History Main / AwesomenessByAnalysis

* Beast of ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' has defeated {{Hawkeye}} at billiards through calculation of angles. (Avengers, around issue 198)

[[folder:Film]]

* Basil has a very pronounced moment of awesomeness near the end of ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective''. He prattles on about some sort of forces and equilibrium, and defeats Ratigan's fiendish Rube Goldberg death machine by setting it off at precisely the right instant, setting off a seemingly unpredictable chain reaction that frees him, his partner, and the little girl.
** And then, just to rub it in Ratigan's face, he grabs Dawson and Olivia, cheerfully cries, "Smile everyone!" and poses with the two of them with a massive shit-eating grin on his face, in front of the camera that would have photographed the moment of the final blow.
** Although Dawson deserves some of the credit; Basil's wrapped up in self-pity before Dawson finally snaps him out of it by frustratedly yelling that if all Basil's going to do is lie in the trap feeling sorry for himself, they might as well set it off.
---> '''Basil''': ''[Bitter humour]'' Heh, set it off now... ''[realizing]'' [[EurekaMoment Set it... off... now]]?
* In ''Film/HowToTrainYourDragon'', Hiccup is able to observe how dragons behave close up and with that indepth observation, he is able to do things with dragons that his village thought were impossible.

->Snipers aren't deadly because they carry the biggest guns; they're deadly because they've learned how to ''weaponize math''.
-->-- ''Website/{{Cracked}}'', [[http://www.cracked.com/article_20052_5-weapon-myths-you-probably-believe-thanks-to-movies.html 5 Weapon Myths You Probably Believe (Thanks to Movies)]]

** Back when Yamcha was the main ButtMonkey and Tien was the current {{Jerkass}} villain, Yamcha threw his very first on-screen Kamehameha. Tien was less than impressed, and fired one right back at him. Keep in mind that Master Roshi spent ''50 years'' perfecting this technique.
*** Let's elaborate a bit on the whole Kamehameha thing. Goku managed to perform a smaller version of it after seeing Master Roshi do it once for the first time. The second was Yamcha who used it, during the second Tenkaichi Budokai, presumably after seeing Roshi and Goku in the past. Next came Krillin, on that same tournament, who did an improvised yet effective one, again after seeing Goku and Yamcha. Finally, Ten Shin Han launched a powerful one merely after seeing it once. Note that Roshi never taught any of them said technique and was quite surprised when they managed to pull it by themselves.

* Ranma from ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' has a basically super-human ability to utilize and adapt to even the most complex martial moves using this trope.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', Daichi Misawa literally analyzes his opponent's known cards via computer before a duel and writes complex math formulas on his walls to develop new strategies. Kagurazaka, a one-shot character in Season 1, manages to do this by copying Yugi's deck, and was implied to have done so with several more duelists. There's also Dr. Zweinstein in Season 2, who is implied to have spent most of his time since Duel Monsters came out mastering the [[SeriousBusiness game]] through analysis and "duel physics".
** Then in ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', we have Team Unicorn. Breo studies the cards and tactics of prospective opponents, memorizing and organizing it into sensible data. Jean, the leader, builds this information into plans that foresee how to counter what the opponents will do. Andore isn't given to thinking beyond the present, but he's a first-rate improv duelist, able to put down any opposing comebacks in one turn and with very few cards. Of course, since their only on-screen duels are against the protagonists, FailureIsTheOnlyOption.

**** In the manga, he also manages to recreate Greed's trick using his automail and even figures out how to [[spoiler:use his own soul as a Philosopher's Stone by using the energy from Envy's to escape Gluttony's stomach earlier on]].

** Index herself. Within a space of roughly three seconds, she correctly identifies the history, style and pretty much everything about a giant rock monster that had just appeared. The awesome part comes when she takes partial control of it by apparently ''reciting letters at it'' and causing it to miss/punch itself. Oh, and this is without her using magic, because apparently she can only do that under special circumstances or something and doesn't know she can at all.
*** Considering that her mind contains knowledge of pretty much everything to do with magic, it's more a matter of her having a really fast ability to access that stored knowledge. (Considering that she holds 103,000 books worth of magical knowledge in her head, it's still a pretty impressive feat.)

