History Main / FalseCrucible

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'': This is the twist of the episode "Failsafe". After the deaths of all the adult superheroes, it's up to the Team to stop an alien invasion. Unfortunately, they all die in the process [[AllForNothing without really accomplishing anything]]. When M'gann, the last of them, finally dies, she wakes up back in Mount Justice with everyone alive and well (physically speaking, at least). Turns out, it was dreamworld simulation devised by the Martian Manhunter that everyone knew about going in, but what they weren't told was that it was a no-win scenario to see how they could handle it. However, M'gann's subconscious disrupted the simulation and partially mindwiped her teammates memories in a state of shock after experiencing the first "causality" of the team, Artemis.

* In ''Manga/LiarGame'', this is the ultimate truth behind [[spoiler:the Liar Game itself]]. The event was set up after a book to try and determine what its final outcome would have been in the final volume that went unpublished due to AuthorExistenceFailure.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'': This is the twist of the episode "Failsafe". After the deaths of all the adult superheroes, it's up to the Team to stop an alien invasion. Unfortunately, they all die in the process [[AllForNothing without really accomplishing anything]]. When M'gann, the last of them, finally dies, she wakes up back in Mount Justice with everyone alive and well (physically speaking, at least). Turns out, it was dreamworld simulation devised by the Martian Manhunter that everyone knew about going in, but what they weren't told was that it was a no-win scenario to see how they could handle it. However, M'gann's psychic powers disrupted the simulation and partially mindwiped her teammates memories in a state of shock after experiencing the first "causality" of the team, Artemis.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'': This is the twist of the episode "Failsafe". After the deaths of all the adult superheroes, it's up to the Team to stop an alien invasion. Unfortunately, they all die in the process [[AllForNothing without really accomplishing anything]]. When M'gann, the last of them, finally dies, she wakes up back in Mount Justice with everyone alive and well. Turns out, it was dreamworld simulation devised by the Martian Manhunter that everyone knew about going in, but what they weren't told was that it was a no-win scenario to see how they could handle it. However, M'gann's psychic powers disrupted the simulation and partially mindwiped her teammates memories in a state of shock after experiencing the first "causality" of the team, Artemis.

For example, a mentor arranges for a girl to try seducing the married hero. If he says "no", the obvious right choice, he's told he passed. If he says "yes", he's failed and the girl doesn't sleep with him. ("Danger," clearly, is in the eye of the beholder.)

* In an Creator/IsaacAsimov's story "Ideas Die Hard", three men think they are being sent to the moon. They are informed that every probe that circles to the dark side of the moon vanishes. They get increasingly paranoid and neurotic, then snap when they see that the dark side of the moon [[spoiler:is a wood-and-canvas stage prop]]. Having their image of the universe shattered, they undergo nervous breakdowns. It turns out that the entire trip was a simulation and [[spoiler:they didn't have the budget to make anything appropriate for the dark side simulation]]. The crew is still sent to the squirrel farm, and the guys running the project are very nervous.
* The short story ''The New Prime'' by Creator/JackVance has five seemingly unrelated plots with different characters on different worlds, each facing a situation that in one way or another tests their character. The sixth ties it together--[[spoiler:The ruler of the galaxy has been challenged as unworthy, and created the tests to show that he has the necessary skills for the job in greater sum than his opponents. With his memories wiped, he passed each test, but fails anyway, because the judges realize none of his tests dealt with traits like compassion. Instead, they give the title to a fellow who failed all but one test through unsuccessful attempts to resolve conflicts without violence.]]

* In a ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' story, Team Kimba is sent into a sim run where almost all of them end up getting killed. The point was to teach them the lesson "You can't always win, and you need to stop thinking that you're indestructible" but they ended up taking away the lesson "As long as you have the right intel, you can always win." Sure enough, they try the sim AGAIN... and ace it. Repeatedly. [[spoiler:But end up learning ALessonInDefeat later on, anyway.]]

The protagonist is put through a grueling test of character, but it was all a set up. There was never any real danger.

