Hypercompetent Sidekick: Difference between revisions

→‎Western Animation: cleanup and added examples.
(→‎Video Games: adding example.)
(→‎Western Animation: cleanup and added examples.)
 
Line 308:
* Stan is Xander Crews' hypercompetent sidekick in ''[[Frisky Dingo]]''. Likewise, Sin is Killface's.
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'': Although Mr. Burns is not incompetent so much as out of touch with the times, Waylon Smithers arguably serves this role.
** Another Simpsons example is seen in an early episode when Homer is briefly made an executive at the nuclear power plant. His secretary Karl ([[Black Best Friend|as]] [[Those Two Guys|opposed]] [[Heterosexual Life Partners|to]] Carl) immediately realisesrealizes that Homer is just some lucky buffoon and isn't suited to his new job. He proceeds to help Homer act the part, to the point where he gets fired protecting Homer's job and still writes a presentation to aid him.
* Jazz to Sentinel Prime in ''[[Transformers Animated]]''. While Sentinel Prime is technically second in command to Ultra Magnus, Jazz is usually the one who keeps a handle on Sentinel and tries to steer him towardstoward good judgment. Jazz eventually realized this was a lost cause and left to join the Autobots on Earth.
* Don't forget Cyclonus from ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]''. He was sane, calculating, dangerous... everything Galvatron was not.
** Well, Galvatron was dangerous, but to his troops just as much as the Autobots.
Line 322:
* Shego from ''[[Kim Possible]]'' She fights all the battles for [[Harmless Villain|Dr. Drakken]], she ''tries'' to keep his [[Evil Plan|evil plans]] in line, she even provides Drakken with the [[Unobtainium]]/[[Phlebotinum]] needed for his capers (either by stealing them, or actually buying them). Add her being [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] to the list, and the reason why she isn't the [[Big Bad]] instead comes down to pure [[Brilliant but Lazy|lack of motivation]].
** It should also be mentioned that the one time she did a caper on her own, during ''[[The Movie|A Sitch in Time]]'', she actually took over the world. But even then, she had to be talked into it by her future self.
** Rufus serves as this for Ron; on missions, he tends to be more resourceful than Ron. Wade also qualifies; there are a few times where even Kim would be lost without him.
* Ms. Sara Bellum, assistant to the Mayor of Townsville, from ''[[Powerpuff Girls]]''.
** We get to see why this works so well by the time of the episode when Fuzzy Lumpkins temporarily becomes mayor. Neither Fuzzy nor the Mayor was competent at much more than looking like they cared about the job, but at least the Mayor wasn't malicious and held the title while the lion's share of the real work was done by Ms. Bellum, an arrangement that works well because [[Ultimate Job Security|because all the alternatives are just that much worse]].
* Similarly, Deputy Mayor Calico "Callie" Briggs from ''[[Swat Kats]]: The Radical Squadron'', who assists the lazy Mayor Manx.
* Gromit from ''[[Wallace and Gromit]]''.
Line 360 ⟶ 361:
* Haroud serves this function (and combines it with [[Deadpan Snarker]] as usual) for Abys-Mal in ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]: the Series.''
** A classic example of this is Abys-Mal explaining (for exposition) his plan to attack the heroes. Haroud politely replies "I know what the plan is, master. Why are you telling me this?"
* It may be the case in the space-themed episode "Space Madness" of ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'', where the titular duo's space counterparts, Commander Hoek and Cadet Stimpy, are sent to a mission that is roughly said to [[And I Must Scream|take around 36 years.]] They are exposed to the effects of the [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|space madness]], but Ren is the only one to succumb to them, while Stimpy does his job as [[The Caretaker]] for him in an unusually competent manner (in most of the episodes Stimpy's actions are well-intetionedintentioned yet careless). However, Stimpy might have been immune to the effects of the space madness due to being [[Too Dumb to Live|too stupid for them to have any effect on him]], while Ren is [[Ax Crazy|mentally unstable]] by nature.
* Boo Boo exhibited this in the ''[[Yogi Bear]]'' cartoons, often knowing when to stay out of a situation, and warning Yogi, [[Catch Phrase|"Mr. Ranger isn't gonna like this."]]
* Spike is this for Twilight Sparkle in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''. While Twilight herself is generally pretty damn competantcompetent the number of skills Spike possesses is simply staggering and there are a few episodes where Twilight would have been completely screwed without him.
* Generally speaking, the cartoons of the late 70's and early 80's each seemed to have their protagonists be best friends with an [[Small Annoying Creature|irritatingly cute]] [[Fairy Companion]] who could pretty much [[Combo-Platter Powers|do anything the plot required]]. The most bizarre/notorious example would be ''[[Rubik the Amazing Cube]]'', which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: the adventures of some kids and their magical talking, er, Rubik's Cube. Yes, as in the little cube-shaped puzzle where you match all the colors on each side. Really.
** The only reason Rubik was a sidekick at all is that he could only walk/talk/save the day after he had been "solved", and the young boy he hung around with had the amazing ability to solve him quickly. So every episode Rubik had to be dropped or something, which was apparently enough to mix him up so that he couldn't fix everything in the first two minutes.
Line 379 ⟶ 380:
* Surprisngly, this is what Ron Stoppable becomes in the [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[Kim Possible]]''. Though he might've been promoted to partner for his heroics. [[Team Pet]] Rufus can be this to Ron, sometimes appearing to be smarter than his owner and much more mechanically adept.
* In [[Hanna-Barbera]]'s ''[[The Godzilla Power Hour]]'', poor [[The Scrappy|Godzooky]] gets a lot of grief from fans because he's cute and much tinier than Godzilla. But taken objectively, Zooky is ''still'' a twelve-foot tall flying monster who dwarfs the human castmembers, and can handily intimidate humans who aren't expecting him. Apart from being a standard cute cartoon sidekick, he's also there so that even the [[Just Here for Godzilla|human-scale filler scenes]] all [[Kaiju|Dai Kaiju]] stories have can ''still'' have a cool big monster in them.
** He also serves as a valuable backup way to call out Godzilla himself, so even at his least useful he still had a valuable potential.
* Cornfed on ''[[Duckman]]'' alternates between this and mere Hypercompetent Sidekick, depending on the needs of the plot.
** However, in the [[Adventure Game]] based on the series, Cornfed decides that this time Duckman has to stop relying on him and save the day himself. Because of this he mainly just gives advice on how to progress.
 
 
== Real Life ==