** Dufaux much? His ability [[spoiler:Answer Talker, which he shares with Kiyomaro]] is literally KNOWING EVERYTHING. He actually just walks into an attack from Ropes, [[spoiler:sustaining no more damage than a big hole ripped in the shoulder of his jacket.]] He then proceeds to [[spoiler: pin Apollo to a wall and burn his book, only casting his first spell the entire battle if I remember correctly. If not, only one mid-level spell to defeat their trump spell.]]
** And Momon. And just about everyone. Really, it's about the premise of the show here.

* ''ThePrinceOfTennis'', anyone? There's a whole style of tennis based on analyzing your opponent's moves, abilities, statistics, etcetera, and then using it to beat them. It's called Data Tennis. It's utilized most extensively by Yanagi Renji and Inui Sadaharu, although it is used to a lesser (or at least, less successful) extent by Mizuki. Konjiki Koharu and Dan Taichi also show a tendency for Data Tennis, though in Koharu's case it is largely overshadowed by his Comedy Tennis, and Dan is yet to actually use his data in a match (largely due to the fact that, at least in manga canon, he is yet to HAVE a match).

* Pretty much most of the characters in ''Manga/LiarGame''. Of course, to survive the games, you have to be good at analyzing your opponents, exploiting their weaknesses and using them to your advantage. And slowly, with each round, Nao is [[TookALevelInBadAss becoming quite a force to be reckoned with]].

** It also hurt him in his battle against [[DissonantSerenity Soujiro]] [[SuperSpeed Seta]], who was emotionless/ki-less, and therefore, unreadable. Kenshin pretty much flounders during the first half of the fight, but [[spoiler: is able to turn it around when Soujiro suffers a [[VillainousBreakdown nervous breakdown]].]]

* Toru of ''Manga/IrisZero''. In a world where people suddenly began developing special powers called Irises (basically, when someone with an iris sees someone or something, they see something else along with it that goes along with the power. One girl sees a devil tail on anyone who is lying, another sees an X or O over someone's head when seeking out someone qualified for a position), Toru has no Iris at all, making him a titular Iris Zero. However, he is so skilled at analyzing others that he was able to convince people that his Iris was being able to tell what other people's Irises were. Had he not been outed by the one person who could tell when he was lying, he'd still be doing it. He's so good at this that one character, whose Iris has yet to be revealed, admits that Toru is the only person he's ever met who was actually able to figure out what his Iris is. Ironically, Toru isn't very good at solving "emotionless" puzzles, that is to say, IQ test type puzzles, but he's exceptional when solving problems that involve other people.

* {{Marvel|Universe}}'s Anti-Hero-Villain {{Taskmaster}} can do this with any physical skill he has seen at least once and is physically capable of duplicating (and even some that he shouldn't be). However, what makes this AwesomenessByAnalysis is that he's founded a thriving business ''teaching other supervillains'', (his latest job is training the recruits/draftees of The Initiative and latter Osborn's Camp HAMMER) something he couldn't do if he didn't gain a deep insight into the skills he picked up.

** An epitomal example of this trope in action comes in ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'' when Bruce Wayne first encounters street hooker [[Comicbook/{{Catwoman}} Selina Kyle]] and quickly realizes "She knows Karate...Only Karate."

** And it totally fails when a supervillain summons the Joker. SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker, despite being entirely human, is so psychotic and unpredictable that ''the only thing'' Midnighter can do is [[LogicBomb stand there staring at him]].

* Shockwave in the Marvel ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformers Transformers]]'' series (not to be confused with Shockwave in the cartoon series, who was totally different) was like this, able to calculate probabilities of situational outcomes to exact percentages. It didn't hurt that he was, y'know, an actual computer.

** Neville Papperman performs a similar task with his "fear-sense", but he does this by figuring out the person's vulnerabilities and concerns over their power and working out how it functions. Basically, he analyses their fear, which typically relates to their new-found power.

