List of fictional child prodigies
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The personal growth of child prodigies has traditionally captured a decent share of attention in popular culture. Child prodigies have appeared in various works of literature.[1] There have also been many films and TV series about child prodigies,[2] mainly family dramas centering on how children with advanced minds cope with a world which sees them either as unique or abnormal, and many of which have attracted media and scholarly attention.[3] W. Ferguson has identified differences in the factual versus fictional accounts of child prodigies.[4] This article indicates some of the more notable examples of child prodigies in fiction.
In literature
Matilda
In the novel Matilda by Roald Dahl, the eponymous Matilda Wormwood, age five, shows signs of genius which are ignored by her neglectful parents. Her abilities include planning and carrying out elaborate pranks, understanding and recalling seemingly infinite amounts of information, and multiplying large numbers in her head with lightning speed. Later on, Matilda discovers that she has psychokinetic abilities, and uses this advantage to defeat her school's evil headmistress, Miss Trunchbull. Matilda's psychokinesis disappears once she is transferred to the top form. Her teacher, Miss Honey, theorizes that the ability was a manifestation of her suppressed intelligence, which needed to be put to use in some way.
Evil Genius Series
In 'Evil Genius' and 'Genius Squad' by Catherine Jinks, Cadel Piggot (Also, Cadel Darkkon, Cadel English and Cadel Cramp) is a child genius who can picture systems with intricate detail in 3D in his mind and has can master systems of any kind, such as social, road and, his favourite, computer systems.
Alia Atreides receives the ancestral memories of her Fremen predecessors. Leto Atreides II and Ghanima Atreides, twins born to Paul Atreides by Chani, like Alia, receive ancestral memories from their ancestors. Miles Teg, who reawaken in his Ghola, at the age of ten, possesses memories and superhuman abilities from his previous life.
In Ender's Game, Ender Wiggin, Bean, Petra Arkanian, and a group of also exceptionally talented child geniuses known as "Ender's Jeesh" are recruited by an organization known as the International Fleet in order command fleets against an alien species to save the Earth.[citation needed]
In the series Artemis Fowl of books by Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl II is a 12 year old (who ages throughout the series) criminal prodigy, specialising in psychology, who also experiences family problems; his father was abducted and this led to Artemis's mother going through serious depression. [citation needed]
Minerva Paradizo, who shows up in book 5 — Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony — is also an evil genius who Artemis seems to be attracted to.
Opal Koboi, a pixie, was an absolute genius from the start. She had a vocabulary of 500 words by the age of 2, and had assembled a circuit board by the age of 5.
Battle Royale antagonist Kazuo Kiriyama is considered a child prodigy in that he quickly learned many skills such as the violin and martial arts only to discard both when they got "boring". He uses his unique mental power to devise plans to kill his fellow classmates.[citation needed]
The Glass Family
In the works of J. D. Salinger (Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction), the children in the Glass family are considered to be child prodigies. All seven children appeared on the radio quiz show "It's a Wise Child."
In the series of 13 books, the elder two of the three siblings are child prodigies. Violet Baudelaire is a keen inventor who is able to build almost any contraption with the materials at hand, while Klaus is a would-be scholar who is able to remember anything that he has read before and brilliant at research. Sunny, the youngest, is a baby in the early books, but as she gets older she becomes a prodigious cook.
An Abundance of Katherines
The book An Abundance of Katherines by John Green stars Colin Singleton as a washed-up child prodigy. He has enormous skill in anagramming and knows 11 languages. He reads 400 pages a day (of any literary source), and at 17 was on a game show featuring child prodigies, which he won.
World of Watches
Nadya Gorodetskaya is a child prodigy in Twilight Watch and Final Watch, third and last books of World of Watches series, by Sergei Lukyanenko. Nadya is an Absolute Light Sorceress (Zero Level) who, at young age, capable to perform feats that only few Light Others can match.
In film
Dear Brigitte
An early film example is Dear Brigitte (1965) with Bill Mumy as a prodigious son of a professor.
