"At first, I wanted to add you to my group, but now it's the other way around. I think we're going to help you."
— Telma to Link, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016)
Where the most powerful member is the Naïve Newcomer. In some series, the protagonist starts his adventure by joining a group that's already been in business for a while before the events of the story. This is often to help the audience to relate to the hero more, as like in a Welcome Episode, we're meeting the main ensemble with him. Because the ensemble are already close to each other, but not the protagonist, expect him or her to receive a Chilly Reception.
For when the rookie doesn't become The Leader or the most powerful team member, but still earns their place among the team/cast through a display of might and mettle, see Newcomer Saves the Day. Compare Ensign Newbie. Contrast Team Prima Donna.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Joe Shimamura, the titular Cyborg 009. As the ninth prototype, he's the most recently converted member of the team; while the other eight have all had time to adjust and adapt to what's been done to them, he's literally thrown into the midst of their escape attempt with no idea what's going on and has to be brought to speed on the fly. He also happens to be the most powerful, as the organization learned as they worked. And the later cyborgs just keep getting stronger with each new model...
- Digimon:
- Daisuke Motomiya of Digimon Adventure 02 ("Davis" in the English dub) is a zigzagged example. He was introduced as the first of the new generation to receive a Digimon partner and a Digimental, and even received Taichi's goggles as a blessing and an act of Passing the Torch. Despite this, the show also frequently cast him as a No-Respect Guy and Butt-Monkey and introduced several new members alongside him so he was not the only Naïve Newcomer. Despite this, however, he remains the group's most consistent driving force and their Determinator in chief.
- Takato of Digimon Tamers was the last to get his partner, the last to have it evolve, and the last to learn how to fight, let alone win a fight on its own. However, he seeks to learn as much as he can from Henry and Rika, and they make for a fairly balanced Power Trio. Also, he's the first one to reach Ultimate (Mega in the dub).
- Marcus of Digimon Data Squad was hired by DATS specifically because of this - within less than a day of meeting Agumon, he had already manged to activate his D.N.A. and evolve him, taking down a rampaging Cockatrimon where seasoned agent Yoshi was pretty much useless. Upon witnessing this, Sampson remarked that he absolutely needed someone like Marcus because of his ability to do that so quickly. After some consternation with Thomas, Marcus eventually becomes the de-facto leader of their DATS field team Power Trio.
- Tagiru of Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time. He'd been on the Xros Heart basketball team for a while, but he had no idea that the other two members were part of a different kind of team. He doesn't really act as the leader of the team until the Crisis Crossover finale where Taiki is wounded and the responsibility of joining the other five legendary heroes (including the aforementioned Davis, Marcus and Takato) in combating Quartzmon is up to him.
- Don't Meddle with My Daughter!: Clara is the newest member of N.U.D.E.note , having been with them for about a year by the time the series starts. She's the new "Eighth Wonder" and strives to live up to the original's legacy; not knowing the original was her mother. In fact, she's the only one in the organization who doesn't. Still, despite her naivety and relative inexperience, she's the strongest superheroine they have; making her their best chance against Blowjob.
- Jewelpet Twinkle☆: The protagonist Akari Sakura is the last person to enroll at the magic school; the rest of her classmates have been there for a while already. Nonetheless, at the end of the show, it's her who has become the most powerful and who wins the highest honors.
- Macross Delta: Freyja initially doesn't seem particularly powerful....before managing to rival Mikumo for sheer power despite being a Naïve Newcomer. This becomes a plot point when Freyja is the only singer capable of breaking Mikumo's hold over the galaxy due to Roid's Assimilation Plot, and subsequently does so. For bonus points, Freyja's primary color as part of Walkure is also red.
- In Mission: Yozakura Family, Taiyo becomes the current patriarch of the Yozakura family by marrying Mutsumi. However, his inexperience means that he's often getting pointers from his new siblings while leaving the actual leadership to Mutsumi.
- Deconstructed with Neon Genesis Evangelion's Shinji Ikari. He's the last of the pilots to be recruited and, without any prior experience, performs the allegedly nigh impossible feat of activating one of the titular mechas upon the first try (With even an Artificial Human created specifically for piloting taking over 7 months), quickly catches up to the most experienced fighter in the group, and eventually trumps her. By episode 19, he's a good enough fighter to effortlessly ravage a monster that neither Asuka nor Rei had any chance against, only failing to defeat it because he ran out of power before he could deliver the killing blow. Regardless, his lack of military training left him completely unprepared for the psychological consequences of actual life and death battles, and for all his talent, he has the worst possible personality for the job, being a timid, delicate young boy who breaks out in a panic at the slightest provocation. By the time the show is over, he's a complete nervous wreck waiting to be relieved of his misery. Episode 12 puts it like this:
Random NERV Techie: These readings are incredible! It's like he was born to pilot EVAs.Misato: ...Except that he hates it.
