Overshadowed by Awesome: Difference between revisions

Where in a show or game that features ludicrously powerful people, a certain character or group of characters are overshadowed by their superior fellows and end up looking like plain crap, even though they are still very competent [[Distribution of Ninjutsu|in comparison]] to your average [[Innocent Bystander]].

 

 

Unfortunately, [[Hard Work Hardly Works]], so you can expect them to [[Can't Catch Up|remain overshadowed]] throughout the show...

** Yuma of the Seven Ghosts is a milder example. The former rank #40 (lower than any of the Pieta survivors save [[Almighty Janitor|Claire]]) thought she existed on the other's sufferance, was probably correct in thinking she was the weakest of them, and remained convinced that she had not grown in power during the [[Time Skip]]... until she faced four warriors (including a single digit) upon her return from the north and battered them into submission using the flat of her [[BFS|blade]] without even trying.

* The entire source of Unsui's [[woobie]]ness in [[Eyeshield 21]]. An extremely hard working person who's described as being "only a good player" and "the best of the average" who doesn't even come close to his brother's level as a football player or even stand out compared to the quirkier characters. Made all the sadder by the fact that he's [[Genre Savvy]] enough to know his skills only make his brother look even more talented by comparison.

* Lucrezia Noin from ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' is a pretty good [[Humongous Mecha|Mobile Suit]] pilot, but when your teammates are five [[Super Prototype|Gundam]] Pilots and the only [[The Federation|Federation]] pilot who can match them, it's easy to be forgotten. Of course, this ignores a few facts: 1) [[The Rival|Zechs]] says that during their academy days, she held back in order to make him look better (Zechs finished top of his class, for the record), and 2) in ''[[The Movie|Endless Waltz]]'', she lasts just as long the Gundam Pilots while using a Taurus, which is a good but still outdated machine when compared to the [[Mecha-Mooks|Serpents]] fielded by the enemy. This has lead to the [[Epileptic Trees|fan theory]] that Noin is one of the best pilots in the show, held back only by the fact that she never gets anything better than a Taurus.

** Similarly, in the original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', Sayla Mass and Kai Shiden are both very competent pilots and aces several times over. However, they have the misfortune to serve alongside Amuro "[[One-Man Army]]-personified" Ray, who upstages them at every turn, and be flying against Char Aznable, the series' most iconic [[Badass]].

* Compared to normal people, ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'''s Kotetsu Kaburagi would probably be considered very awesome: he has the ability to increase his abilities hundredfold for a brief period of time; he has cool, incredibly advanced [[Powered Armor]]; he dedicates his life to saving everyone he can, regardless of whether or not they deserve it. Unfortunately for him, the viewers of [[Show Within a Show|HeroTV]] aren't comparing him to ''normal'' people. They're comparing him to other superheroes, such as the ridiculously [[The Ace|Ace]]-like Sky High, or the identically powered and armored (but younger and more marketable) Barnaby Brooks Jr. As a result, he tends to fall behind when it comes to points and ratings.

* In ''[[Future GPX Cyber Formula]]'', any racer who isn't Hayato or Kaga have fallen into this as the series progresses into the OVAs. Originally, Shinjyo and Randoll are very skilled racers and could be considered [[The Rival]]s to Hayato, but in the later OVAs, they are usurped by Bleed Kaga, who takes their place as the rival to Hayato.

* Played with in [[Medaka Box]]. Zenkichi {{spoiler|barring his parasite eyes}} is the only "normal" one out of all the main characters. Despite this, he manages to get most of the fights and somehow keeps up with all the super powered people in this series. Maguro even calls him "normal cool" claiming that he is unique because he is normal. {{spoiler|However, in the Student Council Successors arc, Najimi sends 5 normal girls to compete in Medaka's treasure hunt where they not only do better than Zenkichi(who came in dead last being unable to solve the first clue), they actually manage to make it to the final round and briefly manage match Medaka. After noticing Zenkichi placing in dead last in the treasure hunt in comparison to the other normal people, Medaka throws him aside placing him directly under this trope in her eyes.}}

* ''[[Inazuma Eleven]]'''s semi-[[Compilation Movie]] has The Orge, a mysterious soccer team from the future that beats up a main series's [[Big Bad]] [[A God Am I|god wannabe]] Zeus Academy badly. the rest of the movie progresses to ignore the Zeus completely.

* Hank Pym, in the early days of ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]''. Despite having incredible size changing powers, hanging around with a [[Physical God]], a [[Juggernaut]], and a [[Power Armor]]ed [[Gadgeteer Genius]] made him kind of redundant.

* Rick Jones, the perennial sidekick, was pointlessly outleagued by everyone he sidekicked for. Though he was touched with awesome a few brief moments, most of his days in the limelight simply let him show himself to be slightly more badass than normal.

** Dick Grayson was this to Batman when he was the first Robin, and in his late teens decided to strike out on his own as Nightwing. Now, he's one of the leading heroes of the DCU. Hell, he even became Batman after Bruce's kind of death!

** Jason Todd, the second Robin, constantly felt like he was living in Dick's shadow as well as Batman. It lead to him being impulsive and angry.