Little Man Tate
In Little Man Tate, the character suffers from burnout in the middle of the film, but by the end he recovers and is ultimately better adjusted than he was before the film story began.[citation needed]
Shine
In Shine David Helfgott, who is not a fictional character but the story is fictionalized, is shown as having an almost viciously domineering father.[citation needed]
Vitus
Vitus is a drama film written and directed by Fredi M. Murer. It was released on February 2, 2006 in Switzerland. It stars real-life piano prodigy Teo Gheorghiu, Bruno Ganz, Julika Jenkins, and Urs Jucker.
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Royal Tenenbaums concerns "a family composed of three child prodigies."[5]
Star Wars
The first installment of the second Star Wars trilogy, The Phantom Menace, features the 10-year-old Anakin Skywalker who is a brilliant pilot and engineer. He later becomes a member of the elite Jedi Knights but clashes with authority and falls to the dark side of the Force, eventually becoming Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith.
August Rush
In the 2007 film, August Rush, the protagonist, August, possesses a deep understanding of the concept of music and a musical talent far exceeding his adult peers, including his parents. In the film, he is capable of creating, mastering, and performing his own symphony in front of thousands.
Magnolia
In one of the parallel plotlines of Magnolia, the character Stanley Spector is an eminent contestant on the quiz show What Do Kids Know? His greedy father capitalizes off of his son's success and constantly pressures him to win. The emotional distress that this pressure, along with alienation from society caused by being perceived as an amusing object, eventually becomes evident. Stanley's relationship with his father and the public is in many ways congruous with that of 19th century child prodigy Zerah Colburn, whose picture Stanley is shown examining in one scene.
Hackers
Dade Murphy the protagonist of Hackers, hacked and crashed exactly 1,507 systems of the New York Stock Exchange at the age of 11.
Karate Kid
Cheng the antagonist was considered as a kung fu prodigy,
In TV
In Sarah Jane Adventures, Sarah Jane's adopted son Luke is a child prodigy with the ability to remember numbers with over 20 digits after only a glance beforehand
In this anime series, a character called Yuki Nagato, a 16 year old girl, can type at tremendous speeds and has a vast sea of knowledge. Other characters consider her a genius.
The child prodigy Chiyo Mihama has skipped five grades to tenth grade at the start of the series and graduates at the top of her class at the series end.
Asuka Langley Soryu is depicted as a child prodigy who received an unspecified university degree before the age of fourteen.
As a sperm, Stewie Griffin already had evil genius level intelligence.
[Stargate Atlantis]
[[Scientist Rodney McKay built an atomic bomb in the sixth grade. He holds two PhDs and calls himself "the smartest man in two galaxies".
Tōshirō Hitsugaya, Gin Ichimaru and Shūhei Hisagi are considered prodigies by numerous other characters.
The main protagonist, Lelouch Lamperouge is considered a prodigy as he is capable of devising and executing strategies with incredible speed and precision.
Death Note is a television series in which almost every main character is a genius or prodigy of some kind. Light Yagami (Kira) and L Lawliet (L) are the original wunderkind, but are soon joined by Mihael Keehl (Mello), Nate River (Near), and Mail Jeevas (Matt). The latter four have been raised in an orphanage for gifted children for most of their lives, and are all in line to take over L's position as the world's greatest detective.
Son Gohan is the greatest martial artist in the series at the age of 11 at the time of the Cell Games. His power surpasses that of Son Goku, Vegeta, and Future Trunks. Gohan was pressured by his mother Chi Chi who was obsessed all the time with her son "catching up" at his studies after a battle.
In this television series, T.J Henderson (played by Tahj Mowry) skips 6 grades and goes straight to 10th grade from 4th grade. T.J deals with the trial and tribulations of a kid in high school. He joins his 16-year-old brother Marcus (played by Jason Weaver) and his friend Mo (played by Omar Gooding).
On The Big Bang Theory Sheldon Cooper has an IQ of 187. He went to college when he was 11 and received his Ph. D when he was 15. When he was 14, Sheldon tested out lasers and the college teacher who saw was shushed by the government.
On the television show Bones, Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan's assistant, Dr. Zack Addy, was a child mathematic prodigy with an IQ over 176. He learns at a rapid pace and can instantly identify any bone in the body and where it belongs. He also has the ability to recite basketball stats very quickly.[citation needed]
One of the BAU team members, Spencer Reid, was a child prodigy. He graduated from high school at the age 12, has an IQ of 187, currently has three PhD:s and can read 20 000 words per minute.
