Basic Trope: An actually competent person looks like crap compared to someone unbelievably more skilled in the same regard.
- Straight: Rachel is competent yet she's outshined by Alexandra the Superachiever.
- Exaggerated: Kyle fares well in every facet of his life, but seems average at best next to Maximilian the Astonishingly Charming Superman, who always manages to steal the spotlight without even trying.
- Downplayed: Alice, Bob, Cloe and Dave are a team of geniuses who kick ass; however, Dave is more Book Dumb than the rest of the team, and so believes he is worthless.
- Justified: Alexandra and Maximilian have gone through lots of special training as well as associated with lots of superachievers, whereas Rachel and Kyle have simply gone through the most usual routes.
- Inverted: Ike sucks at his job. Regardless, he looks extremely competent next to Waylon, who's utterly moronic and ineffectual.
- Alexandra has super speed, which she mostly uses for running away from danger. Rachel, on the other hand, has super strength, which she tries to use. Alexandra doesn't know this, and whenever Rachel tries to fight Alexandra intervenes to "save" her, because surely weak little Rachel could NEVER hold her own against such a threat. "What are you doing?" Rachel yells as Alexandra pulls her away. "Saving us, you Fearless Fool!" Alexandra answers. Since Rachel never gets to fight, everyone assumes that she just has a really big Napoleon Complex, and whenever she tries to explain herself the other characters cut her off and lecture her about unnecessarily putting herself in danger unarmed. "Although maybe if you had super strength..." muses Commander Bob, prompting an exasperated sigh from Rachel. Eventually she gives up and settles for using her strength for more menial tasks, which nobody notices because they're too busy admiring Alexandra's super speed. Ergo, rather then being Overshadowed by Awesome, Rachel is being overshadowed by less awesome.
- Subverted: A superachiever turns out to have limitations where other characters get to shine in turn.
- Double Subverted: ... but it turns out that the Superachiever was just holding back to give someone else a chance to win.
- Parodied: "Dude, you're horrible at this." "I just killed a dragon on my own!" "Alexandra killed 5 dragons." "How many have you killed?" "None. You still suck next to Alexandra." "You're an idiot."
- Zig Zagged: Kyle is often overshadowed by Maximillion, but just as often is compared to the useless Waylon.
- Averted: A character isn't essentially any more outstanding than others.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "Why the hell do you have to beat me at everything?!"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Rachel's enemies underestimate her because of this.
- Defied: Rachel gives everybody who tries to demean her next to Alexandria a piece of her mind quickly, making them realize she's doing her job just fine, Alexandria is just doing it better, but they need both in order to fulfill their mission.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Rachel develops a serious case of Inferiority Complex and proceeds to throw her self-confidence out of the window. She then leaves the team to fend on their own, believing that they are better without her. Without an extra hand, the team's performance starts to suffer.
- Reconstructed: Rachel's Love Interest Bob gives her a hug and believes that she should be more confident about her abilities.
*sigh* Back to being Overshadowed by Awesome.
