...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
The Peter Principle
- 218 statements
- 39 feature instances
- 95 referencing feature instances
| The Peter Principle | type |
FeatureClass | |
| The Peter Principle | label |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle | page |
ThePeterPrinciple | |
| The Peter Principle | comment |
When people in a sufficiently large hierarchy are promoted because of their competence, the end result will tend to put everyone into a position for which they are not competent. In other words, the cream will rise until it sours. The theory behind the Peter Principle is this: when Alice is competent in her position, she will be promoted to another position because of her competence. Alice may or may not be competent at that new position. If she is incompetent, then she will become ineligible for promotion and stay put; she will be kept in that position indefinitely, even if there are other positions in the hierarchy which may suit her skills. The workers who are competent will keep being promoted for as long as they are competent and there are open slots above; they will be promoted out of the positions they are competent in but kept in the position they fail at. Since the only way to stay in a position below the top of the hierarchy indefinitely is to be incompetent, the hierarchy will eventually stabilize into an organization that is mostly incompetent. This often results when the skills required to do a job well are very different from those required to manage people doing that job, from the military to education to sales. A classic example is a teacher being promoted into a principal—two jobs that require vastly different skillsets, yet the latter is one of the few obvious career paths for the former. Alternatively, sometimes the very qualities that make a character good at one job are diametrically opposed to the qualities they need in the job they're promoted to, like a charismatic politician whose confidence makes them too headstrong to properly compromise, or a cautious and careful analyst being put in a position of leadership that requires taking decisive action. The name comes from the book by Dr. Laurence J. Peter, which is about this principle and discusses it in about twelve chapters worth of detail. The counterpoint is The Dilbert Principle, which states that incompetent workers will always be promoted first (into inconsequential middle management positions), in order to keep them from interfering with the efforts of the competent, and is said to be a reaction to the identification of this trope (but if the competent ones want to be promoted, they'll suffer a Passed-Over Promotion). Scott Adams noted that victims of the Peter Principle at least knew how to do the jobs of their subordinates. It's a common cause of the Pointy-Haired Boss and Modern Major General. The Career-Building Blunder is one method of defying this trope. Compare and contrast Brain Drain, Kicked Upstairs (arguably an invocation of the trope), and Unfit for Greatness. |
|
| The Peter Principle | fetched |
2024-03-01T00:07:26Z | |
| The Peter Principle | parsed |
2024-03-01T00:07:26Z | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to AchillesInHisTent: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to AntiHero: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to EltonJohn: Not an Item - IGNORE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to HostilityOnTheSet: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to HyperCompetentSidekick: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to KeystoneArmy: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to MeaninglessVillainVictory: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to MonsterOfTheWeek: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to PopculturalOsmosis: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to RealLife: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to SophomoreSlump: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to TheBabyOfTheBunch: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to WarriorPrince: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to WorldsStrongestMan: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | processingComment |
Dropped link to miraclerally: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Peter Principle | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| The Peter Principle / int_26ef42e7 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_26ef42e7 | comment |
Discussed in Kevin & Kell. Looking at the numbers of her company, notices Rhonda is her best hunter. But then one of her subordinates points out eventually she will need to make a hard choice... And decide when to promote her outside of hunting. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_26ef42e7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_26ef42e7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Kevin & Kell (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_26ef42e7 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_26fec9fc | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_26fec9fc | comment |
Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Over the course of the first two 'phases' of the story, it becomes increasingly clear that main protagonist Drew Luczynski, while incredibly talented in his position as the rescue team leader for the titular Extinct Animal Park, is hardly the ideal choice for his additional position as the park's manager. For as is revealed in Phase 2, the same recklessness and preference to act in the moment that make him an ideal leader to have in the unpredictable and incredibly dangerous field of rescuing and rounding up prehistoric animals in the wild and resolve in progress animal escapes at the park also causes him to largely ignore unpleasant issues unfolding at the park and amongst his staff and do nothing to resolve them until after they've become impossible to ignore and have usually already resulted in someone either getting hurt or at the very least inconvenienced. And as if that weren't enough, the