On CSI, there are two episodes (The Unusual Suspect and Goodbye and Good Luck) where the character of Hannah West, a 12 year old child prodigy, appears. In the first episode, she was in senior year in high school, and in the second (two years later), she was already a teacher's assistant in college. In those episodes it's also implied that Sara Sidle, one of the criminalists, shares this trait to a minor degree. Also, the Miniature Killer - called Natalie Davis -, has an eidetic memory and an exceptional talent for painting (she can reproduce a room or a situation after seeing it just once).
The Doctor himself is usually referred to as a child genius. In the Sontaran Stragem, the character Luke Rattigan is also mentioned to be a child genius, having invented an internet search engine and founded a school for child geniuses, the Rattigan Academy, all before the age of 18.
The final episode of Doogie Howser, M.D., Doogie appears on a talk show with child prodigies who end up confessing outrageous mental problems, but at the end he essentially agrees it applies to him as well. He therefore quits medicine in search of some kind of philosophical answer to his problems.[6]
In the television show Firefly, the character of River Tam is shown as a prodigy throughout the show, having started to correct her elder brother's spelling at an early age, as well as seeing flaws and "fallacious conclusions" in one of his textbooks. She is also able of feats such as calculating in her head a course for the show's spaceship destination.
In the television show Heroes, Micah Sanders appears to be a computer genius before and when he has his ability. [citation needed]
The character Malcolm in the hit TV series Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006) is a prodigious young man beset by family problems and has a mostly underplayed intelligence. Also there is his younger brother Dewey, a musical genius who became highly skilled at playing the piano at a young age. He wrote symphonies and musical plays.[citation needed]
In the CGI series Max Steel, Dr. Roberto Martinez is a young Colombian in his late teens who is an expert on nanobots. He and Max fight crime together. 'Berto is usually based at the HQ of the secret intelligence service N-Tek where he monitors Max's missions via a computer screen, but he also often takes a more active part in the missions himself. He and Max are very close, addressing each other as "Bro" and "Hermano" (Spanish for "brother").
In the manga/anime series Naruto, Shikamaru of the Hidden Leaf Village (Konoha) has an IQ of over 200. He displays extremely calculative skills with his rapid parallel processing mind, Itachi Uchiha of the Hidden Leaf Village graduated from the ninja academy at the top of his class at age 7, gained sharingan at age 8, became head of the ANBU Black Ops at age 13, Slaughtered his own clan and gained the legendary Mangekyou Sharingan at age 15 and joined the high ranking criminal organization akutsuki at age 16
In the TV show Numb3rs, one of the characters Charlie Eppes, is a child prodigy. at the age of 3 was multiplying 4 digit numbers in his head. At age 13 he started attending Princeton University and graduated at age 16. He now helps his brother Don solve cases for the FBI.
In the Manga/anime series, Rebecca Miyamoto attended MIT at the age of nine, graduated with a triple major at ten, and became a teacher at Momotsuki Academy at age Eleven.
In the TV series "The Pretender" (1996–2000), the main character Jarod is a child prodigy who, as a man, is capable of emulating any person within various fields of work or situations; Jarod assumes the role of a surgeon and through his mental prowess, is able to mimic an actual surgeon. [citation needed]
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Wesley Crusher's feelings of abandonment and resentment are more often shown as caused by the early death of his father, but in the last episode featuring him he could be deemed to show signs of "aging child prodigy disease". He is hostile to everyone, disobeys orders and ultimately abandons Starfleet for his own kind of spiritual/philosophical journey.[citation needed]
Several episodes of The X-Files featured varying kinds of child prodigies; ranging from noble to violent and psychotic.[citation needed]
Sailor Mercury, also known as Ami Mizuno, is said to have an IQ of 300. Sailor Neptune, also known as Michiru Kaio, played the violin exceptionally well presumably from an early age. It is never gone into much detail other than the fact that she plays perfectly.
Doctor Zee is a recurring fictional character in the short-lived science fiction series Galactica 1980.
