History Main / UnfitForGreatness

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'', Pelleas, heir to the throne of Daein, is a well-intentioned youth who strives to free his country from Begnion's oppression. Despite having not known of his parentage until somewhat recently, he tries his best to lead his people, but due to his mild personality and inexperience in warfare he's got some pretty big shoes to fill, and he knows it. As such, he ends up deferring to his mother and advisor on all matters. Unfortunately, this prevents him from being the strong leader the revolution needs and, were it not for Micaiah's efforts, the rebellion likely would've ended in disaster. After becoming King at the end of Part 1, things look like they might improve... except [[spoiler:his trusted advisor betrays him by tricking him into signing a blood pact with Begnion and then vanishing. This ends up putting the lives of the entire country of Daein into jeopardy if he doesn't follow Begnion's orders to the letter, with no way of knowing how to stop it.]] He struggles to deal with this on his own throughout most of Part 3, but by the time he finally confides with Micaiah on what's really going on and is able to find a solution shortly after, Ike's army is right on their doorstep. And to make matters worse, [[spoiler:his solution, killing a pact-bearer (i.e. himself), is only half of what needs to be done, and just results in him dying for nothing. This is the only fate for him on one's first run through the game, but on a second playthrough Micaiah can stop the sacrifice, allowing him to survive and fight alonside the army.]] It's somewhat telling in that, should he survive to the end of the game, [[spoiler: he willingly abdicates the throne to Micaiah and serves as an advisor on her court, a role far more suited to him.]]

* King Elhokar of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' is a bad king, and painfully aware of it. He lacks the force of personality of his father Gavilar, focuses more on hunting chasmfiends than trying to win the war with the Parshendi, and is paranoid to the point of seeing assassins in every shadow. He wants to be a good king, and is contrasted with his uncle Dalinar, who does not want to be king, but borders on usurping Elhokar by total accident simply because he is respected and a skilled leader in ways that Elhokar is not.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' episode "The Most Dangerous Thing in the World", Cobra attempts to destroy G.I. Joe by getting the three Joes least suited to lead the organization promoted into leadership roles, causing chaos. When General Hawk returns to sort things out and fix everything, he points out that some people have the desire to lead but not the ability (referring to GeneralFailure Dial-Tone), some people have the ability to lead but not the desire (referring to the BrilliantButLazy Lifeline), and some truly exceptional(ly disasterous) people have neither the ability nor the desire (referring to TheCaligula Shipwreck).

** Being smart enough to realize they aren't fit for their new posts, Bonton and Manootensyon are trying to find someone who ''is'', and, in Manootensyon's case, grow a high-caste scientist who can just recreate an emperor, a group of generals and the necessary scientists. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption Manootensyon isn't good enough to create a proper high-cast scientist and grew him stupider than himself]] [[spoiler:(or, rather, just as smart as he should have been, but [[WhiteSheep good]]. And, knowing they'd kill him if they found out before he came up with a plan to neutralize the others without killing them, [[ObfuscatingStupidity he feigned being an idiot]])]], and Bonton's wish to find a proper superior leads him to [[spoiler:hands command over to ''Paperinik'' [[BavarianFireDrill when he says he's a representative of an Evronian emperor]]]].