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Conservation of Competence

223 statements
41 feature instances
36 referencing feature instances

Conservation of Competence	type	FeatureClass
Conservation of Competence	label	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence	page	ConservationOfCompetence
Conservation of Competence	comment	There is only so much competence a given faction can distribute amongst its membership. Put practically: If the boss is smart, then his subordinates are stupid. If the minions are smart, the boss must be an idiot. This is seen mostly in dramatic animated shows and comedy as a kind of counterbalance to keep the overall effectiveness of a faction moderate without being too dangerous or easy. On the comedy side, the inherent inequality and dysfunction of a group with such a large breach in abilities is a comedy goldmine. Expect to see competent leaders ask "Why am I surrounded with incompetents?" and competent underlings to sigh at their boss' stupidity. In the event everyone in the faction is dumb, they're likely a Goldfish Poop Gang designed to be the Butt-Monkey everyone laughs at and maybe sympathizes with a little. In the rare event everyone in it is competent, then they're likely going to be understaffed, the ground level Mooks/Redshirts are less than effectual, or they are disadvantaged in some other way. Competent leaders: Reasonable Authority Figure, Benevolent Boss, Diabolical Mastermind, Beleaguered Boss. Incompetent leaders: Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, Pointy-Haired Boss, General Failure. Competent supporters: Beleaguered Assistant, Hypercompetent Sidekick, Only Sane Employee, Dragon-in-Chief. Incompetent supporters: Minion with an F in Evil, Cowardly Sidekick, Goldfish Poop Gang, Surrounded by Idiots, Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey, Overzealous Underling, Underling with an F in PR. 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 Fixed Relative Strength: the more competent someone is, the weaker they are in combat. Sub-trope of Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup. If one's definition of 'competence' includes combat competence, then compare Conservation of Ninjutsu. Compare Competence Zone, where the only people who are competent are those of the protagonists' age.
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Conservation of Competence / int_11c6567a	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_11c6567a	comment	In First Among Sequels, the ruling Commonsense Party has built up a massive surplus of governmental stupidity via a decade of competent and sensible government, and one of the book's plot arcs is their trying to find something sufficiently moronic to use up all that stupidity.
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Conservation of Competence / int_19d740d8	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_19d740d8	comment	Played with in The Great Mouse Detective. Professor Ratigan is a genius and his henchmen are surprisingly good at what they do (Even Fidget, who manages to ambush the main characters twice). The trouble is Basil of Baker Street is just so good at what he does that he evokes this trope in the villains purely by comparison.
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Conservation of Competence / int_1a76a111	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_1a76a111	comment	While Crash Bandicoot is rather consistently a wacky Idiot Hero, to what degree often varies according to the handling of the rest of the cast. In the original games and It's About Time, he is the one crazy bungling fool among a relatively sane and serious acting group, verging on being their comic relief. In games like Crash Nitro Kart and Crash of the Titans however, everyone else is even more bombastic and deranged than he is, making Crash more of a goofy-acting straight man.
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Conservation of Competence / int_1e7ca85f	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_1e7ca85f	comment	Hercules: Hades is smart, Pain and Panic are dumb.
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Conservation of Competence / int_29efc2f3	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_29efc2f3	comment	Sleeping Beauty: Maleficent is smart, her ogre minions are dumb.
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Conservation of Competence / int_31e1eca3	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_31e1eca3	comment	PokÃ©mon Diamond and Pearl (and especially Platinum) give us the rather intimidating Cyrus at the head of Team Galactic. His low-level flunkies don't have the slightest idea what the Big Evil Plan even is because it would result in said grunts, and everything else in the Universe, ceasing to exist. Cyrus is also a far better trainer than the average grunts. The final fight with him in Platinum is easily one of the hardest battles of the game.
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Conservation of Competence / int_32c541e6	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_32c541e6	comment	Played with in Fullmetal Alchemist. Father is smart, but his minions the homunculi have varying degrees of intelligence — for instance, Lust is smart, Gluttony is an idiot, and Envy and Wrath are mostly smart but sometimes make bad decisions and Sloth can't be bothered to use whatever intelligence he might have because thinking for himself would involve exerting himself.