The role was portrayed by two actors. In the three-hour pilot episode, titled "Galactica Discovers Earth", child actor Robbie Rist, best known for his appearance as "Cousin Oliver" in The Brady Bunch, played Zee. Later, when Galactica 1980 was picked up as a continuing series, another young actor, Patrick Stuart, took over the role and appeared in all subsequent episodes: "The Super Scouts, Parts 1 and 2"; "Spaceball"; "The Night the Cylons Landed, Parts 1 and 2", "Space Croppers" and "The Return of Starbuck".
The pilot episode says that Doctor Zee is actually two cerebral mutated brothers one of 14 years of age and the other of 16, that are pure intelligence beings. In that episode Doctor Zee states that pure intelligence beings like themselves only occur once about every 10 million years. In the pilot episode both brothers appear to speak through the same physical body. It is mentioned that one brother is named Doctor Zee and the other Doctor Zen.
In the series, it appeared that Doctor Zee was only one very prodigies person. He was born during the period of time between the end of the original Battlestar Galactica series (circa 1969, or after the first Moon landing), and when the Galactica finds Earth in 1980. His origin isn't explained at the start of the series, but he's soon introduced as a scientific "whiz" who has great influence over Commander Adama and the Council of Twelve. However, not everyone is comfortable with the young Zee having so much influence; Xavier expressed this in the pilot.
Zee convinces Adama not to attempt direct contact with humanity, because the nations of Earth aren't unified and are ill-equipped to resist the Cylons, who have been clandestinely following the Fleet.
Zee is responsible for creating most (if not all) of the gizmos used throughout the series - for example, the invisibility screen, as well as the method of time travel first employed by the renegade Xavier. Zee is an expert on any topic about which he's consulted, including sociology, history and agriculture. Just after the pilot episode, he completes construction of an anti-gravity craft that resembles a UFO ("The Super Scouts, Parts 1 and 2").
At the end of the series, in "The Return of Starbuck", we finally learn the origin of Doctor Zee. He's the "spiritual son" of Lieutenant Starbuck (Starbuck made the jealous Cylon "Cy" the 'godfather' of the baby), and was born on a planet where Starbuck was stranded years earlier. While on that remote planet, Starbuck was visited by Angela, who may have been from the race that created the Ship of Lights (introduced in the original series' two-part episode "War of the Gods"). [This race was never named on-screen, but was referred to in the scripts as the Seraphs]. Angela gave birth to Zee, and Starbuck shipped them off to rendezvous with the Fleet in a small escape pod that was too small to carry him. Angela herself disappeared and didn't accompany Zee all the way to the Fleet. Although Adama confirms this information, much of Zee's origin remains a mystery.
Buck Rogers
In the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the 11-year-old Gary Coleman of Diff'rent Strokes plays genius Hieronymus Fox.
Like Buck Rogers, he is originally from Earth's 20th-Century. Fox developed advanced cryogenics technology and had himself frozen before a nuclear holocaust. After being thawed in the 25th-Century, Fox helped the struggling colony of the planet Genesia develop and they made him their leader.
Rogers helps to rescue Fox from kidnappers in the episode "Cosmic Wiz Kid" — at one stage, Fox himself ingeniously gives his enemies the slip. In "A Blast for Buck", Rogers and his friends appear to be under threat from an enemy, but it turns out to be Fox helping them to celebrate New Year, a party that appears to have gone out of fashion.
Lisa Simpson is said to have an IQ of 156. In some episodes, despite being an infant, Maggie Simpson have been shown many skills in her young life. Maggie is a skilled marksman, i.e. Who shot Mr. Burns? and Papa's Got a Brand New Badge; she also have been known for her bravery and life saving skills, mostly towards Homer, i.e. drowning, being confronted by mobsters and a tow truck driver, and saving Homer and Bart from Russ Cargill in the film version of the Simpsons. In Smart and Smarter, it was revealed Maggie's IQ was 167. In the first episode of the series, Bart cheats by writing his name on Martin's IQ test and is thought to be a genius.
Edward Elric, the main protagonist of the anime Fullmetal Alchemist, has been known as a child prodigy for his exceptional knowledge in alchemy, partly due to his witnessing of the Gate.