similarly rescue team leader worthy passion he has for the animals and successfully achieving the missions over all else causes him to largely consider any duties he has to do at the park that don't directly involve either of these as lower priority, which results in him engaging in massive amounts of procrastination in completing and filing paperwork and often trying to pass his other administrative duties on to other people even when they've already got enough to do in the tasks they're already supposed to be doing in positions that don't involve such duties. Tellingly, these details, plus several other serious character flaws he displays, cause his superiors at local MegaCorp Novum to hire an additional pair of managers for the park that can cover his weaknesses as a manager while also allowing him to have all the more time to focus entirely on the rescue missions that he's proven so skilled at handling and willing to devote his full time and energy towards. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_26fec9fc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_26fec9fc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Prehistoric Park Reimagined (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_26fec9fc | |
| The Peter Principle / int_2fee008d | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_2fee008d | comment |
Team Dai-Gurren in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Fighting an action filled, explosion riddled resistance? Easily done. Slowing down after the fighting and running the government you're in charge of? No thanks. Most of them are aware of this and the fighters struggle to deal with their new jobs while the support team has it easier. Simon is on top, but Rossieu does most of the work as his second-in-command. After Simon's wedding with Nia and her death seconds after, he leaves Rossieu in charge and Gurren Lagann to the twins. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_2fee008d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_2fee008d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_2fee008d | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3c6e7f9f | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3c6e7f9f | comment |
Cross Ange: Following Zola's death in Ange's first sortie, Salia is promoted to captain of the first squad. However, it's very much clear from the beginning that's she's not ready for the position, failing to keep her teammates in line, and often letting her own feelings of jealousy over Ange override her judgement. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3c6e7f9f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3c6e7f9f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Cross Ange | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_3c6e7f9f | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3dfd9ae3 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3dfd9ae3 | comment |
Consequences of Revelation takes this stance on Commander Palmer's seeming incompetence in canon - she worked well commanding small teams, but was promoted beyond her level of skill. This causes her to make mistakes... but when you're as highly placed as "Leader of all SPARTAN forces on the most advanced UNSC ship in existence," any mistakes you make are magnified nearly exponentially. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3dfd9ae3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3dfd9ae3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Consequences Of Revelation (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_3dfd9ae3 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3e8c09b9 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3e8c09b9 | comment |
In Attack on Titan, only the best students are allowed to join the "prestigious" Military Police Brigade that guards the innermost wall and the King. Therefore, the most skillfully trained soldiers are placed in a position of authority farthest from any actual fighting, while those less capable are more likely to be on the front lines. This situation is actually well known, and most who hone their skills high enough to be able to get the position were doing so just to be placed in a safe life. Eren bitterly notes the disconnect. Adding to this, since hand-to-hand combat skills aren't valued as highly as 3D Maneuver Gear piloting (for obvious reasons), students who want to join the Military Police Brigade prioritize 3D Maneuver Gear training over melee combat training. This means that the soldiers who would be expected to fight human-sized opponents more often are actually the least qualified ones to do so. The real reason the best soldiers are promoted to the decorative Military Police is because the best of those are secretly promoted to the Black Ops division, where they hunt down and kill off dissenting citizens with specialized firearm-compatible 3D Maneuver Gear. It's still backwards because now those most eligible to protect the people are the ones assigned to mercilessly cut them down. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3e8c09b9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_3e8c09b9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Attack on Titan (Manga) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_3e8c09b9 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_52dd4a4c | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_52dd4a4c | comment |
Ultimate Marvel: Carol Danvers, as the head of security for NASA, is competent at her job (alien killbots and infiltration notwithstanding). As head of SHIELD... she's got a long string of disasters and screw-ups to her name, which eventually gets her fired. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_52dd4a4c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_52dd4a4c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Ultimate Marvel (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_52dd4a4c | |
| The Peter Principle / int_55c20cb5 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_55c20cb5 | comment |