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Conservation of Competence / int_4efed37e	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_4efed37e	comment	Robin Hood (1973): Prince John is dumb, the Sheriff of Nottingham and even more so Sir Hiss are smart.
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Conservation of Competence / int_529ee66	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_529ee66	comment	In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Scratch and Grounder (and sometimes Coconuts, as well) are Dr. Robotnik's incompetent lackeys, who he only keeps around because he's too cheap to build anything more reliable. Of course, Grounder once proved that, were he more intelligent, he could be a far greater threat than his creator. Robotnik himself toyed with this (while usually rather bumbling himself, he often appeared as a Not-So-Harmless Villain whenever his minions put up an exceptionally poor fight against Sonic).
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Conservation of Competence / int_538833a4	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_538833a4	comment	The low-level, minimum wage workers in Retail love pointing out the stupid and/or inane policies made by their bosses.
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Conservation of Competence / int_5e629cf6	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_5e629cf6	comment	Lady and the Tramp: Aunt Sarah is dumb, the siamese cats are smart.
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Conservation of Competence / int_6007dc5	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_6007dc5	comment	In With This Ring Bane and his henchmen keep asking their boss Truggs to stop monologuing to the downed OL and let them finish him before he calls for back-up. Truggs tells them to shut up. They also question why Truggs is ordering them to give OL a chance to be spared.
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Conservation of Competence / int_6564c05f	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_6564c05f	comment	Cinnamon Bunzuh! provides the page quote, but it's an atypical example, noting that the villain became much more competent in the same volume where the heroes have all been Flanderized into incompetence.
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Conservation of Competence / int_6c8b9d4f	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_6c8b9d4f	comment	Duke Igthorne and his ogres in Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears. His right-hand ogre, Toadstool, is the smartest of the bunch, and is still barely more intelligent than the furniture.
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Conservation of Competence / int_6c9193a1	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_6c9193a1	comment	The Monarch and his minions from The Venture Brothers on Adult Swim are a classic example. The minions seem much more savvy than The Monarch himself, and so does The Monarch's girlfriend, Dr. Girlfriend. The Monarch isn't so much incompetent than just obsessed with being Rusty Venture's nemesis above all else.
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Conservation of Competence / int_6dbe6646	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_6dbe6646	comment	Most missions in Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) were fronted by Sonic, Sally and Antoine. Sally was physically vulnerable, but usually more strategically competent than the powerful but childish and reckless Sonic, while Antoine was a useless imbecile that usually hindered stealth operations with his clumsiness or cowardice.
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Conservation of Competence / int_70c7b114	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_70c7b114	comment	Gilligan's Island. Only one person in any given episode could be competent. Not always the same person, either. Of course if they were competent they'd be off the island. So, yeah.
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Conservation of Competence / int_7257afca	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_7257afca	comment	In episode 4 of Sword Art Online Abridged, two members of the Titans Hand guild seem to realize pretty quick that Kirito may be a major threat before they even attack, one even putting together the following: And another when Kirito tells them he will let them attack first responds to their boss with: Rosalia proceeds to ignore her henchmens' rather well-thought out, and well-founded reservations on fighting Kirito. Which makes these two unnamed Mooks smarter than their named leader. Especially since, in canon, Kirito is so strong they cannot actually dent his HP in any meaningful way, something Kirito himself points out.
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Conservation of Competence / int_761813a6	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_761813a6	comment	In Band of Brothers Major Winters goes through a whole list of people who are incompetent to some degree or another. One can't read a map, another yells a lot, Dyke (who he's trying to replace) can't make any decisions and tends to wander off at odd times (even in combat!). He is eventually able to send one of the three home, but still can't replace Dyke as the only real option, Buck, was taken out due to a severe case of trench foot (in reality, because of severe shell shock after seeing two of his best friends lose their legs). During the battle of Foy (Part of the Battle of the Bulge), Dyke finally gets replaced by Speirs, who is all about blowing snipers out of their holes, and charging first into battle in such a way the enemy is too stunned to shoot. Speirs did both of those things within minutes of taking command of Easy Company.