- This can also apply to Ash in Pokémon: The Original Series. He is a beginning trainer just starting his journey when he gathers together his first group of friends, who, incidentally, are experienced Gym Leaders.
- Pretty Cure has three different instances of this trope:
- In HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, the Rookie is Tsubomi (pink) while the Veteran is Yuri (purple). Naturally enough, Tsubomi find it difficult to earn Yuri's respect. Tsubomi is initially called the "weakest Precure in history," and even loses to the first Desertrian.
- In Doki Doki! PreCure, the Rookie is Mana (pink) while the Veteran is MakoPi (purple). It goes the other way from the above example: Mana is quickly proven to be one of the very best pink cure in the history of Precure, enough to surpass MakoPi in several ways. Mana's meteor rookie status is even more reinforced by The Reveal of Jonathan Klondike and Cure Ace sometimes later.
- In HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!, out of the main cast of four, Megumi (pink) is the last to receive her powers, as the others already had theirs before the first episode. However, it is worth noting that Hime (blue) initially was too scared to fight properly, Yuuko's (yellow) powers are best suited for support, and Iona (purple) is a loner who refuses to do anything with Hime. Interestingly enough, with a news program covering all the Precure that are stationed across the globe, it is implicated that Megumi is the final girl in-series to become a Precure period.
- The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World: Togo Asagaki was the last member to join the Kizuna Five, but proved himself the strongest fighter on the team.
- Show by Rock!!: Cyan serves as this for not only Plasmagica, but for everyone else under the Banded Rocking Records label as well. According to Dagger, despite being a newcomer to Midi City and only staying there for a comparatively short time, her Melodisian crystal evolves at a seemingly alarming rate, which is why he wants to steal her away from Plasmagica and put her on the most powerful band in Midi City's history.
- Amu Hinamori of Shugo Chara! is an interesting case: She's the last to join the Guardians, but the first to reach full power.
- The second Tokyo Mew Mew series, Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode, features a protagonist called Berii who replaces the original leader of the Mew Mew girls. Berii has the DNA from two different animal species, unlike the other girls who only have one species per person. She's made the leader of the team as soon as she joins them, even though any other member would have had more experience. For that reason, she's not universally loved by the Mew Mew fandom.
- Zoids: New Century: Bit Cloud was introduced as a drifter who collected scrapped Zoid parts, while the Blitz Team was long since formed for who knows before he joins them. Even though he is inexperienced as a Zoid pilot, Bit proves to the Blitz Team's best pilot. Plus, he's the only one of them that can pilot the Liger Zero, a Zoid that refused to be piloted by anyone else.
Comic Books
- While Captain America is the most famous leader of The Avengers, it's often a surprise to both readers and occasionally other characters that he wasn't a founding member in the core Marvel timeline (he actually didn't join until issue #4). The reader confusion is helped by his being a founding member in most other timelines, such as The Ultimates or in the various animated series and the MCU. Justified, since he honed his skills in World War II and is the most natural leader, despite being a relative newcomer.
- Officially, since the Hulk has trouble playing nice with others 3/4 of the time, the other founders once mentioned that they transferred the official 'Founder' status that the Hulk would normally have to Rogers.
- A few years later, this happens again twice with the team. Though not a rookie, The Wasp was probably the weakest member of the team and especially among the founders, and had never taken the job seriously, but after a Trauma Conga Line that involved her suffering a humiliating abuse from her then-husband Hank Pym (formerly Ant-Man) and their subsequent divorce, she re-committed to the job and became the team's new leader. Despite her inexperience and relatively weak powerset, she went on and Took a Level in Badass and earned her new position. A few years into this, she took a leave of absence, and leadership was passed onto Monica Rambeau, the then-current Captain Marvel, who was also one of the newest and least experienced members of the team, though given she was billed as the most powerful at the time, it seemed like a good idea.
- Dark Times : Kennan is the most mature and innovative youngling in his group (although he still often relies on and defers to the adult Jedi) and has the others ask him for advice despite presumably having spent the least amount of time as a youngling out of them (having been a war refugee recognized by a Jedi recruiter while not much younger than Anakin was during his contested acceptance into the order).
- The early issues of the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) show in an origin story that Princess Sally had been leading a band of Freedom Fighters for a while before she and Sonic first met and he becomes The Hero and the team rallies around him. Then again, Sally still gives Sonic his marching orders apart of the time.
Fan Works
- Avengers: Infinite Wars: While Celeste Morne is a relatively new member of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, she and Doctor Strange are each awarded the status of master of the Sanctums of London and New York respectively after defeating Kaecilius and Karness Muur (although Celeste is an experienced Jedi Shadow even if she's new at practising magic).
- Cyberpunk: Another Daybreak: David rockets up to executive Corpo status practically overnight thanks to becoming Kamen Rider Ichi-gata. But he's utterly out of his depth and needs constant pointers from others for guidance in both the corporate field and his battles as a Kamen Rider.
