http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AwesomenessByAnalysis

Cracked, "5 Weapon Myths You Probably Believe (Thanks to Movies)" "Snipers aren't deadly because they carry the biggest guns; they're deadly because they've learned how to weaponize math. [...] It's factoring in an astronomical number of variables and arriving at a mathematically sound solution, and then using that math to explode somebody else's head."

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Some people learn by flipping pages. Some people must gain knowledge through pain. Some people study by television. And then there are those who just observe... See, when you are Good with Numbers you can substitute careful examination in place of careful practice, with the same results: success.

Need to make a million-to-one shot to stop the Doomsday Device from exploding the world, but have never even fired a gun? Just run off some mental calculations about your gun's firing speed, friction, gravity, and the slightly-off-kilter scope (how exactly the analyzer knows all those variables is handwaved), and it's a done deal. Need to defeat a jujitsu master? Logically anticipate where his next strike will come from and remain one step ahead. Need to deduce the Secret Identity without peeking behind the mask? Simply go through all the people with the correct body type, who live in the right area, and who might have the right means and motive to do what they do, and hey presto, it might as well have been an Open Secret all along.

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If he has time to explain himself, it always sounds something like "If My Calculations Are Correct". Explaining it gives it a chance to fail. Relatedly, two awesomeness analysts don't really need to explain anything to each other, they can do it by Talking Through Technique.

The most common cause of Badass Bookworm, and often results from The Professor having a doctorate in general knowledge rather than any one field. The Clock King can do this thanks to precise attention to detail and patterns. Characters who get to skip the analysis altogether due to some form of copycat power are Power Copying. Exactly What I Aimed At usually comes from this trope. They are most likely screwed if the opponent knows Confusion Fu or is at least enough of a Magnificent Bastard to use the Batman Gambit on a regular basis successfully. The Profiler does this with people. An author may use Super-Detailed Fight Narration to demonstrate that a character possesses this ability.

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Compare Sherlock Scan. Contrast with Failed a Spot Check. Not to be confused with this site's very Analysis page.

Examples:

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Comic Books

Fan Works

Film  Animated

Basil has a very pronounced moment of awesomeness near the end of The Great Mouse Detective. He prattles on about some sort of forces and equilibrium and defeats Ratigan's fiendish Rube Goldberg death machine by setting it off at precisely the right instant, setting off a seemingly unpredictable chain reaction that frees him, his partner, and the little girl. And then, just to rub it in Ratigan's face, he grabs Dawson and Olivia, cheerfully cries, "Smile everyone!" and poses with the two of them with a massive shit-eating grin on his face, in front of the camera that would have photographed the moment of the final blow. Dawson deserves some of the credit; Basil's wrapped up in self-pity before Dawson finally snaps him out of it by frustratedly yelling that if all Basil's going to do is lie in the trap feeling sorry for himself, they might as well set it off now. Basil: [bitter] Heh, set it off now... [realizing] [bitter] Heh, set it off now... [realizing] Set it...off...now

How to Train Your Dragon: Hiccup is able to observe how dragons behave close up and with that in-depth observation, he is able to do things with dragons that his village thought were impossible. Fishlegs also demonstrates this trait, having read all available dragon-fighting manuals and making detailed observations about newly discovered dragon species. In the final battle with the Green Death, Hiccup tells Fishlegs, "Break it down," and Fishlegs immediately spells out the giant dragon's strengths and possible weaknesses.

This is how Mikey catches the scare pig in Monsters University: calculating the right moment to throw a football to knock over a row of bikes to catapult a garbage bin into the path of the pig.

The Omnidroid in The Incredibles is the embodiment of this trope. In addition to being horribly strong and tough, it analyzes its surroundings and enemy moves to become a ruthlessly efficient Combat Pragmatist. When Syndrome attacks the final version as part of his Engineered Heroics scheme, we see that it quickly analyzes Syndrome's attack and realizes that Syndrome's remote control was giving him the advantage. The robot quickly negates the problem by blasting the remote off of Syndrome's arm.