SpeculativeFiction would use [[MasterOfIllusion magical illusions]] or [[VirtualWorlds virtual reality]] to trick the character. The mentor might even shapeshift.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' TOS episode "Where is Everybody?". A man suddenly finds himself walking down a road, with no idea of who he is or what he's doing there. The TwistEnding is that he's a U.S. Air Force officer taking part in an experiment to determine if he could handle being alone in space on a trip to the Moon. He finally started to GoMadFromTheIsolation.

* Inu no Taisho did a very long-term version of this in ''Manga/InuYasha'' when he presented his son Sesshoumaru with [[HealingShiv Tenseiga]] instead of the powerful weapon that Sesshoumaru wanted. Sesshoumaru spends upwards of fifty years claiming he has no use for a sword that can't kill anyone, but when his anger and sorrow over [[spoiler:Kagura's]] death prompts Tenseiga to gain the capability to be used as a weapon, he learns that his father gave him Tenseiga in order for him to learn to feel compassion for others.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Alan E. Nourse's short story "Nightmare Brother". A man undergoes a series of nightmarish encounters with deadly opponents, including incredible pain. At the end it's revealed that the whole situation was a virtual reality hallucination to train him to deal with aliens who drive anyone who meets them insane. The test lasts the entire story and the protagonist doesn't know the test is going on while it's occurring - his memories were mostly suppressed while the testing was going on.

[[AC:{{Live-Action TV}}]]

!!!Secret Training - Unlike testing, the idea is not to find out what the subject is capable of, but to teach them a lesson.

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* Inu no Taisho did a very long-term version of this in ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'' when he presented his son Sesshoumaru with [[HealingShiv Tenseiga]] instead of the powerful weapon that Sesshoumaru wanted. Sesshoumaru spends upwards of fifty years claiming he has no use for a sword that can't kill anyone, but when his anger and sorrow over [[spoiler:Kagura's]] death prompts Tenseiga to gain the capability to be used as a weapon, he learns that his father gave him Tenseiga in order for him to learn to feel compassion for others.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:{{Web Original}}]]
* In a WhateleyUniverse story, Team Kimba is sent into a sim run where almost all of them end up getting killed. The point was to teach them the lesson 'You can't always win, and you need to stop thinking that you're indestructible' but they ended up taking away the lesson 'As long as you have the right intel, you can always win'.
** Sure enough, they try the sim AGAIN...and ace it. Repeatedly. [[spoiler: But end up learning ALessonInDefeat later on, anyway.]]

[[AC:{{Western Animation}}]]

* In Creator/GregEgan's ''Permutation City'' the initial protagonist repeatedly attempts to download his intelligence into a computer, but the downloaded intelligence always kills itself, so he (the original, human one) brainwashes himself to believe he's one of the downloaded copies, to get a better appreciation of what it's like for them. At least, this is what his devoted girlfriend explains to him when he [[spoiler: wakes up after 'deleting' himself. After he repeats the test a few times, she ceases to exist...]]

* In ''Manga/LiarGame'', this is the ultimate truth behind [[spoiler:the Liar Game itself]]. The event was set up after a book to try and determine what its final outcome would have been in the final volume that went unpublished due to the DeathOfTheAuthor.

* TheGameNeverStopped (civilian) - the protagonists think the fake test has ended. It hasn't.
* HiddenPurposeTest - the protagonists know they're being tested, but not the true purpose of the test.

* SecretTest - the protagonist doesn't even know they're being tested.
* SecretTestOfCharacter - when the secret test is of their moral fibre.
* TrainingAccident (military) - the unit is taken by surprise as their training is interrupted by an emergency.
* UnwinnableTrainingSimulation - the protagonists know they're being tested, but they can't win.

!!!Secret Training - unlike testing, the idea is not to find out what the subject is capable of, but to teach them a lesson.

* Creator/AgathaChristie wrote a series of stories around Mr. Parker Pyne, an expert on human nature who advertised that he could make anybody happy for a fee. Many of his clients, after forking over the fee, found themselves involved in unusual and sometimes dangerous events that, unbeknownst to them, were staged by Parker Pyne in order to supply the experience or mental outlook that would help them to find happiness.

