Secret Test Of Character - Television Tropes & Idioms

Superboy rejected — as a Secret Test Of Character

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.

News Radio

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.

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 on the grounds that it was an underhanded trick.

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.

Examples

Anime and Manga

Naruto has one of these in the form of the first part of the chuunin exam. An extremely difficult written exam is given. Before the final question, supposedly more difficult than any of the rest, is revealed, the contestants are given a chance to quit the exam with the option to try again later. The proctor says that for anyone who gets it right, the rest of the test they just took is null, and they pass. Get it wrong, and you fail and can never take the test again, dooming yourself to a life as the lowest rank of ninja. Many forfeit and leave, but the protagonist stays even though he couldn't answer even one of the other questions. It turns out that not giving up is the Aesop, and everyone who didn't walk out passes.
- That's not the only Naruto variant. In the Tea Country arc, we learn that Idate Morino once took a different version: one where the team learned that right before the tenth question, the person on their team with the lowest grade would never be allowed to be a ninja again. In that case, everyone who stayed failed, because the inherent Aesop was to not sacrifice your team's future over your own.
- That same test had a reverse version of this: The rest of the test was so hard that nobody was expected to actually know the answers and the real test was about who could get away with cheating. It was a ninja test, after all.
- A similar test occurs early in the main team's training; again, the emphasis is on the interests of one's team rather than oneself. The protagonist is forced to go without food for the day for trying to secretly take it early (hey, he was warned), and the rest are warned not to give him anything, or the whole group will fail. Naturally, one of his teammates gives him part of her lunch, is found out, and (in a ridiculously threatening and over-the-top manner) informed that everybody has failed... abruptly changing to "You pass" the moment she protests. The point was indeed to put others before oneself — which is apparently perfectly compatible with risking the failure of the entire team.
  - The two aren't necessarily contrary. The ninja teams have to be fully devoted to protecting the team and to completing the mission — and while it may be necessary to sacrifice the team for the mission, that should be the last resort, and only when the mission is truly critical.
Partially subverted in Yu Yu Hakusho: Yusuke's mentor Genkai tells him that the only way he can master her ultimate technique, which he absolutely needs to do if he wants to survive the coming battles, is by killing her. Yusuke spends some time agonizing about it, then tells Genkai that he can't do it. It turns out he did exactly the correct thing, because by refusing to kill her he proved that he was a moral person and by not rejecting her request immediately proved he wasn't too wimpy to try to master it.
- Also played more or less straight during an earlier episode of the series, when Yusuke is a ghost. His girlfriend Keiko rushes into a fire to save him, and he is given the choice to throw his Mc Guffin into the fire and save her from almost-certain death, but in exchange, said Mc Guffin wouldn't be able to perform the task for which it was intended; namely bringing him back to life. Yusuke does save Keiko, and at the end, Koenma reveals that if he hadn't done that, the Mc Guffin would have eaten him instead of helping him. Since he saved Keiko, which was the real solution to the test, Koenma decides to resurrect Yusuke personally as a reward. And later in the series, the Mc Guffin turns out to still be intact and hatches, revealing a cute, little mascot-like demon named Puu
In Planetes, the trope is subverted when Hachimaki is trying to get on the Von Braun's crew, and has to repair a simulated life support failure in a large tank of water as part of a test. Several other applicants are doing the test simultaneously, and Werner Locksmith, who is in charge of the Von Braun mission, lied to them that if a dangerous accident occurred, no divers would come in to save them. When one of them accidentally cuts her air tube and starts losing air and sinking, Locksmith doesn't send in the divers straight away, because he wants to see how Hachimaki would react. While the other applicants swam down to save her, Hachimaki simply continued with the test. He passes while the others all fail from running out of time, and Locksmith reveals that he is impressed by Hachimaki.
Subverted in Negima. Evangeline, something of a Noble Demon, decides that Setsuna is becoming "too soft" — she probably wouldn't even be able to Shoot The Dog! So Eva tries to force Setsuna to choose between "her sword and happiness". Setsuna, however, takes it a different way...
Setsuna: The choices you gave me — it wasn't that I needed strength to defeat you, but what I did need to break through was to truly realize the power of my own will! That was the answer, wasn't it?!
Eva: injured Nhn? Dunno... I s'ppose...
Manjyome's A Day In The Limelight episode of Yu-Gi-Oh GX — he is told at the end that the abridged The Heros Journey he's just undergone was more of a test to Break The Haughty than of his dueling skills.
In Black Cat, after Kyoko does her Heel Face Turn, Sephiria offers her either death or a position among Chronos' Erasers. Kyoko refuses, and Sephiria reveals that it was all a test of her vow to Train to never kill again.
In the Tsukihime manga, Ciel tests whether Akiha has it in her to be a murderer by... threatening her and her brother and then fighting her to the death. What Akiha doesn't know is that Ciel cannot be (permanently) killed/injured, so Ciel is free to test Akiha's power with impunity. She also tries this in the original Visual Novel with Shiki, who is afraid that he is the murderer who has been stalking the streets in his dreams. Shiki has Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. Depending on your decision, things don't go quite as planned.
In the Inu Yasha manga, Inu Yasha is trying to get a new ability for his sword from a demon in the underworld. His friends are in danger, and even though the demon warns him that he'll never be able to get the upgrade if he turns away to help his friends, he does. If you've already read this far, you know what happened next.
The movie They Were 11 features several people taking an entrance exam for Cosmo Academy: surviving for a set number of days on a derelict spaceship. Upon arriving, they find that instead of the expected 10 people, there are 11 of them, and after several unexplained incidents they suspect one of them to be a saboteur. Turns out the 11th person was an instructor who had been deliberately placed to cause trouble as a test of character. Several incidents, however, were not planned, and the entrees are commended for still attempting to last as long as possible in spite of this.
In Magic Knight Rayearth, every time the Power Trio met up with a Masshin, the girl who should interact with him is taken away to speak to the spirit of the Humongous Mecha directly. As this happens, the other girls are attacked and quickly subdued. The third one wants to help but the Masshin says she must stay with him and proceed with the awakening ritual even if the others die, or she will NOT succeed and the whole mission will crumble. Inevitably, the girl chooses her friends over the mecha... and not only he lets her go help them, but congratules her because had she chosen to stay, she wouldn't be able to get the Masshin by sacrificing her companions, agreeing to be bound to her.
Just about every Dark Game in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga was an example of this before it became focused on Duel Monsters. When Yami Yugi emerged and took over Yugi's body because someone was bullying him or his friends, he'd declare a Dark Game on his tormentor. The games were usually made up on the spot and were rather simple affairs, but the catch was if the opponent tried to cheat in any way, the game would end and he'd be subjected to a "penalty game" (which is less of a game and more of a prolonged torture). Of course, in this case, his opponents would almost always cheat and end up caught on fire, seeing the world as pixels, thinking trash was money, and other gross fates.

