Overshadowed by Awesome/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


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 fairs 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.
  • 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: ???
  • 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: ???
  • Invoked: ???
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: ???
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???

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