Overlord (2012): Even Remedios' character profile admits this is the case for her. She's Dumb Muscle incarnate, but was so good as a Paladin she couldn't be overlooked and thus ended up as head of the Holy Kingdom's army. When the Holy Kingdom faces a crisis and the Queen (her Foil and the only person that could overrule her legally or emotionally) takes a dirt nap, her rigid adherence to a code that should probably be taken as guidelines, refusal to assess her position pragmatically, and rampant, undisguised elitism are handing Ainz her army's respect and loyalty on a silver platter. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_55c20cb5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_55c20cb5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Overlord (2012) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_55c20cb5 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_5755b96a | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_5755b96a | comment |
In The Order of the Stick, Andi, the chief engineer of the airship Mechane, is invaluable in that role. She routinely fixes equipment and keeps the ship in the air when it should be out of commission. When she pulls a short lived mutiny on the acting captain Bandana, however, she proves to be a terrible ship's captain. She tries to apply some of the same techniques and points of view used as a chief engineer only to find that they don't apply to running the ship, she refuses to pay attention to expertise of other crew members, (despite Andi having previously criticized Bandana for the same thing) and during a critical moment she gets so distracted by the need to fix something that she runs off to do it... temporarily leaving the ship without a captain while she's occupied. During that time all it takes is a short talk from Bandana to several nearby crew members to get them to decide to free Bandana and end Andi's brief reign as captain. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_5755b96a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_5755b96a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Order of the Stick (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_5755b96a | |
| The Peter Principle / int_5905e3c5 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_5905e3c5 | comment |
In Lackadaisy, Professional Killer Mordecai Heller was once one half of a pair of enforcers at the Lackadaisy gang, but defected to a new position as The Dragon at the much larger Marigold gang. His new boss has him managing a pair of minions of his own, overkill-happy bandits the Savoys. He is depicted as being near-universally terrible at reining them in, with No Social Skills to judge when they'll steamroll him, or otherwise ignore his orders, a fact they readily Exploit to do anything from hazing him to scarring him. Mordecai himself has begun to realize the position he's in, and Exploits his genuine inability to control the Savoys to play "good cop" while blackmailing an informant. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_5905e3c5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_5905e3c5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Lackadaisy (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_5905e3c5 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_624998ce | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_624998ce | comment |
Vince Russo as a booker is capable of producing some brilliant, or at least interesting, ideas (e.g The Brood), and can generally be relied upon to provide every wrestler up and down the card with something to do, regardless of the relative quality of that something. Vince Russo as head booker has run companies into the ground. Russo is a great ideas man, but he desperately needs a filter; when he had Vince McMahon overseeing him in the WWF he threw a lot of shit at a wall and the WWF had some great success with what stuck, but when he jumped ship to WCW and was made head booker (after convincing Eric Bischoff that he was the man responsible for WWF's Attitude Era) he was allowed to throw his shit at the floor instead, leading to things like David Arquette, WCW Champion. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_624998ce | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_624998ce | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Vince Russo (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_624998ce | |
| The Peter Principle / int_69f768c8 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_69f768c8 | comment |
A Moon and World Apart: In chapter 15, Luna expresses a desire to avert this, stating that Twilight could easily win election to Director of the Science Department, but also that she'd be wasted in such a bureaucratic position, being far more suited to the hooves-on work that she enjoys. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_69f768c8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_69f768c8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Moon and World Apart (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_69f768c8 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_6a4c8f1b | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_6a4c8f1b | comment |
One-Punch Man Invoked, after a fashion. The Hero Association isn't sure if Saitama is really strong or is just a fraud getting credit for the victories of others. They decide to promote him anyway; either he deserves the promotion, or he doesn't and will soon be killed by more powerful monsters. Of course, he does deserve the promotions, since he's the strongest. Of anything. This also applies to King. Often times, Saitama's victories are attributed to him, and King has such social anxiety that he never corrected the record, accidentally becoming the 7th ranked S-class Hero of the Association. However, his excellent poker face and the panicked sound of his heart beating loud enough to make most foes think they're the ones frightened means often times he doesn't need to fight the Monster of the Week. |
|
| The Peter Principle / int_6a4c8f1b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_6a4c8f1b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| One-Punch Man (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_6a4c8f1b | |