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.

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.
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.

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.

FairyTales

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 becuase 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.

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.

Literature

In the 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 turns to help him, and Nanny declares that this is a test of witchcraft, not power, and a true witch is someone who'll 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 complex a Xanatos Gambit to see whether a witch was worth her training by getting a rival placed above her.
The Unsullied in George R. R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire are faced with a challenge where they must train and bond with a dog for some time, then kill the dog. Failure means they are not heartless enough. See the SS example in the Real Life section below.
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.
- Also from the Bible, Abraham being told to burn his only son Isaac as a human sacrifice to God, only to be told at the last minute that it was a test of his faith and loyalty. Thankfully, Isaac was the understanding sort, it seems.
  - Depending on interpretation, this may also have been a "self-sacrifice" type test for Isaac. Isaac was certainly old enough to understand what was happening, and could probably easily have taken his 100-year-old father in a fight. Furthermore, God had already vowed that Isaac would be the ancestor of all Israelites, something that couldn't very well happen if Isaac was dead.
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."
Subverted in Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers. Harriet Vane was convinced to go against her principles of no sex before marriage (in the '20s) 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'.
- The Other Wiki says this reflects Sayers's actual relationship with the novelist John Cournos.
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.

Live Action TV

Both Worf and Picard challenge Ensign Sito to Secret Tests of Character in the Star Trek The Next Generation episode "Lower Decks."
- In the Star Trek The Original Series episode "Arena", Kirk passed a Secret Test Of Character by refusing to kill his Gorn adversary.
  - Though this is an extra credit test of character. The captains were supposed to fight, the lives of the crews contingent on the victor. When Kirk spares his opponent, their captors are impressed and suggest that one day maybe humankind will be like them.
- 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.
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 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.)
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 wich 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.
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.")

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.
One legend tells of a prince who was exiled, and came back to the kingdom when he was the only living heir. However, a second prince has emerged at the same time. A royal counsellor asks the two princes to take a test; one accepts, one refuses. The one who accepted is executed; the test was a blood test, and the counsellor remembered that the true prince was a hemophiliac.
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.
- Perhaps we have been reading differing versions of the same myth? This troper thinks 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 tempts him. He refuses, but the third day, accepts a gift from her. As a consequence, the Green Knight merely gives him a glancing blow. His deep contrition at this failure, by accepting the gift, is indeed treated with some humor.
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.

