Questions on Training from Hell

I know it is useless to compare fiction to reality but if you go through any kind fo training, will it teach you how to control your abilities better?

Not entirely sure what context you're asking in, but any form of training will give you better control over whatever it is the training involves.

What distinguishes Training from Hell from the ordinary kind is that most people going through it would probably be injured, killed, or psychologically scarred, negating any theoretical gains they might take away from the training itself.

edited 9th Mar '15 6:30:02 AM by Fighteer

I meant in the context of learning new skills or learning how utilize your abilities better? Even supervillains have to learn how to do stuff.

But why does get played up that they need to go through this training in order to become ruthless, efficient, etc.?

Because the story wants to show us how difficult it is to acquire these uber-badass skills. It's a form of justification, I suppose: a way to maintain Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Want to be able to break rocks with your fingers without superpowers? Go to a Tibetan monastery and get beaten with bamboo rods for a year.

That's not really more context than you gave in the first post. If you use some skill while training then you'll grow more used in using that skill. A Training from Hell might break you otherwise, but skill is usually something based in knowledge. There are of course situations where the way it breaks you would prevent you from using the skills, though, but as I said, without actual context it's kind of hard to say anything specific.

I'm afraid I'm not grasping the question that is being asked. Training, in a general sense, improves one's skills, whether it be using a computer, shooting a gun, or aiming your Eye Beams. The distinction that, for whatever reason, we're making here seems to be between "normal" training and Training from Hell.

In many (most?) stories, training is at best a way to stay at the back of the pack compared to the Superpower Lottery winners, because Hard Work Hardly Works. Training from Hell is the Badass Normal's way of playing catch-up with the supers.

edited 9th Mar '15 8:36:32 PM by Fighteer

I guess I didn't have any context at the time but I guess it was referring to how in some shonen, adventure or even some pseudo military stories that the characters have to go through some form of training in order to get new powers.

Okay, this is something of an area of amateur study for me, so I think I can field this one. In a nutshell, there are two core things that drive this trope. Both similar, but distinctly different, fallacies.

1. The first factor is a belief that hard work is inherently good. Every society that demands participation from its members (which is every society ever) will eventually come to the conclusion that hard work, in itself, is a measure of goodness or value in a person. Laziness, or sloth, is inherently sinful, wicked, or shameful. Thus, one more logical leap creates the assumption that anyone who fails simply didn't try hard enough.

2. The second factor, related to the first, is a belief that effort always yields visible results, regardless of personal or external factors. For example, a privileged and underprivileged person both put in "the same amount" of effort. The logic here presumes that both these people will see an equal amount of progress for the same amount of work. But, if an underprivileged person is starting with a disadvantage, then they need to work even harder to get the results they want. And, as we said, hard work is good, therefore this extra effort makes this person "EXTRA GOOD" and will lead to extra results by this logic.

So, if you combine these two assumptions (and fallacies) together, you wind up with this logic: "If you want to succeed, you have to work hard enough, and working impossibly hard will make you impossibly successful." The Training from Hell fulfills this fantasy, because it represents a person who accomplishes it. And also, anyone who fails at this training by definition lacks good character, and is thus unworthy of success.

edited 12th Mar '15 1:04:26 PM by KingZeal

Just saw the ninja post. So you're also talking about Time to Unlock More True Potential too?

I wrote some information about what I've discovered about that trope on its Analysis page, especially in regards to Japanese culture.