| The Peter Principle / int_79d7d5bd | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_79d7d5bd | comment |
A Boy, a Girl and a Dog: The Leithian Script: After being ousted by conniving relatives, Finrod appoints his youngest brother Orodreth as regent. Previously Orodreth had only governed little provinces and strongholds and all of sudden he had to rule a kingdom spanned two thirds of the subcontinent where the story happens. He was completely overwhelmed, trying to desperately keep everything together as feeling inadequate and incompetent. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_79d7d5bd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_79d7d5bd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Boy, a Girl and a Dog: The Leithian Script (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_79d7d5bd | |
| The Peter Principle / int_7a7a1a86 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_7a7a1a86 | comment |
This looks to be the case for Lieutenant Gorman from Aliens, who is competent and brave when in personal danger like an ordinary soldier, yet can't handle the responsibility of being in a command position. Given he's a lieutenant in a command position that should be going to a captain or even a major, it's entirely possible he just recently replaced the previous leader and thus is just in an impossible situation. Which makes a twisted kind of sense, given the marines are being set up to fail by their corporate sponsors. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_7a7a1a86 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_7a7a1a86 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Aliens | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_7a7a1a86 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_7d4d63ef | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_7d4d63ef | comment |
Casino gives us Nicky Santoro (who was, in fact, based on a real person). Nicky is a highly competent thief, drug dealer, extortionist, and hit man, so competent that he is promoted to be The Mafia's representative in Las Vegas. Sadly, running the mob's operations in Vegas requires tact, subtlety, and more than a little bit of stealth, none of which are skills Nicky actually possesses. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_7d4d63ef | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_7d4d63ef | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Casino | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_7d4d63ef | |
| The Peter Principle / int_81692f99 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_81692f99 | comment |
Star Trek: In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Kirk is now an Admiral, his job is mostly clerical and he's depressed over getting old. Spock reminds Kirk that he has more to offer as a captain than as an admiral. "Being a starship captain is your first, best destiny," he explains. "Anything else is a waste of material." It's an opinion that Bones also shares, offering that the reason Kirk feels so old is probably because he's not out there "hopping galaxies" and suggests commanding a starship again. Again, Spock and Bones both agree that Kirk is wasting his talents as an Admiral. When was the last time those two agreed on anything? A fact not lost on the rest of Starfleet and Federation government, after Kirk's "punishment" by being demoted to captain in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Kirk then makes sure to tell Picard in Star Trek: Generations never to accept a promotion out of the Enterprise's captain's chair. Advice Picard apparently takes to heart, as we see in Star Trek: Nemesis, he's still a captain, while Janeway has been promoted to Admiral. |
|
| The Peter Principle / int_81692f99 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_81692f99 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Star Trek (Franchise) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_81692f99 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_8bb9434c | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_8bb9434c | comment |
The Miz is famous for being a perpetual victim of this. A safe and solid but ultimately unremarkable wrestler, the Miz will win over a bunch of new fans with his entertaining promos and clever plots to get one over on his enemies, get a big push to the main event level, get his mediocre wrestling overexposed, and get busted back down into the midcard where the cycle will repeat itself in time. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_8bb9434c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_8bb9434c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Miz (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_8bb9434c | |
| The Peter Principle / int_8f8df73b | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_8f8df73b | comment |
The Lion King (1994): Scar inflicts the trope on himself, due to his insatiable desire to become king. And as he shows during the first act, he's a patient schemer, a good diplomat, and a pretty good singer too. But after he's managed to manipulate Mufasa into getting himself killed and Simba into running away, he wastes absolutely no time in proving that he's terrible at the job he wanted so badly; his ambition wasn't to rule so much as it was to satisfy his ego by being top cat of the pride. To elaborate further on just how bad things get: His deal with the hyenas results in the Pridelands being stripped bare by their overhunting, and it looks burned, presumably because the extra vegetation (since all the herbivores were gone) meant wildfires were worse. He's psychologically incapable of acknowledging the extent of his failures due to his Inferiority Superiority Complex relating to Mufasa; admitting the Pridelands had gone to hell would mean acknowledging that Mufasa was the better king for never letting things get this bad. His victory was hollow and he knows it. He has a 0% Approval Rating since everyone else can see the above bullet points, to the point where even his hyena minions, who supposedly have the better deal under Scar since they can hunt to their hearts' content, are starting to feel nostalgic about Mufasa. He turns into The Caligula as the only way he can think to gain respect is through violence (which ensures temporary obedience but also makes them respect him even less, which he also knows), and he's reduced to trying to satisfy his narcissism by bullying Zazu, a small bird. And Zazu annoys him by singing earworms. |