- Lightning Only Strikes Once: While technically not the most powerful, Wells essentially takes on a leadership role for the other twelve ambassadors when he’s appointed as Skaikru’s Ambassador to the Coalition while Clarke and Lexa are absent. He maintains this authority over the other twelve ambassadors even after Lexa and Clarke return, albeit through a process of explaining everything calmly and rationally until they go along with it; Wells argues that he only fell into the position of leader because Skaikru don’t have a history with the other clans, so nobody resents him for some past slight and thus find it easier to follow his orders.
- In the Gargoyles fic "Maggie of Manhattan
", the mutate Maggie Reed joins the Manhattan Clan rather than staying with the other mutates. Events such as Maggie's independent study of magic lead to her being chosen as the clan's new second-in-command rather than Brooklyn, as Goliath feels that her alternative perspective on their new world and her interest in magic will be useful. As a result, while Goliath is on the World Tour during his visit to Avalon, Maggie takes charge of the clan in his absence.
- My Huntsman Academia: Izuku is instated as the leader of Team MNVW despite having his Aura for just two days at the time. His teammates are all far more experienced than him, particularly Pyrrha Nikos, who is a four-time tournament champion and quite possibly the best fighter in her year. He also has One For All, one of the strongest Semblances in the world and the same Semblance used by the world's greatest Huntsman, Toshinori Yagi.
- Train of Consequences: Invoked. Carter convinces the other Red Rangers to have Cole Evans, who was the leader of the most recent team, is the leader of the mission to stop the Machine Empire, as a way of showing that no matter the amount of experience, a ranger can make the difference.
- War and Peace in Mind: Warren Peace defers to Will Stronghold as leader of their team despite Warren being two years older.
Films — Animation
- Kung Fu Panda 2 has Po the Dragon Warrior, having proven himself, fights with the Furious Five and for all his remaining naivety, he has proven an asset to the team.
Films — Live-Action
- Part of the entire point of Crimson Tide. Lt. Commander Hunter is replacing the USS Alabama's XO, who has appendicitis. Naturally, most of the crew (except for Weps) doesn't really have any sense of loyalty toward him.
- Neo is arguably this trope in The Matrix; he still adheres to the official chain of command where Morpheus and Trinity are his official superiors, but his status as the One grants him a degree of independence, and he takes the lead in Morpheus's rescue in the first film even before his powers have manifested.
- Luke Skywalker joining the rebellion in A New Hope. It should be noted, though, that 90% of his story (that we see) takes place away from the group. He doesn't join the ranks until the end of ANH.
- Features to a degree in Charlie's Angels (2019); Elena Houghlin only becomes an official Angel at the end of the film, but plays an important part in the preceding crisis due to her knowledge of the system the Angels are investigating, offering key information to active Angels Jane Kano and Sabina Wilson.
- Justified in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Even though the Raimi-verse Spider-Man and Webb-verse Spider-Man have more solo experience than the MCU Spider-Man, they still name him commander because he's the only one who has actually worked in a formal team before, and he’s had the most fantastical adventures (including going to space).
- The Reboot Star Trek (2009) has Kirk acting in this role, as he takes command of the Enterprise during a crisis while still officially in the Academy because the official captain (Pike) has been captured and the official first officer (Spock) has been relieved of command due to him being emotionally compromised.
- In Wanted, Wesley (James McAvoy) learns that his late father belonged to a secret assassin organization. He joins the organization and trains to be a professional killer himself, partially to avenge his father's death.
Literature
- Boamund in Grailblazers is appointed leader of the Order of the Grail Knights after awakening from a magical sleep. The other Knights have been in business for nearly 1500 years.
- Lance-Constable Carrot of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch in Guards! Guards! fits the "most powerful member" aspect, being a very muscular new recruit to a fairly unfit Watch, who comes with his own Cool Sword. And it only takes him two books to become Captain Carrot, and outrank everyone except Commander Vimes (and that was only because he specifically asked for someone else to be put in charge because he worried that it would be too easy for him to command them).
- The titular character of Harry Potter is initially the most inexperienced Wizard among his circle of friends, despite being the de facto leader due to his natural bravado and his reputation as "The Boy Who Lived". The Pureblood Ron Weasley grew up around Magic all his life, and has a detailed knowledge of the Wizarding World despite his lack of formal training, while the Muggle-born Hermione Granger spends several months successfully practicing Magic on her own before she even gets to Hogwarts. Because he was raised by his Wizard-hating Aunt and Uncle, Harry remains almost completely clueless about Magic until he actually starts his classes.
- Vin from Mistborn was a new recruit to Kelsier's thieving crew; the other members were all much more experienced and familiar with each other.
- In Soon I Will Be Invincible, one of the two viewpoint characters is Fatale, a rookie Cyborg superhero who is asked to join the most famous superteam in the world. Much is made of the fact that she's so new on the scene that many people can't pronounce her name right (and the villain keeps forgetting it entirely).
Live-Action TV
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Any Slayer that wasn't identified by a Watcher before being activated becomes this - Buffy herself is an example at the time she became the Slayer.
