| rdfs:comment | - You get a young character who is, frankly, pretty awesome at what they do. They out-perform the grizzled veterans at everything they put their minds to, be that bringing down the Monster of the Week, commanding the Redshirt Army into battle or solving the murder. A few years older and they'd be a total Badass. Just one problem: Their complete lack of real world experience. Kid Heroes, such as Young Guns, Kid Samurai and Cute Bruisers can find themselves falling into this. Add Hot-Blooded into the mix and you're asking for impetuousity combined with incompetence. OR AND
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| abstract | - You get a young character who is, frankly, pretty awesome at what they do. They out-perform the grizzled veterans at everything they put their minds to, be that bringing down the Monster of the Week, commanding the Redshirt Army into battle or solving the murder. A few years older and they'd be a total Badass. Just one problem: Their complete lack of real world experience. These characters talents may serve them well in a professional context, but they still find themselves running into trouble by doing things the superior experience of their less talented predecessors would tell them to avoid. This is often exacerbated by arrogance from the rookie who finds himself outperforming people who have made kicking ass their career, and Pride, as well as occasionally a sense of responsibility to use their new abilities to the fullest, not having the patience and foresight more experienced characters have in knowing you can't help anyone if you are dead. Many, many heroes start off this way. Due to The Hero often starting off as the least experienced member of the Five-Man Band, giving him room to grow as a character, but also tending to ultimately be the most powerful member of his team, main characters in general have a nasty habit of going beyond their experience levels and relying on raw talent and bravado, which frequently gets the rest of the group into trouble as well. In particularly tragic circumstances, such impetuousity can get a character or his allies killed, with all the emotional torque and lessons about the fragility of youth and the dangers of overestimating your talents such an event provides. Its a frequent source of the Mentor Occupational Hazard. Kid Heroes, such as Young Guns, Kid Samurai and Cute Bruisers can find themselves falling into this. Add Hot-Blooded into the mix and you're asking for impetuousity combined with incompetence. This trope is very closely related to Idiot Hero, to the point where the two tropes look identical at first glance. There's a subtle difference however. While Idiot Hero refers to a character who is genuinely intellectually challenged but whose other strengths (Heroism, personality and morality) make them heroes, characters of this trope may be very intelligent, possibly even geniuses... but they don't have enough experience, both in life and in their chosen fields, to make the best of that talent. Its a subtle difference, but an important one. Though an Idiot Hero can easily also be Skilled but Naive if their usual line of work tends to rely more on instinct and moral certainty than on abstract intelligence, and naturally the lack of intelligence will tend to exacerbate their naivete. If and when they do evolve, they are rather malleable. A bad shock may send them into themselves, creating a Zen Survivor or Knight in Sour Armour, a character who feels cynically about issues but still can't stop the bold idealistic tendencies from showing through when the chips are down. Or constant steady success may create a full-on Badass or messiah. They can easily become a Future Badass in cases of Sacrificial Lion or an earlier Downer Ending where this character survives. Note that to fit this trope characters have to be: 1) Just as powerful or more powerful than more experienced characters OR 2) Noticeably remarkable in their skills for their experience level AND 3) Naive when it comes to comprehending the world around them, subtle meanings of things, and the like. (These characters are likely to be Wide Eyed Idealists and believe in Honour Before Reason) 4) While being excellent technical fighters and academically very capable at what they do, they are vulnerable to tactical oversights that only a more experienced character could possibly pick up on. Examples of Skilled but Naive include:
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