|
| The Peter Principle / int_8f8df73b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_8f8df73b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Lion King (1994) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_8f8df73b | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9060799c | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9060799c | comment |
In the Infinity Crisis spin-off Counterpart Conferences, this is partially the reason why the Batman of Earth-1992 didn't bother to recruit the aid of the Batman of Earth-2005 on his quest to find the displaced Joker of his Earth. While he doesn't doubt that his other self is competent, not only has Earth-2005-Bruce decided to "retire" as Batman, but this version of Bruce Wayne has no experience dealing with magic, metahumans or alternate dimensions. Regardless of his skills, he would be out of his depth if introduced to the multiverse, no matter how good he was against normal criminals. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9060799c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9060799c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Infinity Crisis (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_9060799c | |
| The Peter Principle / int_909b004d | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_909b004d | comment |
The Transformers (IDW) comics: They have Bumblebee struggle with this. As a scout he's very competent and popular with the Autobots. This leads to him getting voted into a command position — despite his own protests — during a time when Optimus Prime was separated from the troops. Turns out he was right to protest; Bumblebee can't handle command at all. His desire to make everyone happy often clashes with his duties, he has trouble understanding high-level tactics and strategy, most of the senior Autobots don't respect his authority and still see him as The Baby of the Bunch, and the stress of the job causes him to develop a nasty temper, robbing him of the friendliness and moral wisdom that made him popular to begin with. When he's effectively kicked out of command, he's relieved and almost immediately goes back to his usual cheerful self. The wiki even calls him out on this. This trope is a major recurring theme in IDW's materials. For instance, Optimus was a brilliant cop and commander, and Megatron an insightful writer and political theorist, and both were powerful fighters. However, when they found themselves in the positions of having to effectively run a star-spanning civil war, their internal weaknesses came to the fore. Optimus' self-questioning nature and strident morality keeps giving way to periods of ennui followed by rash decisions and causes him to become increasingly corrupt, while Megatron's lack of experience in warcraft and deep-seated traumas leads to him creating overcomplicated or needlessly brutal plans and neglecting the actual peaceful endgame that was his motivation to begin with. It's even implied at one point that Optimus isn't truly worthy of the Matrix, and Starscream (though obviously a biased source) outright says that Megatron had no idea what the implications of his own war were. Basically, they were charismatic and talented people who wound up in the best possible place at the worst possible time, and by the time their weaknesses had become evident, the war had been grinding on for centuries with thousands dead and no clear frontrunner. |
|
| The Peter Principle / int_909b004d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_909b004d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Transformers (IDW) (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_909b004d | |
| The Peter Principle / int_90d1a99b | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_90d1a99b | comment |
Noelle gives us the titular character's cousin Gabriel. A real wizard at handling computers, he very much feels right at home as the head of Santa's tech support department. However, when he's forced to sub as Santa for Noelle's older brother Nick (himself ironically not fully suited for the role), he finds himself in way over his head since he only thinks in terms of technology, efficiency, and data analysis and only makes things temporarily worse when he decides to try to turn the enterprise into an online delivery service and reduce the present quota to far shorter than the number of children on the nice list for the sake of efficiency. In the end, he is quite happy indeed to return to his old job without a fuss and allow his initially suggested changes to the business to be revoked once Nick decides to appoint Noelle herself as Santa instead. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_90d1a99b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_90d1a99b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Noelle | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_90d1a99b | |
| The Peter Principle / int_988629da | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_988629da | comment |
In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Kirk is now an Admiral, his job is mostly clerical and he's depressed over getting old. Spock reminds Kirk that he has more to offer as a captain than as an admiral. "Being a starship captain is your first, best destiny," he explains. "Anything else is a waste of material." It's an opinion that Bones also shares, offering that the reason Kirk feels so old is probably because he's not out there "hopping galaxies" and suggests commanding a starship again. Again, Spock and Bones both agree that Kirk is wasting his talents as an Admiral. When was the last time those two agreed on anything? A fact not lost on the rest of Starfleet and Federation government, after Kirk's "punishment" by being demoted to captain in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_988629da | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_988629da | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_988629da | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9a6ae6b8 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9a6ae6b8 | comment |