** He does, however, appear mystified that anyone should think it amazing that he can do this.
*** Although juggling is something only ''The Fools Guild'' does, not assassins. (Alternate interpretation: juggling ''badly'' is something only Fools do...)
**** The two schools ''are'' next door to each other. Considering the Fools Guild teaches Battle Clowning (imagine a martial art based on typical clown motifs) Vetinari probably stealthily observed lessons or may have even taken part in them in disguise.
** This trope is pretty much all Vetinari does. At the end of ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', even his ''audit'' sounds cool.

** Mace Windu does this all the time. His main Force power is to detect "shatterpoints"; where to hit things, including situations or people's minds, so they break. On several occasions, he has been without a visible shatterpoint and still managed to come out on top. Just before the climax of his feature novel ([[Literature/{{Shatterpoint}} guess the name!]]), there's a scene of him "looking" at the shatterpoints for himself, the people around him, the mountain he's on, the war the planet is in, and possibly the entire Clone Wars. It's basically Creator/MattStover's way of saying "[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Hold onto yer butts]]."

* Data of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' is MADE of this trope. He can take in information, and process and understand it, so fast that his primary limitation is that the computer interfaces he uses to do this are simply not able to go as fast as he can (being made for organics). One outstanding example occured wehen Star Fleet was attempting to reveal Romulan involvement in the Klingon civil war. When Picard's idea literally fell apart, Data conceived of a new method, researched it, implemented it, and use it to unmask the Romulan ships in the space of a few MINUTES, while dealing with a crew ready to mutiny while commanding a ship in battle.

** In Season 3, Peter absorbs Sylar's ability in order to use it to understand the show's plot. No, really.
*** To clarify, he's trying to avert a future he visited but realizes he isn't smart enough to take all the factors into account especially since in the Heroes verse, the future has a way of putting itself back on track (sometimes).

** "Tabula Rasa" -- Hotchner, under cross examination in court, profiles the lawyer who is questioning him, and ''totally shuts him down:'' "...Your vice is horses. Your Blackberry's been buzzing on the table every twenty minutes, which happens to be the average time between posts from Colonial Downs. You're getting race results. And every time you do, it affects your mood in court, and you're not having a very good day. That's because you pick horses the same way you practice law...by always taking the long shot."

** And played straight in the {{Groundhog Day|Loop}} episode. Xena spends the penultimate day of the cycle totally ignoring all the events she has to stop to break the cycle in order to calculate angles, measure distances, and observe what the environment is doing. Then, when she wakes up (again), she's able to do everything in mere minutes with her carefully planned actions and well-aimed chakrum throws.
* Kyle and Jesse from ''{{Kyle XY}}'' both have super advanced brains and can copy pretty much anything by watching or doing the math. A good example is when Kyle joins the basketball team at school and can make any shot just by measuring the angles or learning how to fight by watching martial arts movies(he also learned Chinese this way).

* The titular character in the short-lived series ''Series/JohnDoe'' has this as a superpower: he literally knows everything (except, of course, anything about his own past) and has the intelligence to apply that knowledge in whatever situation he's in. The show showed that despite this he wasn't infallible: some situations could have multiple explanations and he didn't always chose the right one, with a prime example being an episode where he was asked to help figure out how a thief had managed to sneak a rare gem out of a museum without being seen on the security cameras. Doe quickly demonstrated how knowledge of where the cameras were and their limitations, a convenient sculpture, and use of the environment could pull it off. When the guard who actually stole it finally confesses, it turns out he simply swallowed the gem and walked out the front door.

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' is a blood spatter analyst able to deduce and recreate a crime scene or a relevant incident within seconds. He finds a match in Lundy, a legendary FBI investigator who is not fooled by some of Dexter's tricks and even reverses some of them to deduce the true nature of the suspect: "Law enforcement".