* The short story ''The New Prime'' by Creator/JackVance has five seemingly unrelated plots with different characters on different worlds, each facing a situation that in one way or another tests their character. The sixth ties it together--[[spoiler:The KingOfAllCosmos has been challenged as unworthy, and created the tests to show that he has the necessary skills for the job in greater sum than his opponents. With his memories wiped, he passed each test, but fails anyway, because the judges realize none of his tests dealt with traits like compassion. Instead, they give the title to a fellow who failed all but one test through unsuccessful attempts to resolve conflicts without violence.]]

* Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Homer The Great", during Homer's initiation to the Stonecutters. Homer's trials include repeated paddlings and a blindfolded leap of faith that's 2 feet high.

* The short story ''The New Prime'' by Jack Vance has five seemingly unrelated plots with different characters on different worlds, each facing a situation that in one way or another tests their character. The sixth ties it together--[[spoiler:The KingOfAllCosmos has been challenged as unworthy, and created the tests to show that he has the necessary skills for the job in greater sum than his opponents. With his memories wiped, he passed each test, but fails anyway, because the judges realize none of his tests dealt with traits like compassion. Instead, they give the title to a fellow who failed all but one test through unsuccessful attempts to resolve conflicts without violence.]]

* Creator/GregEgan's ''Permutation City'': the initial protagonist repeatedly attempts to download his intelligence into a computer, but the downloaded intelligence always kills itself, so he (the original, human one) brainwashes himself to believe he's one of the downloaded copies, to get a better appreciation of what it's like for them. At least... That's what his devoted girlfriend explains to him when he [[spoiler: wakes up after 'deleting' himself. After he repeats the test a few times, she ceases to exist...]]

* The short story "The New Prime" has five seemingly unrelated plots with different characters on different worlds, each facing a situation that in one way or another tests their character. The sixth ties it together--[[spoiler:The KingOfAllCosmos has been challenged as unworthy, and created the tests to show that he has the necessary skills for the job in greater sum than his opponents. With his memories wiped, he passed each test, but fails anyway, because the judges realize none of his tests dealt with traits like compassion. Instead, they give the title to a fellow who failed all but one test through unsuccessful attempts to resolve conflicts without violence.]]

* David R. Palmer's novel ''Threshold'' features a man forced to travel across the surface of an alien planet to rescue his girlfriend, learning various psionic abilities in the process. At the end, he learns that the whole situation was a set up to make him learn the abilities. However, the trope ends up getting subverted, because the lesson ''fails'', and he's unable to utilize the abilities. While the aliens learn their abilities through hopelessness and comatose depression, humans need homicidal rage.
* Creator/GregEgan's ''Permutation City'': the protagonist repeatedly attempts to download his intelligence into a computer, but the downloaded intelligence always kills itself, so he (the original, human one) brainwashes himself to believe he's one of the downloaded copies, to get a better appreciation of what it's like for them.

** SecretTestOfCharacter - when the secret test is of their moral fibre.
** TrainingAccident (military) and
** TheGameNeverStopped (civilian) - the protagonists think the fake test has ended. It hasn't.
* CandidCameraPrank - The protagonist is placed in an unusual or frightening situation to see how they'll react, with the result being filmed for entertainment purposes.
* LeaveYourQuestTest - The hero is offered something they want in exchange for abandoning TheCall.
* UnwinnableTrainingSimulation - the protagonists know they're being tested, but they can't win

!!Examples that don't fit any subtype above. Please feel free to put any of these on YKTTW.

!!Person/people being tested originally knew they were being tested, but for some reason don't remember it during the test.

* Alan E. Nourse's short story ''Nightmare Brother''. A man undergoes a series of nightmarish encounters with deadly opponents, including incredible pain. At the end it's revealed that the whole situation was a virtual reality hallucination to train him to deal with aliens who drive anyone who meets them insane. The test lasts the entire story and the protagonist doesn't know the test is going on while it's occurring - his memories were mostly suppressed while the testing was going on.
* In an Creator/IsaacAsimov's story ''Ideas Die Hard'', three men think they are being sent to the moon. They are informed that every probe that circles to the dark side of the moon vanishes. They get increasingly paranoid and neurotic, then snap when they see that the dark side of the moon [[spoiler:is a wood-and-canvas stage prop]]. Having their image of the universe shattered, they undergo nervous breakdowns. It turns out that the entire trip was a simulation and [[spoiler:they didn't have the budget to make anything appropriate for the dark side simulation]]. The crew is still sent to the squirrel farm, and the guys running the project are very nervous.
* The short story ''The New Prime'' has five seemingly unrelated plots with different characters on different worlds, each facing a situation that in one way or another tests their character. The sixth ties it together--[[spoiler:The KingOfAllCosmos has been challenged as unworthy, and created the tests to show that he has the necessary skills for the job in greater sum than his opponents. With his memories wiped, he passed each test, but fails anyway, because the judges realize none of his tests dealt with traits like compassion. Instead, they give the title to a fellow who failed all but one test through unsuccessful attempts to resolve conflicts without violence.]]

