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Conservation of Competence: Difference between revisions
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If, instead, everybody takes turns being stupid, then they're passing around the [[Idiot Ball]]. For extra laughs (or groans) can be overlapped inversely with [[Distribution of Ninjutsu]]: the more competent someone is, the weaker they are in combat. Sub-trope of [[Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime gives us the presumably competent Giovanni, whose subordinates are the one and only Team Rocket [[Terrible Trio]].
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* Blair Waldorf and her "merry band of psychos" (her minions, that is) in ''[[Gossip Girl]]''. 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 ''[[The West Wing]]'', where everyone is a genius, but things tend to fall apart rapidly if ''any'' one member is incapacitated or missing.
* This trope goes both ways in various ''[[Star Trek]]'' shows. The seven or so senior officers of the ship are competent. Above them are [[Insane Admiral
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
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** There's also the fact that Cyrus is a [[Authority Equals Asskicking|far better trainer than the average grunts.]] The final fight with him in Platinum is easily [[That One Boss|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}}.
* ''[[Touhou]]'s'' Sakuya Izayoi, [[Ninja Maid]] extraordinaire, has to use her [[Reality Warper]] superpowers to turn the Scarlet Devil Mansion [[Bigger on the Inside]], 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 [[The Stoner|lazy and incompetent]] that they are as likely to cause harm as good. Her boss, [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]] [[Ojou]] Remilia is capable of being competent most of the time, but, being
** 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.
*** 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.
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** Iago wasn't dumb. He was a loud, obnoxious [[Chew Toy]], but he was also a rather [[Genre Savvy]] [[Deadpan Snarker]], not to mention a [[Manipulative Bastard|consummate manipulator.]] A better example, from the [[Pilot Movie|first sequel]] and the [[The Series|animated series,]] is [[Meaningful Name|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.
* ''[[The Lion King]]'': Scar is smart, the hyenas are dumb.
* ''[[Hercules (
* ''[[The Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]'': Yzma is smart, Kronk is dumb.
* Startlingly averted in ''[[Mulan]],'' where both Shan Yu ''and'' his lieutenants are smart and scary.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Oddly enforced in some real military organizations. Everyone in a certain
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:Competence Tropes]]
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