- Dennou Keisatsu Cybercop: Takeda joins ZAC team on the first episode, after time-travelling from the future alongside his very powerful Bit Suit, Jupiter.
- Kamen Rider:
- In Kamen Rider Saber, Touma finds himself the newest member of an order of knights called the Sword of Logos after a sacred sword appears before him. While he's willing to join them in their fight, most of the other knights in the order don't quite know what to make of him, and at least Ogami is openly skeptical of how much good a writer is going to be.
- In Kamen Rider Gotchard, Houtaro becomes the newest member of the Alchemists' Academy in the second episode after passing the entrance test (albeit through unorthodox methods) because having a Kamen Rider on-side is always a good thing. Ironically, his primary form's main color is blue instead.
- Kenji Narukami, from Madan Senki Ryukendo, is the second person to become a super-powered Madan warrior and join SHOT, an organization created to destroy demons. However, he is far less experienced and professional than his colleague, Fudou Juushirou, but still gets all the fancy power-ups and most of the spotlight.
- In Orphan Black, Hustler Sarah Manning quickly becomes the de facto leader of the protagonist clones who are fighting for survival against myriad conspiracies. Uptight soccer-mom Alison and biology student Cosima have been aware of and involved in their situation for far longer, but Sarah's introduction massively changes the status quo, and her street-smarts and ruthlessness soon put her unofficially in charge of the group.
- In the third season of Robin of Sherwood, new character Robert of Huntingdon becomes leader of the outlaws and the new Robin Hood.
- Stargate-verse:
- John Sheppard of Stargate Atlantis; while his rank made him the second-in-command of the military forces of the Atlantis expedition and he possesses the strongest natural form of the Ancient gene discovered on Earth, making him uniquely qualified to operate Ancient technology, he only learned that the Stargate even existed in the pilot episode of Atlantis a few weeks before going to Atlantis, by which point the Stargate Program had been preparing for the expedition to Atlantis for weeks if not months and the program itself had been in operation for almost a decade.
- "Most powerful" is up for debate, but with Cameron Mitchell becoming the leader of SG1 for seasons nine and ten, he definitely fits. However, thanks to a liberal dose of Remember the New Guy? and the personalities of the original characters, he is accepted into the group immediately. It should also be noted that Mitchell was initially appointed to and expected to assemble a completely new SG-1 after the original team chose to 'retire' and pursue other career paths after the downfall of the Goa'uld; he only became the leader of the original team when they were all recalled to action to face the new threat of the Ori.
- In the Ultra Series, the Ultra's human identity is usually also the newest member of the defense team. The trend began with Ultraseven, in which Dan joins Ultra Garrison in the first episode, shortly after meeting them.
- There are only five defense team-centered series that avert this: the original Ultraman (Hayata was Science Patrol's Number Two), Ultraman Tiga (Daigo was already a member of GUTS at the beginning of the series, though he was the last member to join barring Yazumi), Ultraman X (Daichi was already a member of Xio, but generally worked in the scientific division instead), Ultraman Z (Haruki was already a member of STORAGE and trained as a Humongous Mecha pilot) and Ultraman Blazar (Gento was SKaRD's Captain). Musashi Haruno from Ultraman Cosmos is a subversion as he was already a member of EYES' parent organization SRC when the series starts but joined EYES in the second episode.
- Played with in Ultraman Mebius. Mirai was the third of GUYS' seven members to join, but as the human form of Mebius, he's still not very experienced with being both a GUYS officer or an Ultraman.
- In most series, the new guy is a civilian who is suddenly brought onto the team at the end of the first episode due to their bravery. The exception is Ultraman Dyna where Asuka is seen at the beginning of the series as a trainee for recruitment into Super GUTS.
- Sometimes the Ultras themselves are this in their title series. Asides from Mebius mentioned above, Ultraman Taro, Ultraman Geed, Ultraman Taiga, and Ultraman Z are good examples as well. Ultraman Leo is another, both as an Ultra and as Gen Ohtori (human host), much like Seven but without the combat experience or genre savviness.
Sports
- NHL player Sidney Crosby was touted as the next Wayne Gretzky prior to joining the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2005. At the time, the Penguins were pretty much an entire team of mooks on ice, so Crosby was instantly thrust into the role of their main goal-scorer. To further drive him into this, he was named Alternate Captain in his rookie season and Captain the following season, becoming the youngest one in NHL history at the time. This lead to Don Cherry famously stating "An 18-year-old kid says he's going to give us ideas. What, from the Quebec League, he's going to give them ideas? Come on. That's ridiculous." Then he led them to a Stanley Cup, and then he helped lead Canada to an Olympic gold medal.