!!Secret Training - unlike testing, the idea is not to find out what the subject is capable of, but to teach them a lesson.

* Inu no Taisho did a very long-term version of this in ''{{Inuyasha}}'' when he presented his son Sesshoumaru with [[HealingShiv Tenseiga]] instead of the powerful weapon that Sesshoumaru wanted. Sesshoumaru spends upwards of fifty years claiming he has no use for a sword that can't kill anyone, but when his anger and sorrow over [[spoiler:Kagura's]] death prompts Tenseiga to gain the capability to be used as a weapon, he learns that his father gave him Tenseiga in order for him to learn to feel compassion for others.

* David R. Palmer's novel ''Threshold''. A man is forced to travel across the surface of an alien planet to rescue his girlfriend, learning various psionic abilities in the process. At the end, he learns that the whole situation was a set up to make him learn the abilities.
** Kind of a subversion. The man really ''is'' being continually exposed to life threatening danger (the testers can set up the threats, but can't really stop them in time and are counting on being able to clone the man if necessary), he utterly ''fails'' to learn the critical abilities (his girlfriend casually teaches him the psionic stuff before leaving Earth, but the prerequisite for magic is unteachable) until the test is over and the testers decide to kill him off and try the clone plan, and it turns out that the whole year or so spent in transit (it's a very large planet) could have been avoided... this "training technique" doesn't work correctly with the human psyche (their difficulty with successfully manipulating humans was why they were recruiting him in the first place) and being homicidal [[JerkAss jerkasses]] to his face turns out to be the ''key'' to unlocking his potential to use magic. Their species needs hopelessness and comatose depression, humans need homicidal rage.
* GregEgan's ''Permutation City'': the protagonist repeatedly attempts to download his intelligence into a computer, but the downloaded intelligence always kills itself, so he (the original, human one) brainwashes himself to believe he's one of the downloaded copies, to get a better appreciation of what it's like for them.

* Played for laughs in TheSimpsons episode "Homer The Great", during Homer's initiation to the Stonecutters. Homer's trials include repeated paddlings and a blindfolded leap of faith that's 2 feet high.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' TOS episode "Where is Everybody?". A man suddenly finds himself walking down a road, with no idea of who he is or what he's doing there. The KarmicTwistEnding is that he's a U.S. Air Force officer taking part in an experiment to determine if he could handle being alone in space on a trip to the Moon. He finally started to GoMadFromTheIsolation.

* ''TheTwilightZone'' TOS episode "Where is Everybody?". A man suddenly finds himself walking down a road, with no idea of who he is or what he's doing there. The KarmicTwistEnding is that he's a U.S. Air Force officer taking part in an experiment to determine if he could handle being alone in space on a trip to the Moon. He finally started to GoMadFromTheIsolation.

* ''TheTwilightZone'' TOS episode "Where is Everybody?". A man suddenly finds himself walking down a road, with no idea of who he is or what he's doing there. The KarmicTwistEnding is that he's a U.S. Air Force officer taking part in an experiment to determine if he could handle being alone in space on a trip to the Moon. He finally started to hallucinate due to the isolation.

* In ''ThePagemaster'', Richard learns that everything he went through was a test to get him to face his fears.

* Greg Egan's ''Permutation City'': the protagonist repeatedly attempts to download his intelligence into a computer, but the downloaded intelligence always kills itself, so he (the original, human one) brainwashes himself to believe he's one of the downloaded copies, to get a better appreciation of what it's like for them.