The Gospel Of Malachel: Maya Ibuki is promoted from bridge bunny to head of Project E after Ritsuko's fall from grace. However, her new job is utterly overwhelming her, and she ends up calling Ritsuko and asking her help. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9a6ae6b8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9a6ae6b8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Gospel Of Malachel (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_9a6ae6b8 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9e2f90f4 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9e2f90f4 | comment |
One Piece: Admiral Akainu is an Implacable Man whose magma-based powers makes him a walking volcano capable of winning wars all by himself. After his promotion to Fleet Admiral and going by his real name (Sakazuki), he's now stuck behind a desk, unable to control the admirals under him because he can't simply melt them like he did with the rank-and-file, dealing with incompetent and/or corrupt superiors that only care about saving face from their own screw-ups even if that means ignoring serious global threats and and the former fleet admiral showing in just to troll him over his new job. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9e2f90f4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9e2f90f4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| One Piece (Manga) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_9e2f90f4 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9eddb2fb | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9eddb2fb | comment |
In Irredeemable, Cary acted as a competent superhero for a long time as part of a team. Then he's given a massive powerboost and changes his name to Survivor, becoming the strongest of Earth's heroes outside of perhaps The Plutonian. As a big fish, he turns out to be completely ill-equipped. Not only does he end up Drunk with Power in short order, but he has no charisma to speak of and he's not all that bright—which is only worsened by the fact that he insists on trying to act as a leader even when he's manifestly talentless at doing so. One of his more boneheaded moves was attempting to rally together various surviving supervillains into a new team to benefit humanity with an offer of clemency... ignoring that most of these supervillains are supervillains for a reason. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9eddb2fb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_9eddb2fb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Irredeemable (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_9eddb2fb | |
| The Peter Principle / int_a92c264a | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_a92c264a | comment |
In Exterminatus Now, Word of God claims the protagonists' Bad Boss Commander Antonius Schaefer was formerly a brilliant field agent (as evidenced by his fight with Edward Bay) but was promoted into becoming an incompetent bureaucrat. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_a92c264a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_a92c264a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Exterminatus Now (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_a92c264a | |
| The Peter Principle / int_bc197b8e | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_bc197b8e | comment |
At least suggested in Did I Make the Most of Loving You? when Saul Tigh is promoted to Commander of a Battlestar after the previous commander is executed for assisting in a mutiny, as Tigh has trouble adapting his command style to be the benevolent commander rather than the ‘hardass’ XO. He eventually requests a transfer back to Galactica while his own XO is promoted to Commander, allowing Tigh to basically command Galactica in a crisis while Adama works as the fleet admiral, the two men returning to their more traditional dynamic. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_bc197b8e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_bc197b8e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Did I Make the Most of Loving You? (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_bc197b8e | |
| The Peter Principle / int_cbad9b62 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_cbad9b62 | comment |
Legend of the Galactic Heroes has way too many examples of this, but a few notable examples are Commodore Falke, Fleet Admiral Lobos, Fleet Admiral Dawson and High Admiral Lennenkampf, all of whom were fairly decent commanders acting as underlings to a more competent superior giving them orders, but are disastrously ineffective as administrators who have to give the orders and make the big military decisions themselves. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_cbad9b62 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_cbad9b62 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Legend of the Galactic Heroes | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_cbad9b62 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_cc503e93 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_cc503e93 | comment |