- Due to the nature of the quarterback position in American Football, rookie quarterbacks who end up as starters become this. As the entire offense flows through this position, the quarterback becomes the de facto leader out on the field, even if more experienced players exist at other positions as well as the more experienced but less talented (or physically declining due to age) backup quarterback. It's considered ideal to let the rookie quarterback spend a couple of years as a backup to make the transition from college to the pros, but teams rarely have enough salary cap space to keep an established star as the starting QB and pay an expected future superstar to sit on the bench and as a result rookie starting quarterbacks are becoming more common. The results of a rookie starting QB are usually mixed, at best, but a few prime examples from NFL history stand out:
- 1983 - Dan Marino starts 10 games for the Miami Dolphins, setting numerous rookie passing records in the process. He went 9-1 as a starter, earning the Dolphins a spot in the playoffs.
- 1999 - Shaun King becomes the first "true" (straight out of college) rookie QB in the Super Bowl era to lead his team to a playoff victory for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. note
- 2004 - Ben Roethlisberger leads the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 15-1 record and breaks many of the records previously set by Dan Marino in the process.
- 2012 - A record five rookie quarterbacks begin the seasons as starters for their teams (Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill, Brandon Weeden, and Russell Wilson for the Colts, Redskins, Dolphins, Browns, and Seahawks respectively). Numerous records were broken by these quarterbacks with Luck, Griffin, and Wilson all leading their teams to surprise playoff appearances.
- 2018 - #1 overall draft pick Baker Mayfield leads the Cleveland Browns to a 21-17 victory against the New York Jets, their first since Christmas 2016. Mayfield would go on to start for the rest of the season, setting the record for passing touchdowns by a rookie QB.
- 2020 - Justin Herbert takes over as starting QB for the Los Angeles Chargers and breaks the rookie touchdown pass record set my Mayfield only a few seasons prior.
- In the National Basketball Association, this is typically expected of top draft picks joining typically rebuilding teams as the teams adjust to building around their talents even when they're the youngest player on the team. Occasionally, however, top picks join teams that already were playoff-caliber and simply needed another piece to put them over the top. Examples of the latter include Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who won Finals MVP as a rookie; his rival Larry Bird, who won Rookie of the Year and earned an All-NBA First Team nod in the same season then helped lead the Celtics to a title the following year; and Tim Duncan, whose first two years were similar to that of Bird's but added two All-Defensive nods and a Finals MVP in his second year.
Video Games
- Seth, the main character in Atlantis: The Lost Tales, is the newest recruit of the Queen's Companions and the hero of the story.
- The Player Character and protagonist of Dragon Age: Origins is recruited into the Grey Warden order in the prologue and soon rises to be the informal leader of (the remains of) the organization in Ferelden, after all senior order members perish in battle. The PC's leadership is finally formalized in the Awakening expansion, where they are appointed the Warden-Commander of Ferelden, despite barely being a member of the order for a couple of years. It's fairly believable in Origins since there's only one other Warden in Ferelden, and while he's technically the senior Warden, he hasn't been a Warden that long either. More importantly, he's not the kind of person who likes giving orders and prefers to be a follower.
- In Dragon Age: Inquisition the Right Man in the Wrong Place Player Character that eventually becomes the Inquisitor isn't really inexperienced as they're a skilled warrior or mage at the onset, however, no matter their backstory they've never really been a leader before (the elf mage origin was the First to the leader of their clan, and they're probably the most qualified of the various potential Inquisitors). Having the Mark that can close the Breaches that are threatening to destroy Thedas means that everyone quickly begins looking to them, including the Order Reborn that is being formed to do the saving. Your former interrogators turned allies all but thrust the position on you because A.) as far as the rest of Thedas is concerned you were chosen by Andraste to do said world-saving and B.) they were already looking for someone to lead the Inquisition to stop the Mage-Templar War and since the Warden and Hawke aren't available...
- Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes starts with Nowa on his first assignment with the Eltisweiss Watch, a peacekeeping group under Countess Perrielle Grum. After a six-month Time Skip following the prologue, his superior Garr decides to let him take over as Acting Captain for a time to build experience, which is naturally when trouble arrives. Then as Eltisweiss gets invaded, Perrielle gets separated from the Watch and charges Nowa with raising a rebel army in her place, and when they reunite she decides not to interfere and leave Nowa in the position. She tells him that she believes he's one of the few people she can trust to do the job, but later quietly concedes to a tactician that it's just as much a political move — if she commanded the army, people would view it as just a power play by the aristocracy; but a commoner fighting back against foreign invaders is much more likely to generate public sympathy.
- The Elder Scrolls
- Throughout the series, the Player Character in the various guild and faction quests is almost always this. In each game, it is possible for the player to catapult from total newcomer to head of the faction within just a few in-game weeks. This is especially jarring with some of the political factions where some NPCs have spent years or even decades getting to their respective positions, only to have the PC leap past them in terms of rank. Asskicking Leads to Leadership and, sometimes, Challenging the Chief play into this. Given that your character is one of the biggest ass-kickers around, it serves to justify it somewhat.
- Skyrim: The Player Character, beyond being a great fighter, is something of a Physical God, being able to achieve small scale reality warping by shouting at it.