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Conservation of Competence / int_7f02dd41	comment	The higher difficulty settings in Star Wars: Battlefront apply this to the side you're playing. The better you do, the dumber your allies get. You can pick off 25% of the enemy forces single-handedly and you can still lose.
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Conservation of Competence / int_81692f99	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_81692f99	comment	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 Admirals and Obstructive Bureaucrats. Below them are Red Shirts. So there are incompetent leaders and incompetent supporters, with the competent main characters squarely in the middle of the command structure.
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Conservation of Competence / int_8d81bc90	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_8d81bc90	comment	Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake of MAS*H would never have gotten by without people like Hawkeye and Radar around. Although Blake was a highly competent surgeon, he was an incompetent administrator. Frank Burns, on the other hand, had neither medical or administrative competence. Thoroughly averted when Colonel Potter comes on board as he is both a competent surgeon and a decent adminstrator.
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Conservation of Competence / int_8f8df73b	comment	The Lion King (1994): Scar is smart, the hyenas are dumb.
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Conservation of Competence / int_90a3a7f4	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_90a3a7f4	comment	Both versions regularly appear in Kim Possible. Dr. Drakken is generally clueless about everything other than mad science, relying on Shego to fight and steal things for him. SeÃ±or Senior Senior is a perfectly capable villain (allowing for the fact that his goal is to entertain himself rather than to succeed in his schemes) who is constantly frustrated by his son SeÃ±or Senior Junior's lack of proper villainous spirit.
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Conservation of Competence / int_90e2f673	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_90e2f673	comment	The Lyran Commonwealth in BattleTech has this as a stereotype for a long time. The upper ranks of the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces are dominated by Social Generals who got their rank through political connections and are generally highly incompetent. The reason the Commonwealth has endured for so long despite this is because their lower-ranked officers tend to be some of the best in the Inner Sphere due to the high quality of their military colleges.
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Conservation of Competence / int_94bfa327	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_94bfa327	comment	In The Dreamstone some of Zordrak and Urpgor's plans may actually work if not for assigning them to Sgt Blob and his men. When Blob's team actually gets something right however, it is usually Urpgor (or in rare cases even Zordrak) that pull the Idiot Ball. Rufus and Amberley started off as more competent heroes to contrast the Urpneys, but eventually evolved into Fools not much more apt than them, making it more a game of fate than skill. Their own master the Dreammaker and the Wuts aren't immune to this, but still considerably more competent and powerful than them. Used erratically in later episodes, where Rufus and Amberley revert to being more competent, but only when their peers aren't around to outshine them.
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Conservation of Competence / int_9e2f90f4	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_9e2f90f4	comment	One Piece: Monkey D. Luffy is easily one of the dumbest members of the crew. On the other hand he is smart enough to collect reasonably talented and intelligent True Companions to offset this. He actually mentioned this in the 'Arlong arc,' admitting his faults like unable to wield swords, navigate, cook and even lying. He knows how to protect his crew and kick ass though, which served him well. He also does provide rare moments of insight through his simple-minded wisdom. This also goes for the Marines. Genuine competence seems to be a rather rare attribute, whereas the majority of the grunts and officers are of the "RAWR, kill 'em" mindset. Some are dangerously competent, with Akainu being one despite being the most blood thirsty.
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Conservation of Competence / int_9f89a5f0	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_9f89a5f0	comment	In general, the low-level grunts of evil organizations in PokÃ©mon tend to be rather harmless and incapable of doing anything more complicated than dog-kicking on their own. PokÃ©mon Diamond and Pearl (and especially Platinum) give us the rather intimidating Cyrus at the head of Team Galactic. His low-level flunkies don't have the slightest idea what the Big Evil Plan even is because it would result in said grunts, and everything else in the Universe, ceasing to exist. Cyrus is also a far better trainer than the average grunts. The final fight with him in Platinum is easily one of the hardest battles of the game. One scene in PokÃ©mon X and Y, where the Team Flare Admin volunteers important information for no reason, something which their accompanying Grunt calls them out on:
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Conservation of Competence / int_a28f124e	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_a28f124e	comment	In Shinji And Warhammer 40 K Kaoru discusses this trope during a mental monologue. SEELE and NERV recruited the best minds, both scientific and military, in the lead-up to the Angle attacks, forcing the other agencies to pick through the leavings. As a result other projects like Earth's Cradle ended up with staff that were not only mediocre but also less sane than the canon NERV staff.