Alphonse Elric, the protagonists's younger brother, is also a prodigy. Both boys exhibitted exceptional understanding of Alchemical concepts and procedures when they were 6 and 5 respectively.[7].
Edward, at the age of 11, surpassed Alphonse as an Alchemist in that he gained the ability, after witnessing the Gate, to perform Alchemy without the aid of a transmutation circle. He was also the youngest person to pass the State Alchemist exam at that time, five years before he was eligible to apply. Regardless, the brothers' knowledge of Alchemy remained fairly equal throughout the entire series.
In "seaQuest DSV", Lucas Wolenczak is a child prodigy who graduated from Stanford magna cum laude with a degree in Applied Principles of Artificial Intelligence. He left Stanford in the middle of his Ph.D. to become a member of the science crew aboard seaQuest at 16. His GPA record was never broken, even after 15 plus years.
Azula the Fire Nation Princess is a child prodigy in Firebending and naturally very clever and cunning. She is swift thinking and is always two steps ahead of her enemies. She is shown accomplishing techniques that many firebenders are unable to perform or take a lifetime to learn, along with creating her own techniques. That said, all of the young members of the lead cast are child prodigies as well.
Aang, besides being the Avatar, is shown to have easily surpassed other Airbenders his age as shown during his flashbacks.
Katara has displayed Waterbending skills far beyond anything displayed by other "masters." Her ability to control large amounts of water (as seen when she summoned an enormous wave to wash over a Fire Nation cruiser) as well as her skill at Bloodbending make her one of the most potent waterbenders in the world.
Toph is the world's first Metalbender, and has Earthbending skills on par with King Bumi, whom Aang had believe to be the greatest Earthbender alive. She is also blind.
Zuko, although not quite the Firebending prodigy his sister proved to be, is still far more accomplished as a Firebender than most others shown in the series, especially after learning the true nature of Firebending. He eventually surpasses Azula in skill at the conclusion of the show.
Sokka, despite being unable to bend the elements, has displayed a keen tactical intellect and great potential as a swordsman. He was the one who created the original idea for the hot air balloon, as well as having devised the battle strategy for the Day of Black Sun.
Zoey Brooks roommate Quinn Pensky is a total genius at 13-16 with an IQ of 177. Best known for her Quinnventions . She was offered early entry to Caltech but turned it down.
Title character, 15 year old, True Jackson, is the vice president of youth apparel at Mad Style, a fashion company.
Jimmy Neutron is a fifth grader whose IQ is off the charts, and, in one episode, went to college at age ten.
Victoria Best, scheduled to debut in Season Three, is a ten year old girl who, as her last name implies, is the best at everything she does.
Teletha "Tessa" Testarossa and her older brother, Leonard Testarossa, are child prodigies. They are both Whispered. They are at high level in mathematics and sciences since early age.
Dexter who is a 10 year old boy genius who spends his time working on inventions inside of his laboratory.
=== Ed,Edd n'Eddy === Double D from Ed,Edd n'Eddy,apparently since the age of 5 had superior intelligence.
In Comics
Action Force's Cobra College
Action Force was a range of war-based action figures by the British Palitoy company which centered on the elite military units Z Force, SAS Force and their sworn enemies the Red Shadows led by the masked Baron Ironblood. Weekly comics based on the figures were launched in the early 1980s.
The mid-1980s saw a storyline develop in order to bring the action figures and the comic strip in line with the American G.I. Joe series. It had Ironblood betraying the Red Shadows by leaking information about their bases and intentions to their enemies. As the Shadows were wiped out, Ironblood constructed a new identity for himself, becoming Cobra Commander and creating the Cobra Organization.[8]
The story School for Snakes, which started publication in Battle Action Force issue 71, revealed that Cobra would forcibly seize any child whose IQ was over 130. They would then be taken to an old monastery on the Swiss-Italian border which was known as Cobra College. The idea was for these young highly intelligent people to be brainwashed into serving Cobra Commander and breed a new master race.
