History Main / BeginnersLuck

Compare with AchievementsInIgnorance, FallingIntoTheCockpit, LikeADuckToWater, and ReadingsAreOffTheScale (although this trope applies to a person rather than a machine).

Compare with AchievementsInIgnorance, FallingIntoTheCockpit, and ReadingsAreOffTheScale (although this trope applies to a person rather than a machine).

* ''LyricalNanoha''. As a kid fumbling around with her staff for the first time, she destroys a monster within ''minutes'', she saves multiple universes multiple times at the age of ''nine'', completely shattering the learning curve in the process, and years later as a fully trained battlemage, she's not only a literal [[TheAce ace]] (well, "[[GratuitousEnglish A's]]") but has to have [[PowerLimiter limiter upon limiter]] attached to herself and her staff at all times so as not to GodMode her enemies to death in '''seconds'''. The in-story explanation for the limiters is that a single unit is not allowed to have that many high-level mages in it, for fear of mutiny.

----

* Non-sports example: Our knowledge of the outer planets of our UsefulNotes/SolarSystem was helped because right off the bat as we began Space Exploration in the 1960's the outer planets properly aligned for a "grand tour" in 1977 - an alignment that only happens every 175 years. The last time it had happened was 1802, and the next time will be in 2152. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program Voyager Probes]] were sent on this tour.

* Non-sports example: Our knowledge of the outer planets of our Solar system was helped that right off the bat as we began Space Exploration in the 1960's the outer planets aligned for a "grand tour" in the 1970's - an alignment that only happens every 175 years. The last time it had happened was 1802, and the next time will be in 2152.

-->--'''Fred Astaire''', "(I've Got) Beginner's Luck" (words by Ira Gershwin)

** This seems somewhat justified after playing the sequel, as after seeing what Jehuty is capable of with a trained pilot in control, we realize exactly how little of the mecha's capabilities its first young pilot was able to make use of. It really was using only its most basic features, assisted by the AI; it wasn't just a handwave after all.
** Cage Midwell in ''Zone Of The Enders: the Fist of Mars'' similarly ends up fighting several battles when he ends up in control of a SuperPrototype. In both cases, it's somewhat justified by the fact that the Orbital Frames in question also come equipped with powerful A.I.s who can help them in combat.

* Played especially straight in ''Film/TheKarateKid''. Daniel stumbles on Mr. Miyagi attempting to catch flies with a pair of chopsticks ("Man who catch fly with chopstick - accomplish ANYTHING.") While Mr. Miyagi tries and fails throughout the scene, Daniel manages it within seconds of attempting it, prompting a disgruntled "You beginner luck," from Miyagi.

* "Barbary Coast Bunny" had BugsBunny posing as a rube in order to get back the gold that Nasty Canasta stole from him. At Canasta's gambling palace in San Francisco, Bugs passes off his own skill and prowess as beginner's luck.

Compare with FallingIntoTheCockpit and ReadingsAreOffTheScale, although this trope applies to a person rather than a machine.

* "Barbary Coast Bunny" had BugsBunny posing as a rube in order to get back the gold that Nasty Canasta stole from him. At Canasta's gambling palace in San Francisco, Bugs passes off his own sill and prowess as beginner's luck.

Compare with FallingIntoTheCockpit and ReadingsAreOffTheScale, although BeginnersLuck applies to a person rather than a machine.

* Amuro from ''MobileSuitGundam'' drops into a HumongousMecha and, without even having used the controls before, handily survives an attack by an enemy war veteran. Handwaved by letting Amuro read a manual for the Gundam -- for a few minutes, anyway. Most main characters from the spin-off series do the same, although there are exceptions.

* Kasuki Yotsuga from ''ParallelTroubleAdventureDual'' discovers his incredible talent for piloting Core Robots when he's accidentally sealed into one while trying to rescue its wounded pilot.
* ''LyricalNanoha''. As a kid fumbling around with her staff for the first time, she destroys a monster within ''minutes'', she saves multiple universes multiple times at the age of ''nine'', completely shattering the learning curve in the process, and years later as a fully trained battlemage, she's not only a literal [[TheAce ace]] (well, "[[GratuitousEnglish A's]]") but has to have [[PowerLimiter limiter upon limiter]] attached to herself and her staff at all times so as not to GodMode her enemies to death in '''seconds'''.
** The in-story explanation for the limiters is that a single unit is not allowed to have that many high-level mages in it, for fear of mutiny.
* Misaki in ''KidouTenshiAngelicLayer'' is known as the "Miracle Rookie", beating her opponents with the simple power of PowerCopying and friend-magnetism when she's barely picked up an Angel. An interesting example because not only is this a game rather than world-saving heroics, it's just that, a ''game'', not SeriousBusiness - at least in the manga. (Even in the anime, Misaki [[CavalierCompetitor doesn't treat it nearly as seriously as others do]].)
* Like many anime before it, ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'''s the main character starts as a simple human who can see ghosts. Turns out he not only has enough raw power to break magic, but then manifests a [[{{BFS}} Giant Sword of Doom]]. For the first few arcs, he continuously manages to not only gain powers and/or abilities that other people have to work centuries to gain IN DAYS, but then continues to show that he is better at it.
** He also has no talent whatsoever for performing hakudo spells or special moves though. While his spiritual pressure is tremendous, he's just as tremendously limited in its use. He only has one special move, and his bankai is just a massive speed boost.