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Conservation of Competence / int_a32b6a64	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_a32b6a64	comment	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.
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Conservation of Competence / int_a535581a	comment	The Emperor's New Groove: Yzma is smart, Kronk is dumb.
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Conservation of Competence / int_a6543322	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_a6543322	comment	Touhou Project: Sakuya Izayoi, Ninja Maid extraordinaire, has to use her time manipulation 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 lazy and incompetent that they are as likely to cause harm as good. Her boss, vampire Ojou Remilia is capable of being competent most of the time but, being permanently a child, both physically and emotionally, she would rather just play (and force Sakuya to set up those games for her). During Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Sakuya even turns into The Determinator, fighting three conseuctive BossBattles (two were mid-boss battles) in defense of her mistress. What is she paid for this kind of work? She gets a room in the mansion and she gets to keep the outfit. It ain't easy being Meido. 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 her boss is a whimsical Womanchild maybe) as well as the trope still applying but the other way around (Komachi, a slacker Shinigami, and her Boss Shiki Eiki the Yamaxanadu, who takes her job very 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 aforementioned example with with members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, you have Cirno, "Daiyousei" and Rumia to offset the competence of the others.
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Conservation of Competence / int_c35714d6	comment	In the first series of Blackadder, Blackadder is a complete idiot, with Baldrick as his Hypercompetent Sidekick. In successive series, Blackadder gets more intelligent and Baldrick gets more stupid. As Blackadder gets smarter, he also gets further from power, and those who sit above him are pretty universally stupid and horrible.
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Conservation of Competence / int_d4f9ccf	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_d4f9ccf	comment	Aladdin: 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.
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Aladdin	hasFeature	Conservation of Competence / int_d4f9ccf
Conservation of Competence / int_d5ddd6c1	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_d5ddd6c1	comment	PokÃ©mon: The Series: The anime gives us the presumably competent Giovanni, whose subordinates are the one and only Team Rocket Terrible Trio. A prime example was their second ever onscreen interaction: Jessie and James are trapped on an island (and separated from Meowth and their other PokÃ©mon) with only a payphone as communication. Seeing as they have no money, they decide to collect call their boss. After being greeted by a grumpy Giovanni warning them that whoever is calling better have a good reason for making him spend money on the call, Jessie and James are stupid enough to start reciting their motto. Cue Giovanni hanging up wondering who the hell those idiots were. This operates on two levels because Meowth is the competent sidekick to the bumbling Jesse and James. Other subordinates of Team Rocket are generally portrayed as more competent then the Team Rocket trio the audience is most familiar with, although this is very much dependent on who is writing the episode.
Conservation of Competence / int_d5ddd6c1	featureApplicability	1.0
Conservation of Competence / int_d5ddd6c1	featureConfidence	1.0
PokÃ©mon: The Series	hasFeature	Conservation of Competence / int_d5ddd6c1
Conservation of Competence / int_d7aab7c1	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_d7aab7c1	comment	In the Sailor Moon 90's anime, the Shitennou of the Dark Kingdom would have done much better if they could have chucked Queen Beryl out the window. Beryl's a Bad Boss who routinely screws over her subordinates by micromanaging them and then kills them for failing - even if their tactical failures were leading to a strategic victory. The Shitennou are exceptionally competent (if somewhat flawed) adversaries, and each of them manages to get the Sailor Senshi on the ropes more than once, often despite their boss' "help." Later on, when Beryl deploys a brainwashed Prince Endymion, he proves to be worse than useless due to his Noble Demon nature. He routinely screws up Kunzite's plans because he finds them unethical, but Kunzite can't send him off to work on something irrelevant because Beryl forces Kunzite to drag him along.