The "courses" included not fearing deadly snakes like cobras and learning how to control them — the students having been made immune to the venom. The students' teeth would also be operated on to appear like fangs and they would talk in hissing voices similar to that of Cobra Commander. They would be instructed in such things as political treachery, international bank fraud and stock market manipulation.
The most notable students included:
- Krano: a young African who had the largest brain capacity ever recorded. He was a brilliant scientist and among his achievements was a truth drug which forced a subject to talk but also die afterwards. By the time he was 17, he was utterly ruthless, cunning and ambitious and the effective leader of the students.
- Miss Colins: an expert in anatomy who could paralyse an enemy by striking his body' nervous systems.
- Lee Chong: a Chinese boy who had acquired telekinetic powers which he could use to manipulate or destroy objects from a distance.
Since most of them had been kidnapped and were being forcibly held, they were kept in an hypnotic stance which could be broken by a tape giving off the sound of a thousand snakes.
Among the Red Shadows who had been betrayed by Cobra Commander was the Black Major. Seeking revenge, he and other survivors attacked the college, ending up in a battle with Cobra agents Destro and the Baroness.
Heavily outnumbered and with Destro captured by the Major, the Baroness forced Doctor Stefan Slovitch, the headmaster, to awaken the students from their hypnotic stance and fight back — even though they were not really ready to be released from their conditioning. Led by Krano, the students defeated the Shadows, but, now no longer under Slovitch's control, Krano also displayed an ambition and taste for power that bothered the Baroness (he reflected too much of her own hidden aspirations). Once the Red Shadows had been eliminated, the students turned against the Cobra leaders and Lee Chong killed Slovitch by destroying from a distance the machine that controlled the students.
Krano intended to conduct medical experiments on Destro and the Barones, who had been subdued by Collins, but at that moment the Black Major set off explosives that he had placed around the college and destroyed it.
In the confusion, Destro and the Baroness managed to escape, unaware that Krano himself had also survived and was now resolved on taking over Cobra and the world.
Everett Koopenhooper
Everett Koopenhooper appeared in the Mickey Mouse daily strip in 1948.
Mickey's alien-like friend Eega Beeva had invented a machine which could be worn on a person's head and generate a force field which could resist anything. He claimed that it could even withstand an atom bomb, hence the name "Atombrella" (atomic umbrella). In order to thoroughly test it out, they contacted an eminent scientist, Dr. Everett Koopenhooper, who turned out to be a little boy — though he resented being called that, stating that his eleventh birthday was soon due.
Everett was a consultant for many other prominent scientists and military figures. He worked in an imposing building and had a secretary. His laboratory included a powerful flame-thrower and even more advanced, and potentially dangerous, machines.
Although a brilliant physicist, Everett was still a little boy at heart: he and Eega Beeva would play with yo-yos while discussing formulae; he would get up to mischief which would result in a spanking from his mother; and would secretly play with roller skates on the smooth floor of his laboratory, supplied by the government.
He does not appear to have been good on security however: Eega Beeva discovered bugs and cameras in the laboratory which resulted in him and Mickey having to keep the Atombrella away from a devious and cunning spy whose every statement was spoken as poetry and was thus known as the Rhyming Man.
The story of The Atombrella and the Rhyming Man was written by Bill Walsh and drawn by Floyd Gottfredson.[1]
Génial Olivier
The Belgian comic strip series Génial Olivier, which first appeared in 1963, took the paradoxical premise of a little boy who is a dunce at most school subjects but also a brilliant scientist. His inventions have included robots, life-like holograms and time machines, but he is hopeless at history, geography, spelling and grammar. As a result he is stuck in a normal everyday primary school where his talents are less than appreciated. Many of his inventions are aimed at cheating in exams or getting back at his teacher with whom he is engaged in a never-ending war of nerves. Olivier also uses his creations to deal with bullies or impress the girls, but the results are not always the ones desired.
Gilbert
Gilbert is part of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse universe. He is the nephew of Mickey's friend Goofy. In contrast to his dumb and clumsy uncle, Gilbert is a brilliant scientist and scholar and wears a mortar board to donate the fact that, although still a little boy, he is of high university-level education.[9]
He first appeared in the comics in 1954. When he discovered that Uncle Goofy was also the super-hero Super-Goof Gilbert on occasion became Super-Gilly, using the same super-goobers (peanuts) that gave his uncle his powers.
