History Main / InexplicablyAwesome

* Ahti in ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' is seemingly a ordinary janitor, but his BluntMetaphorsTrauma way of speaking is the most normal thing about him. When Jesse first runs into him, he directs her to an elevator that wasn't there before (in a place where his own portrait had once hung) and offhandedly [[InnerMonologueConversation responds to her internal monologue]]. Later documents shows that the FBC, a government agency dedicated to explaining the unexplainable, can't make heads or tails of him or even keep him out of restricted areas. [[spoiler:During the final levels, he appears during Jesse's BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind to offer moral support. Various symbols and events connected with him throughout the game imply he's a Finnish sea god or an avatar of the Oldest House itself, but this is never made fully clear.]]

** As of "The Stone", her history has been revealed in flashback: [[spoiler:she's been around almost as long as the Earth itself, and most of the time in which she wasn't encased in rock has been spent wandering the planet or, more recently, teaching and guiding others.]] Even so, Jones outright says that [[spoiler:she doesn't know what she is.]]

* Ahti in ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' is seemingly a ordinary janitor, but his BluntMetaphorsTrauma way of speaking is the most normal thing about him. When Jesse first runs into him, he directs her to an elevator that wasn't there before (in a place where his own portrait had once hung) and offhandedly responds to her internal monologue. Later documents shows that the FBC, a government agency dedicated to explaining the unexplainable, can't make heads or tails of him or even keep him out of restricted areas. [[spoiler:During the final levels, he appears during Jesse's BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind to offer moral support. Various symbols and events connected with him throughout the game imply he's a Finnish sea god or an avatar of the Oldest House itself, but this is never made fully clear.]]

* ''WebAnimation/LlamasWithHats'': Carl is a villainous example. Seemingly just [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a talking llama with a hat]], he's somehow able to acquire nuclear weapons, topple foreign governments, create live dragons out of the flesh of his victims and open rifts in the fabric of space time to mutilate alternate-universe babies. [[LampshadeHanging Even Carl himself wasn't sure how he pulled off that last one.]]

* ''WebAnimation/LlamasWithHats'': Carl is a villainous example. Seemingly just a slightly unhinged talking llama, he's somehow able to acquire nuclear weapons, topple foreign governments, create live dragons out of the flesh of his victims and open rifts in the fabric of space time to mutilate alternate-universe babies. [[Lampshade Hanging Even Carl himself wasn't sure how he pulled off that last one.]]

* It is never explained where any of [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual the Supers]] from ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' came from, whether their powers depend on individual circumstance, artificial enhancement from the same WeirdScience, if they are a SuperiorSpecies that evolved from humans naturally or some kind of WhenThePlanetsAlign situation. The only supers whose powers are explained are Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack, and ''they'' have powers because ''their parents'' have powers.

* Flemeth of the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series until the third game shed some light on her. She's an immortal shapeshifting witch on a ''completely'' different power level than anyone else in the setting, can identify world-changing heroes on sight, and no-one knows quite what she is; not the escaped slave from TheMagocracy, not the possessed mage, not even her own daughter. The fact that she has planted several ''fake'' backstories for herself in folklore and intentionally drops self-contradictory hints doesn't help. The third game gives an answer while bringing up even more questions. [[spoiler:The demon said to have possessed Flemeth in legend was not a demon, but the remains of the elven goddess of love and justice. Now the question is, what were the elven gods?]]

* ''VideoGame/{{OFF}}'' leaves a lot of things about many of the characters in the game mysterious, but Zacharie is easily the most mysterious of them all. He's [[MetaGuy completely aware that he's in a video game,]] and the player eventually finds out that he owns the amusement park in Zone 2 (and a book can be found in the same zone about a hero slaying a monster, with the hero somewhat implied to be Zacharie.) He's rubbed shoulders with a lot of characters, including the Judge (who he's on a first name basis with and is even willing to take over for him for a while when [[spoiler: he's grieving over the loss of his brother]],) Hugo (who has taken a huge liking to him in the past) and BonusBoss Sugar. There's also no explanation given as to why he's willing to repeatedly sell things to the Batter [[spoiler: when he's planning to basically destroy the world.]]

