History Main / ConservationOfCompetence

* In ''The Minimum Man'' by RobertSheckley a man who is clumsy, accident-prone and generally incompetent is sent to open up a planet for colonization. He is assisted by a robot which does all of the heavy work excellently. During the story, the man (who is away from the public disapproval of the rest of society for the very first time) slowly becomes less clumsy, less accident-prone, and more competent. But he noticed that as he got better, the robot got more clumsy and accident-prone. When he asked about this, his boss cheerfully admitted that this was deliberate on their part, because they could not count on the standard colonist to get better, and they literally and specifically wanted to preserve a level of incompetence across the entire team.

*** If you think about it though, this trope applies when looking at every game in itself. In the aforemented example with with members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, you have [[{{Baka}} Cirno]], [[FanNickname Daiyousei]] and [[TheDitz Rumia]] to offset the competence of the others.

* The PointyHairedBoss of ''{{ComicStrip/Dilbert}}'' fame. Not every engineer *cough*Wally*cough* is completely competent, but there are hints that even Wally ''could'' be competent if he cared. Which he doesn't. Wally is explicitly based on a guy Scott Adams knew who apparently discovered that the company they worked for had a very generous severance package for worthless employees, so he applied more creative effort to qualifying for it than most people do to jobs they've always dreamed of doing.
** ''His'' bosses (when we see them) are even '''dumber'''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'s'' Sakuya Izayoi, NinjaMaid extraordinaire, has to use her time manipulation to turn the Scarlet Devil Mansion BiggerOnTheInside, and then single-handedly guard and ''clean'' said mansion because, in spite of having a virtually inexaustable army of guards and other maids, they are so universally [[TheStoner lazy and incompetent]] that they are as likely to cause harm as good. Her boss, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]] {{Ojou}} Remilia is capable of being competent most of the time, but, being [[NotAllowedToGrowUp permanently a child]], both physically and emotionally, she would rather just play (and force Sakuya to set up those games for her). During ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'', she even turns into TheDeterminator, fighting three conseuctive {{BossBattle}}s (two were mid-boss battles) in defense of her mistress. What is she ''paid'' for this kind of work? She gets a room in the mansion, and to keep the outfit. It ain't easy being {{Meido}}.
** Several similar comparisons could be made to other girls in the touhou fame (Youmu, a samurai whose boss forces her to use her skills as a gardener and ocasionally as a cook, while she, uh... watches a Cherry Tree bloom) as well as the trope still applying but the other way around (Komachi, a slacker God of Death and her Boss Shiki Eiki the Yamaxanadu, who takes her job too seriously; Reisen, who is constantly scolded for her screwups by her master Eirin, who invented ETERNAL LIFE) What really can destroy the trope's validity is when we consider their abilities as Danmaku Boss Fights. While Sakuya can be the perfect maid in her daily life, she still pales in comparison to the bratty child Remilia when it boils down to their world's selected form of fighting. In fact, one could think there's too much competence in every house.
*** If you think about it though, this trope applies when looking at every game in itself. In the aforemented example with with members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, you have the Baka Cirno, Daiyousei, and Rumia to offset the competence of the others.

* ''Disney/RobinHood'': Prince John is dumb, the Sheriff of Nottingham is smart.

* Both versions regularly appear in ''[[WesternAnimation/KimPossible Kim Possible]]''. Dr. Drakken is generally clueless about everything other than [[MadScientist mad science]], relying on [[TheDragon Shego]] to fight and steal things for him. Señor Senior Senior is a [[ContractualGenreBlindness perfectly capable villain]] (allowing for the fact that his goal is to [[EccentricMillionaire entertain himself]] rather than to succeed in his schemes) who is constantly frustrated by his son Señor Senior Junior's lack of proper villainous spirit.

** Thoroughly averted when Colonel Potter comes on board.
* ''[[GilligansIsland Gilligan's Island]]''. Only one person in any given episode could be competent. Not always the same person, either. Of course if [[JustEatGilligan they were competent]] they'd be off the island. So, yeah.

* Competent supporters: BeleagueredAssistant, HypercompetentSidekick, ReliableTraitor, SidekickExMachina, DragonInChief.

* The ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' anime gives us the presumably competent Giovanni, whose subordinates are the one and only Team Rocket TerribleTrio. A prime example was their second ever onscreen interaction: Jessie and James are trapped on an island (and separated from Meowth and their other Pokémon) with only a payphone as communication. Seeing as they have no money, they decide to collect call their boss. After being greeted by a grumpy Giovanni warning them that whoever is calling better have a good reason for making him spend money on the call, Jessie and James are [[TooDumbToLive stupid enough]] to start reciting their motto. Cue Giovanni hanging up wondering who the hell those idiots were.

[[AC: Eastern Animation]]
* In ''{{Pucca}}'', Tobe is a very good ninja and has very good plans sometimes, but he would achieve more alone than with his ninjas followers.

* Blair Waldorf and her "merry band of psychos" (her minions, that is) in ''GossipGirl''. Or as Blair puts it... "''Once again the universe has proven that anything you can do, I can do better''."
* Both averted and subverted in ''TheWestWing'', where everyone is a genius, but things tend to fall apart rapidly if ''any'' one member is incapacitated or missing.

