoka Tano (a former Jedi with years of experience fighting foes several levels above the Inquisitors) easily kick their asses (the 5th Brother in particular never actually landed any hit in Ahsoka and spend the whole fight kissing the floor)]]]]. Even Palpatine was embarrassed by them and [[SurroundedByIdiots rants about their incompetence]] in the ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Book of Sith]]''.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'': Aqualad never finished his training in using [[MakingASplash hydrokinesis]] at the Atlantis Magic Academy before he was recruited to becomes Aquaman's {{Sidekick}}. [[note]]In this continuity, the Atlantean ability to control water is done via magic rather than any natural ability.[[/note]] This is noticeable in the Season 1 episode, "Downtime", when he visits Atlantis and reunites with his friends, Garth and Tula. Both of whom showcase better proficiency in hydrokinesis than Kalder when the three of them have to help defend the city from an attack by Black Manta. Unlike most cases Aqualad actually makes up for how he comes up short with other skills he learned, such as tactical acumen and combat training.

* Even if the protagonist of ''Manga/SorcererStabberOrphen'' leaves the Tower of Fangs magic school before his education is finished, this doesn't appear to diminish his power; however, it is noteworthy that his spellcasting is VERY slow and verbose when compared with the elegant, efficient spellcasting of Childman and Hartia

* The UrExample is Abhimanyu from the ancient Hindu epic ''{{Mahabharata}}''. The story goes that while Abhimanyu was just a fetus in his mother Subhadra’s womb, his father was explaining to her, the tactics involved in both penetrating and exfiltrating from a battle formation called the Chakravyuh or “wheel formation”. This talk actually bored Subhadra to the point where she fell asleep. Arjun noticed and stopped explaining. But unbeknownst to him, the fetus Abhimanyu was listening keenly. Unfortunately by the time Arjun stopped explaining, he had covered only the tactics required to penetrate the Chakravyuh. Abhimanyu grew up, knowing how to fight through a Chakravyuh but not how to escape from it. This results in his doom during the 12th day of the Kurukshetra war.

* ''ComicBook/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Zayne Carrick left the Jedi before being knighted, and was the worst in his class, so he was probably nowhere near graduating anyway. Of course, given that [[spoiler:he and his friends' masters turned out to be evil and killed them]], he probably wouldn't have made it anyway.

* ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'': Eragon, being an {{Expy}} of Luke Skywalker, falls victim to the same incomplete training as him. He is unable to complete his training with [[spoiler:Brom]] before the latter dies, and then in the next book he goes to the land of the elves to train with the other surviving DragonRider, Oromis. He learns a lot there, plus learning from ancient dragon rider writings, but still leaves early, and in the next book, [[spoiler:Oromis is killed as well]].