In Kung Fu Panda, Po is able to learn advanced martial-arts techniques like the Wuxi Finger Hold by seeing them performed and just a small amount of practice.

Kung Fu Panda 2: Po only sees Shifu demonstrate the technique of "inner peace" to him once. Even though Shifu said it took him years to master, within weeks, Po is able to utilize the technique to deflect cannonballs fired at him. In the DVD short Secrets Of The Masters, Master Storming Ox is revealed to defeat his opponents by spotting their weak spots.

The Huns in Mulan prove their tracking prowess when Shan Yu tosses them a doll his falcon retrieved and asked them "what do you see?" Black pine from the high mountains, a white horse hair from an Imperial stallion, and the scent of sulfur from cannons mean the doll came from a village in the Tung Shao Pass, where an imperial army is waiting to ambush them. Thus it is established at least Shan Yu's elites are not Dumb Muscle, but thoroughly professional and highly dangerous soldiers.

Film  Live-Action

Literature

Roleplay

This is what Ranger is known as in Comic Fury Werewolf. He analyzes everyone's actions down to the last detail, trying to figure out the culprit. In his first game, he even went so far back as to read the first five games in-depth to figure out everyone's play styles. He only stopped because it became incredibly time-consuming to do it, as the first time he accomplished the feat was an all-nighter effort on his part. With the addition of the later games to add into the mix...

In Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, Benedict's hyper mind superpower allows him to glean huge amounts of information about an object merely by glancing at it. One look at Nadine told him her general attitude, how she spent the previous night, and her relationship with Hyeon.

Tabletop Games

Spirit of the Century has the Theory in Practice stunt for exactly this purpose. It has strict limitations compared to similar stunts, but allows characters to use their Science skill in place of any other skill provided they can come up with some plausible sounding Technobabble for how their analysis helps. The rule-book quote: Shooting a gun should be easy - it's just physics, right?

Dungeons & Dragons: Many divination spells temporarily grant the ability to simply pull more information out of simple observation than other people, e.g. Discern Lies allows you to automatically succeed at the Sense Motive skill to know when someone is lying, Commune allows you to derive simple yes/no conclusions entirely from context for a minute or two, and Read Magic allows you to perform the otherwise-arduous task of unraveling a caster's personal codes and languages with Spellcraft instantly. The Duelist Prestige Class also shifts most of your combat modifiers (defenses, chance to hit, and damage) with certain weapons to Intelligence rather than physical stats, implied to be this. The Studied Target class feat also allows a character to mark an opponent to gain various bonuses against them. The "Knowledge Devotion" feat lets a character roll a Knowledge check to analyze creatures they face in combat and grants scaling bonuses to attack and damage rolls based on how successful the check is.

The Smart Hero "Exploit weakness" talent from d20 Modern allows him to use his intelligence modifier instead of his dexterity or strength modifier, "as he finds a way to outthink his opponent and find weaknesses in his opponent's fighting style" (paraphrased).

Warhammer 40,000: Due to the various considerations that shape Dark Eldar combat philosophy, gathering and utilizing intelligence is a big part of their strategic doctrine. Because of their arcane technologies and standard Eldar Magnificent Bastardry, they are very good at it. When the Dark Eldar attack, it is often by complete surprise, with overwhelming force, at a weak-point in the enemy's defenses. This doesn't always work, however; if a particularly Genre Savvy enemy can give them bad info through effective counter-intelligence, they will fail spectacularly. Their reliance on knowing the enemy better than they know themselves leaves them highly vulnerable to traps that play on their typical Eldar hubris. In a meta sense, knowing the abilities of your enemy, knowing your strengths, their strengths, and possible unit compositions, is key for winning. Not an easy feat with 9+ armies, hundreds of units, and hundreds of unique rules to keep account of.