As well as the American comics, Gilbert featured heavily in the European version of the Walt Disney universe. He is often shown as staying at a highly-advanced college (where he wins all the top prizes) or with Goofy, with whom he is often involved in loving conflict given their high disparity in education and plain common sense: Goofy very often dismissing Gilbert's scholarly observations as fantasy (though in reality they are based on scientific fact); or trying to encourage his nephew in being interested in things common with boys of his own age, such as playing with toys or going to the circus — whereas Gilbert would prefer to make experiments with advanced chemicals or visit the museum.
Jason Fox
From Bill Amend's daily cartoon strip FoxTrot. Jason is 10 years old and brilliant at maths and other sciences which results in him being looked upon as a geek. His older siblings, Peter and Paige, often bribe him into doing their homework, which he is only too happy to do since he loves a challenge. Unlike them he cannot wait to get to school and prolong it for as long as possible. He even threatens to report his teacher to the school board when she fails to set any week-end homework. While Peter and Paige groan at having to take exam finals, Jason groans at the fact that he does not face any.
Like many little boys, however, Jason is still a source of mischief: he is an expert hacker; likes to dress up in strange outfits; and is always playing nasty tricks on his siblings — sister Paige being a favourite target. She has a "Jason keep out" note on her bedroom door.
Shikamaru Nara, a character from the popular manga, Naruto, has an IQ of over 200. Also Uchiha Itachi, becoming the captain of an ANBU team, or assassination group, at age 13. Hatake Kakashi, for becoming a ninja at age 5, chuunin (middle class ninja) a age 6, and jounin (elite ninja) at age 13.
Naoki Irie (Zhi Shu in the Taiwanese drama adaptation), the main male character in the manga, is considered to have an IQ of 200. Many characters speculate that he is the smartest person in Japan.
In the film version of Iron Man, Anthony Stark is a billionaire industrialist, genius inventor, consummate playboy, and CEO of Stark Industries, a chief weapons manufacturer for the United States military. The son of a Manhattan Project engineer, Howard Stark, Tony is an engineering prodigy, having built a circuit board at 4 years old and an engine at 6 years old, as well as graduating from MIT summa cum laude at the age of 17. He inherits Stark Industries at the age of 21 from Obadiah Stane who had been in control of the company since Howard's death. He builds a suit of power armor to escape his Afghan captors after being kidnapped while performing a weapons test in the country and due to his experiences in captivity decides to help mankind as the superhero, Iron Man.
Ryoma Echizen is very talented at tennis. He enters his school's elite team as only a 6th grader. He later goes on to win the US Open and defeats Lleyton Hewitt. Later in the series, he beats the world's greatest junior player by opening the pinnacle of perfection which was opened by only his father.
Al Bowen, born in Project Chapel experimented by Egrigori. As one of Chapel children, he is a genius with cunning mind.
Shinozuka Kou, alias "Musashi", and her subordinates are child prodigies. As Ultimate Blue's agents, they can perform extraordinary combat skills and precise military tactics at young age. Shinozuka Kou was granted code number 9, became one of the top agents and commanders, at 13. Kou also exhibited to be marvelous strategist, able to plan and precisely carry out very complicated tactics with many uncertain factors.
Falcon, real name Fujimaru Takagi, is a genious hacker that hacked into a computer in fourth grade. He was able to hack into the pentagon in middle-school. Fujimaru is a high-schooler during the series of Bloody Monday.
In video games
Calculatorium Majorium
In the story of Calculatorium Majorium, an Indian produced video game, the flower girl near the castle gates named Rupinder Sarao is offering gifts to all those who pass by. She is a beautiful, joyous, and a great help to your main character on his/her adventure. She claims supernatural powers relating to the use of her calculator, and boasts supreme mathematical abilities.
Disgaea
Despite her "sexy woman appearance", Jennifer, from Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, built the All-Purpose Super Robot "Thursday" when she was only five years old. She even earned a Ph. D in every degree when she was ten. It was even shown that she is also skilled at martial arts, specifically kung fu.