* Claire Stanfield and Graham Specter of ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''; Claire's explaination of attributing his [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower incredible strength]] to his time as a circus acrobat only explains ''half'' of the things he has done so far, while Graham's unmatched skill with his wrench and similar strength to Claire's go unexplained. Then [[WordOfGod Narita states]] that [[TheDreaded Ronny Schiatto]] is probably the ''only one'' who can rival Claire in raw power. At the very least Ronny has [[spoiler: [[TheOmnipotent many]] [[EldritchAbomination explanations]] for his overwhelming power, yet somehow [[BadassNormal Claire]] can give him '''trouble'''.]]
* The Imagine Breaker of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' fame; it merely ables its wielder [[AntiMagic the ability to dispel and negate supernatural powers, such as Magic and Esper abilities]]. InAWorld where magic and superpowers reign supreme, a power which perfectly counters said powers was very much a GameBreaker for both Sides. Its ''very existence'' is one of the series' greatest mysteries; a small handful of individuals know it exists, even fewer of them are well-aware of its origins ([[ShroudedInMyth which are dubious at best]]), an extremely rare few are capable of wielding its full potential, and whatever [[TheChessmaster Aleister Crowley]] has planned for it, and its current host [[TheHero Kamijou Touma]] is anyone's guess.

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' is a mostly-realistic series outside of its supernatural elements. Shizuo and his SuperStrength are not among those supernatural elements. The causes of Shizuo's strength clearly would ''not'' work for the human body, and yet he explicitly ''is'' purely human, and he's stronger than any of the supernatural creatures.

* LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya, for now, at least. The light novels look like they're going to explain where she got her powers from.

* Yoda in ''Franchise/StarWars''. Every single alien in the cantina scene of ''A New Hope'' has been given a name, a species, and an extensive backstory in the ExpandedUniverse, but we don't even know the name of Yoda's species (it's known that there are others of his species, but they're extremely rare[[note]]Only two others have been seen so far in canon, and an additional three in ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' (one of whom had originally been intended to be a depiction of a 200 year old Yoda before this was retconned). Every known member of the species has been a powerful Jedi, indicating either that the entire species is innately Force-sensitive or that only very powerful members ever venture out from wherever they came from into the larger galaxy.[[/note]] and just as mysterious as Yoda is). He's just some little old green guy who happens to be the most powerful Jedi who ever lived. And George Lucas intends it to stay that way; Yoda's history is officially off-limits. The novel ''[[Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy I, Jedi]]'' mentions via a Holocron that significant elements of Yoda's backstory are known (at least to some) in-universe, but while the book's first-person narrator says that the tale of how Yoda became a Jedi was very interesting he shares absolutely none of that story with the readers. Lucas never explained why it was so important for Yoda's past to be mysterious, other than that being mysterious is part of the point of his character.

* The Imagine Breaker of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' fame; it merely ables its wielder [[AntiMagic the ability to dispel and negate supernatural powers, such as Magic and Esper abilities]]. InAWorld where magic and superpowers reign supreme, a power which perfectly counters said powers was very much a GameBreaker for both Sides. Its ''very existence'' is one of the series' greatest mysteries; only a handful are well-aware of its origins (which are dubious at best), an extremely few are capable of wielding its full potential, and whatever [[TheChessmaster Aleister Crowley]] has planned for it, and its current [[TheHero Kamijou Touma]] is anyone's guess.

* The Imagine Breaker of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' fame; it merely ables its wielder [[AntiMagic the ability to dispel and negate supernatural powers, such as Magic and Esper abilities]]. InAWorld where magic and superpowers reign supreme, a power which perfectly counters said powers was very much a GameBreaker for both Sides. It's also an interesting variation of the trope, being a ''mere weapon/ability'', which isn't really common within the standards of the trope, and it having very slight hints of a personality (very clingy, chooses the ideal wielder of its time based on certain criteria). Only a handful are aware of its origins, very few are capable of using it to its full potential, and its existence as a sentient entity (and thus in a way is its own character) which chooses its wielder, raises the question just ''how many'' had possessed it in the past before [[TheHero Kamijou Touma]] came along.

* [[Webcomic/GirlGenius Othar Tryggvassen,]] [[GentlemanAdventurer GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!!!]] The man has survived falling out of airships ([[RunningGag several times,]] always appearing back on the airship within a few panels), escaped handcuffs, and got back up after getting hit with what should have broken his back (which, admittedly, he states are the result of his [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman "hero's trousers."]]) So far, the only explanation offered is "he's a hero, it's in the job description."

