Suddenly Always Knew That: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

How did a character suddenly acquire a needed skill?

Common with older, gray-haired characters. You never think that your mother or grandmother could've had a life before you were born.

 

 

See also [[Deus Ex Machina]], a similar and often related concept. The polar opposite of this trope is [[Informed Ability]]. [[I Minored in Tropology]] is a [[Sub-Trope]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

 

** There was an episode where Sam, in a life-threatening situation two switchblade-wielding kidnappers/rapists, was able to fend off his attackers ''WITH KUNG FU''! After high kicking one of the scumbags, Sam was surprised to learn that he could do that, immediately after which Al informed him that he was skilled in ''several'' schools of martial arts.

*** If you think his skill in martial arts surprised ''us,'' imagine how the people around him (who see Sam as their friend/family member/whatever) felt!

* It's even in reality TV: In the ''[[Survivor]] All Star'' episodes, shortly after Richard Hatch gets voted off, we find out that Lex has a talent at fishing (which we never knew from ''[[Survivor]] Africa'', because the only water Lex encountered there was at the bottom of a muddy hole).

* In ''[[Lost]]'', several characters have developed useful skills that have proven critical on the Island. Sun's knowledge of the medicinal qualities of herbs found on the island exceeds those of a normal home gardener, and Kate's "tracking" skills came out of nowhere (explained by a [[You Didn't Ask]]). However, this may be still explained by the mysteries of the island.

* In ''[[Taxi]]'', Jim Ignatowski is brought to a fancy party by Elaine who is hoping to impress someone but needs a date to attend the party. Jim proceeds to humiliate Elaine by acting like the '60s burn-out that he is, only to save the situation by sitting down at the piano and playing brilliantly. The other guests assume that Jim was just having a bit of fun, and so Elaine succeeds in her goal. Jim's befuddled reaction to his own playing: "I must have taken.. music lessons..."

* In the [[Made for TV Movie]]/[[Pilot Move]] ''Tag Team'' two pro wrestlers are drummed out of the business for refusing to take a dive and become cops. At the police academy one (played by [[Jesse Ventura]]) shows remarkable marksmanship. "Where did you learn that?" "[[Actor Allusion|Navy SEALs]]."

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** The two main limits were 'cannot violate prior game continuity' (if you had a prior opportunity where you "should" have known that skill but didn't show it, you could not claim to have 'known it all along' unless it was something you could plausibly have learned in the interim between that scene and now) and 'shtick protection' (right of first refusal on invoking Up To The Challenge always goes to the party member who is primarily built on that field of knowledge. Example: if your group has a character who is established as a master linguist, you only get to [[Ass Pull]] sudden obscure language knowledge if the linguist's player chooses not to).

* In ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' characters with the Languages advantage know a number of languages equal to 2^(their advantage rank) (character's without it know 1 or 0). Characters with 2 or more ranks often don't define all their languages known at character creation, leaving the blank slots to be filled in mid-play. Further a Hero Point can be spent to gain any advantage, except those that give new ways to spend hero points, for a scene making. This means a character can learn a language then forget about it the next scene. Both are perfectly standard for the genre the system was primarily intended for.

 

== Video Games ==

== Real Life ==

* When Uwe Boll challenged his many critics to a boxing match, most people thought it would be in good fun. It turns out that Boll was a semi-professional boxer before taking up direction. He beat the ever-loving snot out of several untrained critics who went into the ring with him. It should be noted, however, that Boll openly cherry picked his opponents for lack of fighting experience and size and repeatedly refused challenges from critic [[Seanbaby]], who knows Muay Thai and is much larger.

* This crops up a lot in countries where compulsive military conscription is the law or was until recently. For example the nice middle aged gentleman might have once been Spetsnaz, the fellow walking down the street might have been a medical corpsman or your disgruntled worker might have set claymore mines as a combat engineer...

 

[[Category:Skills and Training Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]