* Will Graham in ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'', through a combination of his skills as a former homicide detective and his own unique "pure empathy", is able to work out a killer's method and motivation simply by analyzing the crime scene. While this makes him a skilled profiler, it also makes him unstable due to the fact that he has trouble getting ''back out'' of the killer's heads once he's done analyzing them.[[/folder]]

** Let us not forget Bartolls/Valtols from the OVA and Original Generation Gaiden. Attacks become useless on them after they've been used once, since they can dodge any future attempts of that attack pattern.

* Welkin Gunther from ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' achieved this in Operation Cloudburst. He drove his tank through a river, Oregon Trail-style, and all he had to do to make it happen was watch how the grass grew in the shallow parts and ask [[WrenchWench Isara]] to waterproof it. Being a nature lover sure comes in handy, and the surprise attack gave [[TheEmpire the imperial soldiers]] on watch one hell of a spooking.

* The Copy power (power, not ability) from ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar''. Once Kirby has this ability, he literally obtains an optical scanner that analyzes an opponent (complete with computer readouts and targeting reticule shown onscreen, no less) and replaces Copy with whatever ability the opponent has.

** Not to mention the fact that in the final battle, [[spoiler: Emerl takes all of Sonic's abilities, powers them up to the point where some of them instantly KO you, and becomes a star killing machine by seeing Eggman's battle ship in action.]]

** Both [[spoiler: Archer and Shirou]] also apply this a little more literally. They subconsciously scan any weapon when they see it, and analyse it down to its creation, its history, its previous usage and even the wielder's skill. This allows for recreation of the weapon, complete with all that previous information, rendering the projection dozens of times better than any other magic-user can manage.

*** Later on when he's accidentally captured by Klaus' forces and being led to the dungeons, he happens to ''briefly glance'' at an abstract operations table and informs his captors that an entire unit had been subverted and was about to cripple the entire army. They're so impressed they allow him to keep coordinating the army (under heavy surveillance).

* ''TechInfantry'' has Icarus Hicks, literally the smartest man in the galaxy, who despite being a middle-aged medical researcher with little military training (and that as TheMedic), manages to hold his own against SpaceMarines in PoweredArmor by combining the fine dexterity he developed as a surgeon with analysis of the weaknesses of their PoweredArmor suits to think up a way to shut them down.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', the villain The Clock King (who's basically a middle-aged civil servant) is able to go hand to hand with Batman simply from having studied Batman's tendencies in a fight. As a matter of fact, this is one of Batman himself's methods; he does this often when caught by surprise, allowing him to defeat his enemy or, should the situation become too great (it happens, but rarely), retreat to fight another day.

** Don't forget Iroh figuring out how to redirect lightning with Waterbending principles applied to Firebending.

** It's a little beyond vectors and trajectories. His brain runs a ridiculously complicated mathematical equation that basically sums up the entire world, and calculates it in such a way that he can predict the future in ways beyond just physics. Once he develops his "gift" it gets to the point where he starts to have brief flashes of future events completely at random. So he's essentially psychic. With MATH! (Stay in school, kids)

* And, on a meta note, science. Through systematic investigation of the nature of the universe, this enterprise has made possible achievements which would be unimaginable in earlier ages, from the miracles of modern medicine to space exploration to TVTropes.
* Mostly averted in Real Life, due to the fact that ''[[CentipedesDilemma if you think too much about something you become unable to do it properly]]''. Also, to use ''Physics'' (or at least Mechanics) to work out trajectories, and even then, pointing things in exactly the right direction is damned hard, and all Physical equations are approximations anyway, or they would be far too complicated.
** To be fair, many of those approximations are very, ''very'' good. The point remains that measuring and calibrating everything involved by hand usually takes longer than you have.
*** If the other guy has rigged a computer to do his number crunching on the fly for him though, try not to get on his bad side.

* Engineers of all fields tend to work this way, including the military variety, whose cold calculations are often the basis of various sadistic devices such as shells that split apart into a myriad submunitions to make sure that it is difficult to miss, biological agents which decimate entire populations indiscriminately, and incendiaries that burn flesh off bone, [[HumansKillWantonly whether the target is dead or otherwise]]. Of course, engineers tend to develop their new pieces of equipment over a period of years rather than on the spot calculations...