* In ''[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]'', Ash's very first matchup in the [[TournamentArc Indigo League]], he decided to use a Pokémon that has had no experience in battling before: his Krabby. Krabby proceeded to evolve into Kingler and swiftly gives Ash his first win in the tournament. He does the same thing later when he used Muk (again, a Pokémon he had never used) in the fourth round, defeating his opponent's ''incredibly'' tough Bellsprout. (Although, that was one time he [[SmartBall actually planned it out a little]]; the battle was on the Grass field, he figured his opponent would likely use a Grass Pokémon - which she did - so he decided to use Muk, who being a Poison Type, would have Type Advantage to such a Pokémon.)[[CallBack Brought up again]] in "''Hello Pummelo''", where Ash chooses another Pokémon he has never used before, his Tauros, in his lineup for the championship match.
** In the same vein in ''Best Wishes'' Ash's new rival Trip easily beats Ash's Pikachu with his Snivy. He lampshades how easy it was to beat Pikachu but the audience knows that Pikachu wasn't up for a battle because earlier in the episode, Pikachu was zapped by Zekrom and couldn't use his electric or speed attacks severely making Pikachu having a huge handicap. While Trip doesn't believe Ash when Ash explains that in their next battle, Ash clearly tells Trip that he got lucky their first battle.

* Anakin and Luke Skywalker in ''Franchise/StarWars'': Anakin flies a pod racer perfectly, even though full grown aliens crash and die all the time in the races. He then promptly gets into a starfighter that he's never seen before in his life and manages to fly it well enough to not only kick ass, but blow up a massive spaceship. Later in his life, while rescuing the Chancellor, he successfully lands planetside a ship whose controls he's never seen before, which is not designed for atmospheric , not designed for human pilots, has broken gravity generators, is missing about half its mass, and is on fire. He sticks the landing (right outside the Jedi temple, having a whole planet of landing sites to choose from) and walks away from the smoking wreckage. Luke, meanwhile, has at least some excuse. The Incom T-65 X-wing setup is almost a carbon copy of the Skyhopper's, which is a small air speeder that Luke practiced with throughout the majority of his life on Tattooine, allowing Luke to adjust fairly quickly.
** Not sure Anakin qualifies with Podracing-The movie makes it pretty clear he's been doing it for a while and the race he wins to free himself is, forget winning, one of the first races he's ever finished!
*** Qui-gon also strongly implies it's due to his Jedi reflexes that he's so good at it.
* A rather humorous DoubleSubversion occurs in ''Film/TrueLies''. Helen Tasker, a civilian held hostage by the BigBad Arabian terrorists, picks up a fully automatic submachinegun for the first time... and promptly fumbles it. However, in the act of fumbling, the gun bounces down the stairs in slow motion, randomly firing and killing all but one of the terrorists.
** This is a more extreme version of Susan Calvin successfully shooting a machine gun with her eyes closed in ''I, Robot''.

* Literature/TheWheelOfTime. In the first book, Rand gets a blademaster's sword and starts learning how to use it. In the second book, he kills a ''real'' blademaster (one who earned a blademaster's sword by ''becoming a blademaster'') in a fair fight.

* In Gordon Korman's ''Beware the Fish'', Bruno and Boots slipped a cold remedy created by school genius Elmer Drimsdale into the sports coach's energy drink. It reacted badly with the citric acid and mimicked intoxication, and the only way Bruno, Boots and Elmer could keep the coach from wandering over to the girls' school across the road was by agreeing to play poker for toothpicks with him. Elmer won all the toothpicks within the first half-hour, which Bruno termed "Beginner's luck."
* Gregor from ''Literature/TheUnderlandChronicles'' seems to get lucky a lot when fighting, even though he's not the brightest. Somewhat justified in that [[spoiler: he's a [[TheBerserker rager]].]]
** {{Lampshaded}} in ''Gregor and the Code of Claw'', when Gregor realizes that if [[spoiler: his [[TheBerserker rager skills]] fail him, he's just a twelve-year-old kid who's had a few sword lessons, and therefore in big trouble.]]

* Gordon Freeman (of the ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series). Who knew scientists knew how to operate firearms?
** To be fair, he's given a training course on how to use an MP-5 as part of his HEV suit qualification. The people running Black Mesa must be CrazyPrepared.