- Final Fantasy:
- Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII is given this position after the group get out of Midgar and most of the original AVALANCHE members are dead. It's more realistic than most cases, though; at this point of the game, only two of the five group members were a part of the original AVALANCHE, the new group doesn't have much continuity with the old one, Cloud is a battle hardened military veteran, and Barret Wallace is a domestic terrorist who got 3/5 of his crew wiped out.
- Later on, when Cloud is out of commission, Cid Highwind, the last member to join, is nominated by Barret to lead the group, because despite his seniority, Barret admits that he really isn't leadership material, and Cid is an experienced veteran of Shinra's space program. Well, that, and the fact that the Highwind belongs to him.
- It's not so jarring when Squall is made the leader of the team right after graduation. His teammates, Zell and Selphie, are also new graduates. Quistis has more experience, though, but she joins the team later after Squall has already been established as the leader. Final Fantasy VIII nevertheless contains a major instance of this: Squall is named leader of Balamb Garden, despite still being a fairly new graduate, around the middle of the game. This is mostly justified by the fact that Headmaster Cid is working off of Edea's foreknowledge of Squall's role in defeating Ultimecia. The fact that he's extremely competent helps too.
- Final Fantasy X: Tidus (the Player Character) is introduced as a star blitzball player, getting him added to the hopelessly awful Besaid Aurochs team on the strength of his spectacular Sphere Shot ability. While Tidus himself is genuinely skilled, the player isn't, and learns everything about the game just before the match. Fortunately, even if you lose, the only storyline difference is whether or not Wakka is holding a trophy in the following cutscene.note
- Averted in Final Fantasy XII with Vaan, who serves as a point-of-view character (he is the first playable character after the prologue and represents the entire when wandering around towns) but it is clear that once the party assembles, Princess Ashe is the true leader, making most of the big decisions on the quest. That said, Ashe is the last playable character you gain, and the next to last to join permanently.
- The Warrior of Light of Final Fantasy XIV begins the story as a fresh-faced adventurer who'd recently made a name for themselves in one of the three city-states of the Eorzean Alliance. Their exploits and Chronic Hero Syndrome get them invited into the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, who have been working from the shadows for years to take on the primal, Garlean, and Ascian threats. It isn't long before the Warrior gains a reputation as the strongest of Scion of all, along with notoriety as the eikon-slayer responsible for felling one primal after another. Downplayed if the player returns from the 1.0 version of the game, in which case they were one of the original Warriors of Light who played a role in the events leading up to the appearance of Bahamut — everyone simply suffers from Laser-Guided Amnesia on that fact until the endgame of the 2.0 story.
- Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII is given this position after the group get out of Midgar and most of the original AVALANCHE members are dead. It's more realistic than most cases, though; at this point of the game, only two of the five group members were a part of the original AVALANCHE, the new group doesn't have much continuity with the old one, Cloud is a battle hardened military veteran, and Barret Wallace is a domestic terrorist who got 3/5 of his crew wiped out.
- Fire Emblem:
- Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade has Lyn, who never knew she was royalty and is suddenly Lord Caelin when her grandfather dies a few years after she finds out (her parents having died years earlier). Justified in that, well, that's kind of how royalty works. Also, the player character, technically, being trusted to guide pretty much an army when he/she has zero experience in the matter.
- In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Ike is suddenly promoted to leader of the Greil Mercenaries, despite almost everyone else having more experience than him. Justified by the fact that Greil was his father, and Ike was going to eventually inherit the group if Greil hadn't perished. This actually is a sore point for two characters who leave the squad as a result. Later events prove that Ike was indeed worthy of the promotion.
- The player character is also this in the Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem remake and in Fire Emblem: Awakening, as they quickly rise to second-in-command of their respective armies. But since they're a man-at-arms or tactician (respectively) rather than the main lord, this may make them the Rookie Blue Ranger instead, or Green maybe...
- In Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Alm quickly becomes the leader of the Deliverance resistance group, despite being an inexperienced youth who only recently left his small village. While this upsets some veterans of the group (and, in Echoes, there's Fernand who outright LEAVES in frustration), Alm does prove himself capable.
- Galaxy Angel II: Kazuya Shiranami starts out fresh out of his training under Forte Stollen, who drops him off at the Luxiole to join the Rune Angel Wing under the command of Tact Mayers. While his ship, the Brave Heart, isn't too powerful by itself, its ability to combine with the other Emblem Frames makes him a crucial member of the team. Shortly after, due to jamming on the communications that renders them unable to relay orders from the Luxiole's bridge, Tact decides to delegate the duty of command to Kazuya, who despite his doubts, quickly proves himself to be effective at it, and ends up officially appointed as the squad's leader. This is reinforced when another of the members, Lily C. Sherbet, quickly defers to him despite officially outranking him (he's an Ensign while she's a Lieutenant).
- Halo:
- Halo 3: ODST features the Rookie, who is also the Heroic Mime. It's zig-zagged a bit, since he's still a veteran who's actually both higher-ranked and more experienced than the squad's demolition expert; ODSTs don't allow actual rookies to join their number.