[[AC: DisneyAnimatedCanon]]

* In ''{{Pucca}}'', Tobe is a very good ninja and has very good plans sometimes, but he would achieve more alone than with his ninjas followers.

* The ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' anime gives us the presumably competent Giovanni, whose subordinates are the one and only Team Rocket TerribleTrio.
** A prime example of this was their second ever onscreen interaction: Jessie and James are trapped on an island (and separated from Meowth and their other Pokémon) with only a payphone as communication. Seeing as they have no money, they decide to collect call their boss. After being greeted by a grumpy Giovanni warning them that whoever is calling better have a good reason for making him spend money on the call, Jessie and James are [[TooDumbToLive stupid enough]] to start reciting their motto. Cue Giovanni hanging up wondering who the hell those idiots were.

* Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake of ''[[Series/{{Mash}} M*A*S*H]]'' would never have gotten by without people like Hawkeye and [[HypercompetentSidekick Radar]] around.
** Of course, Blake was actually a highly competent surgeon, he was just a incompetent administrator. [[TheNeidermeyer Frank Burns,]] on the other hand...

* In ''[[Series/BandOfBrothers Band of Brothers]]'' Major Winters goes through a whole list of people who are incompetent to some degree or another. One can't read a map, another yells a lot, Dyke (who he's trying to replace) can't make any decisions and tends to wander off at odd times (even in combat!). He is eventually able to send one of the three home, but still can't replace Dyke as the only real option, Buck, was taken out due to a severe case of trench foot (in reality, because of severe shell shock after seeing two of his best friends lose their legs). During the battle of Foy (Part of the Battle of the Bulge), Dyke finally gets replaced by Speirs, who is all about [[CuttingTheKnot blowing snipers out of their holes]], and [[CrazyAwesome Charging first into battle in such a way the enemy is too stunned to shoot]].
** It should be noted that Speirs also did both of those things within ''MINUTES'' of taking command of Easy Company.

* The PointyHairedBoss of ''{{ComicStrip/Dilbert}}'' fame. Though not every engineer *cough*Wally*cough* is completely competent, either.
** You get the idea that Wally ''could'' be competent if he cared. Which he doesn't.
*** It's never been confirmed that he's actually ''talented'', but it is known that when the PHB is briefly taken out by a plane accident (he survived), Wally "discovered [he] ''likes'' to work." [[StatusQuoIsGod Guess how long that lasted]].
**** It is shown in the [[MillenniumBug [=Y2K=]]] episode of the TV show that Wally was once a brilliant programmer before the company broke his spirit, if you consider the TV show part of the canon.
*** Wally is explicitly based on a guy Scott Adams knew who apparently discovered that the company they worked for had a very generous severance package for worthless employees, so he applied more creative effort to qualifying for it than most people do to jobs they've always dreamed of doing. Wally could freaking rule the world if he wanted to; he just doesn't want to.

*** Also note that '''his''' bosses (when we see them) are even '''dumber'''.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' (and especially ''Platinum'') give us the rather intimidating Cyrus at the head of Team Galactic. His low-level flunkies don't have the slightest idea what the Big Evil Plan even ''is.''
** There's also the fact that Cyrus is a [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking far better trainer than the average grunts.]] The final fight with him in Platinum is easily [[ThatOneBoss one of the hardest battles of the game.]]
** And that the big evil plan is kept hidden from the grunts because [[spoiler: it would result in said grunts, and everything else in the Universe, ceasing to exist]].

* In [[Series/BandOfBrothers Band of Brothers]] Major Winters goes through a whole list of people who are incompetent to some degree or another. One can't read a map, another yells allot, Dyke (who he's trying to replace) can't make any decisions and tends to wander off at odd times (even in combat!). He is eventually able to send one of the three home, but still can't replace Dyke as the only real option, Buck, was taken out due to a severe case of trench foot (in reality, because of severe shell shock after seeing two of his best friends lose their legs). During the battle of Foy (Part of the Battle of the Bulge), Dyke finally gets replaced by Speirs, who is all about [[CuttingTheKnot blowing snipers out of their holes]], and [[CrazyAwesome Charging first into battle in such a way the enemy is too stunned to shoot]].

Put practically: ''If the minions are smart, the boss must be an idiot. If the boss is smart, then his subordinates are stupid.''

** This also goes for the Marines. Genuine competence seems to be a rather rare attribute, whereas the majority of the grunts and officers are of the "RAWR, kill 'em" mindset. Some are dangerously competant, with Akainu being one despite being the most blood thirsty.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Monkey D. Luffy is easily one of the dumbest members of the crew. On the other hand he ''is'' smart enough to collect reasonably talented and intelligent TrueCompanions to offset this.
** This also goes for the Marines. Genuine competence seems to be a rather rare attribute, whereas the majority of the grunts and officers are of the "RAWR, kill 'em" mindset.

* In ''{{Pucca}}'', Tobe is a very good ninja and has very good plans sometimes, but he would achieve more alone than with his ninjas.