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'': Bamm-Bamm's SuperStrength went completely unexplained. When his biological parents appeared they were perfectly normal.
* The twins from ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'' have RealityWarper powers, affect the plot in ways that border on DeusExMachina to DiabolusExMachina and almost never interact directly with the other characters, but there doesn't seem to be any explanation at all as to why they can do these things. They don't even seem to be Superjail employees or inmates and don't seem to have any specific reason for messing with the jail (besides maybe hating the Warden which is sometimes sort of implied). In the second season however it is revealed that [[spoiler: they're alien pranksters who came to Earth on a year abroad but had too much fun in Superjail to go back to their family.]]

* Ironically enough, ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' hero Amuro Ray is this. He's a Newtype, a new breed of psychic human in the ''Gundam'' universe postulated to come about as result of humans evolving to adapt to life in space. The UC era's strongest Newtypes, like Paptimus Scirocco and Haman Kahn (both of whom journeyed beyond the asteroid belt into the farther reaches of space), were born in space, as are most of the other Newtype heroes like [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Kamille Bidan]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Judau Ashta]]. But Amuro, a Newtype of sufficient strength to estabish a PsychicLink with the entire White Base crew at one point, was born on ''Earth'', and only moves to space as a teenager. He's average as Newtypes go, but him even being a Newtype at all contradicts everything we're told about them.

** Hashirama Senju - the First Hokage, was widely considered to not only be the strongest ninja in the Fire Nation, [[WorldsStrongestMan but the strongest ninja in the world]]. He had a unique set of skills that were very distinct from his brother Tobirama Senju - such as a Wood Style kekkei genkai, and an impressive HealingFactor without the use of hand seals, rivalling even Tsunade's Creation Rebirth - Strength of a Hundred [[note]]Both the Wood Style and Hashirama's healing factor are only accessible to other ninja that have ''his cells''. Yamato, Danzo, Obito and Madara received either or both abilities via experimentation[[/note]]. Not even [[spoiler:being the reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths' youngest son]] explains how exceptional he was as a ninja.

* Near everything in the Wiki/SCPFoundation, because [=SCPs=] have to be inexplicable to be [=SCPs=]. Some of the staff also qualify, most notably Dr. Clef, who has [[StaringDownCthulhu stared down]] [[OmnicidalManiac SCP]]-[[PerpetualMotionMonster 682]] and has joked about being a RealityWarper and/or {{Satan}}. Well, the ''Satan'' thing was ''definitely'' a joke, anyway. Probably.

* Most bizarre entities in ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' were explained meticulously, including the [[{{Precursors}} Great Beings]] who were the embodiments of this trope and were only elaborated on [[WordOfGod by one of the writers after the franchise ended]]. Some were left vague, like Annona and the Energized Protodermis Entity, both akin to ancient {{eldritch abomination}}s who were responsible for setting the story in motion but had almost no backstories of their own. And then there's Kapura, a mere oddball [[{{Hobbits}} Matoran]] villager who can [[{{Teleportation}} teleport]] by "walking slow to be fast", as well as burp and fart smoke. His bodily functions are just gags but ''can'' make sense in-universe if one bothers to think it over. His "slow-walk" technique though was one of the eccentricities invented by concept creator Bob Thompson only to make the franchise feel "quirky". He never explained how it worked and why Kapura was the only one to do it, not even to his co-writers, who decided not to touch the matter after Bob left Franchise/{{LEGO}}. All that's known is that it isn't magic.

** On a less galactic scale, this also applies to the elite few mutants born before the atomic age such as ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}}, Selene, Exodus and the Externals. For decades it was strongly implied that [[ILoveNuclearPower the advent of nuclear power was responsible for the emergence of mutants]], hence their early sobriquet of "the children of the atom". While this has since been downplayed as the trope has declined in popularity, even in recent years it has been suggested that the detonation of atomic bombs triggered an explosion in mutant birth rates. And yet, the mutants above and a few others were born well before the atomic age, and several of them have immortality as part of their power sets as well.

* The title character of ''Series/GhostWriter'' is an amnesiac ghost who communicates by manipulating text to form messages. His full backstory, however, is never so much as hinted at.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'''s Guinan. By all appearances, she's nothing more than a middle-aged human woman with some [[CoolHat excellent hats]]...who's old enough to have been married 23 times, powerful enough to intimidate Q, perceptive enough to sense changes in the fabric of space-time, and knowledgeable enough to know about alien races that the Federation has never made contact with. And yet, she chooses to spend her life tending bar on the ''Enterprise'', usually dispensing life advice to neurotic Starfleet officers. The only clues we ever get about her background are that she's from "a race of Listeners" who were almost entirely assimilated by the Borg and that she's spent some time in both [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E26S6E1TimesArrow 19th century San Francisco]] and [[Film/StarTrekGenerations the Nexus]].