- In Halo 4's Spartan Ops cutscenes, Gabriel Thorne is this to the rest of Fireteam Majestic, being its youngest and least experienced member. Nonetheless, he more than holds his own, with Halo: Escalation revealing that he eventually gets promoted to team leader. Similar to the Rookie's case though, Thorne was already a decorated veteran, since the Spartan-IVs draw their recruits primarily from the best of the UNSC's other branches.
- Channing of Lunarosse is thrown into this position of the expedition party after he's conscripted into La Résistance, due to his having the most experience thus far. He's not crazy about it, but it helps his growth into The Hero as he becomes capable of making the hard decisions needed.
- Evan is this in the Heroes of Maple blockbuster arc of MapleStory. He's barely into his teens by the time of the story, but is fighting alongside five other Living Legends from several centuries ago. Nevertheless, he ends up being The Leader, much to his own surprise and embarrassment, while he tries to live up to the legacy left behind by his predecessor, Freud.
- Zero joining La Résistance in Mega Man Zero. The other members look up to him as a field leader (Ciel, the actual leader, is more of a pacifist) because he's a legendary hero.
- Downplayed in Midnight Suns: the rest of the hero team, including the founding members of the Midnight Suns and those that join later, are tried-and-true superheroes, some of whom also have history with the big hero times such as the Avengers and the X-Men. The relative newcomer is the Hunter, who isn't completely new to fighting evil, but has just awakened from a centuries-long slumber that left them a little rusty.
- In Persona 3 this is somewhat downplayed with the protagonist joining the team halfway through its roster.Explanation However, the team had already existed for a few years by the time the protagonist joined, and they're made field leader only a couple of days after joining, ultimately resulting in them having the third-most authority of the team overall.
- Pokémon:
- In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Florian/Juliana starts out as the least experienced trainer among their friend group (with Nemona already having attained Champion status and Arven and Penny being fairly experienced trainers), but quickly catches up with them and by the endgame is easily the most powerful of them all.
- Used in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky: The Hero and their Partner join the Wigglytuff Guild as its newest members, allowing for introductions and for the player to be taught all about Treasure Town and the ins and outs of exploring mystery dungeons.
- Kyuu in Rakenzarn Tales is eventually nominated brigade leader despite not being the strongest (at first) or even being native to Rakenzarn. This is due to his being able to take command of the situation, being smart and savvy enough to handle the situations he's thrown into and make sound decisions.
- Star Trek
- Star Trek: Bridge Commander provides a couple of interesting cases for this, depending on who you view as the "Main character". Commander Larsen says in her first Log entry that while the player controlled character spent many years as a first officer, he'd only been on The USS Dauntless for four months. Larsen herself is the newest member of the Dauntless' crew, and she is often considered The Hero of the game's Five-Man Band.
- Star Trek Online combines this with a hefty dose of Ensign Newbie. The player character is given command of a starship at the rank of Ensign. The game attempts to justify this by saying that the player is the only officer left, and by the end of the tutorial, you're at least promoted to Lieutenant (not much better).
- The circumstances for this vary between each faction. The Federation player gets it due to circumstances (pre-Season 8, it was because of a Borg invasion, post-Season 8 it's because you're forced to kill the Klingons and your captain after the captain gets kidnapped by said Klingons)... if you play the tutorial. If you don't, they just say that you did so well on your Starfleet Academy tests that they're bumping you up that high. The Klingons use, natch, Klingon Promotion, while the Romulans pretty much force you to gather a crew and use a very old starship.
- In Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Trooper starts off as the newest recruit to Havok Squad. After the prologue, all but you and the resident Sergeant Rock (though he is an officer) Aric Jorgon end up defecting to the Empire and General Garza promotes you as the new commander and makes you an officer in order to deal with the defectors, while demoting Jorgan for failing to see the betrayal coming. By the end of the Trooper Class story, you become a Colonel.
- Super Robot Wars:
- Shin Super Robot Wars:
- Ryusei Date is the last member to join the original SRX Team. He's pretty much the de facto leader of the group, mostly because his machine is the head of their team's Combining Mecha Super Robot, acting as its main pilot.
- Kyosuke Nanbu is this to the ATX Team. Excellen, Sanger, and Bullet is already a member before Kyosuke joined the team. In the end, not only he ended up s the de facto leader of the team, he is the acting commander of the player army.
- Super Robot Wars J has the main character Touya Shun, who is a relative newcomer to the team, and to mecha combat in general.
- Shin Super Robot Wars:
- As The Wonderful 101 is in part a love letter to Sentai/Power Rangers series, the main protagonist Wonder Red follows this tradition, having only been an agent for a year—yet easily the most efficient of all the Wonderful One-Double-Oh. This causes friction with Wonder-Blue, who is the more experienced agent yet is relegated to Red's Number Two. Another reason he's put in charge is because the enemy attack is focused on his assigned Protectorate of Blossom City.