** Several similar comparisons could be made to other girls in the touhou fame (Youmu, a samurai whose boss forces her to use her skills as a gardener and ocasionally as a cook, while she, uh... watches a Cherry Tree bloom) as well as the trope still applying but the other way around (Komachi, a slacker God of Death and her Boss Shikieki Yamaxamanadu, who takes her job too seriously; Reisen, who is constantly scolded for her screwups by her master Eirin, who invented ETERNAL LIFE) What really can destroy the trope's validity is when we consider their abilities as Danmaku Boss Fights. While Sakuya can be the perfect maid in her daily life, she still pales in comparison to the bratty child Remilia when it boils down to their world's selected form of fighting. In fact, one could think there's too much competence in every house.

* In [[Series/BandOfBrothers]] Major Winters goes through a whole list of people who are incompetent to some degree or another. One can't read a map, another yells allot, Dyke (who he's trying to replace) can't make any decisions and tends to wander off at odd times (even in combat!). He is eventually able to send one of the three home, but still can't replace Dyke as the only real option, Buck, was taken out due to a severe case of trench foot (in reality, because of severe shell shock after seeing two of his best friends lose their legs). During the battle of Foy (Part of the Battle of the Bulge), Dyke finally gets replaced by Speirs, who is all about [[CuttingTheKnot blowing snipers out of their holes]], and [[CrazyAwesome Charging first into battle in such a way the enemy is too stunned to shoot]].

* In [[Series/BandOfBrothers]] Major Winters goes through a whole list of people who are incompetent to some degree or another. One can't read a map, another yells allot, Dyke (who he's trying to replace) can't make any decisions and tends to wander off at odd times (even in combat!). He is eventually able to send one of the three home, but still can't replace Dyke as the only real option, Buck, was taken out due to a severe case of trench foot (in reality, because of severe shell shock after seeing two of his best friends lose their legs). After the battle of Foy, Dyke finally gets replaced by Speirs, who is all about [[CuttingTheKnot blowing snipers out of their holes]], and [[CrazyAwesome Charging first into battle in such a way the enemy is too stunned to shoot]].

* In [[Series/BandOfBrothers]] Major Winters goes through a whole list of people who are incompetent to some degree or another. One can't read a map, another yells allot, Dyke (who he's trying to replace) can't make any decisions and tends to wander off at odd times (even in combat!). He is eventually able to send one of the three home, but still can't replace Dyke as the only real option, Buck, was taken out due to a severe case of trench foot (in reality, because of severe shell shock after seeing two of his best friends lose their legs). After the battle of Foy, Dyke finally gets replaced by Speirs, who is all about [[CutTheKnot: blowing snipers out of their holes]], and [[CrazyAwesome: Charging first into battle in such a way the enemy is too stunned to shoot]].

* ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'': Jafar is smart, Iago is dumb.
** Iago wasn't dumb. He was a loud, obnoxious {{Chewtoy}}, but he was also a rather GenreSavvy DeadpanSnarker, not to mention a [[ManipulativeBastard consummate manipulator.]] A better example, from the [[PilotMovie first sequel]] and the [[TheSeries animated series,]] is [[MeaningfulName Abis Mal]], who, whether leading a gang of bandits who are smarter than him or being the semi-willing pawn of an evil genie who's smarter than he is, is pretty much guaranteed to be more of a liability than an asset.

* Incompetent leaders: IneffectualSympatheticVillain, PointyHairedBoss, GeneralFailure.
* Competent leaders: ReasonableAuthorityFigure, DangerouslyGenreSavvy.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'s'' Sakuya Izayoi, NinjaMaid extraordinaire, has to use her RealityWarper superpowers to turn the Scarlet Devil Mansion BiggerOnTheInside, and then single-handedly guard and ''clean'' said mansion because, in spite of having a virtually inexaustable army of guards and other maids, they are so universally [[TheStoner lazy and incompetent]] that they are as likely to cause harm as good. Her boss, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]] {{Ojou}} Remilia is capable of being competent most of the time, but, being [[NotAllowedToGrowUp permanently a child]], both physically and emotionally, she would rather just play (and force Sakuya to set up those games for her). During ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'', she even turns into TheDeterminator, fighting three conseuctive {{BossBattle}}s (two were mid-boss battles) in defense of her mistress. What is she ''paid'' for this kind of work? She gets a room in the mansion, and to keep the outfit. It ain't easy being {{Meido}}.

* In ''TheDreamstone'' some of Zordrak and Urpgor's plans may actually work if not for assigning them to Sgt Blob and his men. When Blob's team actually gets something right however, it is usually Urpgor (or in rare cases even Zordrak) that pull the IdiotBall. Rufus and Amberley started off as more competant heroes to contrast the Urpneys, but eventually evolved into [[TheFool Fools]] not much more apt than them, making it more a game of fate than skill. Their own master the Dreammaker and the Wuts aren't immune to this, but still noticably more competant than them.

**** It is shown in the Y2K episode of the TV show that Wally was once a brilliant programmer before the company broke his spirit, if you consider the TV show part of the canon.