* The {{Nasuverse}} has several examples. ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' gives us Shirou, who's been admittedly training for 8 years so hard it could nearly kill him... except he does it ''wrong'' and therefore it was pointless. By the end of the route he's generally taking on Servants 1v1 and winning. Shiki in VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} is even more ridiculous, killing the 1000 year old Nero Chaos and 800 year old Roa, both of whom were supposed to be unkillable. With a small pocket knife, the only weapon he has any proficiency for at all.
** Shiki is a bit of a strange case. He has a power that can kill anything including abstract concepts such as invincibility itself, as well as a SuperpoweredEvilSide that is vastly more competent than he is and seems to be somewhat more than human.

* Seems to be the explanation for the successes of, if not Scarlett, then at least for Harold and Clancy in ''PlusEV''.

* Subverted in ''FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids'' when the gang is talked into betting on a horse at the track and he wins. Creator/BillCosby notes, "Beginner's Luck," to the audience. Suddenly, there is an announcement that the gang's horse is disqualified, which nullifies the gang's winning while a stunned Cosby notes "That has got to be the shortest streak of Beginner's Luck in ''history''!

* Often happens in {{poker}}, since beginners almost always [[StrategySchmategy don't know anything]] about poker strategy and play as they like. So, they're a) hard to estimate and b) also hard to bluff. Poker is still partly luck-based, so any beginner has a chance to beat the best poker players in the world. (If you're playing against a single opponent without a betting limit, simply betting all your chips immediately at the beginning of every hand - without even looking at your cards - will give you about a one in three chance to win a match against anyone.)

* When it comes to playing a video game based on fighting, such as ''StreetFighter'', the more experienced player will know all the tricks to every move on every character while someone with little to no experience in the fighting game genre may resort to ButtonMashing. The newbie player may actually win a few rounds against an experienced player this way just because they managed to mash up enough buttons to pull off a series of moves to stop their opponent while the experienced player is frustrated since they can't find an opening to attack in or block against all the spammed attacks. Not all fighting games fall under this and may have counters against players who randomly mashes buttons.

----

** {{Lampshaded}} in Book 5, when Gregor realizes that if [[spoiler: his [[TheBerserker rager skills]] fail him, he's just a twelve-year-old kid who's had a few sword lessons, and therefore in big trouble.]]

* Anakin and Luke Skywalker in ''StarWars'': Anakin flies a pod racer perfectly, even though full grown aliens crash and die all the time in the races. He then promptly gets into a starfighter that he's never seen before in his life and manages to fly it well enough to not only kick ass, but blow up a massive spaceship. Later in his life, while rescuing the Chancellor, he successfully lands planetside a ship whose controls he's never seen before, which is not designed for atmospheric , not designed for human pilots, has broken gravity generators, is missing about half its mass, and is on fire. He sticks the landing (right outside the Jedi temple, having a whole planet of landing sites to choose from) and walks away from the smoking wreckage. Luke, meanwhile, has at least some excuse. The Incom T-65 X-wing setup is almost a carbon copy of the Skyhopper's, which is a small air speeder that Luke practiced with throughout the majority of his life on Tattooine, allowing Luke to adjust fairly quickly.

* In ''[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]'', Ash's very first matchup in the [[TournamentArc Indigo League]], he decided to use a Pokémon that has had no experience in battling before: his Krabby. Krabby proceeded to evolve into Kingler and swiftly gives Ash his first win in the tournament. [[CallBack Brought up again]] in "''Hello Pummelo''", where Ash chooses another Pokémon he has never used before, his Tauros, in his lineup for the championship match.

%%[[folder:Live-TV]]

%%[[folder:Religion and Mythology]]
%%[[/folder]]

* Misaki in ''KidouTenshiAngelicLayer'' is known as the "Miracle Rookie", beating her opponents with the simple power of PowerCopying and [[TheMessiah friend-magnetism]] when she's barely picked up an Angel. An interesting example because not only is this a game rather than world-saving heroics, it's just that, a ''game'', not SeriousBusiness - at least in the manga. (Even in the anime, Misaki [[CavalierCompetitor doesn't treat it nearly as seriously as others do]].)

* Gordon Freeman (of the ''{{Half-Life}}'' series). Who knew scientists knew how to operate firearms?

* Justified in ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', where, near at the end of the game, you discover that [[spoiler: you are Darth Revan with an almost destroyed memory, and thus your skills were there, you just had to awake them once again]]

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': ''FireWarrior'', the main character, Kais, tears through an enemy base, takes down a helicopter(equivalent) with nothing but a pair of rifles, rescues the Ethereal, almost singlehandedly stymies a boarding attempt on his ship, fights off entire squads of [[SuperSoldier Space Marines]], fights off ''Corrupted'' Space Marines, takes down a HumongousMecha, and destroys a Greater Daemon... all during his first battle.

* Subverted in ''FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids'' when the gang is talked into betting on a horse at the track and he wins. BillCosby notes, "Beginner's Luck," to the audience. Suddenly, there is an announcement that the gang's horse is disqualified, which nullifies the gang's winning while a stunned Cosby notes "That has got to be the shortest streak of Beginner's Luck in ''history''!