Pathfinder: the Investigator and Slayer classes are largely built around this concept, focusing on a single enemy to gain bonuses against them by picking out their weaknesses.

Chess: Wilhelm Steinitz turned the game on its ear in the late 19th century. He was already skilled in the flashy, "romantic" style used throughout the ages, where games ideally finished with spectacular piece sacrifices, declining a gambit was considered unsportsmanlike, and Grandmasters were considered to be somehow divinely blessed with the ability to play so well. A bookworm at heart, he started poring over the games of old Grandmasters, and soon realized that there were certain identifiable, repeatable aspects of these games — that the flashes of brilliance were made possible in the first place by very mundane positioning of the pawns and pieces. He compiled his research into a new system, and quickly dominated the chess world, becoming the first world champion of the modern era in the process, and forever changing how the game is played by serious players.

Video Games

Visual Novels

Fate/stay night: Somewhat surprisingly, Archer fits this trope. This is mostly surprising because he's Shirou 's future self "Capable of calm analysis of battle conditions even when in danger and deduce an appropriate course of action after considering all possibilities to escape from a predicament. So long there is even a 1% chance of a comeback, this ability greatly improves the chances of winning." The alternate version of "Mind's Eye (True)" is "Mind's Eye (False)". While it confers similar abilities as the (True) version, it is purely instinctual and cannot be gained through experience: You either have it, or you don't. Two Servants, in particular, have this skill: Berserker (whose madness keeps him from remembering his experience in life) and Assassin ( who as a fictional hero, never had the chance to earn experience in life ). In a fight, Assassin was able to tell how long Saber's invisible sword was after observing how she was holding it and feeling the wind from her sword swings. In the Heaven's Feel route, Shirou mimics this skill and uses it to defeat Dark Berserker in three seconds. Both Archer and Shirou also apply this. They subconsciously scan any weapon when they see it and analyze it down to its creation, its history, its previous usage, and the wielder's skill. By compiling all that information and using it to create a copy, they not only produce a projection significantly superior to that of other magi but can also tap into the skills of past wielders to use the weapon more effectively. Not exactly as Analyzing as the previous examples, but Shirou, in the beginning, managed to survive multiple deathblows by Lancer this way. One example being choosing to swing his weapon back just after jumping out of the window to block one, even though he's more-or-less guessing that Lancer would attack him right after, and a misjudgment in timing would result in death. Also from the Nasuverse is Sion Atlasia, and the rest of the Atlas alchemists. Their particular brand of magic involves consciously partitioning their brains to increase "processing" ability, essentially turning each of them into human supercomputers. Sion usually fights by simulating her opponent's attack strategies and predicting every move they make before they make it.

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! has the Sibling Team Gale and Gates. However, while Gates is able to successfully predict Momoyo's first attack, it's so overwhelming that Gale is unable to defend against it.

Yume Miru Kusuri: During the climax of Aeka's route, Kouhei finds himself pinned down by two armed assailants, whilst Gaito attempts to rape Aeka . In a matter of seconds, Kouhei manages to analyze the situation, throw off his assailants and take a hostage to rescue Aeka

Danganronpa: Junko Enoshima and Izuru Kamukura . They both excel in analytics to the degree where they can predict and plan for nearly anything several steps in advance, but it has also caused them to be bored with the world. Junko relishes in the emotion of despair because she finds it unpredictable and exciting; eventually convinces Izuru to partake in it as well; and genuinely enjoys inflicting it upon herself, others, and eventually the entire world. Izuru doesn't enjoy despair the way she does, but is instead more interested in watching despair fight hope (which he also finds unpredictable) to see which one is less boring. There are some hints that Kokichi Oma of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony shares this talent for analytics, being extremely intelligent to the point of writing a script that correctly predicts everyone's words and reactions for Kaito to follow in the fifth class trial. And just like Junko and Izuru, he hates being bored.



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Western Animation

Real Life