** In the 1997 light novel ''LightNovel/PocketMonstersTheAnimation'' it's explained that being able to be stored and transported as data [[{{Sizeshifter}} is a property of the Pokémon themselves instead of technology]] and [[BlackBox nobody's 100% sure how it works]]. In theory, they could be housed in a glass case instead of a Poké Ball. This is never explained, but later confirmed to still be canon (and not just EarlyInstallmentWeirdness) in ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus''.

** Tom Bombadil appears for exactly one segment of the first book [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment which has absolutely no impact on the surrounding plot]], his powers have no clear (if any) limitations, and most notably the One Ring has ''zero'' effect on him whatsoever. [[Creator/JRRTolkien Tolkien]] was deliberately vague as to his origins, so that some mysteries might remain in the world. It's outright stated that he was the first being in Eä, and that he will be the last. This means that when Morgoth and the other Valar descended from the Halls of Ilúvatar into the world ''he was already there.''[[note]]From a [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist]] perspective this is literally true. Tom and the other characters from his land were originally created as a stand-alone set of fairy stories before being incorporated into the new Middle Earth setting wholesale decades later.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' and its sequels (''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'', ''VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes'', ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII''). If you're lucky, you'll get a brief snippet of vague backstory for your next assassin, but other than that there's no explanation for the insane mailman superhero with the crotch laser (who even [[spoiler: comes back as two separate characters in the sequel despite (or due to) ''being bisected'']]), the Japanese guy with the beam naginata who can summon laser dragons, the unstable baseball bat-wielding ballerina with an army of gimps, and many other characters. Even the UAA itself is strange and incomprehensible; [[spoiler:somehow Sylvia managed to dupe at least 11 dangerous killers (and one loser otaku with a beam katana) into believing they were part of a fictional organization and get them to kill each other. But then in the sequel it's suddenly a real organization again.]] ''Travis Strikes Again'' follows it up by having the aforementioned ballerina's drunken baseball player father come to avenge her death, at least until he learns of a cursed video game console that can bring her back to life ([[ItMakesSenseInContext which actually kinda makes sense, long story]]). [[spoiler:Subverted there, as the DLC ''finally'' explains their backstory.]]

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' and [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle its sequel]]. If you're lucky, you'll get a brief snippet of vague backstory for your next assassin, but other than that there's no explanation for the insane mailman superhero with the crotch laser (who even [[spoiler: comes back as two separate characters in the sequel despite (or due to) ''being bisected'']]), the Japanese guy with the beam naginata who can summon laser dragons, the unstable baseball bat-wielding ballerina with an army of gimps, and many other characters. Even the UAA itself is strange and incomprehensible; [[spoiler:somehow Silvia managed to dupe at least 11 dangerous killers (and one loser otaku with a beam katana) into believing they were part of a fictional organization and get them to kill each other. But then in the sequel it's suddenly a real organization again.]] ''VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes'' follows it up by having the aforementioned ballerina's drunken baseball player father come to avenge her death, at least until he learns of a cursed video game console that can bring her back to life ([[ItMakesSenseInContext which actually kinda makes sense, long story]]). [[spoiler:Subverted there, as the DLC ''finally'' explains their backstory.]]

* Rak [[AwesomeMcCoolname Wraithraiser]] from ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod''. How did he get here in the first place? He swam through [[AppliedPhlebotinum Shinsu]], that's all we know. He is [[BoisterousBruiser loud]], [[LargeHam theatric]], [[TheHeart surprisingly intuitive]] and [[CloserToEarth has an inspiring, simple mindset]] that can change people in an instant, even though they are a [[BookDumb lot smarter than him]]. He kicks several kinds of ass and wields a giant spear, making him a literal Lancer for protagonist Twenty-Fifth Bam. Any obstacle he faces he overcomes within days, if there is something he wants, he'll get it and there is no-one greater in his mind than him, as can be seen in his countless {{Badass Boast}}s. Yet we know almost nothing about how Rak came to be, but it's okay, since he is badass enough to be named [=ManGator=] by fans. And this is the point where we should mention that he is a 4 m (12 ft) tall bipedal alligator that looks like a reincarnation of Godzilla.