Conservation of Competence / int_d7aab7c1	featureApplicability	1.0
Conservation of Competence / int_d7aab7c1	featureConfidence	1.0
Sailor Moon	hasFeature	Conservation of Competence / int_d7aab7c1
Conservation of Competence / int_da72cf97	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_da72cf97	comment	Notably averted in the Trails Series. With the exception of second string member Gilbert, who is an incompetent Butt-Monkey, and one instance of Weismann holding the Villain Ball too long and falling into a trap that was set in the expectation of him being unable to resist the temptation to Kick the Dog, everyone in the Society of Ouroboros is extremely competent (if quirky), which results in them being a constant threat in a series that has been going for nine games in and counting as of 2019. Thankfully, this also applies to the organizations opposing them, with the Bracer Guild and the Septian Church, for example, employing many highly competent people.
Conservation of Competence / int_da72cf97	featureApplicability	-1.0
Conservation of Competence / int_da72cf97	featureConfidence	1.0
Trails Series (Video Game)	hasFeature	Conservation of Competence / int_da72cf97
Conservation of Competence / int_df290812	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_df290812	comment	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."
Conservation of Competence / int_df290812	featureApplicability	1.0
Conservation of Competence / int_df290812	featureConfidence	1.0
Gossip Girl	hasFeature	Conservation of Competence / int_df290812
Conservation of Competence / int_e066a2e0	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_e066a2e0	comment	In Pucca, Tobe is a very good ninja and has very good plans sometimes, but he would achieve more alone than with his ninjas followers.
Conservation of Competence / int_e066a2e0	featureApplicability	1.0
Conservation of Competence / int_e066a2e0	featureConfidence	1.0
Pucca (Animation)	hasFeature	Conservation of Competence / int_e066a2e0
Conservation of Competence / int_f858847a	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_f858847a	comment	One scene in PokÃ©mon X and Y, where the Team Flare Admin volunteers important information for no reason, something which their accompanying Grunt calls them out on:
Conservation of Competence / int_f858847a	featureApplicability	1.0
Conservation of Competence / int_f858847a	featureConfidence	1.0
Pokémon X and Y (Video Game)	hasFeature	Conservation of Competence / int_f858847a
Conservation of Competence / int_fd0b756	type	Conservation of Competence
Conservation of Competence / int_fd0b756	comment	In The Hobbit, Thorin and later Bilbo were the only ones who had enough sense and wits to not get immediately jumped by trolls, having a weapon out in a forest and thinking of a plan to escape Mirkwood. The rest of the dwarves may or may not get a moment before a major battle.
Conservation of Competence / int_fd0b756	featureApplicability	1.0
Conservation of Competence / int_fd0b756	featureConfidence	1.0
The Hobbit	hasFeature	Conservation of Competence / int_fd0b756

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Conservation of Competence	processingCategory2	Laws and Formulas
Pucca (Animation) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Digimon Frontier / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Cinnamon Bunzuh! (Blog) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Dilbert (Comic Strip) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Retail (Comic Strip) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Mulan / Disney / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Shinji and Warhammer 40k / Fan Fic / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Changeling Space Program & The Maretian (Fanfic) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Fashion Upgrade (Fanfic) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
The Great Race / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Star Fox (Franchise) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
The Legend of Zelda (Franchise) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Touhou Project (Franchise) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
The Hohenzollern Empire (Lets Play) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Jake And The Dynamo / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Reliable Traitor	seeAlso	Conservation of Competence
IO (Manga) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
...Virgin Love (Manga) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Old Harry's Game (Radio) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
CumberholmesRolePlayTwitterCommunity	seeAlso	Conservation of Competence
The Sky Tides (Roleplay) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Gossip Girl (2007) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Starhunter / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
The Ministry of Time / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
The Office (US) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Blaster Master Zero II (Video Game) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (Video Game) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Heart of Darkness (Video Game) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
The Legend of Spyro (Video Game) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Zoo Tycoon (Video Game) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Sword Art Online Abridged (Web Video) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Basic Instructions (Webcomic) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Suppression (Webcomic) / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Inspector Gadget / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence
Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness / int_51605de2	type	Conservation of Competence

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