The Gift: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Some people are just better than others. It's a shame that most of these people will inevitably turn evil at some point, not to mention be prone to engaging in vast amounts of [[Angst]] as they do it.

Many [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]]s fall into this; the [[Social Darwinist]] is near defined by it. The [[Smug Super]] flaunts it. [[Beware the Superman]] when enough of them gather and cause collateral damage in their fights or take over the world.

 

 

Sometimes, to even things out, someone with the gift [[Brilliant but Lazy|drops out]] of their training for some reason, leaving them [[Incompletely Trained]] and thus [[Unskilled but Strong]]. See also [[The Paragon Always Rebels]].

 

For literal gifts, see [[It Was a Gift]]. Not to be confused with the [[Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory]], the [[Fanfic]] "[[The Gift (fanfic)|The Gift]]", the book by [[James Patterson]] or the short story/jam by [[The Velvet Underground]].

 

** Neji.

** {{spoiler|Itachi}} turned out to be on the good side all along even though he is arguably the most gifted.

* Berserker of ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]'' poses the danger he does entirely because of this. Berserker is ''so'' naturally talented in martial arts that he can defeat the best of his peers despite not having had ''any'' formal training whatsoever. His defeat requires a massive aversion of [[Hard Work Hardly Works]], with Hermit claiming to have put in 10,000 times the normal effort. Unfortunately, a recently released chapter of the manga suggests he has since received that formal training.

* Medaka Kurokami from ''[[Medaka Box]]'' is better at everything than everyone. If she sees someone do something {{spoiler|or even hears about it}}, she will quickly become better at it with no effort.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** As one of the most extreme example of this gift; The Gorgon is, for all his gifts, a [[Badass Normal]]. In Secret Warriors, He manages to block and cut the arms off of a super-speedster faster than she could react.

 

* There are more than a few echoes of this in how [[The Obi-Wan|Master Shifu]] treats [["Well Done, Son" Guy|Tai Lung]] in ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]''—and true to form, seeing only the snow leopard's incredible natural talent for kung fu (he was after all the only one to master all one thousand scrolls) the guy proudly pumps him up to be the Dragon Warrior, all without seeing the darkness that was growing in his son's heart. Though Tai Lung turned evil, he luckily didn't indulge in a great deal of [[Wangst]]. You can guarantee, though, that if he didn't die in the final battle, shows up in the sequel, and does a [[Heel Face Turn]], he will become either an [[Ineffectual Loner]] (which he may well have been before his [[Start of Darkness]]) or thanks to [[Defeat Means Friendship]], an [[Aloof Big Brother]] to Po.

* [[Ratatouille|Remy]] is something of a subversion: he possesses the gift of incredible cooking skills, but unlike the examples here ''nobody'' looks up to him or is envious of it because he's a rat, who don't need to cook and aren't allowed in kitchens anyway. When he's able to express his gift by being [[The Man Behind the Man]] of a human, he gets taken advantage of: his rat clan uses him to steal food from the kitchen while his human "puppet" [[Lethal Chef|(who couldn't boil spaghetti without Remy's help)]] takes all the credit.

* Luke and Anakin Skywalker in their respective ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogies. The Force was strong with those ones.

* Sing, the eventual protagonist of ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]'', had tremendous chi reserves in his body for his entire life, which he subtly sets up for the climactic fight scene by recovering from a serious stab wound, concussion and poisoning, in the span of about an hour, then casually mentioning that he's never had to go to a hospital in his life. Only after a near-death experience (that is to say, the [[Big Bad]] delivered sufficient damage that the surprisingly powerful [[The Obi-Wan|Obi Wans]] had to mummify him) was he able to use it consciously.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Lord Voldemort of ''[[Harry Potter]]''. From a very young age, Tom Marvolo Riddle was treated as an amazing prodigy and given special preference and instruction. Dumbledore likewise. Voldy just chose a very different path than Albus.

* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series, some channelers require training and others have The Gift, such as Nynaeve.

 

* Sylar of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has the power of "intuitive aptitude", and thus is able to rapidly master new superpowers over the course of a few days, whereas the people he takes them from tend to suffer from [[How Do I Shot Web?]] or [[Superpower Meltdown]] even after living with their powers for several months. Then again, he has to crack open people's skulls and take their brains to get the powers in the first place, so the "evil" part is kind of a chicken or the egg thing with him. Compare the heroic Peter Petrelli, who also can absorb powers (without stealing brains) but is pretty incompetent with them and needs to spend considerable time training to get them to work properly.

* River Tam of ''[[Firefly]]'' is a genius prodigy who can basically do anything she puts her mind to with incredible ease, and was already in some form of college by the time she was 14. As her brother Simon puts it, "River wasn't just gifted... she was a gift." After her [[Mind Rape]], she is still extremely intelligent and talented, but it's often hidden behind many layers of insanity.

 

* As with the above, [[Unknown Armies]] has the gift of magic being incredibly rare. The thing is, it tends to cause Adepts to become... well, insane. The technical definition is that they become obsessed with things like taking risks, cutting themselves up, or saving money, to the exclusion of all else. Oh, and the only reason mages aren't ruling the world is because they're terrified of what could happen when the world finds out about magic. Otherwise, their obsessions and magic cause them to look down on normal people, referring to them as sheep.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'', {{spoiler|Adelle}} is one of "The Gifted", which grants her such boons as an extremely extended lifespan, unique abilities and near-instant mastery of (non-combat) skills. While she never falls into outright evil ({{spoiler|except for a brief moment when she is [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]}}), The Gift causes her a large amount of angst towards the fact that it makes her "different".

* [[Knights of the Old Republic]] plays with the trope, but it still ends up used straight: the player character learns the ways of the Force very, very quickly, "learning in weeks what has taken others years". Later in the game, there turns out to be an explanation for that - but that explanation means that the player character is {{spoiler|Revan, who before that revelation had been described as a bit of a prodigy, and rather powerful.}}

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'''s [[Start of Darkness]] for the lich villain Xykon revealed that one of his earliest conflicts was with the hard-studying wizards who looked down on him for the natural gift of sorcery he possessed.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

 

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[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Master of the Index]]