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.
- (b) get so annoyed at being regularly lied to by people they're supposed to trust that they quit, or
- (c) decide that a life-threatening situation was "just another test" and not take it seriously, causing people to get killed.

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 this troper thinks 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.

Video Games

In Breath Of Fire II, there is a point where Ryu has to undergo a test to earn the Infinity/Anfini power to defeat the game's Big Bad. The one trial is that he must sacrifice just one of his "most faithful" companions for the power. To pass, he must pick "no one" and stick to it until the very end... despite the fact that it's intimated that you will bite it if one of your party members don't, as the Dragon Clan's vengeance on you for not living up to destiny. Your willingness to kill the universe rather than kill a friend is, in fact, the real test, which Ryu passes with flying colors.
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete has a tower contains a series of character tests. First the party stumbles upon a man who is injured and pretending not to be that needs to be healed. The next area has the main character asked to dismiss his weakest character (in which the answer is to refuse to in the first place). The final puzzle requires the characters to mold something "beautiful", in which the main character is the only one that passes because he makes a statue of the girl he loves.
Parodied in Portal. In one test, the character is given a companion to help her solve the puzzles, and is then ordered to incinerate it at the end. The companion? A large inanimate cube with a heart drawn on each side. If you explore the area fully, you can find evidence that several previous test subjects formed a significant bond with this "weighted companion cube"... Several real players apparently feel the same way. Mission Control will then smack you across the face with its words for being such a Yakoff.
The ending in Disgaea actually turns out to be a Secret Test of Character. Seraph Lamington, ruler of Celestia, turns Love Freak Flonne into a flower as punishment for harming other angels in the process of defeating Big Bad Archangel Vulcanus, in order to see how Demon Prince Laharl reacts. (The game has Multiple Endings, so whether Laharl "passes" depends on the player.)
Quest For Glory 3 had an interesting example. You engage in a series of contests with the chief's son, to see which one of you will get the title of a warrior. During the race, he easily outruns you regardless of your stats, and manages to fall into a trap. You can either gloat and keep racing, or help him out. The karma reward is swift and obvious. However, unlike other secret tests, you can win the title even if you fail in this particular instance.
This trope is used in the amateur but popular RPG Maker game A Blurred Line. The protagonist, Talan, seeks refuge from an evil Agency in a town known as Paradise, but only those judged of sufficient moral strength are permitted to reside there. He is told he will tested the next morning. However, that night he hears crying outside and sees a young woman about to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff. His attempts to stop her ultimately fail and he dives off the cliff after her. The woman lands safely in pool of water at the base of the cliff but Talan lands painfully on the rocks below. As a result of his heroism, the people of Paradise waive his trial and permit him to stay. It is eventually revealed that the woman who jumped was an actress and the entire event was in fact the trial itself. It is implied that Talan is the only person to join the town to actually pass it.
This seems to be popular in Star Trek games. The final puzzles of Star Trek: Judgment Rites and Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Final Unity hinge on these.

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.
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 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, Clare 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.

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?
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.

Real Life (allegedly)