** Cracked did [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19664_6-counterintuitive-tricks-to-beating-popular-game-shows.html an entire article]] on how to win game shows that boils to this ''exactly'' this trope. Turned out that even beating ''Jeopardy!'' - [[ViewersAreMorons allegedly a game completely based around knowing "obscure" trivia]] - is not a matter of memorizing every trivial fact ever, but rather, to know which parts of ''general knowledge'' trivia you are weak in... and do a bit of really casual reading on ''just'' those areas. The man who figured this out, Roger Craig, did so by feeding hundreds of hours' worth of ''Jeopardy!'' questions into a computer to put together statistics on the kind of questions you're likely to get asked, and then had it spit it out as a graph. Then he proved his theory was right by using said graph to study and subsequently win the game. Twice. Including beating the one-day record and ''then'' winning a [[MomentOfAwesome quarter million dollars in the Tournament of Champions]].

* Handy in Intelligence work, particularly in a type of signals intelligence known as Traffic Analysis. If you can recognize certain patterns in message transmission, even encrypted messages, and correlate them to other factors, this can give you an insight into what the other guy is trying to do. Back in the days of telegraph transmissions, every telegraph operator had a unique style of working a telegraph key, known as his "fist". With sufficient analysis, it was possible to identify specific individuals, determine their location, and make solid guesses on who they were transmitting on behalf of (and by extension, who they may have been talking ''to''.) A common counter to this, of course, was to reassign telegraph operators rather than tie them down to a single duty position, another is to send messages by other means (ground wire, couriers, etc.).

* This is hilariously subverted in the film ''Film/ImJuli''. The main character, a physics teacher, must get a car across a river with a [[BenevolentArchitecture conveniently placed ramp]]. He does some calculations in the sand, drives the car off the ramp, and sails through the air... only to land in the middle of the river.

* Gamers in general. Our first thought in a boss fight is "learn their attack pattern, range, moves he has, speed, etc."
** The second thought of course being "now use it to beat his ass silly."

** Skids of ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' is has the ability to learn and master new skills quickly. He has used this to analyze opponent's fighting styles and overcome numerous, powerful enemies.

* It can be said that this is Negi Springfield from ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima''[='s=] real [[TheGift strong point]], in contrast to the [[WorldsStrongestMan outrageous raw power]] of [[IdiotHero his father]]. Several characters point out that the reason he's so strong isn't because of raw power, but because he's capable of understanding extremely advanced magical theories and combining various spells in unique ways. His advanced planning is the only reason [[spoiler: that he was able to fight the [[BeyondTheImpossible physics and magical law defying]] Jack Rakan to a draw, a feat that impresses [[OldMaster Eva]] enough to call him '''[[BadassNickname Boy Genius Mage]]'''.]]
** Of course, it also helps that he has a truly ridiculous amount of power as well, further amped by Evangeline's TrainingFromHell.

[[/folder]]

* Kyle and Jesse from ''{{Kyle XY}}'' both have super advanced brains and can copy pretty much anything by watching or doing the math. A good example is when Kyle joins the basketball team at school and can make any shot just by measuring the angles or learning how to fight by watching martial arts movies(he also learned Japanese this way).

* This is pretty much the whole shtick of the Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'s {{Heel Face Turn}}er Sage. Well, this and PsychicPowers, but mostly she's the resident AwesomenessByAnalysis queen.
* Over in DC, {{Batman}} is said to have a second major in this, as he is very very much a detective and criminologist when his preplanning everything didn't succeed immediately.

* This is the secret weapon of ''InspectorSpector'': he sold his soul to Satan to be the world's greatest detective. (not [[{{Batman}} THAT]] detective)

The first time he got hit by it without seeing anything and got ko instantly .The second time in the bath was the first time he 'felt' the attack and brace himself a little. The final fight was when he finally saw it for it really was sense Herb became male and made the attack visible. Seriously, how do you expect him to learn about an attack and counter it if he doesn't even see it the first two times? He doesn't understand it till the final fight.