* In ''[[Angel]]'', Fred is an example, going so far as to get physically overshadowed by a more awesome creature when {{spoiler|Illyria takes control of her}}.

* Parodied in ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'' with the crime fighting duo of the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuMpYTyRjw BMX Bandit and Angel Summoner]. In every situation it's just easier and less dangerous to summon angels to defeat the terrorists and eventually the BMX Bandit develops a complex about it and tries a 30 foot jump off a building without the help of the angels. With predictable results.

* Everything listed in Literature applies to Watson on ''[[Sherlock]]'', and the episode commentary seems to indicate that the writers feel the same way about Lestrade. He's the best that Scotland Yard has to offer, and he's absolutely the guy you want working your case . . . unless Sherlock Holmes is available.

* Humans in [[Babylon 5]] are considerably overshadowed especially by the Minbari. They were beaten quite easily in the Earth-Minbari war, and made a limited contribution to the Shadow War(as a whole; individual humans made quite a few contributions. Despite that it is said a couple of times that [[Humans Are Special]], but that can come off as [[Informed Ability]] .

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Or, in 3rd edition, 3.5, and the various offbranches thereof such as Pathfinder, if someone plays a caster class above level 6 or so, thanks to [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]]. The higher the level, the greater the disparity. Even if the non-caster seems awesome on paper, he's still massively outclassed by the magic users.

** Generally, Toughness 3 and an Armour Save of 5+ was suppose to be considered ''good'', with 4+ being elite body armor and 3+ being the equivallent of a ''walking tank''. However, with the popularity of Space Marines and variants, many of the other species that would have been considered "normal" have been demoted to "swarm" status. Doesn't help when GW seems to actively embrace this new image, releasing even more space marines while actively playing up the "swarms" part in other armies.

** In the current Meta many units are often seen as "uncompetitive". This does not mean they're bad or underpowered, in fact most of them do very well at what they do and are quite appropriate for their cost. However there are many units who are ''more'' powerful than them, many of which share the same Force Organisation Slot, meaning you either choose between the balanced unit, or the overpowered one. It's not a hard choice.

* ''[[Cinema Bums]]'' illustrates this for Hawkeye in the [[The Avengers|Avengers]] movie in [http://www.cinemabums.com/?p=152 this] strip.

* In [[Homestuck]], Dave Strider and his Bro get into a swordfight. Dave is awesome, but Bro is [[Crazy Awesome]], starting off by beating Dave up ''with a marionette''.

* [http://darkencomic.com/?webcomic_post=20051221 This] [[Darken]] strip sums it up. Ones a rogue who hunts down giant abominations for fun, the others a worshipper of Mephistopheles and the last remaining member of the city guard of the Drow's second most important city. But when they're on the same side as a half-dragon high priestess and a disciple of the devil bearing one of the most powerful artefacts in the world?

* In Orion's Arm, terragen civilisation flourishes as it never has during the interplanetary age. Travel from one end of the solar system to the other is now possible. A resource based economy means undreamed of free time and availability of goods. Advances in genetic engineering, cybernetics, and other fields give rise to human-animal splices, animal-derived provolves, and the sapient robots known as vecs. As sophonts everywhere celebrate their newfound prosperity, diversity, unity, and technological mastery, the jubilant spell is rudely interupted by the revelation of a covert war which has been taking place for some time: Superintelligent agents, called transapients, have been manipulating the world behind the scenes with supreme finesse for decades. As their numbers gradually increased, they formed into various opposing factions, divided by their respective ideological differences. A fierce power struggle develops between those who are friendly to humanity (and other lesser terragens), and those who are not. After much strife, the "pro-humans" are the victors. The survivors of the other factions, the hostile "anti-humans" and indifferent or isolationist "ahumans", depart for the stars in craft fashioned and propelled by technologies far in advance of anything known to the ordinary terragens of the day. Baseline society had been completely unaware of the conflict up until this point, and were dumbfounded by how small and inconsequential they seemed in comparison to the transapients, who now step up to take a leading role in terragen civilisation.

** Also in the episode where Robin poses as Red X. He may have been using a [[Clothes Make the Superman|suit with far more gadgets than he usually has]] and he tended to go straight for the [[Achilles' Heel]], but he did take on the rest of the Titans ''at the same time'' and turned it into a [[Curb Stomp Battle]]... twice.

*** Not surprising [[Batman|considering who his teacher is.]]

** Zuko is this within his own family. His sister Azula is a firebending prodigy who uses awesome blue fire and ''lightning'', but he's not nearly as talented. This, among other reasons, is why he's [[The Unfavorite]].

** Katara also suffered a bit of this in the first book, being consistently outdone by Aang (who was basically new to the concept of water bending, while Katara has been practicing for years). It motivated her to get better and was the plotpoint for a number of episodes, before she took a level in badass at the end of Book One, mastering Waterbending incredibly quickly once she got a teacher, surpassing even Aang and later becoming his teacher when she found herself a competent master. Also an example of [[Tropes Are Tools]], as a lot of fans were annoyed at Katara's rapid, unexplained progress and Aang, being the avatar, having good reason to overshadow her.

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[[Category:Characters As Device]]