Fire Emblem
In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the first Mage available to you, Lute, is a girl that claims to remember everything she sees, hears and reads. She also claims to be a prodigy, and tells this to everyone she meets. It is often claimed that it is her intellectual gifts that makes her boastful.
Mother
In the RPG sprite game Mother (also known as EarthBound Zero), released by Nintendo in July 27, 1989, Loid is a generally weak preteen boy who is incredibly gifted in building devices for use in the game. The character Jeff bears a similar role in Mother 2/EarthBound and is the son of the famous scientist Dr. Andonuts.
Advance Wars
In Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising and Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Lash is called "the wonderkind of the Black Hole forces," having developed the majority of the weapons used by Sturm and the COs under his command.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations, Franziska von Karma is a said to be a legal prodigy who became a prosecutor in Germany (America in the Japanese version of the games) when she was only thirteen years old, and had a spotless conviction record before encountering Phoenix Wright. She is only eighteen when she is introduced in the games.[10] When she introduces herself to Phoenix Wright, she also states she is a prodigy. However, she later states that she was simply pushed by her father and was in fact never a prodigy.[11]
Also in those two games in the series is Pearl Fey, a gifted spirit medium who is said to be a prodigy of the art at only eight years old. Her powers even exceed those of Maya Fey, the current heir to the family's technique.[12]
Warcraft
In Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft, Jaina Proudmoore's ability in the field of magic was powerful even at a young age. She later become an apprentice of Antonidas, known as one of the mightiest Archmages in history and was trained in the Magocracy city of Dalaran. Before Antonidas' death, he looked forward to the day when Jaina can become a powerful Archmage and leader. She is now the most powerful human sorceress alive on the face of Azeroth and current ruler of Theramore.
Tails of Sonic the Hedgehog series
Miles "Tails" Prower is an eight year old anthropomorphic fox and a child prodigy in mechanical engineering. Eight years old in most continuity canons, his abilities allow him to build various machines from biplanes to space vessels (in Sonic X) as well as to pilot the machines themselves.
In "Resident Evil Code: Veronica", Alexia Ashford was an artificially created genius who, by age ten, graduated with a postgraduate education at the top of her class from a prestigious university, from which she became the head researcher of Umbrella's Antarctic Facility. Her I.Q. was likely around 200 or higher, and gave her a massive sense of superiority over the rest of the human race, eventually leading her to bind herself cryogenically to the T-Veronica virus, in an attempt to dominate the world. Likewise, her ancestor, and biological mother, Veronica Ashford also received postgraduate education by the same age and was fluent in 10 languages. It is noted that she excelled in Mathematics, Linguistics, and Biological Sciences. Her twin brother, Alfred, however, possesses only slightly above average intelligence, with an I.Q. of around 130.
References
- ^ Wonder Kids in Science Fiction by Thomas R.
- ^ Nine great movies featuring child prodigies by Peter Hartlaub of The San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, October 7, 2007
- ^ 'Vitus' as unpredictable as fantasy: Fictional tale of child prodigy resonates beyond the walls of the movie theater By Betsy Pickle of SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
- ^ Teaching clever kids
- ^ The Royal Tenenbaums on The Austin Chronicle
- ^ Doogie Howser, M.D., Ph.D., Ed.D.: The Myths and Realities of Gifted Students in Higher Education by Rosemary J. Perez
- ^ See Episode 3 "Mother" of Series One
- ^ "World Enemy No. 1". Retrieved 2009-05-03.
- ^ induck.org entry on Gilbert
- ^ Dick Gumshoe: [Von Karma's] kid became a prosecutor real young… like 13, and hasn’t lost a trial since. That’s what they call a “prodigy”, pal. Phoenix Wright: Hmm… Kid, huh… W-W-Wait a sec! Th-Th-Thirteen!? The kid became a prosecutor at the age of THIRTEEN!? I mean, a prodigy like that… I would have heard something about… (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All) Capcom, 2002
- ^ Franziska von Karma: I am Franziska von Karma, the Prodigy. (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All) Capcom, 2002
- ^ Pearl Fey: Maya's Cousin. A channeling prodigy with intense spiritual power. Also the youngest. (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, in-game profile) Capcom, 2002