In BattleTech, Trials of Position used by the Clans to promote their officers unintentionally leads to this: The Clans all emphasize combat prowess, with the best combatants winning their Trials and being promoted to higher command positions. Unfortunately, at no point does the system take into account one's ability to lead the larger number of people required by a higher rank, which means that an individual Clan officer's actual command ability can be anywhere from 'brilliant strategist' (like Ulric Kerensky) to 'raging General Failure' (like Lincoln Osis) with no system in place to actually test this before they're promoted. The only thing that can be said for certain is that a given Clan officer was competent enough at their last job to be allowed to undertake a Trial of Position (incompetent Clan officers usually find their Clan elders are unsympathetic to their promotion requests, and usually find more of their own subordinates being allowed to challenge them for their own position), and better at personal combat that whoever they fought against (which usually includes the former holder of said position). It's also been observed that this can result in the opposite problem, with individuals who might be great politicians or masters of grand strategy being locked out of the higher levels of the pyramid where they would excel because the system to let them advance only tests for a completely different skillset largely irrelevant to success in those fields. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_cc503e93 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_cc503e93 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| BattleTech (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_cc503e93 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_ccf0819f | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_ccf0819f | comment |
Vince McMahon, creatively at least, has been very credibly accused of this. As an ambitious regional promoter, he managed to go nationwide with a combination of media savvy and ruthless, cutthroat business tactics. But, as a Control Freak and deeply odd human being, Vince kept also wanting to book the shows himself, and became more and more resistant to the word "no" from the various talented people he employed, often running them off or kicking them into other parts of the corporate structure and replacing them with yes-men, and resulting in critically-panned and commercially-underperforming shows (or even commercial failure!). It's telling that during the most successful times in his promotion's history, he was all-but forced to give up power by outside pressure, and when he successfully established a near-complete monopoly on wrestling promotion in the United States, meaning no one could really tell him what to do anymore, it coincided with steady, not-always-slow decline in viewership, to which his inevitable response was to double down and try to control more aspects of his company in a cycle of declining quality that was only really arrested when a series of sex scandals forced him into unwilling retirement. He also frequently tried to expand into other areas of sports, such as bodybuilding promotions and professional football leagues. These were all catastrophic and humiliating failures. Except the second incarnation of the XFL. That one was only a moderate failure, and it might've been catching on, before the COVID-19 pandemic strangled it in the crib. |
|
| The Peter Principle / int_ccf0819f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_ccf0819f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Vince McMahon (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_ccf0819f | |
| The Peter Principle / int_d0c31ab | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_d0c31ab | comment |
Kirk then makes sure to tell Picard in Star Trek: Generations never to accept a promotion out of the Enterprise's captain's chair. Advice Picard apparently takes to heart, as we see in Star Trek: Nemesis, he's still a captain, while Janeway has been promoted to Admiral. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_d0c31ab | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_d0c31ab | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Star Trek: Generations | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_d0c31ab | |
| The Peter Principle / int_d31ffd8d | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_d31ffd8d | comment |
Played with in Get Smart where the Chief doesn't want to promote Max to a field agent because he's so good at his current job. He's later forced to when most of the agents' covers are compromised. And from there, while Max does manage to prove a fairly competent field agent in his own right, to say that he ends up suffering from some growing pains in certain areas would be an understatement. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_d31ffd8d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_d31ffd8d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Get Smart | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_d31ffd8d | |
| The Peter Principle / int_da92c130 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_da92c130 | comment |
Erfworld: Stanley the Plaid is an excellent fighter and tactician who wields a weapon forged by the gods. Once he earns a promotion to Overlord, however, his absolutely abysmal strategic chops come into play. Worse, since he's the keystone of his Keystone Army, he can't go out and use his real skills lest he die in battle and doom his entire kingdom, since he steadfastly refuses to name an heir. Jillian, on the other hand, refuses to stand back and much prefer being a Warrior Queen, much to the dismay of her own commanders. She is, by a fair margin, the most powerful fighter of her side — and that's without an artifact weapon. |
|
| The Peter Principle / int_da92c130 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_da92c130 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Erfworld (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_da92c130 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_e3349241 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_e3349241 | comment |
In Diabolik this is what ruins many of the cops, private detectives, and even inventors and criminals who try and take on Diabolik without being Ginko: they're often very good at their jobs, but Diabolik is far smarter and ends up seeing a weakness in their plan or device to either thwart one of his heists or catch him. Indeed, the one time Ginko had been temporarily replaced and Diabolik was successfully foiled and even almost arrested was because the replacement knew he was out of his depths and called Ginko for instructions on the off chance Diabolik would try and steal the money he was to escort. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_e3349241 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_e3349241 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Diabolik (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_e3349241 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_e7a9c06c | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_e7a9c06c | comment |