The Nazi SS reportedly employed a warped version of the Secret Test Of Character to determine who would join their ranks. They would give a potential recruit a dog to raise and train alongside with. The recruit would be encouraged to form a close relationship with the dog. At the end of the training period, the recruit would be given his test: Kill the dog. If he couldn't do it, he wasn't rewarded, but instead was deemed "not heartless enough" and rejected by the SS. (Note that the same story has been told about the US Marine Corps, British paratroopers, and probably many other elite military forces around the world. Considering that, ironically enough, Nazi Germany had very strict animal cruelty laws, it is unlikely to be true.)
- There's even a joke version wherein a soldier, a sailor, and a Marine are each led into a room where his wife is sitting and ordered to shoot her. The sailor and the soldier chicken out; after about five minutes of banging and screaming, the Marine comes out and tells the proctor, "The gun was loaded with blanks, so I had to beat her to death with the chair."
- In QI, Stephen Fry related the CIA assassin version of this (with the "Marine" being the one female recruit) one as a "true story".
  - This troper's mother actually got this final exam in a college philosophy class that emphasized the Socratic method. She didn't give the correct answer, but she still got a B for the essay she wrote discussing the question. She found out later that the weird guy who never attended class was the only one who answered correctly and got an A.
- If we're talking about final test urban myths, there is also one about a final philosophy exam in which the professor sets a chair in the middle of the class. The only question on the test is "Prove that this chair exists." The only person who got full marks was the student who wrote down, "What chair?"
- This editor has hear a similar story, with the question being "What have you learned from this class?" and the answer being "Nothing".
  - In a similar line, this troper was given a question on an economics test asking the students to explain the main characteristics of "a state of Cournot-Nash monopolism". Since there's an economic concept called "Cournot-Nash oligopoly", every one of us assumed it was a mistake and described the existing economic concept, only to be told that the question was included as a trick and the answer was "There's no such thing". Thankfully, it was only an in-class test; if that had been pulled on a major exam, somebody would have ended that day lynched.
  - Another variant of the philosophy test story goes like this: "Is this a test?" "No, but this IS an answer."
  - Another urban legend has a professor tell a class that anyone who doesn't want to take the final can leave and get a B in the class. Everyone who stayed got an A.
- In a true example, one of the essay questions in Ireland's Honours English second level final exam was "The bravest thing you've ever done". While a student is normally expected to write several pages about the subject, one student only wrote "This is the bravest thing I've ever done". He got an A for it.
  - Note that they got an A in the overall paper too, so it's presumed that they were given a good grade on the essay on the understanding that they could've done a good one if they tried. A low-grade person trying to do that wouldn't have passed.
A disturbing example is the Milgram experiment. Fictional characters, it seems, have a better success rate in Secret Tests of Character than we do.
- A similar albeit less cruel SToC is the Asch Conformity Experiment. The test subject was placed in a room with other people where everyone was shown a set of lines and asked which one was the longest. The answer was blatantly obvious, but unbeknownst to the test subject, everyone else was instructed to give the wrong answer. The subject was asked for their answer last. They usually answered wrong, conforming with what everyone else said. (And they say kids need to be taught that The Complainer Is Always Wrong.)
  - Not usually, more often. They got 1 in 35 wrong normally and about a third wrong when everyone else agreed on the wrong answer, according to The Other Wiki.
And a second example this troper lived through, from Biology class in high school. A teacher asked a class to prove to him that his car was not alive. He had an argument for every single theory the class could come up with, including that there was nothing alive in the car (the wooden panels, actually, used to be alive), it didn't breathe (actually, engines require air, so yeah, it respirates), and it didn't eat or drink (requires fuel to run, so... actually, yeah!). Finally, one member of the class stood up and said, " Prove to us your car's not dead." We so thoroughly used his own arguments against him- just reversed- that he gave the whole class an A on an upcoming test that we didn't have to take.
This Troper's mother once told her the following riddle: A woman attends her mother's funeral with her sister and an attractive man she doesn't know. Later, the woman kills her sister. Why did she do that? This troper had no idea, which is good — supposedly, only a sociopath would know the right answer: that the woman figured since the man she is attracted to showed up at her mother's funeral, he would show up at her sister's, too.
- Understanding twisted logic makes one a sociopath? Awesome.
- Actually, it doesn't. For some reason, everyone seems to believe that getting the answer right to that question means that you're a sociopath. You're not, really.
  - What's even weirder is that a sociopath wouldn't ever do that. Remember that a sociopath only lacks empathy, not common sense. Even sociopaths realize the penalties for murder are pretty stiff. The woman in the example seems to have some kind of psychosis.
  - The riddle doesn't say she got caught or was prosecuted.
  - Also note that a sociopath would not go to a funeral. There is also no reason they'd be too afraid to just ask the person out the first time.
- This is actually a test to see if someone is schizophrenic. It doesn't work.
  - This troper can't help but wonder why you'd need a method like this to test for schizophrenia.
There is what is probably an urban legend about an ethics class. The class was waiting outside the room where the final was scheduled, and shortly before it should have began a messenger told them that the final had been moved to a room across campus. Naturally, the whole class ran toward that room, passing an injured man. A small group of students stopped to offer help, and one of the others promised to tell the professor where they were. Naturally, the way to pass the final was to stop and help the injured man, who was actually an actor hired by the professor. This Troper highly doubts the story, as only a few people would have been needed to help the injured man.
- Urban legend indeed. Something happened, but it's changed in the telling, as Snopes shows.
Allegedly subverted hard when a student suffered a heart attack during the Bar Exam. Two other students rushed to administer CPR, and were not given extra time to make up for the half-hour they lost. That said, they passed anyway. A cynic might argue that the other prospective lawyers in the room passed the Secret Test Of Character by not sacrificing their time to help a stranger.
One of the most famous real-life examples was Van Halen's way of making sure the technical specifications of their performance contracts were being read and followed: it also called for them to be provided with a bowl of M&Ms with the brown ones removed. If there were brown M&Ms in the bowl, it was a quick sign that the venue didn't take the other specifications seriously, and they would always find other problems.

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