History InformedAbility / WesternAnimation

** According to his bio, Soundwave has the power to read people's thoughts. This one's so informed that the only time it ever came up in the series was in the aforementioned episode, where Megatron borrowed that power from him and used it - and even then, only [[WhatCouldHaveBeen in a deleted scene!]]

* Col. Stinkmeaner on ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' is an inversion: he's a blind man who can drive a car perfectly parallel to the road, detect objects in front of him (even while in the car), [[CurbStompBattle beat up Granddad]] and experiences no inconvenience as a result of his blindness, which Huey attributed to him having the DisabilitySuperpower of [[BlindSeer radar-vision]]. Then he's revealed to not have any such ability; he just got lucky during his fight with Granddad [[spoiler:who beats him in a rematch, accidentally killing him.]] and no credible explanation is given for how he could drive regularly without attracting any police attention. Unfortunately, he [[TookALevelInBadass learns Kung-Fu in Hell]] and it turns out he hung out with a BadassCrew of EvilOldFolks.

** Inverted in the case of the lawyer who resembles a humanoid chicken who calls himself [[SimpleCountryLawyer "just a simple hyperchicken from a backwoods asteroid."]] (A deleted scene from Into The Wild Green Yonder, reveals his name to be "Matcluck".) While supposedly incompetent as a lawyer (when arguing an insanity defense, he claimed, "Well for starters, they hired me as their lawyer") he has a ''perfect'' record on-screen (two successful defenses, two successful prosecutions). He even managed to negotiate a sweet deal for Bender ''while under arrest himself'', "awaitin' trial for that there ''incompetence''."

* Inversion in ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies''. Especially in the last season, everyone criticizes the main character's movies as being horrible, but they're actually pretty good, even by adult standards - and the characters doing them are pre-teens.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' inverts it: Toki Wartooth, Dethklok's rhythm guitarist and almost-literal second-fiddle to Skwisgaar Skwigelf, has an entire episode devoted to his inability to play the guitar. However, the only time we actually hear him play during the episode, he's upstaging Skwisgaar during a concert and doing a good enough job of it to threaten his confidence. The rest of the time, he's not as good as Skwisgaar and there is considerable distance between them in terms of skill, but he's still the world's second-fastest guitarist.

* Stitch from ''Franchise/LiloAndStitch'' is supposed to have supercomputer level thinking and intelligence. Between 3 movies, a 39 episode cartoon series, and an 80 episode anime series, he displays maybe 40 seconds worth of supercomputer level thinking and reaction speed. He is capable of quick thinking, and can learn new skills quickly, but almost never on the level of a supercomputer, if at all. Most of the time, it's Lilo that comes up with all the problem-solving ideas.

** In "Christmas Guy", in the Home Alone parody, we're supposed to see robbers as competent, even when they commit a series of stupid actions like not wearing gloves, having their faces uncovered, killing a child in cold blood with an unsilenced weapon. All of those things would only get them caught quickly, and get a worse sentence for killing a child.

** Inverted in the case of the lawyer who resembles a humanoid chicken who calls himself [[SimpleCountryLawyer "just a simple hyperchicken from a backwoods asteroid."]] (A deleted scene from Into The Wild Green Yonder, reveals his name to be "Matcluck".) While supposedly incompetent as a lawyer (when arguing an insanity defense, he claimed, "Well for starters, they hired me as their lawyer") he has a ''perfect'' record on-screen (two successful defenses, two successful prosecutions. He even managed to negotiate a sweet deal for Bender ''while under arrest himself'', "awaitin' trial for that there ''incompetence''."

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'', Gargamel's cruel godfather Lord Balthazar is supposedly a far-more competent wizard than his godson. However, he's never seen using any actual sorcery, using machines, technology, and other scientific experiments to achieve his goals. Practically every other wizard in the series, Gargamel included, has displayed far more magical knowledge and skill than Balthazar, with Balthazar dismissing almost anything mysterious or magical as "nonsense" or "fairy tales", even [[ArbitrarySkepticism though it is plainly visible.]] In fact, his "magic wand of the future" is actually a musket.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':

* Stitch from ''Franchise/LiloAndStitch'' is supposed to have supercomputer level thinking and intelligence. Between 3 movies, a 39 episode cartoon series, and an 80 episode anime series, he displays maybe 40 seconds worth of supercomputer level thinking and reaction speed. Most of the time, it's Lilo that comes up with all the problem-solving ideas.

** Courtney's ''Island'' bio claims she's a published author, having written the award-winning book ''Total Triumph for Teens'', and that her bedroom is covered with trophies, ribbons, and plaques; she's apparently never lost anything in her life before ''Total Drama''. You would be forgiven for not believing that with her performances in ''Total Drama Island''. In Season 1, Courtney refuses to jump off the cliff into shark-infested waters as part of the first challenge; she claims to have a medical condition. When Chris warns her that she's risking the possibility of elimination, Courtney accepts the risk, believing the majority of the members on the opposite team won't jump. She was wrong, and the only people that didn't jump were DJ and Beth. Later, Courtney elects herself as project manager to lead the team in building the hot tub but fails to get her team to build it, and as Duncan points out Courtney's management skills have demonstrably fallen flat. It was clear that Courtney was going to be voted off and she was only saved by Ezekiel angering the whole team and getting voted off instead. In the "Phobia Factor" episode where the challenge was to face their fears, Courtney gave each of her teammates a hard time when they have trouble facing their fears, but when the time comes for her to face hers, she can't even go through with it. Yet for some reason, she was not voted off, and Tyler was sent home, despite the fact he at least tried to overcome his fear.

** The Emperor's Coven are supposed to be the best of the best subject to very strict recruitment and [[TrainingFromHell training standards]]. But the rank and file Guards and Scouts are with rare exception as inept as expected from {{Mooks}}.

* In the final episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', [[spoiler:Belos claims that Raine Whispers has always been unusually powerful. However, from what we see of them, they aren't portrayed as powerful so much as very clever. Then again, some of this can probably be blamed on Disney for cutting the show short and not allowing time to develop them correctly.]]