In the Paperinik New Adventures story "Chronicle of a Return" the Evronian sergeant Bonton and spore technician Manootensyon find themselves as the highest-ranked soldier and scientist on their worldship after everyone above them is killed. They're extremely competent at their jobs (Bonton even saves everyone else), but the situation sees them in command of far more than they can deal, with Manootensyon being able to grow low-caste Evronians with ease but unable to make the high-caste they need (his one attempt at growing a high-caste scientist that could grow even an emperor from a spore resulted in someone far stupider of him or rather the first good Evronian in history who is just as smart as he should be but pretends otherwise so he won't be killed while he works out how to contain everyone else on the ship), and Bonton's search for a superior resulting in Paperinik pretending to be the representative of an Evronian emperor and talking him into handing over command. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_e7a9c06c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_e7a9c06c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Paperinik New Adventures (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_e7a9c06c | |
| The Peter Principle / int_f6da9a18 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_f6da9a18 | comment |
Discussed in Sgt. Frog; Aki Hinata turns down a promotion because A) she likes her current position, and B) she knows that this trope might go into effect. This is demonstrated in the rest of the story; Tamama is mistakenly promoted to squad captain, and proceeds to go full Tyrant Takes the Helm on everyone else. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_f6da9a18 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_f6da9a18 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Sgt. Frog (Manga) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_f6da9a18 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_f8d7d3e4 | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_f8d7d3e4 | comment |
In Kimberly T's Gargoyles series, Matt muses at one point that Elisa isn't likely to rise higher in the department because while she's a skilled detective, she's not very good at dealing with the press in a diplomatic manner, with publicity meetings being a key part of a police captain's duties. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_f8d7d3e4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_f8d7d3e4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Kimberly T's Gargoyles (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_f8d7d3e4 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_fcc7ec6b | type |
The Peter Principle | |
| The Peter Principle / int_fcc7ec6b | comment |
Triple H is an interesting, zigzagged example, not unlike Xiahou Dun from the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in ancient China under Real Life. Paul Levesque/Hunter Hearst Helmsley is a very talented and capable wrestler and an even more capable politician. More than one commenter has suggested that, in general, Triple H's abilities are best served as an upper mid-card "jobber to the stars" rather than a full-on main event wrestler; Jim Cornette once described him as "the guy who works with the guys who draw the money." But his powerful backstage connections, first as a junior partner in the Clique, then as a survivor in a gutted roster, and then as the boyfriend-turned-husband of the boss's daughter all elevated him pretty far up the card. Although he never truly broke through into the mainstream like fellow Attitude Era stalwarts like the Undertaker, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Mick Foley, or Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, his backstage power and the simple fact that he stuck around while his fellows were eventually either retired, semi-retired, or moving on to greener pastures netted him several world title runs, including the infamous "Reign of Terror" where he increasingly came to dominate the show, frequently putting down and humiliating other wrestlers in the process. Many fans from this time grew to despise him, especially when his bulky, allegedly-steroidal physique meant he simply wasn't flexible enough to do much in the ring. However, as he aged out of active regular competition and increasingly moved behind the scenes, Triple H did prove to be a very capable booker, elevating the WWE NXT brand from a trashy and low-quality reality television program to a beloved hidden gem of classic, old-style wrestling storytelling during some of the weakest periods in the bigger WWE promotion's history, without using it to elevate himself. Although he has his own idiosyncrasies (he loves long heel title runs, for instance, and can often be relied not to pull the trigger on big babyface wins, especially if doing so would mean a heel titleholder doesn't get to break a record), for most of the New Twenties one could tell whether Triple H or his father in law was currently on top in the power struggle over WWE creative by looking at the overall quality of the WWE product. In short, the same political skills that saw him promoted beyond his abilities as a wrestler also saw him promoted into his level of competence as a booker. | |
| The Peter Principle / int_fcc7ec6b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Peter Principle / int_fcc7ec6b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Triple H (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
The Peter Principle / int_fcc7ec6b |
The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.