Crouching Moron Hidden Badass / Pokémon

• In earlier seasons, Psyduck tends to be rather useless and helpless, mainly during serious battles. That is, until his opponent induces a headache, resulting in a nasty psychic experience for the unfortunate victim. Psyduck loses any memory of these events though. Secondly, Togepi is generally considered an immature, coddled infant by Misty. Sometimes, however, when it looks like Team Rocket might succeed, it uses Metronome (a move that generates a random attack). Said random attack always blows the bad guys away. No one knows that Togepi does it.
• For that matter, Ash himself in the earlier seasons. An immature Idiot Hero to a tee, but every once in a while he Ass Pulls something genuinely brilliant. Over time, he's grown into a genuinely competent Trainer who comes up with strategies both tactical and unorthodox, but he still comes off as this due to being a wide-eyed enthusiastic boy.
• Cilan. Sure, he's a former Gym Leader, but he sparkles and "tastes" Pokémon. But when Burgundy shows up to wreak revenge upon him, he utterly destroys her two Pokémon in battle without any significant damage to his Pokémon. He pretty much had Pansage toy with Sawsbuck for the whole match.
• Wobbuffet of Team Rocket. Time and again, he's proven to be as powerful as his game counterpart, if only Jessie knows how to use him properly. Most of the time, Wobbuffet is just the Plucky Comic Relief. At one point he successfully held back an attack from an Articuno. When he returned in XY he could tank most of Pikachu's attacks rather easily.
• Meowth is similar. He's generally slow and cowardly on the battlefield and knows very few attacks, usually working in the sidelines before getting blasted off with the rest of the team. Whenever he's incensed or focused enough however, his Fury Swipes can be incredibly powerful. While he's won only half a dozen battles, they were all Curbstomp Battles, and some against up to five Pokemon on his own. He's also far more competent as a performer, he's actually helped Jessie beat the twerps in some contests and showcases.
• The whole Team Rocket trio can apply. While they are infamous laughing stock villains, every now and then they cook up a genuinely good plan and become genuinely intimidating. Not only that, they tend to prove much more competent at legitimate Pokémon sports. Jessie in particular has won several coordinator events without cheating, sometimes directly against the twerps. For an extra touch, they nearly always wear their Paper Thin Disguises at the time, meaning Ash's team almost always mistake them for talented newcomers rather than their bungling arch enemies.
• The One-Shot Character Marilyn is a girl that goes gaga over any Pokémon she says is cute, though not as bad as Gardenia with Grass Pokémon. So anybody watching the episode would've never guessed that she's good in Pokémon battles.
• Ruby from Pokémon Adventures, though it may cross to Obfuscating Stupidity. He has an extreme obsession with Contests and beauty, not to mention he cries like a little girl whenever he gets a little dirty. However, if he's forced into a battle or nobody's watching, he turns out to be an extremely skilled battler. The interesting thing is that he used to be full time badass as a child, but he forced it down to become an active moron due to traumatizing events. He somewhat got over his issues by the time the Emerald arc comes around and is now a (somewhat) healthy mix between moron and badass.

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