- The Player Character is this in World of Warcraft: Legion, where the player joins one of twelve more-or-less long-standing organizations based on their class and immediately becomes the leader of whichever one is picked for them.
Webcomics
- Willow of Earthsong is very much this, as she is missing all of her memories since that's what happens on Earthsong, and she's also a completely new being. So, minor skills aside, she is as rookie as they come.
- Keti of Footloose could be argued as this. Although she's not a hero, per se, and is certainly not the most talented of the group, she is the protagonist of the story (thanks to the in-universe "Primary Protagonist Syndrome") and her arrival at the dojo places her well behind her friends who have been there training already for a number of years.
- Sydney of GrrlPower has an unprecedented suite of superpowers available to her due to her powers coming from a set of mysterious orbs she found (or they might have found her), rather than having been born with those powers. Additionally to that, her knowledge of comics and superheroes makes her great at figuring out situations with super enemies. Thus, despite being a recruit, Sydney ends up getting a major role in many missions anyway.
Western Animation
- Aang in Avatar: The Last Airbender. While he's the youngest in terms of biological age (appearing as a 12-year-old when in fact, he's technically the oldest of the group in terms of actual age due to spending a century frozen in an iceberg), he's also seen the most of the world, and is the most powerful, since he's a master airbender compared to Katara's rudimentary waterbending and Sokka's...boomerang.
- Callum from The Dragon Prince. He's younger and less experienced than everyone besides Ezran. However, his intelligence and strength of character made him a de-facto leader, and his potential with magic lets him quickly catch up to the other heroes.
- Ninjago: Lloyd Garmadon, son of the Big Bad Lord Garmadon, is The Chosen One and is destined to be the most powerful ninja despite initially being the youngest, newest, and least experienced member of the team.
- In Steven Universe, Lars becomes the captain of the Off Colors, despite being just a human teenager (even if an empowered one after coming back to life) surrounded by thousand years old gems. Justified because it's his gemless body allows him to infiltrate facilities and steal things protected by gem-detecting systems.
- Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!: Chiro is actually the robot monkey team's second leader, after the original had a Face–Heel Turn long ago. The rest of the team are all veterans by a vaster degree compared to him.
- It was intended that the Theodore Tugboat episode Theodore and The Big Harbour be the series pilot. It shows Theodore arriving as a Naïve Newcomer to the Big Harbour and finding out about the V-Word system.
- The Thomas & Friends series had planned a Spin-Off series about a team of construction machines. In the Poorly Disguised Pilot episode Jack, who was to be the main character, is introduced to the rest of the pack machines.
- ThunderCats (1985): Lion-O had the misfortune of being a twelve-year-old in a twenty-four-year-old's body, thanks to a malfunctioning cryosleep pod. He adapted pretty well, all things considered (the sanity of his teammates placing him in charge before the trials to prove his capability as leader can be questioned, however).
- Ultimate Spider-Man (2012): Spiderman is made the leader of the group of young superheroes he's partnered with despite having only just started training with S.H.I.E.L.D. This is actually justified as while Spiderman may be a S.H.I.E.L.D. rookie, he'd been active an independent hero for an entire year before joining up and Nick Fury hoped that his practical experience would rub off on his Well-Trained, but Inexperienced teammates.
- Winx Club: The titular team of fairies forms after Stella, Musa, Flora, and Tecna rescue Bloom from a trio of witches. All of the former already have access to their fairy transformations and know some magic. By contrast, Bloom, who soon becomes The Leader, starts out as a novice who's just learned magic exists, so she doesn't know any magic to defend herself and earns her fairy transformation a couple of episodes later.
- Young Justice:
- Miss Martian joins the Team after their first adventure, and at that point had only been on Earth for about a month. Nevertheless, she has the most superpowers and is eventually revealed to have psychic abilities even greater than the norm of her species. She's not really the protagonist more than anyone else, though. She becomes team leader by the start of the third season, but by then the Team is Demoted to Extra.
- Inverted and deconstructed with Robin. He's the obvious choice for leader, to the point where Aqualad outright says that he's only filling in for Robin until he's old enough. The problem is, working with Batman for so long has left him absolutely horrible at teamwork. He does become team leader as Nightwing, five years later.
Real Life
- It is becoming increasingly common in the US and similar countries for major political parties to nominate younger and/or less experienced members to major leadership positions, Donald Trump and Barack Obama being major examples. This is mostly due to the fact that more junior politicians and outsiders are unlikely to have been involved in any major party scandals and won't be seen as "tainted" by the voting public.
- This is how the Canadian military works in regard to new officers. A 2LT fresh on the job will be put in charge of a regiment of troops, many of whom will be older and far more experienced than said officer, and yet the officer is in charge. The officer's 2IC, a WO with years of experience, is meant to serve as his Hyper-Competent Sidekick to not only mentor the officer but also keep him in line... but said officer will still have final say in decisions.