** Note that understanding a technique doesn't always mean being able to defeat it, as Ranma specifically admitted to never figuring out how to counter Herb's Soaring Dragon Spirit technique.
*** He did figure out how to dodge it though, as he now knew what it was (invisible bouncing ki-blasts) and thus knew what to look (sense) for.

* Grand Admiral Thrawn, from TheThrawnTrilogy, with the ability to find a species' weakness just by looking at their artwork. And, for that matter, figure out their general biological traits (dominantly left- or right-handed, number of fingers or limbs used, perceptual or biorhythmic flaws) as well as traits of those who created or even just favor a particular piece. Notably another character who was supposed to have his tactical insight couldn't do a number of things Thrawn could, and never so much as looked at a painting.

** In ''OutboundFlight'', there's a scene where Thrawn and three Corellian captives/guests come to look at a very beat-up nonmilitary spaceship that came into his territory, attacked, and was disabled in such a way that all those aboard died. Thrawn asks the Corellians what they think, and one doesn't care, one thinks he killed poor people and/or refugees, and the third looks at the height of the dead aliens, looks at the wall and a point where sealant patterns change texture, and concludes that the people who repaired/maintained the ship were much shorter than the current owners. A bit of information later and he speculates that this was a slaver's ship. Thrawn is pleased.

*** To be fair, in TheThrawnTrilogy, he's a Grand Admiral. He doesn't ''need'' to justify himself to anyone. In the ''OutboundFlight'' prequel, he has superiors who don't look too kindly on his rogue (by their standards) tactics.
** Thrawn's TheWatson, Gilad Pellaeon, [[LegacyCharacter graduates to this]] in ''HandOfThrawn''. While not a match for Thrawn's ability, he successfully deduces that a fleet of attackers supposedly led by Garm Bel Iblis cannot be, by ''using one of Bel Iblis` own tactics'' to defeat it.
** Sort of used and subverted in ''StarWars/{{Allegiance}}'', where the pirate leader called the Commodore floats in a pool with his eyes covered, the better to focus on the voice of his guest. He believes that doing this, damping down all of his senses but hearing, makes him more able to [[LivingLieDetector tell if he's being lied to]] and pick out hidden things about the speaker. But he's trying to gauge Mara Jade, who is able to subtly stir the air and water to interfere with his senses without his knowing, and so he misses the fact that she's an Imperial agent sent to find connections between these pirates and corrupt officials.

** Wraith Squadron pilot [[GeniusBruiser Voort "Piggy" saBinring]], from the XWingSeries. A mentally enhanced [[PigMan Gamorrean]] who happens to be GoodWithNumbers. During dogfights, ''while in the middle of a fight'', he is able to keep track of his squadmates and enemies, often calling out recommendations. And they ''work'', too.

* This is hilariously subverted in the film ''ImJuli''. The main character, a physics teacher, must get a car across a river with a [[BenevolentArchitecture conveniently placed ramp]]. He does some calculations in the sand, drives the car off the ramp, and sails through the air... only to land in the middle of the river.

* This partly how the US beat the feared Japanese Zero fighter. This happened when the US military found a nearly intact abandoned Zero fighter in the Aleutians, which was called the Akutan Zero. The US military analyzed every detail about the fighter class to discover its weaknesses and develop better fighters like the [=F6F=] Hellcat to take best advantage of them.

* Kid Buu from ''[[Manga/DragonBall Dragon Ball Z]]'' was able to learn any technique instantly just by watching someone else use it.

* Literary (and to some extent, historical) example: In ''Claudius the God'' (the second part of ''Series/IClaudius'', though it is downplayed in the TV adaptation), Claudius - who was frail and had spent years [[ObfuscatingStupidity playing the fool]] before being forced to take the throne - leads the Roman forces to victory against the Britons through his extensive knowledge of historical tactics and his heavy use intelligence about the enemy's social structure and favored tactics.